Monthly Archives: July 2020

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When Visions Collide

Every leader knows how important a vision is to leading an organization. The vision you cast is the pathway to success.

Creating your vision is easy if you’re the only person on your team. Or your team is still small.

two bulls locking horns

Photo by Uriel Soberanes

Grow your team? Then creating a vision everyone can get onboard with becomes harder. It may even seem impossible.

This is when visions collide.

What Is A Vision?

A vision isn’t something spiritual or woo-wooey. A vision is a clear picture in your mind of what you want your business or organization to look like in the future.

Your vision may be:

We are a company that values employees while bringing the best to our customers. We provide the best cellular service in the industry and our customers rate us with a 99.9% satisfcation rate.  Read more...

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How To Use Google My Business To Attract Customers

This is a contributed post to JMLalonde.com. For more information on contributing a post, please see our contributing policies.
Man holding an iphone showing Google Maps

Photo by henry perks on Unsplash

Google search engine handles 5.6 billion search requests every day.  That’s an unbelievable amount of traffic.  One thing’s for sure, if you want to get found online, you need to focus your efforts on Google.  

Companies tend to concentrate their efforts on SEO or paid advertising.  Both of these are important, but there’s one area that’s often overlooked when developing a marketing strategy, the Google My Business section.  

What Is Google My Business?

In its simplest form, it’s a free platform to change and control how your business appears in a search or on Google Maps. It’s great for improving geographic and local business SEO. Any type of business with a physical location or that has face-to-face contact with customers.    Read more...

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Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Old Guard

A Reel Leadership Article

While movie theaters are still closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming services are still releasing movies. Netflix recently released the comic-based movie The Old Guard on their service. (If you’d like to check out the comic book The Old Guard is based on, you can pick up one of the collections at Amazon.)

To say I was geeking out a bit is an understatement. I’m always a sucker for a good comic book movie. Many others are as well… maybe even you?!?

Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, and Luca Marinelli standing in front of a board of notes in The Old Guard

The Old Guard tells the story of a group of immortals who take whatever gigs they deem worthy. The team consists of:

  • Andy (Charlize Theron)
  • Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts)
  • Joe (Marwan Kenzari)
  • Nicky (Luca Marinelli)

We get into the thick of things quickly. We see that the team is betrayed by Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) when they were sent on a mission to South Sudan. There, they are gunned down only to be resurrected.  Read more...

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What Is Bravery?

Think of the word Brave or Bravery. What images does your mind conjure? If you were asking me, my mind instantly races to:

  • The 17-year old from World War 2 who stormed the beach in Normandy
  • The mother who sacrificed herself to save her baby after crashing her car into a pond
  • The pastor who takes to the pulpit and shares a challenging truth with his congregation knowing he will lose people from his church
  • Desmond Doss going back again and again to save his fellow soldiers on Hacksaw Ridge.
  • The teens who were on their way to their prom but stopped to help those involved in a car accident
man wearing green crew-neck t-shirt looking upwards

Photo by Jakob Owens

The dictionary defines bravery as

courageous behavior or character.

The examples above definitely describe bravery. These men and women did something that wouldn’t benefit themselves and could have caused them harm to help someone else. They saw a need and they took action despite what it could cost them.  Read more...

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Quotes & Leadership Lessons From Rocky IV

A Reel Leadership Article

This is a contributed post to JMLalonde.com. For more information on contributing a post, please see our contributing policies.

Yeah, it’s been 35 years since Sly Stallone’s most iconic character went to Russia and achieved the unthinkable. But like millions of people, I dig the boxset out once a year for a gripping seven-part (sorry Rocky V) binge. 

New and younger audiences continue to discover and fall in love with Rocky. So, it should come as no surprise that many of the lessons ring true today – not least in relation to leadership. Here are some that will give you another excuse to watch Balboa v Drago once more.

Hesitation Can Be Deadly

Rocky wanted to throw the towel on behalf of Apollo Creed. The Italian Stallion hesitated. Seconds later, Ivan Drago is saying his infamous “if he dies, he dies” line.  Read more...