Uncertainty

The more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be controlled, determined, or known.

This is known as the Uncertainty Principle and is widely used in the science world, but let’s use it in the Business world today.

During times of uncertainty, it’s tempting to start padding. Padding is what I do when I don’t want to look at the reality of the situation: times are uncertain, and the only way to improve my business is to continue experimenting, innovating, and implementing.

It’s tempting to think there’s another way out.

– If I only hire one more person, maybe my business will be more secure.
– If I only had a physical space, or a mailbox, maybe I’ll have more clients.
– If I only could manage my inbox and social life, I wouldn’t have as much stress.

The reality is, no employees or time management theories are going to help you get over this feeling of insecurity.

The world is moving faster and faster. Technology is evolving at an exponential rate. Only a few years ago, it was cutting edge to make a video call around the world. Only 6 years ago, it was cutting edge to receive an email and browse the internet from a mobile device. Now, 47% of cell phone users have a smartphone!

Remember, don’t be a commodity! if I’m doing something everyone else can do, I’m not doing anything valuable.

As the velocity of business picks up, flexibility is becoming your most important asset.

How flexible are you?

Email and Communication

Got an urgent question?
Send it to ten people simultaneously! That way you increase your chances of a speedy reply. But is that true? Researchers set up a free email address for a make believe girl on Yahoo! and let her send a message with the subject matter ‘Please help’ to various university employees. Her question was simple: has the university also got a biology department? Every recipient should have been able to answer this question: yes there is. Some emails She sent to five recipients simultaneously, others she sent to an individual.
The result? Of the recipients of the group email, just over half answered. But of those who had been addressed personally nearly two-thirds answered. What’s more, they used significantly more words in their replies and more often gave extra information, like telephone numbers or a web address. In short: the more addressees an email has the less likely a satisfactory response. And why is that? Because people feel less responsible if there are other recipients. Luckily the solution is simple. Still want to address several people simultaneously with the same request? Then do it in separate emails.

Funny, most of us deal with this daily. Whether it be work related, or those lovely mass forwards! This world is amazing on the aspect of growing communication, but is it the true answer? People are moving away from having those core relationships and turning the way of Social Media, email, and text. I, like most people I know, prefer a 1/1 relationship by way of email, phone call, or text message. That seems to be a thing of the past for some of us, but as I write this, I can’t help but think what ‘communication’ will be like in 5 or 10 years!

Worth

What would it take to charge 2-3 times more for your product?

That’s the question I asked to begin the talk with struggling businesses. A few audible gasps and pairs of wide eyes later, I knew I had everyone’s attention.
What about 10 times what you’re charging now?

This isn’t a “charge what you’re worth” question. It’s a question aimed at forcing you to fundamentally question your work, your product, and the value they provide to the end user.
You may need to double or even triple your prices now to bring your work into the market it needs to be in, to attract the right customers, to pay you a fair wage — but 10 times? That requires you to reevaluate.

How would your product or service need to change?
You might need to drastically improve workmanship. You might need to customize each piece to the specifications of the user. You might need to innovate beyond anything currently on the market. You might need to enhance a particular detail to differentiate it from any competition.
At 10x the current price, what does your product or service look like?

How would your customers need to change?
You might need to serve a different customer. You might need to change from B2C (business to consumer) to B2B (business to business). You might need to educate your customers on the longevity, artistry, or message of your product. You might need to better understand the people you want to serve.

At 10x the current price, how do your customers look different?
How would you need to change?
You might need to get comfortable with your ability to create such a thing. You might need to try buying something you love or need desperately in that price range. You might need to get to know people who command those kind of prices. You might need to change your inner monologue or your understanding of what sets off your financial anxiety.

At 10x the current price, how would you think of yourself differently?
Why aren’t you making these changes? Why aren’t you in the high-end market? Why aren’t you seeking the highest levels with your product or service?
Sure, there are legitimate reasons you may choose to ignore your own ideas about what could take your product to the next level. But have you even given yourself the opportunity to formulate those reasons? Have you challenged yourself to imagine the alternative?

Truthfully, thinking about this “10x” question brings on some anxiety for most, including me. At the same time, this question gets me pretty excited too.

If people believe in you and your product, they will pay for it. Don’t be the commodity! Be the one that stands up rather than sits.

Now, no excuses. I’ll ask you that same question:
What would it take to charge 10 times what you’re charging now?

Kony 2012

 

 

 

The IRA has no popular support. Everyone can agree that Kony must be stopped now.

Joseph Kony is the world’s worst war criminal.

He leads a violent cult oF abducted fighters called The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

He abducts children from their homes.

Kony Forces Them To be Soldiers and Sex slaves and murder their family and friends.

In 2005 he became The FIRST man Indicted by The Icc.

Why now you ask?

Current situation:

U.S. military advisers are currently deployed in central africa on a “time-limited” mission. Invisible children has been working towards this for 8 years. If Kony isn’t captured this year, the window will be gone.

We are taking action to ensure these two things:

1) That Joseph Kony is known as the World’s Worst War criminal.

2) That the U.S. military advisers support the Ugandan army until Kony has been captured and the lRa has been completely disarmed. They need to follow through and finish what they have started.

 

Here is a video that will certainly change your mind and inspire you to help:

Below is a link to the website. If anything, please sign the waiver. Thank you in advance.

http://www.kony2012.com/

 

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Best,

Chris Dutton

 

Work(Hard and Good)

When you launch a new blog, start a new business, or accept a new job, you might be tempted to work long hours and throw yourself into your work.

What you think might only be a month of hard work turns into more months and sometimes years. Your hard work becomes a pattern. You forget that there is a difference between hard work and good work.

Instead of compromising your health and relationships, start slowly. Don’t worry about how busy you are, but what you are really accomplishing.

• Answering email all hours of the night instead of having dinner and time with your family is not good work.
• Generating busy work by creating collateral or buying things that you don’t need is not good work.
• Trying to connect with as many people as possible is not good work.

Instead, focus on quality connections that develop into long term relationships. Work with what you have, and only check and respond to email 2 or 3 times a day during business hours.

You will be happier, and healthier. That is good work.

Best,

Chris Dutton

Business 2.0

There is no doubt that the business world is changing and that means you need to change too. It doesn’t matter what business you are in, if you want to succeed, you must change.

Change doesn’t have to be radical, but simple shifts in how you see and do things are necessary.

Simple Shifts in Business for…

Sales, Realtors, Business Owners, Entrepreneurs

• Instead of numbers first, put people first.
• Replace the words leads, prospects and conversions with people.
• Give people what they want, not what you want.
• In social media, be social. Have a conversation. With people.
• Don’t add people to your mailing list because they gave you a business card.
• Stop calling to “follow up” or “check in”.
• Say “I don’t know” when you don’t know.
• Make every interaction valuable for people.

Websites/Blogs

• Turn off the music.
• Pull down the pop-ups.
• Be Mobile Friendly.
• Add your picture.
• Use a light background and dark text.
• Kill auto video/audio.
• Don’t add people to your mailing list without permission.

Notifications

• Notifications are distractions. Turn them off. All of them.
• You don’t need your phone to remind you that you have email.
• The first thing you see when you open your computer doesn’t have to be an announcement of what is happening at work,news,etc.
• You don’t need an email to tell you who subscribed and who unsubscribed from anything.
• Birds don’t need to chirp when someone mentions you on Twitter.

Social Media/Email

• Be social for 20 minutes and then get back to work.
• Stop auto tweeting.
• Stop following everyone that follows you.
• Don’t check email when you don’t know what to do next.
• Don’t check email hoping for something great to happen.
• Don’t check email because it makes you feel busy.
• Check email 1-3 times a day and respond thoughtfully.
• Do good work not busy work(I’ll touch on this next time).

If you work for yourself, you know that your customers (people) put food on your table. If you work for someone else, remember that your boss might sign your check, but it’s your customers (people) that make that check good.

Out-behave your competition and start treating your customers like people instead of dollar signs. If you don’t do these things, you will lose business to someone who does. If you do these things, get ready to grow.

The Mirror

 

 

Dust settles on even the most beautiful of objects. Over time, without careful dusting and polishing, the dust gathers, obliterating their beauty.

On a mirror, this dust goes one step further, rendering it useless. In a beautiful, bright, shining mirror, we can see a clear view of all that lies in the path of it’s light. If we allow dust and grime to gather, and do not polish it, the vision in the mirror becomes softer, less clear, and eventually, obliterated from view entirely.

We need a mirror to prepare our face and hair in the morning, to achieve outer beauty. We also need a mirror in which to see the depths of our life, in order to live a more beautiful existence. Our mind is like that mirror, reflecting back the details of our life. By polishing the mirror of our mind, we can maintain a clear view, and present a more polished sense of inner being.

We are all too keen to present a polished exterior to the world, checking our hair, our face for marks, in the mirror, not to look unkempt, or foolish.

Yet so often, we overlook the details of our inner life, not seeing the stains on our inner being, that the world will still notice, through our behavior

If we were only as keen on checking for our inner beauty, as for our outer beauty, how much more beautiful we could be?

 

-Chris Dutton

Commodity

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’re at your neighbor’s house for dinner. She is serving you Quiche, at which point you made a face slightly resembling this……….?!!!!????!!!!???

As a result, you hesitatingly ask her to pass the salt……..

So what does this have to do with anything?

When your neighbor was passing you the salt, would you have thought twice about which brand it was? Was it Table Salt or Sea Salt?? Probably not. You would have taken the salt and irrigated your Quiche with it, correct?

The reason for this is because salt’s considered a commodity.

Commodity- Something that is needed, but for which there is really no difference across the market. In other words, there aren’t preferred brands of salt, generally speaking.

Far too often, businesses treat their products and services the same way – as if they were an everyday commodity, when in fact, there is absolutely nothing “everyday” about you, your service, or your products!

You just might not have been sure how to communicate that.

However, the problem with that becomes this:

When you don’t give your prospective clients a reason to pick your product over the other, they won’t. As far as they can tell, your product is just another salt shaker.All that matters to them is that the product gets the job done. And that’s the moment they start “shopping around”- because at that point, price is really the only differentiating factor.

Your Job?

Give Reason:

-Give them a reason to pick your product. -Give them a reason to become your #1 fan. -You are not a helpless pawn in your industry. -You are a Genius.

NOW ACT LIKE IT!

The way you do that has a lot less to do with what you + your product does……….and a lot more to do with how you + your product do it. You need to be strong enough to step up to the plate with your product and your personality.

It’s about the way you do something. It’s about the experience.

It’s up to you to evoke emotion, so you can help your customers FEEL SOMETHING, and by extension, CONNECT WITH YOU!

This is why creating a brand experience matters, and this is why it affects your bottom line.

Don’t stand out. STAND UP! And watch them stand with you.

Only then, once they feel like they belong with you, does the sales process even start-whether you knew it or not.

 

–Chris Dutton

Management 101-Trust

As a liaison to many small business’, When I speak  with managers or owners , I often ask, “Do your people trust you?” Most are taken aback. It’s not something they’re often asked or a question they’ve even asked themselves.

After some thought, most eventually say something like, “Well, I think so. I hope so. No one’s said he doesn’t.” In fact, as they ultimately admit, they don’t really know for sure.
It’s a question worth asking. Do your people trust you?

Chances are, you don’t know for sure, either. If so, that’s potentially a problem because your ability to elicit people’s best efforts depends on their trust in you — their confidence that they can count on you to do the right thing. Your basic job as a boss is to influence others, to make a difference in what they do and in the thoughts and feelings that drive their actions. Yet, even as the person in charge, the one with authority, you can ultimately influence people only to the extent they are willing to be influenced by you. And that willingness will depend on whether they trust you. Without trust, why should people do what you ask, especially if you’re asking something difficult? Why should they accept your judgment? Above all, why would they devote the care and extra effort that quality work requires? As the boss, you can demand compliance but you must earn commitment, and the coin of that realm is TRUST.

As I explore this topic with managers, we find it’s a subject both familiar and unfamiliar.
Most people don’t know how to think about it constructively. Why?

First, they often don’t realize how context-sensitive trust is. So, when I ask, “Do your people trust you?” we’re not asking about people’s confidence in you as a person in general — whether, for example, they think you will repay them promptly if you borrow $10. Instead, we’re really asking, “Do your people trust you as a boss?” For them to accept you as a boss, they must trust you in that context. When we delve later into the components of trust, you’ll see why context is so important.

The second reason most managers feel a little lost when they think about trust is that most of us resist the idea that trust is something you can actively and consciously encourage. To say it can and should be fostered feels manipulative and self-serving. We instinctively distrust the person who exclaims, “Trust me!” We usually don’t consider trust an outcome we can or should try to control directly.

But believing as a boss that trust will somehow take care of itself may not work out the way you want. You do need to think about it. And you may need to take conscious steps that make clear to others that you deserve their trust. None of those steps involves dishonesty or manipulation — on the contrary — but they do involve your being explicit about yourself, about what you know, and about the reasons behind your decisions and actions. In other words, it may require that you be more open as a boss than you might personally be inclined to be.

Remember, don’t take trust for granted, or believe it just happens, because virtually all you do as a boss begins with people’s trust in you.

Now

Work for a cause, not for applause. Live life to express, not to impress. Don’t strive to make your presence noticed, just make your absence felt.