Dear Founder, Don't Be the Bad Waiter

Dear Founder/Marketing Head/Product Development/Customer Funtime Lead,

I am just writing this vague and boilerplate email to repond to the Nth Billionth email I've received from one of you with regards to your freemium, SAAS product/app of choice.

Look, if I had questions or concerns about your product, I am a smart enough guy to find the email, contact page, or bot that you call a chat module to get an answer.

If you want feedback, you really do need to give me enough time to actually use your product. Emailing me a mere day or two after I have only signedup for the product is not enough time for me to evaluate something.

It finally occurred to me that you are like the waitress who comes back to the table right after dropping the food and asking if I like it before I've even begun to chew.

So please, stop.

Just don't bother. Use your email for advertising or something else, but pestering a potential client like this is a pretty good way to make sure I stay a potential client and not an actual one.

Sincerely,
Todd

New Life

It's weird, sad and slightly freeing. I've been headed towards a completely different life for a lot longer than I even knew. It took me a while to catch up to realize it was happening. Thankfully, I was cognizant enough to see it finally and mostly ready for it. It's amazing when you have the rug completely pulled out from underneath you. The adjustments are jarring. I made mistakes, but like most I learned from them, adapted, and tried my best to do better. The reason you see that truck next to a storage place? That's the sum of my life right now. Never take for granted that you will work hard for something or someone, and it will end up meaning very little. You are guaranteed nothing, owed nothing, promised nothing. Anything and everything can be taken away in a heartbeat. I wrote this to my kids a while back: I tried to be the best father I could be based on what I knew when I knew it and how I could. One of the lessons for your life needs to be: you n...

Guiding Light

Most folk who know me, know I lost my father when I was 14 years old. However, before he passed, he shared a timeless secret with me—a practice that would shape my life in ways I could never have imagined. He didn't teach me meditation in the traditional sense, with incense and crossed legs. Instead, he showed me how to meditate by gazing at a lone light on the ceiling. When I was very young, I had night terrors that would wake me in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was terribly frustrating to calm a child from that. But my father had the way. I never understood how he came to the practice. But over the years, I've come to understand that my father's unique approach to meditation was, in fact, a profound lesson in mindfulness and presence. In a nearly pitch black room, he would tell me to find a speck of light, not unlike a star. Then focus. He would say, "Just watch the light, like you're watching a story unfold. Be the observer, not the thinker." I...

A #New365

Well, I was sort of looking for my NEW 365daysofHappyforTodd. I found it. Today, starts a new clock towards towards the end of another year. A New Year. I'll be kind, but for those that know- please help me celebrate. I could get all #cliche and talk about #newme #startingover #yadayadayada But, I don't want to. I just want to commemorate. Not a lot of people looked or cared about #365DaysofHappyforTodd That's okay. I was doing it for me. I would like your best "getting through" song though- that would be cool! Just like this #NewTodd sounds lame right?

Todd Lyden

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