“This is how you do it: You sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy and that hard.” – fiction writer Neil Gaiman
You’re reading my hectoblog. That’s means #100 in case you slept through the metric system lessons in school. A solid hundo. The Benjamin of blogs. My blogging century club.
Like the message in Simon Sinek’s new book Together Is Better, we humans are so much better when we’re working together.
“You earn your reputation by the things you do every day.” – Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas
A December 2016 Gallup poll asked respondents to rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in different fields. Insurance salespeople came in 20 out of 22, beating out car salespeople and members of Congress. No wonder prospective clients sometimes entertain a meeting with us under the guise of “just trying to keep my current agent honest.”
While the perception of the insurance industry may be near the bottom, it’s not like other sectors are getting glowing reviews. I decided to pose a few questions about “doing the right thing” on LinkedIn in a simple post and got thousands of views. This is clearly an issue that spans industries and professions.
“When it comes right down to it, the only point of differentiation left today is the customer experience itself,” wrote Bill Carmody in a 2016 Inc. magazine article. Are you able to define your client experience? It’s the product of the interaction between you and your clients over the duration of the relationship.
As you reflect on the year that was and the year ahead, how big of a role is luck playing in your life? We all know people who seem luckier than others. Maybe that describes you? Or maybe you’re on the other end, with a feeling that you’re always coming up a bit short.
Another year of blogging in the books! Thank you to all of the guest bloggers who shared their wisdom and perspective with us in 2016 - as you'll see from this list, our readers greatly enjoyed your blogs!
Here are the most popular #WhatsTheRisk blogs of 2016:
You know the story. After being down three games to one in the 2016 World Series versus Cleveland, the Chicago Cubs force a Game 7. One hundred and eight years of disappointment and frustration hang in the balance. They’ve already blown a couple of leads during the contest, yet find themselves up 8 to 7 in the 10th inning, still in a position to win it all. They need one. More. Out.
Back in September 2001, my wife and I spent a weekend in New York City with our native New Yorker friends Jim and Noelle. Jim is from Long Island and Noelle from Queens. They took us to some of the major NYC landmarks including Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, and a harbor boat ride. It was a foggy day on September 8th, but we were still able to take in the New York City skyline from the harbor, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
“You know it’s illegal what they’re doing. Making you work and all,” said Larry’s mom. Larry and his family lived next door to my family growing up. He and I were typical neighborhood buddies. While Larry and I liked all the same things boys our age typically did, our parents were anything but similar.
“It’s important to remember that not all competitive landscapes are remade violently, overnight,” writes Inc. Magazine editor Leigh Buchanan. “Obsolescence creeps as often as it lunges.”
She continues, “While CEOs obsess over getting big-banged out of existence, odds are good that their companies will suffer a more pedestrian fate: they will simply cease to matter. The brand goes stale, core strengths languish, and opportunities to keep pace with – or get in front of – changing customer needs pass them by. The world moves on. They don't.”
How relevant are you? Have you asked yourself that question recently? It goes something like this: In 5 years will the services I’m providing still be relevant to my clients?
