Enter: The Agent (Jan. 22, 2014)

"Sideways" is one of my all-time favorite movies. The scene where Paul Giamatti's character goes beserk and sloppily chugs the spit bucket of red wine at the tasting room of a winery is a classic.

Do you remember what caused him to go beserk? It was talking to his literary agent.

Today, I communicated with a literary agent for the first time. No wine bucke...

The Agent Responds (June 3, 2014)

I have checked my email inbox approximately 600 times in the 26 hours since I sent the proposal to Miles. Is my inbox working? Am I going to be crushed or elated when he does respond? Mercifully, the waiting game ended at 1:41pm today with his reply calling this "a very strong proposal" and asking for a conference call to go over feedback. The three of us find a time to conference call on Thursday afternoo...

What to Expect When You're Expecting a Book (February 9, 2015)

I got a nice email from the editor at the publishing house who is going to be working on the manuscript. I'll call her Emma. In addition to a nice "hello" she also shared a document that describes the process that the manuscript will go through. I found it to be a nice overview of the different steps that I will share here.

&...

On November 19, 1863, United States' President Abraham Lincoln addressed a crowd gathered to dedicate the cemetery for the soldiers killed at the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg four months earlier. At just 271 words, Lincoln's speech was much shorter than the two-hour, 13,000 word speech that the event's main speaker, former Governor and Senator Edward Everett, delivered before Lincoln. Lincoln's wo...

Ten years ago, 33 miners were rescued after enduring 69 days trapped 700 meters (2300 feet) below ground after a cave-in of their copper-gold mine in Chile. The world waited for 17 days before the miners were able to communicate that they were still alive. The miners survived the ordeal through exceptional effort and leadership. Here are 5 leadership lessons from their experience.

October 9th, 2020 would have been John Lennon's 80th birthday. Lennon was one of the most successful music artists in human history. And he was taken away way too soon. He was also a founder of a band - The Beatles - that created billions of dollars of commercial success. The Beatles success arose from their talent as creative artists and performers. They were also successful because they were abl...

A new memorial opens this week in Washington DC to honor the memory of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States and the commanding general for the Allies in the European theater of World War II. There have been 45 presidents of the United States and Eisenhower will be just the fifth to be celebrated with a federal memorial or monument in Washington DC proper. Eisenhower joins...

In my executive coaching practice, clients often ask me to help improve their "executive presence." It is hard to find a good definition of this elusive term. Some people say "you know it when you see it." I think a useful way to define "executive presence" is to reverse engineer what it is about people who seem to have it. I've had the opportunity to w...

Today marked the tenth anniversary of President Obama signing the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, more commonly known as the Dodd-Frank Act in honor of its two authors, Senator Christopher Dodd and Representative Barney Frank. To mark the day, the Better Markets nonprofit advocacy group sponsored a virtual conference in partnership with ...

If you have considered getting an executive coach, you would be in some good company. According to a 2013 survey by Stanford Graduate School of Business professors, 51 percent of senior executives reported they "receive coaching or leadership advice from outside consultants or coaches." Among those are some big names. Here are some of the most high-profile e...