Strong relationships open doors, but real value is that keeps them from closing. I’ve had it happen to me, and I’m sure you’ve had it happen to you: you’ve cultivated a strong relationship with your primary contact at a client, but one day, they quit leaving you, more often than not, scrambling to save the business. The first few times it happened to me, I was more confused than anything. I mean, we had a great relationship, worked together for years, built a high level of

The importance of realizing people treat us exactly the way we've trained them to. When I first started brandivate almost six years ago, any business was good business - at least in my brain. As such, if you had a pulse, could fog a mirror, and a credit card that wouldn’t be declined, you were a prospect for brandivate. And, as you might predict, not every client was really the best fit for me or what I do. In fact, I remember complaining specifically about a client (name red

What running in and recovering from my first 10K taught me. As I took the final turn from S. 1st Street onto W. Riverside Drive, I could finally see the finish line of my first 10K. Running through the throngs of people cheering the other runners and me on to finish strong helped me dig deep and pull out whatever energy I had left. While training for this run, I pictured this moment and assumed I’d feel a sense of accomplishment. Yet, when I finally crossed the line to comple