The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

One of my good friends and a manager at Copper Conferencing said to me the other day, “It’s not always convenient to do the right thing.”  The two of us have a common bond that we would rather not share – family members who have and continue to struggle with the disease of addiction.

She did a very brave thing by leaving one of those family members in jail when he got caught with drugs and asked for her help.  It was the right thing because he just celebrated his 2 years of sobriety.  I had the chance to do the same thing 2 days ago, but made a different decision.  It was more convenient to gather the funds, present them to the county, and not face the consequences of having a child in jail, telling me what a horrible person I am.

I’m really surprised at myself.  First, I owned and ran an adolescent wilderness therapy program focused on substance abuse and addiction for 3 years.  I know better.  Second, in my business and personal life, I don’t do what is convenient if the right thing to do takes more work or more of my time.    I’ve hired people at Copper Conferencing that need development, need a break, or need someone to take a chance on them.  They definitely take more time and certainly more work, but the rewards are always there.  I’m the one you can call who is willing to get her hands dirty when you need help moving, fixing something or help out of a difficult situation.

I’ve embarked on a number of initiatives at Copper that weren’t easy to pull off.  I knew we needed to help our customers gain more control over their information and pushed Copper to develop its on-line customer portal, Connect To Copper™.  We added three new web conferencing services, Adobe® Connect Pro, Microsoft® Live Meeting and Cisco WebEx® to our product mix, despite the fact that we had to learn those services inside and out, find a way to offer free trials and figure out how to train our customers.

I’ve added new audio conferencing suppliers to help our customers find new ways to connect, save money, and gain more control over their conference call.    It certainly would have been more convenient to stay with what is familiar, but it’s my opinion that our customers deserve the latest and the best.

The truth is that doing the right thing is not always convenient.  And it’s not always easy.  You can count on me and on Copper Conferencing to always do the right thing, even if it stretches us, is hard work, and is not easy.  It’s the right thing to give our customers the best conferencing possible.

And for that other thing, I’ve reflected and I’m going to do what is really hard.  As we speak, bond is being revoked and it’s either jail or treatment. It’s hard, not convenient, but it’s the right thing.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a leading provider or audio and web conferencing and wrap-around services to enhance customer experience. To learn more about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com.