Category: Personal Reflections and Diary

Q: HOW DO CUSTOMERS REACT TO YOUR PHILOSOPHICAL WORK?

—“You’re an entrepreneur and a scholar who goes to places like TRS and now RIR and you say what you say and you don’t hide your identity. It takes balls. Great to have people like you on our side.”—-

This is a great question.

1) in my experience customers are willing to pay people who will tell them the truth regardless of their personal political biases. In my case, I have found the fact that I am a radical to be a positive influence with my customers.

2) When dealing with my customers I act entirely in their interest using my skills and the only way my political preferences enter into the customer relationship is that I will not engage in anything I find immoral. Which again tends to be beneficial for customers.

3) In advertising, marketing, and customer experience (the web), the truth spoken elegantly and succinctly is attractive for both merchant and consumer. And my emphasis on truth helps that.

4) You probably notice that I don’t hate ANYBODY. I view problems as philosophical, informational, and institutional not personal. I don’t discount people’s feelings, or their interests, or their agendas. I just go with what makes people engage in mutually beneficial cooperation regardless. My solutions are all matters of voluntary cooperation.

5) When I go on very nationalist shows or very racist shows, I tend to be the voice of moderation rather than criticism. If you ask me why others have their behaviors I don’t say that they’re bad, I say only that we must defend against immoral and unbeneficial behaviors.

6) What most customers seem to feel is this: “he will fight for me if I am right. he solves my problems. he is unstoppable. He will make us more money. He will help advance my career. And if he is that truthful in public he is going to be that truthful with me.”

7) I have very few direct relationships with customers. Most of the time I solve the initial problem, and the staff maintains the relationship and performs the work. If it is a strategy question I will run the strategy sessions (requirements gathering). And I will often help with design. But I find my greatest value is in gathering the truth from the customer in a way that it is inescapable, and then using the truth to sell the rest of the organization on it. So it’s not like customers get to spend a lot of time talking to me. In fact, it’s more common that they are overly concerned with using my time.

I have only had one negative experience, and it was from a woman when I made the statement on my personal blog that all women are beautiful and desirable as long as they can keep the weight off. Well, the problem is, that it’s true. I told the customer and my sales staff, that its’ my job and our job to speak the truth, because that is what the consumer wants. If something is true, it just is true. Knowing the truth we must discover some way to make use of it. But we cannot ever escape the truth without creating more problems than we solve.

So while I am sure there are people who are disinclined to hire a conservative libertarian, or someone willing to get into tough discussions, I am only interested in those customers that want to use the truth in advertising, marketing, and experience to forge better relationships with customers for mutual gain.

And as a specialist in truth, incentive and exchange, I kind of doubt I will run out of customers interested in truth, incentive and mutually beneficial exchange.

Because that is what the world wants from big corporations that can afford to pay guys like me to solve their problems: they want the truth. it can be spun one way or another, but it must be true.

Curt.