Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to make hay while the sun shines. When
Speaker 1: you've got a good opportunity, you can shift your normal
Speaker 1: processes a little, not too much, but some, so you've
Speaker 1: got enough metaphorical hey to last the winter. Today's tip
Speaker 1: was inspired by an episode of Before Breakfast that you
Speaker 1: will hear soon, in which I interview Tracy Davidson, the
Speaker 1: co anchor of Philadelphia's NBC ten four o'clock and five
Speaker 1: o'clock newscasts. She mentions in our upcoming interview that currently,
Speaker 1: as in during the fall of what is an election year,
Speaker 1: her station is running three and a half minute ad
Speaker 1: breaks versus the normal two and a half minutes. The
Speaker 1: reason for this is that Pennsylvania, where Tracy and I
Speaker 1: both live, is a swing state in America's presidential elections.
Speaker 1: We also have a competitive senate race in some others.
Speaker 1: There is just a huge market for TV ads right now,
Speaker 1: so her station is making hay while the sun shines.
Speaker 1: Of course, there is a limit to this. You can't
Speaker 1: make hay twenty four hours a day over the summer,
Speaker 1: and likewise, people would stop watching the news if the
Speaker 1: ads were thirty minutes long, leaving no time for watching Tracy.
Speaker 1: But an extra minute per ad break increases revenue during
Speaker 1: this narrow stretch of time, when the revenue is there
Speaker 1: to be had. I think this is smart, and there
Speaker 1: might be applications in other fields. Maybe your organization planned
Speaker 1: to hire five new college grads for your office this year,
Speaker 1: but you've got a really, really good crop of applicants.
Speaker 1: Is there a good reason not to make an extra
Speaker 1: offer or too, Perhaps if budgets are really tight, but
Speaker 1: entry level folks are probably relatively cheap, and they might
Speaker 1: be able to take on a lot. If the opportunity
Speaker 1: is there, it might be wise to expand a little
Speaker 1: more than you thought you would. You can make Hay
Speaker 1: well the sun shines. My university actually expanded the size
Speaker 1: of their incoming classes a while ago because they realized
Speaker 1: that they were turning down a lot of really good applicants.
Speaker 1: When there is no difference between the last one hundred
Speaker 1: people you took and the first one hundred people you rejected,
Speaker 1: maybe you can build in some more space or acquire
Speaker 1: some more buildings and bring them in I think this
Speaker 1: philosophy can also apply to something like exercise. Some days
Speaker 1: you just do the basics. But if you are out
Speaker 1: for a run and you're feeling really good and the
Speaker 1: sun is shining, maybe you go for a little further
Speaker 1: than you planned. Not much more, but a little. You
Speaker 1: can seize the opportunity. Again, there's no need to go
Speaker 1: overboard with thirty minute ad breaks or hiring one hundred
Speaker 1: people when you meant to hire five. But when conditions
Speaker 1: are good, sometimes we can deviate a bit from the
Speaker 1: plan in order to seize the opportunity. Come mid November,
Speaker 1: all those political ads will be gone. It's good to
Speaker 1: make the revenue when you can. In the meantime, this Laura,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.