Blog

Babe. I Got You Babe.

By Joe Schum / July 30, 2020 /

“I would LOVE to connect with you and discuss possibly having you appear on my new prime time TV show that features faith-based entrepreneurs on the [Redacted] Network. Please connect with me and send me a message if you want me to send you more details.” I received that flattering message last Monday.  Now, in all candor, I’m not a faith-based company.  I have my faith, and it is not part of my outward brand.  So, with some thought, I responded: “Thanks for the gracious offer, and I want to be clear that I’m not a faith-based business so it…

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The Show Must Go On!

By Joe Schum / July 13, 2020 /

The show was cancelled. Or was it? Well, the show that we were used to seeing was, and magically it was substituted with 1000 shows that were so inspiring, so creative, so organic, amazing, wondrous and…fun, that it taught a lesson: We human beings are the most creative creatures on the planet. I sat in a chair on the shore of a tiny lake, a pond really. A place I’ve sat many times over the years and a few times on one our nation’s most glorious and celebrated days: the Fourth of July. In previous years there were quiet moments,…

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I Want To Be Different From Everyone Else Out There.

By Joe Schum / June 17, 2020 /

Three blogs in draft mode have been circling the planet for the last two+ months.  Have you seen them in the night sky?  Those are my contributions to the clutter of the iCloud.  Which one gets the nod?  Which of them will have the greatest impact?  Which one exhibits the most passion for the present moment? Answer:  NONE. As I readied my keyboard to cross the finish line on one of those gems, I received the following from a client: “The value for me (in learning the Modern Sales Conversation) is that it allows me to sound different from every…

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Q Power: 9 ways to keep powerful questions powerful

By Joe Schum / May 5, 2020 /

Questions are a prerequisite to learning. Questions are a window into creativity and insight.  Questions motivate fresh thinking. Questions challenge outdated assumptions.  Questions lead us to the future. So says Eric E. Vogt, Juanita Brown and David Isaacs in their paper on The Art of Powerful Questions.  So my next question is: “Why are we so bad at it?” Powerful questions, sometimes referred to as transformational questions, are the Cadillac of questions.  They elicit the greatest and most thoughtful answers and truly provide for fresh opportunities to learn about each other.  And that can be really, really uncomfortable in polite…

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A Shark’s Tail: How #learning Could Save Your Life

By Joe Schum / April 9, 2020 /

It was an Australian surfing blog that brought us here. And, while I’m trying desperately to figure out just how this unbelievable video happened, I’m just going to resign myself that it did. If you haven’t seen this story, it’s one for nature’s ages; a seal is hoisted up out of the water by a great white shark who is unable to actually grab hold of it.  The seal rides the shark out of the water like an attraction at Six Flags and then launches himself back in the water to apparent safety, or was it?  The next moments are…

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New World #Perspectives

By Joe Schum / March 19, 2020 /

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”  Charles Dickens seems like the futurist of his time (and ours!) given where we are today.  Connecting with my clients over these last several days has raised my antennae to some wonderful opportunities and perspectives for all of us –…

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Habits +

By Joe Schum / March 5, 2020 /

This month’s blog was inspired by my recent reconnection with the holy season of Lent.  WAIT! Don’t run away yet! While I promise to keep my Catholic roots to a limit, there is a connection here so if you’re brave enough, stick around. For many of you – Christians obviously, and others who leverage Fat Tuesday as an opportunity to (Blank) Gone Wild, February 26 was Ash Wednesday.  The beginning of Lent. Now, to be fair, I haven’t observed this day or Lent in around 20 years, a point I will take up with my mom in private. Inspired to…

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How’s Your Couch (#coach) Treating You?

By Joe Schum / February 20, 2020 /

Yep, I’m calling you out!  You, you know who you are — the one who said this year will be different from last year.  That you were going to show up bigger, better and brighter than before. And, that was 2019.  Tick tock, tick tock. Newsflash, it’s 2020. How did it all work out for you? What does this year look like now that you accomplished all that shifting and changing and getting unstuck? Or, is the needle dropping on yet another broken record?  (for those that remember LPs and turntables). And the important question, what are you doing about…

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The Light and The Dark

By Joe Schum / January 14, 2020 /

As January 1st became January 2nd, the barrage of New Year’s perspectives, prognostications and prose started to hit the blogosphere.  I was prepared for the same, polishing my start line piece with all kinds of reasons why one must invest in themselves to experience real growth. Maybe get a coach! And then something happened a week prior (yep, I just went backwards!)  to the big 2020 blog debut that shifted me to bring an experience that for all its worth, taught me an amazing lesson. It was the Friday before New Year’s Eve and my wife and I decided that…

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#grateful Expectations

By Joe Schum / December 3, 2019 /

55 mins 05 secs later, I crossed the finish line.  Yep, that’s the result of my latest race (10K) and first official one as a resident of the Tampa Bay area.  Now, let’s review the journey that gets me there. This one is about being #grateful!   What a year it’s been and here’s what I’m #grateful about: Being closer to my family: physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Every. Day. Living in paradise.  Every. Day. Working in a “Boss-Free” environment.  Every. Day. Being connected to my clients: corporate and individual. Every. Day. Doing what I want, when I want, with whom I…

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