This is not Dallas right now, but you sure would think so. The local stations canceled regular programming early this morning to begin the big "ice watch." We have been waiting and watching for the rain to freeze for at least 12 hours. Imagine 12 or, soon to be, 24 hours of coverage on the potential for rain to freeze. Don't try to call anyone in DFW tomorrow; we are paralyzed because of the threat---maybe the reality---of some ice on the streets and highways.
January 27, 2009
January 20, 2009
January 06, 2009
Check out your bar codes
Self-checkout at the grocery store. Like the sign says: It’s easy. Hah! It’s easy if you enjoy the stares of onlookers who offer the identical customer gaze as those who count the number of items in your basket when you are in the “15 items or less” line.
I didn’t realize I had $88 worth of groceries in my basket. Really, I didn’t. I knew that the staffed check-out lines were long. Besides, the checkers and the baggers make this whole process seem very easy.
Do you know where all your bar codes are? Answer: Every product is different. They can be on the bottom, top, side, in the crease or it could be a dreaded “no bar code” item. My basket had all of those.
How often have you under-appreciated the way your bags were bagged?
I got home, and the Tums were packaged with the Tilapia; the Kleenex accompanied the frozen peaches; toothpaste rode shotgun with the fresh chicken breasts; and the yogurt was in every bag that was self-filled.
“Aren’t you glad you got behind me,” I said to the woman in workout clothes with the pointy cat-eyed glasses to my rear. She had one 28-ounce can of Hunt chopped stewed tomatoes in her hand. She smiled, in apparent disagreement with my question.
The guy with the beer belly in a college football shirt behind her grimaced at my remark. Serves him right for trying to sneak in a grocery store run during halftime. Eventually, he went to another line.
Finally, Finish and Pay glowed from the screen. After punching in all the right answers and codes, I thought, the machine asked me to re-insert my card.
The lady with the pointed glasses did not laugh. The machine wanted me to do the entire scan and pay transaction again.
At the end of the second “transaction,” I told the pointy-glasses person that I promised to always tip the people who bag my groceries in the future. She said: “Good idea.”
She did not tell me that the olive oil, tuna, Bic razors and dried fruit were still in the “basket within the basket” in back basket of my cart. I retrieved my receipt and quickly headed for the exit.
Upon loading the legal groceries, I discovered the pilfered and un-bagged items in that back compartment.
Let’s call it the first learning opportunity of 2009. I had to go back in the store, scan the stolen items into lawfulness and leave with a commitment and resolution to never, ever do that again.
January 05, 2009
You already know everyone you need to know
That's the premise behind Bob Beaudine's book that comes out tomorrow. If you are job searching, networking, gathering new clients/contacts, building sales and even working on the culture in your organization---you will love this book. It's The Power of Who and you can find it online and in bookstores tomorrow.
January 03, 2009
Winning sports teams sell more newspapers
For locals, the lack of a Dallas Cowboys game on the “save the date” calendar this weekend is extremely difficult, but gloom and despair are undoubtedly present at the Dallas Morning News and the Star-Telegram. You see sports sections---and especially a winning Dallas Cowboys team---sell a lot more newspapers than those generated from regular January receipts. The Cowboys loss last week means: No special sections with extra advertising dollars; no headlines above the fold to help with newsstand sales; and a lot of people admit they just don’t buy the newspaper when the Cowboys lose. How many of us will be eager to read the newspapers’ coverage about the NFC playoff game between Philadelphia and Minnesota? Not many. So despite the vitriol that is often heaped on the Cowboys and other sports teams, newspapers are better off when the teams win. Hopefully, the local papers will be around throughout 2009 to participate in the Stars, Mavs, and Rangers seasons as well as the Cowboys’ 2009-2010 efforts.
January 01, 2009
Leading off the year
It looks like the Victory Park people in Dallas could celebrate a great event for New Year's Eve in Dallas. Good crowd and fireworks. Maybe this will be the local equivalent of Times Square on New Year's Eve.
That brings up the question: Why in the heck did Dick Clark have such a huge presence on the ABC event from Times Square? I'm a fan, and I appreciate all that he did to create the event, but I was uncomfortable with his attempts to communicate as if he had not had a huge stroke. It made the event a huge roller coaster ride and a memorable experience for the wrong reasons.
November 27, 2008
giant stack of resumes
Tis the season for resume receiving. Here are a few tips for new graduates or Wanna-move-ups who are looking for jobs. You really would not believe the letters and queries that I receive. A few tips---in what may be a continuing series--
* Don't send your information over a holiday weekend. That's what prompted this post. The last thing I want to do on Thanksgiving is look at an e-mail for a job.
* Do not expect a response if you just e-mail your information. Most employers receive hundreds of e-mails every week. You need to solidify your query with a phone call (or several) as well as other follow-up correspondence.
* Have no typos. I once received a resume which stated that the applicant had been in charge of "panties" for a particular organization. Actually, he had been in charge of "parties."
* Finally, at least for today, include references as opposed to "references on request." Make the employer's job easier by not asking them to do something extra to learn your qualities.
More later.
* Don't send your information over a holiday weekend. That's what prompted this post. The last thing I want to do on Thanksgiving is look at an e-mail for a job.
* Do not expect a response if you just e-mail your information. Most employers receive hundreds of e-mails every week. You need to solidify your query with a phone call (or several) as well as other follow-up correspondence.
* Have no typos. I once received a resume which stated that the applicant had been in charge of "panties" for a particular organization. Actually, he had been in charge of "parties."
* Finally, at least for today, include references as opposed to "references on request." Make the employer's job easier by not asking them to do something extra to learn your qualities.
More later.
November 05, 2008
Business can learn from Obama
I wish I had written this. Al Ries, himself a maverick, tells business what it can learn from Obama's campaign about marketing.
November 04, 2008
Write two speeches or maybe three
I know this guy's pain. Election night is one of the toughest situations you can face as a communications professional. At some point, you have to prepare the "We win" speech but you also have to write the "We Lost" talking points. After the 2000 election, I guess you have the possibility of a third speech: "We don't know what happened" offering. Unlike corporate communications, in politics, it's a one-day, store-closing sale. You can't fix it with an apology or a new round of ads or a new CEO. On Election Day, you win (and that's an easy speech to write) or you don't, and you have to prepare for either scenario. Very difficult. And you have to get your candidate-client through the exhausting experience of knowing that his/her life will be completely different the next day. When you lose, it's really more like a "Going Out of Business Sale."
October 29, 2008
Hand over mouth
I have a rule. If it wouldn't be positive if said "out of context"---don't say it.
A friend recently told a group of people that she needed her husband to recommend more surgeries so she could buy whatever it was that she wanted at the time. In the context of a gossipy group of girls with too much wine on a Thursday night, that is funny.
But repeated "out of context" and without the wine and the knowledge of the woman's crazy humor, this statement is cause for an investigation. I knew her "joke" but then I reheard it "out of context." My companions immediately said they would leave that doctor.
I know this sounds way too PC. Introverts, like me, have a big advantage in group discussions. We say nothing without thinking about it first. Usually, we have rehearsed the thought or line of thinking---kind of like this one. Extroverts, however, and that's some 75 percent of us, have to talk in order to think. That's how they get trapped by the "word of mouth" game or the media.
Makes you want to crawl into a hole. But everything---absolutely everything, is, or could be, public information.
A friend recently told a group of people that she needed her husband to recommend more surgeries so she could buy whatever it was that she wanted at the time. In the context of a gossipy group of girls with too much wine on a Thursday night, that is funny.
But repeated "out of context" and without the wine and the knowledge of the woman's crazy humor, this statement is cause for an investigation. I knew her "joke" but then I reheard it "out of context." My companions immediately said they would leave that doctor.
I know this sounds way too PC. Introverts, like me, have a big advantage in group discussions. We say nothing without thinking about it first. Usually, we have rehearsed the thought or line of thinking---kind of like this one. Extroverts, however, and that's some 75 percent of us, have to talk in order to think. That's how they get trapped by the "word of mouth" game or the media.
Makes you want to crawl into a hole. But everything---absolutely everything, is, or could be, public information.
