"nothing like this has ever happened here"

I began writing this post on those little note pad sheets in my hotel room because my laptop was stolen from my room.  The sliding door was shattered and my bag, containing my Macbook Pro and my beloved Panasonic Lx3, was taken.

I began writing this on little notepads because of how infuriated I was with the process and how I was treated at the Courtyard Marriott Las Vegas.

Thursday’s final keynote by Chris Brogan hit on a fantastic subject, which he calls human business.  He stressed that businesses need to create and foster communities, not audiences. “The difference between an audience and a community: one will fall on its sword for you and the other will watch you fall.”

Imagine if every person that interacted with your company was treated as a friend.  I don’t mean a “move your couch” friend but perhaps a friend of a friend, someone you know.

• Perhaps the security guard who came to my room could have introduced himself, shook my hand, expressed some lament for the scene in my room instead taking a quick glance and telling me, “Metro is on the way”
• Perhaps the front desk person could have come or sent someone with a key to another room rather than waiting for me to call them
• Perhaps she should not have repeated the same statement that the security guard made, “nothing like this has ever happened here”.  The neighborhoods near the convention center are not exactly plush luxury homes, this was an insult to my intelligence.
• Perhaps if I did not have to keep asking what I needed to do or if I should get them a copy of the police report or what happens next
• Perhaps if today, four days after the incident I had some sense of what the hotel is going to do about it

Perhaps then, I would not have such a great lesson in what not to do to your customers.

I suppose you could talk to your employees and make up some procedure and try to teach them this at orientation but I would just ask them if they treat their friends that way.

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I wrestled with the subtitle of this blog and went back and forth a few times which is why the about page makes no mention of this as I write this post.  But I feel that I can wrap up all want to do here with this simple title.

I am a huge Quentin Tarantino fan and the line comes from the last scene in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, one of my favorite movies of all time.  The character of Jules Winnfield played by the legendary Samuel L. Jackson utters this line (its actually, “tryin’ real hard to be the shepherd”) in the dinner scene as he talks down a pair of armed robbers from making out with his boss’ briefcase rather than trying to kill them. His character is a hitman in the movie could have easily killed them.

Jules at the start of the movie is like much of traditional marketing and promotion, just trying to get the quick sale (the easy kill) or trick you.  Bang bang, another promotion, another conversion, another profit collected.  I see new Jules as what Chris Brogan refers to as human business.  Relationships and being human should come first for individuals and businesses.

At one point in the conversation with the robber Jules even utters,  “I don’t want to kill you, I want to help you”.

“Trying to be the shepherd” is about making a meaningful change (trying to become a better version of yourself or your business).  I want to empower you or your business by sharing in my experiences and thoughts.

Here is the complete ending scene.  If you have scene it, watch it again but think about what I wrote here. (Warning: tons of explicit language)

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