Maybe Paul should take more time off. Upon his return from a much-needed week off last month, he penned the following post about how we approach our jobs and our careers. I think there’s some wonderful food for thought in his words, and I hope you agree. Enjoy the read and let us know your “take.” – FJ
The new year is a time to reflect, but also to reset the way we view our lives and the way in which we engage with people personally and professionally. I was fortunate to take a week off in Florida with my family (a must if you live in Michigan). While sitting on the beach, I went through this reflection process and have some thoughts about how many of us might improve our impact, relationships, and possibly, success and happiness in 2014.
Running two companies that are constantly leaning forward like Jacobs Media and jacAPPS require that we’re always focused on the trends and direction of the culture and consumers. We are obsessed with “what’s next,” and too often, this involves tracking the ongoing trend toward a digital life. In fact, as you’re reading this, we’re attending the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show to see first-hand the next big things.
Virtually everything we do today in business is touched by the digital brush. The way that we communicate (email, Twitter, Facebook), sell (PPM, CPMs), inform ourselves (websites, podcasts, e-readers, streams), and stay connected (smartphones, tablets, laptops) are all part of the digital ecosystem that has changed our lives.
But these digital tools and toys have taken their toll on our personal and professional lives, altering the ways in which we interact with each other. You increasingly hear stories of people looking for vacation getaways that are out of range of cellular service. Or dinner games where phones are placed in the center of the table, allowing for actual conversation. Or even surveys that increasingly show that heavily connected air travelers are truly fearful of in-flight cell phone usage.
As I look back at 2013, I recall too many stories from clients and colleagues that suggest we may be losing sight of the most important element in business and in life – the PX, or “personal experience.”
The PX is part of a richer, fuller opportunity to engage, touch, smell, and develop a much deeper understanding of the world around us, our relationships, and our business communication. Let’s face it, most of your Facebook “friends” aren’t really that at all. They are digital connections bound by a shared history, experience, or interest. While we all enjoy seeing pictures of cats doing stupid things, that isn’t the foundation of a solid relationship, which is why we can just click the “Like” button and move on without any engagement, emotion, or attachment.
I was reminded of this recently while listening to WMMQ/Lansing’s fine tribute show to our fallen friend, Larry Allen Estlack. The “All Request Saturday Night” was a 28 year-old tradition on the station (and actually was around in other forms for more than a decade prior to ending up on MMQ.) Professionally, Larry was an engineer who had a Saturday night show. But it ran deeper than that. These remembrances of Larry were all about his PX – because his life was about connecting with and helping others. From job to job, teaching gig to teaching gig, and station to station, a flood of personal stories about Larry all touched on the same themes:
Hanging out, talking, helping, teaching, laughing, and sharing. It’s awfully difficult to do that via text, email, and in Facebook posts, and tweets. Few tell stories about a great email, partially because we get a hundred of them a day. But they’ll tell stories about an amazing personal relationship for decades.
One of the interesting things about this on-air tribute to Larry was the realization that his show was all about requests – serving fans, schmoozing with listeners, exchanging thoughts and memories about music, and connecting with each other. A DJ’s love affair with his audience.
Larry’s good friend, Kip Bohne, told the story that when he was first diagnosed with inoperable cancer, his first thought (after the tears) was “What about the show? What’s going to happen to the show?”
When you create something personal and unique, it can last well beyond your time on this planet. And in listening to this tribute show, you could easily hear the impact it had on the MMQ DJs who put it together – Deb Hart, Joey Pants, and the rest of the staff that came together that Saturday night. It was almost as if they had rediscovered each other, while sharing their joy and amazement with the community of listeners who had communed weekly with Larry on the “ARSN.”
So rested from my vacation and reinvigorated by this audio love letter to Larry, here are some new year’s resolutions based on what is truly important – amplifying the PX at all levels of our business:
- Pick up the damn phone. This is a piece of advice I often use with our staff. Instead of getting involved in the incredibly long, circuitous, and ultimately confusing email chains, just stop it and talk to someone. It’s impossible to tell just how emotional a customer is when you just read an email. You can’t understand the nuance of the point they are trying to make via a one-dimensional digital message. Get on the phone and talk it out. It might actually be faster than banging out a succession of emails to an ever-expanding list of people, and it will help you solve problems more quickly and efficiently.
- Sell without metrics and tell your story. How about bringing out one of your personalities on a sales call, or actually practicing selling your station without charts, PowerPoint decks, and rankers? Instead of responding to an RFP with a proposal, ask to personally visit with the client to gain a true understanding of what they want and what they value. You can’t do that without actually talking to someone, and you just might find out that cost efficiency isn’t their primary goal. Local DJ legend Ken Calvert has left the morning show for a weekend gig, but also a sales ambassador position at WCSX. And knowing K.C.’s personality and fervent belief in the station and the music, I’m predicting that he will be very effective in his new role.
- Remind the airstaff they’re in show business. When they’re at an event, it’s essential they act like it. I’ve heard from a lot of clients that attendance at remotes and bar nights is tepid. Maybe it’s because you get out of them what you put into them. If appearances and remotes are just being done to get on the buy or fulfill a value added obligation, the result is predictable. It’s important that personalities are prepped properly and buy into the event. If they’re just doing it for the fee, they’ll act like it. If they understand the bigger picture and are focused on giving their fans a good time, the result will have more impact not only for the client, but for the fans who show up, providing them with a great PX. We watched Dateline’s Josh Mankiewicz pull this off at our Summit – a great example for airstaffers to see how a pro who gets it works a crowd.
- Fly your consultant into town. It’s essential for your advisors to do more than make conference calls and GoToMeetings. Invest in bringing them in the market at least twice a year. If all we are asked to do is to fix the music architecture and do sorts, that’s the dimension we’ll focus on. But when we visit stations, we bring fresh eyes and ears and often can identify opportunities that are invisible when we’re monitoring from our office. It’s important to sit down with the sales team and the airstaff, to talk to the receptionist, see the facility, and get a feel for the competition and the local market. And it also helps to put a human face on who we are and what we do.
- If you’re the CEO, show up. Visit the properties and do more than talk to senior management. Go to station events, talk to advertisers, visit with community leaders, and if possible, interact with listeners.
- Go to conventions. It’s not just about the panels. It’s about the hallways, running into old friends, sharing ideas, and getting energized about the future. One of the most impactful things about the DASH conference wasn’t just the sessions, but meetings that were taking place outside of the room. I had several people from both automotive and radio ask me for help finding someone they’d never met but wanted to spend a few minutes with them since they were in the same room. Email is easy to ignore. Presence has impact.
- And if you’re the CEO, send your people to conventions. For reasons that I will never understand, it has become acceptable for company bigwigs to be visible at conferences, while limiting or refusing attendance from staffers who can actually benefit from attending panels and sessions. As companies have grown, it may be impractical to send all managers, so designate a certain number of staffers who can attend – and if it makes you feel better, incentivize them to make convention registration the prize. Radio’s captains of industry need to send a message to their workforce that they are willing to invest in learning and growing skill sets, investing in them, and retaining them.
- Reduce or end voicetracking. I realize the implications of this, but I am becoming more convinced every year that voicetracking is actually costing stations more than it’s saving. You have fewer people to fulfill promotional and sales commitments, while your reduced core staff burns out on too many appearances and multiple duties. Plus, when it comes to hiring that next jock or host, why do you think it has become so difficult to find good talent? Broadway has Off-Broadway. Professional sports franchises have the minor leagues and colleges. Radio has all but eliminated its ability to grow talent – the one asset it has over just about every digital competitor it is so concerned about. Put the PX back in your station by hiring on-air staff that can be the human interface for your station with listeners and advertisers.
- Serving one person at a time is scalable. Learn from the oldest promotion in radio, the “Christmas Wish.” Yes, it helps only just one family or individual at a time. But when it’s done right, as Saga’s/Des Moines’ Star 102.5 proved over the holidays, the digital ripple effect can be enormous. Lori Lewis preaches that every listener counts. Focusing your PX on people and not on “collective contests” and other efficiencies is the way to truly get lots of viral bang for your promotional buck, while serving your advertisers at the same time.
- Get out of the office. No matter what your title is, get involved in organizations that allow you to meet new people from different industries. You’ll become exposed to different styles, approaches, and ideas. Twitter is a great source for finding links, articles, and videos. In-person, meetings are a better way to discover and nurture relationships that have infinitely more long-term value.
The thing I like most about the radio business is the people. I love walking into radio stations and getting a sense of the mood, the pulse, and most importantly, the folks who work there. Having done this for as long as I have, I can tell you that the people who are still working in radio stations are perhaps the most dedicated ever to a craft that has been ravaged by the economic downturn and the so-called “efficiencies” that have decimated many brands and reduced once-proud stations to shadows of their former selves.
The PX – or personal experience – cannot be caught on Skype, captured in an email, demonstrated in a slide show, or heard in a monitor. The only way to truly appreciate it and grow it is the old fashioned way – interact, connect, and spend time with people and act on the PX.
Of course, being based in Detroit, I encourage all of the stations we consult in warm weather markets to send us an invitation ASAP.
So for 2014, I think the winners will be those who focus more on the PX. They will stand apart and stand above, and maybe, make some real friends in the process.
Call me and let’s talk about it – 248-353-9030.
After a brief stint working for the William A. Robinson marketing services agency in Chicago, where he created campaigns for Philip Morris and Seagram's, Paul struck gold when he was hired as an Account Executive at WRIF-FM in Detroit. This experience launched his sales management career, and four years later, he became the General Sales Manager for KZEW-FM in Dallas, and ultimately, the General Manager for KHYI-FM, also in Dallas. He was lured home to run WDFX-FM in Detroit, before joining Jacobs Media as its General Manager in 1991.
Along with overseeing the day-to-day operations of Jacobs Media, Paul’s main contribution has been the addition of sales consulting services. As an expert in all Rock formats, Paul has made Jacobs Media clients’ untold amounts of money by aiding them in their understanding of how to sell, market, and position their formats via sales training seminars. He has conducted hundreds of client presentations on behalf of Jacobs Media clients, and has aided the Ford Motor Company and Procter & Gamble in improving their understanding of the youth market. Paul is a true "format champion" – someone who believes in the power of branding, and developing radio’s inherent assets.
- What Kind Of Team Do You Want To Be? - October 4, 2024
- The Revolution Will Not Be Monetized - August 20, 2024
- BIA’s Rick Ducey:How Radio Can Capture A Bigger Piece Of The Revenue Pie - June 27, 2024
A great, and very honest, piece Paul. The 10 points are right on target. And a great “PX” should be our goal in 2014. Thanks for addressing and sharing this, my friend.
Thanks, Jack (this is Paul writing on Fred’s account). It’s a bit of “analog” thinking that I believe we could all hopefully benefit from. And maybe wind up more successful in business and in life as a result. I hope you’re doing well.
On behalf of Paul, Jack, thanks for the kind note. Appreciate you reading our blog.
PJ…..”RIGHT ON!” In 1975 I had the opportunity to do a college internship at the old Blair Radio in NYC. One of my mentors there, the great Tom “Coach” Harrison told me that this is a “people business.” I titled my senior thesis as such…”They Call This a People Business.” In a world overrun with technology….it’s easy to forget that this IS and always HAS BEEN a people business.
Thanks for the reminder, Biv. You and Paul were always on the same page!
Great list Paul –
Last year you allowed me to guest blog here where I talked about The Actives. To take that a step further and to expand on #8…radio should be focused on small numbers…zero in on the people who are listening, giving you time and attention right now.
Radio must be more than present to win so start embracing the idea of living in the moment. Understand the context of why listeners are there at that particular time and give them something they want on top of another great song.
Millennials would rather spend their money on personal experiences then share it through photos and videos with their friends than pay the rent.
Same goes with apps. As Gary V says – “the only app that matters is the one your people are on right now so be there!” These are the people who matters most…affect them personally and they will do your marketing for you.
…the future is not about reach it’s about touch.
Mike, love that last line! Thanks so much for weighing in and being a part of the conversation.
I’m a medical biller, but I can tell you that these points ring true even for us. We too need to go to seminars, meet other people that do what we do, talk to our clients, and make PHONE CALLS instead of endless emails. This is a very wise group of advice!
Thanks, Jan, for reminding us that those principles are indeed universal impacting all different types of businesses.