The Thoughtful Organization

Are you thoughtful? In this season of summations, as you look back on the year, ask yourself if you were thoughtful. You were certainly reactive, often put out fires, routinely made split second decisions, but were you thoughtful? An annual bout of thoughtfulness can align and realign you at the inflection point of the past and future of your business.

Is your organization thoughtful? Often we don't think of our organizations as 'thoughtful' or not 'thoughtful' or as 'reactive'. Often we don't think about our organizations as aseptic mechanical devices, not organisms. If something is mechanical, then it cannot be thoughtful. It's a machine. When I push buttons, it works, when I don't it is lifeless.

The lifelessness of an organization comes from the definition as we're taught traditionally comes from "to organize", like a file cabinet might organize paper. I think a better, living definition is treating an organization as a living organism, with emphasis on the living, breathing, thinking aspects of the business.

Organizational life. Intuitively, we know that organizations are organisms. In our businesses we see people come and go, products come and go, seasons come and go, yet we expect the organization to live beyond the short-term deadlines. Businesses suffer loss, as people do, from death, financial trouble, poor decisions, misfortune. We talk about "breathing life in the the business", "bringing in new blood" and "resurrecting a product" because we know that there is a life, in the business, separate from the owner.

Organizational thinking. Being thoughtful about your business or organization is separate from the daily to-do lists, separate from you job in the business. We all have tasks and jobs, but as owners, as leaders, we must take time to look beyond daily tasks to be thoughtful about our business; to do some organizational thinking. Strategic planning, project planning and delegation are all subheadings for organizational thinking. If you want to be truly thoughtful about your business you must ask even bigger questions, then be thoughtful about your answers.

Exposure to the outside world. I was just a part of the NAFDMA (North American Farmers Direct Marketing Assoc.) live board retreat in Williamsburg, VA. I was clearly outside my world in which, as many of you can relate to, I am the benevolent dictator. Here, I was just a board member, a junior one at that, trying to catch up. NAFDMA is clearly a thinking organization and as a new board member I can see that I am clearly standing on the shoulders of hard work done by previous boards. It's this exposure to a new situation that got me started thinking about our Maize Quest organization and our farm organization and our Fun Park organization.

Self-examination. Seldom do you find a group, as I did at NAFDMA, so willing to examine itself, its programs, its products, its value to members, its unique position in the market. It was an exercise in creative destruction - What should we build up? What should we tear down? Why are we here? Why do people join? Why do they leave? What do they love? What pisses them off? It was a bit ruthless and occasionally contentious, but it was so valuable. When was the last time you took a hard look at your business and asked hard questions? With a group of people, freed from political correctness by mutual trust, you will get the real answers. Clearly, you have to know where you are right now, before you can pilot a course to the future.

Mission, vision and all that crap. Quite frankly, a lot of what passes for organizational thinking is a load of crap. Wordsmithing vision statements destined to rot in a binder on a shelf is a classic example of all that embodies the negatives of corporate retreats. (Here's a link to a great web tool for generating crappy mission statements that sound nice. http://www.netinsight.co.uk/portfolio/mission/missgen.asp) Please don't dismiss the value of missions and visions because of a previous experience or assumption. Even if you don't have a mission statement, you live a mission. Often your mission simply becomes "Survive and Hope" - (you work to survive and hope things get better, as if it will happen by magic.)

Guiding principles. While official mission statements are of questionable value, knowing your guiding principles is vitally important. It takes some real thought to write down the answers to:

"Who do we really serve?"

"Why do people visit our farm, when they don't have to?"

"What makes us special?"

"What to we add to society that no one else does/can?"

"How do we treat guests?"

"How do we treat employees?"

"How do we make money?"

"How could we double our profit?"

"How could we lose our shirts next year?"

Just the act of asking those questions to 2-10 people on your team starts amazing conversations, maybe some arguments, perhaps a fist fight, perhaps an epiphany, and just maybe some clarity. I guarantee you that it moves your organization "up the Bell Curve", because it is so easy to just keep pluggin' away, that most businesses simply won't do it. They choose not to be thoughtful.

Get a mantra. If someone asked you what you do, could you say it in 5 words or less? That's a mantra. When employees join, I tell them the training is easy. I can do it in three little words.

Maize Quest Mission Statement (From that Mission Statement generator):

We are in the business of pursuing a high level of customer satisfaction with dedication to personal goals from the bottom up.

Maize Quest Fun Park's REAL mantra: "Make people happy."

Is that clear enough? We teach employees that that's the only filter they need to remember. It's so simple, it is profound. It took us a while to come up with it, but when we thought about it, our success boiled down to successfully delivering on those three little words.

Do NOT set goals, until you've done this assessment. You can't possibly set goals until you know who you are, what makes you special, how you add value, and have memorized your mantra. Once you do, the goals almost set themselves! You must set goals for 2012, I command it! :-) but that comes next.

Take the time to be thoughtful. This is the most wonderful time of year. I hope you enjoy a season of blessings and a season of thankfulness. Take some time to be thoughtful about your living, breathing organization. Ruthlessly examine yourself and your organization. As you do, write down your guiding principles; spell out your mantra. Answer those questions listed with a full discussion amongst your family and team. 

The inflection point. The inflection point is the point at which things change direction. At the end of the year, you are at a natural inflection point and it's time for a serious bout of thoughtfulness. Read some emails. Get a new book. Attend a conference. Talk with colleagues in your industry. Share and absorb. Be thoughtful.

Start this new year with a clear outlook and a clear understanding and it will indeed be a happy new year.

Have a great week,

Hugh

PS Just to be clear: If you don't spend the time developing an organizational purpose, mission or mantra, you still have one. I've seen businesses with missions/mantras such as:

-Don't piss off Grandpa.

-We've always done it this way. (as if the world never changes)

-Out yield/rent/sell/grow/shine that S.O.B neighbor. (at all costs)

-Make payroll / bank payment.

-Keep peace in the family. (even if we go out of business)

-Make everything equal. (even if not everyone works equally)

-Win (my personal) award for acres/yield/revenue.

-Show Dad I can do it. (even if I don't want to do it)

These may seem like silly examples, but they are real examples of missions and mantras followed, lived by and suffered for by real people. If you don't create your own, you're likely living a self-defeating mantra you learned in your childhood, from your neighbor, from a competitor or other outside force. Shouldn't you be living your own? Would you rather it be imposed upon you? ...Me neither.

The Vilification of Your Customers & Employees

Are you a villifier? I love to get together with other operators and talk it out. Share ideas, see what others are doing, pick-up tips and start thinking about the future. It is energizing and I love it. Inevitably, however, the conversations turn to complaining customers and employees who don't seem to have been given any skill or motivation. This sharing is cathartic. To finally have a peer group that really understands what you're talking about is so vital to our survival in the world of small business, we must not cast it aside. However, the continual casting of employees and customers as the "villains" in your otherwise perfect season is a treacherous road toward self-fulfilling prophesy.

Villainous customers. Oh, yes, we've all had them. There are people who just can't have a good time anywhere and make it their mission to bring as many other people down with them as possible. At the end of the day, the guest stories are shared from employee to employee as a way of decompressing the stress of the day. They range from dangerous to humorous, but follow the same pattern of "villainous guest": "Guests are a problem that we have to deal with." "Customers will rob you blind if you let them." "Customers are idiots who can't park correctly." "Customers think they own the place, but then throw trash on the ground."

Villainous employees. "I had to tell him three times on three different days to get off his butt and sweep the floor. Kids just don't know how to work these days!" Sound familiar? Employees don't always measure up to our standards and that is very frustrating, however, we cannot operate a business of any size without employees. Employees are not a "problem" that can be solved, but an ongoing project to manage. That's why getting the results you want out of your employees is called "management". There will never be a time when all situations are solved completely, so don't waste your energy expecting that magical day to come.

Vilification breeds contempt. Ok, so customers and employees may behave like bad people, but you can't view them as villains? Doesn't sound right, does it, but that's exactly what I'm saying. Vilification breeds contempt. If you harbor contempt in your heart for either group of people, slowly over time you will start treating customers and employees with contempt. It will start slowly, but it will build until you don't like your job, your customers and your business. Contempt is one of the strongest emotions and when you really feel it in your heart, you cannot contain it. If you cannot contain it, you will show it. If you show it, you're finished. No one wants to work for a contemptuous person and certainly no one wants to do business with one.

Customers to guests. There is a solution, but it is one only you can implement with self control and a long distance look toward ongoing success. Customers are only there for a transaction, you need to treat them like guests. Treat them like guests who have done you a great service by their arrival and whom you are sorry to see depart. Treat them better than guests, because they actually paid to visit you. Make their day easy. Make your signage clear. Make your staff helpful before the guest has a question. Change your nomenclature so your staff calls them guests. Celebrate those who care for your guests each time they do something exceptional.

Villains to partners. At the NAFDMA Advanced Learning Retreat, I loved Patti's approach to employees underperformance: "I think first, what part of this is my fault. How have I fail to make it clear what we expect?" Underperforming employees are your fault. Excuses such as "kids just don't know how to work anymore" are merely cop-outs for lack of training. Remember that simply "telling" an employee does not qualify as training and usually results in failure; failure that wastes your time and their time. The Tanner's, also sharing at the ALR, shared Marilyn Tanner's cleaning training as "She cleans it with them and in front of them, showing them before and after following the procedure. If the bathrooms don't meet spec after that, the employee redoes the work until they do." Mrs. Tanner makes them partners.

The common assumption is that employees are out to get you, slack off and or rob you. That simply isn't the case in all but the smallest percentage of total workers throughout your business life. Employees do come with few built-in skills, but we've found them very motivated to work, learn and earn as it's tough times all around. Parents aren't throwing money around like they used to and kids seem to have motivation. They do need guidance, patience and training and that, is your job.

Shift your frame of reference. If you experience a negative guest interaction, you are brought to an extremely short frame of reference. You have to deal with that guest right now and handle the problem immediately. After that, the rest of your day can seem like you're viewing events through short-sighted glasses. The key, as a manager or owner, is to reset your vision to an appropriate distance from the problem. You might have had one lousy guest, but it happened in a day of 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 guests. In it's proper frame of reference, the proper sight-distance, that one event is dwarfed by the overwhelmingly positive response from the other guests.

NLP. Neurolinguistic programming is the science of programming your mind, efforts and outcomes through the use of language that promotes the desired result. Many years ago I made the conscience choice to use NLP in my marriage. I pledged that no matter what, I was going to, at the very minimum, refer to my wife as beautiful at least once during the day and say "I love you" every night before we went to sleep. Seems like no big deal right? Without a conscience effort, you never know what you're going to get. Conscientiously choosing your words creates the environment you desire. Don't believe me? Ask your wife if she'd prefer a world in which she was referred to as "beautiful and loved." Trust me, this stuff works. (Switch the gender, ladies and man-up the adjectives. It still works.)

NLP with your guests. Program yourself to use phrases such as "We're glad you're here!, No worries!, No problem!, We've got you covered! Thanks for coming! Glad you had a good time!" This language makes them feel comfortable and reinforces for you that you are glad they came, no matter what problems they have. Don't you like to visit places that make you feel loved and appreciated? Your guests, under it all, are just people. They are drawn to people who treat them well, just as you are.

NLP with your employees. For a change, catch someone doing something right. Throw a "Nice work!, Great job!, That was crazy, but we did it! I like how you handed it." To some employees, they may only know you as the person who comes in and yells at them periodically! All that yelling and criticism encourages a culture of Duck & Cover. The assumption that employee performance increases because the employees are so scared of someone yelling at them again is completely false. Good employees will never tolerate a tyrant boss, particularly employees from Gen Y & the Millennials. By encouraging what you want, discouraging, but forgiving, mistakes, you build a culture of Achievement.

Guests are not the enemy. Employees are not villains. You are not going crazy, but you will if you cannot shift your frame of reference and start using Neurolinguistic Programming to fill your mind with the right thoughts that weed out contempt.

Remember, you are very thankful for guests coming to your business and because so many come, you need employees to care for them. You're thankful for those employees who are, for the most part, your partners in providing exceptional care for those guests.... for whom you are thankful...verrrrry thankful.....(repeat to yourself as many times as needed...)

Have a great week.
Hugh

Thermometer or Thermostat?

Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? Thermometers reflect the temperature. Thermostats set the temperature. It is so critical in this critical time of year to "feel your feelings" because, as the leader in your business, you are the thermostat, no matter what. The only question is: What's your setting?

Thermometers. I was reminded of this concept by a sermon two weeks ago. Our reverend Jim used this analogy (not his original idea, it's been around for a while), as to how we are to live our lives as Christians in the world. It holds so true to our business lives, I had to share it with you today. We all know "Thermometers" and have them on our staff. Do you have someone who gets bored quickly when things slow down? Who get frazzled when it gets hectic? Who adds to the argument that someone else starts? Who joins the crowd standing around talking?

They are Thermometers. They are people who merely reflect the "temperature" of the room. If it's hot they are hot. If it's cold they are cold. They tend toward "victim-speak", as in "There's nothing I could do" or "He made me feel bad." Unfortunately, you cannot change a Thermometer. They are who they are and, since long ago I've encouraged you to relinquish your job of Master of the Universe, it's not your job to fix them.

Dealing with Thermometers. The good news about Thermometers is that they are controllable. You know exactly how it's going to go: They will reflect the temperature of the room no matter what. So all you have to do is control the temperature.

Thermostats. Thermostats control the temperature of the room. If it's too hot, they cool it down. If it's too cool, they heat things up. You all know Thermostats. The positive ones are the people you like to be around. They keep the fun going. They lift everyone's spirits. They make hectic fun. They make work a game. When they are around all the Thermometers are having fun and working hard, too.

Broken Thermostats. There are negative Thermostats. They throw fuel on a fire. They bring everyone down when they are having a bad day. They can walk into a hectic situation and make it explode with negativity. When they are moping around, everyone is moping around. Remember: The Thermometers merely reflect the temperature set by the Thermostat and sometimes Thermostats get broken. If you've got a chronically broken Thermostat, replace it.

You are a Thermostat, whether you like it or not. You are the leader, so, no matter what, you are the largest Thermostat in the room. We all get tired, have frustrating days, problems to deal with, payroll to make, guests to please and we get worn out during this long season. Too bad. Buck up little camper because your attitude and your actions set the temperature for the rest of the room. You've got to find a way to set the temperature where it needs to be so all your little Thermometers can do their jobs.

There's nothing more frustrating than a whole team of Thermometers out of whack when you are busy with guests. When it happens, maybe this weekend, you better quickly check your Thermostat. If you find that your other Thermostats are on the wrong setting, pull them aside and encourage them to keep up appearances for the sake of their team of Thermometers who are watching closing to get a reading.

What's your setting? You're almost there. We're almost through the season. You can do it! I hope this "warms you up a bit", so you can set your temperature for the weekend and for you team.

Have a great October weekend,
Hugh

Each and every guest.

2011-10-07_09-50-36_372.3gp Watch on Posterous

Busy, busy, busy. Some people like Christmas, but I like Fall. "It's the most, wonderful time, of the year..." So many farms are buzzing with guests, hopping with action and hustling sales, it is a tiring, wonderful, chaotic, beautiful time of celebration. In the midst of your celebration, when your time, energy and nerves are running short, it is the critical time to remember each and every guest.

I hope you've been busy. I don't know about you, but in the Northeast the weather FINALLY broke and we had a beautiful weekend at Maple Lawn Farms and the Maize Quest Fun Park. It was packed and Farmer Hugh was very happy, pumped, excited, and very, very busy. Three register lines were full tilt for two hours on Sunday and we were having a lot of fun, with a lot of people.

One to Many. The relationship between you and your throngs of guests is one (of you) to many (of them). As we were processing guests into the Fun Park and repeating the same welcoming phrases, directing the newly banded guests on, and yelling "Next!", the joy and excitement was definitely "One to Many." We're pouring out high-energy greetings and moving the crowds. "One to Many" relationships are for your best employees who can feed off the energy and give back a great show for the guests. It's like a rock concert, you are the performers and the guests are the crowd.

One to One. More personal relationships happen on a one to one basis, when it's just you, or your employee, and your guest. It might be at Gemstone Mining, when the employees takes the time to show the guest how to mine, personally sets the seat on the pedal kart or buckles the seatbelt on the cow train. These personal interactions are the magic of the day. Oprah once said, "You might forget what people said, you might forget what people did, but you'll never forget the way they made you feel."

Marketing vs. Service. You can never stop marketing. Even during your busiest time - Market your business. Obsessing over how many people are coming, how many ads you are running and how many people are coming next Saturday during your public hours is a misappropriation of your time. Serving your customers while they are here trumps any other activity. You have to focus all your energy on your guests. Nothing else matters.

Guests are always One to One. You've been other places. You know it's true. Guests are always One to One. It doesn't matter to your guest that you are busy, that you have twenty other people in line, that you are tired, that three kids called in sick and you're short staffed. They don't care a bit because they will always view your relationship as One to One. You to him. You to her. You to me. While it's very nice that you are having so much fun with One to Many, you can ruin a family outing in less than a minute if you miss the One to One.

Each and every guest. As you are crushingly busy, and I truly hope you are these next few weeks, put some big energy in to your One to Many interactions. The crowds will love it. Just be sure that you, as the owner, get out from behind the counter, hop off the tractor to take special care of some One to Ones. Talk to a child. Carry a big pumpkin. Help a guest to her car. Let a birthday child have an extra ice cream. High-five a group on the way out of the maze.

Take care and be thankful for each and every guest. Make each and every one of them feel special, and you will surely have many.

Have a great week.
Hugh

Run away from your problems.

Just one ad.

You may not remember the ad, but it was a Nike ad. I think it came out when I was in high school. I've remembered it for it's many layers of meaning. I've remembered it because I've felt like running from everything at times in my life.

Now I am running. (4.6 miles today) As I ran, I remembered this ad again. There is just something about being alone on the road at 6AM. Just you and world.

You're not racing anyone. You're just seeing if you can do it. You make choices at intersections knowing that whichever choice you make, you are the only one who can get you back home. When you make it back, you are exhausted, but energized. You did it. No one else.

I like starting the day with a victory. Running, just making it back from the course, is a victory. Then I remembered this ad. How many ads yours, mine or anyone else's have you remembered from high school? As you start marketing, don't just list your attractions say "Family Fun!" and write the check to the newspaper. Try to connect with people. Try to have your ads mean something.

I had writers block yesterday, but I came up with all this on the road this morning.

Who says you can't run away from your problems?

Have a great week.
 -Hugh

Prove or Be.

Just what are you trying to prove? I remember when I was a young lad fresh out of college, wet behind the ears, a whippersnapper. I entered the world of adults with something to prove. I needed internally and externally to prove that I belonged with the grown-ups, that I had something to contribute, that I had worth, value. I needed to show my Dad, my peers, my colleagues and the world that I could add something. I had to prove my worth, earn respect, earn my keep, build my bona fides.

Ever feel that way? I bet, if you're reading this, you did and probably still do. I started early and worked late. I tried everything, hustled, connected, slept at the office, grabbed my bootstraps and hauled myself up "American Dream-style", fighting tooth and nail, ignoring the critics, kickin' a**, gettin' kicked, waking up the next morning and doing it all again. That's what it's all about, baby.

That's what it should be all about. I fully believe in the American Dream and those early years of any business are the crucible in which you burn off the weak and hard the steel of the few brave enough to never quit. I often hear from farmers, clients and friends "If it were easy, everybody'd do it." It ain't easy and it shouldn't be.

Somedays, now in our 15th season, it occurs to me that I'm still that scrappy 22 year old doggedly fighting those old fights. I'm still scappin' it out often with that near desperation to "prove" something. It's just that now, I can't figure out what I'm trying to prove to whom! That's when it occurred to me that there is and naturally should be a transition for business owners from "Prove" to "Be."

In a sermon from Andy Stanley, Andy shines a light on the fact that many of us go through life doing what we do, believing what we believe without examining the belief system we're using! Why do you think about money the way you do? Why do you think about relationships the way you do? Why do you think about employees the way you do? Why do you get so mad when someone disrespects you? Why do you defer to an older employee?

We never look at the systems of belief, we just keep plugging away with our heads down. So, this week, I decided to pick my head up for a moment.

When I looked around. So, I looked around at me and my actions, motivations, feelings (I always panic in early August when the money is spent getting the park ready, I remember October's crazy zillions of people days and only an "August amount" of people show up.), and behaviors. I quickly realized that I was thinking and behaving like a 22 year old newbie. Making choices like a scrapper. Feeling desperate to prove something like I did way back when. While some of these feelings keep you fresh and motivated, they can also tear you up inside.

Allow yourself to ripen. It occurred to me that I needed to mentally permit myself to ripen. I'm not scrappin' a new business. I'm piloting a successful one. I (and you) should not be using the decision making lens from 10 years ago to run your business today. It's OK to allow yourself some room, some margin, to have more freedom now than you did before. It's OK to ripen. You should no longer be green!

Be, not Prove. The biggest shift in viewpoint is from Prove to Be. Prove is what you were doing - scrappin', kickin', clawin', fightin'. Be is being comfortable doing what you're doing. You ARE proving a good experience for your guests. You DO already have a clientele. You ARE allowed to be successful. You must now BE the quality person, establishment, place, experience you worked so hard to develop, to build, to create.

To Be does not equal To Stop. I am by no means advocating you "coast" or "rest on your laurels". To Be means you still are the motivated person that got you to the place you are today. To Be means you allow yourself let go of the frenetic pace of a start-up business and be internally OK with that. To Be means you can take a lunch break. To Be means you evaluate decisions applying your long term perspective instead of fighting fires all day, every day. To Be means you do not feel guilty leaving work at 5PM to go to the pool with your kids. To Be means you are more efficient and get more done in less time at the office.

Do you know who you would like To Be? When was the last time you looked up from your daily grind to examine the belief/behavior systems under which you operate? Are you still trying desperately trying to prove something to someone? What are you proving? To whom are you trying to prove it? Do these people know you're trying to prove something to them? Does any of that really matter?

Has Proving been wearing you out? I've been Proving for so very long it has worn me out. When I really think about it, my wife, Dad, kids and family already love me as I am. People who visit the Fun Park have good family time together. Our franchise clients generated over $3.5 million dollars for their collective family farms last year.

Maybe, just maybe, it's time for you and me to quit Proving and just Be.

Have a great week,
Hugh

Life on the Farm - Timeliness.

Life on the Farm

Timeliness. So much in agriculture is timeliness. It needs to rain on time. It needs to warm up on time. You need to plant in time. You need to control pests in time. You need your staff to show up on time. You need to harvest in time. It's all timeliness.

Weekly planning. I've been re-reading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. One of his tenants is planning, specifically moving from daily planning to weekly planning as a way to look a little further ahead.

Dad and I have been working on getting a better handle on fruit ripening by weekly planning and daily check-ins on goals for the day to allocate people and equipment with fewer hassles and hold-ups.

You can't plan alone. I've found that my benevolent dictator style of management is great for some things, but poor for an expanding business with a lot of moving parts.

Dad and I cant do it alone and we can dictate terms to each other, so we have to work together. They benefit is that my extra maze workers and Fun Park landscape equipment can make the blueberries look nice when Dad's guys are on irrigation. We only need one backhoe, that gets scheduled in advance.

We can increase our timeliness, but prioritizing communication and weekly planning.

Business lessons on the farm?! This might all sound a bit odd from the homey, warm, fuzzy Maple Lawn Farms fruit newsletter. I do think it's important to keep it real for you, our guests.

Make no mistake, farming is a business. If we don't behave like real, high-level business people, we don't get to drive tractors and entertain in mazes. My Dad is a real business man who handles financial challenges and risks that would make a hedge fund manager cringe.

It's all for you. We're serious about business, so we can have fun with you and provide the family enjoyment opportunities you love. Dad and I made a serious choice for our business after Mom died that we were going to grow our fruit and fun products directly and specifically for people who wanted to come to the farm to pick them. We went smaller and direct, instead of bigger to wholesale to Wal-Mart.

Thanks to your patronage and participation in our experiment in "going local", it's working. Our goal is to sell everything directly to the people who will consumer it. At the same time, you get to come here, see Dad and our staff who live right here, on or near the farm, and know your dollars aren't going to Timbuktu corporate muckity-muck.

We still need your help spreading the word as much as we do picking the fruit! Our work here has only just begun. As always, help us spread the good word of fresh, local fruit to all your friends via email, Facebook and, of course, Face-to-Face!

See you soon on the farm,
Hugh

Multiple Categories of Victory

One of my thoughts for the past few months has been finding a way to quantify "victory" in my life in a fair and balanced way.

First, a few statements upon which I'll base my thoughts: We all know balance in our lives will be achieved. We all know what it's like to be unbalanced. Balance has much to do with allocation of time and energy. Time, and to a lesser extend, energy are "zero sum" items meaning that you only have so much of each. Though you can produce a bit more energy, you cannot produce more time.

Some examples:
You can spend all your time making money and lose connection with your family.
You can spend all your time with your family and go bankrupt.
You can work in your business as an employee without forming strategy for the future.
You can work on the future alone without getting any work done in the present.
You can read a book or watch a movie, not both.
You can workout or nap on the sofa, but not both.

How do you categorize victory in this "zero sum game" of life? My trial for the week is to track victory in several key areas of my life this week and see how I'm doing. I'll track family time, kids time, spouse time, physical fitness, work on the Fun Park, work on the farm, work on the farm market, franchise sales, franchise service and church.

How do you track it? I think I'll only track the positive "wins" in each category. If I workout in the morning, "Win!" If we get the blueberry bushes mulched under my supervision, "Win!" and so on.

I'm just starting, anyone else got some ideas?
Have a winning week.
 -Hugh

Shut the window.

I've been re-listening to the audio version of Steven Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", which is a treasure trove of insights and tools for effectiveness. Just because it's sort of a basic primer and I read it at least once before, hardly means I've fully extracted the benefits from it.

One of his illustrative stories is of a time when he was on a writing retreat. He had two windows open to allow the cool air to circulate. His work was arranged on a table in piles of papers. As he was working, the breeze started to pick up and before he knew it, his work papers were being blown around. As he chased them wildly trying to recollect the flying pages, he realized that he'd be further ahead if he took 10 seconds and closed the window.

What's stacking up. Covey talks about P / PC balance in which "P"= your production or what you can personally get done. "PC" = Your production capability or your production capacity. Generally I find that the things that I need to do create my "stacks." I often find that I place myself in the position of "tasks only I can possibly do." I stack up my "P" or my personal production. Are there too many things that only you can do?

Stacks ready to blow away. When I get overwhelmed, I feel like Covey did - my stacks are starting to blow away! I have to scramble to chase the stacks! I have to work longer and harder just to keep everything on the table! The worst feeling is that I can't do anything about it because I'm only one person with only so many hours in a day. Ever feel like that?

Close the window. Chasing the blowing papers from stacks of things "only you can do" is the equivalent of running on a treadmill: You get tired, but you don't get anywhere. If you want to "close the window" you have to increase your production capacity, your "PC".

Here are the top ways to increase your Production Capacity:

1. Train your staff. Training feels like a big waste of time because you know you could have the job done in half the time it takes to show someone else how to do it. True, BUT you have to look downstream. If you take twice as long ONE time to train someone else to do the task, then you NEVER have to do it again, you are way ahead. Training is an investment in your time and your staff's skills.

2. Delegate. After training your staff, assign them to task and resist with all your will the urge to ever do it again. Especially at the beginning, right after training, your people will have the tendency to toss the task back to you knowing that you will often just take it back and do it. Coach them along the way to success, soon they won't remember you ever doing it.

3. Build systems. Ever wonder how you and your people keep forgetting to order this, mow that, spray here, or pick up those? Build systems to handle all tasks that are even remotely routine. This is the toughest of all, because it takes the longest to develop. It might take a year or a season to get your system in place for ordering or cleaning, but the investment is worth it. With systems, it gets easier and easier to train new people, because you're training them in the system, not just in "things they should do." Systems must be built with accountability. We like checklists and initials - someone is supposed to clean, they do the job, check it off and sign their initials.

4. Leverage technology. What lead me to today's email was a "window closing" using technology. So many people asked for order sheets for a new product that I was scrambling to write and email, attach the document, send it and track it in our system. I realized this and spent 15 minutes making an email template that auto-filled the client's name, attached the document and tracked it. Now, after 15 minutes of "window closing", I can send it instantly to clients with one-click.

We leveraged technology with Salesforce.com to track each of our maze clients, the progress on their designs, GPS cutting, scheduling, ordering, extras like t-shirts and more. We can get instant views of how we're doing and if we're on time. We just brought our GPS cutter Tim into the system, which took some time and training, but now we can see his work schedules instantly and he knows when we've added new locations. It has allowed us to grow our business without growing staff, but it took hours of trial and error and training, even a bit of arm twisting.

Close the window. If you feel like your stacks of papers are blowing in the wind and you'll never get them all gathered up and reordered, take some time to "close the window", train, delegate, systematize and leverage so when things get really busy, you have the capacity to handle it all.

If you hear yourself saying, "I don't have time to build systems. I don't ahve time to train people. They'll never get it anyway." You need to work on this more than ANYTHING else you are doing right now.

Have a great week.
Hugh

Life on the Farm: Black Cherries

The start of the summer fruit season is always a hectic, rejuvenating time. Lindsey and Dee have been non-stop for three days cleaning, sanitizing, merchandising, stocking, basically reclaiming the market from winter storage room! We've installed lights and boxed in the market's overhanging porch roof. It's a continuous cycle of improvement. It's.... seasonal.

The winter was so cold, dreary and snowy it was hard to picture the farm buzzing with guests picking and shopping, but now the sun has triumphed over the rain and I can't think of anything better than welcoming guests to the orchards. The cherries pictured above will not be available as I had to sample a few for ... uh... quality control purposes :-)

The Maze Fun Park is under renovations for the 2011 season that include some new attractions, but a lot of updating and freshening of tried and true favorites. This is the 15th annual corn maze season coming up and many of our attractions are approaching 10 years old, so it was time.

I don't know about your house, but we've been in ours for around 10 years and everything seems to have hit it's life-span. We've replaced the dishwasher (the appliance, NOT my wife :-), the washer, the dryer, repainted, even had a toilet go bad! That must just be the life-span of stuff!

Many of you know me and know that I, other than the expense involved (I am a Scottish farmer after all which makes me, uh..."thrifty"), don't really mind "new". I like the future. I like making changes. I like what's "next". What's next here is our gorgeous crop of sweet cherries.

See you soon on the farm,
Hugh

Blog regulars: I'm posting the Life on the Farm articles I write for our farm's newsletter because so many readers ask for examples of how to write for their farms - Well, here you go!

Nike's a marketing company that uses shoes to market itself. What?!

Hugh's Reviews:

"We've come around to saying that Nike is a
marketing-oriented company, and the product
is our most important marketing tool."

— Phil Knight, Nike

 

 

Nike is a marketing company whose primary marketing tool is the product.

That's what Phil Knight said in the quote above. Hmmm.

Joe Pine says, "The Experience is the Marketing." Hmmm.

Ben Beaver said, "Barely a fraction of marketing budgets are spent training staff."

Catching the trend here? So often I'm asked what the best marketing or advertising method is, so often I'm asked how to get new customers. The answer is the take care of the customers you have and to the extent that you force them to talk about you. Instead of fretting over the right advertising, fret over your employees training; over them knowing as much about your business as you do; over them worrying about customer's enjoyment of the experience.

Ben says it's cheaper! It's cheaper to thrill a customer who is about to have a bad experience (i.e. cold pie, spoiled apples, no help in your maze, bump on the playground, etc.) than it is to lose that customer and have them tell others you suck.

Think about it: Your customer service multiplies your advertising dollars.

• Ex. If ad dollars are positive for business x positive customer service = BIG positive for business.Ex. 
• If ad dollars are positive for business x NEGATIVE customer service = BIG NEGATIVE for business NO MATTER HOW POSITIVE THE AD DOLLARS!

We are all marketing companies whose main marketing tool is our products and experiences. If it's true for Phil Knight and Nike, how much more so is it for family entertainment experiences on our farms?

 

Your rallying cry.

If you're feeling low on motivation, you need to work on your rallying cry. Sometimes you get things done and you don't know what to do next. Sometimes you have so much to do in so many areas, you find it had to start work on anything! What you need is a "rallying cry", a vision of the future, so bright and attractive that it formulates your priorities for you and pulls you toward the goal.

I was feeling down. I had just come back from a successful trip to the UK visiting new clients, touring the countryside, laying out a maze. It was a big achievement and took a lot of energy from all involved - it was a success. When I returned however, I found so much on my plate a was paralyzed. I nearly had a panic attack when I wrote out my lists on my white board (which is 4ft x 6ft) and ran out of space.

Out of balance. I also realized that, like everyone occasionally is, I was out of balance. We have had wonderful success on the franchise and product side of the equation, but I had been neglecting the pre-season prep for my home park, it was raining every day with no end in sight, and I hadn't done a thing to market the 2011 season.

One thing leads to another. As you know, when the list is big there are routinely bottlenecks. You'll start on a task, say marketing to scouts only to find that you need, first to update the web page and remake the brochure, but you need pictures for the brochure, then you need to find the pictures, then you need to convert them, then load them to your web page, then the phone rings, then AAARGH! One thing leads to another and another until nothings done. You can't seem to complete anything. Paralyzed.

Change your routine. If you've been working outside a lot, move inside. If you've been working alone in your office, call someone in to work with you. Break the routine and think about a vision or goal that's further down the road. I called Michelle in to have a planning meeting for our home park group marketing. During the meeting we came up with, not only definite steps and tasks to complete, but as we talked through things we came up with an opening weekend "rallying cry"; a greater purpose for our opening weekend.

My rallying cry. What was it? "Robin Hood's Helping Harvest" We're going to make our opening weekend (Aug 6-7) FREE, but only if you bring in two canned food items per person. It aligned our group leader open house day, our parade marketing, our initial PR campaign - everything - behind something we believe in: feeding people. Not to mention, it goes pretty darn well with our "Adventures of Robin Hood" themed corn maze! Robin Hood's mission was to help those needing help!

What's your rallying cry? What motivates you and your troops? What is the foundation of your next marketing season? Feeling overwhelmed? Sure, having a rallying cry isn't going to get your work done for you. It isn't going to give you less work to do. It might increase the work load, but when you're working on something you believe in, it's hardly work at all.

Feeling paralyzed? Re-motivate yourself by finding your rallying cry... and stay tuned for "Hugh In Tights".

Have a great week.
- Hugh

Look Ma, No Hands! Testing Auto-steer on the big tractor.

Farmer Matt tests out John Deere's Auto Steer and finds you can do even less work than normal.

 

NEW Maize Quest Launches "The Interactive Orchard" QR Code System.

Maize Quest Brings Quick Response Code Technology to Help Farm Marketers Educate and Entertain Customers About Apples with The Interactive Orchard.

New Park, PA – (May 2011) Got a smart phone? Your customers do, or at least half of them will by fall harvest 2011 says The Nielsen Company (See attached graph). Walk into any BestBuy or scan your favorite mainstream magazine and the advertisers are using QR Codes to provide rich media to customers. Now farm marketers can use rich media, including videos, to sell and educate an increasingly “smartphone-carrying” customer base.

In an effort to easily connect farmers and direct marketers of apples to this rapidly expanding audience, Maize Quest created a tool to link farm market customers to apple variety videos on their smartphones. It’s called The Interactive Orchard. Hang the signs in the orchard or in the farm market. Guests scan them and watch informational apple video clips.

"Let guests use the tools they already have to learn more about your apples," says Hugh McPherson, Maize Quest President and co-host for the apple videos. "We’ve made it easy for farms like ours to educate and entertain our customers with their own smartphones! The best part is there's no technical set-up for the farmer.”
 

This is the QR Code for the Interactive Orchard’s Red Delicious video. Farm market guests use iPhone apps such as NeoReader, Optiscan, StickBits, Barcode, ScanLife. Android apps include NeoReader, QR Droid, ScanLife, Kaywa. Blackberry apps include Mobiletag, I-nigma. All apps are free and available from the smartphones “App Store.”

QR Codes, or Quick Response Codes, are links to other media contained in a two-dimensional barcode. It is a way to get more information to the customer than a standard apple variety sign can communicate. Guests scan the QR Code to ‘upgrade’ their media experience.

 

Click here to watch the Interactive Orchard "What is it?" video.

With the Interactive Orchard specifically, guests upgrade from a simple sign to a video, description, picture, and list of uses for the apple. If they bookmark each apple’s pages on their phone, they keep that information for the next time they visit the farm market.

Here’s how it works: Farms purchase the special signs, one each for popular varieties of apples, then display the signs in their pick-your-own orchards or at point-of-purchase in their farm markets. Each colorful sign displays a picture of the apple variety and a QR Code that links to the Interactive Orchard’s mobile web site, videos and database.

Guests scan the QR Code using their smartphones and a free, downloadable application. They are immediately linked to the Interactive Orchard’s apple variety page. Each apple variety page contains a picture of the apple, a description, typical uses and a video describing the apple and giving some fun facts.

“Just because technology isn’t your thing, doesn’t mean you should miss out on using QR Codes to inform your guests,” says McPherson. “Instead of making videos, programming web sites, finding scanners and all that, you just order and hang the signs and your guests do the rest! We’ve tried to make it easy.”

Maize Quest solved the technology side of the equation for the farm marketer by building the mobile web site, creating the codes, designing the signs, and filming the videos. All the local farm marketer has to do is order and hang the full-color, UV-protected vinyl signs. A package of 10 full-color apple variety signs costs $399 with no recurring fees. (Click to download order forms now.)

The Interactive Orchard project is a creation of the Maize Quest technical team, that usually works on creating web sites, designs and games for corn mazes. Maple Lawn Farms, Adams County Nurseries and Hollabaugh Orchards and even the Pennsylvania Apple Marketing Board contributed to the database of information guests discover after scanning the codes.

"You’ve got to engage the customer," says Ellie Hollabaugh Vranich, Assistant Business Manager at Hollabaugh Bros and co-host in the apple videos. "This is a great opportunity for farms to provide information for a public that is interested in learning more about their food. Plus, all you’ve got to do is hang up the signs.”

To contact Maize Quest to order Interactive Orchard signs for your farm market call Hugh at 1-866-935-6738 ext 102 or www.InteractiveOrchard.com to download order forms and choose your apple varieties.

 

 

NEW Product: iPod Hayride Audio System

 

Maize Quest Launches New iPod/MP3-based Hayride Audio Box To The Agritourism and Haunted Hayride Industries.

Maize Quest designed the original Hayride Audio system back in 2007 to revolutionize and standardize the way farms where able to give educational information.  By allowing the driver to give a pre-recorded tour at exactly the right time by simply pushing a button, Maize Quest drastically reduced the need for farms to have a tractor driver who was also a great tour guide.

The original 8-Button Hayride Box from Maize Quest is the workhorse of the industry, because there is nothing like it.

Now there's a new, lower cost option for smaller farms or farms with different requirements for tours. It starts at just $350.

When would you use the iPod Hayride Audio system?

• If you have just one wagon and generally run the same tour with one driver.
• If you do most of the tours yourself, or just have one driver who likes to do the tour, but you need a mic.
• If you don't really do a big "tour" but need a way to give a safety announcement or correct poor behavior.
• If you have a small wagon and don't need the power of the 8-Button Hayride Audio System.
• If you just want music, not "tours by button" functionality.

What's included?

• The box/enclosure and 15w amp.
• Power cable to tractor battery.
• Bypass mic for announcements.
• Cable to iPod/MP3 player's headphone jack.
• iPod is NOT included.

Why use ANY Hayride Audio System?

• Standardize your messaging for safety: The first question a lawyer will ask when you get sued by a customer is "How did you notify my client of the hazard?" The Hayride Audio system allows you to answer that it happens every ride, every time with the same EXACT message. Do not rely on your employees to remember to say the right words!
• Standardize your tours: If you have more than one driver, (even if your one driver is human), the tour can be different each time. As school budgets tighten, make sure that you are the school tour provider with the highest-quality educational experience that's top-quality every time. With pre-recorded tours, you know each student gets the best tour possible.
• Reduce your driver requirement: If you do tours without any audio support, you need drivers who drive well, are fun tour guides, and are LOUD. That's a steep requirement these days! With the Maize Quest Hayride Audio System, you can have ANY safe driver give a good quality tour by playing a track (iPod system) or pushing a button (Premium 8-Button Box system.)

The NEW iPod Hayride Audio System is a great way to get started standardizing your safety announcements and farm tours. Call Hugh at 1-866-935-6738 ext 102 to learn more or download order sheets to get your order in now!

 

Premium 8-Button Hayride Audio system.

Ignore your competitors.

Pay attention to your competitors just long enough to make sure you're not like them, then ignore them. Completely.

Differentiate. The key to any business is limiting the ways in which you are similar to your competitors. The best marketing messages are different messages. The best experiences to work on marketing are experiences that are different from all the competitors in your market. As you get started in your business or product line, study and analyze your competitors. List what they do, what features they have, how they operate, how the market, where they market, know them better than they know themselves.

Then, completely ignore them. You heard me right. Ignore them. OK. Bold statement. Now, I'll tell you why.

You (currently) do not exist. That's right, you don't. You see the marketing fight is not between you and the competitor, it's between you and The Black Void. That Black Void is in the minds of people who don't know anything about you or your competitor. I've found over the years that, in general, the market is much bigger than I previously imagined.

Your market is, too. Spend your time and energy notifying people that you exist, not crafting a message that tries to make you sound better than your competitor. Most operations are so small compared to the potential market that expansion is infinite compared to current attendance.

For instance, if you and a competitor each have 10,000 visits in a season, not too bad for fall harvest farms, in a smaller market of 250,000 people, the battle isn't for your competitor's 10,000 people, it is for the REST of the 230,000 remaining! In marketing, notification beats (to quote George W. Bush) trick-er-a-tion. The math still works for bigger operations in big markets: If you've got 55,000 visits in a market of 1.2 million, you're still nothing compared to the total market.

You're more important. Any ounce of energy you spend chasing, watching, tracking your competitor is energy your not using to make your product, experience or farm better. I'm sorry, but you're just not that good, yet. You can't spare the time or energy. You need to pour everything you've got into your guests. So, set your plans and go full speed ahead on your project. What you do for your guests is more important than watching your competitor.

You have no control. Surprise! You can't control anything your competitors do, say, launch, sell, publish or advertise. You can watch (in horror) as their plan unfolds and wish you would have planned better, but you are powerless to do anything about it. So don't even watch. Ignore them.

You'll be tempted to copy (even if you don't admit it). Remember the key to marketing is to be as different as you can be? If you keep watching someone else, you'll be tempted overtly and subliminally to copy what you're watching. We can't help it! We all begin to mirror what we see and the people with whom we spend time. Repetition is how we, as humans, implant new ideas and new patterns in our minds. So if you want to be more similar to your competitors, just keep watching them. Then, the closer to identical the two of you become, the sooner you can start competiting on price! ('cause that's where we all want to be!)

Dare to be different. You don't (currently) exist in the minds of your potential customers. You are way more important, than your competitors. You can't possibly control them. You will be tempted to copy them and make yourself, not more, but less competitive. You need every minute, every dollar and every thought to be focused on doing the best job you can possibly do for your customers with what you've got.

Each year, go ahead - watch your competitors like a hawk. Study them. Make lists. Compare them to your operation or product. Get nitty-gritty. Get into the details. Know everything you possibly can. Plan to make your product or attraction or  farm market or customer service or educational programs as wildly different and completely, authentically your own. Differentiate yourself. Create the widest gap possible between you.

Then, completely, ignore them. And go about your business.

Have a great week.
-Hugh

PPM: Parts Per Million Marketing.

The world is like one big swimming pool. It's full of 'water' in whatever market you are trying to reach. Adding your message is like adding chlorine to the water. Even after a big shock, you have to keep adding more or you lose the powerful concentration needed for results.

Childhood summers. My summers were not spent at the pool. That is not where I learned this. No, as a boy, my summers were spent in the peach packing house. All the clanging, banging moving parts. The psssst, whooosh of the box filler and me placing yet another empty box to be filled with peaches that were so hard, we farmers knew only "city people" would eat them.

But I digress. It was when I learned to mix the chlorine and take the chemical readings (the concentration of chlorine) in the hydrocooler that I finally got a break from putting boxes on the filler. The hydrocooler was basically a big pool of water that was chilled freezing cold and chlorinated.  Sun-warmed peaches from the fields was placed in the hydrocooler in bins and the cold water was pumped over the bins dropping the fruit's internal temperature to increase shelf life. The chlorine in the water cleaned and disinfected the fruit to eliminate brown rot, again to increase shelf life.

"Chemical Mixer" was a big promotion (unless you breathed the chlorine by accident while scooping.) It was as "Chemical Mixer" that I learned about Parts Per Million (PPM). At the beginning of the season, we had to dump buckets of chlorine into the water to get even a small reaction of increased chlorine levels. Once we finally got the chlorine reading where it needed to be, we'd only have to add a little more after processing X number of bins of fruit tomaintain that level of disinfection.

Shock value. Blasting the pool from ZERO PPM took a lot of chlorine product and a lot of effort. Sound familiar? If you're launching a new business or product or service or church or campaign or even trying to correct some staffing issues that have been neglected for a long time, you are going to need some "shock value."

PR is shock value. Advertising blitz is shock value. Incredible service is shock value. Sitting down with someone and having that honest conversation you've been avoiding and they know you've been avoiding is shock value. Going to a trade show or convention is shock value - you study for 3-6 DAYS on just one topic! Hugh's visit to your farm is shock value - we spend ALL DAY talking about the project.

Shock value is great! It gets things moving. It kicks your a**! You get fired-up again, but then it slowly dissipates as life, routine, habit, busyness creep in and you start to lose your "concentration"; you start to dilute your PPM. Think about marketing. If you get one big news story in your local paper, you love the shock value of that free press. The PPM in your market are for your marketing message is through the roof! Over time, however, the value of the story decreases, people forget, the message is diluted by all the other messages and business slows. You find yourself back at square one. That is why you specifically cannot rely on "one big story" to drive business for you all season.

Maintenance. To keep up your "concentration", your PPM, you need maintenance. You need an ongoing marketing campaign. You need to keep eating right after your yoga-vegan retreat. You need to add chlorine to your pool after "shocking" it. You need to keep making sales calls. At Maize Quest, we have our big Maze Master Summit. A full day of sessions focused on getting our operators the knowledge and motivation they need to be successful, but we can't stop there. We have monthly online classes, ongoing support, unlimited email and phone support, bi-weekly emails all for maintenance; for maintenance of that fired-up, can-do spirit. One big day won't last all year.

In advertising, shock is nice, but maintenance is key. You have to be there every week. You have to own the media outlet. You have to be consistent more than you have to be "shocking."

Think about your staff training. It's not the big hiring and training event that kills you, it's the short half-life of the employees' knowledge. You have to have a continuous training system in place. They can't possibly "get it" in one helping and you absolutely can't expect them to. What is your maintenance program for your staff training? Are they losing "concentration"? Diluting the PPM you "shocked" them with when you hired them?

As marketers we often live for the "shock value" of a big story, a huge product launch, a grand opening, a full-day seminar, but the real victory is won in the maintenance department. As you plan your marketing, keep in mind that if opening day is your biggest day - you've failed. Real, sustainable business is built consistently over time by delivering your best day in and day out. That may not be sexy, but it's profitable.

Be consistent. Consistency in applying chlorine was the only way to keep those peaches clean. Consistency is the only way to keep your marketing going, your weight loss on track, your employees in line, and your clients motivated. Sure, it takes a little "shock" to get things started to boost the PPM, but if you never lose your "concentration" you only ever have to add a little bit more at any one time.

Have a great week.
-Hugh

My $700,000 trip.

Spring has sprung and it's a great time to get out of the office and be with clients, new and old, as they prepare their businesses for a new season entertaining guests. What a great experience: 7 clients in 7 days, 6 states, 6 hotels, 5 cars, 8 airports, 1,000s of miles.

Why bother with all the hassle of travelling? I'm a bit "old school" in that I really like to meet clients face-to-face even if we can do all our work remotely. It occurred to me as I boarded the last plane home that I might have just made a $700,000 trip.

Experience first hand. I've found that Google Map and Street View and TerraServer are awesome tools for working on client layouts. Nothing, however, replaces standing in the field with your client talking through his/her vision. I absolutely love site planning! I've seen so many farms over the past 15 years, I can 'feel' the right layout. We always plan the site to minimize labor requirements, encourage ancillary purchases and maximize throughput. You just can't put a monetary value on ease of operation and you can't site plan from a satellite.

Look people in the eye. I'm a fun guy, but I'm really serious about what we do. Clients need to see that, not just hear it on the phone, but see it. I'm fully committed to each of them, individually. That's real nice, but it's only real when they see it in my eyes. I, too, need to look them in the eye to see if they are serious, or if they are living a fantasy. I can smell lack of commitment. I can see through fluff. I can't always see it over the phone.

We live in a world of electronic communication, of email, of voicemail, of text messages. We are, however, human beings wonderfully made to communicate with more than voice alone. There is magic in the connections made between people in live, person-to-person conversation. There are ideas, thoughts, inspirations that cannot be duplicated over the phone. You get more when you work things out together, in person.

Uncover the real reasons "why." To bring two college-graduate kids back into the business. To enhance a profitable business unit. To bring the family farm back to profitability. To be able to quit a part-time job and be on the farm full-time.  To educate non-farm guests about agriculture. To keep the family farm going for the 4th generation. To diversify and stabilize family income. To support three, close-knit families and provide a better future for 9 young children.

What an amazing, powerful list of "reasons why"! Together we uncovered the kind of motivation gets you up in the morning to go do it all again. After being cooped up in my office talking to people on the phone, the ability to to get out and learn the true, honest reasons why these families joined our family of maze operators was just awesome... and humbling.

I asked for this responsibility and now I have it. After being with my clients face-to-face, I'm so fired up I can hardly stand it, but there's so much more work to do now. I feel like I've been adopted into 7 new families. That's 7 new farm families which means, as Grandmother McPherson used to say, "If you don't work, you don't eat." Being part of farm family definitely carries different responsibilities, doesn't it? Now that I know them personally, it's a different level of commitment for both of us.

As I boarded that final flight home to my family, I thought of the incredible journey to visit my clients' families, old and new alike, over the past week. With our designs & plans and their hard work implementing, it might just have been a $700,000 trip. $700,000 in new, on-farm income to support some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.

I can't think of a single thing I'd rather do with my life.

Have a great week.
-Hugh

PS I actually visited 8 farms when you include my impromptu visit to Mesilla Valley Maze and the Lyle family. Anna (my dear friend from NAFDMA), Steve and two of their daughters welcomed me with all of "15 miles worth" of notice. I knew the town name sounded familiar and it didn't occur to me that I'd be driving past Anna's farm until I was 15 miles away. That is why I love NAFDMA (the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Assoc.) Everyone is so friendly they'll take you in, give you a tour, and feed you (Thanks!) even on short notice :-)

Marketing is first and foremost about pattern-breaking.

We all live in a Yellow Submarine. We are encased in our lives as we currently live them submerged in a ocean of our own wants and desires. It is a coping mechanism to protect ourselves from the outside world. Unfortunately, all our prospects live in a submarine, too. They are submersed under the waves, secure in the patterns of their lives. Pattern-breaking is crucial to marketing as most people live their lives inside a microcosm, an iron shell that must be cracked before each person can be reached.

Pattern for success. Patterns are not necessarily bad. Once you figure out how to do something, you want to replicate success. Developing a pattern for successful work completion is a great thing. Developing "muscle memory" for sports is how rookies become pros. Patterns for success are efficient.

Developing a pattern for your work day, your work week, can be tremendously liberating. If you know payroll is on Wednesday you don't have to plan Wednesday. If you know you call back group leaders from 9-11AM each day, you know you'll be on schedule and have time to accomplish your tasks. Patterns for success are valuable.

Patterns of life. You have a pattern to your life. You shop for groceries in the same store. You eat at the same restaurants. You drive the same way to the movies. Sit in the same pew at church. Only drink Starbucks. Always get up at 7:15AM. Buy gas at the same two stations. Ideally, you are creating customers that put you in the pattern of their lives. Either shopping for fruit or produce with you on a regular basis or visiting you seasonally for pumpkins and corn maze adventures. You want to be in their patterns of life.

Patterns for protection. Tricker are patterns in our potential customers. Currently, they have developed patterns of life that exclude you. They don't need you and you often aren't even on their radar. Worse yet, they have a deeply entrenched pattern of ignoring marketers altogether. They developed this "pattern of protection" to ward off telemarketers and swindlers. You aren't in their pattern and they have a pattern to keep you away. Yikes!

Pattern-breaking. As you formulate your marketing plan for the year, you have to particularly pay attention to breaking the pattern of your prospects' lives. Without breaking that pattern, you have zero chance of them listening to your message. Even less chance of them acting upon it.

Pattern breaking strategy. How do you break customer patterns? If I really had the definitive answer I'd be much wealthier, but I'll share some strategies in any case.

The classic, straightforward way to break patterns is to advertise. You tell people who don't know you about you. Even advertising becomes a pattern over time. Effective advertising must remain different enough to continue to engage your customers' minds or it's utility diminishes over time.

Meeting prospects in different settings is a pattern-breaking strategy. Show up at a ball park to hand out brochures. Partner with a fast food chain to introduce your message in a new environment.

Promotions for pattern breaking. Consider promotions as part of your marketing budget specifically targeted to break guest patterns. That means that your promotion must be new, different and target a new, different population. That might be different by age, region, type, product, but it must be different from anything you are doing now. Otherwise, it's still in your pattern. It's a diminishing return.

Here's an example: If you always advertise on one particular radio station, you probably don't need to buy another promotion on that station. You need to do a completely new promotion on another, different station to see if you can break the pattern of those listeners. Your ads will have the added bonus of sounding "new" because the new station's listeners haven't heard them before.

Change your pattern. If you've never entered the local parade, do it. If you've never tried TV, try it. If you've always used one newspaper, use the other one. If you've neglected social media, go bonkers with it. You have control over your pattern and if you don't change it, your results will diminish over time. Once your marketing creates a pattern, people get used to it and slowly begin to ignore it. Think about a great TV mystery you like. Generally, you like it because it keeps you guessing, you don't know what's going to happen. (My current favorite is Daybreak, streaming from NetFlix.) Marketing is the same. Once it's predictable, your done.

We are creatures of habit, of patterns. Examine the patterns in your life. Are they patterns of success? Specifically designed for success? Examine the patterns of your desired customers. Where to they shop, drive, eat, attend, do things currently? How can you break their patterns?

How can you help them create a pattern that includes you?

Have a great week.
- Hugh

Visual Reminders

Visual Reminders
 
I am a VERY visual person. I gesture on the phone. I sketch out new ideas. I have to SEE it to believe it.

You might be, too, so use visual reminders.

• For sales goals, I print out a page with my goal on it in numbered boxes so I can see every time I look at my board how close I am.
• For lists I installed a 4ft x 6ft whiteboard near my desk where I put my lists for the week or month.
• For attendance and group bookings I like thermometer-style graphs posted on my bulletin boards.
• For instructions, I like pictorial guides, not just written words.

What can data that's very important to you can you put into visual form?

Where can you post it?

What should you be posting for employees to see?

What should you be posting for guests to see?

Got a deadline looming for a big project for which you need all hands on deck?

Post a calendar next to the clock-in area and cross out days to the deadline with a black magic marker - Use red in the final days.

The most common complaint I hear is "Nobody told me." "I'm in the dark." "No one communicates."

Take that excuse away with Visual Reminders.

 

Victories of Ommission

Goal setting, achieving, and making progress are all closely tied to our concept of victory. It's often what you don't do that's just as important. I would call those successes "Victories of Omission."

Don't eat it. One of the most direct examples of a victory of omission is "Don't eat it." As proponents of local food, fresh food, healthy food we know, and promote to our guests, that they should be mindful of what they eat. Our cider doughnut machines might be a glaring example of how we don't wish them to consider it all the time they are in our establishments, but otherwise, we advocate healthy choices.

We also know that "Don't eat it" is a victory of self-control. "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips" is an old saying so exaggerated in America that we have a show called the "Biggest Loser" in which many of the contestants' starting weights exceeded 400lbs! If you "Don't eat it" you don't have to burn it off later with Jillian screaming at you.

Don't say it. "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will permanently scar me." How many times have we caused anguish by "saying it"? What a victory of omission to control our tongues! How many times have you had to waste your precious time and energy trying to fix a relationship you wrecked with thoughtless words? How much energy lost to the world for the other person, too?

"Don't say it" only comes with time and patient practice thinking for a split second how your words will be received and reacted to. Just give yourself a glimpse into the future. If that future looks like a world of pain with a whopping a waste of time repairing the damage you are about to do. Adjust your words. Keep your eyes on the prize, the big picture. Think about the difference between the split second it takes to change your words and the hours, days, or forever it might take to fix the relationship. Occasionally, "Don't say it" and you'll save yourself a lot of time and heartache.

Don't do it. Lots of victories come from "Don't do it." Don't drink and rive. Don't borrow that money. Don't fly off the handle. Don't surf on the back of a pick-up truck. Don't buy that business. Don't take on another project. It sounds pretty negative doesn't it?

One of the guides to living a simpler life is the joy of learning to say "No." We're all over committed, time-crunched. Our kids are over-scheduled. Work bleeds into life. Work is life. Just another dollar. Chasin' that paper. (That was just for you gangsta rap fans.) Learn to, allow yourself to, say "No."

Janine and I have said "No" to over scheduling the kids. The peer pressure is on, but our 6 & 9 year old kids don't need more than 1-2 activities each in any given season. I have (finally) learned to say "No" to expansion for expansion's sake and (lightly) curbed my attraction building habit. I have said "No" to two boards and two committees already this year, and dropped another one. You too can set these limits in your life - because it's YOUR life!

Need some specific language? Here's my last committee request "No.":

I really appreciate that you thought of me for this committee, but I must respectfully decline the opportunity. While I believe in what you're doing / stand for / are advocating I would be doing the cause / group a disservice by saying I would join / be a part of the group / cause. My current commitments and this new one would all suffer as I couldn't dedicate myself fully toward it. I know you want people to be fully committed, and I just can't do that for the group / cause / board right now. Thank you so much for asking. I am honored you thought of me.

You can do it. You can say "No." Better you do it now, than get kicked off later for poor attendance at the meetings you knew you could never make. (I've had that happen, too.)

We often forget that we are nearly completely in control of our own lives. We're swept away in a sea of activity, peer pressure, and implied obligations foisted upon us by others. In the end the foist-ers don't have to live with you - YOU do and your spouse/significant other does, too. While every obligation, opportunity, item, attraction, invention, deal, and activity might indeed be good, it just may not be good for you.

So,
"Don't eat it." It's so much easier to not put it in your body, than it is to burn it off.
"Don't say it." You're not really that mad anyway and you don't have time to repair the broken-ness you are about to cause.
and
"Don't do it." Learn to live simply and simply say "No". The world doesn't have to live with you, YOU do.

Victories are not all goal setting, achieving and making progress. There are very important victories to be won by omission.

Have a great week.
-Hugh

 

Find Hugh McPherson, The Maze Master:
www.cornmaze.com
www.mazecatalog.com
www.mazefunpark.com

Facebook Marketing Primer: "Account" or "Page" - "Friend" or "Like"

 

I had a Friend request from some farm buddies, that made me think of some of the experiences shared on the NAFDMA Crab Bus (Best bus by far this year at the convention.) This applies whether or not you are in the corn maze business, farm market business, or just in business.

Just a quick note before you get too far on the Facebook Friending with your business. After this year's conventions and my own experience - I would encourage you to use a Facebook "Page", in place of a Facebook "Account"

Accounts are for people, Pages are for businesses. Not only does Facebook frown upon an account used for a business, there are limitations to using the Account.

On a Page, which you create from your personal Facebook Account, you can get "Insights" which allow you to track activity to your Facebook Page.

There are no limits to the # of "Likes" you can generate from your guests and your guest's personal news feeds aren't visible to the Page, where they are visible to your Account.

Essentially, it is a bigger commitment to get someone to "Friend" your Account, than it is to get them to "Like" your page. Since either gets your messages to them, I vote for reducing as many barriers as possible to getting them on your social network.

Just my free advice! ooooo.... a Bonus Post this week for Blog subscribers!
- Hugh

 

Find Hugh McPherson, The Maze Master:
www.cornmaze.com
www.mazecatalog.com
www.mazefunpark.com

Quickbooks Online Version REVIEW

Hugh's Reviews

Each week Hugh reviews something, anything really, that has provoked a thoughtful insight.

 
Quickbooks Online Version
Details, details, details. Accounting is all about details, and I am not a detail person. Luckily, I am a determined person, so when the opportunity arose for me to be a part of the AgChoice Farm Credit AgBix Masters program, I took it. It was great motivation to delve into my own accounting reports to learn more.

Familiarity is the first hurdle to mastery: Before you can know and understand any concept you have to be familiar with it. One of the hurdles to accounting for me was that the accounting software was on our office manager's computer. If I wanted to look at the books, I had to kick her out or wait until she was done for the day.That might have been an excuse for not familiarizing myself with the book, but it's a good one.

Quickbooks Online: We are growing our business every year, eventually I was going to have to grow up, in accounting terms, too. Since I needed access to my books from my desk, our bookkeeper's desk, my invoicing agent Michelle's desk - who works at home - and better, timely access for my new accountant/coach, Quickbooks online was the answer.

Super easy and convenient. If you can run Quickbooks, you can run Quickbooks Online.

-It all the same, just through your browser.
-Up to five people can have login IDs, each with a different access level.
-Payroll and payroll taxes set-up to pay online/efile.
-Working on merchant account tie-in.
-Reports galore and everyone can be on at the same time and everything updates instantly.

Here's the big difference:
I've been in my books, looking at reports, assigning expenses, checking balances nearly every day this month. Michelle did all the billing for our entire system from her living room. Linda and I are correcting the categorization of expenses simultaneously.

I'm a believer. It took some time to get the switch done, but it was well worth it and we're not even in our busy season.

-Hugh

 

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@mazefunpark

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@themazemaster

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Simplicity, Patience, Compassion...

...and other things we don't do well.

See the full gallery on Posterous

What a complex world in which we live. Messages come at us through so many channels it can feel like we're drowning. We also pump messages into the system hoping beyond hope to be heard. You. Us. We. Me. Me. Me. Won't somebody just listen, right now! It is into this world that Mark Neeper suggested that our true goals should be Simplicity, Patience, and Compassion.

Don't worry the first two allow you to focus on yourself, the second is the outward focus to the world. In our businesses, the concepts are so completely antithetical we might dismiss them as "Wouldn't that be nice." or "I wish I had time to be patient." or "Once I'm taken care of I can care for someone else." I know I've tried to through off the truth inherent in these concepts with many such excuses. Since it never worked for long, I thought I might try examining why they just might hold some light to the pathway toward success.

Simplicity. Really? Could it even be possible? Today? Simplicity doesn't mean stupid, lame, easy. It means focused. When you substitute Focus for Simplicity, the truth becomes self-evident. You already know that focus is key to success. You can't be great at everything. You can't multi-task and be great at any of those tasks. Simplicity, focus, is essential in a complex world. Know what you do well and do that. Don't try to get better at 10 things you don't do well, do one thing really well.

In design, simplicity is implicitly part of the things you find most beautiful. Apple designs products with clean lines, easy purchasing systems, beautiful interfaces, intuitive features, and they have become the 2nd largest company in the world. Zen rock gardens are simple, beautiful. Think of a relaxing day at work. Probably it was a day without distractions, without interruptions. You could focus.

Simplicity in your life comes from reduction. Just like you reduce the liquid while cooking to make a culinary reduction, you must boil off extraneous responsibilities, tasks, and distractions. A few years ago, I sold my Internet Service Provider business because it was a mental distraction. I hired an account and purchased Quickbooks Online to efficiently manage our growing operation. We've reduced the number of programs and choices in our birthday party and group tour brochures to make choosing easier. I created a daily schedule that allows me lunch and a (fairly) defined end time to reduce the stress of thinking about what, when, and how to do work during the day.

More farms hire us every year to create not only their corn maze designs, but to cut them, create games, create educational information, and deliver products directly to them. Boil things down and keep only the richest flavors. Keep doing the things that you, and only you, can do. If someone else could do it, let them!

Patience. Don't you just love patient people? Everyone loves patient people, yet somehow patience escapes us. We get so wrapped up in our over-scheduled lives we don't have time for patience. One of the hardest connections to overcome is that patience in our culture is tied closely to humility. Americans don't do humility. We view humility as weakness, therefore patience is weakness.

This couldn't be further from the truth. I bet people you would list as the most patient, you would also list as the strongest. Patience is strength. Inside we know this to be true because we know that strength, the discipline it takes to be patient. We intuitively admire this in other people because we know how easy it is to be impatient.

Patience pays off. Impatience in spending leads to debt. Impatience in planning leads to projects over budget. Impatience with customers yields fewer customers. Impatience with employees breeds animosity.

Patience is a muscle. You have to build your patience over time. It takes patience to build patience. I've chosen just little things to slowly build my patience, from nearly ZERO by the way. In my car, I choose to defer. At stop signs, I wave the other guy to go first. On the highway, I let people pass me. In the parking lot, I park further away. Silly? Maybe, but it's slowly helping this "speed" addict learn patience. Choose your own exercises, then wait patiently for the results. Patience in you will grow, young Skywalker.

Compassion. Sympathetic concern for the suffering of others. Everyone's suffering in this great big world and a little compassion goes a long way. Customer service is all about compassion. My dear, now deceased friend Greg Skinner told me, "If you help enough people get what they want, you'll end up with what you want." Everyone's suffering in some way and if you care outwardly for your fellow man, be it customer, employee, family, you will become highly valued in his/her life.

Simplicity, Patience, Compassion. I have to be honest. I don't have this all worked out and under control. I'm not preaching from my ivory tower, but strive to get a little better each day. With broad, life-changing, visionary goals for your life such as these, it's not a matter of reaching the goal, but the process of striving for it.

You can never reach a goal for which you do not strive. With Simplicity, Patience, and Compassion even just a little closer each day is a victory.

Have a great week.
-Hugh

Find Hugh McPherson, The Maze Master:
www.cornmaze.com
www.mazecatalog.com
www.mazefunpark.com