Lesson Learned: The Value of Listening More Than You Speak

May 19, 2013 by

One of the credos, at least in the business world, that I try to implement all the time was first told to me by my grandfather, Joe Sgro. Joe was an accountant by trade, educated at Boy’s High and St. John’s University and by many accounts the unofficial Mayor of South Brooklyn when I was young. He did lots of favors for people and was a pillar of the community. Especially in the political world of the Borough. He was a key member of the South Brooklyn Democratic Club, and I have vivid memories after 12:15 mass on Sundays where many of the people looking for influence in business or politics would stop by for a few minutes. He didn’t speak a lot, but he listened, and results often came. One of the key things he mentioned to me on several occasions as those around him were yelling and screaming for attention was “You have to ears and one mouth, so listen twice more than you speak.”

This past week there were two examples of leaders and innovators who I came across that were great examples of what can happen when you listen more to those around you. The first was in a New York Times story on baseball owner/promoter/innovator Mike Veeck. Veeck, in addition to coming from a healthy bloodline of baseball businessmen/promoters and innovators (one that is continuing on with his son “Night Train,” now working for the White Sox) is a great listener and thinker, one who gets a great deal of ideas, files them away and then strategically finds the right place to unveil them. The latest happened a few weeks ago with his American Association team, the St. Paul Saints, which held a baseball game without umpires.   There was a ceremonial judge behind the mound, fans chimed in on close calls, and a great deal of fun, sponsorable fun was had, with the independent league team. The game was similar to something his dad, the late Bill Veeck, had done, with some on field decisions decided by fans when he owned the St. Louis Browns, and it was certainly something Veeck could not have done with one of his affiliated clubs like the Charleston Riverdogs, but it made for a buzzworthy and thought provoking game, a throwback to what the roots of baseball as a game are supposed to be.

So why is listening so important? Because in addition to being a smart businessman, Veeck is also a teacher. He teaches sports marketing at The Citadel, and the idea for the umpireless game came from one of his students, a place where he gets a great deal of his inspiration. The young teach the teachers, because he took the time to listen.

The second example occurred last Thursday in a windowless conference room in Atlanta. I was invited to come down and talk to some legendary figures in the sports business about a potential opportunity, and to hear their concerns and thoughts about the forward-looking project. The room was filled with some of the greatest names in sports, all talking over each other and swapping stories. However as business plans were rolled out, one venerable leader sat quietly taking copious notes and asking questions about the details of the idea. His name is Johnny Majors, the Hall of Fame football coach from The University of Tennessee. Majors sat and listened and used a note pad for page after page of notes. He could have told more stories than anyone in the room, but instead he came to learn from those much younger than he about the business world of today. The teacher learns from the student.

Listen twice more than you speak.

In a world today that is all about shouting down  your opponents and proclaiming oneself to be the guru, the innovator, and the biggest and the brightest, it is great to have been able to see and read within 24 hours, two examples of leadership that involved listening and then executing, as opposed to running off to try and be first without thought.  Both of these men have accomplished more in a lifetime than almost anyone in their chosen field, yet they are still listening, and learning from those around them.

My grandpa would have been proud of Mr. Veeck and Coach Majors, as I’m sure so many thousands of people they have influenced in the past and in the future are and will be as well.  It’s the little things that you hear when you listen that can sometimes make the biggest difference, and in a world where self-proclamation is king, taking the time to listen to others is an art which needs to be embraced more than ever.

Filed Under: Ambush Marketing, CBS, College Football, ESPN, Minor League Hockey, New York Times Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“The Sally” Goes Major League…

June 23, 2012 by

Minor League baseball is big business across North America, no question. There is probably no group of passionate people who understand the value of ROI and innovation more than minor league baseball executives and every night they find new ways to draw thousands to ballparks regardless of what goes on between the lines. The quality of baseball is nice, but the experience and most times the affordability, of the event is the real draw.

Even with that draw, sometimes minor league All-Star games can be a tough sell, especially at the lower ranks. They can be costly to run and don’t feature names that most fans know so they can be a disruption in the flow of a season. Finding an edge to market the game is not always easy, because the game has to be “special,”…it features the leagues best young players…but it also has to have all the fun bells and whistles of what people come to expect from the minors. This past week the South Atlantic League found a way to make their All-Star Game fun, get it some national attention, and draw some extra bodies in to see their young stars.

Now it goes without saying that sometimes the best promotions are pulled off with luck, location and a little bit of planning, and”The Sally” had all of those in their favor. They have a team, The Charleston RiverDogs, run by the innovative Mike Veeck in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Charleston, South Carolina. The have a great tradition of minor league baseball and fan innovation in the league, and they have very smart business people. That combo, along with some of Veeck’s partners, a museum seeking attention and some great weather gave the league a major league boost for its all-star game, one that any other league will be challenged to match in the future.

Veeck and longtime friend and former Padres executive Dan Migala are always looking for things to do differently, and sitting on the far side of Charleston Harbor was the retired air craft carrier the USS Yorktown. Migala had done events on a carrier with the Padres and the Taylor Made brand before, and the two decided to approach the Yorktown about having the Sally Home Run competition on the Yorktown. The museum heads were very supportive, they were looking to always draw traffic and attention to the fabled ship, and a home run hitting contest on an aircraft carrier was born. However what made the contest an even bigger hit was the ROI the sold sponsor, Miller Beer got, for entitling the contest. Its uniqueness and the fact that it was the first got media from around the world to mention the Miller brand in their reporting, which is not always the easiest thing to do. The brand integration into the unique event was flawless, as was the viral video distribution. The promoters also drew extra fans to the ship to watch the event, giving out a code for people to mention to get on the ship at no charge. The result? Several days of national attention, extra value brought to the players participating, a great fan experience for people who came not from just Charleston but from all over the south, and several thousand additional bodies at the ballpark for the game the next night. An event that helped the team, the sponsor, the fan, a local historical institution, the league and the game overall proved to be a huge win.

However the story does not stop there. You see, “The Sally” also has a Hall 0f Fame, which over the years has honored everyone from Ty Cobb and Don Mattingly to umpires like Joe West and execs like Bing Devine, all of whom have passed through the league on the way to Major League success. This year, the league honored one of Veeck’s partners, the actor Bill Murray, and Murray willingly and excitedly participated in all the ceremonies, including delivering a must-watch acceptance speech that went viral. That timing and exposure, all carefully placed, put the South Atlantic League near the top of a crowded national sports calendar, and showed again how minor league innovation can drive major league attention.

Great planning, fun events and proper execution led to some well deserved time in the spotlight for an All-Star team of sports professionals who really deserve their due.

 

Filed Under: Ambush Marketing, Minor League Baseball, MLB Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Take Five: Some Suggested Reads To Start The Baseball Season

April 7, 2012 by

We are now ankle deep in baseball. So here’s a look at five good reads to get baseball start. Just my opinion, and only books I have read thus far, but all are nice companions for the summer game.

Wherever I Wind Up by RA Dickey and Wayne Coffey. One of the ways I can judge a book is how fast I learn something I didn’t know before, even about someone in front of the public eye so much. The story of knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey’s life is full of such little tidbits, from his love of Larry Bird to his off field interests to his play at the University of Tennessee with a host of current MLB’ers, including Todd Helton. There are lots of pages about the abuse he suffered as a child which makes the book more reveling than many baseball fans may need to know, but throughout you get the feeling that R.A. is a guy we should all root for. A very easy read.

Driving Mr Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest Gift by Harvey Araton. Another book that tells a tale largely untold, by one of America’s best writers, brings baseball fans, not just Yankees fans, along for the ride as Guidry, who had played for the Yankees during Berra’s time as a coach and last run as manager, picks up the legend every year at Tampa airport. The rides and the stories flow from there as easily as the other rites of spring training. As he does in all his works, Araton extracts so many facts and anecdotes from the pair that even the most knowledgeable of baseball fans learns more than ever before.

Imperfect by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown. If Jim Abbott were still pitching today his exploits on the field and how he overcame the adversity of having only one hand would make him an internet and social media phenomenon, on par with Jeremy Lin or even Tim Tebow. However the soft spoken Abbott probably prefers it the quiet way, and tells his story of overcoming his physical challenges and making it to the Majors with the Yankees, throwing a no hitter along the way, in an inspirational tale that is a nice fit for young people short on role models and looking for heroes.

Summer of ’68: the Season That Changed Baseball, and America, Forever by Tim Wendell. From Bob Gibson’s almost unhittable season to the social unrest off the field, baseball became a metaphor for change in 1968, and Wendell does a great job of interweaving all the goings on in the clubhouses through a year of political and social unrest. Much deeper than maybe some casual fans want to know, but a great mix of sport and society.

Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick by Paul Dickson. It is another anniversary for the legendary “Veeck As In Wreck,” perhaps the best book by an owner about owners, penned by the late White Sox, Browns and Indians owner himself. The story is updated and retold for a new audience by Dickson, who can now include the later in life tales of Veeck with his shorts wearing and scoreboard exploding Chicago White Sox, Veeck’s views on politics, and a look at what may be missing from the MLB game today.

Filed Under: College Baseball, Crisis Management, ESPN, Fox, Minor League Baseball, MLB, Olympics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Catching A Simple Promotion Can Be The Best One…

June 19, 2011 by

Sunday morning as I was going to get bagels I heard New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan on “Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball” show on WFAN in New York talking about how the simplest of actions with his father, playing catch after work, were some of his brightest memories. Often times in big time sports and promotions it is the simple ideas that get lost as not glitzy or glammery enough, but with the right platform, can be the most effecting. Dolan’s thoughts this morning spurred one of those ideas.

Several years ago I was approached by a colleague, Lance Laifer, to see if there was a way to create awareness for an anti-Malaria campaign he had organized, and do it through sport. The idea was simple, take a nerf basketball hoop and pass it around with a ball through Madison Square Garden, letting each person in the arena dunk the ball, and with each dunk a dollar would be donated to charity. At some point it was going to become a logistical nightmare, setting the world’s largest dunk record, but the event worked. It got exposure for the charity, and as the ball and hoop were passed around the lower seats, several NBA officials and even some players took notice. One was Dikembe Mutombo, who used the idea and the platform to continue to grow his own initiative to eradicate malaria in his native Congo by purchasing bedding nets. The link between the basketball net and the mosquito net was simple, and eventually led Laifer’s group to an association with the NBA, national exposure and fundraising, and a leadership position which has helped eradicate the problem of mosquito-born malaria in Congo and other parts of Africa. All from a simple, cost efficient plan to dunk a nerf basketball. But timing, part passion, part simplicity helped a small idea contribute in a big way.

So now back to playing catch. Every year the Northern League St. Paul Saints hold the “World’s Largest Game of Catch” to kick off their promotional season. A simple act connects fans of all ages in a communal and promotable activity that links young and old, boy and girl, dad and son, mom and daughter. Timeless, simple, easy. So with all the charities, initiatives and campaigns out there, why hasn’t anyone latched on to a “Simple game of Catch” as an easy promotion at the Major League level? Lots of teams do runs around the bases, sleepovers and giveaways, but a linked, simple game of catch can be an amazing communal experience either as a fund raiser or as a stand-alone promotion. problems with liability if Johnny gets hit in the head? Use a soft ball. Problems in moving it along? Like Laifer’s idea make it a nerf promotion that goes around the stands and finishes on the field. If the simple act of dunking a nerf hoop literally helped to change lives, then a simple game of catch could as well. Just an idea.

And with that, Happy Father’s Day to all.

Filed Under: Minor League Baseball, MLB, NBA Teams Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
None :P None :P