Rocks Are Hard

Just Say No to No

  In the last four weeks all the rules have changed...again. I'm not sure anyone knows what the rules are yet, but I think I can tell you what they will include:

1. Attitude Matters -- a good attitude, the willingness to help, the pavlov reaction to help and solve and pitch in, will be a important key for employees, contractors, agencies to getting, keeping and upping their positions.

Your job is NOT just your job: your job is to pass the ball, throw up the defensive block, create the diversion, get the assist to your colleagues around you. It may go against the Wall Street "Greed is Good" it's all about me pov, (and hey is that a bad thing?) but I believe that everyone will get further by moving forward together.

Just say no to No. EVEN IF NO IS THE ANSWER. You can get to NO, just don't make that the first word out of your mouth. Be willing to consider, be willing to solve, be willing to counsel to get to the result even if the request brings in a screaming "NO!" into your brain.

Take a breath. Listen to the request. Write it down. Ask a question about the goal. UNDERSTAND the goal.

Then go figure out how to get to the goal.  If we focus on Scoring the Goal instead of rejecting the play we don't think will work (yes I've been watching football and baseball lately) then we win.

Now is when experience matters. Now is when knowing what can work and what won't will make the difference in results. BUT IF YOU CAN'T BE HEARD BECAUSE YOU SAY NO FIRST it won't matter.

Hoarding Our Nuts

So here we are again..... economy is crunching (well that sound you hear is credit lines being zeroed out), clients are tightening their belts in anticipation and, well, all *&^% rolls down hill.

Double Forte was started at the end of 2002 when the economy quite frankly sucked. Six years later and it looks like groundhog day, all over again.  The difference for us is that we're not in a closet in Ghiradelli Square with just Lee and Dan and some freelancers who need the work more than we do.

Now we're 18 strong -- and strong I mean. Strong professionals who do the work. With a real office and many clients, big and small.  How to prepare? What to do?

DO NOT PANIC! NOW IS THE TIME TO STICK TO OUR KNITTING.

Here's what I know about operating a service firm in this type of tough market:

- Being easy to work with MATTERS. Say yes, and work around to no. DO NOT say no and get forced into being proved wrong.  Say yes, figure out what can be done and then make something happen.

- Attitude Matters.

- Performance Matters. Just because it's harder doesn't mean that you can "let it go," get lazy or think that the results don't matter -- they MATTER MORE

    On the Media Relations side of the equation, that means finding ways to make your client RELEVANT in a crazy time when the Dow vacillates from day to day, with 30ish days to go until a new president (please God make it only 30 days) is elected, when attention will then turn to how shitty the Holiday retail season will be.

In ADVERSITY THERE IS TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY if you have your head on straight and have a good attitude. 

What does this mean? This means the client may not get the story they want, our job is to get them the story they NEED for THEM TO BE RELEVANT.

Simpler is better.

Working from fear causes more fear. Everyone's going to be hoarding their nuts, clamping down, being more critical of spend. This is perfect for us.

In San Franciso it is really hard to find anyone with 5 years of experience doing what we do. Why? Becuase no one hired any entry level people between mid-2001 and 2004. Now 4, 5, 6 years later the agencies like us have gotten to 10 - 15 people and stayed. Medium to Big agencies re filled with newbies with 1,2, 3 years of experience -- and I mean filled.

So as clients squeeze the budgets down, transfer funds from advertising to WOM and PR, the traditional model firms will get further squeezed on capacity and margin while we can just do what we do -- provide excellent results that drive business executed quickly by professionals who know what they're doing.

Tally Ho!