January 2015: Full Contact Project Management

Goals Can Make the Difference!

By "Coach" Gary Micheloni

Leadership comes in different sizes, from people with different abilities and different goals. Consider a couple of things that may be connected by you, the mason contractor running a small business.

Masonry is a primitive technology that has been around for about a bazillion years. And, yet, it still is cutting edge in building design and construction, particularly in the United States. But what about in third-world countries?

An organization I do some marketing work for has the goal of teaching building trades skills, like masonry, to abandoned teenagers who have dropped out of school and are living on the streets in Kenya. For these teens, the sad reality is that if they don’t catch on to some work skills, they won’t survive.

We’re all familiar with masonry apprenticeship programs, which can take months or years to complete. But is there a way to shorten that learning curve? In fact, could an eager teenager be taught meaningful job skills, even how to lay block for a simple structure, within a matter of days or weeks? If that could happen, lives would be changed, with seeds of hope laid along with the block. That might be in either a third-world country or an inner city with huge unemployment.

That’s the amazing thing about our industry. It’s so basic, yet so essential, to our own people, despite the fact that it is often overlooked.

Speaking of cutting edge technology, consider video. As a matter of fact, Video. Video. Video! Did you get it? You better, because you need it.

Consider these points:

• According to Pew Research, 58 percent of Americans own smartphones and 42 percent own tablets.
• Both of these numbers have been rising (trending up) and are expected to continue.
• Tablets are expected to surpass desktop PCs in sales for the first time in 2015.
• About two-thirds of the U.S. population watched some online video content in August 2014.
• Facebook has about 1 billion video views per day; YouTube has 4 billion.
• Video is increasing in popularity, to the extent that YouTube is either the second or third largest search engine.
• Most important: More than half of all online searches are on mobile devices.

Video is growing because people like using it, meaning that you should be employing video in the promotion of your business. If you don’t, sorry to say, but the world – and the masonry industry – will pass you by.

MCAA recognizes this, and will be hosting a one-hour-long webinar with me demonstrating what I like to call “cutting-edge marketing.” For those of you who are camera shy, let me just say that you can implement video marketing without even putting yourself in front of the camera. I’m going to show you examples that you can put into play immediately, many of them completely “done for you,” so that it doesn’t become yet another thing on your already, too-full plate.

All of this, from primitive to high-tech, can and should be used daily by the mason contractor bent on building a business. The skills and durability of masonry construction can change the lives of people living within those walls, as well as the people building them.

The fact that your business has the unique capability to both shelter and to teach should instill confidence and pride. You can supercharge those fine qualities by adding technology, or showing a desperate person how to lay block.

If you’ve ever been out of work, it’s nice to find hope when you are trying to feed your family. But for a lot of people in that situation, if you just give them the seeds of hope and show them a couple of skills, they’ll get the job done and make their families proud.

Copyright 2014 Gary Micheloni