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SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

4 Reasons Why Twitter Is Relevant

Twitter has become like that running back everyone is tired of. He has been on the team a while and hasn’t really improved. Meanwhile, there is all this exciting new talent on the roster. But this guy just doesn’t go away. He’s good at what he does, and he earns his share of carriers–as he

What Can the “Bad Boys” Teach You About Creating a Brand Identity?

The Detroit Pistons of the 1980’s and 1990’s were known as the “Bad Boys.” That brand identity led to back-to-back NBA Championships and many successful seasons during a time when the NBA was ultra-competitive. Having a distinct and genuine identity led to success for the Detroit Pistons and it can do the same for you and your

How the Oregon Ducks Up-Tempo Offense Can Be Applied to Your Business

Imagine going after some great business opportunities. You know they won’t all close, but some of them will. The more opportunities you create for yourself, the better your chance of success. Right? That’s the simple version of the Oregon Ducks offense. An up-tempo style offense might not seem that radical now, but that’s because it

Recovering From a Season of Complacency

Let’s be honest; complacency can sneak up on the best of us. In an earlier post, we discussed what complacency is and how it can sabotage your career if it isn’t addressed. Unfortunately, the 2004 American Olympic Men’s Basketball Team provided a great example of exactly how talented people can fall short this way. In

Mindset Helps the Cleveland Cavaliers Win the NBA Championship

Mindset Helps | Just Ask the Cleveland Cavaliers

Up 3-1 in the NBA Finals, it seemed like just a matter of time until the Golden State Warriors were crowned back-to-back NBA Champions. Little did they know the Cleveland Cavaliers had the right mindset to bring about a different outcome. Now mindset wasn’t the only reason the Cavs won. They had LeBron James, Kyrie

Don’t Let Complacency End Your Game

Complacency–it’s a habit, a frame of mind, a way we set ourselves up for loss without even realizing it. Remember the 2004 USA Olympic men’s basketball team? It was a huge disappointment. This was the year in which a star-studded team coached by Larry Brown let complacency get the better of them. The team had the

3 Ways to Simplify Your Evernote Experience

Evernote is simply one of the best tools you can access Evernote—one of the most useful personal organization tools I have ever seen–can become a messy closet real quick if you let it. The good news is there’s an easy fix. Evernote right out of the box is pure potential. To activate that potential, you

3 Ways Real Estate Agents Can Differentiate Themselves

Readers have been asking our perspective on specific niche businesses. We continue this series (we looked at restaurants in vacation destinations in the 1st article) with the business of residential real estate. Low interest rates, an economy doing well, cities growing fast–it all sounds perfect for real estate. But there are only so many deals

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

4 Things You Can Learn from Kevin Durant’s Career Move

In a decision that rocked the NBA, Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors. I am not here to debate whether this was a good move or not and if you agree with his decision, but there are a few things you can learn from Kevin Durant. 1) Do What’s Best

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Banned From Rio: What Can You Learn from the Russian Track and Field Team?

The Russian track and field team is officially out of the Rio Olympics after getting caught doping. For more details, check out this article in the New York Times. Usually, it’s individual athletes who get banned for cheating, but this time the conspiracy was so widespread that the entire team was caught up in the

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Talent Does Matter, Just Ask the Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Championship, in part, because they were lucky enough to have some great players. Maybe that sounds like a put-down, like they didn’t work for it, and that’s not what I mean at all. This is not me raining on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ parade—which, by the way, was an incredible

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

What’s the Difference Between Par and Bogey in Golf? Everything!

So, you’re playing golf. Par for the first hole is 4. It’s 375 yards. You hit a 245 yard drive, –a 130 yard wedge into the green, –a 20 foot putt that misses by 5 feet, –a 5 foot putt that goes in. That’s a par. Now what if you missed that last 5 foot

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Buy Time and Sell Time

Professional athletes lead busy lives. How do they fit things like cooking and cleaning into a day already filled up with practice, working out, and studying? Most of them don’t—they hire people (ie they buy time) to do those tasks for them. While most of us aren’t professional athletes, we lead busy lives, too. If

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

3 Reasons Why Competitors Ohio State & Rutgers Became Allies

and how you can apply it to your business   Crush your competition. We hear that all the time. But what if there’s another, better, way? Ohio State and Rutgers have formed an alliance for the greater good by holding a joint high school football training camp. But aren’t the two teams opponents? Don’t they compete

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

3 Ways Having a Short-Term Memory Can Help Your Business

How often have you heard that cornerbacks in football need to have a short-term memory? Well guess what? In sales, you need a short-term memory too. When cornerbacks mess up, everyone notices, but they can’t afford to spend the rest of the game distracted and wallowing in self-doubt. For example, take the 2015 story about

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Why Did You Open a Restaurant in a Carolina Vacation Destination?

As we receive feedback from our audience, we are asked about how we would go about doing certain activities in specific niche businesses. So we will take these questions and create articles for you. Here is the 1st one on why did you open a restaurant in a Carolina vacation destination. Something we have witnessed

Offseason

3 Ways to Improve You and Your Business in the Offseason

It’s the offseason now in many sports. In others, the offseason approaches. Off the field, a lot of us share the sense that the summer should be downtime. I was talking with an associate, Paul Greiner about this the other day. Paul is a consultant that helps business owners and leaders make the leap from okay

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

How Prioritizing Short-Term Gain Crushed Baylor Football

In the fall of 2015, we wrote about the Baylor football program and how they were not managing their negative publicity. The problem was that a student had transferred into the program despite a prior accusation of assault. When that student was convicted of sexual assault while at Baylor, many people questioned how much Head

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

3 People Impacted by Your Information Fire Hose

It’s late spring. NFL Teams have made their draft picks and are now in the early stages of mini-camps. Soon enough, training camp will be here. Information is flowing at a rapid pace to the new, young players—and maybe it’s too rapid. Talent needs time to develop. While all teams are looking for the next

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

5 Ways to Hire Character in Your Business

Every year it happens—talented players fall in the NFL Draft because of character concerns. In the 2016 NFL Draft, one player’s stock dropped moments before the draft due to newly found problems in his background. The actual details are not the point here, the issue is the importance of character, in sports and in business.

Softball

What Can U6 Girls Softball Teach Us in Business

My five-year-old daughter has thoroughly enjoyed her first softball season. She likes every aspect of it, including the anticipation of the snack after the game. That is BIG motivation for the 6 and under softball team. But one Saturday morning she seemed a little less into the game. It happens. She’d already had a long

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

The 4 Ways Marcus Mariota will have a Successful NFL Career

Marcus Mariota built an impressive career in college football, winning the Heisman Trophy, among other honors. In 2015, he was the second overall draft pick, right behind Jameis Winston. With the Tennessee Titans, he became the first NFL quarterback in history, and the youngest, to get a perfect passer rating in his first regular season

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Counted Out? Not So Fast: 3 Reasons OKC Won Game 2

Game One of the Western Conference Playoffs between the Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC) and San Antonio Spurs ended quickly. The Spurs won–by a lot. The buzz from the sports talk shows over the next couple of days was that the series is over, that playing through the rest of the series is a joke, that

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

3 Reasons Why the St. Louis Blues Won Game 7

and How You Can Apply it to Your Business   For three years now, the St. Louis Blues have lost in the first round of the playoffs. History seemed about to repeat itself this year as their first round opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks fought back hard after being down three games to one, to tie

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Foul Trouble Means Opportunity

Basketball is one sport where if you commit too many fouls, you can’t play anymore. Often times, the coach needs to sit a player to keep them eligible to play later in the game. The big problem is the coach then needs to replace a good player with a lesser player. It might seem there

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

The Sky Hook: Making the Most of Change

Unexpected change can hurt your game, or it can be a tremendous opportunity, depending on how you respond to it. That is one of the messages in John Wooden’s brilliant bestseller, Wooden on Leadership, and it’s a point that jumped out at me when I read the book, partly because my colleague, Jared Nichols, often

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

3 Reasons Execution Wins as Proven by the Villanova Wildcats

The Villanova Wildcats just won the National Championship on a buzzer beater. If you haven’t seen the play yet, here it is. How did they do it? Execution. Execution means putting a plan or a process into action. Each step leads to the next and, hopefully on to success. But miss any step or aspect

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Who Wants the Ball

The Final Four, the NBA Playoffs—a time when everything will come down to who wants the ball. Coaches will be looking for their go-to players, because that’s who will have the best chance of winning the game for them. Notice, I didn’t say that’s who will win—there are no guarantees, and even the best of

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

Keep Your Composure

Basketball is a game of runs–and business can be to. Knowing this is critical. Why? Because not all runs are of good luck. There are days when just everything goes wrong and then keeps going wrong. And how you deal with those tough days, how well you can keep your cool, is ultimately what separates

SE+ Perspective | a perspective on sports matters

March Madness: Time Management is a 3-Step Ladder

Who can forget that moment when Michigan tried to call a time out that they didn’t have? It was one of the stand-out time management blunders in the history of sports. Mismanaging time can be a great way to lose off the court, too. Don’t take my word for it, look up pretty much anyone offering