Category: Blog

  • 8 Steps to Achieving the UnReasonable

    8 Steps to Achieving the UnReasonable

    Bill McKibben is a serious environmental advocate.  As a founder of 350.org. he has helped coordinate 15,000 rallies in 191 countries since 2009. Time Magazine called him ‘the planet’s best green journalist’ and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was ‘probably the country’s most important environmentalist.’ McKibben and 350.org have stepped are now…

  • Top 10 Reasons Biz’s Fail and How To Protect Yourself

    Top 10 Reasons Biz’s Fail and How To Protect Yourself The other day my phone rang.  It was from a woman who was referred to me by a client.  The caller, whom I’ll call Suzie, had that familiar sound in her voice that she was about to hit the wall with her two-year-old business.  And…

  • How YOUR Business Can Bail Us Out Before 2015

    Last week I saw a fascinating movie premier, The Age of Stupid. Never mind that it was the first time a movie premier was broadcast live via satellite (from here in New York) around the world on over 550 screens in 45 countries.  Or that they had in attendance the likes of Kofi Annan (former…

  • Where Change is REALLY Coming From

    It is hard not to get wrapped up in the energy from Obama’s 2nd Inauguration this week in D.C.  The speeches, promises, hopes, and agendas all around changing where things are today. Yet perhaps our excitement is ill-placed. To hang our hats on one man’s team to make the types of changes many of us…

  • Five Steps to Overhauling Your Business

    Five Steps to Overhauling Your Business

    We were sitting in the back of an oversized SUV, zipping to LaGuardia Airport on a warm evening in late May 2008 when Larry pulled out his Blackberry and said, “Stefan, that is a very interesting idea.  I’ll set up a telephone meeting between my senior staff and your team to discuss how we can…

  • US Chamber: It’s Time You Step Up!

    Although the data is the data, there are times when an organization should really take an educated position on a divisive issue such as this. As we’ve seen, the US Chamber of Commerce doesn’t really seem to be representing the largest membership: small businesses. Instead they focus on special interests and revenue-generating activities. As a…

  • 4 Steps in Getting to “Yes”

    A few years ago I was in a real jam.  I was in LA at a major event where I was to present on stage that evening to several hundred entrepreneurs. The morning of the event, as I was putting on my suit, I noticed it had a huge stain on it from a drink…

  • The 5 Components to Making Your Business “Perfect”

    The 5 Components to Making Your Business “Perfect”

    Lately I have been teaching a uniquely green focused  FastTrac™ Tech Venture program run by ITAC – New York City’s Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation  and created by the Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest organization devoted to entrepreneurship. Our class is full of small start-up and early-stage businesses with state-of-the-art green technology business…

  • How to Manage the Naysayers

    How to Manage the Naysayers

    Just came back from the Forward on Climate rally in Washington D.C. this weekend. Nine hours on a packed bus just to spend five hours freezing my ass off in front of the Washington Monument and White House to encourage President Obama to walk his talk on some serious climate decisions he will be making…

  • Five Steps: Get and Stay Organized… Quickly and Easily

    Five Steps: Get and Stay Organized… Quickly and Easily

    I don’t consider myself an organizer-type person.  But recently enough clients have asked me how I do it all and seem to manage it with ease I started sharing my personal system. The dozen or so that have tried my Bucket System reported their productivity and work-life balance improved 50-75% in just a few weeks.…