The simplest answer to the question, how you face a crisis

As the godfather of a seahorse named Willi, I continue to deal with his brand in this blog. I discuss all aspects with Willi on the way to the Love Brand and how they pay off. For the fans, in the team, in life and last but not least also on the internet. Anyone who stays away from social media as a brand will be kept away from the market. Modern relationship management happens online. Whoever networks there is also transparent and therefore vulnerable. A Love Brand can build on its stable relationships in times of crisis – on solid support from the network. Because communication in the crisis is nothing more than tactics. The team is already set up … Which tactics Willi masters, whether panic or brand essence prevails … Here comes the answer.

Understand the state of emergency

What a day. Another one like this and I harpoon myself. Or plunge me into the filter system, strangle me with seaweed and then ride into the eternal sunset of the seahorses. Who laughs now is out, got me?

What’s up?!

Boah, I get blood pressure again immediately. We have been attacked several times. Directly and indirectly. Just when the brand was buoyant again. And now? Everything was on a knife’s edge – but above all, panic was on my face.

Well, calm down, Willi. Step by step.

It all started with waking us up a bit rough this morning. We had slept longer than usual because we wanted to take a few night shots for the internet. Night shots sells – only maybe I had misunderstood something. Note: If you can’t see the camera in the dark, the camera won’t see you either. In any case, the electric eel was not in the mood for salt water or the role of a flashing light. He said that he might short circuit himself due to the good conductivity of salt water. So our night shift remained unnoticed and unlit. Maybe a good thing … After all, we were all naked. Would that have sold again?

I don’t care a shit, because the actual and all-changing blackout followed just this morning. On the outside of the aquarium window. It was a hiking day. That means a state of emergency.

A short exam question for seahorse fans: How often do you think a child has to drum on a glass until all seahorses finally hide?

A) One time is enough.

B) As often and as long as Gregory and Maxl can,

or answer

C) Seahorses like techno – they need bass…?

Admittedly, that was a rhetorical question again. Still important to be able to follow the progress of this story. I’ll help you with the answer: A). And after about 15 minutes of terror, we even fight back.

Stupid, without arms and with this cutting disc, right? I thought with my team too. So our weapon was called ignorance and isolation. We hid and didn’t want to get out until the kind of fans who don’t beat us up are back.

In any case, the incident with window drums had another negative side effect: the one who actually feeds us crabs did not care about the fine food today, but about the clear view. Our window glass had to be freed from the persistent traces of children’s hands. A smeared look at the popular Love Brand is like no look at all. At least it is a falsified one. And Love Brands are real, that’s what sets them apart. They like to show themselves, but just the way they are.

If they do not show up at all, this means: no presence, no crabs. The principle is simple: no performance, no reward. Not having a meal a day is not a problem for me. But, what followed later led to an existential crisis. Not only was it threatening to cut out a second meal without replacement – it was threatening a permanent diet. Other team members have already spoken of starvation.

Conflicts come and go

Let me tell you a little bit more about that. It didn’t happen long after the techno kids visited. My team and I were still in the background. We even avoided the cameras that the Love Brand streams all over the world – which world wants to see disturbed seahorses? What kind of picture does the »Horse Feed« give when it is pushed into the corner? Then better no pictures, for sure.

So while we lived an unnoticed life like in the 80s, almost without affordable telecommunication and 24/7 accessibility, the entrance door to the aquariums was not far from our pool.

Music resounded. A choir. Men, four, in uniform. Or something like that. The shirts were in and of themselves the only thing that harmonized in this group. Rarely heard such a kind of singing.

It turned out that a few fans had strayed to me. Some to whom balls seem to be more important than eggs… Oh, what they did if they didn’t sing, they were arguing. Right in front of my window.
I have already followed a number of conflicts in front of my stage. The biodiversity of discussions is about as varied as the colorful reef life . I’ve learned that some conflicts resolve themselves – I’ve even seen reconciliations. Even hiking days pass.

The current conflict in front of my window came to a head. Apparently the men were dealing with a bitter setback because the emotions became more and more apparent: screaming, scolding, destroying, rioting, boycotting, sabotaging. This went on for a really long time, until someone finally intervened to ensure calm.

Then there was really silence.

First we figured out that all fans who wanted to come to us had fled past us and the male choir. Who knows if and when they will come back to us at all. If the seahorse aquarium gets around as a meeting place for such groups, we definitely have a problem.

Well, the problem is already there. It is the only thing that insists on silence. Or is that my stomach? However, there are no crabs anyway. Our feeder dropped in a subordinate clause that the fans from earlier had dumped the fresh delivery of crabs into the lake. They wanted to feed fish, they said. If they had asked me, I would have shown them where the mainstream is flowing.

In any case, I just have to struggle a little for composure, because it upsets me a lot when willful or deliberate intervention in existences happens. If you can’t allow yourself and are just a bad loser.

Especially because I’m helpless. Because no action on my part will change my mood and the current crisis. Certainly not immediately. Just as it should be now. I was able to do something against the inner looming crisis as a consequence of comfort and laziness. But now other forces were working. Those who turned us off.

Until one of these fans dared to come up to me again. A particularly loyal and fearless of his kind: my godfather. I was happy to see him, but he was late. Too late.  I already went crazy…

Be clever, change something yourself

»Godfather, it’s coming to an end. Since our network grows every day, all kinds of people have come here. And strange things happen. Things I can’t explain but have an impact. It started with a little attack on inner peace. And when we hid, the situation escalated completely. We are lost«, in case it was not clear enough, I added:»I’m going to freak out!«

The godfather once again the calm itself. Some obviously just realize the seriousness of the situation too late.

»If you can’t change a thing yourself, change your mind about it,« he parries.

Or some simply don’t recognize the seriousness of the situation.

»Everyone deals with conflicts differently, we have to tolerate that. Some fans learn to lose easier, some don’t. But in difficult times it’s not about hiding, Willi. It’s about being smart. Self-protection for self-preservation, you understand?«

Attack is the best defense, I understood. It must have sounded militarily vigorously, as if I wanted to go to war. I was a little scared of myself and my determination.

»Take it sporty. We provoke new crises every day: diesel software, climate change, diving towers without supervision on swimming lakes, electric scooters in big cities. The good fan only exists because there is also the bad enemy on the other side. Means: Crisis management is everyday business.«

It is not. So far it wasn’t. We all had fun with the Love Brand, with crabs. Until one day the whole world changed… In my mind’s eye the whole world lays in broken chitin bowls in front of me. And he comes to me with sporty.

»The right tactic is important in every crisis. How are you positioned? How many systems can your team play, which one particularly well?«

»It’s not about ability, it’s about having to. We HAVE to work to make everything all right again, that crisis is an exception, that everything is going to be the same as before!«

»You see, and that’s exactly what I don’t believe in. What distinguishes your Love Brand? What are your tactics of success with which you have built your wealth?«

Read all of your blog articles yourself again, you fool, I’m saying to myself. Everything seems to be there, you just have to do it, or what was it like?

Vary with your systems

I need to get my blood pressure under control. Probably also the recurring thoughts with the harpoon and the seaweed. Always these clever sayings, always this »you help yourself best« … Ha, if I could produce crabs, I would do that.

But I could also tell you that I can play variable systems with the team if we perform as a Love Brand. If we are to see it as sports.

We do Catenaccio: securing, defending, justifying and always aggressive when we are attacked. Hm … We shouldn’t let ourselves be pushed so far back from such a day of hiking. Danger is that we have our backs to the wall quickly.

We also do what we named CR7: a complete system, only aimed at me. I am responsible for successes and also for setbacks – which, thank God, hardly ever happens because the system in the team doesn’t like it that much.

Then there is the confusion tactic that we use every now and then. We send one of us as a mascot, for example for children. Harmony and sympathy come before stress, which is why the mascot only takes on the role of observer in serious situations until we know whether the others should join in or better not.

Oh, what am I talking about? You’re right, coach: we have countless tactics.

Time play is not one of them. And don’t give in small either – so keep going! Get to the window, be Love Brand.

I still hold the harpoon in my hand. You never know who can not deal with setbacks so well … Or whether a fan from the men’s choir comes to swim…

Things happen every day that affect us and / or our environment. The word crisis is being used very quickly again today. Mostly to preventively justify following actions. To hide behind it. Because crisis always sounds like you can’t do anything for it yourself. In times of crisis, brands usually do things deliberately very differently than before. Blind actionism is their panacea. React instead of act. No, folks, that kind of behavior doesn’t fit a Love Brand. Willi was just about to jump on this. Before he realized that he didn’t need to jump on at all. Love Brands don’t run away from setbacks, they face them. If there is one certainty, then it is the uncertainty of how long it is until the next diet.

Next episode

Homemade Recipes – Do you want to know how it works with the life cycle?