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One of the best things about my job is that I get to meet really interesting people and go to interesting places. I love my clients and I consider the majority of them very good friends. Those stations we consult where we do the absolute best are where we have great relationships. Those great relationships generally are not only me offering suggestions to them in an effort to improve their product, but they offer advice, comments and suggestions to me that expand my thinking and help to increase my level of intelligence. I don’t consider myself “that” smart. I’m still learning.
Recently, I had an opportunity to have three great dinners and reflect on four great people. I’ve decided to refer to these four people as “The Four Wise Men.” I like to take the air staff to dinner and usually have a morale boosting speech to share with them. I focused on “The Four Wise Men” and what I was able to learn from them. I am now sharing my three dinners with four brilliant people so you can utilize it to motivate your staff and remotivate yourself.
John Wooden
Our clients in Kalamazoo Michigan invited me to join them for a Western Michigan University fundraiser in which the station was involved. John Wooden was going to be speaking to a crowd of 2,400 people. There was a private dinner prior to Wooden’s formal presentation. Roughly ten tables of business executives had a chance to see John Wooden talk and share some insight into what made him the winningest coach in history. Many of Wooden’s records, mainly from UCLA, continue to remain unbroken. His style and systems work beautifully.
Most of us have heard the story of legendary Dallas Cowboys Football coach Tom Landry who would begin football camp every year with a story that drove home the point to his players that they have to go back to the basics season after season. Landry would hold up a football and say, “gentlemen, this is a football.” You can’t get any more basic than that. John had a similar story and a like tactic that he utilized to drive home a point to his players. It was something that he taught every preseason.
When asked, John Wooden said that he taught his players how to put on their shoes and socks. Yes, their shoes and socks. Wooden explained that if a player’s socks don’t fit right, the odds are good they’ll get a blister, their foot will slide around their shoe and it will slow them down as they try to get up and down the court. If a player’s shoes aren’t tied right or if they don’t fit tightly, the players foot might slip, the player could lose his balance or instead of the shoe moving with their foot the player will be moving their shoe as well as their foot. The explanation brought a chuckle to everyone. It seems almost silly that a winning coach would credit teaching someone how to put on their shoes and socks as one of the things that benefited his winning record.
Coach explained that when people buy shoes they leave a thumb space between the end of the toe and their shoe. That space is something our parents did in order to give us room to grow. As adults we are done growing. Wooden didn’t even care about the players having room to grow, because he could afford to buy them new shoes when their feet did grow. He wanted shoes that fit like skin. Socks that were tight and wouldn’t slide, shoes that fit perfectly like skin can give you an extra half-second. That extra half-second could be the difference between a player beating his opponent to the basket and not. That shows you how competitive this man was.
The other thing coach John Wooden was teaching was that no detail was too small to deserve attention.
Doug Gold
Doug Gold came up at a dinner that I had with a friend recently as we got around to talking about New Zealand. Doug Gold is a well-known New Zealand broadcasting legend that owned the once dominant MORE-FM radio group. During the time that Doug owned the company they saw amazing growth and stellar ratings. It has since seen the erosion that comes from competition, but they remain a strong broadcast group none-the-less. Gold was a great motivator and has written two books of his own that I am sure you could find on line if you simply go to Google.com and search out his name. Talking about Doug during this recent dinner reminded me how he was constantly calling for all of us to give 100% . . .100% of the time.
Gold would get his staff together on a Friday afternoon at 5:00 o’clock and pull everyone into a staff meeting to talk about what went on over the past week and to share “station family business.” He might congratulate someone who was going to have a baby or someone who was about to be married. There would be the obligatory slaps on the back for the sales rep that sold the most advertising in the last week. He would gently admonish his staff if they hadn’t performed as strongly as he thought they should, but he never embarrassed or called anybody out in front of the team.
These meetings concluded with Doug giving his famous “100% speech.” It was these speeches that motivated me and that I turned into part of my presentation as pre-rating motivation for our clients.
Gold would talk about the fact that everyone should give 100%. Many times I heard him say, “We need 100% to win,” not 110%, and not 95%. Those people who tell you they will give 110% are giving you too much.” He’d pick up a glass and hold it skyward and say, “If I fill this glass 110% full, what do I have? A mess! I don’t want 110%, I don’t want 125%, and I want 100%. I don’t want any less than 100% … I want 100% . . . 100% of the time.”
Gold would go on to ask, “What do we have if the receptionist, doesn’t answer the phone properly?” The staff would shout in unison, 95%. So it would go with Doug Gold throwing out a series of things that may have happened in the past week and the staff calling back, “90%, 85%, 80% . . .” they usually counted it down to about 50 to 45%. It was exhilarating to see everyone pump their fists and hear them shout out the percentages.
The New Zealand leader would then ask “Who wants to fly in a plane where the pilot lands safely 95% of the time? Who wants to have surgery with a doctor who is safe only 90% of the time? Does anyone here want to put an apple on the top of their head for an archer to shoot it off when he is accurate only 90% of the time?” The point was clear. You need to perform at 100% . . . 100% of the time . . . to be successful.
Ken Kragen & Ed Salamon
During Conclave of 2005, Ken Kragen, Ed Salamon and I had an opportunity to have dinner together. It was thrilling for me to have dinner with both of these individuals. Ed Salamon has been one of my mentors for a long time. Ken Kragen is a man whose books I’ve read, whose system I use, and whose artist’s music I have enjoyed.
In case you don’t know who Ken Kragen is, he’s an amazing manager who started out many years ago when he was a very young man, by managing the Smothers Brothers. Over the years he’s managed a number of artists and performers. Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers are just two of the people who Ken turned into very successful entities. He continues managing performers today, including comedienne and actress Suzanne Whang.
He was involved as one of the original organizers of We Are The World as well as Hands Across America. He teaches at UCLA and he’s well known as the author of the best-selling business book “Life Is A Contact Sport.” He also created and teaches the S.T.A.R. System For Management And Organization. Ken deserves the title Superstar Manager. He is.
Ed Salamon plucked me from Charleston, WV and gave me a chance to be his assistant Program Director in Los Angeles. He later gave me the job of a lifetime when he promoted me to PD. My best friend, Charlie Cook, was his assistant PD in New York City. Ed was a Program Director in Pittsburgh at a very young age and programmed the most listened to country radio station of all time, WHN, well before the age of 30. He was a partner in the original United Stations Radio network with Nick Verbitsky and media mogul/celebrity Dick Clark. He ultimately became President/Programming of the Westwood One Radio Network. Today he serves as Executive Director of Country Radio Broadcasters, and will be inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in February.
Sitting at dinner with these two, joined by McVay Media VP/Adult Formats Daniel Anstandig, we were talking about how radio evolved and changed. Ken was sharing how show business has changed, but noted that it’s still all about entertainment and if “the act” isn’t entertaining they won’t be successful no matter how much someone has paid for the ticket.” Ken shared several thoughts about show biz and how important the performance is.
His comments hit me. The fact is that what we do, no matter how much “science” is involved in radio, it’s still “show biz.” It doesn’t matter how much research you have, how many billboards you have, how many televisions commercials you air, and even how many consultants are on your team, because if “it” doesn’t happen when you turn on the microphone you’re not going to be successful. IT … is very important.
When it was my to turn to share what had been going on in my life and career, I expressed the frustration that I sometimes feel these days. Many broadcasters provide us with fewer tools than we’ve ever had and yet expect us to make them win. We have less marketing money, fewer air staff available to us, less research than in the past and less external dollars to spend on building Top-Of-Mind-Awareness for the station. People expect more while giving me less. Ed Salamon looked at me and made the comment “you can’t expect extraordinary results from an ordinary performance.” I was blown away. I sat back in my seat and said, “Wow.” I’ve never looked at it that way. It was so obvious. Why should anyone expect to improve his or her results if the performance is ordinary?
What I learned
John Wooden taught me “no detail is too small to deserve attention.” That means that we shouldn’t tolerate “good enough.” We need to make sure that every commercial is right and that every song that is scheduled is in keeping with the station’s music essence. Every thing that comes out of the speakers on your radio station, no matter how large or how small, deserves attention. I believe that our competitors don’t beat us we beat ourselves. Every little detail on your radio deserves focus. The shoes have to fit perfectly so we can get to “the basket” a half a second quicker than our competitor.
Doug Gold taught us “we are paid 100% of an agreed upon salary and we owe it to our employer to give them 100% effort and 100% performance.” Don’t punish your employer when you’re angry by lowering your performance to 98% or anything less than 100%. Don’t embarrass yourself by turning in a performance that’s inferior. Does anyone have a desire to fly with a pilot who is accurate only 95% of the time? The answer is an obvious NO! We need to give 100%, 100% of the time. You owe it to yourself, as well as your employer.
Ed Salamon and Ken Kragen taught us to ask the question “why should we win?” If you turn in an ordinary performance, you’re going to get nothing but ordinary results. Maybe you get lucky now and again, because a competitor also turns in an ordinary performance, but you can’t leave your fate in the hands of your competition. Control your own destiny. Be extraordinary!
This past quarter of travel to McVay Media clients was one of the most fun and exciting in years. I enjoyed seeing the excitement of my clients as I talked about “The Four Wise Men” and I saw the anticipation on their faces as I encouraged them to live up to the standards of these men. To my friends Ken, Ed and Doug … and to my friends who invited me to dinner with John Wooden, I say THANK YOU.
What about you? What did you learn? Pass it on.
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