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Spent last night packing for my hosting duties at the 2014 Canadian Sponsorship Forum in Ottawa. I hate packing; it’s like moving. Which I also hate.

Packed two different shirts for the “Night at the Museum” dinner event. Partly because I can’t decide if I am wearing a sports coat or not.

Packed two different pairs of pants for The Killers concert at RBC Bluesfest. Again, not sure if I should wear my beige denim or my khaki baseball pants from Intuition.

Was able to decide on which toothbrush to bring. My souvenir Pittsburgh Steelers model is my road trip go-to.

Packed six (!) pairs of shoes and then realized this morning that my new Nike runners were left behind. Guess I am headed home before tripping to the airport.

Packed a new liver. If you have been to Forum you’ll know why.

Looked around for replacement vocal chords. Couldn’t find any. Guess I will have to use sign language to host, come Friday.

Packed a rain coat but really didn’t want to. Going to ask my Pops to do his rain dance and scare away the clouds.

Didn’t have any toothpaste for that Steelers brush. Hoping the hotel store is open when I land. Check that, it won’t be. I should head out at lunch today to do a RX run.

Packed Sports Illustrated. It will soon take a privileged spot in my hotel bathroom. Yes that’s TMI… but where else do guys read SI?

Didn’t pack a map of Ottawa – I have my friends from Ottawa Tourism who will keep me pointed due north.

If you thought seven pairs of shoes were too much, you should see how many pairs of socks I’m on-boarding!

Almost packed my own speaker gift. That didn’t make any sense since I would be bringing it back to Toronto after presenting it to myself, which makes even less sense! But I want to show it off because it’s so amazing. Thanks Reward Connections.

Still thinking about my clothes and wish I got some advice from my ‘nephew’ Dave St. Helene. DSH & the 365 Productions crew are packing all of our amazing AV staging for the conference.

Left a little room to throw in any last minute purchases from ROOM 2046. Never been? It’s my emergency fashion depot when I’m not feeling prepared. It’s only a four-minute walk from my office!

See you in Bytown!

Spent my weekend walking the dog, washing the car, watching World Cup, and writing my final speaking notes for hosting CSFX next week in Ottawa.

Words I’m never at a loss for. But the right words take more work than some wanna-be witty weekend alliterations.

How many times have you written a presentation and halfway through giving it…..wished you had gone a different direction?

Carefully orchestrated slides suddenly seeming like they were sequenced by a teenager working the sub counter at your local food court.

Builds and special effects rendered useless by the realization that they are distracting your focus substantially more than they are engaging your audience.

Witty titles generating zero laughter and punch line copy eliciting genuine disinterest.

Thousands of dollars spent on Toastmasters, days spent studying Dale Carnegie, and hours obsessing over Tony Robbins videos suddenly wasted by the enormity of your failure.

There is no lonelier place in the world than the stage hosting the failing speech giver.

As comfortable as I am in this arena, I can tell you I’ve had my failures. My first, and only, IEG workshop I ran. Horrible! They’ve never asked me back. A dine-and-learn I did many years ago for a client in the trade show business? Way too long and far too theoretical. The worst? A conference hosted for the home birthing industry, who thought they had huge sponsorship potential. That’s when I realized it was time to stop saying yes to every invitation and perhaps read past the first sentence of the conference description, which I’m not sure we even got to in this case.

Thankfully, hopefully, the good presentations I’ve delivered significantly outnumber the bad. If they do, it’s because of a simple secret I learned along the journey of being presentation polygamist. It’s one I’m happy to share with you today. It’s one I hope I practice sufficiently next week at CSFX. If you’re there, you can let me know.

The secret is that a great speech isn’t about the speaker or their expertise or their learning or their research or their learnings.

A great speech is about you.

A great speech tells your story.

A great speech is the town crier of the audience.

No one wants to sit in a room and hear about someone else. They want to hear about themselves.

You may be quick to comment that this is an obvious piece of advice. Of course it is. Like many great words of wisdom, they are obvious. So are many great strategies whether they are for business, sport, or war.

But the hard part isn’t the strategy. The hard part is executing on the strategy. First with determining the creative theme, then determining relevant content, and finally packaging including the story arc. That’s the hard part.

But I also find it the easy part. Next week at CSFX I’m going to do a Top Ten moments from our ten years of staging the Canadian Sponsorship Forum, now known as CSFX. Since it wouldn’t sound professional of me to talk about my cage-dancing episode in Quebec City in 2009, none of these moments will be about me. All of them will be about you.

(Editor’s Note: there will be two that include reference to the author….who by the way is also the editor….therefore almost nullifying any genuine credibility nearly created by this entire “it’s about you” blog.)

Generating ten great Canadian Sponsorship Forum moments will only be challenging when it comes to whittling down the options. That’s what I did this weekend.

Thinking back over the past ten years had my juices flowing. A month ago I was panicked for ideas. Had some input from my Advisory Committee and then got stalled again. But now feel pretty good about it because I spent hours flipping through delegate lists of days gone by and remembering what experiences you had at Forum. That’s not to say I’ve nailed it shut. So if you have any input, let me know. There is still time for a new slide or two.

My Top Ten list is a tiny part of this year’s conference. If you’re coming to CSFX 2014 in Ottawa, partnered with the RBC Ottawa Bluesfest, I hope you are Ready to Rock. Because we’ve got so much going on: the return of our Ball Hockey Tournament; Dana White; live music every time you turn around; amazing delegates; Chris Overholt of the COC; a private stage-right party area for the Killers concert; surprise guests from TSN; the CMO of L’Oréal Canada; Jeff Craib of the Feldman Agency; the global CEO of iON America LLC; the second Most Valuable Property Study; Bell Media Quebec, RBC, MBNA, Kruger Products, Molson Coors Canada, SAP, PwC Canada, TELUS, The Coca-Cola Company, StubHub; Vanessa Thomas of Songza; an amazing evening of food, culture, and music with Ottawa Tourism; and probably the BEST Don Mayo presentation ever given by someone named Don Mayo. Right Don Mayo?

If you’re coming, hopefully you can already see yourself there! Let’s get Ready to Rock!

It’s time for Daniel Snyder to learn a lesson from Donald Sterling. That’s probably not articulated properly. What I mean is the owner of the Washington based National Football League franchise, known as the Redskins since they moved from Boston in 1937, should learn a lesson from the debacle caused by the accused racist owner of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers.

The lesson is around the potential ROI to be generated from a raw nerve situation. In the Sterling case, it was the overwhelming condemnation of his racist rant that led to the eventual sale of his team for an unbelievable $2 billion. Sterling may be banned from the NBA for life, but his $1.987 billion profit on the team sale, less acquisition costs, should allow him to rebound quite quickly. It’s sick that this sort of man could end up so richly and inadvertently profiting from his mean-spirited actions. Perhaps Snyder should understand he has the opportunity to generate similar level of profiteering. Snyder hasn’t engaged in the same blatant hatred that Sterling is accused of. But he has withstood significant societal pressure to change the Redskins’ nickname. Native American groups, social commentators, and just last week the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board have all deemed the moniker disparaging.

Snyder continues to defend the status quo by claiming the Redskins name is a tribute to Native Americans. Funny, they don’t seem to agree. Naively, I was supportive of the status quo until the Trademark Board ruling. Their ruling opened my eyes, that this name truly is offensive. Their ruling also worries me because it constitutes censorship. Thankfully I live in the GWN, far from their jurisdiction.

The reasons I had been supportive were completely unscientific yet deeply personal to me. First off, I am big supporter of tradition. I don’t like to see franchises move, uniforms changed, leagues restructured, rules tweaked, or nicknames altered. That said, I love replay in football, the new Seattle Seahawks uniforms and am fine the Cardinals are in Phoenix. But I deplore the Titans in Tennessee versus the Oilers in Houston, same with the Ravens in Baltimore. Can’t stand the kick-off and kick return rules, and really hate overtime.

In my mind when the Redskins were named in 1932 after debuting as the Braves, I somehow doubt the name was adopted to insult Native Americans. The intent was probably to distinguish them from the baseball team of the same name, which at the time also resided in Boston. So my second rationale for support was intent.

My third reason toyed around with the concept of limitation. If the Washington NFL team were to change their name, what about the Chiefs of Kansas City or the Browns of Cleveland? Would animals in Detroit, meat packers in Green Bay, pirates in Oakland, Norsemen in Minnesota and birds in both Arizona and Atlanta also get equally upset? Would their complaints not also be justified? Where would the pressure to change stop? Never I would assume.

But it takes little thought to see that calling someone a Viking is a source of pride, as opposed to a label such as Plunderer. Lion feels powerful; Mutilator not so nice. Brown is a tribute to a football legend; Brownie is a taunt kids in Orillia threw my way growing up.

Redskin. Say the word slowly. Call someone that. Hey Redskin! Sound complimentary? Motivating? Honourable?

So here is my appeal to Donald Snyder. He’s a very successful businessman. Now is the time to add to that success. Learn from the Clippers example. Dump the name. Create a public campaign for a new one. Engage your constituents. Make your enemies your allies. Ride into the stadium on a White Horse. Become a hero.

If feeling great about yourself isn’t enough to motivate you. If cementing your off-field legacy isn’t enough to sway you. If realizing it’s 2014 isn’t enough to enlighten you, then maybe money will be. A new name, a new logo, a new brand will fill your bank account. Thousands of new jerseys will need to be purchased. Existing swag will become even more valuable. Sponsors will have a field day with activations. The media will triple your coverage. Ceremonies, ringing cash registers, corporate sponsors will all arrive at your feet.

It’s sad, but controversy drives celebrity brands. The Gulf War propelled CNN. OJ and the Bronco chase gilded it. A sex video introduced Paris Hilton the world. Dead rappers make millions. Abusive rappers even more. Donald Sterling had a jealous rant and hit a gold mine.

Mr. Snyder has the opportunity to manage this controversy and win. But the clock is ticking. We are in the 3rd quarter and the Redskins are behind. Snyder is pretty used to losing on the field. It’s been the hallmark of his ownership tenure. Maybe he can turn things around on this name game, before he loses yet again!

It must be a life changing moment to score a goal in the FIFA World Cup. Especially for those players who represent the nations who regard just making it to the tournament as the beginning and end of their accomplishments.

To suggest that goals in soccer are few and far between is patronizingly obvious. Reality is the concern about few-and-far-between scores is nothing more than an over trodden American media issue. If bountiful amounts of scoring made a sport more interesting, then the NFL would have been long overtaken by the Arena Football League. Clearly that’s not the case. Or if unfettered points really mattered so much to fans, why don’t millions of Americans play fantasy cricket? Question to those better informed than me: does fantasy cricket even exist???

Back to that goal scoring moment.

In the span of three days last weekend, I went from watching FIFA on my office television, to catching a game in Toronto’s Little Italy on College Street, to watching games in Soho and then Governor’s Island, in the East River (NY), on an outdoor screen. In every case, the moment of that goal happening was golden. The player celebration is punctuated by the look in the scorer’s eyes that fully realizes this may never happen again in their lifetime. Yet that lone goal becomes a part of their infinite identity. The bench erupting. In the stadium, both the native fans of the team and those ticket holders who adopted them, just for that single match, rejoicing in song. Fans back in the home country exploding like mistakenly mixed elements of happiness, relief, surprise, and expectation.

One thing my varied viewing situations reinforced was a truism I’ve always held about this sport: the sound a soccer crowd makes for a goal is unlike any other. The sound represents a collective feeling of the fans, viewers, and spectators of the moment. It’s a feeling that the credit for the goal belongs to more than just solely the foot, or head, of the man (or woman) whose name will be entered into the match agate line. It’s a belief that no matter how masterful the touch, the control, the move, the bend of the shot…..there was more to it. It’s a belief that no matter how timely, pretty, or precise the cross, the corner, the connection….there was more to it.

For if you study a goal in soccer, its creation is often many touches before the ball hits the twine. The unsuspecting ball has been played by both opponents in a mysterious sequence that even a chaos theorist could not predict. But at some magical point, the advantage was gained and as a result, the scoreboard was soon to be reset. Watching for this moment, you start to learn how to spot the moment the advantage is created. Fans of traditional soccer nations do more than watch for it. They will for it. They pray for it. Many of them take credit for it.

That’s the beauty of a soccer goal. The fans truly believe it was their goal. It was their prayers that were answered by the soccer gods who directed the ball homeward. It was their intense willing that travelled halfway around the world and energized the legs of their heroes. It was their karma-inducing rituals that released the chain of events.

In many ways they are right. Their role as part of the team can be as important as the midfielder who chipped the ball ahead or the half who first regained possession. Soccer at this level can only be competitive when the team plays as one. But to win requires more. It requires you, the fans, as well as the type of divine intervention only the most passionate can create.

I truly believe that. Enjoy the matches.

We’re Looking for Leaders!

It’s a phrase one of my assistant coaches often booms at our 11 & 12 year old Pee-Wee football players during warm-ups and drills. I love this phrase. Coach unleashes it when the the team isn’t organized in straight lines, trying hard enough in drills, or generally not paying attention. Yet instead of highlighting the negative, he has issued a positive challenge.

We’re Looking for Leaders!

Lately I have been reading some inspiring works about how to build great organizations, and sharing them with you. If you don’t have time to read them all, or my blogs for that matter, just commit to consuming Jim Collins’ Good to Great and you will be well equipped. But what I didn’t realize was that while I have been striving for professional improvement in leading my company, my volunteer football coaching (it’s my 11 year old son’s spring team), was also providing me with some valuable team building lessons. They resonate loudly through my coaching colleague’s words.

We’re Looking for Leaders!

Building a youth football team is much like building an organization. However, there are some critical differences between the two, besides not paying the Pee-Wee’s to play! First, I didn’t recruit the players and they didn’t apply. They just signed up. We don’t have enough bodies to cut anyone, so the interview is really our pre-season practices/training camp. The second is that, for the most part, at work I don’t have to manage the employee and their parents. But with youth sports, the volunteer boss (coach) has to be prepared to deal with the parent-agent. So far this season that has included a 6:00 AM call (true, but to be fair I texted the player’s Dad first to say I was free to talk!). Lengthy post-game emails from parents that made me suspicious that some were constructed pre-game. Practice field chats after the parent circles me like a crow discovering a corpse. Post-game tempers that violate the golden rule of wait 24 hours to deal with game issues. And everything else you can imagine. Yet I relish it. I truly do love working with the parents to help set expectations for my players and their children. So bring it on I say! Engaged parents are much better than disengaged. Besides I now have a simple message for them.

We’re Looking for Leaders!

The hardest part about coaching pre-tweens in rep sports is managing their expectations. Most conversations with my young charges and their loving guardians is around playing time, position assignments, and roles on the team. It’s a subject I am particularly sensitive to; both of my own children have endured some ill-managed experiences with other coaches in the last two years. The impossible balancing act is managing the player’s/parents’ assessment of their skills with the coaching staff’s. Like any situation where opinion is involved, there are bound to be immense differences. Youth sports teams often mirror our workplaces, with the player playing the role of the employee who often feels unappreciated by the coach, or boss figure. The reality in the parallel arenas is both sides are probably correct. The mandate for me as coach is to objectively identify the gap and positively communicate this message for my both my young players and young employees. I now have some powerful words to do so!

We’re Looking for Leaders!

The players on my team who aren’t being placed in the role they want isn’t due to lack of skill. It’s Effort. Commitment. Focus. My role as the coach is to build my players up to their maximum potential to create the best team possible. I can provide motivation, clear instructions, and a well-structured environment. But only the individual can provide the heart. That’s what will earn them the coveted position on the field. It’s the same at my office. The interns who stampede out at 5:00 PM don’t realize they are in the midst of a four month job interview. The account manager who emails a client about a sticky issue, versus calling them, doesn’t realize I am writing their annual performance review 365 days a year. The exec from one of our suppliers who is disrespectful to my team needs to know I am my own best headhunter prowling for talent that will help us grow as an organization. They should always pay heed to these words.

We’re Looking for Leaders!

“This would be a great business if it weren’t for clients and staff.”

This is a bizarre old quote from the marketing agency world. I don’t know who first said it. I don’t know who most recently said it. Both the creator and subsequent relayers have it wrong. The agency business is great for those very reasons: clients and staff. This is a people business beyond question. We work with talented people trying to solve the challenge of motivating other people to buy, endorse, consume, recommend, and eternally love the products and services of a third group of people whose careers are tied to the success of our work.

What could be more interesting than that?

It’s what gets me out of bed every day at 5-something o’clock. Yes in the AM. It’s what keeps me reading emails, industry blogs and case study videos at midnight.

Feel free to heckle. But I love what I do. I love my industry. I can’t tell you how lucky I am.

This Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of my agency TrojanOne. For twenty years I have been challenged with introducing my clients to more consumers. For twenty years I have enjoyed learning how an unimaginable range of industries work. For twenty years I have been surrounded by highly motivated and hard working individuals who have amazed me with their passion, dedication, and inspiration.

Thank you, people. My clients, staff, colleagues, and consumers of the past, the present and the future.

It’s fun becoming a twenty-something.

Mere minutes after the Raptors bandwagon came up one point short against the Nets, a friend mentioned how much they are going to miss the city-wide atmosphere around the playoff run.

You know you live in Toronto when an opening round series, albeit a seven game series, is considered a playoff “run.” But in the 416, even Drake’s 416, seven games of playoff action is a europhic lifetime.

Soon my fellow citizens of Ford Nation will emerge from a different kind of stupor and realize we are right back where we always were: Drinking heavily from a cracked pipe full of offseason optimism. Who really needs abuse therapy? Toronto sports fans.

What do we have to look forward to? A remade TFC squad that still has loads of potential but will be without its best player during the World Cup? A last place Blue Jays team that seems to be more stable than its overhyped 2013 model, but in a division of titans that requires much more consistency? Or perhaps the gridiron Argos, who should have been in back to back Grey Cups last year save for the antics of some Steely rivals?

For basketball and hockey fans it’s now time for the offseason. The months where everyone is a champion and no one is a chump. It’s a season of fiction, fantasy, and forgetfulness. Of reality that is.

If you want to drift into true sports offseason fiction, check out the movie Draft Day. It stars a Kevin Costner decades removed from his Bull Durham glory, and the expansion of the Cleveland Browns who have to look even further back to the original franchise for true glory.

Draft Day is ninety minutes of cliches and Jennifer Garner modeling maternity wear. Then it erupts into thirty minutes of drama, tension, frustration, emotion, and elation. In fact it closes so fast, so unexpectedly, and so uniquely I actually cried during one scene.

So like any good Toronto sports fan who has proven they can weather the storm of defeat, Draft Day offers some highs after a bout of lows. It’s worth watching. It will stoke your offseason optimism.

Plus it will free you from my relentless campaign of Rob Ford puns.

Last week the Neanderthal known as Donald Sterling, born as Donald Tokowitz, decided to take on Magic Johnson in an ill advised game of 1:1.

Tokowitz, who under his current name owns the Los Angeles Clippers, has decided that his current alleged mistress should not be hanging out with Magic Johnson.

Johnson, also known as Earvin, is a humanitarian, NCAA Champion, HIV survivor, NBA Champion, entrepreneur, Olympic Champion, philanthropist, and African-American.

Sterling is an alleged racist, alleged adulterer, alleged bigot, alleged feudal landlord, alleged NBA role model, and according to him, a Superior-American.

Sterling has been fined for evicting tenants from his apartment buildings based on race.

Sterling has been accused of refusing medical coverage to a key employee with cancer.

Sterling has been accused of calling his players “poor black boys from the South.”

With a resume like this, you can see why he is so confident of taking on a slouch like Magic – the same Magic who actually thought he was a friend of Sterling’s!

This morning I heard on the radio that the NBA is considering an “indefinite” suspension for Sterling. That doesn’t sit well with me at all. I think the only course of action is for the NBA to DEFINITELY and DEFIANTLY suspend Sterling.

His type of racism isn’t acceptable at a pickup game, let alone an NBA game, let alone by an NBA owner! I wonder how he would feel if Magic told people to not hang around Sterling because he is Jewish?

Actually, that’s a question I don’t need to ponder.

Update: NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced on Tuesday, April 29 that Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA and has been fined $2.5 million. The fine will be donated to organizations dedicated to anti-discrimination and tolerance efforts. Click here for more information.