Back to the Rockies Through Merle's Door

20 Summers ago when I was a young affiliate sales manager at CBS I worked along side a bright young TV executive named Kristen Jordan. My territory was the Rocky Mountain time zone and hers was the Midwest.


We both left CBS in the early nineties and in one of those "gee it's a small world" stories we ended up working together again nearly 10 years later at Scripps Networks (the parent company of Food Network.)

We're still both at Scripps after more than 10 additional years and she's still a good egg. She's a fellow dog owner and pet lover, and a few months ago she suggested a fantastic book - Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog.

I just finished the audiobook version after listening for three weeks of bike commutes to work.


The book is a wonderful biography of dog and his special relationship with his owner. The relationship story is mixed with plenty of rich biological and anthropological information on dogs on humans.

The story is set in Jackson Wyoming which took me back full circle to the Summer of 1989 when I spent weeks on the road in the Rockies as an Affiliate Sales Manager for CBS.



In the back of my mind I've always vowed to return to the Rockies to live for a while. It may not be fore a while, but at least I can go there in my mind thanks to books like Merle's Door.

Good Food Gardens DC

I've been on the road a lot recently. Mostly I've been making presentations for our sales team.



But this past week I went to Washington DC



to be part of the latest Good Food Garden which we donated to the SEED charter school. Aidia Mollenkamp, host of Ask Aida,


and Secretary of Agriculture Tom vilsack spoke to the kids about the value of learning about where food comes from


and how to grow it.

Food Bank Can-Do Dinner

Last week the New York City Food Bank had a fundraising dinner.


My company sponsored the dessert party


Former President Bill Clinton showed up, said a few words and rubbed shoulders with U2's Bono.

American Marketing Association Speech

Yesterday I went to Chicago to give the keynote address at the American Marketing Association's Leadership Conference.

Like most people, I get anxious about public speaking. But I've found the more you do something, the more comfortable you get with it. And at some point you actually start to get good at the thing that used to scare you, and being good at it actually makes it fun to do, and you end up enjoying the thing you used to hate. So this is why I try to say yes to as many speaking opportunities as possible.

For the AMA conference I gave an one hour talk to 300 people on my principles for success and


on the history of Food Network. The creative theme for their conference was the restaurant industry, so I built my success principles around the spice "pepper." They are:

Passion

Emotional intelligence

People Leadership

Prudence

Education and Learning

Relationships and Sharing

I shared many of my favorite leadership quotes like

The greatest leader forgets himself

And attends to the development of others.

Good leaders support excellent workers.

Great leaders support the bottom ten percent.

Great leaders know that

The diamond in the rough

Is always found “in the rough.”

- Lao Tzu

and

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou

The audience was really wonderful. They stayed engaged and gave me lots of positive non-verbal feedback during my talk.

another quote was

The only true gift is a portion of yourself - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was so fortunate to be able to share a little of myself with the group.

Black Culinary Arts Dinner

Last night Marchette and I got all dressed up for the BCA annual fundraising dinner.



The BCA is a nationwide non-profit, educational and networking organization of hospitality and food service professionals. Its mission is to create exposure and provide educational and professional opportunities for culinary and hospitality professionals of color. They provide quality educational and employment resources, job coaching, mentoring and assistance with placement, and networking support. Additionally, the BCA exposes inner-city high school students to the culinary arts through a series of workshops that serve to introduce culinary arts as a viable career option.

Our company hosts BCA workshops and employs BCA interns.
























The students from various BCA member schools prepared the cocktail reception food, the main dinner, and dessert.





















We were joined by my coworkers Susan Stockton( with husband Rick), Patalia Tate (with her charming date Bernard).

March Update

I like to write something at least once a month, so here's an update on some random stuff that's been happening to me over the past 4-6 weeks.

Marchette has really been into modeling recently and has almost complete her own portfolio.


She was lucky enough to snag some tickets for the 2009 Mercedes Fashion Week events




We had bad snowstorm in February



And I was lucky enough to have some work to do in Miami Beach



where we entertained some of advertising clients, trying to get a greater share of their 2009 spending.



I also went to an awards dinner for our CEO where country star and 2008 Celebrity Apprentice runner-up Trace Adkins performed



The next week I attended a dinner for Diversity Inc magazine where Dr. Michael Eric Dyson gave the keynote speech.



and finally I spent one Sunday morning preparing Marty for the coming warmer temperatures by shaving all his hair.

Cookbook Success

I've been telling people that one of the fun things about getting older is that while you realize how little about everything you really know, you do come to realize that you do know a lot more than many about some things. And in case you don't know me personally, I've never been one to hesitate to give advice :)

Here's an e-mail exchange from work today when I grad student wrote me out of the blue for advice.


-----Original Message-----
From: Mallory A Lee [mailto:mlee@stmarys-ca.edu]
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 10:54 PM
To: Smith, Michael
Subject: Marketing Cookbook Question
Hi Michael,
I am an MBA student at Saint Mary's College and I am currently working on a marketing plan for prospective cookbook author. As the Senior-vice president of marketing for Food Network, I felt that you would be a great source to contact for some marketing research.
Basically, as a young author of a cookbook with an unrecognizable name in comparison to your stars such as Ina and Rachel Ray, I'm guessing this is a terribly hard market to break into. So, my very open-ended question to you is how you would recommend an aspiring cookbook author to market her book, and secondly what is your (Food
Network's) process for collaborative cookbooks? Any information would help my process!
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
Mallory Lee


From: Smith, Michael
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 5:15 PM
To: 'Mallory A Lee'
Subject: RE: Marketing Cookbook Question

Look at the top 10 cookbooks on the B&N list this week and you'll see some of the keys to cookbook success. Having built-in name appeal from past fame really helps.
Guy Fieri #2 and Ina Garten #5 are Food Network tv stars. The Biggest Loser #4 and America's Test Kitchen #10 are popular tv shows. Martha Earnhardt #8 is the mother of a NASCAR star.

Nancy Harmon Jenkins #3 is a veteran food writer who's has several prior bestsellers. David Zinczenko #1 is the editor of Men's Health magaxzine, a popular blogger, and has been on several TV shows.

Tucker Max #6 had a popular website before his book came out. Michael F. Roizen #9 is a famous doctor and the founder of RealAge and a past chairman of the FDA advisory committee.

Eat This Not That!: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds-or More!
by David Zinczenko

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip ... with Recipes!
by Guy Fieri

The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health by Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Biggest Loser Family Cookbook: Budget-Friendly Meals Your Whole Family Will Love by Devin Alexander

Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: How to Get Great Flavors from Simple Ingredients by Ina Garten

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (Revised) by Tucker Max

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg

Pit Stop in a Southern Kitchen: Two Moms of Racing Legends Serve Up Stories and Recipes by Martha Earnhardt

You on a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management by Michael F. Roizen

America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (REV) by America's Test Kitchen

My advice is to build your fame in blog world or through TV appearances, and then try to leverage that into publishing. For example, we didn't publish Guy Fieri's first book unitl he'd done over 2 years and 60 episodes of TV shows for us.

The only other road I've seen work is to come up with a truly unique gimmick, like 30 Minute Meals, or Semi Homemade Cooking, The South Beach Diet, etc.

Good luck,

Michael