For several years I masqueraded behind a humble approach of living my best efforts. The skills and knowledge, surrounded by my experiences only served as an attempt in life. It was marked by all my online social bios, they simply read, "I attempt the following..." 

One of my great friends, Leon Quan, challenged me with this, "Shaun, find your voice Man! Don't attempt, do it. No one wants to pay for someone to come in and "attempt" to be successful. I'm just playin with u Bro...sorta...no really dude, Grow a pair Dawg! Ur a Bada$$- Don't forget it, ur Dad'd say it too." 

What was captivating, is Leon said this shortly after I had sent out a tweet about it being my father's 59th birthday who had died 10 years prior, it challenged me to think.

I was challenged...

So how did you do on the quiz? Leave your results in the comment section below. Don't worry, there is NO shame!

The margin that people leave organizations is overwhelming, and it has nothing to do with benefits, pay, or promotion. The main reason is because they feel...

When you look at marketing and the value of it's worth, you must look at the avenue of marketing. It has always been said that word-of-mouth advertising works. The warm market penetration needs to really be assessed by more businesses. In Warren Buffet's book, The Warren Buffet CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers, written by Robert Miles, on one particular visit with GEICO, Warren talks of the humility of the CEO of GEICO, Tony Nicely. GEICO is known for spending the most money on advertising than any other company. Whether you are fans of the caveman who I guess were deeply offended, the googly eyes, the gecko, the woodchucks chucking wood, or perhaps the little piggy who said, "Wee wee" all the way home, or perhaps good 'ol Abe telling the truth you can recall dozens of different commercials of theirs. Below is the annoying pig...

Often times when I am talking to clients or potential partners about their marketing strategies I ask them if they have ever seen a GEICO commercial, and like clock work everyone says...

The following is an excerpt of a blog from a great friend of mine discussing some things we should all be doing, always, enjoy...

Provided courtesy of Chris Conrey:

Everyone knows the old salesman maxim: Always Be Closing. Made famous by Alec Baldwin’s Glengarry Glen Ross performance (watch here – some foul language) which has been shown in 20% of sales meetings across the world since the movie’s release in 1992 – any professional salesperson has heard this term approximately 4,576,861 times over the course of their career.

But there are other things you should always be doing.

• Always Be Learning – get better at something every day. Read books, blogs, magazines, anything. Put what you learn into practice. Try something new.
  
• Always Be Giving – I spent a week away on a business trip, then launched right into volunteering my time for WordCamp Phoenix this weekend. Sure the easy choice would be to sit at home with my girls and rest, but I wanted to support a great organization who has helped a ton of people learn about and use WordPress.
• Always Be Listening – you never know when you may hear someone who has a problem you can solve. I was in a certification class this past week and overheard people a table over from mine talking about all sorts of development and agile culture problems. Oddly enough, those are the problems we solve at Integrum. Made for a nice way to intro myself and add a lead to my pipeline.

Read the other 9 things that we should always be doing HERE.

I recently sent out a tweet that said, "Stress & burnout comes from living out of alignment w/our values. When not in tune with our inner core we experience distress. #BringValue." As it posted to Facebook one of my friends asked me to explain. I realized a simple Facebook post explanation was not adequate so here is the thought dug up a little deeper...
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If you were to look at any list of great leaders of the century, and you would find these five people at the top of the list: