I recently spent a long weekend with my 87 year old father. Probably not your typical, or maybe he is, 87 year old. Pretty decent health, at least that I can tell. And since he won’t go to the doctor, visual observation is about all you get. Speaking of visual, you sort of check his vision as he gets himself around. Seems pretty good there. Hearing? Not as good. But he’ll not admit it. (“Hearing aids are for old people!”) So everything around the house is just a little louder. He still drives and actually, while we only had one incident (exiting the shopping center from the inbound lane…but hey, we’ve all done that one at least once right?) he did well as I let him drive everywhere allowing me to silently make an assessment. Most of the conversations are preferred to be less than heavy. “Can you help me with this” or something about the weather. But it was incumbent on me to bring up the important discussions we needed to have. Like it’s time to seriously consider permanent relocation to an independent living facility. That means a very difficult discussion knowing how quiet this generation is about these things. Hell, the hearing aid discussion sent him sideways. You can only imagine how the “how ‘bout we consider a move to an independent housing for seniors for your well-being and safety” conversation went.
Everything in his surrounding environment has been the same since mom passed. That’s now over 13 years. Everything. Including his habits regardless of the opportunity or even need to make changes or adjustments to improve a situation. No matter how hard I try, or delicate I am in the conversation, nothing really changes. The response is always the same. “I’m set in my ways. I’m not going to change how I’ve been doing things now.”
Hmmm. That made me think. How many of us are “set in our ways” and simply doing things the way we’ve always done them? Everything is changing at breakneck speed. Can you really expect to be comfortable in that environment? Are you afraid to rock the boat or upset the apple cart? That could prove catastrophically disruptive to your business.
One thing I found that provided dad talking points, and surprisingly correct information was that he was a weekend radio listener and really enjoyed the talk radio programs. He also gets the paper daily and pays attention to the world at large. That was all good for loose conversation but no action. But could I use that influence over time as a tool to “move his mindset”. The answer is yes and I am. Call it the “Move to Move Dad” marketing campaign.
For many of you “Set in your ways” with your marketing may be slowing your business opportunities. With dad, I’m using appropriate media as a tool to help him make a decision thru subtle influence. Are you looking at options for how you’re marketing your company? Are you considering different digital or content methods to establish your brand? Or at the very least questioning what’s going on with your current situation?
As a business owner, one of the most challenging elements we face is change. It would seem that anything that could elicit more activity, generate more leads, could work wonders to help grow the business. MultiPoint Content Strategies helps steer content ideas toward specific targets to help attract more customers. Change is inevitable and not recognizing, or worse yet, doing nothing about it may be signaling the end is near for your company. The last thing you say or hear from any employee is “I’m set in my ways…” It may create the kind of change you don’t want to happen.