(MIW) When You Have a Mentor, You Will Succeed

6-30-2014

Radio Ink?s Most Influential Women in Radio issue gave birth to a separate group dedicated to Mentoring & Inspiring Women (the MIWs) more than 10 years ago. Many of the successful women on the first few lists knew how important the strong support and guidance they received from others was to their careers, and in an effort to pay it forward, they began a program to mentor women in all facets of the broadcasting industry.

So if you?ve ever wondered if mentoring programs actually work, or whether you should participate in one or create one for your company, here?s what some former MIW mentees had to say about how being part of that program impacted their careers. For more information about our group, and the mentoring program, visit www.radiomiw.com.

?The MIW program afforded me an opportunity far beyond my mentee year to have a direct line to peers and mentors, whether I?ve needed a sounding board, a think tank, or a best practice. I went from feeling like an outsider looking in to being invited to the table to take it all in.?
Danielle Outlaw, Vice President/Sales, Neuhoff Media

?The MIW Program allowed me a global view of the radio industry and connected me to a network of professional women willing to share their thoughts and ideas. The entire experience has helped me hone my professional career path and has given me the courage and insight to aspire to more than I thought was possible.?
Tricia Gallenbeck, Director of Sales, Beasley Broadcast Group

?Participation as a MIW mentee in 2004 had a profound impact on my career. As I moved into a major market, their objective advice, diversity of knowledge, and coaching provided stability in uncertain waters. Moreover, the methodology of asking questions, vs. simply offering answers, helped me build critical thinking skills that became foundational.?
Kathryn Wilcox, Market President, Clear Channel/San Francisco

?My MIW experience came when I was in management-growth mode and needed balance, perspective, and a plan. It was refreshing, enlightening, and lifesaving to have the mentor light simply shine brightly in the right direction!?
Michele Kiefer, Director of Sales, Clear Channel Media & Entertainment

?Being a mentee gave me access to so many strong industry contributors who could provide me instant guidance and suggestions based on their abundant experience. Being able to ask their opinion on how to handle specific situations was invaluable to my career growth. These connections continue to be instrumental in my everyday leadership approach. ?
Keriann M. Worley, Director of Sales, Beasley Broadcasting/Miami

?Due to my incredible experience as an MIW mentee, I have developed a network I can call on for help or advice in my journey to ownership. And,I have done this several times! Additionally, they have helped me tackle things that seem bigger than me, and helped me up when I tripped on an obstacle. I?m quite certain I wouldn?t be accomplishing what I am now without the wisdom and support of this group.?
Erica Pfefferman, President, The Ruckus Group

(6/30/2014 12:44:00 PM)
When you have a great team, you will get published! Just a note to thank Kay Olin and Denyse Mesnick my co-writers on this article.

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(MANAGEMENT) Helping PD's Succeed Sooner

12-12-2012

I have great respect for the value of excellent program directors and for the difficult job they do. PDs have to balance many different areas, from executing a strategic plan to managing the day-to-day performance of their key on-air talent. Since you can?t expect your station to be anything but average without great air talent, the pressure on the PD is even greater. So if you?re a general manager, how do you orchestrate the extremely important area of content, as well as the business side, and make it all come together in a single great chord? Here?s how.

Set Parameters For Performance
For many reasons, valid and not, turnover in the PD ranks has been high through the years. Add in the uncertain nature of today?s business environment, and, not surprisingly, you have a high level of insecurity among even the best PDs. And that?s not an environment that facilitates optimum performance.

Frankly, I?m not sure GMs have done enough to minimize this problem. The best PDs want clarity and transparency. The GM needs to spell out and discuss all the rules and expectations during the interview process, or immediately after a PD is hired. That includes ratings goals, rules on controversial and edgy content, and, most importantly, accountability.

The ?blame game? has always been rampant in radio. Minimize its destructive effects on your stations by spelling things out up front. I think we would all be surprised at how often this doesn?t happen. On-air talent exist in an even more insecure world than programmers, and they need and want clarity even more. Make your expectations clear so the PD can be clear. And be reasonable: Don?t hire a funny morning guy and then have the program director muzzle him. Don?t hire Stern and then demand he do family talk. (Don?t laugh -- I?ve seen it happen.)

And remember that much of a PD?s success or failure is determined by Arbitron. That?s like having a rattlesnake as your best friend. Sooner or later, well, you get the gist. My point is, make your PD more secure and you will be repaid with better performance. We?re All Wired Differently Program Directors don?t have the same skill set and ?DNA? as sales managers or general managers, especially GMs with a sales background. Don?t expect a programmer to think like you; the creative process is different from the sales and business process. The PD was hired to build and protect the product and to coach and develop talent. So, within the parameters above, let them do what they were hired to do.

Conversation And Collaboration
You?ve taken the steps to make your PD feel more secure, and you?ve recognized that he or she probably has different personality traits from your sales manager. But that doesn?t mean that you?ve just put the PD on his or her own island, protected from the realities of our business. In today?s world, everyone has to think ?big picture,? and that means PDs have to have more empathy and insight into the sales and business side, even as sales managers have to do the same on the content side. The way I?ve seen that work best is by getting everyone in the same room and talking to each other on a regular basis. I was in the business during the ?church and state? days of programming vs. sales. It didn?t work then, and it makes even less sense today.

I remember hearing a story about someone asking one of the head honchos at Sony -- given the fact that Sony invented the Walkman -- why Sony didn?t invent the iPod. His answer was to the effect of ?because my people didn?t talk to each other.? Create an environment where people talk, and you?ll be amazed at the return you get.

A lot of what I?ve written here sounds simple, even simplistic. Most good solutions are obvious. But I?m sure that for a good part of my radio career, I ignored every suggestion made here. The sooner you execute these suggestions, the sooner you will be successful.

Marc Morgan is the former SVP and chief revenue officer for Cox Media Group; he retired in 2011. He can be reached at marc@marcmorganconsulting.com.

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(AUDIO) How To Succeed On The Air in Radio

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If you're one of those back bench chirping radio people that yearns for the golden olden days, you're not going to like this interview. Ian Punnett is a modern day Renaissance man. He's been around the business for 4 decades, since he cut his first radio spot at age 9. Like most, Punnett moved around the country paying his dues, making it all the way to WGN in Chicago, where things didn't quite work out. Today, not only is Punnett a nationally syndicated host (he's the regular Sunday host of Coast to Coast AM), he's a successful children?s book author, an ordained pastor, a father of two sons and a husband of 27 years to his wife who happens to also be the co-host of his morning show. And after four decades in the business, Punnett still loves radio, he's happy and it shows.

Punnett calls his home base, Hubbard Radio's myTalk107, radio's best kept secret. The Minneapolis station's format is the first female leaning spoken word format.  In our interview Punnett discusses his 40 year radio career, doing a successful morning show with his wife Margery, innovating, podcasting and how others can still succeed in this business. He says "make yourself impossible to be ignored."

LISTEN TO OUR INTERVIEW WITH IAN PUNNETT HERE

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6 Easy Steps To Helping Clients Succeed

by Wayne Ens

Success coach Anthony Robbins often tells the story about a major shopping center that experienced a failure in their elevators. It was costing them thousands of dollars a minute in lost sales. The mall manager was panicking. She had called several service companies, but none of them seemed to be able to fix the problem. Finally, she called someone who was able to fix the problem in 60 seconds flat by simply pressing a few buttons?. Then he invoiced her a whopping $10,000 fee ?for services rendered."

The outraged mall manager asked the service man ?How can you charge $10,000 for pushing a couple of buttons and one minute?s work?? The service man replied by re-writing the invoice to say ?service charge for pressing buttons, $1. Investment for knowing which buttons to press; $9,999.?  Your clients can purchase quantifiable spots, space, reach and frequency from an ever growing list of cheaper suppliers today. It?s the knowledge you bring to the table in your total value bundle that will separate you from your low-price competitors. One of the ways to improve and demonstrate your knowledge for your key accounts and key prospects, is to conduct a marketing audit for them.

The simplest and easiest way to gain credibility for your ?audit? is to examine all of your prospect?s advertising from their web site to their yellow pages and from their radio script to their newspaper ad or a brochure for inconsistencies. Very often you?ll quickly reveal the advertiser is using different slogans in different media, or does not use slogans consistently at all. This simple exercise will open the door for you to conduct a more in-depth audit, increasing your knowledge and demonstrating your expertise.
1. Customer Perception Audits
Design and post a survey on your website to  measure share of mind levels and customer perceptions of your client. If you uncover a poor perception of a particular aspect of their business discuss whether that perception is a reality or not. If it is reality, encourage the advertiser to make the necessary changes immediately. If the public perception is not in line with reality, develop an advertising and communications plan to change that perception.

2. Mystery Shopper Reports
Construct a list of the ten things your client wants their customers to experience when they do business with them.(i.e.; they might choose staff greeting, product knowledge, cleanliness of store, prompt telephone pick-up etc.) Your mystery shopper then reports how each experience compares to the business owner?s expectations .Try having a couple of your fellow account executives be the mystery shoppers on an account, then return the favor by serving as the mystery shopper on their accounts.

3. Competitor Audits
Produce a short written overview of your client?s competitors? marketing. Visit competitors? locations, check out their websites and compare their ads to your clients. Look for weaknesses you can exploit, or a competitive strength you can build upon.

4. Supplier Audits and Interviews
Suppliers can make excellent marketing allies and can tell you about successful marketing efforts in other markets they serve. They?ll often have vendor funds above and beyond co-op that they can contribute to your campaign.

5. Communications Audits.
Check out your client?s blogs, phone their company with an inquiry, and email a question to them. Report how quickly and accurately their people handle these communications and help them find ways to continually improve every customer touch point.

6. Internal SWOT Analysis
Offer to chair or facilitate a staff SWOT (strengths, weaknesses and opportunities) Analysis for the advertiser. Your facilitation will not only be sincerely appreciated, it will result in a more candid and objective overview than one hosted by the client. If your audit uncovers some unpleasant surprises, have the confidence to present those shortfalls, but do so very tactfully. Make certain that any criticisms are not expressed as your  personal criticisms or opinions, but rather, they are presented as the finding of your research and audit.
When you build and establish your knowledge as the go-to expert to help with your clients? marketing and planning processes, your stations will play a major role in their advertising campaigns. Your advertisers can buy spots or space from any commodity sales person. It?s the knowledge you bring to the party to increase their return on investment that makes what you sell worth more than just your simple spot rates. The knowledge you gain from your marketing audit will help you push the right buttons, and justify stronger spot rates.

 Wayne Ens is President of ENS Media Inc and can be reached via e-mail Wayne Ens wayne@wensmedia.com

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We're Loaded With Articles To Help You Succeed

Did you know the Radio Ink online toolbox now has over 100 articles and success stories from radio station managers and sales and management consultants all over the country ready for you to print, make copies and use at your station. Whether you need an idea for a sales meeting, helpful information to deal with a rogue employee or legal information on what to include in your public file, we've covered it all. Click on the Toolbox link on the left side of our website and you'll see the articles listed by the name of the writer. You can also scroll down through the titles of the articles to find one that suits your needs today.

In addition Radio Ink magazine (the printed edition) has pages and pages of additional toolbox information in every issue, from management books and blogs you should be reading to quick sales meeting tips to how to write commercials that generate results for your advertisers. To learn about subscription rates for your market, e-mail tomelmo@radioink.com

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