Thinking Out Loud – Episode 15

This is the fifteenth 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. I’m coming to you today for a Thinking Out Loud video from our Foam Department.

And, it’s kind of fitting. I want to talk about: What do you sell?

When you operate an entertainment center and you’ve got bowling, you’ve got laser tag, you’ve got mini golf, escape rooms, whatever your attractions may be. Or if you’re a manufacturer like we are that’s making those attractions.

The question I ask is: What are you selling?

And if your answer is “I’m selling bowling, I’m selling laser tag, or escape rooms.” You’re wrong.

Realistically, we are selling an experience. We are selling emotions. We are selling memories.

And so, to prove that point, I want to give you a new word. Something to look up and add to your vocabulary. Add to your knowledge base. And that’s called Sonder.

Sonder is the realization that the people that are around us that we see everyday on our commute, in a restaurant, etc. all have their own lives that are just as vivid, just as complicated with their own issues, their own family, their own successes like we do.

And, when you realize that, it kind of ties into a great video that our friends over at Urban Air Adventure Park and Michael Browning were kind enough to share this with us that they use internally.

And the premise of this video is realizing that everybody that comes to your facility, they’re there typically for 1 of 2 reasons.

And the first one is to celebrate. To celebrate a milestone. To celebrate something that’s happened in their life. Typically we think birthday parties and bachelor parties and whatnot. But it could be something as mundane as grades at school. It could be something as important as sobriety or getting to see your child if you’re a parent in a divorced relationship. Whatever the case may be, you might just be celebrating that family time.

That, or they’re escaping.

They had a rough time at work. They’re going through trying to find something fun to do in a new city because they relocated. Whatever the case may be, those are the 2 primary reasons that people are coming to your facility and when you think of it from that angle you realize that you’re not selling them laser tag.

You’re not selling them an escape room.

You’re not selling them virtual reality.

You’re selling them an experience.

You’re selling them a memory.

Something that allows them to achieve that celebration. To achieve that escapism that they’re searching for.

And I just want to implore that all of you, when you think of it from that standpoint you can start to be more intentional.

Can you create an attraction and have it be lackluster and do it with a sub-par experience?

Yes, of course you can. And even then you might still succeed because you’ve lucked into it or you’ve fallen into the ability to create that experience.

What I’m challenging all of you to do is, instead, be intentional.

Try and design your facility, try and design your customer interactions to be intentional about creating that experience, creating that emotion, that memory for your guest.

What you’ll find is that their satisfaction will come up, their repeat business will come up, their spend will come up, their experience will come up.

And you will be a far better business than you were otherwise.

Those are my ideas for the day. We’ll talk to you soon.

For more business and leadership tips, follow Armando Lanuti on Facebook and LinkedIn.