Month: September 2022

Crippled CEO Blog #154:

Pigeons can be made to be superstitious.

BF Skinner, in his 1948 study, provided food to pigeons at random times. Often, whatever random action the pigeon happened to be doing before the food appeared — turning in circles, bobbing its head, etc. — the pigeon would start doing whenever it wanted food. And sometimes, because the timing was random, food would come while the pigeon was doing its ritual dance, further reinforcing the superstition. The pigeon was convinced it was causing the food to appear with its action, even though the two were completely unrelated.

There are a lot of things we are doing that we think are important and necessary, but almost certainly aren’t. Like the pigeons in the study, we found success while doing something, but we attributed it to the wrong thing. 

Life Saver Pool Fence dealers thought that going to the customer’s house and doing a full sales presentation was a necessary part of selling a removable mesh pool safety fence. 

During Covid, many figured out that the entire process could be done over the phone, sometimes entirely by text and Google Earth, with no visit to the home necessary. This is a huge timesaver for both the sales person and the customer.

How many “important meetings“ could you cancel, and everything would be just fine? How many engagements do you attend that you really don’t want to, because you think something bad will happen if you don’t? Do you really need that employee (or customer) that upsets everybody and makes you miserable?

Why are you still wearing high heels? They look like they hurt, and I promise you that no one would think twice about it if you never put them on ever again. The heels aren’t the thing making you attractive.

I stopped wearing shoes after I dropped out of high school and I quit wearing underwear a few years ago. Nobody cares about the shoes and only people who I want to see me naked noticed the missing underoos. 

The reality is that you only have to get a few things right, and those things probably aren’t the ones that cause you the most stress and anxiety. It might take some experimenting, but it’s worth figuring out what you can cut back on so that you can do more of what’s actually important. Stop being a superstitious pigeon.

(Do you know who else stopped wearing underwear? Your grandmother — just like 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 #153:

“Any idiot can walk.”

I’ve often referenced this thing my mom told me when I was little.

I might even make it the title of my first book.

I like it. And it sounds cool and clever.

But what did she actually mean?

The most salient symptom of my cerebral palsy is my inability to walk. It is the reason for the wheelchair, which is the big thing that people notice first.

I’ve never been asked, “Do you wish you could dress yourself?” or “Do you wish you could get in bed without assistance?“

But I’ve often been asked, “Do you wish that you could walk?”

And even though it’s not the part of my disability that bothers me the most, the answer is yes. I do. I do wish that I could walk. 

And the main reason for that isn’t locomotion. My power wheelchair gets me around just fine.

I wish that I could walk because everyone else walks. It is the thing that separates me from the rest of society.

And I am envious of this thing that other people do and I can’t. 

But should I be, really?

Probably not. And I think that’s what my mom meant.

Any idiot can walk. 

It’s not special. It’s not impressive. There is no reason to be jealous of the people doing it. They certainly aren’t better than me because of it. 

I think that’s what she meant by it, and not only is it true, but I think you can apply it to most things people are jealous of. 

Any idiot can buy a Porsche.

Any idiot can get the big screen TV.

Any idiot can take pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Any idiot can get a 23-year-old girlfriend.

Any idiot can look like they have a perfect life on Instagram.

I don’t know what thing you don’t have or you can’t do that other people are fortunate to possess, but there’s a good chance that the “any idiot” model applies to that, also. 

Any idiot to walk, but nobody can do what I can do. And nobody can do what you can do, either.

(Do you know who definitely couldn’t walk after last night? Me. And 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 #152:

I have talked a lot about how marketing isn’t just logos and magazine ads — most of that is just advertising. 

Marketing is everything people think about your business — the totality of their perception of you. This is why how much you charge and the quality of your customer service is part of your marketing.

Amazon has a feature that lets you search the text of all of the books that they sell. They spent a lot of time and money creating this additional functionality. This extra feature that Amazon offers, but doesn’t sell, is 100% marketing.

We sell removable mesh pool safety fencing online for homeowners who want to install it themselves. On our website, we have a step by step calculator where they can put in their measurements, pick their height and color, all of the other options, and everything they need will be instantly added to their shopping cart, ready to check out. That entire system is marketing our business.

If you are a barber, and you have an easy to use appointment scheduling tool on your Facebook page, that is marketing. 

If you are a bank and you have tools that can help me calculate my mortgage or my investment returns, this is marketing.

These are things that make people like your company more. They tell their friends about them. They choose you over the competition because of them. These don’t feel like marketing in the traditional sense, but they are.

You can market yourself by making funny videos that make people like you more. You can market yourself by having cool, creative packaging. You can market yourself by having amazing customer service. But you can also market yourself by being extraordinarily useful in a unique, innovative way. Make life easier for your customers, and they will choose you every time.

(Do you know who was extraordinarily useful 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 #151:

All of the mesh that we had in stock was defective and unusable.

The mesh that we received as a replacement for the last bad batch was also full of defects and problems.

For a company that makes removable mesh pool safety fence, being out of mesh is bad.

Very bad. 

With no mesh, the factory shuts down. The workers all go home. Orders don’t ship. Dealers start losing jobs. Children might drown. 

The person who took care of our account at the mesh company was an industry veteran named Tony Ward. Tony grew up near the company headquarters in Dothan, AL, started working in the warehouse as a teenager, and quickly moved up the ranks to where he was then — the salesman in charge of our business. 

Tony knew the trouble we were in. 

Tony knew the ramifications of us not having any good mesh to use. 

But Tony was just the sales guy. He wasn’t the one making the mesh. He didn’t cause the problem. There wasn’t much he could do to fix it. It certainly wasn’t his fault.

But even though Tony Ward knew these problems weren’t his fault, as the representative in charge of taking care of us for his employer, he decided that it was his responsibility.

And that’s why, on a Sunday evening, Tony loaded up his personal truck with as much mesh as he could fit, after personally inspecting every roll, and drove through the night from Dothan, AL to Delray Beach, FL. 

Tony and his truck full of usable mesh were waiting for us on Monday morning when we opened for business. Nobody had to be sent home. Orders were shipped. No jobs were lost. No children drown.

Tony Ward’s midnight run happened roughly 15 years ago and I’m still talking about it. He’s still at that mesh company. And when I called needing help with something a few weeks ago, he was happy to assist. 

Being a hero, in business or otherwise, usually doesn’t require any special skills or talents. Most the time, it just takes caring so much that you’re willing to do extraordinary things. It takes  choosing to take responsibility even when it’s not your fault. 

Tony was our hero that Monday morning, and I bet he never tells that story. In fact, I would wager that he has a library full of stories like that, where he’s gone above and beyond to do the right thing, that he never talks about. We need more people like Tony Ward. 

Not all heroes wear capes. Some drive trucks full of mesh in the middle of the night.

(Do you know who did some heroic stuff 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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