Archive for the ‘Communication’ Category

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Andre “The Punisher” Agassi

Monday, November 16th, 2009

A lot has been said about Andre Agassi’s book. Whether you like the guy, or you don’t, or you were a fan, but aren’t now, you’ve got to admit that being honest about your deepest darkest secrets is no easy caper.

Since the book’s launch, Andre has been battered from pillar to post. He’s had support too. But the majority of feedback has been scathing. And little wonder. Some of the revelations warrant a negative response from sports administrators and current tennis role models. That’s to be expected.

But dig a little deeper and I think you’ll find a very troubled soul who has finally found peace with himself.

For years Andre was worried about other people’s expectations. He was worried about what his father thought of him. He was worried about what the media thought of him. He was worried about what his fans thought of him. I’m betting a lot of people can relate to this approval seeking behaviour. Well Andre was king of it. But no longer.

The message from Andre’s book is this; “This is the real me. You either like it or you don’t. Either way I don’t care but I hope you learn something from my mistakes.”

There is no doubt Andre’s brand has been dealt a savage blow, and Andre himself knew that was coming. More importantly for Andre is the fact he no longer bows to other people’s opinions, something that contributed to his struggles in the first place. He is now a free man and that’s way more important to him personally, than what you or I think.

Living life according to other people’s expectations and approval is a dangerous game that will leave you exhausted and without a sense of purpose. Andre made that mistake for a long time but it seems he’s treading his own path now.

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Posted in Client Relationship, Communication, Personal Development, Tennis | No Comments »

Winning

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Continuing the Tiger theme this week, I thought his 60 Minutes interview on Sunday night was extremely refreshing.

In the interview, Tiger confessed that ‘winning’ was the big motivation to his success and work ethic.

Winning drives most elite sportspeople but few admit it.

Maybe it’s an Australian thing. We expect our heroes to be humble and promote enjoyment as their main motivation. But let’s be honest. Winning is a major carrot for elite sportspeople.

You only have to look at Andre Agassi. He admits in his autobiography that he hated tennis. So what drove him? It certainly wasn’t ‘having fun’.

Now don’t get me wrong, fun plays a major role for most sportspeople, but fun alone doesn’t motivate an athlete to rise at 5:30AM and do 1000 sit-ups. Winning does.

And that’s why Tiger’s interview was refreshing. Winning shouldn’t be a dirty word. Australian’s more than any other nation like to win. Athletes themselves like to win. So let’s not sugar-coat the truth. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win. It’s why the Michael Jordan’s, Kelly Slater’s, Lance Armstrong’s and Tiger Woods’ of the world are on top.

They use the concept of winning to drive them to be better. Aint nothing wrong with that. Refreshing isn’t it?

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Posted in Communication, Media | 1 Comment »

One Golden Rule of Publicity

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

When you’re hot – STRIKE.

Athletes and celebrities have a very short time span in the scheme of things to maximise their earning potential.

In a world that moves at a staggering pace, keeping up with sport, music, fashion and entertainment news and trends becomes a game of move on or get left behind.

Consumers are very quick to latch onto something and they’ll doit with tremendous vigor (think Harry Potter and Twilight or any big sports star).

But just as consumers are quick to latch on, they’ll move on. This means when you’re in the spotlight, work it, work it, work it!!!

You would be surprised that some talent don’t get this concept. I’ve had athletes compete at Olympics and Commonwealth Games overseas, their name and image strewn across every newspaper back here in Australia. At this point in time, the best thing they can do is get their butt on a plane and come home.

If they can do that, then I can leverage their name which is already in lights. TV, radio and print will line up for me.

However, what do most athletes do? They decide they deserve a break after years of training and book a holiday directly after their major competition. Bad idea. They just missed a golden opportunity.

I totally understand the need for a break and I’ve experienced first hand how draining major events are for athletes. After competing, they just want to let their hair down, do nothing and switch off. I get this.

But if you’re an athlete that is serious about promoting your brand to attract sponsors then you’ve got to maximise this valuable window of opportunity.

Compete at Olympics, fly home for a week of media, then go holiday. It’s that simple.

It’s no good coming home a month later when news are no longer interested and everyone else has moved on.

This applies to anyone who is experiencing a flush of publicity. Milk it. Be available. Work hard. You can always rest later when you’re not so hot.

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Posted in Communication, Media, Olympics, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

The Athlete Diary

Monday, October 26th, 2009

I had an ugly situation today when I had to pull an athlete from a major event because they had double booked and not informed me.

In most cases I would enforce the prior obligation with management, but the circumstances on this occasion didn’t allow for that. This left me frustrated and embarrassed but it also reinforced the importance of diary management.

An athlete’s personal diary impacts their professional diary.

Traditionally I would rely on the athlete to update their own diary with commitments I send them. Or I would email them the diary I manage so they could update their own diary.

This system has worked ok in the past, but I’m not in the business of being ok. I need a better solution.

Upon further thinking I would encourage athlete managers to keep a gmail account with a diary that you and your athlete have public access to. One diary. No confusion.

This system still relies heavily on the athlete but once both parties are in a good habit it should become second nature.

Sometimes we need problems in order to see new opportunities or in this case better ways of doing things.

Posted in Communication, Strategy | No Comments »

Nike Air Jordan

Monday, October 19th, 2009

I’ll never forget the day I received my first pair of Nike Air Jordan shoes. Growing up in the basketball crazy era of the 1980’s and early 90’s Michael Jordan was my hero. And Nike was my favourite brand. Funny that.

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There is no doubting the influence Michael Jordan has had on the Nike brand. It’s a great story of an athlete and a sponsor coming together to create something special. But it nearly didn’t happen. Read this article about the history of Nike Air Jordan.

Nike believed in Michael.
So much so, they were willing to bet the company on him. But it took some convincing at the time.

This story provides us with a few lessons.

1. Athletes are sometimes better off aligning with a sponsor that is passionate about them, and not just the other way around.

2. Sponsors need to communicate and get their athletes involved when it comes to leveraging the name, image and likeness of the athlete.

3. Loyalty is important. Athletes should be prepared to stick with a sponsor that showed belief early in their career. Swapping to another sponsor in the same category can dilute an athlete’s own brand.

4. Get creative when selling sponsorship. Nike knew that had to convince Michael to sign with them and that wasn’t going to happen with boardroom drawl. They created a video to appeal to Jordan’s emotions – very creative for back then.

Posted in Client Relationship, Communication, Media, Personal Development, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Teamwork

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Whether you’re an athlete in a team sport, a CEO of a large company or a young entrepreneur starting a business, getting “TEAMWORK” right is critical.

The corporate world can learn a lot from the sporting world and the principles are not hard to follow.

1. You need a great captain/coach. Someone that leads by example. Someone that can make quick decisions and is willing to die by the sword. Someone that stays calm under pressure. Has confidence. Has ethics. And is a people’s person.

2. Everyone in the team must have clearly defined roles. The more specific the better. And just like footy players have hit ups, tackles and disposals, the role must be measureable. Let team members take ownership over their role and make them accountable. And when delegating tasks, be ridiculously specific.

3. Get the team to socialise outside work. You learn so much more about a person away from the office. This casual interaction has the ability to create friendships that are a bit deeper than the typical “workmate relationship”. Athletes always talk about “not letting their teammates down,” and this comes out of friendship.

4. Create a fun and comfortable work environment. Team members have to enjoy coming to work. One of the first things Wayne Bennett did when he went to the St George Illawarra Dragons, was to improve the training facilities. You want your team to be proud of their workspace and take pride in it.

5. Have a clearly defined mission statement that inspires. Every sports team has a mantra. A key set of words that inspire and reminds everyone what they’re striving for.

5. Focus on the process. Sporting teams don’t focus on a premiership. They focus on the process of what they must do each day to achieve a premiership. A salesperson could focus on $1 million in sales, or they could focus on how many phone calls and proposals they’ll need to send out to achieve that $1 million.

6. Communicate. Sporting teams are very candid in their communication. They don’t let things fester. If there is a problem, it’s discussed and solved before it divides a team. The captain/coach needs to be approachable and always have their ear to the ground.

7. Constantly review performance. Sporting teams regularly meet for video analysis to learn from their mistakes and improve performance. They are constantly striving to get better. After a project or business deal, its worth asking “how could we have done that better or what worked and what didn’t.” Don’t go through the motions. Stop once and a while and look at the big picture.

7. Encourage mentoring. Senior athletes love taking younger teammates under the wing. Don’t wait for this to naturally happen. Appoint your senior people to someone. This proactive move works at Australian Olympic team level so it should work for you.

6. Celebrate success. You don’t need to swap shirts, spray champagne and shout a song to the beat of a wheelie bin, but you’ve got to enjoy the wins. If you can’t do this then really what is the point? Celebrating success also has the added benefit of bringing the team closer together so have fun.

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Posted in Communication, Rugby, Rugby League, Strategy | 4 Comments »

No

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

If I had a dollar for every time I said “no” I would be a billionaire. I think any sports manager can relate to this.

Athletes receive a staggering number of requests and the reality is only 5-10% of those get actioned.

If you look at an athlete’s day to day priorities you would find that 80% of their time is dedicated to training and competition (that 80% also includes getting sufficient rest, massage, physio and maintaining a healthy diet). The remaining 20% is dedicated to off field duties with their club which includes sponsor and media commitments. It also includes keeping personal sponsors happy and finding time for family and other personal commitments.

So you can begin to understand why managers are reluctant to stack additional opportunities on an athlete. Our duty is to make life as seamless as possible. Our first priority is selling the client to the marketplace, servicing current sponsors, managing the media requests and looking after the athlete’s dedicated charity if they have one. Anything outside these areas is dealt with brutally.

Athletes don’t hear about three quarters of the requests they receive. That’s why they employ managers. To filter requests and only bring to the table opportunities that are commercially viable or that make sense with respect to their diary and other commitments.

So when an athlete manager turns down your request. It’s not personal. It’s just business.

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Posted in Client Relationship, Communication, Media, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Make Your Sponsorship Proposal Stand Out

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

What is one major difference between the two sponsorship proposals below.

- AFL pitching to Company X

- Individual athlete manager pitching to Company X

The answer: One has extensive market research about their product, the other does not.

When the AFL, NRL or FFA pitches for sponsorship, they have qualitative and quantitative market research to present. This includes demographics about their key customers and what their brand represents in the marketplace among others things. Most importantly, they have the data to back it up.

Athlete managers on the other hand don’t have any solid market research to present. They can guesswork the brand values of their athlete but they don’t have the kind of data that makes a proposal compelling.

Sponsors are very strategic in their approach. They know their brand inside and out. They know exactly who their target market is. They know demographics. They know exactly what their brand represents to their customers. They know the buying behaviour and what influences their target market. They know what kind of marketing and advertising works and why. And they expect you to have similar level of understanding about the product you’re selling.

Athlete managers never include this kind of data in their proposals. So the managers that do will stand head and shoulders above everyone else.

Now market research doesn’t need to be peace and war and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Most sports will give you this information for free. So if you manage a rugby union player, you could ask the ARU for some market research. (Tell them you’re doing a uni assignment or you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities).

This will give you some hard data about your athlete’s target market which you can present to potential sponsors. They’ll be shocked but delighted and it may just get your proposal over the line.

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Posted in AFL, Communication, Football, Sponsorship, Strategy, advertising | No Comments »

The Fame Game

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Most people fall into the fame game unexpectedly. Often they have a special talent that puts them in the spotlight whether it be in sports, TV, music or film.

I don’t know many people who actively pursue a career for fame alone. If they did then they would never make it. Fame is often a by-product of success or in some cases a necessity to achieve success.

Having worked with my fair share of ‘famous’ people I can tell you that most are incredibly uncomfortable with the fame game. Sure, they enjoy some of the perks but after experiencing the dizzy heights of fame, most would take the money and leave out the fame if given the choice.

The biggest downside to the fame game is that there is no off and on button. You can’t switch it off on a bad day. When times are good and the press positive, famous people will happily stand in the spotlight and do star jumps. But come tough times and negative press, the same people want to turn the light off and curl into a ball.

This inability to turn the light off still troubles the most experienced famous people, you only have to look at the Greg Norman / Chris Evert story. Greg has never had a problem using his fame to build a successful business empire and was more than happy to tell the world about his new relationship (picture Greg under a spotlight doing star jumps) but then it broke down. Suddenly a relationship that was everyone’s business, is now no ones business according to Greg. The game doesn’t work that way.

The point I’m trying to make is this. Whether you’re already famous or you’re chasing a career with the potential to be famous, you gotta realise that the light stays on through the good, bad and the downright ugly. If you can accept this as reality and you are comfortable to wear the consequences in the tough times then go ahead and turn that light on.

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Posted in Communication, Media, Personal Development, Strategy, golf | No Comments »

Don’t Believe the Hype

Friday, September 18th, 2009

“I will not rest until I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega game ‘featuring you’, while singing your own song in a new commercial, ‘starring you’, broadcast during the Superbowl, in a game that you are winning, and I will not ‘sleep’ until that happens.”

Warning for athletes: Be wary of managers who promise you the world.

You know I’m talking about, pie in the sky stuff. Watch out for the words ‘million dollars’, ‘own line of products’, ‘international success’ etc etc.

The dog eat dog world of sports management thrives on managers who over promise and under deliver. Managers do this to get the signature, plain and simple. And athletes fall for it every time.

Sit an athlete down in front of six managers and 9/10 will choose the forex-trader-with-dollar-eyes1manager who blows the most smoke up their butt. That manager knows they won’t achieve anywhere near what they promise but they know a signature means some income for themselves and this is usually enough to justify them lying their asses off.

It’s not uncommon for athletes to change managers, it happens a lot. What usually drives an athlete to make the switch is a myriad of riches in the form of false promises. When those riches don’t transpire, they move and so it goes.

Athletes, look for a manager with so much confidence and self belief that they don’t need to exaggerate your earning capacity. Measure them by their track record with similar athletes of your standing (sport, gender, personality, results etc). Don’t focus on what they say about results, instead listen to the processes of how they are going to get those results. Don’t believe the hype.

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Posted in Client Relationship, Communication, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

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