I’m an AI Evangelist. AI Almost Cost Me $750 in Perfectly Good Sinks.

I spent a year trying to connect a bathroom sink. AI couldn’t help. A Plumbing Resource at Lowes, named John Wolfe fixed it in five minutes. Here’s what that taught me about the future of work. I run multiple businesses where AI is baked into everything: websites, marketing funnels, training programs, data analysis. I use Grok, Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini—the whole stack. I genuinely believe AI is the greatest productivity multiplier of our lifetime. Then I met a DIY bathroom remodel with a male-threaded tailpiece on a vessel sink that refused to connect to my home’s standard drain. ChatGPT confidently told me I needed a “1-1/4″ slip joint extension with a 1-1/2″ tailpiece adapter”. Sounded perfect. The part doesn’t exist—it confused standard drain sizing with the sink specifications. Grok suggested a manufacturer part number that was imagined. The web links authoritatively took to me to patio furniture.  The AI had pattern-matched plumbing terminology without understanding a fundamentally different mechanical universe. Two professional plumbers couldn’t solve it. Five stores (Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace, two plumbing suppliers) didn’t have answers. The manufacturer was no help. I was minutes from ripping out two perfectly good $750 sinks. Then I walked into Lowe’s Peoria, AZ and met John Wolfe. John started in plumbing in 1978. He looked at my photo, felt the threads with his fingers, and said: “You need a 1 ½ inch trap adapter, and a 1 ¼ inch female PVC adapter, and a few other things.”  Five minutes later he handed me $20 in parts. Done. John had installed thousands of sinks. AI had read about thousands of vessel sinks. Not the same thing. I see the same pattern in Global Mobility. AI can quote immigration law perfectly, generate compliant assignment letters, and analyze cost-of-living data faster than any human. But it doesn’t know that the consulate you are dealing with is backlogged eight months because of a staffing change, or that the “correct” housing allowance for Shanghai will put your assignee in the wrong school area for their teenager’s needs, or how to read the subtext when an executive says they’re “excited” about a Singapore move but their spouse just went silent on the call. That’s the kind of pattern recognition that comes from being in the room for a thousand conversations AI has only seen transcribed. AI can write a 2,000-word white paper in ten seconds. It cannot feel pipe thread with its fingers or read the room when a relocation is about to go sideways. Here’s what I think this means: The professionals who will thrive alongside AI aren’t the ones defending territory. They’re the ones building expertise that compounds with AI rather than competes with it. John doesn’t need to fear YouTube tutorials—his value comes from the 10,000 problems he’s solved that taught him which rules to break and when, what to pay attention to, and why.  The same is true in knowledge work. AI handles the commoditized part—the research, the drafting, the data processing. What becomes more valuable is the judgment that comes from lived experience: knowing which “correct” answer won’t actually work, reading context that isn’t in the data, connecting dots across domains that AI’s training can’t see. We’re not headed toward AI versus humans. We’re headed toward AI as the foundation and human expertise as the architecture built on top. Thank you, John Wolfe. And thank you to every tradesperson, consultant, and veteran mobility professional who’s building the kind of expertise that makes AI better—not obsolete. The future belongs to both. #AI #Craftsmanship #SkilledTrades #Leadership #CustomerExperience #HumansFirst #ExperienceMatters

A Brief History of Time

We talk about time like it’s currency – something we can save, spend, or lose. We rush through days as if they’re being billed by the hour, then look back and wonder where it all went. I’ve spent much of my career trying to master time – and failing, repeatedly – until I realized that time isn’t something you manage. It’s something you respect. That shift in thinking changed everything for me. Early in my leadership days, I equated long hours with productivity. If I was the last one to leave, surely that meant I was leading by example. What it actually meant was that I was tired, reactive, and too busy managing moments instead of momentum. The older I get, the more I understand that how we use time says more about our leadership than almost anything else. We can delegate decisions, share authority, even automate work – but time remains the one resource that tells the truth about our priorities. In the pages ahead, I want to share a few lessons I’ve learned the hard way – the small disciplines and mindset shifts that helped me use time less like a stopwatch and more like a compass. They aren’t secrets. They’re reminders. But when practiced consistently, they can change how you work – and how you lead. Be the Fastest Stop on the Approval Highway One of the simplest ways to earn your team’s respect is to never be the reason their work stalls. Managers spend a surprising amount of time approving things: time sheets, travel requests, expense reports, purchases, budgets. None of it feels particularly strategic, yet every one of those items represents someone waiting to move forward. Early in my career, I learned this lesson the hard way. I had a team member who politely reminded me three times to approve a purchase order. Each time, I told myself I’d “get to it after lunch.” By the time I finally did, the vendor’s quote had expired, and the entire process had to restart. I had cost my team a week because I couldn’t spare five minutes. That moment taught me something important. If your approval sits in an inbox, it’s not just a delay in workflow. It’s a message to your team about what you value. When people have to chase you down to get something signed, they start to believe their time matters less than yours. Now, I make it a personal rule: if something requires my approval, I handle it right away. It’s usually a two-minute task that clears someone else’s path. Keeping those small things moving means my team can focus on the big ones. And here’s the real benefit: when you remove yourself as a bottleneck, you give time back to everyone around you. In leadership, that’s one of the best gifts you can give. Schedule What Actually Matters Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” That line hits me every time I read it. Most of us spend our days reacting to what’s loudest instead of what’s lasting. The ringing phone, the new email, the “quick question” from a colleague – they all feel urgent, but they rarely move us closer to our real goals. Stephen Covey called it “investing your time” rather than spending it, and I’ve learned that the best leaders do exactly that. They make time for the things that build capability, not just activity. Teaching a deputy how to run a report, building a new process, preparing for a client strategy session – none of it is urgent, but all of it is important. The trick is to turn those quiet priorities into visible ones. I live by my calendar. If something matters, it gets a spot there. Not a “when I have time” sticky note, but a real block of space that says, this hour belongs to progress. Modern tools make this easier than ever. Outlook, Google Calendar, Teams – they all let you protect your time before someone else fills it. Schedule an hour each day for what’s important and not urgent, and treat it like any other meeting. Don’t cancel it. Don’t ignore the reminder. Show up for yourself. That one habit changed how I lead. When I stopped reacting to what was loud and started committing to what was meaningful, the quality of my work, and my time – improved overnight. Your future self will thank you for defending that hour. Email Is Not Strategy It still amazes me how many people start their day by diving straight into email. I used to do it too. Coffee in hand, I’d open my inbox and convince myself I was being productive because I was “getting things done.” The truth is, I was just reacting. It’s odd to think that my most important task of the day would simply appear in my inbox by magic. Yet, that’s how many of us behave. We treat email like a to-do list that someone else writes for us. Here’s the problem: email represents other people’s priorities, not yours. Every message is a request, a reminder, or a problem waiting to be solved. And while it’s tempting to live in that constant loop of replying and refreshing, all it really does is keep you busy without moving you forward. Now, I start my day differently. I take five minutes to scan for anything truly urgent, but that’s it. Then I turn to my actual priorities – the projects, people, and decisions that create impact. Email gets its own scheduled time later in the day, just like any other meeting. Reaching inbox zero feels good, but it’s not the same as progress. The goal isn’t to clear your inbox. It’s to clear your path. Don’t Let Projects Die Between Steps Every leader knows the frustration of watching a simple project stretch endlessly. You add up the task times on

Putting the spotlight on taxable commissions and rebates

The most sweeping US tax legislation since the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was signed into law onDecember 22, 2017. The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act ushered in many changes to our tax code, some of which impacted the mobility industry directly. The most significant change for mobility was the elimination of the exclusion from taxable income of household goods (HHG) shipment and final move expense reimbursements or payments. Recognizing tax changes that affect your bottom line The elimination of the exclusion is significant in that these expenses are now subject to income taxation and, as such, increase the tax assistance (gross-up) costs for employers. A side effect of this change is the spotlight it has put on the commission or rebate portion of HHG invoicing. Traditionally, relocation management companies (RMCs) have earned a “commission” when booking HHG shipments with a carrier

The Five Myths of Relocation Pricing

Over the years, pricing within the relocation management industry has morphed from strictly fee-based to something very different. Commissions, rebates, kickbacks, and markups now dominate the landscape resulting in a complete lack of transparency, conflicts of interest for providers, and missed savings for employers. Relocation Management Companies (RMC) promote a series of myths designed to perpetuate this system. This paper will serve to dispel those myths and provide recommendations on some simple steps for a better path forward. MYTH #1. RMC SERVICES ARE FREE TO THE CLIENT SINCE RMCS RECEIVE ALL REVENUE FROM SUPPLIERS In the early days of the relocation industry, employers paid relocation management companies (RMC) a fee to run the mobility program. All costs of services were passed through with no upcharge, just fees for professional services. This is no different from what you would expect for any consultative service company, accountants, attorneys, etc. As the industry evolved, competition resulted in RMCs reducing fees. Employers saw this as a win. No fees meant less overall spending, right? Well, not always. Relocation companies needed to make up for the lost revenue. Gradually, fees were replaced by commissions, and rebates were added on top of the pass-through charges for the services managed. With every dollar that an employer spent on things like temporary lodging or household goods transportation, a percentage went to the relocation company. At first, commission rebates were limited to real estate and household goods transportation, but as fees continued to drop, the scope of these rebates expanded exponentially. Today, RMCs collect rebates on virtually every passthrough service invoice. We all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch, however, RMCs perpetuate the myth of “free” services by not disclosing the rebates and kickbacks received on services procured on behalf of clients. It would be a different story if rebates to RMCs came out of supplier profits, but such is not the case. In most cases when an RMC works with a supplier, the rebate amount is demanded and documented as part of the contract. Suppliers have no issue with the amounts, which are simply tacked on to the amount that would have been normally charged. For example, the RMC wants a $25 rebate on every appraisal. No problem. The supplier’s standard rate for an appraisal is $750, instead the supplier charges $775 and sends $25 back to the RMC for each invoice. For some services, the amount rebated is a flat dollar amount, in some cases it is based on a percentage of the invoice amount. For percentage-based arrangements, the more these services cost, the more an RMC earns! To add insult to injury, supplier rebates received by the RMC are not disclosed and difficult to identify even if a client knew where to look.

The paradox of relocation pricing

There is a paradox in the way most relocation management companies (RMC’s) earn money for their services that makes it difficult to align the RMC’s goals with their client’s goals. It’s a giant elephant in the room for the relocation industry and to understand why, we have to go back to the 1980’s. In the early days of the relocation industry, employers paid their relocation partner a fee to administer a tax protected home sale program and all costs of services were passed through with no upcharge. Very much like you would expect for a consultative service company. Fees for professional services. In the 1990’s the industry evolved. Competition grew and relocation companies were forced to drop their fees. Employers thought this was great – no fees are good, right? Well, not always. Relocation companies still had to make money. Gradually fees were replaced by commissions and rebates added to the services managed. With every dollar that an employer spent on things like furnished housing or moving household goods, a percentage went to the relocation company. The ugly news is that adding commissions and rebates to supplier costs now INCREASES your tax bill. And the more these services cost, the more an RMC earns! And that’s how we arrived where we are today. RMC’s tout zero or minimal service fees, with their actual service cost buried in pass-through invoice amounts. Supplier rebates received by the RMC are not disclosed and difficult to identify even if a client knew to look.