StoryTeller Media & Communications | Public Relations | Marketing | Video Production
Minneapolis/St. Paul Marketing and PR agency and video production company|StoryTeller
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The Secret to Running Faster, Longer
I’ve never considered myself a runner. I enjoy working out in moderation, but I’m not the kind of person who hops on the treadmill with the intention of running for X amount of miles. You see, I find running hard. It’s more work than walking and I don’t necessarily enjoy how uncomfortable I feel after more than about five minutes of it. But still, I’ve always wondered how other people could do it. How could they run tirelessly, mile after mile, while I’m huffing and puffing after just a few minutes?
Well a few weeks ago I came across a blog post titled, “How to run longer and faster.” Needless to say, I was intrigued. I was hoping this article would have a quick-fix that would give me the secret to becoming the runner I had always wanted to be. So here’s the secret:
The women on the treadmills around me, seemingly the same age and in the same shape that I was, were running comfortably at 6.5 and above. Why couldn’t I do that?
It was then I realized that in order to run longer and faster, I had to run longer and faster. … I had been running the same distance and at the same speed for years, definitely NOT pushing myself to the limit, and thus, wasn’t growing as a runner.
Duh. In order to run faster and longer, you have to push yourself. There is no quick-fix. Here I was thinking it would just happen – that the uncomfortable feeling I get when running would just magically go away, that the other people running around me were doing so by some sort of magic, not because of their own hard work.
Lately, I’ve found myself repeating this new-found mantra, “If you want to run faster and longer, you have to run faster and longer,” not just while I’m on the treadmill but also while I’m at work. If I want to become a better PR professional, I have to become a better PR professional. Sure, it may feel uncomfortable to push myself to try new things, speak up when I would normally keep quiet and make decisions that I would rather get a second opinion on, but how else am I going to keep up with the other PR pros running with me?
Teamwork and Leadership… are YOU invested?
Last Friday, we at StoryTeller did something that had never been done before, we had an off-site team building get together facilitated by an Executive Leadership coach. The purpose… to get everyone in the organization on the same page, to make sure our efforts and actions are aligned with our desired outcomes, to make sure all understand the vision of the company and to have some fun. I think we can all agree that we walked away with so much more.
From a leadership perspective, the meeting allowed the opportunity for everyone to be “heard”. We practice listening everyday with our clients using tools like “Twitter” but do we really take the time all the time to listen to ourselves? It is by listening to each other that we can gain the insights that will help us co-create an office environment that will potentially make us “show up” differently every day.
We were able to identify and articulate the type of qualities we want the StoryTeller culture to have, and equally as important, what we want our customers to experience with us each and every time we partner together.
To our wonderful StoryTeller team… we thank you for “showing up” to this meeting and for not being afraid to share all of you. The possibilities are endless.
To our extremely dynamic facilitator, Diane RIng from Ring Results, you know we couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you for making us reach outside of our comfort zone.
To our faithful customers in which this meeting was truly all about you, we thank you for your consistent belief in us and we look forward to sharing with you some of the great takeaways of our day.
There is no doubt that the greatest investment you can make is in your people.
Are You a Winner or a Loser?
There’s a saying I have that, until now, I’ve have shared with a select few people and it’s this: There are winners and losers in this world and every day we make a choice – am I going to be a winner or a loser today?
Holiday Surprise and Delight at Target
Lately I can’t seem to get a certain song out of my head. Until a few days ago I didn’t know the name of it, who sang it or if it was even a real song. All I knew was that it was in a Target commercial and it was darn catchy.
Does this sound familiar?
Last weekend I took to Twitter asking if anyone knew if this was a real song or just a jingle. One of my followers told me it was an actual song and that Target would let you download it for free. I was ecstatic – the mystery of the “is it a song, is it not a song” had been solved, and I got to keep my $.99 from iTunes!
In marketing they call it “Surprise and Delight.” Surprise is giving your customers an unexpected value that exceeds expectations and delight is the emotional outcome of that surprise. In my case, I was surprised that Target had foreseen my need and was letting people download their entire Christmas Gig collection (14 songs!) for free and delighted that I was able to expand my holiday play list.
The Everlasting Christmas Shopping Season
I don’t watch much television these days and when I do it’s usually either a news show or a sporting event. Sorry, NBC, but “must see TV” doesn’t really get seen in our house. That said, I’ve noticed the surge of Christmas shopping advertisements on TV and frankly I find it a bit obnoxious. “Black Friday” hype wasn’t enough, now it has to be “Black Friday,” before Friday, just in case it’s red Friday instead of black! I get it, I understand and appreciate the challenges of retailers, but I wonder at times, where does it end? Will we some day start seeing “early Christmas shopping” specials in August? I can hear it now, “it’s not too early to get a jump on Christmas!”
When our kids were little we used to read to them a Sesame Street story called “Elmo Saves Christmas.”
In the story, Elmo, is granted a wish and he asks that every day be Christmas. Well, that was a great idea until the little red muppet realized that if every day is Christmas, the holiday is really not that special anymore. As I look at the growing Christmas shopping season I think about Elmo and wonder, “where does it end?” Will retailers extend the season so long that Christmas morning gets lost in the sales and deep discounts? Or have we already reached that point?
United Airlines Customer Service Wins in Lost Bag
Did you know that the airlines check 2MM bags daily and 99.5% reach their destination on the same flight as their owner? Sounds like a small number of incidents, doesn’t it? .5%? That leaves 10,000 bags (.5% of 2MM) that make their way into luggage la la land, or otherwise known as destinations of an unknown kind.
I recently was one of the “lucky” 10,000 that experienced what one could have thought would be a luggage nightmare. My bag inadvertently made its way to Vietnam instead of Detroit! An honest mistake, huh? They have what in common? Fortunately, I was visiting family and my sister and I happen to be the same exact size (she might tell you she weighs 5 pounds less but close enough!) so she adorned me from head to toe with her clothes, making my luggage fiasco much less problematic than if I had been virtually anywhere else.
The reason I feel compelled to share this experience is that I think United Airlines has what is coming to them… praise and an acknowledgement of outstanding customer service. I know you were guessing that I was going to use this forum as an opportunity to vent my frustrations. On the contrary, United Airlines did most everything right by the “keep your customer happy” handbook.
- They apologized up front appropriately and assured me they would locate my belongings
- They kept me informed. The minute they located the bag (albeit 56 hours later!) they notified me and told me where it was and when they anticipated knowing it’s arrival
- They were forthcoming with suggesting I go shopping and save my receipts (a nice by-product of being inconvenienced I might add)
- They were so apologetic that upon the safe and sound return of my bag, they promptly called me to discuss compensation
- WIthin 24 hours after bringing closure to my situation, they had emailed me a credit voucher for future travel.
In every business, small or grand, mistakes happen, frustrations surface, and when this occurs customer service is needed every step of the way. I think much can be learned from my recent experience with United.
My mantra has always been, “mistakes happen, but it’s how you handle them as an organization that makes or breaks our future relationship”. United, despite my international mishap, I think we’ll be friends a long time.
Clear, Concise Conversation is Key
While looking through this morning’s Star Tribune, I came across an article titled, “The Case of the Shrinking Ad.” I was interested in it not because of the title, but because of the photo of the Old Spice Man that went along with it. The article looked fairly short, so I decided I could give it a quick read.
The article explains that just like advertising budgets, attention spans are also shrinking. Research shows that a 15-second ad spot holds more peoples’ attention than a 30-second spot. The number of 15-second television commercials has jumped more than 70 percent in five years.
“It used to be that the most valuable thing on the planet was time, and now the most valuable thing on the planet is attention,” says John Greening, associate professor at Northwestern University’s journalism school and a former executive vice president at ad agency DDB Chicago.
StoryTeller 2011 Forecast
September. It’s here and hard to believe I blinked and now it’s more than half way over! Fall is one of my most favorite times of the year… the smell of burning leaves, the cool mornings that make my daily run a little more manageable, the renewed energy and excitement of the yellow school bus turning the corner and the anticipation of the new experiences that lie ahead for my kids. The excitement takes me right back to when I was a child and my mom and I would make the annual trek to the “Dime Store” (wow that makes me sound old!) to buy my new school supplies and school shoes. She loved buying new school supplies just as much as I did.
There is something that feels so cleansing about this time of year. For me, Fall is no longer about the newly organized binders and pencil cases, but it’s the time of year that causes me to reflect on where we have come and most importantly where we are going. As a company, it’s the season that allows us to make sure that the ship is on course and to begin focusing our efforts on what waters we will sail as we look to 2011.
Here’s what I know you can expect to see from StoryTeller next year:
- A continued focus on applying the traditional principles of Public Relations to the new and ever changing social media strategies
- We will make sure we are as up to date on the latest trends, tools and strategies we think will help our clients be successful
- A transformation of our video studio space that will allow our clients to be creative in ways they have not even imagined
- Our commitment to you, our clients, to deliver the best product at the the best price within the timing that you expect it.
What Makes a Great Leader?
I am sure most of us can look back at our careers and think of those leaders that have made an impact in our lives. In my 20 year career, I have had some that have been inspiring, selfless and motivating… they instilled the “No I in Team” values. Yet others, have taught me through their own lack of self reflection and self awareness how insidious their bulldozing style can negatively impact the greater good.
Recently, I came across am interesting video titled the The Biggest Mistakes a Leader Can Make produced by the Harvard Business Publication and I began to question my own leadership style. I started to reflect on my various present and past leadership roles… I am a tireless leader at home as the mother of three busy children… I am a leader at StoryTeller as the co-owner of our agency, I have held various leadership positions in my past in high school and college, and that led me to ponder the question… haven’t I been a leader my whole life? Aren’t we all? Every day, regardless of our roles in our organizations, there is an expectation that we will give at least 100% of ourselves to deliver on the promise we have made when we entered into our arrangement. Even if we are not the CEO, we are still the commanders of our own ship and we make a decision every day what kind of leader we are going to be by our actions.
“I don’t know” is Not an Option
The other day I went to grab lunch at, Panchero’s, a local burrito establishment. When I went to pay for my order I was greeted with a less than stellar, and somewhat awkward, customer service experience. The cashier appeared to be ringing up my order, but after a few frustrated pounds of the keyboard, he looked up at me and simply said, “I don’t know how to do it.”
Ummm…. Ok… we can figure this out together (???)
After a few moments of awkward silence I responded with, “Well I don’t know how to do it either. Is there someone you can ask to help you?”
I’ve worked retail and sales before, and I know you can’t expect someone to know everything. But this employee’s complete lack of interest in finding out the solution was what really bothered me.