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If you ever watched this series, you know that anti-hero title character Ray Donovan is a man of very few words.  So much so that most of the other characters in any given scene mention it to him directly.  Ray is mostly a “do-er,” he is rarely vulnerable and we only learn what he thinks when he dreams or has a memory via flashbacks. What is intriguing about his conversation trait is that other characters end up carrying on many of the conversations with themselves, often realizing what they want to do or be.  We don’t have to be Ray…

Remember this one?  It follows the story of Henry, (played by modern comedic savant Adam Sandler), a womanizing marine veterinarian who falls for an art teacher named Lucy (played by multigenerational screen darling Drew Barrymore and who doesn’t love Drew?). When he discovers she has amnesia and doesn’t remember him a day later, he resolves to win her over again each new day. Recently, in my coaching professional development group, we learned how to play more in our client engagements. It was fun and also demonstrated our ability to forget our clients’ need to see things in new and different…

The photograph above is true.  The names are being revealed to protect the opportunity to shift. Background: My mother is 86!  She’s a retired educator who found her way teaching reading at the elementary school level.   For Thanksgiving this year, we decided as a family to eat out.  It started post Dad, the turkey junkie of the family, and it’s brought a new tradition to carry us forward.  “Mom, go ahead and make the reservation.”  With her iPhone 12 in plain sight, my mother, a one-time educator of the year, grabs the Yellow Pages!  How is that even possible?  Well,…

My father would have turned 90 this October. His human form left the building seven years ago and I think about him often.  In honor of his birthday and him, I decided to finally read his doctoral dissertation.  He gave me a copy years ago and I unceremoniously shelved it.  I was aware of some of the content including its inspiration prompted by incidents and experiences I had as an unworldly third grader.  Now as a coach I was more open to the ‘what’ as much as the ‘why,’ maybe even more so. My father’s area of study was how…

There’s a huge revisiting of The Sopranos right now.  When I thought about this blog, I didn’t realize it and it’s true.  With a couple of prequel-type productions and the recent 20th anniversary (2019) of the iconic series, The Sopranos are interesting again.   I happened to watch the entire series over the last month, a la binge! Or should I say “a la Bada Bing”!? There were many “a-ha” moments across my viewing journey and without going down a tangent befitting of 10th-grade Geometry, I’ll share the one that woke me up and drove me to channel my best Roger…

Last weekend I took in two comedy favorites. I hadn’t seen either in quite a while and was eager to relax and get in some laughs.  Oh, the two?  Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Tommy Boy.  Don’t judge me on why I selected these two iconic modern comedies.  I like to laugh, and these films always do the trick. So I got to laugh and, more importantly, I saw some learning moments that in previous viewings never occurred to me.  These movies are about your comfort zone, and the ability and the need to step outside of…

The Challenger sales rep.  It just exudes images of Arnold Schwarzenegger dressed in a beautiful suit, wielding an iPad and a broadsword, ready to engage his inner Closer the Barbarian upon some unsuspecting Star Trek redshirt procurement officer, otherwise known as…the client.  Redshirt won’t even know what hit him. Sexy right?  Full of revenue-gathering testosterone.  And very “me” oriented.  An individual contributor’s dream state, later riding off on the armoured horse to fight another day.  Into the sunset of course . Let me be clear, this is NOT an article chastising the challenger model.  I have participated in Challenger training,…

“We can’t just be product people!” Shouted my spouse, an accomplished sales professional exasperated by a client’s tired approach to seeking relevance regarding a particular product that was being promoted. Fortunately and unfortunately, her office is right next to mine so she’s bombarded by my presence and passion for better connection and conversation between people, especially between sales professionals and their clients and prospects.  Send her your love, she’s resilient. I affectionately call those in the sales profession, who are convinced that they are the reincarnation of their company’s website, Pez People.  Remember Pez?  Funny, comical dispensers of identically shaped…

Cousin It, diminutive member of Addams Family fame, had an IQ of 320 and talked at approximately the same pace in miles per hour!  His genius was lost on all but his closest family members.  What was he saying? None of us knows, and it’s my guess that he talked fast because he was asking the questions and also giving us the answers.   The most decelerating question you can ask is the one that immediately follows a powerful question.  So many of us do it.   We land really great questions that begin with What, How and Why and then immediately…

Remember the dystopian sci-fi classic movie “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”?  If you were born in the 60s or 70s, especially if you were a guy, and it was scheduled, it was THE movie to watch on a Saturday night before you had the freedom of a driver’s license and $5 in your pocket (adjusted for deflation). The first movie sequel features a really creepy scene in which the human population who escapes the inversion of the food chain are locked underground, evolving from a life exposed to, well, nuclear exposure, that develops their minds into wireless Cray computers,…