Tag Archives: branding

Thanks and Goodbye

12 Oct

I’m out. I’ve written this column/blog for the last 2 years and it’s time to stop. I don’t know why, it just is.  The last few things I’ve written have felt forced. That’s not good.

I’ve enjoyed the time, the sharing, the ideas, and the inspiration. The truth is I’m on to what’s next. There are new responsibilities, new things to do, and my attention is elsewhere.

I’m always here to kick around ideas, and my blog will certainly stay up, but the weekly column is done.

Thanks again for reading; it was appreciated more than you’ll ever know.

Are We Using Our Super Powers?

22 Sep

On the way to work today, I had a couple of different ideas converge with each other, and it’s made me rethink how we look at employees.  We’ve often heard how important it is for people do be doing what they love.  Are they?

Morgan Spurlock’s TED talk in 2011 challenged us to think about what our own personal brand is. The question: What do we stand for? Seth Godin, several years back, suggested that we identify our super power. Rather than introducing ourselves to others by our job title, we introduce ourselves by what we’re good at.

What if we took the time to discover what each of our employees or team members are skilled at?  You’ll need to think about this for a minute, because we don’t want to hear what jobs they are good at, we want to hear what makes them good at their jobs. See the difference?

For example, you might be good at scheduling drivers and managing delivery routes, but what your super power, or skill might be, is solving puzzles.

I think it’s a powerful exercise. Find out what your entire teams’ individual skills are.  Make a map, write down their name, their skill, and then in another column, write down their current job.  Is everybody in the position they should be?

At the very least, you may discover there are people in the building that should be consulted on projects they currently don’t have any input on. You’ll be encouraging employees to “change lanes” once in a while. That’s a lot more interesting than driving in a straight line day after day. It also makes your business more agile and rather than reacting to slower traffic (competitors, economic conditions), you can avoid it.

Stop. Look. Listen.

16 Sep

I made a grocery run last weekend in pursuit of corn on the cob.  Our grocer stages trash barrels so you can do the shucking on-site.  I generally hate this job, but I had help, so my son and I got to work on four ears. After his first one, he looks up at me and says this:

“Can we do more than four? This is cool.”

“Really?” I thought. “You want to just stand here and shuck corn?”

“Totally!”

We kept going, three then two more, than another three. We started handing them to strangers.  We laughed, made fun of ourselves, he kept telling me how great it was.

In the mean time, there was a guy running around in the tomatoes chatting with someone through his Bluetooth ear piece.  He looked like an idiot. Two little ones in tow, he just wanted to get in, get out, and get some work done. He missed an opportunity to engage with his kids.

Connecting with your audience is no different.  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the transaction, that we miss out on listening and learning from them.  That’s the good stuff, that’s where the great ideas and inspiration come from.

It’s just like crossing the street:

Stop. Look. Listen.

If you don’t do that, you’ll never make it to the other side. If you don’t do that with your customers, you won’t get your brand to the next level either.

Everything is On Fire!

7 Sep

You’d think I’d be talking about how busy I am or how urgent everything on the “to do” list is, but I literally mean everything is on fire.  It’s been a horrible 3 weeks for this country and after an earthquake and a hurricane, I guess it’s no big deal that we have an outbreak of wildfires here in Texas.

We’ve been in a drought for quite some time, and this past weekend the Austin area lit up like an old Christmas tree.  Suburban neighborhoods evacuated, homes destroyed, deaths, one fire has burned over 35,000 acres.

Times like these are when we stop. We have to. The stuff we’ve been working on takes a back seat to the stuff that matters. Our family and friends, our communities, they need us, and we want to be there.

There’s another interesting thing that happens, I’m sure it happened with you in the last 3 weeks; we start wanting to do something to help. Anything.  We’ll give money, donate stuff, volunteer or pray. Something inside us says “go”.  I wish it didn’t take events like this for the “do” switch to be turned on, but sometimes it does.

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