Picture this: A lone elephant lumbers across the open savanna.

As you read that sentence, your imagination began painting a mental picture. You likely saw in your mind’s eye an elephant walking across wide, grassy terrain.

Stop and analyze what you just did. It’s really rather remarkable.

Chances are, as you read this, you aren’t on safari in Africa. There are no actual elephants in your immediate vicinity. But you’re still able to envision an elephant in widescreen detail simply by reading words on a page.

And that happened, automatically and without any effort on your part, because we humans are both visual and imaginative beings. Not only are we born with eyes that allow us to view the world around us, but our brains have the extraordinary power to record and recreate that reality within the limitless universe of our imagination.

And even more amazing, those imaginary constructs are often linked to our very real emotions. If you’re passionate about...

Your car will not continue to perform as designed without routine maintenance. Oil & filter changes, tire rotation & brake pads, car washes & tune-ups are necessary to keep it running smoothly and avoid costly fixes down the road. Your Vast Action CRM is much the same.

A CRM is a tool to help keep your business running smoothly, and doing routine maintenance tasks will optimize its performance. But neglecting it can result in missed opportunities to optimize marketing and time-consuming clean-up efforts in the future.

If your CRM isn’t on a routine maintenance schedule, there’s unrealized potential there waiting for you. A simple CRM maintenance schedule can save you time and money over the course of a year – and we all know time IS money.

1. It starts with a solid foundation. Get to know your system.

When you get a new car, you spend some time learning how to drive it and take care of it – from locating the cruise control to setting up the...

I wouldn’t be surprised if my younger co-workers have wondered why I struggle with our office technology. And, honestly, who can blame them?

While they’re texting, updating spreadsheets, and juggling multiple CRMs – all at the same time, mind you – I’m still trying to find that stupid document I saved yesterday. Tech-savvy, I’m not. Unless by “tech-savvy” you mean crying in front of the Geek Squad. (Okay, I didn’t cry so much as hyperventilate. It was still embarrassing.)

What can I say? In this ever-evolving, culturally fluid century, I’m a time-lost relic; a woolly mammoth trying my best not to step on the toes of any “woke” hominids, be they Gen-Xers, Millennials, or whatever comes after them. (Bi-centennials? Gen-AI? Pretty sure the Terminators are in there somewhere.)

I, on the other hand, am part of the baby boomer generation, if just barely. I was born in 1964, the cut-off date for this massively large...

Spam – it’s everywhere.

Spammers (don’t get me started) are cramming our inboxes with an endless stream of junk mail, and have been since the Internet was in digital diapers. To combat this, safeguards have been put in place to screen out these unsolicited emails from non-existent Nigerian princes and fly-by-night pharmaceutical companies.

And that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, spammers don’t give up so easily and these spam filters – try as they might - can’t always discern between junk mail and our own legitimate emails we’re trying to disseminate to a list of recipients. Which is why a certain percentage of our emailed messages get tagged as spam and are undelivered or relegated to a junk/spam folder.

But don’t despair, mon frere. There are tips you can learn and techniques you can master that will help shepherd your emails to their ultimate destination. But to grasp them will mean taking a deep dive into the world of email...

It’s no secret that we live in a world shaped and defined by technology. Communication is faster than ever, but also more impersonal.

Emails have replaced handwritten notes, which are now looked upon as rare and curious relics from a bygone era.

Which, in an ironic twist of fate, is how those humble missives have gained newfound status to a generation unfamiliar with – yet at the same time, intrigued and inspired by - the simple act of sitting down and scrawling a quick note of thanks on a piece of nice stationery.

Statistics Behind the Stationery

A recent survey of 2,000 American adults revealed that millennials not only appreciate writing more but are, surprisingly, more likely to keep hold of handwritten notes than those in their fifties.

And this same survey showed that nearly nine in ten millennials value handwritten notes more than alternative means of communication (i.e., texts and emails).

Yet for all that, handwritten notes continue to be extremely rare compared...

Your business is thriving. You may even be looking to expand your current location. Before you do, you may have a few questions about commercial real estate. Questions like…

Do I Really Need to Work with Professionals?

You may be thinking of cutting your expenses by cutting out agents, brokers, and other professionals. Before you decide, make sure you are aware that there are a lot of steps involved with commercial real estate transactions and countless tiny details. Going it alone increases the odds of missing one or making costly mistakes.

What is The Difference Between an Agent and a Broker?

It’s helpful to understand key differences between real estate brokers and agents. Then you will have an easier time deciding which one you may need.

How do I Find Reliable Contractors to Help with Repairs?

Unless you plan to invest in real estate property that needs no repairs or upgrades, you may also want to do some homework on how to build your professional real...

Everybody loves a winner.

We can’t get enough of them. Our culture celebrates them, rewards them, idolizes them. We wear their jerseys, follow their stock tips, and flock to their movies. And, oh yes, we buy their books, eager to discover the secrets of their success.

We love about hearing from those winners. When they open up and reveal their secrets, they don’t just share the positive qualities that helped them succeed—work ethic, education, persistence, etc.

Every successful person has positive traits we can learn from.

And…

Every successful person has failed in some (or multiple) ways.

Oftentimes, there’s even more to share about their failures. When they list the mistakes they made, and more importantly, how they learned to move past them while also embracing the insights and opportunities those set-backs provided them…that’s where the real gold is and the more interesting part of their story.

Learning how to deal with...

How many people do you meet in a day? A month? A year? A lifetime?

And how many of them do you remember? Not just a blurry image of a barely-remembered face, but truly remember at least some details of their unique life and the impression they made on yours?

It’s easy to become just another random face in the parade of life. But if you want to succeed, you need to stand out from the crowd. You need to leave a lasting impression. You need to become… Unforgettable.

Is it a super-power—The ability to turn invisible, but in reverse?

And not just for a moment, but to remain vibrant in someone’s memory even when you’re no longer in close proximity, either in time or space.

The good news is, you don’t need to be bombarded with radiation or travel to a mystical dimension to gain this amazing ability. The secrets to attaining unforgettability are actually quite simple. Here are just a few.

5 Tips to Becoming Unforgettable

1. Take an Interest

It’s...

How do we earn repeat business and referrals?

Loyal clients - or at least highly satisfied clients - are the ones more likely to buy from us again, refer others to us, and spread good word of mouth about our business.

Implementing the three strategies below (or reviewing how you're already executing them to determine if there’s further fine-tuning required) will help you in this endeavor.

1. Express appreciation

It’s so simple and yet so often overlooked. Beyond our most basic physiological needs such as food and water, human beings also crave emotional sustenance such as love and affirmation. Love can be described as a sense of connection, and affirmation includes respect and recognition. So, finding ways to communicate to your clients (both existing and prospective) that you appreciate them and celebrate their positive qualities goes a long way to meeting that psychological need we all possess.

Whether you demonstrate your appreciation with a thoughtful gift or kind...

What words might you use to describe the ideal entrepreneur? 

Creative?  Innovative?  Risk-taker?  Visionary?  Sounds about right. 

The word “organized,” on the other hand, probably doesn’t leap instantly to mind.  Though “organization” doesn’t get the blood-pumping in the same way that, say, “record-breaking quarterly profits” does, creating and maintaining an organizational system (or systems) is a key to unlocking efficiency and productivity.  And efficiency and productivity will put you on the fast track to those record-breaking quarterly profits. 

“But I’m not an organized person,” you may be saying to yourself. 

Join the club.  You’re probably not an insanely wealthy tycoon and philanthropist, either (not yet, at least), but you’re not going to let that little fact stop you from becoming one.  You can become...