THEIMAGEGAM6 - Michigan State UniversityOn this one day - we all have those days when we wake up in the morning and just don't feel like being an attrac-tion - I just felt like that

THE IMAGE GAM6:by BOBBIE GEE, Speaker/Consultant,Bobbie Gee Enterprises, Laguna Niguel, California

THERE ARE TWO areas in thebusiness world and the businessindustry that are often forgotten.

Persistence is one of them and personalityis the other. You don't have to know verymuch if you have persistence and per-sonality. You are going to make akilling!

Let me tell you a story that happenedto me while I worked at Disneyland.When you are in charge of image develop-ment, you have to check on things, lookaround, and so I did a lot of walkingaround the Park. One day I noticedthat, when I walked by a large group ofvisiting Japanese businessmen, the noiselevel would go way up. I looked aroundto see what it was that Disney had donethat caused their excitement. It took mea while to find out that it was my walk-ing by that had caused the particularproblem.

On this one day - we all have thosedays when we wake up in the morningand just don't feel like being an attrac-tion - I just felt like that and didn'twant to be another attraction at Disney-land. I was walking around the Piratesof the Caribbean area. Quite a few ofyou have been there and know thenarrow street in New Orleans Square.You also know I am over six feet talland I saw coming toward me a group ofabout 60 of these wonderful littleJapanese businessmen. They were allabout 60 to 75 years old and followingtheir guide with her little flag. I thoughtto myself, "Bobbie, it's just not that kindof day. I don't feel like being an attractiontoday." Then I decided to heck with it.Why not give them a thrill? I knew thatI was going to have to walk through thevery center of this group to get down thestreet. They were coming toward me andwe passed one another and I walked rightthrough the middle. They were lookingup and smiling and just started talking,talking, talking. They didn't think Iknew what they were talking about, butI knew because I had been there before.

When I got to the other side of thegroup, I had this overwhelming desire

Bobbie Gee

to see what they were doing. I wanted toknow if they had turned around. I got tothe other side and I turned around andlooked - I must share with you the mostwonderful day of my life. Not onesingle man in that group of people hadturned around to look at me. But theyall had their cameras up on theirshoulders, pointing behind them, goingclick, click, click, click. True story! Youcan't make up something like that. Itwas one of the greatest days I ever hadthere!

IDO A LOT of consulting with com-panies that have forgotten about

their corporate image. How does thepublic view them? Disney probably hadand has one of the best corporate imagesof any industry in the world. I learnedso much about image while I was there.The bottom line of image means money!1can teach corporations and individualsthat there is no doubt they will makemore money.

How many of you have sat downwith yourselves and held a real goodcorporate image meeting? After all, youare in business for yourself. Too often I

find people saying, "I work for so-and-so." If any of you feel that you work forso-and-so, you are not going to makethe same amount of money as those whosay, "I am in business for myself." 1don't care who you work for. 1 don'tcare if the person is in a salaried position.If you realize that you are working foryourself, you are going to make a lotmore money. So you must have thosemeetings with yourself. How are youmarketing yourself? How are you pro-moting yourself? And what image areyou projecting to the people aroundyou?

Disney is so smart. Before anyone goesout and ever flips a hamburger or poursa Coke, he goes through 16 hours oforientation. Sixteen hours of trainingon how he is expected to treat people.They are told exactly what is expectedof them right down to the length of theirfingernails. Believe it or not, when yougo in there and ask for a job, you aregiven a notebook and inside there areall of the rules, facts, expectations, etc.You are instructed to go home and readthe notebook. Then, if you still want towork there, you are to come back andtake the next step. Right then and therethey weed out all the people who do notwant to work there. Those who do wantto meet the standards of the companycome back. They are then asked, "Haveyou read this little book? Have youread our rules, restrictions, our appear-ance standards and guidelines?" If theanswer is yes, they are asked to sign apiece of pink paper to the effect thatthey understand what the companyexpects of them. Six months later, whenthat person is out there and not lookingthe part or producing what the companywants in one of the listed areas, a super-visor will tell the individual that theyreally don't want people that work forthe company to look like that. "Wedon't want you to have hair down toyour shoulders." And this fellow says,"That's the way I want to be." "Well,"the reply goes, "that is not the policyand standards of this company. Do you

MARCH/APRIL 1984 15

remember reading that little book?""Well, yes, I guess so," comes the answer."You had better believe it, because wehave a piece of paper that you signedacknowledging you knew the standardsand policies of this organization." It isalmost shape up or ship out.

IBM has an incredible image - I havebeen in front of thousands of people allover America and I will ask them toname one corporation that has a greatimage and they invariably say IBM first.But the next interesting thing about thisis, why is IBM 'so famous for its corporateimage? Believe it or not, it is not becauseit makes great business machines. Sur-veys show it is most famous for whiteshirt and tie! Employees must conform.IBM's standards still stand today. Whatthe employees put on their bodies becamemore famous than the business machinesthe company makes.

Another company with an incredibleimage is McDonald's hamburgers. Hereis a company that understands image!The people who run McDonald's knowhow to project a good one. On the otherhand, a company with a really bad imageis the Postal Service. It has one of theworst images of any organization in theUSA. You walk in there and you figurethey could care less. The telephonecompany is another one with an imageproblem.

SO WE HAVE companies with verygood images and some with very

bad images. But if you want to develop agood image, you must treat yourselflikea corporation. So often I find in indus-tries everybody thinks it is the otherguy's business to set the image. Thiscompany is you! Without you, you havenothing. You are the image and whatyou do with it makes the difference.

Selling is 15 percent knowledge and85 percent enthusiasm. I figure I can selljust about anything if I get excited aboutit. I really do, and I don't need to knowvery many facts. So many people go toseminars, seminars, seminars. They filltheir heads with facts, but they forgetabout the 85 percent emotional side ofthe brain, the personality side. Why is

Golf has no greater image.

16 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD

~.. ;,.;...• '" ,..'1

Golf course workers - trying to improve their image!

selling 15 percent knowledge and 85percent enthusiasm? Because the humanbrain is 15 percent fact and 85 percentemotion! Our emotions work on usmuch more effectively than facts. Whatis the single most important thing toevery individual? To feel important!Every person has a tremendous needand desire to somehow feel important.You don't have to be important, youonly have to feel important. Are youdoing something very special to makeyourself feel important? Do you haveyour strategy mapped out? What kindof marketing play have you set downto do that?

The image game is a game. So manypeople don't understand that. If weunderstand the game, if we know therules, we can play to win! Absolutely!

18 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD

So play the game. Have your own com-pany philosophy? Ifyou are not thinkingof yourself as an individual company,you have already lost thousands ofdollars. What is your company image?What is your own personal companyphilosophy? You should be able to justspit it out. Otherwise how are you toknow what your objectives are? Youhave got to organize that point in yourmind. Most people don't get where theywant to go because they don't knowwhere they are going.

The Disney organization gets thou-sands of letters a year from peoplesaying two things: "This place is soclean! How can 60,000 people trampthrough the park every day and I neverstep on a piece of gum?" The secondthing they get letters about is, "Your

people treated us so nice." It is noaccident that Disney's employees treatpeople that way. It is because theemployees sit in class for 16 hours andsomeone tells them, "You will treat ourcustomers this way and you are expectedto do this and expected to do that."When they have the employee's headopen, they also dump in the companyphilosophy, which is, "We create happi-ness." Every single person knows whathis job is: to go out there and create alittle happiness for the customer. Disneywas on the verge of bankruptcy when heopened Disneyland. Nobody thought itwould be a success. But he never forgotthe image meaning and that corporatephilosophy.

But what about a personal philosophy?You should have one. You should know

what it is. I'll share mine with you: "Iwill lead a guilt-free life." This took mequite a few years to develop. I keptlooking around at people, and it seemedthere were so many unhappy, sick people.They go to motivational seminars allthe time. First, the motivation lastsabout 10minutes. They get out the door,look themselves in the mirror in the carand ask, "What happened? Ten minutesago I was going to set the world on fireand now where am I?" In order to leada guilt-free life, you really have to makesome changes. I looked at what wascausing people to get old. I looked atwhat was causing people to end up inhospitals, and it seemed to be guilt.Doctors say they are not there becausethey are sick. They are there becausethey feel guilty. To lead a guilt-free life,I sometimes have to go to people, friends,my children, and flat out say, "I'm sorry,I didn't mean to say it that way." If Idon't, it will just eat me up.

NOW THAT WE have but brieflycovered the corporate image and

philosophy, I am going to move on tothe visual image. By visual image, I wantyou to understand that elephants don'tbite; mosquitoes do. I am going to tellyou three personal stories about threedifferent people who did not make thesale, and they will never know why.

First is a story about a dentist. Mydaughter needed a great deal of dentalwork done, and it meant a great amountof money to someone. This dentist wasrecommended, and although we hadnever seen him before and did not knowanything about him, he had a nice officelocated in a fine building. That tells mesomething. We were ushered into aholding office and this young fellowstarted walking toward us. You and Iknow the five senses immediately takeover. He was wearing yellow / green/orange plaid slacks, brown earth shoeswith crepe soles and an orange shirt witha little alligator on it. He looked about25 years old. Subconsciously, I immedi-ately rejected him as a dentist. He startedtalking to us without introducing himself.He took out the x-rays, put them underthe light and started using every bigword he had ever learned in dentalschool. When it was all over, we walkedright by the receptionist and right outthe door. Later, I got to thinking aboutit. That fellow had all of his facts down;

why didn't I go to him? My subconsciousmind simply could not imagine this golfcaddie pulling out my daughter's teeth.

My second personal story is about areal estate person. My husband and Iwent to the West Indies to live for acouple of years, and when we returned,we needed a house. We walked into thisbeautiful real estate office and discussedour housing needs with a nice man.When he finished, he said a lady wouldshow us some houses, and we followedher out to her car, a very dirty car. As wegot closer to it I became concerned,because I don't like to ride around indirty cars. That is not my image ofmyself. She opened the car door and Idusted the cigarette ashes off of my sideof the seat. The car interior was litteredwith home brochures, listings, andpapers and a sand-bottom ashtray over-flowing with butts. We were with thislady all day long looking at housesbecause we really needed a house. Shelit up a cigarette in a closed car withtwo non-smokers. That lady is nevergoing to sell me anything, because I satall day long and choked on her smoke.She had her facts down. She knew herterritory and her houses, but that wasnot having as much of an effect on meas getting out of that car. It is themosquitoes that get you sometimes, notthe elephants.

My business partner and I went to seean attorney. We walked in and the officelooked like it was a third-hand furniturestore. He wore his double-knit polyestersuit, ushered us into his office, crossedhis legs and had a big hole in the soleof his shoe. From there on out I didn'thear another word. If this man is notmaking enough money to buy anew pairof shoes, obviously he is not a goodattorney. See how the little things canget you and how people think?

JUST TO SHOW you how the humanbrain works, we are going to playa

little game, and I am going to get you allinvolved. I am going to fire all of youand take away your jobs. But I am goingto hire you back with a minimum salaryof $10,000 a week. Is that all right? Nowyour new position at $10,000 a week isas follows:

You are a casting director in Holly-wood and you are going to cast a moviefor me. The first person in our movie is aconservative bank president. You tell me

what he looks like. Three-piece suit,white shirt, grey hair, dark socks, shinyshoes, clean shaven, glasses, manicuredfingernails, gold watch. You did well.

Our next role is that of a shady used-car salesman. White shoes, plaid pants,pot belly, greasy hair, open-neck shirt,gold chains, sunglasses, a moustache,and smoking a cigar. You have prettywell destroyed him. Our last characterwill be a lady of the evening. I want youto describe for me what this lady lookslike for our movie. Heavy makeup, longeyelashes, black stockings, red dress,c"heap costume jewelry, big purse, slitskirt, real high heels, and chewing gum.Okay, we all have an image of this lady.

Now, you did that, I didn't. You pickedout three people and described them. Ihave been all over the United States, andwherever I ask the same questions aboutthe same three people, I get exactly thesame answers. Our brain has been pre-programmed, and the instant we seepeople, we fit them into a slot. Everyperson fits into a pre-programmed slotin the brain. Every time you meet some-body, the instant he sets eyes on you,those five senses go to work, and theywork harder than anything else we havegoing for us. Of the five senses, sight isthe most important of all.

What do others see in you? Remember,the brain is 85 percent emotional, andwe are talking about the emotional sideof life, the side that is left out so often.People are 95 percent more self-consciousabout their physical self than their mentalself. Let me prove it.

Shopping one day in New York, mydaughter and I walked into a beautysalon, and a saleslady walked up andsaid, "What a beautiful young girl, isthere anything I can do for you?" Whatan opening line! She got right throughto the emotions, and when you knowhow to do that, you really know how toaffect people. Get to that emotionalside of the individual.

WE HAVE COVERED corporateand visual images. Remember,

your visual image can be changed over-night. I can put you in a new car, clothes,hairdo, etc., but I cannot change yourself-image and self-esteem. That is up toyou.

Why are we the way we are? Somepeople will never be millionaires; theyare not comfortable that way, and they

MARCH/APRIL 1984 19

never go out of their comfort zone. Howdid we get our self-image? When wewere kids, we heard stories like Rudolphthe Rednose Reindeer, The Ugly Duck-ling, Cinderella, etc. Analyze thosestories. At 2 years of age, you heardabout Cinderella being a beautiful girlwho won, and three ugly sisters who lost.Rudolph is about a misformed reindeernobody wanted to have anything to dowith until he did something heroic.Cinderella is a story about the physical;Rudolph is a story about physical; TheUgly Duckling is a story about physical,and Snow White is a story about physical.

When you are 2 years old, you learnthere is a difference between beingbeautiful and ugly. You begin thinking

about it, and by the time you get intokindergarten, you have figured it outthat you had better look good in thisworld.

Then we go to school and start bring-ing papers home, and our parents gohysterical. We have another thingfigured out: you had better be smart,because your parents expect you to besmart. Have good numbers and letterson that report card you bring home. Wethought we had it figured out about thephysical. Now somebody comes alongand tells us something new. It gets usvery confused.

At about 4 years of age, you want todo something really terrific, becauseMom has had a bad day. You run into

your bedroom and spend the next twohours painting a picture. You are goingto surprise Mom. You run into thekitchen and you say, "Mom, you knowwhat? I just painted this nice, mostfantastic picture for you!" You thinkthat's okay. Mom takes the picture."That's very nice." Then she says some-thing else: "It would have been a littlebetter if you had stayed within the lines."Mom is a teacher. Then she says, "Letme tell you something else, honey. It'snot nice to go around saying nice thingsabout yourself. Let other people dothat. "

So you go back in your bedroom andthink, "Okay. Mom always tells thetruth. I'm not supposed to go around

Some create an image with rough ...

saying that I painted a fantastic, wonder-ful, incredible picture. I am supposed tolisten to everbody else tell me that."And we start to wait, and we wait, and25 years later, we are still waiting foreveryone to say all those nice thingsabout us. Nobody is saying them, becauseeverybody else is waiting for everybodyelse to say them to them. Consequently,70 percent of all of our conversation isto ourselves and 70 percent of that con-versation is negative. Negative self-talk;70 percent!

IF THERE IS ONE thing I want toteach you today, it is this: don't

apologize for who or what you are!Simply be the best of you. Never apolo-

... Some with wildflowers.

gize for being the best that you can be.Some of you are mixed up! You think itis conceit. It's not conceit. It is the nicestthing you can do for all those peoplewho work around you, look at you andare with you all the time.

And here is something else I hope youwill take home with you today. Do youknow that the average parent spends71f2minutes a week in communicationwith his or her children? That meanssome of you! Do you know that theaverage American couple spends 20minutes a week in communication?That's average and that means some ofyou. And I am not talking about "pickup your socks and don't leave yourshorts on the floor, etc." I'm talking

about communication - 71f2minutes aweek; 20 minutes a week!

What are you saying to people whenyou get together? Not much. When youget together with your co-workers oremployer 20 years from now, are theygoing to remember you because of some-thing you said to them that changedtheir lives? Do you know a lot of peoplehave never heard, "Gee, you're a hand-some person - you're a lovely lady!"There are people who have never heardthat. What if they heard it the first timefrom you? They would never forget you.

What are we really saying to people?A number of years ago, a man died

whom I had met just once. He died in allof your eyes a total failure. He was an

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About the Author:

Bobbie Gee is a speaker/consultantwho has achieved national prominenceas a specialist in the fields of corporateimage and personal awareness.

She has consulted with such com-panies as Ice Capades, ITT, Bank ofAmerica, Allstate, Calgary Stampede,Century 21 and the Wrather Corpo-ration.

For three years Bobbie was respon-sible for the image of Disneyland,where she held the position of appear-ance co-ordinator. Prior to Disney-land, she was in public relations andsales, lecturing to colleges and busi-nesses throughout California.

She has hosted and produced twovariety, talk, TV series and has madenumerous television guest appearances,most recently on Hour Magazine andA. M. Los Angeles.

Bobbie is the founder and presidentof Orange County Speakers Bureauand is listed in Who s Who in Cali-fornia and Who's Who in Inter-national Writers. She is not only asuccessful businesswoman, but alsothe successful wife of a successful golfcourse superintendent.

Bobbie Gee

artist; his life had disintegrated and hebecame an alcoholic. He died alone in amotel room. Any of you would havesaid the man died a failure. But thatman left behind the most caring, themost loving, the most giving, one of themost respected sons I've ever met.

I went to the son one day and said,"I don't understand. You affect so manypeople and their lives and so many peoplerespect you, and your father died such afailure. What was it?" And he looked atme and thought for a minute and said,"I will tell you what it was. That man,from the time I can remember until I lefthome at 18, walked into my bedroomevery night, physically gave me a kisson the cheek and said, "I love you, son."I thought about that and I thought aboutHoward Hughes. What a success he was.Yet nobody cared when Howard Hughesdied. There was not one person on thisearth who cared that he was gone.

What is the image that your familyhas of you? What are you saying topeople? Are you free to express youremotions? I have watched that man'sson, and I have watched him with hischildren, and I have watched the freeflow of love between him and his chil-dren. "I love you, Daddy." "I love you,too." The hugs; the girls climbing allover him, sitting on his lap. Those girlshave grown up now, but they're stillsitting on his lap and they are stillhanging on. And I have had the privilegeof being married to that man for over 20years, and I love his father. I never knewhim. I only met him once, when I was ayoung bride. I hated the man because Ididn't think he treated his son right.But now, the way I've seen the effect thathe had on his son, I love that father.

You know there is a lot more to imagethan a Mercedes and a nice building.What are we saying to people?

We have been taught by a very goodbook that we are to love ourselvesbefore we can love other people. But Istill find so many people who areunhappy and so many people who areseminar junkies. They go from onemotivational seminar to another, butthey don't change. And that bothers mea great deal because they have neverlearned the principles of how to reallylove themselves first. When you get thatdown pat, you can really fly!

22 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD