Why Smart People Don’t Learn So Well

Excerpted from the book on conscious business management, Business Black Belt At a certain age, people’s minds close up; they live on their intellectual fat. ~ William Lyon Phelps Otherwise intelligent people often unconsciously use their existing knowledge to block new ideas or facts coming in. This keeps them stuck and makes them a challenge…

We’re Full of Solutions Looking for Problems

Excerpted from the book on conscious business management, Business Black Belt A good answer evolves from many good questions. –Burke Franklin, Author, Business Black Belt If I had two hours to solve a problem, I would spend the first hour and a half asking questions and questioning assumptions—mine and those of everyone involved. I’ve found…

Sales Leadership: Selling the Truth, Part 2

Continued from Selling the Truth, Part 1… Excerpted from the book, Business Black Belt Like a said before, I can tell in a heartbeat now if a salesperson is coming to pitch me because he or she wants the deal or if he or she thinks they have something I could really use. Sometimes it…

Sales Leadership: Selling the Truth? Part 1

Excerpted from the book, Business Black Belt We’ve all been watching TV pretty much since it came into being. We’ve all watched commercials as they’ve evolved. We’ve all seen and heard a variety of sales pitches, scams, and rip-offs, to the point that we are fine-tuned to fending them off. Now, a clean, straightforward sales…

The 3 Most Important Things You Learn from the Business Planning Process

This is the first in an ongoing series of audio podcasts with Burke Franklin, founder and CEO of Jian Software, the publisher of business planning software, Biz Plan Builder, as well as many other business productivity software titles.  In each audio podcast, Burke tackles topics related to planning, starting, financing, and growing an entrepreneurial venture…