Diane Smith is the Senior Director of Customer Service and Experience for TakeLessons. She has over 20 years in customer service with Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue and led a team of over 1,600 customer support representatives. In this interview, Diane gives some customer service interviewing tips and a description of the STAR method of …
I was chatting with a young employee over a beer the other day and we started talking about confidence and its importance. Here is a summary of the conversation along with a diagram on the cyclical pattern of confidence. What is confidence? Confidence is a state of mind. It is a lens that we choose …
I’d love to say that my best ideas were formed inside of my head, but truthfully, the biggest breakthrough’s I’ve had are because I was able to take the raw thought material in my head and receive insights from other smart people. If you’re smart, that’s a good start. But someone not as bright can …
The Importance of Mentors and Your Chance of Business Success Read More »
Here is an email I sent this morning to my team. First, I wanted to have them see that most startups go through the same struggles that we go through. Second, I wanted them to know that I have full confidence, faith, and trust in their abilities and that I see them as leaders within …
Recently, I got to attend the Crosslink Investor Meeting where partners of the firm spoke on what their seeing in the marketplace. A couple key takeaways for me was that technology and the internet is still very early. Lots of room for growth and expansion as software eats the world. Second, some of the largest …
Things I Learned at the Crosslink Startup Investor Meeting Read More »
At the end of each quarter, I take a detailed look at my yearly goals to see how I’m progressing against them. Sometimes I’m ahead – sometimes behind. And what I’ve begun to notice is that I’m ahead on the items where I accomplish smaller tasks more frequently. There’s a concept in goal setting called …
At TakeLessons, we’re in the process of working on a 2013 strategic plan. One thing I did this year was looked back and just wrote down some things that I’ve learned over the past few years on how to build a business. Here’s my short list. As a company and personally, I’ve had a tendency …
I get a lot of satisfaction by working on things that make a positive, lasting impact. There’s a ton of ways to make money, so I figure why not make a living doing something that creates value for people. This concept has been echoed by my company to where the company philosophies are similar to …
John Assaraf sat down with Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com, to discuss what it means to create and maintain a thriving corporate culture. In this interview, Cox defines corporate culture, outlines steps entrepreneurs can take to define their company’s culture and shows how a strong culture can translate into other great gains for any organization. …
Creating Corporate Culture: Interview with John Assaraf Part 9 and 10 Read More »
John Assaraf sat down with Steven Cox, CEO of TakeLessons.com, to discuss what it means to create and maintain a thriving corporate culture. In this interview, Cox defines corporate culture, outlines steps entrepreneurs can take to define their company’s culture and shows how a strong culture can translate into other great gains for any organization. …
Creating Corporate Culture – John Assaraf Interview Part 8 Read More »