Businesses are Recipes

This was one of those dots-that-have-been-swirling-around-upstairs-finally-connected kind of thoughts that I just came across earlier today as I shared parting words with Nick (taking a few days to kick it with the fam in LA).

As far as I'm concerned, the world of business has no rules. None. Lots executives choose to run their businesses with similar practices, frameworks, and methods, but in this great country there is no mandate, no "set way" of conducting business (ok ok so we all pay taxes, use the same accounting principles, obey the law... we're all on somewhat of a level playing field but you get my drift).

Businesses are recipes. Take... banana bread for example. One person might use 2 bananas. One might use 3. The bananas could be ripe, or still green. Varied amounts of sugar, flour, and other essential ingredients. Also important is the how the bread's made- how many minutes in the oven, at what temperature, and so on. Some banana bread recipes result in fluffy, moist, deliciously baked bread. Some... well... don't.

A business is the same. It's the sum of all of its parts and components- policies, people, products... You can look at ten companies in the same industry, selling the same types of products (sometimes even the same products), and their internal structures, cultures, managers, and P&L statements almost always look very, very different. AND... only one of those ten companies is #1 in their segment.

I think the point is...
- Figure out the recipe you enjoy making
- Keep the recipe easy to understand
- Decide what's going to make your recipe different and worth trying. Once you figure that out - stick with it!
- Better ingredients, better business!

Now if only I had some bananas....

A Pair of Thoughts on Global Improvement

The following are the type of thoughts you gotta get out of your head somewhere. Thank you blog o' mine for being the convenient ventee that you are.

ACCESSIBILITY

This passage is the result of months of built-up frustration from one of the business world's most well-loved functions - Sales and (the art that is) Cold Calling. Brrr... makes me shiver just thinking about it.... or maybe that's the blust'ry -20F windchill from our ever-lovely MN winter.

In truth, I like cold calling. I've "met" many successful, interesting, high-powered, energetic individuals over the phone. It's a great way to connect with people you'd otherwise have no chance to. And I've actually met some of them - a few of which have evolved into business partners, career counselors, personal advisors, friends, and of course - advertisers (I call more media buyer types in a day than anyone should have to. Ever. They are great people, I just know that a good percentage of the time, they'd rather have a heart-to-heart with a hole in the ground than listen to my 30-second pitch of how I can guarantee them an ROI while helping them grow their business.)

I think the world would be a better place if more intelligent and well-connected people were more accessible.

I can't over-emphasize how many times I have just straight-up been snubbed after a polite and professional series of voicemails/emails, without a single notion of recognizing my existence. And I promise Mr./Mrs. media buyer... you really DO want to hear what I have to say! I wouldn't be wasting my time calling you if I didn't think there was a sincere chance that we might actually mutually benefit from the conversation, right?

Is the problem that today's current channels (telephone, email, IM) don't suffice? Or is the problem that today's Marketers and business leaders don't understand the value of being accessible and connecting with and learning from the people around them?

I guess I need to invent a way for busy people to easily respond to those reaching out to them, and to motivate those busy folks to want to respond.

WOMEN

My addiction to absorbing a few "TED talks" each night before I go to bed continues. I subscribe to their video podcast, so as they release videos from their archive, iTunes conveniently downloads the new ones for me (although some aren't "new," as opposed to "newly released." Whatever - they're new to me!)

Last night I was flipping through the 117 "talks" I have downloaded (no I don't progress through them systematically - how fun is that?), and I came across the following description

"In one of the most beloved talks from TED2007, novelist Isabel Allende talks about writing, women, passion, feminism. She tells the stories of..." and my screen doesn't show any more. Now, the typical, yesterday Kevin Carlow would have read that preview and almost instantaneously continued his perusal. Reason - something about feminists, generally speaking, doesn't sit well with me. Perhaps it's my naivete, but the few that I know are passionate but stubborn and thus (in my eyes) close-minded about a non-feminist point of view. Passion is always refreshing, just listen to the other side too!!

So I watched it, wanting to believe I possessed this "open mind" I was preaching about in my head. What a fantastic idea - I recommend it highly (Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion). She's not an award-winning speaker and her ideas aren't earth-shakingly profound - but Isabel exudes truth, feminine strength, imagination, and not surprisingly, passion. Plus her sense of humor was refreshing and real.

More and more often I find single thoughts, passages, ideas, philosophies, or quotes which strike a particularly strong chord with me. She delivered one such line in mere passing, but it resonated fully. As she was preaching about the benefits of empowering women and unfortunate truths of the poorest and most backward societies that consistently oppress women, she delivered this thoughtful line:

"Men run the world, and look at the mess we have."

Now, I could go for an hour debating all angles of this point. My broad takeaway on this statement is - she's right. Women have been oppressed and disenfranchised since history can remember. Men hold an absurd majority of seats of power: political power, commercial power, military power, religious power, terrorist power, high-technology power, judicial power, law enforcement power ---- all utterly dominated by men. Of course an increasing population of women excel in virtually all categories above, but globally speaking, this number's still a tiny fraction.

If we had true gender equality, with female instincts, intelligences, and intuitions influencing half of the stuff that goes on, the world would be a HUGELY different place. And I might just go as far as Ms. Allende does and say... a better one.

A few blogs I like

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
If you're into high-tech, Guy Kawasaki's blog opens tiny windows into the world from his evangelical viewpoint. Not as "juicy" as it could be (I bet he meets some really cool people in a given week), but very much worth subscribing to the feed nonetheless.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
Seth Godin's blog is focused on... well I shouldn't really say it's FOCUSED on anything... He's a Marketing/Technology ideologist and author. His perspective is down to Earth, refreshing, and many of the things he says make me go "ya know, that's a damn good point!" He also points out some cool Internet resources every once in a while.

Another great way to find new blogs is using Google Reader's "Discover" function. It automatically recommends new RSS feeds based on the ones you subscribe to and how often you view them. Plus you can browse for any keyword that interests you (i.e. I typed in "change the world" and boom - Guy's blog won a seat in my Feed Reader).

(And I'm a little partial to this ViciGuy one too!!)

It's good enough

It's not too often that I get horoscopes/fortunes/palm readings/etc. that actually resonate well. I'd have likely failed Astrology (as if you can major in it). But on a whim Miller and I hit up Eastar on Lake St, and this is what my fortune cookie had to say...




(Notice the missing apostrophe... maybe there's room to make a move in the fortune business? Our competitive advantage could be our award-winning translator!)




This wasn't one of those "damn that's a good idea" revelations. It was one of the "I-have-thought-about-this-and-this-is-a-sign-confirming-what-Iwas-thinking" kind of revelations. I vaguely remember preaching this mantra during Entre in Action last year. Now, my delivery might not have been top-notch, but apparently a Chinese wise-person agrees with the sentiment.

It's a timeless lesson for those trying to start, invent, create, redefine, and improve. And it's continuing to become oh-so-true as there is never less stuff to get done with each ensuing day.

Perfection is for fairy tales and middle school.

Logos

Just having some fun with GIMP and Paint.NET. I highly recommend both by the way. They are free and make sense for non-design people like me.

Now, that's not to say any of the below are award-winning designs. They barely pass as sketches. Nevertheless, I've gotta ask...


Which one do you like?

A potential partner, or two

You know, I was just going to Share this story in my Links feed, but I'm too excited. Maybe I'm too easily swooned by certain people/products/companies/sites that seem to speak my language; alas, I can't resist a short spell of ogling over up-and-comer's, young entrepreneurs, and clever writing.

Ben Casnocha. Just discovered his blog, book, and bio from an excellent post from user Prakblr on the message board of a Shelfari group I started on Entrepreneurship. (Shelfari is a social networking site - you create your virtual "book shelf" and are given a host of sharing and networking features to display your shelf and view others' shelves. My group has grown to 108 members, and I've done next to nil to promote it (i.e. letting Shelfari do the heavy lifting for me). Makes me optimistic about the future of www.thealumniadvisor.com and other networking site ideas we have on the backburner). I digress.

After 20 min of reading, Ben seems to have a definitive edge, carving out a nice niche in the "young entrepreneur success" department. He will have to step up his game after graduating from college to maintain his inertia. With less than half an hour of reading, I feel pretty confident he will do just that.

His book: My Start-Up Life. Yes, I am jealous... jealous that I did not write this book before he did.

This is the post that mandated the formal entry into my blog - What We'd Wish We'd Known In College.

He's merely taking excerpts from n+1's What We Should Have Known pub, but seeing the excerpts he chose seems like a tell-tale sign to me that we're vibrating close to the same frequency.

RSS Button Maker

I just found this great website which enabled me to add the RSS buttons you see in my "Subscribe!!" Tab. Check it out...

Top Rank Blog - RSS button maker

Google Ad Revolution

What would happen if you started a movement where every time every person in the movement saw a Google AdSense ad - they clicked it?

Would some crazy revolution happen where site owners (and Google) would get insanely rich? Would advertisers actually get an ROI on their skyrocketed ad expenses?

The Future of Content

I just found myself uploading 2007 Alumni Advisor content to a couple of free online article hubs I found on Google.

www.articledashboard.com
www.freeforallarticles.com

My primary incentive here (aside from the intrinsic philanthropic knowledge-spreading motivator which of course is always present) is simply to drive a couple of extra hits to www.thealumniadvisor.com and increase awareness of the publication/website. Leaving these articles free to be used and re-used for any and all purposes like VIVA paper towels and my gym bag from high school.

Nothing directly monetary, whatsoever.

We have seen lately a (what I believe might be a hint at a HUGE) trend towards donation-driven content (see Radiohead's In Rainbows post-success interview with Wired or the Steal This Film project and it's latest Part II release). TorrentSpy just released information saying that the average donation given to see Steal This Film... $15!!! (source: Mashable.com)

This screams that quality, niche content - when reaching the right audience, is worth a premium to its consumers. Or at least it's worth SOMETHING!




+ FUTURE OF CONTENT =








I just started cooking up a new idea about two hours ago to help many other content providers out there (bloggers, indie film makers, upcoming bands, aspiring authors) to achieve financial success by following their passions and getting paid for it - by you, me, and anyone else that wants to help that individual keep offering their content to the world. I'll keep you posted.

What other ways are there to help content providers make money that I haven't heard of yet?

Week ended 11/04

If there was one word to describe how I'm feeling about our progress, it would be... "anxious." Last week was packed with big decisions, lots of sales calls, and yet ANOTHER opportunity knocked on our door. A great one in fact. Some tasks took a slight backseat, but I suppose that comes with the territory when all business hours are spent selling to the Fortune 1000.

Last week marked the second week that Nick and I put on full-steam Sales hats, for both Long Drive and the Advisor. This upcoming week has some MAJOR follow-up calls to be made: Taylormade Adidas, Marriott, DirecTV, Sirius, BOSE, and Coca Cola - to name a few. I'm also a call away from getting a meeting with Kinetic in NYC to pitch our stuff to all their account reps. I can't wait to tell Tony the good news.

We put the DTRA on hold for a year - an outcome with which I am very pleased. The limited time we spend on the DTRA will be time well-spent: handling one-off tasks, selling a sponsorship here or there, and attending some board meetings. This will give us a chance to get our hands dirty and intimately connect with some folks in the racing world. Plus we'll have no risk, an entire year of brainstorming for DTRA growth plans, and we'll get to see how the DTRA team does in their fourth year (without paying for any add'l tracks business).

Meeting up with the U Guide boys tomorrow to discuss the sale of their company. We'll have much more of an update on this topic next week. Once we find the golden solution to local ad sales at campuses nationwide, it seems to me that we're home-free.


Last week's goal: 8 hours in the office = 6 hours of phone time.
--- Passed with flying colors. Now we just gotta maintain the pace.

This week's goal: redefine PT. Old definition - "personal time" New definition - "productive time".
---This doesn't mean the end-all of free time, it means only spending time on activities with purpose. Going for a run instead of watching TV, reading instead of playing poker, or learning something from someone as opposed to shootin the shit.