Meddlesome

Retreat! Does taking your staff away from daily activities for an extended off-site meeting return benefits? We'd get together for a few days twice a year. The real benefit to our team came from socializing with peers. Jim and I, as business owners, learned a lot about our people during these sessions. Was it worth it? We think so, but tune into our stories and make up your own mind. 

Ken puts Jim on the spot by having him dissect a load of corporate speak about layoffs and the impact of AI on a business. Unintentionally, this has ended up being a follow-on from Episode 2.14 "Consultant Lingo Bingo" and is a great study in attempted [Epistemic Capture-](https://product.sustainability-directory.com/area/epistemic-capture/resource/1/). Can Jim make sense of it? Could any of us? Tune in and find out.

What do you really do as a business? Do you need to become an expert in accounting or Human Resources to have a successful business? Or should you leave that to someone with more experience? In these stories, we share our experiences trying to be jacks of all trades, how that worked out for us, and offer advice on when to DIY and when to call for help. This is a critical skill for starting and growing a business.

In the first of what will likely be a long discussion on project management, Jim and Ken introduce you to the idea of a project. This isn't some academic view or anything that will get you a certificate of accomplishment. But it is a realistic view of the deep complexities of managing a project and how to be successful at it. In this episode, we discuss project startup and sponsorship.

Unless you're very lucky, travel is an inevitable part of entrepreneurship. Long days, short nights, sleeping in strange places, and road food are par for the course. It can be grueling, taxing both the mind and body. In this episode, we offer some serious and humorous tips for surviving on the road.

So you're an independent contractor or have a firm with hundreds of employees. How do you set the rates you charge your clients/customers? Too low and you'll go out of business. Too high and you won't get any business. Do you care about competitor rates? Do you just spitball? The answer is within reach.

In this episode, Jim and Ken investigate the pervasive use of jargon in the consulting industry and how it obscures effective communication.

In this episode, Jim and Ken share their journey through the complexities of decision-making in both business and life, highlighting our struggles with indecision and analysis paralysis.