I believe...

What do you believe in? Think about it. What do you believe in so much that when you sway from your beliefs, your conscience lectures you into sleeplessness.

Have you ever written out a values statement to remind yourself and others what you believe in?

Some of us write them out. But most don't, because they are engrained into our upbringing. They emerge when we have kids as we try to pass them to the next generation.

Most values statement aren't worth much, unless they are read every single day. The problem with a values statement is that it only makes sense to you. And if you don't read it everyday, the statement becomes academic and trivial, lost in the papers of life, while you float in the vast ocean of somethingness, headed toward nothingness, while your conscience beacons you to return to safe shores.

For a values statement to have meaning, it must be written in plain, every day language. It must be void of interpretation. It must be the foundation in which all decisions are made. It must help us make decisions when we are in conflict between two equal but opposite choices.

In a team, a values statement is even more important. The leader wants everyone to choose the right path, when two tempting choices float their way.

If a values statement is vague, the interpretation will be open and the results cannot be predictable.
If a values statement is clear, everyone navigates their choices in the same direction and the destination is not just predictable.

It is intended.

Boring, corporate value statements are written on boards, laminated and posted at the front entrance of most offices. They are neighbours to mission statements, visions statements and they all live in the same useless academic community.

I remember having a values statement stare at me everyday in one of my office jobs. Our leader read in Harvard Business Review that it would get lost at the front desk, so he got all the middle and senior managers together. We spent two days in a hotel conference room developing our new mission, vision and values. The process was interesting. And I felt good about it because I was included in the process. After the two days were complete, we felt like we had direction. He laminated them and put one in every office as a constant memory of what happened on those two days.  It didn't change the culture of the organization. It didn't change the work ethics of the employees. It didn't do a damn thing except make him our leader look like he was a smart strategist.

The problem was with the leader. The first item on the values list was respect. He lacked respect for his staff and would fire them if someone looked at him the wrong way. His vision was never going to work because he didn't align with the values statements.

You can learn a lot about someone when you know what they stand for and what they stand against.

There's a better way. And simpler too.

At a recent class, I was asked to write out my belief statements. I had to articulate what my business stood for, in every day language.

I wrote them out. And so did everyone else in the class. We shared them, and we realized that the simpler the statement the more powerful the message.

The simpler the statement, the easier it is to remember.
The simpler the statement, the easier it is to follow.

When values are written clearly, they can be guiding principles.

There is one rule in developing "I believe" statements. They can't sound corporate-y. They have to be written in every day language.

What are your "I believe" statements?

Here are the ones I recently developed for my new business.

This wasn't developed by a committee.
It's not up for discussion.
It will be a guide for everyone in how we act.
There are no exceptions for any person, including the owner.
And no one is perfect, so we'll deal with each mistake in a human, respectful way.


We believe work is sometimes hard, but it doesn’t have to go unappreciated. 
We believe work should be fun. 
We believe that people come before profits. 
We believe that no one is perfect, and there’s always a more human way to deal with issues. 
We believe that we could laugh a lot more. 
We believe that customers deserve our best. 
We believe that karma is a bitch, so we work hard to not upset her. 

Finding good people to work with

Mona likes working in her business. She works hard. Her dad taught her that skill. He owns five different businesses.

Every morning, her dad would leave the house before she got up. Many nights, she would be in bed before he came home. 

She spent the next 13 years watching and learning from her dad. Her dad is a hard ass and works his people to extremes mentally and physically.

Mona used to work for me. At 18 years old, her work ethic could battle even my own. I was proud of her. She was dependable, trustworthy and respectful to my business and my own personal needs.

She was not perfect. Mona didn't like working with people who didn't share her work ethic.  I didn't promote her into management because I worried she would destroy the team culture I built.

Despite all of her strengths, she was never going to be one of my managers. She is more than capable to manage things. My managers had to LEAD people. I didn't think Mona had the leadership gene.

One day Mona accepted a job with her dad and she left me. I was sad to see her leave. Good people like Mona don't come along every day.

It wasn't long before she realized that working for her dad was never going to work. They were from the same fruit bowl. With her dad's help, Mona built a business she could call her own. 

It was a great business with line-ups of customers, loads of revenue, and bucket fulls of profit. But little by little, the customers eroded and profits went with them. 

Mona didn't realize she wasn't capable of leading people. She knew how to work hard. She knew how to treat customers. She didn't know how to lead her own staff. So they quickly quit after a few months of abuse. 

The hamster wheel of hiring had begun.

I sat with Mona and asked her what her number one complaint was. It was the same answer I always get. "Staff! If I could clone myself I wouldn't have any worries", was her answer.

Mona didn't want a business. She wanted a personal revenue stream. She fails to understand that without staff, nothing gets done.

I was at Mona's business today. The toilet wouldn't flush. It was no big deal. It needed a bit of a push. It's something I have done a hundred times at home. With no plunger in the bathroom, I had to tell one of the employees. The employee gave me a disgusted look, remarked about it being a dirty job and then went to the stockroom to retrieve the plunger. I watched her walk to the bathroom, pinching the plunger between her thumb and index finger like the previous usage was vaporizing onto her fingers. 

Mona wasn't here today. Her staff would rather not be here. It's not her staff's fault. 

Mona hasn't led them. 

Working with minimum wage staff with minimum wage mentality isn't easy.  

It starts with the hiring process. 

How do you hire your staff? 

What selection process do you use?

Sometimes the key to a good hire is the use of a good employment ad.

Here's a sample of two different employment ads. Which would you rather work for considering the compensation is about the same?

Leadership starts with the first communication that a new potential employee sees.

Ad #1: 

We are looking for the right fit for our brand. 

We are looking for positive, outgoing, energetic and skilled team members for our Kithcen Team. The applicant must have minimum two years of experience. All applicants must be available for evenings and weekends.

Ad #2:

Wouldn’t you like to work for someone who treats you like a person and not a number? 

Working in the restaurant industry should be fun. It’s not a job. Well of course it’s a job. But it doesn’t have to feel like one.

Here’s what XYZ Company believes in:

We believe work is sometimes hard, but it should never be unappreciated. 

We believe work should be fun.

We believe that people come before profits.

We believe that no one is perfect, and there’s always a more human way to deal with issues.

We believe that we could laugh a lot more.

We believe that customers deserve our best.

We believe that karma is a bitch, so we need to work hard to not upset her.

XYZ Company is a new restaurant coming to ABC town. We are now hiring counter service employees to start in mid June.

Finding your purpose

Purpose is a funny thing that only comes from conscious beings.

I never thought much about purpose before three years ago. I lived my life, tried to be good to others and pursued my goals.

But then something happened on the way to death. I realized that one day there would be a knock on the door and I would no longer be here.

The urgency of creating something of extreme value became important. I was looking for my purpose. I didn't want to live a wasted life.

Not that I was looking for fame. I wanted to be able to laugh on my deathbed knowing I had accomplished something important in my time here.

In my first year of business school, we learned about the importance of mission statements.

I translated what I learned from business into a personal mission statement.

And I missed the point badly.

The reason for the mistake is businesses don't understand mission statements. Follow someone who doesn't know what they're doing and you'll end up in the same ditch, eventually.

As this was swirling in my head, I decided to open another restaurant. Again I wrestled with purpose and mission of this new business. It bothered me. I was supposed to have these answers for clients and I couldn't even come up with them for myself.

One sleepless night, while thinking about purpose, mission and trying to figure out what I stood for, I came to the realization that I did not have the answer. I had to seek it out from others.

Then I was enlightened by a brilliant nine year old, who just happens to be my son.

I asked my kids what the purpose of this new business was going to be. My ten year confirmed what most would say, "It's about making money".

Then my nine year old, who LOVES money, articulated so clearly why it couldn't be about money. I have been trying to tell businesses for years why money could not be the purpose. And he told us in a couple of sentences why businesses fail.

To put this into context, my nine year old doesn't do very well in school. He loves money. He counts his birthday and Christmas money at least three times per week. We've had to take away his wallet because he would roll around in it if we would let him. When I say, he loves money, I mean he LOVES money. Every winking moment, he thinks about, associates it to things and wants more of it.

But here's what he told his sister and I that morning around the breakfast table.
"It can't be about money. It will make you look selfish. No one wants to buy anything from someone who is selfish".

And there it was. The answer I was looking for. In the lack of a real purpose, people and businesses are thought to be SELFISH. In a selfish transaction, it's a dog eat dog world.

You want my money, what are you giving me in return.
Where's the discount?
Give me what I want and I will give you what you want.

That's simple transactional buying. It's the biggest pitfalls most businesses fall into.
And it can be avoided by existing on purpose.

I walk into my favourite coffeeshop and I don't know their purpose.
The default is to make money.
The default is selfish.

I go to buy a car or a sofa. The business talks about how it's going to save me money.
I'm not dumb. I know my savings are translated into profits for the seller.
Now I want a bigger discount.
I will price shop because no one is taking care of me, but me.
SELFISH

The opposite of SELFISH is GENEROSITY.

What are you generous with?
Time, Money, Education, Happiness, etc?
How do you promote them in your life or in your business.

So there it is. This new business will stand for generosity. It will be a giving corporation. It will take care of its employees, its customers, its community.

I'll share more about Generosity as it relates to marketing in my next blog.

Business and friendships

If you could own an audience, to the point where they would listen to every word you said, and then acted on your words, what would that be worth?

Is it better to talk to more people screaming from he mountaintops hoping that someone will give a shit enough to listen? Or is it better to have a few friends who like you, respect you enough to listen, and honest enough to not talk behind your back?

Business has lost its way.

Despite what you think, a business does not have to be all things to all people.  It has to be all things to the "right" people.

It is the job of your marketing team to find the "right" people.

Jesus Christ wasn't able to convince all the people.
Why would business people think they can?

Let's paint a picture.

You own a jewelry store and you want to sell 1 more diamond engagement ring each week.

Typically, a smart marketing person would ask questions like,
"Who's the target audience"
"What's your budget"
"Where does the target audience hang-out"

Then, they would market to the target audience screaming from the mountain top hoping someone will listen in their busy lives.

Most won't hear the message.
Some will hear it and not care.
Some will hear it, and consider your product while they shop the best deal, which may not be with you.
Almost no one will buy from you without price shopping first. You haven't earned their respect.

All you got was their attention.

Sustainable business is based on small friendships.

We don't find friends by yelling at them.
We don't find friends by talking to as many people as possible.

Friendship isn't a numbers game. And neither is good marketing.

There are fundamental rules for a friendship to work.
1. We have to want to be around each other.
2. We need to trust each other.
3. We want to help the other person without asking anything in return.

Businesses have forgotten the rules of friendship.
Most businesses want only one thing - money from its customers. And in exchange they offer a product or service.

We call that a transaction.
Not a friendship.

The first time a "target customer" hears a commercial, there has to be a connection in the message. No likeable message, no potential friendship.  As the target continues to hear the ad,  increases in likeability leans toward respect.

Respect is trust's mirror image.

Trust builds confidence and pushes action. When the "target customer" decides to interact with the brand and gets the same experience the ad made him feel, he will buy.

The purchase decision was already made through the emotions the ad created. The experience at the business reinforces the emotion.

Business isn't a numbers game. Let your message hang out with potential customers. Some will hate what you have to say. Some will love it. Let the ones who love it enter your friendship circle. Tell stories. Listen.

Don't yell or brag. In other words, don't be an asshole. Being an asshole attracts other assholes. Assholes aren't good for business unless you sell toilet paper.

With time, there will be new, cool, people hanging out in your business, wanting to buy from you.

Marketing is easy.
Good marketing is hard.

How many friends has your business made recently?

It's time to play

The fat lady does not stop and we do not pay attention.
For there are better things to do.
Than exit stage right.

Time is like the fat lady.
Singing to remind us that although we think we have just began, we are wrong.
Time is not measurable, even though we measure it.
Time cannot be bottled up into a jar and preserved like a common beetle.
We try to account for our time so we live fuller, deeper, more meaningful lives.

Inventions save us time from the tediousness of our lives.
But time spins out of control, going faster and faster until our allotment of it ends.

An wise old lady once told me, "What we focus on, expands."
It made sense, until I relate it to time.

When I focus on time, it does not expand. It races away.
As a child, time was irrelevant and stood still.
As an adult, everything has a deadline. Time is accounted for, and it speeds up.

Time does not exist, except in our own minds.

I have no time.
I wish I had time.
If I could only find the time.
It's time to get up.
Time-out,
What time is it?
Where did the time go?

We put so much emphasis on time, that we do not live. Trying to accomplish all the shit we set out to do before we go to sleep. Trying to meet deadlines measured by a unit of time, we cram it all in trying to make our lives more complete.

Accounting for time wastes our lives away, not enjoying the life we've been given.

Have you ever gone on vacation and came home exhausted? Of course, your routine was changed. You didn't have to be at work. But you added deadlines to your playtime.
You wanted to see, do, experience things. Even the simple pleasures of drinking poolside, was declared as relaxing, when in fact it was on your imaginary "To-do" list.

Time cannot be harnessed. It is not a wild horse waiting for its rider to tame it. It is you who is the wild horse.

Time owns your ass. You are here for a moment in time's infinacy.

If you want time to slow down, you may be too late. It will depend on how far you are up your own ass.

If there's anything we learn from children, time slows down for those who play.
Go find your play and play more.

The greatest inventions save us time

Time is not a renewable resource.

When it's gone, so are we.

All the greatest inventions have one thing in common - they saved us time.

Social media was accepted because it saved us on our most valuable resource.

We're human. We take advantage. We push the limits. We spoil ourselves and get sick by eating too much too fast. We are with time like we are with most good things: prone to addiction.

Social media and smart phones were created to help people connect, faster than ever before. The inventions allowed little snips of conversations to happen at light speed allowing us to deliver and consume little snips of conversations faster than we had ever done before with more people than ever thought possible.

What happened is what always happens with good things.
Overuse,
Followed by addiction,
Followed by social consequence.

These new inventions are exposing issues with productivity, anger, self righteousness and show-offery.

Social media is supposed to save us time. We're supposed to communicate faster online so we can get back to living our lives offline. Instead we're living our lives faster online, so we can live less offline.

I saw a "Facebook" friend last summer in person. It had been 20 years since I saw him last. Not 100% certain, I chose not to speak up. The next day, I talked with him online.

Am I the only fucked up introvert who has ever done this?

As the lines of personal and keyboard interactions continue to blur, our lives are more connected, but less interesting.

And in the process the dark truth of humanity gets exposed.

The Donald

A year ago, I nervously predicted that Donald Trump would be one of the republican finalists. Friends said he didn't have a chance. Friends explained how the nominations worked and how he would eventually flicker away.

Knowing very little about American politics, I felt a little safer in their justifications. But one thing worried me. Donald was marketing himself better than anyone had ever done before him. He had "real" brand recognition. He was saying things that no one ever dared say before. He was "different". And that had to be worth something in the popularity contest called an election.

Donald Trump is a joke. His ability to convince a growing group of people that he should be the next president of the United States is not. He gains popularity even though he doesn't say anything of value.

I have a theory why this joker is encouraged to continue down the electoral path. People have been yearning for someone to say something different.  No more political rhetoric. No more boring conversations about jobs, economy and healthcare.

Let's talk about walls, making America Great again, and deporting immigrants.

Trump doesn't act like a politician. He acts like a marketer. He says things in ways that gets emotion riled up in people. He stirs up the water to get the sediment in the bottom to float to the top. He wants people to be afraid. He wants them to get angry. He wants them to be politically incorrect.

He is zigging when everyone else zags. And that's why he is winning.

The fears, racism and anger have always been there, buried deep in the political correct world the public has been forced to live in.  Donald Trump gives people permission to exercise those emotions. And they feel good about themselves when they do.

A good marketer makes you feel good about your decisions.

We all know, The Donald doesn't have the goods to lead the country. And cooler heads may prevail when the final ballots are counted. He can't win. Can he?

Trump has opened the gates to Arkham Asylum. The crazies are being granted permission to run next time.

The fearful, angry voters will turn up another radical politician. A politician who presents well and sells to both the uninformed and informed voter is going to emerge.

It is not Trump I am afraid of. It is his successor.

The next nut job won't look like a joke. He won't talk like a joke. He will be well respected until it's too late. The Donald has laid the foundation for future radical politicians.

We should be worried.