Steven Seghers is the CEO of Hooray Agency, and the “key driver in the agency’s success and evolution since joining in 1994.”
Throughout his career, Steven Seghers has collaborated with “high-end brands such as Sony, Starwood Hotels, Pfizer, Hyatt, Montage Hotels, Salamander Resorts, Prefered Hotels & Resorts, and Resorts World Las Vegas.”
Likewise, Steven Seghers has also made a name for himself as a “notable industry insider and marketing expert, especially within the travel, hospitality, and healthcare space.”
Steven Seghers has “utilized his deep expertise in the space to grow and evolve Hooray Agency, continually pushing the boundaries on what is possible and making Horray impossible to ignore.”
According to Steven Seghers, Hooray Agency stands out because they “focus on creating meaningful hooray moments, not gimmicks.”
Steven Seghers and Hooray Agency “develop highly personalized customer touch-points that showcase our company in unique ways.”
For example, Steven Seghers and Hooray created a “personalized, hand bound book, with an invitation for the client’s future grand opening.”
Another example was when Steven Seghers and Hooray also “gave away small airline liquor bottles with signs representing a company’s state of mind or mood: Vodka for creative, Tequila for technology, and Fiji water for consulting.”
As Steven Seghers says, Hooray “is not a single event, but a philosophy of crafting sustainable impact points for brand experience, customer relationships, or a set of memories.”
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Hooray is a not a single event, but a philosophy of crafting sustainable impact points for brand experience, customer relationships, or a set of memories. Steven Seghers, Hooray Agency
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Steven Seghers: With a name like “Hooray Agency” — you better stand out, or else! The challenge with a company name like ours is setting the wrong expectation.
We all want to say “hooray!” but say it too much and it loses impact.
Hooray is a not a single event, but a philosophy of crafting sustainable impact points for brand experience, customer relationships, or a set of memories.
We focus on creating meaningful hooray moments, not gimmicks, so we develop highly personalized customer touch-points that showcase our company in unique ways.
One of my favorites was a personalized, hand bound book, with an invitation for the client’s future grand opening — the opening starts now!
The other was for a sponsorship of a hospitality event, where we gave away small airline liquor bottles with signs representing a company’s state of mind or mood: Vodka for creative, Tequila for technology, and Fiji water for consulting.
It was a great way to force people into a category, makes for a good laugh, and connects customers to the hooray brand.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Steven Seghers: This will sound counterproductive but work less, and sprint more.
The most creative and inspirational moments come from personal reflection, in whatever form you choose, such as athletics, yoga, travel, reading, or simply doing nothing.
Create these silent moments where you can be solely in your own head and open your mind to the next set of objectives, whether creative or strategic.
Then shift into major sprints, pour yourself into a set of critical objectives, problem solve, and react quickly.
The key is to stay focused, and leverage your newfound energy to get more done, over an extended period of time.
By working less, and sprinting more, you will get more done and actually see give yourself a 2:1 advantage in output and creativity.
Jerome Knyszewski: Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Steven Seghers: For over 25 years, the answer remains the same, Nick Singer my stepfather and original founder and Chairman of the agency.
Without him, I would not have had the opportunity to grow, prosper, and lead.
When I was 19 and 20-year old kid, I would often have to meet with clients one-on-one and attempt to close deals.
He gave me the rope to learn, taught me to be self-sufficient, and to not fear rejection.
This confidence allowed me to pursue business deals that I had no business trying to engage (Disney, Westin Hotels, Sony, Harrah’s), but it worked, at least enough of the time.
On one occasion, I asked Nick to join me on a “close meeting” with a general manager in downtown Los Angeles.
I felt certain to close this business deal, and I had worked this account for months. My confidence was very high.
I walked into the meeting and was literally chewed into bits throughout the negotiation. I had no words and felt completely helpless and overmatched.
In short order, Nick was able to realign the potential client, and we were able to acquire the client.
That said, I learned a valuable lesson: never go into a meeting unprepared, and always have plan b, c, or d.
Beyond this, and probably the most important lesson learned from Nick is to look beyond what you see in front of you — — look at business deals holistically and find ways to create value that extends for decades.
Never think in millions, think in the billions. That process of thinking “big” will serve every interest and force broader thinking.
Jerome Knyszewski: How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?
Steven Seghers: A good company is generally profitable, has a good reputation, a solid team, a foundation for growth, and measures success based on competitive landscape of its industry.
A great company does everything a good company does, but is loved equally by its employees and customers, and seeks to create new benchmarks for success by leading the industry through innovation and reinvention.
Jerome Knyszewski: What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill? From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?
Steven Seghers: Every great brand, from Apple to Nike, goes through periodic lulls in their business cycles.
Their success is no different than small business, so they are continually adapting their products, solutions, and customer offerings to remain competitive.
The difference for most smaller businesses has nothing to do with size or liquidity, but their unwillingness to adapt or completely change their business models.
Success often breeds complacency.
Blockbuster famously told Netflix that their business model was ridiculous and untenable. Too big to fail doesn’t exist.
And that story is repeated throughout our history, so you must be prepared to change and adapt constantly, and well before you flat-line.
My advice to any business that has plateaued is simple: rebrand and reimagine or prepare to sell before it’s too late.
Attack your competition, aggressively.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?
Steven Seghers: When the economy is weak, I recommend two critical paths to drive growth or gain market share.
- Embrace your current loyal customers: loyalty is the engine that will keep you warm during economic downturns.
Create programs and solutions that reward your best customers and ensure that you are pouring significantly more dollars into loyalty and retention. - Attack your competition, aggressively.
Downturns create opportunities, whether through acquisition, customer conquests, or strategic advertising, this is the ideal time to capture as much competitive market share as you can.
Bottom line: in a down economy everyone is hurting, so your opportunity lies in assertive action while the market is wobbly, you can pick up the pieces and achieve remarkable gains.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Steven Seghers: The financial levers. I don’t mean the basics of the balance sheet, but the highly detailed health card on every aspect of your business operation, down to the revenue per square feet.
Understanding your detailed financial mechanics, will allow your business to grow faster, stronger, and be in a position to capture more market share during down periods.
The best example is your own personal health — only 50% of your fitness goal is working out, lifting weights, running, etc. — — what’s the other 50%?
Your diet: what you eat, your body composition, and how you are calibrating your food intake to meet your personal goals.
The is exactly what a successful business needs to address, not just the overall “calorie counting” (or sales) exercise of financial health, but the deep analysis on how each aspect of your business is affecting your short and long-term business objectives.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?
Steven Seghers: Ask! Ask your customers, do focus groups, create internal customer experience teams.
Work with creative agencies to create and ideate and develop new innovative ideas that will impact your customer and create those viral moments.
Test, learn, and optimize your efforts over time.
There are no templates for this, but the wow for any business is the surprise and delight moments we all crave.
Ultimately, the customer experience “wow” needs to be something you can replicate, so create tiers of moments or experiences that you can quickly operationalize.
Last but not least, never stop evolving the wow.
Ask your customers, do focus groups, create internal customer experience teams. Steven Seghers
Jerome Knyszewski: What are your thoughts about how a company should be engaged on Social Media? For example, the advisory firm EisnerAmper conducted 6 yearly surveys of United States corporate boards, and directors reported that one of their most pressing concerns was reputational risk as a result of social media. Do you share this concern? We’d love to hear your thoughts about this.
Steven Seghers:
- We all recognize that social media is an important, ever evolving, communication platform.
However, I’m a firm believer that not every brand or company should engage or even create company channels (hello Apple).
Ultimately, you must decide how you want to leverage each channel and determine the type of engagement that suits your company’s brand (OR NOT).
It is critical to choose the right social channels that align to your business objectives, and to be prepared for the associated risks — reputational or otherwise. - Bottom line: If you are not prepared for the reputational risk, then you should not engage.
The benefit of social media is that it’s a fluid, multidimensional platform for engaging, reacting, and listening to customers.
The danger of social media is that it’s a free-flowing multidimensional platform for engaging customers.
Every brand must accept this reality and be prepared for the dark-side. Otherwise, stop the presses, and stay out.
For those willing to engage, it’s important to rise above the noise, and recognize that your brand may be challenged, and you must be willing to engage in a thoughtful and “real” way.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Steven Seghers:
- I call it the “one thing” mindset. Every entrepreneur believes their ideas are the best, because that’s what’s makes them great entrepreneur’s.
You must believe. You must be positive. That said, the most common mistake is their unending focus on what makes them/it/the “one thing” so great.
For example, “if we can capture just 1% of the market, then….” “If we can just show our product to the investors, then” …
“If we can just get in front of the right decision makers, then…”. The “one thing” mindset quickly leads to morale declines, lost business opportunities, and failure. - Ultimately, the focus needs to be on the customer and the brand.
How is my product going to evolve and improve the life of the customer? How am I changing and adapting to the business needs? How am I changing the customer’s behavior?
It’s critical to avoid drawing lines in the sand, but instead, focusing your efforts on building relationships, creating a team-first mindset, and allowing the “one-thing” to be many little things, over time.
Jerome Knyszewski: If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Steven Seghers: We must reward success and breed it!
Imagine an environment where companies that hired, inspired, and became successful were rewarded for helping the next set of leaders, build, earn, hire, and grow their own company?
In my utopian vision, small and large companies that employ and empower, would be given tax incentives and loans if they hire new employees and support local charities through education, wellness, and hands-on training. Imagine a success cycle that is created by entrepreneurs and supported by the local and national government.
The more you create, and enhance, the greater you benefit and prosper.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Steven Seghers: Please link up with me on LinkedIn or email me anytime at [email protected].
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
