LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Run Your Routes, It’ s All Your Fault
Based on the speakers I’ ve chosen for my events, no one can say I’ m afraid of controversy. Sammy the Bull, Jordan Belfort( Wolf of Wall Street), soon Jordan Peterson, and recently, Lance Armstrong.
While I fully understand and appreciate the marketing value of a good controversy, that’ s not why I decided to have Lance speak to my Producers Club members last October. I did it because I had a personal desire to meet the man and to know how he mentally and emotionally was able to thrive after such a devastating fall from grace.
Think about it: How do you go from being one of the most beloved, winning, and famous athletes in the world— a household name synonymous with hard work, determination, and success— to being a pariah in the eyes of the media and millions of people, many who felt deeply betrayed by his actions, in one fell swoop?
When I was a kid, I was a fan of Lance like many other people. His fame was right up there with Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, or Andre Agassi, not only winning the Tour de France seven times but doing so after an unbelievable recovery from advanced, metastasized testicular cancer that should have ended his life. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny the dude is an elite athlete and gritty, determined— a serious winner at heart.
There were two big takeaways I got from his presentation that I will carry with me as I continue my own“ Tour de France” in growing my business.
The first was how he completely and totally owned his decisions and mistakes. He even said as much during the interview— that his choices and mistakes made him who he is today, and given that his life was pretty damned good, he lived without regrets. This is one of the things that irked a lot of people initially when he publicly admitted to doping. When asked what he would change if he could do everything over again, his honest response was, " I wouldn ' t change a thing." He believes, as I do, that illegal doping was a necessity to have a chance at winning, given 20 out of the 21 top three finishers admitted to doping as well— a wellknown truth that has since come to light.
Truly owning our mistakes and choices is a strange, unfamiliar, and loathsome personal trait to a large( and sadly growing) number of the general population who are forever in search of someone or something to blame for their shortcomings and miseries. So many social programs, even ones with good intentions, start to breed an attitude of irresponsibility and entitlement for personal choices.
The second really big takeaway was Lance’ s insights into what he did when he was going through the pinnacle of losing everything— his titles, his sponsorships, his Livestrong Foundation, and his reputation. He said, and I’ m paraphrasing, that he kept waking up every day and running his routes— a nod to what football players practice over and over again in practice. He said,“ I just knew if I kept running my routes, that at some point, life would throw me the ball, and this time, I wouldn’ t drop it.”
Often, when we hit a bump in the road in business, we stop doing the things that make us successful. We stop“ running the routes.” In sales, that’ s constantly prospecting and practicing your presentations, closing strategies, and objection handling. Making the calls, doing the follow-up, and going to the place where you’ ll meet prospects— even when( and especially when)“ nobody” seems to be buying. In marketing, that means keep posting the content, sending out the campaigns, working on the SEO and website, nurturing the leads, conducting the webinars, the seminars, the events— even when“ nothing” seems to be working.
Far too many people are easily deterred and quickly discouraged to the point of stopping. They are not so determined to continue until they“ get it to work,” whatever that is, from hiring a great salesperson, implementing a productive marketing oil well, raising the profitability of their organization by whatever means is necessary. They stop“ running their routes” and perfecting them. Instead, they throw down the ball in disgust, take off the gear, and go sulk in the locker room.
There were a ton of other great golden nuggets from his talk, and we’ ll share some of them with you in the article on Lance as well as some video footage from the interview. Get some.
Sincerely,
Robin Robins Founder & CEO Technology Marketing Toolkit, Inc