• Columnists

Lisa Earle McLeod, Author, Sales, and Leadership Expert, McLeod & More, Inc.

COLUMN = SALES

Business strategist Lisa Earle McLeod is an expert in sales force and leadership development. An author, consultant, syndicated columnist, media commentator, and keynote speaker, she is recognized as a thought-leader whose latest book, “The Triangle of Truth,” was named a Washington Post Top 5 Business Book for Leaders.

A bottom-line oriented business advisor whose firm, McLeod & More, Inc. was featured in Fortune Magazine, she is also a problem-solving expert whose conflict resolution handbook was delivered to every member of the House and Senate. And she’s a leadership contributor for Forbes.com and the author of more than 500 articles.

This high-energy keynote speaker who has rocked the house everywhere from Apple to Pfizer to The United Way, is a repeat guest on “Good Morning America” who has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV shows.

Lisa’s clients range from pharmaceutical to financial services, including Ann Taylor, Capital G, West Pharmaceutical, Black & McDonald, Kimberly-Clark, CMIT, and numerous franchises and entrepreneur organizations. She is also a personal development expert whose first book “Forget Perfect,” was featured in The New York Times, and continues to sell a full decade after the original printing. And her essay collection, “Finding Grace When You Can’t Even Find Clean Underwear,” was featured on Oprah.com.

Lisa and her husband Bob live in Atlanta. They are the parents of two fabulous teenage daughters.

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

– Christopher Morley

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

The goal of Life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.”

– Joseph Cambell

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.”

– Albert Schweitzer

Change is a math formula. Change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change.”

– Alan Webber, author, "Rules of Thumb"

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it”

– Andrew Carnegie

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

– Bruce Lee

If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there’d be millions of no-brained, harebrained individuals quitting their day jobs.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

You don’t go into a field that requires cracking people’s heads open or operating on something as delicate as the spinal cord unless you are comfortable with taking risks.”

– Dr. Ben Carson

The journey is the reward.”

– Greg Norman

What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

– Jim Butcher, White Night

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Speaking more than one language is no longer just an asset in today’s job market; it is a requirement.”

– Tom Adams, CEO, Rosetta Stone

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

As each woman realizes her power, she transforms the world.”

– Patrice Wynne, WomanSpirit Sourcebook

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Success is about finding a livelihood that brings joy, self-sufficiency, and a sense of contributing.”

– Anita Roddick

You don’t love someone because of their looks or their clothes or their car. You love them because they sing a song only your heart can understand.”

– L.J. Smith

The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business.”

– Bill Rancic, "The Apprentice"

He who knows he has enough is rich.”

– Tao Te Ching

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

The awakening to the mystery of life is a revolutionary event; in it an old world is destroyed so that a new and better one may take its place.”

– J.J. Van Der Leeuw, The Conquest of Illusion

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness. They are signs of strength.”

– The Dalai Lama

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”

– Marcel Proust

By your stumbling the world is perfected.”

– Sri Aurobindo

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

You must learn to be still in the midst of activity 
and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”

– Indira Ghandi

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”

– Joseph Addison

A diamond is a lump of coal that stuck with it.”

– Norwegian proverb

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow.”

– Langston Hughes

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

If you want to be busy, keep trying to be perfect. If you want to be happy, focus on making a difference.”

– Lisa Earle McLeod

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

– Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

We are all of us born with a letter inside us, and that only if we are true to ourselves, may we be allowed to read it before we die.”

– Douglas Coupland

To find what you seek in the road of life, leave no stone unturned.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake