Because of my last flight being in the air for 3.5 hours on a 2 hour trip in a middle seat, I splurged the $29 and upgraded to Economy Plus on United which gives you a seat with much more leg room and a few first class left-over perks. My intent was to stretch out a bit and get some shut-eye, but the Starbucks on an empty stomach quickly sent caffeine surging through my veins giving me the feeling that some excited organism is desperately trying to break out beneath my skin.

So, I figure now is a good time to empty my brain of recent events.

I'm headed home from the Dallas RV show where I spent some time with Fun Time RV, one of our RV Dealer's in Texas. Sam Kidd, the owner, is very forward thinking and I always look forward to the brain power it requires when meeting with him and his folks. The vast majority of RV Dealers out there tend to think in terms of the present and are always 'catching up' to where their prospects/customers are ... very reactive.

Sam is the kind of guy that is thinking 1 to 3 years down the road. When is the last time you had a client that was wanting to discuss and plan ahead for where they wanted to be 1 to 3 years from now? He sees 'it' coming. It's alot of challenging work to think forward ... you may not always be right ... there's risk involved ... but I've NEVER seen someone with a multitude of successes that wasn't willing to make a mistake. Playing it safe gives you a paycheck ... playing it forward allows you the opportunity to have your dreams become a reality.

It was just 6 years ago that we started with one RV Dealership as a client. I'd been involved with web development for a few years prior and the opportunity presented itself to develop a website development and Internet marketing service to RV Dealerships. I knew where I wanted to be ... I knew what it looked like ... it's taken alot of late nights, financial sacrifice, and a patient/loving wife and daughters. Have I arrived? I'll never 'arrive'. Why? because where I want to be keeps evolving and what things look like keeps responding to the technology and marketing opportunities that are ever changing.

It's a great life helping RV Dealers develop and market websites for their prospects/customers to research and discover their next personal or family adventure!

Until next time...

InteractRV has been growing steadily since 2000, helping RV Dealerships accomplish their website and Internet marketing goals. It has truly been an exciting time ... learning the RV business and studying the RV buying consumer, their behavior both online and off.

One of the 'feathers in our cap' has been the fact that we've been able to say as a company ... we've never lost a client. Well, that's about to change ... we've had our first defector.

Oh, the rush of emotion when the conversation occurred ... the feelings of frustration and concern. The initial state of mind rushes to denial and worry ... it can't be happening ... what did we do wrong. It takes a day or so, but the body and mind come back into balance and thinking straight is possible once again.

I'm always interested in learning from our success and failures ... so the process of breaking down what happened begins. Scanning through client notes and trudging through sent/received emails ... converstions with employees ... looking for 'that thing' if done differently would have saved us from this experience all together. So, where did we go wrong?

Emerson Eggerich in Love & Respect talks about men having blue lenses in their glasses and women having pink lenses. If you've any relationship with the opposite sex you know that women and men tend to 'see' things differently and this can lead us into thinking that what the other person sees in our relationship is wrong. Emerson coins this as ... not wrong, just different.

I began to wonder ... did we do anything wrong to 'lose' this business relationship or is it possible that we are just seeing things differently?

They'd been a client for nearly 3 years ... we had good dialogue with them consistently ... just 4 months prior they had made a committment to improve their existing website ... we had communicated the project every two weeks ... price was discussed and agreed to...

And that's where the difference was ... based on what they said their goals were we had worked with them to define what needed to improve to achieve them ... and agreed on the cost. In marketing, whether traditional or online cost is a sister to risk. We eat, breath, and sleep website marketing and been bleseed by helping numerous other dealers accomplish their goals ... so, we know what it takes.

After all was said and done this client wasn't willing to take the risk/cost to acheive what they said their goals were ... now they appear to be taking the route that most dealerships take ... the road filled with progress potholes, expensive detours, and expectation roadblocks.

So did we do something wrong? Are they wrong for going elsewhere? No, they just see things differently and I wish them the best of luck!

Until next time ... Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is. H. Jackson Browne