The hardest thing about learning how to fly a plane is learning how to fly with instruments. And what makes that so challenging is that you have to abandon all of your instincts, forgo everything you have been taught to do to that point, and trust the invisible.

There you are flying through fog, through dense clouds, you can’t see up, down or straight ahead. Nothing but white out. And it feels, almost for certain, that the plane is tilted wrong, or pointed earthward or upside down. And you want to steer through it, to correct what feels wrong, to get back on course, but the rub is that the instruments say all is fine. You are flying right. All is well.

And although you can’t see a damn thing, you have to trust the instruments and stay the course even though its feels as if you are nosediving toward disaster.

People spend their entire lives seeking to avoid this sense of uncertainty. Of refusing to trust what they can’t see. Of staying planted on the ground, out of the skies, nowhere near the clouds. They believe the choice is simple: know precisely where you are at all times, that you are flying right, straight and true — or never let the wheels leave the ground.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be a more devastating deception they play on themselves.

The fact is, we are all pilots in fog at times. Some embrace this as part of the adventure of life. And as a state of adrenalin rush that is the difference between watching the evening weather report on TV and falling in love. Or starting a business with your own money. Or reinvesting in one that’s clawing its way through a rough patch.

Let’s take the romance part. Recently, I heard someone say that they didn’t want to fall in love because “It might not work out.” And then they said, “If I fall in love and it doesn’t work out, well that would be like a car accident. ”

The message was, stay out of the fog. Well, excuse me, that means stay out of one of the best things life can possibly offer us.

LOVE.

Here’s what I see as the point: there is no point. Just life livers and life pretenders.

I wish the best for the latter but they bore me to tears. They leave the earth no better than when they inherited their space in it. They take up space. There are no medical centers named for them. They have never built an enterprise. They did not write Imagine. They don’t know how to collaborate on an opus like that. They may be sweet and kind and brush their teeth and iron their clothes and send Hallmark cards and be politically correct and pass the social litmus test invented by liars and hidden atheists, but. But. But.

They have never had a snowball fight in fog. They need order, and there is no order in that.

So I think Counting Crows is one of the best bands of the past two decades. No Led Zep but who is or was? At their best, Counting Crows was genuinely good, original, and at times (Recovering The Satellites, Anna Begins) exceptional.

And then they lost the artistic magic or Adam got tired or who knows what but a devoted following sat in disgust listening to Hard Candy, the first Milk Dud by a group of guys who seemed incapable of sinking so low.

Ok, so they had a loser. Everyone is entitled to a bad day now and then and so the devoted waited for the recovery album. And waited. And waited. And nothing…..

Until late last month when the band on the run released Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

It is a clunker. It is a once seamless band that made magic instinctively now trying too hard. You can hear the hard work. You can hear all the old riffs repeated here.

I think they knew it. I think they recognized this was January compared to August And Everything After.

So what do they do to breathe some life into a wounded bird? They try all kinds of traditional PR, which will drive some heightened anticipation for sure, but it’s sales they want. You can’t take anticipation to the bank.

They know a little secret about the Internet. You can listen to it. You can hear it. So they take the only hook song on the album, You Can’t Count On Me, create a landing page, give you a link to download and viola, digi does what print can’t even touch. (It’s not called a hook for nothing). It sells songs.

There is still a huge place for traditional PR in traditional media. And we should play it like it’s 1953. But with one hand, while the other is on the mouse. Because that “huge place” is relative and gets smaller every day.

And if you can’t hear the hook, you ain’t buying.

Think about it. The Web sings…..literally.

Mark Stevens

CEO

Today, I had lunch with two people I had never met before and it was one of those unusual encounters where the conversation zipped through a nanno second of small talk and zoomed into the heart of things. Into what’s this crazy thing called life all about and how do we leverage it to the hilt.

And I found myself ripping into one of my riffs about the two kinds of people on the planet. So now I’ll do it again to you. (At this point you may want to hit delete because this may be the musing of an overly philosophical mad man?).
So, the two kinds of people:

* Those in the “life protection” business.
* The tiny minority in the “live life like a reckless adventure” business.

The former want to be safe. To protect themselves from life’s curve balls.
To avoid risk. To be middle managers. To wear sunscreen. To drink wine spritzers. To do business as usual on the job because, well, it’s safe. To follow the rules. Anyone’s rules. Oh God, those rules are comfort food for the life protectors.

The latter say, I can’t protect against the vagaries of life. I can only wander out into the great blue unknown and revel in it. And if the sands shift or the plates slide or the bets come up bad or the curve balls come flying one after another, so what the hell. What the hell. What the flying hell. I will find a way to deal with it. I will see it as reason to think harder and smarter and cagier and to find a way to reinvent the wheel or to paint a gorgeous picture worthy of the Museum of Modern Art. I will walk right up to the safe middle managers so smug about their blemish-free performance record (never wandered from the straight and narrow, never made a single mistake) and I would break a rule right before their eyes. A sacred company rule. And then I would know how Picasso felt when he started turning French women into African masks. And when he made love in the middle of the day with a paint brush in one hand and a bottle of Bordeaux in the other.

Life needs livers. Risk takers. Dangerous minds. Total crazos. Lindberg.
Disney. Lauder. Houdini. Bezos. Jobs.

And we might as well all join category two. Because the life protection business doesn’t work. In the end, we all end, but the space from the beginning to the end is where the action is. And the action belongs to those who laugh at risk. Who jump into the water without a life preserver, swim the English Channel, stare down the sharks, best the world’s speed record, invent a novel category of software, put their chips on the line, fight to make it work and do it all again the next day.

That’s the arena. Everything else is like watching a concert atop Yankee stadium. Now that’s scary!
Mark Stevens
CEO

A few days ago, I was bestowed with a charming and old-fashioned gesture: A wish to “Have a Wonderful Weekend.” The problem is, the gesture was plastic. Literally. It was stamped on a bag of band-aids and toothpaste I’d purchased in a local pharmacy. Perhaps I am a cold-hearted SOB, but I don’t get the warm and fuzzies when a bag whispers sweet nothings in my ears. In fact I wanted to, and ultimately did, tell the pharmacy they would be advised to replace the weekend “love note” with one that reads: Whatever You Need, Whenever You Need It. Just call us at xxx or visit us at pleasingyoumakesushappy.com.

Why wasn’t this done at the outset? Why won’t they do it ever? Because what used to be one-on-one customer service that came from a culture that truly respected and appreciated customers as the soul and the lifeblood of a business has been reduced to a series of monotonous and superficial scripts that come from nowhere near the heart:

Have a nice day.

Please hold, we’ll be right with you.

If you would like to talk to a live person, press the pound key.

Well actually, I would prefer to talk to a dead person-or even a plastic bag- than push ten more buttons until I find someone totally annoyed that they have to DEAL with a customer. What’s really happening is that businesses are so focused on consummating transactions that they spend no time building enduring relationships. Plastic bags can’t do it. A “Thank You For Your Patronage ” note stamped on an invoice can’t do it. The only way it can be done is if Management develops a culture that truly embraces customers.

The classic customer service survey asks people:

1. Do you like our products/services?

2. Would you buy them again?

3. Would you recommend them to a friend?

What they don’t ask goes to the core of great business, of extraordinary companies:

Do you have faith in our company? Do you think we are committed to you?

They don’t go beneath the surface, the superficial, the scripts because they don’t want to know the answers. They don’t care. The DNA of true customer service, of businesses built on relationships as opposed to transactions, has virtually disappeared. Sadly, today’s managers think it’s all in the plastic bags.

Back to Nature: A spiritual gathering with Mark Stevens at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation

Location: Ward Pound Ridge Reservation

Meeting Place: Trailside Museum Parking Lot

Date: Saturday January 26, 2008

Time: 12 noon - 1pm

Ward Pound Ridge Reservation means something special to us all. It is a place that helps dreamer’s dream and lover’s romance. Those with a heavy heart walk free from their sadness and melancholy if just for a moment. So magical is this place that something spectacular happens at the reservation everyday.

Something magical happened to Bedford resident Mark Stevens on a cold blustery day in 2005. He experienced an epiphany. Under a lone tree that soon became Stevens’ inspiration for the next year, he sat down and feverishly tapped the entire contents of his latest book, “God Is A Salesman” into his Blackberry.

Inspired by Ward Pound Ridge and in particular one tree, Stevens wrote a business book that illustrates how the power of faith can be cultivated and employed in all aspects of life and business. Referring fondly to this spot as the “God Tree” Stevens sees the miracle of worship brought out from the houses of prayer, away from the formalities of a sermon and laid bare in nature right here at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.

Join him in the wilderness at Ward Pound Ridge, one of the most spiritual places on earth to experience the wonders of freedom, having faith can bring. Hear the story of how our beloved Ward Pound Ridge led to one of the most widely anticipated books, worldwide and how Stevens believes a great and genuine life is built on five key pillars.

This is a meeting with a difference…. it will be held at the reservation. There is no fee but please wear clothing suitable for the outdoors. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Melinda Mullin at Tel: 914 251 1500 ext 14.

Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
6 Reservation Road,
Cross River, New York, 10518
Telephone: 914-867-7317

Interstate 684 to exit 6 (Katonah/Cross River). Turn onto Route 35 East for approximately 4 miles to Route 121 South. Turn right the entrance to Reservation is on left. The Trailside Museum Parking Lot is located inside the park about a mile and a half from the entrance.
Technorati Profile

What’s that you say? Can’t get enough of Mark’s wit, insight and Unconventional Thinking?

Well you’re in luck! Because Mark is BrandWeek Magazine’s latest blogger:

Mark is described by the magazine as :

Mark Stevens is CEO of consulting and marketing firm MSCO in Rye Brook, N.Y., and one of the cadre of new Brandweek Bloggers.

In addition, Mark gave the keynote address at the recent Platinum PR News 2007. Click the link below to watch Mark’s interview about the future of PR.

Click on the image to read the whole article on the USA Today Website.

Mark Stevens is in the national spotlight again, this time in a page 3 story in USA TODAY: “CITIES DRAW LINE ON RISQUÉ BILLBOARDS”.

Hundreds of new visitors came to MSCO’s Web sites, no doubt intrigued by the message and asking: Who gets to decide what’s OK and what’s risqué?

The articles begins: “Mark Stevens has seen his website’s name in the clouds, if not exactly in lights: ‘www.YourMarketingSucks.com.’” The reporter, Charisse Jones, then gives an account of how this message was posted on a billboard purchased by Stevens, and one day, without notice, explanation or reimbursement, he drove past it only to find the message removed.

The article identifies similar billboard messages across the country taken down because of one or several complaints. But ask yourself: Do you have a right to eliminate or remove everything you disagree with or don’t like? Is that the American way? Or do we behave like adults who know that everyone won’t agree or like every thing, and move on.

Read the article online to get Mark’s reaction, and comment on the story yourself.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-06-billboards_N.htm

In case you missed the kerfuffle earlier you can read Mark’s original post here: Mark Stevens Vs. Warren Buffet And you can read some of the comments on the issue here: Comments on Billboards that Suck

And we’re interested in knowing your take on this whole issue, even if you made a comment earlier… leave one now.

By: Chris Kieff

Imagine this: a company arrives in town and offers the good people who live there jobs. No one is forced to take one. No one holds a gun to their head. The same company then has the temerity to say, “If you work hard and serve our customers well, we will promote you from within.” Horrors.

Now let’s look at the other side. A company arrives in town and offers the good people who live there just about anything they want for less money. The bastards actually save people money. Money they can use for nest eggs and college tuitions. Why doesn’t the National Guard march in and close down a company like this?

Hearing Wal-Mart’s detractors you would believe the company is a disgrace. Instead it is a national treasure. Sam Walton started with an idea, and with drive and determination he built a wonderful business. Isn’t this the essence of capitalism? Oh, but wait a minute, do the Wal-Mart whiners want capitalism?

Oh, I know the school of hatred that says Wal-Mart arrives in towns and crushes the local merchants. The ones who charge you more? Who lived off the fat of little or lazy competition at your expense? Here’s what I say to that: Wal-Mart is great for competition. I have competitors. I lose business to them. When? When they are smarter or cheaper than my company. And it makes me think:

• How can we raise the bar on our work?
• How can we be as efficient as possible?
• Do we do enough to promote from within?

Walk the streets around any Wal-Mart in the world. What will you find? A mass of small businesses that found a way to survive, to thrive, precisely because they understand business is a jungle and that they can’t rely on the whiners to protect them. If any of these small businesses become the next Starbucks, the whiners will want to punish them for their success in a heartbeat. Blame global warming on them. Toss them in the prison for the rich and throw away the key.

And by the way, on those same Wal-Mart streets you also find a Target, which became an exponentially better business competing with the house that Sam built.

If you don’t have a Wal-Mart on turf, pretend you do. Go to sleep concerned. Never settle for how your business currently performs. Declare war on every aspect. Leave no rocks to hide under.

And Wal-Mart stop wasting good shareholder dollars on PR to silence the whiners, because you can’t. This is their sex.

Mark Stevens
CEO

The most dangerous term in business – marketing department – sounds harmless enough on the surface. In fact, it may even sound like a good thing. The company has a function dedicated to marketing the business: meaning that there is a constant march toward growing the customer base through acquisition and cross selling.

Never mind that most marketing actually sucks and fails to stay focused on those key goals. There is another equally ominous danger here. That is, establishing a marketing department effectively balkanizes marketing ideation and implementation from the development and execution of the company’s core business strategy. This cannot be allowed to happen. Marketing is the process of growing a business. To separate it from the development and execution of business strategy means that you are effectively diminishing the impact marketing can have on the company.

You know how it goes: the top people in the company, be it the president or a management team, develops a plan for how they want to grow the business, and once that is set in stone, they turn to the marketing folks (some think of them as marketing flakes, which they often deserve, because they do not force themselves into the business-building process). The tools and initiatives required to grow the company have to get force-fed into a strategy that has already been signed, sealed and delivered by the powers that be. What an idiotic mistake.

Think of it this way: imagine a general contractor showing up on a vacant lot all set to construct a new building. The contractor knows that he wants to build a 24- story office building that he can sell to a real-estate investor. Is that a strategy? Yes. But the contractor never bothers to hire an architect to create a blueprint for the building he envisions. So he simply lays the foundation and puts up a structure, floor-by-floor, on a haphazard basis, knowing only that he wants to wind up with 24 floors. Without a blueprint guiding his work, the contractor builds a lopsided/miss-matched/leaning tower of Pisa building that no one would ever want to buy, much less, lease space in.

The same thing happens when the architects of business growth (the marketing department) are absent from the development and implementation of the strategic plan. With this in mind, every company and organization should take the following steps:

• Stop allowing your marketing people to be balkanized into a department.
• Instead, make the marketing people part of the management team.
• Weave the marketing people through all of the company’s processes from the beginning
• You may wonder why marketing people should be woven through the HR function. People are the most important asset in selling a business and its products/services. The personalities must be such that they understand the company’s core mission and value proposition
• Make certain that everyone sees marketing as an important part of their jobs. This runs the gamut from the president who must lead the business from the standpoint of marketing its growth every single day in every single way to the manager of a business unit who recognizes that the only way to fuel the company’s growth and to build careers, is to achieve that steady drumbeat of growth, growth, growth.

Marketing is business. Business is marketing. They are one of the same. Almost every company that has achieved enormous growth and served as a model for others – think of Nike, Dell, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sony – has faced the world and conquered it, not just as technological experts, or fashion divas, or superb advertisers, but instead as organizations that placed marketing at the sweet spot of the business and let it permeate out to touch every single facet of the company.

Starting today, liberate “the marketing department”… and let marketing truly flourish.

Mark Stevens
CEO

Tell me how your Marketing is integrated in your business?

This article was originally published in the MSCO Newsletter in 2005

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