This last weekend I attended a professional sales and leadership development course hosted by Blair Singer (Sales Dogs and Sales Partners). For those of you who do not know who he is, he has been a long time friend and advisor to Robert Kyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Blair has been through the rigours of sales and leadership for most of his life. He was very open about his successes and failures alike which certainly allowed him to teach on a level playing field with everyone in the room. The audience was generally comprised of business owners, but more intimately of mother’s, father’s, and friends. Being the Mother’s Day weekend, Blair made sure to acknowledge and praise the mother’s in the room. What quickly became evident even in this 2 day course was that this was not going to be just a standard business development seminar. Blair had an incredible skill of being able to tap into the personalities of the audience – to reach their inner most fears and dreams. Not only could he tap into them, but he also drew them out. In this course of “tough businessmen”, he had the room literally in tears (no kidding) on a number of occasions from the self examination that he brought to us, and allowed us to explore individually. I saw the toughest man in the room (a giant body-builder) break down and cry on stage in front of a room of complete strangers whom he met 24 hours earlier. He was not the only one – I too was just as emotionally affected by this process as the others in the room. Because of this process, this group of 100 strangers were able to form a unique bond through a transformation process which was a completely unique experience.

I am not trying to make a point about how Bair Singer can make grown men cry, because a sappy movie can also do this. What I am showing is that the skills that Blair teaches begin with ourselves. In order to be a great leader, first we must be able to improve and lead ourselves, which ultimately will impact both our personal and professional lives. The term “Leadership” is really strongly engrained with “Self Improvement”. This course teaches the principles behind this process.

This last weekend was much more than a course to help grow my business and sales – rather a fun, at times emotional, and enlightening weekend of self improvement. I certainly came away with a refreshed perspective on many areas of my life. Thanks Blair, and to all the Sales Dogs team members who put this together.