Don’t Get Stuck In A Rut

Hey, everybody, Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute. This week, coming to you from my studio at home. For the last several years, I have been recording what I think of as my baseball shirt videos. So every week, a quick tip, I try and keep it under three or four minutes, and I pretty much am telling you where I'm at in the world and I'm wearing a different baseball shirt, which actually started out just because I was sort of trying to convince myself that I should jump into video. And one of the excuses I was giving myself was that I didn't want to have to always pack sort of video appropriate clothes. And I thought, okay, well, if I'm going to move that barrier, how do I do that? Well, one of the things I always have with me are t-shirts, for when I'm not working or I'm not with clients, and sometimes when I am with clients, and I always have a baseball shirt, because as many of you know, my goal is to get to every ballpark in Major Leagues and I only have two left, and every time I go to a ballpark, I buy a t-shirt. So that's how it all started. And for the last several years, not only have I worn a baseball shirt in every video, but you guys have been amazing. You've been sending me Minor League ball teams and things like that. But you know what, you have now seen all of the shirts, several times, and so I think it's time for a change. So now I'm going to keep doing the weekly videos, but I'm just going to wear whatever it is that I have on. So, same video content, I will still tell you where I am in the world, but no more baseball t-shirts unless that happens to be what I have on that day. So, why am I telling you all of this? Because I think sometimes we get in a habit, and we start doing something a certain way and we feel like we've locked ourselves in. So when I was thinking about making this change, I really wrestled with it, 'cause I was like, people are used to the baseball shirts. They like the baseball shirts. People are sending me shirts. Maybe I shouldn't rock the boat. But at the end of the day, what I said to myself and what I believe I have convinced myself is, the reason you watch the videos isn't because of what I'm wearing, it's because of what I'm saying, and that it's useful to you. And so rather than me now scrambling to always make sure I have a new baseball shirt, 'cause I have well run out of them, it's time for me just to change things up a little bit. And so the new 2022 versions of the weekly Drew videos are going to be Drew, wherever he is in the world, wearing whatever it is he happens to have on, and I'm hoping that that's cool with you. So my point is, if you're stuck in a rut or you've done something a certain way and you feel like you've kind of locked yourself in, I want to challenge you to think about that differently and to think about whether or not maybe it's just in your head, and maybe the audience doesn't care, or the team doesn't care, or the clients don't care. Because it doesn't have to be something with your content, it could be something about how you serve clients or something you do with a team on a regular basis. So it's okay to evolve, it's okay to change, it's okay to sort of change the rules a little bit. After all, we're the boss, right, so we get to do that. So I'm challenging you to think about some of the things that you've done a certain way for a really long time, and is that still serving you and whatever audience it is that you're doing it for? And if not, maybe it's time for a change. All right, I'll see you next week. I will be back out in the world and I will let you know where I am, and who knows what I'll be wearing. I'll see you then.