Tag Archives: business thinking

January 15, 2020 · 4:25 pm

Walkin’ The Talk

I spend a lot of time on the telephone these days. I’m constantly calling people who have indicated that they have an interest in changing their lives by investing in a franchise. It’s great most of the time even if it’s frustrating at the same time. The reason for that is something from which any of us in business can learn.

I think that a number of folks are now using some sort of auto-responder on their phones. I will very often dial someone and just as their voicemail kicks in I get a text from them. “I’ll call you back” is pretty common or even the more maddening “I’ll call you back in an hour.” The reality is that I rarely get that callback.

I pride myself on walkin’ the talk. If I tell you that I’m going to do something, I do it. People are trusting me with a lot of sensitive information – their financial situation, their unhappiness with their current work situation in many cases – and I need them to know that I’m worthy of that trust. Keeping commitments is part of building trust. If I tell you that I will call you at 10, you can be quite sure that your phone will ring at 10. That’s what several decades in the TV business do to you – 10 means 10, not 9:58 or 10:02.

Trust is foundational in business. Yes, there are contracts so that everyone knows what the deal is although I probably didn’t pay enough attention to contracts because I always felt that if I could trust the person I was dealing with, contractual issues would tend to take care of themselves. Making a commitment via autoresponder isn’t walkin’ the talk. It’s just talking to get someone off your back. I’m willing to bet most of the folks don’t even know that a text was sent.

I made a resolution this year. I’m not chasing after anyone. They can generate all the texts they want but if they don’t follow through and make the call, I’m done with them. There are lot of foks who are serious about changing their lives for the better and I’m going to be spending my time with them. That’s a commitment and you can bet it’s one I’ll be keeping.

1 Comment

Filed under Franchises, Reality checks, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , ,

December 26, 2019 · 7:00 am

Posts Of The Year – 2019 #4

I hope you all had a great Christmas holiday. It has become a tradition that I use the week between Christmas and New Year to recap the most-read posts that were written this past year. Today is the fourth most-read post. I published it last April 8 after seeing a photo of an old friend’s dad. While I have many great memories of his father, the one I wrote about is probably the most indelible. Enjoy.

My friend posted a picture of his father on social media the other day. Outside of my own father, he was probably the most influential male in my life as I was growing up in many ways. Aside from wondering why he’s aged and I haven’t as I saw the photo (that’s a joke, kids), it made me recall one thing that he did to teach my friend and me to be better baseball players: hitting curveballs.

My friend’s dad was no ordinary dad when it came to imparting that little piece of baseball knowledge either. He had tried out with the Yankees and the family lore is that had my friend’s mom not told him that she would walk on the marriage, he would have been signed and playing in Yankee Stadium. Obviously, when this guy tells you he’s going to teach you about curveballs, you listen.

For those of you that have never stood in against a pitcher with a lively curve, the pitch starts by heading at your head and breaks down and away from you. That’s what my friend’s father threw at us – pitches that started at our heads and broke in over the plate. Of course, once he felt we were getting complacent about standing in against the curve, he’d toss the odd pitch right at our heads to teach us to look for the rotation of the ball and to duck if it wasn’t going to curve. A fastball at your skull gets you focused very quickly!

Almost every player who makes the majors can hit fastballs. It’s the ones who can hit breaking pitches – sliders and curveballs – who become stars. It’s true in business as well. When things are going along according to plan and not diverging from the track they’re on, things are relatively easy to manage. Even if something appears dangerous (like a fastball heading for your ear) it’s relatively easy to get out of the way if you can see where things are heading.

Learning to hit business curveballs is something that you need to do if you’re going to elevate your game. You need to prepare for them by planning and recognizing that they’re going to show up from time to time. Your team needs to be ready, and you need to think about who can handle curveballs as you’re assembling that team.  People who are regimented and can’t deal with it when events start tracking differently are probably not your priority hires.

Mostly, you need to expect things to go wrong. After bailing out and hitting the dirt a couple of times, I realized that some attempted curveballs don’t break even when the rotation makes it look like they’re trying. It’s better to have to wash your uniform than to repair your skull. Your team needs to recognize that bailing out might be the smartest option when things begin to go awry. Watch out for those curves, learn to hit them out of the park, and your team can’t be beaten. Right?

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 18, 2019 · 9:38 am

Looking From The Inside

While you’re busy reading this, I just might be anesthetized. Today’s screed was actually written yesterday while I was preparing for today’s colonoscopy. For those of you under 50 who have yet to enjoy the ride on what my friends and I call “The Silver Stallion”, you’re really not missing much. Anyone who has ever had one will tell you that the prep is worse than the actual procedure. Then again, how could it not be since you’re mostly unconscious during the exam?

The prep involves a day of a liquid-only diet. Clear broth, coffee or tea (NO milk though), sports drinks (nothing red or orange). You get the idea. At some point, you drink some nasty stuff that evacuates your bowels. It’s basically the worst case of diarrhea you can have without a trip to some restaurant with a D health rating.

OK, you get it. So why am I bring this up on a business blog? Well, there are lots of other ways to screen for colon cancer but colonoscopy is by far the best. If you’re over 50 you need to get one and keep getting them every 5-10 years (your doc will tell you how often). The reason it’s so good at detecting a problem is that you’re being examined from the inside out. It’s not looking at symptoms, it’s not guessing. It is a first-hand observation of what’s going on.

That’s something more businesspeople need to keep in mind. Too often we don’t do the first-hand investigation or look directly at what’s going on, preferring to look at data. Sometimes you need to speak to the people who are producing what’s reflected in the data. You need to reach out to customers, partners, suppliers, and employees. You need to get inside the business.

The other thing that goes on during a colonoscopy is that the doctor will remove any polyps that are found. Most of them are benign but can become something that’s problematic. The scope can spot even tiny ones. That’s another advantage of getting inside the business – you can often spot small issues and address them before they become big problems.

Unlike a colonoscopy, getting inside your business isn’t something that can happen every 5-10 years. It needs to occur regularly, with quarterly mini-reviews and annual exams. Like the colonoscopy, prep for that review makes people uncomfortable and unhappy. The good news is that the prep is worse than the exam, and isn’t it nice to know that you’re in good health?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, What's Going On

Tagged as , , , , ,