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BE YOUR OWN LIFE COACH
7
6 Steps to Take Every Day
Ways to Hack Your Sales
Best Cities for Your Business
Why Good Leaders Love Offi Office Conflict
NETFLIX CEO REED HASTI HASTINGS: NGS: OUR ACHIEVER OF THE YEAR
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March 2015
How a brush with death gav ga ve a man man his life mission
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on onthe thecover cover MARCH 2015
45 4 5 On Demanding Better Reed Hastings, 2014 SUCCESS Achiever Achiever of the Year, led Netflix to acclaim and major revenue gains last year. But he’s also consumed by another mission: improving impro ving public education.
by Susan Young also on the cover: Hack Your Sales ........................... 36 Life Coach........................... 54 ........................... 58 ........................... 62 67 ...........................67
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Featur Fea tures es 54 Be Your Own Lie Coach You can make wise choices and improve yourself—by yourself.
by Chelsea Greenwood
58 The Power o Healthy Con�ict Real leaders know how to channel dissent so it fuels f uels innovation and growth.
by Shelley Levitt
62 Afer the Crash Dave Sanderson’s life changed dramatically after helping fellow passengers passengers escape esca pe “Sully” Sullenberger’s ditched airliner.
by John H. Ostdick
58 62
74 All-Y AllYou-Can-Eat Marke Marketing ting Allowing your customers to binge on your products can translat translate e into healthy profits.
by Jim Motavalli
67 SPECIAL SECTION:
Location, Location, Location Ready to set up shop? Consider these important points when picking your spot.
68
Greener Pastures Identify the place that’s best-suited best-suited for your business and your family.
by Rieva Lesonsky
71
Wher Wh eree Are You ourr Cu Cust stom omer erss?
67
Study the latest demographic data and forecasts to find your clients.
by Sara Vigneri
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 3
Departments Departments In Every Issue 6 8 9
Publisher’s Publisher’s Letter Editor’s Edit or’s Note Your Say
11
StartUP
These short articles can lead to a better life and business.
Kip Tindell
Edited by Lisa Ocke r
18
20
22
Strides
30
Figure out what matters most to you and then apply a laser focus. by Melissa Balmain
by Jennifer Chang
A Healthy You
34
How To
The docs explore sleep problems.
Attract top talent.
by Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen
by Emma Johnson
Your Money
36
You and your significant other need to be on the same page about finances.
Maximum Leadership
Sales Savvy
Hack your sales with seven easy-to-execute easy-to-execute techniques. by Anthony Iannarino
by Suze Orman
24
Corn Corner er Offi ce
CEO Kip Tindell mixes optimism and conscious capitalism in leading The Container Store.
38
Schedule an extraordinary life for yourself. yourself. by John C. Maxwell
Making Makin g a Difference
Brian Kaminer’s firm guides investors investors to companies that align with their personal values. by Jill Becker
26
28
Just Add Hustle
Ponder these points before expanding expanding your business.
SUCCESS Foundation Foundation
by Tory Johnson
Tucson, Ariz., schools pronounce the SUCCESS for Teens program “a perfect fit.”
Maverick Maverick Minute
by Chelsea Greenwood
A young coach can awaken you to big opportunities. by Jason Dorsey
79
40
WrapUP
Polish your performance with our roundup of products and ideas.
42
Positivity
Mine the wisdom in negative experiences (just don’t wallow in them).
by Patty Onderko
Edited by Josh Ellis
88
Action Action Plan
You can use 10 lessons from this issue right now.
4 SUCCESS
MARCH 2015
18
E R O T S R E N I A T N O C E H T F O Y S E T R U O C
SUCCESS CCESS 2014 SU Achiever Achiev er of the Year Learn about this year’s runnersup and see nominees from past years.
From the Cover Cov er Story Story
>> SUCCESS.com/2014-nominees
Malala Yousafzai
MARCH 2015 DIGITAL EDITION ONLINE FEB. 10 Dr. Dre
REED
Evan Spiegel
HASTINGS
S R E T U E R / S E T N E U F O L A Z N O G ©
At Netflix hard work can get you sacked. Read why in the Netflix HR manifesto. Christy Turlington Burns
LINKS to
SUCCESS Check it out @ SUCCESS.com/reed-hastings.
IN THE SUCCESS STORE There is an achiever in us all, Jim Rohn says in the Challenge to Succeed audio series available at store.SUCCESS.com. “It is a challenge to succeed. If it were not, I’m sure more people would be successful. But for every person who is enjoying the fruit from the tree of success, many more are examining the roots.”
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Kent Brantly, M.D.
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SUCCESS magazine magazine (ISSN 0745-2489) is published monthly by SUCCESS Partners, 200 Swisher Road, Lake Dallas, TX 75065. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to SUCCESS magazine, magazine, P.O. Box 292144, Kettering, OH 45429. SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S.A., 12 issues $34.99; Canada, 12 issues $44.99; International, 12 issues $54.99. To subscribe to SUCCESS magazine magazine or to receive our free monthly Seeds of SUCCESS e-zine e-zine and online exclusives, visit SUCCESS.com. To subscribe to SUCCESS Book Summar ies, visit SUCCESSBookSummar ies.com or call 800-5706414. CUSTOMER SERVICE: For service on your subscription, including renewal, change of address or other customer service matt ers, call 800-570-6 414, send an email to
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[email protected] or mailed to Editor, SUCCESS magazine, magazine, 200 Swisher Road, Lake Dallas, TX 75065. SUCCESS magazine magazine cannot process manuscripts or ar t material, and we assume no responsibility for the return. © 2015 SUCCESS Partners. All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without prior written permission. Printed in the U.S.A.
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 5
Publisher’s Letter
How to Live Before You Die IMAGINE WAKING UP TOMORROW morning,
grabbing your cup of coffee and opening up the That’s exactly what happened to Swedish chemist had passe passed d away, but a French newspape newspaperr mist m istakenly akenly Al fr ed was an ar mam mament entss manu fa fact cture ure r and the premature obituary named him the “merchant of death,” holding him responsible for mass destruction and blaming him for the demise of hundreds of As Alf red read his own obituar y, he was w as shocked at the bulk of his enormous fortune to esta establish blish the now-famous Nobel Pri Prizes, zes, awards for To this day the Nobel Prizes are the highest honors this issue we recognize and award the the SUCCESS SUCCESS
A V O L A V D O P I B E D
We look for the person who has most significantly inspired us through his or her example of extraordinary success.
a culture of performance and high standards of Af ter all , it’s hard to come down on your brot brother-i her-i n Find more on his blog @ DarrenHardy.SUCCESS.com. Connect with him @ Facebook.com/DarrenHardyFan.
Businessweek ssweek article, Busine article, “At most Inc. has Inc. has its 500; Forbes, 500; has its Person of the Year, and Forbes, Time has Vanity Fair, Fair, become your own beacon of hope and inspiration, and a shining example of whole-life success!
SUCCE SS
Editor’s Note
Achievers “R” Us This issue c elebrates achievers, including you and me. As we were putting the issue together, it who shaped shap ed me as a leader, the hardest h ardest work I’ve ever done, I’ve done done on my own. At certain cr ucial junctions, junct ions, I had to be my own ow n life coach coach.. Early in my career I took a job at a magaz m agazine ine that shall remain nameless. My new boss had seemed seeme d a little lit tle str ange in the interv int erv iew process, pro cess, but the How bad co uld it be? So bad, as it tur ned out, that every morning, I had to gulp down an unrea sonable amount of Pepto-Bismol. As soon as the ala rm clock cloc k rang, my stomach stoma ch erupted. erup ted. I had (nor have I since)—someone since)—someone who threw tantr ums, humiliated humil iated employees employe es in f ront of their t heir peers pe ers and an d crying cry ing every day (no exaggeration). I had to get out—but how? I made a decision: I would stay six months, enough time to look halfway decent on my résumé. Af ter that, tha t, I wou ld leave, f reelanc reelancing ing while wh ile I aggressively pursued a new opportun ity. I also knew that t hat I needed nee ded a healt hier way t o deal w ith my stress than drinking so much of that chalky pink in the morning—simply breathing and quieting my mind for 20 minutes, then studying a positive quotation or passage. Three months into li fe at the loony bin, bi n, my magazi mag azine ne was bought by a huge, thrivi thr iving ng media company, and I was work ing for one of the best people in the biz. To “Be Your Own Li fe Coach,” turn to Page 54.
Susan Kane Editorr in Chief Edito
8 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
Editor in Chief
Publisher & Founding Editor
SUSAN KANE
DARREN HARDY
Editorial EDITOR LISA OCKER
MANAGING EDITOR MARY VINNEDGE
FEATURES EDITOR JOSH ELLIS
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
COPY EDITOR PETER TEPP
TALENT EXECUTIVE PAUL SCOTT ADAMO
JENNIFER CHANG
SUCCESS.com Editorial DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL CONTENT
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SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
K. SHELBY SKRHAK
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Digital Production DIGITAL ASSET PRODUCTION MANAGER MARIANA LENOX
Art & Production CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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CARL WATERS
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SENIOR ART DIRECTOR
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CHRISTIAN STOVALL CONTRIBUTING PHOTO EDITOR MARK PERLSTEIN
Contributing Editors SHAWN ACHOR
TONY JEARY
PATTY ONDERKO
MELISSA BALMAIN
EMMA JOHNSON
JOHN H. OSTDICK MEHMET OZ, M.D.
JILL BECKER
TORY JOHNSON
SALLY DENEEN
RIEVA LESONSKY
CHRIS RAYMOND
JASON DORSEY
SHELLEY LEVITT
MICHAEL ROIZEN, M.D.
ANTHONY IANNARINO
JOHN C. MAXWELL
DON YAEGER
MARGARET JAWORSKI
JIM MOTAVALLI
SUSAN YOUNG
SUCCESS Partners CEO
VP, GENERAL MANAGER
VP, PUBLISHING & BRAND EXPERIENCE
STUART JOHNSON
JIM MCCABE
MERIDITH SIMES
CFO
SENIOR VP, MARKETING
CHIEF BRAND OFFICER
STEVE MINICK
PAUL ADAMS
WAYNE MOOREHEAD
BUSINESS MANAGER
Advertising
KEENAN IVY
ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER
eCommerce PRODUCT MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER HUGH MURPHY DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TRAVIS BOND
VICKIE PINSKY 857-284-7475
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ADVERTISING & MARKETING COORDINATOR NORTHEAST, SOUTHEAST AND WEST COAST SALES GABRIELLE EZELL 940-497-9983
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SUCCESS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER JESSICA ESPARZA
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EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST
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CAROL SHUKER
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SUCCESS Speakers
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SPEAKER SERVICES MANAGER
DIGITAL CONTENT SPECIALIST HEATHER TIPTON
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The Buzz
struggle financially. They also carry more responsibilities for their home lives and parenting. As a female entrepreneur, I long to see myself more in your pages and in the experts who provide guidance.
Where do you take your Show us where you’re reading SUCCES S on on Instagram, and we might feature your picture online or in a future Buzz column!
SUCCES S ?
Francine Francine Russell Russell Buffalo, Buffalo, Wyo. Wyo. Editor’s note: note: The women are
LIVING LARGE I met Anthony Robbins [the subject of our January January cover cover story], story], and and he changed changed my vision vision about my future. Florian Ferrere Ferrere Via Facebook
@andrewcarlson reads October 2014’s issue featuring will.i.am before heading hea ding into the t he office in downtown Los Angeles.
I attended two great Tony Robbins seminars in London, three days each. Phenomenal. Ever since, Robbins has inspired inspired me to learn more about personal development. He is inspirational, no doubt about that. Ezra Aguete Garcia Garen Via Facebook
So excited for Tony Robbins to be on the cover of my favorite magazine! @eric_crumbaker relaxes in Bora Bora as he reads November 2014’s issue, which has a cover story on Tim Cook.
Colleen Macomber Via Facebook
WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? I love your magazine, but it seems very sexist. The articles and covers are mostly about men. Why? Ann M. Bingham Bingham Newman, Newman, Ph.D. Ph.D. Claremont, Calif.
Heather (@hdlegge (@hdlegge)) enjoys a power breakfast on her Omaha, Neb., patio with the September 2014 issue featuring Steve Wynn. Follow us @SUCCESSmagazine on Instagram and hashtag your ’grams with #successmagazine.. #successmagazine
I’m a subscriber and enjoy all that you offer to entrepreneurs. But where are the women women?? Statistics show that female female entrepreneurs are on the rise, but you SUCCESS —not wouldn’t wouldn’t know from from SUCCESS —not even by looking at the covers. In general, women have unique challenges in starting and building a business. They tend toward toward serviceserviceoriented occupations and are less motivated by profit, which means they
coming! We just happened to have a long streak of men on our covers. While we try to include women women and minorities to accurately reflect our readership, sometimes our requests are declined. We promise to write about lots of women this year; we’ve already scheduled three for cover stories.
QUOTE QUESTIONED In the November article on Apple CEO Tim Cook, he attributed the quote “For of those to whom much is given, much is required,” to John F. Kennedy. It’s from the Bible, Bible, in Luke, Chapter Chapter 24, verse 48, as Kennedy most likely knew from growing up in a Catholic family. Laurie Snow Cutler Bay, Fla. Editor’s note: note: Kennedy did say it, but he borrowed from a higher higher authority as you pointed out. Thanks, Laurie!
MIND-READING SKILL I’ve often wished I could have properly assessed, or read, someone and “seen what was was coming” coming” with them. them. The The SUCCESS.com article “The Skill You’ve Always Wanted: Wanted: How to Instantly Read People” taught me to observe more wisely. John John Fletcher Fletcher Arlington, Arlington, Texas LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Please include the writer’s name, city/state, email address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity or space. MAIL: SUCCESS Letters, 200 Swisher Road, Lake Dallas, TX 75065. EMAIL:
[email protected]. TERMS OF SUBMISSION By submitting anything to SUCCESS in in any format, written or otherwise, you agree that: (1) your submissions and their contents will automatically become the property of SUCCESS , without any compensation to you; (2) SUCCESS may may use or redistribute the submissions and their contents for any purpose and in any way; and (3) there is no obligation to keep any submissions confidential.
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 9
NEW
THE
JIM ROHN GUIDE SERIES
The timeless wisdom of Jim Rohn in concise, easy-to-read 48-page pocket-size pocket-size guides. Perfect for sharing with friends, family, business associates, clients and prospects. Time Management • Personal Development Leadership • Goal Setting • Communication Buy individually or as a complete set. Quantity discounts available available!!
The
starting point of all achievement is desire desire..
Without
continual growth and progress, such progress, such
words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.
Make
the most of yourself by
fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. achievement .
—Napoleon Hill, Benjamin Franklin, Golda Meir
TOP
Will You Give In to the Hoo Hoop pla?
of Mind What was your biggest mistake and what did it teach you?
A s t he NC A A D iv i si on I me n’s ba sk e tb al l tournament approaches, approaches, watercooler banter c enters on several questions: Who’s running the office bracket? Can I watch the games at work? Do I look feverish? Maybe I need to take a few sick days. days. Whether March Madness act ivities boost morale or diminish productivity at work is up for debate. Here’s how managers weighed in: ì
32 percent percent said said participating in March Madness at work boosted morale—up from 20 percent the previous year, according to a 2014 poll by job placement plac ement firm fir m OfficeTeam.
ì
percent felt 27 percent felt March Madness had a positive impact on productivity, up from 16 percent the previous year.
ì About
/ L S O S O E P / R G P I P D P E E T T A I S C S I O S R S H A C
Kentucky's Andrew Harrison defends Connecticut's Ryan Boatright in last year's championship championship game.
percent thought 62 percent thought it had no impact on morale or productivity.
“We anticipate that more employers will continue to come around to the fact that activities tied to sporting sporting events events like March March Madness can actually help help increase increase morale morale and productivity,” productivity,” says Robert Rober t Hosking, Offi ceTeam ceTeam executive execut ive director. dir ector. So if you want give gi ve in to the Madness, Mad ness, make ma ke sure you’re clear on any office rules; rule s; if you’re a manager, make the rules clear, then go ahead and set up a TV in the break room and order pizza— it’s likely to be a win-win for you and your team. LINKS to SUCCESS
Get ideas to use in your business for marketing the Madness @ SUCCESS.com/march-madness-marketing.
Shake That Lousy Mood Three ways to raise your happiness instantly
Early in my care er, I really lacked perspective. I made the mistake of thinking I was a big fish and learned quickly that it’s in proportion to the size of the pond, and there is always a bigger pond. Some people think they are happy where they are, but that is only because they don’t know what lies ahead for them on the other side of fear. —Rachael Qualls, founder and CEO, Venture360
I took a job for the money, but I wasn’t excited about the work. That experience taught me salary doesn’t make you happy. I think about that experience every time I hire someone to work at ZipRecruiter. Learning what gets people excited is the best way to judge wh ether or not your environment is a match. —Ian Siegel, co-founder and CEO, ZipRecruiter
1. Look at your photos of children, friends or pets that trigger a joy response.
Once you settle on a picture, list a few reasons why the picture makes you happy—perhaps it reminds you of something funny or nurturing. Studies indicate that thin king about previous events and sensory experiences can conjure the same joyful emotions. 2. Start your day with a positive self-statement based on fact . Instructional and motivational self-talk are uplifting because what we
think influences influences our actions and and emotions. emotions. Note Note that I say “based on fact” for a reason. If you say, “I’m the perfect parent, no exceptions,” it may be true, but if you’re you’re in a bad bad mood, mood, odds are that you won’t won’t believe believe yourself. yourself. A better example: example: “I’m an excellent parent because I brought my daughter to the park after school and saw how happy she was.” The more specific the statement, the more likely you are to believe believe it—and it—and the better the chance chance it will help you. you. 3. Compliment three people every day. Research shows you’ll gain friendships and confidence—because compliments are often reciprocated. So start a cycle of happiness! —Jonathan Fader, Ph.D., licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of family medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York
12 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
A mistake I have made in the pas t was looking at an opportunity or project and immediately thinking I may not be qualified to take it on. I have found that all of my past work experiences and my personal life contribute to whatever task is at hand. I think that, a s an entrepreneur, you find you have more skills than you ever thought you had. I now take on new opport unities with more confidence. —Brittany Gaskill, co-founder, Stylelink
Dramatic Turnaround Abandoned as a child, Walking Dead star star Chad L. Coleman found hope a nd love. There’s a special bond between Walking De ad ’s ad ’s kindhearted Tyreese and baby Judi Ju di th on th e po pu la r T V sh ow, an d one that isn’t a stretch for actor Chad L. Coleman. The father of a 15-year-old daughter and toddler son, son, Coleman Coleman takes takes his real-life real-life role quite seriously. When he was just 11 months old, his 7-year-old brother was attempting to cook for his four four siblings when a fire broke broke out in their apartment in the Richmond, Va., projec ts. The children childr en had h ad been abandoned by their parents, authorities discovered. After Af ter becoming becomi ng wa rds of the state, they we nt t o l i ve w i t h foster parents. “They saved our lives. live s. George Geor ge and Lottie Lot tie Byrd taught us about
character and integrity. Our foster father was a hardworking hardworking junk collector, collector, and and every every day our foster mother was relentless relentless about about good grades,” Coleman says. “They taught us it didn’t matter
D R A L L I U Q Y B B O B
how much money you have, and they gave us the confidence to be successful.” Coleman got guidance from others, too. too . “It ta kes a vi lla ge, right? ri ght? ” he says, say s, explaining that his oldest brother, Donald Coleman, who is now a minister and a Richmond school board chairman, was more like a father to him, and that his high school drama dram a t eacher, actor act or Rober t Pemberton, guided his first steps toward an acting career in New York following a stint in the military. “I had supportive teachers, and my brothe bro the r is my ment or and my hero. her o. He fig hts the good fig ht for the communit commu nit y and told me, ‘Chad, choose the light,’ ” Coleman says. “I’m a believer in forgiveness and redemption, both in my own life and for others.” others.” Coleman gives back by working with a variety of organizations, including Camp Diva, a Richmond-based nonprofit providing summer and after-school programs for girls gi rls 11-17, 11-17, with an emphasis on African-American culture. “I never saw myself as a victim—I was always so excited about life,” Coleman says. “I want others to t o feel that way, too.” —Susan Young
Raise Your Game The Kauffman Fo undation’s undation’s online school coaches entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs. If you want to build your business idea into the next big thing, the Kauffman Foundation wants want s to help… he lp… thr ough its Founder s School, Sc hool, a progr pr ogram am of on line lin e educa e ducation tion presente pres ente d by a bev y of exper ex per ts. For instance, best-selling authors Daniel Pink ( Drive: ( Drive: The Surprising Surpr ising Truth about ab out What Motiva tes Us) Us) and Steve Blank (The (The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a G reat Company C ompany ) make short video presentations on their specialties. The school’s blog and new sletters explore Sta rtup 101 material, materia l, too: A topic f rom last fall was “Why “ Why Email Emai l Marketing Still Trumps Social Media” by Neil Patel, co-founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics. To learn more, visit Entrepreneurship.org/Founders-School.aspx. On this webpage, you can check out Founders School videos and blogs as well as sign up for its free weekly newsletters. Perhaps even better, you can email pressing questions to founders and their teams for advice. —Mary Vinnedge
Sh
ing More
SUCCESS Scan this page to learn more from Kauffman's Wendy E.F. Torrance, Ph.D.
2015 13 SUCCESS MARCH 2015 13
TOP of Mind
A Winning Business A young entrepreneur devises a way to protect— protect —ahem! — an especially vulnerable area. Find a problem and solve it—that’s one of the keys to success for any entrepreneur. Daniel Goldberg, a Syracuse University senior who enjoys mixed martial arts, did just that—and recently won the the right to represent represent the the United States States in April at the Entrepreneurs’ Entrepreneurs’ Organizatio Organization’ n’s Global Global Student Entrepreneur Awards. Goldberg’s business, Diamond MMA, has garnered raving testimonials from pro athletes, and he envisions envisions it “revolu “revolutionizing tionizing high-im high-impact pact sports.” sports.” So what’s what’s his product product?? Here’ Here’s a clue clue:: “You “You can You Yo u won’t won’t go down,” down,” Goldberg Goldberg says. says.
When you’re growing, trying to save money by limiting the size and quality of your team is a huge mistake. It’s important to hire people who will grow with you. Rather than hiring based on experience today, I have learne d to hire based on our needs in 12 to 24 months. This reduces turnover and ensures that we have plenty of team members to support our company objectives. —Jeff Platt, CEO, Sky Zone
Daniel Goldberg
Y T I S R E V I N U E S U C A R Y S / S S O R D J F O Y S E T R U O C
asking a judge to hit him in the groin area with a hammer. The judge complied, and Goldberg never stopped smiling. The cup system is no joke, though, as National Hockey League center Scott Gomez and MMA lightweight champion Anthony Pettis attest. Goldberg says Diamond Di amond MMA solves a common “We have an amazing team of designers and good support from many professional athletes, His advice to other students interested in entrepreneurship: “There’s no better time to get started than in college. You have a great network of professors, mentors and other successful people who can help you build your business.” So if you have a great idea, don’t let your youth or lack of education and experience deter you. “Just do it. Just start something,” Goldberg says. “I feel that a lot of college students tinker with an idea, but never actually act on it.” —Jennifer Chang
14 SUCCESS
MARCH 2015
I started Citelighter because I saw my little brother struggling and on the verge of dropping out of college. My cofounder and I, both once troublesome kids ourselves, quit our jobs to help kids learn how to realize their potential. Watching the company grow to help hundreds of thousands of children has been invaluable, but most rewarding for me personally has been watching my little brother become an amazing man with drive and focus. It’s so sweet when it comes full circle. —Saad Alam, CEO, Citelighter
The biggest mistake I’ve made was not being ambitious enough when I was younger and exploring and learning more things in life. However, I’ve learned that it is never too late to go for your dream. Regardless of how old you are, you should always set the bar high and ne ver quit until you achieve it. —Melanie Cho, co-founder and director of marketing, TrendPo
Forget Your Wallet?
#TweetsWeLike @cmozilo Great news! It took less than 10 minutes before someone dropped “synergies” in this presentation. The dream of corporate America lives!
@MariaShehata I have to send a fax, and it’s ruining my day.
@drewmcomedy There should be a holiday where we all agree to hit the “send a ll” button in our drafts folder.
Social banking offers a solution.
Forget the days of writing checks or withdrawing cash from the ATM to pay back your friends. New apps like Venmo Venmo are making it easier—and easier—and more fun—to repay those IOUs. The free mobile app allows users to make payments instantly from their smartphones. Venmo also adds a social element: Users can add messages to their payments such as, “for amazing food and karaoke!” karaoke!” Your Your friends on Venmo can also see see whom you’ you’re re paying and what other friends are paying you, if you so choose. Venmo isn’t the only app mar ry ing social soc ial med ia and mobile mobi le banking. In November, November, social media app Snapchat teamed up with credit cardprocessing app Square to create a new feature on Snapchat that allows users to repay their friends by simply sending them a message with the dollar sign and the amount. It’s only a matter of time before more social media apps begin to offer mobile banking features. The 2014 World Retail Banking Report found th at ba nk cu st omer om er s have ha ve hi gh di g it al expectations, meaning banks will now be looking look ing for ways to combine their thei r ser vic es with social media. —Jesus Jimenez
Take a Stillcation A do-nothing break can be the most refreshing respite.
One of the world’s most prodigious travel writers, Pico Iyer, says that a stillcation—literally doing as little as possible—can be the best possible use of downtime. Harper’s and New New York Times regular Times regular vows that taki ng Just as daily med itation can br ing peace and pur pose, the Time , Harper’s and even a long weekend to tru ly decompress will have renewing results both at work and play. He cites Silicon Valley workers who tu rn off all al l online connections con nections on we ekends and hi s own experienc ex periencee living liv ing in Kyoto, Japan, where he possesse po ssesse s no bicycle, car or televi te levision sion speaki sp eaki ng a language he under stands. The less le ss a ctiv ity you can tolerate, tolerate , the be tter, he says. Iyer said in a recent talk at TEDSalon New York that the best thing about travel is the opportunity to bring magic and wonder back home. But, he explains, “Nowhere is magical unless you can bring the right eyes to it. You take an angry man to the Himalayas, he just starts complaining about the food.” Citing the cross-cultural significance of the stillcation through the centuries, centurie s, Iyer reaffi rms an ancient a ncient philosophy that in wanting want ing nothing, we might might really end end up wanting for nothing. nothing. “Go on your next vacation to Paris or Hawaii or New Orleans; I bet you’ll have a wonderful time,” he says. “But if you want to come back home alive and full of fresh hope, in love with the world, I think you might want to consider going nowhere.” —Josh Ellis
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 15
Spot Your Blind Blind Spots
THE
Happiness Happ iness GUY
SHAWN ACHOR
is a Harvardtrained researcher and the author of Before Happiness.
Get a daily dose of happy at Facebook.com/ ShawnAchor.
A different set of eyes can help you gain perspective.
The “blind spot” is the area in the back of the eyeball that lacks receptors and thus cannot absorb tthe he light coming into the t he eye. We’re not consciously aware of these gaps because our brains literally invent information that fills in our fields of vision. Similarly, in Befo in Before re Happi Happiness ness,, I wrote that we all have mental blind spots that distort distort our perspectiv perspectivee about about aspects aspects of of our our lives lives or work, work, impairing impairing our decision-making and judgment. Here are two common examples: n When you face a big challenge, are you blind to the ways other people could help you? Do you always try things alone? People with this blind spot lose connection connection to their social suppo support rt networks in the midst of challenges challenges when they they should should be investing investing more heavily heavily in their support systems. n Are you blind to your emotions at work, focusing only on your team? Are you good at seeing how how others others lose lose perspective because because of their their egos or or anxieties anx ieties but have diffi culty seeing seei ng past your own ego or anxiety? People with this blind spot are quick to judge, even though they are modeling negative behavior. The best corrective lens is a different set of eyes. Find a partner—someone who has ha s a di ff ere nt per sona lit y, bac kgr ound and/or position—who can offer another perspective. Meet for coffee monthly and give each other permission to shed light on each other’s blind spots. The more light you let in, the more possibilities you will perceive for success. success.
TOP of Mind Early on, I naively extended trust to people who hadn’t earned it. I was left in financial hardship by unscrupulous partners whom I trusted far too e asily. These days if you have my trust, you’ve earned it through dependability and loyalty during hard times. True colors tend to come out when we’re not flying so high. —Christopher Longsworth, founder and CEO, Invesca Development Group
When I started my first corporate job, the biggest mistake I made was trying to fit a traditional role of leadership; I ran projects top down. By straying away from my natural style, I realized I wasn’t leveraging my core strengths: understanding my stakeholders’ needs and fostering a collaborative environment. —Gloria Hwang, co-founder, Thousand
Instead of Whining… Seven ways to become a can-do person
What separates achievers from dreamers? dreamers? Whiners from winners? winners? It’s all about attitude, so take take these tips to change change yours yours and go from complaining complaining to “can-do!” “can-do!” 1. Disown 1. Disown help helplessness. lessness. Aggressively pursue solutions and you’re likely to uncover creative answers that others have missed. 2. Enter the no-whining zone. Recognize complaining’s futility and guard against indulging in this time-wasting time-wasting activity. 3. Empathize. 3. Empathize. See any disagreement from the other person’s perspective in order to make the best decisions. 4. Go with the flow. Don’t get caught griping about an unexpected curve in the road. Accept transition with an optimistic optimistic outlook. outlook. 5. Walk 5. Walk the second mile. Don’t settle for any acceptable solution; set expectations for yourself that are higher higher than than what’s dictated by by the people people or situations situations around you. 6. Quit 6. Quit stewing stewi ng and start doing. Don’t be crippled by worry, fear or anxiety; press forward. The perfect moment when all is safe and assured may never arrive, so why wait for it? 7. Expect 7. Expect a return ret urn on your commitment. Passionate commitment is contagious, and resources follow follow resolve. resolve. Committed leaders leaders will reap rewards and find open open doors as others are drawn to their excitemen excitementt and energy. energy. —John C. Maxwell
16 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
The way entrepreneurial success stories sometimes are told, it seemed that if you made something that consumers wanted, success would inevitably follow. I was all about the product, and now I've changed: I’m all about the company. Sure, the product needs to be the best, but that alone is worthless. You need to create awareness, and you need to give consumers access. That takes the right people. It’s all about the team. —Kristy Lewis, co-founder and CEO, Quinn Popcorn
—As told to Jennifer Chang
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Underachiever of the Yea ear? r? O N I R A C C A Y N A D
Doing less, for more fulfillment IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN WORKING. For
Melissa Balmain’s
work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and McSweeney’s.. McSweeney’s The author of Walking in on People, People, an awardwinning poetry collection, she teaches writing at the University of Rochester.
months,
lism: The Disciplin D isciplined ed Essentia Essentialism: Pursuitt of Less Pursui Less If I didn’t didn’t have to do everything on my to-do list, but I could do one thing today to break through to the next l evel of contribution in my life, what would it be?
18 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
“That Holy iambic pentameter pentameter,, Batman Batman on on Essentialism Essentialism
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our own lives, how many of us are taking time once a quarter to evaluate where we are and where we want to go?” So McKeown favors taking a day four times a year—“in nature,” where you’ll have fewer distractions—to ponder what may be getting between you and your essentials. Among his suggested questions questions:: course,, And, of course Once you’ve picked your top priority or two for the quarter, he said, plan your routine around it—in writing. But don’t stop there. Once a week, set aside an hour for more questions, such as and and Each morning, ask yourself McKeown’s “best question” (about Before bed, try answering these: McKeown has been asking himself all of the above, he said, with great results. The day before we spoke, for example, the “best ques tion” had led led him and his wife to spontaneo spontaneously usly take their their four four kids out of school and travel to Napa Valley. There they were enjoying a two-day vacation while checking out an “amazingly beautiful, pristine hotel out in nature” where McKeown is considering running a program. “We’re combining the highest-value work I could be doing professionally and the highest-value work I could be doing doing personally personally into a marvelous marvelous memory. memory.”” Before I could gloat about our interview being part of that highest-value highestvalue work, work, McKeown McKeown sobered me me right up. It’s his belief, he said, that each of us has an essential mission in that in mind, he posed posed one one last last question: question: “On the day day you you die, die, what will you hope hope you you did, and decided to do, on this one one?” ?” Gulp. As you you may hav havee guessed, guessed, my calen calendar dar hasn hasn’t’t been quite the same same since that conversation. In fact, I’ve got to go. My 9 o’clock sonnet is waiting. S
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SUCCESS MARCH 2015 19
A Healthy You
In the Zzzzzzone Tackling sleep issues such as snoring, eating at bedtime and jet lag YOU
NEED YOUR SLEEP, so we’ve answered your
biggest questions on the topic.
Mehmet Oz, M.D., is the director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Integrated Medical Center at New York Presbyterian HospitalColumbia University Medical Center. Michael Roizen, M.D., is the chief wellness officer and chair of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. His new book, This is Your DoOver , debuts
Feb. 24.
Q: I’m a terrible snorer, which is Q: I’m driving my wife crazy. My doctor has ruled out sleep apnea, but should I consider surgery? A: Not until you’ve explored all other options. To understand the solutions for snoring, you should first understand the cause—snoring happens when something in your nose and mouth. nose or drainage in your throat (from persistent colds, sinus infections or allergies), that gunk can clog your pipes and make you a seriously loud sleeper. If you suspect this is the problem, try rinsing with a neti pot (use distilled water to avoid potential infection) before be d, app ly in ingg st ick y st ri ps th that at pro prop p you r nos tr il s whether those measures do the tr ick. If not, the issue could be excess fat in the throat that pushes in, narrowing the passageway. If you’re over and reduce snoring by 30 to 50 percent. muscles in your throat rela x too much when you sleep, blocking blocki ng air. ai r. Alcohol Alc ohol or sleep slee p meds med s can ca n ma ke this happen, so skip ’em to keep your tissue s tight . You might m ight consi consider der tr tryi ying ng to sleep on your side: Back-sleeping Back-sle eping can ca n cause the t he tongue to rela x into int o the throat, th roat, n arr arrowing owing t he air way. It’s also smart to ask your doctor about trying a mandibular advancement splint, a device designed to gently pull your jaw forward to open the back of your throat. Thes Thesee appl appliances iances have advance advanced d quite a bit bit recent recently ly,, so you won’t necessarily feel like you’re wearing headgear to bed—it’l bed—it’lll be more like an orthodontic retai ner.
20 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
If these tactics fail, you could have a structural problem that may require surgery. One example is a deviated septum, which means the thin “wall” between side of your your nose. While certain drugs can treat deviated septum-related problems, only septoplasty surgery can tient procedure, but your doctor will probably probably use general anesthesia. Recovery can take a while, so ask lots of ques tions to ensure the procedure is right for for you. Another Ano ther poss ibil ity is tha thatt your ton tonsil sil s, aden oids oids,, uvula and/or other throat tissues could be surgically removed. This is also a procedure that shouldn’t be taken it say the pain and recovery were so unpleasant that they wouldn’t’t do it again. wouldn An additional option is the pillar procedure in which your doctor inser ts small rods into your soft s oft palate to “stiffen” it and prevent that overly relaxed tissue we mentioned earlier. This is a somewhat easier surgery, but you st ill should do plenty of resea r esearch rch and ensure your doctor has lots of experience performing it. Bottom line: If your doctor has ruled out sleep apnea, it means that snoring isn’t endangering your health, but it is screwing up your life (you know what they say about a last resort to avoi avoid d being exiled exiled to the couch. Is Benadryl a smart sleep aid? To find out, read the extended column @ SUCCESS.com/sleep-aid. SUCCESS.com/sleep-aid.
Q: Is it true that you shouldn’t eat right Q: Is before bed? I have trouble sleeping when I’m hungry! A: shouldn’t go to bed starving: A rumbling stomach can wrea wr eakk havoc on your abi lit y to fa fall ll or sta stayy asl asleep. eep. A small—less than 200 calories—snack that combines
whole grains with a bit of protein is ideal. That’s because the protein wi will ll help keep you f ull through the night, and the complex carbs may help increase the amount of tryptophan available to your brain, which produces the fe feel-g el-g ood hor hormone mone ser oton in, whi ch the then n help helpss your body produc producee cal calming ming melat melatonin. onin. Whole-w Whole-wheat heat crackers with almond butter are gre at, as is a small bowl of whole-grain cereal with milk. Bananas are a good bet, too, becau because se they contain potass potassium ium and magnesium, both of which may help you sleep better. But some foods (and drinks) before bed can interfere with quality sleep. Large, spicy or fatty meals eaten near bedtime bedt ime can all cause acid ref lux and rais raisee your core temperat temp erat ure , both of whic h mak makee it har harder der to sleep sleep.. And aged chees cheese, e, red wi wine ne and proce ssed meat meatss can contain tyramine, a compound that can cause the brain to release norepinephrine, a stimulant. st imulant. Basically, keep your snack small and simple, and you’ll catch ever y one Q: I travel long distances for work, so Q: I what are the t he best ways to beat b eat (or, (or, even better, avoid) jet lag? A: Avoidance is ideal. We’re fans of preparing your body for a tr trip ip in adv advance ance to make your adju adjustme stment nt to a new time zone easi easier. er. Star ting a few days before you leave, twea k your sleep schedule accord ing to the direction you’ll be flying. Heading east? Go to bed a little earlier each night and wake up earlier each morning. Going west? Start burning the midnight oil and sleeping in. That way you won’t be totally wired—or
tot al ly be beat—a at—a nd sc scre rew w up you r sle ep be befor for e tho se early evening so you have time to exercise when you arrive (exercising right before bed can raise your core tempera ture, which interferes i nterferes with sleep sleep). ). A workout is a great gr eat tucker yourself out before before bed. Eat a light dinner or or snack p.m. whether you feel sleepy or not. During the day, you can ease the adjustment by eating light, healthful food; moving as much as possible; drinking plenty of water; It’s also smart to acknowledge that some of what we chalk up to “jet lag”—especially when it comes to work travel—is real ly stre stress ss or anx iety. You’ve probably got something important happening wherever you’re going, and you’re sleeping in an unfamiliar place, so you may toss and turn, worry ing about ab out whether whe ther the alarm wil willl the conference center, and i f you remembered r emembered to pack everything you need in your briefcase. That’s why we also suggest making your hotel room as dark, quiet and comfortable as possible (bring a sleep mask and down load a white white noise app app); ); setting your phone phone alarm as well as the room’s clock to be sure you’ll wake up on time; and spending a few minutes before bed triple-checking that everything is organized for the next day. If you’re really struggling, it’s OK to occasionally pop pop a sleeping pill. Doxepin (sold as Silenor) has only a few S SUCCESS MARCH 2015 21
Your Money
It’s Money, Honey Don’t let financial folly ruin your most important relationship. IF YOU’VE EVER been
Suze Orman is
a best-selling author, host of The Suze Orman
on CNBC Show on and a two-time Emmy winner for her PBS specials. Forbes has named her one of the 10 most influential celebrities in the world.
married, you know that uncomfortable conversations about money are essentially unavoidable. Financial disagreement is the No. 1 cause of divorce in the United States. on the same page when it comes to spending and saving, lest you allow the tension tension caused by by this important aspect of sharing a life to drive you apart. Remember to keep your your conversations conversations on the positive positive side side and try not to focus on past mistakes. If the two of you want to put kids through college and eventually retire comfortably—together—I have some thoughts that can help. One really important thing is that you and skills. The two of you should sit down once a month to go over your monetary situation. You can take turns paying bills. You can look at your daily spending habits and think about upcoming costs. You Yo u should also request copies c opies of your credit cre dit reports repor ts from fr om one of the thr ee major cre dit bure aus (contac t Equifax, Experian or TransUnion). If you or your squeeze has had a hard time keeping up with debt, my guess is that it’ll mean less-than-stellar credit. When you look at the t he credit histor ies, you’ll see each other’s fi nanci al pict picture ure rea realis listic tically. ally. And once you’ve fac faced ed your respe ctive situat situations, ions, the two of you wil l be in a position to end any emotional tug-of-war and begin It’s very important that one marriage partner doesn’t use money to establish the upper hand over the oth other. er. If you ea earn rn sig ni niff ica ntly more tha n you yourr partner and think that gives you license to be overly controlling, you’re you’re wrong. Likew ise, i f you’re letting show, you don’t have a money problem—you have a self-esteem problem.
22 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
mistake couples make. Usually financial mistakes are found out, and and it will take a lot of work work to regain the trust that is lost. lost. Both Both you you and and your your boo need to be accountab accountable le from now now on. Another common common problem is when one party ex pects sion. Just because hubby starts contributing more to an individual retirement account doesn’t mean wifey can or should follow suit, depending on her particular circumstances. Finally, it’s important that the two of you focus less on creating a perfect budget and more on creating a perfect a monthly window. So ask the right questions. Are you in No budget budget will work until you and your loved loved one get Just keep it positive, positive, and look look forward, not backward, at mistakes from the past. S
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Speak to Any Audience with wit h Skil Skilll and and Co Confi nfiden dence ce Any time you communicate with others, the way you carry yourself, the way you speak, and they way you interact with your listeners— your presence —is —is equally as important as the words you say. But is this ability to connect powerfully and authentically with an audience something you’re born with, or are there ways to develop it? In Mastering Stage Presence: How to Present to Any Audience, Audience , Melanie Martin Long, a celebrated teacher of acting and directing, leads you in an in-depth exploration of the skills—and the joy—of performance and self-presentation. You’ll practice exercises to develop physical freedom and ease, and to expand your vocal resources. You’ll learn how to channel nervous energy into effective performance, and how to keep your audience’s attention. With the skills you’ll develop, you can conquer stage fright and confidently address any audience.
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Maximum Leadersh Leadership ip
One Giant Leap Do you realize how close you are to being extraordinary? DO YOU THINK OF YOURSELF as extraordinary ?
John C. Maxwell is
a leadership expert, speaker speaker,, a best-selling author and founder of EQUIP and the John Maxwell Co., which have trained more than 5 million leaders worldwide.
Are you rolling your eyes because bec ause you think e xtraordinary is is some special, unattainable status held by a privileged few? Let me share a secret: The distance between ordinary and extraordinary is much smaller than you think, and they’re separat separated ed by the t he smallest sm allest of ma rgin rgins. s. Crossing over is as simple as shifting your mindset and making a series of incremental changes. Here’s how to get started: Focus just a little more. Unintentional more. Unintentional neglect can impact us in subtle ways that we don’t begin to realize until after the fact. You probably don’t go out of your way to make your closet messy, but it happens anyway. Messiness and clutter occur in larger parts of people’s lives in the the same way. way. Isn’t that the truth? How much of your life is bogged down with mundane tasks, misplaced priorities and trivial details? Repeat after me: It’s me: It’s OK to say no. sion to put certain essential activities ahead of others of little importance. importance. Personally, I start by regulating my calendar. I control wha t goe s on it an and d kee p oth others ers fr om hija ck cking ing my agenda. I’ve discovered that by focusing a little bit more and wiping out some nonessentials, my results increase Slay a dragon before breakfast. My breakfast. My friend Michael Hyatt, the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, He explains on his blog, “If I don’t slay this dragon before breakfast, he usually gets the the best of me. After breakfast, when the t he day’s day ’s activ ities are crowding i nto my life, my Hyatt wakes up early—while early—while Lethargy is i s still dreaming dreami ng sweet dragon dreams about the land of Honalee—and uses those predawn hours to gain the upper hand through prayer, exercise and reading.
24 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
If you have a hard time slaying your dragon, plan your battle the the night night before. before. Do this every day for for a month month,, and you will be amazed at the positive results. results. I measure my success by the strength of my family relationships. To keep those bonds all else. Balance isn’t easy. The list of things I want to do is longer than the time I exp expect ect to have on this ear th. I could work 24/7 and not do all that I want. Does that mean I work 24/7? No. I set my work aside and put my Each December, when I plan the coming year, I block out several weeks just to be with my wife, Margaret, or our family.. I pay particular attenti family attention on to vacatio vacations, ns, hol holidays idays and At the start sta rt of each month, I carve out days here and there for for my loved ones. And I’ll spontaneously spontaneously shift shift daily priorities to make room for family—whether it’s dropping everything when the grandchildren stop by or letting Margaret organize an afternoon a fternoon outing. Too often successful people give their families the aren’t good at home, though. Family relationships take Every leader Add one ext raor din dinar aryy tea m membe member. r. Every knows that the better the players, the better the t eam. Good teams create momentum, and momentum makes leadership easier. I’d rather have one extraordinary player than three ordinary ones. Extra ordinary people make things happen. They are game changers. They carry more than theirr weight thei weight,, and their inf luence is felt in ever yt ything hing the entire dynamic and performance of your team. A nd that change can take the entire group to t o another a nother level, including you, Coach.
the world, and extraordinary lives don’t exist in languid streams. Seek the riptides. Possess an extraordinary attitude. Whi attitude. Whi le thi s ste p might seem the simplest, it could be the most important. “A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is i s a catalys catalyst, t, and it it sparks extraordinary results. results.”” Your Yo ur attitude may be the greatest determini ng factor in how you live your life—positively l ife—positively or negatively. And it is entirely within your control. Choose to be extraordinarily positive. Too Too many leaders are on the go all day, every day, and rarely take the time for a few minutes mi nutes every evening to consider how they spent their t heir time, what they accomplished during their day and what they can do better tomorrow. tomorr ow. That’s Th at’s how you lear learn n from your mistakes and improve. That’s how you become exceptional.
Every leader knows that the better the players, the better the team. Dive in and start swimming. swimming. Extraordinary people take risks. I have yet to meet one who plays it safe. When a good idea or opportunity comes along, don’t test the water. Don’t wade in. Dive! It’s unnerving when you don’t know how cold that
Let me leave y o u w i t h o n e l a s t t h o u g h t . dinary rarely hinges on what you can or can’t do. do. More often it lies in what you you will or or won’t do. As author Mark Sanborn wrote on hi s blog, “Every morning when we wake up, we are confronted with a choice: another day just like the last or a clean slate to start all over.” Make today the day you choose to pursue an extraordinary life. S SUCCESS MARCH 2015 25
Just Add Hustle
Expansion Plans Lay a solid foundat foundation ion for business gro growth. wth. I’VE OWNED a business based on a single product for tw twoo yea rs. Wha Whatt st steps eps shou ld I con consid sider er to ad add d revenue streams? Most
people either have no clue where to expa nd or have so many exp expansion ansion ideas that they’re not sure which one is best for them to pursue. Two women who successfully successf ully grew their revenue streams say that doing more doesn’t have to be complicated as long as you do your homework.
Tory Johnson’s company, Spark & Hustle, gives conferences for owners of small businesses. She’s also a contributor on Good Morning America Ameri ca and and a best-selling author.
that has all the tools for a total body workou workoutt with more Brainstorm your options. sky-high manufacturing and distribution costs were a deterrent. To make more money and reach more people corporate wellness programs and moving into corporate clients and greatly increased her income. Conduct research within your target market. research winnowed her options and educated her on exactly what she was getting into. She studied fitness examined industry trends on blogs and in webinars. connected with human resources direc tors and corporate wellness managers managers to better understand what what was being my expertise. Most people are willing to share their expe
26 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
Know your numbers. understand the cost of developing and the time involved. Then you have to be realistic reali stic about what you have and are shows you the reality of what you are up against and Commit fully. fu lly. her all. al l. “ Trying to create cr eate something par t time t ime will not launche d a hobby that has tur ned into a busine ss: a
pursuing local and national corporate sponsorships. Her suggestions follow. Know your audience. Swab, a stay-at-home mom until her kids went to college, has a core market of 35- to 55-year-old moms, but she needed to know more details about them to expand. She accomplished that by researching what interests the women who are drawn to her videos. “What 40-something women want and where they search for it has changed drastically in the last 10 years. I pay close attention to what stories resonate most with my audience,” Swab explains. “This trial and error is easy with social media. You can put things out there and get feedback for free. I ask questions and conduct informal surveys on Twitter and Facebook to take the pulse of how my videos are being received. It helped me gauge what steps to take when I moved forward.”
Having a fan base of middle-aged women was pivotal to Swab’s securing a brand ambassadorship ambassadorship with an outdoor living company that was was trying to reach a similar audience. audience. “I am the face of their ad campaigns for their outdoor kitchens, furni ture and playgrou playgrounds. nds.”” Determining what makes her special as the host in her v ideos g uide uided d Swab t o the conc lusion that t hat women probably would like to hear her in person, which led to spee ches on rei reinventi nvention on and sec second ond act s. “I spent ti me honi ng wha whatt is uni que and spe ci cial al abou aboutt me,” Swab says. “For me, it was that I had my own segme nt stories and show my personality and share my true joyss and fe joy fear ar s. It mad e me rel ata ble ble,, wh which ich help ed me market myself for endorsements and speaking engagements.” S
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think of your ideal mentor or coach. OK. Who did you think of ? Whether we’re 15 or 55, most of us probably thought of someone older than ourselves. That makes sense, because we tend to value va lue mentoring most when it comes from someone who has more experience ex perience and ex pertis pertise. e. Accumulated knowledge knowledge typically comes with age. I’ve sought out mentors, coaches and advisers since I was 18, which was when I started my life’s adventure of writing, speaking and being an entrepreneur. But not until this past week did it occur to me that all my mentors, coaches and advisers were older than I was— and many were 20, 30 or a lmost 50 years my senior. Their experience, beliefs and perspective changed the course of my life. I am grateful for them every single day. But life gives us a unique lens through which we perceive our world, think and make decisions. So what if we turned this paradigm on its head and sought out coaches younger coaches younger than than we are? What would they help help us see that we hadn’t hadn’t considered considered before? before? What if we’re missing out on younger people who could turn out to be exactly the wise experts we’re looking looking for? for? With Wit h the encou rag ement of a tru ste d fr iend, I did exactly that. It started when my friend hired a business coach who helped him dramatically grow his $20 million company in one year. You You can imagine imag ine my surprise when I met the fabled coach, and he was younger than I am— and I’m not that old! It turns out this younger coach was exactly what youngerand younger and experience in itself. Finding a coach, mentor or adviser who is younge youngerr than you could be a gre great at expe experime riment nt for you, too. Furthermore, it opens the door for younger experts to not only give back, but also to honor their predecessors who paved the way. Here are five steps for you to find a great coach, whether younger or or older: older:
28 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
O N I R A C C A Y N A D
1. Identify one one “accomplished” person in the professional area in which you want to grow. 2. Try First ask friends and people you respect if they can recommend a coach or adviser. You You can also a lso search online for coaches and advisers with the expertise you want. I prefer prefer in-person coaching sessions, but but you approach. 3. Meet the coach to coach to ask about his style and approach. organic approach. Interview at least three coaches before making mak ing a decision. Keep in mind m ind that just because someone s omeone claims to be a coa ch doesn’t mean 4. Start small. Don’t sign a long-term contract until you’ve had a few sessions. sessions. Coaches may not like this, but it’s always better to test-drive before before you buy. coa ches will challenge you. That’s 5. Stick with it. Good coaches their job! job! You’ You’re re probably probably not going to grow until until you get uncomfortable. In my case, choosing a younger coach opened my eyes me, age is not a number as much as it is a point of view. S
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Corrner Office Co
Selling Time How the CEO of The Container Store keeps the world organized in a conscious and profitable way. Kip Tindell and his two partners founded The Container Store, which also became the start of the storage and organization industr y—an entirely new retail category at the time. But rather than focusing on the product—as innovative as it was—Tindell focused on the people. Instead of treating employees as replaceable cogs, the company invested more than 260 hours of training tra ining in every first-year employee and paid them double the industry average. Rather than tr ying to undercut competi tors, the company company built built stronger stronger,, long-term long-term relationsh relationships ips with its vendo vendors rs to create create products products that that nobody nobody else else could could offer. It wouldn’t just sell containers; by helping customers organize their homes and workplaces, The Container Store would would help help people people save save time. And of all al l the t he commodities commod ities to sell, it turns t urns out that time is a rather important one. It’s no wonder wonder that there are more than 70 U.S. locations and that the annual turnover rate for employees is less than 10 percent—extremely low for fo r a re ta il er. We sp oke ok e w it h Tindell about his views on conscious capitalism, leadership and being a great salesperson. ➽IN
Jennifer Chang is the associate editor at SUCCESS
and, like Kip Tindell and John Mackey, attended the University of Texas at Austin. 30 SUCCESS
1978
Q: In those early startup Q: In days, I’ve read that you heard comments like, “You’re going to sell empty boxes? That sounds crazy!” crazy!” How did you get over those naysayers? naysayers? A : We j u s t k i n d of discounted the naysayers. We never listened listene d t o them t hem and a nd
MARCH 2015
spent two years without pay to develop the concept and resources. And in the same way you love somebody, you just have faith and confidence, confidence, and it’s not easy for for anyon anyonee to just tear that down. down. I don’t think you can be an effective leader unless you’re optimi opt imistic. stic. Having a glassg lass-half-f half-f ull outlook on things is i s a prerequisite to being bei ng a successful and great gr eat leader. In the end, it’s going to be g reat. And if i f it’s it ’s not great, then it’s not the end. Q: The Container Store has seven Q: The “foundation principles,” one of which is the Man in the Desert Selling—an original approach to sales if you’re not a born salesperson. Why do you think it’s so effective? A: That was one of the principles that I came up with myself. It’s a really simple, almost corny story. There’s a man lost in the desert, and he stumbles upon an oasis. He asks for a glass of water, which you give him, but what else does he need? He probably also needs to call home, and some food or a hat to protect him from the sun. I like the philosophy and how it puts the impera tive on helping. You can’t help the customer cust omer by passively wimping wi mping out. Say a customer has a tie rack in one hand and a shoe rack in the other. It’s not a big leap of faith to guess she’s got got a closet at home home that’s driving her crazy. So if you wimp out and let her get out of there with those two items, she’s still going to have a messy closet. Or you can be brave and compassiona compassionate te enough to help her organize the entire closet. And when she leaves, she’ll be ecstatic and know the problem problem is solved. (Continued on Page 32) Kip Tindell
Odds of winning the U.S. Open twice t wice
Odds of having a child diagnosed with autism
1/1.2 billion
1/88
Ernie Els encourages you to learn the signs of autism at autismspeaks.org Early diagnosis can make a lifetime of difference. © 2012 Autism Speaks Inc. “Autism Speaks” and “It’s time to listen” & design are trademarks owned by Autism Speaks Inc. All rights reserved.
Corner Office (Continued from Page 30)
Kip Tindell discusses “foundation principles” with employees at The Container Store’s headquarters in a Dallas suburb.
Every salesperson in America really wants only one thing, deep down—to get through the day without being accused of being pushy. Frankl Fr ankly, y, I always thought that the more wonderf wonderful ul a human being is, the more they’re concerned about that. People who a re just SOBs don’t mind being thought of as pushy. But a wonderf ul, beautifu beaut ifu l, interesti inter esting, ng, conscious per son doesn’t want to be accuse a ccused d of being bei ng a pushy salesperson. sales person. Q: Now that The Container Store is a publicly Q: Now traded company, how are you able to reconcile that with your conscious-capitalist views? A: John Mackey, the quirky co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, and I were college roommates at the University of Texas, and we’re both very committed to conscious capitalism. I’ve been on his h is board for eight or nine years, year s, and I’m lucky to spend time with w ith people such as Herb Kelleher [co-founder of Southwest Southwest Airlines]; I’ve learned from those guys and have tried to decide for go public. There are many bigger names who want to buy us because we’re a great growth grow th vehicle. But subjecting your team to another management team doesn’t seem right to our culture and people. Looking at other alternative s, going public in a very conscious way was the best option for growth. share program, mostly for employees, when it’s typically around 2 percent. I’m big on getting as much stock in the hands of employees as possible. It’s hard to do that when you’re private, because as much as you love lo ve yo your ur priva private te partn partners, ers, the theyy usuall usuallyy don don’t’t wan wantt to dilu dilute te thems themselv elves es to give stoc stockk to emp emplo loyee yees. s. 32 SUCCESS
MARCH 2015
[Going public] has been terrible, horrible, wonderful and great. It puts everything on a bigger stage. It’s not an exit strategy; it’s more of an entrance strategy. Now we can really make a model that other people can emulate in a consciously capitalist way. Q: What was it like to be college roommates Q: What with Mackey? Were you guys already showing entrepreneurial inclinations? A: We both were very, very interested in philosophy. He majored in philosophy; my dad wouldn’t let me major in philosophy, so idealistic and very into reading. As we got out of school and started building our businesses, businesses, we applied a lot of those life philosophies philosophies to our business. business. We’re We’re both really big big on the thought thought that that we had to have the same code of conduct conduct in life as we do in business. It’s not acceptable to have a looser morality with business, although you hear it all the time—“Y time—“You ou have to understand: understand: It’s just just business. business.”” No, No, I don’t understand. What, you’re going to screw around the people you do business business with? with? No, No, it’s all life. life. It’s all part of it. Businesses are so big and powerful that when businesses are mindful of their wake wa ke and take care of everyone, ever yone, the world becomes becomes a better place. So a guy guy like Macke Mackeyy has has really really increased the life span of the averag averagee American by changing changing what even even Walmart Walmart sells in their We at The Container Store belie ve that your life is vastly bet ter if you’re well organized. Everybody’s so time-starved today; we feel we’re improvi ng the quality qua lity of life lif e by gi ving the t he gift gi ft of organization, by saving time and space. The gift of organization is maybe not as important to the world as the gif t of a healthy diet, but it’s a lot more importa i mportant nt than most mos t people re aliz alize. e. S
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How To
Attract Top Talent ➽H I R I N G T O P T A L E N T is
Emma Johnson is a New Yorkbased business and personal finance writer. She hosts The Emma Johnson Johnson Show Show ,
syndicated nationally on AM radio.
arguably the most important thing you can do to grow your organization, and it’s a leading concern of many small-business owners. According to a survey by human-resource human-resource service provider ADP, the hiring managers at small and midsize businesses ranked locating and hiring qualified employees as one of their top worries. worries. “There is a war over talent out there; it’s much harder to hire great people pe ople than it was five years ago,” says Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half International, the global staffi ng firm. An improved jobs ma rket and a nd a shift toward a ser vice economy that values top employees makes attracting talent difficult for for companies companies of all sizes, McDonal McDonald d says, says, adding that in the fields of marketing, IT and some legal specialties, unemployment rates are below 3 percent. Many small-business owners can find themselves intimidated by sexy competitor perks such as those at Google, Apple and Facebook, which make headlines with wit h t heir 24/7 gourmet gourme t cafeteri cafe teri as, on-site massa ges and ample compensation packages that include profit sharing. McDonald advocates for stoicism, though. “Yes, those sexy perks are nice, and they will attract a certain employee,” he says. “But if you are a small business and can’t compete on salary, don’t focus on salary. Focus on what makes makes you different.” different.” Kim Shepherd, CEO of Decision Toolbox, a national staffing firm based in Irvine, Calif., says employee engagement is a far better investment than a trickedout campus. One oft-cited McKinsey & Co. study found that, across the board, things like praise from management and leadership opportunities were at least as effective—and sometimes more effective—in motivating employees than financial compensation. “Hire for soft skills and build a company where people want to work,” Shepherd says. “People join a company, but they leave their managers. Be a manager who keeps keeps employees. employees.”” To attract the kinds of hires that will help your company grow, take this advice:
34 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
✚
✚
✚
✚
Identify and build your brand. People want to work work at Google Google because it’s it’s Google. “Practice “Practice your elevator pitch for what your company does and what it stands for,” McDonald says. “Does it sound like a place where people want to work?” Identify the social good. If philanthropy is a part of your mission, or if your product or service benefits the environment, environment, bake bake that into everything everything you do, do, including including your your marketing and recruiting. This goes especially far with younger hires, McDonald says. Create a marketing plan. “Business leaders often underestimate the power of media, especially when it comes to attracting millennials,” McDonald McDonald says. Shepherd Shepherd advises having your best ma rketing minds craft all job descriptions. Devise job descriptions that wow potential candidates. “A job posting is
prime real estate—do not make it boring!” Shepherd says. Describe what makes your business special, whether it is the familylike camaraderie, unprecedented flexibility or the ability to change the world. world. “Skip tired, dusty terms like ‘seeking great communication skills,’ ” she says. “Show
Nancy Hua CEO
Company: Apptimize, a
mobile A/B testing software based in Mountain View, Calif. Tactics: Identify the best in the industry, take the time to truly get to know them, and position the company to each recruit’s personal needs. Results: Apptimize has successfully lured engineers from Google and Pinterest. Nine months after launching, it counts customers from top apps in every major category.
your company’s personality personal ity by using usi ng exciting words and language lang uage that reveal revea l your company culture.”
Keep all marketing campaigns old),, and incorporate fresh (two years is too old)
video and social media into your recruiting campaigns. Consider producing a “day in an employee’s life” video, or other ways to tell your organization’s story.
Be concrete in your job descriptions. If you are a well-funded
startup, share how much investment you have the wishy-washy wishy-washy promises before. before. “Cast a wide net,” McDonald says. You Yo u should give employees employees incentives to recruit their friends and reach out to your own network to seek recommendations for Invite interviewees to interview you.
where they they work as I am about whom I hire,” Shepherd says.
nearly as much as the big companies in Silicon Valley. But we’ve ve poached poached people people from from Google—wher Google—wheree a programmer programmer makes $300,000 per year—even though we pay much less than $100 $100,000 ,000 per year for for a similar positi position. on. Some peopl peoplee tell us they they would would work work for us if the the salary salary were zero zero.. I have have these people, I ask everyone I know for the name of the smartest person they know, and eventually eventually I start hearing hear ing the same names. Those Those are the the people people I reach out to. Even Even touch with them, messaging with them periodically and the company company.. They’re They’re invited to our team dinners out, and they get a sense of of the family environment that they probably don’t have where they work. out what stage of life they’re in and what their interests are. Then it is up to me to show them what a cool company we are, how great our technology technology is and what it would would be like for them to work at Apptimize. Apptimize. Sometimes, a month or two after I initially contacted them, I’m able to show them an update, which will be really amazing, especially compared with what progress their cur rent employer employer was able to make in that short period. Because I truly get to know them, I’m also able to iden tify their strengths and show how those w ill allow al low them to excel e xcel working worki ng for us. I might m ight see that they t hey are a re really re ally good at math and explain how they could use all their skills at our company. Or I identify what it is they don’t like at their current jobs. Some people don’t realize why they’re unhappy in their situat situation ion until you help them t hem (Continued on Page 86) SUCCESS MARCH 2015 35
Sales Savvy
Hack Your Sales! Use these seven surefire surefire tactics tac tics to win new business faster faster.. YOU’RE LOOKING for an edge to close more sales, check out the following seven hacks. They w ill help you produce better bet ter results now. Each is powerful on its own, but combined they become much greater than the sum of their parts. IF
1
Sync all contacts to your cellphone.
How often have you found yourself in a client’s parking lot with time to spare? You You can massively mas sively improve your your productivity by syncing all of your contacts to your smartphone. When When you have 20 minutes between meetings, make a follow-up call to a prospect or call an existing client to see what help you can provide. Over the course of a week, you can easily squeeze in an extra dozen calls simply because you have the phone numbers easily accessible. I have slightly more than 7,500 numbers in my contacts right now, and I use Evercontact to capture my contact information automatically. Evercontact ($59 a year and up; free 30-day trial) updates your your smartphone’ smartphone’s address book by extracting contact information from email signature lines.
2
Never leave a meeting without a scheduled client commitment for the next meeting. meeting. How many
Anthony Iannarino wrote about pricing strategies in November and consensusbuilding in the September issue. He lives in Ohio.
times have you promised prospective pros pective clients that you would follo follow w up wit h them nex t week only to have your voice mails go g o unreturned unret urned and emails ema ils ignored? To move deals faster and more consistently through your pipeline, you should never leave an interaction wit w it h a pr pros os pe ct iv e cl clie ient nt without scheduli ng your next meeting. Your prospective client is busy. She has more work t h a n s h e can easily
36 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
complete each day. But she does keep her commitments. Open your calendar at the end of the meeting and say, “What does your Thursday look like next week? I’d like to vi visit sit so we can rev review iew some of the ideas we tal talked ked
3
Get help finding the person you need to speak with in your prospect’s company. I’m not sure that
anyone ever made more cold calls than I did. I was called the correct person. So I learned to leave messages that th at al low lowed ed the wr ong co conta nta ct to poi nt me to the right one. Your voice mail should say, “I believe you are the person spe ak t o about this, but if I am
wrong and if you will point me toward the right person, email now. If you hit reply and tell me whom I need to speak with, I’ll contact that person from now on.”
4
Leave a message that you are calling back. Most salespeople make a
couple of calls to a prospective client, leave a voice mail message or two, and then disappear forever. Your prospective prospect ive clients cl ients automatically automatic ally believe that you are another salesperson who is going to give up and go away, and the odds are that they are right—that’s what usually happens. If you want to speak with them, you need to let them know you aren’t like the poseurs and wannabes wanna bes who calle d them before you arr ived on the scene. Leave a voice mail message that says, “I’m sorry that I missed you again. I will try back on on Thursday Thursday afternoon, and if I miss you then, I will try you next Tuesday morning.” People want to buy from someone who really wants their their business.
5
Provide your prospective client with a risk-free sales call value proposition. Have you ever called a client
and asked whether you could introduce yourself and your company in person? Have you ever asked for a meeting to learn about a prospect’s needs for the product or service you sell? s ell? How’s that working for you? Your clients are busy. They don’t have time ti me to meet salespeople or teach salespeople about their businesses. To capture their time, use a stronger value proposition that goes something this, “I’d like to share with you the three insights that everyone in your business needs to know if they want to make the changes to succeed now and in the future. Even if we never do business together, I promise that what I share with you will help you make better decisions about what you do in the future.” Then deliver on that pledge with time- or or money-sa money-saving ving strategies strategies or best practices or industry trends that they will use.
6
Ask for a low-level commitment first. One reason your client rejects your
attempt to schedule a meeting is the language choices you make. When you ask for an appointment at 10 a.m., your clients think that they’ve just lost an hour or more of their day in order to see you. The more time they believe they are giving up, the greater their resistance to your proposed proposed meeting. Look Look at the language in the hack above this one. Say this: “I need 20 minutes of your time to share these ideas ideas with you. I promise promise I’ll be respectful respectfu l of your time.” Now you’ve given your client an out, should you not not create value for for her during that that call. And you you and I both know that when you share your three thr ee insights, she’s going to want to hear more. LINKS to SUCCESS
Learn ways to create value for your contacts @SUCCESS.com/create-value.
7
Block time for what is important. In
a day and age when you are constantly tethered to the t he electronic elect ronic leash—voice mail, email and text messages—those messages—those communications communications can eat into i nto your on anything else on your to-do list. To produce better results, you will have to block the time and disconnect from the the leash. leash. (I know know,, the very very thought thought of disconn disconnecting ecting strikes fear into i nto your heart. Mine, too.) Sit down down with your calendar on Sunday night and block time to prospect, even if you can set aside only an hour a day. Then block time to follow foll ow up with your clients clients and prospects prospects.. Block the the time you need need to write thank-yo thank-you u notes at at the end end of the week. week. And just so you don don’t’t worry so muc much h and and end up peekin peekingg at at the electron electronic ic intrusions intrusions,, block block time every every couple couple of hours hours to respon respond d to your voi voice ce mail, mail, email email and and text messa messages. ges. None of these seven sales hack hackss wi will ll be dif fic ficult ult to learn or practice. practice. Incorporate Incorporate them into into your daily work work- S SUCCESS MARCH 2015 37
Making a Difference
Invest with Your Heart Brian Kaminer’s firm helps people align their money and values. More important, is it working for the betterment of others? That’s the question that Brian Kaminer, the founder of Talgra, a New York-based sustainable investment doesn’t have to mean ignoring your values,” Kaminer And An d he wa wants nts to sha re that insight insight with as many many Kaminer’s general philosophy is that once your basic needs needs are met, it’s more about what you do with your money than how much of it you might th ey, to o, ca n al ig n th ei r mon money ey an and d th thei ei r be li ef s known as impact i mpact investing, the options c an range from putting your money in a small, independent community Af ter gra duati ng wi with th a busi business ness deg degree ree from the University of Vermont in 1990, Kaminer began work ing hi s rel ati ves ha had d it itss rew ar ards, ds, but af te terr 17 yea rs rs,, he So in 2007, Kaminer left the family business and was to work for f or myself my self for the t he foresee f oreseeable able f uture, and IS YOUR MONEY WORKING FOR YOU?
interested in environmental issues and donated his time to local local schoo schools ls as they introd introduced uced sustaina sustainability bility into their curriculums, all the while educating himself on issues Kaminer did more and more sustainability consulting and beca me an invest or in some small-scale solar projects in attended an event for Slow away from investing, the money piece of it, but what that did was it brought me back around to the investing side was to help spread the word that investing can and and should should The concept of intentional investing, which the entre return with the intention of creating a positive social or responsible investing has been around for decades, but in the early days it revolved around so-called negative nies from their investment portfolio that dealt with alcohol, tobacco or other things they felt weren’t in evolving and more companies are willingly reporting increasingly looking at positive screens, such as how much water a company uses, how much they recycle,
It’s more about what you do with your money than how much of it you might have.
is a contributing editor for and SUCCESS and is based out of Atlanta. Jill Becker
38 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
impacts through t hrough money, money, Despite the obvious business and investing,” i nvesting,” be ne f it s of im pa ct f ul investing, there are according to the site. numerous factors that “The directory came about because as I was keep kee p it fr from om bec omi oming ng le a r n i ng ab ou t mo r e more mainstream. One is the common misperof these topics, I felt ception that you can’t these ty types pes of opport unities existed in silos,” make as much money Kaminer says, “and by pr ac ti ci ng so ci al ly responsible investing. Kaminer notes that make those connec there are several companies putting together everything covered i n case studies to disprove a comprehensive way, t he no t io n . A no t he r Y H P it on paper as my own reason is that a lot of A R p e o p l e ’ s f i n a n c i a l G wayy of un de wa ders rs ta nd ndin in g O advisers just aren’t well- T it. Then I wound up O H turning it into a PDF that educated in that area P I N so they don’t push those A W E Talgra website. I started T T h e i n f o r m a - H getting a lot of response S I R I f r om it , so i n 2 01 3 I tio t io n ab ou t i mp ac t f u l G tu r ne d it in to a mor e investing is out there, Brian Kaminer at Grand Central Station in New York City. though, thoug h, Kam iner says. In fact, because there’s so much material scattered The site has recently undergone even more changes, including a new name (it was formerly the Money & around, it’s overwhelming to a lot of people. So one Impact Investing Directory), and updated design and thing Talgra does is to orient clients toward available opportunities. content. “It will be more engaging and welcoming to a “I typically sit down with them and explain that there’s broader audience,” K aminer said before the unveiling. a much greater opportunity now than there was 10, 20, We’re also adding a discussion forum 30 years ago to really think about the impact we can to search by topic. We’re - for sharing ideas.” cial return we are looking for. And it turns into a fairly site, which Forbes called a “one-stop site [that] paints personal conversation. I’m trying to provide some background information to them, at the same time exploring what some some of their their values are are and some some of the the things that that cultivating new clients. “But that will grow on its own,” are most important to them, and then help them connect he says. “And “And I felt the urgency to get the site to the next stage.” Equally important to Kaminer is that people can the dots.” dots.” access information on the site for free. “It’s primarily a investors is through InvestWithValues.com, a detailed resourc ources es exi st to help them do thi this, s, whet whether her it’s directory of topics, resources and organizations that are the res site or not.” not.” S “focused on creating positive social and environmental through my site SUCCESS
MARCH 2015 39
SUCCESS Foundation
“A Perfect Fit” SUCCESS for Teens becomes the official curriculum of an Arizona mentoring program. at the core of the SUCCESS for Teens personal-development curriculum was created to provide kids with direction and and inspiration. inspiration. Now SUC SUCCE CESS SS fo forr Teen s: Re al Teen s Talk ab abou outt Using the Slight Edge is is doing just that for an evolving student-services program in Tucson, Ariz. Beginning last semester, the t he Mexican Mexic an A merican Student Ser vices Department (MASSD) of the Tucson Unified School District adopted SUCCESS for Teens as the official middle and high schools. Maria Figueroa, director of MASSD, heard about SUCCESS for Teens Teens through through a colleague two years ago. New to her role as dir direct ector, or, Figuer F igueroa oa found the book inspiring, and she shared copies with principals and student success specialists at various district schools. She the academically a cademically and behaviorally behav iorally challenged students s tudents who receive MASSD services. (At the time, the program had no set curriculum.) curriculum.) SUCCESS for Teens Teens is “ SUCCESS is full of life’s little lessons broken down into bite-sized chunks that young people can digest student success specialist for MASSD. Figueroa recently succeeded in having SUCCESS for she estimates that more than 200 students at 10 schools will be exposed to the book this school year alone. (The SUCCESS Foundation donates hard copies of the book to qua qualif lif yi ying ng public school schools, s, chur churches ches and nonprof it youth-develo youth-d evelopmen pmentt programs; programs; SUCCESSF SUCCESSFoundati oundation.o on.org rg to everyone.) everyone.) Figueroa believes the chapters about goal-setting and positive attitude—in which teens themselves talk about developing such skills through a simple step-by-step process—are particularly relevant for her students, who THE BOOK
Freelance writer Chelsea Greenwood
also wrote this issue’s feature about being your own life coach.
40 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
are often lacking credits to graduate or are struggling and realize that maybe they’re the problem and that their Using SUCCESS for Teens in small groups has comfortable hearing other kids their age having the Figueroa allows all students who complete the program to take home a copy of SUCCES S for Teens to cont inu inuee the ir lea rn ing and to sha re the les son sonss “It has really been a wonderful resource for our student S To request books, learn about the program, share your story about it or make a contribution, visit SUCCESSFoundation.org. Leaders, participants and donors can request a profile in SUCCESS by by emailing
[email protected].
F R O M A N D
T H E N E W
P U B L I S H E R Y O R K
O F
S U C C E S S M A G A Z I N E
T I M E S BEST-SELLIN G
AUTHOR
“ UNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL AND AWAKEN THE ENTREPRENEURIAL GIANT WITHIN YOU” — ANTHONY ROBBINS Chairman of seve n private ly held companies, N e w Y o r k T i m e s best-selli best-selli ng author
T- R E A D B O O K O F T H E Y E A R ” “ M U S T— DAVID BACH Nine-time N e w Y o r k T i m e s best-selli best-selli ng author, Founder of Fin ishR ich.com
Y, A N D D E V O U R T H I S B O O K ” “ R E A D , S T U D Y, — D AY AY M O N D J O H N Star of ABC’s S h a r k T a n k , Founder/CEO of FUBU
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N E W
B O O K
B Y
DARREN HARDY
AVA I L A B L E
N O W
R O L L E R C O A S T E R B O O K . C O M
Positivity
Light in the Darkness To be as happy as possible, don’t ignore your dark side. IS PLEASANT, but it is problematic as an objective in life,” said Todd Kashdan, Ph.D., professor of psychology and senior scientist at the Center for the Advance Advancement ment of Well-Being at Geor George ge Mason University in Fairfax, Va. “We should all stop trying to be so positive.” As someone who writes regularly about the science of happiness and the life-changing power of positivity in a column called, not subtly, “Positivity,” my defenses shot up. Kashdan’s latest book, co-authored with Robert Biswas-Diener,, is The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Biswas-Diener Being Your Whole Self—Not Self—Not Just Your “Good” Self—Drives Self—Drives Success Succe ss and Fulfil Fulfillment lment .. And it’s not the first book to lob black paint ball s at the shiny yellow face of posi tivity. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bright-Sided of Bright-Sided:: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining Undermining America , believes that Americans’ “almos “almostt mandatory” mandatory” obsession obsession with positivity positivity directly contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. And Oliver Burkeman’s 2012 book The Antidote: Happiness is billed as for People Who Can’t Can’t Stand Positive Positive Thinking Thinking is a “celebration of the power of negative thinking.” But I didn’t need to ready my ramparts; Kashdan is on my side. He and Biswas-Diener are mainstays of the positive psychology movement. (Biswas-Diener is the son of Ed Diener, aka Dr. Happy, the researcher and author considered one of the field’s founding fathers.) They’re not down on positivity; they just don’t think it’s Kashdan offers the amusement-park ride analogy: Most people think of roller coasters as supremely fun, part of a happy day full of cotton candy and ice cream. maybe even nausea. Without those negative feelings, the ride wouldn’t be, well, a ride. It’s the mix of positive and negative that makes the roller coaster so enjoyable. by a romantic interest isn’t nearly as thrilling, thril ling, Kashdan and Biswas-Diener believe these experiences—and their “HAPPINESS
Patty Onderko writes for from SUCCESS from her home in Brooklyn, Brookly n, N. N .Y.
42 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
accompanying painful emotions of anger, sadness, selfdoubt, envy and resentment—to be just as integral to an overall happy life. The ability to tolerate psychological discomfort—known as distress tolerance—is one of the best pred predictors ictors for succe success ss in busine ss, marr iage and parenting, they explain. If we learn to mine the murkier aspects of ourselves instead of wallowing in them, we can become “stronger, wiser, mentally agile, and most important, happier in a more resilient, and therefore durable, way. way.”” Seeing the bright side of even our darkest instincts? Sounds pretty lemonade-out-of-lemons positive to us. A few keys: keys: Value V alue usefulness, not not just happiness. Instead of “categorizing things as positive or negative,” says Kashdan, “rate them instead as either helpful or not helpful.” Debating whether or not to take a new job? Don’t make your decision based on how happy the job might make you feel. feel. It might might very well well be a demanding, demanding, soul-sucking soul-sucking beast of a g ig, complete with a w indowless off ice and a two-hour commute. But will the position get you to the next spot in your career? The spot where you’d have enough experience, contacts and capital to start your own business? Then suck it up and be miserable for a year or two, Kashdan advises. Pursuing happiness happiness at all costs can actually interfere with w ith your overall life satisfaction— and we are terrible at predicting what will actually make us happy anyway. “The highest springboards in life are not from being happy,” he says. Feel guilty. Get jealous and angry, too. Though we are often admonished to not waste time on those nega tive emotions, there is i s no reason to t o berate ourselves as as weak, petty pe tty or bad for feeling feeli ng these emotions, Kashdan says. Envy can spur us to action. Anger motivates us to maintain m aintain healthy boundaries b oundaries with those who might cross them. And gui lt is a sign that we have “violated our own moral code” and need to change our behavior in t he future. futur e. Studies show that people who experience more
Tak e a br ea k f ro m mi nd f ul ne ss .
Be a little anxious. * * *
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2014 SUCCESS
Achiever of the Year
on Demanding Better Reed Hastings led Hastings led Netflix to new heights in 2014 in the midst of a bold plan to remake the entertainment industry, making him our 2014 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year.
by Susan Young
E N I L T U O S I B R O C / A T S U B N A D
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 45
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he st or y of Net f li x is ab about out thee con ti nui ng ev th evolu olu ti on of annoyance over a late fee into a billion-dollar business. Pass the popcorn. Netf li lixx coco-founde founde r and CEO survive both repeated criti eled territory. plunged roughly 80 percent and four other European countries. As Has ti tings ngs sai said d ons onstag tag e at the 46 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
executive editor of TV Guide entrepreneur th an he do es
(and considered pursuing as his career). addition to his sits on the board Patty Quillin pledge to give at least half of their fortune The couple live a relatively
S E G A M I Y T T E G Y B R U O T N O C / H C T A M S I R A P / E K C I M N E I T S A B E S
2014 SUCCESS
Achiever of the Year
Calif., with their two teenage children. He reportedly does not have an office in the instead to wander and plop down with a laptop at the closest table. table. devotedly advocates for charter schools and in jeans and a collared shirt if not for a Apo Apoll lloo 13 and negligence to his wife. slender discs traveled well. e Q & A i n a F o r t u n e whether he felt innovative
Hastings wrote in a blog posted in the teet te et h of the ra ragi gi ng cr cris isis is,, for wh which ich he The New York Times Times
Most weeknights, Netflix commands more more than a third of all Internet traffic in North American homes.
Times,, and as As Ha st in ings gs to told ld th thee Times as cable had learned, the only way to they want to watch. They are going to tell t ell SUCCESS MARCH 2015 47
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hat thi nki ng about what the audience wanted, but wasn’t getting from fr om tr trad aditi itiona onall sou source rce s, boo booste ste d consumer goodwill tremendously. Netff li Net lixx hit big wi with th its rema ke of the popular British series Hous Ho us e of Ca rd s , about a duplicitous politician with no moral boundaries. It scored the kind of coup l e a d c h a r a c t e r F r a n k Underwood would admire by land ing note d vet vetera eran n actor Kevin Spacey for th at st ar ri ng ro role, le, al along ong w i t h R ob i n Wr i g ht a s Underwood’s scheming wif w if e. Th Thee cr it ic s ad or ored ed it, and the public did as well. The series brought in millions of new subscribers. The company also l i s t e ne d t o f a n at ic s of Arre ste sted d Dev elo pme nt , which Fox abandoned in 2006, and ordered a new season with the same cast and creator, in 2012. These guys are really experimental, attending a panel in 2013. The producer went on t o r elate a stor s toryy f rom one of his of partnering with television manufac tu re rers rs ca came me up. Cou ld Net f li x but ton s wa s i mp re ss ed by t he Ne t f li x t ea m’s can-do attitude: “That’s pennies, right?” one exec re sponded. Other producers on the panel mused over how innova tive it would have been for NBC to put a peacock on remotes decades earlier. 48 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
“It’s because NBC predated the remote control. Netflix comes in and looks “People like binge-viewing. It’s not how we came up watch watching ing TV, but you’ve got
A new sea son of its acc acclai lai med pri son comedy, Orange Is the New Black , returned to high h igh ratings rat ings in i n 2014, and in i n December De cember Net f li x pop poppe pe d out ano the r pro promi mi si sing ng Marco Polo, Polo, plus the new animated series, Marco series,
X I L F T E N / O I L G I M A C I S S E J
to follow the audience; you’ve got to t o keep kee p That sort of freshness has served the Internet television network, with more than th an 53 mi ll ion mem be bers rs in nea rly 50 countries enjoying more than 2 billion hours of TV shows and movies per month, including original series. Last fall, the company’s bottom line was hit hard by the invest investments ments in provid providing ing original content for the service. But it appears the move to ante up for original House of Cards attracted Cards attracted “a huge audience that would make any cable or broad broadcas castt note to investors. As momentum builds for Season 3, which premieres Feb. 27, the cycle will probabl probablyy repeat.
Juli en,, starseries for kids All kids All Hail King Julien ring the boisterous ring-tailed lemur from Madaga scar . The show, which will run throughout 2015, springs from a deal made between Netflix and DreamWorks Animation (DWA). (DWA). Under Under the biggest deal more than 300 hours of exclusive programming, and by the end of 2016, DWA will are a psychological thriller from the creators of FX’s critically acclaimed Da ma ge s and a new series based on Marvel’s Daredevil Marvel’s Daredevil . Most weeknights, Netflix commands North American homes, exceeding almost all the other streaming services combined,
X I L F T E N
2014 SUCCESS
Achiever of the Year
The company continues building its bra nd and dr iv ing up vi ewe ewersh rsh ip in it itss Not content c ontent to t o simply stick to origi original nal
for the kinds of passion projects that have opportunities, and maybe I’ll visit them someday with a project,” Kevin Costner tells
bri nging the most eloquent stor yt bringing ytell elling, ing, so they don’t have to pay someone else for Hastings told the audience at the Code Conference last May, “We’re very artist-
X I L F T E N R O F R E F A H C S T T O C S . F
Opposite from left: Netflix’s hits include Orange Is the New Black, Marco Polo, Polo, Arrested Development and House of Cards. Cards.
martial-arts epic with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hidd en Drago Dragon: n: The Gre Green en Lege nd and in selected IMAX theaters around premiere on the same day as it is released in unquestionably at the forefront,” says producer Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman Hollywood heavy-hitters are also
SUCCESS Eric Robinson, formerly of The Weinstein production and development company, quotes his former mentor Weinstein in entertainment industry buyers: “They have a vision for the business model, they have a vision for story story,, and and they they have have a vision vision for the Robinson also applauds Hastings’ out-of “[He isn’t] worried about what is going to sell overseas, overseas,”” Robinson Robinson says, says, referencing referencing They want to partner with people who are
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give them freedom, you can end up with a He also answered an audience member wh o as ke d wh y he sh if te d aw away ay f ro m disc-by-mail service to put almost all the “It was obvious the big risk to the company was always to grow and die aggressive it made our skin crawl; that’s he unf linc hing ly res ponde ponded d in a cand id “The big thing we missed: If we had grand fathered ever everyone yone for two years, it would SUCCESS
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s a leader, Hastings takes responsibility for both the successes and thi s adv ice in a New York Times article: “Don’t get distracted by the shiny object The background that molded Hastings into the fearless CEO he is today started when wh en he wa s li vi ng ne near ar Was Washi hi ng to ton, n, Department of Health, Education and In 2006 Reed Hastings told the Times a that his hi s father’s position p osition we ek en d, wh en I wa s about 12, my parents, sisters and I were invited to Camp David when the rode around in golf carts, had a tour, and I saw that President His path to becoming a tech entrepreneur entrepreneur was as twisty as San Francisco’s S S E R P Hastings graduated D E A from high school in 1978 T I C fro f rom m th thee Buc ki ngh am O S B r o w n e & N i c h o l s S A / school in Cambridge, N O I S I V N / I S school and college to S U A sell Rainbow vacuum R T S N A “ I s t a r t e d i t a s a D R J summer job and found O 50 SUCCESS
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I cleaned the carpet with the vacuum the customer had and then cleaned it with While attending the liberal l iberal arts school Bowdoin College, where he majored in math because, “I found the abstractions Leader Class and spent the summer between bet ween his sophomore and junior years how th ing s we were re done in th thee Ma Mari ri ne nes, s, from packing backpack backpackss to t o making ma king beds, l e a r n e d t h e military did not look favorably upon t h o s e w i t h then turned an abrupt about fa ce wh en he chose to serve in the Peace Corps as a In just its first two h i g h s c h o o l years of original math teacher programming, in Swaziland, Netflix earned 44 Emmy leav ing on his nominations— graduation day including one for from Bowdoin Orange Is the New Black ’s Taylor Schilling as best a world far comedic actress. removed from The network won in 10 categories. the comfor t of Silicon Valley, Hastings lived in a thatched hu h ut w ith no electricity,
cooking only with propane and wood, and That decision either “developed my risk he later l ater told told Fortune Fortune your poc pocket ket,, sta rt ing a busi ness does doesn’t n’t By 1985 Hastings decided he wanted choice school, MIT, but found his way to Stanford, where he earned a master’s in he wor worked ked for Sch lum ber ger, the n at a The company’s original product was a Times Times doing white-water kayaking at the time, and in kayaking if you stare and focus on the problem, you are much more likely to He took the company public in 1995, lionaire, lionair e, which brought him to the point in his life when he was free to kill time, watch videos at his leisure and accumulate These days Hastings is an active philan th ro ropi pist st for ch char ar te r sc schoo hoo ls ls,, cu rr ent ly serving on the board of the California KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) annual Vanity Fair New New Establishment
2014 SUCCESS
Achiever of the Year Netflix initially grew with the spread of DVD players in American homes. By 2004, when this photo of Hastings was taken at one of the company’s many shipping warehouses, Netflix was already sending out more than 200,000 discs per day.
S I B R O C / E L C I N O R H C O C S I C N A R F N A S / S N I K T A Y C A L
Summit held in the San Francisco Bay Are A re a. The pa nel mo moder der at ator or men ti tione one d Ne t f li x’ x’ss tr a de ma rk re le a se of en ti re series all at once rather than making vie v iewe wers rs wa it a we ek be tw ee n epi so de dess and asked how that approach might relate to education. audience. “The college I went to had a selfpaced program. I could just go at my own He pointed out that people read entire once a week or having a physics class once Hastings has invested both in new education companies and on behalf of charter schools as the future of educa tion in the Unit United ed St State ates. s. Has tin tings gs and investor John Doerr put $14.5 million
provides online technology for K-8 math students. He provided funds for the As pi pire re Pub lic Sc Schoo hoo ls cha rt er ne netw twork ork w h i c h b le n d s a d a p t i v e l e a r n i ng o n computers with teacher instruction. education for the better. But his commitment to education is more than just tossing money at the problem. He’s actively seeking ways to improve the education of schoolchildren. he worke worked d on a ma master ster ’s in educ educatio ation n at Stanford University and served as president of the State Board of E ducation from Hastings told The Wall Street Journal
lagg ing when our technolog y is increasing increa sing at great rates a nd there’s great innovation Some of his philanthropic investments have ha had d sha ky sta rt s—Ro cke cketsh tsh ip wa wass not a success when it was instituted and status quo a nd isn’t concerned about how long that might take. t ake. And A nd as he pr ov oved ed w it h hi s do dogg gg ed ed-ness in keeping Netflix at the fore he wi ll ha ng in fo forr th thee du ra ti tion on whe n it comes to improving the nation’s S SUCCESS
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Our Runners-Up for
2014 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year A Model Citizen: Christy Turlington Burns
E R I W A M U Z / A P P U / R E N I R A M E T E P
A Young, Powerful Voice: Malala Yousafzai Last fall Malala Yousafzai, 17, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for—with her life in peril—supporting educa tion tio n for gi rls in her home homelan lan d. Pr Prime ime Mi Mini ni st ster er Nawa z Sharif congratulated Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel recipient, as the “pride of Pakistan.” The acclaim follows years of activism. In 2008, after many Taliban attacks on girls’ schools in Pakistan, Yousa fz fzai ai gav e a spe ech cr crit itica ica l of the fu funda nda ment al is istt Islamic militia for trying to “take away my basic right to edu educa cati tion.” on.” She lat er blo blogg gg ed ab about out the oppr es sio n for the Brit ish Broa Broadcas dcas ting Cor p. and in 2011 rec received eived Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. In October 2012, a Taliban gunman boa rded her school bus and shot Yousa fza fzaii in the head. hea d. Her recovery recov ery included i ncluded surgeries in Britain, where the activist now lives with her fam ily. In 2013, the Eur Europe opean an Parl iam iament ent awa awarded rded her the Sa kha kharov rov Pr ize for Freedom Fre edom of Thought. And on o n Oct. Oc t. 10, 2014, Yousafzai shared the $1.1 million Nobel Prize wi th Ind ia’s Ka il as h Sa Saty ty ar th thi,i, 61 , an anot other her ch chil ildr dr en’s — Mary Vinnedge Vinnedge
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She has one of the most photographed faces in the world, and Christy Turlington Burns is using that fame to help some of the globe’s most underprivileged women. After Af ter Burns delivered her f irst child, she s uffer uffered ed a terr terrif ifying ying was soon back in good health. Then Then on a visit to her mother’ mother’s birthplace of El Salvador, Burns became aware of the plight of women who lacked access to good go od obs tetric care. She discovered di scovered that t hat the same problems existed all over the developing world: Every two seconds, a woman dies from complications of pregnancy or child birth—and of these deaths, deaths, up to 98 98 percent are preventable. preventable. Burns traveled the world to make a heralded documentary on the state of maternal health, No health, No Woman, No Cry , which debuted in 2010. cated to making pregnancy pregna ncy and childbirth safe for every mother. She is a mother of two, is still a model at 46, has started two successful businesses… and she’s running marathons marathons with 100 other other women women on Team Every Mother Counts. In the fall, this achiever conquered 26.2 — Susan Kane
D L A R E G Z T I F R O T N A C R O F S E G A M I Y T T E G / R O G E R G C M E K I M
2014 SUCCESS
Achiever of the Year
Brantly, Writebol Courageous Writebol Courageous in the Face of Danger In July, during the height of the Ebola epidemic in West A f r ic a, Ke nt Br an tl y, M. D. Af D.,, an d nu nurr se Na nc y Wr it eb ol including Dallas nurse Nina Pham. Jennifer er Chang — Jennif
R I A F Y T I N A V R O F S E G A M I Y T T E G / C A V O K L E A H C I M
S E G A M I Y T T E G / N A W O G C M A C I S S E J
T C M / E L G A E A T I H C I W / N R O C N A I R B
Spiegel, Snapchat Surge Snapchat Surge to the Mainstream — Jesus Jimenez Jimenez
Forgot About Dre? He’s Better Than Ever Forbes Forbes — Josh Ellis Ellis
M O C . S S E R P A M U Z / E R O O M N O S A J SUCCESS MARCH 2015 53
54 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
Be Your Own Life Coach Use these tips and techniques from highly regarded professionals to push yourself to a whole new level. by Chelsea Greenwood
Orange is the new black, 40 is the new 30, and life and career coaches are the new personal trainers. From Fortune 500 CEOs to Hollywood starlets to Oprah, people are performing better, making smarter decisions and reaching health, all thanks to coaches. coaches. Executive coaching is defined by the International Coach Federation as “partnering with clients in a thoughtprovoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” potential.” But it can be pricey—as pricey— as much as $3,500 an hour, with a median hourly fee of $500, according to Harvar Harvard d Business Review ’s “What Can Coaches Do for You?” research report. Unfortunately, many people don’t have the money to work with a life li fe coach. coa ch. A 2013 study by Stanford St anford University and The Miles Group shows that two-thirds of CEOs are not receiving coaching from sources outside their companies, and 100 percent of participants wish they were. Wh at ’s th e av aver er ag e ha rd wo rk in g A me merr ic a n to do? Consider this: Many people want to work with a personal
own hands. And if it’s possible to move training out of the gym and under your own roof, does that mean it’s possible possible to bring other coaching in-house, in-house, so to speak, and go it alone? alone? Many experts say yes. Self-coaching, by applying professional coaching techniques to your own goals and experiences, is not only viable but the ultimate goal that coaches help clients clients achieve. It takes discipline and dedication, but it can be done. “Most people won’t have a professional coach for most of their lives,” says Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D., globally renowned leadership coach and best-selling author. “I typically work with people for a year to a year and a half. So being your own coach is a great idea.” idea.” Adds Martha Beck, who trains life coaches coaches worldwide worldwide and has written three New Yor York k Times Times best-sellers: “Self-coaching We each have the ability to learn lea rn wisdom, and as we learn lear n wisdom, we become our own counselor, coun selor, and we start using experience as our teacher. And then we’re home free.” SUCCESS MARCH 2015 55
Be Your Own Life Coach
Six Questions When to Self-Coach USA Today Identify Areas for Improvement — I wish I could . I wish I could get more organized. I wish I could build a social life life — 56 SUCCESS
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Coach Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D., learned this exercise from his da ughter ughter,, Kelly Goldsmith, Ph.D., who’s on the marketing faculty of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern No rthwestern University. It’s built around the “one question in life you can’t blame on somebody else: Did I do That’s one thing you can control,” my best? That’s Marshall Goldsmith says. Ask yourself the following questions every day to stay on track toward goals and focus on the things in your life that are within your control.
Did I do my best to: Set clear goals? Make progress toward goal achievement? Be happy? Find meaning? Build positive p ositive relationships? Be fully engaged ? This self-coaching technique has proved to be highly effective, according to 79 unpublished (as of press time) time) studies of more than 2, 500 people. The research found that for those who repeated the six-question process daily for two weeks, 37 percent responded that they were improving on all six points; 65 percent responded that they were improving imp roving on at least four of six; and 88 percent responded that they were improving on at least one.
Set Manageable Goals Your Brain at Work approach avoidance
“Research shows that people achieve their goals in half the time and more sustainably if they’re approach goals,” Rock says. Goldsmith practices and swears by “the daily question process” developed by Andrew Thorn, Ph.D. You start by creating a spread who you you want want to be and and what you want to achieve. “Ask yourself, What is really important in my life, and who is the person I want to become? that out,” out,” Goldsmith says. Some Some of his personal questions questions include: include: How much do I weigh? Did I make time for my wife? How many minutes did I write? The next seven columns in your spreadsheet are for days of the week. Fill out the same questionnaire questionnaire daily—your daily—your answers must be yes, no or a number—and, by the end of the week, you will have a scorecard that “wi “will ll tell you how your behav be hav ior li nes up wi th your values,” Goldsmith says. Over time, as you reach your goals, create new goals and new questions. “It’ll help y o u g e t b e t t e r i n almost anything. It keeps you focused on what’s important.” When self-coaching, self-coaching, a journal is also a great tool. Beck recom you did each e ach day. “The purpose is to look back and see what you were doing doing on the days days you you felt bad,” bad,” she says. says. “It’s a way of of looking ” at: ” She says this method was eye-opening when she was considering Martha Beck serves up 10 coaching affi rmations @ SUCCESS.com/beck-affi SUCCESS.com/be ck-affirmations.
starting her own television program. Through her journal, Beck realized that all her happiest moments were outside—so it didn’t make sense to stick herself in a studio. “Because we’re so blind to our own happiness, I didn’t actually know that until I saw it in a journal,”” she says. journal, Gather Support Be aware that just because you’re not working with a coach, you don’t have have to go through self-coaching without any external support. “Research shows that being in a support network is incredibly empowering and helpful for staying on track with goals,” Rock says.
“It’s one of the reasons Alcoholics Anonymous A nonymous works so well.” He credits that, in part, to positive social pressure: When you state a goal to friends, family and colleagues, you’re more likely to stick to the goal because you don’t want to look bad. So spread the word to your circles circles and and lean on on them when times get tough. tough. Goldsmith says his clients learn more from the people around them than they learn from him: “Figure out who the most impor tant people people are in your your life. Involve Involve them them in helping helping you change.” If you want to become a better listener, ask your spouse to provide ideas for doing so. Practice those and then return to that person in two weeks for feedback and more ideas. Research shows that those who follow follow up on their goal progress with others enjoy huge improvement, Be Prepared for Setbacks Self-coaching isn’t easy, and it’s crucial to acknowledge that from the beginning. Such understanding will help when yo u hi t ob st ac le s a lo long ng th e wa y— because setback setbackss are a re inevi inevitable, table, and even the mos t suc ce cess ssfu fu l pe people ople in the worl d fa fail il.. “When you fail, forgive yourself for whatever happened yesterday,” Goldsmith says. “Realize it’s a day-to-day process. If you quit, you won’t’t get better. won better.”” Say you’re a golfer, and you hit a shot into a sand trap. If you get upset, your next shot will probably be worse. Instead tell yourself: What happened, happened. I’m going to start over. I’m going to hit the best shot I can. If you constantly hit hurdles, closely examine your environment. What factors at home, in your career or in your social circle could be working against you? you? “If you don’t don’t change change your environment, environment, it tends to drive you back to the the same behavior behavior,” ,” Goldsmith says. Beck points out that everyone reaches a point in coaching where he or she fails. When this happens, Beck recommends asking the Is this following questions, quest ions, using one’s intuition int uition as a barometer: bar ometer: Is the thing I really wanted? What have I learned from my failure? Do If it’s the real thing, you will want to go again, I want to go again? If and you will persist, and you will fail, and you will fail, and you will succeed. That’s how every success ever achieved always happens.” S Chelsea Greenwood is a South Florida writer and editor who contributes to various publications. She wrote “Tech and Your Time” in the February issue. SUCCESS MARCH 2015 57
by Shelley Levitt
58 SUCCESS
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Robust fuels innovation,, Robust disagreement r growth gro problem-solving. problem-sol rowth w and a - ving..
M
ax Volsky and Mike Dolan had been close close friends for 30 years, ever since they played hockey for Su Suff ff er ern n Hig h Sch oo ooll in Rockland County, N.Y. Two years ago they decided to t o star s tartt igobono, a social marketplace where members swap and donate goods and services using the virtu vi rtu al cur currency rency bonos. “We were having heated arg uments about even the smallest s mallest things,, like things l ike what color the t he join-up joi n-up button but ton should be,” Volsky says. “It became clear that if we wanted wa nted igobono to succeed and we wa nted to preserve our friend friendship, ship, we John DeHa rt and Ken Sim were introi ntroduced by a mutual mentor in 2001. Both had recently moved to Vancouver, British Brit ish Columbia, to raise their families and were eager to start a business. As co-CEOs they launched launch ed Nurse Next Door, a home healthcare service that by 2010 had 37 franchises (and now more than 90). But DeHart and Sim clashed constantly. “If I said the sky was pink,” DeHart says, “Ken would say it was gray.” Finances were an especially conten tious issue. is sue. Several years ago, DeHart DeHar t was livid when Sim spent $15,000 on tickets to
the Stanley S tanley Cup hockey fin finals als for their thei r 15 employees. “Value our people was one of our core values,” DeHart says, “but I would have put that money into a bonus pool and tied it Conf lict. It’s an inevitable—and crucial—part of every business. Handled well, the clas clash h of idea ideas, s, clai ms, inte interes rests ts and preferences can be a positive force, exposing the weaknesses of positions and leading to creativity, innovative problem-solving and growth. “Instead of me against you, it becomes us against a problem,” says Robert Ferguson, co-author with Peter Coleman of the new book . Small businesses are especially well positioned to benefit from collaborative conflict, says management consultant Patrick Lencioni, whose latest best-selling book is . “Because of the close rela tionships in a small business, you can cycle through a problem quickly,” he says. “You get everyone in a room and say, ‘Here’s the challenge. How are we going to solve it?’ ”
When Volsk Volskyy and Dola n cla clashed shed over whether to outsou rce the development of their websit websitee (Dolan’s preferenc e) or hire someone internally (Volsky’s pick), they already knew how to resolve the squabble: They followed the methods contained in a manifesto for defusing disagreements thatt Volsk y had deve lope d ea tha earli rlier. er. (Th (Thee 12-point contract, which they both signed, includes items such as: “Remember we have dif feren ferentt ski ll set sets, s, so never debat debatee about who works harder,” “Deal with a serious dispute immediately, no excep tions,” and “Use A/B testing when possible to decide on [website] featu res and solicit feedbackk f rom users feedbac users.”) .”) The document led them to a better option for developing their site: Dolan moved to Colima, Mexico, for eight months and worked on igobono.com with wi th a fi rm the there. re. “T “That hat st strat rat eg y prob ably saved us close to $1 million,” Volsky says. “With the manifesto, we are able to negotiate decisions that are a lot better than what either one of us comes up with w ith But the intimacy of a small company can also bring out the corrosive side of conflict if passionate disagreements SUCCESS MARCH 2015 59
The Power of Healthy
Conflict
dissolve into personal attacks. Instead of being open to fresh perspectives, people dig in their heels and become rigid about defending their points of view. The consequences are pernicious, says Michael A. Rober to, a professor of Why Great . the choices that are made, and strained working relationships. ments were creating a lot of pain and stress for our employees,” DeHart them anot another. her. That cre create ated d a lot of conf usi usion. on. Bec ause we cou couldn’t ldn’t agr ee on big decisions, we weren’t making any decisions. That was slowing down our growth, and we were losing talented people.” (Ultimately DeHart bec ame sole CEO in 2012 , and a pres president ident was hir ed to ru n the compa company ny in 2014.)
Moving Beyond Agreement Imagine a conference room where a meeting is taking place to review a startup’s strategy in describes the marketing plans and asks whether anyone disagrees with the approach. The room is ment, let’s get moving.” Leaders who take silence for consent do so at their peril. If a meeting seems more like a round of golf nodding in agreement when you put out ideas, it doesn’t mean people think your idea is brilliant,” he adds. “It’s more likely they have concerns that they’re afraid to express. express.”” There are important reasons you should care about this. For one thing, you’re not getting the about. For another, you don’t have the kind of commitment that comes from a full and open haven’t bought into it,” Rober to says, “and that’s backing when when things things don’t don’t work out.” out.” Smart leaders actively seek dissent. “Business Roberto says, “and I tell them, ‘That’s a crock.’ If you’re you ’re waiting for for dissent to walk through the door, door, it’s not going to happen.”
1 Unresolved or poorly managed conflict is costly. According to a 2008 60 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
Don’t simply let democracy rule. If there are seven people in a room and six agree with a strategy, coax out the divergent view. Ferguson suggests saying something like, “I want to hear what Dav Davee has to say say.. Let’s spend spend som somee more more time on this.” Chances are Dave will share something that’ll make your decis decision ion a stron stronger ger one one..
2
In a small organization, people are often quick to line up behind the founder’s or CEO’s proposals. To avoid that kind of bias, Ferguson
at all.
3
4
5
Strengthening Strengthenin g Your Conflict Intelligence
(Continued on Page 87) SUCCESS MARCH 2015 61
Af A fter
the
Crash A survivor leaves corporate life and raises millions for the Red Cross. by John H. Ostdick
R E Y A H T C I R E / S R E T U E R
62 SUCCESS
MARCH 2015
D
ave Sanderson believed he was tuned into his version of the American Dream. Then came the airplane crash. Sanderson had started his career in the restaurant industry before settling into technology sales, working his way into a large-account lar ge-account position posit ion with the Californ C aliforn ia-based tech fir m Oracle. O racle. By January 2009, 200 9, he was traveling more than 100 times a year and moonlighting as director of security for motivational motivational speaker Tony Robbins. “I had a wife and four kids. to make make sure that my kids could could go to college and have a decent life,” he says today from Because of his frenetic schedule, Sanderson wasn’t always available for family events and “didn’t give much more than the bare minimum community-wise community-wise up to that point,” the 54-year-old says. He donated blood regularly; gave a little bit back to his alma mater, James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.; and served on the execu tive committe committeee of his church. church. On Jan. 15, 2009, the crash of U.S. Airway Ai rwayss Flight 1549—a nd the Red Cros Crosss blanket, virtual and metap metaphorical horical—chan —changed ged all that. Sanderson was aboard, headed from New York’s L aGuar aGuardia dia Air port port,, the “Sully” Sullenberger III, ditched the plane in the icy Hudson River and executed a successful evacuation.
Getting Everyone Out Sanderson, seated in 15A, was the last
of making sure that everyone got out when we came to a stop in the water, water,”” he he says. “My thought was, Get to the aisle, get up and get But when I got up, I heard my mom’s out. But out. voice [she [she died in 1997] in my head, saying, If you do the right thing, God will take care of you. And you. And that’s the moment when every thing sor sortt of shif ted for me. It’s l ike that Boy Scout moment [he was one] where you do the right thing: I went to the back of the plane to see if anybody needed help.” Sanderson and the crew helped get everyone out, and that’s when he ended up in the drink. A rescue boat bumped the plane, forcing it to take on water up to his back . Sand Sanderso erson, n, his lef leftt eye blur blurred red from jet fuel, jumped into the 3636-degr degree ee wate r bec becaus ausee the wi ngs were cra crammed mmed full of evacuate e vacuated d passengers. pa ssengers. He swam s wam to a nearby ferryboat, which he grabbed onto until rescue workers could haul him out of the water, in the proce process ss becomi ng Good Morning America’s America’s riveting snapshot from the “Miracle on on the Hudson. Hudson.”” He was in the Once he was pulled onto the ferr y, rescue workers “called ahead and told them I was in the water and not in good shape. So they had thr ee peop people le wai waiti ting ng for me at the dock—two EMTs and a guy from the American Red Cross with a blanket.” blanket.” Suffering from severe hypothermia and unable to use his legs, Sanderson was rushed to a triage unit and a nd then to a nearby hos pit al al,, whe where re wor worker ker s sa id he wa s in stroke. From crash to hospital took only 30 minutes. Because rescue workers had to cut Red Cross worker ventured ventured into the night to buy sweats for for him to wear during television television
interviews. Soon Red Cross representatives were meeting with his wife and children in Charlotte, helping them cope and keeping them apprised apprised of his condition. condition.
L O O P / S L E U M A S A K I N A Y N A T / O T O H P P A
Dave Sanderson recuperates in the hospital after the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
The Message of the Blanket Sanderson often talks about the Red Cross blanket he was handed that day, about how important a symbol it became for hi m. In sp ee che s an d ap appe pe ar an ce s for the emer emergenc genc y reli ef gr group oup sin since ce the accident, he has raised about $7.5 million for the orga niza tion. “Wha “Whatt that blank blanket et has come to stand for in my m ind is that you’ve got to be there and be ready when SUCCESS
MARCH 2015 63
After
the
Crash
something like this happens because no one expects to go through a plane crash. No one are there. One of the things I talk about today is the t he power of resourcefu re sourcefulness lness and being there and understanding S all the resources that S O R you do have. have. I never C D o p e n e d the E R N bl a n ke t t h at A C day. I could I R E ba re ly mo ve M A F O Y S E T blanket w ith me. R U O C him hi m at the ai airp rport ort wi with th his fam ily. “We developed a relationship because she was most important thing that happened in that worki wor ki ng ha rd but al so que st ion in ingg hi s way I should have. I was also very aware of all those people who served me and How How can I give back? back?
the group’ group’s annual meeting in Washington. Washington.
“Dave Sanderson “Dave turned the compassion he received into action.” “That was June of 2009…. There were Why is this guy in the room? they had 400 people people crying. That’s how my
A Growing Commitment
Since then he has made more than 100 to help those in i n need all over the country by spea speaking king at Red What turns everyday people into heroes? Find out @ SUCCESS.com/ordinary-heroes. of the South Louisiana Region of the Red Sanderson to speak at her chapter’s annual met its fundraising goal. “Then Pam asked Sanderson says. “I will not say no. There me if I would drop by an event at the mall wer e a lot of gr group oupss tha t tou che d a lot th at sh shee wa s ha vi ng fo forr som e of th ei r of people that day on the New York and was just ju st providing providi ng a blanket or somebody 64 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
He shares that message with his chil how can you impac t somebody somebody’s ’s li fe in a to a ccompany hi m to many events world
people. “I think that’s when she under she told me that ‘maybe it’s time to move He established a consulting/speaking He adapted the things he learned from wa tc hi ng Ro bb bbin in s in sp ir e pe opl e an d developed his own vision around a theme of resourcefulness. “I think that people are looking for leaders. leade rs. People are looki ng for people to give them insight on when something get through it? And they’re looking for it’s through the war or pe ople coming back or whatever. And that’s why these stories S Contributing editor John H. Ostdick writes from Dallas.
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Location, Location, Location…
Ready to set up shop? Consider these important points when picking your spot.
Culture
Business Loans Community
Low Taxes
Restaurants Good Schools
Greener Pastures We examine the relative benefits of markets across the country and help you find the right setting for your business (and your family).
Where Are Your Customers? The latest demographic studies reveal who lives where—essential information if you want to connect to your clientele.
PAGE 68
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Greener Pastures How to identify the best locale for your small business
by Rieva Lesonsky
68 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
L
ooking to relocate your existing company or searching for the perfect place to start a business? Here are some factors to consider. Small-business friendliness:
How supportive of small business and entrepreneurship is the state and/or city you’re re considering? Small-business f riend li ne ness ss ca n enc ompa ss eve r y th thing ing fr om zoning laws and tax rates to economic development programs and incentives for businesses. busine sses. Choosing a location where local government government supports and encourages encourages small business, not just with words but also with actions, will make your life a lot lot easier. easier. Small-business friendliness can be hard ha rd to def in ine, e, so it’s be best st to go to the horse’s mouth. The 2014 Thumbtack.com Small Business Friendliness Survey asked small-business owners for their percep tions of the business environment in their communities, assessing factors including hiring, hiri ng, regulat r egulations, ions, zoning, licensing and heal he al th in su ra nc ncee re qu quir ir eme nt nts. s. Ut Utah ah , Idaho, Texas, Virginia and Louisiana ranked highest for overall friendliness to Tax rates: Research both business and personal tax rates when choosing a loca tion. Many busines s owners prefer states wit w ith h no pe pers rs on onal al in inco come me ta x (A la sk a , Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washing Wash ing ton and Wyom Wyoming ing)) or ver veryy low personal income tax (Tennessee and New Hampshire). Hampshire ). For business tax information, check out the Tax Foundation’s annual State Business Tax Climate Index. In 2014 California, New Jersey and New York earned the dubious honor honor of the states w ith the worst tax climat climatee for small busine business, ss, while Wyoming, Wyoming, South Dakota Dakota and Nevada boasted the best tax climate. Quality of life: Issues such as the cost of living, weather, crime rate, housing inventory and natural/cultural ameni tie s fac tor int intoo a loca le’s qua lit y of li life. fe. As long as you’re movi moving, ng, why not move
someplace that offers plenty of what you value, whether that’s year -round sur fi fing ng or live theater? Better quality of life can also help you persuade employees to move with you. The One D Scorecard produced by Data nation’s 54 biggest metro area s based on economic prosperity, schools, quality of life, ease of transportation and other factors. (It includ includes es an interactive DataDrivenDetroit.org.) DataDrivenDetroit.org .) Maybe you’ll be surprised to learn that Grand Rapids/Muskegon/Holland, Mich. ranks tops for quality of life, while the economy is best in Seattle/T Seattle/Tacoma/ acoma/ Olympia, Wash. You’ll u’ll want to move move to the the heartland Yo after perusing a sur vey of the 100 cities with the best quality of life that guidebook Nerdwallet.com. Madison, Wis.; Lincoln, Neb.; Neb.; and Minneapolis/ St. Paul are rated the best places to live. NerdWallet’s allet’s online cost of living NerdW calculator can help you assess how far your and your your employees’ employees’ money money will go Wage and employment laws:
Some states have higher minimum wage rates superseding the federal minimum wag e of $7.25 per hour. Sta tes tes’’ employment laws and regulations regarding wor ker s’ co compe mpe ns at ation ion in su ra nc ncee al so va r y. You ca n le ar n mo more re ab ou outt wa ge and hour laws, unionization, workers’ compensation requirements, and more from the Small Busine Business ss Admin Administr istration ation at SBA.gov. Cost and availability of labor: Be sure to research average wages for the types of workers you need to hire. Tools such as Salary.com or Glassdoor.com let you look up average wages based on job titles, indus tries and locations.
Also be sure the area you’re re considering ha s a go good od sup ply of su suit itabl ablee wor ker s, especially if you’ll need to hire people with specialized skills such as IT or medical coding training, or workers with college or advanced degrees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.go (BLS.gov) v) has demographic data on labor force characteristics nationwide. Support systems: Choosing a loca tion with plen plenty ty of business business suppo support rt services, such as a Small Business Development Center, SBA District Office or SCORE (formerly called Service Corps of Retired Executives) chapter ensures you can get the help you need in grow ing your company. other business owners to network with— whether that’s high-tech h igh-tech star tups, female business owners or minority minority entrep entrepreneur reneurs. s. CIO.com, the IT industry news source, names the Best Cities for Tech Startups. San Francisco/Silicon Valley, New York York City and San Sa n Jose, Calif., Cali f., are at the top, but there are also some surprises, such as Pittsburgh. WalletHub.com ranks the Best Cit ies for Hispanic Entrepreneurs. E ntrepreneurs. The site credits Florida with the highest rate of Hispanic entrepreneurship, and its cities of Pembroke Pines and Orlando boast the most business-fr busi ness-fr iendly climates for Hispanic entrepreneurs. However, Boise, Idaho, comes in third and Salt Lake City is fourth. Top 10 Cities NerdWallet’s list of the Top for Female Entrepreneurs ran ks D.C., San Francisco and Seattle tops. trends site CreditDonkey.com Cre ditDonkey.com surveyed for the Best Cities for Young Entrepreneurs, and names Houston; Austin, Texas; and Ra leigh, N.C; the best startup sta rtup spots, spot s, based on factors fa ctors such as the percentage of population aged 18 to 44, educational attainment and businesses started versus closed. SUCCESS MARCH 2015 69
S t a r t u p a s s i s t a n c e : If you’re lau nch ing a st ar tup , you may wa want nt to such as accelerators or incubators. These nology or retail. Business Incubation Association
Transportation: or public transportation so your employees Financing: ventu re capit al, loca locating ting You’ve found the right community. Now in a region with a wealth find the perfect address for your business of these investors can help. @ SUCCESS.com/micro-location. Growth potential: Is the location Lawrence, Kan. Empowerment Zones, Renewal Customer base: Look for a location later in this section. What Matters Most? ness, nor is there one perfect region that Cost of office, retail or ware house space: Don’t get an unpleasant ness support are likely to have higher tax 70 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
the list l ist above are most important i mportant to you. To assess your preferences, make a list of Essential: Desirable: List factors that are less somewhere with no personal income lessen the tax bite. have: Finally, list the little extras Nice to have: has almost everything on your wish list but you you know know you’ll you’ll be miserable miserable there force it. is before you move, not after! small business to thrive. S Contributing editor Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media and custom content company focusing on small business and entrepreneurship.
Wh W here Ar Are e Your Customers? These national demographic trends could influence your business plans.
by Sara Vigneri
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 71
N O T G I N
A
mer ic an s v a l u e r u g g e d individualism. We pr ide ourselves ours elves on bei ng free fr ee to do and say wh at ev er we wa nt . Bu t despite this free spirit, we are ar e al l membe mem bers rs of a social species that has deeprooted tendencies toward predictable predict able behavior. In fact, research published in the journal Science journal Science found found t h a t h u m a n b e h a v i o r is 93 percent predictable. How’s that for rugged individualism? The ques tion ti on isn’t one of fr ee wi ll, ho we ve r. Wh i le we ma y choose unique paths for ourselves, many of us tend to follow fol low sim ila r patter pat ter ns throughout our lives—from the rebellious teen years to midlife crisis. And while not a single member of any generation is exactly th e sa me , ea ch ha s be en shaped in some way by shared experiences—for baby boomers boom ers,, it might’ve migh t’ve been the Vietnam War; for millennials, the rise of the Internet during very forma tive years. A lt ho u g h t he r e i s no one-size-fits-all business plan, marketing toward certain clientele clientele demographics is a worthwhile practice for business owner owners. s. Predictability h e l p s d e t e r m i n e w h a t you r cu st ome r w il l wa nt or need. So that’s why we tracked track ed various va rious age g roups to find where w here they the y are clusclu s te re d ac ro ss th e co un tr y and identified some ways you mi gh t ca te r to th es e unique demographics. 72 SUCCESS
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N I E T S L R E P K R A M
M O O L B IT IS V F O Y S E T R U O C
Teenage Dream
Millennial Mecca
OMG at the disposable income in Weston, Fla. Population: 65,672 Median Household Income: $93,074
Bloomington, Ind., is a hotbed for generation now. Population: 80,405 Median Household Income: $27,395
This planned community was incorporated in 1996, and its population is just as youthful. Weston Weston and and similarly cookie-cutter cookie-cutter towns often boast a la rge concentration of teens and preteens. While most of these kids aren’t l ikely to have their own own cash, they are highly highly materialmaterialistic and hardly afraid to pester their parents into buying them what they want. In fact, researchers warn of an increasing influence of materialism and consumer culture among twe ens, creati cre ating ng what they cal l a “hosti “ho sti le takeov ta keover er of chi ldho od.” A 199 9 sur vey of American parents bears this out; 63 percent believe their children define their self-worth by what what they own. own. While this age group may k now what is considered cool, it’s a bit harder for adults to cat ch on to the ir trend tr end s be cau se the y don’t consume the same media—teens don’t watch as much televi t elevision sion a s adults, and of course you can forget about catching one of them with a newspaper. Anyone interested i nterested in understanding what today’s kids are into should prepare to spend time sifting through YouTube YouTube videos, v ideos, Instag ram and Snapchat. And you can bet they’l they ’lll be dropping droppi ng most of Mom and Dad’s money on clothing and accessories, snacks and tech toys.
Wha t do you thin th in k of whe n you hea r the word wor d hipster ? Does it conjure up an image of a skinny-jeans wearing, be arded 20-something, 20 -something, drin king Pabst Blue Ribbon and riding a bike to the coffee shop? That word paints a vivid picture of many millennials who, according to The Hipster Handbook by by Brooklyn author Robert Lanham, walk “among the masses in daily life but… shun or reduce to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream.” These digital natives (they are the first generation that didn’t need to adapt to new technologies technologies)) celebrate celebrate their geekdom geekdom and and their their uniqueuniqueness, and they are acutely aware of what is considered cool. Retro items like Converse sneakers and thick framed glasses might make the cut, but that t hat doesn’t mean you can peddle nostalgia indiscriminately. In fact, as soon as a s you tr y and a nd peg pe g something s omething cool, the millennial is liable to reject it because she sees herself as a change-maker, not a follower of trends. Bloomington is the perfect spot for the authentic life so many millennials millennia ls are ar e seeking. se eking. A college town, Bloomington has its fair share of 20-somethings still hanging around (the median age is 23), which means it’s a great place for any number of earthy small businesses, from vegan bakeries and food trucks serving homemade ice cream to boutiques b outiques pushi ng one-of-a kind clothing and handmade goods. Plenty of biking bik ing (Indiana University’s Little 500 is the largest collegiate bicycle bicycle race in the U.S.) and and the country’s only only Tibetan cultural center are just some of the offerings that keep millennials happy in B-town.
Like, check out these other, like, communities: Sandy, Utah Fishers, Ind. Murrieta, Calif. Cicero, Ill. Atascocita, Texas
Try not to try so hard in similar cities, such as: Gainesville, Fla. Jacksonville, N.C. College Station, Texas Ann Arbor, Mich. Tempe, Ariz.
All-YouCan-Eat Marketing Offering the freedom to binge could help you sell more. Just make sure to do it right.
by Jim Motava Motavalli lli
74 SUCCESS
MARCH 2015
S
unday brunch at The Silo, a f i ne - d i n i ng r e s t a u r a nt i n Greene, N.Y., is a belly-buster. all-you-can-eat spectacular, starting w it h Bl Bloo oo dy Ma r ys an d ch am pa g ne , the n mov ing on to un unli li mi mite ted d por ti tions ons of eggs, bagels and lox, blintzes, seafood Ne w bu r g, c or ne d b e e f h a sh , a nd a chef-carved meat station with roast beef, turke y and ham. Did you make sure to leave some room for croi ssa ssants, nts, pas pastr tries ies,, cak es, pies and fresh fruit? The Silo is a great place for an old fashioned fash ioned hang-the -ca -calorie loriess bender, but that form of marketing has taken ta ken root far Achiever of the Year, Reed Hastings, is a test ament to its power. Through Netf lix and other streaming services, entire seasons of a TV series are uploaded on a single day, so viewers can soak up the story line all at once (or at whate whatever ver pace they choose). Some end up like Carrie and Fred Fred of the bingebinge worthy IFC comedy comedy Portland — Portlandia ia— they lost their jobs and had their electricity turned off while addicted to a Ba Batt tt le st star ar Gallactica box Gallactica box set. Now that’s meta. As spending power grows among the millennial genera t i o n — s o u s e d t o
N O T R O N Y B O T
getti ng what they want, when they want it— getting sales models of this shape are expanding. Consumers can now join clubs that give them acc access ess (with some res tri cti ctions) ons) to pay for the right to hit as many golf balls as they want each month instead of buying by the bucket at the dr iving range. They can surf and stream endlessly with unlimited cellular data plans. Would of feri ng custome c ustomers rs an all-youcan-eat experience work for your small business? busine ss? Even if one is in place, maybe it can be tweaked to maximize revenue. Settle in for some perspectives on the binge marke ting movement movement,, along wit h the important important lessons lessons learned learned by a number of businesses that have already taken The Weigh of the Future? TiVo and DVR services made bingeing a hugely popular avenue for consuming media. According to Ni Niel el se n, th thee T V ra ti ng ngss subscribers (and 70 percent on Hulu Plus)
N O T R O N Y B O T
say they stream three or more episodes of a TV show in one sitting. A recent Harris Poll shows that 82 percent of Americans binge wat ch, wi th Da Dall llas as and San Fra nci sco ranking as the “bingey-est” cities, where There are pluses and minuses to this development for the media companies. Releasing a series all at once does create a best advice gleaned from the succe ss of a show such as Amazon Prime’s critically acclaimed Transparent (or (or the failure of Hemlock ock Grov e ) is to consider all diary, Heml diary, That didn’t happen back in 2003, when Red Lobster President Edna Morris steaming snow crab legs you can eat.” It tur ned out that Florid Floridaa State S tate Seminole s wh o cr ave th es e ta st y cr us ta ce an s in as much as 30 times, and a rise in the price of the seafood compounded the disaster. “It SUCCESS MARCH 2015 75
All-You-Can-Eat
Marketing
wasn’t the the second helping—it helping—it was the third one that hurt,” company Chairman Joe R. Lee said at the time. Red Lobster’s profits sank, and Morris was forced to walk the plank. plank. Whe W he n yo u’ ve s tu f fe d yo ur s el f with wi th 30 pl ate s of cra b legs , it may be a whi le before befo re you’re in a clawcracking mood again. Bill Carter, the former New York Times TV Times TV critic, is skeptical that binge marketing will work for the sma ll scr een for a simil si mil ar reason—bingeing could lead to burnout. “When the seasons come out, they get a big burst of publicity, but it can’t be sustained. With regularly scheduled programs, there’s buzz every week as the shows are talked ta lked about, abou t, shared sha red and become part of the national conversation.”
in California. Car aficionados can get beh ind the whe el “w ithout it hout the ha ssles ss les of ownership.” But you can’t just join and rampage throu th rough gh the f lee t at wi ll. “We cou ldn’ t take an all-you- can-eat can- eat approach approac h u nless nles s we charged cha rged members $50,000 a month,” Bani says. “The miles w o u l d a c c u m u l a t e If you’re hungry for more delicious SUC SUCCES CESS S content, unhinge your jaw @ SUCCESS.com. on the cars, they’d depreciate and break But Lorrie Thomas Ross, CEO of Web down—it would be a disaster.” Marketing Therapy and author of The Instead, in an approach that has evolved over time, Club 36-Hour Course to Online Marketing , says that binge marketing makes sense because Sportiva members pay it reflects the impatient, want-it-now a one-time initiation tenor of the the times. “It gives the people people who fee of $1,500 $1, 500 and then ooze love for you all they want,” she says. monthly dues that start “Letting them consume and share on their at $150 a month and own terms turns them into raging evangerise much higher. lists. People People want to take ta ke it a ll in on their Members own terms, and the more brands that cater buy points poi nts to that, the better.” better.” for $2,500, $5 ,0 00, $10,000 or Freedom (Within Reason) In some businesses, it’s important to $20,000—the set limits to the binge offerings. Sia Bani more points yo y o u bu y, t he is president of Club Sportiva, founded in 2003, which gives members and more you can use the supercars each renters kid-in-a-candy-store access to its month. Most joyrides are one-day affairs f leet of 20 exotic cars—from car s—from a McLaren of 100 miles or less. It’s not as democratic as the buffet table, but it’s much MP4-12C to an Aston Martin Marti n V-8 Vantage Vantage convertible—at four clubhouse locations more profitable. 76 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
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Encouraging Big Appetites Traditional loyalty programs share some simi larities with binge marketing. Both are examples of up-selling. Customers are asked to buy more than they might other wise want in order to get a good deal. Many fast-food restaurants offer some form of “get one free” card, but but at cosmetic giants Ulta and Kiehl’s, the sales staffs are even more engaged—shoppers are told they’re only one one purchase away away from a free sample package. At competitor Sephora, the staf st af f active ac tive ly promotes promo tes the “Bea uty Insider Program,” which uses an exclusive exclusive card and points system to persuade customers to buy more than they planned. The lesson he r e i s t ha t i t ’s not enough to simply offer a rewards program. Everybody does th at . Th is k in d of promotion pro motion w o r k s w h e n the t he s a le s s t a f f is committed to pushing it and only when it comes with incentives that people actually want. For small businesses, all-you-can-eat strategies have to be approached carefully. They can become expensive. At The Silo, for instanc ins tance, e, owner and chef Gar y Kurz
N O T R O N Y B O T
says his Sunday brunch isn’t attracting the crowds it once did, with w ith 300 30 0 reg ulars in the late 1980s dropping to 100 to 125 today. That That hurts because binge binge marketing is all about making profit through sheer customer volume in what can be a lowmargin business. “It’s getting iffy,” says Kurz, who added that modern health a more-is-more more-is-more sales strategy. “There are days when it’s so slow we take a beating because of all a ll the food we have to make,” he says. Ever-fickle human nature is at play. “When the food is unlimited, unlim ited, people decide decide they’re they ’re going to eat all they can beca because use that’s what they’re pay ing for,” Kurz Kur z says. say s. “But then they say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get the buf buffet fet beca because use I can’t eat all that food.’ I try tr y to convince them they don’t have to eat it all, just enough to get their their Kurz could learn a lesson from IHOP, which has occasionally brought back its all-youcan-eat pancake deals in l i m i t e d - t i m e p r o m o ons. s. Cu st ome rs te nd N ti on O T to app re ci at atee sp ec ia l R O N deals more than they Y B d o l o n g s t a n d i n g O T Food for Thought Taking the all-you-can-eat strategy to new heights in 2014 was the Olive Garden chain (a sister restaurant of Red Lobster, incidentally), which in the fall that, for $100, allowed customers cu stomers to feast on all the pasta, salad, breadsticks and Coca-Cola products they wanted for seven weeks. The promotion sold out in just two hours, but the company company made more passes available through social media.
One holder of a Golden Ticket worked Conn., members prepay for 20 weeks of out that the Olive Garden menu provided fa rme r Pat ti Popp’s ha harv rv es est. t. If re regu gu la r 180 “pastabilities,” and said he intended to pickups are a problem, Popp’s Popp’s Cash-Crop eat all of them over the 49 days. Another Program allows people to pay an upfront carbivore was eating only takeout. Those bill and then shop wheneve wheneverr it is conve conve-stories fuel buzz, says Gail Oliver, a smallnient until the payment is expended. To busine bus ine ss mar ket keting ing con consu sulta lta nt. To he r, keep the public inter intereste este d, she also run s the promotion wa s an a n example exa mple of a savv savvyy a summer ca mp program, “meet the company generating media interest and chickens” sessions, and a family-friendly extra attention in the social sphere. “The “summer on the far m.” Pasta Pass is quirky,” she Considering a new promotion for your business? Find more guidance @ SUCCESS.com/binge-marketing. SUCCESS.com/binge-marketing. says. “They created an exclusive club of 1,000 lucky pass holders. Small businesses that might fit the That plays well on Twitter, Tumblr binge marketing model include consulti consulting ng and Facebook. Plus [the restaurant] is a year’s worth of unlimited advice for a W h a t i s bi n g e m a r k e t i n g e x c e p t set fee, rental companies that provide permission for customers long lon g-te term rm (b ut not pe perm rm an ent) ac ce ss too c on s u me y ou r pr o d t to too tools ls and other equ equipment ipment,, and yoga ucts or services at studios with a payment level that includes t h e i r l e i s u r e ? unlimited classes. Again, it’s important to W it h t h at id e a consider all the the angles, including contingencies for unexpected cost increases and If you plan to offer something in unlimited (or only slightly limited) quan titi ti ties es , ma ke su re it it’s ’s st stil il l pro f it itabl abl e with wit h a price incre increase ase.. A good rule of thumb is to imagine the highest possible costs you might incur and then add 10 to 20 percent of Whe the r it it’s ’s a fav or it itee T V sho show, w, a in mind, try thinking outside the box to identify a sales proposition that would selling, we know that Americans love to appeal to devil-may-care shoppers binge bi nge , an d bus in ines es se s la rg e an and d sm smal al l can take advantage of it. Unique marketing approaches m ight Feel free to help yourself. S include a year’s worth of unlimited (within reason) goods and services Jim Motava lli is a reg ula ularr con contr tribut ibut or to for a se t fe fee. e. Tha t’s how the hot tr end SUCCESS of community-supported agriculture Vegas titan Steve Wynn in the September wor ks . At Sp Spor or t Hi ll Far m in Ea st on, 2014 issue. SUCCESS MARCH 2015 77
AT F IRS IRSTT I WAS EMBARRASSED. ME, A CAT, LIVING WITH A SINGLE SINGL E GUY. GUY. BUT BUT WHEN WH EN I WA WATCH HI HIM M PICK SOMETHI SOMET HING NG UP WITH HIS HANDS AND EAT IT, I CAN’ CAN’TT HE H E LP BUT LO LOVE HIM. HI M. — MARU adoptedd 01adopte 01-1010-10 10
