Episode 103: Maybe He Is Too Heavy
He may be my brother or she may be my sister, but we don’t help out like we once did. Shouldn’t it still be important to act with generosity…
DASM: Value Builders
Spam is stupid enough, particularly from idiots who think they’re marketing experts and who can improve your business. But here’s the dumbest, yet. Their spam post begins, “Hi, first name….”…
Interpreting the Hidden Meaning of Phone Messages (Dumb Ass Stupid Management)
“Please listen to this entire message because our options have changed” is the voice message equivalent of, “DO NOT hit zero or try to reach the operator or anyone else…
What Day Is It?
I ask people as politely as I can not to write me with questions or issues on a weekend or holiday unless it’s an emergency. (I think a consulting “emergency”…
Pitching
Even people who purport to be sophisticated sales professionals or “experts” resort to using “pitch” to describe approaching a prospect. The dreaded—and fictitious—”elevator pitch” is supposed to represent how to…
All the News that (We See) Fit to Print
The way it is these days is that if you’re obtaining your news from only one source you’re not getting news, you’re solely getting opinion. If we want to be…
No Sweat
I coached a man whose issue was nerves. He was an excellent speaker, but he perspired so much for the first ten minutes of his talks that he would only…
Regression to the Mean
There’s a phenomenon called “regression to the mean” in statistics. My layman’s explanation is that something that’s far out of the norm tends to return toward the norm when you…
Glacial Turbulence
We tend to focus on volatility but right now Harley Davidson is in big trouble because its primary demographic has become elderly and physically unable to ride traditional motorcycles (or…
My Response to Automated Call Center Messages
“Due to unusual volume, our response time may be slower than normal.” How can you be slower than a glacier? “This call may be recorded for quality purposes.” When, exactly, does the quality improvement begin?…