Almost everyone goes through some sort of planning and goal setting exercise during the year.  We’re now 2/3 of the way through this year and although it’s a little early to get serious about finalizing next year’s goals, it’s not too early to start thinking about it.

With that in mind, I challenged one of my Peer Group Advisory Boards with a few questions to make them think a bit.  The general idea is you sometimes need to shake your thinking up in order to get clear.  It’s rough to just jump into ‘What’s your goal for next year’ – and if those goals don’t line up with an accurate picture of your values and what you really want, you’re going to be wasting your time. 

I was prepping for a workshop recently and came across a great book – Your Best  Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler which has a lot of great ideas and a clear process to help you get unstuck when it comes to laying out the goals that are really important to you.

The overall process consists of 10 questions in a particular order, but for a shortened exercise just to stir up some thinking, I just tapped into 3 of the questions.

1.  What did I accomplish this past year?

What am I proud of?  What are the major things that I hold out as victories when I think about all I’ve done?  If you have time, this should be an exhaustive list – I challenged my clients to share the top 1 or 2 things that came to mind quickly. 

This does a couple of things for you – it starts things off with a positive note and it also helps you clarify what was important to you.  You’re proud about things that matter.  You likely accomplished other things of note, but if they weren’t as important to you, they wouldn’t come to mind…for you.

2. What were my biggest disappointments?

Obviously the extreme opposite of the first question.  Although it’s not good to wallow in negativity, it is important to honestly and candidly identify where you missed the boat.  What’s your biggest frustration?  What did you really want and mean to do that just didn’t happen?

This question also helps you clarify what’s important, but it also will help you move on by getting your baggage into the open air.  Writing down what you’re frustrated about makes it real…and also easier to deal with as something that’s in the past.

3.  What did I learn?

Finally – the last question is intended to put some perspective on things.  What were the big themes that you took away from the past year?  Achievements and disappoints happened for different reasons – what should you take away for next year (and beyond)?

As an example, my first year in business, I learned that networking doesn’t generate leads…but it’s critical for other marketing activities.  By synthesizing the take away, I was able to use that to help prioritize and plan my future efforts.

Once you’ve stirred things up with these questions, the next step is to use that to help you drive out your initial thoughts on next steps and goals.  Obviously something like the overall process in the book (and a lot more dedicated time) is critical for driving out your next year’s goals, but as a way to generate some ideas and thoughts, this shortened approach works pretty well.

How do you brainstorm your plans?  Do you use a particular approach?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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I like to keep track of stuff – notes I take during a meeting, ideas that come up at odd times and get thrown onto a post-it note, a cool website I run across, powerful images I could use for blog posts, interesting videos or a important emails.  Historically I haven’t had much of a system for being able to track all of that stuff…but I think I may now have an answer that could really work!

I stumbled onto Evernote over a year ago and I was intrigued by the possibilities, but I wasn’t sure how practical or helpful it would be.  At the time I had an older Palm OS phone that didn’t let me do much of anything and I was primarily just using one computer in my office.  Fast forward to now – I’ve got an Android phone, I’m using a laptop and a desktop for different things and I need access to all of my stuff from all of those places.

Although I’ve only used the application sparingly so far, I’m seeing some strong possibilities for Evernote – here are a couple of ways I’m using it so far (and I’m just scratching the surface):

• I finished a great book and wanted to make sure I remembered the author the next time I was book shopping.  I took a picture of the book and stored it in Evernote where it was easy to bring it up 2 weeks later on my phone in the book store.  (Did the same thing with a great bottle of wine we had at a friend’s house).
• I’m starting to use it Evernote for note taking – creating a someday / maybe file of ideas that I’d like to do…someday maybe (that way I don’t lose the thought but I get it out of my head).
• When I buy things online I virtually clip the receipt and store it in Evernote in case I need the confirmation number.

Here are a couple of things that I haven’t used yet, but look pretty powerful:

• Evernote has character recognition built in, so you can scan or take a picture of your handwritten notes, store them in Evernote and later search on the text to find what you want…(could do that with business cards as well).
• You can encrypt files – so saving all of your application passwords and IDs in an encrypted file that you could get to from anywhere.
• You can create specific notebooks of information and share just that notebook.  Imagine if you were doing a project with 3 other people and you had notes, pictures, a video and some websites as input for the project.  Put it all into a single notebook and share it – it gets updated for all of you as new things are added.

I don’t know if Evernote is going to be as useful as Dropbox (which I use extensively) and it’s going to take some effort to incorporate Evernote more into my workflow – but the possibilities are pretty amazing!  Check out the Evernote Video page for lots of cool ways people are using it.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

Life does move fast – I’d like a place to put some of the cooler things to look at later…Are you using Evernote?  What have you found to be really useful?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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You have to love the clarity and power of numbers.

Now that school’s started up again, homework is ramping up as well and my wife and I had a great ‘tutoring’ session with my daughter on her math homework.  My daughter was struggling with one of the concepts and wanted to argue that the answer we had led her to wasn’t right….

But that’s the beauty of math and numbers…they are either right or they’re not.  You may be asking the wrong question, but when the answer is in numbers, it’s very clear where you stand.  43 is bigger than 35 – and it’s always going to be bigger.

That’s why when you’re analyzing your business and your goals, the more things you can tie to a number, the better off you’ll be.

There’s no ambiguity in numbers, no gray area…no where to hide.  As long as there’s understanding and agreement on where the number comes from, the numbers for your business will be the clearest information you can get.

Everyone needs a number

There’s a great story that’s in Dale Carnegie’s classic book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” about Charles Schwab when he was the president of Bethlehem Steel in the early 1900s.

Charles Schwab was touring a mill and the manager of the mill was frustrated with the lack of productivity.  Schwab took a piece of chalk, turned to the day crew foreman and asked them how many heats they had completed that day.

“Six” was the answer – so without another word, Schwab took the chalk a wrote a large number 6 on the floor of the mill and walked away.

As the night shift came on a little later – they noticed the big number 6 and asked what it meant.  The day shift team told them the President of the company had been there, asked how many heats they completed and had written down 6.

When the day shift showed up the next day, the 6 had been rubbed out and replaced with a large 7!  Not willing to fall behind, the day shift focused, worked together enthusiastically and by the end of the shift they inscribed a huge ‘10’ on the floor.

The end result?  That mill, which had been underperforming soon became the most productive mill in the company.

By making the mill productivity simple, clear and to the point, it was easy to set a target and get instant feedback.  That’s the beauty of numbers. 

What are your numbers?

If you’re in a manufacturing industry, then number of widgets produced is an obvious choice (although number sold might be more effective if your ultimate concern is profitability).

In service industries they often track billable hours, from a quality perspective you might look at number of returns or customer complaints.  Bottom line, there are a handful of numbers in your business which really give you a feel for how well you’re doing overall – especially looking at them over time.

Let’s say production is at 110/day – flat relative to the last 3 months, Revenue is at $5000/day down steadily from $8000/day 3 months ago and new leads from the website are at 5/day, down from 50 / day just a few months ago.  Just based on those numbers, it looks like you’ve got a marketing problem!  There may be other issues as well, but you can at least start there.

It’s not easy to find your numbers – it will involve some trial and error and they may change as you and your business mature.  Here are some tips to help you come up with what you need to drive your business:

• Keep it simple – if you have to go through a lot of work to get to the number, it won’t work in the long run.
• Keep it visible – ideally your numbers should be something that people can easily see.  You could even consider creating a report or dashboard that’s visible at all times.
• Narrow it down to just the critical numbers for operational success.  For starters, see if you can limit it to less than 10 for the entire business.  You may want to track other things as part of strategic planning and evaluation, but for more tactical management of the processes – keep it to a small number.

What do you measure in your business?  How often do you look at it?  If you were on vacation and only got a one page report of your numbers, would you know what’s going on?  Share your thoughts below in the comments below – I’d love to hear how this works for you?

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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Sometimes you need to mix in a little philosophy with your business…

I’m re-reading the classic business book – The EMyth Revisited by Michael Gerber (prepping for a workshop I’m doing next week) and I was inspired by some philosophy in a chapter that I hadn’t thought about in a while.

For those that haven’t read the book (it’s one of the Top 100 Business Books of all time), it’s a story about a struggling entrepreneur who owns a pie shop and how the author helps her realize why her business is struggling (along with most small business owners at some point and time) and the shift in perception that’s needed to avoid the all too common downward spiral of business failure.

The book was originally written in the 80’s and the revised edition came out in 1995, but the key points are still valid and powerful.  The story and the writing occasionally feel a little over the top and contrived, but but you will walk away with some major insights and inspirations on a better way to build your business.

Back to the philosophy, Chapter 12 is entitled “Your Primary Aim” and it outlines the first step of the Business Development Process and how you would start evolving your business.  As you might suspect from the chapter title – the first step is to define the Primary Aim of your life…not the primary aim of your business, but your life.

A lot of people skip over this step, but it’s critical to your long term success!

Especially if you believe that the sole purpose of your business is to help you get what you want out of life!

If you really know what you want to get out of life and you recognize your business is a tool to help you get there, then your perspective on the strategic direction of your business takes on a new meaning.  Let’s say a major goal of your life is to enjoy spending time with your family, then building a business that requires supreme sacrifices and 60 – 80 hours a week at the office probably isn’t a good fit.

Designing a business (and a lifestyle) that fits your goal of quality time with family will drive a lot of decisions.

How do I discover my Primary Aim?

Of course the challenge that I’ve always struggled with is answering the question…What should I do with my life?  (By the way, that’s the title of a great book by Po Bronson…and it’s also in the Top 100 Business Books).

Gerber recommends an exercise of imagining reviewing your life’s accomplishments from your funeral as a way to uncover what’s really important.

I also like this idea of Designing the Ideal Lifestyle Audit from Richard at Lifestyle Design unleashed.  His suggestion is to carve out some quiet time and write down what your perfect average day would be like…what would you do?  Where would you be?  How much does that differ from an average day right now?

Do you know your Primary Aim?  How well does your business support that aim?  Have you done this kind of exercise before?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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A few weeks ago I wrote about Daniel Pink’s new book Drive, which is all about the science behind what motivates people and how the business world (and the educational world) aren’t keeping up with that science and using motivational techniques that really don’t work very well anymore.

Well I stumbled across the perfect primer on the book and the topic – it’s a short video speech from Daniel Pink on the core concepts and it’s illustrated with an animated technique that’s really engaging and adds a lot to the presentation.

Here’s the link if you can’t see the video for some reason:  RSA Animate – Drive

Let me know what you think about it – share your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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A lot of thought over the years has gone into what makes a business great. In the business classic “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, 5 years of painstaking research led to a lot of interesting conclusions about what separated great companies from good companies (and all the rest).

Some of the key drivers included things like great leadership, and disciplined focus but one of the fundamental keys to a great business is that they have great people. In other words, using Collins terminology you have to get the right people on the bus if you want to succeed.

But what are the Right People?  How do you evaluate them?  Let’s hear from Jim Collins first:

Right People

When it comes to getting started, good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths. First, if you begin with “who,” you can more easily adapt to a fast-changing world. If people get on your bus because of where they think it’s going, you’ll be in trouble when you get 10 miles down the road and discover that you need to change direction because the world has changed. But if people board the bus principally because of all the other great people on the bus, you’ll be much faster and smarter in responding to changing conditions.

Second, if you have the right people on your bus, you don’t need to worry about motivating them. The right people are self-motivated: Nothing beats being part of a team that is expected to produce great results.

And third, if you have the wrong people on the bus, nothing else matters. You may be headed in the right direction, but you still won’t achieve greatness. Great vision with mediocre people still produces mediocre results.

- Jim Collins

The Right People are different for every company.  You’ve got to have people who want to be with you (on your bus) – they need to share your core values, they buy into why you’re in business and they like the other people that you’re bringing on around them.

I wrote previously about the importance of uncovering your company’s Core Values. Using those core values to identify the ‘right people’ is one of the most important things you can do in terms of building a foundation for growth.

Even for the entry level ‘paint by numbers’ jobs, having an employee that genuinely ‘fits’ with your company will have a lot of long term benefits. They will stay around longer, they will do better work because they appreciate the company and fit in and they will help to positively influence everyone around them.

You also have to have people who are motivated, not only do they want to be in the company, they also want to accomplish things…great things. It’s possible to externally motivate people, for a while, but nothing compares to the output of a self-motivated person who can and will run on their own.

Finally you also have to have the Right People in the Right Seat. They have to have the skills and abilities needed for the job (which implies that you have a clear understanding of what jobs and roles are needed…food for another post).

How to evaluate the Right People?

The most straight forward way to evaluate if you have the Right People is to simply compare them to your top 5 Core Values.  Do they consistently display those core values?  Do they occasionally display them or do the never display them. 

Set a benchmark on what you think is acceptable and see how many employees make the grade.  If they don’t hit your minimum benchmark then you probably need to work with them or start the process of letting them go.  It will be painful if you have to cut employees, but if they really don’t fit with who you are as a company then you need to let them go or risk losing your identity.

What do you think about the importance of having the Right People?  Are you familiar with companies who have made this a priority?  How about those that haven’t?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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The internet continually offers up all sorts of cool things – some of them are just entertaining (like the picture above) but a lot of them are world class educational resources, tools and ideas that most of us wouldn’t have seen 10 or even 5 years ago.

If you’d like to make your web browsing more productive, I’d strongly recommend using a tool like Delicious (I wrote about Delicious here) not only as a way to save and reference the cool stuff you find, but it can also help you find new things that other people find valuable.

Today I wanted to share a presentation on Social Media that I thought was outstanding!

What the F**K is Social Media Now

This week I found a really worthwhile updated version of a presentation by Marta Kagan (thanks for sharing).  The original was good as well and it’s amazing to see how much has changed in a short time.

It’s a bit irreverent (and possibly not safe for work depending on how strict your workplace might be).   She shares a lot great statistics that illustrate how ingrained Social Media is today, great ways it’s being used and compelling points about where Social Media is going.  Check it out!

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You can learn some pretty cool things on vacation sometimes.  It’s may be hard to tell, but the picture above is a pod of humpback whales engaged in Bubble Net Feeding (here’s a bigger view).

What is Bubble Net Feeding and how does it apply to business?  Read on and find out!

Bubble Net feeding is a hunting technique that’s unique to humpback whales in South East Alaska (other whales do some similar things but it’s not universal, it’s a learned behavior).

The picture above is a pod of 10 whales (we counted) who all work together to maximize their herring feeding opportunity.  The lead whale will dive first and search out a big group of herring and start circling it deep under the water.  The other whales will follow and they’ll all start blowing bubbles as they swim a ring around the herring.  About this time, one of the whales will also start singing.

The herring get confused by the bubbles and the singing and tend to bunch tightly together in the middle of the ‘net’ and rise towards the surface.  Within a few seconds, the singing stops which is the signal for the whole pod to shoot towards the surface with open mouths, trapping huge amounts of herring along the way.  They spit all of the extra water out (using their baleen to keep the herring in) and enjoy a sizable snack…then they’ll take a few minutes to rest up and do the whole thing over again.

What can you learn from Bubble Net feeding?

Here’s a few things that came to mind that apply to a business setting:

1. It’s good to collaborate

Other humpbacks will feed alone and do fine, but the reason this particular region of whales do this is because it works and it’s more effective than going alone.

2. You have to follow a system

As our guide Jennifer at Gastineau Guiding explained, the whales will repeat this highly coordinated sequence of events many times in the day while they’re in herring rich areas.  Because of the complexity of the operation – success is driven by all the whales in the pod strictly following the process in the same way every time.

3.  Use multiple strategies

Not all of the whale groups sing (we could tell they were singing because our boat put a microphone under the water so we could hear them).  However the singing worked in conjunction with the bubbles to make the herring more confused and more likely to stay in the ‘net’.  You might have success with one marketing strategy, but you’ll have more success with two that work together (done correctly).

Here’s a quick video that shows the concept in more detail – here’s the link if the video below doesn’t work:

It was an amazing sight to see.  If you make it up to Juneau in the summer it’s definitely worth checking out.

What cool things did you see on your summer vacation – let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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Are you exhausted? 

How about just not energized or struggling to stay focused and ‘in the zone’?  Maybe you just feel sleepy a lot!

A lot of people these days are feeling stressed, nervous, anxious and generally not as effective or productive as they’d like to be – and that lack of productivity makes the whole thing worse, creating a real problem for a lot of people.

With that in mind – here are 3 articles full of tips from experts on how to be more effective, productive and less sleepy!

First up – 10 Tips for re-energizing your day, every day.  The article is by Matthew May, but the tips are from Tony Schwarz – CEO of The Energy Project and author of the book ‘The way we’re working isn’t working’.

There are several interesting things to take-away from the article:

• People perform best when they’re ‘pulsing’ on 90 minute intervals (go hard for 90 minutes and then take a break – scientifically proven!).
• Anxiety and fear aren’t positive motivators (even in moderation) – negative emotions of any kind undermine peak performance.
• Build time into your day and purposely let your mind wander (daydream, listen to music, go for a walk) to come up with creative solutions.

The second article is “How to be Insanely Productive and Keep Smiling” from the blog Zen Habits (always great stuff there).

The central premise for the article is that high productivity isn’t about doing, it’s about being.  (It sounds new age, but she makes practical sense).

My highlights:

• Negativity will stifle productivity (there’s a common theme here) – if you’ve spent any time around negative co-workers, you’ve probably seen this firsthand.
• You’ve got to take action…make things happen.  I think this is true from a personal perspective and for your business – you should be leaving a wake, building momentum to really get things done.
• Get perspective – why do  you need to be productive?  If what you’re trying to achieve is meaningful to you, then you’ll be much more focused.

Finally – a bit of a different take that’s more focused on writing is an article from David Meerman Scott, noted Author and Speaker with “Efficiency and Cranking Stuff Out” from his blog at WebInkNow (also a blog worth following).

I found this one compelling because I like his work and he is very prolific – multiple books, lots of blog posts, speaking engagements, etc.  Here are my take away thoughts from his article:

• He loves what he does.  He has a clear focus and it’s on his mind a lot.  You get more done if it’s something you love doing.
• He repurposes content – if you’re creating for marketing purposes, are their other ways you could use the same information?
• Just get it done – he knocks out what needs to be done and minimizes procrastinating.

What are your tips for being more efficient?  Do you agree that being well rested, focused with a clear outcome is the best way to really get things done?

I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below if you’ve got the time or energy. 

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

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      It’s so Fluffy!!!!  from Despicable Me

Do you ever get that feeling that you’re just beaten down…that it’s too hot and nothing really matters?   There are times (especially after you make the mistake of watching the news) when it seems there’s nothing out there but bad things, people struggling and an endless parade of gray.

Well it’s time to perk up because I’ve got 3 things to inspire you:

• Bookbinding
• Shoes
• Unicorns!

It may not sound like an inspirational list, but keep reading and I think you’ll find something to get you moving!

Bookbinding as a hot new business!

There are plenty of stories out these days about businesses failing and industries going bankrupt, which makes it especially refreshing to hear about a skyrocketing success that leverages techniques that have been around for centuries and technology that’s been around for decades.

The company is called DodoCase and currently their sole product is a hand made case for an iPad.  Priced starting at $60, more than 60,000 cases were sold in the first few months after the release of the iPad, with much bigger numbers planned (the iPad is projected to sell 17 Million units in the first year of production). 

DodoCase uses a local San Francisco bookbinding company to create the custom cases – saving a dying and declining business (and in fact tripling their headcount with more to come).  Check out this great story about Dodocase – the winner of the Shopify business contest. 

What simple product do people want and need that you could deliver?

Shoes and a totally different business model

Toms Shoes started back in 2006 – you might have heard of them.  The founder Blake Mycoskie was inspired on a trip to Argentina where he encountered lots of children who didn’t have shoes.  That trip inspired the company’s very straightforward premise:

With every pair of TOMS shoes you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.  One for One.

The idea of helping people out is pretty inspirational – but even more amazing is the business model Mycoskie is using to help  those people out; a for profit, socially conscious business.  The company isn’t looking for a handout, they won’t be signing up for grant money, but they have a bigger purpose beyond just making money…and that’s making a huge difference!

As Mycoskie puts it, there are some great benefits to having such a clear and unselfish value statement:  “First, consumers are now conscious about where they put their dollars. A product like TOMS that gives to others is appealing to people more than ever.”  Another major benefit is the attraction of well above average employees who are willing to work for less than average pay.  Read more in this article from Success magazine.

What core values does your company stand on and how does it impact your business?

It’s so fluffy!  Inspiration from a unicorn.

The technology behind movies continues to be amazing, but what’s even better is when the technology takes a back seat to a creative story and great writing (and acting). 

Sometimes you need to find your inspiration in the little things that are around you – comedian Louis CK had a great interview with Conan O’Brien a while back where he talks about how Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.  We definitely take things for granted these days – if we took the time to really look around at our day to day things (like 3D animated movies) we would find a lot to be inspired by.

The reality is that we’re lucky to live at a time when amazing and creative things are created almost every day.  One of the more recent examples of inspirational creativity is the movie Despicable Me released to theaters just a few weeks ago. 

If you haven’t seen it yet, make the time to catch it in the theaters (3D is good, but you’ll enjoy it just as much in plain old 2D).  The animation is great, but what really stands out are the characters and the overall premise. 

It’s a story about Gru who’s gunning to be the most famous super-villain of all time.  He’s had some success so far, he has his own army of minions and he has a rival arch-nemesis, but he just hasn’t hit the big-time yet.

In a desperate contest to steal the moon and become famous – Gru ends up taking in 3 orphans that ultimately end up melting his heart.  It’s got a lot of style, it’s very funny and everyone in the family will enjoy it – for your final bit of inspiration, go see Despicable Me.

What’s inspired you lately?  Share your thoughts in the comments below – I’d love to hear them.

Shawn Kinkade  Kansas City Business Coach

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