Calm After The Storm
Forever & AlwaysWe often think of the 'calm before the storm', but rarely do we recognize or even witness the 'calm after the storm'. This sunset occurred less than an hour after a severe storm, near Otter Falls, MB, that brought down a hundred trees near a cabin we had rented. The clouds became soft like cotton balls (mammatus clouds) and the sky was at peace.
With the sand sliding between our toes, and walking hand in hand, there was no thoughts of #tweets, #likes or #snapchats.
I recently sent this email responding to a potential customer who turned me down for an appointment.
Hi *First Name*,
As always, thank you for your time. After your response to my meeting request, I realized something very important. When I asked to meet with you this time, I clearly didn’t offer anything of immediate and compelling value to you and your business. As time equals money, why would any smart business person give up their valuable time for a meeting of unknown proportions?
You can be sure that the next time I contact you * First Name*, I will bring an offer of compelling value to the table. Cheers,
Lee
The power of hearing the word NO can cause an epiphany, of which hearing a YES usually can not! When we get too many positives or yes’s in our lives, we can become complacent and start making assumptions about the perceived value we bring to the table. We need to be turned down once an awhile to keep sharp, to keep ensuring we communicate clearly to our customers and potential clients the immediate value we bring to the table. Come to think of it, the power of NO is true for any relationship. Embrace the NO, and learn from it!
If you are like many other people on the planet, you have great intentions of sitting down at your computer and hammering out your extensive to do list, maybe set up a marketing campaign, respond to all your emails, and usually the list goes on and on.
Do you ever find you get side tracked and time just magically disappears on you?
Maybe it’s Facebook that sucked you in to a 23 minute tangent, or maybe it was that funny video link your buddy sent you that forced you at gun point to go surf on YouTube for 30 minutes.
Either way, I have found a new tool from Yahoo Widgets called Ten Plus Two that is so dead simple it works. It displays a ten minute timer on your screen and then gives you a little alarm when it runs out, then it gives you two minutes before it starts over again. They say it was designed to get up and take break every ten minutes, which is a great idea too, but I think it better suited as a consistent reminder to get back on task when you have been side tracked by mother internet.
If you don’t have Yahoo Widgets already, you’ll need to first get the Yahoo Widget Software, and then just do a quick search for Ten Plus Two. Not only will you be cured of your bad internet habits, at least until you forget to start using it, but they have about 5000 other cool widgets you just might find pretty cool as well.
I’ll Do It When I Get Around To It!
When I was growing up as a teenager I remember we had ‘A Round To It’ posted on the wall in our basement. It was a constant reminder to avoid procrastination, and never, ever say I will do something when I get around to it. In the event someone slipped you were reminded of the round piece of paper of shame. It was simply a forbidden statement as it should be.
I hope the round ‘To It” below will benefit you or someone you know as much as it has me. At the very least have some fun with your favorite procrastinator in your life.
Just right click and print…
Almost everyone has to write for some purpose or another. Whether you are in marketing, journalism, or simply have a deadline to write a business proposal or birthday card, writers block can hit at the most inconvenient times. Here are few interesting ways to cure the nastiest cases of writers block.
Top 10 Cures for Writers Block
Three cheers to the end of writers block and may all your words flow as easily as the air you breathe. If you have found other ways to beat writers block please post your comments below. I may need a # 11 soon :>)
Update: Friday, October 10th
It has been widely quoted, that an agreement signed in 1976 between the City of Winnipeg and the Portage & Main Building Owners has been the primary reason why a pedestrian crossing at Portage & Main has not be implemented. Our mayor has been quoted in the media as saying with out all the property owners consent, he would not proceed in good faith because of this agreement.
Here it is folks:
You can download the entire agreement here: /download/Dec20-1976.pdf
Here is the Trizec Building Agreement: /download/Trizec_Building_Agreement.pdf
Suffice to say, I stand behind the idea of the Portage & Main Pedestrian Overpass Proposal now more than ever. If all the city needs to do is provide access from the new structure to Winnipeg Square, then in good faith of the 1976 agreement that is what we should do!
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As a proud resident of Winnipeg and believer in the revitalization of our downtown, I have come up with a solution to the long standing debate on whether to open up pedestrian traffic at our infamous intersection of Portage & Main. It has been 4 years since the City last held a design contest and nothing has happened, maybe it’s time for another one!
To read the hard to see text on the image: http://www.LeeRaito.com/download/portageandmain.pdf
Yes, Winnipeg should open up Portage & Main to pedestrian traffic and can do so WITHOUT affecting automobile traffic whatsoever. The establishment of a world class Pedestrian Overpass & Tourist Destination is the only solution that makes sense to both parties; pedestrians & automobiles. In addition to the blatantly obvious benefits to pedestrians being able to easily get to their desired downtown destination directly, there are many side benefits to building a pedestrian overpass directly above Portage & Main.
Potential Benefits:
Obvious Benefit: Automobile traffic unaffected and pedestrians can easily navigate to any corner of Portage & Main with out having to go below ground.
Revenue: There are many potential revenue streams.
Environmental: This can and should be a green initiative attempting to leave no lasting environmental footprint.
Downtown Revitalization: If we successfully design and build a world class structure that tourists & Winnipeg residents want to visit, this will bring us one step closer to fully revitalizing our downtown.
Of course, the idea in itself raises questions.
Questions Raised:
Download the 1 Page PDF Visual Concept Here: http://www.LeeRaito.com/download/portageandmain.pdf
Statement: I am not an artist and the structure depicted should and will drastically change for the better as this proposal moves forward. As recommended in the PDF, the City Of Winnipeg should establish an International Design contest to find the best workable concept. This idea has been forwarded to Winnipeg City Council for consideration.
Please contribute your thoughts, questions, agreement & or concerns below… just hit the comment button!
It doesn’t matter if you are a marketer, a plumber or an actor, if you advertise your services as being no job is too small for your undivided attention, then that’s what you need to live up to. It’s a great way to make every customer feel important, of course, only if you can and will dutifully follow through on your promises.
Regardless of your market there is money to be made in small jobs, or what some might call micro sales. You just have to figure out how to keep your promises and be profitable at the same time.
Amazon has figured this out with the Artificial Artificial Intelligence (that’s not a typo), where people are profiting from services completed for as little as .05 cents. It’s called Amazon Mechanical Turk http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome If your business is online you’ll immediately see the value of this service!
Why can’t the local handyman who advertises ‘No Job is Too Small’ do the same?
A few months back, I had a very strange experience during a sales meeting. About half way through my pitch, the power to the entire building shut down. It was so pitch black in the boardroom, I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face. So I logically asked everyone if they wanted me to stop and come back next time I was in town or continue on?
Surprisingly, they wanted me to power on as a few people had pulled out their cell phones providing just enough light to make out basic shapes in the room. I finished my pitch over the next 15 minutes filled with laughter, and then went on my merry way.
It doesn’t end there and gets stranger…
The following week when I was preparing to send the ‘Meeting in the Dark’ participants some follow up material, I though of a really cool gift I had come across before to include with their package. I sent along four eco-friendly wind up flash lights with a little note making fun of the experience. The note also said the flash lights were in case they again found themselves in a meeting in the dark.
I though that was the end of the story, until I recently was on another business trip in the area and happened to meet up with one of the infamous blackout participants for a coffee. During our meeting he told me about a week after our initial black out meeting, lightning struck a transformer that again knocked out the power to their building. Although they weren’t in a meeting at the time, they again had to use cell phones to make their way around the office. He figured he would take off early, but his assistant reminded him their was a bubble package on his desk he might want to check out first. To everyone in the offices extreme surprise when he opened the package, there were the wind-up flashlights we sent just a few days earlier.
I couldn’t even make this stuff up if I tried.
Alleged Fact: In 1923 Walt Disney Declared Bankruptcy.
From the bottom of my heart I believe that anything is possible and hope you do to. Maybe you need inspiration or maybe you don’t, but every once in awhile I get slightly disillusioned with my ideas or projects that fail and need to remind myself that you sometimes need to fail hundreds of times before you succeed. Sure the odd time you hit a homerun on the first pitch, but it should never be expected…. or should it?
Is it strange to have the confidence to always expect to succeed and in the same breath the resilience and strength to accept failure? No it’s not strange, I think it’s a necessary combination for success in marketing, creating companies, relationships, and life in general. It is also a common trait of some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet.
So here is my dose of inspiration for when it’s needed:
Walt Disney, Frances Ford Coppola, Larry King and Donald Trump all declared bankruptcy at one point in their lives. So did 65 other famous people http://www.popcrunch.com/bankrupt-65-famous-people-who-lost-it-all-50-65/ Delta Airlines filed for Chapter 11 and so did Kmart…they just changed and moved on like many other high profile companies. http://www.rjabankruptcy.com/articles/famouscorporations.html Finally, Thomas Edison had 1093 patents for his inventions, which means he had massive failure and only hit a few major homeruns!
I hope that you or I will never have to experience bankruptcy or failure to the degree that Walt Disney or Donald Trump have, but at least if we do, we can rest assured we are in pretty good company.
I leave you with two quotes.
George Bernard Shaw:
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.
Oscar Wilde:
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
So when you read the title of this post you probably made a quick assumption that you were going to hear something familiar or maybe even profound. But I hope when you arrived your assumption of hearing an old adage was turned upside down. It simply amazes me how many ways you can say the same thing, but with different imagery completely change the message. Pictures can indeed say a thousand words, but only in combination with words can you ensure that every person gets the same message.
In marketing this is powerful, and almost magical when done right.
I was fortunate enough to be reminded by a friend today of something I already knew, but had never quite heard stated so perfectly before.
We have all heard the term ‘Life Is Too Short’ and it’s a damn good saying to live by in most situations. We can let too many things get to us too easily in relationships, our careers, driving the car in rush hour, when experiencing attitude from a total stranger while we are shopping, or on a simple phone call about our cable bill. Why do we really care?
Let’s say you have bought a book and have started reading it. You find yourself on the 20th page and it is progressively getting worse. You have two simple choices.
What bad book are you experiencing in your life, your career, your relationships, or anywhere else?
Put the book down and move on… life is too short for a bad book!