Doug's Blog Archives – Page 7 of 58

18 Feb 2015

Squeezing Out The Creative Juices

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-13T12:42:37-06:00February 18th, 2015|Categories: Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

“Sometimes we try too hard and it is like squeezing an uncut orange, the juices go everywhere.”

I’ve written about forcing creativity before. But I turned it around and it was actually creative at that time. It doesn’t always happen that easily.

Today I was chatting with my accountability partner Barbara Abramson about focus and scattered thoughts when we both wanted to be consistently writing great articles.

Sometimes The Juices Just Won’t Flow

Sometimes our thoughts are just […]

26 Jan 2015

Reflections: Knowing Your Perfect Clients

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:17:18-06:00January 26th, 2015|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

Ideal Customers Relationships Sales and Marketing

Who knows your clients best today?

Sales and Marketing

Your marketing team has likely defined the ideal client or target market. If they are good they’ve also built out avatars of what those clients look like. Online or offline they are generating leads for sales.

If you have a social media presence you might know who your followers are. If you are good at it you might be engaging well online and gaining further market insights; maybe even some […]

20 Jan 2015

Inspiration Unpacked: The Business of Purpose and Desire

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:17:29-06:00January 20th, 2015|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation, The Good Men Project|

Man-on-moon Vision Passion Goals
Doug Wagner takes on the three seemingly simple requirements for getting what you want.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” ~Napoleon Hill

While on the surface it seems simple; this is one of my favorite quotes because it brings so many great concepts together.

Definiteness of Purpose

As the pace of […]

7 Jan 2015

Crossing The Bridge To Value

By Doug Wagner|2017-05-30T19:20:41-06:00January 7th, 2015|Categories: Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Marketing, Sales|Tags: 80/20 rule, adding value, bridge to value, business, client value, Creating Value, customer value, sales, sales process, small business, small business owner, Steps of the Sale, success, Working on the Business|

In this guest post by Certified Go-Giver Coach and Business Growth Authority Doug Wagner, you’ll learn how to move the selling process from non-productive to very productive…through a simple crossing of the bridge to value. Powerful!!

Enjoy Doug’s wisdom! – Bob Burg

I was conducting some sales training over a period of 3 days this past fall and observed something happening repeatedly during the practice sessions. When I reflected on my own […]

5 Jan 2015

In Search of Your Business Excellence

By Doug Wagner|2017-06-02T15:49:49-06:00January 5th, 2015|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|

Business Excellence Quality Service Reliability Efficiency

We all know that we are competing for business in a competitive world. We claim our people are our advantage. Or our product. Or some other magical ingredient.

Yet it is my experience that there are usually a number of factors that come together into a system of excellence rather than a single thing. High performing systems are composed of many parts including the people in them.

So what does that look like?

The Big Roles

As a business owner […]

18 Dec 2014

Holding Your Vision: Don’t Let Emotions Derail Your Plan

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:18:14-06:00December 18th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Go-Giver Coach, Mindset and Motivation|

Logic Versus Emotion Sticking to the Plan Visionary business leaders and entrepreneurs are attracted to ideas. We get excited by them in fact. They idea of accomplishing something amazing or new can keep us motivated when most other people will quit.

At least until something distracts us and we have a new passion of the day.

Or until a crisis comes along that forces us off our path.

Distractions, whether from a crisis or from new ideas, are generated by our emotional […]

26 Nov 2014

Giving 110%: Walking the Edge Or Holding Back?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T12:31:15-06:00November 26th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Mindset and Motivation|Tags: business, effort, Give 100 percent, results, success|

I hear a lot of people saying I gave 100%. Some can even apparently give more then everything they have, 110% or 120%.

Physics, economics, logic and math aside, how do you know you are giving it your all?

Effort Or Time

Is it time spent? Are you spending every waking moment dedicated to achieve your goal. Is this effective?

Exertion or Exhaustion

Are you going until you collapse into exhaustion? Are you sprinting or running the marathon?

Brainpower and Smarts

Or maybe you are dedicated to learning everything you can about the subject and succeeding because everyday you out think your competition. At the end of […]

23 Nov 2014

When Your Business Plan Derails

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:18:42-06:00November 23rd, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Leadership|

Train Late Derailed Business Plans

I was at the office a little late the other night. My plan was to catch the 9:00 p.m. train and head home, relax a bit, and then get a good sleep.

Sometimes plans get derailed.

I got to the train platform and heard the announcement, “Trains are not running in the downtown core. Shuttle buses will be available for passengers at the orange 201/202 stops.”

Crap! I had thought the earlier accident with a pedestrian was cleared. […]

3 Nov 2014

3 Entrepreneurial Skills I Learned From Basic Officer Training

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:18:49-06:00November 3rd, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, The Good Men Project|

"He never guessed that following his father’s wishes would set him up for the life he loved best – being an entrepreneur."

My high school graduation experience culminated in me losing my long hair and getting paid to get screamed at all summer.

To be honest, I didn’t choose the military on my own.

Basic training was a culture shock. There are plenty of movies that show what it is like. You don’t get to eat popcorn when you are in it.

My father told me that he wasn’t paying for my university and I would have to get a job. Since he was […]

28 Oct 2014

Stop Jumping To Solutions – Why Listening Like a Man Is Killing Your Sales

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-11T13:04:35-06:00October 28th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales, The Good Men Project|

“8 Keys to breaking this habit and improving your sales (and your love life).”

Working on the business man strategy

Sometimes plans don’t unfold as you intended.

An explosion, an underground fire, and a five-day power outage in Calgary recently conspired to alter events for me. Rather than following my intended schedule, I got a chance to conduct some off-site sales training for a couple of days.

And I learned something about yet another male stereotype. We were doing some group role playing around asking […]

Doug’s Blog

Sometimes The Juices Just Won’t Flow

Sales and Marketing

Definiteness of Purpose

The Big Roles

Effort Or Time

Exertion or Exhaustion

Brainpower and Smarts