5 Ways to Say “No” to Being Predictable

“Gosh honey! I’m so apathetic! Today, I shuffled over to that average deli and ordered myself a dime-a-dozen turkey sandwich. I tell you what, that service there was almost pleasant and the people were just passable and generally tolerable. I think I will go back tomorrow.”

People don’t get excited over average sandwiches and passable service, so why are you running your business the way that you have been told to? The last thing that our current economy needs is more businesses to think like other businesses. We need people unafraid to unleash their ideas.

Check out this video of a guy who refuses definition:

Here are 5 lessons from the video on Pete Carroll:

1. Repeated failure is not necessarily an indication that there is something wrong with you. Perhaps, you just have not found what works, or you need to change your definition of failure. Carroll couldn’t win in the NFL and was despised upon entering USC’s campus, but he did not let past failures stop him from pouring himself into new opportunities. What is stopping you from working in the arena that you are most suited for?
2. True strength comes from something bigger than you. Your company or your brand has to be a cause. Carroll has been able, through his coaching and mentoring background to give hope to those most in need. He understands that the idea that he is a coach between certain hours and something else later on does not apply. He refuses to serve only himself with his gift. He is serving something bigger.
3. Authenticity is not always just a buzzword. Sometimes people really live by who they are, and it has an exponentially huge impact on those around them. I enjoy the interview with the sergeant who is a 13 year veteran of fighting gangs in LA. Even the most rightfully cynical of Carroll had to concede that things were better with Carroll in the picture. That he meant what he said. That he is who he is at all times.
4. Play is important. Carroll has a kid-like attitude toward his team. There is no failure in play. It’s always okay to ask “why?” when you play. While some would right it off as hopeless optimism, his attitude of looking for the next exciting thing has given him the freedom to have fun at all times in everything that he does.
5. Some people are plain crazy…in a good way. The most successful people I know do things that “normal people” think are unbalanced. Riding around some of Los Angeles’ toughest neighborhoods and handing out your mobile number is remarkable. It is unexpected, radical and powerful. You have to put aside the way that most people see the world. Allow people to see how crazy you are. You will attract the right partners, and you may change their worldview.

TRY THIS ON

What would southern California look like if Carroll saw himself as just a coach?

What would your community or business look like if you stopped allowing conventional boundaries to tell you what is and is not your business?  In the time we are in, we don’t need another small business. We need people dedicated to serving others in an authentic way. Small businesses are wonderful employers and excellent for the economy. But, behaving in prescribed patterns will get us nowhere.

It’s time we started thinking of our businesses as ways to reach others in new ways. We need to reawaken our imagination.

ANSWER ME THIS

Do you know anyone who has allowed for their creative imagination to run their business?

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

How to make sure no one will read your blog (or listen to your ideas)

After only a few months at this blogging thing, I think that I have found something that I can truly say I have incredible perspective on: being a terrible blogger.

The blogging world has a set of values and ideas. I am certain that this phenomenon will make for the kind of stuff that fine academic institutions will soon create use to create literature and sociological theories. It sounds like the kind of class I would have taken, ENG 562: Blog Theory.

****************************************************************

Here are some of the blogging communication mistakes I have made.

THE LIST (of unwritten miscues…well, I guess they ARE written now, but, nevermind)

1. Don’t post regularly. If you are not posting at least a couple of times a week, then don’t be shocked when nobody is regularly commenting or digging or stumbling or whatever stroke of validation you were searching for. In blog world, as well as the world outside, consistency matters over being clever…much to my chagrin.
2. Being a great writer is better than being a good reader/listener. Blogging is to offer something to the world, so it needs to be unique. You begin this process by looking at and imitating other’s blogs. Find some to whom you can relate. Write down what you like. Start doing those things. If you are even mediocre, you are ahead of the game.
3. Fall victim to overt ploys at traffic-nabbing. Being Stumbled Upon can be great, but that is the ADHD of web browsing. Stumblers and traffic seekers are sometimes like Homer Simpson when he was saw a military-grade deep fryer that could flash-fry a buffalo in 40 seconds, he whined, “Forty seconds? But I want it now!” Nothing is more important than consistent, relevant content. There is no secret traffic pill/search engine optimization pill. Anybody who says differently is selling you something.
4. Join everything. It is not required nor is it an advantage to rocketship your name and presence into every single social networking site out there. You need something that you are going to add to each place. Also, it is not a requirement that you add every widget in the world to the side of your blog (or Facebook page or LinkedIn profile). Visit Adam Kreitman’s blog for more on how to not get sucked into the shiny, sexy, overwhelming vortex of social networking.
5. Be afraid to screw up. I only learned these rules by breaking them and not by following advice. So, I really should have taken my own advice, not posted these, which allowed you to figure these out for yourself. However, these are merely suggestions, so, if you think I am off my blogging chair, then try it for yourself. If what I said doesn’t apply to you, please let me know how you did it. I need to learn.
6. Feel the need to create the deepest most Earth-shattering idea before you start writing. I do this a lot. Ask yourself some tough questions…what types of readers do I want? What would they need? What is my goal in communication? Usually, they don’t need your ability to sound incredibly clever. They need something real they can sink their teeth into and implement.
7. Don’t worry about your readers. While “good content” means relevant, it doesn’t mean clinical or verbose. Be terse. Be entertaining. Be authentic.

Looking over the list, it strikes me that these mistakes apply to the world outside of blogging. Being consistent, authentic and truly seeking to serve another person is just a more effective way to live and communicate. It took screwing up at blogging for this guy to get that.

ANSWER ME THIS

Here is my question…if you had to teach the ENG 562: Blog Theory course who would you use as your examples? How would you structure the course? What is unique to blogging language?

Also, please let me know if I missed anything important. I am still new, you know, with much to learn.

The person with the best reply gets to have a FREE lunch…note, that I am not specifying where the lunch would take place.

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

You like? Let others know:

The Best Business Bobs, or Rising Above Any Name

Everyone knows a Bob. He is your uncle, your next door neighbor or your Dad’s friend from college.

“You know Bob, right?”

“Oh, of course I do. Hey, Bob, how’s the wife and kids?”

It is the most unassuming name there is. It is the small pickup truck…the quarter-pounder with cheese…the denim shirt of names in the United States.

Being a Bob, however, could have some drawbacks. Since everyone knows a Bob, how can you make yourself known if you happened to be christened with that label. In a world of Bobs, how do you make yourself stand out?

I have seen this dilemma occur with business. “Hi, we’re in IT, and we provide um…technology solutions.” Or, “I like to blog about innovation, creativity and leadership.” Wait, that one hits too close to home.

You may be the best company ever, but, as far as most people are concerned you are Bob…an IT company or some blogger.

There is no reason to fight this. Don’t try to be an Alejandro. You very well may be Bob. There is nothing wrong with Bob…in fact, being Bob has some great advantages, since people are comfortable and familiar with Bob. Embrace your Bobness.

In my experiences, I have met some Bobs that have transcended their moniker. They have made a profound impact on both my personal and business life. I sometimes even forget that they are named Bob. I only remember the difference they have made in the way that I think.

***************************************************************

THE LIST

Here is a Possibly Incomplete List (in no particular order) of The Best Business Bobs (and sometimes Roberts or Robs since this is my blog and I can cheat if I wanna):

Bob Sommers - If you want to meet someone that understands how to be approachable and likable, look no further than “Maui Bob.” His website, Recognized Expert, is an incredible resource to entrepreneurs, writers, bloggers or anyone who wants to get known on the web. More importantly, Bob is a good person. When you get done talking to Bob, you can’t help but feel good about yourself.

Favorite quote: “Likability is not your ability to make everybody like you. It is your ability to make others feel liked.”

Bob Costas – Not necessarily a “business” Bob, but a master of personal branding. How can you not like Bob Costas? Consistent. Cool. Humble. Mr. Olympics (even when he is putting the smack down on ego-driven athletes).

Favorite quote: “I don’t believe there’s a single American sitting around saying, ‘I’d like to see Bob Costas’ take on this.’”

Bob Burg - Author of the books, The Go-Giver and Endless Referrals. More than an expert on stratospherically successful life attitudes, he is also a student of business thinking. Having a conversation with this Bob is like talking to a library of business knowledge and application.

Favorite quote: “I think perhaps the most prevalent false-dilemma question is: ‘Would you rather be rich OR happy?’ What an awful question. Why not be both? And far too many people have bought into that artificial contradiction. Let’s instead see the world as one of abundance. In this great country, if you can create, if you can add value—you can be rich and happy.” From BusinessWeek.

Robert Kiyosaki – The first non-Bob. The Rich Dad guy – author of many books, notable speaker and personal financing guru. Some of his truths can be hard to swallow, but there is no finer analysis of how the rich get richer and how to think differently about what wealth means.

Favorite quote: “A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.”

Robert Skandalaris – An innovator, author, smart entrepreneur and philanthropist…Skandalaris is the type of guy who has his name on the side of buildings. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak at the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurship at Washington University. An inspirational guy who walks an innovative, fearless walk.

Favorite quote: “Innovation is America’s last bastion of competitive advantage…”

Bob Kochan – A guy who is not afraid to be a little goofy…Bob was named one of Small Business Monthly’s Top 20 Under 20. Starting out his professional career as a Six Flags magician, he now owns Kochan and Company (founded in 1987), an innovative and fun advertising company in St. Louis that continues to grow.

Favorite quote: “I look for talented, enthusiastic people, so we have low turnover. It’s a family environment, so we check our egos at the door.”

Rob Amberg – Another advertising/marketing guy, Rob is the vice president and general manager of Cushman/Amberg Communications. He has a cool blog where he shows his abilities at telling a relevant business story…he understands both the value and the costs of Internet marketing.

Favorite quote: (from his blog) “When it comes to marketing ‘shoes’ you can only last in the painful eye-catchers for so long. And you’ll know when that time comes. It’s when you have to walk the talk. The rest is just show and tell.”

Bobby Knight - The opposite of likeable. Not a business man, but one heck of an inspiring leader and clearly a passionate person. I can’t say that I agree with his style, but 1. I have not coached successful teams and 2. his ability to inspire greatness is clear – 902 NCAA Div. I wins, 3 National Championships and 11 Big Ten Championships. Most of his players graduated.

Favorite quote: “You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.”

Robert Sutton – You know him…he’s the No Asshole Rule guy. Anyone who can get the Harvard Business Review to print the a-dash-dash-hole word is to be revered. The management science professor from Stanford has the cajones to call most workplaces on their rudeness and lack of civility…and his research is impeccable. Also wrote – Weird Ideas That Work – another must-read for any entrepreneur.

Favorite quote: “Indeed, I am starting to believe that, as a management professor, part of my job is to teach people when indifference is more useful than passion.”

See all the magic and inspiration that can come from a Bob? See the irony in Bobby Knight and the No Asshole Rule guy in one blog post?

ANSWER ME THIS

What is the Bob about your business that you have not really made shine? People like a Bob. They can relate to a Bob. They feel comfortable with Bob. The Bob is the human part of your business that is authentically more concerned with the client or customer than itself…it achieves great things without suffering the sin of significance.

Let your Bob shine.

ALSO

Do you know any good Bobs that I missed? Please post your favorite Bob.

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Stop worrying about the credit market…get creative

Tom Schlafly is one of the most successful business people (and human beings) I have had the pleasure of talking to. He built the St. Louis Brewery in the town that has…um..you, know… THE Brewery. However, since InBev came to town, Schlafly now enjoys status as St. Louis largest locally-owned brewery.

As Tom points out in his witty column Top Fermentation, “In any discussion of local industry in St. Louis, Schlafly is now The Brewery.” The irony is thicker than the head on one of Tom’s stout winter brews.

The man who:

• claims that he “would never have started his business if he knew anything about business”
• attracts an entire team of people with liberal arts degrees and no business background
• had to change Missouri laws on microbreweries to grow his business
• holds an irrational love for St. Louis
• continues to bring a creative wonder to his business

…is now wildly successful against all odds and in the shrined shadow of a St. Louis darling – Anheuser-Busch.

Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle choice and a way of thinking differently about:

• what it means to be in business
• what it means to have success
• what it means to be professional

Many times at the root of this decision (to rip the employee label off your life and think in this manner) is a very emotional and peculiar drive. As my friend Richard Sacks (author, consultant and entrepreneur) puts it, “most entrepreneurs are on plan B.” They are creative, innovative, passionate people who got ticked off at the way that their industry was working, or feel that some population is grossly underserved.

If there is this distinction between an entrepreneur and a manager or executive, then why do entrepreneurs constantly feel they have to behave like the rest of business world when it comes to financing their business?

I have heard many entrepreneurs complain:

• The banks don’t take me seriously.
• I don’t have the right contacts.
• The credit market has dried up.
• Venture capitalists aren’t giving out money.
• Angel investors are watching their portfolios dwindle away.

This reaction to our current economy is not an irrational response. This is fear-based thinking that will be a secure lockdown to any growth that your business could hope to have.

To survive the slowdown and the limited access to capital, you must see this fear, name it and move along on the path.  You must be irrational. (For more on this see Dixie Gillaspie’s article on moving through fear.)

You are an entrepreneur…be creative. Here are some practical steps that I have seen the best entrepreneurs take to make long-term financial goals. (All of these steps were taken assuming that you had the right attitude, have had solid business ethics and want to grow your business.)

• Get skin in the game. This is a battle. If you can’t stomach a big personal loss, you may need to find a job. While it does not sound pleasant, I have yet to meet a financial backer who is comfortable taking on all the risk. Collect up your capital and what you have of value. If it was a comfortable process, then everyone would do it. Two retailers I know have doubled their business in the last year by leveraging collateral to get credit.
• Negotiate and make terms with your vendors. Make it as simple as possible. “Hey, things are slowing down for me. Can I pay you $x amount per month?” Most folks will allow you some latitude.
• Find easy ways to monetize what you do. This is dangerous because you may end up going down sales paths that can distract you from a primary purpose. What do you do already do that adds value and you can easily charge for? This could be scaled-back versions of a larger service for a reduced rate. However it looks, find new ways to make money at what you are already doing.
• Find like-minded folks that share your vision. They may not be instant sources of money, but you can certainly find advise, empathy, friendship and accountability. The monetary value of true friendship is immeasurable. The most successful people that I know found and inner circle that they went to in good times and bad. You start finding these people by becoming an approachable person.

It may seem as though the universe is conspiring against you, but take a look at Schlafly’s situation 17 years ago. You do not face nearly the odds that he did. He made it. You can too. It may not look the way you thought it would, but your company will be better for it.

And, if you are a St. Louis-based entrepreneur, then you have access to at least 49 growth opportunities that are unique to your city.

TRY THIS ONE ON:

If you wanted to hear what it was like for a passionate, eccentric business owner, then read Tom Schlafly’s book, A New Religion in Mecca. There is a great deal of hope in there. It seems that Schlafly contends that the universe conspired to make his business successful, but, someone who knew what she was talking about once said: Luck is the residue of rigorous, persistent action.

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Business lessons from George Carlin

Choosing to become a business owner is absurd.  Given the amount of businesses that fail, breaking from a career to start an organization becomes an exercise that is close to insane.  Only a certain type of person, the entrepreneur, who would forsake the glory of the paycheck to start something unique, something counter-industry, something that your market truly needs would do such a thing.

On June 22, the entrepreneurial world lost one such person.  George Carlin, who was not one for euphemisms, died (no “passing away”).

To appreciate what Carlin did for his industry, you have to go back to the time in which he started.  After working as a DJ, a marketing director for peanut brittle and being discharged from the Air Force for being an “unproductive man,” Carlin teamed up with Jack Burns and started performing comedy shows that were pretty close to conventional.  Then, in the late 60s, he and Burns watched as Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity.

Apparently, something clicked. Carlin saw an opportunity to expose a weakness he saw in the way that Americans view their freedom of language, and he saw a way to separate himself from the crowd of other comedians.

This is entrepreneurial fervor.  Here are four things that Carlin taught through his comedy and his life that can be applied to your business:

1. See the same thing in new ways

Small business is the best opportunity to walk customers through a new experience, and it does not require you to act or behave any differently.  Be a human first before you’re a business owner.

A St. Louis example of this is Joe Edwards at Blueberry Hill.  What started as a restaurant and bar turned into the largest neighborhood transformation in recent St. Louis history.  He organized other merchants to create The Delmar Loop.  His business became an advocacy for something bigger.

He achieved this by being himself.  It was not his aim, rather a natural occurrence of being authentic and willing to see the same thing (business ownership) in an entirely new way (community creation). Vuja De.

Carlin was able to achieve this for comedy, and you can do this in your industry.
Do your customers know you? Do you stand for something beyond your business goals? How can your business reinforce your beliefs and allow your light to shine?

2. Get down to the core

One of Carlin’s famous routines was the Al Sleet, the hippie-dippie weatherman, “Tonight’s forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening with some widely scattered light toward morning.”

The act stuck because it conveyed a simple truth that most folks take for granted.  Of course, there is much more to weather than the presence or absence of light, but what else can you say with this amount of certainty?  The same is true for many organizations.  Often we get hung up on tactics, projects or ideas that are really complicating.  These things are important, however, remember the simple truths about you, your business and the role you are to play.  Everything else is debatable, and, like the weather, difficult to predict.  What is at the core of you and your business?

3. Don’t take yourself too seriously

Carlin had an HBO Special titled, “Life is Worth Losing.”  To say, “Nothing is sacred to Carlin,” is an understatement.  His comedic topics ranged from airplane food and colloquialisms to death and rape.

While Carlin may have gone to the extreme, a lack of levity is a problem that I see in business all the time.  I have a friend who owns a contracting business, and he created a charter of 35 rules and regulations that he has difficulty in following.  Now he has to police his workforce and dole out punishment for stepping out of the bounds.

Here is the problem: People will let you down.  It is not a matter of if, but when.  Try to remember those times you have let others down as a necessary dose of humility.  The problem that my friend has is not the code of conduct, but his attitude toward it.  To approach people from a moral hilltop is dangerous.  Create a business that inspires others to take ownership.

Your legacy may outlive you, but only if you get out of the way.  Carlin was an example of this.  He was devoted to his craft and his creative legacy, however, he remembered that all of this was fading.  It is nothing more than life and death.  How are you taking your business too seriously?

4. Challenge everything…all the time

Carlin did not get ahead by regurgitating the same line of ex-girlfriend and cat jokes.  He pushed the limits of what it meant to be in comedy.

People were forced to think…to make a decision on something that they thought they could evade.  The perfect example of this was his “Seven Deadly Words” routine, which was based upon the seven words you cannot say on television.  This routine landed Carlin in jail and forced a Supreme Court decision on broadcast indecency.

He stated his purpose in one of his many comedy routines, “I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

Entrepreneurs and business leaders are situated to do the same thing.  Challenge conventional beliefs about how people should be served.  Not only does this set you apart from other businesses in your industry, but it is increasingly becoming the way that our economy will survive.  We don’t need people who can play the game.  We need people willing to change it.  What do you do that is worth a Supreme Court decision?  What are you doing to change perceptions about your industry?

- Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business
Monthly

What word cloud would your customers write about you?

When I meet someone for the first time, I have often wanted to hand them a preface. This would contain a few key moments from the past, failed relationships, funny/tragic stories, a songlist and a stack of DVDs (mostly bad 80s movies).

That way, when I say something like, “well, at least I have that going for me,” people would immediately recognize what I was talking about. Whether they would find me funny or not is another story.

Instead, what usually happens is that I get a few minutes into conversation, I say something that sounds inappropriate or misguided. Then, I attempt to explain my choice of words or reasoning for the placement of a story.

Personally, I am waiting for the folks at Google to come up with the iCloud. This is a digitally generated keyword cloud that would display above your head at all times. This way people would know what is important to you, how you define yourself and what your personality is like.

Here is what I think mine would look like:

This is how your iCloud may look after you realized you deleted all your episodes of your favorite reality TV show from your DVR:

You’re ready to make a killer sales presentation:

While you are dreaming at night:

All that would be required for this to come to fruition is some form of brain scanning device. This should be easy to come by for the Google folks. Aren’t they the royalty of the Inter-webs?

All of this is leaving out the possibility to tie this in with the social networking software and text messages. The Twitter people could grab a hold of this and the need to constantly update people on where you are and what you are doing. It could be the iCloud autoTwitter.

TRY THIS ONE OUT:

Go to wordle and create a word cloud for yourself and for your organization. Then, make one using the text from the last reviews of you or your company. You may notice a discrepancy, and that creates an opportunity to change what words your customers associate with you.

Really, the people at Google don’t need to create these. Everybody already sees them anyway…for better or for worse. They are writing one for you right now. As much as I would like to have a preface to make things easier for folks that I meet, people are already writing one for me. The cloud that we create for ourselves is pretty useless in relation to how others interpret who we are.

Your marketing does not belong to you, and you don’t get to write your word cloud.

So, what words are you putting out there? Please email me or comment below with your word cloud.

Visions fade…passion must remain

It was 1968. My friend Carl’s grandfather had purchased a brand new black and silver Shelby Mustang. It was a thing of beauty and a marvel of performance.

It was driven until the mid-80s when it became a fixture in his grandfather’s garage where entropy set in.

Fifteen years later, after the death of his grandfather, Carl’s uncle wheeled the old car out of the garage and onto a tow truck. Carl’s uncle had an old photo of himself and his recently deceased father (white t-shirt and denim clad) leaning on the rear of the Shelby (if you put your ear to the picture, you can hear the John Mellencamp soundtrack).

His uncle had a vision: He needed to restore the Mustang to its original form and performance level.

The car, however, had suffered greatly from 20 years of neglect. It was completely rusted out and broken down, and Carl’s uncle lacked both the resources and the knowledge on how to restore the vehicle.

Most mature and wise people would not embark on such a journey. While the vision may be there, it is just too much time, money and emotions to invest in something that really does not create any value, but his uncle had that photo.

In total, it took him 15 years to completely restore the Shelby. During that time, there were months where no progress was made. His uncle would pull the tarp back, shake his head and put the tarp back over the car.

Later, he would look at the photo. His memories would awaken. The smell of the new interior and the way that the manual transmission would slide into gear…like it knew it was supposed to. He would go back to the vehicle and slowly begin to work again.

(Just to set the record straight, I would have gone into more detail on the car, but I know nothing about cars. When I am on a family trip and the car breaks down, I try to pretend that I know what’s wrong. I mutter something about alternators and gaskets as I open the hood only to find the same thing there as the last time…an engine. At least, I think that is what that thing is.)

However, what I can relate to is the passion, disappointment, anguish and long suffering that a project like this can mean for those who choose this path. This is really the same path as the entrepreneur. Here are 3 things that I took from my friend Carl’s Shelby story:

• Nothing worth doing is ever going to be easy, and it is going to take twice as long as you would like it to. When your problems pile up on you, remember that this is all part of a much larger process. The story of your success is never going to be what you planned, but it will always be what it is supposed to be.
• To do something truly great means you will be humbled. Most days, the task was too daunting. The car won many battles, and through it all, Carl’s uncle had to admit repeated defeats. However, they were not permanent. He remembered his passion, and he humbly moved forward.
• Baby steps, my friend. Most entrepreneurs and leaders want the success and dreams to come true now. However, with most things, we will have to be content with patient improvement. This does not mean that we rest on our laurels, but the shortcut to success does not exist.

MOST IMPORTANTLY:

• Find your Mellencamp-esque photo. The vision may fade, but the passion is the engine. Carl’s uncle had a perfect, clear, well-defined vision, but with no fuel, he would have no Mustang. This does not mean that he felt the passion all the time, and there were days when he could not . But…he always found a rallying point in the nostalgia of connection with his father. He had more than purpose…he had energy to make that vision a reality. The photo symbolized this energy.

HOMEWORK:

What inspires you? What is it that you feel in your gut about you, your organization or your product/service? (Or, do you feel anything in your gut about what you do?) Where is it that you feel most fulfilled? What brings you joy?

Without the unreasonable and burning desire, nothing can be accomplished. No one can coach you on how to have passion. You have to want to find it.

1. Write down three things that you are passionate about that you think makes you unique from others in your industry or trade. If you would like, you can share them below in a comment. Who knows? You may inspire someone.
2. Check these guys out to find an idea that sticks. While they can’t supply you with passion, they can help you to make that passion into a “photo.” Something you can rally around.

*************

Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

****

The elevator speech – How to bore your potential customers

It’s the most dreaded question at business networking events: So…what do you do? (insert a tonality of feigned enthusiasm and slight exhale).

It seems like a simple enough question, but most people find it incredibly hard to answer.

This difficulty is magnified by the amounts of do’s and dont’s of the “elevator speech” – a.k.a. the surefire way to explain what you do, generate excitement and place any prospect in the mood to buy in about 15 seconds.

I was recently at a referral group meeting, and a person was asked to explain what she does. Immediately, there was this slight thoughtful pause (perhaps a prayer) – a sprinter in the blocks. Then, she launched into a myriad of business keywords that meant nothing, a group of “pain” words followed by some call to action that seemed to include me solving the Middle East crisis by using her print shop. I believe that there was even the old feel-felt-found thrown in there for good measure.

Most of her words fell on deaf ears since, in looking at the expressions of others around the table, they were concerned with their elevator speech. I know I was worried about mine…which was probably just as ineffective and equally as obnoxious.

The answer to much of this dilemma lies not in the words, tactics, colorful stories or mastery of human communications – it’s in the attitude or approach to why you network.

Do you go to spew a brochure on everyone’s shoes, or do you try to help people to find solutions? Are you there to get business, or are you there to give business? Are you desperately looking for the next sale, or are you making it easier for others to make sales happen?

In short, here is the solution:

Don’t talk about yourself. It makes you uncomfortable anyway.

Get them to talk…to tell their story. Find out why they do what they do. Ask them for their passion. Give them some good contacts. Seek to understand them as another human being. The results will amaze you. It works.

Why? Because:

• Nobody cares what you do.
• You look stupid and self-serving talking about yourself all the time.
• Everyone can tell when you are playing the emotional- or buzz-word-bingo as though you have been coached to drop in keywords. People are not google searches. They are people. Talk to them as another of the same species.
• You are not being authentic when you talk in a stilted and trained manner about your company.

If, for some reason, someone really wants to hear about you, then here are some questions to ask yourself so you can get started in talking about what you do:

• What do your customers say that you do? This way you will get them. Example: Our customers tell us that we take the hassle out of prospecting.
• How is your company part of something larger? Do you stand for something outside of your business? Example: We are the evangelists for doing business better in Baton Rouge.
• What is it that your company accomplishes that you really are passionate about? This takes away any need to pretend to be excited. Just allow your natural belief to spill into your speech.
• Open it up to criticism and review. Get your fans or friends to tell you your own story. It gives you a more accurate picture.

It may be a good idea to write these things down. Make them a part of what you believe and how you communicate.

HOMEWORK

Figure out 3 people in your circle that you can easily help without much effort on your part. In the next week, try to help them in the most selfless way that you can muster. This will accomplish many things. Among them:

• You will form a closer relationship with these people.
• They may think you are nuts.
• You will begin to think of others first.
• You will be mistaken for a do-gooder and will have to explain yourself.
• You may actually end up with something to say that is actually interesting…for about 30 seconds. Hell, you may just be living you elevator speech.

Read my friend Gill’s blog and read the Go-Giver – it is a little book that brings to light certain axioms about our relationships with other people.

*************

Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer, St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Millennials don’t really exist

There is a great amount of creativity and effort that goes into finding ways to sell books. Most of the time the effort is to try, through articles, media or blogs, to create some kind of pain.

Business books are notorious for this. They create more pain in an effort to make a need for their solution. Just run to the bookstore. You will never feel more inadequate in your life…you can’t sell, talk, think, write or manage correctly.

Emerging from the pop-business media dust cloud is a hot, new source of pain for business leaders – the Millennial.

There are organizations devoted to understanding millennials, managing millennials, politics for millenials, conferences devoted to millennials and ideas about how this group is going to rock the political structure of the United States.

My Gawd! It appears they will soon take over the world. Somebody alert Homeland Security.

So, what the H-E-(double hockey sticks) is a Millennial?

According to my trusty “Internet,” a Millennial is someone born between the years 1980 to 2000. Others have ’82 to ’97. Basically, it is anybody right now from the ages of 8 to 28.

I’m sure that if we got all those folks in a room that they would have the same views on politics, religious tolerance and work ethic. Yeah, right. I have a 9-year-old. When all of his friends of the same age get together, they can’t even decide on what movie to watch.

Here are some of the things that were so eloquently (do you speak sarcasm?) outlined about this generation on a recent 60 minutes spot:

• Tech-savvy. They like their iPods and Facebook. At times, this is associated with a lack of emotional intelligence or face-to-face human interaction. Really? Hasn’t this been true of every generation? Isn’t the next set of whippersnappers a bit irritating because they adopt and use technology? Try this one, though. Go to your local mall or airport. Everybody is on a cell phone, Crackberry or something…most of them are in their 30′s and older – not millennials.

• Lazy. They want to set their own work schedule and have a family/work balance. They may be pushy in asking for this. They won’t be in the office at 5:30 or looking at emails at 8pm. Really? Good for them. Somebody had to do it. Would we rather them encourage companies that want blind, open-ended allegiance? I thought we were past that. Just because they may not work 60-plus hours a week does not qualify a person as lazy. Have we forgotten about the “slackers?” Didn’t depression-era adults view their kids as lazy? I see a pattern here.

• Narcissitic or praise-hounds. Blame Mr. Rogers. He told them that they were special. Now, they think everything should be handed to them. They need constant praise and attention. Really? What is more narcissistic than pointing out narcissism in younger people? Young people need immediate feedback, praise and attention. That is the name of the game. If you are not prepared for that, then you should not be in the business of raising children or managing employees. They want to learn the ropes and they need good mentors who understand.

• Environmentally conscious and religiously tolerant. These folks care as much about how a company or a group does business as much as what it does. The how is important. People need to be authentic and welcoming to all people. Really? This is partially due to the fact that the world has not beaten it out of them yet. Don’t worry. They will lose hope soon if we keep on telling them that they fit into some manufactured generational bucket.

Here’s the problem: They may want your advice on business or life questions, or they may disdain your advice. They may IM their parents in the middle of a meeting, or they may not even know who their parents really are. NEITHER of these situations makes them of a certain generation. All of them make them human and in a Western culture.

Generation Y.2.0 or Millennials or People-Who-Lives-on-the-Interwebs are not unique…not any more so than anybody else in your organization. For the time being, they are one thing – young. People of a certain age have certain concerns in their effort to create happy and productive lives.

Much of my cynicism at the whole division into generations has to do with the fact that every generation in my family falls into some kind of gulf. I was born in ’78. My father was born in ’54. Where is our category? We have nothing with great or boom or x in the title. Maybe I just feel a little cheated. Can I make one for myself?

Here is the best analysis that I have seen of the generations.

Really want to know how to relate to the younger people on your team? Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you remember what it was like to be young and unsure of things? Who did you turn to?
• Do you remember when your friends and parents were important? How did that feel?
• Do you remember the wonder that used to surround your life?
• Can you understand an individual on an individual basis?

As soon as we look for the ways that we are similar and not how we can separate, I think that we will come to a better place as humans.

HOMEWORK

As I said, there is a great amount of creativity that goes into creating ways to sell books, conferences and other materials. What if you took that same amount of creativity and found ways to understand people on your team as people? They have fears, values, joys, etc. As a leader, your role is to grow in understanding of people, and, not to buy into half-baked ideas on how to neatly categorize them.

************

Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly

Why your organization needs a wienie

I was in an airport recently and trying to get some quick lunch before getting onto a connecting flight.

For those who have not flown in the past decade, let me translate that sentence:

I was in an out outer ring of hell with thousands of other disconnected souls, and I decided to get indigestible chunks of preservative-laden, fried stuff on a stick to grant me some release from my misery.

Airports suck, and airport food sucks even more.

I know that there are folks out there that always look for the positive…well, I would encourage you to spend sometime in these way-stations. Travelers are away from their families, in a hurry, and angry about all the security. On top of that, I was nearly unable to get my fatty sustenance because the person at the taco-themed counter hated being there too.

In the midst of this suffering, here is what came to mind:

Airports are an awesome opportunity for a breakthrough approach to doing business. Imagine if you had a fresh idea to offer the most vibrant service. Your only mission would be to make people smile while in something called a terminal…using nearly whatever (reasonable) means possible. Plus, you could charge a fortune and business-class travelers could expense it.

All around me, though, I see managers taking the opposite approach. Instead of empowering employees to think differently and to make their business more approachable, managers punish their employees for exhibiting behavior that is welcoming and magnetic…or just plain human.

Airports desperately need a wienie.

Seth Godin recently posted about Mark Ramsey’s take on the necessity of a wienie.

Mark retells a story about old man Disney working on a draft plan for the 1964 World’s Fair “Carousel of Progress.” The GE executives loved the preview of the show, but Walt wasn’t quite satisfied – “It doesn’t have a wienie. Come back in a few weeks, and I’ll show you,” he said. Upon their return, the executives noticed that Walt added an animatronic dog with a wagging tail.

Here is Mark’s take on the wienie:

It was the “wienie.” The “finishing touch.” The delightful, magnetic bonus. Wienies are extra. Wienies are what you give the audience after they think they’re already satisfied. Wienies are what you add when what you have is good – but not good enough.”

Airport vendors have the awesome opportunity to offer something beyond expectation because really expectations are quite low. There is plenty of room for a wienie.

Your organization needs a wienie.

In the midst of an economy where people are slashing budgets, leaders can make their company stand out by offering that something extra that helps people understand more about you and how you do business. Plus, a wienie helps your customers to understand that you don’t take yourself so seriously.

HOMEWORK:

• What’s your wienie?
• What are you doing that no one else can touch in your industry?
• How are you adding a magnetic bonus?

WARNING:

This is not about wearing an obligatory 15 pieces of flare. This is about a genuine way to engage your customers beyond their expectations in a way that they may not even notice…a subtlety that is authentic to you and your business. Be proud to be a wienie.

************

Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly