7 Steps to Take Your Business to the Top, On Your Own Terms, In Your Own Style
Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, CEO, Business in Blue Jeans Web: BusinessinBlueJeans.com SusanBaroncini-‐Moe.com Twitter: @suebmoe Facebook: Facebook.com/bizinbluejeans E-‐mail:
[email protected] Phone: (317) 489-‐6561
1 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
7 Steps to Take Your Business to the Top On Your Own Terms, In Your Own Style Have you ever bought a book or product that promised one or two easy answers to business success, only to find out you needed a lot more detail to succeed? Ever gone to a live event thinking you’d learn how to make your business thrive and left with the feeling that you only got some of the information, but would need far more to truly grow your business? Have you ever hired a coach or guru who gave you a “one size fits all” solution, but then you discovered that their “cookie cutter” approach just didn’t work for you? Hi, I’m Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, founder and CEO of Business in Blue Jeans. I’ve spent the last decade and a half reading (literally) thousands of books on small business, marketing, success, and personal growth. I’ve attended my fair share of live events, classes, seminars, and workshops, and I’ve talked with hundreds of coaches, consultants, and self-‐professed gurus to find out what they’re offering their clients. In the early days of my business, I spent a lot of time searching for the best way to do things. As I read business, branding, and marketing books, I always wondered what was in between the lines. What was I missing? I always felt like I was searching for the elusive truths that would lead me to success and show me the path to growing my business to the point where it would sustain me (and the lifestyle I wanted). My search went beyond books. For years I searched for the perfect mentor, hoping I’d find an honest mentor who could give me the keys to unlock the mysteries of success. But again and again, I encountered “big names” and false guides who wanted to get me into their “marketing funnel” so I could keep spending more and more money without ever learning the big success secrets. I encountered coaches who talked a big game but couldn’t even deliver their own success, much less mine, and “consultants” who knew less than I did, and only offered basic, out-‐of-‐date, cookie-‐cutter approaches to business. Finally, out of abject frustration, I opted out of throwing any more money at live events or gurus and instead decided to bring the real experts to me. I hosted a yearlong series of expert interviews and I invited the authors of the business, marketing, branding, and success books I liked the most out of all the thousands I’d read, the folks who seemed to know what they were talking about and who offered substance rather than fluff – the folks who seemed to have actually done what they were talking about. I asked them all the questions that I was left with after I thoroughly read their books. I went well beyond the books and events, dove underneath the surface, and asked these experts, these “mega-‐ successful entrepreneurs,” the hard questions about success, small business, and entrepreneurship. I wanted to discover those elusive truths! 2 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
I talked with people like Jack Canfield, co-‐creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and author of The Success Principles, about personal growth and what it really takes to be successful. I talked with Bob Burg, co-‐author of The Go-‐Giver and Go-‐Givers Sell More about value, authenticity, and how to really make a sale. I talked with Jay Conrad Levinson, the creator of Guerrilla Marketing and author and co-‐author of over 104 marketing and business books, about marketing and how to really get results. I talked with Jack Trout, co-‐author of Positioning, Repositioning, and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, and considered the father of modern branding, about positioning, branding, and competition. I talked with Larry Winget, author of It’s Called Work for a Reason, and asked him about work ethic, integrity, and public speaking. I talked with PR experts, health experts, personal growth experts, coaches, sales gurus, and public speaking authorities. I talked to the top experts whose books, in my opinion, contained the most wisdom and who I knew to be truly successful in their fields, and I recorded all of the interviews (if you want to hear them, they’re available at BusinessinBlueJeans.com, listed as “Interviews with The Masters Recordings”). It’s an impressive lineup, and the collective wisdom my experts and mentors shared was equally impressive. After studying the interview recordings, I curated seven lessons—concepts that every business, big or small, new or established, needed to master in order to achieve mega-‐success. I call them “The Seven Lessons of Mega-‐Successful Entrepreneurs,” and if you want to learn more about them, you’ll find them at my personal web site, SusanBaronciniMoe.com. Once I developed the Seven Lessons, I realized they needed a practical companion, a way to take the philosophy of the Seven Lessons of Mega-‐Successful Entrepreneurs and transform them into something that entrepreneurs could put into practice, in essence, a step-‐by-‐step manual for creating a mega-‐successful business. That’s how these “7 Steps to Take Your Business To The Top, On Your Own Terms, In Your Own Style” were born. Each of the Seven Lessons has a step, and each of the Seven Steps can be put into practice in your business, no matter where you are in the evolution of your business -‐-‐ whether you’re a startup or well into the growth phase. And because every business is unique and I know from all my years of experience that no solution is “one size fits all,” I created these steps in such a way that you can follow all Seven Steps and still maintain your own style and achieve mega-‐success on your own terms. Ultimately, that’s what a Business in Blue Jeans is all about: creating a successful business that you can run working in your own style, on your terms, and yes, even wearing whatever you want. (Whether it’s blue jeans or a suit!) These Seven Steps mirror the Seven Lessons, so if you have read the Seven Lessons, these steps will feel familiar to you. What’s different is that the Lessons are intended to form a basic philosophy of doing business, while the Steps are action-‐oriented and designed to give you a clear path to follow.
3 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
In fact, I’ve even included some “Take Action” items after each step. My clients who have followed these steps tell me this is what gave them the clarity and focus they needed to start making their own dreams happen. So get going! Start taking the steps now to get your business growing.
4 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Preparation Step: This step, which isn’t one of the seven but is actually designed to be a preparation for all of the others, might be the most important step of all. After I developed the Seven Lessons of Mega-‐ Successful Entrepreneurs, I started using them to help my clients. And before long, I realized that in fact, there was a “pre-‐lesson,” one that was specific to micro-‐entrepreneurs. One of the things that sets working with micro-‐entrepreneurs apart from working with large, corporate clients, is that often my clients and I address issues of mindset and emotional baggage. Sometimes my clients come to me because they’ve gotten stuck or have self-‐sabotaged their success. These roadblocks can happen for a variety of reasons. Some clients get stuck in small thinking. Some clients get stuck in self-‐worth issues. Some clients get stuck in “I can’t” thought processes. And some clients have trouble seeing the potential greatness within (themselves and their businesses). So the first step, this preparation step, is linked to Mega-‐Success Lesson #0, what I call Ground Zero: The Lesson of You, which says that you must know yourself and develop your mega-‐success mindset and your mega-‐success brain pattern before you can achieve mega-‐success. So how do you develop your mega-‐success mindset and your mega-‐success brain pattern? You’re going to start by creating a journal that details out your biggest, coolest dreams, the things you will have accomplished at your highest peak of mega-‐success. This is an “Act As If” exercise: you’ll close your eyes and imagine you’re actually at your highest peak of mega-‐success, at a point where you’re achieving everything you’ve always thought you could. Write in the present tense, as in “I have received a Nobel Peace Prize for scientific discovery.” Don’t worry about the “how” just think about your aims and your dreams. I set up a Collection in GoogleDocs, with a separate document for each category. This allows me to access the files and update and edit from anywhere in the world, just using my smartphone. The second thing you’ll do is create a document where you list out your lifetime achievements. I personally go back as far as I can remember, so feel free to include that spelling bee you won or the prize you won in nursery school for “Best Napper.” These two initial exercises put you in the right headspace to start looking at any issues you might have with your mega-‐success mindset and give you an opportunity to see these issues at work. For example, as you create your Journal of Mega-‐Success, do you notice that you’re editing yourself and your dreams, thinking, “I could never achieve that!” Or, when you curate your lifetime achievements for that inventory, do you hear any voices in your head that minimize your achievements, saying things like, “Yeah, I won that prize, but anyone could’ve done that.” You can sabotage your business mega-‐success pretty fast by letting old voices continue to dictate in your present.
5 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
So how do you make those old voices with destructive messages go away? You start by identifying them, and then you create counteracting messages. Any time you hear the voice in your head saying something negative, you immediately counteract it with something positive. Let me give you an example: I used to have a voice in my head that said if I wasn’t up at 6:00 AM, working by 8:00 AM, and finished by 6:00 PM, then I wasn’t working very hard. I had a strong message in my head that I was lazy if I wasn’t working when other people are working at their standard, 40-‐hour-‐a-‐week jobs. Even if I ultimately worked more than 40 hours that week, if I wasn’t working when other people were working, when that voice in my head said I was “supposed” to be working, then I was being lazy. This issue was something my coach identified for me, because I was always too close to it to see it myself. She helped me see the negative message -‐-‐ that I was lazy -‐-‐ and then gave me a positive re-‐ interpretation to replace that negative message: that I was being really hard on myself for being different, and that I was, in fact, more productive than most people, but I just happen to work more efficiently and effectively when I’m operating on a slightly different schedule. Further, I do a lot of work in my head, long before I ever sit down at a computer, so that when I sit down to write, the content just flows, because I’ve already organized it in my head in advance while I’m doing something else. Replacing negative messages with positive ones can take some time. It’s a deceptively simple exercise, but it requires a lot of practice. It took me a couple of months of diligently replacing the negative thought with the positive one for the positive message to take root and a couple more months for it to become habit. This thought replacement practice is the beginning of creating your mega-‐success brain pattern. Other ways to create a mega-‐success brain pattern include regularly stretching and trying new things that make you uncomfortable, and using affirmations and meditation to literally re-‐train your brain. As you re-‐train your brain to create your mega-‐success brain pattern, you’ll notice your enthusiasm growing and your creativity expanding without limitations. As soon as you feel that happening… you’re ready to move into the Seven Steps. Take Action: • Create your own Journal of Mega-‐Success • Develop an Inventory of Personal Achievement • Create a chart of negative thoughts and their positive replacements and start practicing.
6 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #1: Find Your Fervor If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard phrases like “turn your passion into profits,” “find your calling,” and “live your purpose,” I’d have a heck of a lot more pennies than I do now. So why does everyone talk about this stuff so much? I’m not sure. Somewhere along the line, I think probably someone said, “You’ve got to be passionate about what you do!” and someone thought that was a good idea… and someone else that person told thought it was a good idea, and so on until it spread. A lot of people saying something doesn’t actually make it true. And that’s the case here. All those people who are saying you’ve got to be passionate about what you do? Well, they’ve got it wrong. Wait… what? Yep, you read that right. Let’s start with this “passion” thing. “Passion” is a word that has been overused and misunderstood. Passion is a word that refers to an “uncontrollable” emotion. Wow. Do you really want your business to be ruled by an uncontrollable emotion? Heck, no! You want your business to be guided with sound judgment and wisdom, both of which are known to fly the coop whenever passion is invoked. Instead of “passion” you should aim for “fervor,” which the dictionary defines as “great intensity of feeling or belief.” Why fervor? Because just about every mega-‐successful person I know is intense in his or her own way. Intense, but not uncontrolled. In fact, people who are mega-‐successful tend to be quite methodical and thoughtful about their decisions in business. They still love what they do, intensely, in fact, but they’re not so in love with what they do that it’s out of control. See the difference? So have passion for your family. Have passion for your spouse and your children. Be passionate about the things you want to make possible, about your health, your happiness… your life. But when it comes to business, look for what you’re most fervent about and be fervent about your business success. Fervor keeps you motivated and excited about what you’re doing. In fact, if you’ve found your fervor you can toss out your motivational books and inspirational quotes. You won’t need them anymore. Fervor is enough to light you up like a Christmas Tree and get you bubbling over with excitement every day. Next, let’s look at discovering your “calling,” your “mission,” or your “life’s purpose.” When I first heard someone say I should “live my purpose,” I was filled with dread. I didn’t have the first idea about my purpose – still don’t, for that matter. The closest I can get to my “calling” is that I know I’m meant to teach and I know I’m meant to write. Now, my husband knows exactly what he’s meant to do. Leo is a drummer and that man has rhythm running through his veins. He’s a musician to the core and has been for as long as he can remember. Music is his calling. 7 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
But not everyone knows their calling. Sure, sometimes people figure it out early on, like Leo did. Sometimes it takes longer, like me. That’s okay. Again, fervor is enough. You don’t have to discover the thing you were put on this Earth to do. So instead of trying to decipher whatever grand plan the Universe has in store for you, find your fervor. Of course, fervor isn’t enough to make a living. Your fervor doesn’t make things happen miraculously, without you putting in effort. But there’s magic in knowing what’s at the core of your soul and what gives you that “Christmas Tree” feeling, that spark, that zing. When you’re operating out of your fervor, the path ahead becomes clear and you’ll do anything to make it happen. Your business must come out of the deepest part of your soul, that’s true. But if that’s all you do, you’ll get stuck very quickly. That’s why knowing what’s in your soul and finding your fervor is only the first step. You need all seven to form the building blocks of real success. Take Action: • What’s your fervor? • Are you most fervent about something you want to do or something you want to make possible?
8 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #2: Define Your Expertise I once attended a conference for entrepreneurs and heard a speaker say that you don’t have to actually be an expert to position yourself as an expert. What a load of hooey! I mean, yes, it is, in fact, possible to position anyone as an expert, even someone who doesn’t know anything. However, my problem with telling people that is that if you position yourself as an expert and you don’t have the chops to back it up, two things will happen. First, you’ll feel crummy. You’ll feel like a fraud and you’ll be scared that people will find out that you can’t deliver. Second, your fears will be borne out: people will find out. If you put yourself out there as having certain skills or experience that you don’t have and people hire you because they believe your hype, what do you think will happen when you can’t meet their expectations? That’s why Mega-‐Success Step #2, “Define Your Expertise,” is about honesty, authenticity, and integrity. Only promise to do what you can do with consistency and excellence. I know a few of you are thinking, “Heck, I’m not good at anything,” and to that I laugh heartily and say, “Poppycock!” (Mostly because I promised myself I wouldn’t swear anymore) I believe that we’re all good at something, every single one of us. In fact, I’ve never encountered someone who wasn’t good at something. I’ve encountered a lot of people who believe they’re not good at anything, but I’ve always discovered that they’re wrong. We’re all good at something. And the sweet spot of your business is at the cross-‐section between your fervor and your true expertise. That’s why I focus on business modeling, branding and customer retention, because that focus allows me to help those people who have soul-‐deep dreams to be mega-‐successful while taking full advantage of my areas of greatest experience and expertise. Once you discover what’s in that sweet spot between what you’re most fervent about and what you’re good at, it’s time to start moving your skills from “good” to “excellent.” Reading, continuing education, taking classes, working with coaches… you must be a constant work in progress, which, if you’re truly operating from your soul, probably will be fun, most of the time. That’s also why even the best coaches use coaches, why even the most savvy entrepreneurs have advisers, why mega-‐successful people continue to read, study and learn from other experts in their fields rather than look at everyone else as the “competition.” They’re fully aware that that their success depends on their ability to learn and collaborate as much as it does their ability to compete and differentiate. Don’t worry if you can’t promise your customers or clients the world. They might not need “the world” and they might be really pleased with a bigger piece of it than they now have.
9 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
I’ve seen deeply fervent personal trainers build successful careers on helping clients who want to lose just a few pounds, rather than promising to help them lose 100. I’ve seen business coaches build a strong foundation for their future by helping their clients make an additional few hundred dollars a month, rather than offering to help them make millions. You don’t have to deliver massive results to have true expertise. You just have to deliver the results that you can offer with consistency and with excellence. Loving what you do and having true expertise aren’t nearly enough to get you to the heights of success, though, which brings us to Step #3. Take Action: • What are you really good at? • What do you know a lot about? • Where is the bulk of your experience? Now compare your “Take Action” lists from Step #1 and Step #2 and see if there are any recurring themes or commonalities: If you don’t see any commonalities, it’s most likely because you’re fervent about something you want to make possible. So now the question is, are there things you’re also fervent about doing, or that you could be fervent about doing because they will lead you to your ultimate outcomes? Also, remember-‐ you’re not building a business on just the stuff you’re good at. You’re building your business at the nexus -‐-‐ that “sweet spot” of fervor and expertise.
10 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #3: Package Your Sweet Spot You can be completely in love with what you do and be great at it, but if the way your business is packaged doesn’t project your awesomeness to the world, your business is likely to fail. That’s why the third step is all about packaging, or branding. Years ago, when I started my first business consulting firm, I didn’t yet understand the importance of branding, and I named my new company “The Small Business Corporation.” When I launched that business, I was doing what I loved. I had “mad skillz” and loads of experience. However, I didn’t attract enough of the kinds of people I wanted to work with. I got a lot of calls from manufacturing plants and larger businesses, but not enough calls from the smaller entrepreneurs who needed help with practical details. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the packaging for my business was all wrong. The packaging around The Small Business Corporation said, “We’re a big company, we’re pretty stuffy, we wear uncomfortable suits and ties, and we’re very serious about business, so don’t come here and try to joke around or jibber-‐jabber about any of that New Age personal growth nonsense. This is old school, nuts and bolts business.” Of course that concept drew exactly the opposite of the kind of clients I wanted. Once I realized how important packaging, or branding, was, I started studying. I read every branding book I could get my hands on and e-‐mailed the authors with my questions. I studied intensely at the feet of the masters of branding so that I could learn as much as possible about this subject that I had previously ignored (Step #2 in action!) Then I created a brand that truly represented the way I did business and what my true fervor was, and Business in Blue Jeans was born. You can do what you love and be extraordinary, even the best, at what you do, but if your business isn’t packaged well, if your brand doesn’t truly reflect your unique brilliance and your soul, then your ideal clients won’t find you, and your business ultimately will flat-‐line or worse, fail. Branding is a crucial part of the mega-‐success puzzle. The tricky part about branding is that it’s so much more complex than just the visual packaging of your business. Branding is so much more than your business name or your logo. Imagine that a company is a person you know. When you describe the person to someone else, you mention their name (business name), their appearance (logo, web site, marketing collateral like brochures and flyers), what they’re like (the experiential aspects of interacting with the business), and what they know about (what the business is known for). Branding is the fusion of all of those things: the experience of interacting with the business, what the business is known for and the visual aspects of the company. If any of these things doesn’t line up with the others (say, the name doesn’t jive with the experience or what the business is known for, the way that “The Small Business Corporation” didn’t align with
11 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
the clients I wanted or the way I wanted to serve them), or if the overall branding doesn’t showcase your unique awesomeness, then ultimately, the business will fail. We’re only halfway through the steps, though, and all work together in harmony. As I mentioned, mastering one or two will give you some success, but mega-‐success requires all seven. For instance, you can do what you love, have true expertise in what you love to do, you can package it so that your unique brilliance shows through -‐-‐ but if your marketing strategies don’t match up with your packaging, you’ll still struggle to achieve mega-‐success. So let’s move on to Step #4. Take Action: • Is it clear what you do, or do people get confused? • Can you explain what you do in brief? • Do you stand out? Is your brand memorable? The answers to these questions should give you a good sense of where to put your attention. For example, if it’s not clear what you do how can you make it clearer? Is there a reason why it’s hard to explain? (Note: usually if you can’t easily explain what you do in a couple of short sentences, it’s because you yourself need some clarity.)
12 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #4: Become a Lodestone I love rocks of all kinds. I keep a large collection of geodes and minerals in display cases in my home, and as a result, my friends often bring me rocks from their travels, and sometimes they also give me magnets, because many of us “rockhounds” also share an affinity for magnets. Have you ever played with magnets? It’s pretty fun. When you get the poles of the magnets facing the wrong way, the magnets repel one another. When you get the poles right, the magnets attract one another. With your average magnets, the repelling/attracting only works with other magnets that are close by. Most magnets aren’t strong enough to really draw in much more than whatever is within a few inches. Likewise, if you get your marketing message wrong, you’ll repel the people you really want to work with. And in many cases, if you get your marketing message right, you’ll draw in the people who you do want to work with, but still only the ones who are nearby. Now… have you ever played with a really strong magnet? A friend once brought me a pair of oval-‐ shaped lodestones that were really strong magnets. When I played around with them I discovered that when I used the lodestones to attract other magnets, it didn’t matter which way the magnets were turned. The lodestones were so strong that they turned the magnets so that their poles were facing the right way and drew them all in, as well as anything metallic anywhere in the vicinity-‐ and from much, much farther away than any regular magnet could. Can you imagine what your business would look like if your marketing strategies worked like those lodestones? That’s what Step #4 is all about. It starts with knowing who you serve. Who you serve is intrinsically connected to what you discovered in your soul (from Step #1). When you know what lights your fire, it’s not hard to figure out who lights your fire and who you are absolutely, totally, super-‐excited about working with. Once again, we’re looking for the sweet spot that’s located where the kinds of people who you get really jazzed about working with overlaps with the kinds of people who want what you offer. I’ve talked with thousands of entrepreneurs over the years, and one of the consistencies among those who are struggling is that they haven’t gotten really clear on who they serve. One clue to look for when you’re asking if you’re clear on who you serve is if you start your “target market definition” with the words, “My target market is anyone who….” then you’re still pretty unclear about who your audience is. Your target market is never “anyone who” anything. You should always know the gender, age, and specific demographics, psychographics, and technographics of the people you want to work with. (If that read like a Latin dictionary to you, contact me. I’ll be happy to translate.) When you’re armed with that knowledge, you can craft a marketing plan designed to reach your audience in specific, relevant media, and offer them value. The value is the second part of Step #4. 13 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Value turns your business from “average magnet” into “lodestone.” Many people know that I’ve designed much of the way I do business on the principles of The Go-‐ Giver, co-‐authored by Bob Burg and John David Mann. The Go-‐Giver is a brilliant set of principles upon which successful businesses are built (this is one of those books that should be in every entrepreneur’s success library). The first “Go-‐Giver” principle is The Law of Value, which says, “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.” How do I determine whether what I’m giving in value exceeds what I’m accepting in payment? I start by asking myself what I’m taking in payment. My e-‐zine is free, but my subscribers give their time, energy, and attention. So whatever I send them has to be worth more than the amount of time, energy, and attention they give when they read the e-‐zine. And the value is determined by them. This, as Bob and John explain, is where that old “Golden Rule” ideology shifts. Instead of “treat others as you would like to be treated,” now you have to think in terms of, “treat others as they wish to be treated.” Discovering what your ideal clients and customers value and consistently delivering more of what they value than you take in payment is the avenue to becoming a lodestone. I’ll bet you know what’s coming next. I keep reminding you that the seven steps can’t work in isolation from one another. Have you ever tried to make chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips? How about making them without the sugar? It doesn’t work, right? Well, these steps are exactly like that. You need all seven of them to end up with something really fantastic. (We can all agree that a warm chocolate chip cookie is fantastic, right?) Take Action: • Find the value by asking and listening to your target market. What is the value your clients want most?
14 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #5: Serve Impeccably Mega-‐Success Step #5, “Serve Impeccably”, says that you must deliver your product or service to your clients and customers with phenomenal service that really blows them out of the water. Danny Meyer, restaurateur extraordinaire and author of Setting the Table calls this “legendary service” -‐ literally, service that is so amazing, it becomes the stuff of legend. What is phenomenal, “legendary” service? It’s service that anticipates your customers’ and clients’ needs before they even know they have them. It’s service that goes above and beyond the call of normal duty. It’s over-‐delivering on what you’ve promised, and doing it with graciousness. A year ago, my husband and I stayed in the Elysian Hotel in downtown Chicago. Hands down, Elysian delivered the most incredible service I’ve ever experienced from any business. Though Leo and I had never stayed there before, every member of the hotel staff knew and remembered our names from the moment we checked in, and they even introduced themselves to us. The morning after the concierge recommended a restaurant to us, he made a point of stopping us in the lobby to ask if we enjoyed the restaurant. Our room was absolutely perfect, down to every single, minute detail. We went out in the afternoon and returned to find our fireplace lit and robes and correctly-‐sized slippers laid out for both of us. One night when Leo and I decided to go to Giordano’s for pizza, the hotel had a BMW and driver that took us there, but when we arrived there was a huge line outside the restaurant. The driver said, “I know of another Giordano’s that’s nearby and they won’t have a line. Would you like to go there instead?” In the car, Leo and I talked about how much we loved the hotel, and I noticed that at stop lights, the driver would make notes on a small notepad. Finally, I was too curious. I asked him what he was writing. The driver apologized and explained that while he tried not to eavesdrop on the conversations that hotel guests had, whenever he heard feedback about the hotel, good or bad, he took notes so he could share them with the hotel manager. I mean, can you imagine delivering that kind of service? Can you imagine receiving that kind of service? It’s exactly that level of exceptional, remarkable care and attention to detail that makes your business memorable and ultimately, lasting. Want another great example of this? Take a close look at Tony Hsieh and Zappos. Their first core principle? “Deliver WOW Through Service." As the company defines it: "To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means doing something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that's above and beyond what's expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver. We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don't want our people to be average." Wow, indeed.
15 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
While it is true that businesses can achieve some measure of success without that kind of dedication to service, without truly incorporating Step #5 you can’t move into mega-‐success in today’s marketplace. In our super-‐connected world, reviews of almost every business are a click away. Amazon, Yelp, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, and hundreds of other web sites like these provide customers the opportunity to research and review millions of products, services, and businesses with the click of a few buttons. Poor service, average service, no service, legendary service… it’s all documented in these sites. A highly-‐visible trend of poor service reviews can doom your business to the fate of being temporary. Service is also an intrinsic part of your brand, which is why I include customer retention strategies in my client offerings. You see, service goes far beyond just getting great reviews. In today’s economy, companies vie for business, often competing on price. You can step completely outside of that game by delivering service that goes well beyond your customers’ and clients’ expectations. The service you deliver becomes one more differentiating factor that sets you apart from anyone else in your industry -‐-‐ which means that this step, “Serve Impeccably,” works in harmony with Step #3, “Package Your Sweet Spot.” Additionally, Step #4, “Become a Lodestone,” and Step #5, “Serve Impeccably,” work synergistically. When you deliver your products or services with impeccable service, you’re delivering additional value to your clientele, making your business even more magnetic and transforming your customers and clients into enthusiastic ambassadors for your brand. Take Action: • From start to finish, where are your points of contact with your customers and clients? • Now anticipate your clients’ and customers’ needs. How can you make each point of contact memorable?
16 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #6: Forge Connections Mega-‐Success Step #6 is about forging specific, strategic relationships with people you want to do business with and want to connect with on different levels. There are two key kinds of relationships that every business needs to achieve mega-‐success: mastermind and network. The first key connection is mastermind connections. Your mastermind is a group comprised of relationships with carefully-‐chosen people who share specific, similar goals with you, and who have your best interests at heart. Likewise, you keep their best interests at heart, and together form what my coach calls a “fellowship.” I’ve read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich several times. I actually understood the concept of a mastermind logically and intellectually, long before I “got it in my gut.” Napoleon Hill defined a mastermind as “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” Hill talked about the economic benefits that arise when a mastermind coordinates toward a particular purpose, and in his explanation of how that worked, he really was focusing on industry-‐specific goals, like furthering the steel industry. Today, I suppose one could form an industry-‐specific mastermind (and I’d say I’ve seen evidence of that in my own industry, but not necessarily for the betterment of the industry), but the formation of masterminds toward a common goal regardless of industry is a more useful tool for the individual business owner. For example, my coach formed her mastermind around the goal of content creation. Each member was creating content in some form or another, and together they encourage and support one another toward that goal. This really gets at what Hill talked about as the second benefit of masterminds, the “psychic” benefit, about which he said, “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.” What’s really cool about masterminds is the mindshare that happens in that space. And it’s not just about inspiration and creating better content, either. Hill quoted Henry Ford as saying that we “take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom [we] associate in a spirit of sympathy and harmony.” So as you connect with and interact with people who are driven entrepreneurs operating out of their fervor and soul, who have solid work habits and are highly productive, you’re likely to find it easier to reach your own soul and fervor and develop similar productivity to those you spend time with. The second key connection is the networking connection. These are the relationships you form with what my coach calls your “outer fellowship,” the people you connect with in the world who may not be in your mastermind, but who are people you may want to do business with in some fashion. I have to tell you that I spent a great deal of time thinking that networking was a horrible evil of doing business. Even though I read Bob Burg’s classic, Endless Referrals, I truly hated networking. Every time I went to a networking function in town, I felt frustrated by the lack of true, authentic connections. And I tried a lot of different networking groups. I tried BNI, Rainmakers, small 17 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
networking groups, bartering networks… I tried it all. But it seemed like every time I went to a networking function, there was so much pitching, posturing, and shoving cards in my face, and so little “getting to know you.” As a result, I felt really uncomfortable, to the point that I felt nauseated every time I was about to go to another networking meeting. Finally, I just stopped going to any networking groups at all. I networked online via social media and most of my clients came from other cities, even other countries. But I still wasn’t satisfied. I still felt somewhat alone. I craved connection. I liked the idea of being able to do local events and have a group of people to invite. I wanted to bring my coach and others to Indianapolis so I could share them with “my people.” But I didn’t have “my people” because I wasn’t networking. I needed people. Then one day, I was having a conversation with a friend and I was sharing with her my frustration about networking. She suggested that, instead of trying to fit into the existing networking groups, I might create my own. I realized that she was right. If I created my own group, not only could I find the most interesting, authentic people, but I could structure the group (or not structure the group) any way that I wanted. I had wondered if maybe there were other authentic, interesting people in my community, but maybe they were staying home and avoiding the networking groups like I was because maybe they, too, found them kind of uncomfortable! My people were out there, after all. Maybe you’re like I was and the “pitch and posture” style of networking makes you uncomfortable, too. If you are, just know that you don’t have to fit into that style -‐-‐ you can create your own group in your own style. Maybe you’re completely different from me and you love networking and your group has served you well. Kudos to you!!! Take Action: • List the people or groups you want to build connections with (your Network). • What are some ways for you to build these Networking connections? • Now list the people you want to forge close connections with (Masterminding). • What are some ways for you to build a Mastermind of people with a shared interest or goal, who will be looking out for your best interests (as you will theirs)?
18 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Mega-‐Success Step #7: Create a Support Structure You can achieve mastery of all six of the other steps and have a fairly successful business. I’m sure there are lots of people who would be really happy with a business that provides for their basic needs. However, if you’re one of those big dreamers, if you’re one of the people with high aspirations and a grandiose vision about your awesome potential… well, pretty much, if you’re like me and you know you were meant for something more, something bigger, something awesome, then Step #7 is the step that will get you from “good enough” to mega-‐successful. You still need all of the other steps, but the seventh step is the lynchpin that holds all of the other steps together and really makes for powerful, extraordinary success. Without a true understanding of how to create a support structure, you simply cannot achieve mega-‐success. I can’t state it strongly enough. Mega-‐Success Step #7 factors in two different types of support: administrative and advisory. You need both to get where you want to go. The first type of support is administrative. Administrative support is made up of the professionals to whom you can delegate tasks that you either don’t enjoy doing or aren’t very good at doing. These are the relationships you have with employees, freelancers, contractors, and assistants. For example, I do not have an affinity for graphic design. I know good design when I see it, and I know bad design when I see it. But creating cool graphic design from scratch? Not in my personal bailiwick. That’s why, whenever I need a graphic designer, I go into my database of service professionals and find the right person for whatever job I need to have done. On the other hand, I’m great at developing web sites. I taught web design and development at a Big Ten university, and I’ve been doing this stuff since the web was considered “new.” Still, I don’t always have time to make big changes to my own site, and I definitely don’t want to be a web designer for my clients, so I have someone who handles things like that for me. I hire people to help me with things that I a) don’t have time to do, b) don’t do very well, or c) don’t like to do. I recommend that businesses start by hiring people to handle things they don’t do well and don’t have time to do first. Then later, as the business grows, hire people to do the things you don’t like to do. Hiring help strategically saves you time and energy so you can focus your attention and efforts on what you really love to do and what you will be paid most handsomely for doing. Plus, even though you’ll spend money to hire people, you’ll most likely find that you actually save yourself money, because they’ll be professionals who do the same task you’d try to learn how to do, but in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it. If you’re, say, working with clients or customers while your administrative team is handling their tasks, then you can still be profitable and you won’t spend a single day doing something like, oh, I don’t know, learning how to write HTML or use Photoshop. So many clients have come to me over the years with stories like, “I spent about three weeks trying to learn how to make my own web site before realizing I needed help,” or “I designed my own logo.” 19 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
And I totally get it. I get being in a place where you think you can save money by doing everything yourself, but the results most people get from creating their own web site are often (and usually) fairly disastrous. If you’re in business and you want to be successful, especially if you want to be mega-‐successful, then you need your brand to visually reflect your aspirations. That means having a professional logo and a professional web site created for you. Remember, the third step, “Package Your Sweet Spot,” says that you must package your business to showcase your unique brilliance to the world. To do that, you need help, and that’s what administrative support is all about. Do make sure to hire your administrative support carefully. If you don’t have a reliable resource for finding help, make sure you check references and protect yourself by limiting expenditures to paying by milestones until you build trust with your freelancers. My own resource is my personal database, which I recently transformed into a company, American Business Partners. I specifically designed this company to aid entrepreneurs who have everything except a strong support structure in place. The second type of support is advisory. Advisory support is made up of the people and professionals who support and encourage you, teach you, open your eyes to new opportunities, help you to grow, and show you how to do the previously impossible. These are the relationships you have with coaches, mentors, advisors, therapists, and consultants. For a couple of years, I was without a coach. I worked in my business from home, alone, making all of the decisions and trying to hold on to the vision of what I was creating. But often, operating in isolation results in losing sight of your overall mission, and that’s what happened to me. It wasn’t until I hired a great coach that I realized how badly I had needed the support, mentoring, teaching, and insight that a coach can provide. The truth is, we’re all trying to grab that brass ring… but there’s not just one brass ring. There’s a brass ring for everyone who wants one. The cornerstone of this step is that we all need help to grab the brass ring when it comes around. Working from the core of your soul, being great at what you do, packaging your business well, marketing yourself like a lodestone, and delivering impeccable service doesn't mean you don't need other people. Every business owner needs to surround himself or herself with people who support, teach, and encourage them, people who meet the needs that s/he can’t or doesn’t have time to meet, people who have their best interests at heart and work toward common goals, and people who meet other business needs and provide additional resources. No business is an island. We all need other people to succeed. Take action: • What tasks do you need help with right now? These can be things you don’t know how to do, aren’t very good at doing, or don’t like to do. (Administrative Support) • Where can you find solutions that fit your budget? 20 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
• • • •
What kinds of things could a coach or consultant help you with now? (Advisory Support) What could you accomplish if you had a coach or consultant guiding you? What are the big barriers to you working with a coach or consultant right now? Choose one barrier and identify a strategy for breaking that barrier within the next 30 days.
21 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
Conclusion It’s likely that you’re already aware of the steps in this process and maybe you’ve already mastered some of them. These lessons aren’t brand-‐new. They’ve been around for a long time, but maybe you haven’t seen them explained in quite this way before. The “7 Steps to Take You To The Top On Your Own Terms, In Your Own Style” are universal and applicable to any business, at any point in its growth. They’re the foundation of the greatest stories of success, and they can be the foundation of your success, too. Bear in mind that this is only the beginning -‐-‐ an overview. Every step that I’ve outlined in this e-‐ book has many more factors within. If you like where these steps and the “Take Action” exercises take you, you’ll be able to go even further in my online courses, group coaching programs, and one-‐ on-‐one consulting, where I’ve gone in-‐depth with every step and every factor in the steps. If you enjoyed this e-‐book and now you’re ready to move beyond where it’s taken you so that you can achieve mega-‐success, visit BusinessInBlueJeans.com and check out all the ways you can get more help to create your own mega-‐successful business.
22 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
About The Author: Susan Baroncini-‐Moe Quick Stuff: • Susan is the author of the book Business in Blue Jeans, due out in Spring, 2013. • Susan has worked with clients on four continents and her clients include startups, well-‐established companies, and best-‐ selling authors. • Susan has started successful businesses in both the profit and nonprofit sectors. • Susan has interviewed some of the most successful entrepreneurs, bestselling authors, and experts for her podcast, Business in Blue Jeans Radio. • Susan has self-‐published three books and has been a featured contributor in two books. • Susan’s first entrepreneurial venture was a grape Kool-‐Aid stand in her front lawn (because everyone else was doing lemonade) when she was six. As a teenager, she ran a nannying and lawn care empire in her neighborhood. As an adult, because the way her businesses are structured, she has had time to try over 100 hobbies and past-‐times. Susan Baroncini-‐Moe is the founder and president of Business in Blue Jeans, a business and marketing coaching/consulting firm focused on the needs of entrepreneurs and small business owners. Susan Baroncini-‐Moe is also the CEO of American Business Partners, an Indianapolis-‐based business and marketing consulting firm focused on assisting service-‐based professionals and companies with startup and logistics, team-‐building, branding, marketing and social media, corporate culture-‐building, product and service development, and overall business fundamentals and strategy. A veteran of the web industry, Susan leverages her unique fusion of business and technological knowledge, her experience in the personal growth industry, and her incredible brainstorming capabilities to transform businesses around the globe. She has worked with clients on four continents, in both profit and non-‐profit industries, with startups and growth companies, in all different industries, and has been mentoring entrepreneur, small business owners, and corporations for over fifteen years. She is a sought-‐after strategist and public speaker. In 2012, Susan hosted a 36-‐hour long webcast called “Break A Record With Susan” to break the world record for the longest live uninterrupted webcast. She has shared the stage with business giants like Michael E. Gerber, Larry Winget, David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan, and 29 other business and marketing bestselling authors, celebrity entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. To get help on your path to becoming a mega-‐successful entrepreneur or to bring Susan to your event or group, contact Susan: Web: BusinessinBlueJeans.com Twitter: @bizinbluejeans Facebook: Facebook.com/bizinbluejeans E-‐mail:
[email protected] Phone: (317) 489-‐6561 23 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
What Susan’s Clients Say About Her: “Starting my own business in 2009, I thought that I had it all together. After a year and a half of slim to moderate success, I was about ready to throw in the towel and punch a clock, until I met Susan. Her methods helped me to not only draw out my areas of expertise, my personal fervor, but she pointed me in the right direction that has made all the difference. If you have to only make one investment, make it with Susan.” -‐ Robert Wimer, The Natural Artistry of Speaking "I came to Susan with a concept for my company and no clue where to begin. She didn't mind holding my hand and walking me through every step as we built upon my dream. She came with a clear and precise plan of action that shot my company into overdrive. From the moment I launched my company everything has just fallen into place. In fact, by following her method, not only has it been a whirlwind of profitability but I was interviewed by the local media just a week into my launch. I don't know anyone else like Susan." -‐ April Perkins, The EcoDivas “Seriously, get ready! First of all, Susan is whip-‐smart. She is direct, to the point, and supremely generous with her mindshare. Branding isn’t easy – and rebranding is even more emotional and tricky, in my experience. Yet Susan keeps showing up and dealing with the emotional part as well as the technical part. I have a new business name, brand and logo I LOVE. I am indescribably energized about my business, and early feedback about my new brand is overwhelmingly fabulous. I’ll be back very soon to report what I know will be a huge shift in my business as a result of this rebrand with Susan and Business in Blue Jeans." -‐ Michelle Barry Franco, The Brazen Soul “Susan is the best at what she does. She took the time to listen and really understand my needs and helped me discover areas to work on that would have the biggest impact without breaking the bank. Susan is always pleasant, professional and responsive. I never once felt that Susan was doing this just for the money – she was sincerely interested in my success and how she could make that happen. It was a pleasure working with Susan and I highly recommend her and Business in Blue Jeans to anyone." -‐ Kirk Wilkinson, The Happiness Factor "Working with Susan has been amazing. Starting a business is a lot more complicated than I thought, and I was on the verge of giving up. I almost passed on working with Susan because money was tight, but I took a chance and said to myself, "I've got to do something!" I'm so glad I did. For the first time I feel a fog has lifted and I understand where I'm going and what needs to be done to 24 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
get there. Susan is a great listener, and was able to help me build very practical and sustainable systems to achieve my short and long-‐term goals, including creating a marketing process tailored to my dream clients. She emphasized my strengths and supportively coached me to see and work through any weak spots. I have thoroughly enjoyed having such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic ally in my business and am so excited to see it finally growing." -‐ Krista Fuentes, Amaru Interactive “Susan has been a fantastic mentor and a professional. In 90 days, she was able to help me take my idea and turn it into a brand with products and services in the pipeline. She guided me every step of the way keeping my goals in mind and on target. She helped me see a bigger picture and developed a long-‐term plan for me to implement the ideas we discussed. Each of our sessions was recorded which will prove to be invaluable for me in the future -‐ I’ll always be able to go back and extract those nuggets of excellent business advice that she shared along the way!” -‐
Kris Heeter, Ph.D., Body Ingenuity
“I recently started working with Susan, and she has quickly become more to me than just a business coach. She is more of a luminary, helping me to envision and plan all that is possible in my career. To get quick results, Susan combines compassion, intuition and effective counseling skills with razor-‐ sharp business acumen and enthusiasm for what she does. In just three short months with Susan’s help, I have taken real steps that are positively impacting my work, life and relationships. If you are “stuck” professionally, Susan will work to uncover hidden fears, beliefs, and imaginary obstacles that may be the only thing standing between you and your ultimate success. Unlike some coaches who just sell hope, Susan’s pragmatic approach will help you to achieve tangible improvements in how you see yourself and your work. If you hire Susan, be prepared to be challenged and inspired to work towards all that you dare to dream. Take action and hire Susan…you will be glad you did!” -‐ Brande Plotnick
About Business in Blue Jeans Business in Blue Jeans is a business consulting and entrepreneurial education company dedicated to the solo professional and micro-‐entrepreneur. Susan Baroncini-‐Moe focuses on helping struggling entrepreneurs to get clear about their purpose, create products and services with excellence, find and attract the audience that wants what they're offering, and deliver their products or services with extraordinary service. A Business in Blue Jeans is business with heart. It's business that feels like your favorite pair of old jeans: comfortable, fun, and lasting. Whether you're starting a new business, trying to grow your business, or in transition, business doesn't have to be about stuffy suits... unless you want it to be! Do what you love most, on your own terms, in your own style. 25 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com
26 ©2012 Susan Baroncini-‐Moe, Business in Blue Jeans, LLC. All Rights Reserved. BusinessInBlueJeans.com