Even Monsters Fear Change
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Welcome to Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired! Sparking an Idea from the Movies.
Today’s post is written by one of the Sparkplugging interns, Cindy Bidar. Cindy (@cindybidar) is a 42 year-old writer, blogger, and small business owner. She enjoys learning and writing about most things, but is particularly fond of topics related to entrepreneurship, gardening, and health and fitness. She bakes her own bread, cans her own salsa, and is learning PHP in her spare time.
James P. “Sulley” Sullivan has a problem. Sulley is the top scarer at Monsters Inc, and his job is to scare kids and collect their screams to provide power to the city. The problem is, kids are not as innocent as they used to be, and it’s getting harder and harder to scare them. Sulley and his coworkers are having to work harder than ever just to get the same results.
Humans (and monsters, too, I suppose) tend to dislike change. We find something that works and we stick with it, often long beyond the time we should let it go. In fact, just when we begin to figure out that something is not working, we escalate our efforts even more. That’s what happens to Sulley and crew. Their tactics stop being as effective as they once were, so they increase their efforts by doing more of the exact same thing.
We’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another. What if cold calling isn’t working for you anymore? Do you change your tactic, or just work harder? Like Sulley and his coworkers, most of us would just work harder. In fact, we probably don’t even notice we’re doing it.
But what if by doing something completely different, you could get better results? What if you turned your marketing campaign inside out, and instead of collecting screams, started collecting giggles?
Change is good. We need change to grow. Remember that.
So tell me, what things have you been doing for a while that just aren’t working any more? What can you do differently to improve your results?
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Susan Payton is the Marketing Eggspert, and owner of 
I loved that movie and I love the idea you’re sparking from it
How did the monster’s learn a new way of doing things? They spent time with the little girl.
We should all spend a little more time with our market and see what we can see about what new things there are for us to try.
EXCELLENT! I’m always trying to be one step ahead of my target market – but forget to stop and ASK THEM what they want. It might not always be what you are thinking. Putting them first only builds a personal bond and lets them know you’re listening.
Ooh, good one. That is such a great conclusion to draw from that movie (which I love, btw). What is it that they say? “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results?” You nailed that idea here.