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Team Building & Raving Fan Marketing4 min read

I would like to share a little story that happened a long time ago when I was in a Boy Scouts as a kid. It actually has a lot to do with building a brand and creating raving fans from your team to follow your lead. 

As we did many times, we went on a retreat as a group, however, there’s one particular retreat that all week long, the scout masters were telling us that on Friday night, we’re going to go ‘Snipe Hunting.’ We’re all looking at each other, what’s a snipe? Well, supposedly a snipe is an animal and the only way you catch them is you grab a big paper bag, shine a light, and bang the bag with a stick as you hunt for the snipe. These snipes for whatever reason are attracted to that, and then they would run into the bag. We were all told by the scoutmaster when you feel it hit the bag, you roll up the bag and you yell, ‘Snipe,’ and a scoutmaster will run to you, grab the bag and take that to the kitchen where they will start preparing the snipe. 

On that Friday evening, all of us scouts were super excited. We’ve been hearing about this all week long, and finally, we got our opportunity to catch a snipe. We had our flashlights, we had our bags, we had our sticks. There was at one point I was looking into the bushes and I thought I saw a snipe. Now granted, I didn’t even know what it looked like, but yet I thought I saw one. Then all of a sudden, we heard a noise, then we heard a scout yell out, “Snipe, Snipe.” He quickly rolled up his bag, the scoutmaster ran to the scout, grabbed the bag, and ran into the kitchen.  

We all were then asked to go into the mess hall, sit around and wait as our scoutmasters would present us with the snipe. We were so excited, with so much anticipation. We couldn’t wait to see what it tasted and actually looked like. So finally, they bring out this big pot. They slowly took the lid off, we looked inside, and there was a note. “Good job gentlemen at following instructions. There is no snipe.” What? Three days of anticipation. We finally catch one and there’s no such thing? What hit the bag of the scout we asked. It was a softball that they rolled into one of the bags. Who knew? 

It was just a game. It was just a way to get us enthused about following instructions and believing in what they were telling us. The reason I share this, is that what does this have to do with business, team building, or marketing? Could you imagine as a leader inspiring your team to believe in a situation like that of where we all believed that we were going to catch a snipe on that Friday evening? That anticipation, that excitement, that enthusiasm, that we are wearing on our sleeve each and every day. You as a leader can inspire your team to feel that way when they go out and talk to people about your organization. 

We believed whatever they told us. They had the strategy, they had the system, and they had all their rules of engagement. They knew exactly how they were luring us in. But most importantly, they were just setting up a system for us to follow, get aligned, and see how things work. And yeah, it was a little fun for them to put one over on us. But we’re not putting anything over on our team. All we have to do is find ways to inspire them to be raving fans because your team is your best source of marketing in any organization. When they feel good and they’re wearing that enthusiasm on their sleeve about representing your brand, that’s your best marketing ever. 

I hope you enjoyed this little story. I’m really curious if this still goes on in the Boy Scouts world. But for all of you, if you’re leaders, find ways of really encouraging and inspiring your team to wear that excitement and enthusiasm on their sleeve so when they’re going out, they’re selling your brand with pride, and that is the best marketing in the world. 

COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com