Melodymoments

What is your address?

Have you noticed we have become a nation of Nomads? No one seems to have a business address any longer. When you meet a client or potential client, you meet them at a coffee shop.  No longer do we venture into an office setting with chairs that roll and desktops covered in papers and files.  With the "invention" of coffee meetings, you never get the opportunity to meet one on one. Now you are meeting with everyone in the coffee shop, listening to the music that is playing in the background and occasionally, watching your competition with a potential client.  There is no personal attention, now it is mass attention. How can we do business this way?  Have we become so "mediaized" that we do not know how to meet one on one and carry on a conversation without all the distractions? Do we have to have noise, activity and other people to conduct business?  What caused this shift to the coffee house from the office?  Was it that never-ending sitcom of a group of "young and hip" people who spent their lives sitting around in a coffee shop that caused the dislocation of the office address? Or, is it our need to always be around people and be seen? If you are seen everyday in a coffee shop with a different person, does that mean you are successful and doing lots of business or are you bored with your surroundings and not busy enough?  I'll admit it, I'm a coffee addict and enjoy the taste. I do meet clients and potential clients in a coffee shop and feel very comfortable doing it.  I could meet them at my home office and introduce them to my dogs. But not everyone is a lover of large dogs that feel the need to really get to know you when you enter. They are great dogs but very male dogs and proud of it! (Maybe it is because they still have all their maleness and they are protecting their territory.) However, I do make a visit to the client's office to get a feel for who the client really is.  How can you tell if they need organizational help if you don't know if they are organized or not. Or, how can you tell if they need customer service help if you are not a customer, at least once?  I look at it this way..I do visit my friends at their address, why would I not want to visit a client or potential client at their address!  After all, are you not building a relationship with the client?  I think coffee shops should be used for a casual outing and a place to enjoy a cup of coffee. I'm tired of all the business being done while I am trying to enjoy a cup of quality coffee with my client.  In closing, let me ask this, Do you have an address, do your clients know your address. do you know their's?  How about we meet for coffee and talk about it!

The birth of an idea

People often ask me where do you get all of those ideas?  An idea can come from need, a conversation, or a great cup of coffee. Some time ago I needed a solution to a problem that was growing. The problem was, I was a young women working in a man's job with men who had occupied their positions for years.  I was the "young chick taking away a man's job".  A man who had a family to support.  It did not matter that I too, had a family to support, I was not a man.  The duties of the job were not always the most pleasant and not at all glamorous.  One duty in particular lacked the luster and often carried with it a strong odor.  The task was picking up "road kill". To men working for this "agency" road kill meant a few things.  An ugly woman who was left in the bar at the end of the night or, animals who had committed suicide along the roads in the rural area.  The later being the duty I was assigned.  After a few days of riding in the big yellow truck with the crew and listening to the comments about me taking away a man's job, too  many times to count, I had the dubious task of being the picker.  That meant that as we traveled on our journey from one coffee shop, diner or restaurant to another, when there was an animal on the road, it was my job to pick it up.  I was after-all, a woman and the new person on the crew.  I think the animal kingdom was upset over the weather or having a contest to see how many cars they could dodge because the  ratio of live to dead animals was skewed.  They were all over the road!  Each time there was something dead, I climbed out of the truck, grabbed the shovel off the back and scooped up the suicide victim.  After a very long morning of picking up these critters, I was getting angry and growing tired of the smell. I had asked a few times why it was my job to do the shoveling and the response was, "you wanted this job, now do it."  There just happened to be two individuals on this crew that never seemed to show dirt or dust on their cloths. They were impeccable, spotless, showing no wear--everyday. I could not figure that out, how did they stay so clean?  Of course it did have a little to do with the fact they never got out of the truck to retrieve the animals - that was my job.  I had finally reached my limit. I knew I had to find a creative solution to this problem. For those of you who can not determine the problem I'll help you. The problem was, I was the only person getting out of the truck picking up the dead animals and a woman in a man's job.  My fellow crew members were nestled into their seats and well into their morning naps.  As luck would have it, the creative solution appeared at the next stop.  There in the middle of the road was an elegant puffy skunk. He appeared to be sleeping until I jumped out of the truck. As the song goes, he was "stinking to high heaven"! There was a box on the back of the big yellow truck, one that sleeps six, so I scooped up Mr Smelly and placed him ever so gently into the box. The big yellow truck was returning to home base for lunch so while a certain party was enjoying their lunch, I placed the box under the car.  To set the scene, it was a very warm day and the sun was shining brightly over this fresh, clean car belonging to Mr Spotless.  As the big yellow truck pulled out of the parking lot, I chuckled and thought, that was a very creative solution to the problem.  Yes, it did solve the problem and a few additional problems.  I was no longer someone who could be pushed around. I was now respected for being so creative and changing the hierarchy of the big yellow truck.

Sometimes creative ideas do come from need and necessity.  But sometimes they come from opportunity.