tBlog - I Can't Make This Stuff Up

Busy week. Non-stop. Thursday I was at a networking group at 7am and continued on appts straight until 6pm. Then another networking event until 9pm.

I had breakfast at 5:30am. I had a protein bar in the afternoon.

We have a thrilling meeting on Friday mornings. I realized that I had been invited by a customer to a Friday morning seminar by Scott Waddle (he's the former head of the Submarine Greenville that did an emergency surfacing under a Japanese boat full of schoolchildren. 9 died. It was an incredible story.)

So I called the boss to give him the heads up.
He wanted to know who was speaking. I told him I didn't recall - I just had it on my calendar for a month, had forgotten about it until I got a reminder email about the event that day. I hadn't done more than glance at it. He wanted to know how much it cost. I told him I did not know - that a customer had invited me, I didn't ask him how much it was.

Then he started asking me about my appts on Friday. I told him that my brain was fried, I hadn't eaten all day and I was merely calling to let him know I wouldn't be in the morning meeting. He then started lecturing me about not taking time to eat lunch. I explained to him that I had my lunch in my trunk all day but my appts were running long - never had the chance to even get it out of the trunk.

I had to pee and wanted to just collapse into bed. (I didn't tell him that)

The boss starts asking me about what deals I have for the month and what I was forecasting. I finally said to him that I doubt I could even recall my phone number right now. That I would shoot him my schedule (which incidentally is updated in SalesForce for him to see anytime) in the morning. That I had to go.

Friday was another marathon day. I closed a nice-sized deal on Monday for an IVF doc. I hadn't even had time to get it in the system. It was a pretty complex campaign, so Friday afternoon I sat down at my desk to start setting it up. The boss and several people around me are chatting about crap (reality tv shows, cars, etc) I am trying to focus on the campaign. What should have taken me an hour - took me three. They talked until after six pm. (His car was in the shop and he was trying to get someone to give him a lift to the shop. I didn't want that sort of quality time with him. I was on the phone with a prospective customer when he comes over to ask me how long I'm going to be at the office - I wanted to tell him if they would move the chat away - it'd be sooner rather than later.)

I deliberately didn't engage in the conversations - it was clear that I was trying to work. Then after everyone but the boss leaves, I ask him which ad he liked better. Then he tells me I "have" to come see one of his campaigns he did on the West coast for another IVF doc. (I've already seen it on my own.) He argued with me about the views me, a non-manager, can see. I showed him wrong. He (of course) never acknowledged it - he shifted the questioning to something else. I told him that I really needed to get back to the campaign.

I have more than a decade of marketing experience. He has two. He never asks clients details about their business. I do. I understood that my customer's ideal patient is one looking for IVF, not PCOS treatment or egg donation. So I'm not going to attract those non-ideal patients. He wanted to tell me what my client's focus should be - but he never listens.

Sigh.