This morning's QUICK BLOG:
Okay so it’s about 5:45 AM and I just got through security at the airport. I’m headed out to Orlando for more interviews for the new Ocoee store. We got into the hotel about 12:30 this morning, coming from the No Fear sponsored Urijah Faber after party at The Ultra Lounge.
So…tonight’s/last nights WEC fight…OMG, who watched it? I KNOW that many of you did because I either received text messages, emails, phone calls, OR sat next to you because you were there! Bottom line, what a night! Some of the best fights I have ever seen, the last two fights were crazy and Urijah Faber rocked the house! Our sponsored fighter, Urijah Faber kicked ASS! Kicked Jens Pulvers ass to the Octagon Floor! Craaaazzzy!
Bryan Baker sat right behind us; he fought Chael Sonnen at the last WEC fight in Vegas. The couple who won the two free tickets to the fight sat right in front of us. We saw HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of the No Fear Cage Fighter, or No Fear Urijah/California Kid T shirts. Seriously…HUNDREDS. The crowd was CRAZY. 10,000 people were in attendance, people were drinking the NEW NO FEAR Motherlode. Frank Mir, Tito Ortiz, Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, Clay Guida, etc were all at the fight.
You, by now should know the outcome of the fight as Urijah Faber took Jens Pulver in 25 minutes of insane “how did he live through that?” action!!
The After Party at the Ultra Lounge was Insane. All I can say is that Jenn Goodrum did a phenomenal job insuring that this was the party of all parties! FANTASTIC Party , venue, turnout!!! Derrick, Ryan, Chelsea, Rachel and Erica were hot and ready to pass out energy drinks, decals, kisses and tee shirts. FYI…Bryan Baker and Chuck Liddell were there…I got a text from Frank Mir, thought he would show, never saw him, Mark Munoz showed up though, his fight tonight was INSANE too.
When pictures are forwarded to me Ill get those off to you. Don’t forget that New Marquee signs hit this week, the New Faber Walk in Tee hits this week and the P.O.P. should arrive in your stores today and tomorrow. The Walk In Tee is BLOWING up on the web already. Have a GREAT MONDAY; no doubt this will be THE TALK of the store today. Our NO FEAR Brand was plastered ALL OVER the TV. The MILLIONS of Brand Impressions cannot even be measured. I hope you ALL feel the momentum today.
Again, it was a sick night and really just a tremendous showing of NO FEAR Spirit! Just as Urijah fought last night, with a pure and strong mental attitude, you too should have the same disposition in your stores!
Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal! NOTHING!!
Have a GREAT start to the week.
How is your Wednesday going? By now in the day you should be done with projects and the rest of your day should be all about selling. My day in particular is GREAT! FANTASTIC! Absolutely, positively, not a single complaint, couldn’t be happier today. There is such a flurry of excitement in the air today. Can you feel how big the weekend is going to be?
Okay, so who remembers my story from last Septembers Manager Meeting about my days when I used to be a nightclub manager for Confetti nightclubs? Remember when I was talking about Mark and Brian coming into the club back in the day when we wore white cotton peg pants and upturned polo collars? Bad visual I know, but anyway it was a great memory.
I was talking to Brian about those days this morning and I was remembering what it was like to come into our nightclub as a guest. Man we used to have a long line at the door with people begging to get in. They had to pay $10 too AND that was back in the 80’s. It was a two level, three bar nightclub. The bars used to have anywhere from 5-7 bartenders per bar with at least two bar backs. On any given night we might have at least 21 cocktail waitresses’ working. We would do some of the craziest things (you have to remember this was the 80’s when music was equated with God…AND SO WAS I)!
I had a big head of hair that I would cut into an insane flat top and dye it whit e to look like Billy Idol. ( Funny, I guess I haven’t changed too much since then as I was just as mean, I used to be called Sergeant Carter). I remember we would do lip synchs every night in the club and these were HUGE productions. It was a scheduled show and the productions actually rivaled the music videos of the day. I used to do the Joe Jackson song, "I'm the man” and I also did Huey Lewis ( Remember, I HAD hair then), “The heart of rock and roll”. Those were some great times.
We had the crazy things called dance floor attacks. We would get 300 people up out of their chairs and make them do Confetti pushups on top of each other and do these insane loooooong dances to 'Relax' by Frankie goes to Hollywood. I know a lot of you are hearing these names and are having a tough time relating but I am going to get to the point soon. The point is, IT WAS FUN. It was a blast. Believe me we worked our asses off. As a manager in the 80’s we DIDN’T have computers and you can imagine trying to balance 21 cocktail waitresses and 10 bartenders manually with paper and a calculator. We would have to be at the Club at 12:00 noon to set up bars, balloons, fill confetti cannons, rehearse, have a daily staff focus meeting, get the happy hour buffet ready, etc. It was a lot of work before opening at 5:00 PM every day. So, the Club wouldn’t close until 2:00 AM, and then that’s where I and the other managers had to balance and do the tedious work. We wouldn’t get out of there until 6:00 AM on some days. It was hard, it was rough but we made it Fun!!! WE MADE it FUN! We all had these great attitudes because we KNEW that people from the outside looking in wanted to be in our club. We MAD SURE that they were always having a GREAT TIME! Sometimes they couldn’t get in based on dress code etc. People on the outside wanted to be part of the club and always were trying to get hired there. I worked there from 1984 – 1987. It was a long three years but to be honest some of the greatest personal memories I have from my past life. We were livin’ in the 80’s and most of you weren’t even yet a speck in anyone’s eyes.
So, I know you are thinking to yourself, what is the point that Michael is trying to make today? Do you realize that YOU TOO are part of a club? You know you need to think about what I said the other day in one of my emails, that you are in an enviable position to the outside world, and the people looking in can at times be envious. Why? Well as I also said, not only are we selling a brand, apparel, hard goods, soft goods…we are also selling the No Fear lifestyle that we live in. We are selling memberships to an insane and fun club. Don’t think I’m crazy, think about it….you have seen the people, standing outside your front door, drinking the energy drink that you just gave them, watching Deegan on the video screen take a dive over his bike. Interestingly enough, what do they normally do? They walk into the club. Your Club! Your store!
You’ve seen the people walking by taking a glance at the window and seeing the rad looking FMF hat on your mannequin, the NEW No Fear Tee, the belt buckle, the girl’s beater in the window…and then they take a second look. All of a sudden thy see UFC on the video screen…and their hooked, they walk in, look around, they hear great LOUD music…and then…you give them a free Energy Drink. “Holy crap, what store am I in”? They think to themselves. They are in fact getting ready to be persuaded to join a club, by you! WITH your enthusiasm, knowledge and understanding that you make the difference at that moment in that persons life. YOU , yes you, make a difference in their lives. You can MAKE or BREAK their day!
Don’t discount the though process that anyone walking by a store in a mall is similar to someone walking by a club. They are just deciding what club to join. You need to give them the clubs identity so they understand why they should join our club. (Remember you are selling a lifestyle, not just the brand). I assure you once you have made them a member, you will have a member for life. Hey you know what, not every one will join and not everyone that joins will want the membership, but…if you keep trudging along with the influence and smiles and dedication that you are showing, I assure you, you will have the most envied club on the street, or in our case, the mall.
Seriously, we are seeing a switch in the trends of our culture. We HAVE the club to join! WE HAVE SOME GREAT CLUB MANAGERS! Now…DON’T GET COCKY! Just because you belong to a great club doesn’t mean that you get all big headed and ahead of yourself. You must still get your guests in the club to understand that we are the best and FRIENDLIEST Club that exists. If they want to spend $1.00 or $100.00 we will give them BOTH the same great level of service.
Just wanted to share a story. Enjoy the rest of your day today, get your membership cards out and get your staff on the red carpet ready to welcome your new club members into your club! You may, or may not like the story, but in the thick of things, if you are not personally a member yet, you might want to think about also joining. Just a thought.
"Sim Sim Salabim" are the magic words said by Hadji on the show The Adventures of Jonny Quest. I watched it when I was a little boy. It was about an 11 year old boy, Jonny Quest, his adopted brother Hadji, from India, his Dog Bandit (which looks just like Stitch for those of you that were at my house last year), His Father Benton Quest and the scientist Race Bannon. It was a great late 60’s cartoon. Sort of like Transformers for all of you. And another FYI - Benton Quest ROCKED! He always had this sort of arrogant, but intelligent scorn on his face, but in a good way. Now he totally reminds me of Mark and Brian. But in a good way, I assure you (especially if they read this)! Anyway they were these REAL sorts of adventure characters. They were world travelers and fought crimes. Hadji used the words “Sim Sim Salabim” akin to the expression Abracadabra and the like, to perform such feats as hypnotizing bad guys, removing the bullets from an enemy's gun, levitating objects, and opening locked doors. Interestingly though, Hadji never seemed to find the opportunity to stop the empty hangers on fixtures or the stop the hangtags from being found on the floors of a fitting room. That was not his expertise, that however, is yours.
Ok, so When I was on the plane yesterday flying back from Orlando, I had five and a half hours to kill. I have been playing 'Brick Breaker' on my Blackberry for months now and have never gotten past level three. Its been frustrating me. I have never played video games and I have never owned or played an X Box, Play station, Game Cube, WII, etc. It wasn't my generation, I don't have kids, so the games have never been a particular influence in my life.
Now, if you want to start talking to me about cage fighting, UFC, WEC etc, I am a skilled champion in that Arena, and I can take you down, just like I can drink certain managerial persons under the table who shall remain nameless in this email.
Anyway for me to get past level three has sort of been an internal silent goal. I know my fingers are fat, I have crappy vision and I have the attention span of a spastic rat (that unfortunately stems from growing up on MTV). So I really wanted to get past the number three and 270 points. So once the plane took off on the 2nd leg of my flight, I readied my seat, slowly moving it back. I put away my peanuts and magazine and got myself ready. I turned on my Blackberry and put it on airplane mode...then I wondered, how was this going to be any different than any other time. How was I going to motivate MYSELF to get past that stupid level. So I shut my eyes for a minute and sort of thought about the situation. I put my mind on a success thought process rather than a fail thought process. It hit me. I had been so in tune with the fact that I had been failing at that game that I never thought to turn the entire thought process around and look at it from the standpoint that I WAS going to get past it.
My whole mindset became "I wonder what level I will end up on". It was like a small bomb went off in that portion of my brain and completely cleared the way for success. So there I sat, seat 6D, my thumbs fumbling on 34 small keys, none bigger that the size of the back of a diamond earring, probably one carat, no bigger. I could feel the anticipation in my fingers and I could feel the adrenaline rushing into my hands, and wrists, from my brain to my elbows. I was sweating, I knew I was being watched by the two tourists heading home in the seats next to me. I'm sure I looked like some deranged old man on crack, but I could feel the success creeping up, thumbs moving that paddle back and forth like ants under a magnifying glass in the hot Arizona summer sun.
And then...it happened. My eyes grew big, sweat on my brow, watching the ball bust the bricks and I heard the noise, ding ding. Just like that, the goal that seemed so insurmountable to me, like climbing Mount Everest. DING DING, and just like that I mastered level three. I couldn't breath at that point. Nor could I attempt to relish my success or see how much ammo I had left. I feared of some failure so I just fastidiously continued on my juvenile innocent journey, like Jonny Quest, his dog Bandit and his adopted brother Hadji. And then just like Hadjis mantra "Sim Sim Salabim" I did it, I passed level four, I passed level five, I passed level six and level seven.. I was on level eight. I was marveling in my personal success...and then...I stopped. Just like that. I stopped. I saved the game and shut it off. I put my Blackberry into my seat pocket, raised my seat, wiped my brow, put my head back and closed my eyes.
My mind was racing. I felt like Ralphie in A Christmas Story figuring out how he was going to get his Red Ryder BB Gun. I started thinking about how we could use that self motivation and determination to grow our daily business. How could this experience be the next lesson, the next relevant analogy? We COULD grow a specific category through personal motivation and awareness.
Aha! Sim Sim Salabim! OPTICS?? OPTICS!!! This was hitting close to home. I had been seeing this behavior in the new stores this past week. The newer employees had been discussing their concern of almost being afraid of having to sell Optics. Its rough, I know. You approach the optics cases and someone wants to see a pair of Spy. They see the Eliza's on the shelf and your really not sure of yourself on selling these higher ticket items. Lets face it, we all know that Optics is a personal choice and you're just not quite certain how your reaction to the guest in the store should be. So I started thinking that the approach to selling Optics should be the same approach as my approach to getting past level three on Brick Breaker. You have to ENVISION that success prior to going to that customer. Your approach should not be, "I hope I make an Optics sale", rather you need to envision that the sale is already complete. Your approach should be., "how MANY pair can I sell this guest". Assume that they are already there in your store to purchase the Optics. You're just giving them the guidance on what looks better, which is the style, which best suits them, black frames or white frames, polarized, non polarized, etc. It sounds simple, I know, but the self envisionment worked. The self motivation worked. If I can envision getting past level three on Brick Breaker and attain level eight status, without batting an eye imagine the other successes you can have in life. Your envisionment and attitude will make you a success. A positive attitude will cause a chain reaction of positive thoughts, positive events and positive outcomes. Its a catalyst, a spark that will create extraordinary results.
So the moral of all of this is, if you imagine and envision your success, you WILL be successful.
Yesterday when I was in the mall in Lakeland, I was in and out of the Store on the phone per usual. At one point during a phone conversation, I went across the mall to get something to eat and I saw a cart that sold sodas, yogurt, candy, ice cream, etc. I went up and bought a yogurt, Strawberry-kiwi Yoplait. Simple, quick and satisfying. Its what I normally eat at home. I purchased the yogurt from a person who was barely existing in their role at the cart and frankly she seemed silently impervious to the fact that I just gave her a twenty dollar bill. She gave me my change back, for a $5.00. I suppose I took a step to walk away, because I would not have thought that I was going to get incorrect change. It was like I started to ride away on a bike and all of a sudden the chain broke. I stopped mid stride and looked at her somewhat puzzled at not only her lack of personal respect in her position, and service, but also the fact that she had just given me wrong change. I told her I gave her a twenty. In a swift move, and without a breath she handed me a $5.00 and a $10.00, never said a word to me and looked down. It was clear that she was absolutely assuming that I would not notice that she was intentionally trying to short change me, and was caught. It was so efficient and smooth that it was reasonable to assume this was a normal behavior for her. My look of disgust at what she had just tried to do went unnoticed, because she refused to look at me and calculatedly began to clean up a non existent spill on her counter. I was steaming at that point, but realized that this simple little transaction would stick with me forever, and that I would probably tell that story for a long time. I retreated back to the bench in the mall and sat down to eat my yogurt. When I took the lid off of the yogurt, the underside of the lid said "please try again". Please try again? Try what! I looked at the yogurt container and saw that Yoplait was having some sort of a contest, and I was unaware. Please try again. Please try again, is like saying, you're a loser, you didn't win, you will never make it in life. PLEASE TRY AGAIN? UGH!!! So basically I was just trying to enjoy my simple little container of yogurt and all of a sudden I was hit with, you didn't win! I was wishing it would have said, "have a great day Mr. Pierce", or "your the best!", something other than ...Please try again. I like yogurt. I like that it is in a small container and that it has a ton of flavors. It's quick, easy to eat and moderately satisfying. However at this point into the three minutes of walking to make the purchase and sitting down to eat it, I all of a sudden didn't want it anymore. I lost my appetite and tossed the yogurt container and then went back into the store. It was simple, three minutes...twenty dollars...and yogurt. That person at the counter will never know my story. In another state, working a 12 hour day and hungry. Yoplait will never no that their message of negativity took away my appetite of their product. No one would ever know that two persons in three minutes took one seemingly simple task and broke my spirit at that moment. That person could have made a difference in my life, but they made a choice, not to. They MADE the choice.
So, now...Imagine being a customer walking into one of our stores. Imagine that it is a young person with twenty dollars. Maybe it was twenty dollars that they got in a card today for their birthday. Imagine that they were so excited to get a ride, or even take the bus to the mall to go shopping. This person has waited a few weeks to come back into get the SRH Spade Decal for their book bag. So think about my yogurt story and think about that young person in our store just in a carefree sense wanting to shop. Imagine them having that similar experience in our store. No one really greeting them, I mean maybe someone would have said, "hello". But is that greeting? Is it the right greeting for that person? No one concerned that this person may have been waiting for a few weeks to come into the store. That the twenty dollar bill in that persons pocket might feel like $100 to you and I? You must remember that the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just
make the best of everything. Perhaps your lack of communicative persona with that person, during that sticker transaction may also leave that young person empty. Disappointed, almost feeling like that bus ride and anticipation of buying that single sticker was a waste. You made a choice, not to make that persons day.
I want you to think about this today. I want you to think about this story. I want you to think about it because I want you to share it with your teams. I want you to realize how special we can make EACH PERSON feel when they come into our stores. Do you realize that, YOU have an opportunity to make someone completely happy every time they come into our store. You have a choice, you have a choice to satisfy your in store guests, or to methodically disappoint. Think about that responsibility. Its enormous! I actually get a bit sad when I think about how possible it could be to ruin a guests day by simply not taking the extra step to truly ask " how are you doing today"?, or really meaning that you are "there to assist them, when they need help". Look our jobs are tough. Not only are we selling product, but we are selling a specific lifestyle. But you must never forget that within the parameters of that selling, there is a respectability factor that can never wean. You all have a choice. I would encourage all of you to go watch the movie Dangerous Minds. Its completely inspirational, and the speech Michelle Pfeiffer gives the students about Making a Choice, making a choice to get on the bus is overwhelming. All of you have a choice to succeed, do what's right and make a difference each and every day with each and every customer.
So...yesterday...you PROVED THAT YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE! Wow, all I can say is WOW! I threw out a challenge Wednesday and in a big big way you made the choice to beat and exceed that challenge. As a division you beat yesterdays budget by over $10,000!!! You texted and emailed me stories through the day about how YOU WERE GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Store Managers sent me in store stories about customers, DM's emailed me dissertations on what they were doing in their district to make a difference. YOU ALL MADE A DIFFERENCE. You all had the choice to do succeed or fail, and most of you were determined to succeed. Its not easy and in a lot of cases sometimes you just have to take the leap, and build your wings on the way down. You had a choice, and you made a difference. YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE!
So here we go again, into the weekend. Please take this story with you. Please take these thoughts with you. There are many more days this week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and there are huge goals to hit, objectives to complete and the challenges will be many. But...you have a choice, to do what's right, you have a choice to make a difference and you have a choice to make someone's day. We work for an enviable company and you are in and enviable position to the outside world looking in. You have the choice to let them know how satisfying this world is, You have the choice to make a difference.
