There's a flame that burns deep inside the soul of many people that drives them to make a profound difference in the world for the people that mean the most to them. I call these people your CORE…your family, your closest friends, your employees. It's what gives you a distinctive reason to get up each day and put on your boots!

As a business, you have 2 choices……offer the same products and services, the same everything…and be stuck in a red ocean with all of your competition. Or, you can create innovative and unique products and services where you deem the competition irrelevant, and you have a blue ocean all to yourself. Here's a few simple ways to find, or create, a blue ocean for your business-

Being disrespected is a hot button issue for most customers. In a recent survey, 75% of customers said they were not likely to do business with a company if they felt disrespected by an employee of the organization. Ouch! Here's a few simple tips on ways that you can show prospects and customers the respect they need in order to feel good about you-

If you run a small business, chances are you are wondering if blogging is worth the time and effort. Blogging on a frequent basis is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to enhance your inbound marketing efforts, drive traffic to your site, and attract more perspective customers.

For most professionals, using words like "um", "uh", "you know", can easily get out of control if we're not conscious of them. They may seem like innocent filler words, but they can actually damage your credibility, and even prevent you from getting that great new job, or landing that big customer.

We've all been there—trying valiantly to reason with an incredibly difficult person, whether it be a customer, a co-worker, a partner or a friend. You can't really reason with an unreasonable person, however, there are a few ways that you can manage these stressful situations.

At times, we all feel like we're trudging through a jungle of cement, and nothing seems to bring us joy. Job burnout is a serious problem for many people. The World Health Organization defines burnout as chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. If we consistently have physical and emotional stress put on us because of our job, it can seriously decrease our effectiveness at work, and can effect our personal life as well.

Marriott, Hilton, Starbucks, Apple and Nordstrom are companies that have built their empires around putting the customer at the top of the food chain. Every employee, piece of literature, and anything else that has the chance to come in contact with a customer is given the utmost attention.

The best way to, let's say lose 20lbs isn't to say "I'm going to lose 20lbs." It's better to commit to losing 1lb a week for 20 weeks. Here's some quick tips on ways you can set goals that you can achieve 100% of the time-