What Jerry Springer can teach us about winning...
J.P. Montalvan • May 1, 2023
“We’re all like the people on the show – the difference is that some of us speak better or were born richer. There’s nothing that happens on my show that rich people don’t experience.”
-- Jerry Springer
Photo courtesy of Justin Hoch photographing for Hudson Union Society
___________________________
What Jerry Springer can teach us about evaluation and winning.
Jerry Springer died this week. And if we want to understand how we can win in our lives, we can learn a lot from Springer’s success.
Learn from his success? Absolutely. Springer earned a law degree from Northwestern University and served as a councilman and later mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1970s. He entered television in the 1980s, serving as a news anchor and commentator. In 1995, Springer married his second wife, Nancy Campbell, and the couple had one daughter, Charlotte. They were married for over 25 years.
You probably know Springer best as the host of "The Jerry Springer Show," a controversial talk show that aired for over 25 years. The show featured guests with outrageous stories that often led to physical fights and verbal arguments on stage.
Why the outrageous stories? Jerry Spring was keen at evaluating what he was doing compared to what his clients and customers — his audiences — wanted.
This month, my Leadership Circle is talking about intention and execution. If planning and execution are the first two critical steps in successful execution, evaluation is the final crucial step.
Without evaluation, you don’t know if your plan is effective, whether your goals are being met, and whether changes are needed. Above all, that includes how effective you are at understanding what your clients want and giving them what they want.
Springer started “The Jerry Springer Show” as a political talk show. Guests on Springer’s show included community leaders, activists, and politicians. The show was a forum to discuss and debate various issues, ranging from education and healthcare to crime and economic development. Guests included commentators like Oliver North and Jesse Jackson.
Then the show changed. The show started to focus more on sensational and controversial topics that were less about politics. Episodes included "Secret Mistresses Confronted,” featuring women confronting their partner's secret mistresses on stage, "I Married a Horse,“ featuring a man who claimed to have married a horse, and "Klan Unmasked,” with members of the Ku Klux Klan discussing their beliefs and practices on stage.
Why the change? That’s what Springer found audiences wanted. Springer himself described the show as "guilty pleasure" entertainment and an escape from the mundane realities of everyday life. Rather than focusing on serious social issues or in-depth analysis, "The Jerry Springer Show" became all about entertainment, and Springer evaluated potential topics accordingly. The show often dealt with taboo subjects such as infidelity, love triangles, and unconventional relationships, all presented in a highly sensationalized and exaggerated way. The show included brawls, chairs became weapons — and the audience cheered and chanted Jerry’s name. America was hooked.
While the show struggled to find an audience and was nearly cancelled in the early years, Springer’s ongoing evaluation and changes were critical to his success.
At its peak, "The Jerry Springer Show" had an estimated 6.7 million viewers per episode and was broadcast in over 20 countries around the world, rivaling the “Oprah” show. It remained profitable until the show ended in 2018. Whether we’re talking about his family life or his business life, he was successful by any measure.
Beyond a change from the mundane to the sensational, Springer was constantly evaluating and reinventing his show. As Megan Garber wrote in “The Atlantic,” he recognized that even shock can grow stale. “Springer had to keep finding new ways to outdo the drama on his show,” Garber noted. “He began arriving onstage by sliding down a stripper pole. When real people’s stories seemed insufficiently titillating, he brought on a character — the drunken ‘Reverend Shnorr’ — to punch things up.”
How are you evaluating what you are doing, whether in your personal life or in your business? Here are 5 questions you might think about:
- What worked well? When you know what works well, you can build on it.
- What could we have done differently? This question is the key to creating new, more successful plans.
- What were the biggest challenges? When you identify obstacles, you can develop strategies to overcome them.
- What did we learn? This question helps you reflect both on what happened in the past and what the future could look like.
Jerry Springer's “Final Thought” was a segment at the end of each episode where he would share his personal views on the topic discussed during the show. Often with a humorous or tongue-in-cheek delivery, he would encourage guests and viewers to consider different perspectives and to be open-minded and tolerant of others, even if they disagreed with them. His “Final Thought” always ended with Springer saying, “Take care of yourself, and each other.”
Whether about the show or in our sometimes chaotic and ever-changing world, I think Springer’s final life thoughts for us would be to evaluate where we are with an open mind and be willing to learn from our successes and failures.
Rather than be defensive or closed off to change, he would likely encourage us to be open to new ideas and perspectives and to use the evaluation process as an opportunity to grow and improve.
Isn’t that a sensational thought?
Gad was 10 years old when he saw people going door to door, hauling out his neighbors, shooting them and burning down their homes.
Stephen was 7 years old when he was separated from his family, only to find out later that most of his family was murdered.
As a leadership coach, I get to work with a diverse range of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs – quite a few real estate agents, fitness professionals, mortgage lenders, government contractors and others. Come April, it's like clockwork – we all start realizing how easy it is to lose sight of our yearly goals by the end of the first quarter. Life gets busy, we get caught up in the whirlwind of reactivity, and suddenly, those big dreams we had at the start of the year feel miles away.
As most of you know, tragedy struck on what would have otherwise been an ordinary night earlier this week in the heart of Baltimore. The Francis Scott Key Bridge, an iconic structure that spanned the Patapsco River, became the focal point of a devastating disaster that has shaken Baltimore and the region to its core. As I think about the events of that night, there’s a lot to unpack, from preparedness and the “why” behind a crisis to quick thinking and the human capacity for heroism in the face of adversity.
Happy Hump Day!
I don’t usually reach out to you on Wednesdays, and I wanted to share that Wednesday isn't just any ol' day – it's the linchpin of your week. Why?
As I’m sharing with my Leadership Circle this quarter, Wednesday isn't just the midpoint of the typical work week calendar. It's a golden opportunity for us to hit pause, reassess, and realign ourselves with what really matters – our weekly priorities.
Edwin was born in the small town of Steubenville, Ohio. His education started in Miss Randle’s kindergarten and was followed by Henry Orr’s seminary around the block. At 10, he entered George Buchanan’s nearby Latin school where he was called “an imperious and self-reliant young man.”
Edwin’s lifelong struggle with asthma might have contributed to his temper, but so could have the early death of his father and the deaths of his brother and two children.
And on the eve of achieving his life’s dream — nomination to the Supreme Court — Edwin Stanton’s chronic asthma caused his death in 1869.
As I sit here late at night in my parent’s family room, a few hours away from our home, thinking about you, it dawns on me that we’re often wrapped up with how leadership impacts us in the work world. But the reality is that it permeates every part of our lives – and especially our relationships with family and friends.
This weekend, the conversations with my parents are covering a myriad of topics, from advice on navigating parenthood with our newborn daughter to discussing strategies for managing their health.
Recently, Veronica and I took a trip to the beautiful Virginia countryside around Flint Hill, Virginia. As we took in the breathtaking, winter scenery of rolling hills, horses, cattle and more, we decided to stop for lunch at the inviting Dark Horse Irish Pub. Little did we know that our dining experience would include both delicious food and the unexpected wisdom of a heartfelt connection.
Upon entering the cozy pub, we were greeted incredibly warmly. Our waiter was a young man who attended to us graciously through our meal, and when he had to leave was replaced by an older waiter. The older waiter had a twinkle in his eye, as they say, and he immediately struck a chord with us. As our main meal switched to delicious desserts, he engaged us in some lively conversation and took a genuine interest in our newborn daughter in the stroller by our table. His genuine care and enthusiasm was really something.
In the challenging world of Hollywood, with a sea of scripts and opportunities, Reese knew what she wanted. Despite some early success and the offers of darker and more intense roles, she was drawn towards “optimistic” storylines that inspired and uplifted. She wanted to make a meaningful impact on her audience, especially girls and young women.
“I got a role in this movie called Freeway playing this really angry, aggressive, violent young woman who believed wholeheartedly in the truth,” Reese shared. “I had such satisfaction afterward, and I thought, that's what I want to do.”
Closing the Gap: Kareem’s Legacy and Your “Big 3” to Success
In the fast-paced world we live in, it's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of daily tasks and lose sight of our priorities. If you’re anything like me, it happens when we think about the gaps between where we are and where we want to go, in business or in our personal lives.
Kareem dedicates much of his time now to empowering marginalized communities, reflected in his book "Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White." He was asked once about his ability to prioritize amidst the glitz of a storied career.
Getting picked last isn't great. Brock would know…
As February rolls in, it's time for a reality check on our goals. How often have you lost sight of your aspirations by now, slipping from proactive to reactive mode? I know I have in the past. How do we stay focused in the chaos of a competitive, hyperconnected world? That's a heck of a ball game.
And when we lose sight of our goals – our big goals – we are picking ourselves last.