Entrepreneurship | GROW GREAT

216 – People, Performance & Purpose: Making Your Business Relevant

Entrepreneurship, Leadership / By Randy Cantrell

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Yellow-Pages-Irrelevant — No longer relevant – avoid this with your business

The Yellow Pages and the hard copy phone book are no longer relevant. Neither is TV Guide. What does relevancy mean? How did these (and countless other businesses) lose theirs?

What Relevancy Means

In a word, it means “useful.” Maybe a better word is “valuable.”

Some enterprises never quite reach a high state of relevancy. That is, they’re never very valuable. If you live in a suburban area like I do, just look at the strip centers (shopping centers) in your area. They likely have one or two businesses that are pretty constant. Maybe a restaurant or grocery store. But most of the store fronts are likely occupied with smaller, locally owned businesses. There’s the dry cleaner, the donut shop, the nail salon, the locally owned sandwich shop and so on. Some of these businesses last for a few years, but many of them come and go because they simply couldn’t gain traction. They never established enough value to build a customer base…so they died. Falling into the abyss of irrelevancy.

Some enterprises can’t adjust when disruptions come. The manufacturers of horse drawn buggies don’t exist any more. They went from prominence to irrelevance when the automobile arrived and gained widespread acceptance. But an enterprise loses relevance before it reaches extinction. Xanga was once a social media rockstar. Not today. Groupon was the fastest growing company. Today they’re on the fast track toward becoming irrelevant. So it goes when leaders don’t maintain the vigilance to stay relevant.

Three Strategies Of Relevancy (you need all of them)

1. You must have a market.

Ideally, marketing experts will tell you that you need “a hungry market.” Markets can vary wildly from mild to famished. It’s all gauged by sales success. No sales, no relevancy.

To be fair, a sale doesn’t have to be an exchange of products or services for money. It can be patronage, support or some other variation of an exchange in value. For example, acts of philanthropy happen for many reasons. A person may have a personal connection to a specific non-profit. A person may want to contribute to a specific enterprise expecting nothing in return other than knowing they’re supporting a cause they believe in. Maybe a person simply needs a bit more of a tax deduction.

Businesses, non-profits, researchers, governments and all other organizations need supporters. Getting those supporters is what I mean when I say, “Making the sale.” That’s the only way of getting a market. You must make a sale. The more sales you make, the more relevant you are.

2. You must hold onto a market.

You’ve got get repeat business, or have ongoing support. Retailers know they’ll experience a degree of customer attrition. A certain percentage of their customers will move away. Another percentage may die. Still others will find a more suitable solution based on price, selection, quality, convenience or a host of other reasons. Great retailers work hard to eliminate losing customers by continuing to elevate their performance and offerings. You’ve got to hang onto your current supporters. It’s not enough to get them once. You need to keep them faithful.

3. You must grow your market.

Because retaining supporters isn’t a perfectly achieved objectives (how can a retailer prevent customers from dying?), you’re going to have to bring in new supporters to replace those who go away. You also need to grow your enterprise.

You can grow your enterprise by increasing the number of supporters, by increasing the level of support you’re getting from current supporters or by doing both of those things. The last one is the best strategy!

Three Components Of Relevancy

How can you achieve relevancy for your enterprise? That’s the real issue today. And our headline provides the answer. Three of them actually…but you need all three if you’re going to sustain relevancy.

1. People

You can’t establish relevancy without people. You need people to help you provide it. You need people who appreciate it enough to support it. You even need people willing to partner with you along the way.

Undervalue people and you’ll undermine your ability to achieve relevance.

Make false assumptions about people and you’ll lose. Many enterprises assumed people wanted something only to find out too late, nobody wanted it.

Enterprises often assume they can grind through people (employees, volunteers or other internal people) and it won’t impact their progress in the market…until people reach the point where they won’t take it any more. Citizens revolt against oppressive governments. Workers rebel against tyrannical employers. Patrons abandon the poorly run charity.

People matter. Don’t forget it.

2. Performance

Just because yesterday’s performance gained you a market doesn’t mean the market will stick with you if you let your performance slip. You can’t assume that what got you here will get you there.

Markets are constantly changing. That includes yours. Keep pushing your performance to serve your market better. Listen to your market. Pay close attention to what they buy, what they want and what they hate.

It reminds me of a guy I heard about who was doing some coaching for a mid-sized organization. Every month he’d come in and deliver a presentation that was open to all the employees. He’d hold forth like most gurus do. At first, the room would be packed. After awhile, the room began to have some empty chairs. This went on month after month until the room was more empty than full. Eventually, the organization felt they’d received all the value they were ever going to get from him so they parted ways.

I wondered what he must have been thinking as he saw the attendance dwindle month after month. Why didn’t he ask the organization what they needed or wanted? Why didn’t he adjust some things? Maybe his content, maybe his approach, or something else that may have helped him engage the employees more?

I don’t know why he didn’t. Any more than I know why a person holds onto a broken business model. But I’ve seen it happen frequently. People let performance erode because they don’t see it even though it seems to be staring them squarely in the face.

High performance demands high awareness. It demands humility. Be ready to ask, “What can I do better? What can I do differently that will be more valuable to you?” Then get busy doing it.

You’ve got to stay ahead of the curve of customer satisfaction by aiming for customer delight – customer happiness!

Another part of performance is leading and managing. Leading involves people. Managing involves the process, or the work. And since people do the work, you’ve got to hold people accountable by demanding their very best. Sure, there’s proper selection (hiring), training and support. Support should be ongoing for all your people. You’ve can’t support them if you refuse to hold them responsible for the outcome. And the outcome is always going to be the result of the process. That means you’ve got to give the proper time and attention to systems, work flows and the documentation on how things must be done so you can deliver predictable success every single time!

3. Purpose

I put purpose third, but it really belongs first. I did that because I wanted to end with it and have that be our final thought. So many times I see people who neglect this component of being and staying relevant. Simon Sinek calls it “your why.” In fact, his book title tells you the importance of it, Start With Why. Fail to start with why (or your purpose) and it’ll be tougher to find your way through the maze of organizational or business challenges. If you know your why, then you’ll make decisions that are congruent with that purpose. Without a purpose you may wind up chasing your tail.

“My purpose is to make as much money as I can,” he says.

“How is that going to help you establish, much less maintain relevancy?” I ask.

“I’m going to find a way to get people to buy,” he replies.

“So your purpose is to GET people to buy?” I ask.

“Yeah, sure,” he says.

That’s a poor purpose. It’s manipulative. It’s mercenary. When push comes to shove, this person will likely do whatever is necessary to make a buck. Contrast that with another conversation.

“My purpose is to teach as many people as I can how to play the guitar so they can get the thrill of sitting in a room with their friends playing confidently.”

Is that a world changing purpose? Well, it is for the people he teaches. Yes.

Will that purpose direct whatever actions he takes in his guitar instruction business? Absolutely.

He’ll face future decisions with that purpose in mind and ask, “Does this help me further my purpose or will it distract me?” Can you see how much clarity that will provide him versus the guy who just wants to “make as much money as I can?”

You need a purpose that will provide you that kind of clarity. The guitar instructor will be able to build and maintain relevancy because he knows exactly why he’s doing what he’s doing and he knows exactly what outcome he wants for his students. Every guitar student wants to be able to play confidently in front of their friends. Some want more, but if you can’t accomplish that goal then you can’t advance beyond it. This guitar instructor knows that. And for the advanced student who wants to go beyond the stated purpose, the purpose still helps keep things on track. Fundamentally, it’s all about the thrill of playing confidently in front of people. For some of his students it’s a guy who wants to play a song for his girlfriend (an audience of one). For another, it may be a guy who wants to play with his band in front of thousands. The purpose holds.

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210 – 3 Keys To Create Big, Audacious, Hairy Goals (Why There’s Nothing Wrong With Using Pencils)

Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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It’s time to take aim. No time like the present and all that. Wait a minute, it’s already February…far too late to plan for 2014, right? Not necessarily.

I’m a compulsive planner. It goes with writing things down. One jot here triggers another thought…there. Before you know it I’ve filled a notebook full of gibberish. Well, okay – it’s not all gibberish. Some of it might be worth keeping. No matter. I keep it all anyway. Somewhere.

Don’t mistake me as a person not given to action. Truth is, in spite of my willingness (and fondness) for planning – I’m ridiculously proactive. It’s a hazard of growing up in fast moving businesses I guess. Back in the 80’s remember telling a rather slow moving colleague that I could make three decisions for every one he made. My argument – made long before anybody had thought of the whole LEAN startup movement – was simple. By the time he made his first decision I was on my third, which meant I had course corrected twice already. That put me way ahead of the game. I’ve worked that way for as long as I can remember.

I chronicle. I make notes. I record things. It’s a lifelong habit. Yes, some of it appears to be gibberish…and maybe it is. But…

Some of it ends up in a plan. More like an idea with plan potential. Why I do it this way will become more clear as I go through my little 3 item list. Why a list? Because everybody tells me, “People love lists.” And I read blog posts where the authors talk about the most positive feedback they get are when they write short lists of things. Nuff said. Don’t have to hit me over the head with it. Done.

There’s nothing wrong with using pencils. Fact is, ink is usually found in 3 colors: black, blue and red. Pencils? Well, I can get a pack of many colors. Cheap. People think pens show commitment (I.E. do a crossword puzzle in pen and it shows you’re confident). No, it shows you might be arrogant and pompous. Nuts, even. Pencils represent creative planning. Pencils show you’re committed to adapt, adjust and hone your creativity. So I urge you to embrace the notion of pencil thinking. Be creative!

Here’s my list of 3 things that may (I reiterate the term, “may”) help you create your big audacious hairy goals for next year. I’m snarky, but I’m also serious about these things. Consider them carefully. Please.

1. Go bigger.

“Go big or go home!” I don’t know about you, but I like home. So, that’s not much of a battle cry for me. I will confess something to you though. When I was young, dreaming big – planning big – was easier. I suspect school and adults beat it out of me, or tried. That’s how the world works. We like people who are like us. Dream too big, we’ll beat you down until you’re just like us – thinking small.

Big, audacious and hairy are not terms for rinky-dink goals or plans. Those are terms that conjure up gigantic, awesome aims.

“Oh, but you’ll just be disappointed,” exclaims the realist. Maybe. Maybe not. But for now, I don’t care about that. I care about what goes on in your head. The reason I care about that is because I know that’s where reality starts. In your head.

Living in my head has always come easily. Make believe. Imagination. I don’t have to concentrate much to create even brief moments where I can transport myself in thoughts of what I’d like to make happen. Visualization is what most would call it. Sometimes it might border on hallucination, at least in the mind of critics. That never bothered me.

I used to think everybody did it – visualized (not hallucinated). In fact, I was convinced everybody did it. I don’t remember when it dawned on me that it might not be so common after all. I was grown. That much I remember. Books should have been a clue. There were plenty of books and chapters written on visualizing. I need lots of instruction about a lot of things, but not this. Where was I?

Oh, yeah – thinking big. Aiming high.

It helps if you can see it in your mind. I’m not sure it’s even possible to think bigger if you can’t see the end first. Is it? I wouldn’t know how.

Here’s what I know to be true – we can all benefit from thinking bigger. Consider reaching higher. Consider achieving more. Consider being better. Forget those phrases meant to convince us that the difference between success and failure is razor thin. You know the ones. “Fractionally better.” “Marginally improved.”

Now, go thinking I don’t understand and appreciate the fact that we can be incrementally better and make a BIG difference in the results. I do believe that. In fact, I know it. But when it comes to thinking bigger, aiming higher and trying to be remarkable I don’t think we’re served by hanging on to the notion that if we’ll just be 2% better, then our success is assured. It’s a fool’s gold.

Be bold. Don’t hold back. Unleash the beast between your ears and dream big. Then plan even bigger!

I’m always working on a plan. A business idea. In fact, I’ve got one goal or plan that has been in the works for over 2 years. To be fair, it’s been in the pondering stage for about 2 years. It started out in the dream stage for about six months. It’s been in the more serious planning stage for about 90 days. It’s big. Seven figures big to start. Eight figures big to maturity. And I don’t expect maturity to take a decade. It may, but that’s not my vision.

Here’s my most compelling argument for thinking bigger. I don’t know of a single benefit of thinking smaller. Unless of course you consider smaller results, smaller accomplishments and smaller achievements being a benefit.

2. Be vivid.

Your mind, it’s your biggest tool. Your most powerful weapon. That visualization is important. What’s more – you need to make it as detailed as possible. Every little nuance is important.

Give it lots of time. I don’t mean that you take your sweet time coming up with thoughts. I mean, you give yourself to dwelling on your big goal. Think of it often. Camp out on the idea. Roll it over. Keep rolling it over. Go to bed thinking about it. Wake up in the morning thinking about it.

Imagine the finest details. Embrace them.

Part of being vivid is devoting sufficient time to the mental exercise of seeing the reality of the idea. The longer you hold onto the idea, the more powerful it can become. And the more clarity you’ll experience.

By the way, it’s perfectly fine to adjust the idea. That’s part of the benefit of being vivid. Refine it as you go. Think of it as writing your own story. The characters grow as you write the idea in your mind. They mature. They become more fully developed. So too does the action they take. Enjoy working through all these creative elements.

3. Act. React. Adjust.

Bold ideas require bold action. They even deserve it. Why have a bold idea if you’re not willing to put it out there?

All that thinking should spur you to take action, but not just any action. You have to take action that is congruent with your idea. You’ll likely have thoughts about who and what. Don’t shy away from either. Pursue. Vigorously pursue. Pursue people who can help. Pursue actions that can make the dream come to life. What you do will make the difference in a dream being imaginary or real. Do nothing = imagination is all you’ll have. Do something meaningful, repeatedly = that imagine you first created in your mind becomes reality.

Be ridiculously happy if your images all come to pass. More likely, you’ll find you have to make a few adjustments. For instance, I’ve had things like pricing all worked out in my mind. All of a sudden, I’ve been forced to realize – I was way off. Sometimes way too low. No problem. Adjust. Adapt your vision to the new realities facing you – and your dream.

Keep doing it. Push. Pursue. Adjust. Adapt. Keep working it out in your mind, but keep taking actions. Even small actions can progress you forward. But never avoid taking big steps, or reaching out to big people who can help.

Bonus tip: Don’t fall in love with one single bold idea. If you do you might become paralyzed from thinking of new ones. Form the habit of thinking of big, bold ideas and goals. The more ideas you create, the more easily you’ll create even bigger ones. Sounds ridiculously obvious, but it escapes many people. Don’t be shocked if one big bold idea doesn’t work out. You don’t want to be a one and done kind of a person. Keep creating more big, audacious and hairy goals. In idea creation, more is better!

Ready, aim, fire. Or, as Mr. Masterson of Agora and ETR fame is fond of saying, “Ready, Fire, Aim.” By the way, it’s a good book, too.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from William Hutchinson Murray, but often attributed to Germany’s answer to Shakespeare, Goethe (nope, he didn’t write it)…

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Now, go to it.

P.S. Did it ever dawn on you that bigger targets are easier to hit?

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209 – 5 Steps To Fix Your Business Problems

Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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209 - 5 Ways To Get Freedom From Your Own Business (Help, I've started a business and now I've got a job!) — Help, I’ve started a business and I’ve got problems.

For many, it’s the American Dream to start your own business. Okay, if you’re in Europe, Asia, Australia or other countries besides the USA, maybe it’s your dream, too.

Sadly, for too many the dream turns into a nightmare from which there seems no escape. The HELP WANTED sign may not indicate the need for an employee, but rather the need to break free.

Carol Roth and a few others have written about the need for people to think soberly about what they want before embarking on a chase that may not ideally suit them. I agree with Ms. Roth that entrepreneurship isn’t always the best dream for everybody. The failure rate continues to be extremely high. According to Statistic Brain the rate of failure among startups increases over time. You’d think over time a business owner would become more accomplished and break through to that wild, crazy success we all hear about and dream of.

Yes, it can happen. But are the odds favorable? No, they’re not. And of course, I am speaking in general terms. Every industry is different. Markets are different. Timing and skill play major roles, too. With all those moving parts, success is far from guaranteed.

It’s ironic that many people start their own business because they don’t want to work for somebody else. Unfortunately, they wind up working for far more people than they’ve ever worked for before. Maybe now they work for the credit card company where they’ve racked up lots of debt, and the friends or family members who have loaned them money, or a bank. And then there are the customers who demand more and more. Maybe they’ve got partners who also have expectations and demands. The list keeps growing and over time they realize that life on the J.O.B. with one boss was far simpler.

Others, hoping to craft work that more rewarding than their old job, find their checking account dwindling, savings exhausted and income dropping lower and lower. Trapped, they despair about what to do.

What can you do if your business isn’t what you dreamed? What can you do to fix your own small business? No, I’m not going to start by telling you to shut it down. That’s an option and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it, but that’s one of the 5 things I want to talk about today. And I’m not going to tell you it’s cowardly to quit. It’s a viable option that every frustrated business owner must carefully consider, but our goal today is to help you find solutions to fix your business.

5 Steps To Fix Your Business Problems

1. Triage yourself and the business.

I’m not talking about going back to exam why you started your business or any other mumbo jumbo touchy-feely thing. No, that ship sailed. Now it’s time to take a hard look at what’s wrong.

Where is the pain? What’s the source of the suffering?

Is it not enough revenue? Or profits?

Is it no life outside the business?

Is it delivery to customers or the execution of whatever service/products you provide?

Think about the trifecta of business building that serves as my focus here at Bula Network: a) getting new customers, b) serving existing customers better and c) not going crazy in the process. In my experience of triaging businesses, I often find 2 of these are in play when the owner’s misery factor is sky high. What about you?

You can’t fix what ails you until you first properly diagnose the problem. And don’t get ahead of yourself. I’ve seen people try to fix problems that weren’t really the problem. This is not the time for knee-jerk reactions. Come to think of it…is there ever a good time for the knee-jerk reaction (except when the doctor is testing your reflexes)?

Give this some sober and serious thought. Bring your team together, if you’ve got one. If you don’t, bring together the people who help you in your business. Collaborate on the problems as you see them. Do others see what you see? Feel what you feel? Is this problem just specific to you? It may be IF it deals mostly with the fact that you never see your family.

Focus on THE problem. Don’t scatter shoot and list 12 problems. Think about THE PROBLEM. Narrow it down to the one thing that is causing the most pain.

If you go the ER with life threatening injuries, the doctors aren’t going to worry too much about your headache. First, they have to save your life. They’ll worry about the lesser problems later. You have to do the same thing when you triage your business problems.

Part of triage is determining the severity of the problem. Is it life-threatening or mildly aggravating? Just because it’s not life-threatening doesn’t mean it’s not urgent or important, but it does mean you can likely take a bit more time to examine it. You’ve got to have a clear understanding of the nature of the problem before you can ever hope to find a remedy.

2. Find the root of the problem.

Now that you’ve identified the problem, you have to get to the source. When the ER patient is bleeding profusely, the doctors know the problem is excessive bleeding. Well, that’s not enough information to fix the problem. It’s great to have identified the problem, but that won’t fix it. You’ve got to find out why this is happening. What’s really going on here?

Depending on the nature of the problem this can be quickly identified or it can be tough as nails. Our ER patient may have suffered a stabbing. Pretty obvious problem. But what if the bleeding is internal? No outward signs of injury. Much tougher. It’s gonna take some time to find the problem if the bleeding is internal.

So it is with your business woes. Maybe it’s something very obvious like a lack of sales (i.e. bleeding), but why? That may not be so obvious. Is it pricing? Is it your offer? Is your quality or lack of quality? Is it marketing? Is it your positioning? Why aren’t people buying? You’ll have to spend hours and days mulling over that one. There’s no time like the present. Start mulling.

Maybe it’s something else, equally obvious. You’re working 100 hours a week and your family is a mess. Why are you working 100 hours? This problem is far more common than you may think. And the reasons vary wildly. I’ve encountered business people who declared how miserable they were working 100 hours a week, but on closer examination they’re facing the reality that they do it because they want to. Yes, they’re miserable, but in some cases, they’re more miserable at home. They’ve conned themselves into thinking the business is wrecking their family, but they’re just using the business as an excuse. They’re wrecking their family because they’re more in love with their business than their family.

You’ve got to see the real problem and not just the perceived problem. This is why you likely need help to identify the real problem. Seek the wise counsel of people familiar with the situation. Listen. Really listen. Think about it. You can’t fix it until you get to the source so this step can’t allow any shortcuts. Dig until you find the real reason you feel trapped.

3. Act now, but consider multiple remedies before deciding on the best long-term fix.

If a person is bleeding we use any method possible to stop the bleeding. Pressure. That’s the main goal early on. Apply pressure and stop the bleeding.

It’s life saving, but it’s not a remedy. It’s just an urgent act necessary in the moment. It buys time so a more permanent fix can be performed.

That’s how you’ve got to view your business problem. In step 1 (triage) you’ve determined if your problem is life threatening to you or your enterprise.

Cash flow is a frequent problem I encounter. Few things are as urgent as a lack of cash flow. Your business needs cash. Every business does. When it runs out, or runs low, panic can overrun you. A short-term fix might be to sell some things to create some quick cash. That’s immediate pressure on the wound, but it won’t fix the problem for long.

What must be done right now so you can buy some time? Focus first on that. Then, as quickly as you must, exam the various fixes you might perform. Almost every solution has an upside and a downside. Again, I’m going to encourage you to avoid going it alone. Seek the input of others. Yes, you’re the leader so the final decision is in your lap, but don’t be stupid thinking you alone have to solve this. Weigh your choices before settling on the one you think is best. And that means you need to pick one and commit to it. Whole-heartedly.

4. If it’s not working, change it. If it is working, keep doing it.

Pay attention to the symptoms. Look for improvement. Also be watchful for a lack of improvement. You’re the doctor and the health of your business is your responsibility. Don’t take your eye off the patient.

Just because you’ve gone all in on the best long-term fix doesn’t mean you have to remain all in if new information changes your mind. For instance, a business suffering a cash crunch quickly sells off some excessive inventory at a reduced margin. They’ve bought themselves a month or two. Great. Now they huddle about how to avoid getting into this pickle again. Three suggestions are on the table and the owner selects the one he thinks is best. Two weeks in, it’s clear that this strategy isn’t going to work. It’s time to abandon that strategy (or change it). He can’t be reluctant to alter the course when the strategy appears to be failing.

Don’t fall in love with a single solution. Be willing to change based on the outcome. You need a good outcome. You need to find a remedy. It’s either working or it’s not working. Or maybe it’s not working well enough. Then be fearless to try something else. Remember, you’re looking for the best long-term fix possible. That may require a few changes in medication. Do it.

If it works well, then keep doing it. Keep putting the fix on trial for its life.

5. Change the behavior (actions) that caused the problem.

That stabbing victim that came in the ER is a gang member. He’s living a high risk life. He’s gonna get stabbed again if he doesn’t make some big changes in his life. It’s just a matter of time.

Your business is no different. The problem that trapped you can be fixed, but that doesn’t mean it’ll stay fixed. If the crisis is averted, great — but your work is not done.

Maybe your life has gone to you-know-where-in-a-hand-basket. You endured the crisis and managed to get some “balance” back into your life. Unless you have made some lifestyle changes that problem is sure to creep in again. Don’t assume your work is over simply because the crisis is over.

A bad sales process can create poor sales, resulting in poor cash flow, low revenues and low profits. In a moment of crisis, a few big sales might be generated out of sheer willpower and determination, leaving the poor sales process in place. But, with the crisis ended the company can resume business as usual. In time, they’ll be right back where they started…and what if they can’t make a few big sales this time?

The remedy needs to be a longer term fix, but now you’ve got take the time to investigate what went wrong so you can get busy making the bigger changes necessary to provide growth and efficiency for your business (and your life).

Do you need somebody to give you an outside perspective and candid feedback? Email me: Results [at] BulaNetwork [dot] com

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206 – 5 Tips For Service Professionals To Attract More Clients Using Content Marketing (Part 2)

Content Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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206 – Visibility For Service Professionals Through Educational Content Marketing (Part 2: Hope Marketing) — Snooki makes more money than you

Teachers don’t earn nearly as much as entertainers. Here in Texas, the average teacher earns $48,638 a year. Snooki, the reality TV star of MTV’s Jersey Shore earns $150,000 an episode. According to some reports, she’s worth $4 million. The first season she earned about $2000 an episode. The next season it jumped to $30,000 an episode. The last season it was $150,000 per episode. Are you a teacher? When’s the last time you got a jump in pay that large?

It may not be fair, but people will pay big money to be entertained. They’ll also gripe about the taxes they pay to send their kids to school. Deal with it. It’s how the world works. Best to face it and play by the rules ’cause you don’t have the power to change them.

You can educate and earn nothing or you can entertain and earn big money. Nobody said entertainment has to be futile or frivolous any more than anybody said education must be boring. It’s time to combine the two into edutainment.

Let’s talk about not being boring. Here are just a few guidelines to help you.

1. Lose the industry speak. Nobody cares about your industries buzzwords…unless of course you’re speaking exclusively to your industry. Most service professionals I know are trying to reach prospects who have no clue about the “inside baseball” vocabulary of the industry. An exception I mention in the show is Dr. Lamar who produced Spinal Column Radio, a podcast aimed at the chiropractic field.

2. Define terms people may not know. Some industries love acronyms (e.g. Scuba: self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Others, like the field of education, love abbreviations. They’ve got abbreviations for all sorts of funky things and they toss them around like all the rest of us have a clue. Never assume people know the terms unless they’re part of common culture or society, e.g. USA.

3. Don’t just recite facts. Apply the facts using story. You likely had a history teacher who spit out dates and facts. He probably tested you on those, too. So you rigorously (if you were a diligent student) memorized the things necessary to earn a good grade on the test. Then, promptly purged your memory banks of the drivel. If you were very lucky, at some point you had a history teacher who told stories. The dates and facts were just part of the story. Sometimes, a much less significant part of the story, but because they were part of the story you could remember them.

Be the storytelling history teacher for your industry, not the fact/date reciter!

4. Don’t be afraid to show your personality, if you’ve got one. If you don’t have one, get one.

Attorneys, financial advisors, medical professionals and other service professionals tend to be “hyper pro’s.” That is, they’ve got an image they’re intent on portraying. Maybe the financial advisor always wears french cuffs and fancy cuff links. He wouldn’t be caught dead otherwise. He’s a hyper pro. Appearances matter. He’s convinced that he’s got to look like a million bucks. Maybe he does. But it translates into his style and communication. His hyper professionalism has convinced him he also has to sound like the smartest man in every room he enters. Being understood is not the objective for him. Being thought smart is.

It won’t work in content marketing. I don’t think it’s the best course to take for building a practice, but let’s stay focused on content marketing and educating our prospects so we can earn their business. “Man, he’s smart. I didn’t understand a thing he said,” isn’t likely to attract quality business or quality clients. Probably because of my knowledge of a prior generation, I know salespeople and marketing people who seriously believe that an uninformed buyer is the best kind of buyer. I’m not talking about con men or dishonest men. I’m talking about honest marketers who happen to subscribe to a warped view based on their own training and viewpoint. Clients or prospects, in their opinion, are best kept like mushrooms. In the dark.

Don’t be like that. For starters, it’s wrong-headed. I don’t think it was ever a wise strategy, but it can kill you in today’s web-based world.

You likely don’t remember a time when you couldn’t go online and find out the actual invoice cost of a car. The auto industry wasn’t real pleased when Edmund’s and other publications began to publish the actual invoice costs of automobiles. They felt that a dumb buyer was a more profitable buyer. No wonder people hated – many still do – the car buying experience. It just seemed sleazy. For the most part, I still find it sleazy. Maybe you do, too. The poor industry never learned there was a better way. That leads to the final tip.

5. Show people. I love storytelling, but one component is often left out by service professionals. It’s among the most important lessons I ever learned in training or coaching people. Show me.

I’ve coached all ages of kids in hockey, including college guys. I used to coach little kids…6-year olds. Draw on a whiteboard some drill you’d like them to perform and ask them, “Do you guys understand?” and they’ll all act like they understand. But they don’t have a clue. Demonstrate the drill and they’ll now see it in real life. Then ask, “Do you understand now?” and they may. They may not. It’s the third step that is critical – in both business and sports. “Show me.” As they begin to attempt the drill you quickly see where they don’t understand and you can fix it. In real time.

Telling people a story to educate them and to persuade them is a wonderful strategy, but not if they can’t really see it. Show them. You can show them in words and deeper stories, but don’t assume they’ll see what you hope they’ll see. Show them what you want them to see. Help them feel what you want them to feel. Give them visceral stuff they can hang onto long after they’ve left your content.

Give them something to remember and something to talk about.

206 – 5 Tips For Service Professionals To Attract More Clients Using Content Marketing (Part 2) Read More »

201 Time Shrinks Big Disappointments (So Think Big)

Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:00 — 29.7MB)

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Elephant_in_the_room — Are your goals big enough to be the “elephant in the room?”

About 10 years ago I was working hard to pull off a buyout. I had a well-crafted plan, a solid strategy and a 20 year plus track record. It was as though the circumstances of my life converged to make this opportunity to possible. It was a multi-million dollar deal that I was trying to bring to fruition. That’s when he said to me, “You need to think bigger.”

I reviewed the general strategy and laid out my plans once more. He said, “No bigger! Think bigger.”

I had explained that I had operated bigger businesses with more locations, more people and more of just about everything — including headaches, hurdles and pain points. At the time, I didn’t want to “think bigger.” For me, small was the new big.

The buyout attempt failed. It was a 3-year grind, but unlike a pregnant woman who gives birth after 9 months…this gestation period ended up without a birth. Instead, it was a death.

The death of a dream. The death of a goal. The death of a plan and strategy. It had been a few years since my friend had urged me to “think bigger.” Now, I mocked his advice. “See, if I had thought bigger I’d be holding a much bigger funeral,” I said. It was just snarkiness to mask the disappointment.

The disappointment didn’t last long. Within a few months I was grateful and thankful. I had chased other things that never worked out. My heart had been broken many times before because a deal had fallen through. When you start out in business at a young age and wind your way through the maze of business success (as I had), you endure many disappointments along the way. They sting like crazy in the moment, but over time you’re able to look back with a different perspective. In the rearview mirror, almost all my disappointments look like blessings.

Time shrinks big disappointments.

And dulls the pain.

So, do you avoid thinking big in order to avoid big disappointments? It’s like that adage, “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Easier said than done. When you’re heart is broken due to lost love, you’re likely wishing you’d never allowed love in to begin with. Sadly, that presupposes that losing love is the natural outcome…and it implies it’s the most likely outcome. But that’s not true. Love doesn’t have to be lost any more than dreams have to be crushed, or buyouts have to fail.

My buyout attempt failed. That was great, for me. It doesn’t mean your buyout will fail. It doesn’t mean my next effort – if there ever is one – will fail.

I’m not naive enough to believe that failure leads to success. It may. It may not. My failed buyout attempt didn’t lead to any success. It did help me avoid a colossal trap of being stuck in a business I may have learned to hate. I loved it at the time, but I can now see that over time, that love may have been tough to sustain. Call it failure averted by failure.

All this got me to thinking about this new year along with the new dreams and goals that accompany each new year.

In the last episode (no. 200) I referred to 2014 as the year of finding your element. Okay, to be honest, I’m hoping to find my own element in 2014. Lots of people are right there with me! Element finding isn’t the exclusive domain of kids or young people. Some of us older folks are searching for newer elements.

It’s not easy, but it can be fun.

Happy New Year!

P.S. Grab a BIG blank sheet of paper and think big thoughts for 2014. Then, take BIG ACTION.

201 Time Shrinks Big Disappointments (So Think Big) Read More »

Episode 198 – No Cash, No Customers, No Hope

Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:34 — 33.9MB)

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cash_money — Cash flow kills, sometimes slowly

You hear it pretty regularly. An entrepreneur tells the horror story of their humble beginnings. They had no money and no investors. So they apply for as many credit cards as they can and max them all out. Whether it’s hundreds or thousands, it’s runway they need to get up to speed so they can get liftoff and gain some altitude.

The success stories are thrilling. We listen with anticipation, thinking to ourselves, “How scary! I can’t imagine living like that.”

But when we hear how they came through it, paid off all the cards and gained traction to be wildly successful — well, maybe that’s not a bad strategy after all. (Yes, it is.)

Cash flow – or more appropriately, a lack of cash flow – kills as many businesses as anything else.

It’s a systemic problem, but it can be so powerfully worrisome that we forget the reasons why we’re out of cash. Sometimes it makes a fella do something unethical, or even illegal. Sometimes, it drives a gal to drink. I’ve seen some pretty crazy behavior tied to a lack of cash flow. It can bring out the worst in people.

Desperation. Panic. Those are sure to distract the most disciplined business person.

Talk with any cancer patient and they’ll confess that one of the things they hate most is how all consuming it is. It takes over their life. It dominates all conversations. It’s the elephant in the room that you just can’t kill. Cash flow problems are the cancer of business building.

Today’s show is an answer to a recent question – an all too common question:

My company is experiencing a severe cash crunch. We need to take fast action. What should we do?”

Episode 198 – No Cash, No Customers, No Hope Read More »