“Pulling The Trigger”. It’s an expression we use to describe taking an action. But what if we pull the trigger too early? Recently I watched a non-profit pull the trigger on assembling a group of volunteers prior to establishing a clear direction and mandate. As their leader struggled with the direction, the once eager volunteers fell away. I witnessed a tech startup pull the trigger on investing in a rollout team before it had a viable product. They burned away their cash as they struggled to make the technology work. I recently interviewed someone on my podcast who referred to entrepreneurial decision making as being “ready - fire - aim” rather than “ready - aim - fire” and I think that’s true. Entrepreneurs by nature are creative problem solvers who like to move quickly. They see a market opportunity and they know how to mobilize people to get there. Something opens up and they dive right in. And yet, statistics tell us that 50% of the time, that new business will fail. I wonder what the entrepreneurial success rate would be if we all took time to plan? People ask me when is a good time to leave their day job for their side hustle. My answer is simple. 1. When you have a solid plan and projection on how your side hustle will make enough money to support you. 2. When your side hustle is keeping you so busy that it’s making it tough to sustain your day job AND (and this is the important part), if you calculate your hourly rate it’s a number you’d be proud to tell your mom. 3. When you have enough cash to sustain you for 2 years in the event your side hustle isn’t profitable for that long. Now assuming you’ve made it that far and you’re sitting in this room because you understand the value of people-to-people connections to grow your business, how can you improve your chances of being on the good side of that 50% statistic? Plan. Whether you’ve been in business for a month, a year or a decade, taking the time to plan or re-plan your business, rather than managing on guesswork and hope, can make a significant difference as to whether you’ll still be sitting here a year from now. Whether or not you create a formal business plan, research published in the International Small Business Journal showed that just going through the planning process, made a business more likely to succeed. The study showed that having a planning mentality also helped with their success mindset, which made them better leaders. Better leadership, as you might expect, breeds success. They found the same positive impact on serial entrepreneurs as on first time entrepreneurs. Now I see a lot of you are nodding your heads wisely and agreeing that this planning thing makes logical sense. But guess how many of you are actually going to leave this room and do it? Probably zero. So what’s the problem? The problem is that we’re entrepreneurs. We’re the ready - fire - aim people. Planning isn’t fun. It’s much more fun to leave here and go fix something or build something. But what if planning your business could be fun? Here are some ideas: Don’t think of it as planning, think of it as mind mapping. In fact for our clients we have started using visual, interconnected bubbles of ideas to describe their brand and their marketing priorities. We have been using a tool called Mindmeister. It’s helping us to better connect with their strategy because rather than simple writing a bunch of boring notes, we’re visually laying out ideas. And as a side benefit, I have noticed that the visual learners on my creative team are internalizing key brand concepts that we always had written down, but now we’re presenting it in a more interesting way. Even if you’re just doing it on a whiteboard, mind mapping is a great way to get everyone engaged in brainstorming. Start your planning session with physical exercise. Whether this includes going for a walk with your team, playing a game of dodgeball in the parking lot or getting your favorite personal trainer to come and get everyone to plank in the conference room, when you get your blood moving, you’ll think more clearly and your planning session will be more enjoyable. Use pictures. Even if you’re not into doing a full vision board, and I realize that a lot of people feel that’s a bit over the top, have your team find pictures online that describe various aspects of your business, including pictures that describe their ideal culture, customers and your services. This can sometimes be an amusing exercise depending upon what they come up with, so it’s a great brainstorming opener. Plan with Post-its. For some reason, writing ideas on post it notes and sticking them on the wall in phases of your plan is much more fun than writing them on a whiteboard or typing them into a document. Perhaps we love the arts & crafts feel to all of the multi-colored pieces of paper. So grab a big roll of brown paper and stick a piece on the wall, and mark down the quarters of the next year. Brainstorm the different changes and projects you’d like to work on and write them down on post it notes, then stick them on the wall in the quarter you’d like them to happen. Take a picture and boom - instant plan! And for the more social media inclined, try picturing your plan as a series of posts, for example: What we sell and what makes us different How do we solve the needs of our target clients Categories of competitors and how we’re better Where we sell and what marketing activities we do Who are our key team members and what roles do they play Who are our key partners and what roles do they play What is our growth goal What steps are we going to take over the next 12 months to meet our growth goal If it’s more fun, do those on post it notes too. So yes, we may be entrepreneurs and are the masters of firefighting, but while we’re still at the beginning of the year, take an afternoon with your team to plan. It will help keep you on the positive side of that 50% business success rate statistic.

Pulling The Trigger

dianeliseBlog

“Pulling The Trigger”.  It’s an expression we use to describe taking an action.  But what if we pull the trigger too early?   Recently I watched a non-profit pull the trigger on assembling a group of volunteers prior to establishing a clear direction and mandate.  As their leader struggled with the direction, the once eager volunteers fell away. I witnessed a …

entrepreneurs have no off button finger turning computer off

Entrepreneurs Have No “Off Button”

Diane MouraBlog

I was interviewing a founder for my podcast last week and we were talking about how difficult it is for entrepreneurs to stop thinking about their business.  An entrepreneur simply doesn’t have an off button.  It took a long time for my family to give up being frustrated with me for being glued to my computer most of the time, …

Last week I talked about how we need to be prepared for our businesses to change over the next decade when Gen Z, now high school and college students, become our clients. One of the traits of this generation is connecting with brands who tell a positive story, so today I’d like to share some tips on how to tell your business story. As humans we’re wired to listen to stories. It’s how we communicated our traditions and values before the written word so we could pass our history and lessons down from generation to generation. Clearly the printing press and the internet have changed the way we tell those stories. Today we can instantly communicate a story through a single photo we share on Instagram and we no longer have to wait for uncle Roko to return from his journey to tell the story of how he killed the Saber Tooth Tiger. There are actually brain chemicals that substantiate why we’re so wired to listen to stories. Cortisol is a stress chemical that makes us pay attention and get caught up in the story. Oxytocin, that same chemical released by women during childbirth, (but men have it too) is a brain chemical that stimulates feelings of caring & empathy and gets people to take the actions the story is leading them toward. Well told stories are able to take us to another place and to imagine a different world, and they get us to pay attention. I remember back in university I was taking an advertising class that had a huge textbook that covered such fascinating topics as how to calculate the value of an ad buy. Honestly it just wasn’t that interesting. But toward the end of each lecture, my professor would move around to the front of his desk, lean against it and tell us a story about what it was like being a brand manager at Procter & Gamble. We would all wake up from our boredom, and lean forward in anticipation of what would happen next. A great place to learn the art of storytelling, is to read great novels or watch movies that have become classics. Because each successful story follows a formula that goes something like this. And I share this with you giving full credit to Donald Miller and “Storybrand”, which is a book I highly recommend. The hero has a goal but some villain is preventing him from achieving his goal. This creates tension as we wonder if the hero will win. Along the way the hero meets a guide who gives him the tools or clears the roadblocks to achieving his goal, thus releasing the tension and leaving him to live happily ever after or to fight his next battle. Here are a couple of examples you may recognize: In the first Harry Potter book, our hero Harry finds out he’s a wizard on his 11th birthday and that the evil villain Voldemort killed his parents when he was a baby but was unable to kill him and so his powers were destroyed. He is trying to get his hands on a stone that would restore his powers and make him immortal so he can come back and take over the wizarding world. We have conflict. Fortunately, Harry has his guide Dumbledore to help him with his magic and he and his friends are able to thwart Voldemort until the next battle. In the first Star Wars, the galaxy is at war and rebels under the command of the evil Darth Vader have stolen the plans to the Death Star which can destroy entire planets. We have conflict. Our hero, Luke Skywalker, after seeing a holographic recording of Princess Leia asking for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi, seeks him out. Obi-Wan plays the role of the guide, teaching Luke the ways of the force so he is ultimately able to destroy the death star. These same principles can be applied when you are writing the story of your business. But there are some key points to remember. First, your business can never be the hero of the story. Your customer is the hero and you are the guide. Because of what you do, you will allow them to be the hero. When JJ’s firm saves someone a bunch of money on their taxes, he isn’t the hero. But he has enabled that parent to be a hero to their kids and take them on a surprise trip to Disney. When Emilio is able to find a business a faster, more redundant internet solution, he isn’t the hero. But perhaps he enabled a health insurance call center to keep operating in the middle of a storm so that one nurse was able to get an elderly woman the care she needed. Second, your customer must always face a villain. That villain could be real, or more of a concept. In JJ’s case, Uncle Sam is the evil villain trying to take our hard earned money and deprive a family of relaxing time together. In Emilio’s case, the villain could be unstable internet that interferes with the ability of people to help one another. But a villain could just as easily be time, for some businesses. Third, you and your business are the guide to help your customer be the hero. You are their Yoda, their Mr. Miyagi and their Dumbledore. To be a credible guide you need to show 3 things; empathy, authority and a plan. You need to convince them that you feel their pain, that you have the deep experience that makes you the right choice, and that you have a clear process to pull them out of their pain. This simple formula of using the hero, the villain and the guide can help you to write a relatable story that will allow your target customers to really feel that you understand them. Deep down, we all want to be heros to people we care about, so my challenge to you this week is to find a way to show how you can make your customers heros.

Telling Your Business Story

dianeliseBlog

Last week I talked about how we need to be prepared for our businesses to change over the next decade when Gen Z, now high school and college students, become our clients.  One of the traits of this generation is connecting with brands who tell a positive story, so today I’d like to share some tips on how to tell …

2020 Vision for your small business

2020 Vision: 5 Key Marketing Trends To Dominate This Year

Diane MouraBlog

I’m even more excited about 2020 than I have been about past New Years, partly because it’s a new decade, but mostly because in the world of digital marketing I’m keenly aware of how change accelerates.  So if today we look back on the digital marketing innovations of the past decade and marvel at how antiquated they seem, we can …

woman leading a meeting

Women Empowerment: My 4D’s of Career Success

dianeliseBlog

When I began my career over 30 years ago, I was truly a woman in a man’s world.  I worked in sales and marketing for a large tech company who was IBM’s largest competitor at the time, and the founder was overheard saying that he saw no reason why a woman should ever be in a senior management position.  Despite …

It’s the holidays, so I thought today I’d talk about a feelgood topic, and that is the subject of human connections. As a marketer, I’m keenly aware of how much more we’re able to get through our day without making any human connections. Over 20 years ago, when my husband and I were first dating and he lived in Brazil, we used to laugh about how Brazilians never needed maps. Here’s how finding your way from Point A to Point B used to work when driving around Brazil. Maybe this will sound familiar for some of you as you think about your home countries. You’d start out in the right general direction, and then when you weren’t sure which road to take, you’d stop and ask someone in a small town. Their directions would go something like this, “you go down the road for 3 speed bumps, and then turn right at the little blue church.” “And then what?” you’d ask them. “And then you stop and ask for directions”, they’d say. And if you think I’m kidding, this is a direct translation from an actual road trip. Fast forward to today, and we don’t need to talk to humans to ask for directions because we have a GPS in our smartphone. We don’t need to ask about the weather, because there’s an app for that. And when did you last ask someone for the time? Adults ask an average of 20 questions per day. Google has almost 93% of online search engine volume. The average person makes 4 searches/day on Google, not including the average of 142 minutes per day we spend on social media, in which we are certainly asking more questions. That means at least 40% of our questions don’t involve asking a human. But here’s the downside. Today my husband and I are happily married, but let’s say he really did something to piss me off. I might Google, “best divorce attorney near me”. I’d come up with a list, all of whom would undoubtedly offer a free consultation, and I’d pick one. On the other hand, if I spoke with a human, they might ask me if I had considered mediation. “What’s that?” I would ask. Not being familiar with this practice area it wouldn’t have entered my mind to Google it. They would explain that it was a professionally guided discussion of how to split up our stuff where I would be left feeling more in control of my circumstances. Well that does seem less disruptive. But then perhaps I’d speak with another human, who would suggest that maybe we just needed some time away from our daily stresses and there is an amazing resort called Sandals that specializes in pampering couples. Now that sounds even better and I certainly wouldn’t have started out Googling “couples resort” after my husband pissed me off. So in theory I have gone from a messy divorce to a sexy getaway with my husband. All because real humans opened my perspective to more ideas than I had considered searching for on my own. The same thing goes for your business. The power of the real human connections we have in this room is far greater than going through the mechanics of passing each other referrals. It’s about taking the time to truly understand each other’s business. It’s about coming up with creative ideas on how we might grow, and making connections to people in our own network who can support that growth. To form a network you need two things: Humans Connections If you go to your local Chamber event, spend 15 minutes sharing a cocktail with strangers and then exchange business cards, you have humans, but you haven’t made a connection, so you’re not really networking. If you follow up by sending an email outlining all of the things your business does, then you’re still not really networking because you still haven’t made a connection. You’re missing the next step of taking those business cards and setting up a coffee or dropping by their office to begin the process of understanding more about their business. Once you’ve made that connection, then you’re truly networking and over time, this investment will lead to results. Over the holidays, while you’re spending time with family and friends enjoying your eggnog or several glasses of Macallan, take a moment to reconnect and anchor that good feeling of spending meaningful time with other humans. Then in January when we get back together, work on how you can deepen the relationships with your business family, and we’ll all have a spectacular 2020!

The Power Of Connections

dianeliseBlog

It’s the holidays, so I thought today I’d talk about a feelgood topic, and that is the subject of human connections.  As a marketer, I’m keenly aware of how much more we’re able to get through our day without making any human connections.  Over 20 years ago, when my husband and I were first dating and he lived in Brazil, …

Entrepreneur Tenacity - women running a race

The Importance Of Tenacity For An Entrepreneur

dianeliseBlog

Last night I went to Home Depot with my daughter to buy a power drill she could use to work on her robot.  By the way, I’m happy to say that we are breaking gender sterootypes and that is a typical day at casa Moura.  Anyway, I’m not sure if you’ve been to the Home Depot on SW 8th but …