Sometimes All It Takes Is Just A Little Twist

We've been helping one of our clients, Wine & Spirits World of Vacaville, CA by doing their website, and a weekly email promoting their Friday night wine tasting events. We've been doing this for two years this month. The wine tastings were building for a period and there were personnel changes and, you know how it goes--you make adjustments and try to keep the balls in the air. For a time, the wine tastings were getting smaller in size, but another change started them climbing again. Then. . . BAM! A little change produced a spectacular result and started a new idea.

The Queen of Marketing is made up of Nicole Arabia and Jodi McGuire and we've been doing their website, blog and weekly email for about two years as well. They come to most of the wine tastings as well because Wine & Spirits World has been their client as well in their own business. The Queens have developed a certain following and have built up their email list from less than 100 to over 1500 in a short time.

The Queens were asked if they would pour this last Friday since the main person in charge would be out of town on vacation. The pros that the Queens are, said they would be happy to do so. So we sent out the usual newsletter, but added this twist: rather than call it the wine tasting, we called it the Queens Wine Tasting and said they were guest pourers, which they were, and we also promoted it in the Queens newsletter, blog, and in Facebook.

This time the event rocked the house! It was the largest turnout ever in all of the wine tastings in the last two years. The place was packed! So many new people and everyone had a great time. It was awesome. The Queens were pretty busy pouring, but it looked like they had a good time as well. It was a huge hit.

So this idea came into being: Guest Pourers. So now, this little twist changed everything this time. Can it be done again? Can it be done better? Who might we get as guest pourers?

All of a sudden, something that was becoming mundane became exciting again with this little twist and this huge success. Sometimes that's all it takes is just a little twist and then your whole path is clear again and enthusiasm, that greatest of all thrills, comes back and helps revive the whole experience.

What little twist can you do in your business that will bring that magic enthusiasm back, move the needle and produce a grander result? I can suggest one way to do it on purpose rather than to get lucky, would be to brainstorm ideas periodically about what you do and how you do it. Get some other minds involved and have people look at what you do and make suggestions. Many of them you might automatically discard. That's the way we seem to work much of the time. We are used to a certain way and we kind of get in a rut. Other minds bring a fresh look at things we've been doing a long time and if we will allow ourselves to question everything, a new twist can emerge and change everything for the better.

Sometimes all it takes is just a little twist.