The Significance of 200 Episodes

The Significance of 200 Episodes

The Scott Howard Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast turns 200 this week.

To me, that’s a little bit of a bragging right.  For you, perhaps it will give you a little bit of confidence or trust in what you are reading or listening to.

Indulge me for a moment as I talk about the significance of this and I’ll be sure to wrap up with a couple of questions that can help you with your business or branding.

First of all,  what’s a ScLoHo?

Nearly 17 years ago I registered the ScLoHo.com & ScLoHo.net domains, and even before that I had email accounts on Hotmail and Yahoo! that used ScLoHo.  I may have even had a MySpace account under the ScLoHo moniker.

ScLoHo is a made up word.  I took the first two letters of my first name (Scott), middle name (Louis), and last name (Howard) and created a unique word. There is a Wikipedia user page that has more of my history. The name Scott Howard I discovered is not unique.  The most famous Scott Howard is the fictional character in the Michael J Fox Teenwolf movie.  So ScLoHo became a unique way to identify myself online and it eventually spilled offline too. My wife and some coworkers call me ScLoHo and every once in awhile.

Here’s how ScLoHo became more than an email address.  I started a blog on the old Google Blogger platform which grew into multiple blogs.  It was a way for me to share stuff online about media and marketing along with personal stuff.  It was nothing I got paid for, it was simply a passion of mine to capture and share some wisdom from others and myself.

In 2011, I left the radio stations I was with and took a position working with my friend Kevin Mullett in the web-world and Kevin encouraged me to spend money and buy my own spot on the internet.  Not just a domain name like I had been doing, but a real hosted website.  It took a few months to design but I launched ScottHoward.me in October 2011 and moved over 10,000 article that I had written to the new website.   Also I want to emphasize that the dot me is only because the dot com version of my name is taken by a realtor in California.

The blogging articles never stopped on this website, although I slowed down to about 50 articles a year.  I used to do 50 per month, that’s how I got up to 10,000 in a short period of time.  Later this year, I will be writing my 15,000 article which is another accomplishment that not many people have done.

And before I tell you about the significance of 15,000 articles or 200 podcasts, here’s how the podcast even came about.

Our company, Federated Media, decided that it would be a great idea for someone to create an advertising or marketing podcast about 5 1/2 years ago.  I wasn’t in management at the time, but was writing these weekly articles on the subject so a couple of the managers asked me if I would consider switching to a podcast instead.

I told them I could do both.  With my on-air background, I knew how to do all the recording and production.  With my desire to continue writing, I created an audio version of what I was already doing.  Sort of like books on tape, read by the author.  It took a few weeks of planning including picking out theme music, and creating a logo after deciding on a name for the podcast and then it debuted 200 weekly episodes ago.

Here’s a few lessons that you may be able to apply.

  1. Do What You Are Passionate About.  There is no way, that I would still be writing weekly and then creating 200 podcast episodes if I didn’t care about this stuff.
  2. Do It When You Don’t Feel Like It.  There are times when I really don’t feel like writing or recording, or producing this material.  But I have found a way to push through those times, because they don’t last forever.  Here’s my secret… I usually have a few articles ready to go in advance.  That way when I don’t feel inspired, I can pull something I wrote from a day when I was feeling inspired and turn it into a podcast and publish it.
  3. Don’t Do It Only For The Money. Here’s another secret… Nobody pays me to write the articles or produce the podcast.  Which leads to my next lesson:
  4. Invest In Yourself. In real dollars, I have spent a few thousand bucks over the years making purchases for this website and the podcast. I have no real tangible way to measure the Return On Investment, dollar for dollar, but that’s okay.
  5. Invest In Others. That was the primary reason for starting my own website and blog and now 200 episodes of the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.  It’s not about me, it’s about sharing with others lessons and observations about Media, Marketing, and Life from this dude who just turned 61 years old on his last birthday.

There are plenty of others that I know that started a blog and after a few months, they quit.  Plenty of others who attempted to do a podcast but after awhile, they quit too.

The significance of sticking with it, that’s important.

Sticking with it doesn’t mean that you don’t make adjustments.  You have to adjust because the world is changing and you and I are changing too.

Quit smoking, quit drinking if you want, but don’t quit on yourself.  You can give up on many things, but don’t give up on your dreams and don’t give up on those around you.

Do the right thing and do it well.

 

Pivot

Pivot

This is my last article for 2020 due to the end of year holiday season and I was reflecting on this past year, one word came to mind.

Pivot.

Like everyone else in the United States, 2020 has not been the year we could have predicted a year ago.

Murder hornets were supposed to be the big threat, not a virus.

Some of us have been fortunate and remained virus free this year.  But I bet you know of someone who was not as fortunate.

On Saturday morning December 19th, one of the pastors at my church, Lewis King and his wife Joy were handing out baskets of food and gifts for families that they serve in their urban ministry program when Lewis got word that his Dad had passed away.

Both Lewis’s parents were diagnosed with Covid-19 this year and being elderly and black, they were a high risk.

I have had co-workers at the radio stations I work for come down with the virus and so far, all are recovering.

Last week I visited one of my advertising partners to renew their advertising with WOWO radio.  We limited our time together, kept socially distanced, stayed masked up and did a few things before our meeting via email so we could shorten our usual meeting time to a fraction of the time.  But here’s what caught my attention.

On one of the white boards, was a list of staff members who had tested positive for Covid-19 this year.  All were back to work but two who were still quarantining but should be back to work.

Their story and the stories of the improvising our radio stations have done this year have been repeated over and over and over.

Whatever our plans were a year ago for 2020, we had to pivot, didn’t we…

A shocking number of businesses have closed, just as a shocking number of deaths have been attributed to Covid-19.

The pivoting to working from home has had mixed success.  Tracy on my sales team adapted and has had her best year ever.  A couple of others are learning new ways that are out of their comfort zone but when you pivot so you can move forward you have a much better chance of success.  Better than grumbling about the situation and wishing we could go back to the way it was and being stuck.

A business usually has plenty of surprises pop up that create situations and opportunities to pivot even without a pandemic.

As we all prepare for 2021, I urge you to adopt the attitude that I try and live by:

Don’t get stuck in the past, learn from it and move forward.

And a few more closing thoughts…

Be thankful, for the many blessings big and small.

Be reflective, of the lessons we have learned and will continue to learn.

Be hopeful, there are multiple reasons for hope as we see advances happening at lightening speed.

Be prayerful, Christmas, the birth of Jesus is the reason I celebrate this time of year and I hope you do too.

Be optimistic, 2021 is a fresh start and while the flipping of the calendar doesn’t erase our current situation, each day after day after day is a journey past this crazy 2020 year we have been living through.

And finally, once again I invite you to connect with me and my team to help you pivot to a prosperous 2021.

 

Memorial Day 2020

Memorial Day 2020

When I woke up this Sunday morning on Memorial Day weekend, I did what I usually do, pick up my phone off the nightstand and review the notifications.

The weather in Fort Wayne was going to be perfect and also in my notifications was an alert that the New York Times decided to use today and hijack Memorial Day away from the original meaning behind the Federal holiday.

The Times decided to memorialize 1000 of the people in the United States who have died this year directly due to or as a result of complications of the COVID-19 Coronavirus that has disrupted lives around the world.  While I have no issue with the newspaper doing this, and it helps to bring this pandemic to life, so to speak, the timing of it being on their front page today I consider disrespectful of the reason we have a three day weekend.

Memorial Day is a misunderstood holiday having something to do with memories or first responders or vets or something, right?

Memorial Day goes back to the 1800’s as a way to remember the lives lost during our countries civil war.  Later, when it became formalized as a national holiday, Memorial Day became a day to remember our military members who lost their lives in battle or war time.  It’s not for the Veterans who are still with us, that is what Veterans Day in November is set aside for.

A tiny fraction of our population is currently serving in the armed forces these days compared to decades past.  In my own research I have only found two significant military deaths that directly impacted family or friends.  My friend Ron, who is 18 years older than me, the eldest of 8 siblings I think, lost one of his brothers in the Vietnam War.  I’m sure that impacted his outlook and the family dynamics.

The other person is the dad of a cousin I have never met.  Billy Hooper is the first son of my Aunt Jean Howard.  Billy’s Dad was also named William Hooper and I found his picture online.

Captain Hooper died in battle July 5, 1945 in France. My Dad’s oldest brother, Dean Howard married his widow and together they had 3 children, cousins of mine.  If it wasn’t for the death of William Hooper in battle in World War 2, that part of my family tree would not exist. (I also found it ironic that William Hooper’s middle name was Howard, the last name his wife would take when she remarried.)

One more reflection on Memorial Day from my teen years growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I was in Scouting and our scout Troop 12 marched every year in the Memorial Day parade. The parade route would end at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum where they have a few artifacts and mementos.  The parade has been moved to July 4th this year but today I made a special trip to snap a few pictures.

May you have a memorable weekend.

Preparing For the ReOpening

Preparing For the ReOpening

Most of America has been on lock-down for awhile.

#StayAtHome orders and #SocialDistancing along with the reminders to #WashYourHands have impacted our lives forever.

While we are all experiencing the same Coronavirus pandemic around the globe, we are all experiencing the affects on our lives differently.

I have two clients, both in the same industry that had two very dissimilar stories.  One initially laid off about a third of their team.  It was heartbreaking they told me, they’ve never had to do that before.  When I checked it with them last week however, they brought back everyone who wanted to come back due to the funding available with the legislation that was passed to help small businesses and their quick action to get approval for the funds.

The other client, in the same business, didn’t lay off anyone.  They simply switched their focus and kept everyone busy.

Then there’s the story of two of my favorite local eateries that my wife and I visit weekly.  At least we did when we were allowed to dine inside.

One of them, the Firefly originally closed for two weeks.  But then they got creative and started selling some of their baked goods for a couple of predetermined hours on the weekend.  We bought some bagels the first time, and just a few days ago they were selling their famous biscuits and gravy to go along with a whole host of other baked goods.  They started with curb-side service and now they actually have created an online store so I can order and pay ahead.  What really caught my attention was that the owners were giving all the revenue to the staff that were temporarily laid off.

The other place, Welch’s has been closed for over a month now.  The 3 main staff that we see nearly every weekend have been busy creating shutdown videos which they post everyday on Facebook.  I don’t know the details of what’s going on behind the scenes, but again, this is  reminder of some of the differences two similar businesses are experiencing.

On the employee side, some people are facing the challenges of two parents working from home with kids also at home and I’ve seen the challenges and stress this scenario creates.  There are people collecting unemployment who were suddenly laid off and now are going stir-crazy in their apartments and houses.  There are also people who were told to keep working but had their pay cut and already were living paycheck to paycheck.

As each state slowly reopens as they lift or change the Stay At Home orders, we are going to see a very different economy than we were experiencing 3 or 4  months ago.

Both consumers and the business world has been forming new habits, new routines, new experiences.

What will you be doing differently as a business owner?

What will you be doing differently as an employee?

What will you be doing differently as a consumer?

What will you be doing differently as a human being?

Next week, I’m going to remind you of some timeless truths that must be remembered when we reopen.

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The Power of Persistence

The Power of Persistence

Today I have a personal story to share with you and I’ve titled it the power of persistence.

The audio version of this article marks a milestone of 150.

This will be the 150th episode of the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.

Since I do weekly updates, that means nearly 3 full years under my belt of writing and producing a weekly podcast.

If you are a new reader or listener, indulge me for a moment while I tell you the back story of the podcast.

I work for Federated Media in Fort Wayne Indiana.  I joined them in 2013 as part of their advertising sales team for radio station WOWO. In 2016, our company started a podcast initiative and a couple of our local managers approached me to ask if I would be willing to create a sales podcast.  Why me?  I’ll get to that in a moment.

Anyway, I said yes and in December of 2016 I created the first 4 episodes of the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.  However due to staffing changes, over the holidays, the launch of the podcast was delayed a few months until March 2017.  In about 6 weeks, it will be 3 full years that I’ve been doing a weekly podcast on media and marketing.

The reason I was asked to launch a podcast was because of what I was doing and what I had done in the past.  Around 2004, I started writing and publishing a few blogs including a couple focused on media and marketing.  In 2011, when I launched this website, I migrated over 10,000 articles that I had published and included them here.  Hang on, how did I end up publishing over 10,000 articles in 7 years?  I would sometimes write up to 4 times a day, 7 days a week.  This was just a hobby and passion, believe it or not.  It was not my paying job, I was working full time for another group of radio stations back then.

My online activity over the years has continued week after week, non-stop, even when I took a break from radio and worked full-time in the web world.  If you dig back into the 14,000 plus articles I have published you’ll see what I wrote about during my time in the digital marketing profession.

But there is more to my background, I also spent a number of years behind the microphone as a radio personality of sorts.  I have the technical background to produce a podcast.

The Power of Persistence in marketing myself has paid off.

Ten years ago, when I was cranking out 20 or more articles every week, I was also invited to teach some college classes.  I was also asked to lead a couple of workshops on social media, digital marketing and personal branding.  I was named one of Northeast Indiana’s Top 101 connectors by Leadership Fort Wayne and was also nominated a few times for some statewide awards in social media.

6 years ago, this website won another award for the content I was putting out every week.

I never did this for the awards, I did it and do it as a creative outlet and to help others.

A couple more examples of the Power of Persistence pertaining to what I do.  This year I have had more people come find me, seeking me out to offer advice, plan their advertising and marketing and spend money due to my expertise.  The other day I was contacted by a local medical group after they found an article I originally wrote a few years ago.

They said:

It is refreshing to hear of the integrity and passion you have for your work, that was conveyed through the article we read about advertising.

We are very much looking forward to meeting with you!

The other example is a frequent comment I get and my co-workers get about radio ads that I have running on WOWO offering marketing tips similar to what I write and podcast about.  Nearly every week, someone tells me that they appreciate what I am sharing.

The Power of Persistence can work wonders for you and your business too.  I have some fantastic advertising partners and friends who have seen the Power of Persistence pay off for them.  Some are in their first couple years of business, others are over 70 years old.  They have been doing the right thing, the right way and letting others know that they are available to take care of them with their business expertise.

My advice to you, is to first off be honest.  Honest in every way with everyone.  Do the right thing, and keep doing the right thing every day, every week, every month, every year, persistently. And don’t be shy, let others know about you and invite them to do business with you.

It really works.  If you want my help contact me.  You can also sign up for my free Sound ADvice business tips email newsletter in the box below.

 

 

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One Day At A Time

One Day At A Time

No matter what, you and I cannot speed up or slow down the clock.

The number 168 is important to me.

It represents the number of hours in a week.  7 days a week x 24 hours in a day.

Both the most successful person you know and the least are given the same number of hours each day.

The difference is we never know for sure when our own clock will stop.

But the other differences involve what we spend doing during our 168.

Depending on your circumstances there are probably items besides sleeping, eating, and personal hygiene stuff.

Work, commuting or travel, time with others in various forms, those are all included in nearly everyone’s schedule that I know.  Even those that are “retired” are still working at something.

So what makes the differences in each of our lives?

While many say it is the input factor, I say it is also the output factor.

Input is what we decide to consume.

The food we eat, the entertainment we watch, the people we decide to maintain relationships with.

The stuff we read, the stuff we listen to, the places we go… these are all part of what we are inputting into our lives.

Output is what we give to others.

Output is action oriented.

Output can be as simple as spring cleaning the yard, or it can be volunteering in some form.

If input is inhaling, output is exhaling.

You need to do both to stay healthy.

I’ll let that sit there and let you see if there’s any application to you and your life.

Honestly, I went down a rabbit trail I wasn’t planning on traveling when I started writing this today.

Here’s the path I was intending to journey down…

In 2003, 16 years ago this month, I returned to working in the world of media and marketing when I interviewed with Karen Travis who owned 6 radio stations in Fort Wayne.  Her words at the end of the interview were something like, “Great, we’ll see you on Monday!”  Problem was I had a job and here we are on Friday and Karen wanted me to start work a couple days later.

I really wanted the new job as it was a return to radio, this time in advertising sales which I had never done in Fort Wayne, but had done in Detroit.  It was (hopefully) going to be better than the factory job I was working at a plastics plant.

The plastics plant job was good, they kept promoting me, but I really didn’t care that much about plastics.  Helping businesses with their marketing and advertising was more of my passion and I was pretty good at it. So I went to the plastics factory and talked to the H.R. department.  We decided I would take my vacation the next week and also put in my two week notice and somehow I was able to leave immediately on good terms.   See part of my deal was to avoid burning bridges.  That’s a part of my personality and over time it pays off.

A few years later when that plastics company needed to find staff, I helped them when they became my client on the radio station.

8+ years I worked for those radio stations.  I outlasted everyone with the exception of some of the airstaff.  We went thru ownership changes, management changes, format changes, and all kinds of stuff.  When I decided to leave, again I did it without burning bridges and gave them nearly a month’s notice.

It was also during that time that I started creating an online presence.  The moniker ScLoHo was born.  ScLoHo is simply a mashup using the first two letters of my first, middle and last names. SCott LOuis HOward.

I created a few blogs and would post personal stuff on one and marketing stuff on a couple others.  By 2005 I was publishing every day. Without fail, I wrote another post every day.  In reality, I was publishing multiple times a day.  At the peak, I was up to 35 posts per week on my blogs.

I saw others start writing and blogging and then they would fade away or quit.

My co-workers at WOWO and Federated Media sometimes think that I became an “overnight sensation” whatever that means.  I have been at WOWO for 5+ years and they are well aware of this ScLoHo thing, even if they don’t understand it or now how to pronounce ScLoHo.

But here’s the real secret.

I started and didn’t stop.

I made changes but I never quit.

In 2011 when I left that first group of radio stations I mentioned, I joined a website development company and continued to write and publish.

My co-worker Kevin encouraged me to go from a blog to a regular website which after a few months of planning and set up I launched in October 2011.  It’s this site you are at now, ScottHoward.ME  .  The dot com version of my name has never been available.

I also reduced the number of articles I publish to this site to one per week and occasionally an extra one (like this one.) The reason for doing one per week is now every article is written by me.  Previously I was publishing articles from other sources.

A few years ago, the Sales Managers at Federated Media were asked to start a podcast dealing with  advertising and marketing.  Two of them came to me and asked if I would be willing to create a regular podcast for them since I also had on air experience and after giving it 24 hours, I told them yes.  It’s an audio version of the weekly stories I publish and we have over 100 episodes online.

At the end of 2018 I decided to expand my marketing outreach with a weekly newsletter, Sound ADvice.  I partnered with the people who run ENS Media whom I’ve known about for years and whose marketing philosophies are pretty much in line with mine.  The Sound ADvice newsletter is sent out by them on my behalf every Wednesday morning.  If you want a free subscription, sign up in the box below.

Then, the last piece to my marketing with Sound ADvice is radio ads that air on WOWO & our local ESPN Station.  Every week I run ads that are similar to the Sound ADvice newsletter, offering free information to anyone who requests it.  Every week, I am getting people that I’ve never met emailing me to get more details on whatever my offer is.

Some of you may be asking, what does all of this cost?

Yes I have invested money and also time.  Every week at least a couple of those 168 hours I have are spent creating and implementing my own marketing plan of action.  Money wise, I know those figures too, and it takes a commitment.

But here’s the real deal.

When I started doing all of this, I had no idea where it would lead, I just kept doing it.  Some days and weeks I didn’t feel inspired and could have quit, but I didn’t.

That in itself is rare. A dozen years ago there was a healthy blogging community in Fort Wayne.  Today, that world has dried up.

The latest trend, podcasting is supposed to be the Next Big Thing, but according to this article https://theascent.pub/enthusiasm-is-common-endurance-is-rare-98c074caf392 ; it’s no different than any other Next Big Thing.

Sociologist Josh Morgan conducted a rather interesting study on the number and status of podcasts on iTunes from 2005–2015.

Here are some key highlights:

  • About 200,000 individual podcasts were created, with about 5,000 new ones added every month since then.
  • The average podcast had 12 episodes, about 2/month for 6 months.
  • Most podcasts never receive even one rating.
  • A mere 40% of podcasts are still active.

The point is this:

Enthusiasm is common.

Endurance is rare.

People start things all the time — but they rarely “finish” them.

 

 

 
Endurance is what will make the difference.  Keep moving forward, even after you get pushed back.  It’s also okay to change paths to get to your destination.

And here’s a real eye opener, you don’t even need to know what your end game is going to be, it may unfold before you as you keep moving forward.

I’ve quit plenty of things too.  I had a 30 month time in my life that I worked 3 different jobs, 10 months each before I quit.  One I quit without another one lined up, but 3 days later had 6 different job offers to choose from.

I have served on boards and committees, volunteering my time and abilities to things that no longer exist and others that don’t need me anymore.

Endurance doesn’t mean don’t quit anything.  It means keep moving.  If you stop, just take a break and pick up again. Just don’t give up entirely.

Also try not to burn bridges, you never know when you may want to cross back over them again.

Enough for now.   I welcome any thoughts and comments.
 

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