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2016 Disney Customer Experience Summit: Review

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I’ve always been a big Disney fan. My family and I had season passes to Disneyland in California for about 8 years before moving to North Carolina. Now I can’t get my Disney fix on as often as I’d like to but still manage to go once a year or so. Being in the automotive industry with my business being focused on three main areas: content writing, social media and conferences,  I’m very often dealing with topics revolving around customer loyalty, customer retention and customer experience. I was first introduced (legitimately) to the Disney Institute at a Driving Sales Executive Summit (automotive industry conference) about 4 years ago with Bruce Kimbrell as a keynote speaker. I was aware of the Disney Institute previously but that was my first taste of some actual Disney Institute education. I was hooked. After that conference, I studied up and wanted to continue learning from the Disney Institute. Keep in mind that I’m a “gotta have it all” kind of guy so, of course I wanted to take every Disney Institute course offered. Of course, through my research, I discovered that to do so would cost upwards of $30,000+ just in tuition (not including travel, lodging, etc.). So when I came across the ad for the Disney Institute Customer Experience Summit in my Facebook feed, I was intrigued. I called and promptly grilled a poor guy named Chris at the Disney Institute for about an hour asking countless questions. In typical Disney fashion, he was very patient with me and answered them all. Considering the registration was $4,000 for a 2-1/2 day event, I wanted to know exactly what I would be learning. Satisfied, I registered. Disney graciously opened up the room block to include the 3 days pre and post-conference so my family and I decided to make a little vacation out of it as well… then I waited.

When the time came for us to travel and begin our adventure, we checked in to Disney’s flagship resort, the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. It was an excellent experience considering we really only planned to drop our bags and head to the park seeing as we showed up at 9am and check-in was 3pm but Disney was ready for us and had our room waiting. We then spent the Friday, Saturday and Sunday melting visiting the parks. We went to Epcot on day 1, Hollywood Studios on Day 2 and then the Magic Kingdom on day 3. It was a great, but very hot, time.

Now that the background story and personal story are out of the way, let’s get into the meat of the review.

Day 1 of the Disney Institute’s Customer Experience Summit

Check in began at 3:30pm so I promptly went and did so. After getting a pretty cool computer bag stuffed with goodies including a personalized Disney Institute pen, I was legit.

The curriculum began at 5:30pm with Vice President & General Manager of the Disney Institute, Jeff James, taking the stage to welcome us and introducing Bruce Jones, Senior Programming Director as our event MC.

 

Bruce proceeded to give us an overview of what to expect, some information about the mobile website and our personal agenda (on our smart-computers… cough… phones) as well as some ground rules regarding evidence social media content… mainly that they encouraged us to utilize social media but that no video  or audio recording was allowed and no social media whatsoever while we were in any backstage (non-public) area within the parks. [Side note: For the remainder of the conference, whenever Bruce talked about social media, he always mentioned my name in some way. For attendees: Yes, I was THAT Arnold.]

Bruce then brought onto stage all of the facilitators and staff that would be educating us over the next few days and introduced them to us. Now if you know me at all, I’m a social media monster. Having been involved in over 45 conferences now most of which involved (at a minimum) social media marketing, I was ready. [Note: If you’re really interested in all of the content I tweeted, you can check out my Twitter profile here or you can view everyone’s tweets by searching the conference hashtag #DisneyCXSummit. For the meat of the Summit content, check out tweets between August 23-25, 2016]. I think Bruce summed up the Disney Institute’s goal for Summit attendees when he said:

After that, we had our first general session learning an overview of Disney philosophies and a preview of what we’d be learning over the next few days by Kathy Van Tassell (KVT), one of the Disney Institute facilitators. She brought us some great content. I wish I could embed all of my tweets here but that would just be overkill (albeit interesting.) One of my favorite soundbites was this:

“Leadership is when your employees look forward to their drive to work just as much as their drive home from work.”

After the opening general session, we were off to our first networking reception Disney-style led by Mickey and Minnie. The networking reception featured an open bar, TONS of food and character meet-and-greets. Now let me tell you this, I’ve been to a TON of conferences (mainly in the automotive industry) and have worked 45 of them. NEVER have I experienced what I did at this networking reception… it seemed as if you needed Fast Passes for the character meet-and-greet lines while there were absolutely NO lines at the bars! I guess in hindsight that’s not too surprising but still… [and yes, of course I stood in those lines.]

Day 2 of Disney Institute’s Customer Experience Summit

Day 2 of the Summit started with an early breakfast at 7am followed by a keynote speech by Walt Disney World Resort President, George Kalogridis. As he discussed some of the ways in which Disney immerses their guests into the Disney experience, the first thing he did was hand out Magic Disney ears to everyone in the audience so we could experience it. He then played a video which synced up to the RFID chips in the ears and the whole crowd started blinking and changing colors in unison. Remarks I overheard from Disney employees was that this brought tears to their eyes.

Image courtesy of Jake Massey
Image courtesy of Jake Massey

We were then split into groups – some groups would learn the customer experience curriculum for the day while the other groups would learn about employee engagement. Needless to say there was way too much content to publish everything here (and I don’t know that I would want to potentially spoil things for others) but the day was filled with a ton of great education, insight and immersive experiences. The one thing I do want to share was the simplicity of Disney’s common purpose which, may I add, they have thus far achieved with resounding success.

And, I would be remiss in my reporting if I didn’t include the answer to the question of what the most asked question in Disney parks is. (Image on right) Why? Guess you’ll have to take a Disney Institute class to find out why and what it really means.

Then we got to go on our first field experience. There were four to choose from which we pre-selected prior to the Summit. The one I chose saw us visiting the Magic Kingdom. We were grouped and had an activity to perform which we were to identify examples of the Four Keys (I’ll get to that later) and we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the “Be Our Guest” restaurant which, apparently is sold out 190 days in advance. If you’re planning a trip to Disney World in the next 6 months, you’re out of luck. Plan early if you want to eat at this uber-cool restaurant.

Then it was back to the Grand Floridian’s conference center for the rest of our day and the closing general session with Karl Holz, President of New Vacation Operations and the Disney Cruise Line. His keynote was focused primarily on employee engagement and the importance of your “cast” in creating an excellent customer experience. It was fantastic. He also stressed the importance of, and Disney’s view, of employee empowerment.

This was one of my favorite soundbites from his session:

Oh, but was the day over? Far from it. Bruce Jones closed out the evening with a question for the audience that really got me thinking and was really pretty profound:

“What matters most? The little “wows” or  the big “wows”?

We got serenaded by two cast members with music from the new Disney Cruise Line show “Tangled” where we not only saw the light but heard it, then we were whisked off to Hollywood Studios for a first class dinner at Club Villain featuring the Divas of Evil (and Dr. Facilier). [Note: the character meet-and-greet line… yeah, they actually had TIMES set for you (a’la Fast Passes… perhaps someone was listening to our tweets from the night before) while, again, the bar line was completely empty.]

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Was the “Disney Magic” over? Heck no! After the dinner, we were escorted to a reserved viewing area to watch the new “Star Wars: A Galactic Fireworks Spectacular” show. Here’s a teaser (Hey, it was a public place):

Day 3 of the Disney Institute Customer Experience Summit

Day 3 began with a keynote by Paul Richardson, Senior Vice President Human Resources for ESPN and the Chief Diversity Officer for the Walt Disney Companies. He gave us information about the quantity of programming that ESPN produces (amazing!) and brought along a surprise guest speaker, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and current broadcaster, Jon Gruden!

Coach Gruden spoke about winning and teamwork while Paul Richardson spoke about the importance of taking risks. A key illustration from him was of ESPN’s “Body” issue which has artistic nude images of athletes. As a “lawyer in recovery” and Human Resources VP, you could see where there was concern but this issue has become their most popular ESPN magazine issue every year!

Of course, the exclamation point to his speech was this:

I then began my second day of classes and was extremely thrilled to be reunited with the former DrivingSales Executive Summit keynote speaker as a facilitator for the day, Bruce Kimbrell! (Take that, DSES peeps. You got him for 50 minutes. I got him the. whole. day. BOOM!)

Day 2 for me and my group was all focused on employee engagement and how that affects both retention and customer experience. Again, there was so much content that this blog article/review would be super long if I tried to repeat it all so I’m gonna stick with a couple of my favorite highlights. Oh, but first, I failed to mention that the Disney Institute has swag for those who participate in the classes! If you ever attend a class, PARTICIPATE!

We learned the “Four Keys” philosophy in more depth and how employees, management and leadership use that to guide their decisions. (Patience… I’ll get to the Four Keys.) Loved the following soundbites:

 

“People don’t generally leave companies. They leave leaders.”

“You can never take your company culture for granted. You can lose a good one a lot faster than you can create one.” 

“When you give your employee less reason to leave you, you give your customers less reason to leave as well.”

but this was my favorite (by Bruce Kimbrell)

“There is not one bit of magic in anything Disney. Everything is method. There is nothing done unintentionally. Everything is by design.” 

One of my FAVORITE parts of day two was the Disney Institutes’s “Wonderland” activity. First, let me tell you that while it was MY favorite part, there were other people ready to cut [as in with a knife] someone. It was a very educational and illustrative immersive type activity. If I told you more. I’d be spoiling it for you should you ever encounter it, so I won’t. Just know that it seemed as if attendees really enjoyed it or really hated it. In the end, however, they all understood and learned from it. It was only during the moment that emotions ran high. I must admit that I got WAY into my role as a negative dispenser though. (You have to do the activity to understand.)

Another very cool educational method was through the use of illustrative immersive live-action examples. Video? Forget that. They brought in actors to illustrate points. Just let me say that the “Ice cream shop” story/illustration left me teary eyed (in a good way).

Then we were off to our second field experience! This time, I got to visit the Magic Kingdom again. I thought we were going to experience ride operations backstage but what did we do? We got to ride! Yeee haw! [Note: If you ever sign up for an in-park experience for the Disney Institute and they ask whether you prefer kiddie classic rides or thrill rides, understand that you are choosing which types of rides you want to go on.] I met up with a fellow attendee at the end of day 1 who was kicking himself for not picking thrill rides. You’ve been warned. We had a VIP Tour Guide who walked us onto the rides (which was way cool and available to the public at a reasonable rate of $400 per hour with a 7 hour minimum). When we got to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride, there was a 130 minute stand-by line wait. That was partially because they were filming an episode of the ABC show “Blackish.” Their train actually stopped… right… in.. front.. of me… but, sadly, I wasn’t fast enough with my phone to snap a picture of the actors. Then we rode the Haunted Mansion [I totally brought back the hitchhiking ghosts], Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear.

We then returned and, following a little more education, we were off to our final closing session which was a very cool experience with a Disney Imagineer, Emily O’Brien and Food & Beverage Experience & Pairing Integration VP, Beth Scott. They shared the story of the creation and teamwork involved in creating the new restaurant and bar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Tiffin’s Restaurant and Nomad’s Lounge. One of the really cool things that happened was that they introduced us to the Flavor Lab where a Disney bartender(?) mixed a new drink live on video then.. ouila’… Disney cast members came out and delivered samples to everyone! Then a chef came on live video and showed us how they made a rib and black-eyed pea fritter which was then also brought out for everyone to sample!

At the close of the closing general session… well, I have to tell you the story. Apparently, people REALLY love Dole Whip. There was this whole group obsessed with Dole Whip. Chances are that Disney could have just served Dole Whip the whole conference and people would have been happy. Don’t know for sure but they Screen Shot 2016-08-29 at 7.13.44 PMnot only had a dedicated hashtag but a freaking mascot idol thingy. Bruce Jones came on stage and told us, after the closing keynote, that our badges would get us a free Dole Whip at the Polynesian Resort (just a short monorail ride away) but, in addition, the Disney magic makers had created a special Dole Whip inspired drink for us – and only for us – that would be given to us as we left. [And, skipping ahead just a tad, the funny side of me couldn’t help but ask this group whether… now that they had “whipped” if they were going to “nae nae”… well, guess what… I talked them into it.]

And by left, I mean they said “Get out!” Why? Because they had something special waiting for us and, while they pretended they were giving us some extra time to change and relax, they really needed time to prepare. You see, they had TAUGHT us about Disney magic for 3 days, now they wanted us to EXPERIENCE it. So we left.

When we returned, we were the Disney Institute’s guest. Dinner was all “Beauty and the Beast” themed and first class. When I say first-class, I’m talking caviar, etc. We had visits by Lumiere, Cogsworth, Beauty and the Beast along with a beautiful centerpiece (in the middle of the dance floor) of a rose in glass. All of the tables and napkins were stuffed with fresh red roses as well. We were serenaded, fed and entertained. When we left, we left to another gift of the book “Be Our Guest” by the Disney Institute. [Note: If you like great books and Disney education, pick up a copy of “Disney U” by Doug Lipp.]

And, that’s the end of my story… or is it?

I forgot a couple of things… first, the Four Keys. The Four Keys are the foundation of Disney’s philosophy. They represent, in this order, Safety, Courtesy, Show and Efficiency. In simple terms, think of it this way. Safety is the highest priority and it moves down the chain from there. Courtesy is… well… courtesy. Show? This represents the fact that Disney is putting on a show. That’s why employees are “cast members”, visitors are “guests”, public areas are “on stage” for employees and private areas are “back stage.” It’s way more involved than that, however, and I recommend either attending a Disney Institute course, the next Customer Experience Summit or reading Doug Lipp’s book to learn more but let me leave you with this…

Not only did I LOVE the event, experience, education, activities, and experiences and felt like the event was worth every penny, but when I got home, I made sure that I would never forget the experience nor the philosophies that I learned. Ciao for now and shout out to my tweeting friends Luigi Casanova from Peru, Rich Vallaster and the Disney Institute’s social media person, Amie Gorell as well as all of the facilitators (especially the two Bruces – Kimbrell and Jones).

And finally, this is how I made sure I would never forget what I learned and the impact this event had on me. (Yes, it’s a real tattoo.)

Identifying Loyal Employees Can Be Counter-Intuitive

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Businessmen at loggerheadsA few weeks ago, I presented at Fran Taylor’s “30 Sales a Month” workshop in Philadelphia, PA. The presentation was mainly focused on my retail sales “story”, if you will. Part of what made me successful, however, was that I questioned… well, just about everything. If I saw a better way to do something, I said so. If I disagreed, I spoke up. My sales managers got so fed up with me that, at one point, both the GSM and Sales Manager walked into my GM’s office and announced that they “washed their hands of me”. My GM’s response was that I could report directly to him then. The fact that I had a great leader and mentor that believed in me and was willing to give me leeway was what allowed me to go to the next level in my career.

I remember what he used to tell me every time I came to him with some crazy idea, “I’ll give you all of the rope that you want. You can either hang yourself with it or make a basket to carry all of your money.” I never hung myself. While my presentation was mainly geared towards salespeople, I wanted to leave the dealers and managers present with a takeaway encouraging them to change their perception of employee loyalty. Attendees really liked the message and shared it on social networks with their peers so I thought I’d share the origins of that and explain it for those who couldn’t attend.

Many experts have extolled the fact that the genesis of customer loyalty lies in first ensuring that you have employee loyalty. Your employees are the front-line people that can make or break the best designed and intentioned customer experiences. The porter washing that new car just purchased could send those otherwise happy customers leaving with a slightly less wonderful taste in their mouths. The receptionist who sends a customer off into on hold limbo can send a service customer elsewhere. Don’t think that just because you care that your employees do. I believe most successful businesses, however, intuitively understand this concept. The trick is identifying these employees and sometimes that can be tough.

In a recent article, Hubspot founder Dharmesh Shah listed what he believed to be the 7 qualities of a truly loyal employee. In that article, he illustrates that while it may seem easy to identify loyal employees based on things like how long they’ve worked for you, some of the traits of a loyal employee are the same traits that may actually lead you to firing them. It’s a fact that, in general, there is high employee turnover at dealerships. Some managers are also not the most sympathetic people to work for either. It was easy to see how some of these traits could be easily have their intentions misunderstood.

The first quality he lists is the display of loyalty through integrity. In his opinion, the employee who openly disobeys you to “do the right thing” actually has your long-term best interest at heart. Secondly, they generate discussions. Shah explains that a loyal employee knows what peers understand and assists them in learning how you think by asking the questions others are hesitant to. Third, they praise others. They recognize hard work or a job well done and care enough to verbalize their praise. Fourth, they disagree with you and share their opinions because they want to improve the company and doing so leads to better decision making. Fifth, they support your decisions regardless of whether they disagree. Six, they tell you “what you least want to hear… especially when it’s awkward or even painful to do so.” And last, they leave when it’s time to. That last one would seem to particularly illustrate disloyalty but, according to Shah, when your best employees leave, they help you fill their places while doing so.

His article was very thought-provoking and certainly presented a compelling argument listing qualities that many would deem insubordinate and reversing them into qualities of a loyal employees. At one point in all of our lives, we’ve all had that boss that exhibited the “my way or the highway” method of supervision. They weren’t much fun to work for.  I certainly displayed many of these qualities and, while I may not work for my mentor anymore, when I left, it was simply my time to do so.

In the turnover challenged industry that is automotive retail, managers must pause and take a moment to reflect on these qualities. List first the employees that you would say were your most loyal. Afterwards, reassess everyone using the qualities presented by Mr. Shah then compare the two lists. Are they the same? Chances are that some different names will suddenly appear. Loyal employees are key factors in business success. Identifying and understanding employee loyalty can assist you in not only increasing customer satisfaction – but also in identifying your future leaders.

Santa Doesn’t Visit Car Dealerships

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Coming from a retail background, I can attest that working in sales at a dealership is hyper-competitive. The whole ‘hero to zero’ mentality is meant to motivate salespeople and not let them mentally back off or take the next month easy because they were top salesperson and/or got a fat paycheck. Now, I know that there are some dealerships where this environment doesn’t exist now as it’s been a little while since I actually sold cars but I do know that this environment exists in many stores to this date.

What made me think of this was when a friend was thinking of planning a ‘Secret Santa’ and ‘cookie exchange’ for the holidays. I had no idea what she was talking about which boggled her mind. You see, these things just didn’t exist in retail. I never wanted to give presents to other salespeople nor did I ever receive any. Now, I’m a pretty giving person. I like giving people gifts and making their days a little brighter, it just never happened. Yes, there were times when I was given Christmas bonuses by employers and, while I appreciate money, it doesn’t ‘feel’ quite the same as being given a gift that took some thought regardless of how much the gift cost.

I remember, in my early days in retail when I was a green pea, literally ducking staplers that a sales manager was throwing at me. Public verbal lashings, which included many curse words, weren’t uncommon. Finding innovative ways to take other salespeople ‘off-the-market’ was encouraged and bragged about. Skating another salesperson was commonplace and arguments over customers and deals were daily occurrences.

Learning that these holiday activities not only existed but were fairly common in workplaces was foreign and it made me reflect on just how much I missed out on in my life. We all talk about the high turn-over of salespeople in dealerships and try to find ways to increase employee retention but I don’t think I’ve ever read, or heard, about a dealership cultivating and encouraging an environment like this. Sure, I’ve heard the whole ‘work as a team’ speech many times but, ultimately, that sentiment lasts only until the next deal dispute happens.

The spirit of the holidays, and a conversation with a friend, saddened me. I sincerely hope that my sharing sparks thought in those still out there in the retail sales environment missing this just as I did.

For many salespeople in retail environments, it’s not beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Road Trip Recap – Day 1 and 2

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Well, here I sit at 4:30am Central time. Since it’s dark outside and I’m drinking hotel bathroom coffee, (yuck) I thought I’d write an update on my trip to North Carolina so far.

First, and very important, I did have concerns about my new Chrysler 200’s ability to tow the 4×8 U-Haul trailer across the country. Now that I’ve driven roughly 1100 miles with it, I must say that I’m quite impressed. It’s pulling that fully loaded trailer with ease. The ride is very smooth and comfortable and the engine has plenty of power for those hills. The iPod connection and satellite radio have certainly come in handy as well. Jamming out to Air Supply and the Bee Gees has certainly enhanced the experience and entertained me (just kidding.. well, at least about the Air Supply and Bee Gees part.. it was actually MC Hammer and Paula Abdul).

Day 1 was one of our shorter days. Started in Moreno Valley, CA and the goal was to reach Flagstaff, AZ. There was no need for directions since it’s only one freeway all the way from CA to NC. The drive was monotonous but relatively short compared to the days to follow. Started at about 9am and arrived in Flagstaff at about 5pm. Along the way, the heat steadily rose until it was 115 degrees outside. I ended up actually experiencing this when I had to stop in Needles, CA for a fill up. If you are ever traveling that way, do NOT stop in Needles. I felt like I was being robbed with gas prices almost $5/gallon. Even in CA, gas has been steadily dropping to under the $4 range. Anyways, que sera sera. As we passed the exit to the Grand Canyon, there was an incredible urge to visit but having been there before, I knew that the little bit of time that could’ve been spent there just isn’t enough to truly appreciate it.

Watching and interacting with the people who have been following #atrt on Twitter was fun and entertaining. Day 1 was on Sunday so there wasn’t a whole bunch of interaction. It was still fun and was a nice way to journal my experience and keep my wife in the loop. It was also the first time I’ve truly tested out FaceTime. Since I won’t be seeing my family for quite some time, I’m encouraged to know that I can still see and interact with them visually. It will probably lessen the home-sickness I’m sure I’ll experience.

Day 2 started as a beautiful day in Flagstaff. There was about 600 miles to drive yesterday – the goal being to arrive in Amarillo, TX at a decent hour. Of course, there were two time changes in store so, while the actual driving time ended up being about 9 hours, Amarillo didn’t appear until roughly 8:30pm Central time. The scenery along the way was awesome, especially some of the vistas in New Mexico. An interesting sight was a car pulled over on the side of the road with two police cars in New Mexico. The car literally had the hood, trunk and every door wide open as well as the entire back seat on the shoulder of the road and the cops were systematically dumping every item in the car on the roadside shoulder… emptying the suitcases piece by piece. I dont know what that person did but that would’ve truly sucked.

I can attest that the Escort 9500ix radar detector I bought for the trip has certainly come in quite handy. It has easily and consistently been ID’ing police miles before I spot them. It’s been very consistent with not a lot of false alarms. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who may like to drive a little faster than they should be.. even those who happen to be pulling a U-Haul trailer (not that I know anyone who would do that).

Near the end of the trip, I was getting pretty cranky but once I arrived at the hotel that went away. My legs have been killing me the whole trip. It absolutely didn’t have anything to do with my attempt to show-off in front of my friends Saturday by doing a squat with my 260-lb friend on my back. Nothing whatsoever.

The videos and pictures I’ve been making and posting on various social networks has been a lot of fun. Engagement picked up on Day 2 since it was a work day (not that anyone uses Twitter or Facebook during work hours). I found several interesting places to take pictures with my 3 birds hitchhikers, including pulling over on the shoulder in front of the “Welcome to Texas” sign where they got to perch on the cowboy hat I seldom got a chance to wear in California. Other than that, there wasn’t a plethora of fun places to take pictures along the way (unless you consider cactus “fun”).

I got to give away a highly-coveted special edition “Viva Los 3 Birds” t-shirt to the person who tweeted the origin of “3 Birds” in the 3 Birds Marketing name. (In case you didn’t know what it is, it plays off the phrase “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. The philosophy at 3 Birds is that, while a bird in the hand may be valuable, why not have all 3 birds instead of only one. The most common misconception about the name is that the 3 Birds represents the 3 founders – Layton and Kristen Judd and Len Wohadlo.)

There’s another 600 miles in store for the drive today with the goal being to reach Little Rock, AR at a decent hour (and safely). I hope you have been following along, have enjoyed the pictures and videos and will continue to participate on Twitter following and tweeting to hashtag #atrt I have more shirts ad prizes to give away today so pay attention and participate.

Thanks for the read! I’m excited about reaching my new home in North Carolina and beginning my new position as Social Media Strategist & Policy Manager with the awesome staff at the 3 Birds corporate office. As they say, its the people that make the company.

Tip: Why (and How) You Should Buy Facebook Stock

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[UPDATE 5/22/12: According to this article by AllFacebook.com, Facebook has reversed course and decided not to issue paper stock certificates so this whole article just became a fantasy.]

First, a disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor in any way, shape or form. What I AM is an entrepreneur so take this advice from that standpoint. There is never a guarantee of future value but this is why I think it’s a good investment.. if bought in a certain way.

Today, Facebook held its IPO to much media attention, speculation and became the largest IPO ever in the history of IPOs. There is a ton of advice saying that the opening cost is overpriced, to wait, etc. and that its a bad initial investment. I disagree but only from the perspective, and using the method, I describe below.

When a popular company has an IPO, they can choose whether or not to allow investors to obtain a physical stock certificate or not. Most companies do not and, if they do, its for a limited time. Facebook chose to allow investors to request and obtain physical stock certificates.

facebook-stock-cert.top

I’ve been selling things on eBay for over 14 years and I’m always on the lookout for things to sell and make a profit so I thought about this and did some research.

When Apple had its IPO in 1982, shares cost $22 each. They also offered the option to buy a physical certificate. Without any consideration for the current market value of that share, the actual certificate itself has a market value of almost $600 on eBay. Say you bought 100 shares and asked for individual certificates. The certificates ALONE would make your initial investment of $25/share ($2500 after adding a few dollars for the certificate) worth $60,000. If you actually retained ownership of the stock itself, without consideration for any stock splits or anything else, the shares themselves would be worth $53,259 (value as of May 18 at 12:00pm PST). You can retain ownership of a stock and sell the actual certificate so your initial investment with physical shares is suddenly ~$113,259. Yes, it took 30 years to make this but it’s still a VERY healthy return on your investment.

Let’s say you really don’t want to retain ownership of the shares as an investment. You buy the shares and order the physical certificates. Wait a couple months to receive the certificates, then sell the shares. Let’s say the shares have tanked and they are only worth $10 each at that point. You’ve recouped $1000 of your initial $2500 investment so you’ve lost $1500 BUT you still have 100 stock certificates which are, at this moment, worth $60,000. So your $1000 investment netted you $59,000. Best case, the share price is up and you can make a profit on the initial investment and, again, still have the actual certificates, in this case, for no investment.

People like collectibles and owning a piece of history. If you’re going to buy the stock anyways, pony up the extra couple of bucks a share (Make sure to get individual shares on each certificate rather than multiple shares on one certificate to maximize the potential future sale as people are buying the certificates themselves. There is no difference in value between a certificate that is for 1 share or 100 shares.) and have the extra potential return.

Other examples:

My guess is that a certificate purchased on (or near) the actual IPO date would be worth more to a collector in the future (as in the Apple stock certificate example). I also believe that the initial stock shares will be signed by Mark Zuckerberg based on similar past IPO certificates.

Of course there’s never any guarantee that the certificate will be worth anything in the future and this is certainly a long term investment whether you keep the shares AND the certificates or just the certificates. Whichever you decide to do, there’s more POTENTIAL in having the certificates then in not having them. In addition, due to the high demand for the stock itself, I don’t believe Facebook will be offering paper certificates for very long so you could have a narrow window to take advantage of this.

Most stock certificates won’t sell like this, of course. The examples I use are exceptions but I believe Facebook will fall into this category. If an old AOL floppy disc (that were everywhere “back in the day” and that they mailed to everyone once a week, it seemed) can sell for almost $10,000 on eBay… well, you get my point.

Either way, in my opinion, it’s kind of cool to own a piece of history.

I’ll Be There For You

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In the world of social media, no matter the platform, there are varying degrees of relationships. Everyone uses social media in different ways, some personal and some business. Most social media platforms were initially intended to help people connect and stay in touch with the people they care about in real life.

In the race for the most followers, friends, exposure or whatever your goal is in social media, it’s important to realize that amidst all the noise, you have real friends. Friends that enhance your life, contribute to your success, make you a better person, and truly care about you.

Don’t let an algorithm dictate who you share thoughts and moments with. Don’t let a Twitter feed become so noisy that you miss real conversations. Highs and lows, for better or for worse, be there for your real friends. Recognize them. Interact with them. Enrich your life and theirs.

Every day, it seems, the next best social media platform comes along. Everyone races to join and be included. We join so many social media networks that we aren’t really a part of any of them.

We never truly connect with anyone because we’re too busy trying to connect with everyone.

Social media isn’t simply about being there. It’s about connecting, experiencing, bonding, creating and nurturing relationships.

If you’re a business, be there for your customers and community, not that person in India that sent you a friend request. It’s not about how many people follow you. It’s about how many people listen to you.

There are people trying to connect with you on a much deeper level than sharing news stories or inspirational quotes.

Be there for them. They’re waiting.

NADA 2012: Day Four Recap – Final Day

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By Day 4 of NADA, I was totally wiped. Between walking the exhibit hall, networking, and night-time adventures, I didn’t have a lot of gas left.

Day 4 in the exhibit hall had me looking for some cool swag for my daughter. Not many booths had “kid” swag (lighty-blinky things, etc. A lot of footballs but not much else). In my treasure hunt, I managed to get a caricature done courtesy of Jack Behar and the VisuallyLinked booth, a DealerTrack 1/24 scale die-cast car, some autographs with Playmates at the Aspen Marketing booth and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to make it until I won this huge bear from the CUDL booth:

Won me a big bear at the CUDL booth at NADA

Walking around the exhibit hall with that huge bear got me a mixture of strange looks, smiles, queries as to how I was getting it home (I drove) and monetary offers but I was taking this home to my 5-year old daughter. (Man, was I a hero when I got home.) In the end, at about 2:30, I had to go back to my hotel room just to drop this off. I took a load off my feet and **BAM** I was out. I woke up right as former President George W. Bush was speaking. I was bummed to miss that.

I was invited to dinner with 3Birds Marketing that evening and we went to a delicious Thai restaurant. Afterwards, I needed to make a stop at the Caesars Palace Forum Shops. As the store closed its doors, they allowed someone in to shop privately. It happened to be Floyd Mayweather Jr.!! It was him and I, the store employees and his bodyguards (although I dont know why he needs bodyguards). Got to say “Hi” to him but I succeeded in restraining myself in asking for a picture with him.

After that, it was off to the Imperial Palace Karaoke Club. I typically visit at least once every time I’m in Vegas and it so happened that, earlier that day, Shaun Raines of DrivingSales tweeted out an impromptu industry karaoke party. Some of the 3Birds Marketing crew were there as were some ReachLocal people. It was a blast, as always. Rob Fontano KILLED the songs he sang. Dude even had a freakin’ harmonica in his pocket and played it during his songs. Are you kidding me?!?! I’ve NEVER seen someone whip out a harmonica during karaoke. Check it out:

Then, Shaun stepped up and did a duet with the DJ:

Great people. Good times.

To summarize, this NADA was the best experience I’ve had at a conference and the first major industry event in the last couple of years in which I wasn’t working in some way or another. Between all the celebrities, events, parties, swag, gifts from heaven, networking, and sessions…. I sincerely felt charmed the whole time. Thank  you to NADA, God, the Lucky Charms leprechaun, and all those that made this convention so wonderful for me.

If you’d like to see some of the pictures I took (102 on display), you can view them HERE.

Oh, and remember that eBay Motors party I told you about in my Day Two Recap? I’ll leave you with some ice, ice, baby.

 

 

Fantasy Guru’s Social Media Fail

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My brother is a fantasy sports freak. He especially gets into football. Every Sunday, you can find him firmly planted in front of my TV watching my Sunday Ticket subscription with his laptop in his lap cycling through his many teams refreshing his fantasy football scores. You’d think he was in the stadium sometimes as he yells (or cheers) at the television. He’s also hyper-competitive.

We play in one league together and, at any point in time, he knows, off the top of his head, all the league’s statistics. Who’s in first place..Who has the most points..Playoff scenarios..etc. He’s made 74 roster changes whereas the rest of a 12 team-league has made a combined average of 11 moves (and that’s with my above-average 37 moves included). I stopped checking Yahoo for my scores and info. I just ask him now.

He’s been a fan of, and subscriber to, a premium fantasy football website named FantasyGuru.com run by John Hansen who has been affiliated with major companies and personalities including hosting a radio show, SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio with FoxSports.com’s Adam Caplan which was so popular that it became a seven-day-a-week program during the NFL season which included senior writers Matt Camp and Joe Dolan. He’s participated in celebrity drafts including Ashton Kutcher, has published on ESPN.com, and has appeared on television in projects with NFL.com, NFL Network, DirecTV, ComCast SportsNet, and even a cameo on an episode of FX’s The League.

This week my brother is particularly passionate as he’s playing his big brother (me) in our league’s playoffs. He uses the advice and statistics from this website to help him analyze players, waiver wire pickups, and to assist him in choosing his lineup each week.

He’s not a social media person. That being said, he does have a Twitter account. It has only 1 follower (me) and he’s tweeted only 4 times. The ONLY reason he has a Twitter account is to watch the tweets of @Fantasy_Guru to get up-to-the-minute injury reports and news.

So, in this weeks projections, one player – Donald Brown of the Indianapolis Colts – was projected to do well on a combined list of running backs and wide receivers. Long story short, the player hardly played at all and ended up with low points.

Because of his passion and the desire to win against his big brother and advance to our league’s championship, he tweets this out to the Fantasy Guru twitter account:

rafe

Keep in mind that this guy (@Fantasy_Guru) has over 25,000 followers. He gets mentioned and/or tweeted to continuously. My brother is square in the middle of his demographic – hyper-competitive people passionate about fantasy football. It’s hard to believe that his analysis isn’t challenged or critiqued by other people via Twitter. The guy isn’t always right but I don’t think anyone really believes he has a crystal ball.

For whatever reason, he took exception to this particular tweet and sent this direct message in response:

guru

My brother only followed him and has only 1 follower. @Fantasy_Guru has 25,009 followers and follows only 266 and (obviously) doesn’t follow my brother. I understand that. He follows sportswriters, teams and players to get information which he then passes along to his subscribers/followers and he does it very well.

First, seeing as this person runs a BUSINESS in which he charges ~$30 per year, you’d think he’d be more careful alienating and lashing out at people. Notice that he chose to direct message my brother rather than reply publicly. This was particularly frustrating to my brother since he couldn’t respond to the message since @Fantasy_Guru doesn’t follow him. That’s certainly not a way to treat paying customers and a poor choice on his part. My guess is he chose to direct message because by replying like that publicly would make him look bad.

Little did he realize that my brother has been a subscriber of his for 11 years and has referred many people to also subscribe to his service. While $330 in income may not mean anything to John Hansen, it is definitely a luxury to my brother. The amount of money doesn’t excuse abusing your customers.

It took him about 10 seconds to destroy a loyal customer. Not a smart business decision.

Now my brother follows nobody.

Social media is a powerful medium. No matter what size your business is, customer service matters. Do you think Southwest Airlines or Ford would ever think about responding to a customer this way?? Imagine this DM coming from Southwest: “You set up a Twitter account just to complain? Go fly another airline.” Not going to happen. Any employee who did that would be fired instantly. Ask Scott Monty or Christi McNeill.

As the old saying goes, “A happy customer tells 10 friends, an unhappy one tells everybody.”

Now thousands of people will know that he apparently doesn’t value his subscribers.

[UPDATE: Apparently Matt Camp read my article. His response was to make fun of a math mistake (which I’ve since edited). I guess he values his audience just as much as John Hansen does.

[UPDATE 2: I guess John Hansen got annoyed with my tweets as he’s decided to block me. Can’t take the heat?]

Deliver Smiles

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This past Sunday, August 14th, was my birthday. Facebook brought me 150 “Happy Birthdays” yesterday from the whole spectrum of my social network – family, people I know well, industry people, and even people I only know through Facebook. I made a point to say “Thank you” to every single one of them in as personalized a way as possible. Why?

Other than the fact that it’s polite and I wanted each person to know that I recognized them and appreciated them taking their time to recognize my birthday, social networking is about involvement. It allows you to be involved in people’s lives and days. I view this as a privilege. People use social networks for all sorts of different reasons – whether it’s all about work, all about family, all personal or some mash up of these.

Regardless of HOW you choose to use social networks, the fact remains that behind each and every one of these “accounts” is a person. It’s easy to forget that the Facebook profile for a car dealership actually has someone on the other end posting things and interacting with people, even if it is on behalf of the dealership.

I think everyone would agree that it’s a best practice to send birthday cards to your friends, family, and customers and to recognize important occasions or be empathetic when they have a bad day or had some hard luck. Doing the same things on your social networks is no less of a best practice.

My personal philosophy in regards to social media use is this. I try to be myself. I let people into my life and get to know me for real not only what news stories I’m interested in, what inventory I have, what I’m “selling”, what quote I like, or what games I play. I believe that many of my social network friends that know me in real life would agree that I accomplish this pretty well. What you see if what you get. Don’t get me wrong, there are subjects I stay away from. A general rule of thumb I follow is that if I wouldn’t say it in a room full of people at a party; I don’t say it but I ALWAYS stay true to myself.

I believe that people want to network with people, not with the AP Newswire.

Just as every one of those 150 wall posts yesterday brought me a smile and made me appreciate and enjoy my birthday just that little bit more, I also reciprocate and make sure I say “Happy Birthday” to people daily. I also, as many know, post a “Comic of the Day”. I try to be encouraging, funny, and personal.. but, most of all, real.

One universal truth is that people like to smile. They like to be heard. They like feeling that people are listening and that they are making a difference and/or are part of someone else’s life even if it’s in as small of a way as saying “Happy Birthday” to someone or having someone say “Happy Birthday” to you, whether you really know them or not. There’s a reason that some of your highest interaction on social networks will be with humorous and personal posts.

Disneyland is a master at this. It gives people buttons to wear around the park showing everyone that it’s that person’s birthday. Their company’s policy is that every employee who sees a guest with this button says “Happy Birthday” to them. I even see other park guests take the time to say “Happy Birthday” to complete strangers. This smallest of policies can make a huge difference in someone’s day. Disneyland is “the happiest place on Earth” for a reason, and that’s why people love it and will spend hundreds of dollars to go there on any given day. Over 2 million people registered for Disneyland’s birthday promotion in 2009.

True social media influencers are influencers because they are genuine. People want to listen to them because they are real people, and that comes through in their posts, what they choose to share and how they interact with others.

So, if you only follow two rules in your social media networking, follow the same ones that you should follow in real life: be yourself and deliver smiles.

(Originally published August 15, 2011 on Dealer magazine)

“The Badge King” Contest

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(Follow the contest via this blog post (which will be updated in real-time as badge pictures are received) and the conversation by watching hashtag #badgeking on Twitter)

StandingsBadges Submitted
1. Todd Smith 21
2. Tim Jackson 19

The gauntlet has been thrown. The challenge has been accepted. The prize is set. The game is on.

The “Badge King” is a contest where the contenders will race to collect as many meeting & conference badges as possible. Why? Just because. You see, both contenders are prolific speakers and avid travelers. They have special hot-lines to the airlines, at hotels they are VIPs, restaurants have tables saved just for them… heck, they would bump movie stars out of first class.
Have you seen that movie “Up In The Air“, you know, the one with George Clooney. There’s a scene in it where Ryan (George Clooney) and Alex (Vera Farmiga), who are both frequent travelers, empty their pockets, wallets and purses in a race to compare who had the highest standing on airlines, rental car companies, and hotels via loyalty cards. This is kind of like that…except it’s two guys and it’s about conferences and meetings. Their “frequent flyer” cards are badges.. and they’re throwing them on the table trying to see who has the biggest… uh.. never mind.
The Rules:
  1. Only “official” printed meeting and conference badges count. Name tags that say “Hello, My name is” etc. do not. (If they counted then they’d all just sit in their offices and write their names on bulk boxes of name tags..or more likely make their staff do it).
  2. Pictures must be taken of the badges and e-mailed to me, Arnold Tijerina. They both know my e-mail address so there’s no excuses!
  3. Dates of the contest: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011. (Yeah, they wanted to backdate it.. wusses)
The Contenders:
Tim W. Jackson – President of the Colorado Auto Dealers Association
Todd Smith – CEO of ActivEngage
The Prize: 


*Donated to a charity chosen by the winner

Who do you think will win?
[UPDATE 1/17/12: Tim Jackson and Todd Smith have agreed to make the contest a TIE and both donate money.]
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