Blog

Filler Up!

By Joe Schum / May 4, 2022 /

I just spent two days with a wonderful crew of young sales professionals early in their journey.  My first onsite trip since January 2020! We spent time breaking down and building up the sales conversation, learning how to connect, the ways we make impact, and the different types of listening skills required to be truly human centric. OK, sounds awesome; so what’s the problem?  The problem is the misuse of energy when having conversations.  Wut? What I mean – quite simply – is the economy of being conversational.  Let’s get to it. Filler Language Let’s start with “filler” language as…

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Breakfast of Champions

By Joe Schum / April 15, 2022 /

While lamenting the introduction of oatmeal into my diet, I noticed that my sage wife cooked hers in the microwave without any safety precautions on the bowl to prevent it from making an exploding exit to every interior surface of the ubiquitous appliance.  I mentioned this clear oversight, stating my oatmeal creations require a sheet of clinging wrap (made of kevlar) to prevent a near nuclear holocaust each time I fearfully close my eyes and hit START when preparing this vexxing of breakfasts. “Your problem is you fight the oatmeal, trying to get it to conform to your cooking processes…

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Ray Donovan Teachs Us About Economy of Conversation

By Joe Schum / March 16, 2022 /

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…

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50 First Dates

By Joe Schum / February 1, 2022 /

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…

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Halt Or My Mom Will Text

By Joe Schum / January 4, 2022 /

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,…

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The World’s 90 Years w/ My Father, My First Coach

By Joe Schum / December 3, 2021 /

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…

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The Sopranos Teach Us About Being Present

By Joe Schum / October 6, 2021 /

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…

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Ricky Bobby, Tommy Boy and the Comfort Zone

By Joe Schum / September 24, 2021 /

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…

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Beware The Challenger: a model that looks great and is not for everyone

By Joe Schum / August 17, 2021 /

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,…

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Pez People

By Joe Schum / July 27, 2021 /

“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…

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