Some Things Get Better With Age

Some things do get better with age, and my blog has matured.

I've moved The Catalyst For Change to a new home.

www.thecatalystforchange.wordpress.com

I'd love if you'd join the conversation there and see where the new version of my blog goes.

Thanks,
Stephen

Overkill

Yesterday I was sitting at Damons in Belden Village and I looked over to my left and took a long stare at the wall of stereos and tv box things that run the big screens and projectors and speakers. On the center of the wall was a little white note card with a message scribbled on it in sharpie. Upon closer inspection I found that it read as follows:

Never, Ever Ever Ever EVER EVER EVER Turn This Switch OFF!!! EVER EVER EVER!!!

To me this felt like overkill to me. Maybe instead of wasting the time to write this note card out and plaster it to the stereos you could have taken 5 mins and trained your entire staff on what that little switch does... why it's a bad thing to have it in the off position... and what the results of flipping the switch would be. Wouldn't that just make sense!?

Viral & Guerrilla Marketing In The Supermarket

While walking through Giant Eagle the other day I was hit with what I can only call a combination of Viral & Guerrilla Marketing. While walking down the isle next to the pharmacy I was met with a wall of little yellow tags! What you see is what I stood there dazed and confused, starring at. The entire isle was a wall of yellow stickers. Each of them jutting out into my field of vision.

Each tag was marked with, check this, the same sale price as the white tag on the shelf.... not a sale price, not a discounted members only price.... but the same price!

I was standing there being bombarded with little yellow attention grabbing tags that told me nothing useful at all! What's the point to all of this!? Well, I certainly stood there and took a few moments to analyze what I was looking at. Which potentially gave the brands on the shelf more time to gain exposure in my subconscious and make me more inclined to make a buying decision. But mostly it just made me laugh.... people text "LOL" all the time, I actually laughed out loud. And I got some STRANGE looks! The tactics at work here are lost on most people, but when you stop and look at this great version of small scale viral marketing and guerrilla advertising all at once.

The Show Must Go On

Sometimes it is good to be reminded that even when you aren't on stage, that the show is still going on....

No matter what the situation, no matter how difficult the situation is, the show keeps on rolling even if you're in over your head. Sometimes it pays to realize that even in the worst of times, you have to keep on fighting.

Because the world stops for no one, and the show must go on!

Coaching By Relating

While reflecting on when one of my good friends and supervisor Roger Spencer was coaching me as a sales rep a few years ago, I realized he made it easy for me to learn how to sell by relating to my interests.

For some people that might seem elementary but it's such an effective method. I (as I'm sure you have by now figured out)am by the very definition of the word addict, am addicted to fis hi ng! So when I was trying (and failing) at becoming a sales rep on my own, Roger stepped in. He noticed my fishing magazine and instantly the gears started turning in his head. He talked in fishing terms, showing me how I could relate specific closes to fishing lures. He showed ,e how sometimes I had to power fish, just RIP the offer past the buyers face and let them hit on reaction and impulse alone! Or how sometimes I had to slow down and finesse fish them into biting despite their reluctance. And even how sometimes I needed to speed fish and probe the buyers lake to find that honey-hole where I could get the bite and close the sale.

I created this document back when Roger started coaching me and molding me all at the same time. And until I was cleaning up my hard drive recently, I thought I had deleted it along time ago..... It was a product of my brainstorming and me just trying to visualize how to convince a customer to bite on what I was selling.

The idea is that Roger came down to my interest level to find common ground, and more importantly, a common vocabulary that we could use to effectively communicate our thoughts about selling to one another.

Of course it helped that Roger is a huge fishing buff as well.... but it's the point. I've used this technique to coach and teach others myself. A few subjects I've used would include, MMA Fighting, Marching Band, Choir, Video Games, Nascar Racing, Soccer, Scrapbooking (that was an interesting one), and Driving a Car.

The idea is to just find that common ground that lets you put your coaching ideas into verbiage that makes it easy for the person you're coaching to understand and actually retain what you're saying.

Too often I watch a supervisor coach a rep, and the person being coached smiles and nods a lot.... often tossing in a little, "Yep.... Uh Huh.... or Oh Okay!" then the coach walks away and the rep goes right back to what they just corrected. It's all because they aren't retaining any of what you're saying because to be honest with you.... they don't care that much. What is important to each of us personally will of course take up more space in our minds than those things that aren't.

So break down that fence between Camp-Work-Too-Much and Happy Town by building a mental bridge between the two. Put what they thought was non-work knowledge to work for them on the job and your reps performance will improve because now they're engaging A LOT more of their mental power-house because it's interesting for them!

"Organic Social Media"

While talking today in a meeting with Nate Riggs, the term "Organic Search" kept coming up with the subject being social media. This just kind of got my brain going....

Ask someone what the first thing that comes to mind of when they hear the word "organic" and most people would say something involving farming or food.

But in the context of the internet, organic takes on a whole new meaning.... just another great example of how social media and the internet have taken a word and made it into something altogether different!

Another example of the internets ability to change the context of a word: A few years ago this young kid named Mark Zuckerberg started a movement. He launched a project that started on a white board outside his dorm room in Harvard that we now know as Facebook. On February 4th, 2004 Zuckerberg turned the word "Friend" into a verb..... and I LOVE knowing that we each have the potential to make change happen like this.

Back on topic....

I couldn't help but start to doodle on my notepad in our meeting after hearing that term, "Organic Search" come up again and again. And that doodle turned into the picture featured on this post. I just couldn't get the image out of my mind of a little tree in the forest just off the Information Super Highway that had growing on it, all the magical fruits of the social media realm.

Who knows what we will change about our world next. But if anything is going to impact it.... It's Social Media!

Take Time To Think

I took time to think today. I haven't done it in a while and I really needed a way to convert some brain power into some physical energy.

I never knew how much I would love having the Cuyahoga Valley National Park as my backyard until this weekend. Tonight I loaded up my hiking gear and some fishing gear and headed out to explore. I ended up at Indigo Lake. And for the first time in months I found myself on a body of water where I couldn't find a person to look at other than my own reflection. Dave Matthews said it best in the song we sings with Kenny Chesney, "It's good for the soul when there's not a soul in sight." (Ironically he was talking about being on the water too!)

And even when I got up the top of the hill after a short hike and looked around all I saw was a fence, the lake, and the sunset. My mind was free to let go..... and I just converted a lot of the pent up brain power I'd been hanging onto go, and converted it into physical energy. I haven't hiked like that in a long time.

And when I came back from the lake I found myself smiling.....not just because I had enjoyed my time away from civilization, but because I had naturally worked through a few mental blocks I'd been fighting.

So what I'm saying is go do your thing..... for me it's fishing where no one else can find me. For my fiance it's spending time with the niece and nephew. My little brother would say it's kicking a soccer ball around the yard playing keep-away with Otis (out Westie). Whatever it is, go do it.... Just take some time today and think. You'll be pleasantly surprised what you might come up with when you aren't trying as hard.

What's The Point

Lately I've been noticing some really strange signs telling me things that quite frankly, I don't care at all about! It makes me wonder, why even bother..... What's the point?

Why would a company waste time and resources, mainly money in setting up protocols, or "rules" for people to follow if they aren't going to enforce them. Or even worse if they aren't going to serve a purpose!?



This is a great example of what I'm talking about. I saw this one at the end of the row we parked in at the Cleveland Zoo this week. I just don't understand how they ever intended to uphold a policy like this?! What's worse they painted the parking spaces in this row green instead of white. Needless to say, we parked here in a car that I would feel more than safe saying does not meet the required criteria.... And nothing happened!

What I'm getting at here is if you aren't going to uphold the policy you thought up.... don't waste the time putting it into action in the first place! It's a waste.....

And besides that, this is just a goofy concept. Why put the cars which get better fuel mileage in the front section of the parking lot.... it's going to cost them less gas to go park in the back! Do our environment a favor and put up a sign that reads:


If your vehicle sucks gas: Park here, Turn off your engine, And stop killing our environment! You're at a Zoo, seriously!




I'm going to step off my soapbox now..... just keep an eye open for more of these signs....

25 Things My Generation Has Labeled Obsolete

The Milennials have done a great many things since laying claim to the world.... (ok that sounded a little strong....)

But one place we've succeeded in is sending a LONG list of things to the graveyard.
Here's the first 25 things that came to my mind:
1.) The 3 1/2 Inch Floppy Disk
2.) Rotary Telephones (I guarantee someone under the age of 25 will read this and say, "What's that?!")
3.) Cassette Tapes
4.) Adding Machines
5.) Watches (Why own one when my phone tells me the time?!)
6.) Personal Pagers (Unless you're expecting a baby or work in the medical field)
7.) The Fanny Pack
8.) Suspenders
9.) Typewriters
10.) Door to Door Salesmen
11.) Home Encyclopedia Sets
12.) Perforated Printer Paper
13.) Home Phone Lines
14.) The Toaster Oven
15.) (How To Read) A Traditional Map (Google Maps would never lead us wrong would it?! It would never tell us to walk down a highway or anything right!?!)
16.) The Compass
17.) Globes
18.) Dial Up Internet
19.) Non-Digital Cameras
20.) Slide Show Projectors
21.) VHS Technology
22.) Formal Letter Writing
23.) Answering Machines
24.) AM Radio
25.) Myspace :D

So there you have it..... what can we create a better iPhone App for next?!?! Give me something technological to kill.....

How Did We Get Here?

I just want to invite you to take a look back with me and see where we were, and where we are now. Then think about how the heck we got here!

50 or so years ago the Philco was on the cutting edge of personal music technology. It was the best way to take music with you on the go! Now we have the iPod. with the ability to carry thousands of songs in a device the size of credit card..... that's a quantum leap!
Looking at where we are now you might say, "Well it's not that unbelievable..... It's just logical! We were bound to get there someday!"

If my grandfather were alive today and you showed him those two devices pictured above.... he would first of all, smack you.... then tell you to go get your head checked by a doctor. And then he would smash your iPhone and say something along the lines of, "How great can it be? It breaks easy enough!"

But take it back another generation to my great grandfather, show him how you can pull a Christmas tree out of a box, plug it straight into the wall (pre-light tree!), and then turn it on and off with your iPhone. And he would probably accuse you being a magician or the devil..... depends on what his mood would be.

Looking at why: The cell phone didn't exist in his day & age, Christmas trees had to be cut down by hand, they sure didn't come out of the woods pre-light, and somehow you just managed to turn the Christmas tree on and off without touching it!

NONE of those things would seem logical to him. So who's idea was all of this!? And how do I get their job?

The Birth Of A Movement - The "i Factor"

Last week I wrote a post in a hurry late one night about something I could only think of calling the "i Factor" and it turned into something altogether different!

(Back round) At work I am a member of a whole new type of team. We specialize in Social Media and are carving out a brand new methodology in the contact center world. Where we're taking our insane amount of skill, knowledge, creativity, and drive for success is still a bit of a secret! (I mean seriously, I can't just give away all of our secrets!) But one thing's for sure, we will not let anything stand in our way.

(Now moving forward again) Enter Tim..... Tim is what I would call a lead by example power player. He dives straight into a pile of work and doesn't let up until all expectations have been blown out of the water. Tim's become a good friend of mine and he FLIPPED when he read the post I put up about what I just started calling The "i Factor" and what I thought it meant for Incept.

In that one post I managed to turn the tables in a sense and just put out there that not only did we (the Incept Social Media Team) know that we were on the right track, but much more, we weren't afraid to let it show. We found a winning combination and with all the creativity in our team we are going to change the face of our industry.

Now all of that might seem a little bit, well..... arrogant? But that wasn't how I had meant for it to come across. An interesting result is that people latched onto the idea of the "i Factor" and it now has the capacity to become a movement.

That's a completely different purpose than what I had intended my blog post to create. But sometimes you have to know when to go with the flow and play the hands you're dealt when the good cards come up!

So make sure you're staying tuned into the following.....

the Incept Blog

@InceptSaves on Twitter
@InceptResults on Twitter

and the Incept Page on Facebook

"Ready, Steady, Go" get out of our way or pay the price of being left in our dust. The Millennials are here, and we only know two speeds, stop and FAST FREAKING FORWARD!!!!

The "i Factor" (What Incept Is Doing Right On Social Media)

I just created in my head an equation. It goes a little something like this:

The "i Factor" + (Company Facebook Page + Employees Engaging Company On Their Own Time) + Unique Company Culture = Recipe For Social Media Success

The "i Factor" is what I'm calling the "Incept Factor" which basically means to me the actions we take as social media specialists (or in Incept terms, an Online Conversational Marketing Expert) to make our social media interactions special.

I can't fully explain it, but there's just something about how we interact with our employees and the fans on our facebook page that build a strong relationship! This week alone we've seen a burst of activity on our page from people who literally just started working with us this week. New trainees who only know a dozen or so people in the company (most of them are in the new hire training class with them) are commenting on our facebook page.

It's amazing to see how people are taking their free time to engage in conversations online with us. And even more amazing how quickly people want to feel like they belong to our family.

This Post Is Worth 4000 Words (Well Kind Of)

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words..... then that means that this post is worth about 4000 words. I just had this collection of pictures in my phone and had to share them with you guys! Here they are.....

Quaker Steak & Lube bathroom wall poster, read the line on the bottom..... if you can't manage to read because it's too small, it says: "WARNING: ATOMIC WING EATERS SHOULD WASH HANDS BEFORE USING THE RESTROOM" Great idea!

Next up, the "Ghost Market" this one is a true sign of the times. A local grocery store closed because of poor sales stands with it's empty shelves, abandoned checkout lines, and lights on 24-7 (wonder who's flipping the bill for that!?) What's best, there's still jazzy elevator music playing all along the concourse outside all day and all night long! (Great site on a related topic - deadmalls.com)

Now we have the wall in the training room at Incept. I love how the first thing our new trainees see when they walk in their first day of work is what our values are. And therefore, what we stand for! (Three part post from the Incept Blog where I talk about our values in a different light. 1 2 3 )

And to finish off with, the best of the best..... what I am calling, "The Semi-Scare." This one's great, I saw this "coming at me" on the highway one evening. In reality I was driving at it faster than it was moving away from me..... I'll leave this one up to your imagination to figure out just what's happening!

So there it is, four pictures worth a thousand words each! What a post folks, what a post! :D

Where Did You Think You Would Be 5 Years Later?

A few years ago this month I walked across the stage at the Canton Memorial Civic Center as a part of the GlenOak High School 500+ student graduating class of 2005. At the time it seemed like an end to one story and the beginning of the rest of my life. Now I look back and see it as more of an end to the preface of my story......

If you would have asked me where I planned on being in 5 years my response would have been something like, "Graduating from The University of Akron with a degree in Music Education and looking for a teaching job at a local high school." Today I stumbled across my diploma in a box buried in the back of my closet. I thought to myself, "I wonder what that kid all those years ago was thinking?! Was he nuts?!" Because I have checked off none of the above yet.... and I won't be checking them off.... well, ever. I quickly realized that music education wasn't for me, that I wanted to add a high priority item to my goal (getting engaged) and found out what kind of person I really wanted to become.

Now I think to myself, where do I want to be in 5 years? And my answer is kind of complicated..... I want to be married to the love of my life. I want to have a house. I want to start back to school to get a degree in Organizational Communication. I want to continue working for Incept. (hopefully making a huge success of our social media team!) And I want to start a family.

It's strange how a few years can change ones priorities. Maybe, conditions willing I will still be writing on this blog (or some blog for that matter) in 5 years. And when that day comes, I'll make sure to revisit this list before I attend my 10 year class reunion and see just how much my priorities have changed again.

Who knows where a decade can lead you, but I'm right in the middle of that trip. And I don't really know where my "life's GPS unit" is taking me. "How do I get this darn thing to stop giving me directions in French!?!?" :P

Getting To Know #8

Over the last year I had an amazing chance to get to be a mentor for a fine young man from Canton, Ohio. He will be graduating from GlenOak High School this month, and was a captain on the varsity soccer team, proudly wearing the number 8 for over a decade.

His name is Bryan, he will be graduating with an award of merit and soon will be attending Malone University in the fall. He will be pursuing a degree in nursing, and has intentions of playing soccer on a collegiate level. I can't think of a more appropriate example of leadership, hard work, and academic achievement.

This fine young man, is in fact, my little brother! And the other night, I stood next to Bryan in the auditorium at GlenOak High School during the class of 2010's Senior Recognition Night. That night I had the great honor of singing with him, what in just a few days, will be our Alma Mater.

It makes me feel proud that he has achieved so much in such a short time. And I have to say that I've been blessed to get to watch him grow up. And all of this was a chance for me to learn, that even though we come from the same parents, the same house, the same back round, that we can become two completely different people. Bryan's an athlete, and a logical thinking student of math and science. I am an artistic, free thinking and creative problem solver. And I love that we now (and never before....) compliment each other so much!

Bryan, congratulations and I am so proud of you! You have more potential than I could ever wish to have!

Transparency Failed - A Strange Example

I know I've blogged about my experience at the Get Motivated Seminar already..... but I had to tell you about a GREAT parallel I noticed during the final speaker of the day. Rudy Giuliani, the man who held New York City together when time stopped on September 11th, was on stage to close out a great day. I was getting really into the presentation but something caught my eye about 3 minuets into his speech.

Standing in front of the stage steps was this HUGE security guard with a nice suit on, shoulders broad and hands crossed in front of his waist. This guy was a monster, he towered over Rudy when he came off stage, but he wasn't alone! On the floor, next to the corner of the stage closest to the pathway the speakers took to the back stage area stood another security guard. I started looking around and I noticed another back by the camera man Rudy was primarily speaking towards. Then another in the main seating section next to the large hallway leading out of the Civic Center. Then there was the trio "guarding" the door leading backstage. I looked up in the rafters and saw three more of these guys..... It clicked right then, these mystery men were either secret service or really expensive private security.

They were trying really hard to be transparent but they failed miserably at it. I'm guessing someone had them worried because they all started "Coughing/Talking Into Their Hands" at the same time. It was just highly entertaining, while they were trying to not exist the truth be told they were drawing away from the show on stage!

The whole thing got me literally laughing out loud because I'm thinking about all the conversations I've had lately with Nate Riggs about companies being transparent online. And here were these security/secret service/whatever guys trying to do just that, but sticking out like a sore thumb. Even in an environment where a good 80% of the people in the audience were wearing suits or business casual dress, they still just jumped out at me!

Oh the irony..... oh the irony.....

My Experiences: Get Motivated Seminar

Today I spent an entire day at the Get Motivated Seminar down in Canton. All I have to say is, WOW! I have so many ideas after spending a single day soaking up all the knowledge I could. Imagine what you could do with three days, or a week of this kind of exposure.

The event featured a lot of great speakers, but I wanted to outline a few of them that I think made the most impact on me:

-Krish Dhanam

Krish kicked the entire event off with a very literal Jump Start to my day. He was really funny and I LOVED listening to him. But smack in the middle of his segment he said something that struck deep:

"Political correctness will be the death of this great nation!"

Couldn't agree more! Here's a little clip of his speech today.

-Rick Belluzzo

Rick is legendary in his own right. If you haven't heard of him, I've linked his profile from his current position at Quantum for you. Rick said a few things I'd like to share with you.

"Times of change & disruption is where real opportunity exists."

"...to be a strong leader, you need to be hard headed & soft hearted."
"Stay humble!"

I'm going to be honest with this next bit. I really wanted to see Zig Ziglar live, it was a major factor in why I went to the seminar. Sadly, due to an accident, and Zigs old age, he has lost a lot of his memory. And even with his daughter there to help guide him through his speech, he just wasn't completely there..... And it breaks my heart to see a mind with SO MUCH value become a locked treasure chest that can't be opened like it used to be. But none the less, I was overwhelmed to see Zig live!

A lot of other great speakers were at the event, but I think those three made the most impact on me! It was a great day, and I not only met some amazing people, but I gained a head full of cool new ideas. I am definitely going to give the Get Motivated Seminar two thumbs up!

Speakers: Eric Mangini

Today, I spent an entire day soaking up some really great material! There's so much going on in my head, there were so many good speakers that made such an impact at the Get Motivated Seminar. I can barely keep it all straight in my head. Lucky for you, I kept notes ;)

I'd like to dedicate some time here to talking about a speaker who I was expecting little out of, but I was blown away by him, Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns, Eric Mangini. Mangini spoke a lot about motivating a team and leading them to success. He used a lot of quotes that I really liked, I'm just going to throw them all down at once here.

• "Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling."


• "Discipline isn't something you do to somebody, it's something you do for somebody."


• "Every battle is won before it's fought."


• "Each day you must choose, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret."


• "The willingness to succeed is nothing without the willingness to prepare."


• "Everybody has the capacity to lead in their own way."


• The core values the applies to coaching the Browns: Communication, Focus, Finish, & Trust


• "...each day they (referring to his players) get to write whats on 'their label'."

I have to say that I was really impressed with Mangini as a speaker, he shared some highly insightful information and I think I walked away from his segment with more information in my notepad than any other speaker!

My Experiences: Hope For Children Gala Hosted by Cross International

On Friday I went to work like any other day. But the evening that followed was anything but normal. At 7PM I walked through the doors of the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn and into a world of caring, giving, and hope.

I had walked through the hotel lobby and straight into the 3rd Annual Cross International Hope Gala, "Hope For Children." A charity event put on by Cross International to raise money to open schools in Haiti that were closed because the donors who sponsored them before all left.... they walked away from the children that relied on them and just closed the schools. The goal of the evening, to reopen 10 schools for one year, at a cost of $2000 per school. (To put it in perspective, $2000 will keep the school open, teach the children, give them somewhere safe to go, and feed them one hearty meal a day for a full year!)

I saw generosity I would never have expected. When the auctioneer asked, "Who wants to sponsor a school for a year?" A gentlemen in the front row raised his hand and said, "I'll cover three of them...."

I've never seen such generosity out of a group of people so far disconnected from the children they were supporting. All the miles between our little corner of Ohio and Haiti melted down to nothing because these people were willing to open their hearts, lives, and wallets up and let the generosity flow. It was amazing, and it changed my perspective on a lot of things.

Next up on my event list is the Get Motivated Seminar on Weds, May 12th. I have a funny feeling that the "push" I get from that event is going to work reversely and help me find a way to make an impact on the mission Cross International is working on. I guess time will tell.

Work Hard Play Harder

I'm a firm believer in the saying that heads up this post. I work hard, so I can play harder!

To me that means giving everything I have at work, so I know the job's done right, then taking the time to just relax and let life show me what wonders it has hiding away at the lake, or on the hiking trail, or in the parking lot at a DCI show. Whatever it might be that I'm doing to unwind, I make sure I go full throttle. No other way to really enjoy it!

By far, my favorite two activities to unwind are fishing, and going to University of Akron football games! And I realized there's a lot of things about both of these that ties into the workplace.

Fishing- Trial & Error, Problem Solving, Creative/Abstract Thinking, Free Thinking, Determination

Football- Teamwork, Loyalty(fan loyalty that is), Strategic Planning, Leadership Skills, Hard Work & Practice, Determination

So when I'm relaxing, I'm actually working?! Wait a second.......... I thought work stayed at work, home stayed at home. I've realized that that will never happen. My friend Nate Riggs was just telling me before a meeting we had, "I have to turn it off when I'm with my kid." Referring to trying to unplug the work mind and plug in the family mind. Not that easy, so I've just started letting the two carefully compliment each other. I like to use the time when I'm down at the lake fishing to work through problems in my head, to think about new concepts or solutions.... to "Reboot" by solving every variable not accounted for while I was on the clock while I relax.

It's a careful balance, but it works. I catch a few fish, but solve a lot of problems and develop a ton of new ideas all at the same time. Hooray for multitasking.