A Message from Cindy Novotny – Master Connection Associates

“The world shut down for renovation and now we are all getting ready for the biggest Grand Opening of our life.” This is how I feel, and my thoughts shared with you on our webinar highlighted this critical time in our life.

Everyone goes back to zero when the rules change, and our rules were changed beyond our wildest imagination. Three months ago so many people stood in shock wondering how they would ever get through this. My idea was to refocus, recharge and reenergize myself and my team, and realize that we would be better after COVID-19 than we were before, if we went into action.

Thus, began my journey. I flew home from Dubai the end of March when everything began to shut down. I still had trips to Houston and Pebble Beach that I took, and on March 16^th I began my first webinar. As of today, I have completed more than 90 webinars over three months. We knew that to win in this environment we had to stay connected, so “zoomed in” and “zoomed out” became the mantra. Our consistent message to sales professionals was to stay in touch with their clients whether they were furloughed, laid off or even, sadly, let go. 

Knowing that your personal brand is all you can count on, we held coaching sessions, webinars, and one-on-one chats with those who needed someone to talk to and help staying focused and positive. My direction was always the same: Be curious, optimistic, open for new ideas and always in communication via the phone, Zoom, or other social media platforms, but avoid sending random emails. 

We suggested on every call that each sales professional create a value proposition for every one of their key accounts and learn to ask questions, listen, and create solutions that would help their meeting planners, travel advisors, event planners, DMCs and anyone with whom they worked. This value proposition gave people a reason to connect, and more importantly, gave clients great suggestions for solving some systemic problems.

Now we are coming out of COVID-19, and we need to be ready to adjust our marketing strategies once again. Our job as leaders is to alleviate anxiety, provide solidarity, live in the moment, have an incredible sense of urgency, and pay attention to your tone on social media. Leaders also need to be compassionate, have clarity, create ongoing communication and dialogue, and most importantly, have confidence and certainty of what the plan is going forward – even when we all are grabbing at straws and trying to figure it out. As a true hospitality professional, I believe we need to put the heart back into hospitality. We need to pay attention and refocus, retool, retrench, and finally, we will be able to rebound!

As I mentioned on the webinar, when I am at a loss for words or ideas, I reach out to my dad and ask for help. He suggested that I go back to what I have done in the past to get myself over a hurdle, and one thing I thought of was looking at books that gave me strength and ideas. My inspiration returned when I remembered reading The Popcorn Report written in 1991 by Faith Popcorn. Faith is a futurist and predicted 10 trends in 1991 that would take us into the future, and WOW, have they all become a reality.

The Top Trends…

1. Cocooning
2. Fantasy Adventure
3. Small Indulgences
4. Egonomics
5. Cashing Out
6. Down Aging
7. Staying Alive
8. The Vigilante Consumer
9. 99 Lives
10. SOS – Save Our Society

Today I ask that you create your “next normal” strategy on how you will move forward and get business back. Everyone says to be resilient, and you have never met anyone more WILDLY RESILIENT than me! How you handle yourself today will determine your success in the future. As Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

You can follow me along the way on any of my social media platforms or simply reach out via email to connect.  cindynovotny@masterconnection.com; www.masterconnection.com 

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