A Quick Call To The North Pole…
By Jimmy Vee
Well, it’s official. Technology has taken over the world. As many of you know, Travis and I love technology and have tech geek blood that makes us be able to understand HTML code, graphic design programs, Java, PhP and other non-sense we shouldn’t know anything about. But the one thing we don’t like is having our time taken away from us, so we don’t buy into the whole “always be connected” concept. We don’t carry cell phones, iphones, PDAs or anything like that—although we have tried them all (inner tech geek lashing out) and we hated them. Instead, we carry a Franklin Covey Compass monthly planner with a leather bound writing journal inside, a paper and ink address book and a goals booklet. It works, that’s why we use it. I’m smart enough to know that just because we don’t embrace the cell phone, mobile computer, always-within-10-digits-of-disruption craze, many others do. And now it’s out of control. This was made evident by a story my wife was telling me yesterday. Wait until you hear this. Christy and Autumn went with Jennifer and Ella down to the mall to get the kids' pictures taken with Santa. When they got down to the Santa area, they had to wait because Santa was on break. This Santa was probably union or employed by the government. I know this because the REAL Santa is a former toy business executive who was disgruntled with his boss, wage and Dilbert cube. Realizing that there is a lot of money in the toy business and that he could do it better, Santa started a workshop out in the middle of nowhere (where land was cheap) and became an entrepreneur. He doesn’t take breaks in the middle of the day. This mall Santa was on break but still in plain site of anyone waiting to see him and to top it off, he was having a conversation on his cell phone. When I heard that Santa was on a cell phone, I knew things had gone too far. My poor wife then had to explain the situation to my innocent little girl. But instead of having to explain to her how Santa gets down the chimney or how the reindeer fly, she had to explain that Santa must be taking an important call from the head Elf up in his North Pole headquarters. By the way, it’s actually not a toy factory anymore. That’s all been outsourced to the coldest regions of China where Santa can pay the elves in China less than the elves in America because they are not unionized, don’t feel entitled to something for nothing and are hungry for real achievement. Just so you know, the fat man himself ain’t happy about having to move production overseas. In a very moving podcast he did from his sleigh, on his Razr phone, while delivering toys last Christmas he said, “Even the naughty kids are demanding toys these days. They say it’s their right to have them. The parents are sending me hate mail and asking for me to bring cash. Not to mention, in order to deal with the no-child-left-without-a-toy legislation and the increase in elf minimum wage, I had to cut costs. Biz is biz.”
I can’t even write anymore I’m so disgusted and so is Santa as you can see from this picture of him with Autumn. Not even a smile on Christmas.
Oh...here's the point. When customers are around (they're always around, see Travis' earlier post on Driver Obedience) it's a show. Your customers want entertainment and want to feel good. It's your job to give it to them no matter what you sell. How you conduct your business and yourself is critical. It's an entertainment environment—a show—and you need to think of it as such.
Think Disney. They get it. You never see Goofy on a cell phone, bitchin' at his wife about this month's electric bill, telling kids, "Just one second." You never see Mickey with his costume head under his arm taking a smoke break in broad daylight.
You, your environment, your employees—everything—is under extreme scrutiny, every second. Want to make more money? Create a better show. The better it is, the more the ticket is worth. And for the record, the mall Santa gets an "F."
