No matter what, you and I cannot speed up or slow down the clock.

The number 168 is important to me.

It represents the number of hours in a week.  7 days a week x 24 hours in a day.

Both the most successful person you know and the least are given the same number of hours each day.

The difference is we never know for sure when our own clock will stop.

But the other differences involve what we spend doing during our 168.

Depending on your circumstances there are probably items besides sleeping, eating, and personal hygiene stuff.

Work, commuting or travel, time with others in various forms, those are all included in nearly everyone’s schedule that I know.  Even those that are “retired” are still working at something.

So what makes the differences in each of our lives?

While many say it is the input factor, I say it is also the output factor.

Input is what we decide to consume.

The food we eat, the entertainment we watch, the people we decide to maintain relationships with.

The stuff we read, the stuff we listen to, the places we go… these are all part of what we are inputting into our lives.

Output is what we give to others.

Output is action oriented.

Output can be as simple as spring cleaning the yard, or it can be volunteering in some form.

If input is inhaling, output is exhaling.

You need to do both to stay healthy.

I’ll let that sit there and let you see if there’s any application to you and your life.

Honestly, I went down a rabbit trail I wasn’t planning on traveling when I started writing this today.

Here’s the path I was intending to journey down…

In 2003, 16 years ago this month, I returned to working in the world of media and marketing when I interviewed with Karen Travis who owned 6 radio stations in Fort Wayne.  Her words at the end of the interview were something like, “Great, we’ll see you on Monday!”  Problem was I had a job and here we are on Friday and Karen wanted me to start work a couple days later.

I really wanted the new job as it was a return to radio, this time in advertising sales which I had never done in Fort Wayne, but had done in Detroit.  It was (hopefully) going to be better than the factory job I was working at a plastics plant.

The plastics plant job was good, they kept promoting me, but I really didn’t care that much about plastics.  Helping businesses with their marketing and advertising was more of my passion and I was pretty good at it. So I went to the plastics factory and talked to the H.R. department.  We decided I would take my vacation the next week and also put in my two week notice and somehow I was able to leave immediately on good terms.   See part of my deal was to avoid burning bridges.  That’s a part of my personality and over time it pays off.

A few years later when that plastics company needed to find staff, I helped them when they became my client on the radio station.

8+ years I worked for those radio stations.  I outlasted everyone with the exception of some of the airstaff.  We went thru ownership changes, management changes, format changes, and all kinds of stuff.  When I decided to leave, again I did it without burning bridges and gave them nearly a month’s notice.

It was also during that time that I started creating an online presence.  The moniker ScLoHo was born.  ScLoHo is simply a mashup using the first two letters of my first, middle and last names. SCott LOuis HOward.

I created a few blogs and would post personal stuff on one and marketing stuff on a couple others.  By 2005 I was publishing every day. Without fail, I wrote another post every day.  In reality, I was publishing multiple times a day.  At the peak, I was up to 35 posts per week on my blogs.

I saw others start writing and blogging and then they would fade away or quit.

My co-workers at WOWO and Federated Media sometimes think that I became an “overnight sensation” whatever that means.  I have been at WOWO for 5+ years and they are well aware of this ScLoHo thing, even if they don’t understand it or now how to pronounce ScLoHo.

But here’s the real secret.

I started and didn’t stop.

I made changes but I never quit.

In 2011 when I left that first group of radio stations I mentioned, I joined a website development company and continued to write and publish.

My co-worker Kevin encouraged me to go from a blog to a regular website which after a few months of planning and set up I launched in October 2011.  It’s this site you are at now, ScottHoward.ME  .  The dot com version of my name has never been available.

I also reduced the number of articles I publish to this site to one per week and occasionally an extra one (like this one.) The reason for doing one per week is now every article is written by me.  Previously I was publishing articles from other sources.

A few years ago, the Sales Managers at Federated Media were asked to start a podcast dealing with  advertising and marketing.  Two of them came to me and asked if I would be willing to create a regular podcast for them since I also had on air experience and after giving it 24 hours, I told them yes.  It’s an audio version of the weekly stories I publish and we have over 100 episodes online.

At the end of 2018 I decided to expand my marketing outreach with a weekly newsletter, Sound ADvice.  I partnered with the people who run ENS Media whom I’ve known about for years and whose marketing philosophies are pretty much in line with mine.  The Sound ADvice newsletter is sent out by them on my behalf every Wednesday morning.  If you want a free subscription, sign up in the box below.

Then, the last piece to my marketing with Sound ADvice is radio ads that air on WOWO & our local ESPN Station.  Every week I run ads that are similar to the Sound ADvice newsletter, offering free information to anyone who requests it.  Every week, I am getting people that I’ve never met emailing me to get more details on whatever my offer is.

Some of you may be asking, what does all of this cost?

Yes I have invested money and also time.  Every week at least a couple of those 168 hours I have are spent creating and implementing my own marketing plan of action.  Money wise, I know those figures too, and it takes a commitment.

But here’s the real deal.

When I started doing all of this, I had no idea where it would lead, I just kept doing it.  Some days and weeks I didn’t feel inspired and could have quit, but I didn’t.

That in itself is rare. A dozen years ago there was a healthy blogging community in Fort Wayne.  Today, that world has dried up.

The latest trend, podcasting is supposed to be the Next Big Thing, but according to this article https://theascent.pub/enthusiasm-is-common-endurance-is-rare-98c074caf392 ; it’s no different than any other Next Big Thing.

Sociologist Josh Morgan conducted a rather interesting study on the number and status of podcasts on iTunes from 2005–2015.

Here are some key highlights:

• About 200,000 individual podcasts were created, with about 5,000 new ones added every month since then.
• The average podcast had 12 episodes, about 2/month for 6 months.
• Most podcasts never receive even one rating.
• A mere 40% of podcasts are still active.

The point is this:

Enthusiasm is common.

Endurance is rare.

People start things all the time — but they rarely “finish” them.

 

 
Endurance is what will make the difference.  Keep moving forward, even after you get pushed back.  It’s also okay to change paths to get to your destination.

And here’s a real eye opener, you don’t even need to know what your end game is going to be, it may unfold before you as you keep moving forward.

I’ve quit plenty of things too.  I had a 30 month time in my life that I worked 3 different jobs, 10 months each before I quit.  One I quit without another one lined up, but 3 days later had 6 different job offers to choose from.

I have served on boards and committees, volunteering my time and abilities to things that no longer exist and others that don’t need me anymore.

Endurance doesn’t mean don’t quit anything.  It means keep moving.  If you stop, just take a break and pick up again. Just don’t give up entirely.

Also try not to burn bridges, you never know when you may want to cross back over them again.

Enough for now.   I welcome any thoughts and comments.