Loyal or Not?

I really want to know what you think. Growing up my family always seems to visit the same establishment for a type of service. If it was related to boating it was one place, always. If it was a book store it was the same place, always. My family as always been loyal to a place of business where ever we lived.

When I started working and making money of my own I took these same values. I have a favorite Chinese resturant I always visit, Mr. Wangs in Homewood, Al. I met these guys when I was in fifth grade and have eated at their resturant ever since. I have serveral businesses like this that I always do business with.

My thought is, the only time you should ever change where you are doing business is if you are going to be able to save a good amount of money or there is a change in the service you are getting. Now in saying about the money, often times you get what you pay for so that is a little less in my book. For me Service is the key.

So, do you think there has been a change in the amout of loyalty shown to businesses over the past couple years or do you think this is an out dated way to do business?

What Do You Do?

So today when I was e-mailing out our June special to our customers I got an interesting response from one of them. It said the following:

"We are unable to purchase advertising specialties at this time of corporate consolidation."

This is a company that is made up of over 250 independent contractors that strictly work for this company. They do have a marketing department to assist these contractors and have various other staff. So, that got me thinking this afternoon. More of less, this company depends on these independent contractors to do the marketing. Now, in saying that I do have inside knowledge in this company and know they do some institutional marketing as well. However, it is some what limited, mainly magazines and newspaper.....ahh newspaper, really?

Ok, so what I am getting at is where are they spending the money and why? I served for two years on a marketing committee for a company like this when I was in real estate. The committee was made up of all types young to old. The younger agents always fought for more spending related to the internet and other items, while older agents liked glossy magazines and newspaper. The younger agents won for a few months at the end of our terms then when we rotated off it went right back to older forms of marketing.

The issue is you have no way to track who sees your message. Internet you know who is seeing it and with promotional products you know who is seeing, and most importanly getting your brand and logo in their hand. You have ways you can follow up. Second, you are depending on contractors who might or might not be making the extra money to promote and market themsleves and the company. So when does the instution need to step in, promote the company more to give back to the contractors and build business?

Am I off base? Thoughts?

What if?

As I'm sitting here watching the Yankee's(The Evil Empire) vs. the Phils, it reminds me of a story I read the other day. In the story that happened 10 years ago, Keith Olbermann was telling a story about how Vin Scully almost became the voice of the Yankee's in the mid 60's. Yes you read correctly, Vin Scully almost became the voice of the New York Yankee's. Think about that, Mr. Dodger would have been known now as Mr. Yankee! Well anyway, that's not the reason I'm writing this. The reason is a line that Keith used in the story. Here is the line:

"He excused himself to go back to preparing for his broadcast, and, as usual, made it seem like I had done him a great favor by introducing Michael to him."


Here is a man that is a legend in broadcasting, and acted like you did a favor for him by Keith introducing Michael to him. Michael Kay, who is now the voice of the Yankee's was still making his way at that time. What if everyone, no matter what their stature was like that?

Was it worth it?

Over the past few years there have been highlighted cases of people who have taken short cuts whether it be in their business, personal life, ministry, or else where. This opens up the possibilities of so many things when short cuts or even lies take place. Potentially you have the opportunity to destroy years and years of work.

I witnessed something first hand this past weekend. I had heard about some possible goings on but I was able to confirm it for myself over the weekend. When my suspicions were confirmed my thoughts went directly to what could possibly happen if everyone knew what was going on? So first off, any thing this person was saying had no direct effect on me. I knew they had taken the low road, passed something off as their own and pulled the wool over many eyes. And then secondly, I knew this person was a fraud.

So knowing what I knew, I wanted to know just a little bit more. Who else knew? So I found out. My findings were shocking. I found out that a person that is pretty high up you could say, knew about the issue at hand. His solution? Sweep it under the rug and hope no one ever finds out.

So what's at risk? In my eyes everything, absolutely everything. When you are in a very prominent position you have a responsibility. This man is a leader, well you are suppose to call him a leader. People have trusted you with that responsibility and all this person has done is take advantage of those people. If others are to find out it would discredit this man and pretty much anything he has said over the past 10 years while he has held this position.

So what we can learn from this? No matter what you think, a decision to lie or cut corners does not just hurt you, it affects many. It can make people question you and the role you serve. It can make one question his/her beliefs. Be honest, if you need help or are in trouble just ask for help. I know it sounds easy, but it's the truth.

Now I See..

Well I was planning on doing this blog post on another topic, but after this past weekend I changed my direction and will now put it off until my next post. So, you might be thinking, why did I change my mind? Well, I learned something and grew up a little more this past weekend. No, not in physical height, but I guess you could say mentally.

I had the opportunity to attend a mens retreat through my church. In total there we close to 100 men that attended the retreat, including my father and Trey Schaefer(@magnetsfast). It was a great weekend I must say. I really had no expectations.

Tom Davis, President of Children's Hope Chest was our speaker. I had heard of Tom but I had never taken the time to read any of his books(Red Letter Men, Fields of the Fatherless, and Confessions of A Good Christian Guy), so I really did not know much about Tom. Over the weekend I learned who Tom is and Tom's passion. If you have not read it yet, you need to check out Trey's blog and this well also speak on Tom's passion.  http://magnetsfast.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-is-your-passion.html

To check out Tom's foundation please check out www.5for50.com and also you can follow Tom on Twitter @cthomasdavis

So during the first night I was thinking, "what are we talking about?" Over the next 24 hours I would learn. I always thought that the AIDS epidemic in Africa was their problem. I learned that the problem is everyone's. There are demonic things going on over there and a lot of witch-doctors thinking that they can cure AIDS. The fact of the matter is, young kids are being taken advantage of and their way is not the correct way and there needs to be a generational change.

So, over the weekend it made me think a lot. Not just in ways that I may be able to help, but just my life in general. It made me think of things I need to change and things I need to do better to grow in Christ. So overall it was an amazing weekend and helped change my outlook on things and look at things deeper and not just scan over the top of things.

Mentors

In life, I think it is very important to have mentors. Mentors can range from a former school teacher, close friend, family member, or business associate. In my life my father has been a positive role model in my life. My father has taken care of our family probably more than I even know, and plus his is a great man of Christ. As for other parts of my life I have two other gentlemen that I place that mentor tag on.

I think mentors play a important role in ones life. To me, a mentor is someone that one can bounce ideas off of, talk about important decisions that are taking place in ones life, and also get advice from someone who has life experience that can give perspective.

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure either one of these men know how much I value their input. These are both men that I trust and know their intentions when giving advice. They also share the same values as my father as in being family men and also men of Christ.

So you are more than likely asking who these men are by this point. Well one is Bryan Mizzell. Bryan has known me pretty much since the day I was born. Bryan was 13 or so when I was born, and his father and my father were on staff together at a church in Tuscaloosa. Bryan is a military guy who is now a pilot for UPS and lives in Tuscaloosa once again. I usually see Bryan every two or three months. Bryan has worked hard for everything he has but yet kept his family first. I feel that is very important no matter who you are.

The one thing that stands out about Bryan is how he gives. Not only does he give his time to sit down with me from time to time to catch up talk about things going on in my life but he loves opening up his house during the summer for people to visit his lake house. I think Bryan really gets joy in helping and teaching others one of his interest, water sports. I've never once heard him say "man I'm ready for these people to leave." Bryan is truly one of the most genuine people I know.

The other is Jeff Dance. Jeff, like Bryan and my father is also a family man and a man of Christ.I've only known Jeff for about two years. See, Jeff is my Sunday school teacher. Jeff really has a passion for teaching young professionals. I usually see Jeff at least once a week if not more. Jeff is just a great overall resource for me and I'm thankful for it. I really do value our friendship.

If you noticed they all share the same characteristics. To be honest, I think you have to have those characteristics. You have to have your values in place in order to be an influence in someone else's life.

So, how does this relate to business? Are you in a place where you can be an influence on someone? If you are, are you being a positive or negative influence? If you fell like you are being negative, think about ways to change that and become a positive influence, not just for them but for yourself as well. Be giving of your time and resources.

Rush, Rush, Rush.....

Over the past two years I have had the incredible opportunity to work with some great kids through our youth group at my church. I'm not sure if they know it or not but seeing the passion in these kids to serve God inspires me. When I have moments when I may feel down or tried they some how have a way to pick me up. But, over these two years I seem to always hear this phrase, "I can't wait to be out of high school!"

I know when I was in high school I always said the same thing. That's one of those things I think we all said. I think sometimes we get in the mentality where we want to rush things to get to the next part in the day, week, year, or just the next part in life. This morning as I was driving back from Tuscaloosa, Jeffrey Samplaski and I were talking about this subject.

Jeffrey and I were talking about as we get older, more and more stuff seem to get piled on our plates and less and less ever gets taken off. Now it's easy for us to tell these young people to enjoy this time, because you know there is always more positive than negative. The responsibility is less and you have more free time than you think. On that same point, you will never know as many people as you once did in high school.

So what's in it for us, meaning the ones out of high school? The ones that are in college or finishing, or those that have full time jobs with or with out families of their own. It means we need to enjoy today. It's easy to say that today since it is so beautiful outside, but I mean it. Take time for yourself. If you like reading, pick up a good book. If you like to puff on a good cigar, stop the your favorite cigar store and treat yourself, have a nice dinner with your family, or just sit out on your porch/deck and enjoy what God has given you today. What's given to us today is always not promised tomorrow.