I'm Bad, I'm Coastwide

That's a play on a ZZ Top song in case you didn't pick up on it. Earlier this month I accepted a promotion to Business Development Executive for the healthcare market. My territory has expanded from downtown Seattle to all of Washington, Oregon, and the Bay Area. Needless to say, I'll be spending a little more time in airports in the future. I'm staged at Oakland International right now enjoying a sub-par Manhattan at Chili's Too.

I met the Bay Area service team today - they're legend in our company; best of the best. I came down for the "District Operation reviw" or "D.O.R." - where the front line service managers report on their most recent quarter's activities and events. Afterward all the senior managers get together and compare notes on how the various presenters did; it was just like Rush week back in the fraternity with all the cussing, sarcasm, and crude humor. The big exception here is that instead of guys not receiving bids they're getting fired.

Meh, they've probably got it coming, but it's amazing how glib we are about it all. Well, that's business. It makes me glad I'm in sales; I'm the only one I have to answer for. I was very close to being promoted to sales manager last year, and in retrospect, I'm really glad I didn't get the job - I'd have hated it. I mean, I like helping people and all, but I probably would have been too harsh (salespeople are tend to be pretty thin-skinned), and had too quick a trigger finger letting people go. In this role I still get to be a mentor to newer salespeople (which is important to me, and deserves its own post), but I have no actual responsibility for their performance. As a mentor of mine here in the laundry business says "It's all good!" - he is so right.

Time to down this last Manhattan and get on the flight home.

This Might Be My Favorite Picture of All Time

 

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.

That's a slogan our national sales trainer has pounded into my head. If what is practiced isn't perfect, it won't when it is applied in real-life situations. I've been taking golf lessons over the past 6 months, and while I'm faaaaaaar from perfect I have improved my game dramatically.

Yesterday evening I put a dust mat from work down on the patio and grabbed a dozen balls to practice chipping into the Fish-imp's kiddie pool. I got a couple rounds in before Mrs. Fishpimp let the kid & dog out into the yard. It's really hard to practice perfectly when the 2-year-old is grabbing 1/2 of the golf balls and the dog is trying to snatch the other ones out of the air. I'll try it again this afternoon to see if we can get a photo, it should be good for a laugh or two.

Another New Band Name

Today's new band name: The Taciturn Slackers!

Giving In

I've resisted having this site turn into a baby-blog, but since that's all I have to talk about these days and I want to keep writing, I might as well stop worrying about subject matter (although last week I did have a prospect tell me he thought Hitler had the right ideas, just the wrong group of victims)

So here's the deal. I have an adorable 20-month old daughter who is freaking addicted to the swing set. She talks about it in her sleep. It's the first thing out of her mouth when she wakes up. Aside from food (she is her father's daughter after all) it's all she seems to think about. So I've decided there ought to be a photo record of her tour de swing this spring/summer. Here are some of the photos from this odyssey of oscillation.

Day one of 19 consecutive days of swinging:


Cassie with Grandpa


Mother & Daughter


Swinging in Berkley, CA


Interview with a Swinger

I love my job (sometimes)

A big part of my job is "tele-prospecting" - cold calling over the phone. Most of the time it's not a lot of fun; but on Fridays I go through old records and learn all kinds of things. I just called a company that invented 'blended winglets' - I thought it was some kind of appetizer, but it turns out they're the little vertical tips on the ends of the airplane wings that help planes fly faster, farther, and higher than the original configuration. And they were invented right here in Seattle. In tribute, this week's new band name:

The Blended Winglets!

4-Season Commuter Bike

This guy has no excuse fore missing work.