Month: May 2022

Crippled CEO Blog #137:

“No good deed goes unpunished.”

Various versions of that idiom have existed since Dante authored the original iteration in 1320. 

For over 900 years, that expression has been repeated. 

And I’m calling bullshit. 

I strongly believe that giving generously is good for you and your business. 

Good deeds, giving, and generosity is a huge part of Life Saver Pool Fence. Life Saver donates pool safety fencing to any family who has had a fatal or non-fatal drowning. 

The average pool fence costs around $2,000. 

When people come to us with their drowning story, we don’t verify it in any way.

We don’t double check it. 

We just give them the pool fence. 

I am certain that we have been ripped off a few times. I don’t know of any specific incidents, but it has to have happened, at some point. 

I’m okay with this. 

I would rather let a few people cheat us than ask a parent to prove that they had a tragedy, or a near tragedy.

We honor practically every warranty claim, even the ones we know are bologna. 

Life Saver donates to every drowning prevention nonprofit having any kind of event. And yeah, we usually get our logo up on a banner or something, but there are more efficient ways to spend those advertising dollars. The marketing isn’t the motivation — supporting the cause is. 

We also have a track record of doing some pretty amazing good deeds for our staff — it wouldn’t be right to detail them here. 

And anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong propensity for giving.

While I think it’s enough to do it because it’s the right thing to do, and your best bet is to not have any expectation when you do, the truth is that good deeds pay off. Yes, they do occasionally come back around and bite you — I’ve certainly had my fair share of that — but overall, you come out ahead. So, if you need some selfishness in your generosity, there you have it. You’ll get it back; I promise. 

It’s worked for me. It’s worked for my business. It’ll work but you, too. 

(Your mom was all about giving last night. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #136:

What would this look like if it was easy?

What would it look like if it was enjoyable?

How can I rig the game in my favor so it’s easier for me to win?

One of the superpowers you develop as a cripple is figuring out the optimal way to do something.

I have noticed that non-cripples will do things the harder way because it’ll end up working regardless, so they don’t really need to put thought into finding the easiest method.

But for me, the options are often the best way or no way at all. In lots of cases, the correct solution is also the only one that will work for me. Or, even if it’s not the only way, because I have so much else that I’m simultaneously dealing with, the easy way is much more important. So, I have gotten pretty good at finding these ideal ways of doing things, and the skill has grown beyond my personal needs and into my business. 

Let me give you some examples, though. 

I just started creating videos for YouTube and Facebook (you can find them if you search for Crippled CEO on YouTube). 

Even though it’s probably not the most aesthetic background, I shoot them in my office, because we already have the camera stuff in there for Jeopardy, and I have Mike there to help me. I record two videos back to back every Wednesday so we don’t have to get everything set up and taken down multiple times per week. 

My friend Marc Shapins is a great video editor. I don’t know much about editing, but I do know him, and I can afford to pay him to edit these for me each week.

This whole process is designed not only to be easy, but to take advantage of the resources I do have to get it done. I could try doing this by myself, at home, in front of my WebCam, or trying to get a friend help me, and then try to do all the editing myself — but those videos probably aren’t getting made if I went that route.

I have figured out that I like doing things with other people so much that I am totally fine doing things I otherwise wouldn’t like as long as I’m doing it with another person. This is why I saw the Batman three times in the theater.

So, I’ve used this to my advantage, and now as much as humanly possible, from checking emails to taking my vitamins to going over marketing analytics, I try to do these things with another person. This requires some self-awareness, but I’ve used this thing I’ve learned about myself to hack getting things done.

Life Saver Pool Fence’s uber busy season is from March through July. Historically, we had inventory projection systems in place where we tried our best to anticipate demands for all of our various product lines, analyze the leadtimes for all of the various components, and hopefully have everything we need for the upcoming month or two on time or a little bit early. We had carefully mapped out schedules where materials were supposed to arrive week after week, getting here just in time as we needed them. Unfortunately, real life would inevitably happen, and even though we would try to build in buffers and safeguards, inaccurate projections, shortages, delays, etc. would throw things out of whack, and like dominoes tipping each other over, one problem caused another, and the result would always be a season where we were struggling to keep up with the demand.

A few years back, I asked, “What would this look like if it was easy?“

I decided we would try to figure out what we were going to need for the entire season, and then just get all of it before March. No coordinated shipments. No special timing. We were just going to get all of it, and if we figured out we were wrong about something, then we would have extra time to adjust and bring in more.

It took us a couple years to get this dialed in and really go all in with it, but now we have, and we do have other problems — mainly storage — but one problem we don’t have is keeping up with demand. We don’t have the long lead times this year that we have had almost every summer for the last 30 years. The easy way was the best way. 

You don’t have to be crippled, though. Tim Ferriss believes that the question, “What would this look like if it was easy?“ is a big part of the reason for his success. It often might seem easier to just get it done, but imagining how you might do it if you were disabled, if it HAD to be easy, might give you some revelations that you didn’t expect.

(Your mom was extra easy last night. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #135:

I think you should play board games, or as us aficionados call them, table top games.

And not just because they’re fun and I’m trying to evangelize you to my hobby.

But because I think they are important for your friendships.

People have this idea that they just keep friends just by continuing to know them.

But I have this theory that friendships require scaffolding, they require a framework to be built upon.

It is why we have such an easy time making friends in our school years. We have this thing we do every day that we have to do with a bunch of other people.

It’s why we make friends at work.

And it’s probably the biggest reason why churches are so successful.

Friendships require a scaffolding, and at least for me, tabletop games are a great one. I probably wouldn’t have the closeness I have with my game night crew if it wasn’t for game night.

And there are games out there for everybody. From simple to complex, from silly and physical to serious and cerebral, I promise there are games out there that you will like.

If you’re having terrible memories of playing Monopoly or Risk right now, let me help you: those are terrible games. Way better games have been created.

Here are some of my favorites that I think are great for people to start with:

Lords of Waterdeep

Ticket to Ride

Settlers of Catan

Tsuro

Takaido

Mysterium

7 Wonders

Dominions

Citadel

Dixit 

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

So, that’s it. Play tabletop games if you like having excellent friendships. Or pick some other scaffolding that works for you. Maybe you prefer to start a band or a dance group or something. This is just what has worked for me, and I’m really glad that I’ve done it.

(Do you know who enjoyed playing games with me last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #134:

My mom died way too young in 2011.

I was 28 years old. 

Today is Mother’s Day. I had another blog post all ready to go today, but I decided to save it for next week because I think this is important.

If you’re on good terms with your mom, call her, spend time with her, try and go a little bit extra out of your way to really savor and appreciate the time you have with her. You only have so many of these Mother’s Days left. If she is 65 years old, you probably only have 10 or 15, more if you’re lucky, and then that’s it. That’s not a lot. 

If your mom is toxic and abusive, then keep her out of your life, but if you’re not on good terms, and she’s not THAT bad, do the really hard thing, reach out, and try to extend an olive branch today. You will regret it later if you don’t. I promise.

That’s it. Just a plea asking you to put a little more oomph into loving your mom today from someone who wishes he could. 

(My mom is dead, but yours still wants me to call her, though usually it’s late at night. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #133:

Hi. I’m Eric. And I’m addicted to debates. 

I’m currently in remission. I used to argue and debate with people constantly. I’m doing a lot better.

The main reason is because I learned something through my years of arguing with people.

It is impossible to change someone’s mind in an argument or debate.

It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how right you are, or how obvious it seems to you, if you’re in an argument with somebody, it is literally impossible to get them to change their mind.

Because once it has become an argument or a debate, once the goal is to win and avoid losing, it is now also a competition — and nobody wants to lose a competition. No one wants to be a loser.

Also, there’s this proven psychological phenomenon called the backfire effect. When you argue with somebody, you make their brain come up with new reasons why they are correct, and the end result is that they now believe whatever it was you were trying to talk them out of even harder.

The end result of all of this? You can’t win an argument — not if winning means changing somebody’s mind. 

So, how do we persuade people to change their mind?

In my experience, there are three tools that can help. 

Before we get to those tools, it is important that the conversation is in a place where you can use them. Each one requires that everybody is happy and getting along, though. If you slide into debate mode, it’s over. Give up for now. Decide to try again later. 

There are a couple tactics that I learned from the book on negotiating, “Never Split the Difference”, that work well to keep things from becoming an argument. 

The first is mirroring. It feels silly doing it, but I promise that people don’t notice, and it works oddly well. Mirroring is simply repeating back the last few words that somebody said and posing them as a question. You’re not calling them wrong. You’re not changing their mind. You’re just repeating back what they say.

“Tiger Woods is the most dominant athlete in history of all sports.”

“Of all sports?”

The second tactic is labeling. 

Labeling is summarizing what you think the other person believes and feels as honestly and accurately as possible — in a way that they will agree with. Labeling is NOT twisting their position into a straw man that you can tear down. 

“It seems like you are saying that Tiger Woods won more championships by a larger margin than any other athlete in history.”

With mirroring and labeling, you can keep the conversation going without it becoming a debate. Because remember, once it becomes a debate, that’s game over. That means you have to stop trying.

So, now that you’re in a place that’s not an argument or a debate, here are the three tools I found that work best for actually changing people’s minds.

The first is humor. If you can get somebody to laugh at their own belief, you’re winning. Comedians do a great job of making us think differently about a topic by conveying it in a humorous fashion. Comedy works, but this is probably the hardest of the three.

Second: tell a story. Stories are excellent ways of teaching and persuading. Stories take ideas out of the realm of fact and they bring them to life. Also, stories aren’t arguments or debates. You’re just telling a story, either from your own life, or somebody else’s. 

Third: demonstrate. And I don’t mean demonstrate with facts and figures. Get your hands involved. Use pencil and paper and sketch out what you mean. Get in the car and go drive to an example of what you’re saying. Run through an example and let them see it for themselves. 

Those are the three methods that I’ve found work best for persuading somebody to change their mind. Typically, just choosing one that best fits the scenario you are in is plenty, but if you can incorporate two or even all three, all the better.

And please, stop debating with people. You’ll never win. I was the worst of anybody, and it cost me a lot. If I can stop, I know you can, too.

(Do you know who doesn’t need any persuading? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.)

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