Self Employed Tips

It was a day filled with Vision and business strategy for the All City Vistage meeting "Leading with 2020 Vision".  Three excellent speakers  talking about the Customer experience, Competing for the Future and Visionary execution. 

Customer Experience:   I asked our table what single customer experience had they encountered that would demonstrate excellence in Customer service?  Nothing really came up -  4 guys with over 240 years of consuming - and no real specific example or story was told.  However..... many of us had stories of the opposite experiences.  Customer Service nightmares - hate of providers -  never again buyer stories.  Mine were permanently etched in my memory - American Express and Time Warner.

I asked our table to describe what brands they are most loyal (consistent buying over 10 -15 years)  in buying.  This was an easier question and had many answers.  Mine were - Sony, GM, Cincinnati Bell, Allen Edmonds, Microsoft, PNC Bank, Yahoo, Schwab, Sams Club, Verizon and some food brands. While Customer Service/Experience was a large part of this loyalty - the reality is my loyalty to these brands was more about delivering consistent value and addressing any mistakes along the way.

Competing for the Future:  What do Kodak, Blockbuster, Radio Shack have in common? Casualties of the DCX - Digital Customer Experience.  The Baby Boomers grew up in an analog word and the Millennials (Gen Y) have grown up in a digital world.  To compete in the future, companies must start over in the digital world.  Don't attempt to incrementally change business analog processes to into digital copies. 

"It isn't the past which holds us back, it's the future and how we undermine it today" Victor Frankl

Visionary Execution:  Innovation is the magical intersection (and synchrony) of Insight, Idea and Experience.  Advertising and marketing is the tax you pay for a bad idea with little insight and poor execution.  Go to the source - your customer's customer.  Go from B2B to B2C to B2me!    Intelligence is learning from your own mistakes but Wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others.  Wisdom is a gift given from the humility of others. 

Visionary Execution is knowing your "Why".  Start with Insight discussions (before the ideas)  and balancing the 'idea monkeys" with the "ring leaders" during both vision and execution.

  
So how can you apply these three topics in your personal business - your life?

(1) Focus your relationships on consistent delivery (matching expectations with communication) and upon mistakes - recover with asking for forgiveness.
(2)  Be Brave - let the future reinvent your past.
(3) Surround yourself with the wisdom of others. Be vulnerable and let wisdom flow between you and others.

A good day - we are all self employed to do better..

See the Dark

USA Today's section of the Cincinnati Enquirer feature article is titled "6,000 Stars Light up Our 'Dark Sky' Parks".   Hmmmm.......   On my last trip to Kansas, I had just finished listening to the Modern Scholar series "Heavens Above,  Stars, Constellations and the Sky"  by Professor James B. Kaler.  I had remembered him saying that only 2000 stars were visible in our sky.

I had repeated this fact last Thursday evening as A.M. and I were relaxing after a tennis match looking up at a clear night in the stars.   Naturally I was wondering if my memory of details was waning.  Had I passed on inaccurate information. Which figure was correct - 6000 or 2000?

From Professor Kaler's text:

"The count of naked-eye stars depends on location (altitude, humidity, eye-sensitivity), but at the limit, some 6,000 to 8,000 can be seen without aid. The number seen on any given night depends on what part of the sky you are looking at. Some of it is sparse, while near the Milky Way—a band of light that runs across the sky—there are crowds of them. On any night, one can see perhaps 2,000, less than half the total because absorption by the Earth’s atmospheric blanket dims the ones near the horizon, rendering the fainter ones invisible. They fall into random, charming patterns that we name and call “constellations.”

So both figures are technically correct - it just depends on location and a truly dark sky. The USA Today article was about Natural Bridges National Monument in the middle of the Utah desert - one of darkest places in the states.

Next time you're out looking on a dark night - start counting.  You may be lucky to see 100 because of the city lights reflecting up.  

Your Story

Books, movies, conversation and yes even blogging all have something in common - usually a story.  We all yearn to hear a story and to tell our story.  I can remember Jenna as a child blurting out - "Daddy tell me a story".  I would respond "What kind of story?".  "Anything", she would plead.

The story doesn't need to be dramatic nor does it need to be worthy of best selling books or block buster movies.  In fact it is the everyday routines of our lives that become interesting to others - lives that are richly different in their routine.  A.M., J.R. and I were having lunch together and the conversation was about our daily routine.  Filled with laughter and relationships we all described the idiosyncrasies of our daily living patterns.

Ellen and I watched an interesting movie last night - a story about stories-  "Hugo".  This meta story saga was about dreams, mysteries, and broken stories that need fixing - and were fixed.   The Automaton reveals the key (from the heart) to a story interwoven in various subjects lives.  Each of our stories and how they weave together (the world as an automaton) reveal our purpose in life.

Tell your story to someone.  Discover how your stories interweave together.  Enjoy how they together reveal purpose.

Boston Legal #5 - Bronx Tale

I forgot to post Boston Legal #4  (hosted at my house in January 14).  The last three meetings have been supplemented with a TV or Movie (#3 was actually a Boston Legal episode - "Finding Nimmo" - Episode 20 Season 2 #3).   J.P. stayed late and we watched "Seven Days in Utopia".  But on to Boston Legal #5

Boston Legal #5 - Hosted by K.C. with full BBQ and refreshments 6/21/15 the day after Father's Day. I was tasked with bringing some alternative viewing choices to Boston Legal #5 (three choices were offered up).

I was biased and since it was so close to Father's Day the group humored me with the selection of "A Bronx Tale".   Chosen strategically after listening to Peter Kreeft's  Ethics lectures, this movie is very entertaining and thought provoking (Warning - it is rated R because of the language and violence). 

"I can't believe after all this time you don't trust me."  says Calogero to Sonny his surrogate Italian Mafia dad.
"Listen, It's not that I don't trust you.  It's .......  Sonny trails off with no explanation.

"No, I'm not gonna listen"  as Calogero continues to tell Sonny that he should have not jumped to judgment.   "You never thought of that [the alternate possibility] .... did you?"

"No"  as Sonny stares stoically forward.

"Don't you trust anybody?  Calogero inquires

"No"  Sonny replies

"It's a horrible way to live"  Calogero rebuts.

"For me ..... it's the only way"  Sonny declares.

"Not for me .........  Not for me"  Calogero whispers.

This movie has a great sound track and worthy acting with a named star Robert DiNero.  I highly recommend this movie! 

Authors of our Life

"All we ask is to be allowed to remain the writers of our own story.  A story that is ever changing..... Whatever happens, we want to retain the freedom to shape our lives in ways consistent with our character and loyalties"  ("Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande). 

Antul Gawande explores the challenges of assisted living (what Mom just experienced) and the tension between independence and interdependence.  In America we stress freedom in ways of individualism, autonomy, free of coercion and limitation.  Yet all of our lives are interdependent - especially at birth and near death. 

How interesting that he changes the goal of aging from freedom and safety to that of being the authors of our life.  "The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one's life - to avoid becoming so diminished or dissipated or subjugated that who you are becomes disconnected from who you were or who you want to be."

It's difficult to accept declines in physical and intellectual capacity as we age - but others (including loved ones) need to understand that confining peoples choices (for their "own good") is the same as trying to write their story into your book.

It's your story to write -  and for others to enjoy reading.

Heaven Board #9 - Precious Lord, Take my Hand

Today Mom passed into eternity peacefully.  Her legacy of teaching followed her all the way to the end in this world and will live in others (friends, family, coworkers, and students). 

Derby.  Wisner, Flora Wells, 87, devoted wife, loving mother, and faithful grandmother and great grandmother, has gone to rest in peace.  Private graveside services in Mulhall, Oklahoma, per her request.  She was preceded in death by her parents and brother Maurice Wells.  Survived by husband Don, children D'Lane Wisner, Garen Wisner, and Vana Hartley; five grandchildren, one great-grandchild.  In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established with Wineteer Elementary PTO, 8801 Ent, Wichita KS 67210. Share condolences at Smith Family Mortuaries : Derby, Kansas (KS) : Wichita, (KS)

The list of what Mom taught me is too long to publish.  Thanks to P.H. for suggesting that I write down what Mom meant to me and thankfully I made it to Kansas in time to read her the list.

A teacher then, now and forever.

Values in Smok'in

Rich's May visit this year was packed with activities.  His new Lexus RX350 was once again an example of how he can "out gadget" me.   Clearly it's time for me to get a new car - so we had fun visiting Dealerships to test drive other models (it would be sacrilegious for me to copy a college buddy). 

Rich knew I had no courage to match his gadget challenge when it comes to a car -  but his secondary crowing was about his new Smoker from Home Depot.  That was like "laying down the gauntlet" like the old college days.  SO.... not to be outdone in a lower priced challenge -  Rich and I went out shopping for Smokers. 

Now Rich's Smoker was the traditional charcoal type so I needed my Smoker to be different (naturally).  Originally I had determined propane was the way to "beat" Rich in the gadget category.  Less fuss, Less muss!   I had picked out the propane model and was walking out the store when Rich said .....  "What's this electric one with a remote control?"    That was the ticket -  it was like gadget/technology leapfrogging and I got the Master Built Electric Smoker.

I've had great fun, great times, with friends and family Smok'in Salmon, Ribs, Chicken, and Flank Steak.  I happened to go to MasterBuilt's web site and discovered their Core Values scrolling across the bottom.   WOW -  Simple, to the point, and rich in wisdom - Spoken..... and Smok'in Values!