All of you children of the 70’s sing with me now:

“Who are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood!”

I’ve spent the last two weeks with my head down, nose to the grindstone, trying to get a house not only on the market but also ready for an open house!  Between packing, cleaning and syncing schedules with a painter, my whole world has been consumed with this one goal.  My neighborhood, let alone the rest of the world, could have washed away and I never would have noticed – I was that focused!  Unfortunately, those of us who run small business can often fall into this same mind set.

As a small business owner we have goals and benchmarks at the forefront of our minds.  We have a path to follow and a determination to get there.  We put our heads down and get to work.  And therein lies the problem – we put our heads down.  We are so focused on our goals that the rest of the world ceases to exist.  We miss out on numerous ideas, opportunities and collaborations!

I finally came up for air this past weekend and started looking around.  Now if I was Elmo, I’d have seen that my neighborhood has a grocer, postman, doctor, teacher and librarian.  The beauty and simplicity of Elmo is that he is three and learning.  He hasn’t reached an age where he’s so busy he tries to shut the world out.  He learns, creates and interacts with each of these neighbors. He is an active, social member of his neighborhood.

My neighborhood isn’t the same as Elmo’s, it’s a little more complex.  It’s multi-feathered so to speak.  It consists of artists, etsy, photographers, marketers, online forums and quality service providers.  Through being an aware and active member of my neighborhood I’ve seen creative works that sparked marketing ideas for my business, collaborated with others to create content and learned new processes that I plan to integrate into my own systems of operation.  I don’t necessarily have to actively interact with all my neighbors.  Just by being aware of them and their work sparks new creative ideas as well as spotting consumer trends.  It also teaches me the best way to approach each individual neighbor when I see someplace I can help.  Not everyone likes to be approached the same way.  Some are write out the proposal formal, while others are lets grab coffee social – it depends on the neighbor.

While it’s true the saying “Birds of a feather flock together.”  You’ll notice I said my neighborhood was multi-feathered.  Pay attention – this is important!  When we refuse to let new and different people into our neighborhood our information and learning get stale.  We can no longer grow and progress past where we currently are.  We’ve all seen businesses or people like this.  They’ve been so busy diligently working with their heads down, that when they do finally look up, they have no idea what road they are on let alone neighborhood!  Their whole world washed away when they weren’t looking.  Pick your head up and take a look around.  Who are the people in your neighborhood?

It was the winter of 1988.  I was 16 years old, living in New Zealand and a virgin.  A Rocky Horror Picture Show virgin.  For the uninitiated, that means I had yet to have my first Rocky Horror experience.  I knew nothing about the rice, toast and water guns.  Not even an inkling of the costumes both in and out of the audience!  All I knew was, I had the ok from my host parents to go the theater in downtown Wellington for the live midnight show!  Seriously what 16 year old wouldn’t have jumped all over that?!?  We piled 7 or 8 of us into a small sedan and away we went!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in 1975 to a resounding thud!  I kid you not, the cult classic almost never got off the ground.  It was relaunched as a midnight movie in NYC in the spring of 1976.  There was something magical about the midnight timing.  It was soon noted that the movie had a following of regulars – fans, if you will.  Somewhere along the line, these fans where shouting out lines, dancing in the aisle and dressing up as characters.

By 1979, mainly because of the fan interaction, the movie was a viral phenomenon.  (Imagine that – something going viral before the age of internet…)  Everyone wanted to be in on it and have the Rocky Horror experience. Rocky Horror became the phenomenon it is because the theater owners were brave enough to allow the fans to take ownership of the movie experience.

Today, social media is what everyone is buzzing about in the marketing world.  Marketers talk about how the brand story can no longer be solely defined by the company.  You must now allow customers/fans to have a part in the story telling.  They talk about not only encouraging, but finding ways to promote fan interactions – be it by twitter, facebook or blogging.

Fan interaction is not a new thing.  Rocky Horror would never have become what it is without it.  Any marketer today would give their left ear to have the fanatical, interactive, word of mouth spreading, fans Rocky Horror had in it’s heyday!  What is new are the tools fans use and the speed of how things can go viral.

Are you allowing your fans to own part of your experience?  Today, as in the past, it takes brave, smart leadership to allow chapters of your brand story to be told by your fans – the growth of your company depends on it.

I’ve been thinking about bathrooms lately.  Bathrooms speak volumes about your business!  It gives an intimate look into your thought process and perceived work ethic and can be easily overlooked by a busy business owner.  (Stay with me – I promise this will make sense!!)

It was Monday morning and I was busy cleaning and getting ready for an afternoon meeting.  Time was getting short and I was running through my head what absolutely needed to be done and what could get away “with a wink and a promise”.  Looking at the rug in the meeting room I knew I could literally sweep the dirt under it and my client would never ever know.  Likewise I could put all the unread newspapers under the couch and she’d be none the wiser (neither of which I did by the way).  But what I knew, without fail, was the bathroom had to get a complete head to toe cleaning.  I also knew, it was highly likely that my client would never even catch a glimpse of my bathroom.  That didn’t matter, the bathroom had to spotless.

Years ago, I went to a newly opened hair salon.  They had beautiful signage, obviously thought about the decor and layout and made every effort to insure a great customer experience.  Until it got to the bathroom….  In the bathroom so many extra robes were hanging from the door it made it difficult to open and close, some of the bulbs were burnt out and the pedal garbage can was broken so you had to open it with your hands.  I was just happy I didn’t have to contend with the bathroom doing double duty as a storage room full to the ceiling with boxes.  With this one experience my perception of this salon changed.  Where before, I was impressed with their attention to detail – their lack of attention in the bathroom had me wondering where else things had fallen through the cracks.  Now I was on the alert and subconsciously looking for areas to find fault.  Before my bathroom experience, the small flaws wouldn’t have even hit on my radar.

Now if you think I’m making to much of a big deal over this, I bring before you Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos.  Their business is all about the experience.  The lavish decorating didn’t stop at the bathroom door.  The huge mirrors, upholstered chairs and thoughtful lighting is carried all the way into the room and it is always spotlessly clean.  These bathrooms even have actual, breathing bathroom attendants – when was the last time you saw a bathroom attendant!  Their business model is to promote escape and luxury.  Now imagine your at the one of the casinos and the bathroom you walk into was the same as your local McDonald’s.  Your experience and perception of the casino has now changed hasn’t it?

(PS: This is not a slam against McDonald’s bathrooms!!  As any world traveler knows – they almost always have the cleanest, free bathrooms in the world – and yes it is part of their marketing and customer experience strategy!)

My point is:  Every business has a “bathroom” – a place that is accessible to all clients but where few may actually enter.  Once a client accesses these areas, it’s vitally important for the overall company experience and message to show through.  People can and will make judgements on your company and service based on your “bathroom”.  Go run and take a look at your bathroom – is it passing the test?