5 Observations From The Road...First Trip Since The Pandemic Began Edition

Hey!

This one is getting to your inboxes late because I’m on the road. I’ve been going since the 18th when I went with the boy to the Nationals versus Mets game in DC.

The Mets lost 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, but it felt like the first time we really were back to normal a little bit.

Then we were off to Philadelphia for Game 7 of the 76ers and Hawks series.

I was cheering for the 76ers and they lost, but I got the true Philly experience getting boo’d outside of Pat’s with my Ben Simmons jersey on post-game.

I mean, how hard core is it to make your son late for the last day of elementary school so he can go to his first game 7?

When his mom asked him how it was, he only had one word: “awesome!”

Then we set him off to camp and I went to Boston.

Now I’m in Orlando and then in Miami for a few days.

With my photoshoot out of the way, I feel a bit better after really hitting the pandemic wall for a bit at the end there.

And, as I’ve been out, I’ve been paying attention to what the world looks like now and I have some ideas on how to take advantage of whatever is next.

Shall we?

1. Let’s hope that people are more conscious of the people around them: I was chatting to Scott O’Neil, CEO of the 76ers, last week and I asked him what he hopes comes out of the pandemic, and he said something along the lines of “putting more attention on the fans.” Which you know has been my gig since time began in tickets.

In the early stages, I see that the places and people that make you feel good are the ones that are starting to win.

So make the effort to engage and win people over.

2. The recovery seems to be hit or miss.

I don’t see a straight line where folks are going to all see success at once.

What does this mean for us?

We can’t take recovery for granted. So we are going to have to position ourselves and communicate our value accordingly.

3. It seems too early to know what is new and what is different with behavior:

In my experiences so far, some things look the same and some look different.

What we are seeing in my conversations with folks is that if you look at things on a small scale, you might see a lot of stuff look the same. If you look at things in a massive quantitative way, you’ll see some differences.

What does this mean?

That nothing is showing up as a definitive pattern yet.

So you are going to have to pay attention to patterns for a bit of time to figure out what is going on.

4. Where you see folks get together, people seem excited to be back in groups:

I live in DC where a lot of folks only talk to you long enough to find out which person in power you work for and if you don’t work for the right person or anyone, they move on.

But everywhere else, people are happy to see you and happy to chat with you and I have to say I’ve had two instances in the past week where the excitement of being able to do something normal made me a bit awestruck for a few moments.

This is a good time to get people together.

In ways small and large, have a drink with someone. Say hello at the bar. Just go into a store or put together a gathering.

5. People seem to have been thinking about what is next:

I’ve had several people ask me what’s next or if they could run something by me.

Great!

I’m here for y’all.

I’ve actually spent the last few weeks having my design team rebuild www.davewakeman.com. I don’t know if it is 100% ready yet, but let’s say 90% read.

The reinvention of the digital home of Dave began with some research I did at the end of the year where I found out:

• 80% of CEOs don’t trust their marketing teams.

• 73% of businesses are looking to grow this year.

• 55% of those teams don’t know where to start.

• 40% of people don’t have a strategy and of the 60% that say they do, most of those strategies aren’t strategies.

This made me think through my positioning.

Maybe you’ve been doing the same thing.

I’ve had a few conversations with folks that are thinking about different things.

So spend a few minutes going through what you want to do now.

Those are my thoughts from the road. Next week we hit the 4th of July and hopefully my website is finished so we can throw it a celebration or something.

Let me know how y’all are doing.

Dave