Jim Collins

It’s About People

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In the midst of an aimless adventure to find the meaning of life, I stirred one winter morning after a sleepless night in Chicago to find myself stress-riddled and in search of the meaning of my existence… That’s a pretty deep intro for an Invizzible Ink blog post but looking back at my five month hiatus from blogging, I intrepidly realized that humans cannot pretend to be someone we are not. Me, I’m a writer. I have been since the fourth grade when I won my first writing contest. (Insert unabashed plug) Fast forward twenty years five months ago, I was adhering to the demanding challenge of working full time in Chicago and going to grad school full time in Ohio while keeping a ridiculous travel schedule and managing school and work projects; And usually between the hours of midnight and 3 am maintaining a decent marketing blog. The trick to accomplishing all these goals was simple; Two years of non-sleep week nights. Healthy? No. But certainly advantageous to the accomplishment of what I set out to do.

What I found to be true of this endeavor was that one cannot maintain that routine for much more than two years; at least I couldn’t. Something had to give. Unfortunately for Invizzible Ink, when I started my new job in Chicago, my writing was put on the back burner. Not by choice necessarily, but by default. Hobbies took a back seat; evenings and early mornings gave way to the furious pace of trying to get up to speed with senior and other experienced team members conducting business. It’s exciting and exhilarating to make decisions that affect national programs and millions of impressionable consumers, but soon I found that the core of Invizzible Ink; the marketing mind that defined my day-to-day professional career was lacking organic substance. There was something missing that balanced my holistic mind-operation. Austin Powers would diagnose as a loss of mojo. For me, my mojo is writing. And I wasn’t writing. I was tired and not inspired until finally I realized what was missing… I needed to bring back Ink!

So how does one lose their mojo anyway? Well, I don’t exactly know but I know how one gets it back. One returns to their utility. – The definition of one’s purpose for living and ambition to leave one’s mark on the world. I’m not sure if Webster or Wikipedia would agree with my definition of utility, but in Business Ethics class, our professor John Annarino taught us the meaning of utility and it stuck with me and resonated deeper than any other lesson I learned in two years of graduate studies. Why? Because it was humanized. It meant something that couldn’t be added or subtracted. It lived and breathed in each member of our class and was left for each of us to decide for ourselves how we would define our personal style to learn, lead others, and live life.

One’s utility is the most important aspect of business in my opinion. It serves as my personal guide to making decisions and dealing with relationships. I vowed after reading Good to Great by Jim Collins and receiving years of coaching from hard working volunteer football coaches that life is about people first. “First who, then what,” as Collins would say. As I would say, life is too short and opportunities to make a difference in society are too abundant, to not focus on people first before the subject. At the end of my day, I work with people and for people so why not direct my focus on people? – A widget has never generated a single emotion that motivated, encouraged, or taught me a lesson that made a difference in my life, however I could go on for pages about the people in my life that have made Invizzible Ink possible.

Speaking of people, I think we as humans seek and desire many forms of acceptance from our families, employers and significant others in our daily routines to make sense of our existence here on Earth. I believe when we sacrifice our personal passions for obligations beyond our control, we are moved from living-comfort, to a place of reaction. When the speed of the game gets too intense and we are not in control, we lose our ability to make concerted and logical decisions. We panic. Get ahead of ourselves and forget the basis of how we progressed ourselves to our current state of being. And how did we all get to where we are today? People helped us. – Granted many of us have individual talents and successes but collectively, there has always been some person somewhere who gave an opportunity, believed in us, sacrificed for us, or extended a hand to us in some way. It’s people, folks! It’s not the stuff in our lives, it’s the people that make our world what it is. And I feel sorry for those who don’t get that, but it’s also my utility to help them realize what they are missing.

3 Tips to Solidify your Pro Athlete Endorsement

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Finding the right athlete who stands above all the rest to endorse your product or brand can be a circuitous challenge if you do not have a proper strategy for aligning the right personality with the role. It’s important to have a clear outcome and goals defined first, before aligning an athlete with your brand. By creating a plan for your promotion strategy based on specific goals, a brand manager can use the Invizzible Ink Selection Model for choosing an athlete and be confident their project will produce a favorable return on investment. Setting goals may seem like an obvious statement, however marketers are sometimes captivated by the opportunity to work with an A-lister, that they miss their target audience. When this occurs, not only does the project result in an unfavorable outcome from an investment standpoint, but your brand suffers a set-back in a volatile economy. It makes far greater sense to understand your entire project and choose representation based on a desired outcome, not a desired athlete.

The Invizzible Ink Selection Model is a personalized and multifaceted marketing tool used by brands to ensure their goals are met. The foundation of the selection model was built on a number of essential marketing elements that have proven to increase brand awareness, resonance, and revenue. The formula itself is complex in its entirety, however many of the weights assigned to each variable are simply common sense understandings of the sports world and market. While experience has proven to be a leading variable for our brand, it’s not the only element with which we have to base our decisions. What we can share today are tips to consider when choosing the right athlete to be the ambassador of your brand. Remember: No strategy is aligned for success without a plan and specified goals…

1. Background Check… Not with the DMV either. Depending on your project, your brand may have a need for a grassroots ambassador, or a major Public Relations identity. In either case, its vital to the success of the campaign to have the right person in place. One way to ensure your brand has the right person in place is to do your homework. Researching candidate’s backgrounds, i.e. – college course of study, family, interests outside of sports are just a few criteria I research before recommending an athlete. For example, if your firm is looking for a sports figure to be the spokesperson for a national PR campaign, you probably don’t want someone uncomfortable in a public speaking role. Going to a search engine and doing some light stalking will produce a plethora of information valuable to gaining insight to a sports figure. An athlete with a communications degree, a broadcast journalism degree, or a similar course of study will position your brand with an interested and qualified athlete. When this happens, the believability of the athlete’s message is increased and brand resonance is attained. By putting the right people in the right places, as Jim Collins expalins in his book, Good to Great, a win-win scenerio is accomplished for both athlete and brand.

2. Does your Brand align with a foundation or charity? Many athletes today have their own foundation, 501 c3, or preferred charity and will align their interests or even passions with brands that support the same programs. Particularly to those brands or organizations looking to hire sports figures in your smaller markets, this bit of information may be a gold mine. If your organization can align itself with this type of athlete while being savvy and strategic, you may find yourself a partner as opposed to paying for a speaker.

3. Who are you getting? — A good teammate? Good in the locker room? Have they worked with other brands? — Brand managers in the sports industry need to know the answers to these questions before signing a deal. I’ve seen far too many examples of athletes showing up late or not showing up at all for an appearance on behalf of an organization or brand, that it literally ruined the event. Disappointed students at a school, fans holding jerseys to be signed at the mall, teams waiting in the locker room before taking the field… Seen it all and felt for all of them. At the end of the day, if your organization is going to align with an athletic figure… Remember, there is a person behind that figure. All-Pro linebackers do not equate to all-pro people. The kids at your local middle school would much rather meet a pro football player and hear his story of what it’s like to be a back-up and play special teams in the NFL, rather than be big-timed by the star and promised a reschedule.

Broncos get Right Coach for the Job

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The Denver Broncos recently hired a good friend and college teammate as the newest member of their coaching staff. Craig Aukerman was named defensive assistant coach after serving in the college ranks for ten years. I’m extremely proud of my friend and do not have a doubt in my mind that he will be an asset to their coaching staff. Craig has always displayed greatness on and off the field and I am confident that he will continue to be just that.

As we talked yesterday on the phone I asked him what he thought of the playbook and the sytem the Broncos exercise on defense… As I expected, he mentioned learning the extensive playbook would be his first challenge as a new coach in a new system. – Knowing Craig though, he will impress the coaching staff in Denver with his work ethic and football intelligence; and ultimately learn the playbook.Earlier today I read some cynical comments on Bronco blogs negatively portray the Bronco’s hire due to his small college experience at Western Kentucky, Miami (Ohio), and Kent State. I don’t want to bash the fans because they are the reason the NFL is what it is, but if you are hating on a guy because of where he learned to be a coach I have to ask the question… Are college athletes really that different in the MAC than they are in the Big 10 or the ACC or even the SEC? Does teaching a five-star collegiate athlete better suit a coach for the next level compared to teaching a three-star athlete? – I pose this rhetorical question because I don’t know the answer from a psychological perspective… From a physical ability standpoint I think generally we all agree that athletes are better equipped at Ohio State University than they are at Ohio Northern Universtiy but that’s the obvious.Here’s an example: Take a small college safety compared to a NFL safety reading the eyes of a quarterback from a cover-three zone. This means that the defensive player is watching the quarterback prepare to throw the ball and then breaking in the direction of the pass as soon as he believes he knows where the pass is going. A small college safety who runs a 4.6 second forty yard dash may have great instincts and as a result have many pass break ups and interceptions throughout the course of a season. The NFL safety who runs a 4.3 forty yd. dash may have decent instincts but not as many pass break ups or interceptions over the course of a season despite having more opportunity and more physical ability- Granted the quarterback play is much better at the NFL level so it’s not entirely an apples to apples comparison but it works for the sake of our discussion. Also assume the atheltes are similar in their preparation, intelligence, and reaction time; however, one is simply physically superior to the other. From a coaching perspective, if a coach is teaching the small college athlete what to look for in the quarterback’s progression and he is anticipating where the ball is going and is correct with his assumption, but he just isn’t fast enough to make a play on the ball; there’s not much else a coach can do or say to improve that athlete.While the athletes Aukerman coached at his previous assignments may not be capable of making plays in the NFL, I can assure the bloggers of Denver nation that they were well-coached and better men because of him. His ability and potential as a coach is part of the reason the Broncos hired him, but also measured by the Broncos organization is the quality of man becoming a part of their team and community. Don’t forget that building a TEAM takes more than talent sports fans. Jim Collins stresses in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other’s Don’t, the importance of having the right people in the right places to ensure your company, brand, or team’s success. Craig Aukerman might not be the powerful household name Bronco fans were expecting but either was Josh McDaniels when he came to town. The 33-year-old had a lot to prove in Denver and I look for the new 33-year-old Aukerman to do the same.