I have a contract with a large real estate company out here and one day the CEO called me to vent. He had had a bad day and he needed to just let it out. I listened, very in tune to his frustrations and thinking to myself "thank goodness I am not the only one that feels this way." He said something that mad me giggle and today I remembered what he said and understood. He told me that he walked in to a meeting where he was looked as "the kid" and what did he know - well what he knows is his industry and how his company is dominating the so called "flat housing market." So "the kid" is going to show them apparently.
Well today, that is exactly how I felt. "The kids" were doubted in a meeting about the capabilities and experience that we could bring to the table. Because we could not provide a guarantee that our marketing tactics would get them published or more people etc. Quite frankly, any one that comes to you with a guarantee like that is lying and is going to take your money and run. But now, Angel and I were just shocked in our dive back to the office, from a meeting that was over before we even got there - not sure why we were there really.
But in business, you win some and you lose some and some you really just want to walk out of the building and scream at the top of your lungs - but it's oh so fun.
Anyways, back to marketing and the no guarantee portion. Whether there are "kids" in the room or not I can only market as good as the product is and as well as the people working for that company are. If you are suffering for business and don't believe in marketing that's only half your problem. If you can't ask for referrals and if you have a so called "target market" that is so wrong for your organization it's almost humorous - there isn't any amount of press or guarantee's that going to fix that.
It's almost like repairing plumbing - I'm sorry I watched Bones the other night and there was a fixing plumbing part. When you put the gooey purple stuff on the pipes and connect them you have to wait 24 hours before water can go through them or they leak - if you jump the gun your pipes will leak. Then you have to yank (yes, technical term) them apart and start over.
Kind of like marketing, sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you have great timing and it doesn't leak and sometimes you jump the gun and have to start over - but again no fail safe guarantees. And here I thought that us Entrepreneur's were all crazy enough and willing to take chances - there aren't any guarantee's in business ownership either - but here we all are.
So bad meeting, Kids in the room and wrong marketing ideas. We lost the project - well sort of, they weren't a right client for us anyway. No meshing of the personalities, no great vibe, no fun.
There came a time when I realized that I love what I do and who I do it for and no amount of zero's on my check make that feeling better or worse. I may not have many zero's on my paycheck but I have great people doing great things. And when you meet someone who's only in it for the money you feel partially sad for the and partially that you want to run from the building like it's on fire.
All I can say is that life has no guarantee's but you might as well enjoy it. Do what you love and believe in others - guaranteed or not.
To much success,
Angelina
NThreeQ Media, LLC
Phoenix Graphic Designer
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