Messages to be left with existing buyers who suddenly “go dark,” in increasing order of severity:

• I know you’re very busy, this will take only a few minutes.
• You may have missed or inadvertently erased my last message, so pardon me for repeating it here.
• If there’s some family or personal issue preventing your response, can you have your assistant inform me?
• Can it be that your priorities have changed since you and I thought this was top priority and agreed to work together on resolving it?
• I’m thinking you may not appreciate the seriousness of the need for a decision from you immediately.
• The project is in jeopardy of being irretrievably unsuccessful if you do not participate immediately.
• The project is now beyond my power to further, and my time here is limited by the completion date agreed upon in the proposal. Your fees to me will not be refunded and I will depart in two weeks.
• So as to depart on an ethical basis, I’m informing your superior about the failure of this project, my departure, and your consistent refusal to even respond to email and phone calls.
• Listen scuzzball, do you know whom you’re screwing with? I am visiting the curse of Ming the Merciless on you, and the locusts will be descending on your house.

The shoreline in ultra-luxe Nantucket is being battered and beaches in front of multi-million dollar homes are being seriously eroded. Some houses are being moved back from the brink at seven figures in costs. Some have collapsed. Efforts to pipe in sand from elsewhere have been rebuffed.

Daily we hear of wildfires destroying homes, flooding submerging homes, mudslides overwhelming homes. People use their insurance if they have any and it applies (earthquake insurance isn’t an easy purchase in California), rebuild if they can, and try to start over.

All of this, in the face of a clearly changing climate, is contingent action. It’s like praising the sprinkler system even though the fire was dreadful, or being happy the lifejackets kept you afloat as the boat sank. The sprinklers and lifejackets saved lives, but wouldn’t it be more effective to prevent the harm of the fire or the boat sinking?

We need to stop building homes and communities on the peripheries of (or inside) forests and along seacoasts, as examples. Too many people have done this, seen their homes destroyed, rebuilt using insurance money, and then experienced that destruction a second (or third) time. “We’re going to rebuild!” is a nice sign of determination and resilience, but if it’s in the same spot it’s also a sign of intransigence and selfishness. Police, fire, and emergency services lose people every year trying to save others who shouldn’t be where they are.

We need flood-resistant housing, in any case. (There are such things.) We need earthquake-resistant and fire-resistant housing. (There are such things.) I had a client who must remain confidential who is working on self-sustaining homes that recycle everything and actually contribute excess power to the existing grid, making a profit in the process. (There will be such things.)

It’s preventive action that we need to focus on, to start boasting about anticipating and saving, not rebuilding and reconstructing.

Nantucket will eventually look very different. After all, it’s an island in a four-season area of the Atlantic Ocean. It was once a whaling center, from whence its wealth originated, over two centuries ago. But that has changed.

All things do.

Coaching Confidential

Subscribe to my new monthly newsletter, Alan Weiss’s Coaching Confidential™ beginning in September. The charter subscription is only $100 annually. Every issue will have a case study, a humorous or bizarre coaching adventure, and contemporary coaching methodology. You can sign up here:

Maximizing Revenues in Uncertain Economic Times

You can attend in person in Times Square’s W Hotel or obtain the audio recording of the day. Overcome buyers’ claims of “bad timing” and “no budget.” Turn conversations about “lacking staff” and “supply chain issues” into positive initiatives. Create a healthy mix of personal and remote intervention. Turn “wait and see” attitudes into “act and see.” Create intellectual property and models exactly appropriate for these times. Use “disruption and volatility” as offensive weapons. Adapt a new definition of brand-building to your advantage. Engage in and observe role plays and exercises of application.

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.

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.