Make Your Own Luck

Show up. 

Show up early 

Be Prepared. 

Read the assignment 

Have a point of view 

Share your thoughts

Welcome feedback 

Use that feedback to adapt 

Give feedback to others 

Start new things 

Ship new things 

Manage the clock, not the other way around 

Say yes to things the might scare you 

Say no to things that are comfortable and easy 

Don't skinny dip in a lake during the fall 

Never say "who's there?" if half of your camp friends have been chopped up by Jason. 

Happy Friday the 13th. 

Who is this, Eric Hultgren?

The momentbefore

Since coming to MLive three years ago I have been asked to speak, host, or coach all over the state, in the past year those travels put nearly 70,000 miles on my Jeep. Nearly every time I come to a new city, event, or venue...they usually know very little about me and someone will ask "Who is this Eric Hultgren guy?" 

This is my second favorite moment of public speaking. The ability to fill that space of anonymity with a memory that leads them to ask me back. I am SO thankful for that person every time they ask that because the underdog spot has always been a place from which I excel. 

But my favorite time is the moment before an event. The quiet between the rehearsal and the real thing, those scant moments that I can center myself so that for the next 15, 20, or 90 minutes I am in the moment giving every bit of energy and attention to the audience. No emails, no phone calls, no pull of social media notifications. Just...nothing 

3 minutes until showtime

In that moment I stretch a bit, bounce on the balls of my feet like a boxer preparing for a match and all the while my body begins to feel electric. A thrum begins in my ears and just for a moment the world peels away and I am centered.

30 seconds until showtime. 

The thrum merges into the sound of blood pumping into my brain and that electricity turns into that feeling you get right before the roller coaster begins its decent...unbrideled terror. 

When the fear arrives, I know we are close to starting. 

10 seconds 

The flurry of activity in my brain settles on the first word of the first sentence...how will you start this thing, once you start it is all down hill. You, are the roller coaster.  

5 seconds 

A smile comes across my face as the fear melts away into determination at the task at hand, a serene moment before the cacophony that is speaking before a crowd. 

2 seconds 

One last deep breath and then that first step..

And here we go. 

Here is Eric Hultgren 

Gary Vee takes on the Hot Ones

I am a HUGE Gary fan and some of his looser interviews tend to be my favorite. Next to the James Altucher interview from this month, I love this one a TON. 

How Far Are You Willing to Go For Your Customer?

Shane McMahon is a 4th generation McMahon, minority owner in the WWE, and vice-chairman of WeCast Holdings jumping 20-feet off of a steel cage Sunday night for the purpose of entertaining the crowd at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Whether or not you are a wrestling fan, it is quite a sight seeing a 47 year old man leaping off of a cage knowing he will miss his opponent (because…safety) in the same way that you know Charlie Brown will never kick that football.

But he did it, yes for the thrill, and for the sake of the performance. Using the lexicon of the medium he “sacrificed his body for the sake of the art.” Which seems preposterous unless you look at it through a different lens.

Brands are constantly trying to attract at keep customers while being assaulted by new technology, new marketing techniques, and the cost destroying Godzilla that is Amazon — so how do you stand out? Leap off a building on to your car? No, you stand out by going well beyond what your competition is willing to do in order to connect and foster a customer relationship.

As Jay Acunzo says:

It has NEVER been easier to be AVERAGE

Back to Detroit, Sunday night there is NO shortage of things to watch, Sunday Night Football, Netflix, Hulu, Fear the Walking Dead, go out and see Blade Runner 2049, and so on…The one thing that the WWE understands is the long tail of content so this singular event has been shared, viewed, liked, and commented on millions of times — a vast majority of these people were not in the arena, nor were they watching the Pay Per View. But this 15-second piece of content drives customers back into the brand even if they are not regular consumers of it.

All because Shane was willing to make that leap.

For brands price is no longer a winning strategy because there is always someone who can undercut you, as Seth Godin says —the problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win:

Macy’s

Sears

Toys R Us

Bebe

J C Penny

Payless Shoesource

K-Mart

The Limited

So how do you win? Be willing to do incredible things your competitor wouldn’t even think of doing. Something unexpected in the shipping box when it arrives on their door, remember their name and drink when they come in to get coffee (and when), know their favorite seat in your restaurant, handwrite thank you notes, send gift cards to customers when they least expect it, upgrade for NO reason at all, make each interaction feel special.

It is a LOT of work. There is a lot that can go wrong much like leaping from a steel cage, but the payoff might be the difference between standing out and blending it. If your brand seems like every other brand the consumer tends to default to price and then you lose the chance to speak to them because price has no questions (google will help them there), price has no risk for them (the pick or they don’t), price is not a benefit it is an expectation, until it isn’t.

Experiences build memories.

Not one person in that arena remembers what they paid for the tickets or the beer they drank.

But they remember this:

Shane McMahon is truly the Daredevil of WWE. pic.twitter.com/wx0TjMaoNF

— Aj 🌪 (@banksarchitect) October 9, 2017

How far are you willing to go for your customer?

-Eric

I'm Here to Push You

One of my life’s joys comes from watching people start something new, share themselves out across the digital landscape, create and publish. So in honor of #motivationmonday I thought I might share a few creators you might like and see what you might be able to create by this time next week:

Aaron Spratling — Lead Pastor at The Story Community Church He writes about reversing the idea of living an unpublished life and instead, publishing and in general Aaron is a humble philosopher with tales to tell.

Mike Baitinger — He created This Detroit Life which documents the growth of the city and some of its most unique angles and stories.

Joe Guerra — He hosts a Mid-Monday worship set where he plays + shares songs for 30 minutes EVERY Monday.

Julian Newman — He is one of these guys who is always working on about a million things. He is currently in Detroit ’67 at Site:Lab and recently won for his business idea Retro Future Films at StartGarden, he makes me look like I am lazy and for continuing to push me I am grateful for our friendship.

Katherine Ley — She started an amazingly inspirational travel blog called Don’t Deley (get it) and spent 3 months this summer on the road creating some amazing content (and photos) and inspiring a ton of people to get out and go on an adventure.

Jeff Leitch — Jeff is one of those guys who does more before 6a than you might think possible. Most recently this father of 4 works tirelessly with Team World Vision training for this weekend’s Grand Rapids Marathon where he and the team are raising money to provide clean drinking water for the nearly 750 million people across the planet that need it — beyond that he and his family have been helping refugees from Rwanda get settled in West Michigan and he is the drummer for the band Decoy.

Joe Teague — Joe is an expert in He-Man and lots of other retro toys so he parlayed that knowledge into a product and now runs a clothing line called Retro Rags Limited where people can take their old patches or t-shirts they love and repurpose them or pick up one of the shirts he and his team are making that mash-up the culture to create fun reimagined 1980’s brands.

One day each of these people just started and that start became habit and that habit became fuel for the rest of their life. So each Monday I am going to pick a handful of creators and share them with you, the goal is that at one point I will get to share your creation because it is time to start friends.

Now go, have an adventure.

-Eric