Happy Monday! Question for you:

Ever had someone promise to do something for you by a certain time, only to flake? We all have. Want it to stop?

Stop asking them again and again to do it, and instead, ask them WHY they didn’t do it. Don’t call them in, call them out.

Every time someone flakes on you and you ask them to do it again, you’re resetting the deadline, and giving them a free pass. But if you ask them WHY they haven’t done it yet, you’re forcing them to face their own misdeed. They had a deadline…

I was talking to my scooter mechanic the other day. (What, you don’t have a scooter mechanic?) Seriously though, I brought my Hobbee scooter in for its 200 mile check up, and while the mechanic was going over it, we started talking, and he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I gave speeches and told stories to audiences around the world. He said, “man, I wish I could do that. It sounds fun!”

He then proceeded to show me how to check the chain of the scooter each week to remove any grime, sand, etc…

I was thinking the other day… You know what one of our biggest obstacles is in life? Choice.

Choice has derailed more great plans than virtually anything else.

Example: I want to write this article to you. Well, I have 14 different ideas about things I could say to you today. Problem is, 14 different things causes something called “decision paralysis.” If I want to write this article to you, I first have to think about what I want to say. Well, what day is it? Which thought can be translated into an article that’s worthy of your time? …

By now, most of you know that I’m a super-early riser. Like, ridiculously early, around 3:30am. If you do some homework on the subject, you’ll find that many successful CEOs are, as well. It’s simply ingrained into us — If we want to be successful, we need to be working when others are not. To do that, we embrace the early — We wake up early, and we’re better for it. It’s like the classic running quote: “Somewhere, right now, someone is training while you are not. When you race him, he will win.”

So I get up early because…

Fact: If I don’t know you, and you ask to pick my brain, you can, for free, anytime you want to.

Corollary: On my terms.

Here’s my life mantra: I believe that if you’ve had any modicum of success, no matter how small, you have a responsibility to “send the elevator back down,” as it were. And more often than not, that comes in the form of people asking to pick my brain. And I’m happy to let you do that!

But, doing that isn’t as easy as it sounds. Think about it: If I let everyone meet with me…

Billy Joel had it right. It’s truly a matter of trust. If you can’t trust a brand — a company — a person — nothing else they do will ever matter. Your job, above all else, is to make sure your company, your brand, heck, even you, are trusted by everyone with whom you interact. Because even just a little bit of mistrust can cause lasting damage.

Example: I’m an Apple fanboy. Have been since the 80s when my dad bought me my first Apple. (10 print hello, 20 go to ten, run.)

When the Apple Watch came out, I…

If it’s a new year, one thing’s for sure in the entrepreneurial ecosystem: Right now, there are countless “successful” entrepreneurs writing articles, posting videos, and recording podcasts explaining how you too can have their same success, their same life, and their same wealth. All you need to do is what they do, just like they do it.

They’ll use words like “hustle,” hashtags like “#nosleep,” and show footage of them supposedly working long into the night, after those who they believe “don’t want it badly enough” have gone to sleep.

And without fail, every single entrepreneur will tell you that…

From the beginning of my career at the AOL Newsroom, to running my own PR firm, to founding and building Help a Reporter Out, I’ve met tons of journalists from all over the world, and I’m honored to call many of them friends.

However: There’s a massive difference between “being friends with a journalist” and “being friends with the media.” The former exists. The latter does not.

I know that when I’m going for a run in Central Park with a friend of mine who is a reporter, we can complain about the run, about the heat, make fun of…