Where Am I?

It happened again just the other night. I woke up in a dark room and was completely disoriented. I had to pee and needed to remember where I was, and more importantly, where the bathroom was. It happens from time to time when my travel schedule is heavy and the stay in each location is short. I laid there for a few minutes and then remembered where I was - Ha! I was home in my own bed!

Since my last blog entry I've been to B.C. Canada, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and spent one night at our vacation cabin on the Hood Canal in Washington. I have been staying in hotel rooms and private homes, sleeping on dream beds, water beds (really!) and futons. It's a good thing that I can sleep pretty much anywhere these days, although that hasn't always been the case.

Children can usually sleep just about anywhere, anytime. They are attuned to their bodies and less attuned to all the angst in the world. They get tired and crash; their limp, rag-doll bodies conforming to whatever surface and situation that presents itself. I was like that too, until I hit my teens. In hormone hell the weight of the world fell squarely on my shoulders bringing with it anxiety and, it's cousin, fear. For the next decade, I would spend the first night or two away from home in a fit of restless insomnia - it didn't matter where I was. I could always count on sleeping the third night from sheer exhaustion and that knowledge would get me through the first couple of nights.

Then I started a business that required travel - a lot of it. And in the early days, I would spend weeks in the only accommodations that budget allowed - the kind where I would stop and pick up scented candles to burn in the room and some cleaning supplies. But somewhere along the road, on the road, I started to sleep, the business prospered, and the accommodations improved. I have stayed in some amazing places like Casa de Estrellas and the Water Street Inn in Santa Fe. I have lodged as a guest in some remarkable homes. And I still find myself in budget motels from time to time. Thankfully, I usually sleep well on the road, and so far have managed to always orient myself in time to find a strange bathroom in the dark.

Print vs. Internet

I think most of us have our little pet routines that help our world to feel familiar and ordered. For example, my mornings always begin with a cup of coffee, and part of my routine is to use that time to do a little reading or magazine perusing. Yesterday morning I was flipping through the new issue of "O" Magazine, (of course I want to "Live the Good Life") and came across an ad from, I'm guessing, the Magazine lobby. The Headline on the full page ad was -

"We surf the Internet.
We swim in magazines."

I am often asked how I view the fate of our printed illustrated maps with the rise of the Internet and GPS mapping. My reply is a firm belief that tourists will always want their fun tourist map. It's pretty hard to frame your GPS and hang it on the wall or put it in your scrapbook, just not the memory maker that our maps are. But I think that the copy in this ad says it much better, so I'd like to share some of it with you with a little commentary of my own.

"The Internet is exhilarating, Magazines are enveloping. (and treasure maps are treasures). The Internet grabs you. Magazines embrace you. Internet is impulsive. Magazines are immersive. And both media are growing." (Which is why we are growing both media.)

"Barely noticed amidst the thunderous Internet clamor is the simple fact that magazine readership (along with our map distribution) has risen over the past five years."

"...during the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership actually increased 11 percent."

"What it proves, once again, is that a new medium doesn't necessarily displace an existing one. Just as movies didn't kill radio. Just as TV didn't kill movies." (and GPS or Google won't kill illustrated tourist maps)

I'm going to get an iPad. I believe it could be a great presentation tool and a fun way to surf the net. But I just can't imagine sitting down with my morning cup of coffee and my iPad. In the morning I want to engage all of my senses. I want to smell the coffee, I want to feel the paper and smell the ink. I still want to turn the pages of a magazine and write in the margins of my books. I want both the iPad and print in my life. They satisfy different parts of me the same way a Discovery Map satisfies the tourist's need to locate treasures in a way a GPS map never could.

Good Medicine

Right people, right purpose, right place - that usually makes for good medicine and that's just what I had this past week in the Flathead Valley of Montana. I was there to meet with our new map publishers and to reacquaint myself with the communities of Whitefish, Kalispell and Bigfork.

It's a sleepy time of year there right now. The ski hill, Whitefish Mountain Resort (formally Big Mountain) had just closed for the season and the broad valley carried an early spring chill. But there was nothing chilly about my accommodations at the impeccably run Good Medicine Lodge. The innkeepers, Betsy and Woody Cox, treated me like I was visiting family and I'm not sure I've ever been more comfortable in an Inn. We took over the living room couch in their cedar log lodge for a daylong business meeting. Woody noticed we were going long and brought us water, then wine, then wine and cheese. All fabulous.

We got to chatting about hospitality and service, the economy and what makes a good business. Betsy and Woody had it down cold. They've owned the Inn for eight years yet run it with the enthusiasm of newlyweds. I think the best part is that as a guest I never felt like they were providing service because they knew it was expected of them. Instead, it felt genuine, like they really cared because they do. And boy, what a difference that makes to an experience.

There are a few merchants in Whitefish who could learn from their example. I took a couple of hours to stroll through the heart of town. The main drag, Central, was completely torn up and you had to walk a block through construction to get to some of the shops. There are some neat stores there; worth finding, and since I'd made the effort you'd think that they'd be over-joyed to see me and that service would be over the top. Not so. In one beautiful very high-end store the clerk barely looked up from de-fuzzing her clothes. She did not engage with me the entire time I was there - even though I was the only person in the store. It's not like I looked schlocky - wearing a beautiful and high-end looking coat I purchased in Santa Fe last summer. Couldn't get out of that store fast enough. They certainly were not interested in my business. I went up and down the street. A couple of the staff were pleasant, but not a single person in any store seriously tried to engage me or make a sale. And as anyone whose ever hung out with me when I'm on the road will attest, I'm a pretty easy sell. Being in sales and sales training, myself, I just want to help them make the sale. Then I stop myself.

So, to all you small business owners out there, all the great advertising in the world will only bring people in your doors. You're wasting your money if your staff does not know what to do with them once they are there. Training your staff on how to engage customers and sell would be good for your business. Paying them on commission and not by the hour might be good medicine too.

Indecision

5 PM, looking at my email, my to do list (of which writing in this blog is one of the "to dos") wondering what to do next when I'd really rather just call it a day, go home and have a glass of wine. Don't you find yourself doing that sometimes? Having a debate with yourself over doing just one more task or heading for the showers knowing that if you do, there is going to be that one voice in your head saying "you're a slacker, you're a loser, what are you doing going home!" I sincerely dislike that voice.

So, what do you do? I say, strike a bargain. Resist the urge to call it quits and do just one more thing. (Hence, my blog entry.) Make one more call. Run one more mile, (or to the next mail box) and then experience the reward of satisfaction for having done so. Given the choice, I'd say that I generally feel much better, happier, lighter, at the end of the day when I push beyond my resistance and do a little more than I think I can or think I want to.

Although, my husband would probably vote for resisting that urge to do just one more thing at 6 PM and, instead, come home. Nice to have someone at home that wants you to be home too. Thank you, honey. It's a balance. I'm on my way.

Video Bliss

I got a new toy/tool a couple of weeks ago, a Flip video camera. Have you seen one? They are literally smaller than an iphone, with great optics and only a couple of easy-to-understand buttons to push. A gloriously sunny NW spring day gave me an easy excuse to head out of the office to try out this new camcorder. My mission - to visit some of our advertisers in the hope of securing some impromptu testimonials.

My first stop was at Earthenworks Gallery in La Connor, WA. Earthenworks carries an amazing collection of Northwest art and also that fabulously painted fun and functional Sticks furniture - a piece of which I vow to own some day. Cynthia Hoskins, the gallery owner gave a wonderful video testimonial. Unfortunately, it was my first try with the camera and my video taping skills were inept. I only discovered this, however, when I downloaded the video to my computer to find out that you can't really turn the camera vertical like a digital camera. Gives me an excuse to go back and drool over a little more of Cynthia's art.

Next stop was at Childhood Bliss, the classical "I wish all my grandchildren were granddaughters" store. I can never escape without buying something for my sole granddaughter (of six grandchildren), and this time was no exception - the perfect fairy princess dress for her upcoming birthday. It just so happened that Julie, the owner, was in and graciously (no bribes involved) gave me my first, keep-able video testimonial for Destination Maps (our Washington Brand). She did it on the first take, and what you see here is completely unedited because I haven't figured out how to edit them yet. The video quality on my computer is as crisp and clear as can be, but it's grainy on blogger - must be them, can't be me! I'll need to play around with it more to understand how to get better quality - but you get the idea.

Moral of the story, multimedia is powerful and a video testimonial is much more compelling than words on paper. Everyone has clients who crow about how great we/you are - because we are! So, get one of these little pocket recorders (less than $200), get those testimonials on tape and don't hesitate to let your happy clients help to do the selling for you. That will make you happy too.

Discovery Map Will Work in Blogs!

So long boring Google maps, hello vibrant, exciting Discovery Maps in travel blogs! Soon, any blogger writing about one of our destinations will be able to embed a Discovery Map right into their blog just like this. And by the time we release our map widgets for public consumption, we will offer a simplified public version of Ad Wizard so that they can tag specific businesses or other destinations within our map along with their comments. We think this is pretty cool and hope you do too.

The Lives We Touch

I stepped outside the meeting room of the Cavalier Inn during a break in training in Charlottesville, Virginia and was greeted by this little angel poring over the map. She was searching out the hidden Presidents, chattering excitedly to her father as she pointed here and there. It made me smile - it would have made anybody smile.

I did a rough calculation recently and figure that over the past 23 years we have distributed some forty million maps. Discovery Maps have been held and used by more people than the entire population of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Phoenix combined. Actually, more than double that. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of purchasing power. That's a lot of business for our clients and smiles and help for our readers.

When you're talking to your clients and prospects about your circulation and reach, I wonder if the number really hits them, or if it's just a number. If your circulation is 100,000 and reach 200,000 - how could you make that real for them? How about comparing it to the population of your town? Or the number of people in a nearby stadium. Can you paint a vivid picture of just how many people will be referencing your map this year, making a choice, spending money?

Make it real for you clients, not just a number, and watch their interest soar!