This week’s Monday Challenge is as easy as can be. Buy a copy of Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg and read it. This book is transformative, and every chapter has incredible relevance to all aspects of our industry. Broken into eight concepts that are discussed with surprising facts and entertaining stories to back up Read More…
Category: Monday Challenge
Monday Challenge: Q1 is in the books … what did you accomplish?
Welcome to the Monday Challenge. This one deserves some of your time today, time that is focused and without distraction (close the computer, put the phone into airplane mode, get away from social media and the web). What did you accomplish in Q1 of 2017? I’m not talking about sales numbers, brand distribution, points of Read More…
Monday Challenge: Values Assesment
This week’s Monday Challenge is a doozy. It’s not quick, it’s not painless, and it’s not easy. Time to assess the values you hold versus the life you are living. It’s a myth that career paths travel in straight lines. Holes are in the road, diversions are necessary, and many people have experienced years or Read More…
Monday Challenge: The Idea Notebook
Monday on VineThinking is all about a tweaks, pushes, and challenges to help you get better at what you do in the wine sales world. This week: The Idea Notebook. It’s an innocent enough idea. Today, go and buy a notebook. A nice one. I prefer Moleskine Cahir Journals or Fabriano Ecoqua Stapled notebooks myself, for Read More…
Monday Challenge: Your Email Signature
This week’s challenge is easy to work through but long reaching in impact. It’s your email signature, and I’m sorry to say that it’s probably not optimized for 2017. Email signatures have grown in effectiveness and impact for one simple reason: more and more email clients and operating systems are using information from your emails to Read More…
Monday Challenge: How safe is your digital stuff?
The Monday Challenge is often about spurring readers to do something that takes little effort but with long term benefits. This week: assess the safety of your digital stuff. You can do this in easily by answering one question: can you take your laptop and throw it in a lake, never to see it again, and Read More…
Monday Challenge: find a Q4 mindset in Q1
Every Monday I toss out a challenge to derail readers from the norm and get their heads into a different mindset. This week: find a Q4 mindset in Q1. The first quarter of the year is always so fascinating in the wine business. Sales people relax and get back into their routines. Buyers are off Read More…
Monday Challenge: Listen to yourself
Every Monday I throw out a challenge, something to keep in mind for the week. This week’s challenge was going to be called “Don’t say anything stupid.” Then the title changed to “#AlternateReality.” In the end I decided to stick with something more simple: Listen to yourself. After an amazing weekend of strange communication with Read More…
Monday challenge: Do your performance review for the whole year, now
Every Monday I throw down a little challenge for readers, something to knock people off the daily predictable grind. This week: write your 2017 performance review, but do it today, 50 weeks before the end of the year. This exercise will take all of ten minutes if you’re a fast typer, maybe 20 minutes if Read More…
Monday Challenge: 1.92%
Good day and welcome to another great week! Every Monday I throw out a challenge, a wee bit of a push to get you on the right track, and occasionally a nudge to knock you off the track and see things from a different angle. This week: 1.92%. What does this mean? What is this Read More…
A good day to ask (the right) questions
Happy New Year! Every Monday I throw out a challenge to the readers, something to push you a bit into an uncomfortable place (that place where growth occurs). This week: A good day to ask (the right) questions. I suggest you print this page and handwrite your answers. How are you going to look back Read More…
Monday Challenge: End of Year Planning
Welcome to the final Monday Challenge of the year. Five more work days ahead for 2016, then this chapter is done and we collectively move into 2017. What to do? Just like Santa, make some lists and check them twice. List One: Do you have the opportunity to invest in your work life for 2016 tax deductions? Read More…
Monday Challenge: The Final Full Week
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers, something to push you a bit and help you grow. As you know by now, I’m big on lists and goal planning. I like to know as far in advance what I’ll be doing on any particular day. Time is the same for all of us. Read More…
Monday challenge: Make a list, check it twice
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers to help arc you toward new ideas, uncomfortable places, and ultimately growth. This week: Make a list, check it twice. We are less than three weeks away from the end of the calendar year. It’s a time to work hard (the orders are flying for about 10 Read More…
Monday challenge: Awesome at a few things, not pretty good at many
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers, something to make people think, get into an uncomfortable space (where growth happens) and in general give you ideas at looking at your job from different angles. This week: what are you awesome at? I’m not asking what are you pretty good at. I’m not asking Read More…
Monday Challenge: Take care of number one (YOU!)
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers, something that is timely and of the moment, and pushes people in certain directions. This week: Take care of number one. This is the crunch time. It’s when business is really cranking. Thanksgiving is over, Christmas is around the corner, people are getting that frantic look Read More…
Monday Challenge: Ask for help
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to put readers into a position of growth, which can sometimes be uncomfortable at first. This week: Ask for help. We are not wired instinctively to ask for help. Some people, by virtue of whom they work for, are downright terrified to ask for help, thinking it will Read More…
Monday challenge: The Supermoon Effect
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers. Something to push you into an uncomfortable spot, to make you see things in a new light or direction, with the goal of growth. This week’s challenge: The Supermoon Effect. Last night more people than ever before paused what they were doing, walked outside, and watched Read More…
Monday Challenge: One Sentence
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers. Something to put you into a slightly uncomfortable place, to push you to grow and thus get closer to being spectacular at what you do. This week: the challenge of One Sentence. The idea is that anything that takes too long to explain will quickly become grey Read More…
Monday Challenge: 60 day sprint ahead, be ready!
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers. Something to keep everybody on the right track toward accomplishing the right goals and moving your wine career forward. This week: the 60 day sprint and how to be ready for it. ### Welcome to October 31st and happiest of Halloweens! A favorite holiday around our Read More…
Monday Challenge: Write your own contract
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to readers, sometimes small and simple and sometimes larger and more involved. This one is more large and involved, but the results can be life changing. The Nobel Prize for Economic Science was just released, and it went to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström, two scientists who have studied Read More…
Monday Challenge: Sense of Place
Every Monday I throw out an idea to challenge the readers. This week: Sense of Place. Pick a personal favorite wine region. Google that region with the words “wine map” and get a high quality image or two of the area. Then go the Wikipedia page for the main village or town in the region. Read More…
Monday Challenge: Your best customers
Welcome to the Monday Challenge! This week: Your best customers. Who are they, and why are they the best customers? This has nothing (or at least little) to do with money and sales. That’s the easy way out of the challenge. Rather, take ten minutes today to figure out who your best customers are. Base Read More…
Monday Challenge: TMI
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to the readers. Something to think about during the week of wine work. This week: become conscious of TMI, too much information. Over-explaining and over-detailing a wine is all too common. I see it all the time when reps are trying to train the servers at a restaurant, and Read More…
Happy Labor Day 2016 … on your mark, get set …
We’ve reached the end of another summer and the SOND selling season is just about to kick off. Over half of the wine sold in the United States is sold in the upcoming four months. A couple of weeks ago I urged you to take your foot off the gas. Now it’s time to do Read More…
Monday Challenge: Take your foot off the gas
Every Monday I throw out a challenge to the readers of this blog. Often it’s about focusing on the right work, making lists, managing your time, learning more about a particular wine regions, etc. This week it’s the opposite: Take your foot off the gas. We are entering the last weeks of August, a slow Read More…