No, I have not gone off the deep end here. Last week, I ended up buying a new lounge chair when a local company called me up and asked.  I was not in the market for a new lounge chair. I did not need one. But, the price was right and I bought. And you know what?  I may be in the market for a couch and coffee table in the next year; and guess who I will likely be calling?  And that is what got me thinking.

Cold calling is generally maligned. People imagine the vacuum cleaner salesman tossing dirt into your home (flashback to that I Love Lucy episode) or the irritating door-o-door encyclopedia salesmen of the 60s.  But it doesn’t need to be…

Susan Shultz-Gelino is the Vice President of Trade Relations for American Cruise Lines. She has been with American Cruise Lines for over 20 years and has worked in Sales and Marketing for over 30 years, beginning her career with the Whirlpool Corporation in Benton Harbor.

During her tenure with American Cruise Lines, Susan has led American’s sales department to record numbers. In 2014, she was integral in expanding American’s U.S. sales force to the Line’s Salt Lake City, Utah office. In 2018, Susan formed a team of Business Development Managers, positioned throughout the U.S., to assist American’s growing network of Travel Advisors. She now oversees all trade partnerships and group sales.

In just the past few years, American has introduced…

Habits are powerful factors in our lives. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily express our character produce our effectiveness or ineffectiveness. ~ Stephen R. Covey

As Stephen Covey indicates, habits are powerful forces, perhaps even more so than we suspect. Good habits we often perceive as difficult to form and bad habits impossible to break. Ironically, the reverse also appears to be true. Good habits seem as flimsy as the first excuse to disrupt a routine and bad habits arise before we notice their presence.

By and large, we are the composite of our habits. The more good habits we incorporate into our lives, the…

There is no better time than today to start focusing on a number of items on your “T0-Do List.” One such item immediately comes to mind, as I begin writing today’s message: Have more “ideas.”

Ideas are the seed of all new and exciting accomplishments. Many ideas lead to greater things. Most fizzle out and die on the vine. A few take on a life of their own and pay measurable dividends. Some arrive too late, while others surface before their time.

I’m not here today to share my latest “brainstorm” with you, but it just may leak out before I finish. I want to ask what is going through your head, and what ideas you have as you move through the eighth month of the Covid-19…