Don’t Listen to Negative Ned

Stoic Quote of the Week:

But you should avoid in particular those of a melancholy disposition who find cause for tears in everything.

--Seneca

What I learned this week:

As I look back on all the people I’ve worked with throughout my life, there are those that bring out the best and others that I had to overcome. When I was in SF working with a team to put together a plan, if there was one member there that didn’t think we should be doing that operation or thought it was stupid, that lowered the ability of the entire group to come to a viable solution. It doesn’t always have to be the ‘Negative Ned or Nancy’ who drains the optimism out of the group. Anyone can through sand on the fire of a solution, albeit, sometimes that is what is needed. How the sand is thrown makes a difference. If it is with a “Positive Paul” action, then the sand doesn’t shut down the operation. If it is the opposite, the groups energy is spent trying to recover to a positive outcome. I’ve found that working with Negative Neds is not worth the energy I have to expend recovering from the “it will never work” attitude. I no longer work with Negative Neds. If you have a Negative Ned on your team, I hope you can change his attitude or find a better place for his negativity to fit, like an emo concert.

Planning thought of the week:

Do not squash counterpoints of view or people who don’t see the solution path the same way that you do. If your planning team is full of yes-men, good luck overcoming the obstacles you will encounter because you will likely not know it is an obstacle until your attempt has failed. Dissent among the team while planning is critical to identifying all the factors that may come into play during execution.

Business idea I heard about or thought of:

I don’t know about y’all, but I am not trying on clothes at a store anymore. I hated that part of buying anyway. Now more than ever, we should be cautious about trying on clothes, shoes etc. The solution is virtual measurements. The technology already exists in other tools. I need someone to put it into a package. Our phones all have cameras, the data exists in the picture for scale, all we need is someone to convert that to size of clothes and shoes. What a great, efficient and safe way to buy clothes. If I sell my clothes online, I can guarantee fit if the app is used. I don’t have to worry about user error. All the customer has to do is take a picture. The software does the rest. Call me if you want to put this together.

Veteran opportunity of the week:

You know me, I am all about the solution sets, not treating symptoms. This is an awesome opportunity! Amazon is working with the VA to set up a program for veterans to get started as Amazon Delivery Service Partners. “Amazon has committed $5 million toward funding the startup costs for Veterans, offering $10,000 reimbursements to qualified candidates to build their own businesses.” You can apply through Amazon.com/DSP-VA.

Someone I met this week:

I met Daniel through a marketing connection a couple of weeks ago. Since adopting the “treating all messages like a real live person” attitude, I’ve found a handful of very interesting people on the sending end of those messages. Daniel is one of those. He is the founder of Sales Enable a marketing firm that is focused on relations to convert sales not numbers. Daniel and his team’s approach is to enable you to build a relation within your sales funnel to gain new clients. Instead of blasting out 5k messages to get 50 in your sales funnel as leads. His approach is to contact quality leads and build a relationship with them. Instead of contacting 5k people, they will contact 100 quality leads and begin to build the relationship to get you the same number of leads. Sorry, it is still up to you to close the deal. If you want to get connected with Daniel and his team, let me know.

Link to current The Cam & Otis Show podcast, Ep 40 Father and Son Squared: https://thecamandotisshow.buzzsprout.com/506248/3500902-father-and-son-squared

Thank you for your support.

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