My mother is wonderful. I still remember her getting up at the crack of dawn every morning ready, with breakfast, to bundle me and my siblings off to the many early-morning extracurricular activities we were involved in. Her schedule looked like a Jackson Pollock painting in the Crayola-crayon-box shades of Google Calendar. Her revenge on us, in repayment for all her efforts, was to scream out the window as we walked into the school building, “Remember who you are and what you stand for!” and then, “Have fun storming the castle!” in her closest impression of Billy Crystal from The Princess Bride.
And that’s what I have to say to you today, albeit without the blazing inferno of high-school embarrassment: remember who you are and what you stand for and have fun “storming the castle.”
Thought leadership is all about understanding what has made you successful in the past, what is currently working for you now, and what new ideas have the potential to improve your business. It’s the process of becoming that “go-to” person in a field. Thought leadership means being at the forefront of the industry.
Remember Who You Are
Remembering who you are is one of the most important things you can do as a thought leader. That’s because thought leadership is all about expertise, experience gained over time. The kind that can’t be bought. The kind that is attached to you and the other members of your team that have been there from the beginning. Thought leadership means going back, understanding the history of your industry, and basing decisions off insights drawn from experience and evidence rather than wishful thinking or what seems like common sense.
Reevaluating from what you’ve learned and improving with the end in mind is essential to long-term success. If you’re not willing to assess and evaluate your current trajectory and compare that with your competitors, you’ll never know what you’re missing out on.
Right now, staffing agencies feel normal because no one else has offered a better solution (until now of course). When you go to staffing agencies with concerns, the narrative that they share is always on a national scale: “The unemployment rate is really low,” they say, or “The national turnover rate is really high.” Staffing agencies have ingrained and taught companies to have low expectations. It’s a narrative of inadequacy that keeps you in their pocket.
“We can’t fix these things. They’re issues beyond our scope.” But there are alternatives, and there is always something you can do.
Storm the Castle
Thought leaders are capable of looking at the fundamental obstacles in their field and seeing them as opportunities to break through. Whether that’s with a wheelbarrow and a flaming Andre The Giant, or with a plan to look for creative solutions to conventional industry-wide difficulties, thought leaders “storm the castle” by refusing to accept the necessary evils of their field.
Thought leaders are at the forefront, taking action when others get complacent, and so is Smart Solutions. Smart Solutions has the experience that only comes with time. They used to do third-party logistics, but after years of dissatisfaction with the staffing agencies, they found out how to make outsourced labor work profitably. Smart Solutions “stormed the castle” of the staffing industry to overthrow outdated methods and lazy excuses, creating an entirely new system built on highly effective strategies. They remember where they’ve been and what helped them grow beyond that initial state to become successful today. Smart Solutions has also proved themselves capable of tackling wide-ranging problems that determine success and longevity in today’s market.
The high national turnover rate is one of many large-scale, industry-wide obstacles facing companies today. Don’t sell yourself short now by abandoning the growth mindset you used in times past. Smart Solutions will help you find the big problems you need to tackle (aka opportunities) to keep moving forward and, in the end, achieve resilient success.
Click here to read how Smart Solutions will be able to fulfill your company’s labor needs and much more, on your way to profit and growth.
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Have Fun Storming the Castle!
Remember who you are and what you stand for and have fun “storming the castle.” Thought leadership is all about understanding what has made you successful in the past, what is currently working for you now, and what new ideas have the potential to improve your business. It’s the process of becoming that “go-to” person in a field. Thought leadership means being at the forefront of the industry.
The right puzzle piece – fit
If your 3PL is outsourcing its labor needs to staffing agencies, the truth is you’re losing money unnecessarily. The experts at Smart Solutions can show you exactly how, but before you talk to them, I want you to consider an analogy: Every New Year’s, my family breaks out a jigsaw puzzle, something large enough to take up the living room table, with enough pieces to keep us occupied for a few hours. Once, as a kid, I got stuck in an area of the puzzle where the picture was all the same color, all blue sky.
What you get vs what you need
The world of the 3PL is dynamic. Employment needs fluctuate week-to-week, even day-to-day with spikes and dips in client orders. All that variation translates directly to outsourced labor needs, but have those needs actually been getting filled from the staffing agencies you’re paying to do the job? In other words, is what you need the same as what you’re getting?