Opinions And Ramblings By Adam Kmiec On All Things Media

It’s not secret that I think Chris Brogan might be the biggest snake oil salesman ever to walk the land.  The other day he might have jumped the shark.  Chris shared with the world his “day rate.”  Are you ready for what it is?  Sit down.  Get comfortable.  Please don’t have any water in your mouth as I am not responsible should you choke on it.

Ok, here we go.  Chris Brogan’s day rate is $22,000.00.

Did you just say WTF?  I know I did when I first read it.  Let’s break this down.  At $22,000.00 a day, he’s worth $8,030,000.00 per year.  What does that really mean though?  Let’s add some context shall we.  That annual “salary” would make him 2x more valuable than Drew Brees, 8x more valuable then Evgeni Malkin (and only 1 million less valuable than Sindey Crosby) and roughly the same cost as having both Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis on your team.  You might ask why I picked professional athletes as a comparison point.  Well I did it for two simple reasons

1. The public often complains about the skyrocketing and out of touch with reality costs of super star athletes
2. We’re passionate and attached to our super star athletes

Usually with athletes we have a way of comparatively reviewing them against their competition.  Whether this as at the contract negotiating table or the arbitration table, this happens all the time.  Athletes and owners will often lament that it’s not personal, it’s business.

Heck, even Chris argues, “Pricing. This isn’t black magic. It’s business. It’s commerce. It’s fairly basic.”  Well, he’s right about it not being black magic.  It’s right about it being fairly basic.  Let’s see how basic it is:

Price: Price is the starting point for what the owner/author/provider/etc. thinks something is worth.For example, the suggested retail price of Trust Agents is $24.95. That’s what Chris thinks his words are worth on a per book basis.

Value: Value is what the market deterimines something is worth. For example, this copy of Trust Agents currently being sold for $6.00 on eBay.  Hmmm…$6.00 sure doesn’t seem like $24.95.  Actually it seems like people value Chris’ words 75% less than Chris does.  Well it’s like Chris said, “This isn’t black magic. It’s business. It’s commerce.”  Well said.

I don’t begrudge Chris charing $22,000.00 a day for his “services.”  On multiple occasions I’ve asked him what those services are and what he’s actually done, but he’s yet to respond or provide any real backup to substantiate he’s capable of doing what he says he can do.  And it’s for that reason, that while Chris’ price is $22,000.00, I value a day with him at $1.05.  That’s the cost of a McChicken + Tax.  It seems appropriate, at least with the McChicken I know what to expect from the experience.

So, Chris is right, he charge what he wants and I can pay what I want.  Although, there seems to be an interesting gap between price and value doesn’t there

Please and thank you. Simple words. Very simple actually. We’re taught these words at an early age. My daughter learned the words and when to use them before she was 2. On a daily basis she uses them. In truth, she probably uses them more than she should. But, I’m not about to scold her for overuse

So, why, if a 2 year old can understand the concept of please and thank you, can’t adults? Think about it. This isn’t some gross over exaggeration or a very wide brush I’m painting with. Think about your daily interactions with people. Whether those interactions are online or offline, we seem to have forgotten please and thank you.

Lately, I’ve become hyper sensitive to this phenomena. I took an inventory of people that I work with and engage with on a daily basis. I didn’t just look at the people I currently interact with, I actually took a 6 month look back. This inventory covered client meetings, social gatherings, family events, business functions and of course interactive communication. It’s times like this that I wish I had paid more attention to Business Stats 3001 so that I could have done some formal modeling to better represent my findings. But, seeing as I was busy playing intramural basketball, there won’t be any pretty graphs.

In lieu of graphs and charts, I’m just going to provide some simple raw analysis. Here’s the deal, the people who remember “please” and “thank you” are the people I enjoy spending time with. They’re the people who make me want to be be better…to over deliver for them. They also happen to be the most successful. Those who kind find the 5 seconds it takes to say please and thank you, are without a doubt the most selfish, self absorbed and disingenuous people I interact with.

I realize, I’m just a small sample size. I realize this isn’t scientific. But, I gotta tell you, in the spirit of Blink, my gut tells me I’m right on. Given how simple, quick and easy it is to say “please” and “thank you,” why aren’t we doing it more? What’s your daily interaction like? Are you finding a similar story? I’d love to hear about it.

Please share your feedback. Thank you. See that wasn’t so hard.

If you’re a normal person, you spent the weekend with your family, friends, relaxing, enjoying some well needed rest and relaxation, and tuning into the Winter Olympics. But, if you were like me, your eyes were transfixed on twitter instead of the TV. This weekend we watched a very angry Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) vent his frustration at Southwest Airlines.

Let me give you the high-level version of the story:

1. Kevin Smith is booked on a Southwest flight; he purchased two tickets…which equals two seats
2. He changes the flight
3. He flys standby…in flying standby he only has one seat, no longer two
4. He’s a large man and does not fit into one seat; thus violating Southwest’s pre-existing policy
5. Southwest kicks him off the plane, offers him a $100.00 voucher, and rebooks him on a later flight
6. Kevin Smith launches an explicative filled tirade against Southwest on twitter

Southwest is known for great customer service. I, like many people, watched with fascination as Southwest tried to deal with the situation. Would they buckle under the weight (no pun intended) of Kevin Smith’s followers and clout?

Well, they handled the situation with calm, grace, honesty and most importantly EQUALITY. They offered up several tweets, phone calls and finally a blog post.  The Southwest blog has been inundated with traffic, which has ground their site to a screeching halt. With that in mind, here’s the full text of their blog post response to the situation.

NOT SO SILENT BOB

Many of you reached out to us via Twitter last night and today regarding a situation a Customer Twittered about that occurred on a Southwest flight. It is not our customary method of Customer Relations to be so public in how we work through these situations, but with so many people involved in the occurrence, you also should be involved in the solution. First and foremost, to Mr. Smith; we would like to echo our Tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you. We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines.

As soon as we saw the first Tweet from Mr. Smith, we contacted him personally to apologize for his experience and to address his concerns on both Twitter and with a personal phone call. Since the situation has received a lot of public attention, we’d like to take the opportunity to address a few of the specifics here as well.

Mr. Smith originally purchased two Southwest seats on a flight from Oakland to Burbank – as he’s been known to do when traveling on Southwest. He decided to change his plans and board an earlier flight to Burbank, which technically means flying standby. As you may know, airlines are not able to clear standby passengers until all Customers are boarded. When the time came to board Mr. Smith, we had only a single seat available for him to occupy. Our pilots are responsible for the Safety and comfort of all Customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr. Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight. Our Employees explained why the decision was made, accommodated Mr. Smith on a later flight, and issued him a $100 Southwest travel voucher for his inconvenience.

You’ve read about these situations before. Southwest instituted our Customer of Size policy more than 25 years ago. The policy requires passengers that can not fit safely and comfortably in one seat to purchase an additional seat while traveling. This policy is not unique to Southwest Airlines and it is not a revenue generator. Most, if not all, carriers have similar policies, but unique to Southwest is the refunding of the second seat purchased (if the flight does not oversell) which is greater than any revenue made (full policy can be found here). The spirit of this policy is based solely on Customer comfort and Safety. As a Company committed to serving our Customers in Safety and comfort, we feel the definitive boundary between seats is the armrest. If a Customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a Customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement.

I love Kevin Smith. I love his movies, except Jersey Girl. Mallrats, specifically, holds a special place in my heart. So, as you’d imagine, part of me was pulling for Kevin Smith. Initially…that is. But, as I watched Kevin Smith act like a petulant child, my allegiance switched. And, then after reading their official blog post response, I was 100% in the Southwest camp.

See, celebrities love to think they are above everyone else. You only need to read TMZ to see the countless number of examples that validate that sentiment. Where as many companies would have simply kissed Kevin Smith’s derriere and treated him with kid gloves, Southwest did something simple, but remarkable. They treated Kevin Smith the same way they’d treat everyone.

Southwest has a simple policy. Kevin Smith was clearly aware of the policy…seeing as he normally buys two seats. Those two simple facts alone make this an open and shut case. If Kevin Smith and every other potential and current Southwest customer wants to avoid this problem in the future they should simply put the donut down.

As someone who flies every single week, I can tell you that it’s simply not fair that I pay for a seat, but only get to use 2/3 of it because the person next to me is taking up 1 1/3 seats. This wasn’t a new policy from Southwest. They weren’t singling Kevin Smith out. What Southwest was doing was being simple, honest and fair. If only every company out there was like Southwest.