I love getting a new phone until I actually get it.

We have a small business plan with a certain provider which was a pretty amazing one, not that the provider is all that amazing but because their rep just kept offering me better and better deals.

His name is Sam.

Sam knew everything there was to know about the available plans and phones and maybe even over-represented his company in that there were times I was already content with our choice and then:

Ring!!!

“Corey it’s Sam. I have a better deal for you!”

Ring!

“Corey it’s Sam. I can upgrade your phones for free now. Something just came up.

Ring!

“Corey it’s Sam….”

Somewhere along the way I almost felt like saying “Sam, I’m not sure you’re supposed to be offering me these deals!”, a conversation I’ll only ever think and not say.

Sometimes NOT saying something works to your advantage.

Like the time the church I grew up in raised in the ballpark of twenty five thousand dollars to drill a well in Kenya and another church in Alberta had local churches there and wanted to partner with us and arranged a lunch with the head of their missions department.

Let’s say that just because you go to church and are in charge of something doesn’t automatically make you smart?

Venue was later created around certain values, the main one being being REAL. I hate fake. We hate fake. People are tired of fake. I also hate drama. This is one of the reasons why.

From the first time this gentleman opened his mouth I said in my head “Who the heck is this guy?” He did nothing but brag about himself and how amazing he was and dropped every big name he could think of in order to impress us.

Well, it was super unimpressive because we’d already decided to invest with them… until he wouldn’t shut up.

Our original contact from his church was someone I’d known for a long time and was there for lunch too. He later told me “My brain just kept screaming THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!”

I nearly interrupted the man three or four times with “You need to stop talking if you want the MONEY”, but I decided to let him go for it.

Needless to say we went with a much humbler organization called Compassion Canada. I think the other guy was threatened that his people overseas might like us more than him, which after lunch I could understand.

I’m not trying to be hard on churches because every church does amazing things, but I think we’re all responsible to be the best we can be even when we feel threatened by what someone else is doing, we’re actually on the same team. But I realized then and there that I’d better make sure my future staff aren’t like that guy was.

But it’s good to keep quiet sometimes, and Sam kept the goods a-comin!

Our phone contract came up for renewal last month and I picked up the phone and called, you guessed it, my golden goose!

Turns out Sam works for a different provider now but is the same terrific customer service guy. “Corey, I’ll take care of you! I’ll send some options”

Well, he did. He offered us something that was similar but then said “Corey there are some small corporate plans that are a little more painful to start, but will benefit way more in the end. You should go with this one.”

And we did.

I love technology and shiny things even if I don’t understand them. But I HATE setting them up.

We’re in a busy time of growth with the church and I actually have a part time assistant now which makes me feel important (cough cough), and by important I mean when you delegate things to talented people, the things actually get done and that makes ME a genius for delegating things to her in the first place?!! It’s good timing because I finally came to the realization that I physically can’t do everything I’m doing anymore and need some help.

Getting help is difficult if you’ve been telling yourself you could be amazing at actually organizing systems if you wanted to, but that the reason you aren’t good at it is because you don’t want to be.

Turns out I want to but I’m still not good at them which doesn’t work in my brain. So now I tell Renee “Hey I need some help with ____” and she brings it back somewhere between ten minutes and two days all done for me.

It’s a much better arrangement.

I struggled setting up the dang phones for like a day and a half last week and should’ve asked for help. Let’s be honest, I made a solo decision and cancelled the other phones and then Erin was like “Why is my phone not working??” and “WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU CANCEL THEM THIS WEEK???” And “HOW LONG UNTIL MY NEW PHONE IS WORKING??” Etc etc.

All valid questions that should have been asked BEFORE I went ahead and did it.

Oh and we also went from one iTunes account for our family phones to individual ones at the same time because that made sense to me until I did it too.

Did I need to do that at the same time? No. Did I anyways? It appears that I did.

Am I great at organizing things? No. Am I great at technology? No. Am I great at details? Heck no.

So I’ve decided to ask for help,

But I still secretly think I could be good at it if I really wanted to.

Sometimes NOT saying something works to your advantage