Client Management Lessons from Song Lyrics Archives

Lessons in the Lifecycle of the Consultant From “Hotel California”

Work can be a lovely place–such a lovely place!–that you might want to never leave. And this is one of the beautiful cautions that the American poet Don Henley cautions us about but his warning implies a question: why? Why couldn’t you, wouldn’t you, check out of your work place, or in the metaphor of his poem, the “Hotel California”? There is a great nugget of a lesson nestled in his poem, but to unravel it, we have to go verse by verse, and doing so tells the story of the arc of the consultant’s work. Let’s dive in.

Your Company’s Culture Club: “Karma Chameleon” As A Workplace Warning

Despite having heard "Karma Chameleon" perhaps thousands of times, I never stopped to ponder the lyrics, although I have wondered about the separate question of whether songs so canonical and ubiquitous will be remembered or lost, even just a generation down the line.

The Four Types of Work Colleagues… According to U2

In the very large category of "songs whose choruses I have sung hundreds or thousands of times yet I never thought of the meaning of what I'm actually singing until that song happened to randomly come onto a playlist recently" we have a new addition that is worth diving in to.

Client management lessons I learned from It’s the end of the world as we know it by REM

We all know the experience, having lived through it many times (and lost our hair or even worse, our sanity, each time): the client project that blows up. Maybe due to your fault or your team’s fault, but more often than not, for reasons that have nothing to do with you. (You’re perfect so how could it ever be your fault?).

Client management lessons I learned from Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley

How inevitable was it that we would analyze the original Rickrolling video here, to try to extract client management or marketing lessons from it? A song that had 6 milliseconds of fame once upon a time but that the Interwebs makes live on forever. And above that, the Interweb rewrites history to make it sound like the 80s and 90s were an era when this was the anthem you heard 24/7; don’t let the modern infatuation with the song make you think it was the defining song of the era of my childhood. (This is personal, yo!).

Client management lessons I learned from Everybody wants to rule the world by Tears for Fears

The famous name and chorus to Tears for Fears’ most classic song–Everybody Wants To Rule The World–feels like a lie to me: those who are ruling the world or close to ruling the world probably have the most miserable job on the planet.

Client management lessons I learned from These Boots Are Made For Walking

It’s hard for me to find a 70s song that is both intensely fun and danceable, while not being as cliche and overused as Saturday Night Fever or Staying Alive. What song is at that perfect intersection of that Venn diagram, while also having possibly the most ’70s video of it ever?

Client management lessons I learned from Handle with Care by the Traveling Wilburys

What do you get when a one-hit-wonder crosses with a group of the greatest apparent rock musicians together? You get only one song in that Venn diagram: Handle with Care by the Traveling Wilburys.

Client management lessons I learned from Somewhere over the rainbow by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole (and I want it all by Queen)

Similar to Ground Control to Major Tom, sorry, I mean Space Oddity, “Somewhere over the rainbow” is another song that I can’t call by its official title, “Over the rainbow”: it just sounds too weird to my ears without the “Somewhere.”

Client management lessons I learned from Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

If there is a song that ought to be the anthem of any serious professional, especially in the marketing industry–although likely members of any profession would argue it ought to be their anthem–it would be Queen & David Bowie’s Under Pressure.

Client Management Lessons from Song Lyrics

Lessons in the Lifecycle of the Consultant From “Hotel California”

Your Company’s Culture Club: “Karma Chameleon” As A Workplace Warning

The Four Types of Work Colleagues… According to U2

Client management lessons I learned from It’s the end of the world as we know it by REM

Client management lessons I learned from Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley

Client management lessons I learned from Everybody wants to rule the world by Tears for Fears

Client management lessons I learned from These Boots Are Made For Walking

Client management lessons I learned from Handle with Care by the Traveling Wilburys

Client management lessons I learned from Somewhere over the rainbow by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole (and I want it all by Queen)

Client management lessons I learned from Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

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