I am going through a sobering and humbling time this week as I help a close family member with Alzheimer's transition into a memory care facility. A home for people who have literally lost their minds.
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Every day, I appreciate more about the sound mind that I have, and care less about the trivial things that I would often get hung up on. It can be bittersweet to have a “healthy” mind. On the one hand, we can execute at an intellectual level that many people are no longer able to do. On the other hand, our intellectual minds get in the way of our progress due to over analysis and negative thoughts.

I was sitting in front of an important prospective client with my colleague who was in town visiting for a few days from our Chicago office. My colleague was a seasoned partner who I assumed was good in front of clients. “No need to prep him for this meeting.” I thought. Mistake number one.
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The client, my colleague, and I exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, and then it began. My colleague switched gears and said, “well, I assume we are meeting today to talk about me and my experience…”

I ran into a good friend and former Deloitte colleague, Samantha (Sam), at the Anderson Valley Pinot Noir Festival, this past weekend. A fantastic time for Pinot lovers. We caught up on family and work, where Sam blew me away when she told me how well she was doing in bringing in business.
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I worked with Sam when she was a Sr. Manager in the forensic group. I always knew she was an amazing forensic accountant but did not realize the hidden talent she had with business development. At the time, I was tasked with working with Sam to teach her how to generate business in her own authentic way. She needed to learn these important skills to become Partner. This was 10 years ago.

I received an email from Tony, a former client, expressing his appreciation for my help during our time working together. That is always great to hear, yet what made this note unique was the fact that he and I worked together 3 and ½ years prior to his “thank you” email.
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My first response was “thank you for what?” It had been a while since I heard from him.
He said, ”for helping me find my own clients.” I wanted to learn more about what clicked for him over the past few years, so we set up a call to properly catch up.

I was on a coaching call with a client of mine, Amos, who is a corporate Partner for a mid-sized law firm. Amos was beaming about a new client he recently acquired. The opportunity was well into six figures in fees and the deal was an interesting one. I asked him how he met this client. He scratched his chin and had to think back on when he first met him.

“It was a year and a half ago at a conference. We exchanged contact information, and I stayed in touch. It wasn’t until today that he needed my help.” Replied Amos.

“Let me ask you a question.” I inserted. “When you returned from that conference, what did you think? Was it worth your time and energy?” I asked.

“At the time, no! I thought it was a waste of my time because I didn’t land any new opportunities.” He said.
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“What is your opinion of that conference now?” I asked.
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“Yeah, yeah. I get it.” He sheepishly replied.

I walked into Gerry’s office, sat down, and asked “Gerry, how do you do it? You generate more than $8m a year in new business year after year. Your colleagues respect you. Your clients love you, and they keep coming back.”
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Gerry responded “Simple. I give my clients zero reasons to consider working with anyone else. When a client puts their trust in me and my team, I always go the extra mile to exceed their expectations in every aspect of the engagement. I want Deloitte to be the only logo my clients consider. This takes effort because we are not the least expensive option in the market. The clients I want to attract and keep are the ones who will spend the money on a service provider who is willing to go above and beyond their needs, even if it is more than they originally wanted to spend.”

​I recently had a “disagreement” with my wife, Aja. Allegedly, I was leaving a trail of personal items around the house that she kept picking up after me. I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but perhaps for a minute there was some truth in her allegations. And maybe, although I doubt it, this has happened more than once. I needed to quickly change my habits to improve our relationship.
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For the next several days I tuned into putting my dishes away, picking my dirty clothes up off the floor, and cleaning up anything I saw that would take a minute to do and yield a more positive living experience for the household, especially for my lovely wife.

​It was 2015 on a business trip in Dallas. I was the sales leader at the time for a national consulting firm. The trip was an opportunity to meet with the BD team in that office and see them in action. One of my youngest rising stars, Jim, was excited to take me out to lunch with one of his promising client prospects.

On the way to the restaurant, I asked Jim what he knew about the prospect whose name was Frank. He told me the basics – title, role, how long he had been at the company. Not much else. He promised me that we would learn more about Frank at lunch.

 ​Imagination - Webster's definition - “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never wholly perceived in reality.” 

I was recently reflecting on successful trends of the professionals I have worked with and coached over the years. Was it hard work?  Natural ability?  Luck?  All the above?  Perhaps, but one word stuck in my mind – imagination. A powerful force that can work for you when fully embraced or against you if not managed properly.

I have seen professionals with imagination express more empathy with their clients, market more strategically, and introduce solutions that are more client centric. They are also able to communicate persuasively with confidence.

Embracing and leveraging the imagination can be a powerful approach to growing a business. At the same time, letting the imagination go unharnessed can stifle the growth of one’s practice.

​Pandemic?! What pandemic?!

This was the overwhelming sentiment at the ABA White Collar conference held in San Francisco last week. Hundreds of people packed into relatively small restaurants shoulder to shoulder in back-to-back networking events each night. The turnout at these events was impressive. This was a pleasant surprise in today’s hybrid work environment where professionals are settling into the comforts of their home office and are less inclined to get out and connect with others.

Although attending networking events is still viewed by many as a dreaded part of the job, people seemed to enjoy themselves at this one. I, for one, enjoyed it despite how exhausting it was. Perhaps it was a welcome change to the past few years where most people were concerned about the ongoing spread of Covid. Although Covid is still out there, most everyone seemed to have put that worry aside for the sake of getting back out and connecting with their network.