Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth®

SHOW NOTES: • Defined as moral and mental qualities; strengths and reputation. • It’s a matter of self-worth, or esteem, of personal dignity. • Also a matter of our willingness to help others, to have an abundance and not a scarcity mentality. • It’s a quiet confidence, not braggadocio. • It’s legitimate and earned, not bogus or borrowed. • The lessons of the Ritz-Carlton. • It’s also with whom we...

SHOW NOTES: Did people whine as much years ago as they do now? They won't let me succeed at my job. They won't hire me anywhere else. Maybe "toxic workplaces" are caused by toxic employees? Maybe terrible bosses are just leaders expecting employees to meet deadlines and fulfill assignments? The fault is with the "Boomers" or GenX because they took advantage, they led great lives, and left nothing...

SHOW NOTES: New Year celebrations date back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, where the festival of Akitu marked the new year around the spring equinox with religious rituals, debt-paying promises (early resolutions), and kingly renewals. Early civilizations linked it to agricultural cycles, like Egyptians with the Nile's flood. The Roman calendar, shifted to January 1st by Julius Caesar, became the...

SHOW NOTES: Two of the most popular Christmas Songs (aside from Mariah Carey’s cloying All I Want for Christmas Is You) are I’ll Be Home for Christmas (Kim Gannon, Walter Kent, Buck Ram) from 1943, introduced by Bing Crosby; and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane) introduced by Judy Garland in 1943, also. Frank Sinatra later recorded the canonical version of each o...

SHOW NOTES: We had left Vigil Mass on Saturday night where I helped serve Communion as a Eucharistic Minister. (I’ll be the lector next week.) We drove ten minutes to the restaurant for dinner and immediately heard of the shooting at Brown University. (And as I write this, a similar horror at Bondi Beach in Australia which was aimed at Jews celebrating the start of Hanukkah.) The streets, the clas...

SHOW NOTES: I am neither aware nor unaware. Did. you lobby to get her on the board? She'll make an excellent board member. But did you arrange for her appointment. She's a stellar candidate. Weren't you in charge of this huge problem area? No, I inherited it. But before that you were a top officer of the company. Surely you must have known that the operations were illegal. Under my watch we reduce...

SHOW NOTES: I heard an "influencer" today on a morning talk show explain that dating, or having any ongoing relationship, is no longer considered favorable. In fact, he pointed out, many people are finding that being single—is "aspirational." Now, I can understand independence and self-sufficiency, hell, I write about them as positive traits. But to seek to remain unattached to another person as "...

SHOW NOTES: I've been consulting, coaching, advising and otherwise helping people to achieve success, personally and professionally, for over half a century. Those clients include CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, top governmental elected officials, executive directors on nonprofits, solo entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes, and lawyers, accountants, designers, architects, and a myriad of employees...

SHOW NOTES: If you want to maximize your business growth, you need to generalize and not specialize. There may be exceptions, but generally, the more potential buyers you have the more business you'll generate. A content expert knows the "what." It may be insurance, or auto manufacture, or solar panels. You sell insurance to people to need insurance, auto manufacture skills to, well, auto manufact...

SHOW NOTES: I don’t want to give this away, suffice it to say it’s about panic vs. calm, and successful marriages vs. rocky ones.

SHOW NOTES: •Why do such a staggeringly large percentage fail? •They don't respond to inquiries when busy. •They tend to create prices based on wealth of buyer. •They don't show up, don't return calls, don't finish on time. •They don't bill in a timely manner, so cash flow is an issue. •They don't consider repairs and warranties for the buyer. •They tend to seek perfection rather than success. •Th...

SHOW NOTES: It seems as if civilization, especially the arts, are in decline. Famed authors are "mailing it in" (or really writing to try to sell a screenplay, not a book). Laugh tracks have to remind us when the writers think something is funny, but otherwise it isn't. Quiz shows, talk shows, news shows all seem out of the same mold, which is 50 years old. No newscaster ever says to a politician...

SHOW NOTES: Strategic WhaleSale™ Approach- Alan and Lisa discussed the concept of "WhaleSales," which involves targeting large, high-value clients to maximize revenue and efficiency. Lisa shared her experience of landing a significant whale deal that transformed her company's growth and stability, emphasizing the importance of alignment with the C-suite and strategic goals. They highlighted that w...

SHOW NOTES: My tribute to one of the greatest historians in our history. This is the speech he made in 1995 when receiving the hugely prestigious National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He was also awarded two Pulitzer Prizes among dozens of other awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

SHOW NOTES: There was a song from the movie of the same name called The High and the Mighty, by Dimitri Tiomkin, nominated for an Oscar. It was about a trans-Pacific flight with critical engine problems and crew and passengers facing confrontations with death. It was probably the first of the major disaster films: 1954. We have the high and mighty today and they occupy.....Washington, DC: 2025, 70...

SHOW NOTES: •The lessons of the newspaper woman. •The causes of toxic workplaces, more often than not. •The 90-minute wrench. •It's not your mother's fault. •Distress and eustress. •The key to peak performance. •It's about how you awaken, and I don't mean "woke." •Putting it to bed.

SHOW NOTES: •Never talk to people who can say "no" but can't say "yes." •Treat the buyer as a peer, not a superior. • Have a conversation, don't make a presentation. •Language controls discussion, which controls relationships, which controls business. •No one is shooting at you, get rid of your fears and weak ego. •Gain conceptual agreement. •Money and time are priorities, not resources. •There ar...

SHOW NOTES: If you're in favor of this stuff, listen carefully to the audio. You're driving on the wrong side of the road. •servant leadership •holacracy •one-minute management •management by wandering around •management by objectives • total quality management •360° feedback •self-directed teams •open office (hoteling) •open book management •reengineering •JIT (just-in-time) •lean •matrix managem...

SHOW NOTES: •This is an almost subliminal technique to create normative pressure psychologically. •It's pointing out what others are doing, or not doing, or what events, prove your point. •It's the use of profound analogies. •Listen to my examples about Amtrack's infrastructure, or the fallacies around Kodak. •If pictures are worth a thousand words, social proof is worth a thousand pictures. •Lear...

SHOW NOTES: •We think the higher the value, the more we can charge. •However, at a given point, people believe they get what they pay for and those lines cross. •The point at which they cross means your brand is strong. •No one needs a Bentley for transportation, a Brioni for attire, a Bulgari to tell the time. But they assign great emotional value in their association and display. •The wrench sto...

SHOW NOTES: •Do you know people who are loquacious, verbose, prolix? •Ask a "yes or no" question and they respond with opinions, history, and self-therapy. •Have you been to the Jersey Shore? Well, I did go once, as a child, but my parents really couldn't afford the vacation, and then when they could, they preferred Cape Cod. I haven't taken my children because my spouse thinks that "Jaws" was a d...

SHOW NOTES: People want problems solved, even if you caused them! Learn how Katz's Deli and Mercedes Benz have turned problems into profits. Don't look for blame, look for opportunity. No one is as excited about an expected excellent experience as they are about a disappointing experience turned into an excellent experience. Customers tend to tell a huge number of people about their experiences, a...

SHOW NOTES: There are myriad claims on social media that are justified by the author observing (or being a self-proclaimed expert in) "body language." I have always thought this was ridiculous, sort of a faux psychological claim of expertise. Of course, the French have long studied graphology (handwriting) to determine behavioral traits (hard in a world forsaking cursive), and scapulimancy, the st...

SHOW NOTES: •Let's stop the hypocrisy around this affair. •This goes on all over, government, business, education. •I've seen it, many people know the "secret." •The foolishness is the arrogance that you think it's a secret. •But the attempts at shadenfreude are ludicrous. •Who's pointing the finger? People who have cheated on exams, broken traffic laws, evaded taxes, blamed others for their corru...

SHOW NOTES: •Why is Scottie Sheffler likely to become the greatest golfer ever? •Why is mental attitude the key to winning? •How some sports prompt more honesty than others. •Handling defeat and victory properly. •Not allowing a mistake to become a haunting obstacle. •Why Tiger Woods was overrated. •Even if you don't play the game you can learn from it. •Playing prudently to win. •Never "coming ba...