We’ve all heard the saying, Character is what you do when no one is watching. I’ve been wondering if August asks us a different question. What do you do when no one is asking? Every year around this time, the pace changes. Calendars suddenly have white space. Half your clients are in Europe or the…
The other day, I looked out at my deck and saw my unmistakably unfinished DIY furniture project still sitting upside down exactly where I had left it. The wrong screws were scattered across the seat alongside the rest of the hardware, as though I’d been interrupted in the middle of assembling it and fully intended…
A blank sheet of paper can be surprisingly revealing. One of the first exercises I do with nearly every coaching client begins the same way. I hand them a blank sheet of paper and ask them to draw a circle in the middle. Inside the circle, they write their own name. Then I ask them…
Last week, I was sitting with one of my coaching clients reviewing his business. He has several closings scheduled for July, has had a strong year financially, and already has a healthy pipeline heading into the fall. By every reasonable measure, things are going well. So I asked him what his next goal was. He…
For most of my career, an open hour on my calendar felt like a problem to solve. I’d schedule the meeting. Take the client. Start the project. Say yes to the opportunity. An empty afternoon wasn’t possibility. It was unused capacity. That mindset has served me well for a long time. It helped me build…
Every year around the Fourth of July, the business world seems to collectively exhale. Calendars suddenly open up. Email response times double. Half your clients are away this week. The other half will disappear next week. It feels like everyone has silently agreed that nothing much is going to happen until the middle of July.…
“Get out of the Upper East Side.” Those were the parting words of my favorite high school English teacher as she hugged me at graduation. She whispered it in my ear like a warning. At the time, I rolled my eyes. I was born and raised on the Upper East Side. I loved the Upper…
A funny thing happens when you get good at helping people figure things out. The categories start to disappear. Last week alone, I talked one person through a hiring decision, another through a career crossroads, and a third through a family situation that technically had nothing to do with me. A coaching client calls about…
A few days ago, I asked a coaching client a simple question: When was the last time you really felt the sting of rejection? He thought for a moment and told me about a neighbor who had decided not to list their apartment with him. “But did they sell it?” I asked (I knew that…
Imagine a day in real estate where everything goes exactly according to plan. You wake up at 6:00 a.m. feeling rested. Every client responds to your emails within seven minutes. The seller who has ignored your pricing advice for three months suddenly calls and says, “You were right. Let’s reduce.” A buyer who has toured…
Memorial Day weekend feels different in your twenties than it does in your forties. In your twenties, it’s mostly about fun. Summer officially starts. You’re chasing rooftops, beach plans, bad decisions, and maybe someone attractive who texts you back inconsistently. By this stage of adulthood, the weekend feels a little more like a social audit.…
Well. When did it become Memorial Day? I looked at my calendar for the next ten weeks recently and had a very specific visual: the calendar swallowing me whole like a cartoon snake. No chewing. Just gone. Graduations. Weddings. End of school year, everything. Barbecues. Galas. Summer trips. Dinners that sounded fun three months ago…