Donna Flagg

Peeve of the Week: Cluelessness

What is it with people who are so disconnected from reality that the world they live in is virtually unrecognizable to the rest of us? They never, and I mean never cease to amaze me.

Here’s what happened… September was a really big month for me. I signed my first book deal with McGraw Hill and am thrilled by the opportunity and challenge that stands before me. I have to admit though, it feels a little like I am jumping into a big black hole waiting for the lights to go on in my mind, one at a time, to illuminate the way.

Meanwhile, “back at the ranch” during a follow up conversation with a potential client whom we’d pitched a while back, the subject of the book came up. After sitting on our proposal for months and months, suddenly they thought that I was more viable as a consultant because I was going to be an author. In fact, one of the guys actually said, “Oh, well maybe now that you’re someone I’ll be able to get buy-in to hire you.” I kid you not. These words came out of a grown man’s mouth.

I mean, at first I thought I was hearing things. Could he be for real? Unfortunately, the answer was yes. He wasn’t thinking about what was right for his business, because clearly our expertise is the same whether I write a book or not. Scarier though, is that the book will be about employee communications and the client wanted help with a marketing and distribution plan. To think that our ability as marketers would depend on a book being published about on an unrelated topic is preposterous. I guess it’s this weird phenomenon where people don’t feel seen unless they associate themselves with other people who are “visible.”   It’s just beyond ridiculous.

Posted by Donna Flagg on October 3, 2008 | Comments (0)