By the late 1970s, Journey was pretty much finished. The band had recorded three albums, all of which had been critical successes but market failures. They had managed to sell several hundred thousand albums cumulatively, but in the recording industry at that time, selling one- or two-hundred thousand units per album was pretty much like […]
Archive | Motivation
Your worst customer service scenario
A few years ago, I heard the story of Ronnie who owned his own construction business. Ronnie had accepted a down payment from a client to do some remodeling but had dragged his feet in getting the job completed. The customer had complained several times, but Ronnie always had an excuse as to why the […]
Does your customer service cost you anything?
Sooner or later you’re going to mess up. Everyone does. But what you do about your mistake is the thing that defines you both personally and professionally. I had just walked off the stage and was talking to the association president about the event. He raved about how his group had loved my presentation and […]
Life and Death Leadership
Is tearing up a bird’s nest an act of cruelty or kindness? Last year my wife and I noticed a couple of birds flying up to the dryer exhaust vent above the kitchen window. My wife correctly guessed that they were building a nest so I went outside to check it out. After I came […]
Customer Service for Breakfast
For just a moment, forget about productivity. Forget about making your company more money. Forget getting a better performance review. To me, good customer service isn’t really about any of those things. To me, providing good customer service is about the person that I want to be. Think about the last time you were provided […]
The Power of Vision
As I drove away from Holland, Michigan, I knew I might be in real trouble. I had read about blizzards and seen them on TV plenty of times, but I had never experienced one firsthand. Driving east on I-196, I could see the dim outline of dark shapes punctuating the whiteness on either side of […]
The Cadillac Man’s Christmas Gift
In the early seventies, it seemed almost every kid rode their bike to school. I remember standing in the front of my elementary school staring at the bike rack loaded with well over 100 bicycles of every type imaginable. Some kids were lucky enough to have new bikes with banana seats and monkey handle bars. […]
But Don’t Take My Word For It
I could sit here and tell you about how much fun we have at my events, or I could step away from the microphone and let my clients have their say!
Real Heroes Don’t Wear Spandex
There have been five live-action iterations of Batman in my lifetime. 1] 1960’s Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson pretty much just sat around Wayne Manor all day until they got a call on the red Bat-Phone from Commissioner Gordon. Then they slid down the bat pole and somewhere […]
What if Your Customer Has a Point After All?
Sometime back in the early seventies, I was getting in our family car in a Kmart parking lot when I looked down and found a badly weathered eight-track tape (ask your mom) on the ground next to the car. The tape was in bad shape but closer inspection revealed that it was The Turtles’ Greatest […]