Lee Distad

Lee Distad is a rAVe columnist and freelance writer covering topics from CE to global business and finance in both print and online. Reach him at lee@ravepubs.com

Beloved Tools: If It Looks Dumb But it Works It’s Not Dumb

I reached a milestone this past week. I finally had to change the batteries in my electric tape measure. “What’s that?” you ask. “An electric tape measure? You’re kidding, right?” No, I kid you not. I’ve had it for ten years, and in that time, despite being made by the down-market Black and Decker brand, […]

It’s been said that it’s a mark of greatness to create a legacy that leaves something wonderful behind you for future generations. Years before I began working there, at one HiFi store an enterprising general manager had brokered deals with two professional organizations to extend to them a corporate discount program. What that meant was […]

Big box retailers are like the weather: We all like to complain about them, but none of us ever do anything about them. But as entertaining as it is to hate them, and make jokes at their expense, the relationship between big box retail and boutique professional firms is nuanced and complex. The business practices […]

One of the principles that guide me is actually an aphorism that was in much of my CEDIA training back in the day: “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” History is littered with things that seemed like a good idea at the time, but didn’t have lasting appeal. For your morning […]

Over the years, I have sat through what sometimes feels like an endless procession of training sessions. Some were great, and some were less so. As the great wheel of existence turns, now other people have to sit through my vendor training sessions. It’s my expectation, whether I’m receiving or presenting, that in return for […]

Most of the time, the Clutter folder in my new Outlook works great. Sometimes Outlook buries important emails from people I want to hear from in the Clutter folder, and as a result I have to browse it regularly to rescue them, but that’s another story entirely. Instead, let’s look at what the Clutter folder […]

How often do we over-complicate things? In my case, despite my best intentions, sometimes I do. A lot. Occam’s Razor says, as you all know, that “among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” The truth of that was borne out for me (again!) last weekend. The charging port on my […]

Things change; that’s a message we repeat on a regular basis in the trade media. Disruption, commoditization, price erosion, there are a whole host of factors play into changing the business landscape. Sometimes the evolution of a business is gradual and easy, other times it can be a little rocky. At some point or other […]

My love for tools needs no introduction, so I’ll proceed. In the course of procrastinating on the things I need to get done, I was browsing Tumblr, when this thing caught my attention: What is it? It’s simple, it’s one of these: In other words, it’s a multi-tool! How cool is that? I imagine that […]

Although it’s verity has long since been debunked, there’s a popular adage about how during the height of the Cold War and the Space Race, NASA spent millions developing a ballpoint pen that could write in zero gravity, while Soviet Cosmonauts just used a pencil. Regardless, the moral of the story as I’ve always applied […]

I just realized that it’s been over a year since I regaled rAVe readers with bizarre tales from my time working in retail electronics. Time to fix that! I don’t miss much about working in retail. One thing that I sort-of miss, that I don’t get to experience working on the distribution side, dealing with […]

On an almost weekly basis I have a variation on the following conversation. I get phone calls and emails from my dealers that fall along these lines: “Yeah, hi Lee. I’ve got a problem with one of these [Brand X] of yours.” “Oh, really?” I ask. “What’s the nature of the issue?” “Well, they’re doing […]

We all know that consistency and accuracy are crucial standards for AV pros. When hanging a video display on the wall, or cutting out holes for speakers, and especially when hacking holes in your client’s house during retrofit installs, “eh, close enough” doesn’t really cut it. Accuracy is always a virtue: “Measure twice, cut once,” […]

It’s been a while since I’ve searched for blog inspiration amongst the dreadful spam emails I get from would-be vendors. There are two key reasons for that. The first is that I’ve been busy. The second is the new Clutter folder in Outlook for Windows 10. To Microsoft’s credit, the Clutter folder has done an […]

It just occurred to me that I haven’t bored updated rAVe readers the state of my light-bulb quest since November of last year. No time like the present, I always say. Last time I checked in on my efforts to switch my home over to LED lighting, the grand total sat at 58% LED, with […]

Some business topics get all the headlines, and get written and rewritten over and over. Yet others receive very little attention, even though they can be as important, or even more important than the hot topics of the day. Succession planning is kind of managerial task that company owners and general managers roll their eyes […]

It’s been a thesis of mine for some time that luxuries become necessities. That’s hardly an original observation. Oscar Wilde put it much better than I when he said “Give me the luxuries and I can dispense with the necessities.” Thirty years ago power doors and windows were only an option on luxury cars. Today […]

Hiring is tough. And like a lot of tough tasks, no one really likes to do it. I have a suspicion that the reason human resources departments exist at all is because managers hate hiring, and some manager somewhere hated hiring so much that he delegated someone else to do it all. But I digress. […]

They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. They also say that every solution has two problems. I know I regularly find myself saying the latter. It’s amazing how initiatives that mean well, that have the best of intentions, can end up going the off the rails, producing unintended consequences and […]

Some weeks it’s a struggle to come up with a blog post. Some other weeks, the blog posts almost seem to write themselves. And some other weeks, one blog posts sets a chain of events into motion that spurs the next blog post, one flowing into the other with a pleasing symmetry. Last week, as […]

I get ribbed a lot over what one of my friends calls my “hate-crush” on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who, if you don’t know is the author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Antifragile: Things That Gain […]

For those of us who aren’t independently wealthy it often takes time to assemble an impressive home AV system. A piece here, a piece there, another piece over here. As an aficionado, especially one with a budget, a lot of time gets spent contemplating your options before selecting just the right component. It takes years. […]

Manufacturers and distributors aren’t just responsible for growing their brands’ business and market share — they’re also responsible for maintaining their brands’ image and position in the marketplace, as well as supporting the best interests of their dealers. Products deserve to be sold for what they’re worth, and dealers who support the brand deserve to […]

When I first took an interest in AV installs, I was working for A&B Sound, a small Canadian regional chain, and they had begun to take tentative steps into offering custom installs. Being a nerd, and being very gear focused, I mistakenly believed that the core differentiator that would set us apart as a serious […]

The history of cinema is littered with technological missteps best left forgotten. I continue to think that 3D belongs on the trash heap of history, but that’s not what I’m here to rail against today. In January we spent a week in California, visiting Disneyland, Sea World and the San Diego. Overall, it was […]

Even now, in the age of cord-cutting, the cable guy from the cable company still has opportunities to vex the work of AV pros. When I say “cable guy,” I mean to encompass not only the installers, but the customer support personnel in the call center.  I’m sure that cable company personnel are all hardworking […]

As a manufacturer and distributor sales rep I get to play a lot of different roles. Getting my dealer clients to buy stuff is great, but my favorite is probably helping them trouble shoot their problems. I don’t have to put on coveralls and get dirty on one of their jobsites (at least, […]

When it comes to tools, I often quote Pablo Picasso, who said “everything is either easy or impossible. As I interpret it, oftentimes the difference between the easy and the impossible is whether or not you have the right tool. Don’t believe me? Try running wire between drywall and insulation without fiberglass rods. My love […]

In a meeting last week with the senior management at one of my biggest clients, they shared with me a metric that was frustrating them. Their retail sales associates, as a whole, are incapable of getting attachment sales of any accessory that costs more than $50. Management can see it in the numbers: in the […]

Inspiration for blog posts come from the oddest places sometimes. Last week my family and I took a trip to Disneyland and other destinations in southern California. It was my first trip to Disneyland, and in addition to my childlike sense of wonder, I also saw it with the eyes of a trained professional. I […]

I made a blog post recently about dressing appropriately for the workplace, and Leonard Suskin left a comment about one of his pet peeves: Technicians who wear rock concert t-shirts and grubby jeans on jobsites. He’s right, of course. That got me to thinking about professionalism, and what constitutes professional conduct on the job site. […]

I have a lot of experience with sales contests, both running them, and participating in them. Personally, I love sales contests, and I think they’re a fantastic way to sharpen the focus on promoting a brand. They’re also educational. Running a sales promotion shows you who amongst the participants are driven by incentives to […]

Lee Distad

Beloved Tools: If It Looks Dumb But it Works It’s Not Dumb

Strange ReTales What’s My Discount?

Stop Worrying And Love Your Local Big Box Dealers

The Technology That Time Forgot

Delivering Effective Presentations

Dreadful Vendor Spam Redux

Some Things Aren’t Complicated

Branching Out — Does It Make Sense?

Not Your Average Blog Post About Tools

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points

Strange Re-Tales: A Strange Cast Of Characters

I’m Grateful When I’m Mistaken For The Competition

AV Pro Best Practices: You Can Never Be Too Neat Nor Too Precise

Useless, Unsuccessful, and/or Unpopular Vendor Spam

Yet Another LED Lighting Update

Succession Planning: It Isn’t Just For Royalty

Constant In Car Connectivity

Employment Musical Chairs Is Never A Good Idea

Is Your Dealer Locator App A Liability?

Service Follow Up Is No Joke (Or At Least It Shouldn’t Be)

Antifragility And Systemic Risk in the Custom Install Market

Make/Buy Repair/Replace/Argh!

The Challenge of Brand Protection

Someone, Somewhere, Is Still Installing Knobs and Patch Plates

4D Theater: Just Stop, Already

Always Something With the Cable Company

Good Reps Troubleshoot For Their Dealers

Praise For Multi Tools

Frightened Salespeople Are Terrible Salespeople

Attention To Detail: What AV Pros Can Learn From Disneyland

Best Behavior On The Jobsite

What You Learn From Contests and Incentives