By Lee Abrams & Dave Charles
In many cases, we think we’re changing, but the results aren’t noticeable. Endless meetings, labour and effort produce almost nothing. Most companies are moving forward at around a 5 on the noticeability scale, when there’s an opportunity to strive for a 10.
Here’s what that scale looks like:
1 – No one notices, not even management.
3 – Top managers and senior meetings notice.
5 – Most internal employees notice, but no one outside the building.
7 – The industry starts to notice.
9 – The tipping point: the general public notices.
10 – You have created something different and compelling enough to change the paradigm.
TV news is notorious for this. A new set isn’t going to deliver anything near a ten.
So how do you actually move up the scale? It starts with a set of execution principles.
Actually Doing It.
Anyone can talk big. The job is to deliver big. This means taking care of business fast, responsive, operating at the speed of today. The media and entertainment business is especially bad at this: “Hey man, no problem, I’ll take care of it” – and then nothing. Or meetings that dilute concepts instead of crystallising them. Consistently successful people have ‘actually doing it’ in their DNA.
Passion, Character, Intent.
Passion means your audience knows you’re in it for the love, not a quick buck or a trend. Character means you ooze personality – you aren’t generic. Intent means you’re big, badass, and omnipresent.
High IQ / Low BS.
Hire smart people with zero BS, bad attitude, or drama.
Aptitude.
There are brilliant people who simply don’t have the aptitude for what you do. Einstein would make a horrible songwriter (though you’d want him on the tech team). Your field team requires a very specific aptitude.
No one cares what you did – it’s what you are going to do.
Media people are the worst about living in the past. When launching new programming, track record is often irrelevant, even problematic. What matters is aptitude for what’s next. Respect the past, but celebrate the future.
Selective input trap.
In today’s blog, newsletter, and conference world, it’s easy to get poisoned by the latest and greatest. Input is knowledge – just get it from the right sources.
Controlled insanity.
Great ideas are, by design and relative to the norm, insane. So that insanity must be marshaled, focused, and controlled. Owners and managers of media businesses (RADIO) run away from ultra creative insanity because to me it means risk. Most managers and owners are risk averse.
Creative by committee? Never.
A small group of advisors or collaborators, yes. But committees that drag things out are everything wrong with big media. Execute. Don’t spend hours debating, overthinking, or acting important.
First program, then sell.
Stole this from Todd Storz inventor of tight and bright Top Forty Radio. Create a product so fresh that it drives the brand, instead of designing around sales or technology. “Content is king” is a cliché. Revenue is king. But you create revenue by first creating killer content.
“Content” sucks as a word.
It’s performance and programming. We have to use it externally, but internally that’s like calling music “product.”
Average sucks.
Take a restaurant. A Michelin-starred place? Great. A cool dive? Great. McDonalds? No – it’s average. Same applies to you.
Bullshit bingo.
Buzzword bingo is when speakers mask a lack of knowledge with buzzwords. Avoid it. Don’t let people with Bullshit Bingo dominate.
The technology excuse.
Tech is a “duh” – you have to be the best to survive. But forgetting the other stuff is deadly. A brilliant sound on a state-of-the-art system is still average if the song isn’t great.
Completeness.
Everything operating at 150%. Right down to how you interactive with your audience or customers.
Eccentric – all the way to the bank.
You don’t want eccentric surgeons or cops. But in building new media ideas, eccentricity can be very powerful – if channelled right. Guy Dobson, Jeff Allis, Greg Smith come to mind as eccentrics but brilliant.
Preach and teach to reach.
Teaching, guiding, mentoring – a lost art. It won’t happen through osmosis. You have to teach, inspire, and lead. I look at radio from a global perspective. I read stories about personalities gone AWOL. Every winning pro sports team has an excellent coach.
You NEVER see star players manage the team of design the play strategies. Radio and TV could adopt and empower better talent and content coaches. Fill in the blanks here_________!
Dave Charles (left) is the President of Media RESULTS Inc. With more than six decades spent working in radio here and overseas he was inducted into the Canadian Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2024. Lee Abrams (right) has worked as a consultant to over 1,000 radio stations, 12 major print publications, tv stations and cable networks and is the designer of XM satellite.