Attorney Loomis, a World War II veteran, is an ex-corporate executive and a semi-retired trial and appellate lawyer.
He has been a member of the state bars of Michigan and Indiana, and currently is licensed in Texas. Also, he is privileged and honored to be a member of the bar of the most revered court in the world, the United States Supreme Court.
His legal experience runs the gamut from civil and murder trials to appeals and petitions to the Michigan Supreme Court, Indiana Supreme Court, Texas Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
And in the business world, he has spent some twenty-nine years running three corporations. In doing so, he has had to interrelate with all kinds of people.
He attended Northwestern University and received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame.
But his wisdom about interrelating with people is not based on academic considerations. Rather, it comes from years of dealing with people in business, legal, and family worlds.
Thus, he doesn't write and teach like he's in front of a blackboard lecturing about complex theories. That's the approach that many writers take in this area. Often their backgrounds are limited to classrooms or consultation rooms. As a result, their works are technical-mumbo jumbo in stilted language that bores readers. That makes it hard to even finish such books, much less benefit from them.
In contrast, Loomis writes in a way that you don't have to be an academic to understand. He writes in a conversational way, as if he's in your kitchen talking to you over a cup of coffee or tea. The things he suggests are practical, easy to grasp, and apply.
And he is eminently qualified to help people in this area. This is because his expertise is the best type of all, practical experience in dealing with thousands of people. He has learned what he teaches the hard way, by trial and error, making mistakes and paying the consequences.
His special knowledge stems from his relations with the many employees and co-workers with whom he has been associated. He was in sales for many years. In one year, he was number one in sales out of 1500 salespersons across the USA and Canada. He has hired and trained hundreds of salespersons. And his people-skills also evolve from his contacts with clients, jurors, judges, attorneys, witnesses, legislators, business associates, and the seven children that he has raised.
Thus, his vast background in real world settings has given him a grass-roots view of the importance of people skills in relationships.
Again, his teachings are not abstract theories learned from textbooks. Rather, they are real-world suggestions applicable to everyday situations. They can help anyone, regardless of educational level.
“A comprehensive, insightful guide to interpersonal relations . . . .”
– Kirkus Reviews
SELF-HELP
PEOPLE SKILLS MAGIC
BY Frank F. Loomis III • POSTED ON Nov. 21, 2013
A down-home guide to playing well with others.
In this new self-help manual, Loomis (How to Improve Your Relationships, Dramatically, 2000) sets out to help readers master the basic skills of social interaction, with anyone from distant acquaintances to close family members. According to the author, we must all “accept the harsh reality of our self-centeredness” and work from the premise that getting others to like us means getting them to like themselves. In bite-size sections tackling subjects such as listening attentively, giving effective compliments and admitting fault, Loomis offers concrete strategies he calls “MakeFeelGoods” for boosting others’ self-esteem. The author admits that much of the material is common-sensical, but the book still serves as an effective reminder of the mechanisms of our interactions with others. Loomis often offers sharp insights, as when he advises readers not to “ask for advice when it’s really support or approval you want” for something you’ve already decided to do. His folksy tone is often self-effacing, and for the most part, his advice is helpful without being condescending; he also uses examples full of colorful characters and dialogue. Sometimes, however, the old-fashioned style veers into territory that may offend some readers; at one point, for example, the book describes modern “street talk” as a “distorted, arguably illogical, murky use of language;” at another, the author writes about traditional chivalric gestures, asserting that “treating women with such courtesies pleases most of them.” Readers may also find a chapter enumerating the failings of customer service employees to be particularly uncomfortable. At the book’s end, the text becomes more than a little self-important: “Almost daily, you should refer to [this book], so you can become proficient in using the skills it teaches….You have to be reminded, reminded, and reminded.” That said, the book as a whole remains a useful outline of how and why to treat others decently.
A comprehensive, insightful guide to interpersonal relations, sometimes hampered by awkward execution.
Publisher: Glenn Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2013
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