Boy Are You Stupid

There is a new paradigm that is going to be used going forward with a new out of the box mentality that our corporate synergy will begin to employ with the challenges we have experienced through the effective opportunities that we face. 


What?!   Yep, there are people that talk just like that.  What they said, I have no idea.  It is the emperor's new clothes approach to business and you should be mindful of anyone that you do business with employing these terms.  Having nothing of substance to say, they weave a web of incomprehensibility that no one can penetrate.  And because we don't want to appear uncouth, we shake our heads and smile all the while realizing that we do not have a clue what they are talking about.  Well, STOP IT!


At the first sign of a paradigm shift, ask that person to leave.  They have nothing of consequence to say unless they are able and willing without the use of words that make no sense strung together (i.e., they have a real solution to a real problem) they aren't telling you anything.


If you have a challenge, how to address it?  If you have a problem, logic dictates that you begin to work on a solution.  While a challenge may be a cool way of saying something, it doesn't dictate anything.  


Think of it like this: on television there is a show that requires contestants to enter a challenge.  That challenge is meet with effort but there isn't a particular need to do anything other than overcome the challenge.  So is overcoming something better than finding a solution?  That problem, as ugly a word as it is, makes you think of something.  Maybe not a positive something but it does begin the process of moving your mind.  Challenges seem more like something you try and if you don't succeed, well that is okay.  When you want to motivate people, you want their minds sharp, not in the weeds.


Which brings up another area, avoid those that play in the weeds.  Remember playing sports or activities as a child.  The kid that was playing off in the weeds never really was involved in anything the team did.  That kid just enjoyed being off in the weeds.  Most companies that do marketing, LOVE the weeds.  If they love them that much, let them play all they want, with someone else's money!  


You know your organization, your marketing and sales people (from website to print media) should have a grasp of how to augment your knowledge, how to take your ideas and make them real while making adjustments and explaining those adjustments as you move along.  If they can't, don't waste your time talking to them anymore.  They do not know what they are doing.


And for the love of all that is holy, don't trust someone that only knows how to do one thing.   Marketing your organization isn't the same as putting cars together on an assembly line.  Each part does have an influence on each other part.  Without the ability to know how changes in one area would affect another, you are risking damaging your marketing approach - the message as well - without even knowing it.  So avoid the "Internet marketing companies."  Their intelligence is about building one part, and without the whole knowledge you cannot accomplish anything but wasting your money.  


Just like you would not try to put a puzzle together without looking at all the part, you need the context of where to put something to know how to put it in.  With the wrong company helping you, that can cause your puzzle to be nothing but a mess.  Don't let that happen.  Look for overall approaches to solutions and how each expenditure of resources will impact the overall marketing outreach plan.  If they cannot tell you or they say you don't need an overall marketing outreach plan, walk away.  Don't end up telling yourself in the end, "boy, are you stupid!"