One of the most important attributes in the billboard industry – and life – is persistence against all odds. In this Billboard Mastery podcast we’re going to explore the importance of “staying the course” and not giving up, as well as some methods to improve your steadfast resilience.
Episode 132: The Importance Of Staying The Course Transcript
The expression "staying the course" originates from the British sport known as equestrian riding. And what it means is staying on your original plan or direction despite difficulties. Now, most billboard buyers and owners are probably not doing so on the back of a horse. They may never ridden on a horse ever, but the general concept is as true in billboards as is in horsemanship. This is Frank Rolfe with the Billboard Mastery podcast. We're going to talk about the concept of staying the course and why it's so vital as a part of your rigor in being successful in the billboard business. Now, I don't know if you ever watch rodeo on television or not. Where I am in Missouri, there's a rodeo channel on Spectrum Cable. And if you watch the rodeo channel as I have over the years, it's great background noise when I'm writing things. You'll notice that there's a whole new breed of professional bull rider. And these guys are different than the old timey bull riders because the old timey bull riders, when they got trouble, they would let go of the rope and fall off the bull. But the problem in bull riding is you have to last at least eight seconds for the ride to count.
And today younger people are more daredevil. And what they'll do is when they get in trouble, they will not let go of the rope on the bull. I've seen them where they're still riding the bull with the bull kicking them as they hang underneath the bull waiting for the 8 second bell to go off and then letting go. That is really staying the course. And they do that because they know in that way if they don't let go, even though it's not a high scoring ride, it still counts to their favor. So they're willing to do anything not to let go of that rope. And in the billboard business, not letting go of that rope can be a pretty important item for a number of reasons. Number one, persistence is a key to finding a good billboard location to build on or a good billboard to buy. In fact, if you ask me what is the number one criteria, what's the one trait that most of the successful billboard people have, is that persistence, hanging in there. Staying the course also means being stubborn through emergencies and not giving up. And I have had my fair share of billboard emergencies, that is for sure.
On my very first billboard, which was very tall, 120 feet high, the column had to be put in in stages. So they put the first column in the ground, no problem. They put the second stage that went sleeved inside that column, no problem. They went to put the third one in, and they couldn't get it to go in. And what happened was it jammed in there, so they couldn't take the piece down on the ground yet we couldn't get it in. And it was dark. It had become nighttime. And the crane operator was like, "I'm not staying out here all night. I'm gonna have to charge you a fortune. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." It was terrifying. But I just had faith it would all work out. I didn't panic. I didn't drive off of my car. And lo and behold, they started cutting around on the pipe a little bit. And suddenly, bam, it fell into position and the worst was over. But in life, you will certainly have emergencies from time to time, and you got to stay the course and you have to keep going. You can't just give up when those things happen.
Also, you probably have seen, for example, in the general economy, we've had 11 straight rate increases under Jerome Powell until now. That is the fastest increase in interest rate in 40 years. And yet it's mediated now. It seemingly stopped. It start going down. Interest rates on commercial loans will start going down, too. And we've all survived through Covid and all of those lockdowns and issues. So once again, we all know as adults here in 2025, the end of 2025, that things do pop up, but they ultimately tend to recede. So here are some thoughts, some better ways to stay the course when these things happen. Here are some reinforcing ideas to help you stay the course. Number one, don't panic or overreact, because great leaders remain passionless. They remain strictly analytical. Have you seen Sully Sullenberger land that giant jet in the Hudson river? Watch the YouTube on that. Listen to how calm he was. He seems as though he's a regular routine landing. He's telling him, "Yeah, I'm gonna have to land it in the Hudson River. I've lost both the engines." But he's not screaming. He's not in panic. And that's how you have to be.
Also, when bad things happen, just don't freak out. Freaking out does not help things one iota. Another thing to ponder is Jeff Bezos' regret minimization strategy. Now, what is that all about? Jeff Bezos has not given a lot of quotes, but what he did, one he did give was when he was asked how in the world he came to give up a nice cushy job on Wall Street to start up Amazon as a used bookstore in his garage. And he said, his theory on life is he imagines an 80 year old version of Jeff Bezos. And he asked himself what decisions did he made? Did he make that, that he would regret? What would he regret as an 80 year old person? And in this case he decided as an 80 year old person he would always wonder what would have happened if I had started that used bookstore in my garage. Because he was convinced the Internet was really going to be a big deal. And if he had not used that regret minimization concept, there would be no Amazon. Maybe somebody else would have one today, who knows. But he really would have regretted that a whole lot.
Also sticking with your commitments to yourself and your family to create an additional stream of income is important. It's a commitment, a responsibility. You have to try and provide the best living, the best quality of life you can for your family. And that more than maybe anything else should force you to stay the course because you don't dare let you and your family down. You got to keep going. There's also a great book out there written by Conrad Hilton. It's a biography, so it's not written by him, it's written about him. And it's called The Man Who Bought the Waldorf. And we have a copy of the book. We rewrote the book to give inspiration to people. If you want a copy, just reach out to Brandon. And what you find in Conrad Hilton, which is so inspirational, is that you talk about staying the course. Boy, did he stay the course. He built a chain of luxury high rise hotels and he lost all of them during the Great Depression. But rather than just curl up in a ball and cry and lay on the floor, he had a plan. His plan was to go to the lenders and say, "Hey, can I keep managing my hotels?"
And they said, "Well gosh Conrad, aren't you kind of mad we took them away from you?" And he said, "Yeah, but I got to do something for a living, let me, let me manage them." So the bank said, "Well, no one knew these hotels better than the guy who built them. I guess he can go ahead and manage them." But he had a plan. And his plan was he was going to watch till for when the economy turned around and then he was going to buy them back. And that's exactly what he did. And he proved to be so smart in the timing, he was able to buy virtually every major hotel in America before anyone ever was able to compete with him. He ended up owning all of them. Waldorf Astoria, St. Regis, the Plaza, Hilton owned them all. And that's after he failed and lost all of them a decade earlier. Another psychological study has shown if you add the word "yet" to your statements, it will definitely help your attitude. So if you say, "I haven't made a million dollars yet," that will imply that you're going to achieve it. And most things in life where you have to give a statement where you haven't been there yet, if you add the word "yet," they found it makes people significantly more positive about where they're at and significantly more likely to actually ultimately hit the outcome.
The bottom line is, if you want to be successful in billboards, you really do have to stay the course. You have to have the persistence not to give up, even when things pop up. You have to be focused and you have to move forward. This is Frank Rolfe, the Billboard Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.