Darrel Geis: I would say to myself, just remember, Darrel, what you accomplish in life, all the things, the accolades and all the things you accomplish, the business you grow, how big it is, all that kind of stuff is not nearly as important as who you become in the process.
Drew Dinkelacker: Welcome to Bullseyes & Blind Spots, a series of The Marketing Accelerator Podcast where chief executives share the pivotal decisions that define their leadership and the blind spots that reshape their perspective. I'm your host, Drew Dinkelacker, president of MarketingAccel-erator.com. Today's guest is Darrel Geis. He's the president and owner of Christian Blue Pages, a digital and print directory of certified Christian-owned and operated businesses throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. Darrel, welcome to Bullseyes & Blind Spots.
Darrel: Drew, it's great to be here with you.
Drew: We're happy to have you. So, let's dive right in and start with a bullseye. Take us back to a time when you had to make a tough decision. Things were maybe unclear of what to do next, I don't know. But you made a decision and it ends up it was a bullseye. You knocked it out of the park. Tell us about that.
Darrel: Well, it happened years ago. We had a live radio promotion on a Christian radio station in the Dayton area that was called the Christian Business Spotlight. And it gave us a chance to talk about a business live on the air on the radio, on a Monday afternoon for about seven minutes. It was great fun. Anyway, the radio station told us that we needed to not do it live anymore, and they need-ed to do it pre-recorded. And I could have... I could have really, "That's really not going to work for us. We really need it live," 'cause we had a lot of interactivity with the live portion. But I said, "Okay, let's run with this." And so, what ended up happening is it gave our clients a chance to be featured on the radio. We used our airtime to promote them on a, a spot called Out of the Blue, which also explained a little bit more about what was distinctive about them as a Christian in busi-ness. And so, what I learned from that was that it's, that's... I think it's really important for a compa-ny to emphasize its distinctiveness in order to stand out from the crowd.
Darrel: And we not only needed to do that as Christian Blue, but we needed to help our clients to do that. And so, from that change in that radio spot, we developed a section on our website called Christian Business Spotlights, where we ask our clients five questions: Tell us about your business. How'd you get started in this line of work? How'd you come to faith in Christ? How did your faith impact the way you operate in business? And what ministry or cause do you champion and why? And this has turned into an opportunity for our clients to emphasize their distinctiveness. So, we're helping them emphasize their distinctiveness on a section on our website which links to their list-ing. It has now transitioned to the Out of the Blue radio spot, the Out of Blue radio video. So, it's really giving us an opportunity to stand apart from the crowd, to do something different in business or to share what's different about you in business. You know, it's okay if you want to be a shiny ap-ple in a bushel of apples, [chuckle] like if you own an electrical contracting company and you want to be a shiny one, you want to be a big one. You know, that's fine if that's where you want to go with it.
Darrel: But I've learned from that, from this change in this radio promotion, that we really needed to help our advertisers not become a shinier or juicier, bigger apple. We needed them to help stand apart from the crowd as an orange. And so, what this new direction has allowed us to do is to broad-base that storytelling opportunity and feature it on digital, print, social media, e-marketing, mobile app notification, on the faith section of our website, in a variety of different ways. And that's real-ly... Our clients have really embraced that, and it's turned into a major reason why they decide to advertise with us, because it helps them to truly stand apart from the crowd.
Drew: One of the things that I hear in that storyline and in that decision was that you had what you thought was a good thing, and your hand was slightly forced into something else that you didn't necessarily think was the better thing, but you went ahead and tried it, and then you discovered the much better thing.
Darrel: Right. Absolutely.
Drew: Isn't that so true in life that the old saying about good is sometimes the enemy of better or best? And when you're in the good, it feels good. [laughter] You don't want to change. So, it's actu-ally a blessing that they pushed that into you, and then you had to make a decision whether or not to stay or to just go ahead and try it. And in today's business, I've always found over my last 25 years, adaptation has been a very useful tool for a business to adapt to what the needs of the market are. And I think that whole adaptation thing is just getting faster and faster in today's market. And that's what you did. You adapted and excelled at the adaptation.
Darrel: Yeah, it was really exciting because we transitioned from just being an advertising organi-zation. That's the vehicle that helps us to do what we're really called to do, which is be storytellers for our clients.
Drew: Yeah. So, every business leader I know has blind spots. Somewhere along the line, I have them. You can't avoid them. The trick is really discovering them. Can you share a time where a per-sonal blind spot was revealed to you and what the circumstances were?
Darrel: How much time do we have?
Drew: Yeah. [laughter]
Darrel: Because I got a lot of them. But the one I'm thinking about is that years ago, I had the blessing of working with a staff member for a period of 18 years, and that staff member came in and continued to rise up in the company and eventually became the Vice President of Operations of Christian Blue. And for so many years, this person did just an amazing job of running our office and operations. And I live in Cincinnati. Our home office is in Miamisburg, which is southwest Dayton. And so, I just entrusted that this person was getting the job done, and we had an office in Cincin-nati, too. So, I spent more time in Cincinnati than I did in the Dayton area office. But when I did that, I realized that I wasn't there enough to intentionally lead this person. But when I felt like I needed to, I would jump in full force. And this person eventually would tell me multiple times, "Darrel, you're in my lane. You're in my lane. Please stay out of my lane." And for whatever reason, I couldn't really hear that in the moment.
Darrel: This person eventually decided to move on from the company, and I've not really been in contact with them much since, which is really disappointing because we really had a great working relationship. So, what I've learned is that, as the Bible says, you need to keep... You know the con-dition of your flocks. Keep in touch. I had another business leader tell me you need to manage by walking around. So, I've learned to walk around a little bit more, to be more involved. And when I'm not involved, to be more intentionally, scheduling regular meetings and to discuss what's work-ing, what's not working. And my current, situation with my current VP of Operations has been just an absolute blessing. I've learned a lot from that unfortunate situation and me not learning what I needed to really do as a leader in that moment.
Drew: Even superstars that you have working for you, they still need support. As much as they are great at what they do, they still need that leadership. It's just trying to find the right fit. So, can you tell me how did you come to that revelation? You said that, you had heard it multiple times, but you never really heard it, about staying, so the lane whole analogy. Somewhere along the line, you got a different awareness. Can you tell us about that?
Darrel: Well, when my next VP of Operations told me the same thing, somehow the light bulb went on. And just... I had to accept some responsibility, and I began to realize that I just really, even though I trusted a lot, I became too trusting almost or too disconnected, more too disconnected. And so that is something that I've really been working on. Regular meetings now. It's been a great work-ing relationship that I've learned a lot from.
Drew: Yeah, I've seen this over the years. Leaders who are too distant and leaders who are too close. And there is a season, there's a time and a place, but knowing when the season is and when the time and the place is, man, that is when you need either self-awareness or someone next to you that can speak into you that kind of perspective.
Darrel: Yeah, and I am a work in progress in all this.
Drew: Aren't we all?
Darrel: I've been at this for a long time, but I'm a work in progress.
Drew: Aren't we all? Yes, indeed. So, before we get to our final question, I have a quick message for our audience. If today's conversation has you thinking about your own bullseyes and blind spots, well, I've created a companion resource. It's designed for chief executives. It's called, surprisingly, the Bullseyes & Blind Spots Accelerated Guide. It's a fast 10-minute read that helps you cut through the marketing fog. It confronts blind spots, and you gain clarity that you need to lead with confidence. So, download the guide and start your analysis at BullseyesAndBlindSpots.com. All right, Darrel, now's my favorite question. This is what we call the time travel question. If you could sit down with yourself 20, 25 years ago, what wisdom would you share about career or personal life with Darrel Jr.?
Darrel: Well, a lot, probably. But the thing that probably means the most is to, I would say to my-self, just remember, Darrel, what you accomplish in life, all the things, the accolades and all the things you accomplish, the business you grow, how big it is, all that kind of stuff is not nearly as important as who you become in the process. Right? It's, you know, you could go some products or services just lend to being promoted as broadly as possible, nationwide, worldwide, whatever. Some... And that may be a little wide and not so deep. Some kind of lead to going deeper, maybe not quite as broad. And that's kind of what we've chosen. And that to me, I mean, I had grandiose ideas of taking the Christian Blue Pages across the country, we could have done that. There were many opportunities, lots of different markets that didn't have a Christian directory, but I just felt like we needed to take this deeper dive. And I think this whole idea of this Christian Spotlight and how that led to us telling our stories of our clients more deeply kind of helped me to understand that there's a lot of work to do to make us stand out apart from the crowd.
Darrel: So, I would say, don't try to put feathers in your cap. Just go and make a decision of what niche you want to fill and fill it. For me, that has really helped because I ended up getting married later in life. I had children. We decided to homeschool our children, which involves a lot of atten-tion, in-person attention. And had I decided to go across the country, I would certainly not be the dad or obviously the husband that I believe God has given me the opportunity to be today, because I'd been there. So doesn't mean you can't grow nationwide, but that's not what's really important. It's who you become in the process. And so, I would just say, stay true to who you are. Bigger is not necessarily better. Find a niche and fill it. And that is what has ended up being a blessing for me.
Drew: That's awesome. Now, what would Darrel Jr. 25 years ago say in the 2000s or even the 90s? What would he think of where Darrel is today in life and business?
Darrel: Well, life, he'd probably say, "That's pretty cool. I never thought you would do that." Busi-ness, he'd probably say, "What in the world? [laughter] You're in Ohio mostly?" I think once... Me back then got the whole picture, he would understand because it's been a wonderful life. It's been an amazing journey, and I've been blessed to be doing it for over three decades.
Drew: Darrel, that is such an important thing. I find in working with entrepreneurs, many of them are visionaries. They have grandiose visions. I have grandiose visions. Rarely do those visions ever become a reality. But the path that puts you on and that you adapt to and the niche that you develop out, that's where the key... So often the key stuff is. And that's where most people end up. And it's not with a national product. And even a national product like that that we're talking about, it starts out being modeled in a smaller market, and then opportunities have to come to make it work. But just what you shared, I feel that too, and I'm sure we're not the only ones that have had many vi-sions that didn't come to fruition as we planned. And our younger self might be disappointed with where we are, but we're not. Right? It's been a good run.
Darrel: Yes, absolutely.
Drew: Super. Well, Darrel, thanks so much for sharing your journey. The bullseyes that gave you confidence are so important to hear just as much as the blind spots that shaped your growth. Your candor and your insight remind us that leadership is not about perfection. It's about learning. It's about adapting and staying true to what matters most. Subscribe today to our podcast and find out where your Bullseyes & Blind Spots are with the resources at BullseyesAndBlindSpots.com. I'm Drew Dinkelacker.