Crisis Averted

Hey everybody, Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute, coming to you this week from Chicago, Illinois, where we just wrapped up the Build a Better Agency Summit. It was a spectacular event from what I hear. So by now, the rumor mill has probably let you know that I actually missed almost all of the summit because a kidney stone took me down and out. And yet the event went on without me. For the most part, without Danielle. She was running back and forth between the hospital and the hotel, trying to work on the ops and sort of strategize with the team on how to make up for the fact that I wasn't there. But for the most part, she was at the hospital with me. So the two leaders of Agency Management Institute, not there, not present, not on site for their huge conference. What happened? Nothing! The conference went off without a hitch. The team that we had on, our own employees, the event team and the AMI community, the members, the people who paid to be at the conference bent over backwards to make sure that it was a spectacular event for everyone who was there. Speakers came up with a second keynote to fill in the spots that I was supposed to take. Other people stepped up and emceed events that I was supposed to emcee. People reached out and connected with others to make sure everyone felt included. It was a magnificent event. Why? Because of two things: preparation and a spirit of community. You know, as agency owners, we often fly by the seat of our pants. We don't rehearse. We walk into new business pitches cold. We maybe talk about, "Oh, you're going to say this and I'm going to say that," but we don't actually practice. And I'm telling you, one of the things that I have learned over my 30-some years in the business is that that is not a way to success. Success comes from careful preparation, anticipating all the things that could go wrong. Whether you're putting on an event for a client, you're in a new business pitch, you're having a meeting with one of your most important clients or employees, all of those are pressure-cooked moments that have big potential outcomes for you and none of them should be taken for chance. And the more you prep and the more you prepare, the more you anticipate what could go wrong, and the more you surround yourself with people who are as invested in the success of that moment as you are, then no matter what happens, the event is successful. And that's what happened with us this week, is because we prepared, because we surround ourselves with some of the most talented people on our team possible, and because we have cultivated a community that understands that this is a shared experience and that we learn better when we learn together, and that everyone plays a role in that event, because of all of those factors, the fact that I was not there was honestly not felt at all. And you know what? That makes me so proud and so happy to know. I mean, that could have been a disaster. All of these people traveled all the way to Chicago, some from other parts of the world, and imagine if we couldn't put on that event for them at the caliber and the level we wanted to. It would've been heartbreaking. So it was heartbreaking not to be there. I hated not being there. But what I loved was the way that our team and the community rose to the occasion, took advantage of all the prep work we had done, and delivered a stellar event for every single person there. That's the tip for this week, is don't leave things for chance. Prepare, practice, anticipate, because you just never know when something is going to come out of the blue and change the game, and you want to control as much of the game as possible. All right? I'll be back next week with another tip. I'll see you then.