Thinking Out Loud – Episode 11

This is the eleventh episode in a series called Thinking Out Loud. In these videos, Armando Lanuti, the President of Creative Works, shares some of his thoughts on business, leadership, growth, operations, and anything else on his mind. Below is a transcript of some of the points he discusses in the video.

Hey everybody. Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about as an owner, how you’ve got to get out of your shell.

It’s very easy in the day to day to get trapped in this blinders on mindset where you’re working in your business, trying to tackle every fire that comes out.

But in most industries including ours, there are a lot of conferences, trade shows and educational events that are held all over the place and there are immense nuggets of value that you can get out of going to these venues, getting some of the information out the conferences, the seminars but also from talking to other operators, other business owners and trying to find those nuggets that are there that you can take back home that are actionable and you can incorporate in your facility right away.

It’s just one of those things where it’s really easy that as you approach your facility and you walk in, you’re kind of nose blind to everything and have seen what’s there so to speak, and when you get that opportunity to go outside of your facility into other venues, into these places and then comeback to your facility, you can start seeing some of the smudges or small issues that you might have otherwise ignored because you’re just in them on that day to day because you never get that break.

So, there is a lot of value, get out to conferences, get out to tradeshows, whether they are about operations or marketing, new products and attractions that maybe you want to incorporate in your facility.

There is just so much value in getting out of that comfort zone and I know that there is that pain, right.

That, “Oh my gosh, if I am not there, what happens if X, Y and Z take place?”

And you need to make sure that you’ve probably motivated your team, put in the right processes so that you can take care of things when you are out of the office and that you can feel comfortable to leave for 2, 3, or 4 days to get that education that you just so desperately need to have to keep on top of your game because if you stay the same, the world around you will change and you’ll unfortunately find that you were left behind.

So, make sure that you’re taking that time out, get that education, seek out those opportunities to constantly learn and just realize that there is a cost of energy and time and money that is worth that continuing education that you need to provide yourself.

So, just a small nugget for thought, we’ll talk to you soon.