🚒 Your copy of The Baer Facts 7️⃣⭕

Published: Tue, 04/02/24

The Baer Facts Issue 70: The Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever

There’s only ONE place you can hear from 200 speakers about the present and future of customer interactions: CCW!

Customer communications and relationships are going to be TRANSFORMED by AI over the next 24 months, and this is the best event to hear what’s going on, and what’s coming next.

Here are just a few of the customer experience experts who are presenting:

Angie Bastian from BoomChickaPop (I love that popcorn so much!)
John Burke from WineEnthuiast (I’m also a fan of their work!)
Shantung Das from Wayfair (I wrote about an awesome experience with them in a recent edition of this newsletter)
Jared Finegold from McDonald’s (My first job!)
Jacob Goodstein from Chewy (The leaders in customer empathy!)
Adam McCreary from DraftKings (Can’t wait to hear how they deal with customers when they lose a tough bet!)
Leigh Roach from Johnston & Murphy (Just bought some more shoes from them last week!)
Bridget Teeter from Lemonade (Another amazing CX case study I often share on stage!)

This is THE EVENT for customer experience and customer service leaders.

Get yourself to Vegas for CCW.

❓ Today's Burning Question

Last edition's question was "what is your hidden talent?"

This was perhaps the most interesting collection of answers yet. Very hard to select a victor, but I'm going with Amy Gregory who wrote:

"I file details in the world around me that seem to be lost on those rushing around me.

Things like the fact that the birds seem to like that one section of power line on my drive to the office, but only in the morning. (Not sure where they go in the afternoon?)

Or how the quiet stranger at the gym color-coordinates her leggings based on the day of the week.

Maybe not really a hidden talent, but I’ve always been happy with this, as it gives me little moments of pause that connect me to the world around me throughout my day."

Amy is a NOTICER. And in a world where everything is going to be automated and robot-driven, being a NOTICER is going to be a power that matters.

Bravo, Amy. She wins tequila, and a signed copy of The Time To Win.

See below for the new question...

Persistence, or Foolishness?

This is Spinal Tap is my favorite movie.

And in that mockumentary is a famous couplet: "it's a fine line between stupid and clever."

My family embodied that sentiment, for almost 100 years.

From 1879, my family owned a furniture store in York, Nebraska. My forebears really stretched on the name, calling it "Baer's Furniture."

By all accounts, a tidily successful business, despite a series of calamities that I'm pretty certain weak, modern-day Baers like me could NOT overcome.

A recap:

📆 November, 1887

Baer's Furniture alights 🔥 when a neighboring billiards hall catches fire. Two entire city blocks destroyed.

Volunteers "rescued" quite a lot of inventory from the store, piling it in the adjacent town square. Alas, it was all promptly stolen.

(Who knew there were so many miscreants in 19th-century Nebraska farm towns?)

Store moves to the other side of the town square, and re-opens.

📆 February, 1912

Baer's Furniture is ablaze 🔥 when an adjacent office building goes up in flames. Most merchandise is lost in the fire.

My great-great grandfather evicts the tenant in his other building, and moves the remains of Baer Furniture into it. Store carries on.

📆 February, 1952

Baer's Furniture is again the hottest place in town 🔥 when the nearby Sterling's Shoes experiences the downside of faulty wiring.

Smoke damage ruins the entire furniture store inventory, but at least the building didn't burn.

My grandfather remediates, and re-opens.

📆 February, 1965

Baer's Furniture is a retail lava lamp once more 🔥 when the York Floral Company next door goes up in flames.

Smoke and water damage again make the entirety of the store inventory a loss.

My grandfather cleans up, and re-opens.

📆 1983

My grandfather sells the store, as my Dad wanted nothing to do with it.

Since then, 41 years: NO FIRES.

Even now, I cannot understand how and why they kept this store going.

FOUR fires? 🔥🔥🔥🔥

NONE of which were their fault? ❌

How do you not sit down, look at the sky, and think "maybe this is a sign?"

As an entrepreneur, I really do wonder about this. Did they figure they weren't good at anything else?

Maybe, but after my great-great-great grandfather nobody was any good at actually MAKING furniture, just selling it. And surely that skill could be applied in a different capacity?

Was it a sense of family duty, after all those years?

When does persistence cross over into foolishness? What IS that fine line between stupid and clever?

I've been thinking about using this story on stage. But quite honestly, I'm not sure how to make it work.

So this is my sincere request of you in this issue of The Baer Facts (tragic fire edition): what is the LESSON you take from this tale?

Reply and let me know please? Best answer, as always, wins tequila + a signed book. (and a shout out on stage when I eventually tell this story to an audience)

The Books Report

You may have heard of the Savannah Bananas, the super-fun team that is part circus, part baseball game?

Owned by my pal Jesse Cole, they are redefining the notion of sports entertainment.

And in his excellent, moving, inspirational book, Jesse talks about how their operating philosophy of "fans first" guides every decision.

It's a great read, and will make you wonder why more businesses don't think like this.

Jay's Faves