Category: Entrepreneurs
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Data is not the story. Nor is it marketing
Modern marketing is ever-more difficult to distinguish from data. But it is crucial that we put forth continued effort to separate them in order to best invest our resources. Here is my take on it. Marketing is the story. Multiple stories, actually! – The story about why and how you (the brand, product, team, individual,…
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Give More TIME
FACT: We all have the same 24 hours each day. What we get largely comes down to how we allocate those moments. Let me be clear, “Give More Time” is NOT about giving all of your time away. It is about establishing ways to be selective about where you invest your time so that you…
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Profitability is Key to Sustainability
Sustainable business IS profitable. Let’s start with simple explanations of 2 key concepts with 7 words each. PROFIT: calculation of total revenue less total expenses. SUSTAINABILITY: The ability to continue operations perpetually. In order to continue operations, businesses need to collect more than they spend. Each business has a unique pattern to the sources, timing,…
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Easy Is Always Better
One way to gain huge advantages in the minds of the human buyers and users is to make things simple. Einstein has been famously attributed to a reminder to us all that if we can’t explain it simply enough for a 5th grader, we don’t understand it well enough. This applies to Business, Finance, Economics,…
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Whole-business approach
Whole person approach = whole business approach Thankfully, there is a lot of talk about mental health and stability as it pertains to business, career, growth, and success. The benefits apply to EVERYONE, not just entrepreneurs, founders, and executives. A whole-person approach to business design is merely about creating support systems for critical infrastructure. It…
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Limits of Product Design
It is nearly impossible to design and build a product that will sell itself millions of times over! Great product design IS important. But Sustainable and growing revenue streams are built by stories, connections, and relationships of marketing, branding, and sales professionals. Period. Revenues can be generated without them. However, the default arena is PRICE – which is heavily slanted toward…
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Simplifying “BRANDING”
I wish I had a nickel for every time I had a conversation with a business professional about what branding is or isn’t; why it is valuable; when and how to invest in it; etc. Here is an overly simple solution for executives, owners, founders, as well as our friends and family members. Every time you see the word branding,…
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Leading from Chaos
All your thoughts, beliefs, actions, and reactions have brought you to where you are today. It might not be the depiction of Strategic Mastery you would like it to be. It is likely the most accurate depiction of “learning curve” and represents huge investments in developing emotional boundaries, physical dexterities, understanding others, situational awareness, and…
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Polishing Turds or Audience Selection
I admit it! On more than two occasions in my career, I invested massive amounts of my creative, persuasive, and story-telling energies into a product or company that I knew wasn’t going anywhere. It was torture! What separates successful #innovations isn’t how much spin or #marketing resources are applied. It is doing the challenging work to understand who can…
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Innovation and Product Life Cycle
Innovations are often mis-understood as being instant hits that immediately resonate with mass audiences and ‘virtually sell themselves’ based on their merits, coolness, or impact alone. This is NEVER the case! More accurately, all innovations follow the exact same sequence of growth as every other product. No brand, person, or idea can escape it. Following…
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Only Execute Fully-Funded Projects
A mentor talked with me about only executing fully-funded projects early in my career. I feel strong and confident every time I use this tip to make a decision about where to invest my energies. I have been burned every time I go against this methodology. As have countless others. One trick I have learned…
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To Brand Is To Be Human
Your brand is critical to attracting ideal clients/customers, defining expected quality, overall business stability, growth opportunities, and personal wealth. Meaning: without a defined brand, all the above is extraordinarily difficult. It has always been this way! By always, I refer to dating of early branding irons that go back thousands of years. More crucially, branding…
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Where Your Brand Lives
Your #brand is the reputation that lives in the minds of people. They might be internal, externally connected, or totally disconnected. Over-simplifying, I put 60% emphasis on external but connected people. they might include:– #Vendors– Former employees– Distribution partners– #Customers (current and past)– #Prospects– Ideal #audiences, etc. The remaining 40% on internal people.– #Employees– #Investors Synergies and momentum build when there is overlap and…
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Importance of Innovation
#Innovation is the ONLY way to change your current situation, direction or hope to get new results. It can seem scary when you don’t have ample resources of time, money, friends, or whatever. It might not “work”. Meaning it might not bring the results you intend. But trying something new will always bring new results and #feedback.…
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Marketing and Sales Relationship
I like to describe the relationship between #sales and #marketing to be that of heads and tails of a coin (or front/back of a dollar bill). In many situations, #CEOs seem to have systems and structures in place to measure sales. Marketing can and should be designed to compliment and enhance their sales processes. Places where they feel a lag, struggle,…
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Who do you serve?
#Business exists to serve people. And to the extent people are served, business grows. Get to know your people – as individuals.People often fall into categories of shareholders, owners, employees, vendors, buyers, users, subscribers, followers, and friends – each with different needs. None of them is more important than any other. Find ways to help them…
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Measuring Ideas
Some people talk about ideas in terms of being big or small. The idea itself is not measurable beyond a couple firings of neurons somewhere in our brain. What IS measurable is the impact of the idea – the number of people involved in it, the amount of #change it brings, the #value it creates,…
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Creativity is capital
Each of us has unlimited capacity to increase our value. Each of us has unlimited capacity to create! Our #imagination, interpretations, and #insights grow more and more keen with every experience. They represent our largest, and mostly untapped, opportunity to contribute to the world. #Creativity is a natural state of #humanity, making it infinitely #abundant.…
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Better Questions
Great #interviewers and #entrepreneurs are often known for asking #powerful, simple, concise, #cutting, and BIG questions. While they do make their share of #assumptions from time to time, they are followed with more #questions. Better questions aren’t just about getting better #answers. They prime our #curiosity and #imagination, open our minds to #solutions, help us…
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Movement follows value
There are many conversations growing today around ways #leadership, #management, #marketing, and #sales are changing as #technology and #information become ever-more present in our lives. In many ways, these aspects of business have changed dramatically in the past two decades. But as the headline suggests, not much has truly changed! #Humans are social creatures. We…
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Connect more than conquer
We use numerous references to war, battle, and conquering when discussing #business – #sales in particular. These suggest that business is about gaining advantages over customers and buyers that only benefit us. That sure doesn’t sound like the best type of relationship we can create! #21stCentury business and sales models are about building beneficial connections…
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Inspiring Fixers
We can fix it – the #environment, the #economy, the #government, society… anything really. #Creative ideas flow through us constantly as a way of telling us we are alive and to prime our #passions for action. The Internet gives us resources like #Google, #Siri, #Alexa, #Watson, and tons of upcoming new #ArtificialIntelligence systems to streamline…
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Serve Others First
I first heard the concept of #ServantLeadership about 25 years ago (though it dates back over 40 years) and was hooked! The idea is that those in positions of #power and authority put the needs of others first and help them develop in ways to perform their best. In committing to this, they selflessly build…
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Entrepreneurs Change The World
#Teachers educate the world. They share knowledge, help us learn valuable lessons, and inspire us to do more. They are never restricted to the classroom. #Politicians rule the world. As in they create the norms and laws we are to follow to live in society. For better or worse, we give them this permission and…
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Creativity
#Creativity is the process of making something out of nothing. It requires a tremendous amount of skill, patience, experimentation, and a variety of tools. It is unpredictable at its best, and inconsistent at its worst. From a certain perspective, it is highly inefficient and unproductive. Perhaps that is why it is hardly embraced by the…
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Dream with others
12 April 2018 One of the most powerful ways to appreciate another person is to #dream with them. This encompasses deep #listening, honoring their delicate #creativity, acknowledging their #skills as well as challenges, respecting their premature ideas, and #encouraging them to be themselves. Most of us don’t get that often enough and keep our #genius…
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Purpose Propels
5 April 2018 Purpose is a simplistic explanation of why a particular thing, action, or business exists or is used. #Corporations have a fiduciary duty to act in good faith, use their best judgement, and promote the best interests of the entity. The #capitalistic purpose over the last couple hundred years was to simply make…
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Meet customers wherer ever they are
2 April 2018 We have all types of customers in all types of places. #CustomerService is about catering to their needs. Internal #customers (like #CEO, #manager, and other departments) have different needs than external customers (#consumers, #clients, #shareholders, shippers, etc.) The one common thing is that they all crave personal attention and recognition. Meeting them…
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Leaders Move
30 March 2018 #Leadership is movement… towards a known goal/objective or away from an undesirable status quo. It takes #vision, confidence, and competence to recognize it is possible for ‘something better’ even though there is zero evidence of its existence. #Movement starts with #communication. Sharing ideas #connects people and allows them to discover ways their…
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Keep giving
26 March 2018: The next time someone asks about your job, tell them you are responsible for managing and growing gift-allocations of precious resources. This IS your job – regardless of your title, position, or age. YOU decide how much, when, where, and for how long you will invest your #time, #effort, #talent, and #attention.…
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Innovation and growth
21 March 2018 Too many of us are intimidated by #innovation and make it out to be a monster of mythical strength. Just as tracks make it possible for trains, innovation is the precursor to #growth. One #strategy is to shoot for an industry #disrupting #unicorn that are requires Sisyphus like dedication to get the…
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Transparency
13 March 2018 #Focus is about having a single-minded approach towards a known and supported objective. This allows #teams and individuals to act as independently or collectively as they see fit. It is as much about what we are NOT going to do (distraction of energies) as it is about what we ARE going…
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Love Like The Sun
5 March 2018 One of my favorite poems, Hafiz writes; “Even after all this time, the sun never says to Earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens. With love like that, it lights the whole sky.” #Share your gifts with others. It is how they grow. It is how you #grow. This is your platform…
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Consider Your Audience
Why do most marketing, communications, and sales pitches fail? They lack connection to the audience. Sellers try to stay in control of the conversation and present what they think are the most compelling reasons to buy. Often it is the same reasons to every audience. Before my sales career began; I spent a couple years…
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The Power Of Connectivity
It’s one thing to be connected to the Internet. This connection enriches our experiences working, playing, shopping, sharing, and communicating. It’s another thing to be connected to another human being. This connection enriches our entire lives and brings an entirely new meaning to the concept of sharing. Both of these connections are pretty insignificant when…
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Blazing New Trails
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” People are the key to a 21st Century business. They are not a mere resource that needs to be managed. They are the most valuable asset to an organization and the driving force behind growing businesses. The job of…
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A Foundation for 21st Century Business
Whether we are ready to admit it or not; the way we do business today is different than it was 10, 5, even just 3 years ago. Buyers either seem to care about different things or care about things in a different degree. There are more competitors offering highly similar products and services. Consumers have…
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How to Achieve 2x, 5x, 10x Growth
Everyone in business wants to grow! Some might see 20% or 30% as effective growth. Others might set their sights on 50% or over 75% growth. But from the viewpoint of earning a return on your investment (time, money, energy, talent, or any other resource), these are pretty paltry. Most businesses need to double their…
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The Power Of Systems In Marketing
Contrary to beliefs throughout the industrial age; marketing and sales are not interchangeable words. Independently, they seem to be infinitely complex and divergent, but when blended together properly they blend create powerful synergies. Described separately and in overly-simplified terms; ‘Sales’ is about creating and maintaining a relationship that results in a transaction. ‘Marketing’ is about…
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Leadership in the 21st Century
The summer I turned 13; I attended my first formal leadership training workshop. I was hooked! I have served hundreds of leadership positions in the 25 years since that weekend – formal, informal, elected, appointed, volunteered, etc. Some were for pay while others were just necessary. Some were as brief as 10 minutes; while others…
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Profit is not an indication of Growth
Profits are great! And quite easy to figure out. They are simply the monetary surplus left to a producer after deducting all expenses (wages, materials, rent, etc.) from the total income or revenues. This can be calculated per transaction about as easy as it can be for a given time frame (month, quarter, year). While…
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6 Benefits of Transparency
Transparency, authenticity, integrity and the like are not just overly-idealistic buzzwords for today’s business world; they provide long-lasting AND immediate benefits to those who invest time and energy to make it a prominent aspect of their business operations. Consider the image above: Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, CT. Construction was completed in 1949…
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More Than ‘Closing Deals’
Sales is a complex process; not a destination or single event. It is about solving problems, introducing new ideas, building and maintaining relationships. In just one word, sales is about TRUST. While I do see the temptation to pay sales people a percentage of the end result (deals they close); I feel that this…
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What Every Entrepreneur Needs To Hear
NO ONE CARES! No one cares about your newest technology; your office décor, open floor plan, pet policy, or employee perks. No one cares about how much funding you have received, CEO salary, business valuations, or analyst predictions. No one cares about your warranty, customer service rating, latest promotion, or even sales price. We don’t…
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Modern Sales: Facilitate The Purchase
This is the second part of an article started (here) earlier this week. 3. DESIRE: to wish, long for, crave, or want. Decisions are driven by emotions and deep desires. It has been said that there are only two reasons that people make purchases: To feel good; and To solve a problem. Though these get expressed…
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Re-Defining MISTAKES
MISTAKE: A moment of great learning, discovery, or insight; often described as powerful, emotional, and/or life changing. Synonyms: error, mishap, failure. We celebrate our educational achievements with all the pomp and circumstance of graduation. From university down to pre-school, educational programs seem more significant when they come along with some form or certificate of completion.…
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Technology and Connection Drives Entrepreneurs
Just the other day while getting my hair cut; my barber told me about a new hire he is excited about making in 12 months. A longstanding client of his just quit her job and took HIM to a coffee conversation about the next chapter of her career. She was interested in going to school…
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Design-Build Your Reputation
Though the fundamentals of building a reputation – personal or business – hasn’t changed much in the last couple thousand years; we are in a time of rapid technological change that is impacting many of the specific details of how our reputations are both built and experienced. Thank you to reader August Lizarraga Jr. for…
David R Frick 