The art of negotiation, for me, starts with a global understanding of two basic rules. 1. Never be the first to lay your cards on the table. 2. Never back anyone (including yourself) into a corner. I’ve used both of these rules when it’s come to working with potential clients or negotiating for myself. For […]
Archive | Weekly Survival
Weekly or bi-monthly stories and tips for surviving your work week. We like to find the humor in our irony, and hope you do, too.
Law of the Donut
Today I took my daughter to get a breakfast treat before her pediatrician appointment. She chose a donut, thanks to dad. He’s conditioned our children that all Canadians love donuts (well, Tim Horton’s, mostly which we can’t buy here). The donut was going to make her feel better. It didn’t make me feel better after […]
Early mid-life crisis
I’m starting to wonder just what the perfect job looks like. Not career, mind you. Just enough to keep me going without giving in to sacrifice. I’m calling this new stage in my life an early mid-life crisis. So I am going to test this new theory that I can find interesting and available jobs […]
Downsizing your life
It’s time to downsize. I was listening to the actor from Breaking Bad talk about clutter. He attributes clutter to economic status – he grew up poorer then he is now, but he’s learned to let go of things. It’s true that I have a lot of stuff. One friend came over and started looking […]
Currently without Company
It’s sort of weird when people ask me where I work. I feel like the character Robin Scherbatsky, in How I Met Your Mother, who struggles with her identity as a Canadian living in America. After feeling like a woman with no country…, the LA Times reports on the episode, Robin decides to become a woman […]
Avoiding Imposter
Here’s an ah-ha after 40. I’ve realized that I can avoid feeling like an imposter in any job, by being truthful (well, brutally honest) about my desires and skills. In sales, it’s common to magnify the truth. Even if I do not have exact experience, I let my false confidence assure HR that I am […]
Falling out of love with the prospect of a new job
When I was working all day, away from home, I did it because I needed to. But I really loved my job. I loved the emotional high of being such an expert, guiding clients on business and brand strategy, managing client expectations and team expectations. In a way it’s like a form of parenthood where […]
Fantine – Have we evolved that much?
When I was living in Paris as a young 19 or 20 year old, I went to Les Misérables at the Opera House. It was one of the highlights of my Parisian experience. And now I get to watch it in the theatre. At first I was skeptical about a musical movie – no talking, […]
Heroic Mythos… All People Are Created Equal
I was reading an article on myths in business and a few neurons in my brain fired off some creative ideas about this heroic myth: All People are Created Equal Myths help us to frame up our ideas, the author explains. And there is a limit – The heroic myth translates every event into a […]
Stupid-Simple Epiphanies
After a kickoff meeting with a startup client today, I realized something about my past that seems almost stupidly obvious now. I was uncomfortable in a previous agency job because the company’s brand personality was so different than my personality. Every time I was selling (or attempting to sell) our services, I was faced […]
