English as a second language.
Robert Solomon
Consultant, coach, and workshop leader, author of the widely read and respected book, "The Art of Client Service," expert in achieving behavior change with advertising/marketing/PR agencies, clients, and individuals.
I’ve met Rick English just once, nearly six years ago, when I traveled to Buffalo, New York on a surprisingly temperate day (by Buffalo standards anyway) to lead a couple of workshops for Rick’s forward-thinking friend Ted Johnson.? Johnson is President of the Hadley, a firm masquerading as an “exhibit design, fabrication, and installation” enterprise, but as I’ve written before, is more aptly and accurately described as a solutions company.?
English is an account person of longstanding who taught client service at Canisius, who now is a sometime blogger at Small Market Suit.? Rick first connected with me by email nearly eight years ago, when he wrote, “I read your blog often, actually regularly… Thanks for keeping your blog going.”
Ever since, we have been exchanging emails on a host of topics, some of which sufficiently noteworthy for me to cite in Adventures, as in here and here.? A couple of weeks ago I heard from Rick, who had this to say about a recent post:
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“Liked your latest post … ??How do you find the energy, motivation, or maybe it’s the spark, to write a post so often? ?The fact that you do is impressive.”
I wrote back to reply:
“To the matter of “How do you find the energy,” what I can say is, when I sat down to write Brain Surgery for Suits 25 years ago, I had no illusions about how challenging it would be to write a book-length manuscript, so I gave myself a simple goal:? write 500 words a day.? Writing 500 words or thereabouts a week for Adventures seems relatively easy by comparison. “In the scheme of things, finding the motivation is easy.? I’ve often said I like a person on a mission from god, hellbent to do whatever I can to help readers get better at client service.? In all the years I’ve been posting, I’ve never lost sight of that goal.? There have been moments when I feel like I’m speaking to the void, given so few people write to tell me they find value in what I’m doing, but then I remind myself of why I do this, perhaps best expressed in this post (I refer to you in it, BTW). “The biggest challenge is your third, ‘the spark,’ which for me is about where I find the ideas to write.? I say as much in ‘The sanctity of deadlines:’ ‘I struggle to formulate a story line engaging to me and ideally helpful to at least some of you, which is why I often turn to other sources for a starting point:? something I see on television, an opinion piece I see in?The New York Times, or an article I read in?The New Yorker.’ “In this confession is an answer of sorts:? I look to others for inspiration, sometimes finding it in the most unlikeliest of places.? In fact, the piece I’m drafting even as I write you now isn’t about anything anyone would expect; it’s about rock-and-roll.? “On occasion I find inspiration in something that happened to me; for example, a piece from two weeks ago, drawn from an experience largely unfamiliar to me, where I could reinforce principles I think are price-of-entry for clients, for which many if not most clients have disdain. ?Does anyone care?? I don’t know, but if one person gets something out of it, I have done my job. “I do draw inspiration from an exchange like the one we’re having, which no doubt will prompt me to email you again, ‘Rick, would it be okay if I converted our recent exchange of email into a blog post?’ “I appreciate you’re saying, ‘The fact that you do is impressive,’ but truth be told, context is everything.? Bloggers in our space like the Georges – Tannenbaum and Parker – have posted thousands of times.? Me?? I’ve posted hundreds. “The process of writing helps.? I don’t draft these things on the Adventures website; I’ve learned platforms like Tumblr are too unstable to be trusted.? Instead, I draft them in Word, store them on my computer’s c-drive – which has the benefit of allowing me to keyword search my files whenever I’m looking to link to a piece I wrote ten years ago – then back them up to the cloud.? When it’s time to post – Wednesday’s mostly – I cut-and-paste these into Adventures.? For royalty-free photos I mostly rely on Unsplash. “I’ll know when the day comes to quit.? Until then, it’s email like yours that keeps me going, so thank you for this.”
I’ve been exchanging emails like this with Rick for so many years it has become a second language for me.? On that subject, I always strive to improve my fluency.? And in case you’re wondering, I’d welcome the opportunity to become tri-lingual.