I had the pleasure of meeting Jon Spoelstra, the President of the Professional Sports division of Mandalay Entertainment (owner of our Frisco Roughriders!) on Monday evening and hear him speak on some of the nuggets out of his newest book Marketing Outrageously at the Dallas SMEI chapter. Jon was a wonderful spinster, calling on his many years of experience in professional sports management and consulting to give us all some great pointers - and very simple, cost-effective ideas that will help to boost your revenue, no matter what your business.
Some of what I learned:
1. "What's It Gonna Take...?" Jon advised that we need to start asking this question in conjunction with how we set our sights on the pinnacle, as in, "What's it gonna take for our team to win the championship this year?" This exercise of diagraming out what it is gonna take is helpful in understanding where you are today and to quantify what it is you will need to take you to the next level.
2. "New is a way of life." If we are not coming up with new, fresh ways to market ourselves and our products & services we are dying in the marketplace. Strive to be creative and take on "new" as a way of life.
3. "Push the Outrageous Envelope." Most people around us are satisfied with the status quo. We must push the outrageous envelope! Not all of the outrageous ideas that you have will come to fruition, but the mere exercise of performing these "outrageous" mental gymnastics may help you see the solution you've been looking for all along. And with that, all I am going to say is "JOCKSTRAPS." Read the book for the rest of the story there.
Jon is a wealth of knowledge and a pleasure to read and hear. If you have the chance, I would highly recommend you picking up Marketing Outrageously. You won't be disappointed.
Jon was the general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers for eleven years, and later president of the New Jersey Nets. He is author of Ice To The Eskimos and Success Is Just One Wish Away. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Email: findjon@msn.com.
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