This morning my doorbell rang. I opened the door and was handed a package from Stephen Key. I instantly knew what it was and I was excited. Stephen Key is the author of One Simple Idea, a book that I have devoured twice in the last year alone and wrote a raving review about. Stephen sent me a signed copy of his book to say thank you for telling people about it.

And guess what? I felt thanked and I’ve told even more people about it! Funny how that works.

Thanks, Stephen!

I was recently spending time with a mentor of mine and he took me on a hunt all across town for comic books. No, he’s not an avid comic lover, but we were searching for first edition Superman and Batman comic books. This very savvy business man uses these collector items as gifts to say thank you to the people in his life who have helped him. He writes a “letter worth framing” (a raving letter encouraging and thanking the recipient that is so special, the recipient wants to put it on display for all to see) and he sends a really cool comic book representing the “hero status” of the recipient in his life.

I thought it was a cool idea when I heard about it last week. Then Mr. Key sends me a hand signed book with a note today. So I got to be on both sides of the giving spectrum, and let me tell you, saying “thank you” makes everyone feel good.

So, how can you say thank you to those that have helped you in your life?

Here are a few thank you ideas:

• Sending a book that meant something in your life and could help your friend as well
• Picking up the phone and making a 60 second call, telling the recipient what they mean to you
• Sending a quick text message thanking them for what they did
• Finding out what they loved as a kid (or love to collect) and wrapping a story around that gift (i.e. the comic book idea)
• An old fashioned, hand-written, and envelope-licked letter
• A tasty treat from somewhere you’ve visited recently (I like to give hot sauces to my spicy lovin’ friends)
• Hopping on Skype and making a face call (or FaceTime)
• If you’re really nervous about saying thanks, how about calling at a time when you know the recipient won’t answer, so you can leave a voicemail!

Well, what are you waiting for?

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A few years ago, I was on vacation on the Gulf Coast on an island off the coast of Florida. Two days into the vacation, a storm came a-brew-in’ and we were caught smack in the middle of a giant tropical storm (the storm eventually became a hurricane as it travelled through the Gulf). We were staying in a 6 story condo building—our room was on the top floor. As the giant winds were blowing in and the waves were beginning to slam the coast, I had a brilliant idea. What if I threw things off the balcony and watch what the wind does to them?

So I grabbed some paper and went to work making paper airplanes. As I stepped out onto the balcony, the wind was gusting from all directions, so much so that I could hardly stand without clinging to the balcony guard rail. I tossed out my first paper airplane and “WHOOSH!” away it flew. The strong winds not only unfurled my tightly folded airplane, but my plane tossed and turned, swirled high into the air and disappeared never to be seen again.

No matter how I crafted my planes, all of them would flutter and fall apart then catch the wind and be carried off miles down the beach slamming into buildings, sand dunes, and who knows where else.

Over and over again, I watched as my beautifully crafted, perfectly folded, tightly seamed paper airplanes were carried off like dust out into the ever-strengthening storm.

How does this story relate to marketing?

Most small businesses I’ve encountered welcome any and all business that comes busting through their doors. It doesn’t matter too much to them where that business comes from, or if it’s even their ideal kind of business. They will take it to “stay in business,” they say. And that’s all good and fine until you start stretching your staff thin, taking on customers that don’t fit your ideal customer persona. Or if you’re a service-based business, you begin allowing yourself to do work for less than what you should be charging, just to keep your prices competitive with the rest of the industry.

You see, no matter how I crafted my paper airplanes, they were going to get destroyed because it wasn’t about how I was crafting the plane, it was about what I was crafting the plane out of. I would have needed a legitimate 747 to soar above the storm that day. Not some thrown together paper plane. I was using the wrong medium (paper) because I was just grabbing what I had at hand.

Most businesses don’t stop to really focus and tightly hone in on their marketing system before they launch off to gain every possible client they can find. Trust me, I understand the battle of trying to keep revenue flowing in, but if you allow your doors to get blown down consistently over time, your doors will soon get blown off and your company with it.

In order to effectively grow your business you must have a strategy that is grounded in your company’s core values that keeps you accountable to how you do business—so you don’t just blow with the wind. It’s great to grow, but if you just open the floodgates and run for success—you could suffer the consequences of growing your business too much, too quickly (and that’s the upside). I’ve seen several companies who have done that and it has ruined them. Yes, they grew in revenue, but ended up losing their business.

Don’t get me wrong, quick growth can be good in short spurts, but steady growth over time is much more powerful than quick growth overnight. Quick, unsustainable growth leads to disappearances just like my paper airplane in that tropical storm.

Maybe I’ll find them in the Bermuda Triangle one of these days…

What are you flinging together daily that needs to be re-crafted, re-thought, and built to last? Leave your comments below.

Photo by Rayani Melo via Flickr

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