Week of April 20, 2009

I am hearing from a lot of real estate agents and seeing on the business channels that real estate is beginning to turn around. A friend of mine says that for the first time in a couple of years they have more sales than listings; a strong sign of a turnaround. Where I live, there is a 13-month supply of homes, which is the lowest in 13 months. If you don't already have someone targeting real estate and home builders, it might be a good time to ramp it up because the next few months are probably going to be heating up and now is the time to pre-sell. The only bad thing about this is my realtor friend is out of our Saturday golf foursome because business is so good.

I was just remembering the way things used to be. Things like turning in expenses for expensive lunches and dinners with clients and the approval happening automatically because our clients expected it; trips to Los Angeles, Vegas, or New York to hear that new talent with air fare, five-star hotel and gourmet dinner all paid for by the record company; golf with a client expensed and paid with no questions; the company car (Caddy, BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes) and all the gas it could drink. I could go on, but it was just a flash down memory lane. A good diversion in these troubled times. It's probably not coming back, so if you are too young to have taken part in it; too bad. It was really fun. The fun now is the satisfaction of doing a job well and still being paid to be among the clowns in the circus. Always remember, you could be destroying your body having to do actual physical labor.

We now have a myriad of ways to connect with our audiences -- over the air, streaming, texting, Facebook, and on and on. We all know our assets, but are we taking advantage of them? Here's one of those things from the conventions that we need to take a few minutes and put into practice. List ALL your assets and let your staff's creative juices flow on how to use them for fun and profit. It's an exercise that shouldn't take more than an hour, but could hit the motherlode.

Remember when all we had was spot revenue and maybe a little non traditional revenue? Ahhh, the simple life. Work hard, get some ratings, have some good air talent who mix nicely with the advertisers and listeners one on one and there it was ... success! Is it really that different now? Are we making it too difficult just because we have more technical assets to reach our customers? Isn't it still all about reaching our listeners and connecting them with our clients? Are we doing it or making it too difficult because, after all, it's TECHNOLOGY? That's five questions. Answer them all honestly because after all, the only person grading your answers is ... you.

Do you have a plan? No, I don't mean a plan for your business; that is usually done ad nauseam by direction of whoever you report to. I mean a personal plan. Have you and your significant other (if you have one) spent time dreaming about where you want to be next year at this time ... in a couple of years ... in five years ... when you retire? It's amazing how your personal dreams sometimes don't run parallel to your business plan. If they don't, you're going to have to change one of them because if they are not parallel, both are at risk. Take time this week to do a little dreaming and planning. Sit down in a comfortable spot with your drink of preference and verbalize it this way, "Where do I (we) want to be on this date next year?" Then extend it out more years. You can take notes, but it's not necessary. This is a mind game that gets the synapses going in the right direction.