Good news! I found flash drives with the “quotes out of context” presentations that have been prepared over the years at business meetings.

So this all started at a US Sales meeting and in order to stay focused on what was being said, I started writing down the business cliches, like “let’s circle the wagons”, “let’s table that”, “always be closing” and then count how many times they were said. As I began paying attention, I would hear a phrase that was appropriate for the context in which it was said, but wow, it sure was amusing to see the phrase just sitting there by itself. That lead me to put them into a slide show show so the phrase was seen in its purest form along with the person who said it. AS this became known, the slide set became the unofficial and humorous wrap-up presentation, kind of a summary of the things stated over the course of the meeting.

As it became known what I was listening, I started getting contributions from people who heard things that I hadn’t. These contributions became particularly helpful when we were enjoying the evening socializing and might be in different bars and I would get quotes to include via text. I thought about putting the powerpointTM file out here, but then realized it could be downloaded and people could mess with it. Once I teach myself how to record it and protect it, I might put the presentations out here but for now, see below:
These were from Sales and Ops meetings over the course of several months:

A quickie to get out of the way. (Ken Files)
We should be pushing new crap out every day. (Kris)
Money is money. (unattributed)
Assumes ceteris paribus. (Nick Hargaden)
Good, thanks. (Martin Cleary)
It’s the candy coating on the m & m. (Kris)
A number of non-truths. (Ken Files)
Define “point person”. (Luke Lawson)
I digress – it’s one of my pet peeves. (Paul Colombo)

Check back for more postings. If your name is mentioned and you’d like it removed, please email me at chris@focmnetworking.com and I’ll give your request strong consideration and may even possibly act on it. Seriously, though I will remove it if you want me to.