Geoff Wasserman

Disconnect the Horn, but Keep Driving

Posted on 14. Jul, 2010 by Geoff.

Crazy thing happened a couple weeks ago. My SUV decided, periodically, to randomly blow the horn. One morning I was sitting at a red light at a crowded intersection, with a car in front of me. Off went the horn. The next day, at another intersection, as I was driving through, the horn starts blowing again. Imagine the looks I got (and a few gestures!).

Two weeks later, after this happening 3-4 random, unpredictable times/day, I began feeling a hesitation to even want to drive and finally stopped my hectic week, and pulled into the dealership’s service department.

As is with most auto repairs…bla bla bla, we need a day to look into it, hundreds of dollars to explore the problem before we even fix it. “Or…the other option, for now, Mr. Wasserman…see this fuse? I can disconnect it for free until you have a full day to bring it in.” I didn’t drive the car off a cliff (although the thought crossed my mind!)…I didn’t stop driving. I didn’t stop staying focused and running full speed ahead, and I didn’t let it shut my life down or rob my joy…just unhooked the minor that had become a major.

I love driving again. No random, disturbing noise. No hesitation to drive for fear of the noise. No anxiety. NO people staring at me judging me by the noise they randomly heard as I passed by them. Sure, can’t honk reactively at people who cut me off to express my concern.

Got me thinking…What disruptive “minor” has mushroomed into a major noise, anxiety creator in your life that’s become a disruptive force in the middle of your purpose, relationships, and vision?

Maybe temporarily unhooking from it…not permanently, but long enough to remember the peace you had prior to it…can give you a new perspective, and renew your passion for what you’re doing.

Want to get the latest posts in your email? Subscribe to my blog.

Continue Reading

Cultivating Potential vs. Feeding the System

Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by Geoff.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of education, both within the system and in the home. I’m not so much concerned with what’s being taught as I am with what’s being discouraged, overlooked, neglected and perhaps not valued.

Same goes for the workplace, where so many businesses refuse to change as the market, customers and employees change, and recognize the gifts in the people around them every day, dismissing them because they don’t fit a title, a project, a current need, or a system.

Imagine, for a minute, if these conversations/letters actually happened. They happen every day, either formally, between parent/child, leadership/employees, or simply in our heads as the story we tell ourselves to stay comfortable and not go out on the limb…where the real fruit usually is.

“Mrs. Hogan, your son will once again be in detention after school for wrestling classmates on the playground. This is a school, we are trying to prepare him for his future. His friends are even calling him ‘Hulk’! Continuing such behavior will result in expulsion. Consider this his last opportunity to change.”

“Mr. & Mrs. Lennon, please inform your son that his 5^th tardy this week means he can no longer qualify for our after-school band program. While his excuses of playing music with his 3 friends in corner pubs is admirable, they in no way take the place of a formal music education and he simply will have to choose…closing down Liverpool bars or a quality music education with us. We believe the choice is obvious. Please let us know of your decision as responsible parents concerned about his future.”

“Mr. Mcfarland, this is the 4^th time we’ve caught you, during the workday in your cubicle, drawing cartoons and cutting jokes. Seth, you’re here to learn from this internship at our company, so you can one day get a job to support yourself. These distractions must stop immediately.”

When true potential is unveiled, it’s usually very subtle, it usually occurs during the flow of “same old same old”, and usually gets overlooked or set aside as a distraction from the task at hand.

Wondering…how many times someone in leadership became so adamant and focused on adhering to rules and a system, that true passion, undiscovered genius and gifts were overlooked, unrecognized, and died on the doorstep of development.

CEO’s: Outside of their ‘job’, what do your employees do nights & weekends, & on lunch break? You might find their real gift, and it just might turn your company around if you make room for it.

Continue Reading

What Are You Doing?

Posted on 26. Jun, 2010 by Geoff.

Saw a statistic recently that revealed only 11% of all Americans were, in essence, in their “dream job”, feeling like they wouldn’t do anything else, they’d do their current work for free if they had to…they loved their work.

A great leader/author once said, “Your job is what you do until you discover your life’s work. Once you discover your calling, you never retire…one day, you simply change your schedule a bit.” So the real question then, is…how do you find your dream job? I’d submit to you you don’t. You do your dream work, your passion, and the work will find you.

Here’s a video that inspired me this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T4zTz9zn0s

Best video ever? Nope. But it was done by the son (adult son, husband and father of 2) of a friend in radio broadcasting, who decided he would start working passionately at 2 things he loves: Football and video production. He put it on YouTube, and got a call with compliments from someone at NFL films. Did he get the job? Who cares.

Point is this…we have results, we have dreams fulfilled, or we have stories and excuses to tell. What’s stopping you today from doing that dream work, that passion inside you? Even 15 minutes a day…write a blog…start the novel…buy the hammer…do something. (”I will bless the things you set your hands to…” )

You’ll be amazed at what you’ll discover in you, and quite possibly who might discover you. Your gifts aren’t yours. They were given to you to use to impact others.

11%…Wonder how much lower the stat would be about life in general…relationships, geography, spiritual walk, etc.?

Dare to be you. Dare to do what’s inside you. Start today, and see what…and who…finds you.

Continue Reading

Did You Save Room For Dessert?

Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by Geoff.

Amazing…the impact that momentum, status quo and “that’s how we’ve always done it” can have at eroding sales and growth in an organization.

Almost every server at every restaurant I’ve ever been to in any country/state asks, toward the end of the meal, “Did you save room for dessert today?” The creative ones mix up the status quo sometimes, with things like, “So…I know you saved room for dessert for me, right?”

It’s become a cliche that’s gained momentum and become the status quo, the way the industry does it, the expected, the conditioned statement/question.

Here’s the problem:  The response has also become conditioned: “No.”

Generally, dessert isn’t something you save & plan for logically. It’s an emotional “I deserve to endulge” purchase. Enter logic into that process and you’ve asked your customer to think rationally at some level. And when you do, believe me, they do. They actually START thinking about the impact the calories will have and the “room” it’ll fill in their body. It moves us from a pleasure/endulgence impulse purchase to a “what’s in my best interest” decision.

In organizations, when you have an accepted way of communicating something that gains momentum, it becomes status quo and “the way we’ve always done it.” For businesses, Churches and other organizations, the “watchout” is this: We forget we’ve conditioned our audience to respond a certain way.

Generally, servers do what they think servers are supposed to do. Customers react the way customers think they’re supposed to react. And thus, a rhythm’s created for conversation. “Did you save room?” (smile…). “Oh no, not me.” (w/standard chuckle of “I’m full, I couldn’t possibly!”). Simple exchange, 10-15% loss of overall revenue per ticket.

Walking the dessert tray to every table is a lost art form.

Truth is: Everyone loves appetizers and a great entree. We spend lots of $$ on it, plan most of our evening and conversation around it, and we don’t literally plan to save room for dessert. I never ordered an appetizer, filet w/sides and enjoyed the customary bread basket, the whole time thinking, “I hope all this food isn’t enough, I’m saving room so I can spend more for dessert.”

Upselling is an art, and GREAT art isn’t an afterthought to create, whether on a canvas or in customer service…it takes time to come up with the ultimate way of evoking emotion that moves us to the decision to buy. As with most art, it starts with engaging the audience and communicating intentionally (dessert tray for instance, that creates an experience) to move us to a desired response.

Challenge your industry’s cliches & status quo…a little creativity could radically change an industry norm if you’ll dare.

Continue Reading

Problem Solving

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Geoff.

Here’s a quick math problem someone sent me. THink twice before you scroll down for the answer:

If…

1=5

2=25

3=125

4=625

5=???

(think again before scrolling down for the answer…)

Answer: 1. Remember, 1=5. Amazing how conditioned we are to jump into a process, over-analyze, over-think, and end up making problems more complicated than they really are.

What problem have you been wrestling with for months/weeks? Take a step back, get a fresh set of eyes on it. Maybe the solution’s a lot simpler than you thought.

Continue Reading

Cheese & Crackers or Pancakes & Syrup?

Posted on 20. Feb, 2010 by Geoff.

After a recent & rare snow day here in South Carolina (after snowball fights & snow wrestling with the kids!), I spent the evening inside, having a pancake party with my kids. As we made pancakes (and a mess!) together, I figured I’d snack on some cheese & crackers.

Interesting thought dawned on me…Nothing wrong with cheese & crackers. they go well together. Great combination, they mix ‘n match, they come in various flavors, shapes and sizes, and they make a great pair. But…whenever I decided I didn’t want the combination, it was easy to peel 1 off the other, with little evidence they were ever connected to begin with. Hold that thought a minute.

Then we had the pancakes, as and my kids drenched them with syrup and 5-6 different toppings, my youngest daughter shouted in terror, “NOOOOOO Daddy! I didn’t want syrup on them!” My son chimed in, as only an 8-year old boy loaded with empathy can…”Oh well, too late!” He was right…once the pancake was immersed in the syrup, it was all in.

With clients, it tends to be the same way, if you ask most business owners. They usually have a long roster of clients they serve well, love to work with, and have a great relationship with year after year. Cheese & crackers. But then there’s that small handful…the ones where they move beyond working in the client’s business…to the client’s business working in them. So immersed in the pancake is the syrup, that it’s impossible to disconnect the 2. I suppose the best relationships, ideally, are the same way.

Leaders: Check your team’s perspective on your clients. It’s unrealistic that everyone on your team will feel fully immersed in the vision of every client, that’s impossible to sustain and maintain every day, year after year, as you grow. But being transparent and discerning who feels how about which clients can be a powerful opportunity to match the right employees up with the projects they can’t help but get passionately immersed in…and that’s where the magic of “surprise & delight”, under-committing & over-delivering…really happens.

Continue Reading

The Song With the Hidden Message for Dreamers

Posted on 07. Feb, 2010 by Geoff.

Had lunch with a great friend, Roger (Rhoades), who’s a 30+/year relationship counselor. Somehow we got on the subject of people who are spectators of life vs. people on the field in the game, and the song “Centerfield” by John Fogerty came up.

The chorus is amazingly insightful to me as an advisor who works with a lot of CEO’s and Pastors to help them build great organizations. I know Fogerty didn’t write it for that purpose, but here’s the chorus:

Oh, put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;

Put me in, coach - I’m ready to play today;

Look at me, I can be centerfield.

The chorus illustrates 4 great principles that separate dreamers from success stories:

1) Power of the Ask (Put me in, coach!)…

Over the years I’ve marveled at the people who appear less talented, less qualified, less “voted most likely to ____”, yet they got the job, got the TV show, got the dream girl, got the book deal, fulfilled the dream. The difference: At some point, they realized they’d have to be bold, strike the fine balance between humility and confidence, and say “Put me in, coach”…Key word ‘coach’. Are you asking the right person, the person in authority over your opportunity, for the chance to be put in? Telling your friends, complaining to co-workers, asking the wrong people for feedback does no good. At some point, you’ve got to ask for the opportunity, confidently, knowing you may get a “no”. It’s your future, your dream, your life. Wanna have it?

2) Power of Preparation (I’m ready to play!)…

David had to practice throwing a rock with a slingshot for days, months, years…before he got to throw it at Goliath 1 time. Olympians spend every day of their life trying to shave the 1/100^th off their time to make the difference between bronze and silver medals. Before your door opens, are you preparing your gifts and talents in private in preparation for them to be on display publicly?

3) Power of Priorities (Today!)…

I never advocate being a workaholic, nor am I suggesting everything happens overnight. However, there are moments we have to recognize that a door is opened, and be keenly aware of its closeability. All doors close eventually, that’s why they’re on hinges. What matters is what side you’re on when it does. When the door opens TODAY, what’s your excuse for waiting until tomorrow to charge through it with a sense of urgency? Oh, it’ll be there tomorrow…I have all these emails to catch up on before I make the call…I can’t possibly pick up and fly to New York just for a lunch…Well? Why NOT today? What guarantee do you have the door will be open tomorrow? After all, why would God open it today, if you weren’t supposed to move toward it today?

4) Power of knowing who you are vs. what you do (I can BE centerfield!).

The amazing part of that lyric (the part I always thought was bad grammar), an awkward ending to a chorus…I never caught it in 20+ years until now…he said “BE” instead of “play” centerfield.

Your gift, the thing inside you that’s uniquely you and opens doors of opportunity for your future…is in you because of who you are, not what you do. Great jobs, relationships, and other opportunities rarely come to you as a result of what you do, they usually come to you because of who you are.

He knew he loved baseball, and could play a lot of positions. But the one he was born for…was centerfield. Middle of the action. The one that required the guy with the best speed, the best arm, the best sense of the game to be counted on to cover the most ground and save the day the most times up against the wall.

Great success stories are great because they didn’t ask for ANY job, they asked for a chance at “the” job. THE relationship. THE internship. THE chance. They asked for it because they knew it was in them, it was what they were born to do, and it was who they were.

Continue Reading