Yesterday, I was fortunate to hear a speech entitled "A Winning Combination - Hard work and Perseverance" from Dan McDonnell, University of Louisville Baseball Coach at a meeting run by Greater Louisville, Inc. Dan's speech was motivational for all of us who have goals and who do the hard work to meet and exceed them. I've included a video he referenced on the "Wisdom of Will Smith" that McDonnell has all of his players watch to better understand how to achieve their goals "one brick at a time." It's terrific and, if you've got 10 minutes, take a look.
My big take away of the morning though came from his answer to a question about how he coaches his players on a day-to-day basis towards a championship. McDonnell said that when he was a player at the Citadel, he met with his head coach one-on-one about three times total. While that was effective 20 years ago, it's not now. Today's students are in the Age of Information. This means that they are constantly getting information from TV, the Internet, their phones, etc. and that they need to get constant feedback on that. As marketers, marketing to our audience is really the same thing. We can't control the information that our audience is receiving from all of the places/ways they receive it. But, if we don't participate in the stream of information, we risk losing their attention or getting our message to them at all. Knowing your customer means knowing how they get their information and make their decisions and being there.
And, now for the Wisdom of Will Smith. I wouldn't want to be between him and his goal, would you?
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