On the last Sunday of every month, I share recommendations to 4 thought-provoking things I read – or in some cases – listened to in the last month. Last month, I had a theme that tied all of the posts together – sales, negotiation and deal-making. This month’s posts are a bit more loose. 1. “Adulthood occurs when one realizes that it’s better to suffer for the...
Empathy is the Ultimate Superpower
I’m always grateful when someone takes the time to give me advice or constructive criticism as that’s where the real growth lies. A lot of the advice is stuff that is helpful and I end up following. On rare occasions, the advice, while well-meaning, ends up being wrong for us. In this post, I talk about a particular piece of advice I received early on in my career from a PR pro. I...
What I’ve Been Reading: February Reading Recs
I’ve always been insanely curious. I was the kid who used to spend hours looking up random facts on Microsoft Encarta and constantly had books taken away at the dinner table. Almost 30 years later, I’m still always tinkering on something or trying to learn how something works. For the last couple of months, I’ve been engrossed in all things deal-making. As a community builder...
What I’ve Been Reading: January Top Picks
On the last Sunday of every month, I share recommendations to 4 thought-provoking things I read – or in some cases – listened to in the last month. Here’s some of my recent faves. 1. “We come for the benefit, and stay for the community.” I can’t stop thinking about this quote from this Meetup post. A must-read for any community builders. 2. Practice makes...
My Word for 2018 – Process
Sitting in a coffee shop in the middle of the Israeli countryside with a laptop open and a blank Google Doc staring back at me, I can’t help but reflect on all that’s happened in 2017 and think about what I want to accomplish in 2018. While the backdrop may be different, the process has been pretty similar the last 5 years. Every year since 2014, I’ve deliberately set aside some...
What I’ve Been Reading: December Top Picks
Happy (almost) New Year! If one of your New Year’s Resolutions is to read more, I may be able to help. On the last Sunday of every month, I share recommendations to 4 thought-provoking things I read – or in some cases – listened to. 1. I can count on one hand the number of people that I’ll read anything they write. Derek Sivers is one of those people. His latest post...
What I’ve Been Reading: November Top Picks
I love when people send me reading recommendations. Whether it is a book, a blog post or a podcast episode, I devour them all. As you can imagine, I read a lot. I love sharing the best or most thought-provoking things I read even more. Here’s my top 4 picks. 1. Confession – I’ve been on a Brene Brown kick recently. I read her newest book, Braving the Wilderness in 2 days. It...
The Most Interesting Question You Can Ask Someone (Especially Yourself)
I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of success recently. Specifically, what does it mean to be “successful?” If you ask someone off the street for a 30-second answer to what success looks like, you might get answers like: Be a millionaire. Get famous. Have six pack abs. Get married, have 2.5 kids, a house with a white picket fence, etc. These are generic answers. If you...
9 Lessons Learned From Speaking at Swarm Conf
We assume that being a great speaker is a talent that someone is born with. I couldn’t disagree more. Public speaking is a craft you can learn and get better at over time – just like marketing, writing or community building. I’m still to this day absolutely terrified of public speaking. I have a host of fears – some fairly rational and others plain irrational. Over the...
What I’ve Been Reading: 8 Books That I Recommend Checking Out
“Take a look, it is in a book” If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, I bet you are now singing the Reading Rainbow theme song in your head. You’re welcome. 😀 The point of this blog post isn’t to get you to reminisce about how awesome the PBS show, Reading Rainbow was, although it was an awesome show. The real reason is that song lyric still rings true today. One of the best...