THURSDAY, November 19: The One Big Thing - Business on the Brink of a Breakthrough with Jamie Mason Cohen

On Thursday, Nov. 19, MPIGNY welcomed back Genie Award Nominee Jamie Mason Cohen to lead us through an inspiring virtual education workshop on "THE ONE BIG THING: Business on the Brink of a Breakthrough" sponsored by Visit Raleigh. Jamie shared key findings from his interviews with meeting and hospitality business owners for his TV pilot, "Business on the Brink":

1. Mindset shift - Ultimately, as a meeting planner, what you do now for your clients might be summed up in once sentence: "Your business is about bringing your clients together in informal situations so they can share and build culture together.” If you define yourself only by what you do or did pre-COVID, it is significantly more challenging to pivot because you say, "No, but we only do X.”
2. Adapt to NEW client challenges - You might go to your clients and say, "I know your business. I like the challenge you have in this new environment. I have a solution that might be a fit for you.”
3. Be more positive about virtual - You might consider not saying on your website that virtual is never going to be like face-to-face. That’s not a way to sell a new solution to a client. Say the opposite: "Thankfully, we’re virtual because we can do these 21 things we could never do before. What an opportunity!” That is what pulls clients to you. It’s that level of confidence and possibility. Dial it up!
4. Business blessing in disguise - The pandemic has given you the ability to step back and take a look at the service you’re really providing your clients. It’s given you the space to look at the problems you’re really solving for them and to gain an advantage in your business space where others are resistant to change. What problem do you want to solve for your clients NOW?
5. The hard truth - The workplace has fundamentally changed. The biggest problem a lot of employees are going to have is one that you solve as a meeting planner: EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT. Not just for the big conferences, but the day-to-day engagement of employees in an organization — virtually. How are you going to give an organization a toolkit to engage their teams every single day, not just the three days at a destination? Now is the time to step back and create a new vision of what the workplace is going to be and how you’re going to play in it.
6. Revise your sales pitch about virtual - You might ask a leader/client: "You’re going to address your organization at a really critical time to deliver an important message and what happens? Your dog starts barking, your two-year-old walks into the room. This  is how you want to lead your organization? We can help make you look professional here." This is the solution people have been looking for.
7. Create a subscription service - Say:  "When your executives are communicating with employees and clients, you want to create a really professional experience, right? We can give you that environment. You will pay so much per month and that entitles you to [ … ] per month or [your services here]. Additional time will cost X. A group subscription will cost each participant X."
8. Provide a sponsored service to support frontline workers - Reach out to a previous client and ask them to sponsor your service or product for a group of frontline workers — nurses, doctors or teachers in your area. Giving out your service becomes social content that has value. The moment of giving becomes your product. Your product or service is just an avenue for something else.
9. Offer a weekly service to help all (their) workers - The pitch: "Here is one single thing you can do to help your employees when they leave the office so that they can be more productive when they come back.” It has human ramifications, helps mental health, offers good PR and is good for showing appreciation to your employees. Deliver something to employees at their homes virtually once per week. Find out their priority problems. Go to HR to see if your solution might fit as a possible solution.
10. Refine your brand story - Identify your brand’s purpose and have a real brand story. Start with: "We believe that … .” In your brand story, tell one or combine three stories: Your average customer’s experience and the pain you solve for them now; your company history; your best success story; and/or why your business exists story, i.e. why the world needs your business now. Why is it important now?
11. Who to contact? - Talk to people on the ground. Start the intelligence process with people you already know. Your friends are probably working in these organizations. Reach out to them tomorrow. On LinkedIn, ask someone who works in a certain organization, "I’m just curious, if I wanted to […], who do you recommend I talk to?” They might be friends with the right person. The connections are already there. Sometimes they will introduce you to that person if it is a win-win.
12. Change your marketing message - You are not in the business of doing LIVE EVENTS now. Instead: You enable senior leadership within an organization to inspire and inform their people. If this resonates, what is the barrier to getting organizations to see they need to dial up virtual on the production end of meetings?
13. Clarify your unique selling proposition - Analyze what your unique selling proposition is versus that segment of your industry and your competition. You might focus on solving a problem related to an organization’s platform. How is an organization going to get its message across effectively now?
14. Partner with competitors and colleagues - Who do you want to be (price-wise) in the market? Who were you in the market before COVID in terms of price point? Could you partner or collaborate with a colleague or competitor who you trust instead of going out on your own?

Jamie followed this up with an in-depth leading-through-change, ONE BIG THING goal-setting session where we learned how to build a mindset that incorporates resilience, optimism and realistic expectations to help us set up 2021 and make it the most meaningful and purposeful year ahead. We extended the learning by connecting and collaborating in small intimate groups with fellow attendees and becoming accountability partners to ensure we achieve our ONE BIG THING goal and carry each other through 2021.