Category: startups

How I built a life on my own terms

It's more than a feather in the cap

One of my biggest moments was graduating high school and let me stop you right there if there's a comment on high school being the pits. It took me 5 years to graduate high school.

I was living on the edge, without a home, surviving abuse and I was the most socially dysfunctional youth you can meet. It was a pivotal moment for me because it showed that despite adversity, one can succeed against all odds.

Beyond being a feather in my cap, or a diploma on the wall, it was a symbol that hard work pays off. Now, with the drastically changing times post 2020, we can add working smarter not just harder to that.

When the pandemic hit America in March of 2020, many things came to a full stop. Treasured local businesses shut their doors and turned the closed sign around for the last time.

When Faced With A Brick & A Hard Place

Running my own business, I faced challenges too. Not the same challenges that retail establishments faced, or schools. But challenges nonetheless. I didn't realize how much I had relied on in-person business events for client acquisition. The reality of the pandemic hit me in the face:

I had no means of finding new clients without in-person events. What did I do?

Pivot.

I moved more interactions online, became a writer for Social Media Examiner, and built a lot of value in ad communities. I recouped and made more income some months than I ever did working at Facebook or for myself.

I had to change the way I ran my company. I don't know how you process your to-do list but my struggle is I'm a mix of perfectionism meets last minute efforts.

Two oddly opposing methods, haha. I know. It's crazy. Obsessing over one task until I can perfect it, and at the same time, waiting until things are about to crash to take care of other items.

Victories of 2020

I think one of the victories in 2020 was becoming vulnerable enough to accept help from others and realize I may not be aware of how I come across. It was clear help was needed. I'd had failures in multiple areas of my life.

Ignoring the signs for too long, that the way things were done wasn't working resulted in losing friendships, business partnerships and income.

I tried to reconnect with my sisters who I haven't seen in years, and found myself on trial for the actions of my father. It was uncomfortable, and felt unfair. I realized I had to let go of trying to control the opinions of other people. Even family.

I discovered that personal accountability goes a long way to speed up the learning curve from life lessons.

Holding myself accountable for learning from my mistakes, not just making them was a start.

Following that with adding in consistency of reviewing mistakes I've made was the next step. I did this to recognize familiar situations to avoid a perpetual Groundhog's Day.

How To Use The Stripes You Earn In Battle

When we are in the middle of a battle, it's easy to forget the wins we already have and what that tells us about ourselves. Thinking about what we've accomplished reminds us of the strengths we developed.

We can build on that.

It's much easier to improve an existing design than start from scratch as any tech company can tell you. The same goes for people. In the reflection on the wins we've had, it isn't fishing for compliments or empty praise but rather a refresher on who we've become.

Whether it's graduating from a school or college, learning lessons from living on the edge, or pivoting to become profitable even during huge upturns in society - our moves build skill sets. Skills that are still there even if we don't use them.

There's a sort of muscle memory we have from overcoming hardships or obstacles in the way of success. We can strengthen these muscles by remembering what happened, why we succeeded and what we can do to build on those skills now.

This is how I built a life on my own terms. Yes we lay awake re-thinking what we could have done different sometimes but how many times do we apply this going forward?

It's easy to second-guess yourself. I get it. I do it too. Mainly just on dates, but hey we all have areas to work on lol.

I know it's a trope, but you have the answers you're looking for. Maybe all that's needed is more time reflecting on what worked before, and why it worked. And how can we apply what we learned from our wins to current challenges we're facing now?

I hope you find this helpful and have a lucky week, filled with good conversations and serendipity.

PS. Know an entrepreneur making a difference? Invite them to join the Entrepreneurs That Make A Difference tribe:

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Know an amazing story of an entrepreneur putting purpose first over profit? Comment below!

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Every other Tuesday on Clubhouse 10am-11am CST I host a Startup Club Room called Entrepreneurs That Make A Difference - follow me @fbpolicypro to get find out more.

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Hot Tips For The New Instagram Reels

Credit: Hootsuite

While DJ Ricky Desktop is going viral on TikTok we have a new tool to reach out audiences:

Instagram Reels

(Check out the last blog on Einstein's technique for Combinatory Play)

Here's a few tips for using Instagram Reels:

Instagram Reels for Business Tip #1: Show Behind the Scenes

People love to see what’s behind the scenes. Whether that’s the making of a movie, a Netflix documentary, or the real life behind the camera for a celebrity - people are addicted to finding out what’s really going on.

You can leverage this instinct for your business by showing a human side, that’s less than picture perfect. This will help create an authentic connection between your audience and your brand.

Instagram Reels for Business Tip #2: Over Deliver High Value Content

Posting high value content is a great way to build a community. There’s the reciprocity factor once you give your followers your top tips they’ll feel loyalty to your brand.

Highlight ways your audience can save time by using tried and trued methods you can share and increase the know-like-and-trust factor.

Instagram Reels for Business #3: Review Services or Products

Some of the greatest brand launches have come from partnerships between existing companies and influencers.

A great example is when Devin Graham (@devinsupertramp), a YouTube influencer with nearly 5 million subscribers partnering with Subaru.

Graham published a video of him and his friends taking turns on a slip and slide that propelled them (and their parachutes) off a 500-foot cliff for Subaru’s #MeetAnOwner campaign, showcasing the new Impreza.

Equally important is since Reels are pushed out on the Reels Explore Page, IG users who don’t follow you will see your content — this has potential!

Lagavulin is well-known among whisky aficionados but not as much for casual drinkers.

Lagavulin changed this practically overnight with a video featuring Nick Offerman who played the “man’s man” Ron Swanson on Parks and Rec.

Offerman sits in complete silence for 45 minutes sipping a glass of Lagavulin next to a cackling fire. Whisky aficionados liked this so much they created a 10 hour loop of Offerman drinking whisky:

Why this works is because Offerman isn’t a Brad Pitt - he’s lesser known with his own cult following, which is the definition of a micro-influencer.

The whole video feels absurd and like an inside joke but it worked like gangbusters for Lagavulin because of the targeting and match between Offerman’s personality and the whisky’s brand persona.

Think about using this approach with Instagram Reels and see which influencers match your brand you can feature on your channel.

For a more hands on guide, Guiding Tech has a great article about IG Reels here.

No matter what you do, it's an exciting new tool and the key to maximize new feature releases by social media sites is to dig in and use them a lot, consistently during the first few months of launch.

What is your favorite Reel so far? Post either links to your own fav from a public figure or one you're really proud of creating below:

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Huge Potential of Extended Reality XR

Augmented Reality (AR) is the next big thing in new tech and there's a reason for it: new developments are happening at rapid fire pace that is creating an amazing experience.

AR adds layers of virtual objects to the real environment. In contrast to Virtual Reality (VR), AR is an interactive experience of a real world environment where the objects in the real world are enhanced by computer generated perceptual information.

AR combines the real and virtual world, a real time interaction and accurate 3D registration of real and virtual objects across multiple senses.

The overlaid sensory info can be destructive where the natural environment can be masked to show virtual items, constructive or additive to the natural environment.

VR on the other hand replaces reality completely with a virtual reality.
The 1st AR technology was developed in 1968 in Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland created an AR head mounted system but it didn’t really take off until 2016 when Pokemon Go launched.

In addition to video games that allow you to fight epic battles in your living room, with systems like Lenovo Mirage (smartphone powered AR) there are applications for space exploration as well.
Here's Seismic Games debut teaser trailer for Blade Runner: Revelations, on the Lenovo Mirage Solo Google Daydream headset:

Nasa has stated they plan on using AR to keep track of astronaut’s health while they are in space.
Using a customized, 3D virtual reality (VR) simulation that animated the speed and direction of 4 million stars in the local Milky Way neighborhood, astronomer Marc Kuchner & researcher Susan Higashio obtained a new perspective on the stars’ motions, improving our understanding of star groupings.

Nasa scientists, using VR animated star clusters, found stars that may have been classified into the wrong groups as well as star groups that could belong to larger groupings.

Google is using AR to translate street signs and books in real time from one language to the user’s native language:

Medical training, education, manufacturing, military, are all industries that are planning on using AR for virtual floating touch screen objects that hang in mid air.

Some really cool camera-based AR apps out right now include on the simplest level, iPhone’s free measure app that lets you measure the size of someone’s height in real time or tables length and width.

Ikea created an app called Ikea Place that lets you virtually place true to scale 3D models of Ikea furniture in your living room.

You’ll select an item from their digital catalogue, then using your smartphone camera you take a picture of your place. Then you can put the furniture anywhere in your house to see how it would look in real life.

The fashion industry isn’t getting left out of the loop for AR either. Many clothing brands let you try on clothes virtually so you can see what you’d look like in new threads without physically having to be there.

One of the the neatest AR apps out there that’s free is called Jig Space. This app lets you explore 3D objects in space, history, inside the planet Earth, how-to, machines and more.

One of the biggest issues with AR is that data has to be real time rendered right as an end user makes a decision without images and info lagging. 5G phones may help with this.
Real time content and AR content sometimes aren’t able to respond to each other fast enough to create a smooth experience.
MR or mixed reality hopes to fix this issue by using occlusion to remove the boundaries between real and virtual interactions.

MR merges real and virtual worlds together to create new environments and visualizations. Where physical and digital items coexist and interact with each other in real time.
MR doesn’t take place in exclusively the physical or virtual world, but is a hybrid reality where both come together.

While MR is similar to Augmented Reality one of the main distinctions between the two is that Mixed Reality allows a virtual overlay of graphics to interact with the real world. If you're dealing with Zoom fatigue you'll have a lot more options now,

Last year in February (2019) Microsoft came out with a new product called Hololens 2. These are Mixed Reality Smart Glasses. Their product demo was pretty impressive, using an application created with the unreal engine.

A few months later, the Hololens 2 Emulator was released to developers to allow them to create applications for the Hololens 2.

The Hololens 2 features include:

A diagonal field of view of 52 degrees, a resolution of 47 pixels per degree, accelerated work loads such as eye tracking, spacial audio, fully articulated hand tracking, semantic labeling and more.

The price tag is a bit heft at $3500 dollars.

AR, VR and MR is at the forefront of new business ventures predicted to create windfalls for both investors and creators, especially given current occupation limits, social distancing and stay at home orders which are intense in countries like Australia.

With everyone at home so often these days, Augmented Reality shows promise of sky rocketing in demand and sales as does VR and MR.

AR, Virtual Reality (VR), and MR are under the umbrella of XR or Extended Reality.

We’ve gone from hunters and gatherers to 3D printing hamburger patties grown from stem cells without harming animals or cutting down rain forests for cattle grazing lands.

While much of this new tech that can solve resource deficits has yet to be deployed at a level prevalent enough to have a global impact - we have the tools now to solve major issues like world hunger and starvation at a lower cost.

I hope this is something that becomes sponsored as a world-wide initiative to help end the nutrition issues in developing countries, food deserts in the United States of America and problematic issues for starving military families that are denied benefits.

But that’s more on the 3D printing and stem cell grown food topic, going back to AR, VR and MR, you’d think there would be once device that harnesses all three in XR.

And there is.

May 2020 Qualcomm who makes the chip for the Oculus Quest VR headset announced they are colloborating with 15 world operators to create XR viewers.

These operators are planning on making XR part of their 5G offerings for both businesses and consumers, debuting next year in 2021.

These XR viewers will be a pair of light weight glasses with 8K 360 degree video capabilities.
They’ll connect to a smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 or 865 mobile platform. These will be tethered via UBC cable to the 5G smartphones for an immersive XR experience with high bandwidth and low latency.

This will allow everyday experiences like doing planks for your morning workouts can become Augmented Reality experiences right before your eyes.

In the business world, these XR glasses can facilitate workplace meetings with holographic telepresence using virtual collaboration platforms.

It’s predicted that XR Viewers will become wireless and 5G tethered glasses will become available.

NVIDIA is another tech company vying for a place in XR tech wave maker history. Nvidia is known for designing GPUs. Their Cloud XR is their foundation platform for streaming Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality content from any open VR or XR application on a remote server.

Another contender is Nreal light glasses, which look pretty badass and are priced at around $586).

Nreal previously shipped a $1,199 developer kit that included a controller and a dedicated mini-computer.
The Nreal Light is a light sunglasses-style headset that tethers to a separate computing device — in this case, the Galaxy Note 20. It uses spatial tracking & projected images to overlay apps onto the real world, and Nreal sells it as a more spacious alternative to a smartphone for watching videos, playing games, or reading websites.

Sensors track the eyes' movements as well as 3D-mapping the view in front of them, so that digital characters and objects can be seen to interact with the environment.

Microphones and speakers are also built into the frames. And users control objects in view via what looks like a curved laser pointer.

It’s promising to support Chrome, Facebook, and Instagram, among other apps, at launch.
That’s a huge advancement as a way to enhance viewing YouTube videos right?

Personally, I'm not a big VR person, after watching the Matrix so many times I'd rather not get sucked into an addiction to a non-real environment - although clearly there are benefits like Nasa's applications to astronomy and more.

But AR? Please, I want my Nreal glasses today! It makes what was once fantasy for tactile overlays you see in movies about the future, actually a reality.

I can see so much potential for designing tech, new clothes, innovative solutions to issues facing the world, I can't wait until economies of scale make AR tech part of everyday life.

What about you? What's your favorite thing discussed in today's blog on AR, VR and XR?

Comment below!

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Nerd Batman: Business Profile of Dean Kamen

Meet Dean Kamen the inventor of the Segway and the iBOT -- a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs. Stephen Colbert took one for a spin. He lives on a island powered by wind & solar and holds over 1,000 patents.

The iBot was revealed in 1999. The IBOT™ is a battery-powered wheelchair built from sensors, microprocessors and gyroscopes that can climb stairs and stand upright on two wheels, empowering handicapped people to see and move at eye-level.

Kamen was already being paid for his ideas as a teenager; he built light and sound systems for local bands and museums. He was earning $60,000 -more than both of his parents- before even graduating high school.

Kamen went to college at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but dropped out in 1976 before graduating because of his invention of an insulin pump called AutoSyringe.

He sold this invention to the health care company, Baxter International making him a millionaire.

That's a pretty fast start, I mean, aside from children who just inherent millions of dollars, for a self-made millionaire it's pretty impressive.

I dropped out of college to work at Facebook for a few years before going back and finishing my degree in Geography but perhaps it would have paid off to invest in the list of inventions I've created but never followed up with.

World Health Organization stats show there's are 900 million people worldwide without a supply of clean drinking water and 3.5 million people die every year due to diseases in unsanitary water they drink. Despite the fact that over two-thirds of our planet's surface is covered with water, only 1% of it is potable.

Dean decided to tackle this problem with the invention of the Slingshot - a vapor distillation system powered by a Stirling engine. It's about the size of a mini fridge and can run off any combustable fuel even animal dung.

Credit: Coca-Cola's Site

The Slingshot uses less electricity than a hair dryer and can purify water from any source whether that's ocean salt water, sewage, urine, polluted groundwater and more. One device can produce clean drinking water for up to 100 people a day.

Slingshot was successfully tested for a month in a village in Honduras 2006. While the initial devices cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Kamen is hoping that in the future there will be increased economies of scale to drive down the cost to $2,000 each.

Meantime, he struck up a deal with Coca-Cola: Kamen would build a better soda fountain for Coca-Cola and in return Coke is using their global distribution network to distribute the Slingshot to water-scarce countries.

Coke got together with 10 international organizations and started distributing the Slingshot in 2013 as part of their Ekocenter kiosks.

These kiosks are solar powered shipping containers that provide impoverished communities with safe drinking water, internet access and items like mosquito repellant as well as first-aid kits (and of course Coke for sale).

By 2017 there are 150 Ekocenters in 8 countries, most of them run sustainably by women entrepreneurs, providing 78.1 million liters of clean drinking water.

A Multimillionaire With A Conscience

In an interview with Tech Crunch, Kamen talked about the conversations he has with the youth:

"You asked what keeps me up at night. There will be a never ending set of potential catastrophes that confront humanity and the way we will avoid succumbing to those catastrophes is well-educated kids that have the appropriate perspective and judgment as to how to use that education and their technology for good."

Covid rocked the nation with countless jobs lost, economy plunges, and stores everywhere requiring face masks to buy groceries or shop at any retail establishment.

Dean and the airplane maker Boeing gave New Hampshire more than half a million face masks.

Boeing's 737-700 aircraft flew around 540,000 medical-grade face masks from China to Manchester-Boston Regional airport, as part of a deal Kamen coordinated, who brought 91,000 pounds of personal protective equipment to the state the previous weekend.

Kamen got the face masks from manufacturers in China through his company DEKA Research and Development, Corp.

Kamen's Secret Bat Cave

Credit: Spectrum.ieee

Like Batman, Dean Kamen has his own secret layer, a private island he owns off the coast of Connecticut (though officially in New York state) called North Dumpling Island.

Dean has a charred, yellowing copy of North Dumpling’s ancient constitution, a nearly verbatim match with the U.S. Constitution, and his own currency which is more of a joke, measured in units of Pi (3.14159).

Kamen's island is a success story for Zero-Net energy - it's completely sustainable using renewable energy.

Using a combination of wind and solar energy and heavy usage of LED lights, the island works independently of regional electrical grids. There is even a lighthouse, a replica of Stonehenge, and a “navy” consisting of one amphibious vehicle.

Photo: Kevin Cooley

No one knows who built this replication of Stonehenge, it was there when Kamen bought the island. The official vehicle of Dean Kamen’s island nation is, you guessed it, a Segway.

The rockstar inventor flies around in a souped-up Enstrom 480 helicopter between North Dumpling and his main residence, a majestic house in Manchester, N.H., near his Deka Research and Development Corp. in a row of refurbished mill buildings.

Credit: Spectrum

To coordinate the different sources, Kamen designed an intelligent system that knows, down to an individual solar panel or light source, how much energy is being produced and consumed on the island.

Kamen's LED lights are pretty sweet.They wash over the island in colors which cycle through the rainbow (and they can be set to a disco beat, but that’s another story). Just as amazing is the system’s engineering marvel that lets Kamen control every circuit on his island empire from anywhere in the world.

Photo: Kevin Cooley

The Stirling engine is the backup generator on the island, a 193-year-old design modified by Kamen to meet his needs.

Kamen believes in the future that almost everyone should have some means of locally generating electric power. It’s the only logical solution for an overtaxed, under maintained national grid that’s vulnerable to any disruption, be it an ice storm or a terrorist attack.

I think what I find interesting about Kamen - I mean there are a 1000 interesting things but to hone in on one - is that he is still down to earth, less of a holier-than-thou titan more of a nerd Batman, often dressed in denim.

"It's not about technology it's about people and stories," Kamen said in an appeal to the heart.

He recounts how DARPA approached him asking how is it that when a soldier gets hurt in battle, they get top of the line surgery civilians wouldn't get but if they lose an arm or leg they get the same wooden stick with a hook on the end that was given to them in the Civil War a century ago?

DARPA asked Kamen to build something that could interface between machines and humans, Kamen disbelievingly said (paraphrasing), "I think they were watching too much Terminator films."

Yet 15 months later, Dean Kamen had a working model where a soldier who lost his arm in the services, was able to use a robotic arm to pick up a grape (it's quit amazing) in this Ted Talk:

What do you think Kamen should invent next?

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Airbnb’s Interesting Windfall During Covid

While you're jamming to great music working from home, ever get cabin fever? Airbnb is the go-to choice to escape the confines of your home/office/sometimes-prison.

Isn't it struggling like other businesses right now due to covid?

Yes & No.

Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia then later, Nathan Blecharczy. They had the zany idea of just putting an air mattress in their living room in San Francisco and marketing that as a Bed and Breakfast. Yet now, Airbnb is a household name.

The founders are all billionaires at this point. The company was planning on going public this year, until the Corona Virus pandemic bottomed out many markets world wide.

Now, Airbnb bookings have tanked like Jurassic Park sequels.

According to AirDNA bookings in Europe collapsed in March, dropping 80% compared to the prior week in the week starting March 9, and another 10% on top of that for the week of March 16.

Today Sydney’s Opera House, Bangkok’s night markets, the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Colosseum in Rome are empty of those annoying tourists whose money generated significant income for cities, above & beyond just the gig economy.

Airbnb honored cancellations by all the guests despite how much this pissed off hosts. Founder Brian Chesky explained, in a letter to Airbnb Hosts,

"If we allowed guests to cancel and receive a refund, we knew it could have significant consequences on your livelihood. But, we couldn’t have guests and hosts feel pressured to put themselves into unsafe situations and create an additional public health hazard."

"We determined that we had to allow your guests to cancel and receive a full refund—including all our fees. Please know this decision was not a business decision, but based on protecting public health."

"However, while I believe we did the right thing in prioritizing health and safety, I’m sorry that we communicated this decision to guests without consulting you—like partners should. We have heard from you and we know we could have been better partners."

Airbnb intends to give a $250 million payout for the Airbnb hosts who lost income as guests canceled their stays due to the C-19 pandemic.

The founders are also creating a $10 million Superhost Relief Fund designed for Superhosts who rent out their own home and need help paying their rent or mortgage.

Not everyone views the economy crashing as a bad thing, for this particular industry. Critics bring up valid points on how Airbnb causes housing shortages as Short Term Rentals (STRs) are empty saved for Airbnbers while local residents can't find a place to call home.

Some of the most stinging critique comes from Lionel Laurent of the Bloomberg Opinion column:

"Paris has 100,000 empty homes and 100,000 second homes, according to the mayor’s office, fueling a sense of social injustice. One study of Airbnb in a Lisbon neighborhood between 2015 and 2017 found it looked less like a sharing economy and more like a buy-to-let craze, with 99% of short-term rentals marketed all year round."

I went to Paris for the first time last year and stayed in a charming chateaux, complete with a hookah and Pink Floyd on vinyl. But, like most tourists, I didn't consider locals may be put out by not having a place to rent.

Definitely food for thought. Laurent continues his comments here:

“Short-term rentals have had a disastrous impact on cities’ rental markets,” McGill University’s David Wachsmuth told The Intelligencer...Will a post-Covid-19 society really want that back?"

This is a good question, Laurent makes great points. Honestly, I think given the C-19 occupation limits and social distancing, Airbnb is a marriage of convenience that wins out over social justice concerns however justified.

It's more than just ease of use, staying at a vacation rental is now about safety and Airbnb offers a contactless check in & out system unlike most hotels.

While many things seem bleak, and doom scrolling frames things in a negative light ("It's sunny outside honey" "Yes but it must be part of a plot!") - there is an upside. We aren't losing Airbnb yet.

Airbnb's Windfall

For Airbnb hosts who have places in rural settings the market is booming thanks to cabin fever. Many want an escape and this is the perfect way to do so.

Rural hosts earned over $200 million dollars in just June 2020 alone, in the USA, according to Airbnb's newspage.

According to CNBC:

Trisha Mixer lost over $40,000 worth of bookings for her two properties outside Austin, Texas, when Covid-19 hit. But once the state started reopening in May, she said, she was “barraged” with requests. “You could tell people were desperate,” Mixer said.

Mixer’s two properties, a lake house and a cottage, are 30 and 90 minutes away from Austin, respectively, and the majority of her recent customers are other Texans — even people from Austin who just want to get away.

Summer weekends have always been popular, but this year she hasn’t had to do extra to fill up weekdays too. Mixer even raised prices a little to try to slow down the pace of bookings, but it didn’t work.

Her properties are filled through the summer, and weekend business looks steady through the end of October. On these getaways, just some space and, if possible, a swimming pool might be enough.

At Kathryn Langer’s property in Lake Travis, Texas, which sleeps nine people and does have the coveted pool, it is the “busiest and craziest” time in her four years of hosting on Airbnb. People are “stir crazy,” she said, adding that she had a guest who booked in May and then rebooked for August without having visited the first time yet.

Part of this is because of how scared people are of traveling now due to the added risks of catching the Corona Virus. It's much easier to find an Airbnb out in the country a few miles away from your city than it is to book a flight, wade through a crowd of strangers to and from your vacay destination.

In fact, I think I am going to have to check out some of the nearby lake view Airbnbs. This sounds like a safe easy get-away compared to braving an airport right now.

What about you? Willing to brave flying to an exotic destination, or stay in your state and hit up a rural Airbnb?

. . .

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In the Struggle to Survive There is Hope

Credit: Morning Brew

Before the Corona Virus hit and lock stock and barrel shot retailers in the face, brick-and-mortar businesses were already struggling. Several national chains closed down stores in rapid succession like Radioshack, Sears and Blockbuster.

While Tesla is booming in business, retail establishments still face challenges.

Now that stay-at-home orders are in place everywhere, and at best you may have 50% capacity allowed at restaurants, retail businesses need to recalibrate their strategy.

The wait-and-see if things get better approach isn't going to do anyone any favors at this point. We are 5 months into the new now. Graduations canceled, weddings forestalled, schools everywhere moving to remote learning.

McKinsey reports that consumers are more likely to keep many of the habits developed on lock down even after everything returns to normal. (Fingers crossed this actually happens).

In the Struggle to Survive There is Hope

While this does present new challenges, it also presents new opportunities. The masks, social distancing and occupation limits are pushing many businesses who resisted building a digital presence into either going out of business or putting their storefront online.

The bright side of this, is that it is a catalyst for many companies who would have otherwise slowly faded to the background and quietly closed their doors.

With Amazon competing as the largest general store, eBay, and more taking business away from store fronts across the world - now these same businesses are back in the game so to speak.

Being forced to sink or swim right now has helped many companies finally get up to date with creating an online store, meaning they have more opportunities to attract business than if they just stayed analog.

Brand loyalty isn't just an optional strategy - increasing the quality of the customer experience is now super vital to get customers to come back for repeat business.

Offering consumers options for ordering and picking up at the store, and ensuring their websites are mobile friendly are only a few of the adaptations businesses have to go through to survive.

As much doom and gloom as you read in the media, I take this as a good sign because it's pushing some businesses who would have gone out of business in the next couple of years to adapt in new ways that ensure their survival.

There's a taco shop I love who never posted on Facebook before COVID struck and now I can see their specials on their Page, as well as updates to their (rather outdated) website.

Customers can get more info ahead of time on what's on the menu, increasing the chance of this restaurant being where they have lunch today.

It's just one of many examples of how the threat of COVID closures have upped the ante for companies that would otherwise not have tried to go digital.

I see many businesses developing their social media presence now that straight up left their Pages dusty before.

The result is I'm seeing more B2C social interactions, peer support, more accurate reviews, and recommendations, lots of multimedia content, more personalization and an opportunity to build in gamification to the customer journey.

What positive changes have you seen in businesses that are new to right now? Comment below!

. . .

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Great Leaders Don’t Create Robots

Credit: Rock'n Roll Monkey

Does every piece of news, blog and social media post have to reference COVID19 right now? While we are limping our way through a pandemic sometimes there needs to be a break from obsessing.

During a crisis we look for leadership to guide the ship we're sailing into safe harbor. At every company, you'll have tons of managers but not very many leaders. Let's talk about leadership.

At an email-marketing conferences I attended, the speaker made it a point to communicate that we won't succeed without a solid plan.

To attempt to keep doing the same thing without strategy is called "hope marketing" and makes a lot of folks live the reality of "broke marketing."

Hope without a strategy doesn't create leadership. Leadership is developed when your hope and positive thinking are matched with a concrete vision of the future and a way to get there.

Real Leaders Know It Ain't About Them

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to grow a tribe, to create a group of people dedicated to a specific purpose or cause. You'll find this in any major sport - word of mouth is a powerful driver and builds communities.

One of the mistakes people make is defining leadership as the worship of a single person. Identity politics is one of the most divisive cancers right now plaguing America.

Leadership that lasts beyond tomorrow and creates a strong community grows when the leader gives people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

Who do you trust more: an ad you see on your Facebook Newsfeed, or a recommendation your friend made? The friend of course. The culture around a product or service grows when people recruit other people. That's how ideas spread too.

People won't do it for you - they do it for each other. Leadership is embracing that it really isn't all about you. It's about the movement you're creating. The shared values of those who follow you.

Change is Inevitable - Except from Vending Machines

Generally speaking, managers don't like people that stick out. By definition they want everyone to tow the line, and stick within established rules.

Many companies have PR statements that say they are about innovation but reward conformity more than anything else. It was definitely like this when I worked in tech at Facebook. You didn't want to stick out in any way.

Managers were overworked and had no bandwidth to recognize the talents of their employees. I quit my job at Facebook because of this and started a successful consulting firm and e-commerce ventures.

I was a deviant - I didn't fit in with the status quo. But neither did Elon Musk, Henry Ford or Tony Robbins. All of them are outliers that challenged conformity. While I wouldn't say my contributions to society can light a candle yet to these notable people, there's something important to worth mentioning:

Managers don't like deviants, they don't like nonconformists who may be eccentrics or mavericks with too much individual personality. Deviating from conformity is a failure for a manager working to deliver within the rigid lines of their role.

Managers crush nonconformists - that's what they do. Managers don't inspire people. Leaders do.

Leaders understand a different outlook: change is unavoidable and also one of the keys to success. Not human robots.

Credit: Craig Sybert

As it turns out, when you have a workforce that is dedicated to change and more fully engaged in making things happen-- not only are employees happier but they are also more productive.

This is a much better way to organize a business than making people walk on tip toes, using threats of losing job security and fear as a motivation to do a good job.

Leadership isn't just popularity, power and showmanship.
The Harvard Business Review states:

"A successful leader as one who can understand people’s motivations and enlist employee participation in a way that marries individual needs and interests to the group’s purpose."

Find Someone Succeeding & Encourage Them

When someone at the job place has created a workaround, or another way of doing routine work that works better, instead of punishing them for not conforming shine the spotlight.

While it won't always be the case, often innovation comes in small packages from employees just figuring out a better way to do a task that isn't officially sanctioned in the employee handbook.

Great leaders find someone deviating from the norm creating success - and encourage them.

Many things we know and love as part of every day life happened because someone did something different than the norm and challenged the group-think of conformity in the workplace, society or within a specific industry.

Air Bnb is one example of this, so are Lyft & Uber, as well as Google's Gmail as mentioned in the blog about managers needing to adopt flexible strategies from leadership to keep folks motivated post COVID (to not just do the minimal but to exceed expectations).

It's raining right now in Austin, Texas and Leonard Cohen is playing on the online radio station I listen to, Radio Paradise.

As I listen to the lyrics sang, I think of leaders who inspired me in my journey from 9-5er to entrepreneur. And the traits they have in common.

One of the shared attributes every one of them has, is the ability to put aside their own ego and become sincerely invested and curious in how other people think, feel and perceive life.

Who are some great leaders you've met in your life? Who inspires you?
. . .

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5 Tips on Starting a New Business During Covid

Credit: Danielle MacInnes

Now is a great time to start a business. You're saying, "Hold up Trevor, we are all on lock down, are you kidding?" No joke - right now is a great time to start a business with a caveaut:

Design a company that is agile, not dependent on physical location, with a strong online presence.

Businesses succeed when they solve a problem. Right now, consumers have a whole set of new problems that your business can solve.

Whether you're launching a new clothing line for sweat pants and lounge gear or at-home fitness training, there are opportunities to grow and succeed in the new marketplace.

Create a Business Plan

Starting a new business is exciting, nerve wracking and you gotta think on your feet a lot. But, if you have a business plan mapped out ahead of time it gives you a great jump off point.

You may not even follow the plan. Or you may pick and choose parts to follow and adapt other parts as you go along - being agile is critical to your success. Pivoting as you see fit allows you to succeed.

Don't kill yourself writing it. Make it 5-7 pages max. Get your ideas out of your brain in a format for a business template.

Cover these Important Business Points

Write down your answers to these questions in one document:

How are you going to grow?
What are you trying to build?
How are you different from competitors?
How do you make customers wildly happy?
Ponder the chapters of your business

Think about the segments of growth for the chapters of your business. For instance, if you're starting a vegan delivery food truck that customers can order from via an app - 1st you'll have the food truck and app developed.

Then your vegan food delivery service can expand to a full restaurant. After that it'll become a catering business for a larger area. Perhaps this will then open up to franchising or being priced to sell.

The concept here is that when you're thinking on your feet, you can miss important details. When you're doing some deeper thinking on the bigger picture of your business ahead of time you can map out the smaller steps in between significant moves.

You won't have time to sit on your couch and just strategize once you've really got the ball rolling. You may not have all the answers but putting your thoughts down in a structured business plan gives you a resource to refer back to to connect the parts.

You'll have something to refer back to when you're on the move making things happen. It helps you gain perspective on how you connected ideas together that manifest as concrete action steps.

This is especially helpful when you've spent time ahead of time analyzing your competition so you know how you can stand out - or at least have a starting place.

Go Find Smart People to Criticize You

After creating your business plan, structured for stay-at-home, online-friendly covid reality, then find the three smartest people you know.

You know who these people are, they are the super smart folks around you in your friends circle or even co-workers from present or previous jobs.

It would be even better if they also run their own business. Either way, you want them to give you hard criticism on your ideas. Because this helps you increase your ability to make your business better.

Be prepared to hear some hard words. Go into it expecting they will tell you your ideas suck. Don't fish for compliments. Lean into their criticisms. Ask open ended follow up questions.

Remember - your goal is to get them to poke holes in your strategy and future visions so you know where you can improve.

It's highly likely if they see things you aren't seeing, and you want to get investors, those angel investors will see the same things or some of them as well.

Thinking up objections ahead of time and better yet solving them puts you ahead of the rest.

Get Yer Legals Set

Make sure you understand the basics on what you need to do for local taxes, which vary state to state. For example if you're starting an e-commerce store you need to buy at the least an LLC or sole proprietorship, and a sales tax license.

You'll want to get a business bank account to separate your taxable income from your business from your personal finances. It'll be set up with a business EIN number, which is like your social security number for businesses.

Invest in a good attorney and a good accountant. Prioritize the accountant first as you'll want to make sure you don't owe the IRS money. You can hire an attorney after you start making income. When you're ready to scale, you have to make sure your books are straight.

And of course, make sure you have a website for your business, and a business email that isn't just @gmail. Look up Gsuite and how to connect that to your domain for a business email.

Find People Like Me

Reach out to entrepreneurs like myself who already run their own business and ask them for two minutes of their time.

You'd be surprised but many people who are very successful love giving back and helping the newbs out with advice they wish they knew when starting out.

[Hint hint - the reason why I wrote this blog]

Having a solid convo with an established business leader, the higher up the better, will help you see the gaps that laterally moving won't catch.

It's also inspiring to talk to those who have tried what you're doing and succeeded.

What are your tips for those starting out with a new business? Or, what do you wish you had tips about for starting a business?
. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

The Economy of Integrity

Credit: Bonnie Kittle

We live in uncertain times but one thing we can all count on is our own ability to frame the social interactions we have. This is both in our personal lives and in business connections when we interact with other business owners or potential partners for joint ventures and more.

It's one of those nuances of human behavior often ignored - are you being the best version of yourself?

This is where professional development meets personal development. Why is it so hard to take a step back outside the echo chamber of previously held beliefs?

Some of it is habit. Habit in how we think of ourselves, the world, other people and our potential. For many, their careers don't take off until they figure their shit out, as a person. Yet - you won't see this taught in MBA programs at major universities.

It's Not What You Do It's How

There are tons of awful people that donate to charities yet abuse their spouses, do unhealthy amounts of drugs and never take a long hard look at who they are actually becoming aside from profit margins met.

Have you ever tried to save a friend from themselves? Passionately advocating on how to dodge the bullet you see headed towards them from their current actions and life path?

What usually happens?

A shit ton of defensiveness and resentment.

Leonard Cohen once sang,

"And I lift my glass to the awful truth
Which you can't reveal to the ears of youth..."

Cohen sings of the eternal resistance of being told what we know is true - that perhaps we aren't trying hard enough. Perhaps we owe it to ourselves to be a bit more honest on if actions taken are doing justice to the version of ourselves we become when energy follows thoughts.

The act of becoming is talked about in many esoteric texts and yet very divorced from the business world, as far as an inherent quality we associate with success.

The art of becoming is the acknowledgement we aren't perfect but also aren't helpless about who we become during the process of living our lives.

I've been blessed to meet, rather recently, a number of influential multi millionaires at the top of their game for their industry. And in this circle something is different than others I've met in previous years who were also successful in business.

These people, many of whom know each other, have spent time understanding who they are and reflect honor and integrity into how they do business and affect the world.

Back to the friend you're trying to save analogy (happened several times for folks I know). It isn't what you're saying. The content is gold - your intentions are pure, you don't have anything to gain here. It is all for the sake of your friend who is fucking up that you want to save.

It isn't what you say, it's how you say it. If anyone feels lectured to, instant walls go up. Higher than the BS ones the prez wants to build between USA and Mexico. Just add water or err um..strongly worded advice.

People feel the energy coming from you behind your words. This has parallels in the start up world as well.

LTV Isn't Accidental

Of the highly successful 7 figure business leaders I've had the luck to meet, connect with, and in some cases become friends with - the feeling of 'this person genuinely cares for others' and reflects that in how they do business is a great predictor of not just success but longevity.

You may have heard of LTV, the life time value of a customer who makes multiple purchases with your business. A customer's LTV exponentially increases if they trust your business. This is the economy of integrity.

When customers feel a bond because of the tribe you've created based on integrity, the rituals specific to your business, and the values you stand for (and what you won't accept: read I'm Not For Everyone) this not only increases long term profits but you become an excuse for others to rise up and act better.

Do we need to wait for Christmas to be generous, forgiving and proactively giving?

Of course not. It's an attitude. An attitude of gratitude. Ok I did see that on the wall at a meeting I was at back in the day. But despite it's rather pithy phrasing, it speaks to deeper concepts.

It's the idea that every Sci Fi author understands - sometimes we are world-creating. We create a micro world of who buys our product or service and determine what kind of environment and culture we create.

Make use of the free will and choice we do have to lead a company based on values of integrity. It gives back so much more than it takes. Your influence continues to grow positively and affect the lives of others in a way that inspires them to do the right thing.

Don't Take My Word for It

Don't take my word for it - plenty of studies from multiple sources back up, empirically, the values delivered by being a decent person, and how that decency affects organizational structures beneficially.

From the National Academy of Sciences:

"Leadership by individuals of high personal integrity helps to foster an environment in which scientists can openly discuss responsible research practices in the face of conflicting pressures. All those involved in the research enterprise should acknowledge that integrity is a key dimension of the essence of being a scientist and not a set of externally imposed regulatory constraints.

To the Journal on Public Integrity and Ethical Leadership:

“ 'Moral values and norms' are often absent when scholars are involved in describing, explaining, and understanding the reality of governance and administration (the dominant focus is on goals and interests; biases and irrationality; institutions; and context and power). An “ethics and integrity turn” in the dominant fields of study is needed."

The Economist referenced a study ran by Tim Hird of Robert Half Management Resources who aptly said:

“Companies with strong, ethical management teams enhance their ability to attract investors, customers and talented professionals,” explains Hird, adding that ethical behavior starts at the top and allows companies to create a culture that values integrity."

Going back to the friend analogy - the reason I bring this up is that this fits your engagement with your customer base as well. If you really want to help your friend out and avoid a slow motion accident you see coming, listen first. Focus less on the righteousness of the point you're making. More on what his or her needs actually are.

Same goes for the impact your business has on the world through the interactions your clients have with each other, with your business and others they come into contact with after purchasing.

When the person you are is reflected in the values of your company, this ripple effect increases CTV by just making people feel more comfortable because they know, see and feel your integrity.

You may just inspire them to also live their lives with higher integrity - helping your business thrive through word of mouth, increase customer retention and long term profits but also help the world become a better place.

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office."

-President Dwight D. Eisenhower

I'd like to hear your comments on your experiences as a customer and business with integrity.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Where Reverse Engineering Fails & Stories Win

Credit: Math

Just like a good cup of coffee, feeling like you are beating the competition in your business's market is a feeling you want to savor. But what are you competing against?

The typical response is binary. Apple competes against Microsoft. General Motors competes against Toyota. Netflix competes against Hulu.

However, when customers are using your product or service to solve a pain point they are doing so to satisfy a complex set of emotions, moods and attitudes.

There are times when a customer may decide to purchase from you because they want to meet a goal. The steps towards reaching this goal have sub-steps that have to be achieved before reaching the purchase point.

The 3D Sphere Model of Competition

Credit: jgvdthree

Just the belief that things can get better is a foundation for moving forward. If consumers don't believe that anything can improve it will be a lot harder of a sell. How does what you sell help your clients make progress in their lives?

The way someone makes progress towards completing a goal is a path that offers many moments for you to solve their pain points. If you have an Ecommerce store selling coffee it would make sense to sell coffee mugs as well right?

Amazon's suggestions of similar products customer bought after buying what you're purchasing is responsible for millions of dollars in sales.

But the only way you will be able to even get to this point is if you understand what is competing with your products. Think beyond a linear timeline. Make it more like a 3 dimensional sphere that intersects with other spheres.

If You Were Selling Coffee...

If I was selling coffee, the competition you may think is other coffee brands, and tea. However, just like last Tuesday's blog mentions another source of competition is not buying anything at all.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, talking about the competition Netflix faces said:

“Really we compete with video games. We compete with drinking a bottle of wine. That’s a particularly tough one! We compete with other video networks. Playing board games.”

Thinking outside the box of typical market research on the competition, you'll want to ask, "What do people do instead of drinking coffee?"

Crazy as it seems there are folks who use cold showers to wake up in the morning, or buy really bright lights to turn on in the morning. Workers who work the night shift have their own unique sets of alternatives to coffee which can only last so long before a tolerance is built up.

Energy drinks, Yerba matte, lemon juice and even just water are other sources of competition to coffee. Cigarettes are a replacement for coffee to stimulate the user into being more awake as well as physical exercise.

Using the sphere model of where competition exists for your product, we can see it's more than tea but also yoga mats and stationary bicycles. What circumstances are people in when they seek coffee?

Students, office workers, teachers, entrepreneurs and many more use coffee to start their day. It's a popular drink. What aren't people saying about coffee?

Power of Micro Targeting

Answering these type of questions helps you niche down to a specific market you can micro target and develop a tribe of enthusiastic buyers that will take your company to the next level.

Going with our example of coffee as a sample product you would be selling, we can definitely sub niche down to different categories like:

Social coffee drinkers - they only drink coffee in a coffee shop with friends

Daily coffee drinkers - there are subcategories here as well, the instant coffee drinkers, the pre-ground coffee drinkers, and the whole bean grinders that consider themselves coffee aficionados.

Intermittent coffee drinkers - switching between chai teas, coffee and green teas this group is constantly experimenting with a variety of caffeinated beverages.

How you speak to each member of these groups (which can be subdivided further) will be different.

The marketing messages for an instant coffee drinkers won't be the same as a coffee aficionado who might only use an Aeropress and burr grinder (this is me - I love making some of the best coffee ever created).

The experiences that each group has inside of specific circumstances will decide how you present your product. Finding out that exercise is a competitor for drinking coffee may make you want to pivot into finding ways to combine both.

Reverse Engineering Vs Story Model

There are certain brands who will never have direct competition because of the immersive experience buying their product creates for customers. Trying to reverse engineer an existing business's model can only go so far.

Creating your own story that is filled with rich details solving multiple pain points in the customer's journey is how you stand out from the competition. The truth is most companies don't go to this level of detail.

Crafting unique rituals specific to your consumer's demographics, and circumstances surrounding their decision to buy is going to put you leagues ahead in your progress towards becoming the best version of what your business is capable of.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

How To Measure Better Company Metrics

startup blog, startup blog, startup blog

Credit:Luke Chesser

It is easy to get caught up in measuring metrics at a company as a way to gauge success but the data is often not organized in a manner that allows a business to consistently forecast which tactics will be successful.

When you start up a new business, it's exciting to have data that you can parse to see which split test is successful, whether this is in advertising creatives, ad copy or product designs.

But, it's often taken for granted just how complex and layered this process is because it isn't just about delivering a satisfying product but a complete experience that makes buying from your company stand out from the competition.

Distinguishing Your Company From Others

Even the limitations of your product or service can be used as part of the unique selling mechanism. Take for example Twitter's 280 characters limit for tweets & calling a post a "tweet." (See last week's blog on the war between Trump and Twitter)

There are so many levels of a pain point your product or service solves, that it takes a very nuanced approach to address the gap filled. This means that just basing definitions of success on quantitative data will miss the elephant in the room, the customer's:

Credit: Sarah Kilian

Why a person buys your product or service is not always something so granular that it can be put on a spread sheet. This why can change at different times of the day, year or with a set of personal experiences of infinite variety.

Facebook's Metrics Fail to Measure Actual Data

When I worked at Facebook in the ads department we had scores that rated us on how effective we were at our jobs. The number one score was Customer Sat, for Customer satisfaction. The C-Sat scores determined the stability of vendor contractors that staffed for Facebook as well.

However, there was a huge hole in universally rating everyone, for every type of customer, based on one, very black and white metric. The amount of money a person had to spend on ads often was a big trigger on whether or not they were satisfied with the support from the ads department.

If you were too broke to spend enough money to both A/B test and retarget (or even understood what retargeting is) then it didn't matter how many help center articles you read --you'd be unhappy. It wasn't an accurate measure of job performance.

We didn't have conversations with management on understanding why customers chose Facebook over other social media platforms to advertise on.Or how Facebook products or services helped make progress in people's lives & which circumstances they were trying to make progress in.

How to Discover Multileveled Pain Points

Many organizations completely miss defining what the real reason is that customers hire them, and easily fall into the common trap of a one-size-fits-all solution that never solves the problem.

Diving deeper than the surface level metrics opens up new possibilities for growth hacking and innovating company structure, both B2B and B2C.

Taking the time to investigate a customer's multileveled why for consuming your business's offering helps uncover the real reason they buy. Before Volvo messed up their brand image, people didn't buy Volvos to get from A to B or for a flashy look. They bought Volvos to feel safe.

The Secret to True Innovation

One thing you'll discover when going beyond quantitative metrics is the reason why your customer does not purchase. This is often an even more important area to focus on.

If there isn't a product or service that fits a customer's needs, they'll choose not to buy anything rather than settle for a less-than-perfect solution.

Customizing a product or service to fill this need is where many entrepreneurs have made billions of dollars. If you've looked at a niche and felt like you don't have any room to compete because it's over saturated that's a big sign that you probably haven't defined your client avatar's Why well enough.

It's a whole range of experiences that create the need that you're solving. This goes far beyond the basic demographic information of age, gender, location and interests.

When you captivate the story of every day consumers in that split second of struggling to move forward and being stopped by not having what they need - this is the real gold.

Workarounds Offer Insight Into Product Development

Finding out what things your customer base is substituting for what they really want is another opportunity to growth hack. If they have a work around that's pretty "meh" because what they want isn't available you can become very successful by solving that trade off.

Start paying closer attention to the workarounds you use in your own life to get things done, digitally and physically. Being both the consumer and the entrepreneur at the same time can yield new insights because of the way you can think outside the box than just quietly suffering wishing for something better.

Take note of both your own circumstances, and social-emotional depths when faced with something you can't solve perfectly. Observe other people's buying habits and workarounds and discover if consumers are repurposing something it isn't intended for.

This will signal a new gap your product or service can fill. It's a story that mere metrics won't tell you about. This type of market research reveals the nature of pain points in a way that offers you a chance to stand out in solving them.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

How Entrepreneurs Go From Good to Great

Credit:NeONBRAND

As an entrepreneur you are a risk taker by virtue of your chosen profession: to be a leader instead of a follower takes courage. But how good do you have to be to succeed? How is success defined in your professional and personal life?

My last blog, COVID Economic Recovery Solutions, discussed the benefits of investing in employees, and seeing the return of professional development in productivity, profits, and increased word of mouth marketing.

In the same way you may invest in your staff, you can also invest in your company's other assets.

Don't Settle for Good Enough Go for Great

We walk a fine line between "just good enough" and "great." To the average suburbanite, just being able to pay bills without a boss breathing down your neck is a huge success.

But the line between good and great, while being thin, is what separates the quitters from the Elon Musks and Steve Jobs of the world. Entrepreneurs benefit from a daily check in and brainstorm sesh on how to make what's good even greater.

You will feel the difference, those few extra hours here and there add up to the bling, the shine, the razzle dazzle of a clean mean business machine. Your customers will feel the difference too when you put in the energy to fine tune and improve what's "just good enough" into something truly excellent.

Drive & Dedication

It feels good to solve a problem - this is at the heart of 99% of all marketing messages. When you've gone through the rigmarole of questioning how to fix something until that eureka moment - it's satisfying to arrive.

But don't rest on your laurels. The allure of complacency is strong and keeps you at mediocre instead of embracing your brilliance. You have to cultivate the inner engine to improve. It has to be an attitude. A mantra.

Once you create the habit of improving, you can't help but get better. This is across the board, personal, romantic, business, family, social life, hobbies, sports - attitude is gratitude.

What I mean is, you'll thank yourself for creating the habit of dedication to improvement. It's a new routine that once developed will help you reach the next level of your potential.

Self Sustaining Networks & Teamwork

There are plenty of entrepreneurs who can wear 10 hats and play multiple instruments. But to be truly successful as an entrepreneur, this means building a strong network. Creating a team that fills the gaps in your own competence is part of what crosses from 'just good enough' to something great.

I chose to use the word sustainable with a specific intention: The personal and professional networks built must be mutual, reciprocal and headed towards a destination that is beneficial.

If only one business is benefiting, see where you can help the other business benefit even more. This goodwill will not go unnoticed. It's all about who you know right? You may catch the eye of an affiliated interest that yields even greater return.

At the very least, you've increased loyalty to your brand and secured a better professional network.

The Self Efficacy Question

Self-efficacy is, in a nutshell, increasing your abilities by believing that you can increase your abilities. And of course taking action to increase them.

It's shown remarkable results in test scores in children in Kansas City, Missouri, and strengthening people's beliefs that they have what it takes to succeed produced even better results in college students at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Student underachievement brought about by low academic motivation is a major factor contributing to school dropout levels according to the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Beyond Social Cognitive Theory in an academic setting, self-efficacy has huge potential to help businesses improve. 7 League Boot leaping over obstacles with emotional resilience is achieved by believing that you can overcome these obstacles.

The consistency and commitment to keep on trucking, and examine your methods for achieving success along the way is the key to making that success a reality.

Live, Breath, Sleep the Mindset of a Champion

Whether you're fighting cancer, winning an olympic gold metal, or mastering the art of public speaking - the mindset that you have frames your ability to perform at low or at peak levels.

To even consider quitting a day job requires a whole shift of mindset. But let's take that one step further.

When you believe your company will succeed, in addition to making the efforts to ensure it will, the mindset of a champion means that that needed grit to not only survive but to thrive is present.

Having the mindset of a champion doesn't mean you ignore the less-than-great realities of a situation or sugar coat the gaps in your business.

It means you don't hesitate to face these head on, and do what it takes to succeed. With of course, no moral ambiguity. Doing the right thing, for your business, only improves who you are and the quality of customers you attract.

I've mentioned this before, but one of the defining moments of my life was when my childhood mentor drove me to a homeless shelter when I was kicked out of my mother's house.

He let me know that while he doesn't support this happening, I also needed a wake up call and realize that even if I didn't like my step father, I had to do what it takes to survive with a roof over my head.

Hows that for a gut check?

I didn't have the mindset of a champion then. But 3 days ago I graduated the University of Texas at Austin, having gained acceptance into UT with a recommendation letter from the president of Austin Community College.

It was a hard struggle but once my mindset changed from victimhood to proactive reluctant hero - life aligned to produce the results I wanted.

The same is true for entrepreneurship.

What separates us from the 9-5ers is our ability to innovate, think outside the box, create solutions, and have an unshakable belief in ourselves, our brand and the goals we set out to achieve.

This is the mindset of a champion.

. . .
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COVID Economic Recovery Solutions – Treat Employees Right

Credit: Husna Miskandar

The economy's crashed, hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost and now as society begins to rebuild and open up again it's time to rethink how jobs are structured.

Recently, when moving 4 filing cabinets out of my living room, in order to build an at-home library I spoke with the manager at U-Haul. There were 7 people waiting, with an average wait time of 40 minutes just to check in a rented truck or U-Haul van.

When I asked the manager, a man named Christopher, if it was possible to hire one or two other employees to help manage the customer load he replied,

"I can't get people to work here. They all want to stay home and collect unemployment benefits due to COVID."

I was shocked that the economy is hurting not just because of COVID fear making local governments close down brick & mortar shops but also due to people not wanting to come to work to mooch off of unemployment.

Credit: https://writingboots.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55283a630883401bb0953519e970d-pi

This hurts retailers but also local cities and their economies because when and if local businesses reopen, if they are understaffed, with long lines, it's just going to push consumers to order on Amazon instead of shop there.

Obviously some businesses like U-Haul you can't order online..though drones are doing some amazing things these days.

Low Quality Jobs = Low Quality Work

Aside from the rather unique moocher situation with some staying home to college a paycheck and not working remote but living on tax-dollar funded government benefits...

- There is a lot to be said about flipping burgers or working a register or answering phones and being treated poorly by management.

The Trickle-Down Effect of Incompetence

When the number one concern of employers is not investing in employees to create a high quality work environment, but how can we cut costs, outsource labor to 3rd world countries, lower the hiring wage, reduce worker hours and spread them out over more employees and reduce benefits - well is that motivating people to do a good job?

The question answers itself. If an employee is given a half-ass training (because the manager is also underpaid and under trained), and they are disrespected and made to feel like:

"You are easily replaced so appreciate this shitty job,"

Then it's the trickle down effect of incompetence.

On the other hand, if employers approached training employees as an investment, with professional development included to help employees not only gain competence but additional skill sets to make them more of an asset to the company and their growth opportunities - this changes the ripple effect in workforce management.

Investing in both higher wages and professional training, with work culture more evolved than mashing buttons to get minimum wage then employees will find their own reasons for working harder to do better.

This creates a better quality product or service for the end user that the company serves, which then increases customer retention, loyalty and lifetime value.

Brand loyalty is something that shouldn't just be customer-centric. Brand loyalty cultivated in both the customers and the employees, when increased also increases profits and productivity.

Strikes at Whole Foods and Amazon

If decision makers at the CEO level can't read the room or doubt the logic in the above paragraphs just look at the strikes by Whole Foods workers and Amazon employees who continued to toil on in unsafe working conditions.

When you aren't given a lot benefits-wise, as a bargaining chip from your employer, you don't have a lot to lose if you get fired for striking.

This loses time, money, convenience, customer satisfaction scores drop and just as employees leave for a job that pays $1-3 dollars more an hour so will customers when there are delays due to poor work ethics and project management skills by hiring managers and those who structure employee business models.

Businesses Have to Adapt to Survive COVID19

Instead of making excuses about how an existing system can't change, employers should wake up and smell the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee: with the lack of foot traffic now is the perfect time to retool the business model

Sam's Club, Costco and HEB grocery store have all taken the lead here and raised wages for their employees as well as invested in their safety.

As mentioned in management philosophy blogs, research has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when intrinsically motivated individuals apply their efforts to a task they are 10 times more productive and successful than people who are only money-motivated.

This means it isn't just about the money - don't treat your employees like dirt anymore and they will reciprocate. So few jobs actually invest any sincere time in building new skill sets in their employees but every time a company does this, the employee becomes an unofficial brand ambassador.

Feeling respected and appreciated is the cornerstone for every social interaction that's successful, from family, to relationships, to friends to business both B2C and B2B.

Creating this feeling in employees with concrete specific investments in improving their abilities, you now have a spokesperson for how great your company is. Many of these employees are like micro influencers with their own social networks sometimes rather large.

More employee loyalty creates more profits because you get better work done, word of mouth organically spreads to their friends, families, and facebook and twitter accounts without a single ad dollar needing to be spent.

In a large company multiply this by 100 or 1000 - it's pretty damn clear it's stupid to treat employees as disposable to-go containers or warm bodies to fill a space when there is a much higher return from professional development in the workspace.

Where We Go from Here Matters

Ecommerce is booming, many jobs and even schools may utilize more remote work than in person attendance now. Businesses will have to adapt to a post-COVID world in order to survive. This means the old guard has to change.

Instead of hyper focusing on reducing labor cost - putting some real thinking and research behind it to create a 2020 strategy that involves treating and paying employees better, will only benefit everyone better and rebuild the economy. Mic drop.

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

5 Steps On How To Overcome Sales Objections

Every business has to overcome sales objections, spoken and unspoken, to grow and prosper.

Whether your company is B2C or B2B, the sales process of client acquisition will always involve initial objections before purchase.

There are certain tactics that work across the board, in most verticals, so today we'll go over how to overcome sales objections to get the sale.

Anticipate Objections

It sounds simple, and isn't impossible to do, yet it isn't always common to hear a company be the first to say your objections. It's incredible effective when you do this, saying something like:

"I know you're probably thinking, this is way too expensive, but honestly can you put a price on happiness?"

By calling attention to a topic that many customers want to avoid, which is their reason to object to buying, you start to overcome objections before they happen.

Anticipating objections means taking the initiative, and calling out objections as you sense them. There are the standard objections, and also new ones specific to your prospect and this particular selling circumstance.

How can you sense which objections are hidden beneath the surface but aren't being aired out? By changing the nature of how you're listening to your prospect.

Always Active Listen

Many people, regardless of trying to make a sale, will listen only to wait for their turn to talk. This won't get you the sale. Listen with the intent of understanding. This builds trust with your potential client, and allows you to hear the 2nd reason behind a no.

The first reason is the surface level 'no' which doesn't have the emotional triggers that the real reason for the no has. The real objections are rooted in emotion, and association.

When truly listening to understand, there is more data to draw from. You start to get the feel for what isn't being said, as well as what is being said.

This creates an opportunity to anticipate their objections and have a solution ready to go in your response.

Respond

Your response should validate the type of concern that the prospect has, even if it’s that your competitor offers a better deal.

Even if it’s the latter by using curiosity, not defensiveness, you’ll be able to fully explore what is that the prospect likes better about the competition.

Many times it’s just a matter of sticking with what they already know and not wanting to risk an unknown.

In other cases, by asking questions with a true active listening approach, you’ll find that the customer isn’t as sure about their decision to go with the competitor.

You’ll unearth new pain points about the business they currently use, and can position your reply to show your company
connects those gaps.

And if it doesn’t, you’ll also be in a great position to use this as market research and tweak your own business model to offer what your competitors don’t offer but your customers / their customers want.

This is a high leverage position to be in.

With my clients, who are tired of getting Facebook ads disapproved without a solid answer from Facebook as to what part of their ad triggered the disapproval - I offer something no other competitor can offer:

Insight into why Facebook makes certain decisions, and the exact words, copy, in ads and landing pages, that caused the ad to get flagged as well as what ad copy would be approved instead.

This enables me to acknowledge gaps in the market, identify objections, and overcome them ahead of time by offering a solution Facebook doesn't offer - a clear explanation of what caused an ad to be disapproved and guidance on getting it approved.

(Does your agency need a FB Policy Expert? Schedule a free discovery call here)

Confirm - Check for Understanding

After discussing their objections, and how your company overcomes them, touch base to make sure you’re on the same page.

In schools, this is called a “Check for understanding” where a teacher double checks the class understands the material thus far, before moving on to new topics.

This is very similar, you’re the teacher, with the secret knowledge, and your prospect is the student, yearning to learn, even if they don’t know what is possible to learn.

Look for the confirmation, by paraphrasing their objections, summarizing your response and defeating of the objections, and ask if that sounds right.

Budget concerns - If they are objecting due to you haven’t built enough value first. It means you need to build more value.

I need to talk to my husband - We’ve all heard this one, or a version of it. Make sure that you aren’t playing a game of telephone and get the decision maker (DM) on the phone, or in the meeting before going for the close.

I’m too busy right now - Emphasize the fear of missing out, either a quantity scarcity, or a special price scarcity as the price will go up after tomorrow, or for a mastermind group, there are only a few spots left approach works well.

I need to think about it - This is a question of credibility, trust, and the value that’s been built (or hasn’t been built) about the product or service.

Price

If a prospective customer says your service is too much, it’s to your advantage to know what the competition is offering.

The difference in cost can be overcome with the unique selling mechanism your company has, that’s part of the brand slogan, ideally.

“You get what you pay for, and you look like someone who appreciates a quality product.”

This approach shifts from “It’s too expensive” to “Am I really giving myself the [royal] treatment I deserve?”

Conclusion - Know Your S#%t

Ultimately the better you know a product the better you can sell it.

The real secret is not only knowing your product, but also being well versed in:

▶ Your product/service's unique selling mechanism
▶ The market your business is in
▶ Your competition

The more you can speak on why your product or service specifically stands out - the more this confidence and expertise effortlessly translates to the customer who will mirror your energy.

If you’ve done the research and speak confidently based on knowledge, statistics, and results this will motivate your prospects to buy from you more than anything else.

. . .
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Is Facebook not explaining why the disapproved an ad?
I worked at FB for years and offer FB Policy Consulting here
Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

5 Steps for Designing a Successful Chatbot Flow

Chatbot marketing is one of the newest trends to gain a foothold in the marketing world and there's a reason why: chatbots work.

When you can automate basic questions that most customers always ask, it saves time and money. If you're paying someone to design a chatbot, you'll want to direct them to create a flow that works for your website.

Or perhaps you're creating the chatbot yourself, either way, here is a quick tip on chatbot design:

Option 1 - The Opt In

If someone sees your ads, lands on your website and your messenger bot pops up, the first step is to give them 3 options for what action you want to funnel them to.

Don't make it open give them a path to take. If they are just browsing your chatbot can show a few resources your website offers and encourage them to opt in to your email list to get a lead magnet.

Option 2 - Learn More

The 2nd option could be "I'd like to learn more about your products, or services" and from there you send this potential customer to another sequence that offers them a chance to check out your latest products and services.

Option 3 - Book A Call

The 3rd one is perhaps they are looking for a case study or something specific from one of your services. And get them to book a call with your sales agent, or opt in for an email list, or provide their phone number to get updates.

4. Text Opt In Copy That Converts

"John?"

First name question mark? Is a great way to get people to respond if they opted in to your text alerts from your chatbot.

You can have a simple intro, after they reply to the first name question mark text of:

"Hey this is Thomas from [company name's] and wanted to see if you have any other questions."

And then your sales agents can close them on the phone.

5. Chatbot Flow

Once your potential customer has opted in, you want to have value-based content that solves their problems. When your content delivery includes value packed nuggets without any heavy sales pitches but gentle reminders of your services or products along the way it's a great way to increase conversions.

By providing value first, you gain more trust, and market authority that will boost conversions when your services are interwoven into the educational content they get for free.

You want to be careful with text messages because people will get annoyed if you send them too many texts. Web based alerts you can do more often without risking burn out.
. . .
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I’m Not for Everyone Here’s Why…

Do we trust people we like with less experience more than we trust people we don't like with more experience?

Yes and the reason comes from caveman times. If we felt that someone was going to be able to stick with the herd and provide consistently they were always the safer choice.

Times have changed though, and many build their entire careers from being immune to social niceties. Whether it's Gordon Ramsay or Gary V these public figures have disregarded wanting to be liked. Or at least trying to sugar coat their social interaction skills and language.

There is a lot to be said for the walk-away feeling one gets after shopping at a store. Whether this is an online marketplace, or a retail establishment, we tend to remember the last thing more than the first thing.

On the opposite end, there are people who will say anything to get you to like them. Some have personalities that cannot stand to feel the disapproval of others. Crippling social shyness aside, there is a magnified effect of personal dishonesty that goes hand in hand with trying to please everyone.

How can a business please everyone, and still remain true to the core values that founded it? There are a few businesses that deliberately take confrontational stances on an issue to gain media attention and customers. The crazy thing is it works. (Look at whose president right now).

However, there's something to be said about caring for what kind of CX your company provides and the residual income that is purely from testimonials being shared. I think there is a balance between kowtowing to every little thing your client base needs and drawing the lines for ethical behavior.

One of my clients asked me to do work on making sure their client, who was running political ads on Facebook, was Facebook policy compliant.

I Had to Take a Step Back

There are some crazy people out there right now that want to encourage unsafe behavior, and many are political. I had to do a gut check and ask myself,

"Can I live with myself, if my FB Policy Analysis helped a candidate get elected who endangered the lives of others?"

It wasn't easy. Times are hard, business is slow, and you take money from the money tree when you can grab it.

I gave my client an ultimatum and said that I would need to review the goals of their political ads client and end game before I could say yes.

I wasn't going to walk into this with blind faith or just wanting to make a profit.

What I stand for, and the ripple effect of my business decisions matter.

I would rather starve than steal.

But that's just me. If I was having to feed a bunch of mouths at home, with mounting bills and little options, would I have chosen differently? I can't say as that's not the reality.

The reality is that I have to trust the people I work with to do business (and their clients) otherwise I won't sleep easy. In the last blog we discussed the power of showing up and this counts for showing up for what your business stands for.

Profit Over Principles

This also made me realize that there are lot of businesses that don't factor ethics into their business decisions. Walmart has dumped tons of toxic waste into Texas tributaries and was almost sued by the EPA before they stopped.

There are plenty more examples of behavior like this that puts profits over principles. I think I learned something about myself through this last experience: I'm not for everyone.

I'm fine with that.

As an Entrepreneur I Get to Choose Who I Do Business With

Abdicating that choice because I was being lazy, or too eager doesn't seem fair to the many people who don't get to choose who they work with. It also doesn't do justice to the hard work I had to put in to become a startup founder who has options I didn't have in my 9-5er past life.

What experiences have you had that made you question your business choices?

Comment below:

If you want to hire me to freelance write for your blog email: [email protected]. Need FB Policy help? Book a time on my calendar here.

Startups: Power of Showing Up

So you've got this great idea - you want to start a business. Or launch a new product, or service for your current start up business. The stars seem to align, the universe is on your side and you're so excited. Then what happens?

It's like having a wonderful dream (Nice Dream) and then you wake up and can't remember the details - but the beauty of that moment is on the tip of your tongue.

What happened?

The fact is consistency works like magic to reach milestones, achieve goals in the short term and the long term and yet it's like there's this ingrained flaw in entrepreneurs and startup founders to avoid commitment. Perhaps we fear that getting too routine is a soul-killing spell reminiscent of the cubicle-laden 9-5 jobs we barely escaped from.

And Yet...

Every startup needs a certain amount of routine tasks to reach critical mass - the tipping point where we get investors, or consumers discover the beauty of our creation and rush to the aisles (or one-click Amazon buttons). Part of what's amazing about starting your own business is the ability to Be Yourself (with SMART Goals).

We enter Startup life to escape the false roles and identities we have to wear to appease oppressive overlords.

Being eccentric, socializing in ways that are 'imaginative' or just having our own, sometimes nonlinear approach to reaching business solutions is something we have always wanted but were unable to articulate in the office (aka "hell with florescent lighting"). The Trail Blazers of our time were known for their ability to be themselves. Being yourself is a powerful message other people can receive, relate to, and believe in.

So is the Power of Showing Up

"There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.It is the only true guide you will ever have,"

- Howard Thurman

We live in historical times right now: 2-3 generations in the future they’ll look back and talk about the corona virus pandemic of 2020. The startup founders I’m either friends with or business associates with are one of the most unflappable, unshaken demographic I can imagine.

We’re prepared. We already work remote. Social distancing isn’t the exception - it’s the norm.

Social skills don’t always come hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship or tech. So we’re uniquely prepared and already adapted to taking this pandemic in stride and still create new inventions, new services, new apps, new ways to help brick and mortar and other businesses pivot towards sustainability.

And yet…some of our most lofty goals are still dusty on the shelf. Just like that nice dream we had and can almost remember. It’s because we aren’t showing up. Showing up to do what needs to be done to move the needle. The power of consistency to move mountains, redesign bridges connecting the gaps between who we are and who we see ourselves becoming. I’ve got a tip for you. I’ve got a tip on showing up.

5 Magic Minutes

It’s easy to go all out, make a big promise and then get so overwhelmed we do exactly the opposite. Happens all the time working out. Building a startup is working out just using different muscles, but both rely on creating muscle memory. When we use self-management in focused in 5 minute increments, this helps to initiate a 3rd drive that connects our ambition to the image we have of ourselves. Taking action, with intense focus, for 5 minutes at a time, consistently, builds muscle memory and makes it easier to self-identify as someone who is taking action to make dreams come true.

The 3rd Drive

The power of showing up depends on the unlikely 3rd drive, beyond the drive for money, and success. It's the drive to trust ourself to achieve the impossible. Or at least achieve a modicum of progress in our path towards greater things. Stephen Covey, who wrote the timeless classic, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People had a son who was also author. Well technically son(S) who are also authors. One (also named Stephen) wrote in the book, The Speed of Trust, that there was a formula for results.

(SXE)T = R

Or in other words, Strategy times Execution multiplied by Trust = Results.

The idea is that we as founders, must trust ourselves to lead with integrity for our business practices, inspire trust in customers and business associates, and achieve a type of startup leadership that gets results in a way that inspires.

Startup Tips: The Power of Showing Up

Science Daily States when making decisions, our perception is influenced by judgments we have made in the past as a way of remaining consistent with ourselves. Consistency breeds trust, in ourselves and the trust we inspire in other people. A book published in the 60s, called Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Volume 14)studied the power of consistency on human behavior.

One of the central themes is that attitudes predict behavior and the strength of how behavior can change or improve the quality of one's life (or startup business) depend on the consistency of the behavior.

How often you show up for yourself and for your startup is up to you. Start small and go big. The power of showing up, even in just 5 minute increments, is you are creating values of the person you want to be, that runs the business you want to run. Or envision someday (soon) creating.

Showing up consistently and doing small actions that move your startup forward adds up, every minute, hour, day and month of the year. This small amount of accountability for what you are creating, is a momentum-generator.

So generate your own momentum. Show up. Startup. And keep going until you reach the horizon line.

Power of Perception: Business & Life

Is Struggle Always Necessary?

Have you ever heard the saying "struggle leads to success" ?

There's a lot of talk about how life has to suck before it can get better. But is this a false dichotomy? That's a fancy way of saying, do we have blinders on and just aren't seeing all the options?

I agree working hard can produce results - IF you're aimed in the right direction. But is hard work always a struggle?

Labor of Love

"Labor of love" is often a term ascribed for when you ARE working hard but, you believe in your work, your steps to the big goal, the pay off, and every act that gets you closer is worth celebrating.

Is THAT a struggle?

Isn't 'struggling' just mental for how we choose to think about actions?

I mean, physical pain aside, generally, being on the grind, if you always frame it as 'a struggle' wouldn't that make it harder for you than framing it as necessary steps towards becoming that bad ass you know you already are?

We can go deep on this one.

If you do become successful but are an a$%hole to everyone, and don't have good social skills (Steve Jobs, asperger et al) - is that success?

How We Look at Ourselves
The World
Our PROCESS

All of these things...determine how hard life is, and if work is really a struggle or just a system you use to become el jefe. If there's one super power you can opt in to having, without being bit by a radioactive spider (which would make you sick in real life), it's the power of perception.

The Power of Perception

Being able to look at how we look at things is a strange gift I've had since I was fighting tooth and claw to not become my father, fighting for scraps living on the streets as a teenager. It's the one thing that led to getting accepted into the University of Texas, working at Facebook, and starting my own businesses.

It's easy to fall into a habit of if this, then that.

This is SQL terminology for how results of a search are defined by certain parameters.

YET...

IRL this means we tend to start to draw conclusions before actually looking at what's happening. Our eyes are not really seeing. We are going through a series of automated emotional habits.

However, it's mainly unconscious. And it can have draw backs when you want to innovate your company but are still coloring within the lines and not thinking outside the box. The habit-thinking of expecting the same thing despite there being different variables and inputs limits our growth, professionally and personally.

How Good Becomes Great

Taking the time to look at your business and ask the hard questions, without sugar coating is how good becomes great. The challenge with thinking bigger is we tend to self-impose mediocrity, and creating artificial ceilings that limit our flight path. These ceilings are due to the habitual way we think about potential. The definition of identity, of a company or a person, if it's habit-based, is going to suffer adapting to a changing world.

Do your self a favor, and begin to cultivate a sense for how you look at things. For how you look at how you look at things.

---------->Start Here<------------

What are habits you have on how you think of yourself or your business?

Are there conclusions you assume about people or situations?

What is a new way to think about this and rewire your process?

Think, be, explore - it's an adventure.

Not So Secret Weapon

What's the one thing that brings people together?

Common ground. Community. Shared Purpose.

In these trying times, it's easy to look for ways to cast judgy eyes onto those that are different from you. In business, there are seldom second chances to make a great impression. As a result, if there is contention, often this loses customers.

For good.

Ever been to a restaurant where a waiter was rude and dismissive? This makes an impression.

Impressions cost money.

One time I was in a restaurant with a friend, enjoying some chips and queso. Everything was going great, until one of the waitstaff started talking loudly to the bartender about their life. The things they had to brag about. The intimate personal details I was not volunteering to hear or participate in - like being locked in an elevator, with someone on their cell phone pouring out TMI stories as if no one else exists.

This experience cost that restaurant a customer (and perhaps more than one, if others also weren't keen to learn the backstage view of their waiters personal life).

While it may seem like a small loss, word of mouth alone can magnify this loss - if I were to say the name of the restaurant and other locals read it. Shoot, one place I ate at with another friend, she found a metal screw in her sandwich - hows that for customer retention practices???

Ironically, I still go to that restaurant. Why? Because the attitude and impression the waitstaff made on me before and after the 'screw-gate' incident was supportive and understanding.

A big contrast to self-absorbed life-story narrative waitstaff whose superpower is ignorance of the world around them. (Not sure who her arch-nemesis would be...Self-Awareness Girl? Kind of an anti-hero set up).

I can't solve national political debates, or bridge the divide between differing religions, beliefs, and social constructs - at least not with just one blog alone. However, we can all do our part both in business and in our personal lives to build community.

Community helps those with different view points find gaps we can bridge in eachother's skillsets by virtue of our shared membership in a tribe. That's our common ground. Whenever something goes down that requires team work - that sense of unity creates friendships, rebuilds relationships and helps others.

I was freestyling rhymes about living with intention at a local freestyle rap cypher here

What many may not realize is that finding common ground has to be a conscious decision to be effective. Well, I guess not necessarily if you are just a community-minded person. What I mean is most people have to make an effort to start finding what they have in common with other people.

I'll never forget...riding in the peach colored F-150 Ford truck my father drove and listening to him yell at other drivers. He'd insult them and make up all kinds of reasons why they weren't ANY good.

It always stuck with me because of the intense effort he made to find reasons to belittle strangers. I wondered if he knew how exhausting it was to listen to him yell insults. How exhausted this made his own life? I bring this up because I had a real epiphany when I was working at Facebook.

I'd take my breaks outside, and walk around downtown Austin. I started remembering my dad's judgements when people walked across the intersection at 6th and Congress entering coffee shops, jewelry stores, delis, comedy theaters and more. His words floated through my brain about how this woman is probably like ___ or that man is probably just___ [insert insult].

I don't know why it hit me at that moment.

I thought of how much control my dad completely let go of by doing this habitually. But I started to realize, as I heard my father's voice inside my head, that I had a NEW choice:

I could look for reasons to compliment people. I could find reasons to celebrate people.

I could choose to be positive. Being positive sometimes gets a bad rep from some who feel it's negating reality or practicing avoidance of harsh truths that need to be dealt with. But this wasn't it at all.

It is more of a choice on what to focus on. And when your attention is focused on adding details, filling in the blanks, with the intention of veneration, the intention of giving people back their humanity from these bullshit static labels we fall in the habit of accepting - this creates a new opportunity to build community.

Even if this is silently, just watching, enjoying little moments. Not creating negative imaginary backstories for why someone appears a certain way but instead creating positive, supportive opinions about people. Believing in their goodness. Believing in my own goodness. Feeling the glow of selflessly loving strangers just because I can and I choose to.

Does this relate at all to business?

To entrepreneurship?

Yes. And to enjoying life. When we pause, and look beyond trying to make money and focus on building relationships, nurturing a community, those who receive these messages respond in kind.

Humans have an innate urge to support positive socially constructive behavior.

Taking the initiative to create this within your customer's journey will not only empower you to extend the life time value of a client and build brand loyalty - you also won't feel like a shitty human being trying to manipulate others to buy from you.

Living with intention is not another millennial buzz phrase - when you start to fill in the details. What is your intention, specifically?

And in regards to which part of your life, or your business - how do you fill in the gaps for your intention? How does your intention manifest itself in each part of your life?

This is where you are the sculptor, molding the clay of creation, deciding to create a life that celebrates diversity, new ideas, the raw unpolished surface of the planet where all these little creatures live and die and share moments of joy.

We are part of this. We continue to choose which moments to nurture, to dwell in and continue to make. We choose which thoughts become our dominant narrative.

Yes, life is hard sometimes. We lose people we care about (RIP Kobe Bryant), sometimes money is tight, hospital bills pile up, impossible obstacles seem to face us - even if that obstacle is just waking up the next morning. I've been there. Some things we overcome quicker than others.

But when we focus on building a community, locally, within our business's customer journey, among fellow professionals, sharing hobbies like horse riding, golf, sailing, gaming, photography, education - these shared values, moments, and people create a beautiful caring network that is sustainable.

Money aside - this is the legacy we can build and contribute to - the networks and communities we build and are a part of that nourish each member with a sense of belonging and support.

This is the not-so-secret weapon against apathy, isolation, pain, ads that don't convert into sales, and brick walls we hit sometimes when deciding on our next move.

The people I know, friends, family, fellow entrepreneurs - all have given me great ideas and vice versa because we chose to listen to each other.

So keep listening. You may learn something new.

Are You On the Right Track?

Bonjour!

The world is changing at a rapid pace and as we enter the next year the often trivialized concept of "specifies survival" has become an intriguing concept in business.

The popularity of sustainability is indisputable.

But it's a paradox.

As many celebrities, and social movements have popularized "going green" there are often disconnects. People with "don't support the war" signs in their yard after 911, and the invasion of Iraq for their oil, still continued to buy oil guzzling SUVs.

Consumers still mindlessly buy products from companies that dump toxins in local tributaries (Walmart has had lawsuits threatened by the EPA for doing this in Texas - it isn't just 3rd world countries suffering). The motivation to actually do a little bit of research - I promise you, it's not any more time than you spend scrolling the FB newsfeed per week - is very little.

That's kind of mysterious.

The survival of the human race appears to depend on how popular an idea is, which Kardashian endorsed it to their fans (like the fires in Australia destroying an entire country ignored by the west, until more celebrities jumped on board and publicized it), and if it's convenient.

If there was some sort of complete trust in political leadership, around the world, to:

Care more about the long term survival of our species than getting re-elected
Prioritize resource preservation over doing arms races
Look at impacts of companies more than business deals subsidizing the very companies dumping toxins into our water supply

...then active citizenry wouldn't be as pivotal.

The World Grows Smaller & Bigger

Increasing access to technology and education are providing greater opportunities in developing countries and contribute to the expansion of the middle class as well. India is rapidly becoming more of an industrialized nation than ever before. New issues such as pollution are going to come to the forefront with this progress as well.

Per to the World Economic Forum, the world has fewer people living on less than $1.25/day by one-half. We are on the path to meeting the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 2010 forecast that the global middle class may double by 2020 and triple by 2030.

Many say this is a result of urbanization, the increased access to education (no doubt increased by access to the internet as well), tech and growth expansion opportunities.

So while Walt Disney may have banned plastic straws from its theme parks we the people have a ways to go for changing our buying habits. It is from within society that lasting change happens.

Change starts with us.

For most people it's incredibly difficult to analyze their own buying behavior in relation to large changes in the world. We have 2 contradicting mindsets:

1. I don't matter, I can't make that big of a difference by myself

2. Everyone is looking at me, I have to be careful not to embarrass myself

The latter is called the spotlight effect - the idea that more people are staring at us than actually are (as the mass self-absorbed public rarely stares long at each other before power walking on).

The majority of consumers resist change to habits & established behaviors. The comfort of ignorance, the benefits and luxuries of not taking responsibility for anything we do with our money is the luring siren call of a real zombie nation.

Unthinking, feeding, breeding in large comfortable chairs like Wall-E's cast of characters or Jabba the Hutt (By the way Mandelorian is a great series..no Disney did not pay for that name drop)...we march on into oblivion. But wait. There's more. Hope.

Entrepreneurship+Sustainability = Opportunity

Entrepreneurs have discovered the benefit of sustainability as a business model due to it's popularity in pop culture. New ideas for new products that are eco-friendly pour out in the thousands every day.

Jason's Deli has little cards on the table talking about their sustainability work, more notices about where and how GMOs are used are no longer hidden but front and center.

Stating that your vegetables are organically grown not GMO isn't just an About section; it's a marketing tool and brand development asset.

I take heart in these type of changes. It's more than a business opportunity: being conscious of how what we do affects the world and being motivated to act on this knowledge helps save the world.

Saving the World

More than a general hippie euphemistic statement - but actually implement sustainable systems for land, air, and water and solar - it's simply incredible what is available now.

But the turning point, before we reach another critical mass for resource deprivation, deforestation, and water scarcity is going to come from a value shift in buying habits.

The 3 seconds it takes to make a buying decision based on the business practices in relation to resource-management is going to be what really helps us as a species survive.

These little decisions multiplied by the billions add up.

Every choice you as a person make - adds up. You are not alone. You are part of something greater.

Consumers are smart. Startup founders can make use of the growing consensus that companies should do more than tout 'sustainable' as an empty slogan. People are now expecting facts and data to back up a business's sustainability claims. The fluff just isn't enough anymore.

I take hope from this.

It's new opportunities to do a new kind of business: one led by less selfish money acquisition and more global heart-conscious decision-making skills. Entrepreneurs have can build partnerships with environmental organizations, 501c3 nonprofits and sustainability research groups to verify the sustainability claims of a product, service or company.

I like this. I like this a lot.

My thoughts are that once it becomes a core value, inherent as 'do no harm' and 'try to not be a douche bag if you can help it' that we'll see values and companies align easier and in greater quantities. Yes, fossil fuels will fight this every step of the way until they start building better cars with less of a carbon footprint.

While there may be a dark before the dawn, the way things are trending is that we, as a global consciousness are continuing to evolve. I tip my cap to you, sip my Texas Pecan Coffee, and wish you a good day!

It's more than a feather in the cap

When Faced With A Brick & A Hard Place

Victories of 2020

New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations

LTV Isn't Accidental

Facebook's Metrics Fail to Measure Actual Data

Option 1 - The Opt In

Option 2 - Learn More

Option 3 - Book A Call

4. Text Opt In Copy That Converts

5. Chatbot Flow

I Had to Take a Step Back

Profit Over Principles This also made me realize that there are lot of businesses that don't factor ethics into their business decisions. Walmart has dumped tons of toxic waste into Texas tributaries and was almost sued by the EPA before they stopped.

What happened?

And Yet...

So is the Power of Showing Up

The 3rd Drive

Startup Tips: The Power of Showing Up

Profit Over Principles

This also made me realize that there are lot of businesses that don't factor ethics into their business decisions. Walmart has dumped tons of toxic waste into Texas tributaries and was almost sued by the EPA before they stopped.