Disaster Management... Or the Art of Saying No or How I Almost Burned Down Palm Springs

Disaster management - we've all been there. I can name earthquakes tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and volcano eruptions which have caused me event challenges. Those you have no control over, right? It's the ones that you can see coming that are the real challenges. So I thought I'd share so that you won't make the same mistakes that I did.

The first one that came to mind was what I think of as "Disco Inferno." A fellow event planner invited me to become involved with an event held in the Palm Springs desert where her client wanted to have a fireworks show after a country western night at a remote ranch. Remember the word "remote." All basic elements had been planned, but they still needed fireworks. The client was a New Yorker; at the time my associate resided in Florida; and I was relatively local. So I got to plan and be responsible for the fireworks.

The client asked me for a short and impactful show, and I hired a local and very reputable pyrotechnics company. One that was fully insured.

The Challenge
A few days before the show, the client indicated that he had seen something he wanted to hire - AKA "I have to have that! - a bi-plane that had pyro on its wings. He thought this would be very cool to add. I had never heard of such a thing and said that unless I knew more about the company, the plane and their insurance that I could not take responsibility. The client insisted. So, I said he could hire this plane on his own but that I needed to coordinate it to make sure that all was going to go smoothly. That meant I needed to coordinate the plane with our pyro company, too.

When I contacted the plane's owner, I was told how great and how safe the act was. Nothing specific was detailed, except, "Don't worry," which meant to me that I should worry. I let my client know (yes, in writing) that I didn't trust this addition and advised against it. Of course, I was pooh-poohed. I don't give up easily, so I went back and repeated that several times. Each time I was dismissed. Against my better judgment I caved and said "Okay."

The Venue
Let me describe the venue - a ranch surrounded on three sides by mountains of brush and only a one-lane road to get in and out. The center or eye of the keyhole was where the party took place.

To be on the safe side, I ordered two water trucks to be in the keyhole and on standby. My client didn't want to pay for this as he felt it was unnecessary.

The Outcome
All went well through dinner and during the entertainment. For the finale, we got our pyro team in place and called the cue for the plane to start flying. We saw it take off, and standing next to him, I heard my pyro chief take a deep breath and start muttering, "Go higher; go higher!" Then he took off at a flat-out run to the water trucks as pyro started spitting off the wings of the plane directly onto the brush. The hills on all three sides exploded into flame.

The water trucks immediately took off toward the burning hills, giant hoses spraying the brush, as my associate radioed the buses and started herding a panic-stricken audience of executives toward them. Immediately, I grabbed some blankets, and my entire team and I started beating down flames.

Fortunately, we got all the guests out quickly and ultimately watered and beat down the flames. I lost my eyebrows, charred my face and hands and ruined my outfit, but at least no one was hurt.

Of course, during the time I was on the mountain playing fireman, my client was standing next to me screaming hysterically, "This is your entire fault!" Or, best yet, "I'm not going to pay for this!" I chose not to respond as he stood there doing nothing but watching me and having his tantrum.

Indeed, when I sent him our bill, he refused to pay it because our pyro had never been set off. It was a substantial charge, yet I chose not to fight it even though I knew I had been wronged. It would have wound up in court forever, across three states of negotiations and cost more than could be redeemed. And ultimately I knew I had been a fool to say "yes" to something that I knew was a potential disaster.

And, yes, I paid our pyro provider in full. And, no the bi-plane had no insurance.

The Lesson
When you know something is wrong, stick to your guns and don't give in. I should have refused to have anything to do with this job as it flaunted good sense and safety, and nothing good ever comes of that!

Andrea Michaels is founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-wining international event agency based in Los Angeles. Andrea is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and an in-demand speaker and leading voice in the special events industry. She may be reached via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.net.

The Fine Art of Biting Your Tongue

Quite a few years ago while attending a meeting in the United Arab Emirates, I was also asked to do a site inspection for the Super Bowl of Rotax Go Carts (they claimed to be as big as NASCAR internationally) in nearby Al Ain. I confess I had never heard of this, but it sounded intriguing. Never one to dismiss an opportunity, I sallied forth and made some complicated arrangements to meet an elusive client. He was hard to reach and when we did talk there was a lot of wind noise going on.

I was escorted by limo about two hours out of Abu Dhabi into the desert where we saw some great museums and palaces and even the racing camel market and finally arrived at... well, more desert with just a temporary trailer-type of building. I knocked on the door. No one answered, so I called the cell number I was given. No answer. We drove around looking for anything or anyone other than sand. Nothing. So, we drove back to the building. Finally, in the distance, I could see a Porsche racing toward me. In a flurry of dust, it came to a stop right where I was standing. And out of it, a young man. Gorgeous. Looked like the dictionary definition of a race car driver - tight jeans, tight t-shirt, glistening smile. And wind-blow hair which explained why our conversations were always noisy.

We shook hands. I mentally drooled a lot. We entered the "building." I began to ask about the event. Where was it going to be? He waved at the sand. How are you going to be ready in a few months? He shrugged. What would you like to accomplish for this event, and how can we help you?

"Just fill in what I don't have here and make this an event comparable to a Super Bowl... exciting... fabulous."

Music to my ears. But I've heard those words before. What's the budget?

"There are no limits."

Uh-huh. Heard those words before, too. So, a million dollars would be okay?

I revived him.

I asked for an example of what he thought was a wow. He started with lasers, but told me that there were hundreds of laser companies nearby, so there was no need for me to look for those. Hundreds? I told him that anytime anyone I knew had worked in his part of the world that lasers had been brought in from the U.S. or Europe. And then I realized what he meant and knew that he had no idea what he was talking about. But I couldn't resist asking, Where are you finding all these hundreds of companies"

And he told me, "In the phone book."

I replied Show me, please," very politely, of course.

He opened up the directory (aka phone book) and showed me. I said quietly, without cracking a smile, You're looking under laser surgery. Then I immediately started talking about what other things we could do in which he might be interested.

The Lesson
It's impolite to disable people and not take them seriously, especially if they are inexperienced. It's particularly important not to embarrass or make them feel uncomfortable. It's up to us to educate kindly, just do our jobs and not laugh uproariously at some of the things we hear!

And this doesn't just apply to the inexperienced. It's a good policy no matter with whom you are dealing. During the 1988 Special Event in Los Angeles at the Bonaventure Hotel, the hotel's Director of Catering (name withheld to protect the guilty), was serving as the event team committee chair. He called a meeting at the hotel, and everyone involved in the convention attended. I made what I thought was an appropriate suggestion to better the conference. Instead of taking it under consideration, he reamed me, dressed me up one side and down the other in front of all my peers. We all sat in stunned silence. (And anyone who knows me understands I am never at a loss for words. Some people are always thinking "Oh, I wish I had been quick enough to answer" but I NEVER have THAT problem. I always know exactly what I want to say.) At first, all I wanted to do was produce the perfect comeback to embarrass him in front of all. My second thought was to yell "F**K YOU!" but that would have been unprofessional, so I smiled like a lady and carried on as part of the committee. Afterward, everyone said they didn't know how I sat through it but confessed they saw each of us for who we truly were. Years later and everyone still remembers that interchange and how I handled it. So, no matter what you want to say to a client or an associate, you will always win if you bite your tongue and behave like a professional.

I have experienced some similar episodes since, and I continue to be silent. Silence is the most powerful tool we all have and, when used correctly, will almost always empower the one who is silent. I learned this from an expert in the art of buying a vehicle. When the zealous salesperson makes an offer, remain silent and just look him (or her) in the eye. That person will usually keep dropping the price (because they are uncomfortable) until you get to where you want to be and speak up for the first time.

Another approach, particularly if you are in conflict with someone who is ranting and raving, is what I call the board game analogy. If you are playing a game with someone and pick up your pieces and walk away, they can't play anymore. Game over. That's my philosophy. Walking away disempowers that person. Use it only when you must.

Andrea Michaels is founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-winning international event agency based in Los Angeles. Andrea is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and an in-demand speaker and leading voice in the special events industry. She may be reached via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.net.

ASSUME Makes an ASS out of U and ME!

If we aren’t careful, being in the event business can lead to a life of “gotchas.” Never mind that we have tons of expertise. Murphy’s Law rules. I was reminded the other day of one of my gotchas. It was one of the most valuable lessons that I learned in the earlier years at Extraordinary Events. However, like all lessons learned, it can also be a lesson forgotten… until reminded… and therein lies the rub.

Lesson One: We had been hired to come up with an innovative method for Los Angeles to present its bid to The Democratic National Committee to host the convention (which incidentally L.A. won). So, here’s our presentation at the South Hall Lobby of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The DNC arrived by limo into an empty convention hall. Committee members walked a red carpet which led them to a loooong balloon wall that spelled out Los Angeles. Where were they supposed to go?

With a rousing fanfare of unseen herald trumpets, the balloon wall burst open in one magical explosion and revealed the entry to the South Hall Lobby where a long line of faux paparazzi applauded them into the hall. Down an escalator they went to join the executives and VIPs of the Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau and the city. Music. Morning fare. Very nice. And angels, lots of them. And then… from 400 feet overhead, accompanied by a beautiful piece of ethereal music, an angel descended and performed an aerial ballet until she landed at the feet of the DNC members and handed them Los Angeles’ bid. Magically, she arose again to disappear 400 feet above. It was a moment that the press wrote about and photographed for print and live television.

But, that’s not all they wrote! They also wrote about the angels that were already in the room, and herein is our story.

We had specified to our talent coordinator that we wanted a room of angels to circulate. I had great faith in his judgment. But I should have said, “Describe every person and every costume,” but I didn’t. So here’s what I got. One angel was in scarlet red lingerie and sequined wings. Another wore a Frederick’s of Hollywood black bustier with black feather wings (think whips and chains angel), and it went on from there. Yep, there was plenty about which to write!

Lesson Two: Years had passed since Lesson One. We were hired to produce a major, no holds barred, community event for what turned out to be hundreds of thousands of people, and at the last minute the client requested dancers to accompany the D.J.

I guess my interpretation of “dancer” and the local talent producer’s definition were polar opposites. His was “bump and grind” and mine was what would be appropriate for a family audience. All that the dancers were missing was a pole, and oh yes, a lot of costume. I had asked to preview the costumes, and they showed me a sample of one, which though sexy, was relatively covered up. My mistake was in not asking if all the dancers would be wearing that same costume. They were not. The others were bare…. very bare… as a matter of fact, too bare.

They had not been performing for more than a minute before my client on radio was shouting “get them off the stage!” and as the music was pulsating loudly there was no way for them to hear me until I had to physically climb onto eight different platforms and pull them off one at a time, with all of them resisting since they had never before met me and couldn’t hear me.

The Lesson

Never make an assumption. NEVER! Check every detail. Repeatedly. Ask for write-ups and descriptions. Ask for photos. And in the case of entertainment, check them out BEFORE they go on stage, while they are in the dressing rooms. Ask them to bring a variety of costumes so you can see what you are getting. Define what you need. What do YOU mean by “dancer”? Don’t ever feel too secure. Don’t assume! You know what that makes out of you and me!

Andrea Michaels is founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-winning international event agency based in Los Angeles. Andrea is the author of  Reflectionsof a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and an in-demand speaker and leading voice in the special events industry. She may be reached via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.net.

Brand Promise... What's Yours?

Shep Hyken's words always educate me. Wiser folks than me have said that to find out what your brand is, ask your customers. I invite you to share your perception of EE's brand with me. -Andrea Michaels

-By Shep Hyken
What does your company or brand stand for? When you advertise or market your company and your products, what is the image that you’re trying to create? What is your brand promise?

I Googled the definition of the term brand promise and here is what came up first:

A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company. It is often associated with the company name and/or logo.

After further searches, I found a few brand promises that we can use as examples.

Walmart promises “Save money. Live Better.”

Geico is the insurance company that promises “15 minutes or less can save you 15% or more on car insurance.”

BMW promises “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”

Some may say these are advertising slogans, but I think they are more. They are promises that the companies want to deliver. So, do these brands deliver on their promises?

There is little doubt that shopping at Walmart will save you money on the large selection of merchandise they have to offer. This is what they are known for, and I don’t think anyone could argue with that. The “Live Better” part of the promise is open to interpretation, but it would be hard to argue that saving a few dollars wouldn’t make life a little better.

Geico’s promise is very specific. It’s a brand promise that can be kept, because it’s measurable. You don’t hear a lot of people saying that they spent 15 minutes with Geico and only saved 5%.

BMW promises something a little more abstract. Can they really deliver the ultimate driving machine? There’s plenty of other car manufactures that feel they provide the best in class. Tesla is combining performance with an electric card. Mercedes promises performance and luxury, as do many other brands. It’s subjective.

And, subjectivity is what brings us to the point that no matter what you promise, you can’t control what customers think. It is their perception – their reality. You can only hope that what you want them to think syncs up with how they perceive you to be. You can’t argue with measurable promises, unless they don’t measure up. You can argue with abstract and subjective promises like providing the ultimate of anything.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what the company believes its perception to be. For example, we can tell everyone we’re friendly, but if the customer has a different opinion, what you believe doesn’t matter. It’s only the customer’s perception that counts. So, make a promise that intrigues the customer, makes them want to do business with you, and is a promise that you can keep.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

Andrea Michaels is founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-winning international event agency based in Los Angeles. Andrea is the author of Reflectionsof a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and an in-demand speaker and leading voice in the special events industry. She may be reached viaamichaels@extraordinaryevents.net.

When It All Goes to Shit

The life of an event planner is probably no different than the life of anyone who makes business (or personal) plans, only to see them evaporate because does anything ever go as planned?

Sometimes nothing goes as planned, right? When I started thinking about the things in my business that have gone south, they became stories longer than Gone with the Wind, an appropriate title for this subject. Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, winds, rain and even a volcano eruption... union strikes, cancelled flights, power outages. The list goes on.

One story captured the subject of "when it all goes wrong? ..BUT "it all turns out right" and was a great lesson. Rather than retell it, here's a link to the chapter in my book. Enjoy! And just know there is no problem that cannot somehow be solved, or any challenge that cannot be met.

 Andrea Michaels is founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-winning international event agency based in Los Angeles. Andrea is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and an in-demand speaker and leading voice in the special events industry. She may be reached viaamichaels@extraordinaryevents.net.

What Is Your Brand, and Is It Authentic?

Branding and its definition are paramount in the strategic thinking of businesses as well as for personal lives. So it's provocative to think about what your "brand" is and if it's truly authentic.

In order to define your brand,  you need to decide what business you are in and what you do best. If you cannot define who you are and at what you are best, no one will take you seriously. Simon Sinek in his book, Start with Why, attests that "Every person, every organization knows what they do, and some know how they do it, but very few know why they do what they do." And it's that 'why' that defines you.

Take Disney for example. The simple idea on which Disney launched Walt Disney World Resorts has never changed. He made it clear that it was "to create happiness through magical experiences." According to Forbes,  Tom Boyles, Senior Vice President, Global Customer Managed Relationships at Disney Parks and Resorts says there are "11.2 billion ways" a guest can interact with the Disney brand through major attractions, restaurants, characters, hotels or transportation, to name a few.

EE's business is simple: we conceptualize, design and execute events. That's what we do. We do it by hiring event partners who are at the top of their field in every discipline in order to deliver a flawless product. BUT... why do we do all of this? Let me give you a personal vision: I want to make a difference; I want to make meaning in all we do. I want to educate; I want to inform; I want to enlighten; and every once in a while I want to do something that changes the world. Like rebuild an entire school in an impoverished area (a long and wonderful story for another time.) EE's brand is to not just follow the trends, but to create them.

Consider this: If you want to find out what your brand truly is, ask someone else. Ask your customers what they think best defines you. If you have a product, do not ask the people who invented it and produced it how it should be branded; ask its customers. If you are building a personal brand, ask your friends who they think you are. When you have these answers you will know how to market yourself or your company. One example was given to me by an automotive brand that saw itself as a luxury automobile, but its customers when polled defined it as a performance vehicle. Based upon its customer base, all future advertising and promotion focused on performance, and sales numbers went up dramatically.

Hot Branding Irons

Think of it this way: Your "brand" is like a branding iron, searing your image into the world with permanence. It's how you will be perceived.

An exceptional speaker at a conference I attended talked about a welcome letter he received from Apple which read "Apple wants you to go and explore and, where you can, swim in the deep end."

What's the brand message? We are untraditional. And if you take a look at Apple's packaging, their stores, their Genius bars, what are they saying? That they deal in simplicity, the ease of using their product. The brand image is carried across all their platforms. 

Think about Starbucks. Theirs is a never-ending quest to innovate and simplify the experience for their customers, and this keeps them on the leading edge in their category of business. Think about Nordstrom's Shoes of Prey where women have the power to design shoes on IPads which are then made to order and can be picked up in the store. This personalized service and custom design capability helps give Nordstrom a competitve edge over other high-end retailers.

Branding Isn't for Just the Big Guys

Apple, Starbucks, Nordstrom are all big brands, but branding is not just for large corporations. All businesses can use branding to win a place in both the customers' hearts and minds. Danny O'Neill's air-roasted coffee business, The Roasterie®, communicates his company brand and his passion for the coffee bean through his logo, product packaging, Web site, and marketing message. 

To communicate this passion, O'Neill includes his entrepreneurial story on each packet of coffee beans he sells. It starts with "I can tell you when I fell in love. It was November 22, 1978. On that day, as a foreign exchange student in Costa Rica, I picked my first coffee bean in the mountainous, volcanic, coffee-growing region around the Poas volcano. I fell in love with the country, the people, and the coffee. Fifteen years later my passion for great coffee could no longer be denied, and The Roasterie was born..." 

Danny O'Neill is an example of what Sally Hogshead in her wonderful book, FASCINATE, How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist, means when she states: "Brands live inside communities, not corporations. Your brand lies inside conversations and aspirations. A brand lies in workplaces and schools, inside homes and dinner table conversations. Brands aren't static; they are living, breathing things that organically change and evolve as new people join the conversation." 

Brand Rules to Embrace 

Madonna has branded and re-branded her image and style over the past 30 years. She is a fearless master of her brand and message, and she set the branding tone for all other celebrities to follow. Below are the branding rules she has created for herself. Click here if you want details on each bullet point.

• Stand for something

• Always deliver

• Be clear about what you want

• Be a work in progress

• Don't be afraid to bloody a few noses

• Don't be afraid to stand up for your beliefs

Andrea Michaels is founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-winning international event agency based in Los Angeles. Andrea is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life and an in-demand speaker and leading voice in the special events industry. She may be reached via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.net.

The Power of the Customer Satisfaction Survey

I wanted to share more brilliant insight from Shep Hyken. So, as I always do, learn and enjoy! -Andrea Michaels

The Customer Experience

How important are customer surveys? Peter Drucker’s old saying comes to mind: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Those surveys can give you a lot of data that you can use to improve virtually any part of your organization. There are two important parts to a customer survey that we’re going to cover today:

1. Asking the right questions on the survey.
2. What to do with the answers once you get them. Here’s a hint. If you don’t do anything with the answers, they probably aren’t the right questions to use on the survey.

Asking the right questions should be easy, but it’s not. The right questions aren’t about collecting as much information as possible. It is about collecting the right information. Information that you can use. If you can’t use it, don’t ask for it. Otherwise, the data becomes clutter.

The second part of our survey topic is about doing something with the data you get from the surveys. This is a golden opportunity to validate your efforts or find areas to improve. And as mentioned already, if you don’t use or can’t figure out what to do with the information you get from the survey questions, the questions are probably irrelevant – a waste of time for both you and your customer.

While numerical surveys, like rating something on a scale of one to ten, give you great insight to overall satisfaction levels of your customers, there should be opportunity to get opinions from open-ended questions. If you’ve been following my work, then you know that one of my favorites is what I call The One Thing Question, which goes like this:

Is there one thing you can think of that will make doing business with us better?

If the customer gives you great ratings and still has a good “one thing” suggestion, then you have an opportunity to improve on greatness. Still, any “one thing” suggestion is potentially a great suggestion. Furthermore, it may give you some insight into what your individual customers might want or need, allowing you to customize their experience.

Here’s a story to illustrate this concept.

I recently stayed at the amazing Silver Baron Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah. I had a great chat with Mary Ann Empey, the manager of the property. We talked about surveys and she shared with me a great example of how she used information to impress one of her regular guests.

This guest had stayed many times at the Silver Baron for his family ski trips. After each stay he filled out the resort’s survey with positive ratings. Except the last time. While the ratings were still great, in response to one of the open ended questions he commented (or complained) that there weren’t any 20 pound dumbbells in the workout room.

Mary Ann, who reads every comment card, wanted to right what the guest thought was wrong. She immediately went out and bought two 20 pound dumbbells and kept them in her office – for over a year – until the guest returned. Upon his arrival she presented the weights as a gift to the guest, who was surprised and couldn’t have been happier.

Think about this. Good questions give you good information. It’s what you do with the information that’s really important. And, while the responses may give you insights to the general customer experience, sometimes it’s the extra comments that can give you the opportunity to create a customized experience, one that endears you to the customer and gets them to come back again and again.

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact  www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken.