Tony Hsieh
Business

10 Business tips you can learn from Zappos

Tony Hsieh
Tony Hsieh from Zappos

If you haven’t heard of Zappos yet, I’m sure you’ll come across them a lot more if you keep them on your radar.  The ‘short story’ is that they started 10 years ago as an online shoe retailer and got bought by Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion.

Zappos is one of those unique businesses that keeps on getting mentioned by speakers, authors, bloggers for all the wonderful things they do with their marketing, culture, employee engagement, recruitment and customer service.

Their CEO Tony Hsieh is someone I admire and reading his book “Delivering Happiness” gave me an insight into how he runs his company.

Here are some of the best things I’ve learnt from Zappos.

Zappos Culture
Culture comes first.  It is the most important thing and everything follows from there.  You develop your culture by living and breathing your core values.  Culture and Core Values are the  two different sides of the same coin.

Zappos Core Values
The Zappos team have 10 core values that every one knows off by heart and lives by.  These core values embody the characteristics of Zappos’ cultural DNA. It’s what makes them unique.  Tony Hsieh has said that a competitor could copy their website, their products and their offices but they can never copy their people and their culture!

By the way Zappos has 10 core values and Bluewire has decided on five.

Zappos Culture Book

Zappos Culture Book

Every year Zappos publishes its Culture Book in which staff, vendors, partners and investors all write a few sentences answering the question;

“What does the Zappos culture means to you?”

All the responses are included word for word in the book, along with a heap of photos showcasing what it’s like to work there. It’s a reference book for Zappos which contains the DNA of its culture.

The Zappos Culture book is free for anyone who wants to order a copy.

Zappos Recruitment
It starts with your hiring.  Hire on cultural fit and technical fit.  Then provide the training. In fact Zappos offer a $2,000 cheque to new staff who have completed the training and then wish to leave the company.  This ensures everybody who stays is totally committed to Zappos.  Only 1% of people take the $2,000 cheque which is a huge testament to the Zappos culture and how much their staff love to work there!

Zappos Social Media Policy
CEO Tony Hsieh insists on a very simple social media policy for Zappos…

“Just be real and use your best judgement.”

Tony is very trusting of his staff isn’t he? And he can afford to be because he always hires on cultural fit!

Zappos on PR
Any staff member can talk to journalists and likewise the journalists are told they can speak with anyone they like within Zappos.

That said, Zappos don’t badger journalists with press releases nor do they hire PR agencies.  Looking back, Tony Hsieh reflects that if you do a great job, word will spread, people will take an interest in you and you’ll generate more publicity than you could ever hope for. Just focus on doing a remarkable job!

Zappos on Marketing
The team at Zappos blog extensively and publish amazing videos on YouTube.  All the content is produced by the staff – not a fancy advertising agency.  Loads of the staff are available on twitter or facebook and this helps accelerate Zappos’ word of mouth and referrals.

Tony Hsieh’s marketing advice is build trust, not buzz.

Zappos On Advertising
What impresses me is that Zappos’ spend zero dollars on advertising.   Instead they allocate money they ‘could spend’ on advertising and invest that into customer service.   After all happy customers tells their friends!

Zappos Customer Service
Zappos understand that word of mouth is the best source of business, so they really do ‘love’ their customers. They are always trying to nurture a lifelong relationship, not maximise each interaction.

They have a 365 day return policy and make their phone number very obvious.  Plus staff actually answer the phone, they can talk for as long as they like and they are encouraged to refer customers to competitors if Zappos don’t stock an item or have run out!

Zappos on Outsourcing
Tony learnt the hard way – never outsource your core competency!

How we’ve applied these learnings at Bluewire…
1. A year ago we were considering  a trial to outsource parts of our Help Desk, but after hearing of the issues Tony faced, we decided to keep that core function in-house.

2. We’ve lived and breathed core values for many years, so that practice has been reinforced.

3. When hiring, Bluewire has an initial job application based on core values and we do a “cultural interview” before we delve too deep into technical ability.

4. We provide a fairly thorough induction training process for new staff and the majority of our internal processes are documented on our wiki.

5. All staff are encouraged to use social media and are allowed to respond to journalists.

6. We are releasing a “Bluewire Culture & Glowers” e-book which includes feedback from staff on what Bluewire’s culture means to them.  We’ve also added ‘glowers’ which is a Bluewire-term for ‘unsolicited praise’.

What do you like best about Zappos?

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Business

Are you (predictably) irrational?

I’ve always had a fascination with the psychology of human behaviour, especially the irrational.

Great-White-Shark-3
Are you scared of sharks?

eg. Why are we so scared of sharks? But why aren’t we scared getting into a vehicle?

Yet we average 300 road fatalities per year (in Queensland), and average 0.45 shark attack fatalities per year (in Queensland).

You are 650 times more likely to die on the road than by a shark attack.

Stats like this intrigue me. And so does the behaviour it contributes to.

When my brother Ross Franklin, an economist at KPMG, put me onto Dan Ariely’s book “Predictably Irrational” I couldn’t put it down.

This experiment hooked me. Ask yourself… which would you choose?

Web subscription$59.00. One year subscription to Economist.com.  Plus online access to all articles since 1997.

Print subscription$125.00. One year subscription to the print edition of the Economist.

Print & Web subscription $125.00.  One year subscription to the print edition of the Economist. Plus online access to all articles since 1997.

What typically happens?

  • 16% chose Web (option1)
  • No-one chose Print (option 2)
  • 84% chose Print & Web (option 3)

Yet what happens if you remove option 2 (that no-one chose)?

Which would you choose now?

Web subscription$59.00. One year subscription to Economist.com.  Plus online access to all articles since 1997.

Print & Web subscription $125.00.  One year subscription to the print edition of the Economist. Plus online access to all articles since 1997.

What happened now?

  • 68% chose Web (option 1)
  • 32% chose Print & Web (option 2)

What a change in behaviour… Why is this?

It turns out that the Print subscription is a ‘decoy’.  The decoy is designed to simply to make option 3 look more appealing.

In our (irrational) mind, since option 2 & 3 are so similar, it leads our brain to choose between Print and Print & Web. Since both cost $125, you obviously choose Print & Web.

In scenario two, where there is no decoy, the choice you must make is vastly different. There’s no ‘similar’ option to compare with.  And this means our behaviour is vastly different!

Dan Ariely's book

Put simply, given three choices:

  • A
  • B (very distinct, but equally as attractive as A)
  • A- (similar to A, but inferior)

We will almost always choose A, because it is clearly superior to A-.

[Thanks must go to Ian Lyons who originally explained this theory to me at the EMSA conference dinner at the Gold Coast a few years ago. You can follow @IanLyons]

LESSON TO LEARN:
Be aware of how persuasive pricing can be. Whether you are the buyer or the marketer, it’s useful to know how our irrational minds work!

You can follow @DanAriely on twitter.

PS.For an excellent review that goes into more detail check out:
Chris Yeh’s review in Melodies in Marketing

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Tom-Peters
Business

Tom Peters’ 3 Words of Wisdom

Tom-Peters
Tom Peters. Photo courtesy of The Growth Faculty

Tom Peters came to Australia to keynote the Growth Summit.

At 68 years of age, Tom’s energy is amazing and his presentation was like a roller coaster ride.

Drawing upon a lifetime of experience, he shoots off gems of knowledge at a rapid fire rate. It was tough to keep up, but I tried!

He opened with a quote that I liked.

“Business has to give people enriching, rewarding, lives… or it’s simply not worth doing.”  – Richard Branson

The overall message for the day was: You must treat people right!

Tom says he’d rather go out of business in 2 weeks & treat people well than stay in business 200 years with treatment verging on abuse.

Tom shared a tremendous amount and it was a privilege to witness him live.  These are Tom’s Top 3 Tips (although Tom says they are all equal Number One in importance).

No.1: Hire great front line managers.

The No.1 cause of employee dissatisfaction is overwhelmingly based on their front line manager.  Tom urged us to hire the very best front-line managers you can and provide the best training possible. These hiring decisions are way more important than hiring VPs [vice presidents – Tom is American :)]

No.2:  Cross functional excellence

The biggest mistake businesses make is not communicating across divisions.  Tom instructs us to “never waste a lunch” (something I’m sure Keith Ferrzzi would agree with). Allow humans to lunch together. In fact everyone in your organisation should be evaluated on the percentage of lunches they have with people from other divisions. We must be obsessed with this and passionate about it.

Ideas don’t come from smart people. Ideas come when smart people talk with smart people in different divisions!  – Tom Peters

No. 3: LISTEN.

Listening is the ultimate mark of respect.  Don’t interrupt. Be obsessed with listening. Nod and take notes. Train people to listen – it is a skill.

Finally here’s a few more quotes I loved.

“Execution IS strategy” – Fred Malek

“In real-life strategy is quite straight forward. Pick a general direction and IMPLEMENT like hell” – Jack Welch

“There’s ONE secret to effectiveness. Do ONE thing at a time” – Peter Drucker

TomPetersTLBT
Tom Peter's latest book

You can follow @Tom_Peters on twitter and see all his slides at www.TomPeters.com. His latest book is The Little Big Things which I’ve read and I’ll  be reviewing it soon!

And thanks again to Karen Beattie and her team at The Growth Faculty for organising the Growth Summit again this year.

PS. An interesting note is that Tom Peters and his friend and fellow uber-guru, the late Peter Drucker both disliked MBAs.  He said:

If you have kids, don’t send them to business school – Tom Peters

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Business

10 Best Bits of Rework

When my colleague Sam gave me Rework to read, I was thrilled.  It’s been on my wishlist for ages.

Rework

37 signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson like to march to the beat of a different drum.

The way they started, run and choose not to grow 37 signals flies in the face of conventional business wisdom.

But they’ve proven it works – their company only has 16 people yet produces millions of dollars profit.

I love it.  Here are my favourite bits.

1. The best people are everywhere
37 signals hire the best talent regardless of where they live.  They have 16 staff across 8 cities in 2 continents.  Most people argue that this is madness.

But I think it’s cool because at Bluewire we’ve had Sarah working in California,  Montse in Mexico, Matt in London and myself and Toby in Sydney.   And Lesley often works from home too.

2. Hire great writers
A good writer is a clear thinker and a great communicator.  They can put themselves in other people’s shoes & they know what to omit.

I agree.  Toby & I are non-techies and have only ever hired people who can clearly communicate with us. Our brand promise is “devoted communication” so we live and breath this philosophy.

3. Forget about formal education
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education” – MARK TWAIN. Plenty of intelligent people don’t excel in the classroom.

I personally tend to ignore university or school grades. I prefer seeing what people have actually ‘shipped’.

4. Resumes are ridiculous
We all know resumes are a joke.  They’re exaggerations, vaguely accurate at best.

Indeed. If  prefer to assess someone on their public profiles like blogs, LinkedIn or Twitter where there’s nowhere to hide.

5. Marketing is not a department
Marketing is everything you do. 24/7/365. Every invoice, email, phone call, error message & word on your website is marketing.

Every time we communicate we are marketing ourselves.  I think it’s so important that we practice our communication everyday & pride ourselves on it!

6. The myth of overnight success
You will not be a big hit right away.  You will not get rich quick. Starbucks, Apple, Google & Nike all became great over time, not because of a big PR push upfront.

The likes of Verne Harnish & Malcolm Gladwell always say that overnight success takes at least 10 years.  We’ve only been going 6 years, so we’ll have to wait and see!

7. Don’t out-spend, out teach
You can advertise, hire salesepeople, sponsor events. But your competition does the same.  Teach and you’ll form a bond you just don’t get from traditional marketing tactics.

At Bluewire we aim to teach. You can read our blog, download the  free Web Strategy Planning Template and attend our events. You may have even been sent a copy of our favourite books too.

8. Emulate chefs
Why are some chefs more well known?  They share everything they know in cookbooks. As a business owner you should share everything you know too.

Most businesses are secretive, but I love sharing what we’ve learnt. It mostly goes on our blog but I’ve been inspired to ‘ship’ our free ebook. Watch this space!

9. Build an audience
Build an audience. Speak, write, blog, tweet, make videos – whatever. Share information that’s valuable. Then when you need to get the word out, the right people will be listening.

Over 6 years, we’ve been building email subscribers (2,500), facebook fans (350) and Twitter followers (800).  It sure takes time, but the audience is growing.

10. Draw a line in the sand

A strong stand is how you attract superfans. You’ll also turn some people off. 37 signals are as proud of what their products don’t do as what they do.

At Bluewire, we don’t do free custom quotes. We won’t suggest work we wouldn’t do ourselves and we won’t take on clients we don’t believe in. But that attracts the clients that love our work.

****

PS. Bluewire Media has been using 37signals suite of products,  Highrise (for managing contacts) and Basecamp (for project management), for 6 months now.

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Business

How to meet your hero

My childhood hero 'King Wally' Lewis

As a kid, my heroes were sporting stars like Wally Lewis, Keiran Perkins, Ian Healy & John Eales — and I eventually met them all!

Even as an adult, I still get a rush from meeting my heroes.

Now in my 30s, I am passionately involved in the world of business & the web, so I have a new host of people I admire.  They are my ‘aspirational contacts’.  In a moment, I’ll share how I’ve made contact with many of my heroes!

In the book Never Eat Alone, author Keith Ferrazzi advocates that it’s the relationships in your life that bring you the greatest happiness and success.  The quality (and extent) of your ‘network’ (even though I hate that word) is one of the most valuable things you can develop.

Keith certainly recommends always strengthening your closest relationships – family, friends & colleagues – but he also suggests putting yourself out on a limb to meet your heroes or “aspirational contacts”.  They might be influential politicians, business leaders, sporting legends or movie stars.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly especially the part of keeping a list of ‘aspirational contacts’. I keep a list of  heroes — people I’d love to meet in the business & web world.  In fact Keith Ferrazzi and Jack Daly recommend doing this. And Tim Ferriss suggests contacting them as a ‘comfort challenge’.  I’ve given it a go & this is what I’ve discovered works well.

How I’ve met my heroes:

First, I buy and read the hero’s book.  If they don’t have a book, I’ll follow their blog or keep an eye out for when they do something noteworthy & learn what I can.
Second, I blog about it.
Third, I try to make contact with the person (usually via email, but sometimes twitter). In the email I thank them for the writing such a good book & refer to the blog post where I share the insights I got from it.  Usually this is enough to get a response.
Fourth, if they are in Australia, I buy tickets to see them speak at an event. Or travel to see them.
Fifth, at the event I will introduce my myself and usually ask them to do an interview. I film the interview on my Flip camera & get permission to post to my blog.
Sixth, I follow up via email to say Thanks.
Seventh, once the interview is on my blog, I’ll email them to let them know. Very often they will promote the blog post to their contacts or followers!

I find if you make the effort to take an interest in what they do, they are much more receptive to being approached.

Buying their books, attending their events & promoting their cause never hurts either :).

This process has worked for me meeting CEOs, best selling authors, politicians, bloggers & international speakers.

On a side note, in the book Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi advocates just that.   Never eat alone or it’s a wasted opportunity to sit down with a friend, colleague, mentor or family member and enjoy a meal and a conversation.  The single best way to strengthen the relationships that are important to you is to dine with them!

And I totally agree. It’s your relationships with fellow humans that matter the most.

What techniques have you used to meet your heroes?

PS.  Never Eat Alone was another gem of a book recommended by Verne Harnish at 2010’s Sydney Growth Summit.

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Business

What I shipped in 2010

Inspired by what Seth Godin ‘shipped’ in 2010, here’s my list:

What I shipped in 2010:

Business:

Spoke at 15 events

1.  Bluewire events — 4 educational events (including David Meerman Scott live via satellite)
2. My personal blog — you’re reading it now!
3.  Web Strategy Planning Template – download it for free.
4. Bluewire’s 5th birthday party — $1,340 raised for charity.
5. Interviewed Verne Harnish, Jack Daly, David Meerman Scott, The Gadget Guy, The Name Tag Guy & my first Big 4 CEO  — Giam Swiegers – CEO, Deloitte Australia. Check them out on our blog.
6. Spoke at 15 events (not including our own) – to well over 1,500 people all up.
7. Did my first (of several) paid speaking gigs
8.  Seven Bluewire News – email newsletters
9. Recorded three 30 second ‘business tips’ for Kochie’s Business Builders.
10. Set 3 quarterly ‘Dreamlines’ — and was held accountable by 2 mates. (A dreamline is Tim Ferriss’s free goal setting tool)
11. Started a ‘Rockefeller Habits’ group in Brisbane.

Personal:

52cm Flathead

1. Did 3 overseas trips — 6 countries visited (NZ, USA, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Fiji & Indonesia). With 3 weddings on 3 continents!
2. Made the decision to move to Bondi & drove down with all my belongings for New Years Eve.
3. Caught a 52 cm flathead (my PB)
4.  Made 8 plasma donations to Red Cross.
5. Had my 30th birthday party at the Gold Coast
6. Donated over 1% of my income to charity.
7. Surfed the biggest wave of my life at Uluwatu, Bali.

My biggest wave at Uluwatu

Things I DIDN’T ship in 2010, but would’ve liked to.
1. An e-book.
2. Gold Coast half marathon
3. Ocean swim  (1 km)

Looking back I am pleased with the year and had a blast.  Of course, I got heaps of help from Toby, friends, family and colleagues – so thank you everyone.

And finally thanks for continually pushing us with your books and blog, Seth!

What else got shipped in 2010…? I’d love to find out.

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Business

How to be a Linchpin (even if you own the business)

I’d put off buying Linchpin by Seth Godin because I’d thought it was all about being indispensable at your job… and being a small business owner, I assumed it wasn’t going to be as relevant to me.  I was wrong.

So, I eventually clicked on one of those Facebook ads offering me a free download of ‘Linchpin.’ I’m pleased I did & thank you to Audible.com for making the offer.  (And thanks for proving that people actually do click on Facebook ads – I wasn’t entirely convinced before!)

Anyway, I’ve been listening to Linchpin as an audiobook on my iPhone.  It’s a great way to take in a book especially during times you wouldn’t normally be able to read – like driving!

by Seth Godin

The snapshot: a Linchpin is a very hard to replace person who loves what they do so much that they view it as art – art  that creates change in someone else’s life.  Linchpins thrive on giving their ‘art’ as gifts to others. It doesn’t matter if you’re a barista serving customers coffee with a smile because you brighten someone’s day or Steve Jobs changing people’s lives with an iPad.  If you love what you do and it creates change — it is an art and you are linchpin.

In a world where automation and outsourcing are making things so cheap you cannot compete on price alone, the answer is to be a linchpin and to hire linchpins.  In fact 37signals – who we are big fans of at Bluewire – only hire linchpins, which I like.

So what’s the opposite of a linchpin? Someone who is totally obedient, follows the rules and does what they’re told.  Pretty much too bullied, afraid or brainwashed to think and act for themself.

The problem with this is that you are not contributing anything of value. No gifts, no art.  And if what you are doing is not remarkable you can (and will) be easily replaced by someone even cheaper and more obedient.   This isn’t a pleasant thought.

Godin argues you deserve more.  You need to bring passion & art to your work, so that you derive joy from it and you become a linchpin. A linchpin that cannot be replaced & that other people cannot live without because you add so much value to their lives.

What’s important? ‘Shipping’ your work!  Seth uses the term ‘ship’ to mean get it done , executed or implemented- eg. delivering the project, hitting send, publishing your blog post, giving the presentation, launching the book etc. Shipping your work is the most important part of being a linchpin.  The measure of a linchpin is how many people you can create change with — so if your work isn’t shipped, it’s wasted.

What’s changed? The world used to reward obedience – in fact it paid very well to follow the rules & be a cog in the system.  In fact for the last 100 years kindergarten, school, university & work has drilled obedience & rule following  into our heads – ‘study hard, do what you’re told & the system will take care of you’.  And it worked for a century but now it has changed – look no further than the Internet which makes automation & outsourcing a cinch.  It means most people have become dispensable.

If what you offer is a commodity, companies will take the cheaper alternative if one exists.  Yet as people we want value, an experience, to smile, to connect, our day brightened or our life made easier — and cheaper, more generic and more bland seldom delivers this.  Linchpins deliver this. And this is why it is valuable to be a linchpin and to hire linchpins.

Take home messages :
#1 as a business owner: Organisations need linchpins who ‘draw the map’ as opposed to cogs who ‘follow the map.’  Map followers can be replaced and outsourced, cheaply. As a business owner there is no ‘drawn map’ to follow so I am always looking for linchpins to help draw the map.

#2 as an individual: A critical requirement for a being a linchpin is being able to ‘ship’ your art.  Therefore in my specific situation, a half written ebook sitting on my hard drive isn’t read by anyone and my gift is wasted. I must ‘ship’ my ebook or I’m not a linchpin.

#3 as a business: As a business, Bluewire Media needs to ‘deliver its art’ as gifts so that it creates change in others.  If we can do this, then Seth Godin would argue we are on the right path to being indispensable!

Have you read Linchpin?  What do you think about Seth’s view of our world?

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Business

Take paid holidays whenever you want!

Last week, Jack Daly was in Brisbane and he shared a few stories about culture.  The first was Zappos.com – a 10 year old company that was just bought by Amazon for $1.2 billion.  They started selling shoes online and have expanded into selling other apparel, but what makes them remarkable is their culture.

People actually go on tours around the Zappos headquarters, just 30 minutes from Las Vegas, to see first hand what it’s really like.

“It’s about giving employees permission and encouraging them to just be themselves,” says Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh.

Zappos staff genuinely love their work.
Apparently it’s such a happy and fun place to work that once a new recruit completes their induction, they are offered a $2,000 cheque if they wish to leave the company. And only 3 people have taken the cheque!

Myself with Jack Daly & Toby Jenkins

The second story was of Netflix.com – an online movie rental service. Netflix staff:

get to take holidays ‘whenever they need them,’
–  have no start or finish time
– and they can charge anything they want to the company as long as they feel it’s reasonable!

Empowerment is the name of the game & the “rule book” is simple:
1. Is it right for the customer?
2. Is it right for our company?
3. Is it ethical?
4. Am I willing to be accountable?
5. Is it consistent with our core values?

If  you can answer YES to all 5 questions, then you can go ahead & do whatever you want!

I’m keen to find out more, so I’ve wishlisted the Zappos book called Delivering Happiness.

We’ve started to implement some of the ideas at Bluewire and I’ll let you know we they go!  Stay tuned for plenty more ideas from Jack Daly’s workshop. And thanks to Business Connect for organising Jack’s trip.

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Business

Keeping the stoke alive

Starting a business is like riding a roller coaster with highs and lows but never a dull moment.  One of the more challenging things to do is keep our stoke high. And more importantly, understand why it wanes and know how to re-invigorate it when it does.

I’d have to say 90% of the time, my stoke is high and so many things contribute to this. I love what I do, I work with wonderful, positive people and really enjoy their company and I enjoy my lifestyle and friends.

However, sometimes the stoke takes a turn
.  Maybe the ATO wants more money, cash flow tightens up, a client may be upset, a ball may be dropped, … stuff like this happens with alarming regularity.  So, its a matter of how we handle these troughs.

Fortunately, I’ve been lucky enough to have a business partner (many people don’t) who is also a lifelong friend (quite rare) in Toby Jenkins and we’ve been in it together from the start.  Having two of us has made all the difference. If I was a lone ranger, I think I would’ve subbed out entirely by now.

In the five years since we started our web strategy company Bluewire Media there have been countless times where our stoke has come into question.  We both agree that ‘stoke is a fickle beast’ and a difficult one to tame.

That said, what we’ve learnt is that when one of us is down, it’s the other one’s job to lift the collective stoke a bit.  We’ll talk it through, try to identify the cause, and maybe sleep on it until we’re back on top of it.

This usually works, unless we have both bottomed out! In this case, a swim, a jog, some boxing, a PT session or a surf will normally clear the mind and sort us out, but if we’re still struggling we’ll go and see on of our mentors to get some clarity on whatever issue we are faced with.

We call it stoke.  Gary Berwistle calls it Mojo. It’s your magic, verve, pizzaz, oomph, get up and go, your zip, your spark.

Meeting Gary Bertwistle

I was a guest at a TEC breakfast workshop that Gary presented at in Brisbane last year, and I liked his style.  I picked up a copy of his book Who Stole My Mojo? in which he shares some great advice on keeping your stoke (aka your Mojo) high.

Some of the things I learnt from Gary’s book are:

– have a council of trusted people who you see on a regular basis — ensure these are people who care the most for you.
– allow time every week for quality thinking & reading.
keep a journal to document your thoughts (or maybe a blog).
write down issues that need to be tackled.
eat and drink well, plus exercise and rest- this alone makes a huge impact on your Mojo.
think big and remove any ceilings from your mindset so you can achieve your dreams.
give compliments in writing (so they can be treasured and revisited) and always sort out problems verbally, although ideally in person.

Thanks Gary. And may we all keep the stoke (or Mojo) alive!

Business Speaker Brisbane:  If you’d Adam Franklin to speak at your event, please call 1300 258 394.

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Business

What I learnt from Verne Harnish at Growth Summit

Verne Harnish was the drawcard for me attending the National Business Growth Summit in Sydney recently (7-8 Feb 2010).

Not only was Verne outstanding as usual but he also introduced us to few other international speakers who I liked.

First was David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist  and author of best-seller The New Rules of Marketing and PR.  In short, David was brilliant especially because his message is very aligned with the ideas we embrace at Bluewire & that we encourage our clients to do.

The take-home message for me is “on the web, you are what you publish!”
–  if you don’t appear on Google you don’t exist and your brand is what Google says it is.
– produce free useful content that solves buyers problems not that talks about your products
buyers will find you if you do this (hint hint, media & press people will find you too!)
– so think like a publisher, not a traditional marketer
carry a Flip Camwith you at all times for unexpected interviews!
hire a journalist to help you produce excellent articles, e-books, videos, blog posts and news releases that focus on  solving your buyers problems!

This is aligned with what we do for clients at Bluewire Media (the web strategy company where I am Marketing Manager), so I wanted to find out more.  I was fortunate enough to record my own interview with David Meerman Scott last week via a Skype video.

Whilst I’ve seen Verne Harnish in Brisbane before and read his book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits several times, I was ready to revisit the Rockefeller Habits.  Toby & I were there specifically to get clarity on Bluewire’s brand promise and our niche.  We made good progress and identified things we already do that could be brand promises.  More soon, I promise!  Plus we were given a ton of book recommendations that should last me the next 12 months.

Here’s a 27 sec interview I did with Verne about his #1 Tip for Business Growth.

Herman Simon was lucky to make it to the Summit, given his bout of illness. Nevertheless, he taught us about the Hidden Champions of 21st Century – unknown companies that are true market leaders.  The key for these hidden champions seems to be decide on your niche & do it exceptionally.

Toby and myself at Growth Summit

It was good to spend time with friends Nigel Heyn from IT Associates and Scott Jackson and also to meet Ian Judson and Troy Collins.   I look forward to having fellow ‘Rockefeller Habits’ advocates in Brisbane to keep me honest.

Business Growth Speaker: If you’d like to me to share more of what I learnt fromVerne Harnish in a presentation, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394 or DM me @Franklin_Adam.

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