my 300 dollar cup of coffee

…tasted just like any other cup of coffee. On any other day. Yet it felt both far more stressful and more peaceful than any other.

How can that be?

I pulled into the parking lot and my car gave a kiss to the car in front of me.

Have you ever been on a train or bus, when it hits a bump, or comes to a quick stop, or sudden, lurching start? And you gently bump into the person next to you. With a little blush and half-smile, you look at that person and mutter something like, “oops. Sorry.” And you go on with your day.

Well, that’s what my car did today as I steered it into the coffee shop parking lot. But the woman sitting in the car in front of me, wasn’t so quick to forgive my car’s blunder.

When I saw the crack in her hard plastic bumper (what are they thinking anyway? Isn’t the whole idea of a “bumper” that you should be able to gently bump it like that, and it’ll rebound???) Anyway, I bumped it and cracked the hard plastic.

As I exercised my right as a female and called all the important men in my life: husband, father, old boyfriend who has bought, built and sold multiple car-related businesses – none of whom was available. Only then did I rest on my own savvy, wisdom and negotiating skills. I wrote her a $300 personal check and off she went.

Here's the deal: when you own a business and/or are responsible for sales in your company, time is money. I simply didn't have time to figure out if $300 was a good deal or a bad deal. God bless here, anyway: I offered $250, she said $300 and I said, "Fine."

Off to more important things...

next time you pray...ask for email to be down...

There I was...mid-week...working hard, in the thick of activity...when all of a sudden...

Like a black hole of technology...my email was down. Did you hear me?!?! My email was down!!!

Like Apollo 13, on the other side of the moon -- I had no communication to the outside world.

[Sshshhhsshh...don't tell anyone...it was wonderful...]

For about 28 hours, with the exception of a few treasured clients whom I was really needing to connect with -- I was none the worse for the wear. In fact, I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Now, as a practice management coach and consultant who thinks she should know better, there I was, many times, caught stunned by the lack of bling-a-blings and darkly fonted new emails, begging me to be distracted from the all important tasks of servicing my clients and marketing to attract more.

"What will I do with myself," from this silent place?

Ah, it was peaceful. No interruptions. No distractions. No annoying to-do's to take me off course.

And, so, I was reminded of one of the fundamental, and easy-to-abuse, practice management principles: don't allow interruptions to waylay your productivity.

Start the task. Finish the task.

It's just that simple.

Perhaps I'll just not even go into Outlook tomorrow. Let's see what that does to my productivity!!

Try it: "You've NOT got mail!!!"

sometimes brilliance comes in small packages

Riding in the car last night with my 9 year old daughter, when she says (oh, so brilliantly)...

"Mom. It's easy. People will buy more when it costs less. Just make it closer to free, and people will give you even more money to buy more! 'Like...cotton candy!!! If it cost 50 cents, oh my gosh, then everybody would buy it!!!"

Brilliant.

Anybody looking to hire a Director of Marketing? Where should we mail her resume?