Do you feel overwhelmed? Your plate is too full and everything keeps piling on. New projects seem to add hours to your day and you do not have enough time for errands, family, friends or trips. Before you set out on any experience, just like when you travel, you need a plan, have a process and become organized in your mission.

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Social Scene has produced concepts in 12 cities across the US, every year over the past 7, the challenge became greater, the workload longer and instead of seeing a greater return, we found ourselves overwhelmed, undervalued and spending time on tasks that most companies automate. Education is power and we started searching for ways to take the 20 tabs on our computer screen down to at least 10. We did not want to have to keep updating databases and storing contacts in spreadsheets. We needed a better way to acquire leads and spend more time on being creative than managing the administrative requirements.

To start, we added Hubspot. A CRM (customer relationship management) and email automation system similar to Salesforce and Pardot. I had tried Salesforce but my team did not adapt to it very well. Hubspot was very user friendly, with video training and many more touch points than the standard Salesforce. It also only increases in price as your database does, so unlike Salesforce which charges more based on new employees, your costs go up as your contacts and customers go up. We started to automate, create personas for each city we worked in and setup forms to better store and capture customer data. Instead of going to an old spreadsheet of past whiskey brands, we now had that stored and updated each time we would have a new concept to share.



Then, after reading the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, highly recommended, we started to see the importance of having a plan. One chapter in this book discusses how US military in Iraq were going through homes trying to find artillery left behind or hidden. There was no order and process and often the troops missed rooms and then would come back to base only to have a tangled mess to sort through of what they collected on the day. They decided they had to clean up the process and nominated a task for each team member; one person to photograph, document, enter each room, collect materials and so forth.

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At first, the teams were angry with this new process, it was time consuming and they felt it would further risk their lives. After a few days of structure, the troops were actually completing each search even faster than they had before and because they documented everything onsite, they went back to base and had time to further dive into the materials and strategize their future plans.



When we launch any new concept we spend time to come up with a plan and process of how our customers are going to engage with us, the follow up that needs to be planned out and how the information will be stored. By setting up a process, it allows us more time to connect with our clients, spend time on other parts of the concept and leave time in our day for creativity. Being an experiential marketing company, we must continue to create fun and engaging concepts while also focusing on not sacrificing the quality of the user experience.



So how does this relate to you? In work or your personal life, make a plan and process. Take just a few minutes to decide how you are going to accomplish something before you go and tackle it. Take the time to visualize it or write it out. Whether it is errands around town, a birthday party or your favorite show to watch, while you still need time to workout, or whether it is something at work where you have a full plate and a new project just got added. Take some time to dissect the task at hand, form a plan and potentially even ask for help on some of the components. You will be surprised this will allow for you to come up with a healthier and creative way to attack all of life’s tasks and challenges giving you a more satisfying experience and not overwhelming you.

Producing tasting events is in our repertoire too. Learn how to produce your own tasting event by signing up to Social Scene's Event Academy below.

We all have the ability to do so much, but at times find ourselves rushing and making mistakes or overwhelming ourselves and missing certain key details; or the absolute worst part, not enjoying the experience all together. We challenge you to take some time the next time you have a challenge, create a plan and a systematic process to attack your tasks at hand and you will have a fulfilling and successful experience.

Be Social. Be Seen.

Connect with us at BeSocialScene.com, william@besocialscene.com, @BeSocialScene, #BeSocialScene or 312.488.4838!

Cheers!

William Holdeman
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
Social Scene



Social Scene (BeSocialScene.com) - An online and onsite solution to corporate event planning and brand building! Build your brand with your team, clients, or the community around you! We work with you to produce custom online and onsite experiential concepts to build your brand!