By David Gee I recently caught up over Zoom with a friend I last got together with a year-and-a-half ago. It was good to “see” him, but at one point he just sounded kind of sad and said, “I feel so disconnected. I don’t go into the office, I don’t have beers with my buddies, my dad died last fall ...
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Be a coach
By Adam Quandt While surfing my LinkedIn feed recently, I came across a post from Leadership First titled “7 C’s to build a winning team,” that struck a chord with me. The post broke building a great team into coaching, character, communication, commitment, contagious energy, caring and consistency. After reading these characteristics, I immediately thought of the Boating Industry Top ...
Read More »It’s been a record year, now what?
By Matt Sellhorst The data is coming out and the 2020 season has been an enormous success so far, especially considering the state of the world, upcoming presidential election and overall uncertainty. It’s great to celebrate, then, ask what’s next? Virtually every dealer has added new clients and generated a ton of new leads. So, in addition to the huge ...
Read More »At the Helm: The crazy and not-so-lazy days of this summer
David Gee I love summer. I love to travel. I love vacations. Normally that’s a pretty good combination. And though there are lots of ways to describe this summer so far, normal is not one of them. We usually go somewhere that involves a boat and a lake. And sometimes a cabin. Or we also often go to the mountains ...
Read More »At the Helm: Little things can be a big deal
By David Gee “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” -W.B. Yeats Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet William Butler Yeats, one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature, wrote those prescient words over 100 years ago. If that sentiment rang true during Victorian times, we surely find even more meaning in the words ...
Read More »Forward!
By Adam Quandt Well, we’re just about halfway through the year, and what a year it’s been so far. Have you checked in with yourself? Your family? Your colleague? Your team? Anyone else you can think of. If not, take a moment to catch up with everyone, including yourself. Look back at the first six months of the year. Look ...
Read More »At the Helm: A caring — and concerned — community
By David Gee I like the word community. I use it a lot. In fact, I likely overuse it, and I’m not the only one. It seems these days especially, more and more advertising, marketing and social media messaging contains, and in some cases co-opts, the word community. So, I am attempting to reframe in my own mind what it ...
Read More »A dictionary for more sales
By Matt Sellhorst Words have power. The power of words can change over time. For example, if I said Corona just a few months ago, what would pop into your head? A sandy beach, a lime and a beer, right? Now, what pops into your head? As a write this, even my 6-year-old girl Emery would say “the virus.” This ...
Read More »At the Helm: A whole new world
By David Gee “Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all.” ― Patricia A. McKillip, In the Forests of Serre. To say the world has changed since the printed edition of Boating Industry went to press a couple of weeks ago is an understatement to the point of ridiculousness. ...
Read More »Marketing strategies for growth: Profit through protection – doing it right
By Myril Shaw Are you offering all of your customers all of the optional protective products you can? If the answer is yes, congratulations…you are part of a pretty small club. If the answer is no, you are probably leaving money on the table. Going back to the “yes” answer, are you making sure your customers know they have been ...
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