I had a new client to meet in New York City, so to beat traffic, I left home early and arrived by 7AM, which left me three hours until the meeting.
To kill time, I went to The Harvard Club for breakfast (I’m a member because I was smart enough to marry someone who’s a member.) The dining room looks like the dining hall of King Henry VIII.
Cell phones are forbidden at the H Club, but I thought I could at least read email while I ate. I ordered, then scrolled through junk to find an email from Chris Brogan.
Chris was saying, “Don’t make your readers feel like you’re trying to capture them in a sales funnel,” and then he had a link to something called, “It’s a trap.”
I clicked on it. My iPhone 3g chugged away and brought to view a blurry screen that said, “Play.” I pressed “Play.” Within a second, a raspy voice was shouting from my phone, “It’s a trap. It’s a trap. It’s a trap.”
I could not silence the phone. Escape. Delete. Turn off. Nothing would work. A mal-worm had penetrated my perimeter. I scrambled to leave the room and saw that diners and waiters alike were aghast. I put the screaming phone in my armpit and walked into the kitchen, where I was able to steady my fingers and silence the screams.
Chris writes great blogs. I will continue to read them. But why did he do that to me? It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny then. I had visions of being booted from the club and having an infected iPhone.
And what does this have to do with effective speaking? Well, it’s a stretch, but I think Chris was being flip—telling a little joke—by including the mal-ware. And some jokes bomb.