Friday, March 6, 2009

Pat Yourself on the Back Once in Awhile


Our agency made a presentation yesterday to unveil some of our new logo ideas? I'll admit we were a bit worried at the prospect that there would be about ten people in the room judging our work. We weren't nervous in the sense when a person is asked to speak in front of a large group, but more concerned at the sheer number of people who were going to be offering their opinions. As you know, trying to get more than two people to agree on something is difficult sometimes. Imagine the task before us to make everyone in the room happy to select a single logo from about 12 designs.

We started at 10am and finished up about an hour and a half later. The result? We listened, shared ideas, made suggestions, and whittled down the final designs to three. Even more surprising, we received a round of applause after our presentation. I was kind of shocked at the outward display of approval. Usually business meetings are much more reserved. A shaking of the hands is what I'm accustomed to so the clapping really surprised me. But you know what? It was nice. It was refreshing. And it was fun.

I wish more meetings were like this. I know “making money” and “showing a profit” should be, and is, serious business. But can’t it be fun too? The agency, fortunately, has many “fun” clients. But there are a few who are demanding, miserable, and quite frankly, downright nasty. What kind of client/customer are you? You don’t have to answer that. But after yesterday’s meeting I did some soul-searching and found that I could probably lighten it up a bit with my suppliers and vendors too.

So I applaud you for taking the time to improve your business acumen. And when you “hit a home run”, whether it’s very often or every once in a while, bask in the glow and enjoy that warm fuzzy feeling for as long as you possibly can.