The Invisible Mentor

Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Interviewee Name: Mary Schnack

Company Name: Mary Schnack & Associates

Website: http://www.maryschnack.com

Avil Beckford: Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Mary Schnack: I was born on a farm in Iowa, played basketball in school, and was a journalism major in college. I was a practicing journalist for eight years before I went into public relations. Now I have my own public relations consulting business. I’m based in the Washington DC area after living in Los Angeles and Arizona for almost 35 years. And I also travel around the world doing speaking engagements and communications training: Business communication training like PR, media training, crisis communications, and branding at conferences, and seminars that are particularly set up for a business audience or for women’s groups.

Avil Beckford: What’s a typical day like for you?

Mary Schnack: I love it that I don’t have a typical day and that keeps it really interesting. I generally work pretty long hours because I enjoy the work I do. I usually meet with somebody for one of the meals and write during the day. At night I might be going to a movie, having dinner with friends, and hopefully I’ll have some time to get exercise in. And the other thing I want to add to my day is I want to do some meditation.

Avil Beckford: How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

Mary Schnack: Oh that’s a great question. I think I motivate myself by doing for others. I get really excited when something happens for somebody else. It’s great when something happens for me too, but maybe a tool that I taught them, a communications tool had a positive effect, or somebody has grown their business, or somebody found a job, or a kid had his success in school. I like to hear about other people’s success and that maybe I was a bit of an inspiration for that.

Avil Beckford: If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Mary Schnack: Well for one thing I hate to go back and look at things that way, I’d rather look forward at what I’m going to do and change moving forward. However that’s also a pretty easy answer for me. When I started my business, I would have had a business plan based on financials that would’ve been a roadmap as much as a marketing plan. I think I went more by marketing than by finances and what I’ve learned over the years is how much you have to manage your business by finances as well.

Avil Beckford: What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

Mary Schnack: I think the importance of inspiration, being inspired and inspiring others.  I went through my seventh cancer surgery this year and it really threw me into a depression. I guess it took seven times to get me down but what it took to get me out of that and like your earlier question what motivates me and really taking a look at that, so I think being inspired and being inspiring.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Mary Schnack: Without a doubt that would be social media. Social media has changed public relations and has changed outreach. And at first when it was happening, I thought, “Thank goodness I’m older and I don’t need to learn that.” Well wrong, but it’s been fun learning it, and it reminded me how much fun it is to learn new things and to incorporate the new ways of outreach. And now that’s one of the areas of specialty for my business.

Avil Beckford: What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

Mary Schnack:

1. One big threat to my business is the recession and people having a lot less money to spend. The way that I’m handling that is by getting out there networking at an accelerated frantic speed. The more people I meet, the more people I touch, reconnect with, the better it is.
2. A second threat would be my seventh cancer surgery. It’s really hard to be getting a trajectory with your business and then be out of commission for one to two months and then emotionally what that does to your energy and your motivation, so that makes it hard. What I’ve done for that is like I said looking at inspiration, what inspires me to move forward.
3. The third thing would be the fact that I moved. I moved from the west coast to the east coast. You know a move is always difficult and costly, but I always look at this as the reason I moved is to be in a more vibrant business environment. That’s why I’m here and of course it is true there is hardly a place more vibrant than Washington DC. Sometimes you just have to keep reminding yourself why you have done the things that you have done and that’s what I think sometimes I’ve had to do with the move.

Avil Beckford: What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Mary Schnack: What is unique, are three things: One is that you have fun working with us, we don’t believe in real serious business. Of course business is serious, people want good customer service and to get their money’s worth, but you might as well have fun while you’re doing it. And number two is that I think we are very creative, we think out-of-the-box, even though that statement think outside-the-box is not creative, but we are very creative and we don’t look at the standard way of doing things and that’s why we were one of the early adopters of social media. The another thing is that we really believe in working as team, we don’t believe in working as a vacuum, and I believe team work is the basis of good business, so those are the three things I would say.

Avil Beckford: What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

Mary Schnack: I don’t think they have great customer service for a long-term client. We want to be new and fresh every day, and so what if you’ve been our client for two years. We’re doing the things that have been successful and hopefully will remain successful, but we also want to look at what’s the new, fresh approach we can take as well.

Avil Beckford: Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it. What kind of lessons did you learn in the process?

Mary Schnack: I needed to be flexible and I needed to look at the reality of my situation. I lived in a beautiful resort community Sedona, Arizona, and as wonderful as it was to live there, the reality was if I wanted to grow my business again it wasn’t going to happen from that location.  I couldn’t sit there and feel sorry for myself, I had to look at how I’m going to move on and create a good life for me elsewhere where I could also grow my business.

Avil Beckford: Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Mary Schnack: I’d like to think I gave myself the big break by applying things I learned to present-day situations. I would say one of the biggest breaks I had was in starting my business in 1992. I had worked for eight years at two hospitals in Los Angeles, and we handled a lot of crises at these hospitals. Well we handled a lot of crises in that if there was a train crash at LAX the victims would come to our hospital. When there was the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 the most famous victim Reginald Denny the truck driver came to the hospital, plus 99 others the first night. We were one of the busiest hospitals, and I was able to take what I had learned in journalism and make it be very successful as far as outreach for the hospital in those crisis situations. So when I started my own business, I had this very strong reputation for the work I had done, and again it was to move ahead on the successes that I had had. What have you done, and acknowledging what your successes are, and how you can use those as a platform to keep moving up.

Avil Beckford: Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Mary Schnack: I don’t think anything is a failure, I think everything is a lesson, and we can learn as much, if not more from the tough lessons as we can from the bigger ones. When the dotcom crash happened, overnight we lost $20,000 to $30,000 a month in revenues. Literally we lost that much within 30 days. You want to make sure that you never put too many eggs in one basket, that you can be spread out so if one type of business goes away, you have other types of businesses to back that up, and that you’re always looking at the next piece of business coming in. And you’re always looking at how to satisfy your current clients. Like I said before, do not take them for granted, and figure out how you can move on and continue to build business.

Avil Beckford: What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

Mary Schnack: The hardest thing I’m going through in my life is cancer and having it return so often. I don’t think there’s anything I can to prevent its reoccurrence, but what I must do is keep up on my check-ups, keep up on my exercise and healthy eating, and my positive attitude and live as good a life as I can, but not be in denial, and to know there is a possibility that it will come back again and what I am doing about that.

Avil Beckford: What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

Mary Schnack: One of the toughest decisions was I had a business partner in Los Angeles and I had to decide whether to stay with the partnership or not. We knew we had a few years age difference so when my daughter was graduating from high school she was just getting engaged and ready to start a family. It was a very hard decision to break up the partnership, but our lifestyle goals were not the same any more. There are positive things about being in business alone, but on the other hand it was good having a partner to work with and to grow together.

Avil Beckford: What are three events that helped to shape your life?

Mary Schnack: One is definitely the cancer and I’d say two becoming an entrepreneur and three is my daughter.

Avil Beckford: What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

Mary Schnack: Definitely my daughter! She is 28 years old now, and she has some learning and emotional disabilities but she is basically living independently, and that’s been a lot of work and a lot of direction, and a lot of heartache, but she is extremely happy and that’s definitely the thing that I’m proudest of that I raised her to be independent and not to lean on her disabilities as a crutch.

Avil Beckford: How did mentors influence your life?

Mary Schnack: Mentors influenced my life and continue to influence my life. I have two or three probably more different mentors that I work with all the time, and thank goodness I have those sounding boards, the people giving me advice. I would say they’ve had a great influence both in living my life personally and businesswise.

Avil Beckford: What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Mary Schnack: I continue to receive messages from them. One of the first messages I received was to continue to learn, to continue to expand. With something like social media, you think, “I’m too old for that, I don’t want to deal with that.” We have to continue to learn, and continue to be educated, and grow as people, and grow as businesses, and it’s also a lot of fun.

Avil Beckford: An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by observing them from afar, in the capacity of an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Mary Schnack: My one piece of advice is to really look at your successes and let people know what they are, and that doesn’t mean sitting back and bragging about yourself. But it does mean sharing your wisdom, and having people understand why you are sharing that wisdom because you have that experience. When I do my speeches overseas, we also hear this in the United States, but when I do my speeches overseas even more so, “My culture doesn’t allow that, I could never do that.” And my response is “By you sharing your successes there might be a 10-year old girl out there that hears your story and says, ‘Wow, I can go after my dreams.’” And what a shame it is if you miss the chance to inspire that 10-year old girl.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Today I present Donna Whitney, and as usual there are many lessons to learn. Her response to the question, “Tell me a bit about yourself” was quite long, but weaves a very interesting tale that we can all learn from. One potent lesson for me after reading it was, if it doesn’t feel right, walk away, don’t compromise your values. I have to think about how to present it so I’ll do that for tomorrow. From the information presented in this interview, what are five takeaways? How can you use the information in your situation?

What’s a typical day like for you?

There is no such thing as a typical day for me, I wish there was. Because our business is very much an entrepreneurial start-up within a really large organization, we are everything. I am sales and marketing and distribution, and finance. Of course I do not do all those things without the support of the right parts of the organization, but really, we do most of the heavy lifting ourselves.

How do you motivate yourself and stay motivated?

I don’t know that it’s a conscious thing for me. I absolutely love what I do, and when I don’t love what I do, I end up changing what I do so that I love it. It’s never been the same thing one day to the next. I seem to change my job title every 18 months.

If you had to start over from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I think that I would be kinder. I think there are a lot of people in my working experience that I could have shown a lot more grace to, especially in the early years when you are struggling to make your mark you get a sense that everything matters so much. In the grand scheme of things, 10 years from now you aren’t going to remember the offences you had to bear. I would have turned my cheek a lot more and be a lot more forgiving.

What’s the most important business or other discovery you’ve made in the past year?

I’ve discovered Grooveshark and I really quite enjoy it. It’s an online radio that allows you to stream music for free.

What’s one of the biggest advances in your industry over the past five years?

Probably IPTV and the introduction of new entrants that make it possible for people to do things in a different way. That helps my team because that is the niche in which we play in. So every part of the traditional Rogers business is being assaulted by new competitors and new ways for people to do the same things.

What are the three threats to your business, your success, and how are you handling them?

1. The first threat would be the larger organization taking over our entrepreneurial start-up because then it wouldn’t be a start-up. If we were to be ingested by the larger organization then it would be much more difficult for us to do things the way we now do them.
2. The inability to deliver on all the opportunities that we have, and this threat has to be managed by making sure that we have the appropriate processes and people in place to do what needs to get done.
3. The third threat would be taking on too much all at once because there is an awful lot that can be done and ought to be done so it’s a question of timing.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Everything! I think what’s truly unique about what we do is that we do it within such a large organization in such a small way. It really is the best place to be in the company.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

If you say that my field is large telecom, one of the things that large telecoms do incredibly poorly is being responsive and flexible to customers. If you’re saying that it’s people who do the things we do and are doing them poorly, it’s that we capitalize on the fact that we have a huge brand, and it really helps to open doors when you are carrying a Rogers business card. And a lot of those smaller companies don’t have that advantage.

Describe a major business or other challenge you had and how you resolved it.

There are always technology challenges. There is always a problem that needs to be solved, and I have been blessed with an amazing team that looks at issues as opportunities. And I don’t say that to be cliché in any way, shape or form, they truly do see things that way. I think another major challenge that any group faces is to maintain a healthy culture, and that has a lot to do with establishing boundaries up front and we’ve done that, we’ve sat down as a team and talked about our personal values and our values as a team.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

1. From a technology standpoint, one thing that we’ve learned is that it needs testing before you sell it. We’ve had a few hiccups where things seemed to make sense and not defy the laws of physics in principle, but in practice things never go as they appear. So rigorous testing and making sure that you build a demo lab is a must. It’s also important to have your customers as partners so that you can do that learning together. There should be a degree of agility and responsiveness by both partners to adjust to the things that happen along the way.
2. The more important one is establishing that team trust and integrity, and that’s been key for our overall success.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

My big break came from David Robinson for sure. And that was the break from marketing traditional “I’m going to create this piece of collateral or view this marketing brief” to the switch to technology, to engineering. And really David Robinson was a huge proponent, advocate and supporter of me in those early years, especially when I don’t have an engineering ring, and I certainly don’t intend to. My guys are engineers and I think there has to be a bridge with those with marketing and that kind of skill set meshing with the people with technology because there is such value in marrying those two things together. I would have been a propeller head by interest but not by design, and Robinson took me under his wings and knew that about me but brought me in anyway, and gave me the biggest opportunity of my career so far.

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

The biggest failure that I’ve ever had and it wasn’t a monumental thing, had a lot to do with being more gracious in certain circumstances. I remember this one time I had a client that just drove me over a fence, this person was like nails on a chalk board and I could have been a lot more professional, but I let it get to me one day and I lost my temper. For the long-term repercussion I’m sure that no one remembers it but me, but it left such a profound impact on me to realize that, it was just work and I should let it go. I think what I took away from that is the ability to take myself a lot less seriously.

What has been your biggest disappointment in your life – and what are you doing to prevent its reoccurrence?

It would probably be how the music industry treated people back in the eighties. The experience has made me more sensitive to the diversity of people coming into circumstances and trying to appreciate where they are coming from.

What’s one of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make and how did it impact your life?

I think it is having to let someone go, pulling the trigger when you have to fire them. I’ve had to do that now on a couple of occasions and I think one thing I’ve learned from those decisions is to make them slowly, cautiously and transparently so that when you are approaching that time in someone’s career, you let them know what’s coming down the pipe as soon as you can.

What are three events that helped to shape your life?

1. My experience in the music industry
2. Moving to Toronto
3. The move from marketing to engineering

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

My ability to make sour dough bread, it’s kind of an art form.

How did mentors influence your life?

During different parts of your life you have different mentors for different purposes. I think that I’ve learned a lot of grace and maturity from the spiritual leaders and giants in my life. I am a huge fan of John MacArthur, and R C Sproul. From a work perspective, I think some of the giants in the company, the women that I have the pleasure and honour of working with really teach me a lot about the strength of women within this corporate environment because there are so few at the upper echelon levels.

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Speak less and listen more.

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

The Tipping Point was a very good book. I had a mentor Maxine Armstrong – who I still consider to be a mentor – who was a great wealth of reading resources, so I’d have to say that that was a big one. In Moments of Magic the message was consistent and my mentor at Tronica referred that book to me. One of the members of my team recommended that I read Hoops which was by Greg Jackson the basketball coach. That was a really good book.

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Be patient with yourself and listen to really hear, not just to absorb the information, but to understand it. It’s an entirely different thing from hearing a message and understanding the message. I think that too often people rush past the information so that they can contribute their own thoughts. It’s not about being heard, it rarely is about people hearing you, it’s what you hear from others that matters.

What are your thoughts on this interview? What was expected and what was unexpected? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I am in the prime of my life, putting all my life experiences together to do the impossible.  Living in Kathmandu for 3.5 years and running my own business that provides an income generated in internationals sales into the hands of the people that labor to produce the products.

What’s unique about the service that you provide?

Traveling to and living in Nepal for 25 years, as well as working outside of my own culture has made be astute to cultural dynamics and my communications skills help me to facilitate new transactions.  I am accepted on both sides of the transactions.

What do you observe most people in your field doing badly that you think you do well?

I don’t assume I know.

What’s an accomplishment that you are proudest of?

That I have lived an interesting life way beyond my expectations

How do you integrate your personal and professional life?

I keep in touch with my friends 100% of the time.

What’s a major regret that you’ve had in life?

None

What are five life lessons that you have learned so far?

1. Feel the fear and do it anyway
2. I will understand sooner or later
3. Life is like water, impermanent
4. I need empty space in my life.
5. Being loved by someone keeps me young

When you have some down time, how do you spend it?

Writing reflective emails to friends

What process do you use to generate great ideas?

Mind mapping, talking over my ideas with others, ask myself what I do know, not what I don’t know.

What’s your favorite quotation and why?

They have varied: I find them I put them up on my computer.  My current one is “Security is an illusion.”

How do you define success?

Wanting to get out of bed every morning to embrace the day.

In your opinion what’s the formula for success?

Doing the best you can with every opportunity you are given.

Which one book had a profound impact on your life? What was it about this book that impacted you so deeply? Did you have an emotional or intellectual attachment to this book? Why?

What had a more profound impact on my life was being without books and learning to deal with the empty space where I could not occupy or distract my mind with a book.

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what are five books that you would like to have with you and why? Summarize the book in two sentences.

I would not take a book, but I would open my life to a monk’s life and being present to the gift of the absence of everything and be present to the senses.

Have you read any books that inspired you to start a business, service or invent “something”? If yes, which book?

I believe my brain seeks integrative thought – so a book would likely cause me to link to another idea.  Now I am reading Water for Elephants and love the vitality of the mind of the 93 old narrator. He writes about how his life in the assisted living home is designed to render him mindless.  It makes me think about how there are many structures in life that remove the grains of sands that could inspire us all.

What one music CD and movie would you like to have with you (on the deserted island) and why?

None: Don’t want the distraction.

If trusted friends could introduce you to five people that you’ve always wanted to meet, whom would you choose? And what would you say to them?

I have met many famous people; I would just be present to what is in the moment.

What excites you about life?

Coming up with new models that make business possible that incorporate and respect the obstacles.

How do you nurture your soul?

When I can, I will trek and I will walk for 12 hours a day, and completely exhaust my mind and body so that my soul can soar.

If you had a personal genie and she gave you one wish, what would you wish for? Or, if I gave you a magic wand, what would you use it for?

The elimination of human greed and that we each seek to make another’s life easier.

Complete the following, I am happy when…

At the end of my day, I can say I did the best with what I was given.

Which aspects of this interview can you apply to your situation? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab your personal copy by clicking here.

All book links are affiliate links.

Note: Based on research, this is my attempt to get into the head of Estee Lauder, a truly remarkable woman and a pioneer. Estee would have been a great blogger and Invisible Mentor. The steps she took to achieve success can still be applied today. As an innovator and marketing strategist, she created many techniques for promoting her cosmetic line, which many believe are novel today. These promotional techniques include “Tell a Woman” Campaign, known today as viral marketing, get others to talk about your products, known as raving fans.

When reading today’s post, read actively, and think of ways you can apply the information to your unique situation. As I was reading up on Estee Lauder, my creative wheels were spinning rapidly inside my head and I have ideas on how to better promote my products. When we study the past we are often better able to understand the present and the future.

Influence: Uncle John Shotz, a chemist

Big  Break: Came in 1946 from Saks Fifth Avenue and paved the way for product entry into other retail stores such as Neiman Marcus and Marshall Field’s

Regret: Not balancing work and family

Quotable: “Measure your success in dollars, not degrees.”

Estee Lauder’s Success Tips

1. Pay close attention to the quality of your products
2. Offer a gift with purchase
3. Send samples by direct mail
4. Think creatively instead of thinking competition. Which non traditional market could benefit from your product or service (How about tapping hotels to purchase business books for their executive guests as a welcome)
5. Carefully recruit and train all sales representatives on how to give excellent customer service (Have product demos)
6. After you achieve success with your product, expand the product line and brand
7. Have raving fans: Give your friends who have influence samples of your products to carry around
8. Use viral marketing (Similar to “Tell a Woman” Campaign)
9. Trust yourself and your instincts
10. Focus, be aware of the world around
11. Know your customer, know your niche
12. Persist and have ambition

Which success tip can you apply? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Resources

Builders & Titans: Estée Lauder by Grace Mirabella

Encyclopedia of World Biography on Estee Lauder

Estee: A Success Story, Estee Lauder

Estee Lauder Beyond The Magic , Israel Lee

Estee Lauder by Sara Alpern