Brilliant's Blog

Although she goes about it without much publicity, my mom—in partnership with my dad when he was alive—has now given away more than a hundred million dollars to improve the quality of life in communities where our family businesses are located. Believe it or not, it’s harder to give money…

In my last post, I told you about Adam, the friend who saved my life by answering my phone call during one of my darkest times. In this post, I’ll tell you about a gift I gave him that might have saved his life. Here’s the story, as told to…

One night, after a particularly nasty argument with the woman who was soon to be my ex-wife, I drove home on I-80. As I made my way past the Great Salt Lake, headed deeper into Utah’s desert, I seemed to be driving into a darkness that would swallow me whole….

When we’re faced with big or difficult decisions, it can be hard to know when to listen to ourselves and when to listen to those around us. Years ago, when I told my dad I was thinking about going back to school to earn an MBA, he tried to talk…

Who are you, anyway? Answering that question truthfully—and satisfyingly—might be one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. The ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi asked, “Am I a man who has fallen asleep and has dreamed he is a butterfly, or a butterfly who has fallen asleep and dreamed he is…

Born in Indiana in 1910, John Wooden grew up on a farm playing basketball with his brothers in a barn using a tomato basket and a ball woven from old rags.  Wooden concluded his legendary 40-year coaching career in 1975. He spent the last 27 of those years at UCLA,…

By his own admission, Scott Harrison was a bad guy. A New York City club promoter, it was his job to fill the city’s hottest nightclubs with celebrities and other beautiful people. His success was measured in dollars and alcohol. His nights were a blur of booze, drugs and girls….

Maybe our lives aren’t challenging enough. We yearn to experience a range and depth of emotions beyond those available in a typical workweek. Or perhaps we’ve lost touch with what it means to be human. Whatever the reasons, millions of us have participated in one of the extreme events that…

The work of a lifetime is coming home to ourselves. I’m a teenager studying in Japan, living with a host family. I’m a very long ways from home. Learning a new language and ways of looking at the world, I’m questioning literally everything: “Am I a human being?” “Is this…

Mythologist Joseph Campbell used to tell a story about a samurai whose master was assassinated. It was this samurai’s duty to restore his lord’s honor by avenging his death. As days stretched into weeks, the samurai relentlessly tracked the killer. When he finally found the assassin, the samurai drew his…

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’m the former Utah State Monopoly champion. That’s why Hasbro invited me, back in 1999, to play in the national Monopoly tournament in Las Vegas, where I placed 5th. Many people think of Monopoly as either a tedious, unending game of luck…

How can we become fearless, or at least more confident? For my dad, all it took was a simple math problem. This is the story of the math problem that changed my dad forever.

To develop my storytelling skills, and, hopefully, entertain and inspire you (and sometimes challenge you!), I’ll be using some Three Point Thursdays (including this one) to tell true stories instead of my normal “100 Words To Help You…”

This Week:
– The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make
– Are Your Coaching Conversations Really Just Friendly Chats?
– Why You Need A Sales Plan

This Week:
– Create Space For What You Really Want
– Use Deadlines To Serve Your Client
– People Need People

This Week:
– This Researcher Analyzed Hundreds Of Emotions And This Is What She Learned
– How To Help Your Clients Fully Vet Any Decision
– Create Great Names For Your Products And Services

This week:
– How To Strengthen Friendships That Strengthen You 
– How Non-verbal Body Language Can Make You a LESS Effective Coach
– Why You Might Not Be Getting As Many Clients As You Want (And What To Do About It) 

This week:
– The Power of Writing Your Goals
– Use Fill-in-the-Blank Questions to Help Your Clients Make Massive Breakthroughs
– Market the Problem

This week:
– A Useful Way to Think about Your Personal Values
– Use this Question to Get Any Coaching Session Back on Track
– Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity through Routines

This week:
– Quit Seeing Problems Problematically
– End Coaching Sessions with This Question
– Approach Marketing as a Spiritual Practice

This week:
– Your Permission to Try Less Hard
– A Foolproof Coaching Approach
– How to Set a Conversation Up to Ask for the Sale

This Week:
– Own Your Power to Choose
– Invite Your Clients to Be Accountable, Let Them Figure Out How
– Write Your Website to Include Sales Pages