AI “Personalization:” Everything Old is New Again

AI “Personalization:” Everything Old is New Again

by | Nov 12, 2024 | Leading

By Bob Musial and Alan Culler

Alan Culler and I are comfortable calling ourselves “old sales guys.”  Recently, we each watched a video where a consultant described how a company could connect with its customers using information that they already had, “personalizing” the customer experience.

The young man wasn’t a great presenter, but there was nothing wrong with the content he presented:

  • Don’t ask people to give you the same information over and over again, as an Urgent Care did to him.
  • Don’t try to sell a dishwasher to someone who just bought one from you.
  • If you know a person’s dog died, stop sending them treat ads.
  • Use some common sense screening. If something doesn’t fit a buying pattern – a cane bought buy a thirty-year old – maybe it was a gift. Don’t send the hearing aid ad.

He advised his audience to be careful about how and when you use Artificial Intelligence (AI) because you can make the customer’s experience “personal” or not-so-much.

“Well, Duh,” said one of us to the other. It seemed like customer relations 101 to us.

We then regaled each other with some of our very own worst marketing experiences as customers:

“Dear, <<FIRST NAME>> That’s how I was addressed,”” said Bob. “This is a simple error of connecting to the “first name” column on an Excel flat file, but failing to make the link to column content. The real problem is no one looked at the resulting email mailing to catch the mistake, so no matter how targeted the content was [it wasn’t] it gets deleted. (Oh yeah, it was sent by a self-professed ‘sales guru.)”

Alan described his frustration with ordering books online. “I typically read historical or science fiction, but my recommended books immediately fill up with whatever I ordered last. This is especially bad after Christmas when I buy the grandkids books. I have five columns of early readers and Where’s Waldo.”

We then went on to described our best most personalized customer experience.

“Hong Kong, 1997” said Alan. “The hotel clerk took me to my room to check me in and my bags magically followed. She took my passport and credit card and noticed that my birthday was the next day. Starting with a 7 am wake-up call, everyone I met in the hotel wished me ‘Happy Birthday.’ My breakfast was comped  and the cab driver the doorman called wished me Happy Birthday as I left his cab.”

Bob said. “I grew up in a small town. I’d pick up stuff at the local grocery for my Mom. The butcher would know what my mother ordered so if I couldn’t read the list or forgot, he helped out. I always got to pick out two penny candies.”

So, what does all that have to do with AI and personalization?

As a society, we are moving towards a seamless electronic sales and service process. Banks, tech companies, on-line booksellers strive to take the costly human being out of the transaction. Some hide call center phone numbers and direct people to online chat-bots. In those cases, the interaction between humans and AI may quickly deteriorate, leading the customer to utter the four most-dreaded words of request, “Speak to an agent.” When you do get to a real person, it soon becomes apparent that call centers measure customer service representatives on metrics like average call handle time, cross-selling on service calls, and not on call resolution or customer satisfaction, not a happy experience.

Now we want technology to “personalize” the customer experience.

At the core of the word personalization, is . . .  “person.”

Persons listen to other people. They hear what is important to the other person (customer). The “seller” offers products or services of value based upon what is important to the customer.

“Personalization”, whether AI enabled or not, is data driven.

In the past, a person might have taken notes about a spouse’s name or a favorite sports team, because it was the basis of a shared “personal” moment, a connection that embodied our shared humanity that gives me, “the seller,” permission to reconnect to learn more about you, “the customer,” to meet your need.

That sales person might have kept a client file, or a notebook. Later that information might have been transferred to a spreadsheet and then Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Salesforce.com.

Marketers might have tracked advertisement response rates and purchase history in handwritten documents, then spreadsheets, then ad tracker software.

The key to success of data-driven personalization, whether notebook or software, is keeping the data up to date, and knowing when to use it, and not abuse it.

Unfortunately during the process, “common sense” frequently takes a back seat to technology.

AI can automate data collection and mimic intimate interactions of years past. Computer code, an algorithm, can take the notes, remember the purchase history, recognize patterns of response to certain words, and “personally” recommend a product or service. This technology can dramatically shorten the time required to gather and analyze data from multiple sources to create targeted, meaningful communications.

AI also can portend disaster, ever-faster poorly targeted, even insulting marketing communications that drive customers away rather than attract them.

As you begin the AI or non-AI personalization journey, plan for data accuracy reviews, empathy, and judgement, in short, human insight and oversight. AI programmers and marketers must talk to each other, as the cartoon above illustrates.

Thie AI journey requires detailed knowledge of the customer demographics, and psychographics and the judgement to know when to use it. In the past a customer might have shared a spouse’s name and a savvy salesperson had the judgement to know when and how to inquire after the spouse without sounding creepy.

As AI develops can we trust it to respect privacy, i.e., not be creepy?

The software engineers who develop artificial intelligence are driven by the questions “What’s possible? What can we do?” Marketers must represent the business question, “What  makes sense to generate customer acquisition and retention, revenue and profit? And someone must look at “What should we do? What’s right?”

It is a delicate balance between Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and human Soft Skills like communication, critical thinking, creativity and empathy.

Clients and prospects will appreciate receiving well-timed, personalized communications, messages that make them feel that their business is valued. When done well, it will also help to contribute to positive word of mouth referrals.

However, when not done well . . . word of mouth works both ways.

 

 

About Bob and Alan

with piercing blue eyes Bob Musial

Bob Musial helps clients with business development that encompasses a wide spectrum of disciplines and industries. He frequently uses personalized humor (like the cartoon in this article), to set the stage for conveying a message in a relatable and memorable manner. Bob has a long history of personalized communications built from conversations with contacts, storing “likes and dislikes” information in a custom database designed to deepen relationships. He is the author of Soft Skills, Hard Returns.

 

 

Alan Culler is a retired strategic change consultant and author who worked with multi-billion dollar global companies to help them innovate, integrate, and improve processes, productivity and profitability. He is the author of Traveling the Consulting Road and has a new book coming out soon, Change Leader? Who Me?

Good Grief

Good Grief

by | Nov 12, 2024 | Leading

Here, in the United States of America, we just had the quadrennial shouting match we call our presidential elections. We are a very divided country. We have been divided since our founding according to how much government we want and where the locus of power should reside, federal, state, or local. Now we are also divided by the character of our neighborhood, rural or urban, by education and whether we work primarily with skilled hands or knowledge and keyboards. We are also divided by race, religion, gender, and how recently our ancestors immigrated to these shores. (This is not a complete list. ☹)

Despite these multi-vectored bifurcations, our republic is primarily a two party system. Sure there might be four or five parties on a ballot, but they never garner enough votes to be anything other than a spoiler in a close election. This was a close election, not as close as 2000 or even 2016, but close, and there may be some whining about spoilers, but mostly the election is over.

The emotions of one party can be described with “E’ words: endorsed, elated, enthusiastic, ebullient. Emotions on the other side could be described with ‘D’ words: disappointed, dismayed, distraught, depressed.

On Wednesday morning, roughly six hours after the race was called, a Life Coach LinkedIn connection from Texas, posted “Are you ready for change?”

He went on to describe “D’ word reactions as fear of, and resistance to, change. And gave advice to the losing side not to “spend all your time fighting it. . .[but]. . .accept it and move forward.” I’m abbreviating substantially.

In fairness, during the last two elections each side has spent four years fighting the elected party and I’m sure this person’s intentions were good, but the timing and the “get over it” message struck me as a bit smug,

I responded with a lecture of my own (again abbreviating substantially):

“People don’t fear change; they fear loss, loss of self-definition, and things they believe in. Mostly they fear loss of autonomy or choice for changes they feel are done to them. So they don’t resist change; they resist your change.”

He responded with a quote from his book, advising me to “cross the fear zone.”

At this point I disengaged, but four days later, I recalled a diagram from much earlier in my career, which I used to “help” people through change.

Moving from denial and resistance to change requires changing focus from the past to future and the personal to the collective

The ‘u’ depicted is “The Emotional Cycle of Change from Gemini Consulting, which is based upon Elizabeth Kübler Ross’s 5 Stages of Grief Model. The matrix is the orientation shift (moving from past to future and personal to corporate).

As a youngish organization development consultant I thought, “if asked,” I could help people move from denial to commitment, making the shift from past to future and personal to company.

I recognize now how naïve that was, but at least I recognized that someone would have to ask for my help. As American psychologist Carl Rogers said in “The Helping Relationship,” “help is defined by the recipient, . . .  help that is not asked for is rarely perceived as help, . . but rather as interference.”

 

Elizabeth Kübler Ross’s 5 Stages of Grief are:

  • Shock, including disbelief and denial
  • Anger, directed at the deceased, self, or lashing out at anyone
  • Bargaining, with God, the medical community, family, “if I do this will you save him (me)
  • Depression, “nothing will ever be the same again, I can’t go on”
  • Acceptance, “It’s over; life goes on.”

Since I created my diagram, I have lost both parents, one sister, one nephew, and a close friend and business partner. I have grieved myself and been around many others who are grieving.

I have worked with people in companies in “hostile takeovers,” and other acquisitions. I have coached business owners whose business failed. I have reorganized companies, seeing people who’ve devoted their lives to one business unit or function, transferred, radically altering their business “identity.” I observed many people go through the “Emotional Cycle of Change.

It doesn’t matter which curve you are on; whether you are grieving loss of a loved one or emotionally processing change, these things are true:

  • It is an individual journey. You are processing your emotion, you must do it yourself.
  • It isn’t a straight line or a one-way journey. You bounce back and forth between phases.
  • You can get stuck in one phase –“De Nile [denial] is not just a river in Egypt,” Is funny for a reason. And perhaps you know someone stuck in anger, – Louis Black’s comedy and his role in Inside Out – are parodies of that.
  • You can’t just – skip to the end. Some individuals might spend less time in one phase or another, but all those emotions are there.

There was a time when I made fun of organizational development consultants who conducted funerals for the old ways, carrying certain values forward into the new. I still think it’s a little woo-woo, but I understand the usefulness.

I saw the remnants of denial left by not saying goodbye to the old. British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) still each had different British Airways logos eight years after they became BA. Some field workers at BP still wore their Arco and Amoco coveralls ten years after the acquisitions. Cries of “foreign interference” in the 2016 election and “Stop the Steal” in the 2020 election made working together impossible.

Giving my LinkedIn connection the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he just wanted people to work together. Judging from the comments below, several ‘E’-word people found his post helpful.

To be helpful to those grieving or having difficulty with change, a leader might:

  1. Wait to be asked
  2. Start by just listening
  3. Summarize what you have heard.
  4. Assess where someone is on the grief or emotional cycle.
    • Someone in Shock or denial mostly needs someone to listen.
    • Someone in Anger may need to vent, but be reminded not to seem threatening to self or others.
    • Someone ‘bargaining,” or feeling guilty, might be reminded what that sounds like, and asked if they really think it will help.
    • A seriously depressed person might be directed to professional help.
    • Someone moving towards acceptance, might be encouraged to experiment or to act on things they are committed to in the new order.
  5. Prepare for, and try not to judge, “backsliding,” and “revisiting.”
  6. Avoid saying things like “Get over it,” “Move on,” “let’s look at the bright side. At least you have _____” or “Relax and enjoy it.”

 

Might these ideas be helpful connecting with the other side in a political divide? Maybe. (See numbers 1and 2). It is probably most important to recognize grief, and give people space to process their emotions.

Change Craft

Change Craft

by | Nov 1, 2024 | Leading

“A woodworker must “apply a thousand skills” to find the ideal use for each piece of wood, respecting the “soul of the tree” and shaping it to realize its true potential”  

George Nakashima, architect, artist, builder of beautiful wood furniture worked until his nineties. Now his children carry on his craft.

In the fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a visionary poem, Parlement of Foules, about birds choosing mates and people living joined to nature. He began with a wish for more time to perfect his craft as a poet:

“The lyf so short, the kraft so long to lern”

What writer, woodworker, or musician, or for that matter, electrician, or plumber hasn’t said, “I need more practice to be up to this craft?”

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers described K. Anders Erikson’s research at the Berlin Academy of Music to posit that it takes 10,000 hours of focused practice to become world class at anything.  

The phrase “focused practice” is critical. It means not just total practice time. I’m sure I’ve logged more than 10,000 hours playing the guitar since I started at age thirteen. I’m better than I was at thirteen, but not that much better.

No, this is “focused practice,” that is, practice focused on improvement, breaking down the craft, practicing each part in isolation, getting rigorous feedback, and practicing again, then putting all the craft segments back together. Ten thousand hours of that kind of practice and I’d be a lot better guitarist, woodcarver, or writer.

Ah, but the “lyf so short.”

What is a craft?

The English word “craft” has its origins in the Anglo-Saxon “cræft,” which comes from the German “kraft,” meaning “skill or strength at planning and making.” When we think of craft we think “handmade,” or small batch production, like handmade tables, hand-woven blankets or craft beer.

The building trades, carpentry, electric wiring, plumbing, etc., call their work crafts. Actors talk about their craft; musicians and painters talk about the craft foundations of their art. Craft is based upon unique knowledge and skills, or competencies, the craftsman uses to plan and make with quality. That craftsman increases competence with focused practice.

Is leading change a craft?

Does leading change have unique competencies? Absolutely. Is there an opportunity for focused practice? Uh. . .

Most managers have only a few opportunities to lead change in their career. At least, that used to be the problem. These days between changes in technology, global markets, the environment, demographics and people’s attitudes, it seems like we are facing “constant change.”

Some are stuck in the past, when the craft of change leadership was a rarely used capability that could be left to consultants, staff, and other specialists. Some think a new technology implements itself, or that entering a new market on the other side of the world is about language translation, or that people should “just suck it up and work all the time, like I did.”

The basics of change craft

I could write a book on the subject. In fact, I’m writing a book on this subject, Change Leader? Who Me? Wisdom for those new to leading change, due out at the beginning of next year.  This book is mostly about leading change in business, where I spent my career, but I think the concepts are applicable in the public sector, or in personal change as well.

Start with some basic questions.

The most important question is Why?

Because the customers changed –  different needs, wants, or expectations. Competitors changed – different providers (e.g., international) or they are better, faster, cheaper.

Or there is a new technology, an opportunity for us to be better, faster, cheaper. Or the rules of the game have changed – new regulations, community standards, a new owner with new targets.

So what?

Do we have to change? Is not changing an option? What is the impact of not changing? When?

These first two questions are about the change mindset, which I wrote about a few weeks ago here. Change happens when people, individuals or groups collectively, internalize the dissatisfaction with the status quo, envision a different future and act, despite any fear of loss. It is the primary job of the change leader to adopt a change mindset and help others to as well.

Who will help make this change happen?

John Kotter, Harvard professor and author of several books on change leadership has a change requirements model that includes the usual concepts, vision, urgency, communications, short term wins, etc. Kotter though recommends “Building a Guiding Coalition” for the change. He describes this as often a diagonal slice of the organization, with executives, middle managers, and opinion leaders. In my experience these are often people who are outside the current power structure and may be people who have been vocally critical of the status quo.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap. . . and others don’t, recommends the first step  of change to be “Decide who’s on the bus.” Even individuals making personal change can benefit from this analysis. Who supports you in the change you want to make? Who can help in ways beyond moral support?

My list of criteria for who is on the bus:

  • Has internalized the ‘Why’
  • A true problem solver who invests the time to define and analyze a problem, not just someone who suggests “solutions” before having the facts.
  • Extraordinary communication skills – looking for clarity over eloquence, and simplicity, over “sounding smart.”
  • People others listen to. (This often has nothing to do with positional power, but everything to do with “craft capability.”)
  • A least one person who immediately jumps to the “worst case scenario.” This is your risk assessor, your unintended consequences seer. (You don’t want a whole team of doom and gloomers, but one or two with a sense of humor can help avoid disaster.)

What is changing?

People may answer by type of change, more innovation, continuous improvement, integration (aligning systems, processes, and people, to “get on the same page). There is often a progression in types of change, Innovate -Integrate -Improve -Integrate -Repeat.

People also answer this question in terms of discipline, new strategy, technology, operational processes, people-stuff like training, organization, etc. There are often more disciplines that need to change than were initially thought and people-stuff is always central. Companies don’t change unless people do, including the change leader. Who me? Yes, you.

How to change?

I use a simple model:

  • Insight – discover new data about the why of change.
  • Action – plan, mobilize, take small steps, measure at every stage.
  • Results – project results at each stage, inputs, activities, outputs, measure.

And one last thing, expect backsliding, missed targets and failure. Reframe, regroup and…

Don’t Give Up!

With some focused practice you can be a change craftsman.

Who me? Yes, you.

Halloweenophobia

Halloweenophobia

by | Oct 27, 2024 | Living

“The creepy spiders need to be lower. Kids are short, They need to turn their head and be looking directly into those red eyes.”

“You are normally such a sweet person. What happens to you at Halloween?”

“Being scared is what Halloween is all about?”

“I thought it was about the candy.”

“Nah, it’s about conquering your fear. The candy is just a side benefit.”

We get a little carried away at our place in late October, not as much as we did when we had a house with a front lawn and bushes to turn into spider webs and ghosts. We gave a lot of stuff away when we downsized to a condo, but not the creepy spiders nor the orange lights. I still dress up, usually in my wizard costume, hat, robe and staff. I have a wooden staff, but a couple of years ago one of my kids gave me a plastic one with an egg on top that lights up in different colors, which is a hit with the little ones.

The name Halloween came from Hallow Evening, the night before All Hallows Day. Hallows were saints and the European medieval Christian church wanted people to go to church to revere the saints and martyrs of the faith on November 1st and again on November 2nd All Souls Day, to revere all who passed in the faith and commit to living a holy life in their honor.

Most now realize that the church chose this particular day to celebrate the dead to coincide with the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced Saw-when in Gaelic).

The Celts were an ancient people spread across all of Europe. They were the Gauls that Caesar fought, the Galatians that Paul wrote to, the Helvetii of Switzerland, and many other clans. The remaining “Six Celtic nations,” where you can still find their cultural influences, and languages, are Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, Brittany, and the Isle of Man”

The Celts were a primitive pagan people. They were pastoral/ agricultural, raising sheep and cattle and growing fodder and vegetables. Celts divided time by dark and light. Days began and ended at sundown. Winter was the dark start to the year, summer the light. Samhain was the end of the last harvest and the beginning of the dark time of year. It was New Year’s Eve.

Samhain was also a time when the barrier between this world and the Otherworld was thin. The spirits of the dead, especially the recently departed, came home to say last goodbyes. That was OK as reverence for your ancestors. Grampa’s ghost might be a little pale, but he was still Grampa. Other people’s ancestors? Screamy woman? Recently executed murderer? Not-so-much reverence as fear.

So the Celts put out food for their pale peeps and scary decorations to keep the others away. They burned bonfires, danced in the streets, and mastered fear through partying. The Church coopted the reverence for the dead, and tolerated the party, Happy Halloween.

“Trick or treating,” or gangs of costumed kids demanding candy in lieu of getting your windows soaped or your yard decorated with toilet paper was an American invention, now exported to some other places in the world. Just kidding about the  extortion racket part; we do have some scattered  “Devil’s Night” vandalism, but the whole holiday has turned into a neighborhood fancy dress party with parents dressing up and going around with little ones.

Halloween is a time to have pseudoscary fun, meet your neighbors, and overdose on sugar. There was a time when some houses used to hand out fruit or home baked goods or bags of popcorn, but then someone started rumors of razorblades in apples and hippies handing out marijuana brownies and now the only things parents view as safe are prepackaged products of Mars and Hershey.

Costumes are a reflection of pop culture, lots of Disney princesses, Marvel superheroes and Harry Potter characters. My wizard costume predates the JK Rowling classic, but everyone calls me Dumbledore.

There are a few costumes, that are truly scary, home-made zombies asking for brains, vampires with real looking teeth, light gray palor, and bloodshot eyes asking for a “donation,” and teenagers in Jason hockey masks from the Halloween movie series, or Freddy Kruger claws from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

Some people, like my wife and me, enjoy being scared. Horror movies, and authors like Stephen King exist for people like us. We love a suspenseful story, where the dead come back to life eating the brains of those struggling to get by after the Apocalypse. When the story is over, I look around at our deteriorating world and its problems seem more solvable.

Not everyone feels this way. Billie and I share the experience of emotionally scarring our youngest children by taking them to a horror film with their older siblings, she Cujo, me Nightmare on Elm Street. One of them has forgiven the infraction.

I’m not sure if a love of the horror genre really helps me face my fears.

I do things that stretch my tolerance for feeling uncomfortable, going up in a hot air balloon, parachuting, and mountain climbing for fear of heights. I’m not really afraid of heights, nor even falling from heights. I do worry about landing after falling.

Most of the other things that make me uncomfortable are really easy to rationalize. Getting old? What choice do I have? Dying? It happens to all of us sometime? Not being loved? I am truly fortunate and grateful.

I try to help some others face some of what scares them. So if a very small Spiderman freaks out at our red-eyed creepy spiders, a kindly old wizard is there to say,

“He doesn’t bite. His eyes are red because he’s tired. He would really like it if you pet him, Mr. Spiderman.”

Whatever It Takes

Whatever It Takes

by | Oct 19, 2024 | Living

This picture was on a birthday card I received last week.

It is a real photo of Rolland “Rollie” Free setting the motorcycle land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats September 13, 1948 eleven months after I was born. Rollie Free raced Indian motorcycles before World War II. He set a record at 111 miles per hour. He served in the Air Force and was stationed in Utah near Bonneville during the war.

Rollie had a bone to pick with Harley-Davidson, which had apparently reneged on an offer to support his racing career. He “acquired” and retuned the Vincent Black Shadow from its owner John Edgar for the specific purpose of breaking the Harley record.

During the first runs in Rollie’s signature prone style, the wind ripped his leathers and he was still below his goal of over 150 mph. He stripped down to a borrowed bathing suit, cap, and swim shoes and set the record, (150.313 miles per hour) apparently mindless of the equivalent of coarse sand paper under his bike wheels.

The record stood till 1950 when he broke it again (152mph) and again in 1960 (160.78 mph), but he fell off the bike and quit racing motorcycles. He still raced cars. He died in 1984 and was inducted into the American Motorcyclist hall of fame posthumously in 1998.

There is something admirable in the passion, single-mindedness and zeal to “do whatever it takes.” If I’m honest, possessing that attitude has been quite beneficial in my life. However, there is a line between passion and prudence, between purposeful and perilous, between enthusiastic and foolhardy. That’s a line you often don’t see until you’ve crossed it.

People called Rollie “borderline insane,” “hyper-competitive to a fault, and a “regular nut job.”

I have never done anything like Rollie Free, but in my life, I have been called “gung ho ,”all-in,” and a “work-machine.” I have sometimes taken extraordinary risks to make something work.

 In 1967 I was in a summer stock production of Peter Pan. At nineteen, I was assigned to head the flying crew. We were on a budget so the director ordered flying harnesses without pullies or hydraulic assists. He wanted Rena, playing Peter, to fly in from offstage and up to the top of a scenery cave that stood about twelve feet above the stage. I determined the only way to make that happen was for the flying tech (me) to jump off the catwalk by the third pin rail offstage in the fly gallery to the one by the second pin rail a distance of fifteen feet. If I missed I would fall about twenty feet to the hardwood stage floor.

This maneuver worked in rehearsal. In performance one of the two flying harness guy wires broke and I sent Rena up and into the back of the proscenium. Fortunately, Rena wasn’t physically injured, and finished the performance, but may suffer from PTSD to this day. (Rena, I am deeply sorry.)

Still it took me a while to realize that “whatever it takes,” isn’t always the safe strategy. I worked full-time for a consulting firm in my second year of business school, which meant that I often worked into the night. I came home once at 1:00 am, and had just fallen asleep, when my pregnant wife, nudged me and said “it’s time.”

I said, “Try to go back to sleep.” That did not go over well.

I was slow to learn.

I worked hundred-hour weeks, which the people I worked for loved, but which ultimately made me sick. I was the only independent consultant I ever met who went to work for himself and worked less than I did as an employee.

I trained for a marathon and learned first-hand about the dehydration headaches and nausea of over-training. Several pricey speeding tickets and one thirty-day license suspension taught me “don’t drive faster; leave earlier.” I learned to manage my workload through the not-so-simple task of saying, ”No” to more work.

Years of working for chemical and oil and gas clients increased by awareness of personal and process safety. I still have the urge to stand on the top step of a ladder, but I have learned to get a bigger ladder, or to hire someone else to do work at heights.

I still describe myself, by saying “whatever I do I really do.” Now, however, that describes my ability to intensely focus. I’m still learning that I must intersperse, my “whatever it takes” with some mindless distraction and family and friends time.

So I’m rarely found doing Rollie Free stuff anymore, not even scaled down to my level. Everybody grows up sometime.

But, I guess, my reputation lingers:

Old enough to know better too cool to care Rollie Free in prone psition on a racing motorcycle