While at a networking breakfast this morning, I heard a gentleman explain his company’s offerings. Think of it as providing fractional Database Administrator services for smaller companies (that can’t afford a full time DBA) and you’ll be pretty close. Pretty geeky stuff for most people, right? Especially when the value proposition is avoiding downtime, and […]
The Clarity Files: Tate Parker and Cash Flow Insurance
May 2, 2018 By Leave a Comment
I love websites that are clear and to the point. Few words, clear imagery, lots of white space. Just see what Tate Parker does here with his new website: Confession – for years, I interacted with Tate at local Nashville-area networking meetings, and I had trouble wrapping my mind around his business value proposition. […]
Doing Business Outside Your Bubble
April 20, 2018 By 1 Comment
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. – Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll Translation: ??????????? This popular poem full of nonsense phrases reminds me of many business presentations I’ve heard. The speaker apparently has some idea of what he is […]
Coalesce to Success
April 9, 2018 By Leave a Comment
As the old saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That’s what it means to “coalesce” – to unite into a whole, bringing together different parts. It’s not just a fun word that rhymes with “success”. It’s a business approach that anyone can tap into. It’s weaving opportunity together, […]
Just Make One Point
March 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment
I get to see a lot of presentations. Plenty of Powerpoint. I would rate most of these performances as somewhere between awful and intolerable, with an occasional mix of meh. But it’s so easy to fix. Here’s the key thing: Make one visually engaging point per slide. That’s it. One point. See the above? That’s […]
The Secret to Getting Your Point Across
February 14, 2018 By 2 Comments
What is one of the most frustrating things for any communicator (and I mean any – teachers, trainers, marketers, bloggers, pastors, salespeople…)? Our message doesn’t get across. It doesn’t “stick”. The minds of our audiences are overloaded, and the noise level that surrounds us all continues to increase. How do we break through? Here’s […]
Speaking Human (as a second language)
February 6, 2018 By Leave a Comment
eBay stepped right in it. They seem to have forgotten that their audience was….human beings. A friend forwarded me this jargon-loaded email from eBay explaining some new advances in their payment processing system. Click the image to read the whole thing (if you’re into that sort of pain…) – here’s part of the opening […]
When Lack of Clarity Turns Deadly
January 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment
I got very worked up watching a documentary on the Smithsonian Channel last night. Like many others, I followed with fascinated horror in 1999 as a Lear Jet carrying golfer Payne Stewart and a handful of others streaked across the country, unguided, until it finally ran out of fuel and crashed in a South Dakota […]
My Dream: Changing How We Do Business
December 29, 2017 By Leave a Comment
I do have a dream. It’s not just last night’s over-active imagination. It’s a vision that has pulled me forward for decades. There’s something I want to build. Something I yearn to create. Something that will be much bigger than me, that will outlast me, that will have ripples of impact for decades. I see, […]
The Jarring Power of the Surprise Statistic
November 2, 2017 By Leave a Comment
I was at a networking meeting recently, where each of us at the table had 6 minutes to introduce our business (I love this format, by the way. Thirty seconds to introduce yourself to the entire group, but then 6 minutes to go in-depth with 4-5 tablemates). One of the gentlemen at our table is […]
