SWIMBERT Podcast #5: Hold That Price!

The latest pod piece from our mavens covers:

• The current weather in Detroit and Austin
• Trish’s debut on BlogTalkRadio’s Book Yourself Solid show
• Meeting the challenge of leading a service business in today’s economy–the most effective solutions may actually be counterintuitive.

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Image by waɪ.tiː via Flickr

Written by Karen D. Swim

The opening sentence in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, reads “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That sentence perfectly describes today’s climate.  Our economic correction, downturn, recession or whatever label you choose to apply has echoed around the world.  Even the most optimistic among us is hard pressed to deny that many people have been personally impacted by the crisis.  Yet, as we pick through the rubbage in an effort to rebuild there are nuggets of treasure, opportunities waiting to be plucked.

I have heard from businesses on both sides of the line. Venture funded companies are not spending money which means less work for the companies that serve them.  On the other side of the line are the companies that continue to thrive and may have even increased spending. Somehwere in the middle are those who are in wait and see mode. So what does all of this mean to you?

Now is the time for new ideas and a fresh perspective. Let’s face it some companies will not make it through this time.  They will keep doing things the same way for the same people in the same location hoping that the economy turns around. It will not turn around fast enough and they will be out of business. You can choose to go that route or you can innovate and thrive in spite of the economy.

Money is still being exchanged all around the world. Yes, individuals and companies are more discerning about their purchases but they are spending money.  It’s up to you to deliver what they need, want and desire and to make sure that your messaging is clear, direct and hits them where they live.

This is not merely the time for “good marketing” but critical thinking and problem solving.  What problems are facing your target market? How can your offering(s) help to solve those problems? Taking some time to walk a mile in your customers shoes can give you a fresh perspective.  When you know what they need and offer them solutions in clear, compelling language you can make these the best of times.

SWIMBERT Podcast #4: Viva Villa!

On today’s installment of SWIMBERT’s podcast, Karen and Trish are joined by Heather Villa, CEO of IAC Professionals and IAC-EZ to talk about business, marketing, and stuff, including:

1. Heather’s insights and solutions around managing organizational culture when a big chunk of the staff is virtual and spread out geographically.
2. Seth Godin and his “Tribes” creation–the man never disappoints us!
3. Trish’s recommendation of Small Giants by Bo Burlingham–definitely a book for the interesting time in which we live.

Five (+ 1) ways to nurture culture in a mixed (solid/virtual) organization

Note from Trish and Karen:  We are happy to introduce Heather Villa, CEO of IAC Professionals, an international business support services firm founded on Heather’s solid values and integrity. As IAC’s Prom Queen Geek (see more about this title below), Heather brings humor and fun to the table, along with top notch management and client relationship skills. And in deference to Heather’s fun side, we are accompanying this very useful post on her insights about nurturing culture in a mixed organization with some eye candy that she has expressed a preference for. Rock on, Heather!!

 

Heather will be joining us on our next SWIMBERT podcast. Don’t miss out on the fun!

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With eight years of business school in my history, the topic of Organizational Culture is one in which I am well versed.

 

The equation is pretty intuitive:

 

High Employee Morale = Better overall performance, productivity and efficiency = Happy Clients

 

There are all sorts of ways to improve employee morale and create a great organizational culture, including:

• Incentive Programs
• Have Fun at Work Days
• Family Outings
• Career Planning Assistance for Entry Level Workers
• Free Seminars and Professional Training
• And many more… 

As a well-educated business degree holder, owner of a growing company, and  leader who oversees 30 employees and contractors, high employee morale and a great organizational culture should have always been forefront on my mind, right?

 

It wasn’t, until about two months ago.

 

Ninety percent of my staff is virtual. I have not met 60% of them face to face. The last thing I was thinking about was a Family Outing or Have Fun at Work Day. Organizational culture didn’t apply to me—I thought.

 

Then I learned a really difficult lesson, one that could have been costly had I not caught it sooner. My virtual staff is important—part of the engine of my company—and their morale is just as important as in-house employees.

 

No need for details about our specific problems.  Bottom line: there was a variety of issues, from new hires to management and executives,  that caused poor morale and resulted in poor culture.

We decided to fix the issues and have implemented several things to do just that:

 

Established pre-defined hiring criteria.Working virtually brings applicants from every industry, field and position, all wanting to work from home. With rising gas prices and unemployment rates, who wouldn’t want to work at home? We used to give pretty much everybody a chance with a 90-day training period. The problem: it stressed our long time employees to work with individuals who were not prepared to be at home workers. Defining hiring criteria and hiring based on talent has done wonders. It has decreased the need to train new hires in every little thing, increased the HR Department’s morale by giving them a way to select candidates appropriately, decreased our turnover, and allows everyone to “get to know” each other and work as a team.

Established periodic performance reviews. Believe it or not, the staff loves it. They get the “good job” in writing and get constructive criticism on what areas they can improve in.

 

Re-established the employee raffle. We use electronic entries and selection (we used to have it, but the CEO kept forgetting to select the raffle winner…oops). Now, anytime anyone does anything great, they go to a specific page and nominate their co-worker or themselves. Every month an entry is randomly picked and they get office productivity tools to aide them in their career.

 

Social networking integration. The use of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, not required but suggested, has completely changed the way people interact. In a recent staff teleconference one contractor said “Twitter just makes everyone seem so much more approachable.” We have even integrated our twitter feeds on our website in a rotating schedule, and it’s also being used as a client contact and sales tool.

 

Open Door Policy. Every Friday from noon to 3pm my door is open. Literally. My team calls me about anything — from personal issues, to help on their taxes, to guidance on their university school work, to problems that they are having with their co-workers or management. This has been going on for two weeks now and I have fully used those three hours each Friday to connect with various members of my team.

 

There are a bunch of other things that we have integrated, and the list could go on and on.

 

Maybe my favorite (and one of the strangest) is the implementation of the “Designated Fun Title,” where each member of the team got to select a title to describe themselves and put in their email signature. My Designated Fun Title is “Prom Queen Geek” and we have fun titles ranging from “Senior Bubble Gum Analyst” to “Keyboard Junkie Extraordinaire” to “Commander in Chief of 1 Man & 4 Boys.” They are hysterical, everybody loves them, and it is great team relationship glue.

 

All of these things have changed the organization in a matter of weeks. People are friendlier, more responsive, turning in a higher quality of work, receiving praise from clients, working together as a team… I am astounded and excited. I feel like everyone is right next door.

 

Just last week, for example, our Administrative Division Head had a personal emergency and was unable to work Monday through Wednesday. A miracle happened:  there were no problems.

 

Why is this a miracle? Well, there have been many times that she has been gone for just one day, and it was invariably like a tornado ripping through the company: “But so and so is not here, she did not respond to my email, I was waiting on something from her…”

 

THIS time, nothing. Everybody did what they were supposed to do and did what she was supposed to do as well. That is not to say that her being gone did not pose a problem, but nobody let crisis hit. It was incredible and very inspiring.

 

I am still smiling as I write this… because that is great organizational culture.

 

So, what’ s my point? Don’t think working virtually means  you don’t have to nurture employee morale or organizational culture. A little effort goes an extremely long way.

 

Dedicated to Small Business Growth,

Heather Villa, CMA, MBA, MSM

 

What a long strange trip it’s been…

I and my associates live on the web every day. We forget there are many people who don't.

25 years ago. My first computer was an IBM PC (I missed the Kaypro days). 64K RAM, 2 5-1/4″ disk drives–it was leading edge. I taught myself Wordstar, dBase, and Lotus 123. Dabbled on dial up email and chatrooms on Compuserve. It was pretty cool.

The other day, I spent the entire day in my hotel room, in front of my computer.

1. Checked, answered, and wrote emails.
2. Opened Tweetdeck so I could stay updated on what the folks I’m following on Twitter were up to.
3. Opened a page for Success in Sweatpants (my coaching practice) on Facebook (I invite you to become a fan!).
4. Checked Triiibes.com and posted a few comments among the amazing conversations that go on there.
5. Eagerly downloaded and read Seth’s Godin free Tribes Casebook (I’m on page 168! Way cool!)
6. Met with my BlogTalkRadio partner, the wonderful Davender Gupta, to plan the very soft launch of our 3-day-per-week radio show.
7. Talked to the wonderful Teresa, 4R’s Copywriting Practice Lead about what’s coming down the pike and when we should get together to do 2009 planning.
8. Wrote an audition piece for a big book ghostwriting project.
9. Used Paypal to send a referral fee to an associate.
10. Hooked up with my niece on Facebook.
11. Updated my info on Squidoo.
12. Checked to see where the closest Costco is and how to get there from here.
13. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten what else.

Pretty much a normal day. But it hit me–this tech-savvy water in which I am swimming, staying connected to people, places, and things that span the globe without leaving my room, is something I take completely for granted.

It’s so easy to forget that there are a lot of people–maybe MOST people–who don’t do anything (or very little) on computer. That whole Digital Divide thing, which I’ve pretty much ignored.

It’s a good idea for those of us in service businesses to remember that there is a big population of less-then-power-users out there who are still part of our target market. Maybe we need to work on stop taking the cyber-ocean in which we swim for granted, pop our heads above the surface, and chat with the folks standing on the shore.

Seth Godin’s free “Tribes Casebook” — including Trish Lambert!

Seth Godin is a well-known (in some circles) business marketing journalist (with successful background in business) who has written all kinds of “contrarian thinking” books and blog posts.

 

His new book “Tribes” is officially out today….a couple of months ago, he launched triiibes.com, a community of 3,500 people/marketers, to test/prove the material in his book. I joined that community during the invitation phase, and it’s been really interesting.

 

Anyway.

 

Today on his blog he offered a new free “Tribes Casebook” as a companion to his new book. And I’m in it!!

 

Our very own Trish Lambert is included in the book. And besides her case study (page 168, Bluewater Cruising), there are some really really interesting bits in here by other members of triiibes. Give it a read when you have a chance!!!

SWIMBERT Podcast #3: Work from Your Purpose

In this episode our heroines talk about:

1. Karen’s Facebook addiction
2. Trish as a newly minted Book Yourself Solid certified coach
3. Voting for Karen as a Startup Nation Top 100 Home Based Businesses (hottify Karen by voting for her once a day!)
4. What it means to work from your purpose, both the good part and the hard part.

Listen and talk to us…what do you think? What has been your experience on any of these topics? What questions do you have for us? We’re here to have a conversation with you!

The Power of Purpose

Written by Karen

I received an email newsletter and video from BrandU this week. In the video, Kim Castle shared a story about a Native American Long Dance ceremony and tied the lessons she learned to being an entrepreneur. I was struck by a comment she made regarding purpose and its role in the entrepreneurial mindset.  Kim noted that the leader of the ceremony was “on purpose.” She had a tangible vision and determination.  She was not asking the market what they wanted or how they wanted to be marketed to, but followed her purpose.  The result? People flock to the ceremonies and they continue to grow nearly two decades later.

We are bombarded with messages that tell us the how, why, should and must of business.  Much of the information is solid but blindly applying it can be deadly to your spirit and your business. Here are 3 reasons why Purpose is essential in business (and life!):

The court of public opinion is sometimes wrong. If you ask people what they want and how they want it, they may give you what they want but not necessarily what they need. Let’s face it we’re all pretty good at Monday Morning quarterbacking but so often we would not follow our own advice! Results don’t always come the easy way.  When you have a clear and definitive purpose you are able to put feedback, suggestions and opinions in the right context. A business that has a clear mission can confidently articulate their message to their market.

Purpose breeds consistency. A clear determination to live or do business “on purpose” provides a steadfast inner compass that will help you maintain consistency in action and results.  When you are clear on your “why I do this” it will guide you in your day to day business activities. You will not take shortcuts, or compromise your standards. People can count on you to do what you say over and over. In business and life, your reputation is everything.

Purpose gives you a solid foundation. I have been acutely aware of this recently. Many are reacting to the economic climate with depression and desperation.  Admittedly, it is challenging to filter out the negative information and soldier on,  even tougher on a slippery foundation. However, when you are assured and committed to your purpose you can stand on that rock solid foundation. Your purpose will keep you grounded in good and bad times. Your plans, decisions and actions will not be driven by temporary conditions but your purpose. The storms may rage all around you but purpose is your lighthouse.

Whatever your role or position, strength of character will aid you in remaining steadfast to your values.   Without it you risk being tossed to and fro by fleeting trends and fickle attitudes.  Purpose keeps you connected with your internal compass, vision and values.  It will not prevent you from ever making mistakes (I can personally validate this fact!) but will provide an objective standard to get you back on track when you blow it.

Are you clear on your purpose? Have you ever compromised your purpose out of fear or public pressure? What were the results?

Murphy’s Law is suspended for a day!

A couple months back, I decided to join Triiibes, the community set up by marketing wizard Seth Godin as a precursor (or proving ground) for his upcoming book by the same name (but minus two “i’s”). As a result of my participation in that portion of the social marketing environment, for one day in the life of me, Murphy’s Law was suspended.

I first noticed that something was going on mouthward on Friday afternoon–late afternoon. We had gone to the 9th Annual Renewable Energy Forum in Fredericksburg, Texas (the lovely Hill Country) and I had treated myself to a sausage-on-a-stick while I walked around checking out solar panels, rainwater collection systems, and all-electric cars.

Something about that sausage didn’t agree with me…literally, something “about” that sausage. In one of my bites, the thin external casing apparently drove itself up under the gum around one of my molars..well, actually, a crown. By the time we were on the way back home to Austin, the gum surrounding the crown and adjoining teeth had ballooned up and was tender tender tender.

Great. Here it was the weekend. I’m a newcomer to Austin (3 months), and haven’t gotten established with a new dentist. And I was going to be flying to Philadelphia on Tuesday morning for a weeklong, intense, butt-in-chair-all-day workshop. No time to find a dentist and get the problem solved before I left.

I fretted. I fumed. What choices did I have? The gum wasn’t painful exactly, though it sometimes sort of throbbed, and the swelling was so bad I could feel the irritated tissue press against my cheek. Could I put up with the situation for the week I’d be in the workshop without dire consequences? Or would putting it off only makes things worse? What to do?

On Saturday, I remembered Rick Wilson, DMD, one of my Triiibal friends. We had had exchanges on various topics here (including dental health), and I absolutely trusted him to advise me. I wrote him a note and described what was going on in my mouth, which began a conversation that went over to Sunday. I didn’t give Rick all my “yeah buts” at once…told him I didn’t have a dentist yet, then that I wasn’t going to be in town past Monday, then that I’d be flying to Philadelphia on Tuesday morning.

To the last message, Rick replied, “Well, why don’t come in and see me while you’re in Philly?”

HUH??? I went to Rick’s profile…ohmigosh! He’s IN Philadelphia!!!

The rest is history. At the end of the first day of my workshop, I hopped a cab, went to Rick’s office, and within an hour or so we had figured out what was up and he had set me up to heal. I am VERY happy to say that things are on the mend in my mouth…

Folks on triiiibes.com talk about many important topics here, make high value connections, and address many big problems. In the midst of all that, my friendship with Rick (which was already good, and was cemented–sorry for pun–in his dental chair), born here in the tribe, has led to the solution of a small but very critical problem for me.

And here I am the one dragged kicking and screaming into the social marketing scene….