Paddle Upstream or Go with the Flow?

Paddle Upstream or Go with the Flow?

by | Dec 19, 2014 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

From the ScLoHo 2008 archives:
Which would you rather do:

  1. Start at the mouth of the Mississippi and paddle your canoe upstream until you reached Minneapolis,
  2. Or Start in Minneapolis and head downstream until you reached New Orleans and the Atlantic?

The distance is the same.

The obstacles are the same, such as other boats, dams, etc.

The scenery is the same.

The area or territory you cover is the same.

So what’s the difference?

Going with the flow is much, much easier compared to the opposite.

I Googled both options and could not find anyone that made the trip upstream.

But there were plenty of folks that went with the flow. In 2002 a man swimmed the Mississippi in 68 days. A canoe trip takes about three months. It also takes three months for a single drop of water to make the journey. 90 days is the natural flow of the river.

Imagine the extra effort that it would require to paddle upstream? Not only will it take you more than three months, but it will take more resources, more strength and more stamina to fight the currents that are pushing you in the opposite direction.

My guess, is that it would take 2 to 5 times the effort.

And the question is why go against the natural flow?

This story is not about rivers though, but it does paint a very visual word picture.

This story is about marketing and advertising. All too often I have watched well intentioned business owners paddle upstream and fight the factors that they have no control over instead of using those same factors to their advantage.

Marketing and Advertising that goes with the flow, follows the buying processes that people go through. It mimics the relationship factors that we as human beings look for in our lives.

Bottom line, if your advertising and marketing efforts are contradicting the way people buy or want to buy, you are going to spend a lot more time, energy and money to accomplish what could have been done easier if you followed the flow.

If an advertising salesperson tries to sell you ads without these considerations, you just may be paddling in the wrong direction.

Systems for Success

by | Jan 18, 2011 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, Uncategorized


Each of us has a system for doing the things we do. These systems include your morning wake up routine and the various systems we have in place for our work activities.

If the systems and routines we are using in our personal life need tweaking, we often do so without much thought. Setting the alarm 5 minutes earlier, driving a different way to work, all pretty simple.

But what I see a lot of resistance to is changing work related systems.

The bigger the company, the more resistance is pretty common. Too many people involved including the “nay-sayers” who say no to everything; the “Don’t fix it until it’s broken” group who still use AOL; and the other extremes… the ones who want to throw everything out that we are doing and start from scratch, and those that always want to “wing it”.

Each of us are responsible for our own systems, if you work for a big company, and you find a way that conforms to their standards, but also helps you to do your job better, Go For It!

The past few years I have set up a few systems and am in the process of setting up even more in the social media world that I live part of my life in.

When I was the V-P of Communication for the Fort Wayne Advertising Federation, I would create an email that was sent to members and interested parties. I had a couple of templates that I would customize for each month, and then modify slightly as we got closer to the event we were inviting people to attend. The email service provider allowed us to both personalize the invites and schedule when the invites were being delivered.

I post between 35 and 50 blog posts a week. This blog you are reading is updated at least once a week on Tuesdays. Three other blogs get a total of 6 to 7 updates a day! And there is only one way to accomplish this, and that is with a system.

My System is a form of automation. But it requires a personal, hands on touch too.

I can write posts and schedule them to appear online in the future. Currently I have some scheduled for February 2012, which would be really freaky if something tragic were to happen and I met an early demise before they all post!

I usually have between 20 and 120 blog posts scheduled and they will automatically appear online when I have scheduled them.

I could set up an auto-Tweet or auto-post-to-Facebook, or auto-post-to-LinkedIn.

But I don’t want those automated. Instead I want those to be personalized for each of those services, to promote the blog postings in a more conversational manner. And do to the fact that I’m not online when every new post appears on my blog, I may promote it a few hours after it is published.

I urge you to automate when you can, but beware of being too impersonal.

I also urge you to review what works, and what doesn’t. You may be too close to your own situation and need someone without an insiders knowledge to challenge your thinking and challenge the status quo.

Are you ready for that?

If you are in the Fort Wayne Indiana area, contact me. If you are outside the area, I have contacts that I recommend. My email is Scott @ ScLoHo.net