Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S3E15 - Terry's Bookshelf

Episode Date: April 13, 2014

This week we air our annual book show. The research for Under The Influence requires a lot of reading, and listeners always ask for more information about the books we mention. So we take the opportunity every year to talk about the research books we've read, and tell additional stories from those books. In this year's show, we'll talk about how Bobby Orr met Gordie Howe's elbow, how the Romans turned their weakness in sea battles into a strength, how baggage inspectors at El-Al Airlines put their lives on the line, and how the rock band Kiss did something so wonderful for their fans that it ended up putting Kiss on the map. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 3, 2014. You're so king in it. You're loving it in its... Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're not you when you're hungry.

You're in good hands with us. You're under the influence with terry o'reilly war fights to keep it in does has it in the corner to sanderson back in front door shots goes from sanderson and what could be better than that? As they beat St. Louis, Florida, 3! When I was growing up, my hero was Bobby Orr. As an 8-year-old, my bedroom was a shrine to No. 4. I had pictures of him on all four walls and the ceiling.

I marveled at how he revolutionized the game of hockey by leading the league in scoring as a defenseman, which was unheard of at that time. My favorite comment on Orr was made by goaltending great Johnny Bauer, who said,

when Orr was coming down the ice, I'd say a little prayer if I had enough time. Who could blame him? Recently, I read Bobby Orr's new autobiography titled, My Story, and really enjoyed it. In it, I learned that Bobby Orr's hero was Gordie Howe. Orr considers Howe to be the best player there ever was.

He said Howe could beat you with speed, he could beat you with skill, and if you wanted to fight, he would say, step right up. Orr got to meet Gordie Howe when he was just 13. He asked Mr. Hockey what advice he had, and Howe said, when you get to the NHL, watch out for my elbows. On October 19, 1966, Orr played his first game for the Boston Bruins. And wouldn't you know it, that first game was against Gordie Howe and the Detroit Red Wings. Early in the game, Orr checked his hero and mistakenly caught the back of Howe's head

with his stick. A short while later, as Bobby Ridd tells it, he made the mistake of Howe's head with his stick. A short while later, as Bobby retells it, he made the mistake of spending a split second admiring a pass he'd made to a teammate. One moment he was looking at the puck, and the next he was lying on the ice, the victim of a classic Gordie Howe elbow. When he looked up, Mr. Orr saw Mr. Hockey

towering over him with a stern stare. As Bobby said, he got the message loud and clear. Gordy wanted the rookie to know who the boss was. Five years earlier, Gordy had warned Orr to watch out for his elbows. He's a man of his word. A few years ago, I got the opportunity to direct Bobby Orr in a Chevrolet commercial. It took everything I had to remain professional in front of him, as you can imagine. Just before the recording session ended, he pulled me aside and said, if you want, I'm

happy to sign autographs for your staff. I said, Bobby, there's over 40 of us here. And he said, that week later, a stack of photographs of his famous flying-through-the-air Stanley Cup winning goal arrived at our offices, each personalized to every one of our 40 employees, courtesy of Bobby Orr. The same photo he signed for us that day is the cover of his new book. I learned a lot about Orr by reading his story, particularly how he sized up the best hockey players of his era,

the little things he saw in them that escaped the fans' eyes. That's one of the reasons I love books so much. They give us such fine detail because they're not constrained by time. The valuable lessons contained in those pages can unfold, unfurl, and reveal their insights in a manner that is so rare in our nanosecond world. Welcome to the annual tribute to my favorite books. I want to tell you some stories gleaned from their pages. Some are about marketing and some aren't.

Some are new and some are old. But they all have one thing in common. The lessons inside them are priceless. You're under the influence. When I was a young copywriter, I had several copywriting heroes. One of them was Dave Trott. He was a co-founder of a highly creative British advertising agency called Gold Greenlees Trott.

I loved his wit and how smart his writing was. Recently, he wrote a book called Predatory Thinking. It's a quick read, but it's a good read. According to Trott, you are either predator or prey, in business or in life. Each short chapter begins with a story, and each story contains an insightful lesson. While it's aimed at the advertising market, everyone should read it.

One of the big, overarching themes of Trott's book is commitment. I'll tell you two stories from his book to explain. In Chapter 7, he talks about El Al Airlines. El Al is the national air carrier of Israel. As we all know, that area of the Middle East is volatile. Yet, in this era of terrorism, El Al is considered one of the safest and most secure airlines in the world. One of the reasons

for this is the airline's stringent security procedures. When Dave Trott was flying El Al for the first time, he was chatting to the baggage inspector at security.

She was very pleasant, but also very thorough. Not one inch of his suitcases went unchecked. When she was finished, Trott gathered up his luggage and said goodbye. The security girl said, No, I'll see you on the plane.

That's when Trott realized something. Every LL baggage inspector is required to fly on the same plane as the luggage they just inspected. It's policy. Therefore, no LL inspector does a mediocre job because they have to bet their life on it. It's the ultimate commitment to doing a job right. Trott's point is that commitment is what separates the successful from everybody else. Commitment to a vision, to a goal, to a principle, no matter how much pushback you get. Commitment to a vision, to a goal, to a principle, no matter how much pushback you get.

Commitment to seeing your idea through, no matter how many people dismiss it. When I observe the most successful people that pass through my life, it's the commitment to their goal that is unshakable. The refusal to take no for an answer. Remember that rejection isn't fatal. As Trott says, it's only fatal if you walk away from your dream.

In another chapter, Trott goes on to tell an amusing story about commitment. When Tim Martin was in school in New Zealand, his teacher told him he would never succeed in business. Tim disagreed and went on to create a remarkably successful company that included over 860 pubs, 26 hotels, and over 20,000 employees. Tim Martin called his company Weatherspoon. He named it after his teacher, who has to pass the signs every day. Tim had a commitment to his dream and confidence in his abilities.

And today, Weatherspoon is a hugely successful company, regardless of what Mr. Weatherspoon thought. As a former martial artist, I am fascinated by the psychology of warriors. I read an excellent book called Inside the Fighter's Mind by Sam Sheridan. Because fighting is 90% mental, Sheridan explores the secrets of top professional fighters, how they stay committed to years of training, how they recover from crushing defeats, and how they remain mentally tough despite intense physical pain. A big portion of his book

is about the power of insights, how fighters experience epiphanies in the heat of battle, how insights make all the difference. He tells a story of one incredible insight, but one rooted in a different type of fighting. Back in 1949 in Montana, there was a horrific wildfire that killed 13 firefighters, or smokejumpers as they're called. It's a famous fire, and every firefighter has studied it.

Sixteen smokejumpers were fighting a wildfire on the side of a mountain. Suddenly, the fire got in below them. As Sheridan says, fire below you is death. If you light a match and hold it with the flaming end up, it will burn slowly down the match. But you turn the match upside down and the flame will burn up to your fingers in seconds.

It's a strange quirk of nature. Fire moves uphill at incredible explosive speeds. Men sprint uphill at 4 to 5 miles per hour. Fire moves at 20 or more. So the steeper the hill, the slower men move and the faster the fire.

Once the wildfire got below these 16 smokejumpers, they tried to outrun it. But it's a race you can't win. Suddenly, the foreman had a flash of insight. He lit his own fire and laid down in the ashes. See, fire won't burn where it's already burned. He called for his men to join him, but they couldn't see or hear him. The foreman lived, but 13 of his men died. That flash of insight to start a fire in the middle of a fire saved the foreman's life.

It was the first intentional burnout, and later it would become a standard strategy to contain wildfires. That story is meaningful because it's about intuition. The foreman had a flash of insight, a sudden hunch, that if he lay in the ashes, he would be safe. So many of the greatest ideas of our time begin as hunches, as intuition. Yet, so many companies don't celebrate intuition. They see it as flaky, unquantifiable. As Sheridan says, they treat intuition as a banned substance.

Yet, intuition is one of our greatest gifts, especially in the creative world, especially in marketing. It lets you see things that are not yet in the open. It gives you an immediate advantage. If you want to truly excel in this world, listen to your hunches. If you own a company, celebrate intuition. If you're in marketing, love, honor, and obey your gut feelings. And we'll be right back. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations,

whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power.

Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives? Available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. As someone endlessly curious about strategy, I read with interest a book titled Hannibal and Me by Andreas Cluth. Hannibal, born in 247 BC, was one of history's greatest military strategists. The book explores his choices in victory and defeat. It also studies other leaders, like Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs.

The author tells a fascinating story about the Romans back in the year 264 BC. The First Punic War was raging between the Romans and the Carthaginians that would last 23 years. The Romans won most of the land battles, as they were superb strategists and knew how to use the terrain to win. But they had no navy. The Carthaginians, on the other hand, excelled on water. When the battle moved to sea, the Romans were at a distinct disadvantage. They borrowed boats and skiffs, but were overwhelmed by the enemy's battleships.

One day, the Romans managed to capture a Carthaginian ship. They copied it and built it over and over again until they had a fleet. Still, they struggled on water. Land was their place of strength. But the Romans were smart. They asked themselves how they could convert their weakness to a strength. Then, came up with an ingenious weapon to add to their ships. It was a large, swiveling bridge they would bring crashing down onto enemy ships

when they came within 30 feet. The two ships were then tied together like a big floating platform, allowing the Roman soldiers to storm across. In effect, the Romans had found a way to turn sea battles into land battles. It was a remarkable insight, and it underlines something I've always believed in business,

that the solution is always hiding inside the obstacle. was a remarkable insight, and it underlines something I've always believed in business, that the solution is always hiding inside the obstacle. Many companies, when they hit a brick wall, choose to go around it or tunnel underneath it. I've always found that going through the brick wall is the best solution. If you can take a weakness and turn it into a strength, you not only break through in that moment, but you are a greater company in the long run because now you're smarter. As basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once said,

Don't practice what you're good at, practice what you're bad at. Turn weakness into a strength. There is no better lesson. Just ask KISS. I recently read Nothing to Lose, the making of KISS 1972-1975. Now, there was a time when I was a big Kiss fan. Kiss had just released their breakthrough album called Alive.

I was 17, and on April 26, 1976, I convinced three buddies to travel from Sudbury to Toronto to see Kiss at Maple Leaf Gardens. We traveled six hours on a Greyhound bus and managed to grab the few remaining tickets for the show. That's when I noticed the words Obstructed View stamped across them.

I wasn't worried because I couldn't imagine there were any obstructed views in Maple Leaf Gardens. I was wrong. When we got to our seats, we found ourselves on the wrong side of Kiss's gigantic stack of speakers. All we could see was a wall of amplifiers and no Kiss. But eventually, we spotted a tiny space under some stairs and the four of us squeezed in there. It wasn't comfortable, but at least we could see. And what a show.

The next day, we had a few hours before our bus took us back to Sudbury. It was a quiet Sunday morning, so we plunked ourselves down on a bench one street north of the bus depot to kill some time. Suddenly, around the corner comes a long black limousine. It pulled up right in front of us and out jumped Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. They said hi, they were nice to us, and then went off to do some shopping. Can you imagine what that was like for four kids from

Sudbury who had obstructed view tickets the night before to see the band two feet in front of them? It was magic. We'll be right back. everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. The book, Nothing to Lose, is the remarkable story of how hard Kiss worked to make it. From 1972 to 1975, they toured relentlessly, performing hundreds of shows in school gyms, cafeterias, and skating rinks in any town that would have them. Kiss was determined to make it. Even when the band outnumbered the people in the audience,

they still played like they were headlining Madison Square Garden each time. The press dismissed Kiss because of their makeup, and they seemed doomed to forever be an opening act for other bands. They weren't getting any national attention, and a band needs that kind of support to break through. But Kiss loved their fans, and it would make themselves unbelievably accessible to them. That was the golden rule with Kiss. Fans were everything.

So one day in 1974, a high school football coach named Jim Neff from the small town of Cadillac, Michigan, population 10,000, needed a way to motivate his players who were on a losing streak. He was a KISS fan, so he decided to draw up a new set of plays and defensive strategies based on the theory of keep it simple, stupid, or K-I-S-S, in other words. He changed the quarterback's calls to be KISS-related, gave KISS song titles to their new plays, and started to play KISS-related, gave KISS song titles to their new plays, and started to play KISS records in the locker room. The coach just wanted his kids to have fun.

In no time at all, the players responded. The energy from the music brought the team together, and they won every game left in the season. On a whim, Neff wrote a letter to Kiss' management company, telling them what the team had done, how Kiss' music had been the key, and hoped the band might sign a poster for the boys.

A few weeks later, Coach Neff was sitting in his lazy boy chair at home, when the phone rang. It was Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons calling from backstage at a concert. They wanted to know all about the team.

They said, Call us every time you win. We want to know what's happening. Coach Neff couldn't believe it. And for the next year, he called the KISS offices every time his team won a game. Then one day, Neff noticed KISS was scheduled to play a concert in a nearby town.

So he called the Kiss office, crossed his fingers, and asked if the band would consider dropping by for his school's homecoming. A local band was going to play, and since there was already going to be equipment there, would Kiss consider playing a song? Kiss's manager said the band really wouldn't want to use someone else's equipment. But what if Kiss just brought their whole show up there?

The coach couldn't believe his ears. So, on the assigned day, the entire school put on Kiss makeup and went out into the parking lot to wait for the band to arrive. Suddenly, around the corner comes a long black limousine. The town had never seen a limousine before. The limo pulled up in front of the school. Everybody held their breath. Then the sunroof opened and Gene Simmons jumped out onto the roof in full makeup and costume. And the entire high school went crazy.

Kiss spent the entire afternoon with the school kids. The pictures are priceless, and you can see them on our website. Just before the band put on their concert in the gym, the coach worried the school didn't have enough power for a Kiss show. So, he ran down to the transformer room, where he found the school custodian holding two battery jump cables. The custodian handed the coach a pair of rubber gloves and said, I'm going to clamp these two jumper cables to the power grid.

And if I guess right, we're good. And if I guess wrong, I'm going to die. So pull me off. You've got the gloves on. Thankfully, it worked. When Ace Fraley's power chords hit, people a mile and a half away in their backyards could hear the concert perfectly. The next day, a parade was held in their honor, and the mayor, in full Kiss makeup, gave Kiss the key to the city. When the festivities ended, a roar suddenly filled the park. It was a marine helicopter.

It landed in the middle of the field, the band waved goodbye, jumped in, and it lifted up to about 100 feet and hovered. Then the door slid open, and Kiss threw out hundreds of flyers that said, Cadillac High, Kiss loves you. Then the helicopter banked to the side and flew off into the distance. That visit is still the talk of Cadillac, Michigan to this day. But here's the amazing part. The story got picked up by the national press. Then it went international.

It ended up being the breakthrough for Kiss. It finally gave them the media exposure that had eluded them for so many years. It was a massive undertaking for Kiss to haul their production into that small town, but they did it because they loved their fans. There is such a lesson here. Do everything you can for fans and customers. There was no reason for Kiss to divert their tour to visit a small town high school for free. But they did it.

The fans loved them for it, and the elusive press the band could not get, come hell or high water or high heels, finally arrived. Within a few months, Kiss was headlining at major arenas and selling millions of records. It's a reciprocal world. You get what you give. It's a reciprocal world. You get what you give. It's called customer service. You can only imagine how those kids felt

when that long black limousine pulled up that day. I know, I certainly can. When young people ask me for advice about getting into the advertising business, I always say the same thing. Don't give up. It's a very difficult business to break into with lots of competition.

But if you want it, really want it, it'll happen. That's why commitment was the prevalent theme in so many of the books I talked about today. Commitment to a goal, or a dream, or even just an idea. Talent will only get you part of the way there. Commitment carries you across the finish line. Tim Martin didn't give up when his teacher told him he would never be successful in business. And the Wetherspoon signs say it all. The Romans didn't give up when they found themselves

constantly losing battles at sea. They'd just figured out how to turn a weakness into a strength. Kiss was also a model of commitment. They were written off by the press as a circus sideshow, but Kiss stayed committed to their makeup, their dream, and their fans. Who knew that a detour to a small-town high school would become the turning point in their career? And lastly, if you ever think your job is too demanding, just think of those El Al baggage

inspectors. That's why I say the best books about marketing aren't about marketing. They're about life. Inspiring stories that someone put down on paper so they can be passed on and savored and absorbed. So, may I suggest you take a moment to lick a finger and turn a page when you're under the influence.

I'm Terry O'Reilly. Thank you. Hi, Terry. Coach Jim Neff here. It's hard to believe that KISS came to our high school way back in 1975. That visit is still the talk of the town to this day. And by the way, the 40th anniversary of Kiss coming to Cadillac coincides with the 120th anniversary of Cadillac High School football in 2015. And we were wondering

if you'd consider coming down to man the jumper cables for that event. Thanks! Under the Influence was produced at Pirate Toronto. Sound engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner

and Ian Lefevre. Series coordinator, Keith Oman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Series coordinator, Debbie O'Reilly. Okay, I won't beat around the bush. I like the cut of your jib. And your jib

would look even better in an Under the Influence t-shirt. You'll find them on our shop page at terryoreilly.ca slash shop. See you next week.