Since I had a minute this evening between calls and training for my own team I felt compelled to post. As someone who is open to all trainers and all forms of training as the great author once wrote, “you are either moving forward or falling backward,” I feel you are the one here making all the claims and causing all the issues.

Barb is great, all my recruiters start on her program and then progress to a Jennifer or even Danny level. She has a foundation approach which is very duplicable and not too over the top like most trainers what to start with on “newbies.” Danny, Jen and Barb all have had very sound mutual respect for each other and I can’t quite get my brain around what you were thinking on this one. Yes we all know your antics, sarcasm, dislike for those in our business and of-course the “f-bomb” on paid speaking engagements but this was a bit too much for even you, a champion of our industry and someone I have learned from for years now.

I have been very impressed with Jen and so have many others as we all feel she does bring some new energy and creativity to our beloved industry. I do not like to assume as it is the ultimate sin in our business, but should I in this instance I wonder if you are just not hurt/upset by NAPS and afraid to tell us so we might help support you in return? We all know of the politics in these associations, thus why I am not in them any longer except as a supporting member so I think we would lend a hand to help support you much like we would expect you to do the same for Jen and others who are coming through the ranks.

This is the wrong way to go about PR for your brand or to attack back, no true data to back-up what you are saying minus “BS” which I have used in my blogs as well.

Chris

Firstly, I’ve enjoyed 30 years of success as a desk-running recruiter and still do it every day (literally). As a disclaimer, I’ve also done some training both domestically and internationally, and count Danny Cahill as a good friend and respect him both personally and professionally. I’m also a founder and past president of the Pinnacle Society. I’ve also met Jeff on a number of occasions and always saw him as “one of the good guys”.

Having read Jeff’s statement, Jenn’s response, and the other comments above, I’m sitting here envisioning Jeff thinking to himself “why didn’t I just take an extra 24 hours before writing this thing?” If you had better considered the basis for your initial opinion on Jenn’s marketing email along with who Cahill is (and likewise anyone associated with him) I’m willing to bet you would have kept this nasty genie back in the bottle. You would have followed Carol Wenom’s suggestion of back-channeling your thoughts and accomplished many more positive goals.

Now that you’ve made the statement, you have accomplished very little if anything that’s positive. Danny Cahill is a class act and would never countenance such nonsense about the term “BS”. And he doesn’t need me to stick up for him either (but I will). In disparaging Danny, Jenn and NAPS over the reaction of 12 people and one commonly used term you have risked much and didn’t have to. Responding by casting yourself as Don Quixote jousting against the powers that be is not going to solve your problem now.

What is going to solve your problem is the hardest thing to do–and here I agree with you on needing to do the hard thing. That is admitting you overreacted, made incorrect assumptions and offer to buy Jenn dinner at the next NAPS conference and bring your own peace pipe to smoke. Do a mea culpa, show you’re truly bigger than the profile you miss-described was Jenn, and put out this fire now.

Otherwise, by doing an “I did not have sex with that woman” dance you will lose much more than you gain, if anything. You made a very public mistake and the right thing to do now is to just be true to who you really are.

Fair point…I have revised that sentence to read:

“And that standard cannot include contextual innuendo that takes, what many felt was, a pointed jab at one of our profession’s most important contributors.”

I think that more accurately reflects the sentiment I was hoping to express.

Jeff, I am asking instead of telling because I’d like to know whether (more explicitly) you are maintaining your original premise and are calling Jen a liar…or not clearly enough accepting her denial that it had nothing to do with your original premise and not apologizing for mischaracterizing her.
I am not judging you with my question either…and I hope you see this as a fair question. It really is an either/or kind of deal with no gray area…
(I apologize in advance if there is a more recent post addressing this already. I did check just now).