Social Media Is For The Dogs!

I finally get social media.  No, I didn’t just acquire 500 linkedin connections, or get my twitter account up and running. Like 3/4ths of the human population, I have been a user of social media for years. It is only now that I finally get it. Like most facebook users over thirty, I segment my friends into those I went to high school with, college buddies, professional acquaintances, local friends, and cyber hookers with 46 friends who slip through the cracks undetected. I usually post witty remarks, photos, or videos about my life, business, kids, accomplishments, or challenges. I send it out into the universe hoping that my thousands of friends find me as interesting as I do. I am all things to all people.

      Yesterday I had a pure social media experience that gave me my AHA! Moment. My three year old was standing at the door yelling goggy, goggy. I was working in my office placating her with “that’s right dear, doggy, good doggy”. She became more animated so I got up and walked to the glass door. She was nose to nose with a black, wolfish looking dog that had wandered onto our porch. It turned out that the dog was very friendly, very thirsty, and very lost. Its tag had fallen off, so after giving it water and explaining to my daughter why we don’t put our face next to strange dogs, I took a picture with my Iphone and posted on my facebook page. My post simply said “lost dog. If you live in Burlington and recognize this dog, get in touch…before my kids get too attached”.  Within ½ hour, the dog was back home safe and sound with its grateful owners thanks to one of my facebook peeps who live next door to them. I now realize that this is what social media is all about. It is certainly what the 25 year old twitter users with 150,000 followers have understood from the start. Social media is about more than connection, it is about connecting on common ground.  It is about having a conversation with like minded souls on a specific topic. Did my 1500 plus facebook friends who do not live in my town respond to my post? No! because I wasn’t talking to them and they knew it. Most of us are like the guy on the off ramp with the sign that says “will work for food…God bless”. His message is generic and displayed without purpose. Thousands pass him daily with little interest in his message. When we start joining conversations based on topic, geography, ideology, brand loyalty etc., we can then make connections with individuals on a personal level. They will buy our products, align with our beliefs, and drink our kool-aid. By the way, if you happen to pay someone to tweet, post, or manage your social media, you have missed the point. In order to effectively use social media, you must be authentic and be willing to participate in a conversation. If you are the only one who is doing the talking, you are talking to yourself.

Is your phone menu screwing you?

I finally have it. The idea that will make me my first million. A pad that affixes to the side of my computer screen that I can punch repeatedly when I encounter an idiot by phone, web, or mail. It would not only be a great stress reliever, but a wonderful way to protect my computer screen.
      I would have punched it into tatters today after my dealings with a cd manufacturer that I was hoping to use to make my next batch of cds. Poor price point? nope, bad attitude by the sales rep? nope, inferior product? nope. What, you ask, could have set you off and down the road to senseless violence?... a crappy phone menu. We have all trudged through the maze of press 1 for accounting, press 2 for sales, press 3 for I am pissing my customers off by wasting their time with this attempt to avoid serving them with a live person, but this one takes the "Press 4 for cake". It took me over two minutes to finally reach the menu option that allowed me to enter the name of the person with whom I needed to speak, and only after I was given the number for maintenance. So what's the point? I teach that one of the 5 traction points in an effective customer relationship is empathy. Customers want their supplier to identify with their pains, problems, concerns or fears. This traction point can be avoided altogether if companies would stop causing the pain before the transaction even takes place.
         Like most married men with children, I look for opportunities to take a vacation with my wife AWAY from the kids. Do I need to explain? Ironically, it was a couple of those "little vacations" that were responsible for the kids in the first place. Those opportunities don't happen as often as we would like, so we take them when we can. Like most married men who are slipping away for a weekend with his wife, I like to set myself up for success. I make a reservation at a nice restaurant and hotel. I may even have a bottle of champagne chilling in the room when we arrive. Flowers always set the tone for a lovely evening. My chances for success would be significantly diminished, however,  if I called ahead to the hotel and had housekeeping mess up the bed, throw a wet towel on the bathroom floor and scatter the room with my dirty underwear. "Oh, while you're at it housekeeping, use the toilet and don't flush".
     When you set the tone for a customer interaction with a drawn out phone menu, uncomfortable waiting rooms, unclean facility, or laborious administrative processes, you are defying one of the most basic traction points for an extraordinary customer relationship, CONVENIENCE. Stop making it hard for me to give you my money. If you want to understand how your customers feel when doing business with you, call your own voicemail, or phone system.  Mystery shop your business and you will discover what it is like to do business with you. Walk a mile in your customers shoes.

Daddy Billy

Painting HiSTORY

Staring at the painting of the two Japanese women hanging in my mother’s house, I realize that I have stared at that picture my whole life. I first remember it on a wall in my grandparents’ house beside the upright piano that my grandfather loved to play, especially after a scotch on the rocks had loosened his fingers. Surrounded by southwestern art, a shadow box of arrow heads, and a painting of a running mule deer, I didn’t understand how out of place the painting of the two Japanese women was. I just knew that it was always there and had come to represent the dependable, unchanging, stability that tends to only be found at your grandparents’ house.

As a child, I always knew that my grandfather had fought in World War II, but his service had been somewhat marginalized in my young mind by what I saw in old movies and what little he told me about his experience. To me, WWII was a bunch of white guys wearing green or khaki uniforms with shirts tucked in and hair perfectly combed with a part down the side.  I also presumed that most of it was fought in black and white. Like my hundreds of plastic army men, no-one actually got hurt and everyone got to go home for dinner. It wasn’t until I had left my teenage years behind that I actually learned the truth about World War II and the truth about the painting.

If you study the painting in my mothers house, you may think it is good. You may even think it is really good despite the simplicity of the subjects. How much would you pay for a good painting? two hundred dollars, five hundred dollars, a thousand dollars? If you were to compare it to a similar painting, you may decide that it  doesn’t measure up. You may even begin to notice the rudimentary flaws in the design, the unproportioned features of the subjects, and perhaps the fallability of the artist. You may decide that it isn’t worth a lot of money until you hear, as Paul Harvey used to say,”the rest of the story”.

My Grandfather was an engineer in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He built runways and buildings on Okinawa. One of his responsibilities was to oversee Japanese POWs. We have all heard the horror stories of how the American POWs in the South Pacific were treated. I’ve learned that, as a whole, Americans were much kinder and humane to POWs than their Japanese counterparts and my grandfather was no different. Although efficient and strict, he treated the POWs he supervised with kindness and respect. He allowed no ill treatment on his watch. As a matter of fact, because of the humane treatment that the Japanese POWs received under my grandfather, they viewed him with respect. I was told that the Japanese soldiers would put on theatrical productions and invite him and his officers to attend. They would clear the front row to provide them a place to sit. When my grandfather was due to return to the States, he bid farewell to many of the Japanese POWs that he had come to know, and in some cases like. It was then that he was unexpectedly presented with a gift.

You may look at the painting of the two Japanese women hanging on the wall in my mothers house and think it is good. You may even decide you would pay two hundred dollars, five hundred or even a thousand dollars for such a painting. The value of the painting, however, may change in your mind if you knew that in 1945, a Japanese prisoner of war painted two Japanese women on a United States Army issued bed sheet using paints that he made with materials that he found in and around an Okinawan POW camp. He would then present the painting to my grandfather as a token of appreciation for the kindness bestowed upon he and his comrades by their captor. How about now? A million dollars, two million? How much would someone pay for a painting with the history of the one on my mother’s wall ? That is a question that will never be answered because the painting will never be sold.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Value is in the eye of the buyer. Long term relationships are created when value is provided. We routinely pay $4.00 for a cup of Starbucks Coffee, not because it tastes better than the coffee sold in the gas station or at McDonalds, but rather because of the context in which it is delivered. Why do people pay hundreds of dollars more for front row seats at a Broadway show or rock concert? CONTEXT! Creating an extraordinary customer experience is not simply about providing quality goods and services. It is about providing those goods and services within the context of:

1.     FRIENDSHIP- People will buy from friends first.

2.     TRUST- When your goal is to provide value rather than simply closing a sale then you establish trust.

3.     CONVENIENCE- Is it easy to do business with you? your customers will tell you.

4.     EMPATHY-  People want to buy from those who genuinely care about their  challenges and problems. When you care, you become a guide to the solution.

Whether you are in sales, management, education or an entrepreneur, the product, service, or message that we provide, is only as powerful as the person behind the product and the context in which it is delivered.

HOW TO WRITE AND DELIVER A FREAKING AMAZING SPEECH IN 30 MINUTES OR LESS

CHAPTER 8.

POSITIONING

Where you stand during your speech is a non-verbal communication between you and the audience that can make or break you as a speaker. We have all seen a speaker planted behind the lectern holding on for dear life.  Sometimes standing behind the lectern is appropriate, especially if there is a fixed microphone, but I like to move. I have seen powerful speeches given by speakers standing behind a lectern, but if you are going to do that then you must engage with other forms of nonverbal communication. Eye contact, acknowledgement of individuals or small groups, emotion, pauses, etc will enhance your presence and your connection with the audience.  If you have some flexibility as to where you stand, you must avoid certain mistakes such as pacing. Pacing is a natural nervous motion unconsciously employed by many amateur speakers. The best way to counter pacing is by planting and moving with purpose. When you begin your speech, do so from a power position, planted in front of the room. Don’t move unessesarily. The best time to move is when you finish a thought. Walk to another point in the room or on the stage and plant your feet. This is called moving with purpose. When you have no clear intent regarding your movement, the audience becomes distracted and uncomfortable.

TALKING TIP: PRACTICE MOVING WITH PURPOSE IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU PRACTICE YOUR VERBAL DELIVERY.

DO THIS:

·         WRITE WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO MOVE INTO YOUR SCRIPT. EVEN IF YOU DON’T STICK TO IT, IT’S A BLUEPRINT THAT WILL HELP.

HOW TO WRITE AND DELIVER A FREAKING AMAZING SPEECH IN 30 MINUTES SERIES

CHAPTER 7.

EYE CONTACT

A speech is a conversation between you and the audience. It may last 5 minutes or 50 minutes, so you don’t want to lose them. Many of the same elements of a one on one conversation also apply to giving a speech. Eye contact is crucial. You may have heard to focus on a dot on the back wall if you are nervous…HA! What a load of crap. You fool no one by doing that and inevitably, someone in the audience will turn around to see at what you are looking. “Picture your audience naked”. Ever heard that one? I think it is a great idea to picture your audience naked,  but it won’t help you give a better speech. I have found that the best way to engage an audience is by making one on one eye contact with individuals or small groups within the room.  When you speak to individuals, you are forcing them to focus and respond to what you are saying even if that response is a nod or smile.

I was watching the Country Music Awards show years ago and Garth Brooks was receiving the award for entertainer of the year. Garth steps up to the microphone hat in hand and begins to say a few words. From the balcony a fan yells “I love you Garth”. Garth Brooks looked up to the balcony and said “I love you too”. The whole balcony erupted in cheers. Why? Because when he focused on that section of the room in a meaningful way, he made the entire balcony feel included.  That was an aha moment for me that has been reinforced over the years as a speaker. There are two entities in the room, you and the audience. When you engage individuals or small sections of the room with a meaningful interaction, you are creating a intimate connection with the audience that will pull them on your side. It is much easier to speak in front of friends. 

HOW TO WRITE AND DELIVER A FREAKING AMAZING SPEECH IN 30 MINUTES SERIES

SECTION 2. DELIVERY

 THE OPENING

I mentioned in a previous post the importance of the opening line. How it is delivered is equally important. You make an impression on the audience from the moment you are introduced until your first words. You have thirty seconds to make it a good one. The most dreaded sound to amateur speakers is silence and many miss the opportunity to connect with the audience because they quickly fill it to the detriment of the speech.  Masterful speakers will use silence to create a connection with the audience. No other time in the speech is this connection more important than at the beginning. Nothing feels more awkward than standing before an audience saying nothing, but you are communicating with them none-the-less. You are saying “listen to me, I am in charge, what I have to say is important”. When you hit the stage, plant your feet, make eye contact, (smile) and PAUSE.  When you fill the room with silence, you are creating palatable anticipation of your first words which is why they have to kick butt!

TALKING TIP: PAUSE RIGHT UP UNTIL THE MOMENT IT FEELS UNCOMFORTABLE THEN BEGIN WITH A CLEARLY SPOKEN OPENING LINE.