At the End of the Day, It’s Just a Sport
August 5, 2009
I recently read an article in the American Airlines in-flight magazine about tennis great Rafael Nadal. Published in the June 1 issue, it was a natural lead-in to the upcoming Wimbledon championships where, just a year before, Nadal had stunned Roger Federer to take the title in what has come to be regarded as the best tennis match ever played.
They were naturally predicting a rematch this year, but Nadal couldn’t play because of a knee injury. Fortunately there was another exciting five-set final with Federer eventually prevailing over Andy Roddick to win his 6th Wimbledon and 15th grand slam title – a record on the men’s side.
As competitive as Nadal is, he’s also, well, a genuinely nice guy – a rare commodity in the world of elite professional sports. And a lot of this can be traced back to his early days in the sport when he learned the fine points of the game from his Uncle Toni, who has been his one and only coach.
Toni set three ground rules if he was going to train the young Nadal:
1. If you ever throw a racket, we’re finished. They’re expensive, and when you throw a racket, you don’t just disrespect the sport, you disrespect all the people who can’t afford equipment.
2. Losing is part of competing. You will lose. And when you lose, it’s not going to be my fault or the fault of your racket or the balls or the courts or the weather. It’s your fault, and you will accept it and try to do better next time.
3. Have fun. When you stop enjoying this, it’s no good. You’ll find something else that gives you pleasure.
And these same three rules can be equally applied to our business environments.
First, if you get into a jam, don’t lose control, work to find a solution.
Second, you will fail from time to time. For all our success in this business, we’ve also had some monumental failures. It’s inevitable – you can’t have one without the other. And when that happens, there’s no point – and certainly no benefit – in looking for someone else to blame. Recognize that there is no failure – only feedback. Learn from the situation; brush yourself off; and get back on the horse.
Finally, you should enjoy what you do. I’m not saying work should be like a heavenly nirvana with beautiful music, colorful flowers, and birds singing. But for all the time you spend at work, thinking about work, and taking work home, you should at least enjoy it a little bit. If not, then maybe it’s time to look for something new.
And, above all, try to keep things in perspective. As Nadal put it, “Of course I want to win, but at the end of the day, it’s just a sport.”
Enjoy the Ride!
July 10, 2009
Last month, we attended the Drama Banquet at our daughter’s high school. She has been involved in theatre for many years, and had participated in virtually every production during her four years as a student there.
This banquet was an opportunity to recognize the graduating seniors and give them a nice send-off as they begin the next phase of their lives.
Paul Orsett, the theatre teacher, called up each senior, told which plays they had been in, and made a few comments about the person. Since he had decided to present the seniors in order of increasing participation, our daughter was near the end.
Some of these students had been in so many productions that Mr. Orsett practically ran out of breath reading them all off.
When he had called them all up, he made an interesting comment to the parents in attendance:
“I just don’t get how the math and English teachers can enjoy their work – they just get the kids for one or two semesters, and then they move on to the next group. In contrast, I’ve had many of your kids from the 9th grade through the 12th grade – some of them even longer if they had roles in our plays as middle school students. I’ve watched them grow from kids into fine young adults. I can’t imagine a better job!”
Sometimes we get caught up in the day-to-day pressures of simply getting anything done – much less everything. Try to take some time to recognize the journey you’re on, the progress you’ve made, and the path you’re taking.
We’ve gone from having two young children in the house to being just weeks away from taking our youngest off to college. Trust me it goes fast – make sure you’re enjoying the journey!
Living the Dream!
July 1, 2009
Some things seem glamorous and exciting at first glance, but can become tedious and old after a while if you let them.
I was on a shuttle bus taking me from the airport to the hotel I was staying at for a conference. At the second pickup stop, the crew from an arriving flight boarded the bus, and sat together in the back: two pilots and three flight attendants.
One of the flight attendants apparently was using the calculator on her phone, and, after a few keystrokes announced to the other flight attendants, and to pretty much everyone else on the bus, “Well, that was a 13-hour day, so that means we made…$12 an hour. “Living the dream, girls, we’re living the dream!” All this was said with more than a healthy dose of sarcasm.
I guess the starry-eyed image of a glamorous jet-setting lifestyle had finally deteriorated into the reality of four flights a day with full planes, impatient adults, and screaming children.
In this month’s Inner Circle newsletter, we talk in depth about the three choices you have in any difficult situation: change the situation, change your perception of the situation, or leave the situation.
I don’t think they’re going to be able to change the scheduling of the flights or the type or number of passengers on the flights on which they’re working. So that leaves #2 or #3: accept what you signed up for, make the best of it, and be cheerful about it, or quit and do something else.
The beauty of this life is that we have the ability to make choices – even in the face of challenging situations. You have the same choices in how you deal with the fallout from the current economic climate. You can complain, or you can take deliberate action to reposition yourself and your marketing to take advantage of unique opportunities and an expected future landscape. Choose wisely…
“Middle of the Road” Springsteen
June 4, 2009
Sometimes people have a tendency to wait for exactly the “right time” to do something – to launch a new product; to hire a new person; or even to take a vacation. But sometimes things don’t have to be absolutely perfect.
Bruce Springsteen played here in North Carolina last year. While I’ve seen him before, I didn’t make this particular concert because I was out of town. I did read David Menconi’s review in the local paper, though, and it contained an important message for all of us:
“Of course, every Springsteen show can’t help but conclude with triumph, thanks to ‘Born to Run,’ arguably the greatest encore song in classic-rock history. It wasn’t the best version of ‘Born to Run’ I’ve seen, or the best Springsteen show. In fact, I’d call it middle of the pack. But middle-of-the-pack Springsteen is still better than just about anything else out there.”
The same thing applies in your business: if you employ strong, proven marketing tactics – and do them with “middle of the road” quality – you’ll still be way ahead of the vast majority of people who insist on doing things the same tired old way they’ve done them for years.
Things don’t always have to be perfect – sometimes “good enough” is good enough. People spend far too much time making certain that every conceivable outcome in a marketing campaign is considered and addressed…to the point where they never launch the campaign or miss an important window of opportunity.
There’s a story you may have heard about two friends camping in the woods. Suddenly, they hear a rustling in the distance and see a bear starting towards them. One friend reaches into the tent, grabs his sneakers, and starts putting them on. The other friend says, “Are you crazy? You can’t outrun a bear!” To which the guy with the sneakers responds, “I don’t have to outrun the bear – I just have to outrun you!”
Put on your marketing sneakers and let someone else deal with the bear!
Conrad Hilton Says…
May 28, 2009
Conrad Hilton founded the Hilton Hotel chain, along with several other businesses. He also has the dubious distinction of being Paris Hilton’s great-grandfather. I think we’ll stick with the hotels – these business strategies are far more interesting than Paris Hilton and her latest antics.
A copy of his autobiography, Be My Guest, published in 1957, is placed in every room of every Hilton hotel, and that’s where I found my copy.
As I was reading it, one quote in particular jumped out at me because it’s especially relevant to these interesting times: “Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
This quote, written over 50 years ago, cuts right to the core of what separates successful people from those who choose to be spectators, letting life happen to them instead of working diligently and tirelessly to create the reality they truly desire.
It’s almost word-for-word the same quote from Lance Armstrong that I shared with you last week. And if I wanted to, I could find enough similar quotes from 50 different people and include in this newsletter one each week for an entire year.
The problem is that people either get it, or they don’t, and no amount of coaxing, coaching, or cajoling will change people’s basic belief systems on how things should work.
In yet another version of a situation that occurs with frightening regularity and frequency, I brought our new car into the dealership for the 5,000-mile service and to fix a wobbly rear-view mirror. We parked in front of the used-car building which was right near the service area. Two “salespeople” (and I use the term loosely) were milling about, leaning on the cars parked in front of the building, and waiting to pounce on us…until they realized we were there to service a car, not buy one.
Big mistake, because if they had even half a brain, they might have struck up a casual conversation with my wife while I was checking in the car. They would have discovered that we were in fact going to be looking for a reliable used car for our daughter to use when she starts college in August.
For that matter, I’ve not heard anything from the salesperson who sold us the new car – no personal newsletter, no three-month follow-up call to see how he might be able to help me – nothing!
And it gets better (it always does, doesn’t it!) – my daughter, who has been scouring the internet looking for her ideal car, actually found the exact model she was looking for at a dealership about 50 minutes away.
Lorie called to find out how we would get the car to our mechanic to look it over; he explained their easy procedure…and then thanked Lorie and ended the call.
Not, “My name’s Bob; can I have your name and we’ll schedule a time for you to come in for a test drive?” Not, “So you live in Raleigh, would it be easier if we brought the vehicle up to you so you didn’t have to drive all the way down here?”
All four of these individuals will go home at the end of the day and complain to their friends and families about how bad business is, and blame the economy, when in fact, they squander opportunities to generate business and choose instead to lean against cars on the lot for a living.
Maybe they should follow Conrad Hilton’s advice: take action, keep moving, and don’t quit.
As Long As I’m Moving…
May 20, 2009
A good quick read is Lance Armstrong’s autobiography, It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, where he talks about his battle with cancer, his subsequent return to competitive cycling, and his victory in the Tour De France – the first of what would turn out to be an unprecedented seven consecutive victories.
One passage in particular recounts Lance riding his bike while in great pain from the cancer treatments. When people asked him why he was doing such a thing, he replied, “As long as I’m moving, I’m living.”
In a somewhat different but definitely related story, I learned about a research study where volunteers were placed into one of five different groups based on their levels of fitness and activity with “couch potatoes” on one end, and world-class Olympic athletes at the other end.
They were all evaluated, with comparisons made between their chronological age and their “physical” age, based on a variety of lifestyle activities and medical tests. The objective was to predict expected lifespan based on these factors.
The results were interesting: the single biggest increase predicted life span was between the first group – the people who did no exercise at all – and the second group that did minimal exercise like walking for ten minutes a day. The implication being that any activity is better than no activity.
And this really gets us to the heart of the issue. Because so many people are absolutely paralyzed by fear and uncertainty that they’re doing absolutely nothing to help grow or at least reposition their businesses to be stronger and in a better position to compete when the economy ultimately begins its slow road to recovery.
You hear things like, “I’m just going to sit out this economy.” Yeah, good luck with that! You can’t just wait it out like parking under an overpass during a bad rainstorm; you have to develop alternate plans.
You have to become a student of business and marketing. You have to implement. You have to take massive action when others are sitting in the corner, contemplating the universe with “a deer-in-the-headlights” looks in their eyes.
Like Lance said, “As long as I’m moving…I’m living.” The same thing could be said for you and your business: if you’re moving, you’re living. Don’t let yourself become a victim of the economy: take action when others are content to be spectators; be bold when others are timid; and above all, don’t be a “marketing couch potato.”
I Always Wanted to Be Somebody
May 20, 2009
Long flights like this one are great opportunities to get work done. No real distractions, coffee, and a five-hour stretch in a relatively isolated environment. On these flights, I tend to work on the Inner Circle Newsletter, get caught up on a thick stack of “airplane reading,” and relax – just a bit.
I was flipping through the airline’s in-flight magazine, and came across a page of interesting quotes. One in particular caught my attention. It was by the great Lily Tomlin:
I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
Aside from the fact that this is pretty funny, it’s also quite relevant. Too many people are far too vague about their goals and aspirations, preferring to let life happen to them instead of working to create the reality they truly want.
As we just saw in the last article, action – and generally massive action – is required to achieve lofty goals in the face of overwhelming odds. But that’s only half the equation. The other half is knowing what those goals are!
There’s an old expression that if you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will get you there. Try to be specific in terms of the outcomes you want from your relationships, from your business, and from life.
If you’re going to be “somebody” then make it somebody really good!
“Made Ya Smile!”
May 7, 2009
If you can find a way to add a little excitement to your job, it can make all the difference in the world.
Some jobs offer a variety of challenges that make the day pass quickly, while others are very routine and monotonous so that the day seems to drag on forever. If you can find a way to add a little excitement to your job, it can make all the difference in the world.
A few weeks ago, I had to make a trip to the airport to exchange some tickets. The reason for their exchange is a long story, but suffice it to say that the trip was the culmination of a series of very frustrating phone calls and a trip to the city ticket office that unfortunately was closed that weekend.
I know I need to remain calm with all of life’s little frustrations. But having just wasted an incredible amount of time exchanging some tickets, needless to say, I was in a bad mood as I left the airport.
I stopped at the parking lot toll window and handed the clerk my ticket. She put it in the slot to be read; and in a perfectly normal tone of voice said, “That will be $75 and you’ll have to give me your credit card too.”
As I was just about to grab my credit card out of my wallet, her words finally registered. “What?” my mind screamed. “The fee should only be 75 cents!” I got a puzzled look on my face, and as I turned back to look at her, I noticed that she had a huge grin on her face. I started to smile too as she chuckled and said, “Made ya smile!”
This had the pleasant effect of making me forget about the problems that had brought me to the airport in the first place.
Here was a woman in a very tedious and somewhat boring job and yet, in the middle of her shift, she was still upbeat enough to joke with people leaving the parking lot.
It really is essential to keep a positive attitude during work. When you enjoy your work, this task is much, much easier. With all the time you spend on the job and the time you spend driving to and from work, it is important that you bring some passion to what you do. When you don’t, not only does your own attitude suffer, but your attitude will spread to your co-workers and eventually to your customers.
Try to follow the example of the parking lot attendant who found a way to make a boring job more interesting and managed to transfer her positive attitude to her customers. If you incorporate this idea in your own work, you’ll see the enormous impact you can have on others around you.
The Dogwood Tree
April 24, 2009
Because of the warm weather we get here in North Carolina at various times during winter, there are lots of “false starts” as to when spring actually begins. It certainly fools the daffodils that poke up though the ground and bloom, only to shrivel up and die a few days later when the normal lower temperatures return.
Just last week, though, I went out into our backyard and did a double-take. The dogwood tree on the side of our property was in full bloom, and it was absolutely magnificent!
We’d planted the tree about five years ago, but it never really seemed happy there. We pruned the tree, and fertilized it properly, but the leaves never seemed quite as green and healthy as they should have, and the flowers always seemed a bit anemic. This year, though, it was completely different – bright white blooms virtually covered the tree to the extent that you could hardly see the branches underneath.
When I commented on this to my wife, she said, “Maybe it just needed some time to get used to us.” Now, I’m not a big “give each house plant a name and talk to it in an encouraging way so it will thrive” kind of guy, but there was something that rang true in what Lorie said.
We’ve had clients book programs with us years after first seeing me present at conferences they attended themselves. We’ve had people invest in our resources after “sitting on the sidelines” for months. Things like these actually happen quite frequently.
And this is why you absolutely have to maintain ongoing relationships with your customers, members, clients…and prospects. Too many people make a sale, put a “tick mark” on a chart somewhere, move on to the next person, and completely ignore the lifetime value sitting, untapped, in the customer they just served. Why? Because they figure the customer just bought something, so what’s the value of this person to me now?
When we bought a new car back in October, we witnessed this first hand. Entering dealership after dealership, we had to “run the gauntlet” past four or five salespeople (all standing around doing nothing productive) as the one who was “up next” virtually pounced on us, almost salivating at the prospect of actually selling a car.
Prior to this, we last bought new cars in 1993 and 1995 from Toyota and Jeep dealers, respectively. Do you think in all that time we’ve heard anything from the salespeople who sold us those vehicles? Not a chance.
It’s as if they’d planted a tree, seen no flowering or growth, and then stopped caring for it.
It would have been far better to stay in touch with us with a regular print or e-mail newsletter, and then invite us, after, maybe three years, to a special, nicely catered, Open House Event, where we could test-drive the new version of the Toyota Camry we had bought – if for no other reason than to get a whiff of that great new-car smell.
And if the salesperson who sold us the original car had moved on, then a new, aggressive, hungry salesperson could have done minimal research to collect all the unattended leads and taken them over as his own.
But this didn’t happen, and now these very same people are blaming the economy for their sub-par sales numbers.
Yes, the economy is a factor, but not cultivating and maintaining long-term relationships is an even bigger issue. If things are slow where you work, then now is the best possible time to develop these relationships, so when things pick up again and people are ready to spend, they’ll do business with the people they know and trust.
It may not happen next week, or even next month, but one day you’ll wake up and see that all of the time, effort, and money you’ve invested will start to pay off, just like the work and patience we put into that sad dogwood tree that has turned it into something truly amazing.
Don’t Redesign…Reorganize!
April 17, 2009
If you watch the news or read the commentary in the local and national papers, you’ll surely come to the conclusion that the end of civilization as we know it is just around the corner. I’ll agree, it’s not the rosiest time I can recall in my adult life, and yet far too many people are making the situation more complicated than they need to by not taking charge of their environments.
Fortunately, this is not the case for our Inner Circle Gold Coaching members, and for one in particular, whose situation may be familiar to you.
I had a 30-minute call scheduled with this member to review proposals she had received for redesigning her company’s web site. She wanted to increase the amount of business that was directly attributable to the site and was uncertain about which vendor was the right one to choose.
She had sent me the proposals in advance, so I had a chance to review them and, more importantly, take a detailed look at the web site as it existed currently. Not surprisingly, this exercise revealed the need for three specific enhancements:
- Dedicated landing pages for specific offerings
- A “triage” function on the home page to immediately guide visitors to the correct page
- A compelling offer that would convince visitors to leave their contact information so a follow-up sequence could be initiated automatically without leaving the next action in the prospects’ hands
In stark contrast, all three of the vendors’ proposals were focused on improving the “look and feel” and “flow” of the site.
This, of course, is the very real danger you face every day if you don’t take firm ownership and control of your marketing. There’s a vastly different set of skills required to design an attractive web site than to design a site that will generate revenue – and these skills are almost always mutually exclusive. In fact, it’s extremely rare to find someone who can do both tasks skillfully.
As frequently happens when I’m talking with members who “get it” and are clearly going to act on what I’m recommending, the 30-minute call expanded to a little over an hour, with an extremely simple summary of what should take place: the site didn’t need to be redesigned; it needed to be reorganized. And, as a bonus, this was going to be an easier, faster, and less costly exercise than all three vendors had proposed.
In addition, it will ultimately be a more profitable approach.
Be extremely careful whose advice you take. Web site designers know about designing web sites. Media sales reps know about selling media. You need to be the one who knows about marketing and growing your business, and you have to makes sure everyone else understands it as well as you do.
