I watched the steam curl up from the fresh brewed cup of coffee.
“I’m off to the salt mines!” I yelled as I always do and began the 20-foot walk from the kitchen to my office.
“That’s the problem,” Rebecca said, “You always go to the salt mine. Maybe you need to try the diamond mine.”
It’s been so long since I’ve written a real blog post, I barely remember how to start them. That’s why you get this awkward intro. Looking back at the history of my writing, it’s odd for me to go long stretches without saying something. Over the last few months I feel like I’ve had things to say, I just haven’t had the time to pull the thoughts from my brain and place them here. And so this post serves as a stretching of muscles. I’m trying to remember how it was that I used to write on a regular basis.
We survived the long stretch of the spring baseball season, only to enter summer, which has somehow been just as busy. Cody and Colton’s teams both finished somewhere at the back of the pack, but they both had fun and learned a lot. Conner’s made a run at the championship and ended up in third place. It was the most fun I’ve ever had on the baseball field.
Since joining Life Church in February, we’ve once again become sucked into ministry which seems to eat a substantial amount of time. More so than actual church work though, we’re spending a lot of time really getting to know people we’re doing life with. It’s honestly something I’ve never been good at, but I’m learning.
My business continues to grow and branch out. Not as quickly as last year, but still growing, slowly but surely. Always with me at the helm, questioning everything we do all the time. Does that ever stop? That uncertainty that comes, not only with developing a business, but with knowing the decisions I make help or hurt the future of my family. It’s the odd position of always having to be sure of what you are doing, but never actually being sure.
In a few weeks I get to preach on the Gospel. All the study that goes into that has me examining my life to see all the places where the Gospel of Jesus really doesn’t have a hold. It’s a process of God prying my fingers off the things I want to control. It’s a battle He is winning, and I’m thankful for that. The transformative work of Christ is by no means easy or even fun, but I can see changes for the better.
Maybe that’s the source of my introspection this hot July evening. Maybe it’s my impending 32nd birthday. I tell myself I’ve accomplished a lot in my 32 years but the other side of my brain knows I probably could have done more, made better decisions here and there. But my deep-seeded theology about the sovereignty of God tells me I had to make every decisions the way I made it. He has been very gracious in my life and I should be more thankful for that.
As a rule, getting older doesn’t bother me. A big part of me relishes the idea of being in my sixties or seventies and really enjoying the wisdom of age along with finally having an excuse for my cantankerous nature. But, every so often, I have the occasional day when I acknowledge that I am getting older. My kids are growing rapidly and before I know it will be out of the house. I tell myself I’m looking forward to that day so Becca and I can start a different chapter in our lives, but I know the day one of the kids leaves my house I’ll be devastated.
God has blessed us with some of the most amazing friends in the world. Tomorrow night they will descend on our house for hamburgers (hopefully), margaritas (definitely) and swimming. We’ll swim and splash with our kids. We’ll relish the fact that their oldest just had his cast removed and is on the way to recovery. We’ll stay up entirely too late and talk. We’ll probably spend a lot of time dreaming about the future of the people God has entrusted us to care for in the church. And in that time I’ll take a moment and thank God for all he has done and I’ll forget that I’m about to turn 32 and anything else that’s bothering me.
But for now I get to be quiet and introspective and listen.
And that’s okay every once in a while.
Sometimes there are large corporations we have to deal with and sometimes they screw up, give terrible customer service and are accountable to no one. What do we do then? Complain on blogs, I guess. Let me give you a broad picture of what it’s like to deal with the Adobe Corporation.
Two weeks ago I upgraded from Creative Suite 3 to Creative Suite 5.5. That was an $840 upgrade. I ordered the boxed version. Unfortunately when you order that, you don’t get the serial numbers until they arrive. Of course, my 30-day trial of the new software had just expired that day. So basically I would be without the main software I use for a few days. That’s not possible with our schedule right now.
So I call Adobe customer support, conveniently located in another country, and asked if I could cancel that order and just order the download version to get the serial number immediately.
“Of course,” the guy says, “The old order is canceled, was not charged to your account and now you may order the new one.”
So I order the download copy. Fast forward a day later and I get an email to let me know my boxed copy had shipped. I check my account and sure enough I have been charged $840 twice. I’m not sure about you, but that’s a little more than inconvenient for me.
I call Adobe support again, also, still conveniently located in another country.
“Sorry, sir, I canceled it in one of our systems, but not both, so it went through anyway.”
“Obviously,” I say, trying to keep my irritation under control, “But, I’d like my money back now.”
“Sorry, sir, you have to wait until you get the boxed copy, call us back with the serial number so we can cancel it, then wait 3-5 days.”
“That’s unacceptable,” I say, “I need the money back now. You guys screwed up and I shouldn’t have to pay for it.”
“I can upgrade this to a Tier 2 support status and you’ll get a call from a Tier 2 representative. They might be able to help.”
“Fine.”
Fast forward a few hours. The phone rings. “Hello, sir. This call is to let you know your case has been escalated to a Tier 2 level and you will receive a call tomorrow morning from a representative.”
“Seriously?” I ask.
“Yes, sir.”
“Fine.”
Fast forward to the next morning. No call.
Fast forward to the next afternoon. The box arrives. I call with the serial number.
“Thanks for the call, sir. Your refund will now be expedited in 3 to 5 days.”
I wait 7 business days. Still no refund. I call back today.
“Sorry sir, we forgot to generate a something something report. We’re doing that now and you will get your refund in 3 to 5 days.”
“Since you guys screwed up again, I’d like it faster. Let me speak with your boss.”
Fast forward another 20 minutes.
“Hi, I’m a supervisor.”
“Hi, I’d like my refund faster than 3 to 5 days.”
“3 to 5 days? We can only do 5 to 7 days.”
“Wait, what? But the last guy said 3 to 5 days.”
“Did he give you a 100% guarantee?”
“What the hell is wrong with your company?”
“Nothing, sir, I assure you.”
“Must just be the people then.”
So I sit on hold for hours now through this process. My blood pressure is through the roof every time I speak with them. I don’t normally cuss or yell. I’ve cussed and yelled. And I still don’t have my $840.
I guess we will see if it ever happens.
UPDATE: This was e-mailed to me letting me know they had closed my case (for the third time): “Your credit card will be refunded within ten business days. Your issuing bank often requires an additional two to three weeks to apply the credit to your account.”
Really?
Filed under Business
While shopping with my wife at Sam Moon (or as I like to call it, the fifth circle of Hell) it became really irritating to see all the packages of cheap jewelry that said “best quality.”
This reminds me of all the businesses in the world that brag about being the best quality. Only about 10% of those really are best quality. The other 90% are either ignorant or just plain lying about it.
You shouldn’t have to say you’re the best quality. It should just be obvious to everyone who ever deals with you.
Filed under Business
I occasionally like to have Arby’s. I say occasionally because my wife doesn’t like it that much and the nearest one is about 30 minutes away. The main reason, though, is the ridiculously long wait at the drive-thru.
Always with the wait. Arby’s always delivers decent food (for fast food) at a slightly high-end price (again, for fast food) but by the time I’m through the drive-thru I’m usually so irritated about the wait I don’t even want the food anymore. It happens every time at every Arby’s I’ve ever been to. Obviously it can’t be fixed or they would. The delay is because they put together all the food fresh (once again, for fast food) when you order it. I guess if they just pre-made everything and left it under hot lamps I’d be angry it wasn’t fresh.
So how do you fix a problem for a customer who won’t be happy either way?
Good writing.
On a recent trip (by myself) I decided Arby’s was what my rumbling stomach was asking for. I pulled up and ordered (By the way, why can’t we list the main deals on the menu? I hate having to ask if you still have something.) and was about the pull through. The lady on the other side of the worst-speaker-ever-conceived-by-man gave me my total. I was about to pull forward when she threw one last line at me.
“Give us a few minutes while we make your order fresh for you.”
The phrase bounced around in my head for a few seconds as I pulled around. “They are making my food fresh,” I thought. I pulled up to the window and handed her my card. I then pulled up my e-mail on my phone and proceeded to return a few messages. A few minutes later I looked up from my phone and that old impatience began to well up inside me. “I want my roast beef!” it said loudly. Then another voice quietly protested, “But they’re making it fresh for you. That takes time.”
And my anger disappeared. With one friendly, well-written line, they managed to diffuse my annoyance. Amazing. Each time in the ten minute wait I would start to get impatient, the line would do its job and quell the anger.
I know the girl, nice though she was, didn’t come up with that turn of phrase on her own. No, somewhere in the bowels of Arby’s HQ, they collect data about customer wait times and subsequent complaints. Eventually the complaints reached a level that couldn’t be ignored. They looked at the process and discovered they couldn’t speed it up if they still wanted to make the food fresh. They would rather be known as being slow than serving stale food. Instead, someone in the organization handed the problem off to their ad agency.
And this is the beauty of ad agencies. We don’t just create ads. We use creativity to solve business problems. “We have an image issue,” Mr. Arby said, “We’re known as being really slow.”
“Let us see what we can come up with,” Mr. Ad Agency responded. He then handed the problem off to the Arby’s creative group. Some smart writer in that group realized that you have to explain the benefits of the wait to sell it to people. After much thinking, strategizing, brainstorming and concepting (all of which, by the way, looks like doing absolutely nothing), that great line was born. “Give us a few minutes while we make your order fresh for you.” I’m sure it ended up being a minor line item on a huge bill. “Drive-thru copywriting, four hours, $500.”
And yet how much good will that $500 line do them? When you consider the millions of customers Arby’s sees each year, I’m guessing a lot. If even a fraction of those customers returned again because they didn’t mind the wait anymore, it would yield millions in revenue. All from one well-written line.
The moral of the story: Don’t make people wait for fresh roast beef. If you have to, hire a smart writer.
Filed under Business, Creativity, Writing
Don’t give your customers an excuse to stop paying you.
We spend a decent amount of money at Marco’s Pizza in Leander. We always get the same deal. A big square pizza, cheese sticks and a Coke for $15. Anywhere from two to six times a month we make the call and go pick up the food. It’s always been good.
Tonight I call and tell them I’d like the “Big Square Deal” (see, we order enough to know the marketing name of the deal).
“Sure,” the voice on the other side of the phone says, “We still have that deal.”
“Great,” I say, “I’d like pepperoni.”
“Okay,” the voice says, “You know what, hang on a second.”
I wait patiently for a few seconds.
The voice comes back. “My manager says I need a coupon for that deal now.”
“Okay,” I say. “Well, we buy this deal a lot. Any chance we could have it again this once? I don’t have a coupon.”
“Nope,” the voice says, “My manager says I have to have a coupon.”
“Okay.” I think for a moment and then decide I’m done. “Tell your manager he lost my business. Have a good day.”
The manager seems to have forgotten that between their location and my house are almost a dozen other pizza joints. That’s a lot of more convenient choices.
And look, I’m not even asking for free pizza here. I would have gladly accepted, “Sir, I’ll give you the deal this time, but next time I need the coupon.” Or even, “We are no longer offering that deal at all.” In either case I would have continued to give them my business. But making a good customer jump through the coupon stupidity hoop to get a current offer is just too much when there are so many other choice out there.
If someone shows up at my business and wants to give me money, I’m going to do everything I can to make that transaction happen, including saying “don’t worry about the stupid coupon.”
Marco’s gave me an excuse to stop paying them.
I doesn’t take much these days. All businesses would do well to remember that.
Filed under Business
I’ll admit I’m not an economist, or even close to one. So please forgive the naivety of the following question:
I understand the downgrade of America’s credit rating could have a negative effect on Americans’ ability to borrow money, but isn’t spending a lot of money we don’t have part what got us here in the first place? Could an America emerge from this where credit is harder to come by but we still do just fine?
Maybe the televisions are smaller and the luxury yachts less numerous, but maybe our blood pressure level as a nation is somewhere in the survivable range. Debt can bring a some positives if handled correctly (like taking on debt to expand a business, thereby generating more income), but we haven’t really proven to be good at handling it.
I realize it’s a deep issue with lots of facets that most people don’t understand and it can’t be boiled down to such simple levels. I’m just saying maybe there is an America in the future where everything isn’t about material goods and is more about living a better life without crippling debt. Over the last few years we’ve been tremendously blessed in the getting-rid-of-debt department. Our life today is a far cry from what it was even a year ago when we owed a lot of money. Life didn’t get any better until we turned off the debt nozzle and decided we didn’t need any more of it. It wasn’t easy and there were some definite growing pains over the years as we’ve come to this point. Is the same thing possible for an entire country?
Related: Rob Delaney bought some U.S. stocks.
Filed under Business
I’ve always had a policy of tipping well. Even for bad service, I tend to land in the 20% range. Everyone has a bad day. Maybe that one good tip, despite the bad service, is just what that person needs to turn their day around and make it good.
But I’m not sure how to feel about completely unearned tips. More and more when I get my receipt from a restaurant it has a place for a tip, even if there is no one specific to tip. The guy takes my order, passes it off to someone and they make the food. My name is called and I pick up the food. This is the extent of my contact with the restaurant employees. Where in that process is the tip earned? Am I wrong in thinking it’s not? It isn’t like a specific employee spent an hour of their life making sure I was happy.
So do you tip in these cases? I don’t, and don’t think it should be expected, but somehow still feel bad about it.
Maybe there’s a different perspective from the people behind the counter. Do you expect a tip in these cases?
I’m endlessly fascinated with what successful people’s days look like. How do they schedule? How do they work? How do they, in short, accomplish all the things required for success?
I’m always toying with my own schedule, trying to find a way to really be productive (most days, I’d settle for just feeling like I was productive, whether I really was or not).
Usually this involves coming up with some new schedule, doing it for a week, loving it and then abandoning it to die as soon as a big deadline hits. This seems to be an endless cycle in my life.
So, for the next step in that cycle, I came up with a new schedule to accomplish a few goals I have. It should be nice for a week or so.
7:30AM Up and Ready For the Day.
Might get up earlier. Might get up later. Working from home I have that freedom. But the goal is to be showered (ha!), have the first batch of e-mail returned for the day, and be in the office by 8:00AM.
8:00AM – 10:00AM Writing
I write best when my mind is fresh. My mind is freshest in the morning. It’s one of those creative endeavors that, for me, requires more brain power than, say, designing a company’s brochures. I might as well churn out my day’s words in the morning, when they’ll be the best. I’ll use this time for any kind of writing, be it blog posts, client work or fiction. I’ve been a semi-professional writer for a few years (meaning I get paid for some my writing, but it’s not the majority of my work) and I think it’s time I started seriously working toward getting rid of that “semi” part.
10:00AM – 11:00AM Creative Work/E-mail
Whatever needs doing at this point. Lots of e-mail comes in every day so this hour can be for that or doing any other work that I need to clear out before lunch.
11:00AM – 12:00PM Lunch
I like my lunch early. Then I can work through the normal 12-1 hour when most people are eating. If my clients are eating, they aren’t calling me and I can have an uninterrupted hour to work. Also I try to spend my lunch time somewhere other than my office.
12:00PM – 2:30PM Creative Work
I can churn out a lot of work in two-and-a-half hours. Especially if I close down my e-mail/Twitter/the internet and stay organized.
2:30PM – 3:30PM Siesta*
A nap? For an hour? Probably not. But it helps me to take an hour at about this time to rest, read or, really, do anything but stare at a computer monitor. At this point I will have churned out quite a bit of creative output and by about 2:30, my brain is mush. I’m basically useless. I can sit at my computer drooling on myself (with the client’s meter running, mind you), or I can take a break (turning off the timer) and do something to disconnect my brain from my task list. If I try to power through this hour I never get much else done that day. At least nothing you’d consider quality work. If I take an hour to rest, it makes my last part of the day so very productive. Trust me, it’s a fair trade-off for my clients.
3:30PM – 4:30PM Wrap Up the Creative
Time to put a bow on this day, it’s almost done. I spend this hour returning the last of the day’s calls/e-mails and wrapping up any projects due that day (or, if by some miracle of God I’m working ahead, the next day).
4:30PM – 5:00PM THE FUTURE!
If I don’t spend a specific amount of time each day working on gaining new clients, well, they don’t usually just back the dump truck filled with cash up to my door. I have to go find them and then ask them to do that. Such a pain. Incidentally, when I’m fishing, the fish don’t just jump in the boat. Who do I see about that?
5:00PM – 5:30PM Organize the Next Day
Time to get the task list ready for the next day, send some e-mail and generally make sure I set myself up to be productive again.
Once again, all this sounds nice but any number of things (calls, meetings, being sick, deadlines, rabid weasels, being out of bacon) can come into play and screw this schedule up. But it would be nice if it lasted. I think it would be productive and allow me to continue taking on new opportunities. Also it would allow me to quit most days before midnight. That’d be nice.
*This would be the point, dear reader, when you might be thinking, “wow, this guy sounds like a jackass. A nap, really?” I don’t deny some amount of jackassery involved in this list, after all, there are people who have to really work for a living. I mean physically work. Roofing houses, this ain’t. Well, I earn my living with my brain. All the creative work I get paid for comes from said brain and if I don’t treat it right (rest it often, don’t do drugs, don’t stab it with an ice pick) my work is not as good. And if it’s not good, I don’t get hired, which means my kids starve. So, yeah, I’ll grant you I don’t do a lot of physical labor (although my photo shoots should qualify) but it’s still work.
**Also a note about the times: if I screwed any of them up, it’s because I’m currently hopped up on Nyquil and, man, it does weird stuff to my aforementioned brain.
Filed under Business, Creativity
I’ve always been very bad at taking days off. With business being really good this year, it’s been even worse.
Finally I’ve learned I have to plan for a day off. It’s not just going to sneak up on me. It’s not just a matter of taking off, I have to also get enough done ahead of time that I don’t spend my day off fielding client calls or worrying about the amount of things I have to get done.
So last night I planned ahead. I worked until 11 in the evening, finishing off the things on my list that I knew would come back to haunt me today. Here I set, watching the Rangers’ game from last night. Outside of also watching today’s Rangers’ game, I have absolutely no plans and already feel more relaxed.
I just need to start planning for a day off.
Filed under Business, Creativity, Personal
Despite having been a designer and marketing guy for 16 years, I’ve never had a dedicated website for my advertising work. Again with the cobbler’s kids having no shoes. After a lot of work this last week, I’m proud to show off my new site.
Filed under Business, Creativity, Photography
Today was a frustrating day. I often get clients who need great work. They are promoting something good and I come up with an idea that goes way above and beyond their vision for what can be done. But rarely do they really have the budget to make it work.
The choice usually boils down to presenting the idea with the budget needed, and losing the job, or presenting the idea and doing it at a cut rate. The first means you don’t get the work. The second means you work your tail off for about half what you should get paid.
So what do you do as a creative who refuses to settle for second best? In the past I’ve gone the second route. I’ve bid the jobs way under what I should just to do some exciting work. Sadly only about half the times does that work. The other half, someone comes in with a crappy idea, but a bid that is a fraction of even my “barely making anything” price. So it would seem underbidding only pays off about half the time.
I’m trying more and more to just bid what the job is worth. That can lead to some great work and a great paycheck. Or it can lead to stretches of no work and no paycheck. I’m not sure bidding jobs is ever a part of this job I’ll love or do well. I create ideas and tell stories, and I do it with a passion that is second to none. But the business side makes my head hurt.
Filed under Business, Creativity
It started at six this morning.
I took a few pictures I was proud of and had lunch with Chris after he assisted on the shoot.
Got a phone call and decided I might not enjoy the wedding business as much as I thought.
Tried to finish the day without yelling at my kids. Failed.
Sat down to write on the blog and realized I was too tired to really put coherent words down in an interesting way.
Just a long, long day.
Filed under Business, Family, Personal, Photography
I was reading this great article on the founding of UPS and came across the following fact:
UPS developed software that routes trucks such that they minimize left turns in their deliveries. By doing so, they reduced their annual fuel consumption by nearly 51,000 gallons in Washington DC alone. The reduction in fuel comes from drivers not having to sit idling at red lights waiting to make left hand turns.
As a one-man operation, I’ve hit a wall when it comes to the amount of work I can produce entirely on my own. This quickly limits how much new work I can take on. So the options basically become hiring people to help grow the business or optimizing my time to allow for growth.
Because I really don’t want to hire anyone and go down that road right now, I have to get rid of my left-hand turns. I need to find things that are basically wasted time and see what I can do to eliminate them. Every second a UPS driver is headed toward their destination is productive. Every second they are sitting at a red light waiting to turn left is wasted. I need to avoid some of my red lights.
Although I also find it inspiring that UPS was founded by two teenagers with a bicycle and $100. Makes you wonder what we could do with the vast amount of resources we have available now.
Filed under Business, Creativity
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