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I swear when I wrote my Purchase Order blog last week I didn’t know about the upcoming Wall Street Journal front page story regarding a massive audit of advertising agencies by some of the biggest marketers in the United States.

The article, entitled Big Marketers Launch Audits of Their Ad Buyers, is a strong condemnation of the media buying side of the advertising industry, based on a report by K2 Intelligence. The report’s findings have convinced J.P. Morgan Chase to suspend its $250 million in annual media buying until a full audit of its agencies’ practices can be conducted. At the crux of the issue is the lack of transparency and suspicion that I referenced last week. Unfortunately, this type of situation and publicity casts dark shadows across all stakeholders in the marketing world.

This is not to suggest that all, or even many, media agencies are trying to hide something. Quite frankly, if a media agency makes money because it takes the business risk of commuting upfront to media buys and then reselling it to its clients, why should the client truly get the discounts the media agency achieved? Perhaps the issue is the client needs to look at whether it wants to buy from its agency or buy directly from the network. In fact, that is a big crux of the issue. Supporting that crux is the fact that most clients, even very sophisticated ones, don’t understand the issue.

I can’t blame them. It’s so coursing these days, and the era of online media has made it even more bizarre. Ownership structures, venture investments, and unique collaborations have blurred the lines beyond belief. They are only going to get more blurry. Digital platforms, as amazing as they are, are becoming increasingly hard to label. Are they media outlets? Advertising platforms? Video channels? Social hubs? TV channels? Movie producers? Journalistic guardians? All or some of the above?

Then when you add additional concerns, such as last week’s revelations that Facebook has been accused of over stating the average length of video watch numbers for the past two years, your head spins even further. Facebook responded to the accusations by changing the label of its video metrics. Maybe I am a sucker, but I believe Facebook meant no harm. It’s too smart of a company to pull a fast one, and it has too much to lose. Perhaps Facebook could look at how it communicates these issues, but I suspect it’s an unfortunate case of human error, proving once again that no matter if we want to turn the planet over to the robots, the machines are going to need us.

The challenge for all of us is to provide better numbers, information, and evaluation. The reconciliation of budgets isn’t just a financial matter. “Spend it wisely” were the words of one email from a client’s purchasing manager when she released a large Purchase Order. Her words were both a request and a command. I find that motivating.

“Spend It Wisely.” We all should obey that command. If you take a sponsorship from a large partner, invest it wisely. If you are in control of a client’s budget, do more than treat it like your own money. Treat it like it’s your child’s money. If you have an opportunity to consider alternative ways to build sales, do so. If you are wise, heed the word’s of IMI’s Don Mayo who in a September 26th memo to the industry regarding metrics stated clearly, “Do not allocate a sizeable amount of your marketing budget if you don’t have third party reliable facts (impressions/views link to ?!?!?). Not to mention bots.”

If we all “Spend It Wisely”, if we all measure what we spend, then maybe some of these issues will be solved. Perhaps even the words Creative Accounting won’t be considered a sham.

I was recently attending an industry function where a group of agency people were complaining endlessly about the purchasing departments of their major clients.

It’s a well documented shift in the marketing industry that in many cases, brand directors alone are not responsible for determining who they should partner with or how the agency should be compensated. For well over a decade, purchasing departments, marketing services teams, and supply management experts have been more and more involved in screening, selecting, evaluating, and compensating agencies. To hear the agencies’ take on this shift you would have thought that our industry had been taken over by masked terrorists. The criticism runs the gamut from insensitivity to incompetence on the part of purchasing groups. How can the person who is responsible for ordering the pencils also be in charge of requisitioning creative work? Regardless of whether or not a pencil could be highly involved in both situations.

It seems somewhat misguided to me to complain and moan about the fact that our clients are changing the ground rules in how they work with us. First of all, our compensation models in the agency world didn’t totally make sense in the past and could have bordered on unfair. Essentially, we lived in an era for decades that when a clients budgets went up, our fees went up, even if our work effort or outputs didn’t. Let’s admit it. That’s a pretty strange model and a pretty good one for the agencies. It also, unfortunately, created a misaligned approach to negotiating. Because the discussions focused around the percentage. It also provided a very easy and obvious target for any buyer worth their salt to provide a quick cost savings win for their company.

But that’s too simplistic of an approach to be sustainable for the long term, and we are now seeing an evolution of the role of the Purchasing Group interaction with agencies. It has progressed far beyond cost. It has less to do with the absolute reduction of expense and more focus on value creation. There is still a tremendous desire for transparency and accountability, it’s not something we should be offended by. Let’s face it, everyone knows an agency or two who has taken advantage of clients with unnecessarily steep fees, markups, padding, and outsized profits.

In my opinion, the easiest path is to be prepared.

• Be prepared to be asked for budget detail much earlier in the process than you are used to. The brand team may nod understandingly when you say $$$ has been set aside for signage or Snapchat filters. The purchasing team will want to know how much signage. Or what is a filter?

• Be prepared to have your math checked. Let’s face it, we are an agency not an actuary. But our math still needs to make sense. During the quotation period you would be shocked at how many times what seems defensible, isn’t to someone who has never built a program before. So prepare yourself by looking at your own budget upside down and ask yourself the basic questions. Like why spend three dollars shipping a two-dollar lighting rig? Why not just buy a new one in town X? Maybe the purchasing team doesn’t realize there are none to be bought in Town X or for 100 miles around!

• Be prepared to have your math checked. You won’t be the first agency who submitted a budget with an error.

• Be prepared for ridiculous questions. I’m sure you know full well how many t-shirts your field team needs for a tour and why. So don’t be offended when you’re asked to justify it. Preempt the question with detail in the budget.

• Be prepared to educate. Most purchasing people just want to know. They aren’t really doubting you. They just want to be informed. They are in the business of due diligence. So help them due their duty. (I meant that misuse of the word due. Get it?).

If you’re prepared, open, and willing to learn, you will be pleasantly surprised at how purchasing teams are actually on your proverbial side. They aren’t out to get you, unless you deserve to be got. Plus, we shouldn’t assume they know nothing about our business, just because they come from a department that doesn’t sound glamorous or exciting. In fact, they often have former marketers embedded in their teams or as advisors.

Another serious consideration is to think of Purchasing as a gateway to more business for you. Often they alone have enterprise in wide knowledge of budgets and there may be a department you never imagined needing your services, who needs your services. A great relationship with purchasing could turn into a great referral for you.

The bottom line to me is simple. If you’re a great agency, shouldn’t you welcome scrutiny and assessment? Doesn’t it provide for you a unique level of security and longevity with your client. Built by the client themselves. I recently had a lead on an RFP with a minor client, that we got shut out from because Purchasing advised Marketing they wanted their vetted suppliers involved. That’s great news for the incumbents and even harder on those of us on the outside.

There is no reason to moan and complain. We are all better off building our plans on how to get in the inside, and stay there. Because I can tell you there are no sweeter words in this day and age of agency life than “We got the P.O.!”

If you have ever met my friend Norm O’Reilly, the word “trooper” may not be the first word that comes to mind.

You might start off with passionate, super smart, motivating, dedicated, enthusiastic, kind, super friendly, loyal, tireless, engaging, selfless, considerate, excitable, or maybe just amazing.

Norm is a trooper, and so much more. He’s a leader. He’s a dreamer. He’s a teacher. He is also an unfailing supporter of support and a tireless contributor to the Paralympic movement.

His contribution and commitment to the para movement was rewarded with him being named the Assistant Chef de Mission for Team Canada at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. As you read this he is in Rio, alongside Chef de Mission Chantal Petitclerc, helping our Canadian athletes participate in the most important competition of their lives.

The Paralympic Movement has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Country after country has invested much more significantly in building programs, pathways and participation for their para athletes. The result has been a dramatic shift down the podium for Team Canada in terms of results. But while that’s disappointing for us as a sporting nation, it also is a powerful and positive global societal change.

Let’s not leave it all to Chantal and Norm to cheer on our Paralympians. Let’s give them the same, or more, support we gave our Olympians. What was great summer TV, will now be great Fall TV. What makes for great water cooler talk, will make for great coffee chats. What made for social sharing, will be even more exciting.

We can all be ParaTroopers like Norm!

Today we say goodbye to August.
Today we mourn the end of summer.
Today we exit vacation mode.

Where did you go Mrs. Summertime? You loved me so brightly. You hugged me so warmly. You made me oh so hot and sweaty.

Nary a day did you frown on me with storm clouds. Hardly at all did you cry on me with your tears of rain. You were so polite in rarely interrupting my plans. Instead, you rejoiced along with me and made them better.

It was a summer to remember.

You provided us with a national celebration of athletic triumph at the Olympics. You shone on the greatest Canadian Olympian ever, 16-year-old swimmer Penny Oleksiak. You triumphed the power of our female athletes with medals in many sports including rugby and soccer, again. You took a country that prefers winter and made them to proud to say we have ice in our veins.

Summer brought a bright golden lining to the ugly clouds that were cruelly hung over Rio by the media and experts all over the world. No one got Zika. The terrorist stayed away. The highest profile crime was by an American. Athlete. Medalist. Dancer. The stadiums, though empty, did not collapse. The government, though embroiled, did not collapse. The Russians, though booed, did not dominate.

The summer began with some interesting changes in the Toronto sports landscape. The Argos moved “home” to Exhibition Place. Football is meant to be outdoors. The Leafs had the number one pick for the first time in a generation, giving one more reason for the brainwashed faithful to celebrate a non-achievement. The Blue Jays have been winning in front of thousands of new fans, with the playing of our two Sluggers impacting the team forever. Bautista’s poor play probably rendering him an easier player to not re-sign. Encarnación’s unreal play probably rendering him too expensive to re-sign.

Summer has also shone unfortunately brightly on tragedy. Global terrorism has seen tourists senselessly run over by trucks, children at weddings blown to bits, priests guillotined at church, mothers with strollers gunned down on sidewalks, refugees drowning daily, pregnant women butchered by machetes, and earthquakes crushing entire families in their homes.

As a black man, the senseless killings of innocent people by police in the USA make it scary to imagine myself driving a car there. Yet, the tit-for-tat revenge assassinations of officers in the line of duty makes me even more sad, as does the Canadian Black Lives Matter group who irresponsibly hijacked the Pride movement attempting to denounce our police services. Given those events, I chose to dedicate my summer to those who Serve & Protect us. Wherever you are reading this, raise a glass – your coffee, your water, your beer, your milkshake, to the police in your community.

Summer made me realize how lucky we are to have Justin Trudeau. I don’t understand the haters who don’t like him eating poutine, hiking shirtless, or crashing a wedding in Tofino. Isn’t it great to have leadership in this country who wants to sing the praises of our land and our people? Yes, I am a bit awestruck by Trudeaumania II, and candidly I am no political expert, nor am I very political. I don’t know if he is doing a good job or a bad job, I just appreciate his enthusiasm for being Canadian.

If you don’t like Trudeau, you are welcome to move south, where the Summer of ’16 will be forever immortalized by candidate Trump. I have come to the conclusion that it really isn’t the man who scares me. It’s the millions and millions of people that believe in him. Maybe we should build our own wall?

Summer wound down on a sad note. Though word is that his treatments are going well, the country shed many many many tears for Hip legend, Gord Downie. It was like everyone was witnessing a best friend die at the same time. It’s amazing our ability to grieve publicly, for someone most of us will never meet privately. Perhaps when we see someone famous dying, we think of it like the end of summer.

The end of summer tells us we are all getting older. The change of seasons sadly makes us feel we are all closer to our own death. The end of August saddens us as we all have one less summer to cherish.

I just got back from an “Olympic” Run.

Unlike the Pope, I don’t think Rio 2016 will get on my case about the liberal use of the “O” word.

By my standards, my run this morning was Olympian. Under a scorching hot sun I pushed this 213-pound, 51-year-old mass across Toronto’s famous Bloor Viaduct and back for a 10.8K trot. Not bad considering I clocked it at 56 minutes.

So pompously I sit on my butt, albeit one that discarded 1,046 calories, and encourage you to do the same. Go on an Olympic Run.

Why Olympic? Well you can’t underestimate the power of motivation. Motivated I was. Right before my run I had a look at The Globe and Mail’s female medal domination video. Then I read an uplifting story about Desiree Scott’s impromptu radio interview with her mom. I closed the loop looking at the best video clip of the week when rugby captain Jen Kish put an Olympian hug on her cancer-battling father after our women beat Team GB for the bronze medal!

(If you want a legion of inspiration and reflection on our female athletes’ successes read Bill Cooper’s super-cerebral piece, #HerGames.)

The inspiration doesn’t just end with old men. As some T1ers headed out for a social game of beach volleyball last night, one commented on how the day’s action had him elevated to play. The wall-to-wall multi-channel coverage provides endless conversation points with my barbers, my sons, and even perfect strangers at an inhabited Muskoka resort over the weekend. I don’t ever recall talking to perfect strangers at a resort when a hockey game is on.

The Olympic Run can extend to your day. Your meetings. Your lunch date. You can fire up instant motivation by watching the amazing Canadian Tire ad, #StepUpStandTall. I think it’s another beauty from Neil McOstrich at Cleansheet. Though I haven’t verified it. Every day, Canadians take the podium in Canada.

Or, crank up the SportCheck #WhatItTakes spot. I am unabashedly stealing every word from that script for my next pregame speech.

The Olympics are only every two years, and that is what makes them both so amazing and so aggravating. Why can’t we have a season of Olympics? I could easily listen to Scott Russell weekly, tell stories about great Canadians. I know, it just wouldn’t be the same.

So far Rio hasn’t messed up the Games the way the world’s media said they would. So far Michael Phelps has continued to amaze. So far the Russians have received the reception they deserve. So far it has been an Olympics to remember.

I can’t wait for the rest of the run!

I am officially addicted to watching the U.S. elections.

So much, that I need a fact checker to see if I have used that opening line in any of my previous 2016 blog posts. Unfortunately, no fact checkers are available until December as they have been put on 24/7 Melania surveillance. Regardless, my addiction is incessantly increasing its power and has an unshakeable hold on me.

Every waking, and many sleeping, minutes of my day I am reaching for my devices to read the latest twist and turn in the Trump Trainwreck. I have had to exercise unbelievable restraint for not adding to #trumpsacrifices on an hourly basis. Does that constitute a #mh3sacrifice? Park for a minute my fear that he will win, which is dreaded in 19 of the G20 countries, except for Russia (shocking), according to a weekend poll. Park for a minute my disgust at his recent attack on the Khan family. Park for a minute my amazement that America has let this get this far. Park for a minute that Republican after Republican is criticizing Trump’s words, but not the man.

Park all of that and take a look back at the conventions of the past weeks. The practice of the U.S. nomination convention is unique in scale, emotion, breadth, and drama in the world. Dignitaries from around the world who attended the 2016 coronations, as there was no contesting to be held, marvelled at the emotion and boosterism of these events. Shockingly, the substance-thin Republican convention provided Trump with a historically unparalleled boost in the polls. More shockingly, the tremendously flawed Hillary staged a convention that enabled her to soar over Sanders protesters, doubters about her own past, and baggage around her insider status.

As a marketer, I think they are pretty magical affairs. Assemble a cast of well-known speakers. Some who have all the credentials in the world. Others who are on stage purely for their celebrity power (that doesn’t mean you Scott Baio). Prep each of them to say amazing things about you. Or not so amazing things about your opponent. Add in countless parties, dinners, closed door events, receptions, and VIP shakedowns. Emerge from the shadows on a massive national stage to read a speech written for you (or someone else…) by the best writers in the world. Try to ensure you dominate the Twitter and TV feeds during primetime.

What a machine. It’s why live sports and award shows command huge TV audiences. It’s why telethons used to be the most powerful form of fundraising. It’s why the Beatles were introduced to North America on Ed Sullivan.

The conventions then throw their star subjects into heavily branded buses where they will effectively live for the next three months, crisscrossing the continent in the most impactful and riveting experiential marketing tour in the last four years. They will greet crowds armed with branded collateral, they will mount stages branded to a T, and they will feed social media channels to the gunwales.

Selfie counts will reach new records. Word of mouth will leave people breathless. Daily flash reports of their effectiveness will be microanalyzed by tour managers ready to make midnight tweaks to wardrobe, itinerary, key messaging, even destinations.

Few, if any, brands will ever be able to mount a campaign on the scale of a presidential election. But every brand should consider their programs to be at that level. Where no medium is unturned. Where no moment is left under utilized. Where no volunteer is left untapped.

Brand Clinton, Brand Trump.

Those words will be on a thousand resumes come this December. Only time will tell which will be worth hiring in the future.

My 15-year-old is clueless about Pokémon GO.

He is not alone. He and eight other teens his age have been held isolated in an incubator called the Nahanni River for the past month. They paddled 500 kilometres. Hiked a mountain for five days. Managed their food rations to ensure they didn’t starve, yet they were always starving. Braved the elements and cold. It was single digits some days and pouring rain.

Most amazingly they had no connection to civilization. To wireless. To their devices. To video games. To their Xboxes and iPhones.

 

My God, they have no clue about Pokémon GO.

He discovered this by accident the other night. When he finally reached the 80-person town of Nahanni Butte, he was able to access WiFi. Oldest son was able to call home and speak to Mom and then Younger Brother. What news could Younger Brother possibly have that compares with a trip to the Northwest Territories?

“Pokémon GO has crashed the Internet in Japan!” he proclaimed. To which my tripper son replied, “Uh, what is Pokémon GO?!”

Wow. Imagine that. I am going to have to explain to my 15-year-old what Pokémon GO is. So let me test out my description on you.

1. It’s not a video game. It’s the world’s largest board game.

2. It’s truly social media, because people are not only making new friends while playing, they are doing it without a headset and even having conversations with human beings!

3. It’s a tourism marketing campaign. Players are visiting parts of their city they have never seen before.

4. It’s the most amazing fitness app ever invented.

5. Local animal shelter pets believe that it was actually invented to get them walked and adopted.

6. Unfortunately, local thieves believe it was created to help them commit more larceny.

7. For all the hyperbole that online ads sell, this is finally an online ad that drives retail foot traffic.

8. It’s too simple to be so addictive. Which is why it’s so addictive. In other words, it has forever validated the Keep It Simple, Stupid axiom.

9. It has made me mad that I didn’t buy stocks in a mobile phone battery booster company three weeks ago.

10. It’s proving that humans can’t walk and talk, or walk and battle at the same time.

11. Momentarily, it had my 85-year-old father convinced that his fishing lure collection was priceless. (Okay I may have made that one up.)

12. It has been the subject of more creative brainstorms in history, where every agency was convinced they would be the first to utilize it in a stunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Zjzk_t6JY

Admittedly, I had no idea what Pokémon GO was until two weeks ago. Nor did I see it coming. Nor am I an expert yet. However, I am thrilled it is here and demonstrating the power of how a great idea can scale internationally.

Because your boss just asked you to take a conference call with a key customer on the Friday of the long weekend. Or because your husband and 11-year-old son were run over by a deranged man in a two-tonne truck on your 40th birthday trip to Nice?

Because you got stuck behind a woman in a minivan turning left into the daycare. Or because your boyfriend had four bullets pumped into him during a routine traffic inspection?

Because the barista at your coffee shop made you repeat your order twice. Or because you were gunned down while on duty in an ambush in Baton Rouge?

Because the wait for your patio table at dinner was ten minutes longer than the hostess promised. Or because your 21-year-old nephew lost his footing while hiking in the B.C. alpine with his friends and fell 200 metres to his death?

Because the air conditioning in your home isn’t working and you’re in the middle of a heat wave. Or because your neighbour was murdered in her own bedroom, along with her nine-year-old granddaughter?

Because the subway was delayed 20 minutes and you got to work late. Or because your uncle, a renowned geologist, was killed by helicopter gunfire commanded by rebel troops while protesting against the attempted 24-hour coup in your nation’s capital?

Because you had to slam your breaks when someone cut you off on the highway to make a quick exit and you spilled your coffee. Or because your dad slipped and fell into Albion Falls and drowned in front of you and your family while hiking?

Because there was a baby two rows behind you on your flight home who cried at least twice. Or because you nosedived into the runway performing for 20,000 air show fans at Cold Lake Alberta?

Because your neighbours had a party and woke you up at 2AM last night. Or because your brother strangled your sister while she was sleeping in her own bed, to protect the family’s honour because she posted something online?

Because I didn’t write an uplifting blog. Or?

Our world is a very messed up place right now.

Terrorism. Racism. Secession. Recession. Brexit. Zika. It’s an easy list to keep adding to. I haven’t even mentioned the U.S. election yet, nor the Fort McMurray recovery process, nor the casualty rate of urban cyclists in Toronto.

There is a lot more going on than Pokémon Go’s virtual world can solve, that’s for sure.

Personally I have been struggling to find my voice. Would adding my commentary to the BLM protest at the Pride parade really help when I am not a member of the LGBT community? Would recalling my tales of being pulled over in Toronto for DWB (Driving While Black) contradict my fundamental respect for the courage of those who choose to protect me and my family? Would beseeching my government to stop terrorism make me any safer at home or abroad? Just because I live in a Commonwealth country, does that justify my having an opinion on Brexit?

Maybe it isn’t finding my voice that is the challenge, but rather finding a voice that can contribute to solving these problems. I am sure I am not alone in this quandary. Each of these global flash points are fuelling massive online and offline conversations. Just days ago I was at a party where highly educated people were telling me they have cancelled travel plans this summer for fear of their safety. Their destination? Nashville, Tennessee! They aren’t alone. Look at the unbelievable surge in tourism to places like Cape Breton. Pay attention to the speculation of real estate price surges in countries like Canada that Brexit is causing.

At dinner tables, coffee shops, and offices the discussion about Black Lives versus All Lives versus My Life has taken over. Even the MLB All-Star Game, thanks to the formerly named Canadian Tenors. I am over fifty and rarely have I had more discussion about race with my colleagues, friends, and family than now. Every time I unlock my phone I brace myself for another shooting or protest. My sadness over innocent cops being slaughtered is as profound as a poor guy being killed as a result of a busted taillight. How?

I doubt you will see me protesting. Or wearing an inflammatory shirt. Or writing an op-ed to the nation’s most respected media sources. But I have to do something. I can’t sit idly by. So I will do this.

I will share a message with you. To my colleagues in business. In sport. In philanthropy. In marketing. In entrepreneurship. In advertising. In volunteer coaching. In life.

The World Needs Your Business.

The World Needs Your Business to support equality and inclusiveness.

The World Needs Your Business to support the sharing of resources and the spreading of wealth.

The World Needs Your Business to seek honest leaders who are tolerant and progressive.

The World Needs Your Business to rescue Mideast refugees, fund park rangers defending endangered lands and species in Africa, and to invest in jobs that will get youth out of drug gangs in Mexico.

The World Needs Your Business to dispel propaganda, unwrite years of hatred, and rewire brains schooled to despise their perceived enemies.

We are a planet of wealth, resources, and abundance. Yet it is held hostage by a few, to the detriment of others. I am not a socialist, but I am a humanist. People need help. The world needs to be saved by the people who inhabit it. Hatred stems from not having the basics. Hatred stems from having no hope. Hatred stems from starvation.

Businesses around the world can and must play a role. They must do more than hang rainbow flags in their windows. They must do more than parade out their diversity programs. They must do more than promise ethical sourcing.

Businesses are filled with people. You. Me. Humans. Businesses are not machines. But they are the most significant organizational entities in the world. There are thirty-five million active soldiers in the ten largest armies in the world. That’s just around the population of Canada. It’s time for the rest of the world’s non-combat troops to form an army for change. You can be a leader of those forces.

The World Needs Your Business. The World Needs You. I Need You.

Saturday I got a lesson in how short-sighted I can be.

Do you value your ability to find hidden gems? Whether they be in ideas, people, music, stocks, books, restaurants, bars, parks, running trails or even downtown parking spots. A hidden gem is a triumph of discovery. A hidden gem is a victory of exclusiveness. A hidden gem is a celebration of being the first to know.

Lots of people pride themselves in their ability to discover such gems. It’s what makes for a successful career in the arts or sports. It’s what provides credibility to a reviewer. It’s what positions your friend as the go-to for social or sartorial advice. It’s what makes a great talent manager in the workplace.

I am constantly on the hunt for gems. While decidedly old school I pore over countless hard copy industry magazines looking for emerging strategies, conventions, and ideas. Equally time consuming is my overwhelming feed of online newsletters, tip providers, e-newsletters and blog feeds. Short of sleeping with my iPad, avoiding all meal and related restroom visits, I couldn’t possibly consume every pixel sent my way. But I try.

At work, I constantly pay attention to which young stars are shining with our clients and watching them ascend. At our agency, I love hearing about the star intern who is touted as the one to hire before we lose her to another company’s full-time opportunity. Similarly keeping my ear to the ground for intel on competitor’s talent or a bloom occurring on the property side.

My favourite place to discover tomorrow’s today is on the gridiron. Nothing is more thrilling as a coach than to witness a raw athlete finding their legs. You can attach any flowery metaphor you care to, in describing their growth from shy first-timer to suddenly confident contributor. Mistakenly we credit our whistle-touting selves as the fatherly creator of this arising team saviour, when really the young babe had it in them all along. Win, lose, or draw the emergence of the hidden gem provides countless hours of group congratulatory dialogue for you and your fellow coaches.

Except when the hidden gem is buried right in front of you and you don’t see it. Except when the hidden gem puts their hand up a year ago to play a key position on the team and you say no, we have three experienced team members who can play that spot already. Except when this hidden gem can be so lazy on the practice field, you call him unmotivated. Except you didn’t realize he’s a gamer. Except when you didn’t realize that maybe your 51-year-old mind’s approach to practice is much different than a kid’s approach.

Let’s go full circle to my self-directed anger on Saturday. A crisis had struck our team at this crucial position. Our starter, and star, was away at camp and we needed a replacement. The hidden gem came on the field with only 1-1/2 practices under his belt in this role. Despite the fact he played for me for 12 weeks last spring, and 12 weeks last fall, and we’re already ten weeks into this spring season, just 1-1/2 practices. Because when he asked if he could play this spot, I saw his lazy practice habits and said no. I didn’t look beneath the surface at the gem.

In that short practice time he was a changed man. I still doubted whether he could do it in the game. It wasn’t enough practice time. I was kicking myself. I could have prepped him for a year and a half.

I deserved those kicks. He was outstanding. He played carefree, made several stunning plays on the field, energized his teammates, shook off mistakes and kept on rolling. Every one of our coaches was amazed. Dumbstruck. In awe. You know when you close your eyes to rewind a play in your personal VR mind and you can’t help but smile as you can recall frame by frame every move, deke, and missed tackle. He did do all that you have to tell yourself, with a confident smile on your face.

But he could have been so much more. If I had only listened. I could have had him more ready for today. I could have had him playing this spot last year. I could have, should have, would have.

Instead I judged a book by its cover. Which I usually pride myself in not doing. That’s why my former 255-pound high school centre is now playing pro ball in Germany, as a QUARTERBACK, and lighting it up on the field, to the point where higher division teams are lighting up his phone with contract offers. In today’s case, it’s a lazy practice player, who maybe isn’t lazy. Maybe I am just boring him with my old school practice approach.

Lesson learned for me. Slow down. Eliminate the distractions. Stop my mouth from opening before my ears have. Listen carefully. Someone is trying to tell me something and it doesn’t matter if they are only 12 years old.

They are a gem to be seen.