Getting Personal with August Reflections

by Scott Howard | Aug 16, 2022 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo

I’m skipping my usual format for this week’s update and going to share some personal stuff instead. Next week’s update is already ready but a few things have occurred recently that I decided to share right now.

When this article and podcast goes live, I will be getting ready to have a meeting with other radio managers as we sit on a boat in the middle of a lake in northern Indiana.

There are over 1500 articles on this website that I’ve written and published over the past couple of decades and this is also podcast #278. The Scott Howard Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing podcasts have been updated nearly every week since March 2017 and when I started the podcast, these articles became more business focused and less personal reflections.

However the following year, I wrote about a couple of tragic event that occurred 4 years ago this month. In August 2018, my friend Charly Butcher who was the host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO radio was on vacation and we got news that Charly has died. It was totally out of the blue, as he was one of the more fit people we knew. About the same time, one of my wife’s brother’s was taken to the hospital and within a couple of days, we knew that Mike was in his last days. I was contacting funeral homes to make arraignments for my brother-in-law, my wife was at his hospital bed, the radio station was in shock and dealing with the sudden death of Charly and it’s both a bit of a blur along with some very sharp distinct memories of that week.

Fast forward to August 2022 and I’m getting reminders from Facebook Memories about events from years past in August. First off, 2013 that same brother in law, Mike was in the hospital getting his jaw wired shut after being beat up and left for dead. He survived that and stayed with us for a few weeks to recover. Then the 2018 events I just mentioned showed up. Charly passed away on August 15th, which happens to be my Mom’s birthday. If she was still around, this week should would be 79. Mike passed away the following week.

In the past couple of weeks I was also informed of deaths of three friends. Mary, Dan and Jill, all unrelated have had their time on this planet come to an end.

Before you get all depressed or think that I’m feeling down, I’m not. Sad, that I can’t talk to any of those people anymore, but more reflective. 9 years ago I wrote the following words:

Days that Count versus Counting The Days. Because we cannot accurately count the days or years we have left, my goal is to live Days that Count. Live each day with open eyes, ears, and an open heart. Do not let opportunities to help, give, listen, serve to be pushed aside or ignored. Instead, weigh the opportunities and see how God wants us to respond.

Until next week, I’m Scott Howard, aka ScLoHo.

Is Generational Relatability An Issue?

by Scott Howard | Apr 19, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

We’re going to talk about generational differences today and how they impact our relationships with others that are older or younger than us.

Last month, Mediapost shared a Quick Refresher on Demographics and that was part of the inspiration for this along with some stuff going on in my own life.

First, I’ll reveal me:

Baby Boomer, graduated from high school in the late 70’s. I was alive when JFK was shot but have no memory of it because I was a toddler. During most of the 60’s, I was not aware of the political turmoil or cultural revolutions that were going on. I was just a kid.

Watergate was the first time I really noticed much about political stuff. When Nixon resigned, I was becoming a teen and was more into teen stuff like girls and music than adult stuff. Musically I was into Top 40 and those songs from the mid 70’s to mid 80’s were the foundation for a couple of reasons. 1st, was listening to the radio as a kid and then I was a teenage disc-jockey from age 16 to 25 on the radio for a decade before moving to the advertising side of broadcasting in Detroit in the late 80’s.

My wife is 8 years older than me and most of her friends are around her age, not mine. We’ve been married for a couple of decades and I would tease her about stuff that happened “before I was born”. Yet as we get older, we’ve realized that those 8 years are not as significant compared to other generations.

Our 5 kids (from our first marriages) were all born in the 80’s and most of them have kids so there’s another generation in our family now.

I recall 20 years ago when I took a break from media and marketing and learned how to run a thermoformer in a plastics plant that the people working for me were closer to my kids age than mine and that was one of the motivating factors to return to radio and get out of the very physically demanding factory world.

Now at the broadcasting company I work for, we are hiring people that are 10 years younger than my kids. While it kind of makes me feel old at times, I’ve also enjoyed the role I play as a leader, mentor, and coach. Plus I can still out perform many of the advertising account executives in our company, but that is not my focus.

So as you and I move forward in 2022 and the years ahead, it’s important to understand some of the differences in generational relatability that I’m about to share. A dozen years ago I was a guest speaker on personal branding to a group of Huntington University students and realized that an example I used of TV personality Larry King was unrelatable, so the following year I updated my presentation to fix that.

Here’s the Mediapost story:

In 2018, the Pew Research Center determined that 1997 was the starting date for Generation Z. Anyone born from 1981 to 1996 is deemed a millennial, and anyone born since 1997 is a Gen-Zer.

At this point, the oldest Gen-Zers are turning 25 this year and the rest are teens or younger. (The cutoff for Gen Z births appears to be 2012.)

Among the differences between Gen Z and millennials (also called Gen Y) are:

–       Most Gen-Zers have little or no memory of 9/11. Instead, they grew up with lines clearly drawn between the political parties after the event.

–       Generation Z is the most ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history. The next most-diverse generation is millennials. Some 52% of Gen Z is white, 25% is Hispanic, and 4% is Asian, again according to Pew.

–       The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen-Zers were 10. They came of age as social media, mobile computing and constant connectivity were part of the landscape.

–       According to a 2021 survey, the top brands for Gen Z were Google, Apple and Amazon. Netflix, Chick-Fil-A and Vans came in after that. But that survey is far from definitive. Others have put Nike at No.1, Netflix at No. 2 and YouTube at No. 3.

For millennials, the top brands were Apple, Nike and Amazon, according to marketing firm Moosylvania. Google was No. 8.

In other words, there doesn’t yet appear to be a deep divide between Gen Y and Gen Z. That contrasts with the divide between Gen X and Baby Boomers, which was driven by some big differences. Baby boomers currently comprise 70 million people, versus 65.2 million for Gen X, according to Insider Intelligence. That doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but Gen X was marked by a “baby bust” mentality that sported attitudes of cynicism and skepticism after the euphoria of boomers.

Baby boomers also had a clear starting point (the end of World War II) and ending (1964, when the birth rate began falling). Since then, the delineations between generations seems somewhat arbitrary. As a result, those expecting a huge chasm between Gen Y and Gen Z may come up short.

Some additional insight as you consider all of this is to not make broad assumptions about someone because of the generation they were born into. I am much more active than my son when it comes to online behavior. I was also an early adopter compared to folks 10 to 20 years younger than me. I had to push and pull some of my former co-workers to move forward with certain things that they thought were just a fad, but clearly were much bigger and longer lasting. Twitter is the example that comes to mind.

Want to know more or do you have some insights to share? Contact me.

The Giving Time of the Year

by Scott Howard | Dec 7, 2021 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Blessed to be a blessing is a phrase I heard a long time ago and right now I see a lot of it going on.

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon as I compose these words for this weeks featured article on my website and podcast and I’m thinking about a multitude of things.

It’s now been 8 full years that I’ve worked for WOWO Radio, the first 6 as one of the Advertising Account Executives and for close to 2 years, as the General Sales Manager.

I grew up with WOWO, as thousands of others did too. In 2025 WOWO will turn 100 years old and when people hear I work at WOWO, nearly everyone has a story about WOWO to tell me.

It happened a few times this past Friday during the All American Stores #PumpForPennyPitch event.

But please, this is not about me, it’s just my personal story and the impact that WOWO and our listeners and our airstaff and all the supporting players have at this time of year.

Look, I started working in radio as a teenager and worked for our parent company, Federated Media in my 20’s, on the air at WMEE. WOWO was not owned by Federated Media back then, so while I’ve worked for our company a couple of times, it’s just been the past 8 years that I’ve worked for WOWO.

In between, I worked for other radio stations and some of them would do something nice around the Christmas Holidays for listeners.

But what struck me during my first week here in December 2013, was something that occured on a Friday afternoon when we were having our annual #PumpForPennyPitch event. I saw how at other stations, they gave cash and prizes away to listeners as an extra incentive for them to listen. But at WOWO, it was the listeners who were giving their cash to help others in the community.

The contrast, stuck with me and now every year, I make a point to come out and support our on air staff during the Penny Pitch events that occur over a 4 week period this time of year.

This year we kicked things off with a live broadcast of Christmas On Broadway and the lighting of the 40 foot Christmas tree on November 19th. Over 4000 people came to the event hosted by Steve Shine and it was our first opportunity for people to give to Penny Pitch this year.

Penny Pitch has been around for over 70 years and began when WOWO radio personalities Bob Sievers and Jay Gould received a letter requesting funds to purchase a special typewriter for a handicapped boy and they in turn asked for listeners to contribute their pennies. Penny Pitch evolved from helping individuals to helping local organizations that in turn help individuals.

My first Penny Pitch in 2013 was for the benefit of Turnstone, a local organization that wanted to raise funds to build ramps for handicapped individuals would needed them at their homes. I got to talk to Nancy, their CEO at the time along with some of the listeners who gave and hear the stories. As you can imagine, it was eye-opening.

Every year a different local charity is selected by the Penny Pitch Board of Directors. This is my second year serving on the board and it is not easy selecting from the numerous charities that apply.

The 2nd event each year to raise funds for Penny Pitch is the Bob Chase Memorial Hockey Game played on Thanksgiving evening at the Memorial Coliseum with our world famous Fort Wayne Komets Hockey team. WOWO and the Komets have a 60 year history together and the late Bob Chase was the voice of the Komets on WOWO until he passed away just a couple of years ago.

Event #3 is the gas station event that took place on Friday. We actually had it at 3 different All American stores in the area including on Lima Road on the Northwest side of Fort Wayne, just east of Fort Wayne at the All American store in New Haven and our live broadcast of the Pat Miller Program from 3 to 6 was at the Ossian All American store, just south of Fort Wayne. I decided to visit all three locations and got to talk with listeners and donors.

This coming Thursday and Friday is our big grand finale radio-thon for Penny Pitch. Both days, December 9th and 10th, our two local shows, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Kayla Blakeslee and the Pat Miller Program will be broadcasting live from Sweetwater Sound, just like we did last year. Four hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon each day with nearly all the program content focused on this years Penny Pitch recipient charity, the local Gigi’s Playhouse that needs to raise over $80,000 to purchase transportation to expand the services they provide as a downs syndrome achievement center. I bet we raise over $100,000 this year from our listeners.

When I titled this piece The Giving Time of Year, I know that WOWO listeners who can give a few cents will give again this year, just like the donors who give much bigger amounts. If you want to join them, here’s a direct link to give online: https://pennypitch.ejoinme.org/donate2021

Or perhaps you have other organizations you support. Perhaps it’s individuals that you give to.

All of us have something to give; time, money, an encouraging word, let’s all participate and you too will be Blessed to be a Blessing

Can You Stop For A Moment?

by Scott Howard | Nov 22, 2021 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

As the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I lead a team of advertising sales people and marketing consultants and on Thursdays we gather for an hour for a Local Sales Team Meeting.

Naturally we will skip this week because Thursday is Thanksgiving and our company has added Black Friday as an additional paid holiday, giving everyone a nice long 4 day weekend.

However last week’s WOWO Sales Team Meeting had a focus on the Final 40 days of the year and what we needed to do.

40 days on the calendar in reality is more like around 20 business days this time of year.

Now if you work in retail, every day counts because it’s that traditional make-it or break-it time of the year. The origin of the term Black Friday was that was the day of the year that retailers finally stopped operating in the red financially and started making real money or being in the black.

Regarding the title of this piece, Can You Stop For A Moment?, for some of us that moment is now, for others it will be in a few weeks after Christmas, others may need to wait until the beginning of 2022.

What and why do I even ask that question?

Because we seem to be running at an incredible pace these days. Even if things do slow down in business right now, your lives will be filled with other events like family gatherings and parties, and well, somehow we manage to fill all 24 hours of every day, don’t we?

How long is a moment?

Depends, of course.

I know that there are some parents who would long to have an hour each week that is entirely theirs with no expectations. Some even long for 15 minutes a day.

Same is true with so many people.

As you and I wind down this year and prepare for the new year, I urge you to add something else to your schedule.

Call it what you want, but it’s basically time for YOU. It’s a time that you give the very highest priority and spend it on YOU.

It could be daily, it could be weekly, it needs to be something that you can negotiate with your family, partners, whomever you need to, to set up for you and you alone.

Here’s a couple of examples of how I’ve seen this work.

I have a friend that is very busy trying to get things done at work and at home with a new baby coming and both parents working and, well you get the picture. They are struggling a bit at work and what I see is a lack of focus. I encouraged them to take a step back and stop for a moment. Last week instead of the running around we had planned for the day, we took a few hours and started the process of planning for the new year. A story about Abe Lincoln came to mind, that if you have say 5 hours to chop down a tree, it’s better to spend the first 4 sharpening the axe than to wack away for 5 hours with a dull blade.

My wife takes time daily for prayer in the morning and evening, and she also taught me the value of taking breaks.

I have found that by spending some time in the morning observing nature a few times every week, it keeps me centered.

The answer to the question, Can You Stop For A Moment really is Yes. How you implement this is up to you.

Feelin’ Good

by Scott Howard | Oct 13, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

How are the feeling right now?

Are you:

Happy?

Sad?

Excited?

Scared?

Hopeful?

Hurting?

Melancholy?

Enthused?

No matter what you said you are feeling right now, it’s okay.

I just randomly came up with 8 possible emotions that you could be feeling at this moment and if you were in a room filled with 25 other people, I’m sure you could find someone else who is experiencing the same emotion you identified with.

Some of us have days when we go thru all 8 of those emotions in just a few hours. Others can experience the same emotion for not just hours, but days, weeks, or even longer.

Emotions are part of our human experience and even if you think you are a facts and logic person, your emotions are actually in the drivers seat of your life. If you are a facts and logic person and you got a little miffed by what I just said, it simply proves the point.

But I’m not here to play with your emotions today.

No, instead I want to help you understand the importance of our emotional side.

Because I write and talk about media and marketing and offer tips for businesses, I’m going to focus on how our emotions work in that context.

The emotional state of the people you deal with are going to have an influencing factor on how that conversation or interaction occurs, just as your emotional state at the moment will too.

Quite frankly there is a lot of negative news out there, and some peoples emotions are rubbed raw. I’m not even talking about the political stuff, I’m referring to the challenges we are facing as we wrap up 2021. Prices are going up. We have shortages of everything from computer chips to staffing shortages. A year ago we saw empty shelves instead of toilet paper and sanitizing supplies, and in my visit to the store recently, we seem to have plenty now.

There are other reasons people are having a tough time. In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I’ve witnessed marital discord and divorce, loss of loved ones, either permanently by death, or because of disagreements that are hopefully temporary.

If you own or run a business, realize that your team wants to be the best versions of themselves, but there are other things going on that could be preventing that, at least temporarily.

If you work for someone, what I just said also applies to your boss.

Customers and clients, they are going through the wide range of emotions too, and we just don’t know the full story of what is going on in their lives do we?

I titled this piece, Feelin’ Good, because ultimately that is what we all want.

We want to feel good about our lives, our jobs, our family and friends.

We want to feel good when we spend our money.

My wife recently spent money on two very different experiences, one was a gift box that included some fun things she picked out to send to out of town family members. The other was spending money on getting her car repaired.

Two very vastly different reasons to spend, and yet both times she wanted to feel good when she punched in her pin number as she paid for her purchases.

It might be easy to make someone feel good when they are buying gifts, and more challenging to make them feel good when they are spending it on a repair. But no matter what your business, please do your best to help your customers and staff feel good.

That’s the best kind of marketing you can create, an experience for all that leaves them Feelin’ Good because of what you did for them.

One more tip and this may not be earth shattering but after living in a world where we couldn’t see peoples smiles because of being masked up, please smile purposefully. Even behind a mask, we can see a smiling face.

8 Principles to Improve Your Life and Business

by Scott Howard | Aug 11, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an article on Medium.com titled: 8 Pillars of a Satisfied and Happy Life. Here’s a link to it: https://medium.com/mind-cafe/8-pillars-of-a-satisfied-and-happy-life-847d98707e81

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon as I read it and decided that I wanted to add my spin on the 8 Pillars with both insights on how to apply this to you business and also reflections on how I do it personally.

On the business side of my life, I am the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I lead and coach 6 full time advertising sales people on our Local Sales Team. I moved into this position at the beginning of 2020, a few weeks before Indiana went into lock-down due to the pandemic. This is my 8th year with WOWO and I’ve been in the media and marketing world most of my life, although I do know how to drive a forklift and run a thermoformer too.

On the personal side, my wife and I have been married for over two decades and our 5 kids from our 1st marriages of made us grandparents multiple times. The people on my Local Sales Team at WOWO range in age from my age to my kids age and so I know most of what they go through both personally and professionally. The term, “Been There, Done That”, applies however the world has changed since I was a new Dad, some for the better, other changes not so much.

Pillar Number One from the Medium story:

1. Allow Yourself To Be Happy Before You “Succeed”

Absolutely. As you grow, you need to learn to enjoy the journey. Starting a new business is challenging all the time, not just in extreme circumstances. Give yourself credit for doing the work. One of the ways I measure the activity of the sales team I work with is the types of activity they are doing and how much they are doing. I know that if they do certain benchmarks, success will follow.

Similarly, my wife likes gardening and it makes her happy. It is hard work and the rewards take time to grow, but in the meantime, she is happy doing the work. How about you? Do you have benchmarks in your business or life that you use to measure success before the financial success comes in?

2. Have A Clear Vision

Goals need to be both short and long term. My team has a big picture goal that I shared at the beginning of the year, and then each month I break it down into smaller chunks for each person. Together I work with each of them to help guide them to achieve those smaller goals which will add up to the original long term goal for our team.

I’ve worked for others who had no vision or they were continually changing course which creates frustration and confusion. As a business owner, make sure your team understands the vision for your company too. When my wife and I plan a trip either for ourselves or to visit family, we agree on the important elements and then also plan the details. I learned several years ago how we best travel together and perhaps you and your spouse have learned what works best for you too.

3. Devote Yourself To Something Meaningful

I really dislike most advertising salespeople. At least the way they do business, too many are focused on themselves, not on their clients success. That has been the secret to my success. To help others succeed, using the wisdom, knowledge and experience I’ve learned. That’s one way I devote myself to something meaningful. I also am involved serving on a non-profit organizations board to give back to the community. How do you and your employees give of yourselves?

4. Become a Lifelong Learner

The day I stop learning is the day I stop living. My formal education is not documented with college degrees but I keep getting invited to speak at numerous higher education colleges and universities. Be curious. Learn from others, listen and ask questions and figure out how to apply it to your life, your business or the people around you.

5. Do Not Settle For Less

I’ve done this a couple of times. I’ve walked away from the world of advertising and took a break, but then I returned. Some people decide not to return to their dreams and by doing that they never know if they could accomplish what they once sought. On the personal side of life, this is very personal. On the business side, you are going to have to decide what is important and what isn’t. I used to work with an auto repair shop that was going to be open 24 hours a day. Then when the owner discovered that it wasn’t a sustainable way to run his shop, he settled for less hours. He also discovered how to merge what his customers really wanted with his vision and came up with a business plan that was unique, and he’s doing great now.

6. Remember To Have Fun

I took my WOWO Local Advertising Sales Team out for a morning of golf and lunch last month. It was a team building event but it was more than that. It was a time to set aside time to just have fun. It wasn’t a reward for hitting a certain goal, it wasn’t earned based on performance, it was simply a guilt free way to hang out on a day when others were working and have fun.

At work, at home, having fun is something we all need to include in our lives regularly, not just special events. How do you accomplish this?

7. Take Care Of Yourself

At the end of 2020, I decided to improve my health by dropping a few pounds and lost 20 pounds in about 6 months. I’ve maintained that and am slowing dropping a few more this year. Stress is the silent killer for everyone it seems. 99 out of 100 people you see this month have something stressful going on in their lives that you may never know about. You need to take care of your health, and encourage those who work for you to do the same. Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual health are all needing our attention. The H. R. Department at WOWO’s parent company, Federated Media sends out reminders about this and also provides resources that members of my team have made use of.

8. Cherish Those You Love

This is the last pillar from the Medium.com article, but it’s not the least important. I’m blessed to have loving relationships with my family and we work at making sure we stay in touch and express that love.

While the dynamics are usually different in a business setting, how would the culture improve if you really told your staff individually what you appreciated about them?

They need to know that they are appreciated and why. The companies that have problems retaining employees are the ones that have the worst company cultures. As a business owner or manager, you set the example. A genuinely positive work environment is also appreciated by your customers and clients too.

I hope you’ve learned a few things today, and perhaps go back and answer those questions I mentioned to see how 2021 can be even better for you and those around you.

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