Cautionary Tales
My friend Ted Prodromou reached out to an old friend on LinkedIn the other day. He just wanted to say, āHelloā and catch up. The friend replied instantlyā¦ …with an automated messageā¦ …that said, āSubscribe to my YouTube channel.ā Thatās it. Nothing else. No āGlad to hear from you, Ted.ā No personal comments. Just an…
Stephanie Michelle was hunting for a job, and she wanted an edge. So she dished out $29.95 for a 7.5 ml vial of āLiquid Trust.ā The product description on Amazon says Liquid Trust ācan help people gain the trust of others.ā Great for sales people, job hunters, and anyone else who wants others to āfeel…
Iāve been thinking about revenge. A movie made me think it. A movie called āPromising Young Womanā that I saw last weekend. It tells the story of a 30-year-old Cassie, who exacts revenge on men who mistreat women. I wonāt give away the details. Iāll say only that the movie made me cringe and laugh…
I get slammed by cold-call LinkedIn connection requests. They usually start with something like thisā¦ āI visited your website and was really impressedā¦ā or āI read your profile, and we seem to have a lot in commonā¦ā or āIt looks like you do some great workā¦ā My favorites are the ones that make it seem…
Happy (Belated) Groundhog Day. Silly holiday. GREAT movie. I love the scenes with Ned Ryerson. Heās the insurance salesman who went to high school with Phil (Bill Murrayās character). Groundhog Day after Groundhog Day (see the movie if you donāt know what I mean), Ned accosts Phil on the street and pitches insurance. āHave you…
For the last few months, my wife and I have skipped trips to the store and ordered groceries for home delivery. You knowā¦ the pandemic and all. Here in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, we have several options. We prefer one called Shipt. Why? Because the shoppers communicate well with us and consistently delight us. We…
When my daughter suggested last night that we order delivery from Shake Shackā¦ …rather than have yet another night of leftover turkey for dinnerā¦ …I thought, āThatās the greatest idea EVER!ā Red meat, topped with bacon and orange cheese. Yum. But what really had my mouth watering was the thought of that shakeā¦ …that sweet,…
Every so often, I browse my junk email folder to see what the spammers are up to. I always come across something that makes me roll my eyes and chuckleā¦ …like this one from a lender: Subject line: Equipment Financing Thatās it. No website address. No call to action. No benefits. No story. No nothing…
A cautionary tale: Earlier this week, I was helping a client move a website. He registered his domain with GoDaddy, and I spoke to their customer support before moving the site. Everything GoDaddy told me was wrong, and when we moved the site it came crashing down. I launched a chat with GoDaddy support and…
Back in March, when the pandemic was a fresh, new misadventure for all of us, I wrote this email asking why the local traffic reporter needed to do her thing every morning — even though no one was driving to work. I concluded that she and her station kept doing their thing because thatās what they do.…