Are you inspiring tenacity?

Hey everybody! Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute. This week, I'm coming to you from Chicago, Illinois, if you couldn't tell based on what's behind me. I'm actually staying at this amazing hotel called the Hotel Zachary, and it is right across the street from Wrigley Field. And the whole hotel is built in homage to the architect who designed Wrigley Field. So there's all kinds of memorabilia and photographs and all kinds of really cool stuff, the blueprint for Wrigley, all here. So if you ever get a chance, whether you're a baseball fan or not, if you ever get a chance to come to this hotel, you should come check it out. It is fantastic, and if you're a baseball fan, you will in be hog heaven. And you can walk right across the street and catch a game. But anyway, as I was sitting here and I was watching the hubbub on the street below, as everyone gets ready for tonight's game, it occurred to me that one of the things I admire about the Chicago Cubs is their unwillingness to accept defeat. They went 108 years without winning a World Series. But I guarantee you every spring, the fans, the managers, and the owners started the season with the belief that this was going to be the year. And even if because of injuries or whatever it may be, maybe a weakness in the pitching staff or whatever it is, if this wasn't going to be the year, then they were going to build this year so they could win next year. That optimism, that tenacity, that single focus on, That optimism, that tenacity, that single focus on, "I know we're good enough, and we just need to keep getting up to bat." I think that same attitude exists in the best, most successful agency owners, that we believe in our team. We believe in our methodologies. We believe in the successes that we've had for clients. And even if we go into a new business pitch, and we lose, or maybe we're on a losing streak, we know that it's just a matter of getting more at-bats. I've seen this happen over and over and over again in the agencies that we work with, that no matter how long the losing streak, no matter how down on their luck they are, no matter how frustrated they are, that they've gotten so close in so many times, and they're always the bridesmaid, not the bride. Somehow they keep getting back up and they go and have the fight again. And sooner or later, they win. And all of a sudden the trend changes, and now they're on a winning streak, and things are good again. And that ability to hang in there is a really powerful skill. And I guarantee you, one of the things that helps sporting teams do that day after day is the locker room pep talk. And I don't think we have enough of those in our agency. I know you believe in your agency. I know you know it'll turn around. I know you know it's just a matter of more at-bats. But I think sometimes we forget that our staff is younger or less experienced or more nervous about their jobs, and they need us to rally them together in our version of the locker room, and they need to hear from you that you believe in them, that you believe in the agency, and that this is just a matter of getting more at-bats. But you are going to be back in the winning circle again, and it's going to happen sooner than they think. So my message for you this week is, if you have not had a locker room pep talk for a while, whether you're on a winning streak or a losing streak, things are going great, things are challenging, whatever it is, let some of that optimism out. Let some of that belief that you have in your team and your people and your abilities, let that shine a little more perhaps, than you normally do. You have it in your heart. Most of your employees haven't been in the business long enough or they're not owners so they're not cut out of the exact same cloth that you are. They need to hear it from you. So take a lesson from the Chicago Cubs and every other professional sports team out there. The reason why people are able to keep getting up and going again day after day, game after game is because they know that their coach or their manager or their boss believes in them. It's time for a locker room pep talk. Give it a try, and let me know what happens. Alright? I'll talk to you next week. I'm headed over to the game.