Today I have 3 quick topics inspired by the recent movie Air about Nike signing Michael Jordan to an endorsement contract, an inspiring quote from a season 3 episode of Ted Lasso, and a completely random pair of tips about sending invoices.
Nike and Endorsements
Air is a fascinating movie about the start of Nike’s transformation from running shoe company to basketball and beyond. Most of the movie is focused on the assumption that athlete endorsements (in this case, that of young Michael Jordan) have an impact on consumer decisions.
One of the reasons I found this so interesting is that there isn’t a 1:1 equivalent of endorsements in the tabletop game industry. There are superstar designers, publishers, artists, and content creators, but not players. As a result, equity of the entire gaming community is pretty incredible–people just have fun with games instead of striving to “Be Like Mike.”
Ted Lasso and Ownership
I’ll keep the context of this quote completely spoiler free. Richmond team owner Rebecca Welton gives an incredible speech, and one line in particular (slightly modified here based on memory) really stood out to me: “We may own these teams, but they don’t belong to us.”
Or, ported over to tabletop game publishers like Stonemaier Games, “We may own this company, but it doesn’t belong to us.” I love this sentiment, the idea that me and my fellow shareholders own and are responsible for Stonemaier Games, but the company belongs to the people who play our games, not us. This small shift in mindset is an important reminder to put our customers and community first in every decision we make.
Invoice Communication Tips
Less conceptual and more specific is this final topic. I pay most of the invoices we receive at Stonemaier Games, ranging from manufacturers, freight shipping, and fulfillment partners to many different independent contractors. I always strive to pay any invoice within a few minutes or hours upon receipt.
After paying thousands of invoices over the years, I’ve noticed that nearly every invoice is structured differently. On occasion, this has lead to a handful of mistakes that are my fault: Either I pay part of the invoice instead of the sum total or I pay the invoice amount in USD instead of a different currency.
Given that every invoice is structured differently, I propose the following to anyone in accounts receivable to increase the chances that your invoice will be paid correctly the first time: In the body of the email, mention the total amount due and the currency. For example, “As you can see in the attached invoice, the amount due for May’s services rendered is $11,500 USD.”
The invoice itself can still be as detailed as necessary. But that one change–something I see in fewer than 1% of invoice emails–not only makes the amount due perfectly clear, but it also makes life a little easier for the person paying the invoice, which I can say is appreciated.
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I’d love to hear your thoughts on these topics in the comments below!
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Also read: Ted Lasso’s Enduring Reminder About Kindness
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10 Comments on “Nike, Ted Lasso, and Invoices: 3 Quick Topics”
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Even when celebrities do play board games I think it’s treated as more of a “oh cool, he’s just like us” and less of a “we should be like him.”
That said there are totally people in the hobby that have celebrity status to other people in the hobby, for better or worse. The team behind Watch It Played does an excellent job staying warm, friendly, and relatable even though I was frankly star-struck when I met them in person (still need to meet Chaz and Naveen). While dice tower is less my style, I have the impression that they played a huge role in boosting the online community for the hobby early on. I’m sure there are other examples too of people with a celebrity status contributing something positive to the community.
I never cared about project placement or celebrities myself, but it does seem to me like people start behaving weird around them, splitting into factions either for or against and both sides calling the other crazy. It is enough to make me careful about admitting to too much loyalty to any celebrity or brand.
While not a *big* star, I would argue that Rob Dougherty of Wise Wizard Games with his MtG tournament wins/HoF comes pretty close. That pedigree convinced me to try Star Realms and hooked me on their products.
You always have such great view points that all questions.
Interesting timing of asking about player profiles. CGE have just messaged about their Codenames Streamers – how they are working with streaming influencers to increase the profile of the physical Codenames game to the big streamer personalities who took to Codenames during the lockdown and have continued due to the popularity in their audiences. Amazing how culture and preference evolves.
That’s great–thank you for sharing!
Nice tip on the invoices! I (sadly) pay more than I send too, but I’ll try to remember this for when I do send some.
As for paying invoices on time, this is something I really value myself as part of timely communication in general (which I have noticed you are also incredibly prompt with, kudos). So, I try to value my suppliers by paying them promptly as well. In fact, it was one of the early principles for running the company that I put down in writing – I want to value my partners, which means respecting their time and service they provide by paying promptly.
I love hearing that about how you treat your business partners, Ben!
AIR was a good movie. When I watched it, I was trying to see how anything close related to my life and I came up empty. Sports is unique; my hobbies and profession just don’t map to anything like the cult of personality that exists there.
This is the fifth time in a couple of weeks someone has brought up TED LASSO. I really need to watch that show.
I do not pay invoices. But I do deal with a lot of electronic communication. A good email summary of attached documents is very useful if you want me to focus on an aspect of the attachments. This is especially true of complex technical documents.
As always, a great read! Keep up the great work!
That’s a great point that emails that mention the most important aspect of the attachments can be a huge help well beyond invoices.
I really liked Air! I am a big basketball fan and former coach, which made the story of how Nike brought the Air Jordan brand into existence very fascinating for me. I’ve also been enjoying season 3 of Ted Lasso. I’m not quite finished (3 more episodes), but some of the scenes have brought me to tears. Again, as a former coach and a flawed human, I relate to Ted’s character, but the way they’ve displayed the power of relationships particularly in the sacrifice for, service to, and acceptance of others has been moving.
Ted Lasso has the distinction of bringing me to tears in pretty much every episode–I love it.