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Marketing, Elbow Grease & Public Relations Wins The Day & Pantses The Enemy
Tying up a number of loose ends, today. Things I’ve been meaning to blog about for awhile, but haven’t. This 
one is a treat for those of you who are inspired by real folks standing up for themselves, and winning!
Discover how one man’s struggle handsomely paid off and how he pantsed his opponent in the process. I think we call that having your cake and eating it, too.
Or . . . “Revenge is a dish best served cold. And it is very cold in space, Kirrrrk.” But this guy didn’t have to go all Wrath Of Kahn on anyone, he just leveraged the power of marketing and PR.
Today, visual Strategist Kyle McFarlin is not only a certified Mindjet Trainer, he was recently featured in one of their customer profiles.
But I’ll let him tell it, he’s becoming quite the ham as he gets his overdue fame.
“A little while ago, Mindjet let me know they were working on customer ‘vignettes’ and asked me to be a part of it. Not knowing what the word ‘vignette’ meant, I said yes without looking it up, gambling it didn’t mean ’smear campaign’ or ‘water torture’. Truth be told, I still don’t really get the word ‘vignette’… I’m guessing it means ‘profile’ or ’studliness’ perception enhancement campaign’. …Still too lazy to look it up.
Oh what luck, I gave you the link to the page featuring me.”
Like I said, geez . . . whatta ham. Frankly, I had to look up “vignette” in the dictionary, not because I didn’t know what it meant but because I didn’t understand the way they used it. And from the definitions I found, that’s not the correct word. But that’s not his fault, that’s on Mindjet for gettin’ all fancy and high-faultin’.
And “studliness”? Dude, you have to quit drinking your own Kool-Aid. Lol. Seriously though, congratulations! You earned it. And having been personally trained by you, I’m looking forward to the rest of the world discovering your training prowess.
Other loose ends to tie-up — remember the Senior Trainer at Mindjet, Matt Mansinne? The guy who dissed McFarlin for 7 months and prevented him from becoming a trainer? You know, the corporate exec who ignored 40 phone calls and 10 emails from a guy who had a passion to learn and a fistful of dollars to pay for it?
The same exec who only responded when McFarlin exposed his shenanigans to the public by blogging the struggle – complete with pictures of him dressed to the nines and with a hand-lettered cardboard sign saying, “Will Pay To Be Mindjet Certified“?
Well, Mansinne “quit” just before McFarlin showed up for day 1 of his training. Convenient. I imagine it would be hard to look someone in the eye after all that. Nice to know backbones still run strong and true in the corporate world.
I profiled McFarlin’s heroic struggle back here, here and here.
“Never give up. Never surrender” my friend. And I wish like hell that wasn’t a quote from Galaxy Quest.
By Walter |
Topics: It's A Good Thing, ROI No-Prize |
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Walter,
To have ‘Wrath of Khan’ mentioned in a post about me: NOW THAT is a ’studliness perception enhancement campaign’!
Okay seriously… thanks for showing we, your readers, how to wage the good fight where so many others have turned back. I could not have done what I did without the example you’ve set.
As your readers are experiencing, the 800 pound gorillas are not safe from the thought viruses that can now be unleashed on them when they wrong the ‘little guy’ (Have the iCAP people come out of their fox holes yet?).