The Business Brickyard

You know that Kinesio tape that you first saw on, now Gold Medal, volleyball player Kerri Walsh? They had hit a wall trying to sell directly to doctors who, typically, will not try anything unless they have the legal safety net of the FDA.

So what is a company to do that believe passionately about the purpose, benefit and the value of their product ?

Kinesio gave over 50,000 rolls of it to athletes at the Beijing Olympics for FREE.

There are 2 reasons I wanted to post the below video of a keynote from Gary Vaynerchuk.

1. If you want to know how to use social web tools and nurture a community to grow your brand and your business, this is a master class.

What Michael Phelps accomplished this past week was nothing short of spectacular. But it was as much a triumph of him thinking big long ago as it was a triumph of athletic performance now.

Before he could win 8 gold medals he first had to set a big goal that 8 gold medals was a dream that he wanted to come true (Something he has mentioned in his various interviews). Others have typically not dared to dream that big. They may focus on making the Olympic team. Of winning 1 medal. Of winning 1 gold. And those are worthy dreams.

"We race through our careers often never recognizing that creativity is as important to business as DNA is to evolution. If we didn't create, nothing would ever get better. If we didn't create, we would never have anything new. Tell a whole population to stop being creative, as has happened in any number of Communist states, and time stops. Visit Havana 40 years after Fidel Castro took over and you would think you're still back in the 1950s. Travel to Tirana, Albania, and suddenly you're in a world that disappeared in the 1940s."

Great businesses should posses the qualities/attributes of a great person. The kind of person that you want to be around. Everyone knows a person like that (I hope) but do you know a Company like that? Is it your own? People are intrigued and attracted to great personality. Great personality keeps them engaged. You are selling to people...Aren't you?

Love, passion, energy, curiosity, compassion, guts, big ideas, creativity, humor, honesty, fun, exploration, resilience, persistence....

How many of these feel like YOUR business? Did they at one time but now... Not so much?

Feeling a little stuck trying to generate some business changing ideas? Here is just one small way to jump start some new ideas and put them into action. The results are a great way to increase your value proposition to the markets you serve. Start by asking yourself..

"What 20 ton weight is dragging down your entire industry?"

Maybe it's eroding prices. Maybe it's supply chain issues. Maybe clients are running to the Internet. Whatever they are, write them down.

I just finished re-reading Tom Kelley's excellent book: "Ten Faces of Innovation." It remains one of my favorite business reads. There is a section towards the end of the book that focuses on "the subject of waiting - an unavoidable element in most customer journeys- and I believe that the way you manage those critical wait times can make all the difference in how your company is perceived."

Complaining is easy. In the end, it only provides some temporary relief from frustration. Figuring out and executing a smart solution is the hard part.

One shouldn't come without the other.

I worked with a company a few years back whose President brought along a Super Soaker water gun to every staff meeting.

All meetings had 1 simple rule: Nobody is allowed to whine/complain about something unless they also propose a solution that fixes that problem. Failure to do the hard part resulted in a soaking blast of water.

We keep running into companies that believe the old saying "You have to spend money to make money."

They spend a small fortune on marketing and a fleet of sales people begging for business from prospects. Effectively showing more "love" to someone else's clients than their own.

Are your customers just using your product/service or are they an integral part of your company? If not, why not?

Most importantly....

Do you really like your customers? Are they part of your business "Family"?