Business Networking Is NOT a Sales Call

The most important thing any entrepreneur does, aside from taking action on their ideas, is meeting people.

Networking – the idea has sent a chill up the spines of many – putting yourself out there for public viewing isn’t an easy task.

Though some mistakenly take networking as an opportunity to make a sale.

I hate it – no – I despise it – when I exchange business cards with someone, agree to meet up with them to talk business, and the first thing they do is force me to watch a sales presentation, then immediately after try to close a sale.

Although in a sense, you are always selling something, WHAT you are selling during networking isn’t your products or services.

YOU are the only thing that matters during a networking event, because it is YOU that is being sold.

How knowledgeable, resourceful, helpful, encouraging and inspiring YOU are is what really matters. Because networking is NOT about making a sales call, it’s about assisting others with their business.

WTF? You ask yourself – how do I grow my business, by helping others?

The greater your professional circles, the greater your business success.

Although you may not have an immediate need for someone in the business of widgets, you never know who that person knows that can help you in your business.

It isn’t always what you know, but WHO.

There’s a story, about a man, hired by IBM to create an operating system for their then-new line of personal computers, the original IBM PC. This man was a computer genius, and created the IBM Disk Operating System (IBM-DOS) which launched the original IBM PC and later the IBM PCjr to stardom in the 1980’s.

However, like many genius’, he didn’t get along well with his bosses over at Big Blue. So he left, and brought with him some associates he made at IBM, to create a rival operating system as he went down his own career path.

That man was Bill Gates, and that rival operating system was Microsoft’s MS-DOS, which IBM itself started using with it’s PCs, and later MS-Windows, which run the majority of the world’s computers today.

Bill Gates would never have built Microsoft without his prior experiences, knowledge and contacts from his days at IBM.

And you’ll never build anything in the business, or personal world either, if you try to go it alone, without anyone’s help.

However, you’ll be alone in the world, if every time you go to a meetup, a networking function, or even a personal function, shove your business card in front of everyone you meet, and try to sell them your products and services.

That’s NOT very helpful.

But if you offer to help others as you meet them, you’ll be amazed and delighted with just how far in business – and in life – you’ll go.

SO next time you think about pitching someone, think again. And just ask them: “how can I help you?”

The 12 Days of Entrepreneurship

To celebrate the holidays, here's my rendition of a holiday classic.

The 12 Days of Entrepreneurship

On the first day of entrepreneurship,

my angles gave to me,

ONE totally new direction for the company.

GULP!

On the second day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

TWO contradictory marketing strategies.

YIKES.

And one totally new direction for the company.

On the third day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

THREE disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

On the fourth day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

FOUR new complex SWOT analysis.

Oy Vey!

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

On the fifth day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

FIVE Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Uh-OH!

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

This is going to hurt.

On the sixth day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

SIX Useless Overpriced Consultants.

Don’t just charge it.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

Does it ever end?

On the seventh day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

SEVEN slick marketing slogans, using the old branding.

There goes the graphic artist! Right out that door. He looked pissed.

Six useless overpriced consultants.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

Where’s my Tylenol?

On the eighth day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

EIGHT equity investors each wanting 50 plus one of the business.

Something just doesn’t add up!

Seven slick marketing slogans, using the old branding.

Six useless overpriced consultants.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

Those golden handcuffs are starting to look pretty good now.

On the ninth day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

NINE outdated web articles.

Do they even know what we do?

Eight equity investors each wanting 50 plus one of the business.

Seven slick marketing slogans, using the old branding.

Six useless overpriced consultants.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

Where’s Sir Richard Branson when you need him?

On the tenth day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

TEN Silicone Valley rejected interns.

That’s a lot of nerd trash.

Nine outdated web articles.

Eight equity investors each wanting 50 plus one of the business.

Seven slick marketing slogans, using the old branding.

Six useless overpriced consultants.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

Business school never said it was going to be like this!

On the eleventh day of entrepreneurship,

my angels gave to me,

ELEVEN mad scientists hell-bent on taking over the world.

I didn’t think it would end like this!

Ten Silicone Valley rejected interns.

Nine outdated web articles.

Eight equity investors each wanting 50 plus one of the business.

Seven slick marketing slogans, using the old branding.

Six useless overpriced consultants.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

What’s that smell?

I smell burning?

MONEY on fire!?!?! 

OMG the mad scientists are lighting up thousands like they are brickets! 

That’ll kill our burn rate.

On the twelfth day of entrepreneurship, 

my angels gave to me,

TWELVE wanna-be CEOs.

Follow the leader? Which one?

Eleven mad scientists hell-bent on taking over the world.

Ten Silicone Valley rejected interns.

Nine outdated web articles.

Eight equity investors each wanting 50 plus one of the business.

Seven slick marketing slogans, using the old branding.

Six useless overpriced consultants.

Five Venture Capitalists in fowl moods.

Four new complex SWOT analysis’.

Three disagreeable patent lawyers.

Two contradictory marketing strategies,

And one totally new direction for the company.

Tell those mad scientists they are on their own.

That’s it!

I quit.

I’m going to work at McDonald’s.

Happy Holidays to all our friends, fans, followers and anyone else we have had the pleasure of getting to know over the past year and previous years.

P.S.

We’re only joking about our angels. We love everyone that works with us, for us and with us to make the world a better place. Now go out and hug a Silicone Valley rejected intern today.

SEX -- Now That I Have Your Attention -- Personal Branding is All About Sex Appeal

Once the domain of corporations and their slick marketing campaigns, branding is no longer limited to just that -- but encompasses you too.

You are a brand -- and if you aren't -- you better create your own personal brand because everything depends on that personal brand.

Perception, whether true or implied, is how we accept the world.

So how you present yourself, even when you aren't there to do so in person, is how others see you.

Think about anyone you know, and you'll develop a mental picture of that person. That's their personal brand -- or rather -- that's the personal brand they are representing to the world.

It wasn't always like this, we used to accept people on their face value and a handshake.

But since the explosion of the social media universe, when our images, our thoughts, even our voice can speak when we aren't there, now we base our decisions about liking, unliking, or despising someone completely on the way they appear to us, even before meeting them.

Human Resources professionals have been doing this for years. Statistics show that over 80% of those responsible for hiring people, Google job applicants BEFORE calling them for a phone screen interview.

So those pictures of you drunk dancing on top of the bar at your friend's party might actually prevent you from getting your next job. Unless drunk table dancer is the job you want.

Is this fair?

Hell no!  We all make mistakes. Just so long as we learn from those mistakes and move on, instead of hitting our heads against the same brick walls every time.

However, creating and managing your personal brand -- the way the world sees you when you aren't around -- isn't hard. You just have to always be aware of how you present yourself to the world, and you have to have sex appeal.

No, I don't mean taking it all off and flashing the cameras.

PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!!!

The first step to creating a personal brand, is making you appealing to others, usually by wrapping a catchy descriptive slogan around who you are, what you stand for, and why anyone should pay you any attention.

Coke is it, and Timex takes a lickin' but keeps on ticking, and you -- well -- you . . .

PSST. . . this is where you insert your catch phrase that tells us in as few words as possible who you are.

Personal branding is all about asking yourself questions, to dive deep into who you are, and creating the message that you want to convey to the world when they hear your name.

Some key questions to ask yourself to help you build your personal brand:

• How do I make people feel?
• How do others benefit by having me around?
• What words do others use to describe me to their friends? 
• What industry am I in?
• What's my job or ideal job?
• Who are the people you want to respect your personal brand the most?
• What can you do best for those who you want to respect you?
• Why me, instead of everyone else? What makes me special/different?

Ask yourself these questions, and create a short catch-phrase which sums up your answers. That's your personal brand. Or at least, the start of a great one.

Voice Mail: The Art of Getting Someone to Call You Back

Ever since the first telephone call decades ago, people have come up with imaginative, and annoying ways to get others to return their calls.

Telephone folklore tells us of the Legend of Tim. Tim got a new job selling advertising in the phone book. He spent a week making phone calls to hundreds of potential clients, only to get absolutely zero calls back.

He left his name, number and a detailed message, but still no success.

He even tried smiling when he left messages, because that's what everyone says works.

No luck.

So Tim, started getting creative with his voice mails -- he said just by returning his call, he'd buy you lunch at one of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in the city.

Soon, Tim's phone was ringing off the hook, as everyone wanted a free lunch.

Problem is, Tim just started this job, so he couldn't afford to take everyone out to lunch, let alone at one of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in the city!

Lesson learned, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

At least Tim left messages. My biggest pet peeve is when someone calls but doesn't leave a message. Sure, I may know who called, because of my call display, but that doesn't tell me WHY you called, how urgent, or anything else.

So, we have two extremes, making radically false promises in voice mail, or simply not leaving a message at all. Neither are the best way to get someone to call you back.

No one can guarantee you a system to get people to call you back, but here are four tips which I find useful:

Keep It Brief

Don't you hate going through someone's long rambling voice message? I tend to zone out or even fast forward or skip messages longer than 30-seconds. Chances are others do too. So keep your voice-mails under 30-seconds, unless you want to be ignored.

Be Polite, Friendly, Energetic and Appealing

If you're tired, down, upset, angry, or just don't sound like you care, why should I call you back? Yes, everyone says to smile when you leave a message, and it does work. But there is more to it than that -- be polite, friendly, energetic and appealing -- out of all the voice mails you want yours to be the one that the person WANTS to call back.

Leave a Specific Actionable Item

If you say "call me when you can," you'll never get called back, because I'm always busy. But if you say "let me know if you're free on Friday by noon today so I can book time with you," then you are being VERY specific on why you are calling and more importantly WHAT you expect them to do. 

Always Leave Your Callback Number

Sounds obvious, but with call display, often we assume people know what number to call us back on. But sometimes those displays don't work, or sometimes they display the general switchboard number instead of your specific one, or for any of a dozen or more reasons -- if you don't leave your call back number, you may never get called back. I always repeat my number at the end of the message, so that it's clear, and if they are writing it down, they have it repeated again to confirm they wrote it down correctly.

How to Get Everything on Your To Do List Done

I'm a big time planner. I even schedule lunches and breaks, otherwise I get so busy with work, I simply forget to eat and rest.

Using my iPhone, I tried out Apple's Reminder's app that comes built-in to my mobile device. I didn't find it all that practical, or useful.

It wasn't very configurable, and it's kind of bland. Which is surprising coming from a company where design is usually so well thought out.

Then I stumbled upon Wunderlist -- an amazing -- repeat -- amazing -- task managing app, available for most mobile devices, and it has a web interface for using on a PC or a Mac.

With Wunderlist, I can create different lists, from everything for daily to-do's, to specific one-off tasks.

Wunderlist On the Desktop

And within each primary task, I can create sub-tasks, so those of you -- like me -- that feel a sense of accomplishment from checking off numerous items will get your reward.

The best thing about Wunderlist, aside from it being a FREE app, is it's simplicity.

Simply open the sliding panel if it isn't already expanded, to display your lists, and those the program creates for you by default -- called "Smart Lists." These Smart Lists automatically populate with the tasks you set by type, for example "Today" shows you all the items you've created that are due today.

You can create your own lists, add tasks to these lists, prioritize them, create due dates, even set reminder alarms via push, email or desktop notification.

My favorite feature is that Wunderlist syncs my lists across all my devices using the cloud, so it doesn't matter if I'm in front of my work or home PC, on the road with my iPhone, or anywhere for that matter -- I'll still get reminded of my to do's and be able to check them off as I complete them.

Wunderlist Mobile App

Wunderlist is clean and very easy to use -- the learning curve for me was less than the time it takes to order a pizza.

You can customize the background, the notifications and the names of the lists, as well, to make it fit your own personal preferences.

If you're like me, and get satisfaction from checking off items from a to do list, Wunderlist is worth a try.

Follow this link to get a FREE month of their Pro version: https://wunderli.st/1ZPL1j

Can We Talk? It's the Biggest Problem Facing All Businesses

Can we talk?

Comedic legend Joan Rivers is known for her brash one-liners, but perhaps she's known most for her famed catch-phrase: "can we talk?"

When I was a kid, I had a handful of jobs in call centres where all we did was talk. Well, sort of -- they crammed us into a giant room, with paper thin cubicles barely wide enough for you to sit in without bumping elbows with those on either side. In between calls, supervisors would run up and down the narrow rows, yelling: "no talking to your neighbors! Just keep dialing."

It was like being in a school classroom, and having the teacher slap your wrist for passing notes to the cute girl in the corner.

Over the years, I've learned that the most successful teams, departments and ultimately companies, are the ones where everyone talks freely to everyone else.

Lack of communications is the single biggest problem affecting every company I have ever worked with and for.

Passing a note to the cute girl in class.

Makes sense, because although we think "company" equals "big faceless entity" in reality all a company really is, is a collection of people.

And the only way to get that collection of people to work together for the good of the company, is to have those people talk.

Talk isn't a distraction as the supervisors in that call centre wrongly believe. Talk brings ideas together, allows people to discuss problems, and work out solutions.

Though talking also creates politics, in-fighting, envy, suspicion, angst, and other negative things to the office.

Which is why many don't talk in the first place -- they FEAR the possible ramifications of their openness.

Communications in business is the biggest challenge
for all companies.

Seems like a paradox, on one hand people don't talk enough to each other in the world of work. On the other, talking openly can bring about more problems, simply by the very act of sharing what goes on in our heads.

It's not a true paradox, in that we can't ever solve this.

It's a two-fold solution, both from the top -- down.

Leadership within the company must first set out to create a corporate culture of inclusion, openness, honesty, and trust. From the president on down, every leader within the company must buy-into the concepts of good, honest and open communications.

And the second part, also stems from the leaders of the company -- hiring practices. Don't just hire people that can do the job, hire people that fit into an open, honest and trusting environment. 

In order for any corporate culture to work, you have to be careful to only bring into that environment people that fit into that corporate culture.

Often it comes down to hiring the right people
for the corporate culture.

All too often I've seen people brought into a company that just don't fit in. And in some cases, I've felt I was that person that didn't fit in too.

It's one thing to be able to do the job, but if everyone at the company is dancing to the tune of a different drummer, it's not a good fit.

It's up to a company's leadership team to develop the corporate culture which fits their leadership style, while creating an environment where communications is not only encouraged, it's mandatory.

And through the creation of that corporate culture of mandatory communications, you determine at the outset the key characteristics your staff must have, to ensure the continuation of that communications-friendly corporate culture.

And of course, as with all good companies, those in charge lead by example, demonstrating how talking to each other really is the best way to do business.

So You Want to Start Your Own Business? What's Stopping You? Maybe This...

What's holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

So many people tell me: "one day, one day, Jordan, I'm going to start my own business."

Why not today? Because "one day" never seems to come.

We are indoctrinated into society, thinking the normal way of life is to go to school, get an education, and then get a job.

And that was a decent way of life for most, up until the past decade or so, when jobs -- good jobs with real benefits, job security and a decent wage -- disappeared.

Yet for most of us, we still hold on to outdated beliefs, thinking we got our education, so finding that good job won't be hard. Everyone can find work.

Looking for work these days is like picking through stale leftovers. Big businesses continually cut costs by axing good jobs, and replacing them with project-based hourly temporary contracted gigs.

The biggest thing holding people back from being their own boss is this misconception from days long since gone. 

For those that were lucky enough to get -- and still have -- a decent good job -- fear is the next big stumbling block to entrepreneurship. 

Everyone knows someone looking for work.

Years ago, I started going to meetups to grow my social network. When you first meet someone new, one of the most common questions you ask, or are asked, is: "what do you do?"

We tie so much of our identities to what we do for a living, it has become another stigma in society -- because if you don't work, you don't exist.

When I first started going to these meetup events, everyone had a job. Now, more than half -- I'd even guess over 70 percent -- are unemployed or underemployed.

Big business has cleaned house to the point where: "I'm in between jobs," has been replaced with the more direct: "I'm looking for work," as a standard response to: "what do you do?"

So those who have a decent job, and see their colleagues, friends, even family members, be let go, and replaced with temporary contractors, they fear leaving their decent job to make their own way in the world.

But that fear works two-fold, not only do they fear leaving, they are in constant flux, fearing that they will be next -- that one day they will be replaced by a temporary contractor.

Fear is a funny thing, in a so unfunny way.

Science tells us fear is a natural instinctive response we all have as human beings, to preserve and safeguard our lives. The fight or flight instinct -- our fear response -- kept our ancestors from being eaten by a bear, keeps our kids from sticking their tongues to frozen street poles (or not!), and keeps us from quitting our secure day jobs.

However, the later isn't so much a fight or flight response, as it is in our heads.

And this brings us to the biggest roadblock to entrepreneurship -- our own attitudes, mindsets, and ways of thinking.

Anyone can be an entrepreneur.

Anyone.

Your boss, your best friend, your ex, even you.

However, the first step in any journey requires you to open up your mind, and make that first step.

If you tell yourself: "I can't do this, this is crazy!" Then you never will be an entrepreneur, or do anything else that you think is crazy.

However, if you put all doubts on hold, take a deep breath, and take that one giant leap, you'll be on your way to conquering crazy, overcoming fear, and learning that our society's misconceptions of going to school to land a decent job are false.

Congratulations! You are ever closer to making your own way in the world, rather than depending on others to constantly employ you.

Because there is no greater dependency in life, than having to depend on someone else to write your paycheque.