Show Skiing | that damn redhead

The show must NOT always go on. Please be safe first.

As I sit here and type this, I am listening to a live feed of the scanner by the Marion County MECA Fire & Rescue in Indiana. Apparently, the stage collapsed just before the Sugarland concert at the Indiana State Fair. They had delayed the show, but were hoping to ride it out. Yet strong winds and storm conditions were enough to make the stage collapse, injuring at least a dozen and right now the Indy Star has confirmed 4 dead. For the past hour on the scanner, I’ve been listening to reports that there is a certain 10 year-old girl nowhere to be found, yet a second ago the paramedics just said that they transported a 10-13 y/o “unconscious female, possibly named Maggie” to the local emergency.

Last night and tonight, Kid Rock is having sold out shows at Comerica Park and holding a huge block party in downtown Detroit. I almost went to both, but passed.
When I followed a link to this story at MSNBC, it delivered me to my local MSNBC page, where I saw a story headlined, “Kid Rock Show Will Go On, Rain or Shine” … I don’t know if it’s even fair to make a comparison, or draw any parallels here, but one thing rings true, regardless:

It doesn’t matter what the show is, “the show must go on” isn’t always true. Safety comes first. Period.

. . . and just as I typed that, someone on Twitter tweeted at me, “So REO Speedwagon is coming on stage to play youtu.be/DPk4EX2GDc0” … wherein the story behind this song/link is:

In 1991, there was a huge event in Orlando called Festival in the Park. Several big name acts were scheduled to play but a hurricane came through the day before. Most acts canceled & instead of 10s of 1000s of people, only a handful of people turned out. REO probably still would’ve gotten paid if they’d canceled, but they came out anyway & played to us, less than 100 people in the pouring rain, full-throttle for 3+ hours non-stop. they closed the show with this song and it was truly incredible.

While that’s nice, and could seem a gallant effort, the timing of that person’s tweet to me was before he was aware of the confirmed causalities, and I was. Which means at that specific moment in time, I found it very tasteless. He didn’t know at the time, so I can’t blame him for just wanting to be funny, but still …… the point is, people, SAFETY trumps everything else.

Earlier today I was elated to find out that the National Show Ski Championships (Division I) were being streamed online, and watched it fervently as I was cleaning my apartment today. See, show water skiing WAS MY LIFE growing up. My home team, Silver Lake Ski Club, just placed 4th in Division II a week or so ago, and lately I’ve had nothing on my mind but show skiing and “back in the day.”

Then the storms rolled in today. And I was also reminded of some shows where we did some pretty stupid shit in the name of “the show must go on.”

The one incident that stands out the most in my mind was the year we did a show at the Michigan State Show Ski tournament (a.k.a. “states”) with an impending storm very close on the horizon. The judges decided that the weather was OK enough for us to go on with the show, and so we did … but toward the end of the show (you’re allotted exactly one hour) the clouds were so ominous, and it started raining, and we were worried we wouldn’t be able to finish.

Traditionally in show skiing, the pyramid is the last act. And we were lucky enough that the weather had let us make it to the pyramid act. But though we had taken first in states numerous years in a row previous to that year, our competition that year was
TOUGH.

There were about 5 minutes deliberation among our team of whether or not we should go on with the show. I was in the pyramid act, and really, I was very young, and I didn’t have much of a say one way or the other. If I was to climb to the top of the pyramid, honestly, I didn’t have much of a choice. I trusted their judgment.

Let me just tell you one thing: Deciding to do ANY kind of sporting event in an impending thunder/lightning storm is NOT A SMART IDEA. And it’s REALLY not a smart idea if you’re ON THE WATER.

We decided to go with it anyway.

Luckily, we made it off the dock OK, but I was a part of that pyramid act, and let me tell you, when you’re standing on someone’s shoulders on water skis, being pulled by a boat at aroud 25-30 mph, and you see a lightning bolt come down from the sky NOT-TOO-FAR-IN-THE-DISTANCE, even at 13 years old, you start to wonder one simple thing: Is this REALLY worth almost getting killed?!

Obviously, since I’m writing this, we didn’t get killed, and yes, we did walk away with another state trophy that year, but I can’t help but think, “what if we didn’t? what if somebody were seriously hurt?”

Even though we were extremely lucky on all fronts, the fact is, given the weather conditions, we really should not have been on the water at that point. I was 3-tiers high, being pulled by a boat, on a lake, and I saw LIGHTNING, people!

Which brings me to the Sugarland concert tonight in Indiana.

I’ve been working in and around music for over a dozen years. It’s not nearly as physically dangerous as show skiing (usually), but there’s a lot that can go wrong. Unfortunately, tonight, it was the concert goers vs. G-d, because there’s nothing anybody could have done. I mean, they were waiting it out … the opener had already performed, Sugarland had decided to wait it out, the fans were waiting, enthusiastically, in the rain and the storm … and then Mother Nature decided to take down the stage, and some dozen or more people with her. You can’t blame the roadies for this.

This isn’t even a question of whether or not that was “fair,” because those arguments are futile. This is more or less a reexamination of our common sense here, people.

Obviously, by my example above, I’ve done some really stupid shit in the name of glory.

And obviously, by my twitter friend’s example above with the REO Speedwagon story, people will do some similarly stupid shit in the name of glory/music/whatever. I could add plenty more of my own examples to that, but I won’t.

The fact is, however — it doesn’t matter how “die-hard” you are in your passion, whether it’s music, or sports, or whatever … if your safety is in danger, your dedication is trivial.

(Note that I am NOT talking about those brave men and women who put it all on the line every day for our country … that’s a totally different story. NOTHING they do for our freedom is trivial, and EVERYTHING they do is appreciated.)

But the things we civilians take pride in — whether it’s a water ski state championship, or saying “I saw Suglarland in the pouring rain” … is, indeed, trivial compared to the big picture here, and we need to just use some common sense. I know that once those folks were there in the crowd, they couldn’t quite easily say “never mind, I’m going home.” But still, I chose not to go see Kid Rock tonight for a reason. I had plenty of opportunities. The degree of which you’re a fan doesn’t matter. The fact is, there will always be another concert, there will always be another tournament, and there will always be another chance to do or see something cool. But there will never be another YOU.

So please, be careful out there.

Photo 1 via IndyStar, photo 2 via the Silver Lake Ski Club.

Social media lessons from water skiing (or vice versa)

Not many of my online friends know this, but most people I know in person are aware that water skiing was central part of my life growing up. No, I’m not talking the recreational, pull-a-pair-of-skis-out-of-the-garage-that-the-whole-family-shares water skiing, I’m talking serious, hardcore slalom, trick, & jump, in addition to competitive show skiing (the stuff you’d see at Cypress Gardens). I’ve taught a gazillion people how to water ski, and I was thinking about this the other night and came to the conclusion that there are many similarities between the lessons learned in water skiing and in social media strategy.

Summer’s just around the corner, so whether you’re new to water skiing or new to social media (or both), take a look at the parallels between the two, you just might learn something:

Sometimes the hardest part is just learning how to get up.

Many folks new to social media are intimidated as all hell because they simply aren’t comfortable online. It’s OK and it’s not uncommon. But there’s nothing to be afraid of, and once you learn a few basics, the rest comes a lot easier. You just have to jump in the water and give it a shot.

Keep your knees bent.

Your knees act like shock absorbers for oncoming waves. Likewise, you must accept that there will be waves at some point and remain flexible in social media efforts.

Keep your back straight, and your rope at the center of gravity.

At the same time that your knees are bent to absorb oncoming waves, you need to keep your back straight and your rope at your center of gravity to prevent bad posture and face-planting. Likewise, in social media, you must remain flexible and at the same time keep your composure.

In the now-famous Skittles experiment, the brand decided to use Twitter as their “home page,” tracking every mention of the word “Skittles” on Twitter search, using the “let the users shape the brand” philosophy. However, by mid-afternoon Twitterers got bored and started badmouthing the brand, so Skittles redirected their homepage from Twitter search to their Facebook page (and rightfully so). The lesson, as MarketingProfs points out, is don’t be afraid to let your audience shape your brand, but remember it’s yours, and use your backbone.

Only drop a ski when you’re ready.

Transitioning from skiing on two to one is generally only after you’re very comfortable on two. You’ll know when you’re ready for the next step, which is lifting one foot out of a ski and “dropping it” while you put that foot behind the one that’s still in a ski. Nobody deep-water starts on one the first time.

Similarly, only when you’re comfortable on Facebook as an individual should you start a “fan page” for your organization or business, and only when you understand Twitter and use it for yourself should you start tweeting for your business or whatever your ultimate motive may be. It’s the classic “walk before you run” concept, but recently two real-life friends of mine who are teachers joined Twitter because they heard it could be used in the classroom.

Both of them said within their first few tweets, “I need help on how to use this as a teaching tool” and “I’m told I should use this to teach but I think it’s stupid.” I pointed them to a few “twitter for beginners” sources and smacked my forehead that they were planning on using a tool very soon that they weren’t comfortable with to teach others. If I didn’t know water skiing like the back of my hand, I most certainly wouldn’t teach others. It’s the same thing.

Don’t look at the buoy, look past the buoy.

Let’s pretend you’re comfortable enough on one now that you want to try the slalom course. The object of a water ski slalom course is to ski around all six buoys at the shortest rope length possible. That is the ultimate goal. However, if you’re just starting out, your ultimate goal is to get around the first few buoys at the longest rope length, 75 feet. And the biggest mistake people make, even when they’re more advanced, is looking directly at the buoy they’re heading for.

If you look at the buoy, you’ll miss it. You want to keep your head pointed toward the buoy, but keep your eyes on an imaginary marker about 20 feet beyond it. You’ll approach it on time, and provided you’re comfortable on the turn, you’ll make it.

How does this translate to social media? Simple – when you know and understand your long-term goals, it will make your short term goals much easier.

Keep your edge change smooth.

The edge change is the most important point in slalom skiing. How you change from one edge of your ski to the other and start your turn around the buoy dictates whether or not you’ll make it. If you change it too fast, you’ll fall on your face; if you do it too slowly, you’ll miss the bouy . . . and probably fall on your face. It’s all in the timing and the technique.

Similarly, a big part of the “marketing” in social media is in the timing and technique. There are wrong ways to do things (“Hey, thanks for following, click my junk!”) and there are right ways to do things (have a conversation with somebody and get to know them before you mention your services/product at all).

Know when to pull and when to let up.

There is no “push” in water skiing. It’s all pull. But you can’t win in tug-of-war with a 250+ horsepower boat. No matter what, the boat pulls you. Think of the boat as your audience. We’re learning now that content marketing, a.k.a. “pull marketing” is working a lot better than “push marketing” (BUY MY STUFF!). But in water skiing, there’s a certain time to pull against the boat (when going across the wakes), and there’s a time to let up (after crossing the second wake, into the pre-turn). You can’t push your audience into buying your crap anymore. Know when and how to pull them in, and understand that your audience is bigger and stronger than you, and will win in the end if you pull too hard.

Falling is natural and the only way you learn. After you fall, catch your breath and analyze what went wrong.

This one’s kind of self-explanatory. Every time I crash, I’m analyzing in my head before it even pops out of the water what I did wrong (Did I pull too hard? Did I break at the waist? Were my knees too straight?) and what I need to do next time to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Let go of the rope when you fall.

To me it’s like instinct to let go when I know I’m going to fall, but I’ve seen people be dragged by boats because they didn’t know enough to let go. Is something really not working for you in your social media efforts? Know when to let go and reassess.

If you’re cold, it’s OK to pee in your wetsuit (when you’re in the water, and don’t tell anybody). It’s not OK to pee in your drysuit. . . ever.

Lesson learned relating to social media? Always know your tools/equipment and both their capabilities and limitations.

If you don’t know what you’re doing and try to fake it, you’ll end up all wet.

This one doesn’t require an explanation, does it?

Pic 1 is me a few years ago, Pic 2 by uwdigitalcollections, Pic 3 I had on my hard drive, Pic 4 by OM1.