After another discussion this week on Dudette and Dudess, I had to again explain what a female dude would be called. They are called dudes. I am not sure if the column, or the name of a female dude has become a bigger topic. Anyway this week’s dudes are men.
This weeks Dudes had some tall stairs to climb. Read on to find out more.
The PONG group in Waukesha has become quite the fertile ground for meeting Dudes. Of the 14 Dudes I have written about so far, I have met 5 at this awesome Monday morning meeting.
This week I met Chip Lutz. Chip served our country in the Navy for 22 years. If nothing else you need to meet him to thank him for his service. Chip and I are however kindred spirits, some day I hope to be able to use humor in my presentations as well as he does. Chip quipped and joked his way through the 6 P’s of cutting the crap; Purpose, Positive, Pay Attention, Pliable, Play and Pledge. Since he had a plunger on every slide I honestly thought the last P would be plunge, but maybe that will be his 7th.
I think the best thing I can say about the presentation is that the first part of this week’s PONG meeting was the most down I have ever seen the group of job seekers. We had family illness, lost opportunities and at least 2 other items that had job seekers in tears and in some serious need of hugs. If I were a betting man, I would bet that Chip thought oh great how I am going to follow that. Well follow that he did. He had the crowds spirits lifted almost instantly. By the end the room felt rejuvenated and ready to attack the job search once more. If you have a company going through some rough stuff, seek out Chip and have him speak for you. I guarantee he will lift up the entire group.
With that infusion of positive energy, I was off on Tuesday morning to meet with an executive coach I know from church. Jerry Fons has been an executive coach for 19 years. He has helped over 2,000 people in 20 organizations. Just like Chip I am not sure Jerry knew what he was in for when he signed up for an hour coffee with me. However just like Chip, Jerry did not disappoint. Jerry had some great advice for someone like me who is just starting out. Someone else had pointed out to me the difficulty of selling while actually delivering business, Jerry brought up an even better point. How was I going to continue to develop materials while I was delivering business? He has an excellent solution to that problem. He has become a certified coach in 4 different disciplines, he uses the content from those 4 disciplines to create his own unique process and content.
I had always known Jerry to be a great person. He was on the mission trip with my son. He has presented his talents at our Family Program adult enrichment sessions. Jerry uses that grounding in faith and caring to make his challenging advice much easier to accept. When the advice comes from a solid foundation of caring it sounds more like something that comes from Yoda rather than something that came from the Emperor. (In fact “Try not. Do or Do not. There is no try.” came up.) I left my meeting with Jerry pondering deeper questions but feeling more confident that I would be able to tackle anything in my way. Jerry’s business can be found here.
This weeks Dudes had 2 very different styles, but 2 very effective styles. I am very blessed to be able to write about each of them.
As always if you don’t have time to meet either of of this weeks dudes feel free to sign up for a coffee or lunch with me here. I would be happy to talk more with you about why you should talk with them.