Relationships

So those are some of the nuts and bolts of our daily business operations, but a successful company also needs to foster some of the more intangible relationships. That’s where David Ahearn’s abilities come into play. Remember the money he tried to raise for his feature film with Harvey Keitel that never panned out? Well, Ahearn had to hobnob with a lot of influential people to make that happen. That “failure” ended up equipping him with a skill set and connections that would help the company down the road.

One of the things we like to do is donate our services when we can. We’ve offered up free shows, tickets, and services after the tragedy of 9/11 to certain charities and to our troops. Improvisation is all about give and take, so we feel that we should give back when we can. Using this philosophy, Ahearn began to offer up our services to the city of Fort Worth as well. We ended up hosting events like the mayor’s 25th wedding anniversary, Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan’s purchase of the Texas Rangers, and roasts of prominent figures in the community. These are the intangibles that are hard to quantify when you’re doing them, and they come back to you in ways you never expected.

For example, by raising our profile among the powers that be in the city, we eventually were regarded as an institution and awarded the Key to the City as Fort Worth’s Greatest Ambassadors by the great mayor, Mike Moncrief. We were also recognized as Small Business of the Year by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. And subsequently, because we were recognized as Small of Business of the Year that directly led to becoming Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at the esteemed Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian ­University. Who could have predicted that? Now that’s what we call a Return on Improvisation.”

We really can’t stress enough how much these milestone moments meant for our company. To be recognized on that level was worth more than any amount of money. It solidified our standing in the community and is a great source of pride for us. C’mon, how many people can say they’ve been awarded a key to the city? It’s rather impressive, even though it doesn’t unlock every door to the city. Trust us, we tried. And it most certainly doesn’t get us out of any speeding tickets. Trust us, we tried.

Chapter 7 Intermission

Everyone brings a different skill set to the table, and each is equally important. It’s vital that we honor each other’s unique perspectives in life. For instance, if we had our backs to the Grand Canyon and saw only you, we’d be missing out on one of God’s greatest creations. From your perspective, you would ask us to stop blocking your view and to turn around. In doing so, we’d be thrilled to see something majestic. Much like the person in Plato’s cave who only sees shadows, we’d find there’s a whole would of possibilities if we would just turn our thinking around.

Vision

I was a peripheral visionary. I could see the future, but only way off to the side.

– Steven Wright

We’ve mentioned “we don’t know where we’re going; we only know where we’ve been” as an improvisational philosophy. That said, a business needs to have an idea of where it might be going in order to grow. One of the things we like to say is, “This is chess, not checkers,” when talking about the future of our business. Like chess, part of our success lies in being able to strategize and think 12 moves out. That’s where Frank’s role came into play.

Every business needs to take some of its money and reinvest it back into the company so it can grow. With success comes growth, and with growth comes challenges. One of the challenges the group faced was not being able to take work because we didn’t have the talent resources. We were good, but we had small numbers so we had to turn down jobs because we couldn’t be in two places at once. We had to grow the group, but the group needed to be with people who were taught our philosophy. Four Day Weekend needed an organized and dedicated training center so we could educate future improvisers for our show. We knew that this would be a good way to mold, monitor, and educate people in our image. This is where executing a mission statement is so important. We want everyone speaking the same language so there’s no confusion with our goals.

After all, what’s the point of being given marching orders if you don’t know where you’re going or how to get there?

Realizing that it takes a long time for a person to become good enough to perform on our main stage, Frank started building the training center and worked closely with the ­students over the next several years. Frank strived to have all our students in our training center speaking the same “Yes, and” language that made us all successful. “Yes, and” was and to this day still is at the foundation of our mission statement. For instance, students are told on the very first day that they are not being taught how to be funny. Instead, they are being taught a philosophy for life. The comedy is an organic by-product of the scene work. This approach allows students to focus on the ideas and language, which together are the most important part.

Like Ahearn, Frank was able to foster long-term relationships and earmark people for the cast. And also like Ahearn’s relationships, it was hard to quantify exactly how all this would benefit the company in the future.

Because Four Day Weekend still is considered a small business, everyone knows each other very well. This means that it’s important for the entire staff and cast to get along onstage as well as offstage. We’re all friends who hang out together on occasion, so relationships are very important to the company’s success. By working and spending social time with the students, Frank was able to build trust, loyalty, and friendships along the way. The training center started to act like a baseball farm team for the group. Eventually, one of the students might be called up to the majors to perform.

This model has helped open up more revenue streams for the business. And more revenue streams allowed us to pay people more and expand the cast/staff, and so on. Also, having more cast members has allowed for people to take more time off when needed and opened up their schedules to take on other Four Day Weekend visionary projects – like this book that you’re holding in your hand. Yes, we wouldn’t have been able to do a lot of the things that we’re doing today if it weren’t due to some forward thinking.

That’s the Spirit!

We mentioned in the introduction to this book that we performed for Congress with President Obama in attendance but we didn’t tell you how that transpired. This is one of our most serendipitous Happy Accidents of all.

The opportunity to work with Southwest Airlines is among our favorite “Yes, and” stories, and serves as a testament to the amazing spirit of their can-do company. One day we received a call from Southwest and they said they were hoping we could come in and train their trainers in the “Yes, and” philosophy. Southwest has always had a company culture that thrived in the spirit of “Yes, and” and we knew this was going to be a perfect fit. The “Yes, and” improvisational show was going to team up with the “Yes, and” airline.

There was only one problem, they told us. They didn’t have our entire fee for the training because they were at the end of a budget cycle. Now, we are “Yes, and” guys and we pride ourselves on avoiding saying “no” to an opportunity at all costs. We began thinking of a work-around so that we could still do the training sessions in the current quarter so we said, “We would love to do the workshop and maybe we could make up the difference of our fee with airlines tickets or an ad in your in-flight magazine to offset the shortage.”

Southwest, to their credit worked with us and offered up flights, however, they said they couldn’t get us an ad because that was in a different revenue bucket and they didn’t have the authority to do an ad. We said we understood and would work with Southwest because we were such fans of the company and we knew in the long run it would become a mutually beneficial relationship. Sometimes it is important to make decisions that aren’t entirely financially based. Remember, we are playing chess and not checkers.

About a week later Southwest came back to us and said, “We can’t give you an ad but Spirit Magazine is doing a story on creativity in the workplace and we were thinking it might be a fit to have the writer be a fly on the wall and watch the ­session and then write about the ‘Yes, and’, training.” We said, “yes” to their suggestion “and” why don’t you have the writer participate in the training so that he can give a firsthand account of the experience.

Southwest agreed and a week later we did the session with the writer participating in the training. It was a highly energized and successful team-building that Southwest told us reenergized their trainers. The writer, who loved the workshop, went off to write his story.

Weeks later the Spirit Magazine article came out and we got our hands on a copy and the small blurb that was originally pitched turned into a four-page story on the Four Day Weekend “Yes, and” philosophy and business model. To say we were thrilled was an understatement. This was our first national press and it lifted us from a regional show onto the national stage. All of this happened because we don’t say “no” and we find “Yes, and” solutions that have far-reaching benefits.

Often we don’t see these benefits right away but this one happened pretty quickly. In a matter of days after the article was published, a Democratic Congresswoman from ­California, Linda Sanchez, was flying a Southwest flight and picked up the article about Four Day Weekend and was intrigued by the “Yes, and” philosophy. She took the magazine back to Washington, D.C., and threw it on John Larson’s desk. Larson was the Chairman of the Democratic Caucus at the time. Sanchez told him, “Our meetings suck. We need these guys.”

Days later David Wilk’s phone rang and he picked it up and had a life-changing phone conversation.

As Wilk likes to tell it, the phone call went a little something like this:

Wilk: “Hello, you’ve reached Four Day Weekend. David Wilk speaking. How may I help you?”

John: “Yes, this Congressman John Larson, Chairman of the Democratic Caucus. I’ve heard some really good things about your organization.”

Wilk: “Really? Well, I wish I could say the same about yours.”

Dave’s response was met with stunned silence on the other end. You see, in our group we like to play pranks on each other. We curry favor through good bits. But a person has to “commit to the bit,” and this means that some bits can go on for a long time. Well, Dave thought (rightfully so) that this was one of us doing a bit on him, and he was busy and didn’t have time to play along. After a long pause, Larson started again.

John: “Excuse me? What did you say?”

Wilk: “I said, I wish I could say the same about yours?”

John: “Did I call the right number?”

Suddenly, Dave began to realize that this was no bit. He collected himself and responded.

Wilk: “Yes, sir. I apologize. I thought that you were one of the Four Day Weekend guys playing a prank on me.”

John: “I see.”

Wilk: “Yes, well, I’m honored that you called. How did you hear about us and how may I help you?”

Three weeks later we were the keynote presenters for the United States Congress with President Obama in attendance. None of this would have happened had Southwest Airlines just paid our rate. But because they COULDN’T (as we said to them in one conversation, “if only you charged for bags!”) we were able to “Yes, and” our way to Congress and the President of the United States.

Chapter 7 Highlights

• Pay attention to the day-to-day operations of the business. The devil is in the details.
• Foster relationships in every facet of your business. You never know how they will come back to help you.
• Develop a mission statement so that everyone from the top down is speaking the same language.
• Have a unified vision and constantly work toward it. It may not reap immediate dividends, but the investment will play a large part in the future success of a business.
• Always search for “Yes, and” solutions to “problems.”

Chapter 7 Exercise