The King and Lou: Recent Episodes
Lou Imbriano & Elizabeth King
We’re all in the same boat: the work world is in a state of flux—but we’re here to help you navigate it. Lou Imbriano, partner at Tentacle Capital, is the former CMO of the New England Patriots. Elizabeth King “traffics in smarts;” she’s built a career in education and coaching and has a global clientele. Each week Elizabeth, with her peppy candor, and Lou, with his blunt wit, will discuss principles and practices for small business, management, and personal development that listeners can use for real results. Send your questions to questions@thekingandlou.com and we’ll answer on the show!
In the second half of last week’s conversation about leadership, Lou and Elizabeth talk about the hallmarks of bad leadership and the struggles some people experience stepping into leadership roles. Lou regales listeners with some wild stories about tough decisions and, frankly, crazy management moments and, most importantly, Lou and Elizabeth look at alternative choices that would have made things work smoothly. Should bosses be friends with their employees? Is it possible to not internalize your management choices? Do women experience leadership roles differently than men do and, really, how much impact does a leader have on the team’s results? How do generational differences inform what works? It’s all here …and, of course, Elizabeth goes to bat for the Clifton Strengths Assessment [with which she has no professional affiliation]. Questions? Find them online @elizabethonline and @louimbriano.
In the first half of a two-part episode, Elizabeth and Lou talk about what makes good leadership. Leadership is a way of behaving that governs everything you do, but it boils down to a few key attributes. Today, the focus is on the kernels of good leadership: discipline, decision-making, and building credibility, all of which are especially important when you have an excellent team full of great ideas. Being a good leader not only affects your team, but also your customer service. Time off, maternity leave, and HR come up; Lou deftly illustrates why we need to think better and more flexibly about family leave. Questions? Find us on Twitter @elizabethonline and @louimbriano.
Lou and Elizabeth are back to talk about starting out with KPIs: what Key Performance Indicators are worth measuring and what KPIs are not as useful or, worse, distracting? KPIs for coaches, tutors, and consultants are on the docket today, which extends to KPIs for people in service businesses. You can identify KPIs to help you grow your revenue and referral mechanisms, too, which means engineering growth no matter your industry. It drives Lou nuts when people don’t have the right mechanics and KPIs in place, and you’ll hear that in this episode. Buckle up! Questions? We’re all ears at questions@thekingandlou.com or on Twitter @elizabethonline and @louimbriano.
Lou and Elizabeth are talking negotiation this week. If sales is "listening and giving people what they want," then negotiation is "listening and getting what you want." Lou has some crazy stories this week. From big money sports negotiations to more personal negotiations like buying a home or a car, this episode has the good, bad, and ugly. Know what you need to know about leverage, your list of Nevers, and the inalienable ability to walk away on this week’s episode. If you have questions, find the hosts on Twitter at @elizabethonline or @LouImbriano.
Lou and Elizabeth have a lively conversation using real-life stories and personal examples about things to think about in the financial realm when you’re first starting a business. It’s so easy to want to spend money once “you can expense it” (new computer, anyone?), but this conversation highlights what’s worth spending on and what might be worth holding off on. Given Lou and Elizabeth’s totally different backgrounds and personality types, what they feel strongly about can vary in this conversation, but you’ll no doubt learn a lot as they each divulge a little bit about “how the other half lives.” Should you go in for the branded water bottles? What about company-branded polo shirts? Do customers want things with your brand on them at all? Is getting an accountant really worth it? How do you spend your time and money on strategic gifts that truly help grow your business? How do you keep track of your expenses and your financial basics, anyway? This conversation is peppered with tidbits that would never make it into their own show but definitely need to be on your radar.
Lou and Elizabeth are loving your listener questions. If you have one you’d like to ask, find us on Twitter @elizabethonline and @louimbriano, or email them at questions@thekingandlou.com.
Ever wondered what it would take to buy a business? Today we get into the basics of figuring out if you should buy a business and how to get started if you’re thinking about it. It’s common to wonder what it would be like to buy an existing business rather than starting up from scratch—or maybe you want to buy a competitor’s business as a shortcut to growing your own. Today, Lou walks Elizabeth through early considerations about due diligence, funding, and even a little warning about the nepotism or specialists that might be embedded in a small business you’re looking at buying that affect its value. The show gets into jargon again but makes it as painless as possible. Questions? Find us on twitter @Elizabethonline or @louimbriano or write Questions@thekingandlou.com.
This week the pendulum swings the other direction: Lou and Elizabeth talk about going into business as an artist, writer, musician, or other generally creative type of person. Not everything can be so pragmatic, and Lou and Elizabeth get into the fears and unknowns endemic to making your living in the arts and the usefulness of bringing a partner into the equation. It gets personal and funny this week as we mull over small business for artists. Questions or comments? Find Lou and Elizabeth on Twitter at @elizabethonline and @louimbriano or email questions@thekingandlou.com.
Throwing spaghetti against the wall as a marketing tactic is a great way to lose money—but when you think you’re doing something strategic that’s actually throwing spaghetti against the wall and you don’t even know it? That’s the worst! Today we talk about KPIs, Key Performance Indicators, to uncover ways people are accidentally losing time and money, especially when they sweat the small stuff thinking they’re looking at the big picture. KPIs are different than ROI, and even if you’re the type of person (like Elizabeth!) who bristles at corporate jargon, we’re going to get you through it in this conversation and help you start to think creatively about the efforts you’re making to build ongoing relationships that can sustain your small business efforts—or even your work relationships if you’re functioning inside a larger corporate structure.
What if your employer says you’re welcome to work on your own provided you don’t compete directly with your employer? Today we talk about non-competes, intellectual property, protecting yourself against what we see as virtually inevitable problems when you work more than one job in the same field, and how to think about competition and loyalty when you’re the one just getting started or doing the hiring (rather than being hired yourself). We’re thinking things through today to help you ward off issues down the line, including another listener question.
This week’s show is an after-hours production: we kept talking after our last episode wrapped and we’re sharing the conversation with you. Totally unplanned, in this episode we take a listener question about the business and customer research Lou recommends for small business owners—advice that’s good for anyone working on building business relationships. Then we get into it: Lou holds Elizabeth’s feet to the fire about her phrase “marketers marketing marketing” and the flood gates open up about social media marketing “gurus” and “experts”—some of whom might be voted most likely to confuse and misguide, especially people new to the worlds of independent work and small business. Customer research, marketing plans, and people who are full of it: we have it all on this episode. Find us at @elizabethonline and @louimbriano.
Today Elizabeth and Lou talk about what contributes to misery at work: the idea that your job itself shouldn’t be difficult and the wishful thinking that if you “find something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Lou talks about how he fell out of love with his childhood passion, football, by bringing it into his career path, and Elizabeth reveals what a comically terrible fit she was in the world of theater. The conversation takes a turn into what actually leads to happiness at work and a deep dive into the general philosophy about how people become successful—and pokes at sources of goofy perspectives and advice that often only serve to confuse people who are genuinely thinking about what their next steps are. We’ve got listener questions coming up next week. Have one yourself? Business, marketing, personal development—it’s all fair game. Send it to us us at questions@thekingandlou.com or find us on twitter @elizabethonline and @louimbriano.
One of the biggest hurdles in business and marketing sales is when your customer is misguided. Today, Elizabeth and Lou’s Odd Couple vibe reaches new, hilarious heights while they cover figuring out if you, the business owner, need to change what you’re offering or if it’s really your customers who need to change their perspectives—with a special caveat for those of you thinking about launching a home-based food business. Everyone is prone to making the same sorts of mistakes, from moms running small businesses to marketing teams inside Fortune 500s. Elizabeth and Lou talk about customers in B2C verticals ranging from sourdough and fresh fish to advising on the B2B level those brands that are marketing everything from luxury CBD and NASCAR. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in this episode? Things got laugh-til-you-cry funny.
Elizabeth and Lou’s banter is in full swing in this episode as they start to get into what they wish they’d known at different parts of their careers that would have saved time, agony, and, of course, money. There’s something for everyone here—whether you’re trying to get your first job, you’re just learning to network, or you’re a power player striking out on your own. Elizabeth shares a horror story about the year her thriving business almost fell apart due to mismanaged customer concentration, but Lou really takes the mic on this one and weighs in on a myriad of preconceptions and things it’s easy for anyone to take for granted: from lawyers who like to advise on the deal rather than prepare a contract to the easily overlooked ROI on customer retention professionals, Lou leaves nearly no stone unturned. With more material to talk about than hours in the day, Elizabeth is left with something in her pocket to tee her up for next time.
In this episode, Lou and Elizabeth take a walk down memory lane to bring listeners up to speed about how they teamed up, what they brought to the table for each other back then, and what they’re here to offer listeners now. Around here, Elizabeth is the business world outsider to Lou’s industry insider. She shares her hodgepodge of professional experiences (and foibles) in cold-calling sales, musical theater, and a successful career in high-stakes education up until the point that Lou and Elizabeth met. This leads to a conversation that begins to tease out Lou and Elizabeth’s basic philosophy about growing professional relationships—especially their own—and cultivating a customer base. Finally, they get into why launching a show made sense for their purposes now, despite the flooded podcast market, and they open up about the future of the show and how they’ll walk listeners through decoding the virtual fire hose of advice about navigating the worlds of work, small business, and personal development.
Are you changing jobs—whether you want to or not? Are you starting a small business—or do you have one that you’re trying to keep afloat? Maybe you feel like you’re drowning in everything you have to do. If you work, want to start working, or even want to figure out how to work less, we’re here to talk you through it. We’re both authors and each of us is a leader in our respective fields: Lou Imbriano is the former CMO of the New England Patriots, a sports marketing professor at Boston College, and a New England talk radio veteran. Elizabeth King “traffics in smarts:” she’s built a career in education and coaching—and a global clientele—with her natural independence, relentless pursuit of ideas, and witty candor. We know the agony of making massive mistakes and the frustration of figuring out next steps, so each week Elizabeth, Lou, and their special guests talk shop about principles and practices for small business, management, and personal development that listeners can use for real results. It’s all in the name of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and, of course, cash.
Questions encouraged, send to questions@thekingandlou.com.