I may have to seek therapy.
My son, Robert William, has chosen to attend the University of Florida to become a … I can’t write it. Their mascot begins with the letter G. Ugh!
I graduated from the superior school within the state, Florida State University. My favorite daughter is set to graduate from Florida State this December. She followed my plan perfectly.
I remember sitting with my daughter at an FSU baseball game when she was 10 years old or so. Between innings, the stadium announcer began to read off scores to the crowd. One score spurred a tremendous cheer: “Here’s an update from the SEC gymnastics tournament — Kentucky 8, Tennessee 5, and Florida 2.”
My daughter gave me a quizzical look as if to say, “Why does anyone care about a gymnastics tournament?”
“As a Florida State Seminole, we root against Florida in every sport they play,” I explained. Everyone seated around me within earshot nodded in agreement.
My son, Robert William, wants to study entrepreneurship. (Wherever did he get that idea?) Florida’s business school building is brand new and state of the art. FSU’s facilities were last renovated in 1987 (although I’m sure the education is as good or better). So, his mind is made up.
Nevertheless, my baby boy is graduating from high school this month. The year after he was born, in 2000, I earned Chairman’s Preferred on US Airways flying more than 100 flight segments. I restructured my clients and time to manage travel, and by 2001, I was no longer preferred.
Now that he’s graduating and leaving for college, I’m making myself available for travel again. This April I traveled to Germany to deliver a week of training and workshops to members of the 498-member team of the largest publishing company in Germany, VNR Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG.
This month, in addition to my client travel, I’m attending the Subscription Insider Payments Bootcamp. This event ensures subscription companies have the tools they need to avoid involuntary churn from failed charges. There are a lot of reasons credit cards fail that have nothing to do with the card or available credit. You could be working with a merchant processor with a reputation for taking risky merchants. And, although you manage your chargebacks, your processor may have a bad reputation, causing you unnecessary failed charges. Or you could be using the wrong payment gateway. Just because it’s compatible with your shopping cart doesn’t mean it’s the best gateway to minimize failed charges. Plus, you can learn about tools such as automatic credit card updaters that give you new expiration dates and security codes so you can continue processing customer cards even when they receive a new card because of a request or expiration. Get the details at . Use the coupon code Skrob20to save 20 percent on your registration.
With my son headed to the University of Florida, my wife and I will be back to the good ol’ days when it was just the two of us as newlyweds. It was 1994 when our daughter was born.
How do you train your editorial team to engage your new members, create content members want, minimize refunds, and increase retention? An interactive training workshop could give you a tremendous return on your investment.
Although my calendar is filling up with trips, workshops, and client engagements in Ireland, Toronto, Baltimore, New York, Tampa, Clearwater, and others, there are a few dates available this year.
It’s amazing the impact these sessions have had on large $100 million-plus publishers, like the Agora affiliates I’ve worked with, as well as the $5 million companies alike. Everyone invests a lot to get new members; few invest in keeping the members they have. Your team will come away with several new tools to stop members from quitting, get an entirely new understanding of what it takes to engage and keep members, and will be inspired and excited about their new role in retention.
And, if you say, “Go Seminoles” when we talk, I’ll give you a generous discount as well. I could use the cheering up!
About Robert Skrob
