Magic beans

In a few weeks, the ground up here will be soft enough to plant my vegetable garden. So I will go down to the basement and find the little brown envelope in which I stored my single bean all winter. Then I will dig a hole, put the seed in, and cover it up with soil. And wait. Until…

Continue Reading →

So expensive and yet so cheap

Brrrng! There goes the phone again here at Ready to Go Towers. It’s a client inquiring about pricing. So I tell her what we charge. “Why is it so…expensive?” she asks. I tell her about our intelligent and entertaining content, our response-generating devices, our customer service, the fact that you can change everything, that fact that… etc, etc, etc. She…

Continue Reading →

The glue that holds communities together

I did my three hour stretch in front of the mic at our community radio station yesterday. I’m sure it’s quite a shock to the locals up here to hear my British tones coming out of their radios. After all, we’re not the BBC, just an enthusiastic group of people who make radio for our county every…

Continue Reading →

Building a roaring fire with newsletters

It was 48 degrees when I got home last night. That was the temperature inside the house, you understand. I should explain. I’ve been away getting some rays in Florida. After all, this winter has been….well, you know… And back up here in the Highlands, you don’t leave the heating on when you are away. Unless you want…

Continue Reading →

What you can learn from Taxi Mike

If you’re ever in Banff, in the Canadian Rockies, and you need a taxi, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself in the back seat of Mike’s cab. It’s not that he’s the only taxi in town. But he is the most helpful. And the most creative. Here’s what he does (a tip of the…

Continue Reading →

School custard and gourmet newsletters

When I was a little kid, I used to eat my lunches at the elementary school cafeteria.  The food was terrible. Tasteless mashed potato. Boiled spinach. And lumpy custard with a thick skin on it. Of course, I didn’t expect gourmet cuisine. After all, it was England (ha!) – and it was school catering. But…

Continue Reading →

Butt-dialing your way to newsletter success

Mayna, our wonderful customer service manager, mistakenly butt-dialed me at 8.30 this morning. But it wasn’t any usual accidental call. It was on Skype. On her iPhone. With the video turned on. So there I was, treated to the sight of Mayna making coffee in her kitchen. I can tell you, she looks more put-together than I do first thing in…

Continue Reading →

The neighborhood chickens and the real you

Did you know that, across America, farms are springing up in the middle of towns and sub-divisions? Where once there would be a golf course or more houses, now there is a community farm with crops, fruit trees and organic chickens. It turns out that these businesses make money (and cost less to operate than a golf…

Continue Reading →

Forgetful husbands, wilted flowers and Compound Customers

I’d be willing to wager that most people buy a bunch of flowers at least once a year. Even if it’s a sorry, wilted red rose purchased at 5pm on February 14. I buy flowers online and get them sent – as if by magic – by a florist back in England to my mother.   I’m a…

Continue Reading →