Godin on two ways to deal with "no"

Since opening our doors in April 2001, the team at GroundFloor Media has faced our share of rejections with both existing clients as well as potential clients. "No" is never an easy word to stomach, but sometimes our best lessons have come from how we have handled the rejection. As new business will be harder to come by in 2009, and existing clients are faced with tightening their belts, we will hear this word more often than not. Ramonna read Godin's new post on two ways to deal with "no" and sent it on to me.I thought it was worth passing on as we head into the new year.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/two-ways-to-dea.html

You could contact the organization that turned you down and explain that they had made a terrible mistake, the wrong choice and a grave error. You could criticize the vendor they actually selected, bring You could even question the judgment of the prospect and try to teach them to make better decisions in the future. And, while you're at it, challenge the fairness of the decision-making committee itself, and explain how a more fair process would have favored you at the same time it would have helped the organization that turned you down.

Or

You could be more gracious than if you'd won the work. You could send a thank you note for the time invested, you could sing the praises of the vendor chosen in your stead and you could congratulate the buyer, "based on the criteria you set out, it's clear that you made exactly the right choice for your organization right now." That doesn't mean the criteria were right, it just means that you're not attacking the person for being an impulsive lunatic. You could even outline what you learned from the process and what you'll be changing in the future. And you can make it clear that you're in it for more than just a sale, and you'll be around if they ever need you.

Couple questions:

1. Which one will make you more likely to be invited back, or to be the backup if the first choice fails?

and

2. Which one will increase your word of mouth at the same time it improves your organization's feeling about itself?

It's a no-brainer, I think. So how come the first is so common?

Thanks, Mr. Godin. You always seem to have it right.

Running with the Elvi (or is it Elvises?)

For many world travelers, it is a lifelong aspiration to see the thrill of Pamplona, Spain’s annual Running of the Bulls. However, for the team at GroundFloor Media, that thrill took the form of participating in the “Running of the Elvises,” or more commonly referred to as the Las Vegas Half Marathon this December.

Months earlier in August of 2008, our company’s president and vice president, Laura Love and Ramonna Tooley, invited our team to consider taking on the challenge of the “LV 1/2.” Some of us called it more of a dare, rather than an invitation, on their part. But given that we’re a goal-driven group of people several of us threw caution to the wind, said “count us in,” and figured we’d somehow sort out the consequences later.

On the theory that the team that runs/jogs/walks together stays together, our rag-tag group of 30- and 40-somethings embarked on our rather improvisational training efforts over the late summer and early fall. Despite sprained ankles, shin splints and varied levels of fitness, our rag-tag team of Olympic wanna-bes set off to Vegas the first weekend of December to accomplish our mission: cross the finish line in ample time to catch our flights back home.

Fueled by a team pasta dinner the night before, our race-morning arrived bright and early on December 7th. Against the backdrop of the famed Vegas Strip, pre-dawn fireworks, 11,000 other runners and at least five dozen runners dressed as Elvis Presley, the starting gun went off at 6:05 a.m. – and we were on our way.

Cutting through the masses of running humanity, we each found our own comfortable pace and tackled the course. And, as you might imagine, the city of Las Vegas offered an anything-but-dull collection of scenery to keep runners and walkers visually distracted mile by mile. The first half of our journey spanned the length of the Strip from the “family friendly” luxury casinos and hotels to older historic Freemont Street area, while the course’s back half was speckled with flop houses, bail bonds offices, taxi depots and adult-only dance clubs. And, from beginning to end, we had the companionship of runners dressed up as showgirls, “professional” showgirls dressed up as pedestrians, high-school marching bands, Japanese taiko drummers, the LVPD and, naturally, a very broad array of running Elvises. At mile six, the course had a run-through wedding chapel for those so inclined to say “I do” in between sips of Gatorade – complete with Elvis as your best man and a showgirl as your bridesmaid. But, we’re happy to confirm that no members of GroundFloor Media even slightly slowed down their pace at this part of the race.

The exhilaration of reaching the finish line to the cheers and shouts of hundreds of spectators was a thrill for each of us that just might possibly rival that of seeing Pamplona’s Bulls. Goodness knows some of us were about as graceful as a bull by the time reach reached the course’s end!

~Amy Claire

Adopt a Family or a Child for the Holidays

As you may know, I sit on the board of a very special place -- Tennyson Center for Children (www.childabuse.org)-- and GroundFloor Media has been very involved with this wonderful organization for years. The Home was founded in 1904 as an orphanage, and today we treat abused, neglected, and at-risk children ages 5-18. We serve 600+ children and 1500+ family members each year.

I know many of you look for ways to support those who are less fortunate during the holiday season. If you would like to adopt a family or some of the kids who live in the cottages, Tennyson Center supports those that are in desperate need of holiday gifts for their children. Families are asked to create wish lists containing items ranging from gifts for their children to essentials such as food certificates, toiletries and linens. Donors then deliver those items to the TCC campus after which therapists and case workers distribute the items to the families they work with so closely. They have 70 families left to adopt this holiday season. The gift requests range from $150-$400 per family, with an average of $225 per family for all of their holiday gifts.

If you or your company is interested in adopting a family, either let me know ASAP or call Tricia Muniz at 720-855-3358 or tricia.muniz@tennysoncenter.org.

I hope you will consider making this a Holiday to remember for a family in need.

The Downtown Denver Partnership Leadership Program Rocks and "Walks"...

The Downtown Denver Partnership Leadership Program (DDPLP) is an amazing program filled with an incredibly talented group of leaders. This year's class project was called Putting Our Best Foot Forward and our own Carissa McCabe was part of this cool effort. I have posted a link below to YouTube that shows the video that was produced by the members of her class to support the live presentation they gave a few weeks ago.

For those of you who don't know very much about this program, the idea is to immerse the class in the Denver Area Plan (Denver’s 20-year plan for improving our downtown). The group (all had to apply and were selected to attend the DDPLP) had to dig into research to determine how they could make Denver more pedestrian friendly.

Carissa taught the rest of us GroundFloor Media pedestrian novices that Denver is ranked No. 4 in the country for walkability.

GroundFloor Media wasn't the only firm represented in this class. There were more than 70 other downtown leaders from companies including Molson/Coors, Corona Research, Vectra Bank, the Colorado Rockies, the Office of Economic Development, The Kenney Group and many, many others.

Enjoy the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjfFV5Z30Vg

"Message Me" CVC

GroundFloor Media was asked to host a message training session at the Colorado Voices for Coverage conference today. So although the weather was less than ideal and I left the office with enough gas to make it 6 miles (trip distance 14.8 miles), I managed to get us to the Qwest Learning Center unscathed. My faithful sidekick Amy Moynihan and I fought the IT battle and won just in time to talk about how the group could engage healthcare reform stakeholders who are not currently active in the reform process. This conference was an opportunity to bring together sectors of the community that typically do not interface and provide education in both organizing and the policy process.

Our good friend from Tennyson Center or Children and Every Child Matters, Becky Updike, asked us to host this session. Basically, The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative was one of twelve state based advocacy groups selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Community Catalyst to participate in the Consumer Voices for Coverage grant initiative, which supports state health care coverage efforts by fostering strong and robust advocacy infrastructures. Its a bit of a maze to try and figure out who is on first, but Community Catalyst is a national health advocacy organization dedicated to quality affordable care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing the nation; all RWJF philanthropy efforts are devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans.

The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is leading the statewide collaboration and will be supported by a leadership team of organizations including: the Business Forum on Health, the Colorado Council of Churches, and the Colorado Progressive Coalition. The Colorado Voices for Coverage project seeks to organize health reform at the state level to remove barriers that block consumers from adequate health care. The project will increase the understanding, commitment, and capacity of a broad group of stakeholders to bring underrepresented perspectives into health care policy discussions, to connect diverse constituencies, and to build sustainable state-wide advocacy network required to implement meaningful health reform.

Whew... I need a message map just to track the players involved in this worthwhile initiative.