When I first started doing stand-up comedy over 20 years ago, I never said no. I took whatever jobs I could find, and I never questioned the conditions of the deal; I showed up when and where people wanted me, and I accepted whatever amount of money they were offering. The same thing was true…
Yesterday my son and I went to the park to meet a friend of his for a playdate. My son brought two Nerf guns, as did his friend. Between the two of them, they had about 85 Nerf darts. They spent a very happy hour playing with two of their four Nerf guns, while the…
Earlier this summer my family and I went to the beach. It’s one we try to go to every year, because it has a swimming platform about a hundred feet offshore that the kids love to swim to and jump off of. As we were driving there, both of my kids were super excited; they’d…
This month I read a news article about aging that I found interesting enough to want to share. Long story short, an increasing body of research suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it is actually possible to improve both physically and mentally as we age into our 60s, 70s, and 80s. There are a lot…
In case you didn’t already know, children are the pinnacle of negotiation. World leaders, hostage negotiators, and VC folks have absolutely nothing on your average 3-year-old. What makes kids such crack negotiators? A few simple techniques. Ask For Everything Kids don’t just ask for what they want. They also ask for everything else they can…
Being an excellent keynote speaker involves a lot more than simply delivering a good presentation. In this brief article we will outline the qualities most meeting planners are looking for in a keynote speaker, which will determine whether they are willing to work with that speaker again or recommend them to others. They are polite,…
We’ve all heard about the power of positive thinking. And I’m pretty certain that somebody has encouraged you to “look on the bright side” when something isn’t going the way you’d like. But have you ever considered the power of negative thinking? By which I do not mean being hopelessly pessimistic. Maybe there’s some value…
Hiring the right keynote speaker for your next event can be a challenging task. In most cases you’re agreeing to pay thousands of dollars to somebody you don’t know, and sometimes all you know about them is what they’ve posted on their blog or website. Most keynote speaker demo videos are only a few minutes…
I don’t normally talk about myself in these articles, because I want these solutions to be something that can work for you. But over the past couple years I’ve been working on something that I think you might find interesting – if not for the subject itself, then for how my solution to this issue…
I like it when people agree with me. I think most of us do. It’s hard not to enjoy hearing that others think our ideas, attitudes, and beliefs are right. In fact, I’m sure the world would be a much simpler place if everyone just agreed with every single thing I ever did or said. …