A few weeks ago my niece and nephew pitched an idea to my wife and I. They had started a small business in their neighbourhood collecting the recyclables from nearby homes. Having gotten into a nice routine there, they were ready to branch out into our subdivision.

Impressed? Yep, I was. We signed up, and, as the annual AGM of our homeowners’ association was coming up, we helped them distribute info to other residents and they signed up another customer in addition to us.

Their pitch was compelling.

Uncle David, you recycle already, but how about this. For $25 per month, we collect your recyclables every Sunday morning, which, by the way, you do not have to separate, and we will return the bin to you by Saturday evening, washed. Now you do not have to take your recycling to the drop location or keep three sorting bins in the utility room. We got this.

I love so much about this story and their small business. It will teach them many lessons that they will carry forward through life.

• AN IDEA – They had an idea, based on a real need in their community. They worked their business plan and they started their business.
• ACTION TO START – Where so many wannabe entrepreneurs stop, they persevered. They took action to start the business that they had thought about. The vast majority of us never do.
• EXPANSION – After getting their immediate area sorted out, they looked to expand their operations. Jack Welch said if your business is not growing its dying. They are not running GE, mind you, but they are growing.
• DEVELOPMENT – Last night we chatted about developing their idea further, into other districts and subdivisions. These kids have big dreams. Dad may have to buy a truck.

I’m super proud of what Luke and Jade are doing. Paper runs are not a thing here. At 12 and 14 years old, in a time honoured tradition, they have chosen recycling as their modern day paper run.

When I was a kid an impact to the head and any resulting dizziness or headaches were just a part of life and not given much attention unless seriously debilitating. Times have changed for the better. In large part this is due to the awareness of the cumulative effect of head injuries in sports such as American / Canadian football and rugby. For an excellent insight into the long-term nature of repetitive head injury, I can recommend the film Concussion, starring Will Smith. The protocols that have been established over the years for injuries on-field have been extended to the wider campus, and it is impressive.

Within minutes of this accident, Taylor had been taken to the school medical centre where she completed a Sport Concussion Assessment Tool 3 (SCAT3) test, the result of which indicated she was experiencing 19 of the possible 22 symptoms. With this result, the school immediately instituted their head injury protocol which includes close monitoring in the health centre on day one, and a daily repeat of the SCAT3 test until she is symptom-free. She was also immediately banned from all screens including phone screens, which for a teen meant immediately assigning a friend to keep her Snapchat streaks going. Priorities! When the test results are normal (hopefully soon), the school then institutes its Return to Learn programme with respect to classes and school work missed while on screen restriction. This involves the active participation of the Academic Support Office at the school in a holistic approach to bringing the student back up to academic ‘speed’ after pulling them back 100% to allow the brain to recover from the injury.

Obviously, the protocol for diagnosis, management and return to academics has come out of painful and dangerous lessons learned over decades. As parents, while we wish we could be there to hug Taylor and comfort her during this downtime, but we are so pleased that the school our kids chose to attend is extremely proactive and supportive in the area of concussion and head injury, no matter where or how the injury was sustained. It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, that we are so very grateful for the enormously caring and supportive team at the TCS student medical centre, the academic support office, residential life staff, and her always caring and supportive advisor. Thank you!

In the future, by the way, all limbo will be demonstrated on foam pads!

Photo from: http://www.athletize.com/peyton-manning-wallpaper/

Peyton observed that decision-making is the currency of a successful business leader, and that to help leaders make decisions they must have people around them who will give unqualified answers and critiques.  Honest opinion from the team will help a leader implement the vision for the enterprise.

However, as expected, life, and business, is never a straight line.  It is leaders with vision, leaders that Peyton calls ‘Game Changers’ who tend to prevail over the competition.  What are traits of a game changer?

1. Game changers thrive on discomfort.  Being comfortable is a dangerous place for a leader.  It’s probably an indicator that something is about to come off the rails.  Discomfort motivates the leader.
2. Game changers prepare, prepare, prepare.  Peyton reviews tape intensely, works out obsessively, and strives to study all variables so that on game day he is as ready as possible for whatever the opposing team may bring into the stadium.  business leaders, as with sports leaders, should prepare obsessively.
3. Game changers invest in a coach to keep them growing. As soon as someone stops wanting to be coached, taught or mentored they are in trouble. The landscape of the sports field changes, just as the landscape of your business.  Coaching keeps you on the top of your game.
4. Game changers instill trust. Trust does not come from the position occupied by the leader.  It is earned by example and over time.  The leaders role is not there to offer hope to the team, they are there to offer help.
5. Game changers stay stimulated.  Complacency does not keep company with a leader.  Leaders are constantly learning, self evaluating, and evolving. How do we as leaders move our company chains?
6. Game changers are master observers.  They constantly search for and identify points of meaning that the competition may overlook.  They often get lost in the intense focus of figuring things out.
7. Game changers develop relationships.  A leader understands the sustained change that comes from their relationship with the people they lead.

Are you a game changer or are you a Monday morning quarterback?

Rather than verbatim reporting, my recap series will be short key takeaways of the speakers and events each day.  Read on.

Monday, November 17, Sessions

Keija Minor – Brides Magazine – State of the Industry

Keija defined the luxury wedding market as a wedding with a budget of over US$80,000 (vs US$28,000 average for non-luxury segment).  She delivered a statistics compendium focussed on this luxury segment.  Some highlights of the avatar of the luxury wedding client are:

• Dated for 2.5 years
• 17% gave the groom an ultimatum to propose
• 80% start with a budget and 80% of them increase that initial budget
• 41% get married in a house of worship vs 31% for non-luxury segment
• 66% add cultural elements to the ceremony
• 41% do not use matching bridesmaids dresses (yay)
• 17% include their pets
• 11% have a man-of-honour
• 27% shoot boudoir photos
• 83% connect with hotel or venue using social media vs website
• 51% shoot a ring selfie
• 73% save images to Pinterest
• 95% use social media to plan
• 92% of guests posting on social will use a special hashtag if requested
• 30% of couples are using special hashtags
• 11% ask guests NOT to post pics on social media
• 56% ask for cameras to be put away during the ceremony

Ron Ben-Israel

Ron, of Ron Ben-Israel Cakes, discussed, well, wedding cakes and wedding cake designs.  A very visual presentation, this one is harder to blog on, but suffice to say Ron’s work is incredible.  He has learned by doing, by saying ‘yes’ to commissions then figuring out how to do it, and by creating tools and techniques to achieve results that propelled him to the top of the industry. Ron passed on a few items of business wisdom.  Of note:

• Keep to a schedule.  You have made a commitment to someone when agreeing to a time so stick to it like everything depends on it. It greatly enhances your reputation.
• Make people (your clients and others in your chosen profession) feel well taken care of and are supported.

Bryan Rafanelli – Rafanellli Events

Bryan has earned his place as one of the top 10 wedding designers in the United States.  Much like Ron, he spoke on key things

• Imagine the team you would want to work with and have around you then invest in what it takes to create that team, that vision of your future.
• Own the client.  By that he means, be the key contact point.  Control all the elements of introduction to other vendors such as photographers, venues, etc. It is your reputation on the line.
• Don’t seek to ‘brand’ the event as your company party.  It is the clients party that should exude a sense of style  and a service standard that does the branding work for you.
• His advice for planners and others in any professional service business is to charge by the hour.  Spend time to completely know your costs and charge accordingly, not how the guy down the road is charging.
• You have to value your time and your reputation and actively manage both.
• There are 1,850 billable hours in a year after holidays, etc.  When each is gone without billing, it is lost revenue that you cannot make back up anywhere.

Simon Bailey

Simon is a professional speaker.  I first heard him back at Engage09 and was fairly well blown away.  I have not followed his professional development since then and am impressed by the growth he has made in his platform.  He is truly impressive.  When I heard him last he spoke on personal brilliance.  While this is still a background theme, he is more focussed now on ‘owning the moment’.  What does this look like?

Own it:

• What is it you want to go after?
• You are the only one who can get that for you.
• You will get to a place where it is time to make the leap to the next level.
• Let things go.  What does not work, what is holding you back, what inhibits you form your potential… let that go.

Create it:

• What piece of the goal will you own next year or in the future?
• Work to acquire a circle of competence around you.
• Know that you cannot create this desired future without letting go of your past.
• You should not want all the business.  You should want all the business that you deserve.

Sustain it:

• It is often whom you think that you are not that holds you back from who you could become.
• Drop the, “I’m not … “ and start saying, “I am … “.
• Be you.  Show up.  Be present.

He offered the advice that small business in particular should consider having a small advisory board that meets every 90 days.  This board should comprise a person with a legal background, a person with a financial background, and a marketing person, at the very minimum.  These three to five people are not there to advise you on your business.  Rather, Simon flips the normal advisory board on its head and suggests instead that the board be mined for ideas and information on what is happening in their worlds.  What are the innovations, the challenges, the opportunities they are seeing.  They are often the smoke signals of similar changes coming down to the your particular industry.

As always, Simon offered up some great quips.  Some of my favourites:

• The letters used in the word ‘listen’ and also spell ‘silent’.  When you are silent you are open to what may come out of the conversation  You connect, and connections are the currency of the future.
• It’s not about always pushing out, it should also be about the pulling in.  Engagement should be about asking questions, creating connections, helping others develop.
• E-commerce is transitioning to R-Commerce, the recommendation economy.
• Customer service is dead.  It is now all about customer love. Moments. Perceptions. Memories.

Mindy Weiss

Mindy is a world renowned planner.  She shared several of her experiences and challenges.  What is really interesting to me on hearing her speak, is how the problems and challenges that the top level of planners have often do not seem that far removed from the everyday challenges of the rest of the industry.  Mindy spoke on highlights she is seeing.  Some of these include:

• Twinkle lights.  Love them or hate them twinkle lights are back in fashion.
• Less is more.  Don’t overwhelm.  Simplicity is beautiful.
• Shades of green and white.  Bold colours have taken a backseat and will continue to do so into 2015 as muted pastels take on increasing prominence in wedding design.

Mindy is a hilarious speaker (she used my favourite word – Redonkulous – in her talk after all) and she wrapped up her talk with a top 10 list of things couples ask planners.  Suffice to say that the list is best kept within the four walls of the conference hall.

Hopefully there is some information in this and the following recaps that is interesting to you.  Nothing beats actually attending an engage event (or a similar high level learning event in your industry).  However, through this three part recap series I hope I can give some insight in to the energy, passion and spirit of this diverse and inspiring group of speakers.

Feel free to ask questions or seek more information from me through the comments link on this page.

About two years ago I put a tiny bit of funding into a Kickstarter project being developed by John Saddington.  (By the way, if you want a textbook on how to run a Kickstarter study the blog posts on that Kickstarter link I just shared).  Pressgram was John’s attempt to allow users to tell beautiful stories through photography, but without having to give up any rights or confer any third-party ownership.  It was a gorgeous app, but to be fair, it was an ambitious project that was always going to have a hard time against the big boys in the room.  Pressgram has now closed down, but I have the t-shirt to prove I was there.

Desk, a publishing app for OS X is what has occupied John’s time since the last project (aside from Ironyard, speaking engagements, family, etc.).  3,146 hours to be exact, over the past year.

The result?  Simplicity.  Elegance.  Beauty.  Technical accomplishment (full formatting, HTML / Markdown / media capability baked in).  Desk is a product that will encourage you to start blogging, or, perhaps, get you to start writing again.

Intrigued?  What should you do next?  Simple.  Check out the product page and blog links I have given above then visit the App Store and buy / download desk.pm.

You will love it.  I did.

Service is EVERYTHING to the Ritz-Carlton.  It is what defines the chain in their very competitive niche.  This is not to say that other firms that offer similar products do not have as a goal top-level customer service.  They do.  But few execute this as well as the Ritz-Carlton.

It starts with their Three Steps of Service.  These are:

1. A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest’s name.  As you walk about you are surprised by the number of times you are actually referred to by your name.  Super simple idea that is sales or marketing 101.  It is, however, very hard to execute on this.  The Ritz-Carlton does this very well.  Find a way to incorporate this into the approach of your staff to your clients.  No one ever heard a better word spoken than their own name.
2. Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest’s needs.  Your needs are anticipated in advance through questions, and the answers and preferences are recorded for future use.  Don’t like a high floor?  You will probably never be assigned one again.  But this is the easy CRM type stuff.  The difference is a rooms attendant seeing that champagne is in a container with mostly melted ice and immediately returning with ice to refill… anticipation of the need, with no management intervention.
3. Fond farewell. Give a warm good-bye and use the guest’s name.  As you leave you are graciously thanked by everyone in the lobby area for your stay, and sent on with wishes to see you back as a guest soon.  Who am I fooling… this happens at every hotel as you check out.  True.  But when this comes from the two other reception staff, from the two executives that are in the lobby awaiting arriving guests, from the many other staff, out the door to the bellman and valet driver, you are experiencing the delivery of an entirely different level of service.

How do the management drill this level of engagement down so that it is authentically delivered without prompting by the entire team?  What gives the staff, the Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen as they are referred to, the ok to boldly step out with imaginative service in ways that seem held at bay with other companies despite their best intentions?

I am sure there are many more points but this list of 12 ‘Service Values‘ give clues.  Read this list and where it says ‘Ritz-Carlton’ change that name for your company or personal brand.  Change also the word ‘guest’ to client or customer, as for most readers that is probably more relevant anyway.  The list of 12 starts with a declaration of the corporate mindset that you, the employee, are proud TO BE Ritz-Carlton.  The brand, the experience, IS YOU.  This is reinforced by the following:

1. I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life. 
2. I am always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
3. I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests.
4. I understand my role in achieving the Key Success Factors, embracing Community Footprints and creating The Ritz-Carlton Mystique.
5. I continuously seek opportunities to innovate and improve The Ritz-Carlton experience.
6. I own and immediately resolve guest problems.
7. I create a work environment of teamwork and lateral service so that the needs of our guests and each other are met.
8. I have the opportunity to continuously learn and grow.
9. I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me.
10. I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior.
11. I protect the privacy and security of our guests, my fellow employees and the company’s confidential information and assets.
12. I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free environment.

These are reviewed continually.  It is not enough, as most companies do, to have an orientation meeting or two, give the employee the manual, and think the job is done.    Daily focus is paid to one of these service values.  It is as if the life of the company depends on it.  Guess what? It does!  Without this the Ritz-Carlton is just another luxury brand chain, defining itself by the facilities, the amenities, the plushness of the bed.  Wisely, this is not the direction the board decided to go.  Years ago the decision was made to OWN the niche of GUEST SERVICE, and to have their brand be defined by that.  All else will follow.  You can read more about it here.

How is your brand defined?  Are you competing with others in your industry using the same bag of tricks as everyone else?  Why not be disruptive in an area that you can make a real and defined name for yourself   Share your experiences in a comment if you wish.  I would love to know how others have experiences brand breakout or ownership of an area in an otherwise developed industry.

Most of all, thank you to the outstanding Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman and their counterparts at so many properties around the world who daily deliver industry leading service in hospitality, the most variable and challenging of business environments.