Gurus, Ninjas, and Morons: Losing Credibility One Business Card at a Time

Titles matter. A lot. So do email addresses and signature blocks. As unfortunate and as shallow as it is, people make a first impression snap decision about you and your business in an instant. If that instant includes your title it can make or break your business opportunity.

Yes, CxO, Vice President, Director, Manager, Analyst, and other vanilla titles are boring. They're not edgy. They don't have panache. That said, they quickly convey a certain level of skill and experience that the majority of the business population can interpret. Your contact isn't left scratching their head wondering what the heck you do.

Then there's the other end of the title spectrum: Guru, Ninja, Overlord, Grand Poobah, Super Hero. They sound wicked awesome. They get people's attention. But you have to realize not all attention is good.

On top of that, these titles are usually paired with a cool signature block quote or catch phrase and they have sweet email addresses too. Unfortunately all of these things can undermine your credibility and cost you business. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes I see people make when it comes to the arena of titles and personal branding:

Your Title is Ridiculous

A few definitions before we start:
- Ridiculous: open to or the subject of ridicule and mocking.
- Ninja: a covert mercenary specializing in the unorthodox methods of war.
- Guru: spiritual master (origin of the term is from eastern religions)
- Super Hero: a fictional character who has abnormal physical or mental powers conferred upon them either through mutation or unfortunate run-in with spiders or toxic waste

Look folks - these names are fun and whimsical. We all know what people mean when they give themselves these titles. The thing is, titles like these follow the nickname rule: you can't give it to yourself. It's fine if you're such an expert that people in the media or other business circles refer to you as a "guru" however going to OvernightPrints.com and putting it on your business card actually devalues your stature with potential customers.

You folks know I abhor titles like guru (and I've bashed on it before in this post - CLICK HERE to read it). But I bash on it because it's hurting your business.

Think about it. Most folks with these titles sell to business customers. Business customers tend to be more conservative and have many choices of suppliers of services. When you come of as amateurish with a title like this, the business goes elsewhere (and yes, I have personally seen business leaders shy away from doing business with people who have titles like these).

The recommendation: find a happy middle ground. Make your title professional. Use the terms like "ninja" or "guru" in marketing materials but not as your official title. It's probably costing you business. Besides, these titles are so worn out that they don't mean anything anymore. Don't believe me? Go do a twitter search for "guru." If you do, you'll crash the entire Internet.

Your Signature Block Induces Seizures

Signature blocks convey critical information about you. They tell folks how to contact you and learn more about you. I see tons of people make some of these mistakes:

- Your signature block conveys your entire CV all the way back to being the head of your Boy Scout or Brownies troop
- Your signature block contains cheesy, worn out, cliched quotes
- Your signature block contains sayings from scripture (the only ones who can do this are priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders)
- Your signature block looks like someone hit "engage random font and color generator"

The recommendation: be critical in thinking about what to include. Name, title, phone, email address, and a couple of key URLs is fine. Perhaps even stretch the outer limits and promote ONE thing you really want people to look at. Some color or font fanciness is fine as long as it's consistent with your brand and not overwhelming or distracting. Simplify. Be purposeful on what you include and how you include it. Remember - all your signature block is designed to do is get people to call/email you back to engage your services. It is not a product brochure.

Your Email Address Lacks Credibility

Having an email address of "bob@CoolHipCompany.com" can seem edgy and start-uppy. What it tells business clients is "there are 3-4 people running this thing because there's no overlap of first names therefore I don't want to work with such a tiny supplier/partner." Yes. Their thoughts go there.

The other email variant is "TheKingOfRock@company.com." As much as you want to put a cool title as your email address, it's self-defeating. People meet a lot of people these days. People remember names and faces - NOT titles. While your email address is memorable in this case, it's for all the wrong reasons. "Who was that guy with the weird email address again? I can't remember his name..."

The recommendation: look at your email address through your customer's eyes. What impression does it give? Try making sure it identifies you as an individual and that it lets people know you're serious and professional about your work.

Boring is the New Cool

Yes, all the advice I'm giving seems like I'm telling you to be more boring. You can take it that way if you like. All I know is if being boring helps grow your business... well... that's pretty exciting, isn't it?

What do you folks think? Share the worst/most ridiculous titles, email addresses, or signature block stories you have in the comments below!

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
- Get the latest updates on my upcoming book One Piece of Paper - CLICK HERE

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Your Thoughts on 2011 - Signs of Optimism

As many of you know, I write the weekly analysis of the SmartPulse poll for SmartBrief on Leadership. If you're not reading SmartBrief, you HAVE TO (www.smartbrief.com). Great articles. Great abstracts. Anyway, we just conducted the end-of-year poll and I want to share the results with you here.

The end of year polls covered three major questions.  The theme of all three is what do you think the new year has in store for all of us:

- What strategy will be central to your effort to enhance profits in the new year?

- Which of the following is of most concern as you look forward to the coming year?

- What of the following best describes your top personal goal as a leader for 2011?

The poll results are both interesting and encouraging. From the looks of your replies, 2011 should be trending in the right direction. I know it's still scary out there but there are signs of hope. Check out the poll results and my analysis on each of them...

A eye on innovation



It's encouraging to see many of you focused on innovation and new growth, rather than cutting costs. New products and services are where you'll see the greatest return long term. Those of you not planning to make any changes to your business run the risk of being left behind. Your business is going to change. Either you can change it or the market will change it for you.

Big-picture worries



Unemployment is top of mind for many of you, which makes sense: When consumers aren't buying, your business is not expanding. There is a silver lining -- with unemployment so high you can afford to be more selective in your hiring. If your business is on stable ground, you should be out there searching for talent.

The personal side



Improving your time management skills barely beat out improving your physical health. The two are likely linked. If we don't have the time to get all our work done, how can we possibly find the time for fitness? I suggest defining a reasonable, achievable new routine and schedule that includes time for exercise. Stick to it for at least a month. Do your best to permit no exceptions to getting out of your routine. By the time you've ingrained this new schedule into your routine, both goals should be well within reach.

Bolstering skills and learning about new parts of your business are critical to your development and often fall by the wayside. Build them into your professional goals for the year. Have your boss or a respected peer hold you accountable to that goal and enlist their assistance in achieving it. Trying to go it alone is a recipe for failure.

So there are your replies (and the replies of thousands of other SmartBrief on Leadership readers) and there's my take on what the numbers mean. Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have anything to add? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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The Best of thoughtLEADERS 2010: The Greatest Posts You've Ever Seen

2010 is almost over so as usual it's time for the year in review list of the BEST posts we've published in 2010.

We're now making this an annual event therefore the award needs a name. I proudly introduce you to The Figgies! A tip of my hat to all my McKinsey buddies who used to call me that. Winning a Figgie is indeed prestigious. Here's how it goes: this list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work as judged by you the readers (with a little of our discretion thrown in). We've also included a few hidden gems we think deserve another shot in the spotlight. There's also a kicker bonus post on the list just for good measure (it's a "wayback" - and speaking of wayback, check out the photo on the trophy... yes... that's me '80's style baby!).

Enjoy. Share. We've loved writing them. We hope you've enjoyed reading them. I don't ask a lot of you folks so here's my one request for a holiday gift - invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we get better is by raising everyone's game. Simply CLICK HERE to invite them to come read our stuff. I'm not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here's your chance to return the favor for all our hard work.

Thanks for your incredible support in '10 and best wishes for '11! We hope to be a part of your future success! A little foreshadowing for 2011 - I've signed a book deal with Jossey-Bass and my book on leadership will be hitting stores next fall. This is a REAL book (not one of those self-published vanity press jobbies). I hope you'll sock away a few bucks and save up to buy a copy. More to come on that soon.

Enough sentimentality. Here's the best stuff we've written all year:

Most Viewed/Forwarded: Critical Tips Every Traveler Must Know. This thing whipped around the web at the speed of light. I guess many of you are just as frustrated as I am with the stupidity that occurs on planes, trains, and automobiles. You might want to read it to make sure you're not enraging other passengers around you.

Most Controversial: 4 Ways Leaders Can Overcome the Fear of Conflict. I go telling people to grow up, take off the kid gloves, and deliver tough messages. Some readers rallied to the cry while other readers just cried. Was I too tough or spot on? You make the call!

Best Attack: Hate Presenting? That's Okay - They Hate Listening to You. This one is an attack on all horrible presenters. Are you one of them? Take a read and find out if you cut the mustard.


Best Employee Empowerment Advice: Leadership 101 - Leading Yourself. Before you can lead others you had better know where you're going. This is step one of articulating your own leadership philosophy. It's also a small taste of the first section of my upcoming book.

Best Social Media Bashing: It's Okay to be a Social Networking Clown. As the Joker would say - "Why so serious?" Social media can be fun and professional. And professional does not mean stodgy. This post demystifies whether or not you should tell fart jokes on the internet.

Best Guest Post: 5 Changes Go-To People Must Make to Keep Going. Scott Eblin nailed it in this post on how to continue being the go-to person while still advancing your career. Great advice on ditching old behaviors and picking up new ones.


Best Career Enhancing Advice: The Big Jump - Go From Having Answers to Asking Questions. This one really resonated with folks looking to take on higher level roles and advance their career. You need to move from being the answer provider to being the question asker.

Most Practical Business Growth Advice: Entrepreneurs Need to Bootstrap to WIN. Whether you're an entrepreneur or work at a global company the tips and mindsets discussed in this post can help you appreciate how to grow your business effectively.

Funniest Picture: If You Want to Close the Deal, Go Naked. No, I'm not spoiling the fun by posting the pic here. Click over to see it and read some great perspectives on how to ditch the PowerPoint and have a real conversation.

Best Use of a Jedi to Make a Point: If You Don't Read This, You're Going to Die. This category changed it has because monkeys in the future jedis are not. Yoda makes some great points about how important it is to never stop learning.


Best Get Ready for 2011 Guidance: 1 Simple Way to Boost Productivity by 50%. I know I want to be more productive in 2011. Don't you? Here are some simple thoughts on how changing your meeting behavior can do exactly that.

Wayback Winner: 10 Reasons Your Team Hates You (They Just Won't Say It To Your Face). This is the greatest post I've ever written. It has it all: it's a list, it feeds on fear, insecurity, and drama. Read it. I promise you'll love it.

That's all of 'em folks - our favorites from this past year. I hope you enjoy them. Again - thanks for all your support this year. I'm really looking forward to getting even edgier in 2011!

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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4 Surefire Ways to Destroy Your Brand

Brands. Some are worth billions of dollars. We revere them. Coca-Cola. Nike. Apple. thoughtLEADERS (hey, a guy can dream, can't he?). They seem monolithic and untouchable. The dirty little secret is they're as fragile as a porcelain doll.

A brand is nothing more than a promise. It sets an expectation with a consumer or customer. They know what to expect when they interact with your brand. And I don't care how big or small your brand is, it promises something to your customers. The operative key to all of this brand building is that point of interaction. That is where your brand is at its most vulnerable.

For example, if you get a can of Coke that's filthy and the soda in it is flat, the brand is diminished. You tell 10 friends about it and it's diminished more. You get an iPad that doesn't work. Same thing. You run into a rude associate at Best Buy and the brand is tarnished. A brand becomes the summation of all those small touch points with your customers. The risk is you're likely doing some things every day that are putting your own brand at risk.

From where I sit, I've seen four major points of failure that destroy brands:

1. Your Team Can't Deliver the Brand Promise

"We provide the fastest, cleanest, happiest, most pleasant experience on Earth to every customer who walks in our door." Really? Have you set your staff up for that expectation? Do they have the skills and resources to deliver on it? If not, you're overpromising and underdelivering. It's supposed to work the other way.

Be realistic about what you promise customers. Sure, it can be aspirational but don't reach too far because you're setting yourself up for failure and a reputation as an organization that can't deliver. Remember when Staples had a new brand slogan of "Yeah, we've got that!"? Then I went in to buy my Hello Kitty Jumbo Notepad Coloring Book Combo Pack and they didn't have it. Hmmm. Brand failure. Don't set false expectations with your customers.

2. Your Team Chooses Not to Deliver the Brand Promise

A motivated, engaged, high-performing workforce is something we all dream about. Sometimes our associates absolutely live up to that standard (as I've described before in this post called "Perfect 10"). Sometimes they don't live up to it. They're rude to a customer. They have the product knowledge but choose not to go out of their way to deliver it because they're mad at their boss. In that small interaction, your brand is either reinforced or diluted (for another example of this go read about why Kenny kicks Tiffany's butt every time).

Train and engage your team. Have consequences for instances where they choose not to deliver. Praise them when they do deliver. It's basic stuff but requires daily vigilance on your part to make it happen.

3. Blame Someone Else When Your Brand Fails

"Oh, it's not our Dell computers that are bad... it's Acme Co.'s new mega processor that catches on fire." Um, I don't care. If you put your name on something, it's your brand that's at risk. Blaming a supplier, partner, etc. only weakens your customers' belief that you stand behind your products... and everything about them.

Reduce this brand risk by being diligent about the suppliers you choose, the individuals you hire, and the partners you decide to work with. If you're not comfortable putting your name on all the work they do, you need to look for another partner or supplier.  Remember when BP tried to blame the owners of the rig for the spill? Yeah. How'd that work out for them?

4. Change Your Strategy So Frequently No One Knows What You Do

Brands are about predictability. If one day you're the fastest and the next day you're the cheapest and the next day you're the highest quality all you're promising the market is confusion. When you change products or services (or even the way you position them and deliver them) you dilute your brand message.

Predictability is key. The key to predictability is a solid, consistent long term strategy (and if you're not sure what that means go read a few of our strategy articles). Pick a path. Stay on it. Communicate it constantly. it takes a while for that message to reach your customers and even longer for them to hear it and see it enough to believe it.

Brands are promises folks. Any time you break that promise, your brand dies a little inside. Eventually your brand becomes so tarnished that it's not an asset but a liability.

What are you doing today to strengthen your brand?

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Can't Diversify Your Business? It's Because You're an Addict

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine. He was bemoaning the fact that his company was almost completely dependent upon one huge customer. He saw the inherent risks in that relationship but confessed his organization had a bad habit they couldn't kick. They had succumbed to the addiction of predictability and comfort.

Is your business overly-reliant on one key customer? Is your organization tied closely to one key client or partner or supplier? If that customer went away, would your world come to a crashing screeching halt? The rule of thumb I've always heard is no customer should be more than 25% of your business (and the same holds true for your suppliers or partners).

We always hear about diversification but usually it's in the context of our stock portfolios. If your 401k became a 200.5k in the past few years, you know what I'm talking about. It's easy to do the diversification thing in a portfolio - sell a few stocks, buy a few stocks and presto! you're done. Diversifying your customer base is much harder to do.

If you've never thought much about this topic (or even if you have) you need to understand the true risks involved in not diversifying, understand why it's hard to diversify, and use some practical methods to achieve the diversification goal.

The True Risks of Not Being Diversified

Some of the risks are obvious. If your primary client goes out of business, changes strategy, or severely curtails spending there's a gaping hole in your revenue stream. These things can happen at the whim of a new executive team who wants to use their favorite supplier instead of you. This revenue risk is the easiest one to understand.

The deeper risk is what I call absorption risk. That's where you do so much work for one customer that you begin customizing your processes, products, and services to meet that customer's needs. You change hiring and training practices. you change marketing strategy. You change product specs all to best meet the needs of your most important customer. Then you wake up one day and realize you're simply a subsidiary of that customer and your product and processes have become so custom that they can't be sold anywhere else in the market. At that point you should simply ask to be acquired.

Why it's Hard to Kick the Habit

When those predictable, big, juicy contracts come in, your primary focus becomes product/service delivery to that huge customer. You pay short shrift to new business development. If there's a trade-off to be made be made between giving the big customer what they need or serving a small customer, you'll always choose the former.

On top of that, you get so focused on customizing your business to the big customer's needs and meeting their product/service delivery needs that you don't invest in selling resources to find new business to diversify away from that big customer. The less you do that, the more dependent you become on that big revenue stream. Cue vicious circle footage.

How to Kick the Habit

1. Set explicit new customer acquisition goals and dedicate resources to that plan. You must be unwavering in your commitment to that new customer acquisition strategy. If you aren't going to do that, simply stop reading now and go service your big customer because that's clearly more important to you.

2. Push back on customization. If the big customer wants something custom, question whether it really needs to be. At least ask yourself if that customization is a true product improvement that others in the market will want. If it has broader market applicability, it's a product enhancement. If not, you're simply tying yourself more closely to the big customer. At least do yourself the favor of charging your big customer for the customization. Custom need not be free. If you give it away, you're only hurting yourself.

3. Build new products/services that target a different market. Find something your big customer won't be interested in buying (but that's still consistent with your strategy and capabilities). Build that product/service and go sell it in a new market. Ever heard the phrase "innovate or die" before? Ya. That.

Diversification is tough. It's even tougher if you're not proactive about it and focused on driving the result. If you don't do it, you only have yourself to blame when the impending implosion occurs. Go take care of your business long term and diversify. You'll be glad you did.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Valet Park, Self Park or South Park - What's Your Brand?

I'm again happy to bring you AmyK Hutchens as today's guest blogger (last time she was here she talked about reducing stress). No, that's not her to the left.  That's Kenny from South Park.  Here she is:

Stephen J. Cloobeck, Chairman and CEO of Diamond Resorts International, a company with 150+ branded and affiliated resorts in 26 countries, shared that if you want "to bring value to a busted brand, you start with the details." For Cloobeck, this means a direct access email address available to every customer and a winning smile with the word "yes" at the tip of his tongue. With these details, and a few others, Cloobeck has built one of the largest vacation ownership companies in the world in an era when the words "time share" can leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

Brand Overhaul

How did Cloobeck sustain success despite turbulent times? He started with a brand overhaul, beginning with the classic time share sales pitch. "It was too aggressive," stated Cloobeck. "We needed to soften the customer experience. We had to bring the value back to a busted brand." So they shifted the pitch to a connect, and Cloobeck went straight to the consumer's children to start. When he heard they had a menu kids refused, they added mac n cheese and other child-friendly foods. When he heard the kids were bored, he changed “baby-sitting” hours to outdoor adventure sessions and opportunities for physical and mental activities, and… he added an adult beverage to the “meet & greet” for parents, so they too could have a little more fun. Diamond's new mantra? We're listening!

You too can stimulate and reinvent your brand. How do you know if your brand is successful? It creates and retains customers. Successful branding is actually that simple. Ask yourself two questions: What are you promising? How can you best deliver that promise?

One of the first steps in creating a brilliant brand is often one of the hardest: defining the brand mission. This is a strategic step that will make or break a brand. It involves much more than deciding “who you are” and “what you value” and it certainly demands much more than lofty phrases about keeping customers happy. You are not creating a mission statement for everyone to pin on their cubicle corkboard and memorize.

What you can act on and deliver is your brand, not the statement you frame and post on a wall. Great examples of short brand missions that incite action for employees as well as customers include Nike: Just do it; Apple: Think different; Adidas: Impossible is nothing; Timberland: Make it better; and Adobe: Simplicity at work. It’s the difference between asking an entrepreneur of a dress shop to define her mission statement and hearing a response of, "To be a premier dress shop offering top-tier textile products and services," (yawn!) and asking that same entrepreneur to state her brand mission and hear her say, “Define each person’s divine.” Bull’s eye! She uncovered the actionable magic.

Perception

Cloobeck also shared that one of the biggest changes they made was to do away with self-park and provide valet parking to everyone. Result: the perception of prestige and pampering for each customer began the moment they pulled up to the resort. According to Cloobeck, this small change made a huge difference to how the guests felt about and responded to their overall vacation experience.

What two to three small changes or tweaks could you make in your customer relations, product, or service that your customers would actually notice and value? Once you've chosen to tweak some things to beat your competitors and raise the quality of your offering, be sure to ask for your customer's input as well.

What can you do to enhance your brand?

Cloobeck says:

1. Listen to your customers. Ask them directly what 3 changes you could make to better serve them. Then make the changes! And communicate that you listened. Advertising and collateral that markets the message, we asked, we tweaked, we delivered, lets customers know you care and value their opinions. The result? You'll build brand loyalty quickly.

2. Focus on the details. Look at the small nuances you could tweak to truly separate yourself from the competition… and it starts with “yes” where your competitors say no. The word no should not even be in your vocabulary when interacting with a customer.

3. Clearly define your brand. Aim for the valet parking experience and create the perception you want to define your brand. Brainstorm your top 10 favorite brands. Why do you love them so much? What does each brand do for you that makes you such a customer evangelist? Now, which of these identified traits can you most easily adopt first?

And while “valet parking” may not fit your brand, use the examples above to find what does. Stop pitching and start connecting… for if you don’t, whether it’s valet park or self-park, you may sound more like you’re from South Park if you don’t listen to what they really want.

AmyK Hutchens, Founder and Intelligence Activist, AmyK Inc., is a speaker, trainer and business strategist. She is best known for helping business leaders capitalize on how the brain and human perception filters work to help them be more effective in business and their personal lives. Learn more about AmyK’s live, interactive webinars at http://www.ignitebrilliance.com.

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3 Simple Steps for Achieving Global Domination

So you want to take over the world, huh? Not quite sure how to get started, you say? Then I have a treat for you

Building on our last post about how to think about capturing the huge global opportunities that are out there to improve your business, today I'll offer some practical advice on how to get started.

Going global is intimidating. For some, anything beyond buying toys with a "Made in China" stamp on them can freak them out. But with a focused and measured approach, you too can start down the path of making your organization global.

In the last post, we covered some notions around evaluating opportunities on the revenue side and the cost side of the ledger. To capture them, you have to think about market entry, product/service delivery, and communications. Without those three, your efforts are dead on arrival. Are there other considerations? Sure. These are simply the first three I recommend considering as part of your global conquest plan.

Market Entry

The scariest part about going global is not knowing where to begin. Who are the possible customers? Who are potential suppliers? What are the applicable laws? What are the cultural norms I need to account for? Those are some daunting questions.

The good news is other people have likely already answered them. I highly suggest finding yourself a current domestic customer or potential partner to speed your market entry efforts along. For our thoughtLEADERS courses, we have a large domestic client who happens to have offices all over the world. Our focus on entering those markets started with working with that existing client to serve their overseas business units.

As we build our global experience and reputation, our ability to land new clients or begin serving other domestic clients with overseas offices will increase. We've received our initial boost into those markets via a client we know and trust.

Review your existing client/customer portfolio as well as your current supplier list. Who on those lists have offices overseas? Do any of them have a presence in countries that are attractive targets for your goods/services? If so, simply open that conversation through your existing relationship and express your desire to serve them/work with them on a more global basis. It's much faster than trying to develop new relationships in foreign countries from scratch.

You can do things from scratch - it just takes longer. For example, this blog has been reposted in Norway (here), Bahrain, at an international bank on their intranet, and several other countries. That said, they're not (yet) banging down the door with invites to go teach there. If you are going to enter a market from scratch, be realistic about how long that will take and how many resources you'll need to throw at it to make it work. That's why I suggest the partner/customer approach above.

Product/Service Delivery

Now that you have some international introductions, you have to deliver the goods (or your suppliers have to deliver them to you). In cases where you're the buyer and your supplier is international, I recommend choosing partners with a domestic presence. It will make managing your supply chain much easier and more reliable.

If you're the one shipping product or delivering services internationally, build a relationship with a local liaison in the target country. Creating that stable relationship will help you sort out logistics, cultural challenges, and will provide a general level of stability to the relationship.

For example, when we teach thoughtLEADERS courses internationally, we work with a single point of contact at the target location. That contact helps coordinate travel, meeting planning, course materials, and anything else that's hard to coordinate from thousands of miles away. And be sure to treat that liaison well. They can be the difference between a great international experience or a terrible one. They'll save you countless hours of work and improve the quality of your relationship exponentially.

This liaison will also help you understand and navigate cultural differences. My liaisons have reviewed our course content and made suggestions on sections that would require special emphasis or that might need to be changed. The translation for your business is that the liaison can help you take your core offering/product and help you target it to the local market much better than you can do so yourself. Take advantage of their knowledge. You'll be more successful if you do.

Communication

The last section begins teeing this point up. You MUST have close communications with your international counterparty. In some cases, this will be someone domestically interfacing with the international team or it will be you working with the international team directly.

Regardless of how it works, you'll need a solid communication plan as well as some flexibility on your schedule. When I was in Vietnam teaching, we had an 11 hour time difference. Conference calls with my clients back here required me to stay up late or get up very early. Get over it - it's a sacrifice you must make if you want to capture the opportunities.

Fortunately, electronic communications can make this a breeze. Better yet, you can send out some "to do's" at the end of your day and when you wake up, the team across the world has put in a full work day on the deliverables. This was a great experience to have with some development outsourcing we did at TiXiT. Granted, it wasn't a 12 hour time difference between us and our developers but it did lengthen our company's work day substantially (without any of us individually putting in more work time).

Overcommunicating in these scenarios can prevent lost details, confusion, and excessive costs. The time you spend communicating is certainly an investment but if you're serious about going global, it's a very worthwhile one to make.

I hope these last two posts have demystified globalization a bit. It's not as intimidating as it sounds. It definitely has its benefits (like drinking Guinness beer *in* Dublin, Ireland).

What other simple things should other readers be thinking about as they try going global? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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How Your Business Can Achieve Global Domination

I'm going to take over the world!

It's really fun to say that. It's even more fun to take action toward that goal.

Our world has gotten smaller. Way smaller. Globalization is an unstoppable trend. But as they say, the trend is your friend so why not take advantage of it? I don't care how big or small your business is - there are huge opportunities out there for you beyond the shores of your country (assuming yours has shores).

The real trick is understanding what globalization can do for your business then figuring out how to exploit those opportunities. Today I'll cover some simple notions around what the global opportunities are and in the next post I'll more importantly discuss a few key ways to capture them.

Going global is intimidating. It sounds huge. You need a passport and visas (and we know what a joy those processes can be). You need to understand new languages and cultures. And heaven forbid you have to take a coach class 14 hour flight across the ocean (trust me, it's painful). Okay. So get over it and dive in.

To illustrate today's points, I'll use examples from two businesses I'm running: thoughtLEADERS (leadership training) and TiXiT (discounted event tickets). Sure, they're simple businesses but they're microcosms that will help get the following points across.

Think about it simply - opportunities exist in terms of revenues and costs. It's not that hard. As far as how to capture the opportunities, it boils down to market entry, product/service delivery, and communication. So let's go global! Here we go:

Understanding the Opportunities

From the revenue side, if you have a good product or service here, there's likely a market for it in markets outside your borders. You just need to think through how it might need to be positioned differently.

For thoughtLEADERS, we have to first realize American-style leadership doesn't translate to all cultures. Nonetheless, our frameworks and approaches are absolutely relevant in many markets around the world. Selling those services just requires us to articulate what the core of our service is and then understand how a particular culture might best receive said benefits.

I've recently been lucky enough to teach our Structured Thought and Communications course and Leadership Maxims course in Hungary, Ireland, and Vietnam. Soon I'll be teaching our thoughtLEADERSHIP course in Colombia and our Building Resilience course in Singapore (and if you'd like us to come teach at your organization just drop us an email and we're happy to discuss).

Yes, we've made modifications to the examples and exercises we conduct in class depending on the culture but the core of the service has remained the same. Teaching executive communications in Chicago is different than teaching it to an audience from China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Singapore, and Australia (all in the same classroom!) but nonetheless, with some slight modifications to our service based on the local culture, the programs have been successful.

As you think about the revenue side of the equation, you must think big. Once you understand the core of your offering and how you might have to modify it for different cultures, you must look at the entire revenue pool before cutting it down and determining a specific focus for your business.

An example: at TiXiT, we help venues sell unsold event tickets. We've assessed the opportunity to be huge in the U.S. alone. There are over $1B worth of unsold tickets to major sporting events and theatre shows every year in the U.S. TiXiT works directly with the venue to sell those unsold tickets at a discount (by the way, if you're not a TiXiT member yet, you should be - we're about to add a whole host of events for this fall - just sign up here).

Anyway, as we ran some valuation scenarios to understand our exit opportunity (yes entrepreneurs - from day one of running a start-up you MUST think about how you're going to exit and for how much) we arrived at some big numbers. Then we asked "how can those numbers be bigger? Like ten times bigger?"

Then it hit us - go global. They sell tickets globally, right? There are unsold tickets to events in other countries too. The core of our service will definitely apply in other countries (with some tweaking to how we sell and market). Sure, that global expansion is our third growth horizon because we're staying focused on our market entry strategy. Nonetheless, we know about and more importantly will pursue that revenue outside our borders when the time comes.

The bottom line on the revenue side is to define your core offering, identify the markets where it would be the most compelling, and seek that revenue out. Start building that focused list of markets you'd like to penetrate (we'll get to how to penetrate them in our next post).

 The Cost Side of the Equation

As far as costs go, this isn't new news. You can get lower factor costs in a host of other countries. From call center outsourcing in India to product manufacturing in China to web development in Eastern Europe. The talent is out there. You just have to be savvy enough to find it and use it.

First, take a hard look at all the costs your business incurs (or better yet, the things you want to do but they're "too expensive"). Now ask yourself "If I could reduce the cost of that item by 20%, would it be worth the effort to do it overseas?" This is the sniff test to see if you'll get enough return for the additional complexity of doing something outside your borders.

For TiXiT, our biggest cost is technology development. Writing code isn't cheap and for a web start-up that's bootstrapping (like all good start-ups should and as we explain HERE) going overseas for development can be a huge cash saver. We did exactly that.

With the help of a partner (Big Kitty Labs) who has existing overseas relationships we got the best of both worlds - a domestic team to manage our relationship and business requirements/technical requirements coupled with overseas low cost development. The results were great. Check out their work here at www.tixitbox.com and I think you'll agree.

Risk is also a huge factor on the cost side. You need to be judicious with either how much you send overseas or what categories you source globally. You might want to start with "non-core" elements of your business that can easily be switched back to domestic suppliers (e.g., call center services, non-core raw materials, etc.). There's nothing worse than civil unrest disrupting the core of your supply chain during your busy season.

The bottom line on costs is make sure whatever you're taking overseas is big enough in terms of financial impact and low enough on risk that it makes sense to add that complexity to your business. I'll talk more about how to capture global cost opportunities in the next post.

Hopefully this gives you some motivation to think about growing your business globally. The opportunities both in terms of revenues and costs are fantastic. I know it can be intimidating but given how much smaller our world gets every day due to technology, you can't afford not to evaluate the opportunity.

In the next post I'll offer some thoughts on market entry, product/service delivery, and communication. While you're waiting for that post, why not leave us some comments below on your thoughts and experiences with globalization. Tell us what has worked for you (and what hasn't). Help out your fellow readers.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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All I Need to Know About Marketing I Learned at a Lemonade Stand

It's frickin' hot, huh? Wow. But the dawning summer heat is a great reminder of good, solid marketing principles.

Many of us make "marketing" some arcane science. Focus groups, market research, surveys, brand consultants. Meh.

I learned everything I need to know about marketing at a lemonade stand.

As I was tooling around in my car this weekend, I was reminded of what it takes to be a great marketer. Really, it's not as hard as the Marketing Group makes you think it is. The reminder of these principles came in the form of the perennial lemonade stand.

I drove past four such stands this weekend. Each one demonstrated a core principle you must adhere to if you want to be a successful marketer.

Marketing is about understanding a need and meeting it

It was hot this weekend. Unfortunately for Lil' Jimmy's Big Ade Stand, it wasn't hot at 815AM when I drove by. I give the kid bonus points for getting to work early on a Sunday but he clearly missed the mark. He was out there selling his little heart out. The problem was the market did not have a need.

Lil' Jimmy was targeting a market that didn't exist. No need equals no sales. He had his dreams crushed by about 10AM and had packed it in thinking no one wanted lemonade that day. Jimmy's problem was the market of overweight underexercised middle-aged homeowners doing yard work was just ramping up at 10. Jimmy missed the market. Right product. Wrong time.

Look at your business. What is THE MARKET asking for? Are you delivering what they want when they want it or are you pushing your product into a market you hope exists?

Marketing is about communicating value

The next group of kids I drove by were freaks. They were running around screaming unintelligibly like 16 year old girls at a Justin Bieber show. They looked like they were jacked up on Mountain Dew and Pixie Stix.

As they screamed at my car as I drove by, I know they wanted me to buy something but I wasn't sure what they were selling. No signage. No table with a pitcher and cups set out on it (they did have a ramshackle pile o' crap sitting about 15' away from the mob on the sidewalk).

I drove by mostly out of fear of being mauled.

They weren't communicating value. It was hot. Their selling message should have been as simple as a BIG sign that said "Thirsty? Lemonade here!"

Too many times we overcomplicate our marketing message. What's the need? What value or solution do you provide? Ditch the consultospeak and brandbabble. Plain and simple - what value/solution are you selling? Note I didn't say what product are you selling. Sell solutions. If they had sold me a solution to my thirst I might have stopped.

Marketing is about passion

The next lemonade stand I drove by had great signage. Clear and simple. "Lemonade 25 cents." It was hot by now. Very hot. The stand had a nice table, neatly arranged cups, and a pitcher at the ready.

Problem - Frankie and Susie weren't at their post. The kids were sitting under umbrellas under a tree 20' away from their stand. They were listless and disinterested. They were waiting for the business to roll in.

I kept driving. If they didn't care enough about their business to attend to it, I didn't care enough about it to become a patron.

You have to show passion for what you do people. Without passion, customers won't have faith in your products or services. Anyone who has ever sat through one of my classes knows I'm passionate about what I do. It's core to the service delivery model. Without that passion, my business is dead on arrival.

How are you demonstrating your passion to your customers or prospects? Do they know how committed you are to delivering something that will delight them? If not, you'd better get hopping.

Marketing is about your customer

The last stand I drove by was operated by a delightful young lady named Julia. She had a neatly arranged table and simple, clear signage that read "Delicious, cold lemonade!" She stood by her stand waving politely at cars despite the sweltering heat.

I slowed down and rolled down the window. As the cool air from my car washed over her, she sighed and smiled. "Are you thirsty mister? It sure is hot out."

"Why yes, actually I am. What do you recommend?"

"If I were you, I'd get a large glass of my ice cold lemonade. A small glass is 50 cents but a large is only 25 cents more. You look like you could use a large."

How could I say no to that? A 10 year old kid was looking at the world through her customer's eyes. Not to mention she had a killer upsell. I took a large, gave her a buck (how do you not tip in a situation like that?) and drove off with a smile.

See? Marketing doesn't have to be complex. Find a need. Sell a solution. Be passionate. Think about your customer.

What techniques have you found helpful in your marketing efforts?

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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5 Steps to Entrepreneurship With Zero Risk

I'm sick of people asking "Do you know how crazy you are for making the decision to go out on your own as an entrepreneur and taking on all that risk?"

I've barely taken ANY risk as I've pursued my entrepreneurial ventures. You can take this (almost) risk-free approach too if you plan carefully and deliberately.

First, let's dissect the kinds of risk you typically take as an entrepreneur then we'll get into making entrepreneurship (almost) risk-free.

There are a few discrete types of risk you'll take as you set forth on your own: financial risk, career risk, brand risk, and lifestyle risk.

Financial risk: you have the potential to blow it all. Or you can simply run out of cash and face foreclosure. This happens when you build a business that can't sustain the cash demands you'll face as an entrepreneur. I recently explored this risk in the 4 traps that destroy entrepreneurs.

Career risk: you can derail your career progression because you spend a few years out of corporate America pursuing your dream of building www.BoogerSculptures.com (by the way, that URL is available in case you're interested...).

Personal brand risk: you become known as the guy who "couldn't cut it" as an entrepreneur.

Lifestyle risk: your family hates you because they forget what you look like since you're working 94 hours a day. You also become such a stress bomb that everyone around you develops a nervous twitch.

Now that I've scared off the lily-livered posers from pursuing the entrepreneurial dream, I'll tell all you real want-to-be-my-own-boss types how to de-risk entrepreneurship:

Step 1: Build Your Platform. This morning I gave a budding gonna-be-an-entrepreneur-some-day grad student bizarre advice: go get a job in corporate. He thought the Starbucks guy had spiked my coffee.

My reasoning? You'll understand your future customers from the inside out. Many entrepreneurs sell their products/services to big companies. If you know how big companies operate, what their challenges are, and how to navigate the organization, your venture will be more successful.

I spent many years in corporate (too many... and I'm never going back). Now thoughtLEADERS provides services to some of the biggest companies in the world. My corporate background is tremendously helpful in that regard.

There's an added bonus to having a solid platform. If your venture does fail, you have a solid resume and background to fall back on. You can go back to corporate and get another job if you've built up solid credentials before you set out on your own. This is how you solve for career risk and personal brand risk.

Translation for me: if thoughtLEADERS goes under, I have a strong enough network and solid enough career background that I can find another job. It might not be an optimal job but it will at least pay the bills.

Step 2: Build Your Cushion. The biggest risk you'll face as an entrepreneur is you'll run out of cash before you realize your dream. Running a business isn't cheap. You have to make investments before they pay off. That takes cash and time (two things you might not have a lot of when you start out - again, check out the traps that destroy entrepreneurs and my perspective on cash).

Start building your financial cushion NOW. When I set out on my own full-time, I had built up some cash reserves to enable me to make it through 18 months of operations. I knew my cash burn and planned for it.

I also knew exactly how much runway I had to make this thing take off (as well as when I'd need to bail on it if it wasn't working). Granted, I would have had to raid my portfolio if things got tight (which is never a good option) but nonetheless I had some cushion. This is a big part of solving for financial risk.

Step 3: Build Your Business. Sell something people want. Listen to the market (and remember: YOU ARE NOT THE MARKET!). If you can't clearly identify the problem you're solving AND explain how your solution creates value, you shouldn't be starting a business.

You must have a clear product definition, sales plan, marketing approach, and all the other great things that go into a solid business plan. If you ever come pitch me your idea and say "my business is awesome because I have no competitors because no one has figured out how to make money in this market" I'm going to laugh at you. Where there's competition, there's demand. You just need to know how to compete BETTER than the other guys. Find that differentiated edge.

A solid business helps solve for financial risk as well as lifestyle risk. If your business is doing well, you don't have to work so many hours to keep it afloat. You can also actually take a vacation or two.

Step 4: Build Your Transition Plan. When you start your business, you might want to do so while you're still employed. I'm NOT advocating doing entrepreneurial things on company time. I am advocating doing it in the early mornings, lunch hours, weekends, evenings, etc. Write your plan. Do market research. Gather data and feedback. Pilot your product. Ensure there will be a market for your stuff before you turn in your resignation.

I ran thoughtLEADERS off the side of my desk for almost 4 years before I took the plunge full-time. And even when I did go "full time" I had a part time consulting gig lined up to generate cash flow while I focused a larger portion of my time to building my "real" business.

Now that the thoughtLEADERS business has been built, I've been working hard on another new startup called TiXiT off the side of my desk (which is a significant amount of time). I'm sure once that venture gets all the way off the ground I'll end up pursuing another.

Step 5: Love What You Do. I know many of you secretly hate your jobs. You have bosses telling you what to do all the time. News flash: as an entrepreneur, NO ONE tells you what to do ergo you have to motivate yourself to work. It's a lot easier to motivate yourself to drive your business when you can't wait to get at it every day.

If you build a business you don't love, you'll fail. Period. I'm lucky - I know what I love to do. I love teaching. I love selling. I love thinking about leadership and talking to all sorts of brilliant people about it. I love pontificating on my blog. I DON'T WORK ANYMORE - it's not work when you love what you do.

Be thoughtful before you head out on your own. Build. Plan. Think. Love. Your venture's chances for success go up exponentially if you do. And a successful business is the best form of risk mitigation I can think of.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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If You Want to Close the Deal, Go Naked

No one will deny business has become infinitely more complex and exponentially more efficient. Kind of. The challenge we face in the information age is there's too much frickin' information. Even worse, you're usually trying to cut through the clutter to make your sale. It can be you're selling a product, a service, or an idea to internal customers but the point is you're always selling something.

Well I have news folks. I found a new trick for cutting through that clutter to make the sale: go naked.

I know how important clarity of communications is to making these sales. Heck, a huge part of my business is based on clear, concise communications training. You wouldn't believe how much demand there is for tools to help us persuade and influence people more effectively and efficiently. One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was about getting to the "so what?" in a compelling way.

I try to practice what I preach. I try to make my communications succinct and punchy. I don't always succeed. I'm always looking for new ways to get to "yes" with my audience. The other day I tried a new one. I went naked to two separate and hugely important meetings. And it felt so good I plan on going naked much more often.

Since you all know I kept my clothes on for those meetings (really being naked would be kinda creepy) let me explain what I mean.

I went into both meetings without a PowerPoint presentation. I was meeting with two huge prospective customers for my other startup TiXiT. I was there to convince the senior-most executive at both customers that they should work with us and provide discounted tickets to their events through the TiXiT site (if you haven't checked TiXiT out yet and registered, I suggest you do especially if you live in Columbus which is our pilot market).

I knew our story and the value we could bring to the customers very well. I understood their businesses too. I decided to simply focus on my audience and have a conversation (rather than "pitching" them with a presentation). They asked questions. I responded. I asked questions. They responded. I'm pretty sure that's how people did things before Bill Gates and his crew came along.

Both conversations were great. I was able to spend more time learning about their organization and understanding the concerns on their agendas. Not having that presentation there forced me to focus on the most important aspects of our story rather than on some arrows and bullet points. At the end of each conversation we had a handshake and a deal. 2 for 2. It was a great day. As I left I handed each of them a copy of the presentation I had prepared. "Here's a copy of more detail about what we covered today so you have it for reference."

Yes I had a deck ready. No I didn't use it. It became a leave-behind. Yes, I had spent a great deal of thought, time, and effort perfecting the story in that presentation ahead of time. That preparation also served as my study session for the oral exam I went through with that 45 minute meeting. By doing the proper preparation, I was fully prepared to have the conversation with that executive and know what I was selling.

A few days later I went naked again, this time with a venture capital firm. Again, no deck. No PowerPoint. Just me and a story. And we had a wonderful conversation. We left the meeting with a handshake and a promise to reconnect when we were in the process of raising capital. I don't think the conversation could have gone any better.

I've emphasized the notion of going naked before - sometimes you're much better off simply picking up the phone instead of spending hours trying to schedule something in Outlook.

Quit overcomplicating things. Pick up the phone. Put away the presentation (yes, you have to write it first so you can refer to it or leave it behind if need be). But just go have the conversation. Amazing things can happen when you're authentic and unencumbered by a bunch of paper or slides.

Give it a try. Go naked for your next meeting and see what happens.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Two More Traps that Destroy Entrepreneurs (Part 2)

In my last post I talked about the traps entrepreneurs face with respect to cash (not planning it well enough or managing it rigorously enough) and being your own boss (which means you might not have coworkers to help you make decisions). If you missed the post, go read it here.

Today I'll cover two more traps that can ruin your business faster than Takeru Kobayashi can destroy a Nathan's hot dog.

If you're an entrepreneur you likely have a cool idea for a product or a service. That knowledge and innovation is the core of what you're about. You somehow intuitively understand a market need and that's the source of your success. Or failure depending on how you play it. That's the third trap.

The fourth trap is that as the Big Cheese, you don't need to sweat the small stuff. You're the king of rock. There is none higher. Sucka MC's better call you sire. Well guess what your majesty? You DO have to sweat the small stuff. All of it.

Let's explore these two traps, shall we?

You're NOT the Market

I love startups. I build them. I run them. I invest in them.

I'm part of an investor group that regularly evaluates and puts money into new ventures. Part of that process involves the entrepreneur pitching their idea to the investor group. Every time we meet, we see some very cool ideas.

There's one guy in the group I wanna sock in the mouth every time we meet. Why? Because he falls into the trap of thinking he's the market. Here's how it goes:

Entrepreneur: "My business sells foozygiggies to prevent 13 year olds from calorphinating."

Mr. I Think I'm The Market: "Well I don't think this is a good investment because I would never use a foozygiggie because I never calorphinate."

HEY MORON! YOU'RE NOT 13! YOU'RE NOT THE MARKET!

When we mistakenly layer our purchasing behaviors on a product when we're not the target market, we make bad decisions. For example, I worked with a financial services firm that targeted their product at the 18-25 year old African-American community in the southeastern United States. My job was to evaluate new product features. I'm a 39 year old white male from Ohio. I probably shouldn't rely on a lens of "would I think this is a good feature?" to make my decisions, huh?

So how do you avoid this trap? ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS/PROSPECTS! They'll tell you (sometimes quite pointedly) if your product or service is compelling. Using yourself as "the market" can be disastrous.

The Big Cheese Dynamic

Congrats! You're in charge. You no longer have to do the menial work. You have the luxury of focusing on high-falootin strategery and stuff.

You're dead. You will kill your business with this mindset. You need to know (and sometimes manage) ALL the details when your venture is young. A few examples from my recent experience (and the tragic outcomes I probably avoided by not acting like the big cheese):

- I negotiated a major contract with a client. It had a clause in it that would have given that client unrestricted use of my firm's intellectual property including the right to give that content to other companies so they could teach those courses to my client. I found the clause because I read EVERY clause in that contract. I struck the clause. Had I failed to be our corporate counsel, I would have disintermediated myself from that relationship (and would have given prospective competitors access to my intellectual property).

- A few customers of our ticketing venture TiXiT were having problems with a link on our site. It wasn't allowing them to make purchases (translation: we were losing sales). I played customer service rep and IT troubleshooting team. I was sending emails to those customers to update them and I worked with our partners to resolve the technology issue. We fixed it. The customers made purchases and now they're telling their friends how great we are. Had I not gotten into those details, we would have lost those sales, those customers, and built ill will toward our company.

- I'm our travel agent. One time I forgot to make a car rental reservation. Guess what? Due to a snow storm the rental agency had NO cars available. I had to catch taxis, buses, and mule carts to get to the client and then back to the airport. It cost me extra money and could have caused me to miss a client engagement. Small detail. Big problem. No one to blame but myself.

You have to manage the details my friend. Don't do so to the detriment of managing your strategy and your people but do realize the implications of failing to manage those seemingly "small" issues.

To recap: you need to be maniacal about cash flow management, you have to set the direction for your company and be self-directed in your work, you are NOT the market, and you have to pay attention to those critical details.

Sadly, doing the above only keeps you from destroying your business. They're table stakes to play the entrepreneur game. There are many other things you need to do to thrive but the first of those things is to not implode.

Good luck folks! Please share other traps you've seen entrepreneurs fall into so others can avoid those traps.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Making Your But More Powerful

Today's guest blogger is Brian Ahearn who has written here before. Once again, we're talking about buts. Sorry - I couldn't resist acting like a third grader there. Take it away Brian before this goes further downhill...

A few weeks ago I read Mike’s article Managerial Miscues: The But(t) Sandwich (Reprise) and told him I really liked it but...

The article addressed how people often blow it when it comes to bringing about behavioral changes because all too often they want to appear nice so they say something nice then finish with “but…” and take the other person to the proverbial woodshed. Not effective management.

I teach classes on ethical influence and persuasion and one of the things I talk about with people is the power of transitional words like "but" and "however." We focus on how to strategically use those words to make the most effective presentation because small changes can make a big impact!

Here’s the basic teaching point for you to remember when it comes to transitional words - people forget what comes before "but" and focus on what comes after. For example, has anyone ever said this to you, “Honey, I love you but...”? Odds are, all you remembered was the hammer falling after hearing the word “but.”

So how can you use your but better?

The previous example is just one way people blow it using transitional words. Let’s consider some others. Perhaps you’re a manager juggling lots of priorities, the two most important being sales growth and profit. That’s really the end game for most businesses -- are you growing profitably. In your case we’re going to assume sales are up significantly and profits are down.

This is a classic case of good news/bad news. How do you present this information to accentuate the positive? One school of thought is to hit them with the good news first and glaze over the bad. Consider which of the following will sound better to the boss, board or shareholders:

1. Our sales were up a record 10%, more than double the industry average, but we were unprofitable due to storm losses.
2. We were unprofitable due to storm losses, but our sales were up a record 10%, more than double the industry average!

If you’re like most people you prefer the second statement. Both present exactly the same information but it’s undeniable that the order makes all the difference. Statement #2 ends on a positive note and that’s what will be most memorable to the average person.

It’s not unlike a boxing match where a boxer “steals” the round with a flurry before the bell. That flurry of activity is what remains foremost in the judge’s minds. If you know the second statement will be received better then you’ be shooting yourself in the foot to not go that route.

Let’s consider another familiar situation; owning up to mistakes. Most people want to avoid admitting fault which is usually a bad idea. Dale Carnegie was dead on when he told readers to admit their mistakes quickly and emphatically.

Don’t believe me? Just look at all the baseball players caught in the steroid scandal. If A-Rod had owned up to his bad judgment when Katie Couric asked him point blank, he’d be revered right now because nobody has stepped up to the plate – literally. The same goes for Mark McGwire when he was in front of the congressional panel. Instead they’re both looked at as cheaters and liars.

So when it comes to admitting a mistake, which one of these really takes the blame?
1. I could have done a better job pointing out the time change however; the 10 a.m. start time was in the emails leading up to the meeting.
2. The 10 a.m. start time was in the emails leading up to the meeting however; I could have done a better job pointing out the time change.

I’m familiar with this one because I recently made this very mistake when I moved a meeting up from 10:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. As I wrote my follow-up email to a group of managers I made sure to choose the second option above. Someone refusing to admit they were wrong could argue there were two email reminders in the days leading up to the meeting and people should have read them carefully but what good would that do? Most people were on time for the start of the meeting but several were not and it that was due to the time change. I chose the second option because I was responsible for the meeting so I have to look at what I could have done differently. If I had it to do over I would have clearly noted a change in start time so I might as well bite the bullet and own up to it.

What I’ve shared is not just my opinion or grandma’s good advice. As I mentioned earlier, I teach classes on ethical influence and the material we cover is grounded in social psychology behavioral experiments. While I can’t tell you everyone will react just like you’d hope simply because you strategically use transition words, what I can tell you is significantly more people will respond favorably. I say that with confidence because science backs me up.

So the smart person will rely on the work of the scientist but the bumbler will choose to learn through trial and error. Which will you be?

- Brian Ahearn, Helping You Learn to Hear “Yes!”  Brian is a Senior Sales Consultant with the State Auto Insurance Companies in Columbus, OH. He's one of only two dozen Cialdini Method Certified Trainers in the world. Read more of his perspectives on his blog Influence PEOPLE.

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Bread, Lawn Mowers, and Cheap Customers: A New Year's Resolution to Improve Your Business

To get your New Year started right, I'd like to share with you what I've been taught by homemade bread, lawn mowers, and cheap customers. They've all taught me my time is valuable and I have to protect it.

Bread

In this economy, money saving tips and articles are hot. You can read such advice all over the web. I recently read one of the dumbest articles I've ever seen on this exact topic. The basic premise was you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself. The example they used was one of making homemade bread.

The basic math they used was you buy 4 loaves of bread per month at $2 which comes to about $100/year. Their brilliant idea was buy a bread machine for $60 and ingredients for about $10-15 a year and you'd be saving bread in no time (pun intended).

Hey morons... how about the cost of the gas to go to the store? But that's not the fatal flaw in this article. What they really forgot to factor in is the cost of your TIME. If you're making $80,000 per year, your time is worth $40/hour. Suddenly that bread got extremely expensive.

This is only one case of stupidity. Of course I can't help myself and I have to offer more...

Lawn Mowers

I hate mowing the lawn. I just do. But again, many people argue you should do it yourself and save the money of paying someone else to do it.

WRONG. It takes me about 90 minutes to mow, bag, and clean up afterward. My choices are I can do it myself or pay someone $28 to do it. Using our basic math above, the choice is very clear - pay to have it done. He does a better job of it than I do and it actually costs me less to outsource it than doing it myself.

Cheap Customers

We've all experienced that customer. You know the one - he calls constantly and complains incessantly. He sucks up hours of your time and drains the life from you. He's also the cheapest person you've ever met.

I spent some time with colleagues recently and they were complaining about one such customer. This particular customer paid them about $175/year to be a member of their organization. If you run the above math again, if they're on the phone with the guy for more than about 12 seconds, they're losing money.

Hopefully by now you've realized the core message of this post is your time is worth money. If you don't keep this in mind, you might make some economically unwise decisions about how you spend your time. Sure, if you enjoy making bread or mowing the lawn, you're deriving value from those activities so this mindset doesn't necessarily apply. But if you're not in it for the sheer joy of it, you need to be judicious with the time you spend on anything.

Let's relate this to your business. Take a hard look at where you spend your time. Many of your activities might fall into the above value destroying categories. I encourage you to prune those activities and instead focus that time either on growing and building your business with more valuable activities or you can reinvest that time into having a more balanced life.

I'm sure one or two of you right now are asking "So Mike, you spend your time writing your blog and that doesn't seem to jive with your advice." Not true. I've actually had sales opportunities arise exactly BECAUSE of this blog. So the 20-30 minutes a week I spend writing have the potential to drive very large engagements for my firm. The time spent here is well worth it for me (plus, I love you folks - you're awesome readers!).

So make a New Year's resolution to be more explicit about the tradeoff you're making when you spend time on something. Perhaps you'll say no to less valuable work and either grow your business or reclaim a little sanity.

Happy New Year everyone!

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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Walking Away from the Cash is Good Business

Sometimes there's nothing tougher than a heaping helping of your own medicine. In this case it involves me, a nice pile of cash, peer pressure, and a tough decision.

You folks know how often I rant about the fact that strategy is about saying "no." It's easy for me to pontificate on this point. I tell you about companies I've seen do this well and others I've seen screw it up.

On Friday, it was my turn to put up or shut up. Today I'd like to recap the thoughts and events that led me to turn my back on an opportunity to earn a decent chunk of change. In sharing this I hope to make this critical strategic lesson accessible and easy to understand so you, in turn, can apply it to your business.

Allow me to bore you for a moment and explain my firm's strategy so you have some context. I run a leadership training business. Our strategy is to offer training sessions on critical business skills to large companies. We differentiate ourselves with the experience level of our instructors. We value delivering outstanding service to our clients and delivering top notch business results.

We grow by deepening relationships with existing clients (translation: becoming part of corporate universities or recurring leadership programs) and adding new clients. When we're not teaching, we're developing new clients, building new classes, or eating Cookie Crisp while watching Spongebob reruns (it's about a balanced lifestyle folks).

That strategy sounds pretty clear, no? This is where it gets screwed up though...

Our clients know many of us have consulting backgrounds. Occasionally they ask us to provide consulting services on different topics. Sometimes those requests aren't in our area of expertise and we refer the work to other firms. Sometimes the work is squarely in our wheelhouse. That's when it gets sticky.

We recently took on an incredibly cool consulting project. We did so because it strengthens a very important relationship for us, enables us to better understand where our training fits for the client, and, candidly, it's a financially attractive deal.

Shortly after launching this work, we received another request for proposal on an incredibly cool consulting project. The work is fascinating and it's also squarely within our capabilities to perform the work. It too is financially lucrative.

Then I read the proposal request. The timing they're requesting overlaps directly with the consulting project we're already doing. It would be feasible to perform both projects simultaneously but doing so would stretch our team and would introduce a risk of not delivering the best work we could because we might be too taxed from a resource standpoint. On top of that, the work and travel schedule would be brutal for several months.

One of my colleagues kept pushing me to take on the new project. He kept saying how we could balance the work and how we could maybe bring on some partners to help with it. He kept banging away at how cool the project seemed and how financially attractive it could be. He was acting like that guy in high school who was telling you how cool you'd be if you smoked weed and how much fun you'd have doing so. He was the pusher.

Arrrrggghhh! Must... walk... away... from cool project... and money... aaggghhhh!

I did one of the most difficult things I've ever done as a businessman - I respectfully withdrew from the proposal process for the second project. It stung.

I'm glad I walked away though. There were a few major lessons that came out of the experience:

1. Staying on strategy sends a clear message to your team and your clients. Everyone on the team knows the business stands for something and isn't simply a venture in search of the almighty buck. It lets clients know "we know what we're good at and we won't let anything distract us from delivering great results."

2. Saying "no" protects other critical parts of your business. I've seen many consulting firms get slammed with major projects. While they're delivering those projects, they're not spending time selling new projects or building new client relationships. When the projects they're working on end, they hit a massive dry spell because there's no new work to do. By saying "no" to this project, I protected the time I spend developing new client relationships or deepening existing ones. Doing so ensures there's work to do after I do the work I'm doing.

3. Saying "no" supports microeconomics. This is a classic case of supply, demand, and price. If you continuously increase supply by saying yes to everything (because demand is higher), you run the risk of putting downward pressure on your pricing. I know the market is so huge that a simple "no" by my tiny firm has no impact on that ecosystem. It's more a point of principle... if you say "no" to work, the message you send is "our services are in demand and our pricing is reflective of that demand." It keeps you from the alternative which is lowering price over time because the quality of your work gets crappy from overloading or you're desperate to generate new work because you're in a self-inflicted drought (see point 2 above).

This was a very painful decision for me. Staring down the barrel of holiday credit card bills can make you think about doing stupid stuff for incremental cash. But on the back end of doing this project I said "no" to I know there would have been hell to pay for the decision. We would have been worn out and looking at a sales pipeline that might not be very attractive. On top of that, a few "yes" decisions when it should be "no" could ultimately turn my business into something I don't want it to be (a traditional consulting firm).

Saying "no" to cash is hard. I encourage you to look at your business and see where applying this principle will benefit you in the long run.

What experience have you had with saying "no" to keep your business focused? How do you handle situations like this?

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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