July 25, 2014 Free Form Friday

232 Free Form Friday, July 25, 2014 (and part 2 of the big bang podcast rebranding, too)

July 25, 2014 Free Form Friday

Oh, the serious issues of the day are indeed becoming less troublesome. Or I’m just losing interest.

Today is the last Friday of the month. That means it’s Free Form Friday. Well, actually many days are free form days ’cause that’s how I roll. Somebody sent me to a website that gives you a personality test, iPersonic Personality Test. I promptly went over there, took the test and broke it I think. It’s actually a pretty good sales ploy because if you want to see the career advice based on your test, it’ll cost you $19. Not bad if you need a new career and you’ve got $19. But if you’re unemployed and don’t have $19…maybe not.

Podcast Re-Branding

I’m making progress in the rebranding effort of the podcast. No, I still haven’t settled on a name, but the topic or niche is pretty well sealed I think. Mainly because I want the podcast here to be congruent with my work. So it’s about the stuff I do every single day.

Higher human performance is about diving in, doing the work and sticking with it.

And that’s what the podcast will be about. So, now I need a great, super-terrific name for the podcast. Do you want to help? I’d love it. Just use the Contact page to send me your suggestions.

I know I’m going to stick with a weekly schedule, but I’m still uncertain about length or release days. A few people – VERY few really – have suggested I go back to some video stuff, too – namely, my Word-Of-The-Day stuff. Here’s where I did the word, chase. If you want to help me include any suggestions about day of the week, how often to release an episode and how long to make the episodes (QuickSprout.com proves long form content can work) when you throw name suggestions out to me.

Helping People See Some Of What A Leader Sees

I’m always looking for ways to help people see and appreciate a bit more what their leaders see. So many of us have our head down, looking at only our perspective. We can go about our business unaware of the bigger picture.

The photo below went viral a long time ago, but it illustrates the point. Can you see the words in the picture? Until you see what it says, it’s hard. But the moment you see what it says, you can’t un-see it. It’s plain as day once you’re able to see it.

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I’m wondering if I can figure out a way to help direct reports see more clearly the influences exerted on their leader. I may be chasing something that’s impossible, but I’ve been able to do it with some frequency. I just haven’t gone to the trouble to systematize it.

Yes, I Often Miss Being Part Of An Organization

Consulting and coaching can sometimes be lonely work. When the day ends, I get in my car and go home mostly leaving the work for others to do. My work at Bula Network, LLC has morphed a bit over time. Increasingly, executive coaching has been front and center. That suits me fine.

There are days where I long to be part of something bigger. Helping grow a business or organization has been my lifelong drive. I have fueled that drive by mostly running another man’s business. I’ve spent most of my career in the proverbial corner office making the day-to-day decisions to run and operate a business.

Everything is not on the Internet. Some people are steeped in careers doing things in the “real world.” They don’t know who the Internet rock stars are. They’ve never heard of all the people you may follow in social media. We can sometimes get so deep into the online world that we think that’s where all of life happens. It’s not.

Happy Friday!

Brace yourself, kids. August is almost here. Before you know it the kids will be back in school (I can hear moms all over America cheering), the trees will be turning (hopefully a color other than brown due to the draught) and the weather will be cooler (hooray!).

Now, hit that Contact tab at the top and send me an email to help me with this re-branding effort. Talk to you later.

Randy

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232 Free Form Friday, July 25, 2014 (and part 2 of the big bang podcast rebranding, too) Read More »

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231 The Big Bang Podcast Rebranding: Higher Human Performance (Part 1)

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higher human performance can start early

Rebranding is hard work. I wanted to rebrand almost since I started this podcast. I should have made a greater effort to brand the podcast at the very beginning, but I didn’t. Instead, I just went with the name of the website and my company, Bula Network.

Over the past year it has bugged me more and more. I decided to dig in and do the work.

Here was the process in brief:

1. Brainstorm what I wanted to do with the podcast. What did I want to accomplish with the podcast?

2. Keep thinking about my work and consider how congruent I wanted the podcast to be with my actual work.

managerial-moxie3. What name properly conveys the subject? What name could I select that would resonate best while giving me enough latitude to keep the topic going over the long haul?

4. What format did I want to take the podcast? Did I want to try something different?

5. What kind of time limit did I want to establish?

6. What publishing schedule did I want? I felt like I needed to publish on the same day of the week, at the same time each episode. But how often did I want to publish?

7. What did I want the cover art to look like? Were there any color schemes I preferred?

8. What else should I consider? Did I overlook anything?

I started a draft blog post with the original title, “The Big Bang Re-Boot: Strategic Marketing, Pre-Thinking Actions And Aiming For Specific Objectives.” Yes, it was an awful title, but I knew I wasn’t going to stick with it. It was really intended to describe what I knew I had to do. It accurately described what this rebranding required.

I needed to be strategic in marketing this podcast. Something I instinctively do in my work, but something I neglected to do here right from the start.

Pre-thinking actions was also something I knew I had missed during the initial launch years ago. The only action I had thought about was that I wanted to lay down some audio tracks for the sake of legacy. I wanted to pass onto my grown kids some real world wisdom I had accumulated over the past few decades.

The sum total of the entire effort was aiming for specific objectives. That meant, I had to have some other objectives – besides legacy.

Today’s show is part 1 where I share my ideas, thoughts and concerns. Now it’s your turn to speak. I want to hear what you think of my ideas so far. There’s no point in me moving forward without you because you’re part of this. A BIG part of it.

Here’s a 12-second video of my 3-year-old granddaughter who has taken to skating like her father, my son. She’s evidence that higher human performance has no age limit, or experience requirement. It’s mostly diving in, doing the work and sticking with it.

Mentioned in today’s show:

Randy

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What You Really Need Is A Customer (and some blinders)

customer
NOTHING matters more than getting customers

A prospect calls. That’s almost always a good thing. Almost.

The first thing he said to me was, “I need a better website.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Just look at the site I have now. It looks awful,” he drones.

His site is plain, but far from awful. It’s the typical small business website done by a big company that is selling him other services, including pay per click (PPC) campaigns. It’s got 3 pages and they’re all okay, but nothing special.

“Aside from failing to win any design awards, what isn’t your current site doing that you’d like it to do?” I ask.

“It just doesn’t look professional,” he replies.

“If it were as professional as you’d like, what would that do for you?” I ask.

“I bought a book on WordPress. I’m reading it right now,” he says…seemingly avoiding my question.

“Why are you reading a book on WordPress?” I inquire.

“Because WordPress is what everybody tells me I should use,” he proudly answers.

“But why are YOU studying WordPress?” I ask, keeping this interrogation going.

He goes into a long explanation of how dedicated he is to build his business. Talks about how brilliant he is at figuring things out by diving into a subject and knowing all he can about it.

I’m frustrated listening to him because I’ve heard this a hundred times before. Business owners who are often what Michael Gerber describes as “technicians.” They’re people who practice something, or know how to do something. Accounting. Lawyering. Repairing. Painting. Counseling. You name it…some service related kind of business. They do something and they’re accomplished at it.

Maybe because they’re doers of a service, they gravitate toward finding something else to do. Just my luck I run into business owners who are like squirrels darting all over the place nervously  jittering around the neighborhood. But I want to help them.

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Some business owners need blinders to keep them on track

“Listen, you don’t need a new website. What you really need is a customer!” I tell him. I don’t think he heard me. I repeat it. He’s still going strong about how he’s gonna learn WordPress. I say it a third time and without missing a beat he says, “That’s why I need to get this website figured out.”

It’s evident that I’m not going to get through to him. He’s made up his mind to become a WordPress expert so he can create a more professional website. I let the conversation wind down knowing how this is going to end up for him. He’s going to pay way too much money to people who will promise him high rewards in the land of online marketing. He admitted he had already spent over $10,000 for a person who had delivered nothing. “I got nothing! Not one thing,” he confessed. Until he runs out of money he’ll keep throwing money at the problem.

Maybe he’ll make it. Maybe he won’t. I don’t know. I hope he figures it out. I hope he finds somebody who will honestly do for him what I’d like to do for him. But he’s not my customer. He’s not a good fit for me because he’s got all the answers, even though he’s filled with questions. He’s amped up like so many business owners I talk with. Like a dangerous drunk driver, he’s all over the road. Emphasis on the word “dangerous.”

Websites. Social media. PPC. SEO. Blogging. Too many business owners are parroting the things they’ve heard. They tell me they need it all.

What they really need are customers! And some blinders so they can maintain focus on the real issues of building a business.

Randy

P.S. Yes, I do indeed help small businesses with online marketing, but I remain focused on the trifecta of business building:

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

Go here right now if you’re interested in my help with your online marketing.

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