Those of you who have been reading my blogs for a while know about the “Lunch Bunch.”
I’ll introduce them again so that you don’t have to rely on memory and so those that are making their acquaintance for the first time are a little less confused.
The Dialogue Blog
I was looking for a different format. The ones known to work based on the analytics, chief among them readers responding to a call to action, were my guidelines but I wanted something different. The format that appealed to me was based on detective short stories by Isaac Asimov and Spider Robinson, both science fiction writers.
They shifted the finding of a solution to a group gathered together over a meal to respond to a guest’s mystery. Asimov placed them at dinner with a waiter who solved the case after the others had blithered over it. Robinson varied it by story allowing just about anyone in his cast of zanies to be the one or two that “figured it out.”
I’ve been away from this rowdy crowd too long. Visitors to the lunches often were generated by folks asking questions after I delivered a presentation. I’ll be relaying to you the groups sassy but sure advice once again as I go back to speaking professionally and the questions mount up.
The avatars of a brand.
It has been many moons since I celebrated working with this crew. Each of them is based on a real-life expert. Most of them are physically close to the descriptions offered. Okay, a couple of them are way different. But all of them exhibit the mental acuity you would hope to have in this kind of gathering.
Rick, is a swarthy Jewish outdoorsman comfortable in a kayak or on a Ducati who moved to Oregon to indulge those interests. He is our master of direct marketing and one of the few people I have ever met that is a natural at networking. He can meet someone in a rental car line and the next week be presenting to their Fortune 500 company.
Kate, our dusky mistress of sales earned her spurs the old-fashioned way—cold calling floor by floor in downtown business-packed high rises. She has the chops to go on sales calls with newbies and tell a CEO when the Sales VP has been over-promoted. Tough lady. Now retired but always up for lunch with this bunch
Bubba, Rob to some of us, is a slow drawl southern talking older gentleman that at times claims to be “Dumber than a bag o’ rocks” BUT (there is always a BUT) he has a genius for the psychological alchemy known as brand. The real Bubba presides as the creative director of an Ad Agency in Atlanta.
Chris is third generation Chinese American now the proud young father of a boy and a girl. He is an entrepreneur that has made his way through the wild west of the internet doing web sites, seo and you name it for the last ten years. He has just founded an on-line business that scales and now can give up the part-time consulting gigs that supported his entrepreneurial habit.
Gail, is a woman who has told me she teaches people to think because they must learn that skill before they can write. She is always a writer but has ridden that talent far and wide running an ad agency and as an on-air talent as well as a freelancer and consultant. Her quiet grandmotherly demeanor veils a strength built from dignity and laughter facing life without fear.
Me, the ringleader. Yes. All these folks exist. No they don’t gather each week except in my mind. Their views, expressed in these dialogue blogs are usually their own sometimes shaded by the filter of my digitizing them.
Cameos, from time to time another professional joins the group when our visitor/client has a problem that falls in the expert’s bailiwick: PR, Customer Service, Distribution, etc.
Here are some of the previous Lunch Bunch Blogs you might enjoy:
https://jerryfletcher.net/2017/05/deja-vu-testing-for-on-line-success/
https://jerryfletcher.net/2017/03/positioning-versus-branding-2/
https://jerryfletcher.net/2016/01/brand-aint-digital/
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Jerry Fletcher, Networking Ninja, is a sought after International Speaker, beBee ambassador, founder and Brand Poobah of www.BrandBrainTrust.com
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for Trust-based Brand development, Positioning and Business Development on and off-line.
Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com