Stop Puking on Your Customers. Start Asking Better Questions.
Years ago, I got tired of watching salespeople walk into customer conversations and immediately start talking. Features. Benefits. Capabilities. Credentials. Everything they knew about their company and their solution. I started calling it PUKE: People Who Utter Knowledge About Everything. It gets a laugh, but the problem behind it is very real. When you spend the conversation proving how much you know, you may never discover what the customer actually needs. That isn’t leadership. Leadership starts with curiosity. Instead of…
Change Your Conversations to Change Your Outcomes
The results we create often begin with the conversations we choose to have. That includes conversations with customers. Conversations with teams. Conversations between leaders. And perhaps most importantly, the conversations we have with ourselves. I recently joined Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power for a discussion about my career in sales, leadership and professional speaking. Looking back at the experiences we discussed, I noticed a common thread: Whenever the conversation changed, the opportunity for a different outcome appeared. Change the Focus…
Stop Thinking About Yourself and Start Thinking About Them
There’s something I learned years ago about standing in front of an audience that has stayed with me throughout my career. Stop thinking about yourself. Even after years of speaking, there are still moments when the nerves show up before I walk onstage. You wonder how the audience will respond. You think about whether the message will land. You start becoming very aware of yourself. But the more you focus on yourself, the louder those thoughts become. What changed things…
From Speech Impediment to Speaking Legend
I recently received an honor that caused me to reflect on an entire career. I was inducted into the 2026 Legends of the Speaking Profession. For someone who has spent decades speaking professionally, you might assume that communication always came naturally to me. It didn’t. As a teenager, I had a speech impediment that prevented me from properly pronouncing the letter “R.” My name is Ron Karr. Three R’s. Today, I can laugh about that irony. At the time, it…
Dolly Parton Knew Where She Was Going
There are people who become successful. There are people who become famous. And then there are those rare individuals who become something much greater. Dolly Parton became an icon. Her story didn’t begin with wealth, connections or opportunity. She grew up as one of 12 children in a one-room cabin in the mountains of Tennessee. What she did have was direction. From an early age, Dolly knew what she wanted. She wrote songs as a child, performed on local radio,…
Leaders Are Made, But Hard Work Alone Isn’t Enough
Vince Lombardi famously said: “Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.” I agree. Leadership requires effort. It requires discipline, repetition, resilience and a willingness to keep improving. But there’s another piece we cannot afford to overlook: Hard work only creates meaningful progress when it is directed toward the right outcome. That distinction is at the heart of the Velocity Mindset®. Imagine a sales manager who tells the team, “Next year,…
Why Your “Personalized” Sales Outreach Gets Ignored
I recently received a sales message that opened by telling me the sender and I were in the same business. There was only one problem. We weren’t. The sender had my name. He had a template. But he clearly hadn’t taken the time to understand what I actually do, who I serve, or whether what he was offering was relevant to me. That isn’t personalization. And today, it’s easier than ever to make this mistake. AI, automation, sequencing tools, and…
The Question That Created An Entire Industry
Some of the biggest breakthroughs in business don’t begin with a brilliant answer. They begin with a different question. I recently came across the story of an industry built around companies purchasing life insurance policies from policyholders. Traditionally, everyone viewed life insurance through essentially the same lens: Buy the policy. Pay the premiums. Eventually, the policy pays the beneficiary. That was the accepted model. Until somebody asked a different question: What if some people need the money now more than…
They’re Not Hearing What You Said
Most communication problems are not caused by what we say. They happen because of what the other person believes they heard. People do not listen to words in isolation. They listen through filters shaped by past experiences, assumptions, emotions, expectations, and beliefs. Those filters can completely change the meaning of a message. I might say: “We need to move faster on this.” But someone else may hear: “You’re failing.” I might say: “Let’s explore another option.” They may hear: “Your…
Your Team Is Moving Fast—But Is It Moving Forward?
In today’s business environment, leaders and sales teams are being pushed to move faster, produce more, adopt new tools, and deliver immediate results. But moving faster does not automatically mean moving forward. One of the most important principles of the Velocity Mindset® is to start with the end in mind, but first, you must make sure you are pursuing the right end. Too many organizations confuse activity with achievement. Leaders fill calendars, launch initiatives, chase quarterly numbers, and push their…
The Brutal Truth About Thriving in Today’s Turbulent Times
Markets are volatile. Budgets are tightening. International tensions are affecting supply chains, energy prices, and business confidence. For leaders, the pressure is real. But here is the brutal truth: Uncertainty does not destroy companies. Inaction does. When fear enters the boardroom, decisions slow down. Investments are delayed. Teams lose confidence. Organizations begin waiting for conditions to improve before making their next move. The problem is that stability may not return on your preferred timeline. While one organization waits, another adapts….
Why Linear Thinking is Costing You Sales
Most salespeople don’t lose deals because of price. They don’t lose because of the competition. And they rarely lose because of the economy. More often than not, they lose because they’re approaching every opportunity with the same linear thinking they’ve been taught since childhood. From the time we enter school, we’re trained to follow the process. Read left to right. Solve the problem step by step. Show your work. Stay inside the lines. That approach works in the classroom. It…