Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Don't Pick Up That Phone...Yet

One of the best books on Sales I've ever read (and not because he mentions me in one of his examples) is by Tom Martin. The Invisible Sale is one of those tomes that will change the way most people will look at the Sales process because it doesn't often go with the flow.

Like his newest blog post. You've just received a call from a prospective client that says they were referred by a mutual friend. Your first inclination is to pick up the phone and return the call.

Tom says don't.

It's a great read.

The Other Side of Ai

Earlier this year, we dropped an episode of the DMOU Podcast featuring PCMA's Sherrif Karamat, encouraging DMO pros to engage with Ai, as a growing number of his members (our clients) were well ahead of us in utilizing this new technology.

Then, there is the other side. Richard Turen owns Churchill & Turen, a luxury vacation-planning firm based in Naples FL. He is a frequent contributor to Travel Weekly. And, he has recently been on a tear against the negative and harmful side of Ai in travel. First, he shared results from a New York Times investigation that the top travel guidebooks on Amazon are "written" by non-existent authors.

In today's opinion post, he goes even further, saying that, once again, travel agents will likely sit passively by as a dehumanizing technology takes another bite out of what makes travel advisors so vital to consumer satisfaction.

Both are fascinating takes.

Rearden Metal?

When I read that a team of researchers from the University of Connecticut had developed a material that is five time lighter and four times stronger than steel, I couldn't help but think back to Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," in which steel magnate Hank Rearden develops just such a compound. When the government demands he turn over the rights to the process for the good of the country, Hank refuses...setting up a storyline that pits inventors and entrepreneurs against politicians and bureaucrats.

I know a number of people believe liking this book (and the 3-part movie, which maddeningly swaps out actors for each episode) is akin to admitting that one is a Republican (though today's Republican Party looks nothing like what it used to when that "connection" was initially made). I see it as a story about a fiercely independent woman running a railroad in the face of overwhelming adversity. I really don't care what meaning others have ascribed to Dagney Taggert and Hank Rearden and the rest of those that walk away from a world gone awry.

Anyway, good on UConn to do what Hank did (fictionally) almost 70 years ago. Now, when will we get this beaming up thing figured out?

Summer Vacation Reading

As I noted yesterday, I had the privilege of sitting in on a couple CDME classes last week in Dallas. The assembled DMO pros skewed younger, as many are early in their careers, seeking education and certification.

So...I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise when less than 10% of the hands in the room went up when one of the instructors asked how many in the class had read "Rise of the Creative Class."  After all, Richard Florida's breakthrough book was released over 20 years ago. But, that it helped get DMOs to where we are today by opening up the minds of this sector's thought-leaders to consider that we are more than Destination Marketers, I wonder if we shouldn't all go back to see if there are even more nuggets that we may have missed on our first read.

And then, there are other books that may have fallen out of view that deserve a fresh look. Like "Start With Why?" from Simon Sinek (published in 2011). The original "Race for Relevance" (published in 2013), "Blue Ocean Strategy" (originally published in 2004) and the "500 Year Delta" (published in 1997).

I know I'll be going back to these classics (especially 500 Year Delta) in the weeks ahead. Join me?

Nuts!

As the Southwest Airlines meltdown played out over the holidays, I went searching for a book in my library that I likely hadn't touched in 20 years. Nuts! (by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg) tells the fascinating saga of Southwest's initial fight for life and ultimate emergence as a dominant player in the airline world. And, they did it by breaking all the rules.

What caused me to pull the book for a skim was an open letter from a veteran Southwest pilot that explained that early leadership of the company was based on operational optimization. Things changed when accountants took over from founder Herb Kelleher.

What also apparently changed was the unwavering focus Herb had on placing employees first. One of my favorite stories about the Southwest Airlines culture was that you'd never find the then 60-something CEO in his office on the day before Thanksgiving (one of the busiest travel days of the year) because he would be on the tarmac at Love's Field slinging luggage with the baggage handlers. That's leadership.

Though the book is approaching its 30th anniversary, Nuts! is worth your time...because Herb's vision and leadership was timeless.

Impact Sustainability Travel & Tourism is Back

Earlier this year, on the DMOU Podcast, we hosted Paul Nursey, CEO of Destination Greater Victoria to talk about his organization's outsized role in environmental sustainability. In one of our questions, we delved into an event they helped launch in 2018 called Impact Sustainability Travel & Tourism.

After a scaled back COVID-driven virtual event last year, the event is back in Victoria as a live event set for January 22-26. If you're a Tourism pro in Canada, you know you must go. If you're from anywhere else, you know you should go.

Best Places to Wait Out the End of Days

Researches from Anglia Ruskin University have determined that the best places to live out the final days of humanity would be New Zealand and Australia (especially Tasmania), along with a few other island nations.

Not to be dismissive of their work...but, if we read or saw "On the Beach," didn't we already know that?

Just sayin...

A Lesson Relearned

One of the greatest lessons I ever learned came from the greatest teacher I ever knew, a humble yet passionate man named Guisto Patinella. And yet, I today acknowledge that I haven't lived up to that learning, once again.

"Mr. Pat" once told me the story of a student a few years ahead of me that tragically died after falling from a scaffold while decorating the Eastridge High School gym for a dance. He was the President of the Student Council and universally loved by his classmates...but he had confided in Mr. Pat that he didn't think people liked him because no one ever invited him to parties or nights of cruising the Square. In retrospect, he never got those invites because everyone assumed he had other plans...because he was the most popular guy in school.  So, he had no way of knowing how loved he was.

I remember the evening Mr. Pat told me...don't ever let an opportunity pass in which you don't tell someone how much they mean to you. Because they may not know...and they could be gone tomorrow.

With Terri...that's easy. We share those words of affection, admiration and respect every day. And often each day, even when I'm on the road. But, to many of my friends...I have failed to follow Mr. Pat's advice more often than not.

I was friends with almost everyone in my High School class. Not unlike Ferris Bueller and Matthew McConaughey, I hung with with the stoners and the preppies, the jocks and the nerds, the rockers and the kids in band. But, I have stayed connected with too few.

One of the kids in band turned out to be an amazing entrepreneur, author and columnist. His name is Gary Moore (pictured above) and, after decades pursuing our own paths, we reconnected five or six years ago after I saw one of his uplifting columns that was syndicated in my hometown newspaper. I discovered that we were both published authors. I attempted to arrange a book signing and reading here in Madison for him, but it never panned out.

And then, through Facebook, I watched as he struggled with a disease that was robbing him of his body...but not his spirit. He was going to beat this insidious illness...until he wasn't. He inspired people through his column and online. Until the other day, when he posted what he called his "hardest column."

Gary...your books are an inspiration and I've shared my copies with several friends (sorry, I should have made them buy their own). You've led an outstanding life and created an amazing family. And, you made a boatload of money helping others. It doesn't get any better than that. Yours has been a life extraordinarily well lived.

I love you, brother. And, I can only hope we can reconnect in the next life where I can thank you for enriching the lives of so many (and give you a big hug).

Godspeed and safe passage, my long lost friend.

It's Called Product Placement

Thanks so much to our friend Tammy Potts-O'Kelley (CEO of the Heart of Carolina Visitors Bureau) for deftly sliding my book, "Destination Leadership" into the shot when she was recently interviewed by Fox8.

That's got to be worth more than a few drinks next time our paths cross.

Thank you, Tammy...and congratulations for recently nabbing the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Travel and Tourism International. So deserved...

 

Is Mobile Phone Shaming Next?

I saw Stanford researcher BJ Fogg (author of Tiny Habits) a number of years ago at Brandworks University...and I use one of his prioritization tools to this day when I work with DMO Boards attempting to collectively decide "what next?"

So, when Terri saw this article transition through her feed today, there was little doubt that I'd be all over it. The professor, who though his "Persuasive Tech Lab" at Stanford helped launch the founders of Instagram, has recently opined that 2020 may well be the year that we begin to shame people that are addicted to their mobile screens, much as many shun smokers.

Where being buried in one's screen once signaled a degree of status, that we all have such devices now means that you're just a self-absorbed asshole (my words, not BJ's) when you're more interested in said screen than you are the people around you.

Fascinating turn of culture, wouldn't you say?