エピソード

  • Esteem

    Esteem
    2024/10/03
    Esteem means respect and admiration. Hence, self-esteem would mean respect and admiration for yourself. Self-worth and self-esteem are the same thing to me, whereas self-confidence is your faith (or lack thereof) that you can do something: efficacy. Pride is feeling proud of your accomplishments, but vanity is insisting that others hear about them, as well. The pandemic, foreign wars, polarization, AI, demographic change, and climate change are all contributing to the diminishment of self-esteem. People feel as if they’ve lost control, need too much permission (TSA), and lack power. Pandemic approaches seemed to be more about politics than medicine. And the internet is rife with conspiracies and misinformation. How do we resolve this and reclaim our power and esteem? • Be healthy. Exercise, have a reasonable diet, and get medical checkups. • Love yourself. How can anyone else love you if you can’t love you? • Don’t jump to conclusions and make assumptions. Find the facts. • Don’t fret. Find ways to take action. • Talk positively about yourself, don’t speak about your “struggles” or “fears.” • Isolate negatives and generalize positives. • Create a sounding board, a support system, and enlist trusted others. • Recognize that if the cause is emotionally deep and traumatic, you probably need therapeutic help. • Journal your accomplishments and successes. • Practice a morning/evening ritual. Be honest about your successes, that’s not boasting. But if you don’t recognize the talents and abilities that led to your successes, you’ll always feel like an imposter.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    8 分
  • Small Business, Small Minds

    Small Business, Small Minds
    2024/09/26
    The rate of failures of small businesses is astounding: 20% fail during the first two years, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first ten years. While there are myriad reasons, such as succeeding generations of ownership not being as motivated or competent, most of these fail under the original founders and owners. That’s because they tend to think of their business and tasks and not the customer’s happiness and results. In this episode, I discuss the 20 or so common mistakes and oversights that contribute to the problems. For example, most owners don’t sufficiently shop their own businesses, hire “bodies” instead of talented people, and view customers as an impediment to doing business the way they’d prefer! Instead of passing on every possible cost to the customer, client, or patient, small businesses should be passing on every possible value and benefit. They should make it easy for the buyer to buy. I’ve come to believe “Someone will be right with you” about as much as I believe “This call may be recorded for quality control purposes.” Just because you own a small business doesn’t mean you can get by with a small mind.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    11 分
  • Credibility with a Buyer

    Credibility with a Buyer
    2024/09/19
    Some suggestions to build credibility with a buyer during the initial meeting. (This assumes you’re meeting with a true economic buyer who controls the budget.) 1. Assume a peer mentality. Don’t allow yourself to be cast in a “dog and pony show.” (I suggest you never show up with visual aids for this very reason.) Adapt an attitude that the two of you are peers mutually exploring a working relationship. Either of you might accept or reject it. 2. Be patient. Don’t barge into silence and state, “Let me tell you about myself.” You’re not there, believe it or not, to get a sale. You’re there to develop a relationship. That might require several meetings. 3. Use provocative questions to get the buyer to talk about him- or herself, or at least the company. Show an interest in the buyer and the business. 4. Do your homework. Learn the current stock price, the company history, the major competition, and the primary markets served. Become conversant in the client’s business environment before you meet the buyer. 5. Push back. Choose your spots to disagree with the buyer. At least offer alternative viewpoints. Relationships are based on honesty and candor. 6. Offer immediate value. Demonstrate some techniques or approaches that might be applicable. Don’t wallow in theory, and do not focus on your exceptional credentials. Instead, provide help. 7. Embrace the buyer. Use “we” and “us.” Orient your conversation around how the two of you would partner, not what “you” would do to “them.” Encourage the buyer to think about the two of you working in concert. 8. Focus on business outcomes. Spend as little time as possible on alternatives and input (e.g., training, surveys, retreats, audits), and emphasize results (e.g., market share, improved teamwork, higher profits). 9. Ensure that your image is professional. Dress well, even in a business casual environment. (Expensive casual clothes are indicative of successful people.) Make sure your grooming is appropriate. Use the language perfectly. 10. Take the initiative. Ask about and reaffirm the meeting time frame and the agenda. Suggest next steps. Summarize what you’ve heard. Act like someone accustomed to working with high-level people. You won’t close every deal or charm every buyer, but at least ensure that it’s not because you’re your own worst enemy.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    12 分
  • Civics Lesson

    Civics Lesson
    2024/09/12
    There are 330 million people in the US that we know of. There are 12,500 school districts, 18,000 police departments, 17,000 libraries, 400 different languages spoken, 45,000 flights per day, 5 million privately and commercially owned vehicles, 200,000 dentists, and 641 amusement parks. There are nation-states (Japan, Korea), multi-state nations (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait), and multi-nation states (US, UK). The US is probably the most pluralistic and diverse nation on the planet, especially in these numbers. Comparing us to Denmark, Thailand, or New Zealand is plain silly. I'm not disparaging those nations; I've been to them and another 60 besides, and like almost all of them (apparently, I'm alone in finding Iceland totally boring and Brazil scary). It's like saying if a hybrid Kia can get 60 miles to the gallon, why can't a Ford pickup? Well, because they're entirely different vehicles with different appeals and purposes. I pointed out to a client in Denmark while arguing these points that there are no lines of people at Denmark's borders seeking entry and citizenship. "Well, you're right about that," he said, "and if there were, we wouldn't let them in." There's a lot of room for improvement in the US, and, in all fairness, there's been a lot of improvement, and people are better off than they think they are because they haven't been to 60 other countries (and, in many cases, even one) and they're drowned in bad news by media that reports calamity where none exists and refrains from reporting good news as if that's the calamity. By the way, there are 2,700 commercial news channels in the US, and I'm not sure that's a good category to be leading (we're 4th, after Russia, China, and the EU).
    続きを読む 一部表示
    7 分
  • Sermons

    Sermons
    2024/09/05
    This is a marketing lesson for the Catholic Church. I’m a lector and a Eucharistic Minister in the Church and converted 18 years ago. As some of you know, I’ve also spent a great deal of my coaching and consulting career in the field of strategy and have written two commercially published books on the topic. The average age in the church my wife and I attend is north of 60. Young people are not drawn to the church in the numbers of old, and as the population ages, it also diminishes. Churches are closing and being combined because there aren’t enough priests to go around. They, too, are aging as young men aren’t becoming seminarians in large numbers. Strategically, the Church needs to permit women and married men to become priests, as is the case in many other religions. This would provide not only more people, but more diversity: female points of view (Mary is important only second to Jesus in the Church and many people feel they’re equal), and priests experienced in marriage, raising children, and intimate matters. Tactically, the Church needs to equip existing and future priests with the ability to deliver pragmatic sermons which reflect how Christianity is to be lived daily, not just one day a week for an hour within certain edifices. (And even then, I often don’t get a break trying to get out of the parking lot.) I have heard, nationally and internationally, some brilliant sermons delivered by priests, bishops, and cardinals. But too often, the sermon is existential and philosophical, not something parishioners can take with them back home or to work. Too many priests read their sermons, which are horrible and not very heartfelt. And often, what they’re reading are their notes from when they first gave that sermon 40 years ago. The church needs to be audience-centered, not clergy-centered, and priests (as well as lectors) need to be instructed in professional speaking skills. (This is why the mega-churches always have highly skilled homilists, by the way). And there’s also humor to be found. St. Augustine said, “Lord, please make me a good man. But not too soon!” Church is community. The community deserves more than a shepherd; it deserves a diverse clergy whose messages can be applied to improve lives immediately, delivered in powerful and effective ways. So help me God.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    5 分
  • The Wealth We Ignore

    The Wealth We Ignore
    2024/08/29
    The agenda of inequality and wealth focused only on the richest might not reconcile with reality. There have been increases in home ownership (even though buying always has its difficulties, from interest rates to inventory). There is a record of intergenerational wealth transfer from retirement savings and the Regan-era IRA legislation. In the West, family prosperity is higher than ever: assets, cash in banks, pension funds, etc. Daniel Waldenström's book Richer and More Equal makes a case that the West is richer and has less inequality than in the past. US wealth concentration is higher than in Europe but is lower than before WWII. Major improvements that lower wealth concentration have been pension/retirement funds and home ownership. Wealth improvement leads to successful business ventures, hiring, and investment, and the most net, new jobs. We are not there yet. Many inequities remain. Capitalism does a fine job generating wealth but not distributing it. It is an ethical and societal responsibility to help others who cannot generate wealth and/or who are denied the opportunity. One reason that we don't appreciate our well-being is that the media prefers to trumpet inequities and problems rather than progress and improvement. Another is that not every grievance expressed is legitimate because the loudest voices often are pursuing very private and personal interests. This podcast was stimulated by an article called The Great Wealth Wave by Daniel Waldenström, a professor of economics at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics in Stockholm. It was published in Aeon.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    7 分
  • Just Tell Me What I Want to Know

    Just Tell Me What I Want to Know
    2024/08/22
    Just tell me what I want to know. People instead tell you everything that they know. College professors are reading their dissertation notes. Electricians are telling you about high and low voltage, amps, and watts. The tree guy tells you about diseases of poplars when you asked if he could prune some dead branches on an oak. The auto guy explains why a repair isn’t as easy as it looks because of the wiring, which is different from last year’s, which is subject to weather conditions…. On the other hand, there are some benefits. Keeping someone talking at a bar and not having to talk back. Feigning interest in someone’s work by asking a question every five minutes. But it doesn’t work with politicians because they put no stakes in the ground. The phrase “How Are You?” isn’t actually a legitimate question because the asker is not seeking an answer but merely providing the secret handshake. Catholic Confession can be burdensome when you confess to impure thoughts, and the priest’s reply is, “Let’s begin with Adam and Eve.” Of course, some answers are too brief. “Can I plug this in here?” Answer “yes,” but it doesn’t include “if you turn the power off, first.” General Anthony McAuliffe’s response to being asked to surrender around Christmas 1944 by the overwhelming German force facing him was “Nuts!” His forces held out and were rescued. I often go ask a question with a phone to my ear, ask out loud, “Can you hold on a minute while I ask a question?” ask my question, and then go back to my call. Of course, that didn’t work out too well in the Confessional.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    9 分
  • For Crying Out Loud

    For Crying Out Loud
    2024/08/15
    Even in truly tough times and horrible market segments, there are winners and strong companies. You have to play the hand you’re dealt, and you have to play it well. If anything is happening to you more than two times out of ten, it’s you, not them. With high interest rates, houses are still being sold. With food being expensive, people are still dining out. But you can’t expect yesterday’s ideas to thrill people about tomorrow. Nor can you tap dance on hot coals, in sweat tents, or with rah-rah speakers. You have to show people that you have ideas for tomorrow, anticipating change, not answers to past problems. Don’t create false narratives that drive your approaches, e.g., “I can help you cut expenses” or “We need to lower our expectations.” Don’t allow your prospects’ fear to scare you or infect your thinking. The Titanic was a bad idea: mistaken design, insufficient lifeboats, and a poor route. FedEx was a great idea: postal service weakness, hub and spoke, “guarantees.” We are accountable. Not the fates or the winds or the tides or technology or society. Endure the brief pain of trying new approaches and innovating, or you’ll face the long-term pain of inevitable decline.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    4 分