Hard Way MBA: Recent Episodes
Jason Thomas
Balaji Ramadoss: Future of Healthcare
Balaji is the Founder and CEO, Edgility, where he is enabling a cognitive Healthcare disruption. Before launching Edgility he earned a PhD and worked in Healthcare for last 15 years as CRO for Tampa General and VP of Technology Experience for Stanford Healthcare Palo Alto. Prior to leading large teams, Balaji was in Public Health and responded to Hurricane Katrina, Deploying as tech consultant where he developed the first command center based on healthcare needs.
Healthcare Disruption / Transformation
Healthcare is ripe for disruption, where do start looking at this big system to create disruption? Healthcare is inefficient; Inefficiency is unethical Clinicians are the most important aspect of the equation Healthcare lacks situational awareness Joy in Practicing Medicine: Physicians, Nurses and Care Providers got into medicine the patients and the joy of practicing medicine, yet we hear a lot about physician's being very dissatisfied with their careers. What do you guys see happening here? Clinicians should focus on patients. Visibility of logistics should be taken care of for them. 'I' in the middle of the triangle. 2008 -> Today We've implemented tech so fast that we didn't re-engineer the process. Help healthcare unpack transaction system of data. Think about radar for real time pings. Design Thinking. First stage, empathy. Do you understand the problem emphatically? Broke Healthcare into 15 domain areas and now 6 core offerings. Flare... Deep experience helps them to identify the domain ares. Start with empathy. Chose orders management first. Revenue cycle. Care management. Interdisciplinary communication - Dr's talking to themselves. Formed design teams. Made of clinicians, not admins and techs. Worked directly with these teams. Brought all of this back to the patient experience. Flare back up by looking at workflows, EMRs, etc. for ways to create triggers and events Situational Awareness. I've heard you talk about Situation Awareness as part of the solution. Can you explain what that means to you? How do you create that in such complex healthcare environments? Definition: At any point in time do you know what's going on? Supply Chain: Tracking packages. In Healthcare. Doctors and nurses have so many logistics to manage that it's difficult for them to see the whole picture. What's Next in Healthcare? Healthcare is not simple. Will not be simplified like Uber. Genomics are the next wave. Won't make it simpler. Will make it more complex. Without cleaning up foundation getting there will hard. Precision medicine. Fee for performance. Standard questions
One piece of tactical advice you'd give our ambitious corporate audience that they can put in place today to help them change their life / career?
When you have doubt, look past the curve. Where you see is where you go. (Very Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance if you ask me.)
Best business book you've ever read?
John Kaag: American Philosophy: A Love Story
AND...
Connect:
LinkedIn: Balaji Ramadoss Twitter: @techofficer Email: balaji@Edgility.io
Who are you in a sentence or two?
- I teach advanced social skill and personal magnetism.
- Art of Charm. High Performers looking to go to the next level.
- Seal Team 6.
The Art of Charm sounds like a pick up artist training but that's not at all what you do. What does 'Charm' have to do with business success?
- "Networking"
- Charisma. Like & trust factors.
- It's the secret game happening around you. People who are good at any job at all have this soft skill on lock.
- "I know I'm going to be a cubical robot for my career unless I get this down..."
- It becomes real obvious who's leader
Listening, reading and studying your material it seems there are a few fundamental skills that everyone needs to master. Perhaps we can dive into each of these ideas in the context of a standard business networking event. Let's assume it's a happy hour / cocktails with good attendance and a variety of attendees, including some fairly heavy hitters. Most people do this wrong... Hey 'Jason Thomas nice to meet you...' BNI meeting style.
Begins before you walk in the room.
- First impressions begin well before you open your mouth
- People see you enter the room, interacting with others, looking at your phone,
- We judge subconsciously - even if we're consciously flexible.
- Cannot undo the first impression.
- When you became a blip on the radar - that's the first impression.
- We filter the first impressions through our own emotional baggage.
Exercise: Create a non-verbal presence without even thinking.
- Upright, open positive body language.
- Do this regularly. It's great, friendly, first impression.
- Do this every time you walk through a doorway. This way, you're always resetting and you're doing it at critical points.
- Now you're also creating a habit.
Clothes: - The things you want to focus on are to - Look just professional enough to pass muster and be comfortable
Talk to people
- Go up to someone who's not comfortable.
- They're not the glad handers, they're often too comfortable and are working the room to make a sale.
- Be very comfortable.
- Focus on helping other people.
- Introduce people who are nearby.
How do you get into a conversation with even one of your 'heavy hitter targets'.
- figure out where they are before the event.
- Do the social media search. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
- Find the connections and reach out to those people. Ask, 'how do you know Dr. Feinberg'? Do you mind introducing me to him? Explain the event and that you'd like to meet with him at the event.
- When that person is swarmed at the event, you now have permission to step in and introduce yourself and say you'll wait for him to be available. The small connection is a more comfortable scenario.
- They may also be interested in not talking about their profession, but their interests, therefore being personal, connected and interested.
- Cold intro based on mutual interest
Top secret: Find out if they have dietary restrictions. Look it up on line and give them recommendations, invite to dinner.
When do I actually get their help?
- Law of Reciprocity. You have little professionally to offer the top guys in your field. What you can as for is advise... If you were a young person in the industry, what would you do? How can I make myself more valuable to people like you?
- Keep in touch.
The more irons you have in the fire, the better your chances.
Your Favorite business book? How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
jordan@theartofcharm.com
The Art of Charm Podcast
Scott McNabb Vice President, Sales, Enterprise South Oracle Marketing Cloud Newest and fastest growing SaaS
Executive confidence in marketing?
- 77% of Marketers use awareness as their measure of effectiveness,
- Marketers mistake Engagement for Conversion
- Engagement metrics: open rates, page visits, tweets, impressions, Likes
- Revenue targets...
How do marketers position themselves as close to revenue as possible?
- The further away you get from Revenue the larger the target on your back becomes.
- Conversion metrics and being able to track from engagement through funnel entry and then through lead to opportunity conversion noting engagement all along the way.
- Attribution vs. influence becomes a “Possible” discussion.
- marketers are drowning in a sea of activity.
Combining data sets & creating models to reach the bigger audience that act like best customers?
- The world has changed from list builds and 1 st party CRM data, to now the need to combine first party with 2nd and 3rd party…
How does Marketing get and maintain a seat at the boardroom table?
- Marketers tend to use marketing speak.
- Don't tend to build ICP (Ideal client persona)
- We can now look at the IPC and compare that to a money conversion event, as opposed to brand centric.
How to deal with a CEO who is a clueless when it comes to digital...
- 73% of CEOs say their CMOs lack business credibility.
- CFO has tools like ERP, Account system. It's about $
- Chief Rev. officer has close rates and deal value
- CMOs haven't had $ metrics.
- Put markers in place that describe successful marketing. Must be able to clearly articulate "What's the value of marketing to this company?"
How to broker a conversation internally (with different lines of business) about how to build a better model for customer-centricity....
- CMOs have to start working backwards from customer centricity.
- Educate about how customers see the world and how we, as a business, can align with the customer.
- CMOs have to get better at describing marketing contribution to revenue
- Technique, tactics are really 4th in the line of discussion.
- "Arts and crafts' marketers, brand marketers, need to arm themselves with the science.
Defining Terms Adtech
- Traditional display ads that now know more about you. The Unique visitors.
- Previously the world of agencies.
Martech
- Outbound against a named visitor.
- email marketing, etc.
How do some get so much more from LinkedIn than others?
About Dustin Writer on LinkedIn. 20K+ followers 2MM views of blogs Columnist
Most salient points for professionals The way you think about LinkedIn is important. You can use it as a passive platform or active. Active is much better.
A good profile... Have a photo, a professional one. For some, that means a suit and tie, others it's at your desk Position descriptions are complete. Don't treat them like a chance to recite everything you did. Treat it like a chance describe how you bring value. Ask for recommendations. Easiest to give them first. Complete the profile and give people a nice way to understand who you are and what you do. Order of content areas. Highlight what's most valuable first.
Using the bloging platform, Pulse, on LinkedIn. Good distribution Wrote first post in July 2014 about second employee in a startup. Received 900 views. Second article 4-5 days later about getting an MBA was written for an audience of people who need the MBA as a career qualification. that post went viral and got 22k views. Later wrote a post that received 500k views. Has now written 185 posts for LinkedIn. LinkedIn has an algorithm that identifies what posts to feature. Is now manually featured by certain editors
What have your learned and can systematize about writing for Pulse? There are probably 10 people who have written for Pulse who have built a similar sized platform as him. Only 2 of them had any writing background before starting If you're interested in writing, start by writing about things you care about. Do something compelling, not appetizing. Something with 'fire in the belly' gets more attention than technically well written material. It's all about interacting with people.
Groups Are they really active? Most are short-lived if ever lived. Most are too big or too small to be a community. You need to evaluate each group one at a time and be willing to abandon them.
Interacting with people... Look at who is engaging with the post then go to their profile. Look at their post, be curious and proactive in helping them. Look for ways, find ways, to help the people who look at your profile. Use this as a basis to build a dialog. Look for Pulse content that resonates with you and is in your area of interest / expertise. Comment on the article, comment on the comments. Engage more deeply with individuals. Most people generally operate with some sense of kindness and of the golden rule, online people don't necessarily have the same level of care / reciprocity. Being decent, kind and caring to people who do share of their time and efforts.
Your favorite business book? Michael Lewis: Money Ball & The Big Short Fiction books will make you a better writer: The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
What one piece of actionable advice? Career growth is not only about the credentials you get Look at what investments you can make into other people He could go out an get another degree, which may look good on your resume You could also give great advice to a potential client or employerer
Introduction: I’ll ask you to tell us what you do in a sentence or two. * Director Corp Dev at SunEdison * Integration of acquired companies in NA * Setting up global shared services center.
You’ve worked as a consultant at one of the large global consulting firms and ‘in-house’ on M&A with a very fast moving corporate player. Can you compare the two environments? * 8 - 9 years on PwC on audit side. * Exposure into non-account work and he saw that he couldn't 'speak the language' of other parts of the business. * swimming pool - swims the whole pool.
Consulting vs. in-house? * Mind set is very different. Serving in a client service role objectives are a little different. At the end of the day in house you'll still be here. As a consultant, that might not be the case. Your companies name is attached to it, not your own. * There's a higher level of accountability building the house that you have to live in. * Drive of the people in consulting is different. In corporate, you'll see different motivations, not necessarily all on the same page.
Contrast the differences. * Leading by influence. Getting everyone on the same piece of music. Easier at a consultant.
For the last several years, you’ve been focused on M&A activities. Can you give us some context of the work you’ve done…
- Merger and integration.
- Buys two types of companies - those with people, those without.
- FirstWind Deal - entire company - 250 people
- Projects
- Split between finding deals and integrating them.
- Buying a company isn't easy. Making it work is also difficult. Can't just throw it over the wall and expect them to coexist.
As you’re looking at a possible acquisition, when do you typically get involved? * doesn't work very well to bring in an integration team too close to the deal being done. * Should all tie into the valuation model. Need someone who can see the synergies and help with valuation. * When you bring everyone into the game early and get buy in on a road map for integrating the two entities - cost savings, new business, etc.
For those of us on the outside looking in, give us a sense of the work that’s gone into an acquisition before any news becomes public?
- Typical lifecycle: NDA
- Diligence & preliminary term sheet
- Sign a PSA, purchase and sale agreement
- Sign to close varies
Once your team has settled in on the idea that a specific transaction will go through, what are you looking for within the firm to maximize the value of this acquisition?
- You can either save $ or drive more $
- Cost savings:
- Business A isn't going to do something anymore - may also cost rev.
- Duplicative back office functions
-
Complementary supply chains
-
Revenue Side:
- Cross-sell or up-sell to current customer lists
- Partnerships
- Technologies each company may have
- Sometimes you're betting on the future of a technology paying
There’s likely a significant value factor – the business model, horizontal / vertical integration, specific book of business. I’d imagine in every transaction, there’s one big value driver. Is that right, or am I missing something?
- Is there a theme associated with it.
- FirstWind: Wanted to get into wind. Directionally, it was about getting into wind. Also sub-components.
The audience for this podcast are ambitious corporate professionals. What one piece of tactical – go implement today – advice do you have for this group?
- Everything needs to drive some kind of value.
- On a macro level that may take months
- On a daily level - you need to know what you're doing that will drive the highest value.
- What is the highest and best use of your time.
What’s your favorite business book?
- Coopitition, Game Theory, 3D negotiations.
- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
Tell Chris thank you on LinkedIn. chawkins@sunedison.com
Change Mgt in a real project: Hardwaymba.com/changemethodology * Walk through the change framework * Have a methodology to follow. * 4 quadrant. * Discuss the communications plan * How is that plan executed? * Who’s involved in executing it? (Leaders & Champions)
Leaders & Champions (two different posts)
- What is a change champion?
- How important are they to the change process
- How do we get them engaged?
- What would we like to see them doing throughout a project?
What: Now that I have the why what do I do with it? Communications. Please define for us in this context?
- Guides the course of what we'll do this program.
Layout for us a simple communications plan?
- Segmented audiences by role and disposition.
- Must iterate assessment and communications over the project.
- Repetition matters. 7 times over 3 mediums
- What message are we sending? What format does it take? Audience to receive? When?
Do we learn and adapt the communications as we go?
- Communication plans adapt from building awareness in the beginning to taking action at the end.
- Beginning: You need to know what's up.
- End: You need to take action.
- Peaks and valleys of a project will address changing conditions of the program.
Who does this typically play out in a real project? (We’ll save that for next time)
Last time we talked about an ROI for change. I’m sure that got some attention. Now, it I want to start thinking about managing change, where do I look first?
- Often we think about communication and training.
- That's good and is a portion of the change effort.
- First thing you need to determine is 'Why'.
- Change happens 1 person at a time.
- Must hook people early.
How do you uncover the ‘why’ for end users / stakeholders?
- Small minority of people like to change.
- We like what we know.
- Change equation for each person is different.
- Most projects have a mission / vision. Often the 'why' for the business but not WIIFM?
- What's the case for change for the audience members.
- Iterative discipline. Audiences themselves change so your plans must change with them.
- Must do the stakeholder assessment / analysis. Impact on them? Their impact on program? Their current disposition and future state disposition?
Once I have the ‘why’ what do I do with it? (I’ll ask but we’ll have to save that for next time)
Change Management: Soft side / tangible ROI. Can you quickly define change management for us?
- Tech implementation are often all about getting tech right. No Defects. However, that does not define success.
- Projects are about creating outcomes and that is often about the people.
- Need to ensure people are ready, willing and able to function effectively.
I’ve heard many people refer to change as an overhead cost or say that it’s difficult to put a tangible ROI together for it. How do you address this?
- Are we ONLY protecting an asset, like insurance? B/C I’m not a fan of insurance, I prefer the risk.
- If you're investing $1M in a system and expect $3M in return. What if no one uses the system?
- Typically there's 70-80% of the value is dependent on people using the system.
- Projects that deploy change are 6x more likely succeed.
- IBM GBS study: 2/3 of projects are not successful because we don't address change correctly.
We're 50 days into 2016, how are you tracking on your goals?
Breakdown the objectives into roughly 52 sub blocks of activity. Schedule time once a week to get real with yourself. Improving and getting the results requires doing the work. It should hurt some - it should stretch you to #grow and #achieve.
Do you have a morning routine that makes you more effective?
If your answer to this question is 'No.' or 'I don't know, should it?' you must pick up a copy of The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)
Humanity has a core problem: the limit of our current identity. Can you unpack that for us?
- identify is just a story you're telling yourself. it changes over time
- The core human problem may be delusion itself.. Direct relatioshipw ith our inturpretation of truth.
- Lenses share, color the way we see the world. Built to be invisible. to be looked through, not looked at. Republican / Democrate, Vegan / Pale,
- Some of the lenses we put on are terribly limiting.
How do we see the lenses that we have?
- Shift in awareness is about a fundamental shift.
- We've all had the moment
Breaking up with the truth.
- When we take the limits as truth we have to change what's going on
- Need to determine if that's limiting... Are you thinking, that sucks.
- End up seeing it in our emotional state, which comes from the meaning making in our head.
- Evidence in the past is not relevant to the future
- Think in terms of useful over true.
Subconscious mind sees familiarity as safe.
Three steps to the waking up process...
- Awareness. Grab a piece of paper and write down what you hear. All the negative self talk, inner critic. Become aware of what they are. You may not believe them 100% but represent bad software running around in the system. Awareness itself is curative.
- Challenge the thoughts. Have confidence / gumption to look at what you wrote down and decide i don't want those to be true.
- Replace negative with an alternative that is more useful. Not inaccurate, useful. Not, i'm a millionaire but, i enjoy earning good money.
Pattern these into the identity and it changes the subconsious.
Habits don't work until you actually change the subconciouns. Instead, accepting
Change, when it happens is immediate.
- The state change from anxious to confident can be instant.
- There's not time, order, it's random. When we learn how to manage meaning making we get to a great degree control the state we're in.
- There are stage evolution that take growth over time.
- The suffering comes when we're in a specific phase, beginner, and we allow that to control our state. Haven't made it okay to be where we are.
Favorite business book? - Spin Selling.
What one piece of advice would you give our audience that they can use to improve their business today? - mindfulness meditation
Contact Rob Scott: * www.robscott.com * www.identityshifting.com
Bryan's Background: - Graduated from Univ of Ill. - Arthur Anderson in 1992: 6 yrs and volunteered to do everything he could. Never shyed away from a tough assignment. - Went back to get MBA along with CPA. - LMI Aerospace Corp Controller through IPO: Did a lot of improvements and got into operational director - Astaris: Took through a sale process. - Waylon Securities CFO: Private, family owned business, $40M and grew to $120M while he was there. - Then CFO / COO for Life Uniform: Private Equity owned business. Largest retailer of medical uniforms. 5 years. 10 acquisitions. Sales process through strategic offering in mid-2013. Was CEO when it was sold.
Terms: * Help us understand and demystify what M&A is. * What is due diligence? Is performed in an acquisition / sales. Done to ensure what you're buying is what you expect it to be. It's valuation, testing earning. Kicking the tires to ensure you get what you think you'll get. Companies are often sold by investment banker/ business boeker. Company is stating certain facts to support their valuation. Transactions are similar to large personal transactions: cars, homes, etc. * When is it a merger v. acquisition? * Certified Mergers & Acquisitions: really means acquisitions and sales divestitures.
- Transaction Advisory:
As a business owner or leader, what should you be looking from both sides of a deal?
- In Preparation for a sale: Just reading an article about how many businesses have owners who are 55+ years old. Don't have succession planning, etc. There are many businesses getting ready for sale inthe next 10 years.
- Know what it's worth. Have a business valuation that will identify current value as well as value drivers and value eroder to create strategies to maximize value.
- Consider tax situation and corporate structure.
- Quality financial info: having holes and problems in the information will hurt the valuation.
- Marketing of the business.
-
Good transaction attorney. There are differences between the personal attorney and a specialist.
-
Buyer: Many of the above count the same for buyers
- Valuation by an independent professional firm will support your negotiations.
- Signed letter of intent to do real due diligence.
- Quality of earnings report to confirm what sellers are telling you about future earning potential.
- Need to consider post-closing transition.
- Two kinds of buys:
- Strategic buys who will have synergies, overlap and redundant positions.
- Private Equity: May shake up upper management but rank and file middle managers and sales reps are left alone and given time to prove themselves.
How much thought is really given to the work of post-transaction integration beforehand?
- Key employees locked up
- Transition plan for owner, especially, if they are the brand.
- Vendor agreements
- Cultural challenges
- Are there synergistic opportunities?
From the perspective of a mid-level manager what should we be trying to do if we know we’re on either side of a deal? * Try to get involved. You may not be on the deal team but there's a lot of work to do. Many people don't want to do it. * Be positives and step up. See the opportunities and long-term payoffs. * Never be shy about volunteering. * Has seen it on the sell side too. Some will put their resume together and gossip. Others will dive into the issue, roll up their sleeves and help. Put best foot forward for buy team. Strategic buyers will look for the best and brightest to keep. * Don't ever take a victim mentality.
Your favorite business book? * Good To Great: Jim Collins.
Reach Bryan: bgraiff@bswllc.com 314-983-1390
Background on Steli
- Originally from Greece and grew up in Germany
- Dropped out of school at 17
- Launched first few business then.
- Bought a 1 way ticket to Silicon Valley
- First business was a soul crushing failure.
Launching Close.io
- Close.io started as an outsourced sales function. They started developing internal software to empower their sales people.
- January 2013 they launched the software on its own. Within one year it was larger than the other business.
Transition from the services business to the product business. What did you do to 'retool'?
- Reality is fairly messy
- Never intended to launch software business
- Had no vision of the software, simply, what do we need? Took a year to determine that they had a perspective.
- Going through difficulties on service business. Tough to manage from cash flow perspective. Staffing, seasonality,
- Were not sufficiently capitalized to manage through the down turns of seasonality.
- Product took off and grew quickly, with little resources.
- Within a few weeks they made tough choices and let go of half of our team.
- Blog post, I fired half my team.
- Spent a lot of time with people on the team making sure they were okay.
- Spent time with those they had to let go. They are all current customers.
What prompts you to be so open and candid about the struggles involved with the startup world?
- On a person to person basis was always transparent.
- Very self-reflective guy, has always looked inside to see what he fears, the bias, all of the negatives.
- After shutting down his first business he realized that he'd tried to pretend. E.g. Working for 17 hours (but only being productive for 5)
- Steli Efti, TedX, cathartic. Helped him.
- Since that talk has tried to be more and more open publicly.
- Tends to teach and talk about things that are on his mind.
- Because there's a lot of self-study and self-mastery he's just sharing what's on his mind.
- Personal philosophy: teach everything I know.
- Is profoundly impacted by helping other entrepreneurs get through their difficulties.
Why the trend to openness about their vulnerable points?
- The reason we want to hear them is we're authentic human stories.
- Today, it's getting safer for people who have made it through the roughest patch and are in a good place.
- As people see there's not a terrible response, they are more comfortable
How do we move this level of openness and sharing into the larger corporate culture?
- Not worked in a large organization himself so it's difficult to say
- There will need to be early adopters, pioneers, leaders, etc. will need to lead the way.
- A few will be inspired enough to translate that, take some risks and share some risky thoughts.
- If, perhaps, that goes viral it can catch on.
- Believes that the time of massive organizations will start to die out over the next 10-15 years.
- Large organization will break up into decentralized organizations.
- That will make more of these corporate jobs, more nimble, more agile and adaptive.
- There's always some risk involved in doing real work.
What piece of advice would you give to our listeners that will help them get better today?
- If you're really about being better every day, look at what you're afraid of. Ask yourself, what are you afraid of?
- It's probably your next big step. It's a road sign. Now, write it down and go confront it. How can you force yourself to take that step now, not tomorrow, now?
Hear & Contact Steli
- Podcast: StartupChat
- Sales and more tactical stuff: http://blog.close.io
- Best way to reach Steli: Steli@close.io
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/steli
Scott Pope is a marketing executive with 10+ years of lead generation, graphic design, and business development in a variety of vertical markets including health care, financial services, retail, and manufacturing industries. I have personally seen Scott's commitment and hustle on display in the field.
Right now, you are a VP of Marketing. I have seen you work on the supplier side, as one of the hardest hustling sales reps I've ever met and on the client side as a extraordinary operator. Taking all of that experience into account... What kind of it of advice do you have for us who are in sales in the marketing space? Which of the tactics you used as a sales rep to open relationships and generate new business do you still like? How has your perspective on those changed since moving to the client side?
Buyers working in the enterprise space are hard to find and don't have time. Know your stuff, have an opinion and hit hard. Likes a lot of the demo stuff in the marketing world. Make it very experiential with the client's data, etc. If I heard your VM but didn't call you back, I probably forgot. Don't over think this stuff. Call back. We're not thinking about you. There's so much going on in the marketing world today, so many changes, so much to keep track and make sense of. As a marketing leader in a mid-size organization obviously have to prioritize, help us understand how you go about that privatization...
Ideas are a dime a dozen but implementation costs money. Everyday is learning and testing new ideas. Learn heavily from people that have more experience than you. Have mentors. Learn from them. Test it. Test it again. Build an audience. What trends you see being most impactful over the next 12 to 18 months?
Amazon is huge right now. Buyers (the audience) are there. Facebook for targeted ads - mine and look for specific targets. There's not as much competition as you might think and the targeting is very discrete. Lead capture around buying right now. This is an instant gratification time so you need to get people buying now and more to the second sale immediately. One of the big gaps I see in marketing (and business in general) today is between strategy and execution. I see a lot of people talking about strategy, talking about having a plan. I see some people executing around a plan but I see a most just posting to Facebook and shooting out tweets, without necessarily being able to point back to the strategy. Is that something you see in your experience as well? What what do you do in your organization to bridge that gap?
Need to understand what you are, what you want to be as a company / salesperson. Execution needs to go through the filter of 'Does this fit what we do? Does it get us closer to what we want to do?' This podcast is all about learning from the hustlers of the world. What piece of business advice would you give to the up and comers, the driven professionals? Something they can put to work today.
Be realistic. Know what you do and who you do it for. Don't let grand ideas or ideas that don't work out slow you down. Sometimes you just have to grind it. Reach out to Scott to let him know what you're taking a way from this podcast and putting to practice. Contact: spope@hamiltonusa.net
Let's level set; Art of value - When you say value, what do you mean? I'm sure it's not 'the cheapest in town'. - The value a customer will receive or achieve as a result of doing business with you. Must focus on the end result.
What prompted you to take such a large departure from the standard time and materials business model? - Not every customer is open to having a great conversation... - What's most important is outcome. Everything I do should be focused on that outcome and is significant. We should be moving the needle. - Bad customers drive out good customers... Courage to drive them out early...
How do you introduce the concept of value pricing to the client? - Guide the conversation with great questions. - Not every customer is open to having great conversations. - What's most important is the outcome you're seeking. I'm really interested in doing work that moves the needle - 10% or more. - Not every customer is a great fit / good customer. If you load yourself up with bad customers, you'll drive out the good ones.
In your transition to a Value Based business model, did you think about turning back, going more traditional? Tell us about the circumstances that pushed you to the breaking point? - Early in your business or if you are in a slow time you're going to feel major pressure to 'cave'. This is not a pressure that ends, it will be revisited many times over the year. - Have a process for transitioning over 6-12 months.
How does the concept of value play out through the customer life cycle - marketing, sales, service, retention. - Interviewed Joanie Newkirk, Author of Brilliant Price Hike, about Disney raising prices in the 2000's. Listen here. - Consolidated all pricing into one department. - Abundance mindset rather than zero sum game of the scarcity mindset.
I've talked to you mostly about value in the context of selling based on value. I'm currently selling to large organizations, as do many of our listeners. I don't have total control over my business model, like an entrepreneur running my own company. How do you see these concepts playing out in this environment? - Business model is based on a philosophy of how the world works. Charging for your time is based on Marxist Theory, Labor Theory of a Value, Sum of everything ti took to build it. - Versus Subjective Theory of Value. where value is in the eyes of the customer. - Hourly billing requires a calculator. Value billing requires courage
Find more about Kirk Bowman: www.artofvalue.com @artofvalue
Listen to a few great shows: The History of the Billable Hour The Law of Value
Noting that you are working at a large corporation while running at least one, sometimes several side projects, like CarlosGilTV, I'm wondering if you see synergies between these engagements? It's all interconnected. We all have a personal brand. He's owning his personal brand. Motivating and inspiring others. He's passionate about helping other people get where they'd like to go. His story can inspire - 17 year old high school drop out as a speaker, as a leader. Gets excited about what's going on in digital media. How do you determine what side projects you'll invest your time in? It's about what taps into his passion. Using tools at your disposal on social media lets you increase your reach. Books: My Unemployed Life - myunemployedlife.com
You're not shy about bringing your personal life into a business conversation - especially on social media. Let's talk about your choice to blur those business / personal lines a little. Once it starts, you can't stop it. The web lives forever. You need to embrace the losses because they build character. Advantage: Everyone loves rooting for the underdog. Drawbacks: Can be awkward in corporate setting as people recognize you for work outside of work. How do other professionals, especially those that might be a little more rigid and traditional, react? Has gotten some push back on the level of transparency he displays. Any time you're in social representing a brand you are a risk to the brand, which means everything you do can be associated to the brand. We are all human. There's a human story.
This podcast is all about learning from the hustlers of the world. What piece of business advice would you give to the up and comers, the driven professionals? Something they can put to work today. You must be patient. What is for you will be. When you start a business, you won't likely make much money early on. Be willing to learn the hard way. Passion and persistence always wins. Contact Carlos: Please take a moment to let Carlos know what you've found valuable in this interview. What will you put into practice today that will upgrade your hustle? Twitter: @CarlosGil83 or @CarlosGilTV
Feed Your Vitality makes healthy food taste naughty.
The story behind your business is inspiring. Share with us what drove you to start business? – Sent home with hospice at one point in her life. – 97 lbs overweight. – Daughter was 2 at the time, now 18 years old – Was passionate about food, tastes, etc. – Was a personal shift to begin with. At the same time, she was cheffing for people in their homes. After 30 days on the paleo diet she felt amazing. Shifted everyone they were cheffing for over to this diet. one year later 96% of the clients were still doing it. – Demand grew from there. – Moved into St. Patrick’s center commissary The Food – Shop the perimeter of grocery store – Avoid processed food – Inflammation is the cornerstone of all disease so you avoid anything that causes it. – Started eating this way – Foods to remove: – Grains: Cause a chronic low level allergic state from gluten, soy, corn, etc. – Inflammation: Do you have the ‘-itis’ swelling of or inflammation of. The business – This food takes more time to prepare – In our grab and go culture that’s hard for people to do – They made a line of food that fulfilled both – Then made it freezable – Expansion into training / teaching people how to do it on their own I think most people who start businesses based on their passion give up based on reality. What’s kept you going? What hurdles have made you consider giving up? What would you do differently a second time around? – Easy to get attached to a hobby and try to make it a business. That’s a mistake. She had an entrepreneurial mind running in the background from day one. – Nando Parrado said ‘Had I gotten to the top of the hill and seen how much was in front of me I probably never would have kept going.’ That’s the thing with them. – Key to being successful for them has been putting some thought out business planning but have also gone where the doors are open and follow your gut. – Listened to their customer say ‘Make it happen.’ – Finding partners, cross-fit gyms, etc. – Being candid with customers that there’s an experiment going in the business. – Value and enjoy the business – Success is about knowing what your good at and getting people around you who are good at it. – Know where you need help and accept it. Hurdles that you almost quit? – This summer was hard – almost Packed it in. – Needed to move from St. Patrick’s Center. Had to determine how they’re going to move / shut down. – Pricing out what they could afford and after they’d signed a lease they found that move-in would cost 4X the original bid. – Busted their entire plan for 2014 and there was no way to gracefully back out. What about a second time around? – Listen to your gut. – Value the difficult times because you learn from them. They will teach you. – Re-framing how we look at experiences and pay attention to the ‘Listen Moments’ when you feel like This podcast is all about learning from the hustlers of the world. What piece of business advice would you give to the up and comers, the driven professionals? Something they can put to work today. – Get yourself connected to successful people. They’re the ones who want to talk business at a cocktail party and if you’re willing to be honest with yourself, they’ll be your best support. Get in touch: – 314-910-3324 – on Twitter: @feedurvitality – http://www.feedyourvitality.com/
What can we do from a marketing perspective to improve profitability? Continually looking for ways to: Increase unit volume (sell more) Increase selling price for given piece / service Enrich the mix of products / services you sell Marketing strategy: Re-imagining Reality Sweet spot triad: who you serve what are the ‘value bundles’ you provide deliver and monetize the value bundle Special Note: dig into this topic of ‘value bundles’. It’s a great way to think about your organization’s offerings. Tactical Who you serve: differing preference for price v. quality. Over time, you need to invest time with the people your company serves best and are likely not viewing price as a top component Figure out something special to bring to the marketplace. Examples: Warrior Dash, Red Frog Events Identifying the gap: ‘all markets are under served’ Market research – professional and amateur Controlled experiments How important is segmentation, or identifying your target clients? Can you walk us through a thumbnail sketch of how we can identify our proper targets? If the decision is big enough, there will be a ‘buying group’ involved in the decision. Technical, practical, legal, functional, etc… Demographic: Company size, etc. What would change the buying behavior across those 20 companies? What would help them ally with us. This podcast is for the hustlers (in a positive sense), the people who grind out great work everyday. Some of them are up and comers, others have great careers and continue to grow. What piece of advice do you have for these folks? Clyde Lowstuter, Develop endorsement, that others in the organization look to you and say ‘good person to know / work with’. Good decisions = Good endorsement; good info = good decisions; go get more information through tests, research and experiments. His books include: In Search of the Perfect Job: 8 Steps to the $250,000+ Executive Job That’s Right for You, Network Your Way to Your Next Job…Fast (both are affiliate links) George Gilder, Economist and Author, forwards this concept that all knowledge is a surprise in a great book: Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World (affiliate link) Please reach out to Bob; let him know what you are taking away from this conversation and putting into practice today.
You wrote New Sales. Simplified. and it is on my shelf (or often in my bag) as one of the best sales books ever written and you followed it up with Sales Management. Simplified. Having talked to you before about the writing process and all of the effort that goes into a book, I was a little surprised you followed it up with another book. Why write and promote another book?
- Didn't want to write it.
- Mike admits he was wrong when he got into consulting. Bottoms up doesn't really work to change the sales world.
- Leadership and managment needs a mirror held up to their own issues.
Which of the other Blunt Truths from the front lines do you see as most damaging / pervasive?
- Spending your time in silly ways...
- Avoid high value leadership activities
- Companies are sometimes cluelss. Too many expectations for non-sales related activity.
In Sales Management. Simplified. You outline 16 significant problems you often see in sales management today. I think my favorite is Ch. 11, An Anti-sales Culture Disengages the Heart of the Sales Team. Can you explain what you mean by Anti-sales culture? It's more important to understand what a great sales culture looks like. The Anti-sales culture is simply the antithesis of these traits:
- Pro sales. High accountability.
- Comp plans aligned with goals
- Meetings that are brutal but fun.
- The boss knows you.
- Practice hard in sales team meetings. Role play on steroids.
Peter Drucker said 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast' so before we move on from this idea of culture let's talk about your simple framework where you address sales management and culture first. As a front line sales manager, what are my first steps (after reading Sales Management. Simplified.) for creating a positive sales culture?
- Come to grips with the reality that your new job is nothing like your old job.
- Individual contributors should be selfish. As a manager, focus on your priorities is for the sales person.
- Sales managers make heroes, don't become them. You must be open, available, remove obsticals, make them successful.
Everyone wants a piece of you. You must get grounded and identify the high value activity. 1. 1:1 meetings - accountability & coaching 2. sales team meetings 3. Field work - get into the meetings with your salesperson
You have two books out there now. New Sales and Sales Management. As an individual contributor, working on the New Sales, what can I do to best position myself to step into a sales management role?
- Be very sure you want that job. Top sales produces may not want it and may not do well with it.
- Study leadership and get around good leaders
- Leadership Challenge
Your favorite books: In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters Open Book Management, Jack Stack Lets Get Real or Lets Not Play, Mahan Kahlsa
You transitioned from corporate career path to academia and coaching. I'm sure you've seen many other clients make dramatic (or what seems so) transitions. What are some of the keys to a transition of this nature? Seek that which you love and you'll never work a day in your life Enjoyed mentoring downward in corporate world Showed up - discipline - walk into opportunities because you're there Knew what he liked to do. Marketing: Look at it primarily from the customer's POV
You and I met in early 2009 while I was between jobs. You were then and are now a prolific networker. Share with us how you use this tool and how you hope others will use it.
Thinks of 'Engagement' instead of networking Give more than you take: Engagement Giving: can be simple, doesn't take much time / money. 'Send me a pithy one liner' Do not keep score. A goal for engagement is to identify positive givers Great advise to actually engage with people not just network
Make the conversation rich and relevant for the speaker Listen for and void 'I' talkers, they are takers. You / We / Team talkers are givers. Spend time with them.
Engage Strategically and Selectively Find events that sound interesting or will attract the kind of people you want / need to meet Plan in advance the events you'll attend Stay in touch with the people you want to stay in touch with. Givers Do this 1 / 2 times per month. You'll meet 49 - 96 people
This podcast is for hustlers. Many of them are up and comers. What is the most important advice would you offer to the next generation of business leaders? Have an open mind Spend time with older successful people
Best contact info for Frans VanOudenAllen Phone: 314-378-3816 Email: fvanoudenallen@gmail.com Linkedin Please reach out to let Frans know what one or two pieces of insight you will put into practice today.
Also, as always, shoot me a note at jason@hardwaymba.com or invite me to connect on LinkedIn to let me know what you like (and don't like) about the interviews. What can we do to make them more actionable for you.
Troy and I were brought together, in a round about way, by Mike Weinberg and his phenomenal book, New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development (affiliate link) We both highly recommend it and start the podcast talking about it.
How do coach new business development reps to get in the game? What kind of expectations should they have?
Understand sales story: Why do customers do business with you. Sales / call reluctance is based on fear of their knowledge (or lack of). They must get in front of the customer. Continuously refine the sales story. In a new position you must improve your mastery and delivery of the story. As a sales leader, it's important to make sales calls with them so you know where they need the help. You don't need to focus on activity in general. However, when you're new it's hard to look at just results. He looks at 'meaningful conversations' and 'new opportunities open'. Understand their sales process. Set realistic expectations about pace. Sales these days has more to do with aligning with your clients needs / goals than ever before. How do you put your business in a position to understand their goals and deliver solutions to them?
Ask the right questions. You're not there to sell something at a first meeting. You're there to understand their situation, their business issues. Once we understand what's driving a request, then you can start selling. Sales people don't know their own products well enough. Don't understand their own story well enough. Biggest compliment is when your client starts asking you about their own products or business. What advise do you have when making a transition from individual contributor to sales leader?
Surround yourself with talented sales mentors as an individual contributor. Success at selling doesn't necessarily make you the best sales leader. You cannot expect your sales people to work the way you did. That's not how people operate. you need to give them their enough room to find their way. Personality tests are good in so far as they help you understand how to work with your people. Key to set clear expectations and lay out a plan to meet those goals. Seems very simple but if you're not doing it... Please reach out to Scott and let him know what you've learned from this podcast that you'll put into action immediately... My guests love getting that feedback from you.
Contact Troy Scott tscott588@gmail.com @tscott588 Look him up on www.Linkedin.com
As always, let me know what you've learned from this cast. Let me know what what you'd like to hear about next. Shoot me a note at jthomas1027@gmail.com or @jasonrthomas.
You started with Warehouse of Fixtures right out of college. Did you buy into the business right out of college?
Started out of college. Continuation of what his grandfather did. Re-manufactured manikins, got into office furniture. Started selling furniture out of the old warehouse in the summer between graduating from college and headed to law school. How'd you know you wanted to make that kind of commitment so young?
Customers were asking him. There were some good players in the new/ used market but he saw that he was doing it better than most. What's it been like 'growing up' in business as the President/Owner?
Made a ton of mistakes, still does. Budgets for mistakes. Read one biz book per month This podcast is all about learning from the hustlers of the world. What piece of business advise would you give to the up and comers, the driven professionals? Something they can put to work today.
Learn. Read books. Seek out entrepreneurs Find a mentor who will hold you accountable, outside the business. Ask for help. Look into E/O. it's for business owners only who do $1M+ in rev. Have a program called accelerator that teaches the basics. Reading right now:
The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) (affiliate link) How to start your day and live your life. Re-reading The Ultimate Sales Machine (affiliate link) Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business (affiliate link) by Gino Wickman will help with understanding finances of your company. Please reach out to David and tell him what you've learned and will put into practice today. Of course, if you need office furniture, David is your man.
email: dsinger@stlwarehouse.com and phone: 314-922-4255
We talk to a man who has worn a name tag for 4993 days. (He's over 5000 days now, by the time I publish this). Aside from that, he's an inspiration.
Scott is a prolific writer and actually has outlined what he calls The Prolific Framework Is reverse engineering creativity in his life. Combines left and right brain thinking Volume & consistency
Giving away his work everyday is based on generosity That's his nature and discovered it pays off. Delayed gratification. Hustle while you wait. Hard to be passionate about somebody else's business.
Book you should read: BrainStorm by Eric Maziel is about having productive obsessions
Moments of Conception: Topher Grace cut all Star Wars Prequils into one movie.
Business advise: Quality is not as important as you think. What is more important? Speed, context, etc. Create parallel life. Have an identity that does not include your work, another container of meaning to support your person-hood, especially when the business sucks. Do as much as you possible can before you get married.
Tell Scott what you learned from this conversation that you'll put into practice tomorrow. scott@hellomynameisscott.com
Changing Industries - Self reflection is required. Be sure you're not jumping ship but moving towards a better opportunity. - Know why you were successful in the first place. - Be true to the process you have that creates value for your clients.
Keys to Ramp Up Quickly 30 days - Learn the business, your new company, the people, the process etc. - Your competitors, the market, etc. - Shadow a peer on customer calls. - Understand the marketing collateral you have at your disposal.
60 day - get on the phone. - Create new contacts.
90 Days - Understand the sales process of the company. - What are the right metrics for me to watch. - What is our sales cycle?
Intersection of Tech and Business - Tech is often seen as only a cost center but that's a huge oversight. - Risk is often overlooked by less mature businesses. What happens to your business if the tech doesn't work correctly? - Opportunity costs are another area many business leaders overlook. What are you not able to do because you're spending too much time on low-value activities like data entry, etc.
Brandon Dempsey carries titles like Founder, Partner & Chief Marketing Strategist at goBRANDgo! but mostly he's an entrepreneur. He joins the Hard Way MBA for a great discussion about...
Being the most energetic dude I know. How does Brandon keep a super high energy level that allows him to run a company, an Iron Man and travel the world? Transparent business practices that would scare most business owners are the norm for Brandon. He shares with us how being extremely open and candid are fundamental to his business success. The power of defining your company around the results you produce rather than what you do to produce it. Please let Brandon know what you've taken away from this conversation that you'll put in to action today.
Email: bdempsey@gobrandgo.com Twitter: @brandondempsey
Brandon, thanks again for sharing so much with me personally and now all the listeners at Hard Way MBA!
Working with the Government Two tech businesses; Two names. You own and run a couple of companies. What's your favorite job there? Why? Building great teams and delegating to them
The recruiting business has been disrupted several times in the last decade. The job market changed significantly with the crash of Lehman Brothers and the Great Recession. Around the same time, new technology, social media, especially LinkedIn, entered the picture. Tell me about how that's impacted your approach to recruiting. - Do you find that your clients are up to date and prepared to deal with the new and emerging landscape? - If not, how do you advise your clients to deal with these changes today? - What about the candidates you're looking for, are they prepared to deal with the new landscape? - What advise to you give candidates today to effectively leverage social media and LinkedIn, while still working effectively with recruiters?
You worked with GE, through the legendary Jack Welch era, for 24 Years. - What are some of the lessons you learned there that you still practice or see as relevant today? - What is your take on top-grading or stack-ranking as it was known at Microsoft and Yahoo?
You've interviewed and hired a lot of people in your career both as a recruiter and a hiring manager. - What's your take on the idea of hire fast / fire fast Vs. hire slow / fire fast Vs. hire slow / fire slow? - How do you go about interviewing candidates in a way that allows you to select the right person for a specific role?