Category: New Business Development

I don’t know about you
but I go to enough meetings.
I’m thrilled when I’m not needed
in a meeting…

…as long as I don’t know
about that meeting.

Recently, an email went out
to a project team I’m on.
The project manager asked that
‘key members’ attend a smaller meeting
and she named these key members.

The rest of the hard working team
was pissed off.
They got the message
that they weren’t key,
and they weren’t important
to the success of the project.
Their engagement level plummeted.
The project got shifted
to low priority.

It is great to have smaller breakout meetings.
Smaller meetings are more efficient
and more conducive to quick decision making.

Just don’t broadcast that
you’re having them.
Exclude team members quietly.

My writing chapter is hosting
an introduction to romance all day workshop.
From the buzz,
it sounds like we’ll have more attendees
than we’ll have room for.
We’ll turn writers away.

My suggestion was
that we charge a minimal amount
like $5
to separate the serious writers
from the tourists.

“Oh, no,” was the response.
“We don’t need to make money.”

Fine. Making money isn’t the main goal
but since we’re achieving the main goal,
is it a crime to make money too?

Another buddy is publishing
a literary collection of short stories.
I suggested he team with another short story writer,
and publish two collections
so he could readership share with that other writer
and reach more readers.

“Oh, no,” was the response.
“I don’t need more readers.”

Fine. Having readers isn’t the main goal
but since he’s achieving the main goal,
is it a crime to have readers also?

Yes, the key goal of any project
should be what we’re concentrating
on achieving
but why not set up the project
to achieve secondary goals also?

Yes, I know
yesterday’s post on
leaders being hated
was a bit of a downer.
Building a company isn’t all sunshine and roses.

BUT
there ARE moments
where it IS sunshine and roses.
These moments are magic.
They’re what we work so hard
to achieve.

A couple of days ago,
I received an email from a reader.
While her husband, a retired police officer,
was in the hospital, dying of cancer,
she read him shorter stories
and one of the stories she read him
was mine.
It was a humorous romance with a police officer hero.
She said they laughed and laughed
and now whenever she sees the cover of this story,
she hears his laughter
and it is like he’s with her again.

THAT is why we build companies,
launch products,
lead.

We don’t lead to win a popularity contest.
We lead to make a difference.

I’ve been reading blogs
about how it is now out of fashion
to be a leader,
and
how leaders are increasingly hated.

How is this news?

I led fellow students
in primary school.
Some of them hated me…
intensely
just because I was the leader.
We VOTED on every action
and they still hated me.

Every leader is disliked
by someone.
Most great leaders are disliked
by many, many people.

If the possibility of being hated
is going to stop you from leading,
you don’t have the balls for the job.
It IS as simple as that.

Expect to be hated.
It is a price of
leadership.

There are expectations in every industry.

When patrons go to a restaurant,
they expect to be fed.
When readers pick up a romance novel,
they expect a love-related happy ending.
When patients go to the dentist,
they expect their teeth to be looked at.

Mess with these expectations,
these promises,
and you’ll have very pissed off customers.

But…but…but I want to surprise customers,
you say?
(I hear this from new romance authors
ALL the time)

Yes, surprises, extras, differences
delight customers.
That’s where the magic happens.

But the skilled authors and business owners
figure out ways
to surprise and delight customers
while still delivering on the core promise.

No one ever said delighting customers was easy.
That is one of the reasons
why companies that delight
deserve their success.

One of my smaller publishers
claims to be an international publisher.
She isn’t, not truly.

Yes, she sells books all over the world
but her customer service hours
are 9 to 5 EST.
Marketing events are done
on an EST-friendly timeline.
That makes sales overseas more challenging.

So how does a small company
make all customers happy?
She is a one-woman shop.
She can’t stay awake 24 hours a day.

One solution is to have rotating hours.
A one-woman software company I know
is open from 12 noon to 8 pm on Mondays,
9am to 5pm on Wednesdays,
and
4 am to 12 noon on Fridays.

She services all of her customers
AND gives herself a longer weekend.

If you’re a smaller company,
you have flexibility
and a greater ability to respond
to your customers.
Don’t be locked into
big company restrictions.

We discuss perfection often
here on clientk
because
thinking things have to be perfect
is one of barriers
to success
for intelligent, hard working people.

The quest for perfection
is also an excuse.

As Seth Godin states

“The quest for technical best
is a form of hiding.
You can hide from the marketplace
because you’re still practicing your technique.
And you can hide from
the hard work of real art
and real connection
because you decide
that success lies in being the best technically,
at getting a 99 instead of a 98 on an exam.”

I’ve seen this
in the writing group I’m leading.
A highly intelligent woman
has been working hard,
polishing a manuscript.
She’s been doing this
for over 10 years
because she’s scared to send it out.

It will never be perfect
because there are no perfect novels.

Great, amazing, good enough
are possible.
Perfect is not.
Every time you use the word ‘perfect’,
substitute it with ‘great’.

One of the most powerful
emotions in the world
is gratitude.

I grew up very poor.
We didn’t eat every day.
We didn’t have running water.
Yes, even in North America,
people live this way.

I’m no longer poor
but I’ve never forgotten
what it is like to be poor.

I work hard
because I know
I could become poor again.

I don’t squander resources
because I know
what it is like
not to have resources.

I treat people well
because I know
I could be at their wealth level again
and I know
I might need their help
while I’m there.

I support dreams
because I know
I made my own impossible happen.

This positive energy
is why gratitude is so key.

You are alive
and have access to a computer
and you live in a country
where those two things
combined with hard work
can make great things happen.

Find gratitude
and harness it.

Tell someone you failed
and what is their response?
“That’s awful!”
“How terrible!”
“I’m so sorry for you!”
“What did YOU do?”
Notice how the responses
are loaded with emotion.

And that’s why many people
do whatever they can
to avoid failure.

As Seth Godin states
“Early in our careers,
we’re encouraged to avoid failure,
and one way we do that is
by building up a set of emotions
around failure,
emotions we try to avoid,
and emotions that
we associate with
the effort of people who fail.”

Many times the best way to avoid
feeling these emotions
is to not try,
to do nothing.

So the next time you hear
someone failed,
be conscious about your response.

Telling that someone
you’re sorry she failed
is the equivalent of telling her
you’re sorry she tried.

While working on a recent project,
two ‘mistakes’ happened.

One was HUGE.
It was brand damaging.
When the person who made the mistake
found out it WAS a mistake,
she was horrified and profusely apologetic.

Although the other mistake was not-as-major,
it was still damaging to the project.
However, this team member
knew BEFORE making the mistake,
it would have negative consequences.
How did she know this?
Because she’d made the same mistake before.

I was more concerned
about the second, more minor mistake
than the first.
Yes, we had to go into crisis mode
and quickly fix the major mistake,
but mistakes happen.
The team member is wiser now.
I doubt it will happen again.

I can’t say that about the second mistake.
I suspect the intent
was to sabotage the project,
and I have zero tolerance for that.
I won’t be working with that team member again.

When your team members make mistakes
and they WILL make mistakes,
look at WHY the mistake was made.
That is often more important
than the mistake itself.