Two years ago, I went to lunch with a small business owner that was looking to grow his “staffing agency.” If you are wondering why I used quotation marks around this phrase, please read on. He had a vision for his company, and that vision involved distinguishing it from the rest by elevating the brand. The Snelling name…

Right now, there is a good chance you are making a first impression on someone without even knowing it. First impressions are made for us, without us having to be in the room or even on the phone.  Often, we get our first impressions from a Google search. Prospective employers do search for you on LinkedIn and…

I first watched the movie “Office Space” while in the office space.  My coworkers and I were the same age as the guys in the movie.  We worked in cubicles and wore ties.  Sure, we had serious jobs to do, but we weren’t there to do the work as much as we were there for…

A few months ago, we noticed a lot of the people we hired for a client’s business were quitting.   It didn’t make sense. The client seemed to be a great employer.   They paid well and they offered great benefits – healthcare, vacation time, all the usual perks.   We sent them quality employees…

A prospective client boasted to me recently that he had never let an employee go.   At first, I was surprised. Then I was horrified.   He’s a restaurant owner. High conversion is a natural part of his business.   So I looked at his current employees. Sure enough, it was clear that one of…

Those of us over a certain age probably recall the Tootsie Pop commercial. It was a cartoon depicting a boy that was trying to figure out how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop.  He asks an owl perched in a tree.  By the mortarboard cap on…

“Shame on you.”   Decades ago, I sat with my wife on the floor of our studio apartment and wrote, by hand, over 150 thank you notes to our family and friends for their wedding gifts.  We had taken far too long to complete this time-consuming yet simple task.   After the wedding, we had…

“We think in language. The quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our language.” George Carlin said this in one of his stand-up routines thirty years ago, and I still remember it so clearly. That comment in particular is the one that sticks with me, because of…