Wizard's Roundtable: Episode 1

Johnny Molson: We thought we’d let you eavesdrop in on the conversations that we’re having with our clients and also amongst each other. Conversations that you’d normally only hear if you were sitting around the Wizards roundtable.

Today in St. Lewis, strategist and writer J.D. Campbell will help you figure out what to say and what not to say right now and how to keep your advertising relevant.

In Halifax, customer experience and sales specialist Ryan Chute talking about why it’s more important than ever to go back to your company values and make decisions by going back to the basics.

But we start with J.D. Campbell answering a question we’re going through quite a bit right now: should I be changing my advertising?

J.D. Campbell: My suggestion has always been with any advertising, to stay relevant to your customer. And relevancy here is we all know COVID-19 is happening — you know, you can’t escape it. So there’s no reason to necessarily address it directly. But what you can do is talk with relevancy as in “we’re all home and together.” We didn’t foresee it this way, but here we are and things are still going to break in the home. And so if you’re a home service company, actually, I think things are going to be okay. I think people are not going to stay at home with a clogged toilet.

Johnny Molson: No, certainly not. And I think certainly for home businesses and those that have been deemed essential. What if you are a not essential? You know, if you’re an accounting firm or something. That maybe isn’t a place that you necessarily need to go to, but you’re still doing business and you’re still doing stuff.

J.D. Campbell: I kind of really try to feel the waters as far as how important it is to them to make a message. There’s a way to address the things that you do as an accountant in your ad without sounding predatory. And to me, I guess the first thing I start thinking about is what concerns do I have because I’m now isolated at my house, or because of this situation? What concerns do I have as far as getting my taxes done? Because normally I drive, I sit down, I have lunch or I meet, you know, meet my accountant. Can I still do that online? Can I still file things electronically, which I think a lot of people know. And I want to bring Ryan in here, too, because why am I doing all the talking? What’s going on here?

Johnny Molson: Well, you’re the extrovert of the group. For the past eight minutes, you have been. But yeah, I guess one of the things that occurs to me is so much of what we do in in branding or brand building or even just, you know, securing your brand right now is we’re talking about something that’s that’s in the future. We’re not necessarily talking about getting someone in the door today. So it appears to me that what we’re saying right now really is addressing something that’s 8 months, 12 months down in the future. Ryan, when you talk about how a team delivers a unified message, what are you telling your businesses?

Ryan Chute: It starts off with bringing things down to the basics. And I’ll tell you guys that if you look at the Navy SEALs and special ops guys that are out there, anybody that’s been a part of the military in these higher levels, they’ve gone through absolute transformational training in the worst of times, the absolute worst of times. And they have been beat up and done hard things with no sleep. And they’ve done that on purpose because they really need to be able to make a decision in survival mode.

And survival mode is that mode that’s that’s below kind of — you think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s kind of the survival, the physiological needs, those really rudimentary things that keep us surviving. And that’s not where good decisions are made. Those are where most bad decisions are made. And they’re knee jerk reactions and they’re fearful. And they really do kind of skew the brain chemistry. And one of the things that I’m telling my customers consistently is to go back to those three core values that make up — your We Believe Statements — that make up what it is that you represent and the broader, more or more specific sense.

And that’s helping people win. Your staff and your customers and all your stakeholders being trustworthy and operating from a trustworthy position at all times. So you aren’t appearing predatory or even coming from a place of predatory. And then three, living in a grateful life, which is really kind of the basis of happiness, health, and wealth. It’s really about kind of understanding that we’re all in this together and that we’re all going to get through this as a unit, not not individually.

And when we start making decisions and I continue to go back to that three step process over and over and over again, I know that the CEO can make a good decision about what who to who to send out and when to send it out. I know that a business owner can make a decision of whether or not to have employee work for the day with a dry cough or not. I know that the people who are in the house are gonna make the right decisions because they’re operating from the right position in the first place.

I absolutely love We Believe Statements and they’re absolutely critical to your company. They’re the thing that denotes trust before you get into the customer’s house. But on the flip side of that, we need to make sure that we’re acting that way when we get there. And if we can simplify that into eight words. Three things. That’s something that every single one of our team members, leaders and managers can wear on their sleeve every moment of every day to get the job done right.

Johnny Molson: So the opportunity here is — and I want to be sensitive because I know that these are tough times for people. But the opportunity here is to simplify what you’re doing and what your processes are back to almost the roots of who you were when you began the business. And it really does give you a chance then to recapture that special spark for a business.

Ryan Chute: I think so. And I see that when I see the some of the amazing things that are being done. And I have a person that I’ve been interacting with for a while now in the HVAC space. He decided that he was going to give away a free filter with every for it for anyone who needed one for their air conditioning HVAC unit. He’s delivered over two thousand filters personally himself. Now he’s generated some business from it, but that was never the intent of it. In fact, in his presentation he said, we’re more than happy if you just tell us the size that you need, that we’ll leave it on your doorstep and you never have to interact with us. Our job is to make sure that you stay healthy during these times in our community. And if you need us, let us know. One will be sure to to discuss your options with you.

Johnny Molson: J.D., I think that goes back a little bit to what you were saying about being careful about being predatory. And that sounds to me like a business that is acknowledging the reality of what’s going on, figuring out a way to be a hero, to be helpful, to help people win. As Ryan just said, without it sounding like “Please don’t forget about us. We’re in business, and please do business with us.” Maybe you can talk about that?

J.D. Campbell: Well, actually, what I was hearing, if I can, you know, maybe your question right back to Ryan is I love love the analogy of simplifying things. And like you said, Navy SEALs are trained to do this. You know, when times of crisis hit, they’re trained to do this. What kind of advice do you have for somebody that says “Hey, I understand the idea of stripping down to my We Believes and my core values. But how do you unify that team when you’re not a Navy SEAL by nature?” Does that make sense?

Ryan Chute: It 100% makes sense. And this is something that I’ve addressed for a number of years and really is the reason why I align with Roy H Williams and the rest of my Wizard of Ads partners. Because it’s the exact same strategies and messages that we tell our customers that we use. For example, frequency on the radio helps things sink in, right. Frequency from a leader delivering the exact same message consistently to their staff is equally as important.

That’s why eight words. That’s why three phrases. That’s why reducing it to the ridiculous, simplifying it so much that people can understand it and own it because it’s an echoic retention. It’s a reticular activator in play that’s hooking that into the customer’s brain, the employee’s brain, to be able to act with an automatic response.

It’s not the funnest place in the world to be when we do that. But we don’t have to make it tyrannical. We don’t have to make it dark or evil or or hard. What we do need to do is make sure it’s consistent. And the best way to do that with adults who are trying learn is to include them in the process. Include them in the development of the process, include them in the actual ongoing process. And let them work with you as a team and empower them to be successful. You can do that a lot easier.

Johnny Molson: All the more reason to go back to some of the basic simple things. It’s so much easier to keep a message consistent when it’s basic and simple and pure to who you are. And that doesn’t confuse people. Ryan, you’ve compared what we’re going through now to almost like the five stages of grief. Where in that arc are we right now?

Ryan Chute: Well, it’s interesting because when you start looking at grief arcs, at storyline arcs, at transitional curves, or the cycle of change for people in business like the Kubler-Ross curve, what you’re talking about here is seven steps.

I’ll quickly read them off here for you. We start with shock. We move to denial. We go from denial to awareness of the situation, and then that goes to acceptance. I think that for the most part, we’re sitting in that acceptance area right now. We’re all staying in place now. There’s still a few outliers, you know, who are sitting in denial stage and defying all of the regulation and expectation out there. I think we’re past awareness. I think different countries are at different stages. But these first four stages are the stages that really get things muddy, shock being the first one, no question.

2 weeks ago, we were we were at the shock stage. Half the community, half the society moved into denial. The other half moved into awareness quite quickly. And then down into acceptance as where we’re sitting now, because we’ve had time to kind of come off of that high of the of the excitement of all this kind of strangeness going on.

Johnny Molson: Ryan, when you say “that’s where we are”, do you mean we as a society or that’s where businesses are sitting?

Ryan Chute: I think that’s where we as a society are. At the end of the day, the businesses are probably still dancing between awareness and acceptance. And some of those businesses, the strongest businesses, in my opinion, the businesses that have really kind of taken this and completely maneuvered quite quickly are in the last three phases. Which is that experimentation, searching, and an integration stage, or what I like to call they’re in “adaption mode”.

J.D. Campbell: Johnny, it’s interesting because, you know, Ryan’s in Canada. Johnny and I are here in our area, the Midwest of the USA. It also makes me think that maybe it breaks down on an individual basis of the business owner where that business owner is in their mind. Because I have some people I know just through talking that are in the acceptance phase, as of today. And some people that are still in denial.

Johnny Molson: Right. And I think the lesson here and that’s why I ask the question of “are we talking about where society is versus where businesses are?” I think that’s maybe the important message for business is to at least try to grasp where society is versus where you are. I’m sure a lot of businesses are still in the shock phase where they have just been slammed against the wall, they don’t know what’s hit them.

And helping them understand, “Here’s where your customers are, and by the way, here’s where they’re going.” So that way you can almost give them that light of hope out there that says we’re going to be here. I know we’re over here now, but we’re going to be up here later on that thing.

J.D. Campbell: Ryan, great point. I’m sorry, I must say that is a great point because that leads back to the whole relevancy of our messaging, you know? And so whether a business owner, you know, is in denial or not. If we’re able to say, “Hey, look, these things in society are happening.” And the big one, John, like you said, “Look, there is hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel.” And if you can, I guess, help the business owner get through that transition, keep their messaging in line with the movement of society, it’s all for the best.

Johnny Molson: Ryan, you talk a little bit about contingency plans and that you can use because, “Gosh, we don’t know what’s going to happen this afternoon. We don’t know what’s going to happen this month. We don’t know anything.” How does a business plan for the unknown?

Ryan Chute: I’ve recommended to my clients and I’m on the phone with them at least twice a week for 90 minutes to two hours per session working through their contingency plans, developing the protocols and processes that they need to put in place to handle three different phases.

Phase number one is the today-now-in-the-present-moment-contingencies. That’s “Who’s coming to work. Who’s not coming to work. How many of them have child care issues? How many of them don’t have child care issues? What are we doing in the moment to deal with this? What are the protocols to make sure that the office stays safe, that the truck stays safe, that the customers stay safe? And how are we communicating that across the board?” That’s the here and now.

Phase two is One Week. And phase 2 is saying “In one week, what are the contingencies you’re putting in place? What are your protocol changes based off of changing and evolving information coming from the W.H.O. and the government? What are the things that are going on in your business that we may need to change or see the horizon change?”

One of my customers has 12 technicians out in the field. Five of them are currently out. So that that’s your week-to-week change. “How are we going to be addressing scheduling? When are those people coming back?” That one week plan is basically going to suit you, with small adaptions to it, for the next three weeks.

And the last one is your One Month Contingency Plan, that’s Phase 3. The One Month Contingency Plan is the horizon planning. We’re looking at “What is it we’re going to do to adapt to either we’re going to be in a regulated-in-home-order still, or we’re not?” And each one has a split, a Y in the road, right?

And that’s essentially what we are. We’re the guides to these people and telling them “Go down this Y or go down this Y. These are your two options. You tell me, what are you going to do if this happens? OK, and then what are you going to do if that happens? And if we have this contingency plan then here’s my solution in the can. Here’s my advertising in the can. Here’s my messaging in the can.”

Everything’s ready to go on the today moment, and on the week moment. The week is going to be modified slightly, but pretty consistent for the next three weeks. And then also your one month plan.

If you’re looking at trying to plan out your 6 to 8 to 12 month plans, that’s wonderful. But first, get your basics in order. Get the here and now in front of you in order. Because that’s going to allow you to make your best decisions on forecasting: where you’re going to go and what you need for resources and what it’s going to cost you and resources to get there to keep this boat afloat.

Johnny Molson: If you happen to have some questions that you’d like us to answer. Put them in the comments on the YouTube video and we’ll address them in upcoming episodes of the Wizards Roundtable.