by Kirby Hasseman
The names in this blog have been changed to avoid calling anyone out! 🙂 My wife and I are creatures of habit when it comes to lunch. We like to go to the same couple of places in in town. So often, the people that work there know our order. This is really true of a specific fast food burger joint in Coshocton. They do a tremendous job and know “just how we like it.” As I walk to the counter, the lady will greet me with a grin and say, “Your usual?” They do a great job of making us feel special each time we go in. My wife often orders something similar too. Her “regular” order comes in a box and is available only with regular fries. When this option first came out, Amy asked if she could switch it out for curly fries…but the team there was not allowed. This particular meal only came with regular fries. Ok. But here’s the cool thing. Often, the ladies will deliver the meal with a “surprise” for my wife. They will sneak in the curly fries, “just for her.” It not only makes her happy, but it inevitably makes her feel special too. And what did that cost? Exactly nothing. Recently though, they brought out her meal with an apology. “Sorry. We had to bring the regular fries. The boss is here.” Now THAT is funny. So the employees, who are rock stars, when left to their own device are willing to go above and beyond to delight the customer. But when the boss is in town, they have to stop. That is SO interesting to me. How many of us are doing that to our employees? As leaders, we sometimes set up policies and procedures to ensure that the lowest common denominator doesn’t ruin the guest experience. But how many times are those rules keeping your rock stars from improving it? Just some “food” for thought. If you want to make sure you never miss an update, make sure to sign up for our VIP newsletter here! Oh…and if you just want to shop for some sweet promo, click here.
by Kirby Hasseman
I am always amused when people seem annoyed the celebrities are making money on Instagram and other social media platforms. You hear people scoff when they are told about the large sums of money that they make for taking a picture holding a product. “That’s ridiculous,” they say. They just can’t believe that influencer marketing is worth that much on social. But it is. People work hard to create and maintain an audience on social media. And when they get it, they have the ability to really impact sales on a product, a cause, or an organization. And I am not just talking about the Kardashians! I had a cool experience recently with a person who I believe is a great influencer in the marketing space, Jeff Haden. Jeff is a ghostwriter, a speaker, the author of the Motivation Myth (which I really liked) and a LinkedIn Influencer. He has also been gracious enough to be a guest on Delivering Marketing Joy (watch here). But what does he have to do with this? Well recently I posted about my book Fan of Happy on LinkedIn. I pointed out that it might be a good graduation gift. It was a shameless plug. But Jeff, who was kind enough to look at the book before I published it, was the very first person to comment on the post. He left a kind and thoughtful comment about the book and recommended it. It was a huge compliment to me. Then, because of Jeff’s influence, the post took off. An average post on LinkedIn might have 1000 views. Sure I have some with more and some with less. But that’s an average. What did this one get? 
Now I think it’s important to note that Jeff did not share it. He simply made a thoughtful comment and moved on with this day. But by just doing that, he exposed me to a huge new audience…and for that I am grateful. So the next time you doubt the power of an influencer, think again. Oh…and thanks Jeff! Make sure you never miss an update, sign up for our VIP newsletter here. And if you want to shop for some great Promo, click 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! This week on the podcast I dig into the topic of “being a Media company.” I talked about this a bit on this recent blog post. But in this podcast I tell you why it’s important…and how to “live it.” If you want to make sure you never miss an update, please sign up for our VIP newsletter here. We share content and special offers once a week. Or if you just want to shop for great promotional campaigns now, you can do that here.
by Kirby Hasseman
I absolutely love this quote from Zig Ziglar because it accurately represents a lot of people in the world. They find a problem for every solution. We all know people like that. Be careful, though, before you criticize them too much. We can all fall into this trap. It’s easy, because our brains are pre-wired for it. For thousands of years, our brains were required to constantly seek out things that might be “wrong” in order to keep us alive. It was more important to see the saber toothed tiger that was there, than to misdiagnose the one that wasn’t. It kept us from being eaten. This part of the brain doesn’t serve us as well today though. When we are constantly looking for things that are wrong in the world, we will find them. Better, I think, to train your brain to look for things that are good. The brain is train-able. So spend time each day looking for the good. When you continually tell your subconscious brain that the “good” is what you want to see, you will find it. So let me practice what I preach for a moment. I am pre-disposed to speak positively about my hometown of Coshocton, Ohio. I do actively look for it. That doesn’t mean I don’t see the potholes. I do. What it means is that I don’t ONLY see the potholes. So here are a couple of really cool things that warrant being pointed out. #1 Wine Destination: When you think of the world’s best destinations for Wine, you might think of France or Napa Valley…and they are great! But Coshocton County was recently named as one of the very top Wine Destinations in the country. Seriously. Check out the link here. New Memorial Clock: Our Town Coshocton recently installed a clock to remember Cheryl Triplitt and Cheryl Cooksey. Both women worked hard to improve Coshocton and downtown. Great stuff. Oh, and thanks to Barb Karr and the people at Our Town Coshocton for making this happen. Bancroft Park: The City of Coshocton recently installed new equipment at Bancroft Park where there was none. It was a great day for the kids in that neighborhood…and I appreciate the city for making it happen. The fact is, there are good things going on all around us (wherever we are). We just need to look for them. And frankly, it doesn’t hurt to point them out! If you want to make sure you never miss an update, please sign up for our VIP newsletter here. We share content and special offers once a week. Or if you just want to shop for great promotional campaigns now, you can do that here.
by Kirby Hasseman
Every once in a while we all come to a crossroad where we are not sure what to do next. We think about it. We mull it. We consider our options. And then, we are still not sure what to do. At that point it’s really easy to stall. We are not sure what to do…so we do nothing. It’s paralysis by analysis. We have all been there. But remember that choosing to do nothing is still a choice. I think this happens (sometimes) because we feel like every decision is the “biggest” decision. It feels like this decision is a “forever decision.” Once we choose, we have to continue down this path for the rest our existence. Let me let you in on a secret. It’s probably not that big a decision. You probably don’t have to do it forever. This decision is just one of many. You can change your mind. And the sooner you choose, the sooner you learn if you were wrong or right. Both are ok. Just know that almost no decision is forever. (As a side note, I think we add this pressure to the kids coming out of high school today. We tell them “This is the most important decision of your life.” And it’s important…sure. But I am a person that chose a college and changed…then chose a major and changed…and it was fine. The fact is, most people that go into college make a similar change…and it’s fine). You live and you learn, and you move on. But first you have to choose to do something. If you want to make sure you never miss an update, sign up for our VIP newsletter here. And of course if you want to “choose” from some amazing Promo items, you can shop here now.
by Kirby Hasseman
One of the things I am adamant about, is that in today’s society, everyone is a media company. (Yes, Gary Vaynerchuk says this too).
If you are a car dealer, you are a media company that also sells cars. If you sell insurance, you are a media company, that also sells insurance. You get the idea. I believe you need to think like a media company. You need to create content that people want to consume. That act of acting like a media company will create an audience, and then you will be able to sell them something (or convince them of something). You will have gained their trust. I believe that.
But despite that belief, Hasseman Marketing has not consistently been acting like it. Don’t get me wrong. We create content. My hope is we even create content that our customers and peers like. But we have lacked the type of plan and consistency that I would like. So starting June 1st, my goal is to fix that. It’s time to up my game. And in this short blog post I wanted to outline my plan for what will be coming up the next 30 to 60 days. I would love feedback, thoughts and suggestions if you have them!
1. The DMJ Podcast is coming back: I started doing the DMJ Podcast at the beginning of this year on Mondays. My goal was to test it out and see if people enjoyed it. After the first 12 weeks of the year, I took a break. The feedback was good…so I am bringing this back on Mondays. It will be here on this blog and wherever you get your podcasts.
2. Delivering Marketing Joy: The staple of our content creation is our interview show Delivering Marketing Joy! That will keep coming and will be hosted at PromoCorner.com as it has been. If you have suggestions on guests, email us here!
3. Brand-ecdotes: Again, we played with this series and we want to bring it back. Here is a link to one of these. We welcome Promo Pros to weigh in on what they love about Promo. Let us know if you want to take part!
4. unScripted Podcast: This award winning podcast with Bill Petrie will keep coming at ya every Friday. It’s hard to believe we have done 100 of these! Don’t worry…more to come here.
5. New Blog Posts: This is the new curveball into the mix. Get ready for me to create a new blog post every business day! Some will be short. Some will be a bit longer. But the goal is to provide value to our customers, prospects and peers all of the time. And we think this will be a way for us to do that! So please check back. Read them. Comment. Give feedback. And by all means, help keep me accountable! Why would we do all of this? Because we believe we are a media company. Get ready for us to start acting like it.
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