A Dash of Curry Blog

We've all got some A.D.D. in us. Discover how to celebrate it!

Articles:

Resolving the Dilemma That All Vehicle Owners Face

Resolving the Dilemma That All Vehicle Owners Face

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Craftsman Auto Care has cracked the code on providing auto repair services that drivers can trust. Integrating their industry-setting Digital Health Inspection into their "Craftsman Experience" Craftsman announces the opening of its fourth shop located in Merrifield, Virginia. Digital Health Inspections for your vehicle give you all the information needed to prioritize and budget all your repair services. The Digital Health Inspection provides transparency through a documented assessment that enables owners to budget repairs and schedule maintenance when it's actually needed. "It's kinda like going to your doctor and getting an annual check-up ... read more

Do what you’re built for, not what you love.

Do what you’re built for, not what you love.

It’s often said that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. I say, that if you really want to put yourself in the best situation to succeed, you should do what you’re built for, not necessarily what you love. I’m doing what I’m “built for,” or good at, because I have chosen a career path that plays to my ADD superpowers and avoids weaknesses. If you have ADD, you’re not very good at rules. I’m not meant to sit in an office and read a 50 page contract from an attorney. I love numbers and financials, but I’m not built to be an accountant who sits in a cubicle all day. Instead, my ADD allows me to excel in other areas. I’m good at interacting with and motivating teams, and I’m good at thinking about how to make things better, faster and more efficient. ADD makes for a great entrepreneur personality type; people with ADD are “built” to be entrepreneurs. Doing ... read more

How Pokemon Go resembles life with ADD

How Pokemon Go resembles life with ADD

My son has been into Pokemon since he was 6 or 7 years old. He’s 21 now and he’s having a ball with Pokemon Go, the augmented reality game that has taken over the digital world in the past few weeks. If you haven’t played the game, the basic premise is that it uses GPS to track your location, aligns the virtual world of the game with your real world surroundings, and then sends you to real places nearby in order to hunt and capture Pokemon. The goal is to travel around your local area and catch as many of these monsters as you can. When my son showed me how it works, and I started it playing some, it occurred to me that the game’s objective and structure is a perfect representation of what living with ADD is like. Similar to the game where the player moves from location to location quickly in order to catch more Pokemon, my ADD brain is always jumping from task to task like rapid fire. M ... read more

Want happy customers? Live up to your word.

In last week’s blog post I mentioned that we are remodeling our 50-year-old weekend house in order to move there full time, and shared the customer service nightmare I experienced while renovating our kitchen. After attempting to install our appliances, we found out that all of the cabinet measurements were slightly off. When I called requesting that the contractor fix the problem, I was shocked by the berating and unprofessional way he handled it. Unfortunately my encounters with poor customer service did not stop with the kitchen. We needed flooring for two bedrooms in the house, so I headed to Lowe’s to pick out what we wanted and get it ordered. Within about 45 minutes I found this fabulous flooring that I really liked, it worked perfectly and looked great, so I went to purchase it. It ended up taking the guy at Lowe’s two hours to contact the manufacturer and get the order processe ... read more

Customer Service 101: How to handle your mistakes

We are remodeling our weekend house, getting ready to move there full time. It’s a 50-year-old house on the water that has had three additions over time, that were all kind of poorly constructed with the cheapest materials and not much forethought. We love the house though; we love our neighbors and it’s right on the water with an amazing view. It’s full of family memories of the kids water skiing, swimming, knee boarding and enjoying an array of other water sports activities. So as our kids are both in college, we decided we didn’t need our “McMansion” anymore and that we were going to move full time to the “Creek House”. To remodel, we completely gutted the house. We fixed major wood rot, replaced all the windows, doors, roof, siding, flooring, appliances, and put in a complete new kitchen...everything. It’s turned out to be quite the project, but it is simply amazing! When we had the kitchen done at a cost of over $22,000, we really liked the initial design and how it t ... read more

The five C’s that will help you sell with ease

The five C’s that will help you sell with ease

Therefore good sales is the art of good solutions, and as a salesperson your job is to influence your customer into agreeing that your solution is the best one. Selling is a dance, plain and simple, you just need to know how to lead. How do you do that? With the Five C’s! To guide my employees at Curry’s Auto Service through the sales dance, I came up with a list of steps I call the Five C’s of Selling, which I taught them in a series of training classes. The Five C’s – Commonality, Compliment, Connect, Collaborate, and Close – build upon one another and make it easier to convert more sales.I’ll dive in deep explaining each of the Five C’s in subsequent blog posts, but for now I want to give you an overview of what exactly I’m talking about, what I have trained my own employees in, and what is the cornerstone of my sales success. I. Commonality is the want ... read more

Want to Build a Better Business? Try Compliments.

Want to Build a Better Business? Try Compliments.

I was camping with my son and family in Yosemite recently and turned out my son needed a new pair of boots. He is difficult to fit because he is short like me, so we found ourselves at REI where the customer service was awesome, as usual. One of the biggest ways REI stands out as a company is using the art of compliments. After trying on a half dozen pairs (you know how boot shopping can be) my son decides on a pair of boots and we went to pay. The clerk at the register says, “Oh I have those boots too and I love them! Great pick!”ComplimentThat compliment made my son: Feel good! Feel smart! Feel confident, he made the right choice. All strong emotional triggers that supported his decision to give REI his money that day. (Well my money but you get the idea). And this was not the first time REI broug ... read more

Being a Transformational Entrepreneur

Being a Transformational Entrepreneur

I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal called Teaching Entrepreneurs to Do More Than Dream. The article talks about the closing of the University of California, San Diego’s Moxie Center for Student Entrepreneurship. I love the articles thinking behind the fact that we need to do a little less with the classroom textbooks of learning about entrepreneurship and more about the actual doing. Thinking outside of the box. For example, the concept behind The Moxie Center was a great one. Giving grants to young innovators which allowed them to take that idea and make it a reality. Thanks to a million-dollar gift the center was able to sustain for two and a half years before it gave out all of the money. In my entrepreneurial mind and the fact that I would want this program to sus ... read more

Working With A.D.D.

Working With A.D.D.

As a successful entrepreneur with A.D.D, I have taken my distractions and turned them into direction. I know that A.D.D. will not go away and so I have started some lifestyle changes that has helped me not only in my professional life but also in my personal life. 1. Limit distractions. Working in a noisy place can trigger your brain to go in many different directions. I use headphones that can cancel out noise (I love this pair). Or if I need to pay attention in a meeting or have an important conversation with someone I keep my cell phone off or in another room. I close the door to my office when I don’t want to be disturbed and my team knows when the door is closed to not disturb me. 2. Train my brain. I read every night ... read more

Entrepreneurs vs. Wannapreneurs: Overcoming Obstacles To Execution

Entrepreneurs vs. Wannapreneurs: Overcoming Obstacles To Execution

Today’s post marks the first part a of series about the important traits, actions and habits that set Entrepreneurs apart from Wannapreneuers. Throughout the series of posts, I will offer several examples from my career when I met major challenges with smart decisions, solid planning and help from my reliable team. At the conclusion of each post, one of my most trusted advisers, Nancy Snell, will recap the key decisions, share her valuable insights and provide vital takeaways to apply in your own career. Nancy is a business and ADHD coach with a degree in psychology and sub-specialization and comprehensive expertise in the field of Adult ADHD. She had a very successful career in media broadcasting sales/marketing/media buying included mentoring, training and new business development. That experience taught Nancy how to get fast, laser-focused, remarkable results. Nancy has helped hundreds of business professionals optimize their time and maximize their potential through simple ... read more

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