We have all seen the directory maps in office buildings, malls, etc. The kind that show you the overall layout of things and indicate your location with the “You Are Here” mark. It makes me wonder…have you ever wondered where you are…in life and business?  

If there was a life directory, where would it point out that you are now? You may know where you want to end up, but navigating that journey must begin with an honest evaluation of where you are in the first place.

I think most of us want to know where we are in relation to where we want to be.

So, how can we determine where we are? Sometimes it’s easy to see our strengths and weaknesses. Other times we need the objective opinion of a trusted friend or advisor.

Perhaps your business does annual performance reviews where you get feedback on areas to improve. It’s tempting to justify, argue with, or dismiss these evaluations, especially if they hit on a sensitive area.

There have been many articles written on trade shows. I’ve certainly written a few of them myself. But here is one from a different perspective.

The headline of this article came from time spent in the lounge of my hotel while at the PPAI Expo. It was extracted from a conversation I had with Promo Marketing editor, Kyle Richardson. I’ve worked with Kyle for a year. While we have talked on the phone several times and are always connecting via e-mail, I had never met him personally.

While visiting with an old industry friend, Anthony Stover, he mentioned that Kyle was on the other side of the room. I wanted to meet Kyle at the show, but time was getting eaten alive with everything I needed to do. Anthony noted that Kyle has four earrings in one ear and two in the other. It was a bit odd to walk through the lounge looking for earrings on someone…and trying to count four and two of them (it’s Vegas, so it isn’t like this is too far out to see). Anyway, Kyle and I ended up meeting face to face and had the chance to spend some “quality time” together.

It was a disastrous situation. A distributor had an order 500 very expensive leather jackets for a special event. The paperwork was correct and had been approved by the client. Somewhere in the process however, the decorator embroidered all the jackets with the cross in red. That would make sense really. We all are very familiar with the widely recognized Red Cross logo. The only problem was that this order was for another well-known organization, Blue Cross. Ouch! A mistake like that hurts.

Our business is based on effective communication skills and being able to handle details. Despite our best efforts however, things happen.

I like to say that we may make only one mistake; it’s just repeated 500 times! This recently happened to me. The client wanted to add a web address to an order we do annually for an event. It was a simple typesetting change. The paperwork was properly prepared and signed off on. A proof was sent and approved by the client. One small problem – the proof was wrong. The web address said .com NOT .net.

We are Dependent on Each Other 

August 5, 2011 - A motocross racing injury from my younger days left me with a pretty screwed up ankle. It's been painful to walk for many years and I finally had the fix done….a rather brutal ankle fusion surgery. Now I am in the long two-month wait for the joint to fuse and have to be non-weight bearing through this time. At the SAAC Show in Long Beach, I’ll be in a scooter, by The PPAI Expo, typically an excruciating week for me, I should be dancing in the aisles.

Click here for a video that shows what can be done on crutches!

July 18, 2011
The Surprising Power of Promotional Products
By MP MUELLER

An insider’s guide to small-business marketing.

When my grandparents moved into a retirement center, I helped with the garage sale. My cousin Claire and I were joking about how best to display the odds and ends from their 60 years together when I stumbled upon a gift from the gods of high kitsch. It was a letter opener, but this was not your typical letter opener.

In the clear acrylic handle floated a mini uterus with two pills strategically placed where ovaries normally reside, alongside the drug’s name, Hormonin. This promotional product was a gift from a drug company representative to my granddad, a doctor in Laredo, Tex. I tried to imagine how this token must have been received by the taciturn Dr. Puig. “Thanks Hal, I’ll put this next to my collection of kidney stones.” Or, “Do you have that on a T-shirt in an extra large?” Highly doubtful. He probably focused on its utility and kept it right there on his desktop. Which is probably what the drug company’s marketing department was counting on.

Would You Consider Taking Two Months Off?

I believe most in our industry work very hard. Distributors need to be more diligent to generate business in today’s more challenging economy. Many suppliers travel around the country to attend key account meetings and various trade shows. Our industry is no different than others, but it’s safe to say in business these days, many of us are running hard and fast.

I’m going to encourage you to take a break. (See below for how you can do that in Winter 2012) Take some time this summer for yourself and your family. Rest and recharge your batteries. Some may be thinking they can’t take time off…and I get that. I am as driven as they come, but getting refreshed is important.

I’ve come to discover that I’m a workaholic…and I’m a workaholic with ADD, so I’m just a bit hard to be around. As I have been employing my son in some projects, I see how difficult I am to work for…but I’m trying to do better.  

Many business success stories are built on uncompromising customer satisfaction. For example, Nordstrom offers quality products and have built their business by offering amazing customer service. Nordstrom will bend over backwards to make sure doing business with them is an exceptional experience. Their business philosophy enables them to sell their merchandise at higher price points.

The fast growing VIZIO TV Company has built their business by selling low-cost, flat panel, HD TV’s in a rapidly growing market. They have created a name for themselves offering lower prices while competing with more established quality brands. VIZIO has won a number of prestigious titles and earned rave reviews. That’s good for them, but through my recent encounters trying to resolve a problem with a defective product, I have come to realize that offering customer satisfaction is not something VIZIO is likely to win an award for. Full disclosure, I've had a bad experience and while it won’t be resolved favorably with VIZIO, it was made right by Costco and it makes for an interesting business story that we can learn from.

 A Classic Business Tale of Uncaring Customer Service, the Power of Social Media,
a Musician Turned Business Motivational Speaker and New Business Opportunities!

In March of 2008 Dave Carroll and his band were traveling on United Airlines. On the first leg of their flightd they were seated at the rear of the aircraft. Upon landing and waiting to deplane in order to make their connection a woman sitting behind Dave, not aware that they were musicians cried out: "My God they're throwing guitars out there." The bands bass player Mike looked out the window in time to see his bass being heaved without regard by the United baggage handlers. Dave Carroll's $3500 Taylor guitar had been thrown before his. Due to the rough handling of these instruments, Dave's Taylor guitar was broken.

There is much talk about social media these days and it's certainly a rapidly evolving communication tool.  On this page we feature a few good resources.  We also offer a link to a 30 minute FreePromoTips webinar done with PostHelpers. 

Social Media Examiner is a free online resource designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find leads, increase sales and generate more brand awareness.

Social Media Examiner offers a unique single source of knowledge, the site contains comprehensive articles and videos on how to use the best social media tools, along with original case studies, reviews of the latest industry research and advice direct from the world’s leading experts.

You Get Lucky When Four Elements Align.

1. A random collision of life’s interactions presents an opportunity to you.
2. You are prepared to act upon the opportunity that has presented itself.
3. Your character is such that you are empowered and willing to act to exploit the opportunity
4. Your systems and techniques are such that you can exploit opportunities efficiently while mitigating risk
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The Art of Winning
By Charles G. Duggan II, MAS and my Mentor Jack Piper

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
It helps being IRISH too.

Lou Holtz, former coach of Notre Dame football team has abided by one princely ideal: "Show me anyone who is successful and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity." His philosophy was and is very simple.  If you refuse to do it his way and work with him, he doesn't change the lesson, just the students.

Winning means admitting to the world that you want to win, and then it's working so hard to meet your goal that you give yourself no excuse to lose.

There are five elements essential to winning.

Attitude, performance, teamwork, competition and goals. All elements are interrelated.

Prepared by Mark Graham, RIGHTSLEEVE

From one of the PPAI social media webinar sessions Mark Graham has answered the following questions based on his experience as the owner of RIGHTSLEEVE and the chief social media strategist at the company. His answers reflect his experiences after being active in social media since 2006. Mark notes that these are not necessarily the “right answers” as what works for them may not necessarily work for your organization. This is good information for anyone who wants to learn more about social media.

1.       With a small social media team here, it’s difficult to keep up. Do you use freelance social media help?

How to Prepare for the Connected Generation’s
Transformation of the Consumer and Business Landscape.
Published in Strategy + Business Magazine

March 1st, 2011 - Colin is a 20-year-old computer science student living in London with two other students in the year 2020. He enjoys backpacking, sports, music, and gaming. He has a primary digital device (PDD) that keeps him connected 24 hours a day — at home, in transit, at school. He uses it to download and record music, video, and other content, and to keep in touch with his family, friends, and an ever-widening circle of acquaintances. His apartment is equipped with the latest wireless home technology, giving him superfast download speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

If you've learned a lot about leadership and making a movement, then let's watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and dissect some lessons:

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional. This is key: You must be easy to follow!

When making my year-end rounds to see clients, I was surprised to see that one long time customer was in the process of packing boxes and everyone was working diligently to prepare for moving out of their very large building.

In the busyness, I found Carol, who I had worked with for 15 years.  She was quite upbeat while packing.  “What, you didn’t know about the change?” Carol asked, seeming rather surprised. I had just worked with them on some items in the past month.  As it turns out, the marketing manager I dealt with was not staying with the company through the transition, so perhaps he didn’t feel the need to share.  I’m guessing he wasn’t too happy.

Carol on the other hand lost her job as well, but was very happy. She went on to explain that she had a variety of other opportunities and since she had been with the company for 20 years, making a change was a good thing.  Since the California economy is not so great and unemployment is very high, I asked why she had so many good options, when others I know who are unemployed can’t find a job?

DO YOU TALK TO YOUR KIDS LIKE A CLIENT?
Click Here for a 2 minute video!

An open and honest continuing dialogue with our children is crucial for parental success. When walls are created and information stunted, we are not able to forecast trouble looming on the horizon. Lack of proper communication also stymies solid bonding between parent and child. Many family tragedies could be avoided simply by talking. Here are some thoughts to help bring the joyous sounds of constant family chatter to your home:

What's Really Important in Life?

When I was assigned the topic of workaholism for this column, I knew immediately who to turn to.  My close friend just happens to be a successful senior executive for a Bay Area consulting firm.  He's also a consummate workaholic and one of the savviest professionals I know.

"It's how you get ahead that matters," he says. "Working late, putting in the extra time, getting things done, making a difference.  It's the quickest way to the top."

For this story, he prefers to remain anonymous.  Let's call him "Steve".  Despite all Steve's career and financial success, I wouldn't trade places with him.  To me, the cost of all that achievement is too high, and the work/life balance is-to put it mildly-out of whack.


Out of Control
As Steve has climbed the career ladder, he's left other important parts of his life behind.  Here's just one example: Back in college he was an avid skier, but he hasn't been on a mountain in years, even though his college buddies make an annual trip to a Colorado resort.  "It's too hard to get away from work," he complains.

His weekly pick-up basketball games are a thing of the past as well.  And Steve has remained single since a brief marriage ended nearly 10 years ago.