Businesses are Like Babies - They Take FOREVER to Mature

 (photo credit: http://justdoyin.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/my-new-baby/)

In the B2B world, we meet, we make friends, we do business, or we don't... FOR YEARS. We baby our businesses until they grow up into profitable ventures. Sometimes you get a good apple, sometimes you don't. (But when we start we all think they are going to be GREAT apples!)

By day, I am in the construction industry and I know over 1,500 people in the A/E/C/RE world. Yet it has taken me years to foster certain relationships, which have yet to produce deals, income or anything other than good will or a good laugh.

That's why I say businesses are like babies. They require constant attention, love, caring, as well as patience, persistence, and a lot of hair pulling (literally in the case of babies). You can't experience what it is like to have a business, until you have one. It's the same with babies. I don't have any of my own, so when they start crying I hand them back to their parents. When your business is failing or wildly succeeding, it's on your shoulders. When the child is a sick, poopy mess you have to deal with them, but then you can't measure the amount you love them and and all the joy it brings.

This year, I encourage us all to take a look at ourselves and realize that growing a baby or a business is a day to day activity where we must take strides to grow. We cannot expect a 9 month old baby to do calculus, nor can we expect to build a $1B business in 6 months (although if you can, I want to invest NOW!). Take your business one day at a time. Think about how you can nuture, grow and get through the "poopy" bits as quickly as possible, so you can get to the stage where you business crawls, walks, then runs!

Business Needs Beauty as an Every Day Thing

With Art Basel in town, there is a ton of beautiful, brilliant, interesting and rich people in Miami who are looking and buying tons of art. I've seen stuff from $150 to 2 million dollars. There are 10,000 artists from various programs and abilities who are here. It's INCREDIBLE.

What I love the most about it is the beauty aspect. Here are 50,000 people (including tons who come on private jets and stay at $1,200 a night rooms) who descend on Miami to look at art, network and buy things. Like a half a billion dollars worth of art is sold. That's not to mention hotel stays, food, coffee, clothing, car rentals, bike rentals and all the auxiliary events that take place in a time that would otherwise be dead-zo.

The unifying factor is that people WANT BEAUTY. They crave the non-utilitarian, the expressive, the incredible, the inspiring, the emotional side of life. So much so it brings Miami more business than the super bowl. Shouldn't we be listening? Shouldn't we be working on creating as much beauty as possible? What are the business benefits of that?

We have an opportunity to take Basel as a lesson. Beauty and Art CREATE commerce. They help the economy EXPLODE.

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time:
“There, with her eye on the ball, she would paint and paint and paint.  She would dedicate herself to…well, she’d have to call it “beauty”, for want of a better word.  She wouldn’t be sentimental about it, or self-righteous, or even spiritual and pure.  And she wouldn’t get defensive when ridiculed or misunderstood.  Beauty she would not carry like a banner, nor would she take refuge from the world in it like a hermit in a shack.  Beauty would be her everyday thing.     – Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All

Why other opportunities to apply beauty to business? Think about that.

Prepping for 2013: Use the December Downtime to Kill it Next Year

I read an article about kicking everyone else's ass in January.  It got me motivated during this VERY SLEEPY time of year and made me realize what I needed to do, and that I was doing certain things VERY well.

The holiday season is a time to shake hands, eat lunch and kiss babies (and by babies, I mean your clients' asses). Small (often branded) gestures can make the difference between getting that project next year or not. Think quirky. Think the most delicious thing ever. Think things that are shaped like what you sell. (Construction shaped chocolates or branded pens if you are a copy writing company for example). Make your clients think you give a shit about what they do. At least they can drown their sorrows in 20 pounds of caramel corn as they try to wrap up 2012.  Cookie bomb them. Blow up their world, and take away from the monotony of this time.  Fuel the end of year crash course with cake. Branded cake. Note: Do NOT buy the cheapest stuff you can find. Buy something that is truly delicious. The payback is ENORMOUS.

Take your clients out to lunch. If they can't go (as many large corporations or government agencies don't allow it), still invite them.  The gesture is important. Send Christmas cards. Brand, brand, brand. Ad nauseum. 

Use the downtime to do other marketing initiatives. Organize that annoying spreadsheet that you don't usually have time to tackle. Update your website, brochures, LinkedIn profile, and twitter feed. Think about a strategic plan, goals, and what you need to get those accomplished. This is delicious downtime for some of us that can be used wisely.

Start making your appointments for January. I already have 2. The new year is exactly 26 days away. Make sure that after you come back from that food coma, sleep dense (hopefully), family time ready to hit the ground running.

To 2013 Being the Best YEAR YET.

It's Hard Until It's Easy- What I learned from Multi-Level Marketing

Many of you don't know that my first business venture after college was a Mary Kay Business. This horrified my mother, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a private university education, I decided to sell makeup. (In her words)

I learned a lot in my Mary Kay business about what to do and what not to do in business in general.

Lesson #1: They spent a lot of time teaching you about "warm chatter" which is essentially talking to random people about anything, and stalking them until they come to a Mary Kay meeting. They specialize in networking and persistent follow up skills.   I would go up to women in the bookstore, and see if they wanted to start a Mary Kay business. I was determined for 2 whole weeks to make this happen. I warm chattered old, young, beautiful, and busy women all over Chicago. In the COLD. I met prostitutes (I didn't understand how anyone could walk around in a short skirt in 17 degree weather). I tried to get them to get on the Mary Kay train. I wanted to make money, get a pink caddy, and build a business where I could live in the lap of luxury while my consultants plugged away at hawking eye shadow and skin care products.

This is the MOST valuable thing you can learn. It's not always the moment that you meet someone that something happens. It can be months. Years. But staying in touch and in front of people long enough, eventually they will help you. There is a lot of slogging before you make it happen. It's not effortless, but what's hard eventually becomes easy.

Lesson #2: The problem was that fundamentally, I was embarrassed that I was selling Mary Kay. You have to like what you are selling. If you don't like what you are selling, you better like the company you are selling for.  The only time I have been successful selling is if one of those two principals, and it's better if both are the case.

Lesson #3: Practice makes perfect. I started by unabashedly sucking at warm chatter. Eventually I got some people to join my team. Learn from your mistakes. Also, don't try to recruit prostitutes. Trust me. It's a time saving tip here. 

Lesson #4: Make sure the carrot is big enough for you.  This is the part I think is the most crucial. Make sure the goals of the organization align with your goals and that you will make enough money to make the business make sense for you.  Mary Kay says that God, Family, and then business are the priorities in that order. My priorities were money to buy shoes/cocktails, boys, and then maybe a pedicure or yoga to get the God time in. I wasn't on board with the mission, it didn't fit what my goals were at that time. I thought the pink caddy was silly. I didn't own a Chanel suit like the sales directors, and I didn't want to. The carrot was too small for me. I realized it was more important for me to find something that I was actually passionate about (in this case business development and creative marketing for job creation).

There was a lot of hard before it got easy in my later business life. There was a lot of networking and marketing fails. There will be more. How I approach the problems has changed. I still stay away from prostitutes, pink caddys, but I have my local Mary Kay lady on call in case I run out of eye shadow. You never know when you need a touch up.

Decisions, Decisions

Last night our country made a decision to re-elect President Obama. Whether you think he is good or bad, at least a decision was made.

I am hoping it spurs more decisions: specifically Business Decisions. 

There has been a lot of "follow up in 2 weeks" or "follow up in a month" over the last few months in anticipation for the election. I've even heard "Follow up after the Election". Today, I have a lot of follow up to do.

I've heard it said: "You can live with a yes, you can live with a no, but the maybe will kill you."

In times of major change, especially in an election year, we can get distracted by decisions, media, spin, even political conversations (a major networking NO-NO), and other things that are irrelevant to our business lives. We can even get distracted by the noise that "there's no business out there" or "whoever the President is will make a difference in our day-to-day business". I can tell you as a business development professional, that even though those macro economic factors have an impact, it is the day-to-day actions, the pivots, the new website, the new hire to your team, the new website or brochure, the new markets you open that will make all the difference in your long term success. I had friends who made 3x more money in the recession than they ever did before because of those decisions they made to take on the new market trends.


It is the decision that you make on a day-to-day basis that will determine your success. I'm sure there were times that our President made a decision to not show up, not prepare, or not be engaged and excited about what he was doing (we all watched the first debate after all), but ultimately, when he made those decisions to do so, he was able to convince a nation to re-elect him. We have the choice to take the President's example, make choices in our business that will propel us forward every day.

This is not a hard decision to make- it's go time.

Looking beyond the edge of the board

Sunday I went paddleboarding through the serene Venetian Causeway. My instructor was an electrical engineer who now paddleboards and kiteboards for a living. He's really zen. He's grateful. He's a joy to be around. He tells us if we stare at the tip of the board, we will fall off, but if we look where we want to go we will figure out a way to get there. The immediacy of trying to balance with varying currents and wind becomes less important if you focus ahead, not down. 

Yesterday I stood up and a wave hit me from behind, and I fell off. The biggest issue was that I was focused on the tip of my board and the unexpected wave, not on the houses, the incredible scenery, enjoying my friends, or the abundance around me. I was worried about the tip of my board heading under water. So I fell in. And believe it or not, the cool water was refreshing, not scary. I climbed back up on my board (ungracefully at that). I stopped looking at the tip. If it went underwater or there were some crazy currents, I kept staring at the lavish boats and gardens ahead and around me. I didn't worry about change in water or wind, I focused on getting to the next yacht, past the next bridge or closer to the next building. I waved at the boaters. At the end of the paddle, I sat crosslegged on the board and got back to shore when the waves were rough. I didn't fall off again. I just looked ahead to the shore and paddled my way in.

My sweet instructor almost fell off too. He has many years of experience and rockstar balance. He shrugged it off. "It's the best when I fall off, students get a real kick out of it," he said.  Here is someone reveling in his imperfection and the lack of seriousness of the situation. Talk about being present and enjoying life, whatever it brings.

I realized that if I just kept my eye on where I wanted to go it would be ok. It didn't matter if my paddle was perfect or if I was standing or kneeling or sitting. If I fell in again, I would get up again. That's just what we have to do. I'm not drowning, I'm just going through the process of getting where I want to go. I just have to look past the end of the board and not wallow in the current situation, but rather think about what wonders, abundance, and currents life brings.

It's wonderful. I've seen it by looking ahead.

Progress and Balance

This weekend I went to a seminar about Ayurvedic Living. What is Arurveda? Basically it's an ancient Indian way of living in accordance with nature. This ancient knowledge shows you how to stay in balance to live the most healthful way possible. Factors like routine, diet, environment, time of day, and seasons can impact how in or out of balance we may be. Certain imbalances make us angry, anxious, irritable, fat, or lethargic. Some can lead to depression. Some can lead to light headedness and the inability to focus. Imbalances affect our mood, our spirit, our body, our job performance, and our relationships.

They practice a healthy lifestyle through following a relatively strict routine and diet. Boring you say? Once you start actually living that way, it's amazing how much better, and balanced you feel.  

Still, sometimes I feel like self care is just another f-ing job I have to do. Really, you want me to work full time, give myself sesame oil massages and leave the oil on for 20 minutes (do you know how that stuff smells?), scrape my tongue in the morning, only drink room temperature water, and prepare 3 home cooked meals full of unprocessed ingredients? Left overs are a no-no? You say no naps? Are you crazy?? Seriously that sounds impossible, even for the most determined being who is living in America in the 21st century.

The one thing that I took away from that is the importance of still checking in with my lifestyle and making some small changes that I can slowly incorporate into the routine which I so strictly adhere to. I literally put my make up on while I'm asleep, I'm that good. I have to be at work extraordinarily early, but I am adhering to some new routines that make my day better. I am going to see what works for me. What order I do things, what route I take to work, what priorities I take on while I am there.

Deepak Choprah recently wrote:
Look right now at your daily routine. The input that fits a conscious lifestyle will have the following characteristics: fresh, unexpected, surprising, delightful, challenging, inspiring, heartfelt, spontaneous, curious, creative, vital, selfless, and expansive.

If you daily routine leads in the opposite direction, towards unconsciousness, the following words apply instead: repetitive, predictable, conformist, unadventurous, automatic, reactive, dull, boring, exhausting, unchallenging, numb, uninspired, selfish, and mechanical.

I know I feel energized when I see progress in my deals. So taking from Deepak, I will make 10 extra calls to active prospects or people I have been meaning to reach out to. I will be aware of how the food I eat makes me feel. I will schedule something fun for this weekend. I will finish that damn "to do" list that has been plaguing me. What are you going to do to create balance and progress in your working life?