Operator, can you help me make this call?

“If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me” Jimmy Buffett

Got an email today from a guy I used to work with. I guess I’d call him a work friend in that I know him and like him but don’t socialize with him. We live in the same town so I run across him now and again. So, the email says, “hey, how you doing? Call me sometime”. OK, but if he wants to chat why didn’t he call me? If he had time to email me he had time to dial my number. Why is the responsibility now on me to call him?

Then I realized this happens a lot where someone tells you to call them. I guess it’s like that “One Minute Monkey” thing from the book I wrote about a while back.Monkey. But in this case they give you the phone monkey. Now if the two of you don’t talk in the next several months it’s because you didn’t call. It’s your fault, not theirs.

Further I’ve paged back through my memory banks trying to remember if I’ve said “hey, call me” to someone and although I can’t pinpoint exact people and places I know I have and when I did it was because I really didn’t want to talk to that person and I hedged my bet that they would never call me.

Years ago I called an old buddy of mine and while talking to him apologized for it being so long since I’d called. He said, “no problem pal, the phone lines run both ways”.

Yes they do.

They run both ways in business too. Constantly having to be the one to call a prospect once you’ve had an opportunity to pitch your product or service is a clear warning sign of something being amiss. Either, the prospect doesn’t have the need or the money (thus poorly qualified), you did a poor job of representing your value (you need to train and practice your value proposition), or your product/service has a poor value ratio (it doesn’t hit the mark or isn’t worth the price tag).

The hard – but extremely important – part is determining which reason (or combination of reasons it is that’s causing the silence. Fixing it will be a separate blog for each one.

So, my newest resolution is I’m not going to use the “call me” line. If I want to talk to someone I’m going to call them, and if I don’t want to talk to them I’ll email them and say “write me sometime”…..

Lookin' for my mojo

"I'm sorry I can't, baby. Dr. Evil stole my mojo while I was frozen" Austin Powers

To say I've been in a blogging funk would be like saying the economy has been in a mild slump. Probably never in history has there been more material for someone like me to use as a trampoline. But, it just hasn't been there and no amount of self-pep talking was going to change it.

My blogging mojo is MIA. I know why (and many of you know too). But knowing and doing something about it are two different animals.

Well, maybe I've found sparkle of "mojo light" that can lead me back to my old, cockeyed, sardonic self.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet our new President.

Last year I wrote a blog entitled "What's your Say:Do Ratio?" Say:Do. The essence of it is that not many people DO what they SAY they're going to. A correction to the blog, as sent in by a reader, points out that the lower the number the better the Say:Do ratio. That is, if someone does everything they say they're going to, then it would be a Say:Do ratio of 1:1. A perfect score.

So I have a buddy, Craig Levy, who read that blog and using it as inspiration back during the pre-election days started logging what each candidate was saying they were going to do if elected. Once a winner was declared he built a spreadsheet of all the major promises. In this case Mr. Obama's (he was going to track it regardless of who won).

So, before I go forward a couple of full-disclosure points. I did not vote for Mr. Obama. However, I would like nothing more than for his first four years to be a resounding success to the point that the Republicans don't even run someone against him next time. The country could use a real hero right now. Also, I think it's sad that any candidate has to make blind promises just to get elected. Mr. Obama has done that. Mr. McCain was doing it, too. Sadly no one will elect a president who says "I'm sure there are things that I don't even have a clue about until I get to look under the hood at the White House, so promises made right now may be hollow."

But, that's the system and Mr. Obama got elected on a platform of hope and change. I hope he's careful about what he changes and doesn't play into the old joke "we have the greatest country in the world and I'm here to change it".

So, Mr. Levy and I will be tracking - I can say it as of today - President Obama's Say:Do ratio and reporting along the way.

What does it have to do with my XOD blog? I dunno, but if it helps me find my mojo then the new president has already helped one person out.

More to come.