I met Garrett at Summit Series and was so impressed by his success story launching his nonprofit (buoyed by advice from NEA!) that I asked him to contribute a blog. Audacity and the power of a great idea are the big drivers here. - KF
I was a college student when I co-founded SEE College Prep, a non-profit that has helped more than 1,300 low-income high school students improve their SAT scores an average of 200 points and become the first in their families to go on to college. At the time, I had no idea what it meant to raise large amounts of money, or the kinds of relationships I would need to build to do so.
Fortunately, a friend clued me in to Keith and Never Eat Alone and that wisdom has supported me ever since. It has been an extraordinary learning curve: in a short period of time, I went from not knowing a single person who could donate more than a few hundred dollars, to raising nearly $2 million in 18 months.
I followed my heart, risked embarrassment by asking simple questions, and found the courage to ask for people’s time and eventually money. I was empowered by the mission of what I was trying to achieve, and since I had a calling I knew that no request was too silly or too bold. I reached out to mentor after mentor—first professors, then non-profit leaders, then heavy hitters like Stanford University President John Hennessy and billionaires John Fisher, John Morgridge, and Laurene Powell Jobs. Not all of these conversations were successful, but I saw first-hand how little I knew and how much people were willing to help. Technology has helped people like me: many of the most impressive people I’ve met have agreed to meet following a cold e-mail; some of those people are my closest mentors and advisors today. Read more →
"Alex Banayan is one of the top pupils of relationship mastery. He is a former intern of Ferrazzi Greenlight and is now an author, as well as a student at USC's Marshall School of Business. Alex is using the lessons he's learned about relationships to make his ambitious and optimistic vision into a reality.” –KF
Even the world’s most successful people had to start from somewhere—right?
I’ve always had an itching curiosity to understand how people like Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey started out. They’re both people like you and I, but they must have done something right early on to get to where they are today. On a more personal note, I’ve always struggled with the question of what my true calling in life is. I’ve always had a yearning to do something great, but how do I go from being just an intern to being the CEO? What steps do I have to take to go from being an entry-level employee to the next big thing? My ambition coupled with my ambivalence has kept me asking: What’s next?
Inspired by these questions, I’ve begun writing a book where I’m interviewing the world’s most successful people to answer the question: What did those people do to propel themselves to the top? I want to delve past the fluff and past the simple biographical information. What were the mindsets, the best practices-- and the actual steps-- that allowed those people to break through the confines of mediocrity and conquer their respective industries?
I’d like to share with the KeithFerrazzi.com community some of the jaw-dropping advice I’ve been hearing while conducting interviews for the book. From world champion athletes to corporate CEOs to national television personalities, the wisdom from the interviews acts as both a practical career guide and an inspirational compass.
A word of thanks: Keith Ferrazzi has been a mentor of mine for quite a while now, and it has been his guidance and wisdom that have allowed me to make this vision into a reality. For that, I am eternally grateful. Plus, I’ve been through the myGreenlight program, and I’m a living, breathing example that the lessons taught there really do work.
I invite you all to not just read these insights, but to participate and engage with the ideas. Talk back, challenge the ideas, and most importantly: pose your own questions. If someone in the community here has a compelling follow-up question (or a new question or a new interview idea), post it below and you could see it printed in my upcoming book!
Thank you to Keith, and to the entire KeithFerrazzi.com community, for the support. I’m humbled to act as your ambassador to uncover the raw and surprising answers to life’s most compelling questions.
Dreaming big,
Alex Banayan
You can connect with Alex even further on his blog or on his facebook page.
Today’s guest post is from Phil Simon, a fellow speaker at Inc’s Grow Your Company in April. He’s got great ideas on how growing companies can get a leg up with new technology.
Compared to big companies, many small businesses are adopting new technologies at both greater speed and lower cost. These represent two sources of a new competitive advantage for these nimble, agile companies. At the New Small, new technologies are enabling a completely different mindset and definition of work. Smaller outfits and startups are attracting top-flight talent because, to some extent, they allow work to be done anywhere: from home, on a beach, or in a coffee shop.
This tech-friendly ethos is allowing employees to work on their own terms, addressing the work-life imbalance from which many people suffer. In this vein, the New Small is using technology strategically to win the war for talent.
So, there’s good news for small businesses on several fronts. Emerging technologies are allowing progressive companies to leap ahead of others still struggling to figure things out.
But which technologies are making such a dramatic difference? There are five specific ones. I collectively refer to them as the Five Enablers. Here’s a primer:
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is one hot technology, and for good reason. At a high level, cloud-based applications allow employees to access company information from wherever they are. Data and applications in the clouds are simply more accessible than those stored in a single location. Although there are security implications related to de-perimeterizing the enterprise, cloud applications are gaining momentum as organizations try to improve accessibility and information -- and reduce the cost of getting it.
SaaS
Software as a service (SaaS) is kind of a cousin to cloud computing. In fact, the latter enables the former. SaaS is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies that support Web services and service-oriented architecture mature and new development approaches become popular. Meanwhile, broadband service has become increasingly available to support user access from more areas around the world.
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
FOSS alternatives to traditional (read: paid) offerings have been gaining acceptance for years. For those who doubt the penetration of open source (OS) software in ordinary life, consider that it is now penetrating even the hallowed -- and traditionally conservative -- halls of academia.
Mobility
Mobile technologies extend the capabilities of certain applications, particularly in retail, manufacturing and inventory-related environments. The number and variety of consumer-oriented applications are absolutely astounding. The bottom line with mobility is this: People no longer need to be chained to desktops or laptops to access or receive information. The potential of mobility is simply massive. Collectively the New Small has embraced the use of smartphones and productivity-enhancing apps. Mobility is unquestionably useful. Unfortunately many companies are too scared to embrace a mobile world. Others are intrigued by its possibilities but, for whatever reason, cannot make any headway.
Social Technologies
Social networking and media are piping hot topics these days. Many people at least particularly understand how to use social networking tools on a personal level. However, fewer are sure about what -- if anything -- these tools can do at work. Many people wonder whether they should even be on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn while on company time.
Ignore these technologies at your peril. As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
You've just read an excerpt from Phil Simon’s new book, The New Small: How a New Breed of Small Businesses is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies, available for purchase from Motion Publishing LLC. To learn more about the book please visit thenewsmall.com and www.philsimonsystems.com.
January is the perfect time for focusing on making real change in our wealth, family, and career. Health too, but for so many people, that resolve only lasts about two weeks!
So let’s talk today about wealth. Here’s the most common question I’m getting:
“How do I earn more money?”
Well, you know my broad answer: Success through relationships. Whatever it is you want to do, build the network of relationships that will make it happen, and success will be yours.
But I also want to introduce you to someone who’s more directly focused on how to generate new income. He’s a New York Times best-selling author, he writes for over 300,000 people every month, and I think he’s the sharpest mind on helping you earn more money -- ethically and using the skills you already have.
His name is Ramit Sethi and I asked him to put together something special for you -- including a 67-page e-book on earning more money in 2011, available through this link.
Now, here’s Ramit:
Earning more via freelancing isn’t just for writers and designers. And it’s not only about “trading your time for money.”
Begin by thinking of how your skills can solve other people’s problems right now. Write down the top three skills you have that can solve other people’s real problems today.
I have a framework called the “Pay Certainty” technique, which helps you determine whether
people are willing and able to pay for the service you can offer with those skills.
Introducing The "Pay Certainty" Framework
The problem with having so many ideas is you're just not sure which one will pay off. And nobody wants to spend 9 months pursuing a futile idea -- only to discover you've made $0.46 in Adsense money -- so we get stuck before we even start.
When you apply the "Pay Certainty" Framework, you can quickly "score" ideas to see if they have any real possibility of ever paying off -- BEFORE you ever spend any time developing them.
To hear how it works, click through to the rest of the post on the blog. Or, click here to get Ramit’s great e-book, “Finding Your First Profitable Idea” and other free resources.
What’s the worst testimonial I ever got? The one I forgot to ask for!
Asking for testimonials – and getting great ones – makes a lot of people nervous, especially new business owners. And so they avoid it altogether. That’s a problem, because testimonials are one of the best ways to build trust in your brand, particularly online.
Here’s four tips so that you never miss an opportunity or get a vague, lukewarm testimonial again.
1. Don’t be afraid to ask. All they can do is say no! No matter what, the more you ask, the more you’ll get. And if over time you have trouble finding people their name behind a positive experience of your brand, you may need to take a hard look at your product or service delivery.
2. Build a personal relationship. Some clients may have built-in resistance to using their name in any kind of marketing context. But the more they care about you and your success, the more likely they will be to get over that initial inhibition – especially if you make it clear that their testimonial will truly make a difference. Be transparent about where you are with your business and ask for their support.
3. Build feedback into your process. If you build regular requests for feedback into your process with clients, you’ll build confidence and build the relationship at the same time. Make asking for a testimonial at the end of an engagement a regularly scheduled practice, so that you won’t forget.
4. Guide them. Even if your customer had a great experience, that doesn’t mean she or he knows how to communicate it to someone else. Help her out by giving her some sample quotes to work with – but make very clear that you want her to be honest. You might say something like, “I know you’re busy, so to make it easy, I’d be glad to give you some sample testimonials – the stuff I dream of my clients saying. Then you can adapt it as you see fit. Please be absolutely candid.”
5. Know your value props. If you’re shaky about how to craft those brilliant sample testimonials, make a list of the key value props of your product. You want testimonials to speak to concrete, compelling results fulfilling each of those value props.
Go ahead – ask someone for a testimonial today!
And tell me: What's the best testimonial you ever got and why?
“I’m not just the president of the Hair Club for Men, I’m also a member.”
That’s got to be one of history’s most famous – and successful – slogans. OK, also one of its most mocked slogans, but mocked or not, it’s sold a lot of hair.
So why is it so effective?
Clearly, using your own product is the strongest endorsement you can give it. But I think it’s more than that. It’s a winning slogan because it’s also a brave act of vulnerability. It’s Sy saying, “I’m here and I’m bald!”
Here are three specific benefits of vulnerability that you can see at work in the Hair Club slogan:
1. Safety: By showing your cards, you create trust. Trust means safety, and safety is a place where you’ll get the best from others – their best ideas, their best (ie most honest) feedback, their fullest expression of themselves.
2. Empowerment: When you put it all out there, you’ve got the power of having nothing to hide.
3. Commonality: People see that you’ve walked the walk – and your willingness to share confidently also shows them that you’ve faced challenges and won.
So remember: Vulnerability isn’t a weakness. It’s the most profound kind of courage there is: The courage to be who you are.
One of my favorites: Rule #22, Learn to see the world through the eyes of your customer.
Alan writes about learning that lesson when he was looking for a backer to launch Fast Company.He and his partner pitched everywhere, passionately telling everyone how cool, how hip, how evolved their new business magazine would be. No one was buying. Finally they gave the same pitch to Fred Drasner and Mort Zuckerman, the owners of The Atlantic Monthly and US News & World Report. The gentlemen stopped them short:
"Fred and Mort weren't interested in our idea. They had a problem and we were a potential solution. Their problem was excess capacity: They had built a big pipe -- ad sales staff, paper and printing contracts, relationships with advertisers, distribution contracts -- and they needed another magazine to use up that excess capacity. It could be Fast Company, it could be Senior Golfer, it could be any publication that interested them and had a decent chance of succeeding.
"That's when I realized that, like many entrepreneurs, I'd been looking at the situation through the wrong end of the telescope. Absorbed as I was in the brilliance of my own idea, I'd overlooked the other end of the telescope: I'd neglected to consider how the world looked to the people I was trying to sell on my idea....I realized that the other magazine companies had passed on Fast Company not because it was or wasn't a good idea but because we weren't a solution for a problem they had. Now it I wanted to sell Fred and Mort on my magazine, I first had to buy into my responsibility to help them solve their own problem."
How to get better at "flipping the telescope"? Alan's great advice:
1. Talk less, listen more.
2. Make few claims; ask more questions.
3. Focus less on output, more on feedback.
4. Buy fewer ads; collect more data.
“Brand presence is just kind of creating a connection...We want to be a presence in that community, and in order to be a presence you can’t always be hawking product.”-- Virtue client Michael Tatelman of Dell
From today's NYT article about Vice magazine, inseperable from its in-house advertising agency, Virtue. Virtue pays the bills to keep the definitely "irreverent," arguably "risk-taking" Vice content coming.
Thanks with all the help through Twitter and FB with my prep yesterday. Ready for the result? Watch the clip!
For those who don't feel like watching, the basic point:
"Free works as a promotion...all marketing is generosity. You are trying to build a relationship with the consumer. If you lead with free, you get permission to actually have a conversation to follow it up.
We have got to get reconnected with the consumer."
contribute a blog. Audacity and the power of a great idea are the big drivers here. - KF
