One of my favorite quotes that I keep in a card the front of my Frankling Covey Planner reads: "The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-
We work our team out early quite a bit. The weight lifting in the summer for them is available at 6 AM. When school starts we condition at 6 AM. There are a lot of reasons for the early morning workouts but I think it builds character to rise before the sun does. It's a life lesson they can call on for the rest of their lives. I love it when players talk about how difficult it was getting up for 6 AM workouts and now that they are playing professional basketball they do their off-season workouts in the morning.
It's a reason I enjoyed the following article out of Selling Power Magazine on Brett Yomark, the CEO of the New Jersey Nets:
For a man who’s so successful, Brett Yormark spends a lot of time in the dark – literally.
Yormark who at 41 years old is the youngest CEO in the NBS, wakes up at 3:30 in the morning and is in the office by 4:30 a.m., where he works out and then sends motivational emails to his New Jersey Nets staff. Seeing who can get up the earliest is part of a friendly competition he shares with his twin brother, Michael, the president of the Florida Panthers hockey team. (Yormark sleeps in on weekends – arriving at the office at about 7:00 a.m.)
His rock-hard work ethic is paying off. When Yormark joined the Nets four years ago, it was an underperforming franchise, but through a relentless flurry of creative marketing ideas, including initiatives offered by no other team in the NBA, the tide has turned. The Nets are one of only a handful of teams that have sold 2,000 new, full-season sponsorships three years in a row, and sponsorships have increased by more than 200 percent, even after the controversial decision to move the franchise to Brooklyn.
Not surprisingly, Yormark sees a lot of similarities between business and basketball. “The DNA is the same for a good player and a good employee,” he says. “You look for people who are committed and passionate, willing to persevere and put the needs of the team ahead of themselves. Because, whether you’re on a basketball court or in an office, a good working environment is built on trust.”
Yormark, in fact, is a master at using the celebrity power of his players to pull in sponsors and ticket holders. He debuted the Nets Ticket Influencer Program, in which the team hosts cocktail parties for prospective season-ticket buyers at the homes of season-ticket holders. Staff and players, including such stars as Vince Carter, mingle with the prospects and talk up Nets basketball. The team provides the star power – along with food and drink – and the host provides the prospects. It’s a trendsetting tactic in reaching consumers and probably one of the reasons Yormark has been called “the man who NASCAR-ized the Nets.” The Nets have held more than 100 Influencer events, and they average $75,000 in ticket sales.
Another successful initiative has been the Home Away from Home Program, in which the Nets invite prospective season0ticket buyers to have dinner and watch a road game on the 65-inch TV in coach Lawrence Frank’s screening room. Either Darryl Dawkins or Albert King, both retired pro-basketball players, attend the viewing party and break down the game for the guests.
Yormark has found several ways to appeal to cash-strapped potential ticket holders. The $199 Season Ticket Program (which breaks down to less than $5 per game) was first introduced in August 2006, and the 500 seats sold out in a little more than 24 hours. In the past two years, the Nets have offered $299 Season Ticket Programs with similar success.
During the Broadway stagehands’ strike in early 2008, stranded theatergoers were invited to turn in their unused Broadway tickets for a 50 percent discount on select Nets tickets. Even the smallest gesture, Yormark believes, shows customers that the Nets care. On Fan Appreciation Night, tolls off the New Jersey Turn-pike at the stadium’s exit were paid for one hour by the team.
“When times are tough, it’s easy to turn down the volume and do what’s safe,” Yormark says. “But leaders are the ones who turn the volume up. A manager needs to understand how to take calculated risks. He needs to have the stomach to look at hard times and say, ‘This is out chance to grow this thing.’”.
“I’m a relationship person through and through,” he says, “and when I do a deal, I don’t consider it over. For me, the relationship starts at that moment, and I never take it for granted.”
“You’re not just as strong as your last play. You’re as strong as your strongest relationship” says Yormark.
