I have a confession to make…

We cut the “cable cord” several months ago and I’m not looking back! Streaming services offer so many different options. BUT, at the same time, I’ll admit, it can be confusing trying to decide which streaming platform works best for you and your family. Richard and I have been slowly building our favorites and we have found a nice rhythm to our streaming service choices.

Now, I must admit that keeping cable television might have been the easy route, because having cable tv isn’t hard… you just turn on the tv with the remote and instant tv shows appear on your screen. Ultimately, the expense of a large cable bill coupled with internet costs just didn’t make sense for us. So, we decided to let it go.

Streaming tv services can require a bit of extra navigation but it’s definitely worth the journey. One of our biggest finds in our new tv watching journey was finding Apple TV. The quality of the shows that we have watched on this streaming platform has made this streaming service a “keeper” for us. So you might be wondering where I’m going with all this tv talk…

Today, this blog post will be centered around ONE key show that is a “must see” on my list of recommended series, Ted Lasso. I must admit that I was inspired by Ted, and I would like to share a few takeaways as we launch headlong into 2024.

For those of you who have never experienced this show, Ted Lasso, the main character, is a US football coach who was recruited, and hired to come to the UK to coach a professional futbol (soccer) team. Ted is an experienced football coach who has the power to motivate his players and has found great success in his career prior to moving overseas.

It’s easy to see as this series begins, that the new coaching path of coaching Futbol is a great challenge for Ted as he knows very little about the game of futbol and his family is now 3,000 miles away.

Richard and I were instantly hooked into the show with the vast array of personalities that Ted interacts with in his newly chosen career path. Many of these challenging personalities often would throw up roadblocks along the way, as Ted and his coaching staff, worked to create a winning, cohesive team. Ted was steadfast in his mission.

Before I go any further, it is not my intent, to retell the entire series, but to simply to do a quick analysis of the FOUR most helpful major takeaways I found from this series, in what I like to call, The Ted Lasso Effect, and how I applied it in a new way in regards as a business owner. In my opinion, Ted impacted his greater community through his work ethic, core beliefs, and interactions with others… creating a positive impacts, in which I coined it as, The Ted Lasso Effect.

The Ted Lasso Effect… in the viewpoint of this business owner

1. Support your local community… Ted developed a series of habits ( shopping and eating in his local neighborhood ) that followed him through each show and he was consistently displaying those behaviors throughout the entire series! His habits were manifested in his outward behaviors! I said it, it was not an afterthought for Ted to shop local, it was his LIFE! You could simply tell that Ted lived and worked inside his new community.

EAT, SHOP, PLAY

EAT– Ted Lasso was always featured in almost every episode eating meals at his local pub. Eat Local! Support locally owned and operated restaurants in our town. The quality of food is always impeccable!

SHOP– Ted was immersed into his life in the new community and shopped at local stores. He made his own “biscuits “ (cookies) daily for his new boss. She always looked forward to the daily treat Ted presented to her each day.

PLAY-The futbol team town support ran deep for Ted’s professional futbol team. The crowd of supporters poured into the local pub on everyGame Day with sporting team colors. Ted was often a target of their abuse when the team did not win, but the community consistently rallied around the futbol team… “Life is Futbol”, GAME DAY was a major town event each and every game.

2. Believe… At the beginning of the series, Ted brings out a bright, yellow sign which appears to be scribbled on a sheet of large construction paper, with a single word written on it, BELIEVE. Ted tapes it up with black electrical tape over the entrance to the door to his office.

The yellow BELIEVE sign becomes the symbol that the team views each and every day in the locker room. This was the “outer symbol” to his new future team of his innermost coaching goal, believe in yourself and the concept of perseverance.

As a business owner, belief in your passion for your own business might be intrinsically there, but Perseverance, can be hard and it can waiver during the hard financial times. There are days you want to throw in the towel, especially when economic times are tough.

3. Be A Goldfish… Ted brings us to one of my favorites all time quotes from the entire series. Ted says to one of his futbol players after a rough practice session, “Do you know who the happiest animal in the whole world is, it’s a Goldfish. Goldfish have a 10 second memory. Be A Goldfish”. It’s easy to focus on the negative and lose your sense of focus, or let a grumpy customer ruin your attitude momentarily. At times, it’s good to “Be A Goldfish.”

4. Biscuits with the Boss…Lastly, Ted Lasso spends time getting to know the new people in his surroundings and he develops connections with them. Let’s face it, not many of us would be willing to move 3,000 miles away from home. I could imagine that it was a bit of adjustment moving from the United States to the United Kingdom for Ted … learning to drink tea, or sparkling water or not… lol there’s some fun there but I’ll not give that away… But, as I mentioned earlier under the SHOP section, Ted Lasso made his own “biscuits “ (cookies) daily for his new boss. She always looked forward to the biscuits Ted presented to her each day and readily devoured each one in a glorious manner. Ted enjoyed the conversation with his Boss each morning, learning a bit more about her each and every day. Ted purposefully made connections with each person he encountered. It wasn’t always easy, but he did it.

Ted also sought advice from Keeley, another central character, when he had trouble connecting with a key, star soccer player. Ted worked hard to connect with everyone he met.

Have you ever felt like you are just not connecting with people… they just aren’t getting what you’re saying or asking for? Enough said, right? How many times do we feel like a faceless person when we go into a “box store” and have to use a self checkout or ring a button and no one appears to help you. The lack of human interaction within the established retail business is slowly disappearing to my extreme disappointment… so why go to these places??? 😳 OR have you heard someone say, making an online purchase is “cheaper” than buying it in store???? There’s NO connecting when you purchase online…How can small businesses continue to compete with major online retailers who have more buying power than their smaller counterparts…. Most folks don’t consider that, the more purchases you make inside a small business in your local community will impact our local economy and add to the buying power potential of that small business! Shopping local is a conscious decision that impacts our greater community.

Final Thoughts

My closing thoughts are wandering… like the soccer ball being played downfield. The rhythm of the Futbol team moving the ball from person to person and then finally a head bump of the ball ⚽️ ump.. launched towards the goalkeeper who by fault, can’t keep the futbol from going in. Score!

We as a team, our community of Wilkes, can find success in building habits and which will become instantaneous behaviors that lead to growing our Downtown community using newly coined phrase, The Ted Lasso Effect… Support local businesses, believe we can do it, Be a goldfish(mistakes will be made, move on), and make connections within your community. We can’t lose the game y’all!