In September 1996, John Petrucci joined State Auto Insurance as an Agency Development Specialist. That’s when our focus on sales really started to come to the forefront. I had the good fortune of learning more about sales in that first year with John than I had in my previous ten in the industry! John resurrected […]
You may have noticed there haven’t been any blog posts for several weeks. That’s because Jane and I took a vacation to Europe with two of our closest friends. We started in Lyon, France. Lyon is set on the Saone River. What a beautiful city and so easy to access by foot. From there we […]
What does it mean to be virtuous? Most of us would say it means having good character—being kind, honest, and doing the right thing, even when it’s hard. Now consider the opposite: to be vicious. That might sound extreme, but it doesn’t have to mean physically violent. Viciousness can show up subtly, and not so subtly, as […]
Have you ever been in a conversation that quietly slipped from dialogue into monologue? Or watched someone walk into a room and take over the discussion like a vacuum sucking all the air out? You’re not alone. Most of us have felt the discomfort of being on the receiving end of conversational domination. The irony […]
Last week, I shared some thoughts on the rise of “lived experience” and the need to interpret those experiences carefully—because, as I put it, lived experience is an “N of 1.” That post sparked got me thinking more deeply about a related question: What do we use to measure our experiences against? In this week’s post […]
What if your experience isn’t the whole story? I’ve been reflecting a lot on the phrase “lived experience.” It’s a term that’s showing up in the news and social media—and for good reason. Our individual experiences shape our beliefs, decisions, and how we show up in the world. But there’s a subtle danger in putting […]
“Human beings are no more intelligent than we were thirty thousand years ago. Our cumulative knowledge has grown by leaps and bounds…but knowledge is not the same thing as intelligence, which is still not the same thing as wisdom.” — John Mark Comer, Live No Lies Let’s begin with a few Oxford Dictionary definitions: Knowledge: “facts, […]
Exciting News! When I published my last newsletter I wrote, “By the time you read my next newsletter, Jane and I will be grandparents! Our daughter Abigail and her husband Tyler are expecting in March.” On March 14 at 7:33 PM, Emmett James Ahearn—affectionately known as ‘Pancake’—arrived! 😊 Something I’ve learned in the few weeks […]
I get this question all the time: “Which principle of influence is the most powerful?” My answer? It depends. (Yeah, I know—that’s not as satisfying as a silver bullet answer. But when it comes to human behavior, one-size-fits-all just doesn’t work.) Influence Is Contextual Human decision making and behavior is complex. That’s why I teach […]
Below is the preface to my next book, Influenced from Above: Where Faith Meets Influence. I’m shooting for a release date in September. Preface “What I want to know is: where is God in all this?” —Abigail Ahearn My daughter’s question over lunch in July 2019 stopped me in my tracks. The day before, I’d […]
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