(By Loyd Ford) For personalities wanting to truly get ahead in our business, the best way to do this is to fully attack the business end of our business. Make yourself someone that everyone in your cluster sees as someone working to make everyone else successful, too.
- We know that managers have stressful jobs. How do you go to your manager and offer to take some of that stress off of them? Go engage them, pay close attention to what frustrates them and work to be a solution for them. This will pay off directly with your boss.
- Put more effort into your teases (and that means putting more work into your prep for on-air). We grow value by growing ratings. One of the important ways you grow ratings is to grow occasions of listening. This happens largely at the prep level. Most on-air talent don’t over-prep today. You can. Taking these extra steps can increase your real value as an on-air talent more rapidly than you think.
- Learn how to be a more efficient editor. It’s not enough to improve your prep unless you also improve your ability to edit. I share with on-air talent that there are three (3) times to edit: When you do your actual prep. When you practice before the actual on-air performance and when you open the mic (that’s right – when you are actually talking on-air). Editing skills are powerful.
- Engage your sales team. This is purely selfish for yourself, but it also pays a dividend of being positive for sellers. Ask them how you can encourage more endorsements. Tell them you will make time to go on sales calls with them if they like. Encourage them. I promise you they are not getting a lot of encouragement and they get a lot of nos.
- Watch for when bad news develops. When you see someone having a bad day, that is the time to reach out to them. Someone gets shut down at a meeting? Someone loses a big account? Be there for them. Again – encourage them. This is more meaningful than you think.
- Think about your profile in your building, on the station website, in social media and on the air. Work to create value in each of these spaces. Intensifying your positive value in these spaces will up your overall profile in a way that shows value and grows your value within your cluster and for your company.
- Do more than is expected. Today everyone is so busy, this will be a high bar. However, going above and beyond and doing things people don’t expect in addition to your ‘job,’ will increase your perceived value (and your real value) to everyone around you.
We’ve been through a lot, but this column today isn’t about that. It is about growing beyond the challenges we face. Being seen as a VIP takes real effort. You see this in every sport. It’s not always only the things you do when people are looking. It’s what you do when others can’t see you, too.
Our business is founded on and grows when our professionals use their creativity and fortitude to be simply better than the rest. That’s you, right?
Loyd Ford consults radio stations, coaches personalities, and provides behavioral and strategic programming to radio with RPC. If you’re on the Clubhouse app, you can join Loyd’s radio pro encouragement group “The Encouragers.” Reach him anytime. 864.448.4169 or [email protected].
