Rocks Are Hard

Double Forte Acquires The Barn Group

Well I haven't attended this blog in a long time, but have exciting news to share.

Double Forte has acquired long-term partner agency The Barn Group, a specialty artisan wine and food public relations and marketing services firm!

Together, Double Forte and The Barn Group bring deep expertise in large-scale national food and beverage companies as well as in smaller, artisan wine and food companies to offer exceptional experience from both worlds to our growing list of clients.

The Barn Group was founded by Managing Director Maggie Zeman in 2006; it will maintain its headquarters in Healdsburg, Calif. and will also have offices at Double Forte's HQ in San Francisco.

Maggie and her team have built a stellar reputation for The Barn Group with boutique wineries, wine organizations and food companies throughout Northern California.  She is a brilliant strategist, an amazing client advocate, and a consumate communications professional.  The Barn Group is a perfect complement to Double Forte's Food & Bev practice. 

I've known Maggie Zeman for a long time -- first as a competitor, then as a client, then as a colleague at Red Whistle, then as a partner firm and now as a partner.  

Frankly we've looked at partnering with many boutique firms in the last year or so and The Barn Group is the first to pass the Double Forte sniff test:

1.  "Do we have complementary work styles, ethics and priorities?"
2.  "Can we help each other?"
3.  "Will our businesses be stronger together?"
4. "Will we have fun together?"

I'm sure these are not in the right order, but they work for us! The Barn Group is in and already our clients are benefitting from the added expertise on both sides of the business.

I'm thrilled that Maggie and her team are part of the Double Forte family and we look forward to a great future together.

I invite you to check out The Barn Group at www.barngroup.com.

Cheers! 

 

Tell Me What You Think

When you're the boss, it's easy to get in the habit of making decisions for  or giving direction to people all day long. This is the worst thing you can do for your people.  How will they advance and grow without taking a stand or making a decision? If you just tell eveyone around you what to do then how will you get out of being in the middle of every little thing in the project or business?   

One person in a group can't know everything or be right all the time.

On the flip side, I see people all throughout my life who refuse to make a decision or articulate a point of view.  They end every meeting or conversation waiting for direction or asking "what should we do?" As if they're scared to make the wrong recommendation.  Or they don't want to be held accountable for the results of a decision. And suddenly 96 emails later you're in a vortex of hell full of passing the ball, asking for opinion, and posturing.

The day is filled with subjective questions, where there is no clear answer -- here is where YOU can  become invaluable in your environment.  When you can not just analyze or assess a situation but move forward from it!

TAKE A STAND! Tell us what you think we should do. Weigh options and give me (or whoever) your opinion about a way forward. You may not have all the information. Based on the information I have, I may not agree with you. But if you come to me (or your colleague or your client or your partner or your friend or your....) with an informed point of view  (e.g. "Here's what's going on, here are the options I see and their consequences, based on what I know I think we should do XYZ), then you've advanced the discussion and caught me up to your knowledge and analysis, and I (or anyone) can add context and decide together.

Without your informed point of view, all you're doing is (as my friend Paul's father says) "is coming and $%(ing on my lap."

And that's just a mess.

PS. Here's an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal on the science of  Why So Many People Can't Make Decisions.

You Can Do So Much Less When You're Informed

Too often I go to a meeting where I'm bombarded with questions or ideas about how to promote a company, a product, a service, a person, a...whatever.

"What do you think we should do about X?" "Should we go to YYY show?" "I think we should sponsor ZZZ, what do you think?" "When can we start seeing some big hits?"  You get the idea.

I always find it's a good idea to just let this go until the person or people have run out of steam.  Listen carefully and well to substance and intent. Once they pause to take a breath - wait. And then ask:

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

Sometimes the person knows, sometimes they don't. Triangulate until you get a high enough level answer (NOT: "50 promotions on mommy blogs." MORE LIKE: "Dominate the market for non toxic window cleaners" or "Command 45% of the market for jellybeans among women with children who like dogs") -- specific enough, BUSINESS-DRIVEN enough, quantitative enough that you can actually react to it.

Once you have the answer to the question, WHAT to do becomes much simpler to divine -- because in the context of the goal, certain activities that sounded great without the benefit of context will not make sense.  Once you know the resources you have to work with, then WHEN and HOW to do things becomes much simpler to articulate.

You can do a LOT of work in PR and marketing and never get anywhere -- much like a duck paddling against the current.

Too often agencies just move forward without understanding how their work translates to the client's bottom line (or the internal department does not really understand their role in driving the business).

Get clarity at the highest level question possible -- and you'll be able to do a lot less to achieve the goal.

Paddling with the current is always easier.

Never Ever Choose Friday at 5P as Your Deadline

Friday at 5.  Is there a worse deadline during the week? I'm here to tell you "No, there is not." 

 

Why?

Let me count the ways:

a) while you're trying to wrap up loose ends for the week, you're on the hook for a deliverable that will need what? a RESPONSE.

b) it ensures that whatever ball you were trying to move down the field will NOT MOVE until the following week -- unless of course you're ready to work the weekend.

c) it almost always means you're just getting STARTED at 5pm Friday. Because someone else wanted it done -- crossed off their list -- by Friday.

d) you'll start the next week BEHIND.

So pull it back. KNOW when the person you're delivering whatever it is to is available and what THEY need to do with it. Then work backwards so you give them something they can move along their own list to get it done. 

Choose Friday at 10am or Thursday at 5pm but Never Ever choose Friday at 5pm.

Just a helpful hint from someone who's made that mistake one too many times! (OK 1 would be too many.)

STOP TRYING! (the same thing)

Here's something no manager or client ever wants to hear: "I'm trying."

Why? Because it means you're not.

Truly - I have countless examples of this, and each time I hear "I'm trying" as answer to a request for an update, I know what I'm going to see once I peel the onion: That person trying the same thing over and over again and getting the same piss-poor result. STOP TRYING! Do Something Different!

I believe it was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." You don't have to be a scientist to figure out that this won't work -- you do have to use just a sliver of your brain though!

Get out of the box you put yourself in and find a new way.

If you've tried the same approach on three people with no result (this means three turn-downs, not three not-read emails) - start over. ASK THEM what would work? what they could do?  why it's not interesting? and then ...(here's the revolutionary part) ... ADJUST. Repeat until you get a winner.

If your research doesn't yield what you need - turn the question upside down and ask it a different way. This lesson came home again today when our intern (we are looking for another one if you know anyone) was able to identify 20 potential groups we need to find, by stopping to figure out what they all had in come (drinking after an event as it turned out) - and then searching on bars in a specific region to ID the groups. Hello! Brilliant!

The answer is out there -- your approach may not yield it.

If you find yourself saying "I'm Trying," stop yourself. Breathe. Cock your head 10 degrees to the right or left and look at the problem from a different answer.

You can make it so Number One -- but only if you stop trying.

Keeping it all in Perspective - the Benefit of outside eyes and ears

When we're deep into our work, it's sometimes hard to see the big picture -- how our work plays in the context of a bigger story, community, phenomena, trend.  On the one hand -- heads down, nose to millstone (what is a millstone?), everyone into deepend gets the job done.  On the other hand, that job may need some redirecting from people not quite so close to rubbing their nose to a nub.

Working with an agency is a developed skill.  Being a good agency is a developed talent.  On the agency side we want to be all the way in -- taking the work off the client's shoulders, making things happen they couldn't do themselves, helping them move the ball down the field.  Yet we also need to be hovering "over" the work -- getting a larger picture of the work to see how it fits, how much it matters, where the path to success may curve away from the plan.

Stop what your're doing and ask a few questions.

- What will this mean outside people who already care?

- Are you doing the right thing to make NEW people care?

- Are detractors keeping you from your purpose because they are loud, not because they are influential in the big picture?

Make sure you answer these questions with a clear head -- that usually means getting someone else removed from the actual day-to-day work involved, because most of us have a hard time discerning a larger picture when we're so into it.

Keep things in perspective and help others weather a storm or navigate a path to success will make you more useful, more valuable, more trusted -- and more successful.

Acknowledge Feedback and Direction

I always say the purpose of communication is to end it.  Meaning, write the memo, the plan, the email, make the case, pitch the idea in such a way that the reader/listener is not required to ask any questions to get a relevant, full picture.

This does not mean re-write War & Peace. But be succinct, appropriately illustrative or instructive and give the context the reader needs to gleen the information you want them to.

At the same time, it's important for the reader or listener -- particularly in a 1:1 dialogue or exchange to ACKNOWLEDGE receipt of said message. Otherwise it requires the sender to have to re-say, re-send, and/or wonder "did s/he get it?" "does s/he understand?" etc. etc. etc.

It's pretty simple. Say what you mean, well. Acknowledge that you got the message AND/OR get clarification so everyone's on the same page.

It's good protocol. More importantly, it's good etiquette.

The end.

And We're On a New Path - Power of the Upside Down Isoceles Trapezoid

When Dan and I started Double Forte in 2002, we were in the last downturn and the business we set up was in reaction to the condition of PR firms in San Francisco after the bubble burst and some personal things that my life required - mostly, the flexibility to travel to Wisconsin to be with my dyng mother (who outlived her prognosis by 3 1/2 years - yeah mom!).

So we decided that hey we LIKED, no LOVED the work involved in PR and Consulting, were tired of having to make stupid moves based on NYC home office demands, and really really tired of training young staff to show up on time, and learn how to dress and how to actually finish something before they went to Yoga class.  Double Forte was born with an upside down model -- 10years minimum to qualify + you had to like to work + you had to be a good person.  Oh and we didn't use the term PR anywhere, because we didn't like what PR had become in San Francisco.

It was destined to be small. We thought 10 max.

But no, the special sauce that is our special brand of service helped us grow to 18 last fall. 

 
Around us, boutique firms with experts only had grown to about 8-9 and traditional model firms and media-company-owned firms had swelled -- staffed by a plethora of 1-4 year experience people learning the ropes.  Last summer we started hearing more and more in pitches that clients were tired of the bait and switch, and not getting experienced people on their accounts, etc. It was deja vu to 2001 all over again. Actually it really pissed me off -- how could this be? How come no one was shifting to ensure that the one thing that brought us all down before wouldn't bring us all down again. 

At the same time, it was getting increasingly hard to find qualified good people at the 10 year mark, and the 5-8 year experience pool was looking shallow (because no one hired between 2001 and 2004ish).

And then on September 15th as the Dow was falling 900 points, it was clear that our world was shifting again. We knew that several clients wouldn't get the funding they needed to keep us. We knew that spending would tighten up quickly; we knew that many people in our field would lose their positions -- in house and at agencies; we knew that big firms would slash their minimums; we'd seen little onesy-twosey firms hit the skids earlier in the year, so that was drying up too.

So we cut expenses immediately; we re-oriented the staff on what to expect and how we needed to react and act, and despite our moves and great work we had to downsize by 3 in January.

And then the hard work of reconfiguring to ensure that we THRIVE in today's market and in tomorrow's market started. Because now, with no one getting hired NOW, there will be a really small talent pool in the 10 year experience mark in 18 months - 2 years. Our business model has been made obsolete.

And frankly we're not that encouraged by the caliber of the training that has happened in agencies in the last several years. So what to do?

Well it's clear we need to shift to this situation. And we need to train our own staff now to fill out the ranks. And we need to get them early so that they don't learn bad things.

So we're going square -- if the typical agency model is a pyramid with 1/4 at the top and 3/4 under 10 years billing 95% (so on the client dime to learn the work), and we were a long, flat rectangle with everyone with 10-20 years doing everything, now we're going square, well actually it's an upside down isoscles trapezoid  - where the experienced staff will outnumber the junior staff.

This of course is heresy. But since 25 cents isn't going to NY then we can do what works. And what works is people who know what they're doing, doing the work and more junior people just billing the time for real client work not Learning work. 

But we can't revert to the old tried and untrue - because IT'S BROKEN PEOPLE! We've all proved over and over and over again that the pyramid doesn't work, is not sustainable, and creates client conflict.

Now is the time to shift so that you are in a stronger position on the other side of this downturn. Join the upside down isosceles trapezoid!

Please Say Please

When the going gets tough - it's time to pour on the manners.

Please and Thank You go a long way in a difficult situation.  Go a long way in ANY situation.

For clients who regularly say please and thank you, my experience over 24 years says they get better service, better results, more for their money. For co-workers who use please and thank you, my experience says work gets done faster without as much drama and bitterness.

Even if you are giving a direct instruction, please and thank you have a serious place in the dialogue. It shows you respect the other person. It demonstrates that you are dependent on them to do something well for you.

At the same time, please and thank you do not mean the request or directive is necessarily a suggestion. Rather that the person has respect for you. If your "current" understanding of your day does not accommodate the request or directive, it is incumbent on you to explain that you have a full deck and to accommodate the request you will need to shuffle the deck and then seek input on how to get it done.

(Of course this sign is all wrong, but it makes the point!)

I know I respond better when the please and thank you buttons are pushed.

So Please say "please" and Thank you for saying "thank you" as you go about your day.

It is the give and take of working together.

A Sense of Urgency is Something You Feel, and it DOES NOT Feel like Panic

A sense of urgency -- let's define it.

A drive to deliver something BEFORE it's due so that you can be ahead.

An understanding of what the other person is dealing with so that you can provide what they need IN TIME to make a difference for that person.

A respect for the other person's day.

A sense of CALM because you're not always up against a deadline.

Now, actually I'm not talking to my staff. I'm reminded of these things because in many parts of my life I am the client and frankly service out there sucks. Why am I chasing these people down? How come everything I need to act on comes in when I need to act on it?

Double Forte-ains -- a sense of urgency -- a calmness around delivery -- will always differentiate us from those around us.