Mitch’s Blog

Today, for my XXth birthday, I took myself to the casino to play some poker, which I’ve mentioned I have a fondness for. The table I was playing at was pretty friendly, and as we all got to talking the guy next to me said he wanted to tell me and the guy on the other side of me a joke. The other guy said “oh no”, and I didn’t say anything and awaited the joke; I like a good joke.

Well, this is the joke about a zebra he told. I was stunned; the guy on the other side didn’t laugh either; he was also black. I said to the guy that it’s a good thing he told us this joke instead of many other people, because their reaction might not have been as nice as ours was.

He was seriously taken aback. He asked if I thought the joke was racist; I said it was fairly inappropriate (I tend to talk this way sometimes, believe it or not), and asked him if he’d ever met any black people who actually talked like that. He said no, and I said that’s kind of a stereotype joke that, if told to the wrong people, could cause some problems, especially in the workplace. He really didn’t get it and he apologized, and he was a very nice guy, so I took some time to tell him why jokes like that, in the wrong company could be a really bad thing.

He said he understood after a while, and said his wife was a trainer of sorts at a company, and usually had to teach things like this on the back end. He then talked about being in other offices where he’d hear what he considered inappropriate comments being directed as women, and how it made him uncomfortable even though the women seemed to play along.

I usually go into business interactions like this figuring that people actually know that they said something inappropriate, but thought that their relationship with the other person was different than what it turned out to be. Sometimes, men will see women as one of the guys after awhile and begin to think that they can say certain things around them, and then learn that they’ve misjudged the entire thing. The same happens with minorities, where people tend to think they’ve gotten to know someone so well that “they couldn’t possibly take offense at a racial joke”.

Anyway, after today, I might have to take a different look at the issue of race, or sex, when it comes to inappropriate behavior. Very well meaning people can say some pretty stupid and insensitive things, and not have an understanding of why it’s wrong. Their lives haven’t given them the appropriate tools to know why it’s wrong, and that’s a much different issue than blatant racism. It’s still not excusable, but it’s something that must be considered in a much different way.

It’s interesting how much this topic seems to be coming up to me lately. It didn’t start with this post by Scott Sweeney called How Much Is Your Writing Worth, but it’s just another in the line of things that have been thrown in my face, in a way, over the last week or so.

I was listening to a interview conducted by David Goldsmith of Metamatrix Consulting, via the Virtual New York National Speakers Association website, with Jeffrey Gitomer discussing speaking engagements, and Jeffrey was saying how people still contact him asking if he’d do free seminars for them when he knows they have money and know what he’s all about, and always gets his fee or else he doesn’t do the presentation. He was saying how people always seem to value their own organization above the speaker’s needs, telling speakers it would give them good exposure, all while these groups rake in big time fees on the back end.

And finally, a conversation I’ve been having with a young man on Ryze about wealth and value and what it all means to every person, where he asked why people wanted to be wealthy when they could be happy without it, and I said the only people who say that are people who don’t have money, and those with money who say it wouldn’t ever think about trading places with someone who isn’t wealthy.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this thing called “worth” a lot. I wonder how it is that someone like me can offer certain services, proven winners mind you, and have an overwhelming majority not understand just what it is I do, even when it’s in their field, nor understand that they get what they pay for. As a quick for instance, in my best financial year, where I got paid pretty good for where I live, I helped a hospital increase their yearly revenue by an extra $750 million a year. Had I been able to get even 1/10th of that amount I’d be sitting pretty. Not only did I not get close to that amount, but I didn’t even get the credit for it, since I was a subcontractor instead of the main guy; ugh!

A few months ago I was having a conversation with a recruiter of services who asked me what my rate was. When I told him he said he thought it was a little bit high. I told him that, based on my track record, it was actually very low. Based on that track record I have determined that, for that particular service, the rate will only go higher, because it’s a service that not many people offer, or can back up with results as I’ve proven I can. For other services, I might adjust my rate. For instance, on the contract I just finished, my rate was lower than I might normally accept, since it was for something other than what I normally do, and yet I still was able to solve a problem for them that will increase their actual cash by at least 300% for one of their specialty services. How many other people can say they did that for a client this year?

Still, worth isn’t only about money. If you saw my last newsletter, you saw where I talked about how I felt by some things that had happened for me, and that helped me feel a great worth also. Worth can be about feelings; having both that kind of worth and the monetary kind of worth, though, is a wonderful thing.

Overall, our self worth really is the most important factor for our lives. How we decide to value our own worth, whether it’s money or something else, determines our goals, dreams, and lives. And who wouldn’t love feeling worthy of all great things that are able to come our way?

Today is Blog Day, but this year I have two blogs with different focuses. So, I’m going to recognize some blogs here that have to do with one type of thing, then some blogs on my other blog that have to do with what I talk about over there. I’m not sure it’s cheating or not, but hey, recognizing people is always a good thing in my opinion. And, just like last year, I won’t be highlighting any blogs of my friends, so I can be objective. Finally, here’s last year’s entrants.

Stereohyped is basically a source of news for and about black people, but sometimes with a comical vent. There’s actually a team of people who write this blog, but I find it very entertaining.

WWE Characters may seem out of character to people who don’t know me well, but for those who do they know that I love professional wrestling, especially the WWE. This blog gives some information that’s actually available on the WWE website, but the writer of the blog also gives updates and opinions on all things wrestling, and I love that. I don’t always get to watch it, so I can easily catch up on all the happenings by checking this one out.

Along those same lines, we have J.R.’s Place, which hosts the words of the Hall of Fame wrestling announcer Jim Ross, as he talks not only about wrestling, but anything else that hits his fancy at the time.

This year’s leadership blog to highlight is Leader Business, written by Tom Magness. I just like the way he writes about leadership; relatively easy principles that most people forget about, couched in a story; who doesn’t like stories.

By now, my regular readers know I’m diabetic. This year, I found Diabetes Mine, written by Amy Tenderich. It’s a mixture of what’s happening to her in life as well as information about diabetes.

The final blog I’m going to mention here is one that seems more suited, on its face, to my other blog. But Barbara Ling’s blog is more than just a blog about blogging. This woman gives away information on almost anything, and lots of it. Her blog is so comprehensive that there’s almost no way one can take all of it in at one time. And if you only stick to the new entries you’re not doing yourself any favors. Check this one out, but make sure you have some time to take in a lot of it.

And there you go. I hope you enjoy some of these as much as I do. See you next year for more.

Yesterday Michael Jackson turned 50 years old; 50! Talk about defining moments on one’s life. I’m not ready for MJ to turn 50; it means that I’m that just closer to reaching it myself, and I’m certainly not ready for myself to be 50.

Michael Jackson is my favorite performer of all time. I don’t care what he looks like or what anyone has to say about him, he’s still my favorite. He was my favorite when he was with the Jackson Five, and he remains so today. There have been so many defining moments in my life that I can tie a song done by a Jackson to my life that it’s scary.

What many people don’t remember today, through all the talk and scandal, is that Michael Jackson basically saved the music industry. Sales were flat, music companies were suffering, artists were suffering, and no one knew there to go. Sure, MTV had been on only a couple of years, and at that time they weren’t playing any black artists on the network (I know someone’s going to say there was one somewhere in there, but no solo artists). CBS Records, which Michael Jackson recorded for, had the Billie Jean video and pitched it to MTV, which initially rejected it, but then CBS said if they didn’t put it on then they would never be allowed to broadcast any CBS performing artists ever again. MTV capitulated, and the Billie Jean video hit the airwaves. And it was popular, though not earth shaking to many at the time.

However, when the performance below came on, which was supposed to be a tribute to Motown, suddenly the roof blew off the sucker, and the age of the mega-superstar was launched. The performance below helped Thriller sell over 50 million records, and was ultimately responsible for acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Prince, and U2, to have albums that helped make them icons in the world that they still are to this day.

I couldn’t handle MJ being 50 yesterday, but I can handle it today. I hope you enjoy this video; how could you not?

I got this from one of the Twitter faithful I follow. It’s called the $20 Million Dollar Man, and it starts with a video, which I’m posting below, and an opportunity to get a free report on how this man, who made it big, lost it all, then made it even bigger after he’d retired, did it. First, watch this video, then think about going to the site to order the report. I already have, and I hope to check it out later today.

See, here’s proof that it’s never too late to achieve success; I want to get there also.

First, the latest TTM Consulting Newsletter, Some Positive Customer Service Experiences, is available.

Who would have ever thought the day would come that came, well, late last night, with the acceptance speech of Barack Obama of the presidential nomination for the Democratic Party? And, how prophetic it was that it came on the 45th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr speech in Washington D.C., when he said:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

Tonight, Barack Obama said this:

“You know, this country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

And it is that promise that 45 years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.”

To me, this wasn’t a political moment; this was a cultural moment. I think Dr. King would be proud.

I don’t have call waiting on my cell phone or on my home phone. I have it on my business line, but not because I wanted it. My business line is cable phone through Time Warner, which I got because it has the all-important voice mail, which is much clearer than any answering machine I ever put on there, but it also comes automatically with call waiting, which is really irritating because it breaks into the line and is constantly barraging you, and then you know when it’s kicking into voice mail because suddenly all sound ceases, including the words of the person talking to you, for about 2 seconds. Irritating as anything.

I bring this up because something I hate is when I’m talking to someone and they suddenly have to see who’s on the other line. It’s as if they’re saying “you’re not important enough to me because someone else might be more interesting to talk to that’s now calling me.” If they have kids, I can understand it a bit more, but not much. No matter who it is, though, I have a 10 second rule; I wait any longer than that for you to get back to me, you’re going to have air when you come back.

I might have thought I was alone in this thought until I saw Tom McMahon’s blog, where he quoted a piece from Burt Prelutsky’s article titled Time On My Hands.

It’s a very good article of his thoughts on why people keep you waiting and not apologizing for it. I fully understand, as I’ve written about different things concerning both courtesy and customer service that have irritated me. My house is like a blanket of invisibility at times. It’s happening again lately, where people make appointments to stop by the house for some kind of business we’re hoping to do with them, then they never show up. This time around, at least both of them finally called to apologize, but usually it seems like we never hear from them again.

In this circumstance, the first one forgot because his daughter and grandchildren stopped by for a visit unannounced. I can understand excitement over seeing the family, and a quick phone call would have been all I needed to move on with my day. Instead, my wife and I waited 90 minutes before deciding to leave; after all, we didn’t want to be rude hosts by leaving if all that had happened was that he’d gotten caught in traffic. But he did call; 7 hours later, while we weren’t home, but at least he called.

The other guy? We need a little construction work done, and this guy is the contractor of one of my wife’s best friends. Supposedly he does great work, but can go missing from time to time. My wife still invited him over to evaluate our needs. He said he was coming on this particular day, and he did; he just never said when, so we waited in the house all day and, just as we’d decided to leave because we had to get some things for me, since I was leaving town, that’s when he finally showed up. He did his thing and left, and now we haven’t heard from him in two weeks, just to give us an estimate as to how much it would all cost, let alone schedule the work. I’ve asked my wife to call someone else; summer’s almost over, and we’d like to get this thing done some time before 2010.

My goodness, how many years ago at this juncture did I write an article called Common Courtesy, which I eventually shared with my consulting group, the Professional Consultant’s Association of Central New York? Sometimes, it seems some things only change if they’re getting worse.

An interesting article popped up on the ESPN website. Written by Jemele Hill, the article titled For the black community, a Redeem Team gold is especially important indicates that the group most hurt by recent poor performances in the Olympics are black basketball players and the black community in general, and that, by winning the gold medal, the Redeem Team, as they’re known by, not only redeems American basketball but the entire black community as well.

It’s an intriguing story, one that definitely deserves at least a little bit of thought about, because of some of the facts in her story. One, if not all, the players on the teams have been overwhelmingly black. Two, the way they’ve paraded in the last couple of Olympic games, as though they’re not really part of the entire American experience at all, looked bad. Three, it looked like they couldn’t translate what’s really more of an independent game into an organized and orderly world standard, and therefore looked exposed as overpaid “out for myself” ballers instead of men proud to win as a team.

However, appearances are deceiving. Andrew Bogut of Australia notwithstanding, the truth is that those past teams weren’t put together all that well. Larry Brown being picked as someone to coach Olympians was one of the worst choices I’d ever seen. He’s all about control, and he picked the style of players that work well in the NBA, but didn’t pick the types of players that need to be on international teams in order to win. In other words, Larry Brown fell down where people thought he excelled; he didn’t scout international basketball to know what was needed in order to compete. Oh, by the way, Larry Brown happens to not be black, by the way, and neither was George Karl, who coached the 2002 FIBA tournament team that got embarrassed. And neither is Mike Krzyzewski, this year’s Olympic coach, who was also the 2006 coach of the team that ended up with the bronze medal.

I hate thinking that people might possibly see these games as redemption for black basketball players. Goodness, why do individuals need redemption in team games anyway? True, it’s been embarrassing in a way not to see Americans win every single basketball game they play against international competition, but truth be told those international teams, for the most part, play with each other almost all the time, and the international pro leagues are much like the international games, whereas here in America the rules and the courts are different. That, plus so many players have elected not to go for different reasons in the past. Does anyone really think the 2006 team wouldn’t have won if Kobe Bryant hadn’t been there? What about Shaq in 2006, or 2004?

It’s hard enough for any athletes to have to win knowing they’re representing the United States; adding the pressure on by saying they’re playing for their race isn’t fair. If they win, everyone here wins, and that’s good enough for me. After all, that’s what diversity is supposed to be about.

First, the latest issue of the T T Mitchell Consulting Healthcare Newsletter, CFO Issues, is available.

Let me ask you a question. If you’re a leader in some capacity, how do you affect people you interact with?

It’s a question many managers can’t answer, or may be fooling themselves by answering incorrectly. I would bet that 95% of all managers who might be asked this question would say that they have a great rapport with those who work for them, but then I would bet that at least 50% of those employees would answer it a different way.

As a consultant, I could probably get away with doing some things that many who are employed already, no matter their level, would feel uncomfortable doing. There are consulting companies whose job is to go into other companies and look for ways to reduce expenses, and often it means slashing staff. No one is ever happy about it, but these companies don’t care. Often, the top dogs of those particular companies have either already been relieved or might be on their way out, so it’s the board that hires these people, and since the board doesn’t always know hardly any of the employees, they have no emotional investment with the employees, and neither do these companies. This isn’t meant as a denigration of the companies (though it might be a slight indictment against those types of boards), because they’re only doing the job someone hired them for.

I like to go the other way as much as possible. If I make someone feel bad, I do it with kindness and reality. I’m glad to not be in a career where my main duty is to let people go. I do end up, every once in awhile, being responsible for other people, which suddenly means I’m a manager. Some might think it’s a fine line to walk between being easy on people or being courteous, but I don’t. I feel that the nice approach works best; that, plus I find that if I can strike some sort of emotional bond with people, they respond better, and will attempt to work better with me because they don’t want me to look bad. In other words, I try to open up the lines of communication because I don’t only want to hear about good stuff, I want to know about the bad stuff also. Actually, I really want to hear more about the bad stuff than the good stuff, because the good stuff can take care of itself.

So then, how does one know how they’ve touched people in positive ways? On two of the consulting gigs I’ve had, I’ve been thrown a going-away party and given gifts. On others, I’ve had people come up to me to thank me for this or that, tell me they wish I wasn’t going away, and give me good tidings on my next bit of adventure. On my present contract, which ends next week, I had 4 different people come to me yesterday, since they’ll be on vacation next week, to say they’ve enjoyed working with me and wish me well. And, at my last full time job, we all threw a party for all of us, exchanged information, and two years later when we met up for a lunch, there were 11 former employees of mine who showed up out of 18 I’d worked with on a Saturday; I’m thinking that wasn’t a bad sign.

Of course, it’s not about being nice when you’re leading people; it’s about getting results. However, I always feel it’s best to get results where one can share the attention, and it’s best to get results that will last longer because people not only know how to do their jobs, but they feel good about it. True, sometimes you have to give bad news, but if delivered correctly, one can only grow. And, if they appreciate how you did it, the business relationship grows.

And wouldn’t you rather have people you work with like you rather than fear or hate you?

Yesterday I received a call out of the blue from someone who’s trying to be a consultant in the healthcare industry. She said that, in her opinion, she has the skills and the knowledge to be a consultant, and in the few assignments she’s been able to get, she’s gotten nothing but kudos from the people she’s ended up working with.

But she had a common lament that I hear often, one that I’ve had myself often enough. She has never gotten an assignment on her own, always subcontracting, no matter how much advertising she’s done, and she wonders if it’s because she’s a minority. I couldn’t disagree with her, and I hate agreeing with her, but I’d have to say that I’m leaning more towards her direction than away from it.

Here’s the overall thing, though. Worrying about why one might have a problem getting a job, when it comes to racial background, is something that white people never have to worry about, but in America black people do. There have been many studies, official and not, that have proven that it’s easier for a white convict to get a job than a black person with a college degree. That’s scary, and if it happens at the lower skill level, it’s happening more at the skilled level. There aren’t a large number of black healthcare consultant to begin with, even fewer in the finance end of things. And when one has pretty good qualifications and credentials, it does make one wonder why they’re not as popular as direct contacts, but very popular with subcontracting companies once you’ve done an assignment with them. So, true or not for each individual, just having it out there as something one has to think about adds another level of pressure, and, unfortunately, it’s something that, in general, minorities can’t do anything to change; not that we necessarily would if we could.

Have I ever not gotten a contract because I’m black? How would I know? I do know that I have barely gotten jobs because I was black; I’ve been told that by those who have hired me at times. When I first had my website created, I debated with myself as to whether or not I was going to put my picture on it. I did the same thing with all my earlier marketing material. I talked with my dad about it at the time and he said that, in his opinion, it was better excluding people who might hesitate because I was black without talking to me first, rather than showing up somewhere and seeing that involuntary “jerk” because I wasn’t what someone was expecting. To be truthful, I still see that involuntary “jerk” from time to time anyway, because, obviously, not everyone checks out the website thoroughly, including my bio page.

I’m thinking about an experiment. I’m thinking about rewriting my bio page a little bit and taking my picture off for a six month period. Right now, it’s fairly personable; you should check it out if you haven’t yet before it’s too late. My website averages almost 40 visits a day, and for the type of site it is, that’s a lot of visitors, and you’d think I’d be getting calls all the time. My bio page is the 7th most visited page on my site, and people spend an average of 90 seconds there, which means they’re at least reading it. But either they don’t like what they read or they don’t like what they see enough to call me for services, and that has to change. After all, I do have dreams and goals to get to.

So, we’ll see. I have some time to think about it some more, but one of the things I’ve learned in reading all this material on internet marketing is that one should be testing things from time to time to see what works best. Since I’m betting that, aside from some of the comments I write, almost no one would automatically assume I was black if they read what I put on my site, it just might be a test worth trying out. The worst that could happen is that things stay as they are; I could live with that.