by Kirby Hasseman
As a rule, I enjoy travel. I like to go new places. I like the adventure. I like new things. And, in truth, it usually makes me appreciate home. But in midst of the chaos of travel, it’s easy to get lost in it. On a recent trip, I was doing just that. It was the first leg of the trip and I had started the morning really early. When I left my house, it was just before 5am. I took the hour and a half trip to the airport in the darkness in stride. Now I was on a flight…tired. Then I looked out the window on the descent into Nashville. Though everyone around me was engrossed on their phones, looking at magazines, or lost in sleep, I had just a moment to remind me about the beauty that is all around us. The mountain tops were reaching to the sky through the low clouds creating an amazing image that was worthy of breaking me from my traveling trance. It reminded me how blessed I am to get to travel and see the world. It reminded me how blessed I am to choose what I do. It reminded me that in doing this, I get to see people I respect. It’s a wonderful world in which we live. Sometimes we just need to take a moment to appreciate the beauty that is all around us.
by Kirby Hasseman
Maybe I just have trust issues. More and more, we are seeing a proliferation of “reviews” that influence the way we make decisions about purchases. Whether you are buying a car, booking a vacation, or looking for a restaurant, we check the “reviews” of a business before we are willing to set foot in any place. Not only that, but sites like Amazon, Facebook, and others are actually moving companies up and down in their search criteria based on the number (and ranking) of their reviews. And in theory, I get it. It’s nice to be able to take a quick look behind the veil to make sure we aren’t walking into a scam artist. I like the idea that each of has “a voice” in commerce. If we have a bad experience, we have a way to “warn others.” But is that really what you think happens? I don’t. Here are (just a few) of my issues with online reviews. Who are these people? Again…maybe this goes back to my trust issues. But why is it I should value the opinion of random strangers on the internet? Don’t get me wrong. If EVERYONE has had a bad experience at a place…that helps me. But it’s human nature that we are attracted to that one bad review. If a friend tells me they have had a bad experience, it might hold value. But…who are these random strangers again? Who validates them? The answer is…no one. As a matter of fact, Facebook and other places are making it even harder to take reviews down. If one of my customers has a bad experience, I do want to know. But I DO want it to be one of my customers! The last time I went to our Facebook page, we had 3 “featured reviews.” There were 2 5-star reviews. There was 1 1-star review. It’s fine…except that NONE of the 3 were customers. Some people can’t be pleased: We all know them. These are the people that are pissed off if they can’t find something to be mad about. So…how many of those people do you think just LOVE to write reviews? My guess…a lot of them. So how much should I value their take? Have you ever noticed that a 1 star book review on Amazon is never written by a best-selling author? Why? First, because they don’t have time to mess with that. But more importantly, they know how much work creating a book takes. I don’t know what that tells me…but it tells me something. Make sure you are happy by signing up for our VIP newsletter. Each week we send out an email with all of the content we create each week. Sign up here!
by Kirby Hasseman
The Delivering Marketing Joy Podcast is back! Our goal here is to attack 2018 with a vengeance! The Delivering Marketing Joy Podcast will provide some inspiration, motivation and education to make it happen! Consider this your 10 minute “kick in the pants” to get your week started off right! Today on the podcast I want to flip the script. We spend a lot of time thinking, talking and agonizing over “what keeps us up at night.” That’s natural. But what gets you excited? What gets you up in the morning? It’s a different way of looking at things…and I name a few things that have me fired up now! If you want to check out the Ohio’s Heart website you can do that here. Oh…and make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for the Hasseman Marketing VIP list here!
by Kirby Hasseman
It was early in the morning and I just needed to grab one thing in my closet. The thing is, I had everything ready to go. The bag was packed to head into the office. The lights were off. But I just needed to grab a sweatshirt. I knew basically where it was because I just saw it when I picked out my shirt. So I headed back into my closet to “quickly grab” this last piece of clothing.
In the dark, I felt around for the piece where I thought I remembered it. It was a full zip, so I felt for the zipper. Found it! I began to unzip the sweatshirt in order to take it off the hanger…and it stopped. This was only a quarter zip! Damn…this was the wrong piece!
And there are I stood…in the dark.
Finally, I took two steps and turned on the light. It’s amazing how fast I was able to find the sweatshirt I wanted! I was just too consumed with doing it “really quick” so I was not using the tools that were right in front of me.
It’s absurd. It’s stupid. And those of us in the sales profession do it all the time.
We thrash around in a world where time is literally money. We try to do it “our way” or the “old way” for entirely too long. Meanwhile, our organizations arm us with CRM’s, blogs, websites, order management, email systems, and more. They spend endless time and dollars to help us increase our efficiency and, ultimately, our sales.
And much like me, looking for my sweatshirt in the dark, we stubbornly keep thrashing. We believe we are right. We think it “will take too long to learn” and keep trying “one more time.” Folks…turn on the light. Use the tools. Take the time on the front to save the time on the back. The tools are there to shine a light on your business. All you have to do is flip the switch.
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by Kirby Hasseman
I love the idea of “seasons of life.” This concept was introduced to me by Jon Acuff, and it totally resonates with me about how life really works. Life is not “pedal to the metal” all of the time. I love the term “hustle,” but you can’t live your life in forever hustle mode. In reality, though, life is also not just “sitting on a beach with a drink in my hand” in perpetuity either. It’s a shame…but it’s true. Life comes in seasons. Some of seasons are easy to recognize. They are almost more phases of life. There is parenthood, or work, or school. Sure. But I think “season” can be even more finite. *They might be newborn baby season or puppy season (we know this all too well at our house now). *Starting a new business (at least the launch) can be a season. *Losing a job could be a season. Or job hunting could be one as well. *Having a high school senior is certainly a season we are living through too. Regardless, it’s important to note that these are finite. Whether good or bad, a season is not forever. The wind will blow, and the words “this too shall pass” will ring through your ear. Don’t worry. It’s just a season. Make sure you never miss an update! Sign up for our VIP newsletter here.
