Guy Richards / Ordinary Life with a Brand Strategist

#10 / What I learned at Convene...outsourcing or leadership?

This clip is about what I learned from a man who buys declining manufacturing businesses and turns them around.

#10 / What I learned at Convene...outsourcing or leadership? from Guy Richards

Trendsetters cause market reactions

Every market has a group of trendsetters.

Trendsetters cause market reactions. Good and bad.

Good market reactions cause market share growth.

Market share growth creates opportunities.

 

…as a brand leader you can use opportunities to influence those around you. Employees, vendors, competitors and those who pay for what you do.

Talent. The deciding factor of success?

Lack of talent, resources and time does NOT hold people back.

Fear holds people back.

Uncle Rico’s regrets

Dreams are great, but without action they are just dreams.

Could of, would of, wish I did. Who wants to live life with that?

Remember uncle Rico’s regrets?

Brand opportunity...Leadership or Followship?

Opportunity comes and goes, but the person who grabs it succeeds.

Tonight my wife screamed…”SPIDER,” and I had to quickly take hold of the opportunity, find something to swish it with before that little spider was under the baseboard and gone.

It had me think how all opportunity is the same way.

When opportunity comes, we…

1. Identify it
2. Weigh it out
3. Go after it or do nothing

I have realized that the brands that grab the opportunity, risk and all, are the brands that lead the market.

The brands that wait or always pass by opportunity are the ones that automatically claim followship.

The Misconception

I have never met a brand that has led their market from day one (unless they were the first in the market / I mean, they created it)

Most brands launch with a half-baked product or service but a desire for more. They just don’t have the relationships, capital or experience to lead the market.

But when a brand is willing to make decisions, get up when they fail, treat people right and never stop pushing their own limits, they slowly push to the lead.

Wherever you are at, make sure you don’t get complacent.

Poor Pizza Shop…Shift, Baby Shift

When I was growing up there was a pizza place in the mall near my house, that had a well known name. Actually, it’s still in that mall, about a mile from my house, but rarely do you hear its name.

It’s because the mall it’s in was once a hot bed for traffic. But then the “bigger, better” mall was built about 10 minutes down the road. Yep, all the traffic and the smart stores moved to that mall, but not this pizza shop.

Now 15 years later my mom drops off a few slices of pizza and tells me where it’s from. It triggered my memory to all the great things that this pizza brand was known for. As I sat there eating the pizza, I noticed that even their box that was once branded with their name was now just generic.

We can learn a lesson from this example. When a brand is surrounded by a movement of life and culture and notices that it shifts...shift with it. Don’t sit around hoping it will once be like it was.

Calibrated by Purpose

It is easy to get off course from the glitters of the horizon when you don’t have one main priority that calibrates the direction of your life.

Just like a pilot who sees a brilliant sunset or a majestic mountain range in the distance can be persuaded to drift course to see their beauty. Even a person with a goal can get off track and loss time coming back.

If you believe your life has a purpose and you know what it is, it is critical not to get side tracked. Opportunity is just that, it’s here for a minute and vanishes. 

Walking Away

The mental price of not doing something that I think I had a good chance of completing is worst than walking away with a bloody nose.

Today

What opportunity do you have today, that won’t come back if you do not take advantage of it?