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Over 15 years ago I distilled business building into three basic activities that I’ve since labeled “the trifecta of business building” –

1. Getting new customers
2. Serving existing customers better
3. Not going crazy in the process

During the past 4 years or so I’ve increasingly shoved more focus on that last one because the need is so large (and the opportunity is equally large). Not because the first two are less important, but because they’re so important. Business owners and CEOs are driven crazy largely because of the importance of the first two. Pile onto that the personnel and personal issues confronting leaders and some form of crazy is almost always in play for us.

Getting Back To What Matters Most (and has always mattered…to me)

Part of avoiding going crazy is having help when we most need it. In an age where there’s an app for just about everything – including therapy (have you not seen TalkSpace, the online therapy service?) – we’re often lonely, sad, worried and anxious. Sometimes it all morphs into despair.

Passion is popular and highly over-rated. Especially in the business world. I don’t see the world in terms of passion and happiness. Instead, I focus on energy and dread, which drains energy. And instead of learning more, I concentrate on closing the gap between what we already know and fail to do (a shout out to the 1999 book that gave language to what I was feeling, The Knowing-Doing Gap by Pfeffer and Sutton).

It’s not a slam against passion or knowledge. We need a degree of both, but neither will get the job done. Doing gets it done. Figuring it out while you’re doing it gets it done. And it won’t happen fast. It’ll be a slog, which is why dread can’t be part of it. Dread drains energy…energy you need to get the job done!

I’m so inclined in helping people that many years ago I snagged a domain, TalkingYouOffTheLedge and another one, TwoFriendsTalking. I didn’t keep either one because I never did anything with either of them. I just use them to illustrate how I’m wired. People will tell you to pay close attention to what people look to you for…and there you have it with me. I spent a lot of time talking people off the proverbial ledge. Not people who are despondent, but people who are vexed. Not people on the verge of suicide, but people with real struggles that could possibly take them down a path of real despair. The ledge is unsafe. Dangerous. We don’t make our best decisions there.

I’m going back to the core things that I believe in most. The things I’m most blessed to do to help others.

Empathy. Asking questions. Listening carefully to answers. Emotional intelligence.

Through the years I’ve had many occasions where I’d call a business owner or CEO. Somebody I’d never talked with before. People I’d never met before. Within minutes I’m asking them about their biggest challenge and then I shut up. Twenty minutes later they come up for air and it’s evident…they’re not used to having anybody ask them. Instead, their lives are full of people pitching them, selling them and claiming to have “just what you need.” Stranger like me enter their lives daily armed with the solution to problems they don’t even know exist because they never took the time to ask. Been there. I know exactly how these women and men feel because I’ve sat in that same spot. That helps me serve better.

Longevity matters because patience is a lost art. Growth takes time. Improvement can happen incrementally, but it takes patience to reach mastery. For over 7 years my work has happened 6 to 12 months at a time, then ended. In some instances, clients have remain engaged for 2 years or more, but not usually. And all along the way, the work goes deep, but I drive away if it’s face-to-face or I hang up if it’s a video conference. The depth of it all leaves me feeling empty. Or I should say, the shallowness of it all leaves me that way.

Deep relationships matter to me. I’m the guy who prefers fewer people willing to go deep. Curious. Interested. Hard things to scale, but scale has never mattered much to me.

So starting right now I’m going to peel back the curtains and whatever else might obstruct your view. I’m going to show you how I’m working to assemble a small group of business owners for no purpose other than helping one another grow as business people and humans. Bula Network is going to veer away from a network of services to a real, genuine network of people – people connected for the purpose of their own higher human performance.

By now you may know of my work with Leo Bottary to produce his podcast, Year Of The Peer. Want to talk about passion and energy? This topic fuels me because I think we’re facing a tidal wave need for business owners to take better care of themselves emotionally and mentally. Emotional and mental fitness are crucial to helping owners overcome their dread and misery. It’s not limited to struggling owners either. Sometimes successful owners face even greater pressures.

The evidence – my evidence – is anecdotal, but still important. I rarely encounter business owners who don’t quickly and freely express frustrations that drive them crazy. And when I do encounter it, it’s almost always a person wired to not be open. You know the kind…the person who gives single syllable answers to questions. The person who doesn’t engage easily in conversation. It happens. That’s fine. I’m not bothered by that.

Instead, I’m going to go hunting business owners who are yearning to get ahead. Owners willing to invest in themselves knowing that few things will fuel their company’s growth more than their own growth.

Right now, I’m taking my aim at small business owners operating companies that do between $5 and $20 million in annual revenue. I don’t care where they’re located because this is going to be a virtual group with meetings conducted via video conferencing technology. I don’t care what industry they occupy because I’m going to concentrate on making sure the space is safe and confidential for every member.

It’s not about selling, it’s about finding the proper fit. I’m not a coffee drinker. I hate coffee. Always have. I have friends who love it. Even addicted to it. If you were going to try to sell me coffee you’d have a better chance of pushing water up a hill. I’m not buying. No matter how much you extol the virtues of coffee. Why waste your time talking to me when you could easily talk to people who love coffee? Stupid.

I’m not going to be stupid. Conversation will determine whether people are attracted to putting themselves in better positions to grow as leaders and owners. Dialogue will quickly reveal if people see the true value of making better decisions by surrounding themselves with people whose sole purpose in coming together is to help each other build more successful businesses. I’m not shocked when I encounter people who can’t see the value. I hate coffee. 😉

So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to record weekly updates – maybe more – sharing with you the journey of what this looks like. And what it feels like. I won’t betray confidences, but I’ll characterize the conversations I’m having, the objections I’m encountering, the positive feedback I’m receiving and whatever else comes by way. For now, Bula Network’s first business owners’ group will select 7 business owners.

Time to get busy and figure this thing out. I hope you’re trying some things that are nagging at you. This idea has nagged at me for almost 6 years…proving that thinking about it won’t make it happen. I once read a story of slavery in the pre-Civil War south. In the story was a quote that always stuck with me because of the brilliant wisdom of it. It was a quote attributed to the Negro slaves of the day who would say, “Mean to don’t pick no cotton.” And boy is that right! I know too many people – including sometimes myself – who live life meaning to do many things, but never getting around to them. It’s time to stop meaning to, and DO.

I hope my journey and admission fuels your own desires to pursue the things you may have been putting off. Get off the schneid. Start doing it and see what happens. Let me know how it’s going. I’d love to hear it.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:09 — 20.8MB)

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Content marketing isn’t magic. Or quick. For too many, it’s not even effective.

That’s because too many small business owners struggle to view themselves as a media company. CEO’s and business owners will happily recite what they’ve repeatedly heard, “Act like a media company.” But they don’t know what that truly means. They think it means cranking out content. Any kind of content.

“I don’t have time to blog three times a week,” is a common refrain. Well, the three times weekly may not be the most common number. Mostly, I hear them say they can’t do it once a week!

I usually feel like a fishing instructor standing in front of people who just want to buy fish. “Can’t I just pay somebody?” Sure, but when you’re the owner of a $4 million dollar remodeling company, or a one man financial advisory business…you’re the expert. That magic you’re looking for in content marketing is in your head. You just have to start thinking and more importantly, acting like a successful media company.

My first exposure to TV Guide, other than seeing it in the check out line at the grocery store, was at my grandparents house. A copy could always be found on the side table next to my grandfather’s chair. At the time, there was nothing like it. The closest thing was the daily tv schedule in the daily newspaper, but in small town America that wasn’t often an option.

Scattered in each issue would be stories of your favorite TV stars like Lucille Ball. In fact, when the guide first went national in 1953 the birth of her son, Desi Arnaz, Jr. made the cover. Even these stories were unique at the time. This was long before People and other celebrity gossip magazines. There was always plenty of yellow journalism – those sensationalistic rags – but TV Guide had a legitimacy about it. A trust. And they approached stories of these stars with more of a true journalistic quality.

These were the days before technology afforded us the ability to time shift watching our favorite shows. No recorders. Everything in real time. If you missed your favorite show, you missed it. Your best hope was that during the summer they might run it again as a re-run. That made a guide even more important to people.

In retrospect you may think “that’s no so special.” You’d be wrong. It was a one-of-a-kind. Unique. Something only the TV Guide could do. Something only the TV Guide did. And in most cities and towns in America there was only 3 networks – ABC, CBS and NBC. Small towns would often switch between two networks on a single channel, bringing people the most popular shows of each one. Big cities had a separate channel for each network, plus they had a PBS station giving you a whopping four channels to watch.

Unlike the newspaper, TV Guide published in a digest format – slightly larger than pocket size. Super convenient. It was 15 cents. During the 1960’s it was the most widely read and circulated periodical in America. It’s value soared, surpassing the estimated value of ABC, CBS and NBC combined. An aggregator had grown to be worth more than the content creators it was compiling.

What’s the lesson for you?

Don’t just crank out content to crank out content. I know people tell you to blog, podcast, post articles at Linkedin, create videos for YouTube and a thousand other pieces of advice for morphing your enterprise into a media outlet. But they’re overlooking a bigger issue. A more important component, uniqueness.

Dive into any space you’d like. Pick one. Some space where you notice people are blogging or creating content. I don’t care what platform they’re using. YouTube, Linkedin, Medium, Tumblr, their own website…anywhere you’d like to look.

Big areas include money or wealth management. Another big one is entertainment. Pick either of those, or something else.

Now scan as much of that content as you can stand. Set a time limit. I don’t want you to dive too deeply down the rabbit hole where you’re unable to find your way back out. Scan a dozen or so and think about what you’re seeing.

Pick the space and mostly you’re going to see a lot of “me, too” content. One looks like the others. You might go through dozens before finding one – just 1 – that stands out. Why does it stand out? Because it’s not like the others. It’s unique. Different.

Notice I didn’t say better. Maybe it is better. Maybe not. But it’s unquestionably different. And that’s the lesson for you. That’s how you stop thinking like a media company – there are tons of media companies who struggle. Thinking like everybody else isn’t the path to high achievement. That’s how you start acting like a successful media company – a company that knows what they’re doing and is committed to rising above the noise floor.

Brace yourself for some tough love advice. Don’t create content if you can’t produce something different. Sure, it’s ideal if it can be different and better. That’s optimal, but not easy. In the war between different or unique and better – aim for unique. There’s two reasons for that. One, better is subjective. And it won’t get you noticed Two, unique is easier to spot for most people. Let me add a third reason…sometimes you’ll be able to make your unique content collide with better content. It may not happen all the time. Everybody strikes out every now again. You just want to get on base more often than not. Consistently unique is far easier than consistently better. It’s a big world with people who likely have more resources than you. If you’re a solopreneur operating out of your house…you won’t likely be able to produce better content than a staff of content creators who have graphics skills, copying writing skills, infographic skills and all the other talent found in today’s content creation world.

How am I different?

Yes, we’re all individual and in some respect we’re different. The question is how different are we? Not so much really.

It’s poor strategy to simply think that because it’s you saying something everybody is saying, then you’re special…worthy of attention. True, nobody can say it quite like you, but there are plenty of people close enough to make it hard to tell the difference. It’s why we commonly see people acting like lemmings. Many of us have been working all our lives to fit in, to be like everybody else. Watch any high school when they let classes out. You’ll have a hard time spotting unique because teens want to be like their classmates.

Now as adults, that innate desire is still very strong. Before we started school (hum, may be something negative to this) things were different. We were different. Unafraid of standing out, being unique. Not bashful to wear Alf underwear. Things change. Compliance kills creativity. Creativity kills boredom.

If your answer to, “How am I different?” is “I’m not,” then you have a much bigger problem than acting like a successful media company. I don’t mean you have to have a one-of-a-kind business model, or product or service. I do mean you need something that helps you stand out.

Your gas gauge is on E. That warning light just came on. You have 30 miles or so to find a gas station.

If you’re in town where there are gas stations on every corner, you make a decision based on convenience. Or maybe you make it based on a preferred brand because they have 93 octane, which you need, while everybody else only has 91 as their highest. Or you make a decision based on a station you know has diesel ’cause you need diesel. Or you don’t care what kind of gas you burn, you just want the lowest price. It’s all gasoline, but your selection is unique to you, not because you’re one-of-a-kind, but perhaps you have some special considerations.

Operators of gas stations — successful gas stations tend to rely on one fundamental differentiator, location. Put me on corner of the intersection based on ease of getting in and out and I’ll kick the competition on the opposite corner. It’ll be hard to ignore my competitive advantage.

Enter Quik Trip, my favorite place to get gas. They have great locations, good prices and drink bar to satisfy any liquid urge. They also have the details down, like windshield washer suds instead of empty containers with crusty devices that last cleaned a windshield 10 years ago. Stores are clean, staff is friendly and even if I don’t go in – which is most of the time – those details impress me enough to warrant me giving them my fuel up business. If the gas prices aren’t as low as surrounding stations, they lose my business though. Those differences are just the tie breaker, but the tie breaker means getting my money…or not getting it.

Such is the case in your space.

Be different. Be unique. Zig where everybody is using zag. Make that a top priority.

Then work on making your content better.

Give your prospects and customers something they can’t get elsewhere. Give them a reason to choose you. “Pick us, we’re just like everybody else,” isn’t a wise way to go. Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club have both disrupted an old, old industry ruled by mega powers. Casper and Leesa did the same thing in the mattress space. Under Armor did it in athletic wear. I’m not suggesting that you’re operating at such a high altitude of disruption, but disruption is just another term for being different. Sometimes VERY different. It gets attention. It gets lots of attention when that difference is dramatically better.

The same thing goes for your content.

Successful media companies, more often than not, are unique and better. They don’t always produce content you love, but they produce enough to grab your attention. AMC gave us Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Better Call Saul. Different, unique and better. They also gave us The Walking Dead and Humans (two shows I have no interest in, and have never seen). You’ll never get all the eyeballs and ears. You just need to get enough to grow your business and make it sustainable over the long haul.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:22 — 31.1MB)

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Years ago when I founded Bula Network it was a very informal side project that I felt warranted a name, even though it wasn’t really a business. It was a service enterprise spawned by the CEO’s, founders and business owners who reached out to me to get my perspective on a variety of issues they were facing. Sometimes the work went deep, diving into specific numbers. At other times it was more high level, talking somebody off that ledge that we call find ourselves on every now and again. That’s why I found myself using the moniker – “network” – because of the scope of things. Because I podcast people began to assume it was a network because of that, but that’s not how it began.

When I left the c-suite, the work and the enterprise became more formalized. What had begun mostly as a passion project to help out friends and acquaintances was now something I needed to market so I could create a sustainable business. It was about 8 years ago when it began. To say it’s been difficult is an understatement. And I can’t overstate the learning that has taking place.

Any business experiences missteps and I’ve certainly made plenty. Even with a lifetime of experience the market – and life – teach us how little we really know. And how much more we need to understand.

When Bula Network was a side project it was mostly directed toward retail, sparking one of my first podcasts, REMARKABLE RETAIL. Years of running luxury retailing companies meant that my biggest circle consisted of people involved (at some level) in that arena. Very quickly it widened to other areas where high touch service was the mandate. I soon left remarkable retail behind, mostly because I was bored with it having spent my life there. I was also seeing major shifts in the retailing landscape, which drove me away emotionally and mentally. However, the skills required of operating at high levels in retailing translate to just about any enterprise, organization or industry you can name. Especially so in luxury retailing, where customer experience is supremely important.

People.

It’s always been, and will always be about PEOPLE. Some people are into a variety of aspects of business building. My life’s focus has been on the people who make it happen. My ability is implementing workflows, processes and systems that are congruent with helping people perform at consistently high, predictable levels. I’m not your guy if you’re wanting to take your business from launch to where it can escape the gravity of risks that often cause businesses or organizations to crash and burn. I am your guy if you’ve escaped gravity, which happens at various times for each organization, and you need to find a higher altitude. Some business builders are great in stage 1 where you need liftoff. I’m not a stage 1 builder. I’m a stage 2 through whatever builder. Never satisfied with the existing success.

Sometimes an enterprise is struggling even though they long ago escaped gravity’s pull. Other times they’re doing well, but stuck. I can encounter businesses stuck in success just as easily as those stuck in failure. Success has its own demons that owners and leaders find particularly challenging. Some refuse to contend with them because success feels so comfortable. Until it doesn’t.

When I was a young man I was taught the magic of marketing summed up in a single phrase, “Be an aspirin, not a vitamin.” Whenever we have an ache or pain we quickly reach for a pain reliever. Pain makes us reach. Vitamins might be preventative, but because they don’t likely impact our lives in the short term, we don’t think much about them.

I admit there have been times when I neglected to follow that advice. Or when I thought I was being an aspirin, but my target market wasn’t willing to remedy their pain. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? But I’ve learned the hard way that some people – some spaces – have enormous pain, but they’re resigned that it’s just how things go. They’re not willing to take an aspirin. That’s the small, but important, nuance to that brilliant marketing advice – “Be an aspirin, not a vitamin.” It presupposes that people in pain will take an aspirin. That’s not always true. And I’ve violated what I knew to be true by pushing for people to understand. It rarely works.

For the last 5 years or so I’ve had an idea that I finally started pursuing late last year. I was attracted to this group of people practicing a specific and narrow part of law. Yes, they’re attorneys. I love what they do and have great respect for their work. The genesis of my idea was to take my lifetime of experience to serve a group that had spent their time learning and getting authorization to practice their craft. They have pain. Every group does. But something weird happened as I began to speak with dozens of them. Well, two things actually. One, mostly they were unwilling to devote any time to a remedy. They’re in the habit of paying somebody for turn-key solutions. What I was offering was much more powerful, but much more personal. It was in teaching them to fish, not in selling them one. Most had no interest in putting in even a minimal amount of work to do that. Not because they’re lazy, but because they’re crazy busy. They couldn’t see themselves taking on another project, or any more commitments. Even if taking that on would change their lives forever. Two, that viewpoint was so engrained in most of them they couldn’t see a future where their lives weren’t under the dictate of an overbooked calendar.

Déjà vu.

I’ve earned my stripes convincing – or trying to convince – people of what is possible. Experience taught me that it’s usually a waste of time to try to influence an entire group to see something they simply can’t see. Or something they refuse to see. How can you know the difference? And does it really matter? You can’t and it doesn’t.

So I pulled the plug knowing that I would never be able to help this group, even though I was only attempting to serve a small number of them. For me, the toll of trying to escape gravity was too high. Because there are other people desperate to reach a new altitude in their life and business. I figured I’d take my own advice that I give to every client. “You have to view your life as a limited resource. Make sure you invest it as wisely as possible.” I wasn’t doing that so I decided it was high time I listen to my heart and my head.

It’s also why I’m pushing more toward my roots and my special gifts – people. Whether I’m sitting with a CEO, founder or executive the problems universally revolve around dealing with and leading people. Sometimes it means managing the work performed by people. But whether we’re working with a service professional like an attorney, or a manufacturer, or a software developer, or a city management team – their problems, challenges and opportunities all have one thing in common. PEOPLE.

I’m still very focused on growing great businesses and careers. Higher human performance remains at the heart of it all.

The lessons for you?

1. Know what you’re good at. Really know what you’re great at.
2. Know what you’re not good at. Really know what you suck at.
3. Bet on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Shore up what you can, but don’t waste too much time being something you’re not.
4. Put your strengths in the form of an aspirin. What pain can you help eliminate? What problems can your strengths remedy?
5. Just because a market is in pain doesn’t mean they want or will pay for relief. Don’t assume it.
6. If people embrace their pain, feeling it’s “just how things are,” then walk or run away. Waste no time trying to convince them. Leave them alone in their misery.
7. If people want relief from their pain, but aren’t willing to pay for it…run away even faster!
8. Make sure you serve people you actually enjoy being around. Few things are worse than being stuck with customers you don’t respect or enjoy. That’s being trapped.
9. Marketing is easier when you get all this put together so your view of yourself changes to where you realize there are people out there waiting for the relief only you can provide. Believe in yourself.
10. The aspirin or pain reliever you buy is the one you believe works. Belief is critical. Find prospects and customers who believe. Walk away quickly from everybody who doesn’t.

I’ll build on these ideas in upcoming episodes, but for now — ponder these things. Apply them to your enterprise. See how you can provide value to people able to see it. Serve people worthy of your product or service. Help the people you can and stop pushing so hard to serve people who aren’t likely to embrace your work no matter what you do. The work is still about people connecting with people. It’s about people serving other people.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:52 — 8.6MB)

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Today’s show is a quick 9 minute answer to a question I get fairly often. It’s quite a few questions rolled up into one.

How do I know when to quit something?

How do I know when I should do something different?

How do I know if what I’m doing is working?

And there are others, but you get the drift. It’s not complicated, but it can often be very difficult. That’s why increasingly I urge people to surround themselves with better people who can serve them. Your crowd – the people you choose to surround yourself with – can become your best decision-making tool. I so firmly believe it in I’m producing a podcast for Leo Bottary at LeoBottary.com – Year of the Peer podcast. Leo is fond of saying, “Who you surround yourself with matters.” Check out the podcast. It’s an interview-style podcast with some exceptional guests including Rich Karlgaard, the publisher of Forbes.

Now, go figure out what you can do better to grow a great business (and a great career).

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:59 — 21.6MB)

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Today I’m resurrecting the Q&A, something I did back in the early days of the podcast. It was provoked by a question I got on rejection and naysayers. I hope it helps you keep moving forward. Don’t be deterred by people who live to throw cold water on others. Go forth. Conquer.

Subscribe to the podcast

To subscribe, please use the links below:

• Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes
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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.

Thank you!