Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 01/29/2024
A woman wrote me on Linkedin, very politely, and told me that she had followed my work for several years and was very impressed. However, in visiting my site, she found that “people in a position of power were consistently male, rarely female.” She told me that, as a woman, she’d want to know more about what I offered specifically for a woman’s needs, and would want to see more role models.
I told her that the empirical facts were that my community (people with whom I interact in person or remotely—there’s no way I can know about my readership) skews about 60% female, including paying clients. Not one of them has ever made the observation that this person has, and since they’re in my community I’m assuming that they don’t share her feelings. I explained that I try to help every person become excellent and my experience was that the route was not gender-related. It was one highway.
She told me that we’d just have to respectfully disagree, but I told her that she needed a more positive purpose in life than counting pronouns or photos or art work by gender. Seeking to uncover what someone has failed to do in terms of her own measuring devices is not a positive pursuit, not a contribution to helping others. No one is building statues for critics.
This is what we’ve come to, because she’s not alone. We’re insisting on representation by identity, and not success through talent and achievement. Early in my career I was asked to speak at a Boston Women’s Executive Marketing Association, with female executives and entrepreneurs. I asked the executive director why she had reached out to me since so many such groups were seeking “proper role models.”
“You are the damn role model,” she said, “so just show us what we can be doing better to be more effective and successful.”
I don’t care what gender my ski coach is, but I do care about whether that person can ski well and teach well.
I walked off a stage once to the normal line of people waiting to talk to me. The fourth person in line was a woman who told me that my examples and language were “neutral” and it was impressive that I was able to do that so consistently. The seventh person in line was a woman who told me that I consistently cut women’s responses off while allowing men to complete their questions, and that I laughed at men’s jokes but not women’s. These were two people at the exact same speech talking to me ten minutes apart. I didn’t place great credence in either one. They were laboring to find what they wanted to find.
When I took over the ballet up here, granting agencies were giving us a hard time because the board wasn’t “diverse enough” (we had 12 white women and two white men—I changed that considerably within a year). But I said to the agency directors, “Come look at our audiences, they are the most diverse on any of the arts productions in the state. Isn’t THAT the point?”
Some people don’t get the point until you drop a rock on their heads.
Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them. —Margaret Heffernan
It’s very dangerous for a storyteller to walk into a situation with a political agenda because you end up telling a story about issues instead of telling a story about people. —Peter Landesman
In the private sector, as the president of a small business, my focus has been on driving the growth of our business, not driving any partisan political agenda. —Raja Krishnamoorthi
Just Created: Using Contemporary Events to Generate Uniqueness and Extreme Value to Buyers
One day I was forced by my buyer at a St. Louis hospital to attend a board reception before my speech. I simply could not get out of it, so I began to “mingle.” I met a man who owned the largest trucking firm in Missouri and the eighth largest in the nation. I said to him, “How does the bankruptcy of Consolidate Freight affect you?” (I had read that in the Wall Street Journal on the plane.) He spoke for 15 minutes and asked if we could talk again later. He became a client.
Are you aware that supply chains are being “shrunk” in order to be less dependent on foreign sources and intervention? Do you appreciate the fact that use of telehealth has increased by a factor of 38 since the pandemic and is expected to grow almost 25% annually from its current $100 billion in revenues? There are 32 million small businesses in the US, small businesses comprise 99.9% of all global businesses, and 50% of all of them fail in the first five years due to clearly preventable factors.
Two bad service experiences prompt about half of your customers to quit the brand.
This will run on March 4 at 10:30 US eastern time, on Zoom, and will be recorded for distribution later. My birthday is the prior day, Sunday, March 3, and so your gift to me is $900. Includes recording Bring your own coffee. https://alanweiss.com/
NEW: The Maximally Productive Week: God didn’t rest enough—He rushed things in six days You arise Monday morning with great energy and vision to accomplish a vast amount of things. You take a deep breath, shut your eyes…..and it’s Friday afternoon and you haven’t done a damn thing. The week has been absorbed with unexpected requests, failure work, presumed “opportunities” that didn’t pan out, family issues, writer’s block, and the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse: guilt, fear, stress, and obligation.
Join me for 90 minutes which will change your life view and expand your business results immediately:
- Learn the techniques for setting priority amid tumult in the No Normal®
- Master methods to create “instant IP”
- Move from “to do” lists to “results” lists
- Drop the unimportant without guilt or shame
- Adopt Alan’s rare self-disciplinary approaches
- Enlarge meaningful discretiona
ry time
January 30, 10:30 US Eastern Fee: $695 https://alanweiss.com/growth-
NEW: Alan’s five keys to guaranteed consulting success for the next two years It’s not easy being green, but it IS easy pulling down the green if you know where to look
There are huge opportunities created by the turmoil of our times, the No Normal®. I call these the “New Realities.” But how do you know which are best for you? Is your expertise sufficient? Should you develop additional expertise? Are you in the right market? Do you possess the correct resources? We are moving toward a society and business culture where competence will trump credentials and results will rule. Sample key: Key #1: Transitioning is vital to survival.
Join me on February 13, 10:30 US Eastern $450 https://alanweiss.com/st
If you join both of the above you can do so for $1,000 in total, over a 12% savings: https://alanweiss.com
Master Master Class III The first two were sold out, hence this third one, with all new material, past “grads” are welcome back. Maximum 12 people. Learn and apply key marketing and creative techniques to reduce your labor and improve your profits. This is a live program but you may attend remotely, as well. This will be in Newport, RI March 19-21. The fee is $6,000, $5,000 for past attendees. Breakfast, lunch and favorable room rates are included. https://alanweiss.co
