by Paul Quinn | Jul 22, 2026 | Asking - Empowerment, Asking - Relationships, Personal Development
If a child is emotionally shamed or physically punished for asking for what they want or need, is it any wonder they’ll have trouble asking as adults? We like to think a difficult childhood is “in the past.” But without therapy—or a commitment to...
by Paul Quinn | Jun 19, 2026 | Asking - Business, Asking - Empowerment, Asking - Entrepreneurs, Asking - Opportunities, Asking - Professional Development, Asking - Relationships
What happens when we trust our intuition and, despite obstacles, keep pursuing what it calls us to do? In my conversation with entrepreneur Sterling Lentz we explore that question—and the one “big ask” that carried him 8,000 miles from home. Sterling is...
by Paul Quinn | May 21, 2026 | Asking - Business, Asking - Empowerment, Asking - Professional Development, Asking - Workplace, Personal Development
Arriving in Denver one spring day, I wheeled my suitcase to the cabstand. The fare to my hotel, I learned, would be $70, so I opted to save $30 and take a multi-passenger van instead, the kind that stops at each passenger’s hotel. A purely frugal decision,...
by Paul Quinn | Apr 9, 2026 | Asking - Business, Asking - Empowerment, Communication Skills, Presentation Skills
There are reasonable creative projects … and then there are the ones that grow ten times their size and cause their cowering creators to ask, “What have we wrought?!” The Big Ask audiobook began with the innocent question: “Hey – what if...
by Paul Quinn | Nov 22, 2024 | Asking - Consumer, Asking - Empowerment, Handling Conflicts, Human Behavior
This is a post about asking that begins, for the sake of analogy, with a seemingly unrelated topic: Crosswalks (bear with me!). Imagine you’re walking in a crosswalk. At the halfway point, you see a driver waiting for you to cross so they can turn. Even though you...
by Paul Quinn | Oct 31, 2024 | Asking - Empowerment, Personal Development
In a famous 1996 study at the University of Chicago, three randomly selected groups were tested on how many basketball free throws they could make. The researcher, Dr. Biasiotto, recorded the results and then instructed the first group to practice shooting free throws...
