Thursday, January 22, 2009
Making the economy work for YOU
By Mike Lake
I received a call yesterday from a reporter of a business publication doing a story on the effects of our economic times. His first question of me was how the economy is effecting creatives. I think he was somewhat surprised by my answer, which was that the effects exist, but not to the extent the doomsayers are proclaiming. In fact, for many, I hear that business is genuinely good. Granted, I’m not hanging out with recently laid-off Bank of America employees or Madoff investors. I truly feel bad for those who are being hurt by circumstances outside of their control, but my comments reflect the freelance individuals, salespeople and small business owners I interact with on a daily basis.
The reporter with whom I spoke yesterday was intrigued, and welcomed my contrarian outlook on the economy. I told him that companies are still spending money on marketing, and the good ones always will. I told him the creative freelancers I know continue to fill their days with paying work. I told him that Redlake’s most recent three clients are in or related to the real estate business(!) and have hired us to create strategic marketing strategies. They’re planning.
Last night I heard for the gazillionth time a popular and self-serving Washington cliche, and for the first time, it made an impact on me. “We want to get the economy working again.” Well, the fact is that the US economy IS working and has been steadily for the past 225 years. There are plenty of places around the world to remind us what a non-working economy looks and feels like! But, this is not a political discussion-for that let’s hang out sometime. Rather, this is my assurance to you that while the economy is in a downturn, there are LOTS of people making great money and the same can be done by anyone reading this.
Here’s how:
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
How to lose customers – fast
By Mike Lake
Dear Mr. Cable Company Conglomerate CEO,
Yesterday, I was on an important business conference call. Ten minutes into the call, I was dropped. I immediately used my other line to dial back in and after 4 minutes I was dropped again. As I’ve become skilled at through years of experience, I rebooted my modem. I finally got back on the call and at the end, I complained about your company being the sole provider in this area for my cable, Internet and phone. One of the other conference attendees immediately exclaimed that he was about to sign up for your triple package. After my 3 minute rant about how abysmal your service is throughout every aspect of the organization I have touched – and I’ve got years of touching(!) – he thanked me and said he would use your competitor. Where he lives, he has options.
I realize that complicated technology sometimes goes awry. So, it is not your technology I dislike. Rather it your service. I have questions:
Why must I ALWAYS waste my time working my way up the ladder of service competence being transferred from one department to the next to the next to the next until I finally get to that really smart person who seems to hold all the answers? What’s her direct number?
Why do I need to…
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Sunday, December 21, 2008
Writing effective advertising copy for the rest of us
By Mike Lake
Last night, as my 8 year old son was looking though that day’s stack of holiday mail, he stopped and shouted, “Hey, (the name of our heating fuel company) wants to help us!” I smiled as I immediately envisioned the source of his excitement and then thought to myself how invisible that same message had been to me as I had earlier poured through that same stack of mail.
A letter from our heating oil supplier had teaser copy that claimed that they want to help us. Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed it, and at the moment of my son’s innocent enthusiasm, I was reminded how jaded most of us adults are regarding advertising copy – and how important (and difficult) is it to write it well.
First, I must give kudos to my heating oil company for…
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
Three Most Important Reasons to Fire the Fat (part 3 of 3)
By Christine Regan Lake
The Anchors
So if the first two reasons weren’t enough to make you start questioning who may need to be called into your office and shown the cold light of day, maybe this reason will be enough to push you over the edge. B and C players bring to work with them their bad habits, cynical attitude and contaminate your environment. A great analogy is to look at your company as its own little ecosystem. Think of it as a little fish bowl with everyone living together in this tight little bowl doing their thing. Now, if you have a good filter everything is fine and dandy, and everyone goes on thriving indefinitely. What happens when the filter breaks or if–god forbid–you don’t even have a filter. The toxic build-up becomes overwhelming and the fish start to die. Do you think your office is any different? When you have B and C players who bring in their toxic garbage day in and day out…
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Sunday, September 14, 2008
Three Most Important Reasons to Fire the Fat (part 2 of 3)
By Christine Regan Lake
Top Flight
We’ve discussed the need to let go of the people holding back your organization and how to identify them. We’ve profiled those of you who have difficulty doing that (i.e. firing them) because you prefer to be loved. Now let’s talk about the challenges with running a company by the ‘I just want to be loved’ mentality? Eventually over time you will lose your top talent. A-Players will grow tired of carrying the load of the less motivated B and C players. They will valiantly carry the extra burden for a while depending upon how much they like you and wrestle with their own loyalty issues. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough that ‘convenience’ is keeping them there because it’s close to home and they want the flexibility. But, rest assured, the longer the A-players are forced to carry this extra load…
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