President's Letter - April 2019

I hope when you get this letter things are fantastic in your world; business is building, and you have all the business you can handle.  In North Carolina the weather is absolutely beautiful, and it is peak detailing season.  "Pollengeddon" is basically done!

Last month I went on a bit of a rant about “Marketing is a Process, not an Event” and you have to get off the “Marketing Rollercoaster”.  This month I want to take it a bit further…

You Must Take Action on the Right Activities.

There are two parts to this.  Taking action is one thing.  Lots of people, especially in the detailing industry are very good – they’re not lazy people – they work hard, long hours, so they’re doing lots of things.  You need to put all your effort and energy into the right activities.

You have to recognize that success is based on action, not ideas.  There’s no money in ideas, no money in the collection of them.  You need to take the ideas and put them into action.  You need to take action on the ideas and get going on them.  Pick one thing and focus on it, and get that up and running and then move on to the next.

Don’t dwell on the failures.  Learn from them.  Recognize that there’s something that you did or didn’t do that got that result, so you need to make a change or move on to the next thing.

It goes back to a comfort level in being busy, dealing with one crisis after another, accepting that as your job.  It’s busy work.  Take a step back and say to yourself, "Are these the things – the things that I’m working on now – the things that are going to take me to where I want to go?  Am I the best person working on them?"  How can you get yourself away from that so you can be working on the right activities?

Don’t be afraid of making decisions and moving forward, you can always adjust; but doing nothing can usually be the worst thing that you can do. 

Without having a foundation, the other stuff doesn’t matter.

I am going to continue through this thought in the coming month with the goal of helping you find “The Right Activities”.

I experienced the biggest shift in business and life when I opened my mind to the ideas of others and when I finally reached out for help.  Once I got over the fact that I do not have all the answers and started talking to other business owners is when it came together.  I invested in myself, got a hold of the best materials at the time, and spared no expense since, in actuality, I was investing to improve myself, my business, and my family’s future. 

I often like to say that I have earned the equivalent of a Harvard degree for the business industry, my wife likes to point out that I have also paid for it.  At the end of the day, I still don’t have all the answers, but from what I know about the IDA is that there a ton of talented folks that you can plug into and get some real world insight on what you might be going through and a lot of times these insights are the shortcuts you need to break free.  I am happy to share my experience and let you leapfrog everyone by doing so.  All you need to do is get involved, be active, and in some cases just ask the questions, whether it’s in The IDA Facebook Group, on an industry webinar, at a live event or a direct message to another member.  My experience is if you put it out there you will be amazed at the help you get.

Respectfully yours,

Jonathan Munsell, CD
IDA President
Facebook and LinkedIn: jonathanmunsell
IG: JumpinJonny

PS: As always, please reach out to me, connect with me at JonathanMunsell.com, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever works for you, and let's continue to move this association forward, grow, be strong, and be internationally recognized as the source for detail information and education.