Strangers ask Derek and I for advice all the time.
Just the other day, we were at one of our periodic planning lunches for CMEpalooza when our server sauntered over with a somewhat inquisitive look on her face.
“Do you mind if I sit down for a second?”
(Obviously, we were both going to tell her, “Yes, we do,” but she cozied up before we could say anything.)
“I have been eavesdropping a bit on your conversations about some sort of CMOpretzel kind of thing, and it’s obvious that the two of you are worldly and brilliant, so I’m wondering if you might be able to give me some advice about my roommate.”
It was the classic situation. One was neat, one was messy. One stayed out until the wee hours of the night, one liked to go to bed early. One ate all the food in the fridge whether she had bought it or not, one only ate what was hers.
“I really like her,” our server told us, “but I just can’t take this anymore. What should I do?”
Derek and I both looked at each other, simultaneously shrugged our shoulders and told her, “Move to another state, duh.”
Stunned by our brilliance, she got up with a strange look on her face, probably contemplating where she should move to next. Another life that had been invariably changed for the better thanks to our insightful advice.
Following this encounter, a lightbulb went off in my head. Why limit our life-changing advice to random strangers who are fortunate enough to cross paths with us on a daily basis? Why not offer our services to our adoring CMEpalooza fans?
So, with that in mind, we are launching a new blog feature that we are calling Ask Us Anything. Here is how it works:
- You think of a current problem you are having that you want our advice about. Ideally, this problem will be professional in nature, but if you want our input on your nosy mother-in-law or any other pressing life issue, perhaps we can be helpful there as well.
- Go to our Ask Us Anything form and submit your question(s). Provide us with as much detail as you want. Presumably, you’ll want your submission to be anonymous, so we’re also letting you pick out some sort of pithy moniker you’ll go by for our blog. If you can’t think of something, we’ll do it for you.
- Derek and I will peruse the hundreds of expected submissions we’ll receive and select a handful to publicly respond to through our blog in periodic posts. Please don’t be disappointed if we don’t address your problem(s) right away. I am sure we’ll get to most everyone eventually.
- We are going to take this semi-seriously. We are not Dear Abby or Ann Landers. If you have read our blog religiously through the years (and if you haven’t, shame on you), you should have a pretty good idea of the kind of “advice” you are likely to get from us. It is possible we’ll actually have advice that will help, but it’s also possible our advice will be completely nonsensical.
Let’s have fun with this, everyone.
Click here to Ask Us Anything
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