• I get to the beach at about 8 am when the lifeguards are still getting situated, and watching them run a mile on the sand or swim in the breakers exhausts me.
• While I admire seagulls, on three consecutive days a gull took a nip out of a sandwich I was holding at about chin-level. The third time it knocked the remainder onto the sand. The gull would always come from behind me so I had no warning. Would have made a good fighter pilot: Top Gull.
• There is nothing to bring home the power of nature as getting smacked unawares by a big breaker and tumbling on the bottom, holding your breath.
• Counterintuitively, you escape a rip tide by swimming perpendicular to it (parallel to the beach) and not against it.
• Some traffic jams are simply inexplicable. There are no accidents, no detours, just packs of cars not moving.
• It seems to me that most drivers do not understand the concept of “keep right except to pass.” In Italy, with only two-lane roads, they do this with great discipline. In the US, on four-lane interstates, they do not. Some people are ignorant, some oblivious, and some just pseudo-macho (and otherwise insecure).
• Speed laws are reciprocal in reality. Fewer than ten percent of drivers observe a 60 MPH limit.
• The beaches in Jersey are often so wide that you need a sherpa to carry your stuff to the water’s edge. Why there aren’t college kids charging $20 for a round trip is beyond me.
• The key to a rental house isn’t so much the number of bedrooms as it is the number of bathrooms.
• My very favorite boardwalk game is Whack-A-Mole. (I have a miniature version in my den, about five feet away from this computer.) It’s a great way to work out anything that ails you. Instead of my gavel, I’d like to bring the mole mallet to some meetings I chair.

I’m a pretty good consultant. I realized over the years, that I was starting every project with the same questions, and that they were shortcuts to finding the most likely routes to resolution, and therefore they became part of my unconscious competency.

My expertise is especially strong in problem solving, decision making, and innovation (past, present, and future, not exactly rocket science).

Several years ago, my wife feared a heart problem at about two in the morning and we agreed that the best course of action was to drive her for about ten minutes to an emergency room at Kent County Hospital. The “intake” process was instantaneous, and by the time I had parked the car after leaving her in admissions she was in a bed being seen by nurses. (Impressively, no one visited for over an hour about insurance and payment.)

I was sitting at her bedside for about five minutes when the doctor walked in, introduced himself, and began asking my wife questions without examining her in any way as yet. He was asking “my” questions!

Once he had his information, he consulted with the nurses’ findings, then did a short physical examination of his own, and told us that there was no heart problem, it was merely some aches and pains and indigestion. He arranged for a room for my wife to stay overnight for observation.

I caught him outside and told him about the questions. He asked what I did for a living. After listening, he told me that we are both diagnosticians, we need to gather similar information, and we are both highly effective and fast in gathering it.

Many years ago, I may have been about six, my grandmother asked me what I wanted to be. I told her “a fireman.” I loved the big engines.

“You can’t do that!” she said, “they don’t make much money. You need to be a doctor.”

I hope she’s happy.

Coaching Confidential

Subscribe to my new monthly newsletter, Alan Weiss’s Coaching Confidential™ beginning in September. The charter subscription is only $60 for the year. Every issue will have a case study, a humorous or bizarre coaching adventure, and contemporary coaching methodology. You can sign up here:

Return to Australia

I’ll be making my 19th trip in October, this time to Brisbane, to present a week of unique offerings from passive income and global “reach” to a new strategy approach. Join me and your peers for my latest value to grow your business and decrease your labor facing our “new realities.” There is limited seating capacity. Fees increase on September 1.

Return to London

I’ll be hosting a two-day, high-level discussion of likely business futures globally, financial considerations, global passive income, the new realities of sales, new approaches to strategy, and so forth. There would be a limit of eight people. I’ll also conduct a full-day experience for a larger group, probably a limit of 30, for an entire day which will address new approaches to value based fees, the five essential short-term revenue generators, role playing difficult conversations, the advanced Accelerant Curve, and scaling the practice.

Schedule:
November 29: General Session, 9 to 4.
November 30 and December 1: Intimate Session, 9-4 both days.

Million Dollar Consulting® for the World

I’ve provided 14 modules with videos from me, from your colleagues globally, slides, and text. They include everything from launch to self-esteem, proposals to fees, closing business to creating a brand. No upsells! It’s only $115. What do you think about a 10,000:1 ROI? We have over 500 people from 43 countries.

Beyond Thought Leadership

Six “stars” from my community from five countries will be interviewed by me in this live, 2.5 day experience. I’ll be introducing new IP, case studies, and role-plays. And the final interview will be with me. This is one-time only, it was very difficult to organize, and there’s no one else, anywhere, who can bring this talent together in one place at one time. Limited participation, in Miami in November, register now, this will not occur again.

Miami, November 8-10.

Creating Dynamic Communities

This is the future of our marketing in professional services, evangelism and peer referrals. Over 40 people have begun building their communities through this program. Join me on August 30-31 for two, three-hour Zoom sessions covering every aspect of building, sustaining, and capitalizing on professional communities of buyers and prospects.