You Can’t Whine & Win at the Same Time

You Can’t Whine & Win at the Same Time

Congratulations, you have successfully completed 6 months of 2022.

How do you feel about that?

Well first off, for making it this far this year, you and everyone else gets a participation trophy.

However the real trophies in life come from more than just showing up.

If this sounds like a little rant, it is, so buckle up.

We often hear news stories and articles talking about “the average” this and that.

You know what an average is right?

You take it all, the good, the bad and the stuff in-between; add it up and then divide by the number of figures you averaged.

There’s an old joke about three guys at a shooting range.  The first one misses his target by 6 inches to the left.  The next one also misses his target by 6 inches to the right.  The third guy happens to be a statistician and says, “Well I don’t even need to shoot, ’cause if you average out your two shots we got us a bulls-eye.”

No matter what you are doing, there is going to probably someone better than you and worse than you.

You certainly don’t want to be in the worst group, right?  In business those who are doing the worst are failing.

The next group, the one in the middle. These are the ones who are doing average work.  Their business is not quite failing or not making boat loads of money either.  They are just surviving, for now.  Or maybe they were surviving and then something happened and now they aren’t doing so well.

The last group, those are the winners.  Above Average.  Top Performers.  They get more than a participation trophy, they get the prize money for coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

You can tell alot by observing and listening to the people in these three groups.

At the bottom, there is often a lot of grumbling and blaming someone else or something else for their troubles.  Rarely do these people and their businesses succeed.  They are too busy whining and You Can’t Whine And Win At The Same Time..

In the middle you’ve got those that wish things were better but don’t commit to the changes needed.  Their businesses are built on Hope and Hope Alone.  “If the stars align…” Right.  Similar to the bottom group but at least they have ideas on how to get better.

Those at the top are a different breed.  They are not willing to settle for mediocre.  They don’t want to be average.

Of course there are fewer of these winners than the other two groups but they are also significantly outpacing the others.

And finally when I say, You Can’t Whine And Win At The Same Time, Winners also whine sometimes too.  But they don’t get stuck there and make whining a lifestyle.  Winners push thru the tough times and realize that they are not helpless victims of circumstances.  They adapt, they innovate, they create, they find a way to move forward and don’t let the set backs paralyze them forever.

If you run a business that wants to win and you are in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, contact me.  I have some marketing wisdom to share.

If you are an individual with a winner’s heart and attitude, contact me too because I am always looking for that kind of person to consider for openings on the WOWO Radio Advertising Sales Team.

Scott@WOWO.com is my email or you can find me online by Googling ScLoHo.

 

Own Your Space

Own Your Space

Here we are in the summer of 2022 and due to some recent business meetings I’ve had, I need to give you a piece of advice that I’ve said repeatedly over the years.

Own Your Space.

Not just any space, but your space online.

This applies to you as a person and if you have a business.

A dozen years ago, I was showing college students how I created my own personal brand, the ScLoHo brand with a couple of blogs that I updated every single day.

Then 11 years ago, my friend Kevin challenged me to create my own space, not for the ScLoHo brand, for me, Scott Howard.

And so I did.  It took a few months but I invested in my own website instead of using the free blogger sites from Google.  This is that website I created in 2011.

It looks much different than the first version.  The domain name, ScottHoward.me, was selected because the dot com version of my name was already taken.  So while the layout and design have evolved over the years, this website has been consistently been the Space I Own.

Recently I’ve seen business start-ups that don’t have their own website, they are relying on socials.  You don’t have a real business, you’ve got a hobby.  Until you spend a few hundred bucks, buy a domain and create a simple landing page, at the bare minimum, you aren’t real.

Not in today’s world at least.  Look, you don’t even have to use it to run your business, but if your own website doesn’t exist, neither does your business as legit.

I’m not into building websites anymore, but I can connect you with the people I trust.  Believe me, I want you to succeed, and there are always a few exceptions to most any rule, but do yourself a favor and get Your Own Space now, for your business and also for your own personal branding.

Tell The Truth

Tell The Truth

This week I have a message to those people who are in the advertising and marketing world and I am going to also apply it to those of you who are simply in the business world.

The message is one your parents, pastor and teachers told you repeatedly from the time you could talk.

Tell The Truth.

I know, there are people who will say that what they are saying is their version on The Truth, but some things are simply untrue.  They are often buried in fine print, or fast talking disclaimers, or sometimes just claims that are bogus and outright lies.  You might get away with these because the person you are telling them to, doesn’t know any better.

Here’s what got me on this little rant today.

Along with being the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, I also serve on the Board of Directors at a local Non-Profit organization.  As the only board member with a background in media and marketing, our board and Executive Director asks me for guidance in those areas.

A few years ago, a local TV station approached our Executive Director with a proposal to buy commercials on their television station and I offered to review it before our Executive Director signed anything.

What I did first however was go through an exercise we call a Marketing Strategy Model.

The Marketing Strategy Model is a template from the radio stations sales consultants that is one of the best ways to determine what to buy because it gives you a measuring stick to use when evaluating advertising proposals that ad salespeople try and get you to buy.

Creating a Marketing Strategy Model for the Non-Profit took a couple of meetings and some really in-depth questioning and research, but it was well worth it.

When I did this a few years ago, and then we looked at the TV station advertising proposal, we saw that their advertising sales rep was way off base and the proposal did not meet the real needs for our Non-Profit.  Our Executive Director asked me if there were any media recommendations I would make.

Now I knew ahead of time that WOWO radio was likely the best choice for them to reach the people for their need but that was because of my media background and insider access to rating and demographic data.  If I was working for another radio station, I would still recommend WOWO because it was the best fit for the needs we uncovered while creating the Marketing Strategy Model for this Non-Profit that I serve as a Member of their Board of Directors.

The need that this Non-Profit has is for volunteer drivers. They have all the other bases covered, but the work they do relies on volunteer drivers.

One of the other Board Members suggested earlier this year that we look at diversifying our marketing outreach.  WOWO is a conservative news talk radio station which is highly popular because this part of the state of Indiana has a conservative leaning population, politically speaking.

This other Board Member suggested we look at getting the word out about needing volunteers by using the more liberal leaning public radio station which also broadcasts a mostly news and talk format during the day.  I think it’s a good radio station too and I often listen to it on weekends for some of the Public Radio shows that are both entertaining and informative.

As the media advisor on our board, I was sent a copy of the proposal for the Non-Profit by the public radio station and as I read through the 2 page document, red lights started going off in my brain.

I knew that one line on the first page was a lie.  That one lie cast doubt on everything else in the document.  It was mentioned as a simple fact that could not be fact-checked unless you had access to the rating database that I have because of working in the local radio business.

It was also an un-necessary lie.

Here’s what it said:

W— Listeners (90,000 in NE IN) are highly engaged in the community.

I am not calling them out by name, but there is only one local Public Radio station, you can look it up.

They don’t have 90,000 listeners in Northeast Indiana. They have less than half that many.

I did my research and looked at monthly rating data that goes back 16 months, to 2020, and none of the months showed they had close to 90,000 weekly listeners.

If their underwriting director had been truthful and said “we have over 40,000 weekly listeners” that would have been a credible statement.

And honestly, for the needs of this Non-Profit, the total number of listeners is not as important as the actions those listeners take when hearing the message about needing volunteer drivers.

That’s another challenge when using Public Radio or Public TV stations.  They are prohibited from selling commercials that have distinct call to action in the message or a comparative statement.  They position themselves as commercial-free because their broadcast licences don’t allow them to sell regular ads.  They are underwriting messages, which are pretty bland.

If our Non-Profit was looking at creating community awareness with a branding message, this could have been an option to consider. However there is a current urgent and on-going need that needs to be filled and that is recruiting volunteer drivers.  That was determined a few years ago when I helped them create a Marketing Strategy Model.

There were other disadvantages of using the Public Radio Station versus WOWO along with the limitations of the message.

The audience size, no matter how I sliced it, was half of the WOWO audience and for the money, the Public Station offered only 6 or 7 ads per week compared to 30 per week with WOWO.

When I shared this insider information with the Executive Director of the Non-Profit, she also told me about how she had to make multiple calls and emails inquiring about advertising before the Public Station returned her calls and then he was incomplete in answering questions.

No matter what business you are in, always be truthful, if you lose your credibility, you have nothing.

And if you want information on using WOWO, I won’t make you beg for it.  My pledge to you is no less than 1 or two business days is the longest you’ll have to wait.  Most likely, it will take minutes, or hours, not days or weeks.   Scott@WOWO.com is your direct line to me.

 

Are You The Alternative?

Are You The Alternative?

Everyday each of us are faced with multiple decisions.

Some are mundane, others are life changing.

Deciding which socks to wear, what to have for breakfast including which flavor coffee I was going to brew, all decisions that I made before I started my workday.

Every decision we make is a selection between at least two choices, right?

For each choice we pick, there was an alternative, right?

I think we can all agree that on this so far.

In my world of marketing, a key component is to create and communicate the valuable differences that you and your business offer.

However some of you when asked, “who is your competition?”, say “No one”.

And that is a lie.

I’m not calling you a liar, I just believe you don’t understand that there are alternatives to what you offer.

I recently needed to get my hair cut but the usual shop I went to was booked.  So I waited and tried another day.

Same thing the next day I had open, and the next.

Nearly two weeks went by from the time I wanted to get my hair cut and when I finally got it trimmed.

So the first alternative was to NOT spend money.  Finally when I did, I went someplace else.

Those are the choices your current customers and potential customers have too.

There’s an exclusive steak house in town that will set you back a few bucks for a really nice dinner.  Do they have competition? Yes, but it’s not what they think it is.

They only compare themselves to other high end steak house style restaurants, but the real competition is anyone that can provide food for the person who is hungry at that moment.  It’s not even limited to other restaurants.  The grocery store is competition to the steakhouse.

But it’s not the same experience.

You are exactly right.

But this takes us back to what I started talking about regarding decisions and choices.

If you have a business and decide to run it as a copy cat business and attempt to duplicate someone else, you are heading down the wrong path.  You’re just a second choice.

Instead, become an alternative.  Offer something that people want that is different and unique.

Same thing with your marketing messaging.  Don’t just copy what the others do, make sure your advertising is uniquely yours.

I know this can be tough, but there are professionals like myself and my team that focus on this.  If you need help, reach out.

Local Connections Matter

Local Connections Matter

Last Thursday, a couple things happened that I’m going to share with you.

First off, a little after 6 in the morning, I got a message from an old friend of mine from my youth who told me he was in town and wanted to get together.  He had me pick a place and I selected a local joint that I haven’t dined at in a few months that was also in my friends old neighborhood.  Gene lives out of town and I wanted to treat him to a local favorite, not a national chain.

Before I left to meet him, I realized I needed an update on the website and found this article I wrote 4 years ago but never published and it is still very appropriate today.  The rest of this piece I composed in 2018…

Who do you trust more to give you wisdom and advice… a nationally known celebrity spokesperson or your best friend?

Fred Jacobs and his brother are specialists who formed Jacobs Media in the 1980’s and take credit for the Classic Rock Radio Format.  The other day, Fred wrote about some of the results of a study they conducted pertaining to the Local factor.  Over the years due to deregulation the broadcasting world became a different animal than it was previously.

Ownership rules changed which allowed national media companies to form an own hundreds of stations.  On the radio side, they were able to cut staff and have the same morning show playing in several cities.  Actually they could eliminate all their local staff and fill the airwaves with syndicated programming 24/7.

The upside at first was a higher quality radio program at a lower operational cost.  The downside was that the local feel and flavor disappeared.

Fort Wayne, Indiana currently has over 20 radio stations.  But if you look closely, several of these stations are licenced to neighboring towns. Columbia City, New Haven, Woodburn, Decatur, Churbusco, Huntington, Roanoke, all of these small towns and more had their own radio stations at one time, or perhaps they are the town that the Fort Wayne stations are really licenced to serve.

These small town stations were bought and moved to Fort Wayne and are now part of a larger radio station group(s).

Similar stuff happened in local television too.  WPTA, originally was an ABC affiliate licenced to Roanoke, Indiana.  During the past couple of decades, I’ve watched as multiple changes have taken place.  It used to be WANE was 15 and CBS; WPTA was 21 and ABC; WKJG was 33 and NBC; WFWA was 39 and PBS; and WFFT was 55 and Fox.

Consolidation and reorganization has changed this line up to a degree too.  Most of the Fort Wayne audience was unaware that for awhile, some of our local TV newscasters were also anchoring a newscast in Detroit on a station that was owned by the same company. This was about 10 years ago.

I want to return to my original question and share what Fred Jacobs discovered and how that applies to us in Fort Wayne.

Fred’s article is about Public Radio but we can draw some conclusions that also apply to commercial radio and actually all media.

This  graphic really caught my eye and was this inspiration for today.

For my podcast listeners, I’ll share what I’m looking at.

In response to the statement, “One of radio’s primary advantages is its local feel”, nearly 70% agreed or strongly agreed.

All generations agree that local is what makes radio worth listening to.  Even the youngest surveyed, the Millennials, 4 out of 5 of them. had the highest preference for local content.   7 out of 10 News Talk radio listeners want local content too.

What’s so important about local?  I’ll ask my question again:

Who do you trust more to give you wisdom and advice… a nationally known celebrity spokesperson or your best friend?

See how this all fits together?

One more reason why my radio station, WOWO radio continues to dominate in Fort Wayne, Indiana