Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Why Follow-Up is Important

Back in early January I had lunch with an executive who expressed some interest in obtaining details about Corporate Donors through The Prospector .

I sent an email immediately after our lunch meeting.

In February I left a voice mail, then followed up with another email.

Yesterday I sent a third email “I have updated my pages since last time we spoke. http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Prospector/ Look for the line "Are you interested in Corporate Donors for your charitable organization?" and click on the link.”

Sigh!

This morning a response “Hi Chris, I spoke briefly with our Sr. Director, Advancement, I***** A*****, about your product and have left the follow up to her, since it is quite a distance away from my new area of responsibility. Thanks”.

So Where Am I Now?

Not as far along the road as I had hoped to be with my first contact, who appears to have moved back into the training sphere.

But I have an extra contact.

I now have two contacts in the firm – one for Training (which I deliver) and one for Marketing (which I deliver as a service).

That’s Good, Isn’t it?

And it arises because I am tenacious and follow-up, month by month, with suggestions.

Talk to Me !

Monday, May 30, 2011

Hoist with His Own Petard

It is always this sweet!

I have a good colleague who continually pesters me about how I do free work.

“Chris, ya gotta CHARGE for doing things for people, even if they ARE your friends”.

To make it worse, twenty years ago I once snapped at him “Time is Money”, and he’s been on to my case about it ever since.

Well, what goes around comes back, or whatever that expression is.

Today he called for help with Excel charts, especially generating Charts in Excel.

Heh heh!

He says he’ll phone me back.

We’ll see.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Get in on the Ground Floor

I chatted recently with a member of a Rotary club. I have no reason to suspect that the conversation would have been different had I been chatting with a member of Lions , Kiwanis , or any other business leader’s service club.

If you have reached the age of 35 and have kept your eyes open while driving around the {name of your country here} you’ll be aware that every small town has signs on the outskirts advising of the regular dates and times of service meetings.

Great Organizations

I almost joined Rotary 10 years ago, but shied away from their excellent requirement that I should aim to attend 52 meetings each year; I felt I could not do that at the time, and that it would be wrong of me to pretend that I could.

Rotary’s web site says in part “If members miss a meeting of their own club, they’re encouraged to expand their Rotary horizons by attending a meeting of any other Rotary club in the world.”.

During our chat my colleague mentioned that his local group was aged; the average age of members was quite high, and I reflect that service clubs like Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis must be prepared for this as the years go by.

My generation needed a place to network with other business leaders in the community.

Today’s Generation

Today’s generation get their satisfaction from social networking 24 hours a day, with occasional spontaneous face-to-face meetings.

I can understand and accept that email and other social networking tools reduce the need for face-to-face meetings.

That’s sad for Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis, because they have been the backbone of society for about a hundred years.

The service clubs, of course, are hungry and getting hungrier for new members.

What this Means

That means that if you show up in a suit you’ll be welcomed more enthusiastically than ever before.

And you’ll have a greater-than-ever chance to accelerate your status in the local business community.

The fact that you’ll be welcome in thousands of business communities around the world is icing on the cake.

Talk to Me !

Friday, May 27, 2011

Tweet Tips

I have been twittering for about 4 months now, still finding my way about.

I want my tweets to be regular but low volume, perhaps two per day, at most, and I’m tied to my computer fir tweeting.

I have learned to not-follow people whose tweets flood out my screen.

I have learned to recognize twitter-spam – why would someone with 21,000 followers follow ME?

And I have realized that I can include many streams in my Tweets.

I hit on the intellectual challenge of trying to emit all my training in tweets – 140 characters or less, and given the broad range of material I own, that’s quite a challenge.

To test the waters I built a Microsoft Word document with a table 140 characters wide.

I set the font to be a fixed-width font – Courier – and made myself a ruler in the top row.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! 140Tips.png

You can see where I typed in 10 digits then pasted it 13 times to yield a 140-character ruler.

Below it I typed or pasted in about 40 initial tweets, not one of which exceeds the row length (There is no line overflow within a row). I like to have a set of items in the pipeline; it inhibits stress and pressure.

I have a scheduled date on the left-hand side – Monday, Wednesday & Friday – and a published date on the right-hand side.

And away I go!

In writing this up I realize that I should have a link to my web site and /or my blog.

I’d better get started on that this evening …

P.S. I later reduced my ruler to 111 characters, restricting my text tweet to 111 characters means I have enough space left over to append 29 characters www.ChrisGreaves.com/WinTips to each tweet.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, May 26, 2011

One Small Step



  • Sales are made through relationships
  • Relationships are built meeting by meeting.
  • Meetings are built conversation by conversation.
  • Conversations are built sentence by sentence.

And so on

Three weeks ago I called Gordon. We chatted for ten minutes and I sent an email with a suggestion for co-operative marketing.

A week later I called with a follow-up, but got voice-mail, so I left a message.

This morning Gordon called me back; he is up to his armpits in tax-year stuff, can we talk once the April 30 deadline is gone?

Sure

I offered to re-send the email in the first week of May (as a service to him so he doesn’t have to locate it). Also as a bonus to me – in early May he’ll get an email from me AND then a phone call; I’ll nudge him twice!

Naturally I’m disappointed that this morning he didn’t endorse my idea and transfer cash to my bank account.

But that little frisson of disappointment is basking in the glow of knowing that Gordon and I are building a good mental picture of each other – I think of him as someone who returns phone calls, does have valid reasons for the delay, does offer to schedule a chat – and he sees me (I trust) as someone with ideas, someone who is flexible and graceful, and who can provide a service to others, even in the matter of rescheduling conversations.

Relationships, like houses, are built one brick at a time.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Small is Beautiful

For amusement I read John Grisham stories, and often enough he describes courtroom or boardroom scenes with the head honcho billing $300/hour and two or three associates billing $150/hour each; they are also billing the reams, literally, of paper charged out to the client. Bulk is money, say the lawyers.

But the most earth-shattering ideas are succinct enough to make my lips purse.

Case 1: Watson & Crick’s famous paper on DNA.

Watson JD, Crick FH (April 1953). "Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid" (PDF). Nature 171 (4356): 737–738

Check it out. It fits onto a single sheet of A4 paper (“Letter” in the US) and changed the face of Biology. It didn’t derail Darwin; it reinforced his ideas and showed them to be ahead of his time.

Case 2: Edsger W.Dijkstra’s “ A Case against the GO TO Statement

It fits easily onto two pages, but I’ve seen condensation that fit on one.

I’ll augment this blog post with other examples as they come to my mind.

Talk to Me !

Monday, May 23, 2011

Mill Stone or Mile Stone?




There’s not a great deal of difference in the spelling. Typically this would slip right through any spell-checker and embarrass me.

And yet this morning I had reason to look back over the past week, and in particular events of yesterday.

One particular part of yesterday was a milestone; something I can brag about for years to come.

Another part of yesterday is so embarrassing that I’ll cringe each time I think of it.

The two events diametrically opposed in terms of the publicity I’d like.

And yet, if I focus on achieving the milestones, and take some time to avoid the mill stones, life can only go on getting better.

Talk to Me!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Telecottages

I met this word for the first time today in The Telegraph . Of course I Googled it and got 27,600 results on 0.19 seconds, so it’s probably only been around for seven minutes.

“I should expect companies rapidly to adopt distance working practices like teleconferencing and small communities to build suitably sized local offices (telecottages) for those of us who find it hard to work from home.”

I like working from home, but I also like working in the company of other people.

I know (but have never used) of the shared-office concept, where one rents a room for a fixed schedule each week and shares a receptionist/secretary, or just uses the facilities as a mail-drop and boardroom.

I know (but have never used) the other extreme of working at that long table in the public library or that cheap table in the coffee shop.

I’m thinking of an alternative of setting up a spare room or corner in one’s own abode where solo entrepreneurs can come to sit and work quietly, or (at a mutually convenient time) indulge in conversation.

I have a spare bedroom with a table, chair and cable to my router.

I have a friend and colleague who stays overnight occasionally and/or uses the room as an office.

Now I wonder how it would be if I offered it as a retreat or facility where people could

(1) Book a specific time each week to come and quietly work through their business finances, sort dockets, issue invoices, chase overdue accounts and do data-entry.

(2) Stare at the leafy trees outside the balcony and jot down creative thoughts for a new approach, with paper on pencil.

(3) Avail themselves of coffee, tea and home-made cookies at scheduled tea-breaks (10:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m.) and possibly share a light lunch.

(4) Get that project wrapped up and tested on a different machine, or in isolation from the regular land-line. As deadlines approach it would be as if they were working-on-site for another client, but are secretly bunkered down in my place.

I wonder how many of us have a spare corner somewhere that we could weave into our network?

Talk to Me !

Friday, May 20, 2011

What Shall we do with the Pile of Business Cards?

Two weeks ago I sat down with a pile of business cards collected over the years. The stack was about three inches high.

By tossing out the car-dealers and folks who make up flower baskets for corporate events, I managed to reduce the stack to about an inch.

I have half an inch left to process.

The Strategy is Straightforward: Tell The Truth

The tactic is just as simple: I pick up the phone and call them. I tell them that I have their business card but am struggling to know why. Honestly. We must have met at some event, but I have no written note on the back of the card to tell me why.

Usually we sniff each other and tumble to the why and wherefore.

In one case I’d written “Bluish Jacket” and got away with that by saying “I must have thought it was a lovely shade of blue for me to note it down on the back of your card”, which made her bush and giggle a bit.

Today I phoned Joel; same spiel, honestly, I don’t know where we met. He doesn’t know what AIC stands for; I haven’t attended an event in Ottawa for over 10 years …

Finally He Said “Let’s Connect on LinkedIn”

“Well I don’t want to waste your time”, I hesitated.

“No”, he said. “There is a reason you picked up my card”.

“I see this as an opportunity”.

I feel blessed to know Joel, and I haven’t even connected on LinkedIn yet.

I’ll do it right now.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, May 19, 2011

When is Free Not Free?

A few weeks ago I found myself staring at an online survey hosted by OfficeTeam .

“Take the FREE survey now” it said.

I clicked the button.

I clicked the next button (“Start Survey”)

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! FreeIsNotFree.png

Whoa!

How does my first name or last name affect my color?

And I didn’t choose my email address, it was foisted on me by the administrative staff at www.Grab_GrabMore_And_GrabAll.com .

My telephone number? I live in Oakville and work in Oshawa. Which number affects my color?

This is NOT FREE.

It is a personal data grab.

Really.

If you want my personal data, you have to earn it.

First let’s run the survey.

Then you get to ask ‘Want to know more about us” and I’ll consider adding my name to your mailing list.

But not my name and postal address.

Yet.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Know When to Pick up the Phone

This post’s inspiration comes from another great Staples Blog .

25 years ago I worked at/for I.P. Sharp Associates, pioneers of global email systems, amongst other things.

The team on which I worked had about a dozen members, sitting in about 8 rooms, all within 30 seconds walk of the boardroom.

Projects dragged on for months because consensus was by email.

And since people did not then (and do not now) respond to email the instant it arrives, consensus took time.

The worst case I recall arose when someone discovered “enclosed arrays” and started using them, then passed on the rudimentary skill by email. An email discussion arose, with bugs, problems, novice acts and the whole range of ills that spread like a virus through a team of programmers.

I believed then, and I believe now, that much time and effort would have been saved has the team leader called a 15-minute standing-only meeting in the nearby board room.

Conversation would have taken place in real time with the benefit of a board room.

Instead six months later the debate was still in motion.

It is true today (a quarter century is a long time in computing technology!).

PICK UP THE PHONE if you want a discussion or a dialogue.

Use email to inform.

Want to decide where and when to meet for lunch? Phone and nut out the details. Then send an email confirmation so that you can be sure you are both reading from the same page.

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

How to Save Time with Hotkeys, Macros and Gestures

WinHotKey

Another great article from itbusiness.ca , but, of course, you are wondering whether you can trust the little application “ WinHotKey0.70.exe ”.

Well, I don’t know either, but I’ve stuck my neck out and installed it because I am always on the lookout for ways to remove the boring and repetitive tasks of my life.

It Works!

I currently have it assigned to opening common documents for me. The names of the documents may mean nothing to you, but the list should give you an idea that I am, as usual, following the 95/5 rule.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! WinHotKeys.png

On the left-hand side of my keyboard, the Windows, Ctrl and Shift keys sit together so they are easy for me to tap with fingers of my left hand. The index finger of my right hand stabs out the mnemonic letter of the document.

A Great Timesaver!

AutoHotkey

Thus emboldened I set off to explore AutoHotkey104805_Install.exe.

It’s early days yet, so I’ll probably issue a short Technical paper on this more complex application.

In the meantime I am pleased to report that the following little script works!

; Chris Greaves pasted then edited the following line:-

#space::Run www.ChrisGreaves.com

The Windows key and the Space bar launches Firefox 3.6.15 and opens up my home page.

Neat!

Talk to Me !

Monday, May 16, 2011

The Top 3 of 55 Secrets to Master the Software Apps You Use Everyday

At Great Personal Expense™ I read through all 55 secrets – not secretes any more because they are published on the web! – and have distilled from them 3 which ought to satisfy any busy entrepreneur who needs more time:

(1) Change Windows Explorer's default folder:

Tired of clicking through Windows Explorer to find the one folder you use regularly? You can save precious time and mouse clicks by making Windows Explorer open your favorite folder by default. Right-click the Explorer icon in your taskbar, and then right-click Windows Explorer and select Properties. In the Target field, add a space and a file path at the end of the ‘%windir%\explorer.exe' section, so that the new (longer) path looks like this: ‘%windir%\explorer.exe C:\Users\yourusername\yourfolder'.

I’d go one better, and create (at most) a half-dozen shortcuts, one for each major project.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! Top55Secrets.png

Here’s a screenshot of the (right-click then ) Properties box for one of my shortcuts.

(2) Restore your Quick Launch bar:

Windows 7 added a lot of neat features to the taskbar, but in the process it got rid of the Quick Launch bar. Fortunately, bringing Quick Launch back is fairly easy. Right-click the taskbar and uncheck Lock the taskbar; then right-click the taskbar again and choose New toolbar. Type %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch into the file path, and then click the arrow button on the right to navigate to that folder. Quick Launch will be back in action.

I’d go further and use the old 95%/5% rule (95% of the time we are using 5% of our applications). Settle on a number – a dozen is good enough – and drop your top twelve most-frequently launched applications onto the Quick Launch bar.

Stop wasting time loading programs by following the rule “Never Close, Never Minimize”, and use Alt-Tab instead.

(3) Track time with Notepad:

Type .LOG (in all-capital letters) on the first line of a Notepad document, and Notepad will automatically stamp the current date and time in the doc every time you open it--handy for logging events or notes.

I liked this so much when I met it 15 years ago that I turned it into a billing application, which YOU can download for FREE from my web site.

When the phone rings, I click the Quick Launch icon BEFORE I pick up the phone; that way the start of the conversation is logged. If it is a long conversation, I tap the F5 function key when we are done. Now nobody gets away with a 2-minute chat that consumed 35 minutes of my precious time.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Why You Need a Proof-Reader for a Friend

The recent press release on Canada News Wire left me confused.

“Véronique Cloutier, Éric Salvail and Justin Bieber all have something in common: they're helping people rebuild their lives after losing their vision - by donating their sunglasses to CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) for the charity's upcoming Shades of Fun auction on eBay.”

I knew that Justin Bieber was popular (amongst the younger set),

I hadn’t realized that he was blind.

What a guy!

Talk to Me !

When Small is Ugly, When Small is Beautiful

Out driving today, I pulled up at Bloor & West Mall and watched a grandma escort a small boy across Bloor street. The small boy was driving an electric car, a micro-car, the sort that might be OK in the backyard, but I have doubts about the wisdom of a powered vehicle out near real traffic.

Nonetheless, beautiful. I can see the utility of a small electric car towing a small trailer of groceries so that grandma doesn’t have to lug home bags of vegetables.

Later that afternoon waiting to turn left at the intersection of Carlingview and International Boulevard I watched the driver of a large SUV edge up, desperately anxious to squeeze between a car waiting to go straight ahead, and the curb leading to the right, to the highway on-ramp.

Couldn’t make it.

Ugly. Ugly look on the SUV driver’s face. Ugly situation. Should’ve bought a smaller car!

Small businesses are beautiful when adaptability and flexibility are needed; small businesses are lithe and can often weather a minor economic downturn by eating rice, beans and pasta instead of laying off 100% of the workforces (Me!)

But small businesses are ugly when it comes to seeking a bank loan, or when they are too timid to charge a reasonable rate.

My small business can be both beautiful and ugly, depending on my situation, and my outlook.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Setting Goals

I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I’m quoting the CopyBlogger article here:-

1. Can you please define your project? You might imagine a company that’s called in a copywriter has an idea what they want. Much of the time, you would be wrong. They’re hoping you can help them figure out whether their best new piece of content would be a white paper, a revised landing page , or eight blog posts a month. If they can’t figure it out even with your help, try to find a small initial project they’re willing to greenlight to get things moving.

My first question to every client is “What is your Goal?

Note that it has to be THEIR goal, and that it is singular, not plural.

If they start rabbiting on about plural goals, they are really giving you a list of objectives; write them down and then continue probing to see if all the objectives are sub-goals of a larger goal.

If the objectives are unrelated, or form into several groups, then you have a list of objectives that belong (separately) to different goals, that is, you now know that your client has several goals.

Identify the major goal (if this is your first dealing with this new client then you probably should define “major” as “maximize measurable results for minimal measurable effort”) and work on that.

If the client baulks and (with much hand-waving) says that ALL the goals are major, then the goals are themselves sub-goals of a larger goal. Great. You’re in there for the long haul.

Talk to Me !

Get Your Clients to Pig Out on Fast Food

… and put extra cash in your pocket in the process.

Say what you like about McDonalds, they have some pretty bright people in their marketing and sales departments.

I’m assuming that they were the ones to come up with the “Biggy that?” phrase, asking customers if they would like to upgrade a regular order to a larger drink or fries serving.

It’s my guess too that McDonalds sparked the “combo” offer, where three items are packaged into a single-price bundle, usually (but not always) representing a saving on purchasing the individual items separately.

The Toronto Star article “ Combo meals feed our tendency to pig out on fast food ” suggests to me that I could make a bit more money by asking the client if they’d like a combo, instead of the project they have ordered.

You are buying two days training? Would you like to throw in some extra cash and have me install some of my time-saving utilities?

You are buying application development? How about a half-day’s executive training to explain the reasoning behind the design and development?

You want the seven VP workbooks merged? How would it be if I spend half a day with the VPs impressing on them the need for good design from the get-go?

In particular, I like the idea of simplification:-

“People say they like many choices, but in the end if they can eliminate the number of choices, they will do that,” she says. “They take the easy way. They perceive they are getting value.”

Lunch, anyone? It’s on me. The Montreal Deli

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Get Your Clients to Pig Out on Fast Food

… and put extra cash in your pocket in the process.

Say what you like about McDonalds, they have some pretty bright people in their marketing and sales departments.

I’m assuming that they were the ones to come up with the “Biggy that?” phrase, asking customers if they would like to upgrade a regular order to a larger drink or fries serving.

It’s my guess too that McDonalds sparked the “combo” offer, where three items are packaged into a single-price bundle, usually (but not always) representing a saving on purchasing the individual items separately.

The Toronto Star article “ Combo meals feed our tendency to pig out on fast food ” suggests to me that I could make a bit more money by asking the client if they’d like a combo, instead of the project they have ordered.

  • You are buying two days training? Would you like to throw in some extra cash and have me install some of my time-saving utilities?
  • You are buying application development? How about a half-day’s executive training to explain the reasoning behind the design and development?
  • You want the seven VP workbooks merged? How would it be if I spend half a day with the VPs impressing on them the need for good design from the get-go?

In particular, I like the idea of simplification:-

“People say they like many choices, but in the end if they can eliminate the number of choices, they will do that,” she says. “They take the easy way. They perceive they are getting value.”

Lunch, anyone? It’s on me. The Montreal Deli

Talk to Me !

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

1 Easy Tip for Spring Cleaning

It’s spring-time, right? And yes, you figure on setting aside a day to make-new-again (re-nov-ate) your office.

Here’s a tip:

Don’t

Instead, seize on just one item and do something with it.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! SpringCleaning_IMG_5051.JPG

In my stationery closet I see three types of cards – a Christmassy-card, suitable for mailing out at, well, Christmas time, an arty card , suitable for mailing out at other times, and a couple of cartons of promotional cards which didn’t really get off the ground.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! SpringCleaning_IMG_5052.JPG

Hundreds of cards of about ten types.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! SpringCleaning_IMG_5053.JPG

I have taken out about three dozen of each type and laid them in some narrow shelving.

Visit www.ChrisGreaves.com for this image! SpringCleaning_IMG_5054.JPG

ONE type I have placed by my front door.

For the rest of this month I shall take a couple with me whenever I go out.

  • If I end up at The Montreal Deli I shall pin a couple to their notice board.
  • If I end up at a networking meeting I shall leave a couple on the back table.
  • If I am meeting with a prospect, I may hand one over as a parting gift.

But they aren’t doing me any good sitting in my stationary closet, are they?

And You?

What do you have lying around that could be put to good promotional use?

Talk to Me !

Monday, May 9, 2011

Six Career Resolutions

Another great Accountemps press release outlines “Six Career Resolutions and Tips for Keeping Them”.

They are just as applicable to entrepreneurs:

1. 'I want an additional client.' Schedule time each week to revise your web-site, build your LinkedIn profile, research new prospects and set up meetings with business contacts. Reassess these goals monthly, and reward yourself when you meet key milestones.

2. 'I want to build my network.' Join at least one professional association, and attend meetings regularly. Foster your peer-level network by suggesting informal get-togethers in the early-morning.

3. 'I want to enhance my marketability.' Pursue a certification, learn a new software application or take a course to develop your skill set. Consider pursuing a leadership role with an industry or professional association or volunteering with a nonprofit group whose cause you are passionate about.

4. 'I want to improve my business performance.' Meet with your business coach or your accountant to identify areas for improvement. Take on a volunteer project that showcases your new skills.

5. 'I want a change in title.' Call your existing clients and ask them for their impressions of you. How do they describe you to their own colleagues?

6. 'I want to raise my rates.' Research rates in your field—perhaps by having a good friend phone your competitors. Then see how these rates compare with those in your Business Model.

Talk to Me !

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Renewing Your Past Clients

Robert Middleton’s Blog is a good read.

On April 26th he blogged about "Renewing Your Past Clients".

Ho-hum so far – a good post, a read, move on to the next blog . . .

And then this caught my eye:-

5. To make all of this work, you need a solid foundation which includes the following elements: a) A favorable past experience with that client b) (etc.)

If you’ve been in business longer than a year, you will have at least one client-bad-memory. A project that went wrong; a terrible mis-understanding; a falling-out.

How can you recover from that? Especially when the last experience, the most recent-memory is a bitter one.

Robert Middleton makes this point “When you contact them, you are not a stranger to them”.

I went back and reread “A favorable past experience …”

Now . . .

A favorable past experience” is different from “the last experience”, and so this morning I made a list of all the clients for whom I feel inhibitions.

In one column, face the facts, “Why do I feel awkward?”; not a matter of “Who was at fault?”, but just “What event or incident marked the watershed in our relationships?”.

In the second column I tried to remember the very best thing that had happened and that could/would be remembered by my contact.

My reasoning is this:

When I call them, I will be aware that their first unspoken thought might be that negative incident. So BEFORE I call them, I too have that incident to hand.

But what they don’t know is that within 3 seconds of the start of the conversation I will have steered them away from that negative thought to a very positive memory.

It’s an ambush, I guess, and it should work!

Thanks Robert!

Talk to Me!

Friday, May 6, 2011

He was a Terrible Neighbour, . . .

He was a Terrible Neighbour, Does that Mean He Can't Be a Good Lawyer?

A recent Toronto Star article carries a story about a lawyer whose “application to become a lawyer was rejected by the Law Society of Upper Canada when he failed to meet its “good character” requirement because of his aggressive and bizarre conduct as a member of his condo’s board”.

So, asks the Toronto Star, does that mean he can’t be a good lawyer?

My Take on this is “Yes, That’s What it Means”


Lawyers, as we all know, aren’t in it for justice or truth; they are in it to become partner and retire at 45 with a $1,500,000 income from the partnership.

Or as a close friend once told me “Get the meanest, baddest, ball-kickingest gun-slinging lawyer you can find, Chris, because you’re too human to fight dirty, and she isn’t”.

The lawyer or consultant who can’t get on with neighbors or other people on the streetcar isn’t going to get on with clients.

I know that I’m not the most at-ease person in a social situation; I also know that I can bite my lip and pursue social platitudes for a short while, providing I can see an earnest discussion of time-saving tactics in business –computing down the road.

I’d rather have an intense discussion about religion and politics than that milk-sop “what-books-have-you-read stuff any day.

A doctor who cannot put a patient at ease isn’t go to learn the full extent of the patient’s dis-ease.

A lawyer who cannot slide into a client’s mind with ease isn’t going to get very far into a client’s mind

And a consultant who cannot honestly identify with the organizations pain and problems isn’t going to ride side-by-side with the client off into the glorious sunset of their dreams.

Talk to Me !

Thursday, May 5, 2011

When the Booked Conference Call Fails to Materialize




The conference call has been arranged for a week now, and I’m looking forward to it.

I have a great deal of respect for the gentleman, and I want to pitch an idea, not necessarily a sale to him (although I’d be delighted if he’d pick up on it!) as much as to get some feedback along the lines of “yes, this could work” or “no, this really stinks”.

I have exchanged emails with his Administrative Assistant, corrected my faulty impression of his phone number, cleared my desk, spent 5 minutes in deep breathing, got a fresh sheet of paper, a sharp pencil …

… and at 1:00 p.m. I pick up the phone and dial.

Voice-mail

I leave a short message, “it’s one o’clock and you’re probably running a bit late, please give me a call at 416-621-9348”.

Silence

A couple of times the phone rings and I grab it, staring at the Call Display; both times close friends, and they understand when I clear the line quickly.

At 2:15 p.m. I think “What have I got to lose?”, and dial again.

I get straight through and ask for 5 minutes and am told he has 15.

I pitch the idea, he is enthusiastic “Please send me something by email”, and I feel that I am having trouble dis-engaging.

What do I learn?

Something I seem to have learned every day of my life:

  • We are human; mistakes happen; lines get crossed.

Also never fear being forward in establishing contact.

Talk to Me !

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

YouTube – What Took Me so Long?

I am surely the world’s slowest learner.

I’ve had a YouTube video about my 1-click Indexer up on YouTube for about 18 months now (October 5, 2009 06:53 PM). It has received 883 views, maybe a dozen of them mine.

That is Exposure

Yesterday I began making a list of Periodic Tasks – those things I must keep topped up, but distinct from my regular daily tasks.

For example, each month I ought to spend SOME time crating or upgrading LinkedIn, Product upgrade/upload, Home Web page, Home Web post, Podcast, Training item, eLetter, Personal Web page, Personal Web post, Camtasia Video, Technical paper – create or clean, YouTube videos … you get the idea.

YouTube Videos?

Since I already have about two dozen videos posted on my web site , why haven’t I shot them off to YouTube?

Who visits my web site? 300 visits per month, 600 in one good month back in March 2010, but I suspect that might have been me inspecting some updates!

Who visits YouTube? At least 883 people, obviously!

Clincher Number 1: YouTube & Google automatically indexes every submission

Clincher Number 2: YouTube is where people go to find out HowTo do everything. It is where I should post my answers to their questions.

Clincher Number 3: YouTube is forever. Long after I’m gone, people can get frustrated not being able to d/l tools from my web site.

Talk to Me !

P.S. For as long as I remember to update it, here’s a tracking of videos/views

Date

Uploaded

Views

Indexer

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

46

947


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

46

970

896

Thursday, April 28, 2011

46

988

902

Monday, May 02, 2011

47

1,009

914

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

47

1,014

919

P.S. Since drafting this article I came across a HighSpot blog item which reads, in part:

So many search queries are made for YouTube content that it can be considered the #2 search engine in the world . Did you catch that? Apart from Google, there is no other site that users search more often for content.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

This is Disgusting!

26-Jan-89

The record was added to my database; that’s 22 years ago! Over the years I have essayed to get in touch with, in the hopes of getting work from, this prospect.

22 years surely has to be a record.

That’s what “disgusting” refers to – how can I have left this prospect dangling on the vine for so long?

2010/09/22

In mid-September last year, as part of my “blitz” aimed at meeting everyone face to face, I received an email advising that my contact no longer worked there, and with it, the name and extension of the new contact.

I began a new relationship, this one not hampered by “Why doesn’t he give up?”:-

“Great Chris, thank you..... I would like to chat with you sometime next week.”

We chatted by phone, then by a series of emails, during which phase I tried to secure a meeting:-

2010/09/22 Do you teach ACCESS at all? I am curious....as from time to time I have some of our Corporate clients looking for training in this.

2010/09/22 11:10 Roberta, thanks for the email. I have updated my contact database as you suggested. The mailed letter is for a course

2010/10/05 I called her back; Please send her a BIO (training related) and a set of Access topics.

2010/11/25 I left a voice-mail asking for coffee/lunch date

2010/11/29 She is busy these 2 weeks with a new project manager. "How about you give me a call in a couple of weeks".

2010/12/14 They are renegotiating contracts right now. I agreed to call her early in the New Year.

2011/01/05 I issued my Xmas letter

2011/01/14 They hope to start meeting with new facilitators late February. Call her back on the 18th.

2011/01/19 She doesn't have time; It sounds like a non-starter.

2011/04/01 I left a voice-mail suggesting a meeting Tue-Fri next week

Then this morning:-

2011/04/04 I decided to send an email "Hi Roberta. I am free this week and wonder whether you might find time to meet with me some time Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of Friday. * Please let me know what time suits you and I'll drive up to meet you."

Roberta replied:-

2011/04/04 I am available on Wednesday or Thursday

SUCCESS!

I settled on Wednesday.

But look at the record: 22 years of half-hearted efforts to establish contact, mainly by a Christmas card once a year and a phone call every two years. Never a determined effort to meet face-to-face.

Then within the space of 6 months, 12 contacts before I get an appointment.

I Nearly Gave up in January

Let’s see what Wednesday brings.

Talk to Me !

Monday, May 2, 2011

Ideas Pop up Everywhere

So I’m chatting with Cathy Nesbitt of Cathy’s Crawly Composters and she lest drop that she’s heading off to a cold-frame tour at 1Danforth Avenue.

Me being me once we get off the phone I search the web for “1Danforth Avenue” and find myself at this events page .

And what do I see there but “You will be working in pairs, so register with a friend!”. This is a construction workshop, right? Screwdriver, staple gun etc.

And I think to myself, why not use this as a condition for my training courses?

It makes sense to have two people from the same organization in class, because they can encourage each other once they return to work.

And it might even boost my revenues.

After all, it’s how I got into computing in May 1967.

Talk to Me !