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The Power Of Leverage: For Clients, Employees, Sales & Profits - GROW GREAT Podcast Episode 4005

4005 The Power Of Leverage: For Clients, Employees, Sales & Profits

Entrepreneurship, Getting New Customers, Not Going Crazy In The Process, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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The Power Of Leverage: For Clients, Employees, Sales & Profits - GROW GREAT Podcast Episode 4005

Today’s show as sparked by somebody desiring to start up a new enterprise and wondering what I thought about it. Talk turned to leverage and how to gain momentum, especially with a new venture. I don’t necessarily serve the start up niche, but it was a valid conversation any way.

It’s easier to put your back into it when you’ve got leverage on it. Whatever IT is.

Without leverage, putting your back into it will cause you to put your back out! Be careful.

Gladwell calls it “the tipping point.” Others call it by various things. Traction. Momentum. Being on a roll.

It’s mostly similar. It’s the ability to build on success. Sure, more is better, but not always necessary. And as with most things, a key phrase is in play.

It depends.

Is it easier to leverage substantial profits into more profits? Maybe. It depends. Sometimes the leverage becomes more difficult. If you set a record in profits last year, it may be tough to best it again this year. But maybe not. Again, it depends.

Leverage, like most things, isn’t a one-size-fits-all circumstance kinda of a deal. Even so, we’re foolish if we don’t closely examine the power of leverage in our careers, businesses or organizations.

I’ve headlined today’s show with four specific areas: a) clients or customers (those people who pay us for what we can do for them), b) employees, c) sales or revenues and d) profits.

They’re not really in a specific order except for that first one because unless you’ve got a customer (or many customers) you don’t have a business. Recently I’ve read a few blog posts on big time sites that list the most important things needed for a successful startup. It’s surprising how many don’t list customers!

You can have all the technological advantages known to man, the best people cranking out the work and whatever else you want – including tons of capital behind you – but if you don’t have people willing to pay you for what you offer, you’re out of business. Sometimes I laugh at the obvious advice offered in this world where everybody seems to be a teacher of success.

Last week I was listening to a podcast I’d never heard before. Somebody told me to check it out so I did by randomly picking an episode. A few minutes in the guy is extolling the virtues of an email list. He’s talking how powerful an email list is and how his list is worth a specific dollar amount every time he sends out a specific offer to sell something. It seemed like more bragging than anything else. I listened for a few more minutes before giving up on it. I’d heard this all before.

The way to make money online:

Step 1: Build your email list. The money is in the list.

Step 2: Sell something to your list.

Step 3: Watch the money roll in, even while you sleep.

It’s like so much other sage advice out there. Let me go ahead right now and tell you how to become a millionaire. Ready?

Step 1: Get a million dollars.

Step 2: Call yourself a millionaire.

Thank you. Thank you very much!

The hard part is step 1. That’s the step that’ll trip you up every time! 😀

I’m left always thinking, “Well, duh! Of course the money is in the list, but other than generic crapola, how do you do that?” Well, leverage isn’t some mumbo-jumbo fru-fru stuff. It’s real and it really works.

I’ll warn you upfront, the hard part is getting started. The hard part is step 1. No doubt. It’s a grind that can take a very long time.

Finding a paying customer isn’t easy. Yes, it depends on what you’re selling and to whom, but it’s never easy. And if it is easy, then it’s not lucrative. The only thing easy about it the concept of it all. Supply and demand. Pretty simple stuff really, in theory.

Take GOLD. Do you ever watch the Discovery TV show, Gold Rush? Gold isn’t easy to find. Well, other than going to the mall jewelry store. But if you’re trying to find raw gold where you can make some money, prepare to sweat and cuss. The demand is high, but the supply is limited. That’s why gold is currently selling for $821.50 per troy ounce. Supply is limited because it’s brutal work to extract gold from acres and acres of dirt. Customers are easy. Getting the inventory – the thing you need to sell (in this case, gold) – that’s crazy hard.

I got a spammer’s email the other day that I happened to open because it got through my filter. The guy was selling some online course about how to kill it with your own Amazon store. His pitch was that he could teach you how to set up a super profitable Amazon store where you could make money while you sleep. These people either sleep a lot or they’re obsessed with earning money whilst sleeping. At any rate, he talked about how his course would teach you where to buy inventory that people desperately want. Yes, they’re desperate for this merchandise. Hello, supply and demand. If everybody can buy the same merchandise to sell and then post it at Amazon in their own Amazon store, then supply is open. Demand is sure to be low, along with any potential money to be earned. No go!

Leverage is important because first we have to create and establish VALUE. Value is low when supply is abundant. Supply is abundant when it’s easy. Easy isn’t the ideal way to make money. It takes deep pockets, scope and scale to make money in easy or abundant. Think Wal-Mart or Amazon. Think of your local grocery store chain. They operate on razor thin margins because supply isn’t much of an issue. Having what you want to buy, when you want to buy it, at the lowest possible price to keep you coming back week after week – that’s the game. It’s more of a system or process thing driven by technology than anything else.

But you don’t have deep pockets, not like Wal-Mart or Amazon. You need to leverage a fifth thing – your capital or resources. You need the strongest return-on-investment (ROI) you can get. But again, first, you need customers.

Today, I just want to focus on getting to first base in all of these: clients, employees, sales and profits.

Get your first client. Don’t worry about getting anybody else. Worry about and strategize on ways to get your first customer! Do whatever you need to do to get somebody willing to say YES. Make a sale. Head up (or down, whichever you prefer) and get a customer. Find somebody who thinks you’ve got exactly what they need.

I’m not saying give it away. Free samples are valid. A free taste. I do that with coaching so people can test drive me before they write me a check. The sole purpose is to convert them into a client though. My intention is to be so dazzling and high value that they’ll be compelled to say, “Okay, this is awesome. I want to hire you.” From one free session I hope to gain a client for 6 months or a year. It legit because I’m not cheap, but I am high value. I think people deserve to get a sense of my work before they engage me. Not everybody needs it, but some do. So I’m cool with making the offer even if it costs me some time and results in no sale! Those are risks I’m willing to make because I’m leveraging my time. More importantly, I’m leveraging my experience, expertise and skill. I’m giving people a taste of it so they can better know me. It results in trust and usually results in a mutual discovery that this dog will hunt.

You’ll be tempted to think if you can sell one, you can sell two. Maybe. Maybe not. It depends. Was your mom your first sale? See, that skews things dramatically.

But there is a number you can leverage. I don’t know where it is. You likely don’t know either until you start moving. It’s like obscenity. You’ll know it when you see it.

That’s why you often hear the phrase, “The rich get richer.” It’s true. They do. Because money is a wonderful leverage tool. During the recent recession I knew business men who took advantage of the real estate crash because they had a resource others didn’t have. MONEY. CASH MONEY. They were able to move in with their cash and leverage it into assets worth a lot more because people were desperate for their resource. People had real estate, but needed money. Now that real estate prices are up double digits, those investments are worth far more than these guys paid. The power of leverage.

Companies do the same thing with employees. Look at the top employers based on employee feedback. Why do they attract the best talent? Because they got it started. Again, the key is to get it going. If your company sucks at recruiting or retaining top talent, nothing will change until you make that a focal point. First, you’ve got to figure out what you need to change to attract the talent you most want. Next, you’ve got to change things so you become what and who you need to be to get such people. Then, you have to go find your first rock star employee. Leverage that employee to find your second rock star employee.

The University of Alabama football team has won the national championship 4 out of the last 7 years. They’ve been able to leverage recruiting some of the best football players in the country because good players (rock stars) want to hang with and perform with other good players. Like football players, there are plenty of talented people to go around. You can get rock stars if you want them. But you have to get your first one or all bets are off.

Sales is coupled with clients. You can’t have one without the other. Well, you can if you’re a non-profit I guess, but we’re not talking about that. For our purposes, a client or customer is somebody willing to pay you money for your product or service. Sales are different because you might sell one client something for $100 and another customer might buy something for $1000. That’s two different levels of leverage. Maybe. It depends.

You figure the $1000 sale might be more likely to leverage into another $1000 sale. It could be. And you should try. Leveraging sales is like visiting a busy restaurant versus one that’s empty. People want to do business with somebody others find valuable. Especially if we’re unsure or the business is an unknown to us. That’s why referrals and recommendations are important.

Higher sales drive sales higher. Or they can. But again, let’s concentrate on the first sale. Maybe it’s our first $100 sale. But it could be our first $1000 sale. Or our first $10,000 sale. Get the first one. Again, slog it out, grind it out, put in the work. You have to get one before you can get any hope of leverage.

Ditto for profits. They work much like sales, but they’re harder. Well, in some ways. Nearly everybody I know complains about profit margins eroding. If sales are going well, profits are always at risk. Or so it seems. There’s always pressure on profits, driven in part by competition. Name the industry and give me Google and within seconds I’ll find the bottom feeder of that industry – the outfit who seemingly is unconcerned about making any money!

Here’s the real bottom line with leverage: you have to have something to get something. You can’t leverage NOTHING.

For those of you with growing businesses though, there are lessons to be learned. It’s more common than you’d think to forget the power of leverage or to assume that leverage is on auto-pilot. Don’t neglect your leverage. Do so at your own peril. I’ve seen it happen. We get on a roll and assume we can keep this roll going. Until it doesn’t keep going. All of a sudden we hit a pot hole we never saw coming and BAM! Momentum (and leverage) are stopped dead in their tracks.

It happens when a company tries to cut their way to success. Good luck with that strategy. They never thought they’d be bleeding, but here they are with blood spilling out everywhere.

Like a skilled Judo opponent, sometimes our own body weight can be used against us. Leverage that we once had now belongs to our competitor, or the market. We’ve lost it and it can be a demon to get back!

But that’s the job – to find the leverage again (or for the first time).

Turnaround artists are skillful at this. It’s a special skill set some have. They can enter a business that has lost momentum and leverage, and with a bit of time and some resources they can put their back into it and get it back. They look carefully at the operation and dissect what’s really happening to see where to marshall the resources so they can get the thing back on its feet.

Get one. Your first one. Then get another one. And another one. Use the first to get the second. Then use the first two to get the third. Use the first 3 to get the second 3 and you’ve doubled. That’s leverage.

It’s the wise use of resources and the readiness to use them. It’s courage, tenacity and determination. Honestly, it’s not much else except maybe discipline! Sure, know how helps, but it’s not nearly as important as the other aspects.

Look at where you are right now. Wherever that is, however good or bad – see it for what it really is. We’ve all got things we can leverage to help us grow great, or greater. It can be hard to see when we’re staring down a problem though. The mountain looks daunting to climb when you’re standing at the base. So start climbing. Grab the first hand hold. Plant your foot on the first ledge or inside the first crevice. Now, look for the next move. The very next move. Using one step to find your next step is leverage.

Here’s the thing. Until you grab hold of something there’s no leverage. Until you get off the ground and onto the mountain, no leverage. I know it sounds obvious, and it really is. But I also know how obvious escapes the smartest among us. We’re so busy chasing our tails and putting out fires, it can be hard. Or, we can forget about it. Sometimes we just grow too complacent and over time some failures seem to illustrate our false belief that we’re just not one of the lucky ones. Truth is, we’re neglecting to do the work to leverage success into greater success, or to even leverage our failure away from more failure…and toward more success!

So today, get off your butt. Go get one win. Big, small or anything in between. Then get another one. Success is a habit and we could all use better habits.

Randy

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4004 Don’t Be Offensive: IBM’s White Shirt Strategy

Communication, Content Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:22 — 21.8MB)

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Don't Be Offensive: IBM's White Shirt Strategy

Our next door neighbor was an IBM’er. She traveled a lot. She was single so she said she didn’t mind it much. We had 2 rug rats running loose on the neighborhood. She drove a BMW. We did NOT. It was the early 1980’s and life inside IBM was assumed to be about as good as it gets in corporate America. Of course, I was never attracted to corporate America. Or travel. So I had very little envy for her lifestyle. It wasn’t lost on me that she was living a lifestyle as a single person that I was living with a family of four though. I remember thinking, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

These were the days where IBM set the standard for sales and service. They were the safe bet for any corporate expenditure. Nobody was ever going to be fired, or even endure criticism by selecting IBM as the vendor. IBM representatives were buttoned down (literally) professionals known for dropping from the sky if there was ever a problem.

My neighbor didn’t have it quite as regimented as her male counterparts, but she likely endured much higher scrutiny as a woman. The men of IBM didn’t wear facial hair and wore only white shirts. As she explained it to me, IBM wanted to make sure they did not offend a prospect or a customer. Research had shown them that some people don’t like facial hair…so no facial hair. Research had also shown that people assume a degree of professionalism with a white shirt that may not be assumed if a person wore a blue or yellow shirt. So white shirts it is!

IBM has even chronicled their attire through the years at their website. Just go here and you’ll see years and years of IBM attire.

I have never been an IBM insider so I have no knowledge if this was an official stance or a skunkwork of management. Either way, I’ve had multiple IBM’ers through the years tell me the same thing. Admittedly, my information is all circa 1980’s.

The other day somebody engaged me in a conversation about selling and appealing to as many people as possible. Of course, we quickly began to talk of all the profanity we hear and see today. Something neither of us experienced coming up through the ranks. F bombs abound in social media posts, speeches and blog posts. Yes, there’s a ton of informal marketing going on today that was mostly limited to one-on-one conversations in the old days. You can judge for yourself such matters, but our focal point was on the age old premise IBM followed, “Don’t be offensive.”

There’s little doubt it worked. Well, coupled with great products and services and an intense focus on the customer. I won’t credit IBM’s success of the 1980’s on the white shirts and no facial hair on men (facial hair on a woman would be VERY offensive). But I do understand the thought process.

I even remember reading somewhere an IBM executive make what seemed like a sound argument. He wrote that if a male IBM sales rep were to visit a prospect who didn’t like men with beards, and he (the IBM rep) had a beard…why put yourself at a disadvantage before you ever get an opportunity to inform the prospect what you can do for him. It made sense to me. Still does, actually.

The world has changed. Today in 2016 we’re not dealing with the same culture that existed in the 1980’s. For some, being offensive is a unique positioning intentionally crafted. No, I’m not attracted to it, but many are. Just go on social media and look closely at how profanity has infiltrated the headlines of content marketing – blogs, podcasts, articles, videos and photos. F bombs. S bombs. And everything in between. Being offensive has become a niche marketing tactic to prove hipness.*

*The fact that I even use the term “hipness” proves how unhip I am.

Offensive Vs. Being Unique

I admire IBM’s strategy of being inoffensive. The atmosphere is clouded because I think some people misunderstand offensive and uniqueness. I’m personally opposed to the former, but a big fan of the latter.

Might some people be offended or put off by your uniqueness? Of course. Anything is possible.

I hate button down collared shirts worn with a tie. It’s a personal preference thing. They look rumpled and awful. I’m not offended by them, but it’s not an attractive look to me. Whenever I see a guy wearing it, it bugs me. Would I refuse to buy from such a person? I might. I might not. There would probably be other elements involved.

I mean look at that photo — and this guy has loosened his tie. It would look worse with the tie cinched up to his neck. I’m crazy enough that I’d be thinking, “What’s he thinking?” But here’s the deal. I’m not offended by it. I’m put off by the look though.

Offensive is defined as “causing someone to feel deeply hurt, upset, or angry.” No, this look doesn’t offend me. But I can’t imagine facial hair on a man causing offense, even in the 1980’s when I wore a mustache! I was young then. There were plenty of old heads who ran companies though and they had no tolerance for men with facial hair working in their companies. So it made sense to me that IBM wanted clean shaven representatives.

Now there’s a vast difference in that buttoned down collar with a tie look and dropping F bombs.

The question and lesson for us is – what can we do or avoid doing to attract our prospects?

Offensive also means “actively aggressive; attacking.” Profanity laced content is actively aggressive. Intentionally so. I’ve heard some marketers who regularly use it claim it’s who they are and how they roll. They argue that it helps them dissect the market and separate the people willing to do business with them versus those unwilling. They think it clears the way toward more effective reach – namely, giving them a leg up on reaching their “ideal” prospect.

Okay. I’m not sure about all that, but if that’s how they want to roll, no skin off my nose. I’m just unsure I buy it. There are some big name social media rockstars who regularly use profanity. Seems to me an awful lot of people are copying that, wrongly assuming that their profanity is one reason for their popularity. Instead, I’d encourage those people to consider the substance of their content, not their profanity-centric style.

I acknowledge that we’re in an age where style over substance is often a reality. We often ascribe substance where style exists. And where style is absent, we think there must not be any substance. It’s true in music, art and business. Probably in lots of other spaces, too.

Choose your strategy. I’m only encouraging us to consider our strategy carefully so we can give ourselves the best opportunity for success.

The other day I got a meeting with a top business owner. He started the business in the late 1960’s. I’m old. He’s older. I put on a black suit, a white shirt and a striped tie. Yes, I admit I dressed with him in mind. I felt it was the respectful thing to do.

I know others might criticize me for that. They’d say, “Dress the way you want. Be who you want to be. Be who you really are.”

If it were up to me I’d wear my black jeans, my New Balance sneakers and a fleece pullover. But I wanted to have a good interaction with this business owner. I’m trying to engage him in meaningful conversation. I’m not trying to put him off and give him any reason to think, “I don’t want to spend any time with this guy.”

I’m not in the fashion trade. If I were, then perhaps I could understand the argument to dress like I want. I’m in the coaching and consulting business. I need my prospects to talk to me. I’m not going in guns blazing telling them all about me. I’m asking about THEM. I want them to tell me more about themselves and their businesses. How I dress and how I speak could quickly ruin that.

As the owner came to the lobby to greet me, I stood, shook his hand firmly while looking him in the eye and quickly thanked him for making the time to see me. As we were seated in a small conference room he introduced me to his assistant. I introduced myself to her, shook her hand and expressed pleasure in meeting her. It’s manners. Professional etiquette. Appropriate dress and behavior. At least that’s how I view it.

As we began to talk I’m rather certain he got some sense of me and my uniqueness. I hope so. I didn’t talk about myself. I asked him about his career and his business. That’s what I was mostly interested in. I wasn’t interested in finding somebody I had never met before and being able to hold forth telling them all about me. This guy was super smart, very bright and engaging. The meeting went well and I was thrilled to have met him. Will we do business? I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. But I know I had a good meeting because I was prepared and because I made him the focal point of my preparation and my actions. He was the centerpiece of the meeting, not me.

Who is this about?

I’m mostly put off by some of the marketing and positioning I see because I think the focal point is wrong headed. Marketers think it’s about THEM. Not the client or customer. Or prospect.

Nearly every week I tell people that the main benefit of my podcast is likely found in people’s opportunity to click play, listen to a few minutes and figure out whether I’m their cup of tea or not. It gives prospects the opportunity to find out pretty quickly if I’m a personality they can relate to or not. Yes, I’m myself. I’m honest here. The way you hear me talk is how I talk. It would be completely dishonest to speak as I do here, then when you meet me in person I’m some foul-talking, in your face kind of a person. You’d think, “Man, he’s not at all how I thought he’d be.”

For me, it’s disrespectful of the prospect and customer. I find nothing wrong with dressing and preparing for a meeting with the prospect in mind, not myself. There are going to be plenty of people who will never do business with me, for whatever reason. I need to give myself the best chance possible to do business with some. For those few, I want them to see and hear and understand how important they are to my career and my business.

So let’s end with some questions that may help all of us better figure this out.

How does your attire, speech and behavior help you differentiate yourself? Or does it?
How do these things attract prospects? (Is it about attracting the right people or about repelling the wrong people?)
How do these things give success a better chance?
Are you really being true to who you are, or are you being sucked into copying something you think is popular?
Is respect and politeness part of your competitive advantage?

There are tons of other questions worth asking. I’d encourage you to keep asking and answering them. Figure out what you’re doing, what you want to do and examine closely what’s working versus what’s not working.

The goal is improvement. We just want to grow as great as we possibly can.

All the best,
Randy

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Thank you!

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What Business Problem Is Keeping You Up At Night? - GROW GREAT Podcast Episode 4003

4003 What Business Problem Is Keeping You Up At Night?

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Not Going Crazy In The Process, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:16 — 22.6MB)

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What Business Problem Is Keeping You Up At Night? - GROW GREAT Podcast Episode 4003

In the morning the bed looks like we’ve been wrestling a bear. We tossed and turned until we finally got up. We read a bit. Browsed the web some. Even tried to watch something on Netflix, hoping sleep would eventually come. It didn’t. Not much of it anyway.

In spite of connections, sometimes found all the world — and in spite of service professionals like attorneys and accountants — and in spite of a terrific inner circle of direct report managers who are extremely capable — CEO’s can be among the loneliest and most sleep deprived people on the planet. I once considered hiring myself out at night for sleep study research figuring I might as well get paid for not sleeping. A capitalist to the core!

Recently, I was discussing all the compliance requirements required of financial advisors. With a financial advisor. The money, time and HR investment required to wrestle that problem was staggering to me. Forget your politics. Or mine. Well, I don’t have any really – except not being fond of anything that hampers our ability to operate in a free-market when we are committed to doing the right thing. But my business mantra has never been very sophisticated or hard to understand…

Always

Small business owners will readily mount a pulpit anytime talk turns toward compliance issues, regulatory restrictions and tax rates. As I’m listening to this business owner talk of how daunting it is to maintain compliance with all the regulations, she says, “I’m afraid to do a break-even analysis on my compliance costs, but I should do it.” We agreed it’d like being sick, but not knowing what’s wrong. Ignorance is not bliss. It can be deadly. Her firm was handling the expense – they had no choice – but she was concerned with the ever mounting cost in both time and money. Couple that with the pressure to deliver more dazzling service to customers at lower and lower costs. It was an old, old refrain I’d heard many times since I first stepped into a hi-fi store at 16 to begin my first sales job.

Business problems.

That keep us up at night.

I’m happy to say that more often than not I’ve found business owners and CEO’s who were proactive, but that’s no surprise. Typically these are people with strong determination, tenacity and resiliency. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t likely be where they are. That doesn’t mean they’re successful in operating their business though. Or that they’re good at managing the issues confronting them and their business. Some are. Some aren’t. Some do well most of the time, but a sudden unforeseen challenge can lay them low.

In just the last few months I’ve heard of 3 CEO’s who are going through a divorce. The holidays seem to be a favorite time for some people to decide, “Enough.” As I listened to one story of a divorcing CEO I could hear the pain and sadness in his voice. It was apparent in his face. And I thought, “There’s no way this is staying out of the office.” How could it? Impossible.

I’m sure he’d had many, many sleepless nights leading up to this final death knell on his marriage. I’m equally sure most people at work had no idea. But those closest to him had to know something was wrong.

Conversation turned toward those circumstances and how employees left to wonder, “What’s wrong with the boss?” can lead to some really awful cultural collateral damage. As bad as his divorce was for him and his family, the employees were likely thinking of something far worse — something that impact THEM. It’s reasonable. It’s not that they’re uncaring about their CEO, but they have their own families. Their own concerns. Their own dreams. He’s the boss though. And his life has a direct impact on theirs.

True servant-based leaders shoulder that burden, too. They understand how they impact the lives of their employees. And vendors. And financial partners. And customers. Just keep piling on that weight until our knees buckle, right? As the sign in my office says (bought by my daughter who no doubt has grown tired of hearing me say it repeatedly)…

ItIsWhatItIs

Divorce? A business problem? Yep, it sure is when you own the joint or you’re the CEO. A flat tire on the way to work that vexes you, is also a business problem. Especially when you hit the door ready to bite a nail in two.

Then there are those strategic and organizational issues. Compliance stuff. Industry disruptors. Technology challenges. The every present people problem of finding the right people and putting them in the best spots, then hanging onto them. There are inventory problems, payroll problems, lease problems, sales problems, cost containment problems, distribution problems, pricing problems…the list just keeps on going. Pick your poison.

I know the pain very, very well. Through the years I’ve also learned a thing or three about handling them in a way that moves me from being uncomfortable to being positively action-oriented toward a workable solution. Heavy emphasis on workable. Some solutions are pie in the sky or completely unreasonable due to expense or the take required. While none of us enjoy fire-fighting, sometimes there is a fire. In those cases, it’s grab the management equivalent of a fire extinguisher and get the blaze under control. Worry about the damage later. First, stop the fire from burning the joint to the ground.

4 very practical and effective steps to conquering the demons that keep us up at night

a. Plan your attack, even if the plan is imperfect (and you know it)

You’ve heard the adage that even a bad plan beats no plan. Well, it’s certainly true when it comes to the issues that keep us up as CEO’s or business owners. The toughest thing is the wondering what we should do? Our minds get on that hamster wheel of wondering and questioning. Should I do this? Should I do this?

The longer you stay in this land of limbo the more sleep you’re going to lose. And the more weary you’ll become. This is the sleepless death spiral that we’ve all experienced when we’re just vexed and frustrated (and worried) beyond the everyday issues we regularly face. Come on, most problems don’t keep us up at night – thankfully. But these – these elephants in the room – prevent those sheep from entering our room as we can count them and get some shut eye.

What’s the very next step you need to make? Who do you need to call? What do you need to do? Right now.

This can be much, much tougher than it sounds because as CEO’s and business owners we want to connect the dots all the way to the end. Sometimes, we’ll spend too much time trying to do that, only to find that we missed a dot, or we connected two dots that never should have been connected.

Besides, there are circumstances that our next one step will likely bring about that we may have never seen coming. The issue very well may change once we head in the right direction.

So, while you’re up tonight pondering the problem, wrap your head around answering this question…

What one thing can do right now or first thing in the morning to start fixing this problem?

It’s a one-step plan, but it’ll fuel your mind to think more clearly about the step after. Right now, you just need to do something meaningful knowing that you can always retreat, pivot and morph your ideas to suit the situation as it more fully develops.

This step prevents crisis management when crisis management isn’t necessary.

b. Don’t overthink it and delay.

Most of us are prone to overthinking after the fact. By nature, most of the CEO’s I’ve ever known were decisive people able to make fast decisions with very limited (but compelling) information. That’s not hard for most of us. What may be hard is doing that in our mind – making a decision – then prior to execution we begin to wonder if we ought to do something else. Or maybe we wonder if we should just delay an hour, or a day. Or two.

Delay causes greater vexation. Vexation in a CEO causes untold anxiety throughout a company. The ripple effect I talked about last time in a CEO’s own professional development (see episode 4002) works in reverse here. When the CEO is fretful it ripples to everybody around him and pretty soon the whole place is worried. That’s too high a price to pay for putting off what you can do right now – even if what you attempt right now isn’t the perfect or final solution. At least you’re trying.

And you’re trying right now. Besides, you want to show your people how important speed is in handling problems. You want to lead a remarkable, decisive, proactive organization. Then you’ve got to be remarkable, decisive and proactive under the most intense pressure.

c. Make your next move based on new information.

I don’t play chess, but my son used to play quite a lot. Every now and again I’d play him. I understood only enough to know how the players can move. He understood the strategy, something I never learned.

He’d begin by making a move. I’d make a move. My move would impact the move he made, especially later on in the game.

That’s how this problem should be handled. You make a move. Maybe it’s ideal. Maybe it’s not. No matter, it’s not going to be wrong for long because based on the outcome you’re going to make adjustments. Depending on how your first action impacts the situation you’ll decide what to do next.

Did your first move seem to lower the pressure of the problem? Great, then now what are you going to do? Take in that new information and make adjustments.

If your first move made matters worse, then you have to take action quickly to reverse matters. Either way, your next step is based on the impact your first step had on the situation.

It’s what you do in running your business. You’re always looking for data to support whether we’re moving up or going backward. And the faster you know the faster you can adjust. Sometimes the trend is slight. Other times it’s extreme. But as the CEO we’re hungry for data. We need feedback to know how good our aim is. So go ahead and take that first shot, then look closely at the target so you’ll know how to better aim the second shot.

d. Keep doing it. Rinse and repeat.

The more we take action the easier it is to keep taking action. The more we worry about something, the easier it is to keep worrying. You decide.

Action or worry.

Action may keep you up at night, but only because you’re working. Worry on the other hand will keep you up at night and exhaust you.

Weary leaders shouldn’t remain weary for long. The company is looking to you for leadership. A sleep deprived CEO in a funk isn’t fit for the battle. So get battle ready and stay that way…because your business depends on it.

FREE! 90-Minute CEO ONE-BIG Thing Introductory Coaching Session

If you’re awake at night because there’s one big thing that is frustrating you beyond words, then I’d like to offer you a solution at no cost or obligation. Just click here to find out more.

Thanks for listening. Get some sleep.

Randy

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4001 Happy New Year! Two Words To Define 2016

Entrepreneurship, Getting New Customers, Not Going Crazy In The Process, Podcast, Serving Existing Customers Better / By Randy Cantrell

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2016 Changes

What’s Going On?

It’s what we ask when we pick up the phone, or when we greet a friend. Today is January 1, 2016 and it’s an appropriate question to begin this new year.

I’m not going to bore you with the details except to tell you that it’s been a long time coming. Led Zeppelin released an album years ago entitled, The Song Remains The Same. As I was preparing for today’s show I thought of that song and record. And I also thought of the phrase, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The notion is that rarely do things fundamentally change so much. The status quo can be tough to alter.

As a man in search of an epiphany I’ve been fortunate to have a few. Not many, but a few. Last year I had a couple of them. One was that my lifetime spent building successful businesses prepared me to serve a bigger number of people than I first thought years ago when I began a side project of helping business owners grow their businesses. The other one was my personal style – the essence of who I am and what I do, coupled with how I do it – is just in my DNA and it’s ridiculous to do anything other than own it.

Neither of those was a first time epiphany. I had thought of those things before, but in 2015 I gave them deeper thought than maybe ever before. I made up my mind to wrap my arms around both of these things, embrace them more fully than I ever had before.

I’m a business guy. I’ve always been a business guy. It’s not a one-dimensional thing because the world of commerce is filled with a variety of characters, styles, approaches, experiences and skills. For every person who is animated and loud there are others who speak softly and behave in utter tranquility. There are blue jean wearing CEO’s and those who prefer custom order Brooks Brother suits. Some CEO’s drive only BMW’s and others opt for a pick-up truck. Business people don’t fit in a one-size-fits-all category. It’s part of the fun and allure of business. At least it is for me. And always has been.

I’ve spent most of my adult life running luxury retailing companies. Living with the daily pressures of business building is how I’ve lived most of my life since I was first given the opportunity to lead an organization. I know what it is to make payroll, manage an advertising budget, find ways to shave down costs, negotiate long-term leases, buy trucks, hire talent, train that talent and handle the occasional problem that erupts when you discover employee theft, or when you’ve got to make a management change, or when an employee suddenly dies. That variety of issues makes business building among the most exciting things anybody could ever do.

The more things change, the more they stay the same means that I decided last fall it might be time to get back to my roots — even though I’m still well on my way to reinvention and growth, personal and professional.

Which brings me to the two words to define this new year of 2016…

Grow Great.

It’s a complete sentence. It’s action oriented with a strong, powerful verb: GROW.

But it’s focused on a specific goal that’s positive. Some people are growing lazy, fat, complacent, depressed, cynical…and lots of other negative things. Our world is filled with that kind of growth. Instead, I chose a word that isn’t limited to any specific aspect of personal or professional growth. It transcends business and morphs over into our every day lives with our friends and family. It applies to the CEO who heads up a non-profit or the City Manager who operates a multi-million dollar civic budget. Maybe it seems beyond the reach of many, but I don’t think it is. I think everybody has it within their own grasp if they could just see it for what it is – possible – and if they could tap into learning a new things or two. The object of our growth? Greatness.

Grow great.

Grow-Great One big change is the podcast. The name. The focus. Even the format.

The podcast will focus on the trifecta of business building:

Getting new customers or clients
Serving customers or clients better
Not going crazy in the process

Lest you think it has no application to everybody I serve – CEO’s, business owners, executives or city government leaders – consider YOU as a business. YOU are a business. The non-profit you run needs patrons and supporters. You could view them as vendors. You serve a cause or a group of people. They’re your customers. All the stuff you do to manage the work, or lead the people — that can be the stuff that drives you crazy if you’re not careful or skillful. Ditto for anybody leading a city government.

We all have to serve people, find ways to do it better and we need to find better ways to do it without losing our minds, or our personal lives.

Every organization I know of has problems. Every problem I’ve ever seen has one or more elements of these trifecta issues. Every problem. I don’t care if we’re talking about sales, marketing, improving processes, investing in new resources, handling personnel problems…every single problem can fit into one or more of these categories. Every problem you face will fit into these, too. Your career challenges fit into these. You need or want a new job or opportunity (new customers needed). You need to be more promotable or advance to a bigger role (serving existing customers better). You hate what you’re doing and you’re thinking of doing something completely different (you’re trying to avoid going crazy).

Here’s how Wikipedia defines “business” — a business, also known as an enterprise or a firm, is an organization involved in the provision of goods, services, or both to consumers. It could be YOU. It could be whatever organization you’re part of. Non-profit. Civic. For profit. Big. Small. Medium. Ten thousand employees. A solopreneur.

The podcast will focus on the trifecta of business building. It’ll contain information designed to help you grow your career and your business. Growth. That’s the objective. Targeted growth. Greatness. That’s what we want to accomplish. I’ll leave it to you to define that for yourself. Some would think it’s great to break 6-figures in personal income. Others would think greatness is defined by being able to sell an enterprise for 9 or 10 figures.

I’ve really only got three caveats to growing great — sustainable, predictable and improving.

Sustainable means it’s getting stronger over time. Day after day it’s getting better. It’s supporting itself. It’s not robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s not living on debt. It’s self-supporting financially and it’s also fueling its own growth.

Predictable means you can calculate and strategize a degree of growth. There are actions you can take to bring about the desired results. It’s not a game of chance. It doesn’t rely on luck or happenstance. Instead, it hinges on putting the right processes and people in place to get the work accomplished.

Improving means it’s not going backward or standing still. It’s moving forward, advancing. Week after week, month after month, year after year — it’s getting better and better.

I’m going to take my own enterprise – Bula Network, LLC – to new, higher levels. Two years focused on only executive and leadership coaching left me knowing how good that fit me, and my life goals. It also taught me that my roots of business building don’t need to be sacrificed. I learned how congruent my skills and experience are. My value in helping executives and leaders is largely based on my vast experiences in building great businesses. There’s just no separating them…not if I want to provide the highest value possible. And I do.

My business consulting will go back to the roots of where it all began – helping business owners and business leaders grow their business. And that’s what I mean by the more things change, the more they stay the same. A new day. A new year. The old skills that have proven so successful throughout my life are going to be put to good use to serve people just like YOU.

The Responsibility Of Those Further Up The Path

As an experienced business builder and leader I don’t feel better than you. Certainly not more important. However, my responsibilities are different. So are my urgings.

When I sit across the table from a 35 year old leader or emerging leader it’s easy for me to remember my own life. I’ve been there. I know well how it feels and what the hurdles are. Because I’m just a few steps further up the path I’m able to work with such leaders and warn them of the potholes that may lay ahead. I can also help spot opportunities that often go unrecognized because the years and experiences have taught me to hone my real-time vision of both problems and opportunities. My clients need to benefit from my experiences. Truth is, the podcast listeners benefit from it, too.

The two words to define this year are the title of the new show – Grow Great. This is about the 4th iteration of this podcast, which is why I started with a 4000 series number. It’s a new beginning. In every way.

For you longtime listeners I hope you’ll stick with me. For new listeners I hope you find remarkable value and become faithful listeners.

My goal is to keep the shows as tight as possible. I don’t have an ideal length in mind because the subject matter needs to determine that. I am going to try to keep the episodes shorter – my aim is around 20 minutes. I’ll also try to keep each episode more focused on a single idea or action. Additionally, I’m going to make better use of tags and headlines. I know clever is what the Internet world seeks, but I’m aiming for something more. I want clarity and simplicity.

I hope you’ll subscribe to the new version of the podcast. You won’t have to change a thing if you’re already subscribing. The show name will change automatically. The RSS feed is unchanged. The name and cover art will change. Otherwise, the song remains the same.

Let’s make 2016 our very year ever! I aim to help you do that.

Randy

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"We're Not Smart Enough About That Yet" - HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE Podcast Episode 267

267 “We’re Not Smart Enough About That Yet”

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Knowledge makes everything simpler. That doesn’t mean it makes things easy.

Some years ago I’m visiting with a business owner. The topic? Finding other streams of revenue. It’s more than a brainstorming session. It’s strategic based on the current revenue sources.

A few ideas leap to my mind and I toss them out for consideration. The beauty of these sessions is they’re unfiltered. This is no time for bashful behavior. These are the times where uncorking can pay off.

One particular idea sparks a response from the owner. His answer formed the title for today’s podcast.

“We’re not smart enough about that yet.”

I was instantly impressed. Not at his company’s ignorance, but at his admission. True confessions are difficult for lots of entrepreneurs. Anybody who can be that candid during a session like this is probably my kind of people.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We just don’t know enough about that technology right now to do it properly,” he said. “But we’re working on it.”

He proceeded to tell me the investments he was making in trying to get up to speed – and get his people up to speed. It was high-technology and the target learning was moving fast. He talked of “catching up.” And I could tell he was pretty committed to the effort.

“But the operative word seems to be YET,” I said.

“Yes, we’re going to get there. We’re just not ready to tackle it right now,” he responded.

“But you’ve got some target in mind or you wouldn’t be making the investment to catch up,” I replied.

Sure enough. He knew some opportunities were tied to making sure his team got up to speed on some technology that was currently outside the scope of their base knowledge. We talked about the capital and time investment they were making. We ironed out a timeline, with some mile markers of things they could do to traverse this unchartered water they were entering. They were going to be poised to launch a test within less than 90 days. A prototype product could be in beta testing within 6 months. And the opportunity could be game changing providing more revenue than all other products combined. It was an exciting adventure and I could tell most of the team was thrilled with the prospect.

If we conclude that we’re not smart enough about something (anything) yet, then it’s time to get smart!

How smart do you have to be to get started? Well, I suppose that depends on the endeavor.

The challenge is two-fold:

a. Knowing what you don’t know
b. Knowing what you know

That second one is much easier to quantify. But with it can come an arrogance that can hamper progress and innovation.

The other day I was talking with somebody about the differences in small business people 30 years ago versus the ones today. It was a conversation about the difference in the generations. I’m old enough to have a perspective. My observations might not be empirically correct, but anecdotally they are.

Thirty years or more ago, many small business owners I knew had a confidence most saw as necessary. “You’ve got to believe in your idea,” was the battle cry of the 1970’s when I began my career. The problem I quickly observed were business owners who would fall in love with an idea – usually their own – and they wouldn’t move off of it, or away from it. Stubbornness can be a good thing. Or a bad thing.

Resilience, determination and tenacity are great traits. But put them in a different context where a business or organizational leader refuses to budge off something that isn’t working — and they’ve got deadly potential. More than I can count I’ve seen leaders refuse to lose, in spite of the fact that their organization is getting their brains beat out. “Nope, we’re going to keep pushing forward,” says the ignorant leader who refuses to acknowledge what he or she doesn’t know. Namely, they don’t know that their idea ain’t working!

Knowing what you know can sometimes deceive us into thinking we know enough, or that we know it all. That’s why you see new comers enter spaces and disrupt it with new, bold ideas. They’re not encumbered with past industry knowledge.

New comers have an ability – and a thirst – to figure things out. Part of that comes in asking the biggest question any of us can ask.

Why?

They also tend to be speed freaks, which I find very appealing. Today’s entrepreneurs find out fast, and they find out if they’re failing even faster. They morph, adapt and change. The favorite word is, PIVOT. They abandon what isn’t working in favor of something that will work better. My generation didn’t tend to do that so much, but it was a different time with a different time element. No Internet. No cell phones. No computers. It was much harder back in “the old days” to figure out if you’d given something a strong enough effort to know if it would make it or not. So adapting, changing and morphing took a lot longer back in the 70’s than it does today.

My experience is one reason why I am so fond of the premise of the book, The Knowing-Doing Gap. It’s about knowing what you know and doing what you know!

If you’re not going to move forward, then any excuse will do, but don’t let a lack of know-how spoil your hope of success. There are way too many resources readily available to help us prepare to take action – just taking that first step might be all we need to make success a reality. Refusing to take the first step is a surefire way to fail. Don’t get hung up thinking you’ve got to have complete knowledge.

I love today’s pace and the resources we have. Beats the snot out of by gone years! Today, you just need to know enough to take the next step. The very next step. Figure that out, then do it. And do it fast! Then figure out the next step. And the next. Keep moving as fast as you can, making adjustments along the way.

Today, you don’t need to know all the steps before taking your first one. So many people fail to start because they can’t see all the details of the finish. Forget that. Head in that direction and start.

The technology company didn’t know where this new found knowledge would take them. They had an idea of what they wanted to build based on this new knowledge, but they knew they needed to get going. They needed to start learning. Fast. So they dove in.

When boots hit the ground, the battle plan changes. We don’t want to put boots on the ground foolishly, but we don’t want to assume we know exactly what the boots are going to experience either. There’s no way we can know until we’re there.

Enter something leaders may not always consider, CONFIDENCE. Organizations and people need confidence in order to win. Weekly I encounter people who are depressed, losing morale and lamenting the future because they’ve no confidence in leadership’s ability to change. In the face of challenges, people want to see a response. They want to see the game plan adjusted.

I’m a hockey guy and we’re right now in the latter part of the conference finals to see which two teams will play for the Stanley Cup. Some of these games are close, but some are blowouts. The other night I’m watching Chicago give up 3 goals in the first period to the Anaheim Ducks. I wasn’t in that locker room between the first and second period, but I guarantee the coaching staff was giving the team some hard instructions. They were correcting things. And every player in that room was expecting that. Chicago ended up driving the game to overtime after 3 periods, so the adjustments worked. The players had to execute those adjustments.

The point is – if those coaches hadn’t made any changes the players would have lost confidence in the coaches and in themselves. They knew they weren’t playing well. What they needed from the coaches were answers to the question, WHY?

We’ve all heard a coach after a loss tell the press that there’s nothing to be learned from a loss, but that’s a lie! Every good coach knows a loss teaches far more than a win. It teaches us what DOESN’T WORK. That helps us figure out what does work. In professional hockey, it’s very common for a team to make it deep into the playoffs one year or two, before finally figuring out how to make it further. Teams will bring in veteran players who have been there before. They’ll work on team chemistry. They’ll put together pieces that may have been missing in prior years. Teams have to learn how to win! That takes some losing, but it takes the proper response to losing.

Confidence comes from learning. Speed matters. The faster you get going, the faster you get smart.

Some time ago I’m talking with a young man about an endeavor. He’s wrestling with what to do. I tell him to build it in his head first. Embrace this trait we have as humans. To project into the future. To see things as they might become. To create the future mentally.

I wanted him to do that so he could see the end before he began. But I urged him to realize that he was going to have to change once he got going. “Just figure out your next step,” I told him. “Don’t delay.”

Do what you know to do while you’re learning what you don’t know. Don’t let the “resistance” get in the way. Fend off the challenges. Learn fast. Start faster. And if there aren’t any signs of success, then stop and rethink what you’re doing.

Some resources mentioned in today’s show:

• The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
• City Government Leadership – a new endeavor I never planned, but one I’m pursuing enthusiastically
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• BulaNetwork Facebook page (please visit me there and click that like button)
• Leaning Toward Wisdom – my other podcast; it’s a modern tale of an ancient pursuit

Don’t stall. If you realize that you’re not smart enough to get started, then get smart enough to just start. The faster you get started the faster you’ll get up that learning curve. You’ll also speed up your wisdom, not to mention the cumulative effect of getting in the habit of taking action.

Thanks for listening.

Subscribe to the podcast

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If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.

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Time To Amputate: Your Organization Won't Win With A Loser Attached - HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE Podcast Episode 266

266 Time To Amputate: Your Organization Won’t Win With A Loser Attached

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Podcast / By Randy Cantrell

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Time To Amputate: Your Organization Won't Win With A Loser Attached - HIGHER HUMAN PERFORMANCE Podcast Episode 266

surgical-tools-civil-war-era — A surgical kit from the Civil War

Pictured is a Civil War era surgical kit. It includes the implements used for amputation. Soldiers with horrible wounds often lost limbs in order to save their life. Sometimes we have to cut off things that would otherwise kill us.

My consulting and coaching has always involved helping organizations (mostly businesses) morph and adapt. I started seeing a trend about 8 years ago. An increasing need. I also saw increased resistance to solutions.

• Amputation of a poor performing segment of our business is difficult.

• Eliminating poor performing people from our organization is hard.

• Identifying and eliminating what isn’t working isn’t nearly as easy as you might think.

It’s the necessary elimination of products and services, people and processes. You can’t neglect the art of cutting.

I regularly encounter resistance when I talk with a business about the prospect of jettisoning a portion of their revenue stream in order to save and grow other areas of the business. We fall in love with our business. We become attached to our business model. Sometimes we even have pet products or services.

Business people can be notoriously loyal to what launched their career. The CEO who came up from the sales ranks will most certainly have a hard time giving any serious consideration to out sourcing sales. Even if it’s more cost effective and efficient, he’ll likely be too attached to having it in house to consider any other option. He’s got a viewpoint that may be impossible to alter.

How we generate income often matters more than we care to admit. It may not seem rational, but to us – it’s our business and it’s perfectly sensible. It made us wealthy. It made our enterprise successful. Our victories in the market were created because what we did and how we did it WORKED.

With empirical evidence staring us in the face, business owners can still refuse to see a category or process as a major source of sickness for our business. It’s our leg. It’s our arm. You try cutting off your own arm or leg and see how attached you are to your body parts.

Apply the same idea to people and their performance. Organizations of all kinds can get mired down, unable to accurately see what (and who) is working and what (or who) isn’t.

On Trial For Its Life

Back in the fall of 1999, while running an organization, I crafted what I called, A Quantum Leap. We were about to embark on a new decade, a new millennia. Lots of people were expecting a technology crash prompted by a year that began with 20 instead of 19. Debit cards would stop working. Credit cards, too. Bank accounts would freeze. The world would stop turning because all the computers on the planet had been programmed for a year beginning with 19. I wasn’t terribly concerned. And it wasn’t because I was smart in the ways of computer programming. It was because I was occupied with other ideas. Taking business to a completely new level by using a pivotal moment in history to rally the troops to achieve things never before thought possible.

It was during those fall planning sessions I found myself repeating the phrase, “on trial for its life.” I had risen in the ranks of leadership early in my career by doing just that. One over arching ambition trumped all others — How can we do better? That’s at the heart of putting things, and people, on trial for their life. No, I’ve never put people on trial for their literal life, but I have put their performance on trial for their occupational life in the organization.

Initially some people think it’s harsh. Mostly, they’re the poor performers. Or the people who don’t want the pressure of high performance. I never much cared what those people thought. Pandering to poor or average performance is not a good business model for high achievement.

These decisions shouldn’t be handled flippantly or casually. If a surgeon wanted to remove an arm or leg, I’d most certainly give him a vigorous emotional argument. I’d balk. I’d fight him to exhaustion until he fully convinced me I had no other choice.

I’ve spent dozens of hours examining critical data on a single product or service before concluding it needs to be considered for amputation. Then, dozens hours more making the final call, and figuring out the best course of action. It requires more than a casual glance. You need to take a deep, hard look at anything – or anybody – who is on trial.

And I suggest you put EVERYTHING on trial on for its life!

I don’t blame any leader for their reaction to the necessary amputation of the things that are killing their organization. I simply want to help you through the decision with the best possible solution so you can put yourself in the best position for success. I want to contribute to help more leaders succeed. Too many organizations are suffering. America doesn’t need to lose more small businesses. We don’t need to foster any more inefficient, poorly run organizations.

We need growth. Engagement. Health. Prosperity. Tenacity. Remedies. Solutions. Profits.

Additionally, I’ll end today’s show with a brief discussion about the benefits of a lower noise floor. Remember, focus is more about elimination of unimportant things than merely trying to concentrate more on what is important.

Randy.Black

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If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.

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