Laurel and I will be heading to Columbus this week again to lead the Day of Atonement services (Yom Kippur) and I wanted to share an event that occurred just 3 weeks ago to the associate rabbi and the lesson I gleaned from it. As many of you know, this holiday season is analogous to the spring tax season for accountants! There is SO much preparation and Laurel and I have been creating, writing, and rehearsing for quite some time....

There’s a wonderful children’s book that I read to my grandchildren titled, The Hardest Word. It’s about a bird named Ziz, that flies high above various towns and swoops down to speak to the children. He instructs them to bring the hardest word. One says, “pisghetti”, (spaghetti), is the hardest word. Others bring back words like rhinoceros and Rumpelstiltskin, but none is acceptable. In the end, he discovers that the hardest words for them and all the townspeople are “I’m...

My clients, Richard Citrin and Michael Couch, have thought-provoking conversations with great thought leaders on their Leadership Café show. One of the questions they often ask is: “What has the pandemic done for you?” First, I want to acknowledge the dreadful conditions and deaths the pandemic has brought to millions around the world. And rather than asking what the pandemic has done to you, I’d like to look at the question from a different angle which is, what has the...

Taking over the news this past week was the death of Queen Elizabeth II whose reign lasted more than 70 years, more than any other in British history. Elizabeth ascended the throne at age 25, during a chaotic time following World War II, on February 6, 1952, at the age of 25 after the death of her father, King George. She soon became a central and beloved figure for many in the United Kingdom and the commonwealth countries. Though not...

Knowing I would be out of town working with a client today, I took the opportunity to prepare my newsletter a couple days in advance. Monday, September 5, is Labor Day in America, and there’s really nothing comparable to it in my native Israel. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on the morning of September 5, 1882, where a crowd of spectators filled the sidewalks of lower Manhattan near city hall and along Broadway. It was planned to be...

A while back, I was asked to share my lessons learned from running my business. I decided to challenge myself and create my 40 lessons learned, which I did and published at the time. A few weeks later I decided to further challenge myself and create my 40 additional lessons learned. I enjoyed that challenge and was please to then publish the 80 lessons learned. The same repeated a few weeks later and when I was ready to publish the...

Every Tuesday, our youngest grandson, Bentley, who’s 2, comes over and stays the night. He’s a pleasant kid, loves being outdoors, rarely complains, eats well, plays hard and we have the best time being together with him. Most days… Yesterday though, Bentley was off his game and came in with an attitude. He was mad, stubborn and crying, if he didn’t get his way, from the moment he stepped inside from the garage. No amount of cajoling, interacting with him,...

Back on January 9, 2013, almost 10 years ago, I started publishing my first Raising the Barr® newsletter. I committed to publish succinct articles on a weekly basis that would help my clients improve their web presence (strategy, content, and marketing) and their lives. I am proud to announce that today’s newsletter is number 500! So, what are my insights from 500 newsletters being published? Here are my top 25 lessons learned: Sit down, open a blank word document, and...

Last week in my What’s in a Name? newsletter post, I discussed the importance of choosing your company name wisely. Yet, a question that comes up often is whether as an entrepreneur you should name your company after your own name or choose a unique company name. I acknowledge that the strongest brand is actually our own name. Look at just about all the leading thought leaders, (Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, Marshall Goldsmith, Oprah, Dr. Phil, Mel Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell...

On this date, August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail on his first transatlantic voyage, departing from Palos, Spain, with three small ships-the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Although Columbus remains a famous historical figure around the world, his real name is somewhat of a mystery. In Italian he is known as Cristoforo Colombo and in Spanish as Cristobal Colon. But he has also been referred to, by himself and others, as Christoual, Christovam, Christofferus de Colombo, and even Xpoual...