February 2012
4 posts
4 tags
Accountability and the Digital Changes: Part One
Too too often that is the attitude people have taken towards their jobs. Not my problem…not my department…not my concern. With the changes in digital over the past five to ten years accountability has changed…we now have to be accountable! No ifs ands or butts. This is the first part in a two part piece.  The second part will focus exclusively on how twitter has changed...
Feb 24th
2 tags
Hitting the Goal
The Easter Bunny is coming in early April.  Which means Lent is next Wednesday and it is time to give up chocolate, beer, fried food, etc! Okay whether or not you are Catholic, religious, christian, or anything of that sort the point of this post is to say view Lent as an opportunity for 40 days to strive and hit an attainable goal in your life! It is the perfect amount of time that makes...
Feb 17th
Give good reasons
We almost always have a reason for why we say what we say. BUT… We rarely reveal why we feel that way, even to ourselves! You would be shocked if and when you stated your case and revealed your true feelings for why you wanted what you are asking for how selfish or silly it may sound. Salespeople often try to sell things to “hit my budget” “maximize shareholder ...
Feb 10th
Five ways I think we can get better at what we do...
Five ways I think we can and will get better. Five ways that I have improved. And remember work is what we do for a living, but it is not everything we do in life.  Keep numerous hobbies, interests, and pasttimes beyond that so that you “don’t have a career, you have a life!” So without further ado here are my tips in a short post in how you can become smarter, make more...
Feb 3rd
January 2012
4 posts
Make Money Money Save Money Money?
I think Snoop Dogg actually said in the movie Old School “Make Money Money Take Money Money” but I am one of those people who botches lyrics like in the Elton John Tiny Dancer TV commercial so I’ll go my version! Book review time! Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. A gift from my wonderful parents from Christmas…it was a book that had chapters...
Jan 27th
The Execution and the Preparation
There’s a lot of routes, movement, and potential breakdowns on this above play. But the key here is that there everyone must do their part. The whole team, each single individual, needs to know what they are doing and when or else the chances that the play fails increases ten fold! And that is one simple play in one simple football game. How do you make sure you are ready? EASY! ...
Jan 20th
Failure makes you a winner
That line is true… When your best isn’t good enough…you FAIL! But what people don’t always talk about is the fact that if you continue to fail you will become a winner. That is correct. In fact those who don’t fail are the losers.  Because they never try. To achieve high goals in life that few others rarely achieve you will fail numerous times to get there. ...
Jan 13th
Spreading the January Cheer
The holidays are over and January is open us. Water cooler talks goes back to drama, the excuses by the employees start popping again, and buyers have a little bit of hesitation after reaching deep into their pockets over the holidays. If you are a small business, large corporation, multi location, whatever…your business has a few choices it can make this month. 1) Ride it out like...
Jan 6th
December 2011
3 posts
When a CEO is outweighed by his or her employees
This is the view of the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals stadium for 6 out of the 8 home games this year. The Bengals improved by 5 wins this year, have been in playoff contention or in the playoffs in the last week of the season 7 of head coach Marvin Lewis’ 9 seasons and overall the past decade minus last year and the ‘08 run have been a pretty competitive team. But Mike Brown,...
Dec 30th
From Good to Great
One of the great business books is From Good to Great by Jim Collins. It speaks about many still useful practices for business and life but one of its core values is how quickly you can become great if you do all of the right things and people will forget that you were ever just “good.” On the flip side if you don’t continue to do the “great” things you will be ...
Dec 16th
Eras End and Begin and We Constantly Evolve
The above photo is the fossil of a whale. On my trip to Chicago last week I spent a few hours at the Field Museum in Downtown Chicago.  One of the interesting facts I learned was that whales actually had legs in the early stages of their species. They evolved over millions of years into the creatures that we know today. For some reason I found this fascinating…mainly b/c it explained...
Dec 9th
November 2011
4 posts
A Rivalry Again
As I watched the end of the Michigan victory over OSU yesterday I saw the joy and the Michigan players as they stormed the stands and the look of anger and frustration on the Ohio State sidelines. I did find it nice to see, the last few years OSU expected to win and Michigan quite frankly (partly due to their coach Rich Rod I felt) had placed little worry about whether or not they won the...
Nov 27th
What do you sell
I was watching a webinar earlier this week when I came across this story that really hit home with me. A car dealer on the webinar talked about how his favorite media rep or parts rep in town was the guy who always came in and told him he sold cars. He said I don’t sell TV, I don’t sell radio, I don’t sell my brand new tires. I sell your cars…that’s my focus. ...
Nov 18th
How Criminal Profiling and the PSU Scandal Relate
I would like to first off start this post with the only thing that people should be worried about during this Penn State scandal is the kids/now adults who were harmed. My thoughts and prayers go out to all who were hurt and involved in this and their families and the families of the people who hurt them, because those families will certainly be treated harshly and unfairly. That being...
Nov 11th
Being a teacher of your business
Vince Lombardi is regarded by some as the greatest coach of all time in our sports world. I can probably agree with this. What most people don’t know right away about Coach Lombardi though was his first gig was a school teacher and coach at St Cecilia High School. He went from high school coach to Super Bowl winner in about 20 years, while being turned down for head coaching jobs...
Nov 4th
October 2011
3 posts
Backed into a corner
We are not judged by how we perform when the sun is shining, the bank account is full, and the family is happy. In life, in businesses, in sports, in relationships, we are judged by how we react and how we perform when we are backed into a corner. What we do during moments when everyone else would assume we would give up…that is what truly takes you from being a B+ worker to a A+...
Oct 28th
Transformations
Vegas Baby Vegas. Those famous words were uttered by Vince Vaughn as Jon Favreau and him saw the shining lights as they drove in from LA to Vegas in the early 90s in the cult classic “Swingers.” It made me realize when I was just in Vegas how much that city has been able to transfrom itself over the years. What started as a gambling town and the birth of the Rat Pack in a...
Oct 21st
The Man
Steve Jobs passed away this week as I think all of us know unfortunately by now. It was amazing the impact he had on the world and it was great to see everyone on twitter, facebook, ESPN, CNN, etc. pay such homage to a great visionary and leader in our country. What I wanted to say briefly here about Steve is that he was THE MAN! We should all hope and strive to have such a positive impact...
Oct 7th
September 2011
5 posts
Love or Like?
With ESPN airing another one of their great 30 for 30’s this week (Catching Hell starring poor Steve Bartman the infamous kid who tried to grab a ball and the whole Cub fan base blamed him for losing the game and series and not making it back to the World Series.) I thought it would be a great time to remind everyone of a theme that I firmly believe in. I always say live every day...
Sep 30th
Things aren't always what they seem
I had an experience a few weeks ago that made me realize once again that… In friendships/life/business things aren’t always what they seem. I try and try to never judge a book by its cover but I find myself doing it at times and then it always seems that I am proven wrong. So the next time you walk into that sales call with a new client that you think won’t spend any...
Sep 23rd
Determine your own life
I thought the above photo/quote that I found on the internet actually summarized pretty well what I wanted to talk about in this post.  And while I have no idea who wrote it other than it was on a website about “wheel questions” and “deep thinking” it 100% hits my point. So that’s it…thanks for reading! No I’ll go into a little more detail…. ...
Sep 14th
A social experiment
On a recent trip to San Fran my wife and I hung with her good friend from high school Abi and upon entering her apartment we discovered there was one thing missing: TELEVISION!!! She didn’t own one…(little did we know she watches shows on Hulu…) VERY TRICKY ABI! So Jill and I decided to give up television for 30 days…or basically live as though we don’t own...
Sep 9th
Worming Around
With summer winding down the next few weeks and a beautiful fall season on the way I thought it might be a good time to do a little bit of a list blog and throw some good choices of books to pick up during the next few months if your NFL team is getting killed at halftime on Sundays! That being said I am not going to describe these books only send out a link so you can see it on Amazon. ...
Sep 2nd
August 2011
6 posts
The Passion is there
Well I don’t think that photo needs much explaining that this guy is certified nuts about Alabama Football. With the college season about to kick off I wanted to throw out an article that should come to no one’s surprise but just shows the amazing passion from college sports town that are geared towards their team. Passion that exists there I don’t think necessarily can...
Aug 25th
Risk Taking
A great quote today was told in a meeting I was at by TS Eliot. “Only those that risk going too far find out how far they can go in life.” Live today for today and give it all you have, if there is something that scares the bejesus out of you go out and try it!  (Thanks Tommy C at Toastmasters for telling his story about learning how to swim just so he could do an Iron Man...
Aug 18th
Above and Beyond
The radio station I work at does a lot of events with our beer clients and local breweries all year long for different promotions. We do these events at local bars and restaurants…to make the event truly great I have discovered though is that not only the local brewery pump up the event and our station bring in a ton of listeners to the event and does a top notch job interacting...
Aug 11th
Sodini's
Forgot to attach a photo of the delicious and gorgeous Old Style Italian place that knows how to serve their customers!!  What a great sign! Know who you are and stick with it!
Aug 10th
The Good and The Bad of Service
During my recent trip to San Francisco I saw two examples of customer service, one that was so unbelievably over the top good and one that was well in quite the other direction. So I just want to share my experiences and how I will forever remember and speak about one of these places in a great light and the other one (if I do mention them) in a not so hot light. Never forget…your...
Aug 8th
Quotes
I was reading a book the other day and I stumbled upon the idea of this guy that every time he tweets out something that he said he quotes himself. For instance if I wrote today on twitter: “Randy Moss is retired.  Greatest wide receiver ever who also owns a fruit juice and smoothie company. -Mike Rudd” That would be a quote that I came up with and a statement I made…which...
Aug 2nd
July 2011
2 posts
The Social Call
I am in 100% commission sales and I don’t “cold call.” And I am okay with admitting this. A hush falls over my sales team at the meeting if and when I announce this! However I do prospect…all the time in fact.  I constantly contact new businesses and decision makers with unique ideas and questions about their industry to try to help them solve challenges that they may...
Jul 28th
Your look alike is out there somewhere...
Here’s a marketing idea for Ohio State Football. To make sure they have a funny engaging new coach (not saying that Luke Fickell isn’t I just haven’t heard him talk much yet) they should have all of Luke’s public speaking engagements and Meet N Greets be replaced by his actual self and have the cop from the movie “The Hangover” replace him! If you...
Jul 15th
June 2011
1 post
Brand your country
My wife and I recently returned from an amazing 7 day trip to the Dominican Republic at the Majestic Elegance All Inclusive resort in Punta Cana. It was AMAZING! Top to bottom from the food, cocktails, beaches, excursions, bell boys, airport shuttles, and maids service was top notch. So yes I highly recommend staying at this place but what I want to write about is something our tour guide...
Jun 14th
May 2011
1 post
What would your Last Lecture sound like?
I just finished reading an unbelievable book titled “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.  The video is on youtube here and I highly recommend both the book and the video. To quickly summarize Randy was a tenured professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.  He fought valiantly but eventually succumbed to the disease in 2008.  The...
May 3rd
April 2011
4 posts
If you blinked the team was gone...
This was a speech I gave in my Toastmasters Public Speaking class yesterday but I thought it had some good life lessons for business and teamwork for my blog as well so I attached the speech below. Happy Easter all you Bunnies out there!! Don’t forget to post comments on here, email me at mike@marketingfunwithmike.com, and to get all updates follow at ...
Apr 22nd
Leadership Qualities
That is one way to think about it in the photo above. Or you can seek out qualities beyond just waving a flag… Big SHOUT OUT to Gregory Carl Vert for providing me with this. Greg attended a leadership presentation on Ohio State Campus last Friday by former Buckeye Steve Russell who is the Senior VP and Chief People Officer at McDonald’s. Below are Steve’s...
Apr 19th
A few more thank you's
I know I just wrote the other day on an example of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book the Thank You Economy at work but I finished the book tonight and wanted to offer a little teaser in hopes you read it. I give it TWO HANDS IN THE AIR WAVING AROUND LIKE I DON’T GIVE A CARE! Click here to check out the site…he is coming to Columbus OH in a few weeks. Here’s the...
Apr 6th
Pizzeria Passion
A quick fun story that I experienced last night that relates to @garyvee ‘s new book that I am reading right now, called the Thank You Economy. I got home last night after an awesome night with friends at the Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears concert when I decided to order some late night PIE! It was after midnight and I couldn’t eat meat on Friday so I was fixing for some kind...
Apr 2nd
March 2011
2 posts
No Booty Calls Please!
BOOK REVIEW TIME! I just finished up “Speak Human: Outmarket the big guys by getting personal” by Eric Karjaluoto. I am trying to get better in not telling people an entire movie, book, or concert before they experience it for themselves (it is HARD for me though!) so I will keep this brief and leave you with a few thoughts and takeaways that I took from it and let you decide...
Mar 22nd
A tribute
I heard this morning that Tim Ferriss aka author of my favorite book of all time “The Four Hour Work Week” is in Columbus this weekend for the Arnold Sports Classic. I wanted to give a little tribute to my favorite book/author since he is visiting my city this weekend to share a poem from that book that I find truly great to read any time I have a chance to. It is hanging on my...
Mar 4th
February 2011
3 posts
We don't need no education...
Or do we? Since the recession, that is hopefully now over, started it seems there has been a huge spike in the higher education sector.  In fact they probably thrived off of the recession more than anyone else. Numbers were up, and with good reason.  People realized to hold up jobs that used to be theirs as long as they wanted them were now going to be cut back or maybe eliminated all...
Feb 23rd
Product Placement
Blake Griffin is awesome first off! The rookie for the Clippers has been doing it all this year and last night he won the slam dunk contest at NBA All Star Weekend. Above is a photo of him jumping over a car to win the contest. This photo might not even do it justice, I suggest the Youtube option as well. My point of this is product placement! KIA has been the official auto dealer of the...
Feb 20th
To be inspired
I am always seeking for ways to gain an extra edge, an additional motivational button to be pushed inside of me, a process to find a new way to live and love in life and enjoy every day like it is my last. Both personally and professionally I found these to be great words to draw from… “WHAT IS BEAUTY? IS BEAUTY A PRETTY FACE, A NICE SMILE, FLOWING HAIR, NICE SKIN?  NOT TO ME,...
Feb 9th
December 2010
1 post
The Art of an Apology
First off Happy Holidays everyone! I know I haven’t updated lately but it has been a little busy with work, coaching, the holidays, and wedding stuff. Anyways sometimes it’s not the fact that you screw up but it is the art of the apology and how you react to it that people will judge you down the line and talk about you. Don’t believe me?? Ask Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens,...
Dec 29th
November 2010
3 posts
Fines for doing your JOB?!
I will be the first to say that the NFL is hands down my favorite product of sports to watch and follow. Every year teams go from first to last, games are really decided by about 5 plays 90% of the time, and coaches and players spend 100 hours a week in prep work for schemes, plays, and designs. Every team is talented in the NFL.  What seperates people in the NFL is execution, desire, and...
Nov 16th
My Guys!
Happy Thursday All! Sometimes ideas in marketing need to go beyond the gifts with a test drive at the auto dealership or a ticket giveaway at a bar. Those can always work but it sometimes it takes a little “theatre of the mind” and go outside of the normal realm to come up with a cool idea. A recent program that we are still promoting at the radio station I work for is a...
Nov 11th
How 'bout them Cowboys!
Just to state right off, this is not making fun of the Dallas Cowboys.  My Cincinnati Bengals are hours away from getting run around by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football, this is more about what to do when in a crisis. The Dallas Cowboys were Super Bowl Favorites to begin the season. This photo pretty much sums up what has happened since pre season… The Cowboys are 1...
Nov 8th
October 2010
1 post
Check it Twice
I enjoy lists and I think they are fun.  It makes me remember memories beyond my imagination and my camera.  I also try to be highly efficient with my time and I like to think that lists help out. Anyways here is my fall 2010 list of a few random things that I have been taking account of lately and have been impressed with…no negativity or bashing here! (At least not today!) So...
Oct 5th
September 2010
4 posts
A List you would like to avoid
This is on the front page of the web page Websites That Suck Dot Com. This site was brought to my attention at a webinar training session we did for work the other day. I wanted to bring it to everyone else’s attention for a few reasons: 1) It is out there and if you’re company is on it try to do what you can to get off that list! 2) Work on your own site or your company site...
Sep 29th
Decision Making Plus Execution Equals Final...
Brutus vs Rufus I think Vince McMahaon just put a bid in for them to square off again at the Royal Rumble in 2011. For a quick recap for those unaware, Rufus the mascot from the Ohio U Bobcats tackled Brutus the Buckeye before the Ohio State Ohio U game last Saturday in Columbus. It turned into a big to do, the OU Bobcat Rufus was in big trouble and he was banned from further affiliation...
Sep 24th
Where is everybody?!
In the book that I recommended on my last post, Attention by Jim Kukral, I read a chapter on a marketing idea that I thought was pure genius and wanted to share it with the WORLD WIDE WEB! A man in charge of numerous different minor league baseball teams over his life did a promotion called “Nobody Night.”  They held a huge tailgate party outside the minor league ball park...
Sep 20th
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