Looking Back and Looking Forward

As a New Year's message, here's an adaptation of a Christmas Eve post from my "Aligning Your Life's Work" blog.

It's a brief reflection on making the absolute best of 2009. Interestingly enough, since writing it, we've had a few new challenges emerge in our lives, so it's been a great opportunity to put the lesson into practice right away!

"A Glorious Day and All It Entails"

Every year in mid-October, there’s a completely clear day where the setting sun outside my ninth floor window lights up the trees just to the north of the building, making the fall colors come alive. Photos never do the sight justice.

Last fall, for whatever reason, this clear, glorious day didn’t arrive. Two things were in the way.

First, many trees in our area were bulldozed to make way for new retail development. Watching this large stand of trees destroyed over the course of a few days was incredibly disheartening. Driving to work the morning after the first day of bulldozing, I saw a deer standing amid a pile of torn down trees eating leaves where it used to live. It almost pushed me over the edge.

Secondly, the remaining trees didn’t achieve the same incredible color scheme this year. The leaves looked more brown than they did yellow, orange, or red.

So what happened instead?

On a mid-October day this year, there was intermittent rain. Far from being clear, the sky was grey, with ominous clouds rolling through all day long.

Then in late afternoon, a rainbow appeared, and the clouds, now very low in the sky, began giving way in various parts of town. As they did, different parts of the city began to light up, revealing beautiful colors among trees throughout Kansas City.

In a unique way, the day of glorious color this year was much more intriguing, not knowing which trees would next receive their flash of illumination, only to randomly surrender it to other trees miles away. What has been a beautiful scene became an interactive display of color and light. It was the most glorious October day yet.

Think about it.

We are finishing a calendar year many view as having stripped away tremendously important things (i.e., money, wealth, status), leaving a dismal landscape, with dim and daunting uncertainty about the year ahead. Sounds a lot like the view from my window, doesn’t it?

What’s the lesson? The glorious day I was anticipating and looking forward to didn’t happen. Instead, challenges and hindrances spoiled the expectation, while working to create something even more glorious.

What I take away is the reminder that challenges, trials, and difficulties are all part of the impetus for creating great things; things we perhaps couldn’t imagine without having to face unexpected hurdles.

For all of us, pray we can take the challenges 2008 presented and those that 2009 holds and make it a truly wondrous year unlike any we’ve experienced before. Blessings for the New Year!

Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35

Remember the song, “Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen?”

Today, December 26 is the feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr, who was stoned to death in the first century. In today’s sermon, Fr. Gilmary Tallman spoke about two reasons why stoning, although illegal under Roman law, was used.

The first was that stoning was a graphic and very painful form of death; it sent a clear message to others you shouldn’t do what the person who was being stoned had done. Secondly, stoning was a group activity, so no one individual had any personal responsibility for carrying out the stoning.

When you put it that way, it makes stoning sound like many (most) modern business meetings:

• We convene with a group think mentality


• Perhaps one bold person offers an original idea


• The group kills the idea (and potentially the person) en masse through its invective and takes great satisfaction knowing any future upstarts with bold ideas will keep quiet to avoid a similar fate.

One thing Brainzooming is about is helping you get new ideas introduced and implemented without your group even realizing it so you won’t be a victim of corporate stoning.

Here’s to more creative Brainzooming subterfuge in 2009!

The painting "The Stoning of St. Stephen" is by Adam Elsheimer - National Galleries of Scotland exhibition.

A Good Competitive Strategy Reminder

Enemies - Some enemies are okay to have. Some enemies are bad to have. Snow plow drivers are horrible enemies.

The Twelfth Day of Gifts - Ernest J. Beilman - Don't Wait

I’ve only scratched the surface on the incredible gifts with which I’ve been blessed. The response to this series, however, suggests there will be future Decembers to share other Days of Gifts.

The twelfth lesson wasn’t determined when the series began. In fact, flying to Cleveland last week, it emerged from nowhere. It wasn’t even on the initial list of ideas, probably because it is the most unusual of all.

At heart, my Grandpa Beilman was a musician, playing and arranging music for a variety of dance and big bands with his brothers and others in Western Kansas. He also worked in the local music store, a source of great fascination given my love of music. Despite this fondness for music, I hated practicing the piano and did everything possible to stay out of the school band. Why? I wanted to play electric guitar and drums even though no one was very supportive of that desire.

In grad school, however, I bought different instruments (an electric guitar, synthesizers, a drum machine) and started writing and recording music. It was special to share this with my grandfather and get his perspective on the efforts. After grad school, I started playing with a guitar group at the church my grandparents attended, so he got to see me play, including an Easter mass for which I’d written the music.

Shortly after that, Cyndi and I were married over Labor Day weekend. The next year, we returned home for our first anniversary to see family, including my grandparents. They’d come over to visit, and my mom called to me downstairs in my old room to let me know when they were leaving. Not wanting to be distracted from going through things to take back to Kansas City, I didn’t budge. Instead, I yelled back good-bye and said I’d see them next trip.

Arriving home from work on a Friday night three weeks later, Cyndi told me mom had called. My grandfather died of a massive heart attack that afternoon. My last goodbye to him was yelling up the stairs back in Hays.

This gift is unusual because it didn’t come during my grandpa’s life, but after he died - never leave unspoken how you feel about the important people in your life.

Make sure they know you appreciate their friendship, love, and everything they’ve given you. It can leave a lasting hurt to know you didn’t do this after it’s too late to go back and change it. Since then, I’ve tried to make a deliberate effort to find a way to let people know how appreciative I am of them and the gifts they’ve shared while I can.

There’s a high likelihood over the next weeks we’ll all be seeing some important people in our lives. You never know if it will be the last time you’ll see them. So if you have even a suspicion that one of them doesn’t truly know what they mean to you, learn this final lesson from my grandfather (and do me a favor) – tell them!!!

Wrapping Up the Year and Your Holiday Gift

Unless there’s time-sensitive strategic thinking news between now and New Year’s, that’s it for 2008.

If you're interested in your holiday gift, send an email to mike@mikebrownspeaks.com and put "Holiday Book" in the email subject line. I'll send you a free copy of my ebook "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation" to get you ready for 2009!


Thank you for reading the blog this year, have a wonderful, safe holiday, and check back on January 2 for a recap of favorite posts from the past twelve months. Happy Holidays!

Saturday Special - Great Guerrilla Marketing in Action

Here's a cool guerrilla marketing example from Southwest Airlines.

At Cleveland-Hopkins Airport, the company has created a tangible way to remind customers of its "No Hidden Fees" benefit and visually reinforce the customer's service experience with Southwest gate agents.

This is a wonderful example of "physical evidence" in services marketing, i.e. taking an intangible and providing some type of tangibility to it to reinforce customer perceptions of service quality or value.




Click here for the original post link to see the video if it doesn't appear on your screen.

The Eleventh Day of Gifts – Greg Reid – The Power of “We”

No one’s success depends exclusively on individual efforts. We’re products of the ideas and interactions in which we’re immersed daily.

Greg Reid (far right), one of my strategic mentors, provided an important gift relative to this and the importance of talking about “we” instead of “me” in business.

Why use “we” when you communicate?

Being able to talk from a “we” perspective brings responsibilities, requiring you work with others in developing a recommendation, opening yourself to challenges and different perspectives. Considering different points of view creates stronger recommendations. While it may take more time or work to build broader agreement, the benefits are tremendous. It forces others with a stake in the recommendation to voice their support. Credibly talking from a first person plural perspective also removes a recommendation from standing on your point of view vs. someone else’s.

While there’s plenty of valid emphasis on personal responsibility and accountability in business, the “we” approach doesn’t fly in its face. Instead, it helps mitigate sometimes unwise behaviors attributable to seeking too much personal responsibility.

In making his point, Greg suggested listening to a co-worker’s language. When focusing intently, it was clear how often he used “I,” “me,” and portrayed sole responsibility for a recommendation he was advocating. Unfortunately, “his” audience didn’t support it, and having characterized it as his own, the decision came down to whose individual perspective was deemed more valid. Guess what? He lost. Not long after, his failure to build alliances was cited as a factor when pushed out of his position.

Pay attention to your communication. What’s your frequency of using “I” or “me” when you could have easily said “we”? Even without formally including others, simply dropping self-attribution for ideas creates some mystery regarding how big your support base is.

Among all the gift givers these twelve days, a particular thank you goes to those recognized this week since all of them have helped shape me in such profound ways beyond those shared here.

The Tenth Day of Gifts – My Dad – The Numbers Approach to Sales

Many people in this series (and all of them this week) have shared too many gifts to list them all. That’s the case with both my parents.
While it took me a long time to catch up in understanding the many short cuts to life lessons my dad tried to give me, I’m hard-pressed now to point to one that isn’t true (although at 17, I’d have told you most were nonsense - which I guess is all part of growing up).

His lessons on generosity, focusing on what's good for others, and approaching life with a positive attitude have shaped me profoundly.

So here’s a lesson that may seem small in comparison, but continues to provide tremendous value throughout my work life: understand and work the percentages when selling, no matter whether it’s selling a product, service, or concept.

Early on as my dad was making the transition from cutting hair in my grandfather’s barber shop to broadcasting, he sold life insurance part-time. A lesson he learned was 10:3:1, i.e. you had to make 10 calls to secure 3 appointments to close 1 sale.

If someone was willing to apply him or herself, work the equation, and stay motivated amid a 90% failure rate, they’d be successful. If they applied learnings and new techniques to improve the ratio, they could experience dramatic success. Get discouraged or shortcut the process by making too few calls, however, and they’d wind up washing out.

While the ratios may differ, the principle applies to so many facets of business and life. (Although, thank goodness I don’t have to generate 10 ideas to get 1 blog post!) Ask others or figure out the business building relationships on your own, but KNOW and apply them to make the ratios work for you in selling and persuading others to your point of view.

Thanks Dad for cluing me in early to both the life principles and the numbers behind success!

The Ninth Day of Gifts – Dave Wessling - Symbolism

Dave Wessling, my teacher for a number of high school English classes, has been mentioned several times. He was unlike any teacher I had before or after. As a former basketball player, he had an imposing physical presence coupled with a booming voice he used to great effect in the classroom.

Outside class, he’d seek to engage us intellectually on educational topics. While later appreciating these interactions, back then it seemed unfair for a teacher to talk about school outside class time. It smacked too much of unpaid overtime for us!

Mr. Wessling offered a number of educational gifts relative to both literature and broader life endeavors. One concept was explicating literary works to uncover their underlying meanings and symbolism. Until then, I’d simply taken fictional works at face value, displaying more interest in biographies than short stories, novels, poetry, or plays.

Under Mr. Wessling’s tutelage, however, I embraced symbolism and multiple interpretations within great literary pieces and other works, including art, which was of even greater interest to me. I began applying the concept of symbolism in creative writing and art projects. It extended as far as the menu design for my parent’s restaurant; the menu started displaying a variety of images and cryptic messages signaling my life view at any particular time.

Based on my early business writing experiences, you’d think symbolic expression would be a thing of the past. Later, however, as I came to appreciate the importance of emotion in live business interactions and events, symbolism’s importance emerged once again. The lessons Dave Wessling gave us in school made it easy to successfully embrace the concept in a new setting.

So go to school on this lesson and share your thoughts about where you could use symbolism more effectively in business to create richer understanding of the concepts you’re trying to communicate.

BTW - To catch up on all the gifts posts so far for this season, click here.

The Eighth Day of Gifts – Cyndi Brown - "White Space Sells"

My wife Cyndi was instrumental in the greatest gift anyone has ever given me – helping rekindle my faith.

Beyond that, she’s been the source of countless gifts in our nearly 25 years together. One gift that’s helped throughout my business career was something Cyndi said to me back in college based on her award-winning journalism, marketing, and PR experience: “White space sells.”

Although a deceptively simple phrase, it’s absolutely true. Ample white space helps:

• Set the stage to showcase and focus attention on the most important elements to communicate
  
• Remove unnecessary elements fighting for attention with whatever you’re advertising
  
• Make it easier on the viewer or reader to process and potentially better recall your primary message

Cyndi’s initial comment and its repetition have caused me to be attuned to not cluttering design elements with too much other stuff, although it's a challenge for someone who is a natural accumulator of all kinds of things. That’s why simplicity, writing fewer words, and ways to narrow options are such frequent topics: I’m trying to reinforce the importance of literal and figurative “white space” to myself.

I love white space, really - as long as it’s on a page! If it’s outside white space as in snow, well, that’s another story!

The Seventh Day of Gifts - Bill McDonald – Get to the Point

Our first week in Kansas City while unpacking boxes and listening to Mike Murphy’s radio show, I heard Bill McDonald talk about how his company, Kansas City Infobank, researched and identified market opportunities. While unsure about my career, I loved school, was good at it, and Infobank sounded like school. Thus began my “second MBA” – spending 2 ½ years at Infobank doing strategic projects for entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 companies, and everything in between.

Despite our financial challenges as a small business, Bill became an important strategic mentor. As mentioned before, the business instruction he gave me encompassed lessons too numerous to list. One in particular transformed my writing, helping create a personal business writing style.

Three months into the job, I was struggling with my first major report about the market for a laser printer add-on. Despite the report’s focus, I was writing pages on the personal computer market as an enabler for this technology.

Bill finally sat me down and said, “You need to understand you’re not in school anymore. You don’t need to write a long litany of facts to prove you’re qualified. You’re writing for business. The fact we have this assignment presumes we know what we’re doing. Get right to the point of our recommendations and the rationale behind them.”

The discussion was a wake up call that business writing was different. Unlike school, where you’re required to demonstrate understanding to support getting a good grade, business writing needs to get right to the point. That’s even truer today. Bill’s direction has been a tremendously valuable career-long lesson that I’ve shared with many others to help improve their written communication.

Saturday Special - The Cost of the Twelve Days of Christmas

Each year PNC tracks the cost of all the gifts in the "Twelve Days of Christmas." Click here to visit the offical tracking website along with an introductory video and interactive charts for each item!

The Sixth Day of Gifts – David Harkleroad – Inviting Me into LinkedIn

I met David Harkleroad at an October 2005 branding conference in New York where I spoke on internal branding.

During the conference, I received an email invitation from him to join his LinkedIn network. I wasn’t familiar with it but thought it was cool that he invited me, especially after hearing him explain to someone that we was selective in extending invitations.

Since then, LinkedIn has proven to be a very valuable business tool to connect with and keep track of former co-workers and individuals I’ve met at conferences. It’s great to be able to easily learn more about people’s jobs and interests. And with the Q&A, groups, and applications that have been added (check out my profile where this blog is now available), it’s given even more options for growing a personal network, contributing ideas to others’ questions, and building awareness for the blog.

Based on that early encounter, I’m still relatively selective in expanding my network, periodically reviewing contacts and testing myself on how well I know or remember them. Yet, I have a great friend, Amy Hoppenrath, a well-known LinkedIn Trainer, who is an advocate for very open networking.

Either way, if you’re a reader and on LinkedIn, let’s connect networks. I’m closing in on 500 connections, and you could be it! Thanks to David Harkleroad for being connection #1!

The Fifth Day of Gifts – Tony Vannicola – Lunch and Learn

Tony Vannicola started working in marketing soon after me early in both our careers. We quickly became friends, although unlikely ones, since there were stark contrasts between us:

• Tony was with the company in field sales and knew many people at headquarters; I knew no one.


• In sales, he was used to having lunches with others; as an introverted researcher, I ate cheese crackers at my desk.

When Tony arrived several months after me, he began dragging me to lunch. We usually ate with guys Tony knew from operations, the equivalent of “manufacturing” in our service company. The conversations frequently focused on how the company’s operations worked. By osmosis, I received a great schooling in the company’s inner workings, the fundamentals behind providing service, and the vital practices and metrics to driving profitability.

I’m not sure I realized it then, but Tony provided two important gifts for my career through those lunches. The first was the importance of fundamentally understanding how a company works and makes money. Many marketers view their companies superficially, focusing on classical marketing areas, leaving themselves ill-prepared to fully contribute. Absent these lunches, I might have fallen into this trap.

Secondly, the lunches reinforced the value of opening yourself up to learning by interacting with others. That’s still a challenge for me (I’ve reverted to eating at my desk again most days), but the value is clear as I’ve tried to actively increase my network and interactions with others in a whole variety of ways daily.

The Fourth Day of Gifts - A Guy on a Plane - "Don't Wait Around"

On one of my first real business trips, I was headed from Kansas City to Denver for evening focus groups. To save money, they’d booked me on Northwest, flying through Minneapolis.

We boarded the plane late morning, pulled away from the gate, and stopped for a weather hold in Minneapolis. After two hours on the runway, we amazingly returned to the gate with the announcement that anyone who wanted to make alternative arrangements could leave the plane to do so.

Realizing it might be tight getting to Denver, I still sat there planning to wait it out. That was until the guy next to me, who knew my situation, told me to get off the plane and find another way to Denver or I’d never make it in time. So I took his advice, went to the counter, and was rebooked on another airline’s direct flight, getting to Denver at the original time.

The great lesson was to always go on the offensive when its comes to travel problems - don’t delay or wait and pursue multiple channels (in-person customers service, phone, and now web) until you get your situation addressed. Carry on bags, charged communication devices, and being in good shape (for running) are great assets when traveling. Huge frequent flier status is too, but I’ve never flown enough to get that.

So thanks to a guy who I never saw again for the gift of instigating me to be a lot more aggressive traveler.

P.S. At the Denver airport the next morning, the return flight through Minneapolis had been cancelled. Northwest rebooked me through Memphis. Four Northwest flights in 2 days and never took one of them; thus began my long, festering dislike of Northwest.

P.P.S. As I write this, I’m in 33F (last seat, last row) soaking in sweat from running through the Atlanta airport twice trying to catch a flight home after weather delays and Delta screw-ups (including taking 15 minutes to move the jetway, delaying me enough to miss my original connection). Yes, Delta has now become Northwest. Argghhhhhhh!!!!!

The Third Day of Gifts - Earl Brungardt - Good Handwriting (Just in Time for the Letter to Santa)

The Second Day of Gifts - Br. Michael Suchnicki - Self-Deprecating Humor

Brother Mike Suchnicki O.F.M. Cap. was my 7th grade catechism teacher. He was the first member of the clergy I really knew on a personal basis since he was with our class 5 days per week throughout the school year.

From Br. Mike (now Fr. Mike), I learned the role that humor, especially self-deprecating humor, can play in making an apparent authority figure approachable. He always told jokes on himself, frequently related to his Eastern European ethnic heritage. (For example, see his t-shirt from a yearbook picture of an intramural volleyball game.)

By readily using humor, the class became more comfortable and receptive to him and the serious religious messages he was sharing. Seeing a religious figure who was actually a real person also awakened in me an early interest in discerning whether I had a religious vocation.

The approachability Br. Mike created through humor led me to embrace a similar style – being willing to poke fun at myself to introduce people to more serious or complex subject matter.

His gift of humor is still a part of my work style, writing, and interpersonal approach. In fact, if you look across my websites, they represent three deep personal themes – strategy, humor, and spirituality. Within the latter two, Br. Mike was a strong early influence, for which I’ll eternally be grateful.

The First Day of Gifts - My Mom - Being an Incredible Listener

Strong researchers share a variety of characteristics, including:

• Asking open-ended questions
• Being attentive, active listeners
• Patience
• A healthy dose of skepticism
• The ability to distill information and provide solid advice

To the extent I display any of these traits, it’s a gift from my mother, whose birthday is today.

At the core, my mother is an incredible listener. From as far back as I can remember, we always had a steady stream of people, mostly relatives, stopping by our house, grabbing a chair in the kitchen, and proceeding to unburden themselves of their joys, pains, and dreams while Mom (on the right) patiently listened. She’d ask questions, probe for information, challenge some of their pre-conceived notions, and often, provide advice for their life situations.

I’ve had people tell me my mother is a great conversationalist. She’d probably laugh at that, not seeing herself as one. But people seek her out because she does the two most important things people want: she asks questions about them and patiently listens to what they have to say.

That’s a great lesson for all of us, whether we’re researchers, or just hoping to be more effective in our interpersonal relationships. Thanks Mom for those early, consistent lessons on how to sincerely care about others. Happy Birthday!

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" - Gifts Lessons in Life and Business

“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a quirky song, but the ideas of gift-giving and thanksgiving are central to the season. Thanksgiving, though, should be a focus all the time: so many of us are given so many gifts that we don’t merit.

Much of this blog is about lessons given and learned, so even though the twelve days of Christmas are between Christmas Day and feast of the Epiphany, we’ll use the next twelve weekdays to share and thank people that have given me lasting gifts.

Some of the people are tremendously important and will always be with me, yet there’s one whose name I don’t even know. Not all the lessons may seem huge, but my hope is that each gift will be valuable for you as well.

Click here to see a post from another of my blogs that combines today's two posts - gifts and interesting things in your inbox.

Then come back tomorrow as we begin the Twelve Days of Gifts!

You’ve Got Mail

Tuesday brought a variety of great inbox material on strategically addressing the current economic downturn.

Several articles included in a free McKinsey Quarterly email addressed strategy in tough times:

• Leading through uncertainty
• Strategy in a ‘structural break’
• The downturn’s new rules for marketers
• A fresh look at strategy under uncertainty: An interview
• McKinsey Global Survey Results: Economic conditions snapshot, November 2008

It’s definitely worth signing up to get access to the free McKinsey material. You’ll be able to read and download many articles in its historical library.

Another article was from Wired.com about innovation in turbulent economic times. The article was featured in the free Innovation Tools newsletter.

Many strategic pieces getting written advise against the potential initial instinct to pull back on everything in the face of uncertainty. Instead, they suggest smart, strategic businesses take advantage of major market shifts, get strategically aggressive, and come out ahead of hesitant competitors.

The challenge is that it’s easier written than done. Here’s to doing it now and being around to write about the successes later!

Audi Lap Flap - Please Check the Box!

unsubscribe me from a life of conventional and hackneyed ideas - audi

Mental Refreshes

Following up yesterday, sometimes when you're working on a project, it's hard to quit so that you can refresh.

Doing live events leads to many short nights from getting ready and wrapping up results. Earlier this year due to delayed United Airlines flights, I didn’t walk into the hotel room until 2 a.m. and had to be up at 5 a.m. to prep for hosting a 7 hour session. While your situations may be different, chances are you also have times where you haven’t had enough sleep but have to be on top of your game. Here are some tips that work me:

Eat – There’s a lot to be said for refueling your body with healthy food. When producing a conference in Vegas once, I was among the walking dead. Friends forced me to sit down and eat a salad. Afterward, I was good for five more hours. Another person told me once that during long work sessions, he needed at least one “hot” (meal) per day. Single-serving, microwavable soup can be a quick answer there. You can heat them in most hotel rooms or at least in the lobby, and a quick shot of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup can do wonders.

Caffeine and Water – Specifically for me, Diet Dr. Pepper. I know caffeine isn’t good for you, but pounding diet drinks can help sustain you over the course of a day, especially if you’re alternating it with water. Thus the inside joke among co-workers that my sessions never go more than 90 minutes without a bio break!

A Nap (on the floor) – This isn’t for everyone, but I’m blessed with the ability to fall asleep very easily. I started sleeping on the floor doing all nighters at my first job. Because the floor isn’t comfortable, you tend not to sleep for very long. Especially with lights and noise going, you’ll wake up soon, but usually with just enough rest to give you a burst of energy.

Exercise – Walk the hall, go up and down stairs, or run around the building. Anything to get your mind focused more on physical than mental exertion will do the trick.

Shower & Get Into Casual Clothes – If you don’t have time for sleep, a quick shower and change of clothes can give you a refreshing break and reset your perspective. For me, there’s something about throwing on jeans that simply helps me think better. And the shower will help you to smell better too, especially if you just ran around the building.

Pray – Remove yourself mentally for a moment and reflect spiritually. It can not only give you greater peace of mind, it can also provide a creativity boost.

There are my six tips for a quick mental re-charge. Please leave a comment to let everyone know what works for you!

“Creative Quickie” - Quit

When you’re going crazy, feeling frazzled and overloaded, give yourself a break and just quit.

Take a pause, a rest, or a nap and allow your mind to shut down for a little bit. You’ll be better able to tackle your next set of tasks with a fresh perspective.

Personal Note: I don’t often (always?) follow my own advice. I’m writing this while sitting in bed forcing myself to meet a self-imposed weekly post quota.

At least I crashed on the couch earlier in the evening and slept for several hours. I guess what Andy Warhol said holds here, “It’s not that my philosophy fails me; I fail my philosophy. I breach what I preach more than I practice it.”