The Corporate Garage

Smile!

Becky Blanton — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:00:05 +0000

Losing to improve

Becky Blanton — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:15:04 +0000

When I started playing tennis my coaches advised me to start playing with people better than I was.

“But I’ll never win,” was my response.

“Not at first,” they said.

“But you’ll get better. What’s more important? Beating people you already know you’re better than? Or getting better than the people who can beat you now?”

Well, getting better was. I didn’t just want to beat a few people, I wanted to beat them all! I wanted to be the best. So I took their advice, and eventually I did get better, rising to play in the state quarterfinals in tennis less than three years after I first started playing. But as good as I thought I was, there were many people better. And, it dawned on me one hot summer day after another trouncing, there would always be people better than me. Even the number one players in the world don’t stay number one.

Life is a lot like that. There will always be someone better. Always. So you have two options. One, be content to be mediocre and stay a big fish in a small pond, “beating” the poorer players, co-workers or people around you. Or – have a vision and leave the safety and security of your pond and lose a lot until you actually start getting better. Which will you choose?

If you’re a small business – working out of a home office, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact you aren’t the best thing going. So get out. Attend workshops. Join a social media group. Find out what other small business owners are doing and find someone better than you to challenge and grow from. It’s the best way I know to get better.

Seth Godin’s Business School Extravaganza

Becky Blanton — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:59:53 +0000

Seth Godin, business and marketing guru has posted an amazing offer to his blog. And, like many of his ebooks, it’s free. Here’s his offer:

If you could change your life

…would you?

Getting into Stanford Business School changed my life. In college, I trained to be a mediocre engineer (I didn’t set out to be mediocre at it, but I sure was). I was on track to become Dilbert.

Getting into Stanford meant jumping the track. Going from one path to another in one fell swoop.

I didn’t learn much of substance at business school, but that’s fine, because the school allowed me to make a graceful transition. I had permission to reinvent and a platform to do it.

Which leads to this post, this track and this opportunity. (Please read all the details at this link before jumping up and down).

I’m offering an apprenticeship/not-internship/graduate school/charm school track-changing opportunity to a few people this winter. It’s free, it’s fairly audacious and I hope you’ll check it out. It might not be for you (in fact, it probably isn’t) but I have no doubt that you know people who might be interested.

I’m convinced that there are people out there who–given the right teaching, encouragement and opportunity–can change the world. I’m hoping you can prove me right. You don’t have much time and there are only a few slots, so if you’re even flirting with this idea, check out the lens here.

Two years at business school is a lot of time (and money) to spend to change paths these days. Most people over 20 can’t afford either. I think six months might be a lot more do-able.

The beautiful conceit of Stanford during its heyday was that they recruited people who were really quite good at something, even though it might not be business. Or people who were at one level in an organization but strived to jump ahead several notches. I had a pro golfer and a teacher in my section, for example. As far as I can tell, most MBA programs have become finishing schools for commercial bankers hoping to become consultants and investment bankers (at least until recent events occurred). The creative achievers need a new, faster way to jump the track. For a few, this might be it.

This is a huge commitment for the people who sign up, of course, and a big shift for me as well. So, I’m leaving myself this escape hatch: if I can’t find enough truly amazing people to take advantage of the opportunity, I’ll quietly move on and won’t do it (this time). I’m not prepared to settle, and you shouldn’t either. But, if I’m right about the caliber of restless people reading this, I’m figuring that there will be plenty of amazing people out there passionate enough to take a leap.

So, if you think you’d like to find a new track, here’s your chance. If you think you might be able to turbocharge your impact on the world, let me know. Sort of my way of repaying the admissions officer at Stanford who was crazy enough to let me in all those years ago.

If you could change your life, would you?

Becky Blanton — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:30:29 +0000

Seth Godin is offering you the chance to do just that. Donald Trump may have had a hit with “The Apprentice,” but Seth Godin is going for the big win with an amazing offer. Stay tuned to his blog for the big announcement on Monday.

Garage potential open – women wanted

Becky Blanton — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:34:51 +0000

What do bullet-proof vests, fire escapes, windscreen wipers, and laser printers all have in common? All were invented by women. Yet in spite of women’s ability to invent and devise only 43 women have climbed the traditional ladder to become CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies in the last 35 years. If you think that’s a low number, consider that only three companies total have been founded by women and all of those were co-founded by men.

This is 2008. Forget about the glass ceilings. Why aren’t more women in garages? I don’t mean working in a garage – I mean inventing, exploring, bootstrapping and starting businesses – in a garage, at the kitchen table, in a home office – somewhere! I know they’re out there. I was at a conference in North Carolina recently and witnessed 175 women, about 130 of them African American, many of them teenagers – all of them business owners or in the process of starting their business. There are women making a difference. The number of women starting businesses is twice that of the national average of men starting businesses.

Where are the Jenny Craig’s, the Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Famous Brands), the Estée Lauder, the Ruth Fertel (Ruth’s Chris Steak House) and the Mary Kay Ash’s? Are you a woman? Do you know a young woman with the potential to be a CEO or company founder? Support and encourage her. The world is better and safer because of the inventions of women. Imagine if they ran more companies.

Customer service is all about the Reps first, customers second

Becky Blanton — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:18:05 +0000

If you want consistent, golden, five-star customer service from your customer service people you have to teach them, customer service is NOT about the customer.

Customer service is NOT about how to treat a customer. Customer service is about the customer service rep. Why? Because customer service reps are human too. And while many of them certainly enjoy helping others what keeps them going over the long haul is how giving great customer service helps them. When you both *get it* that they can improve their lives, their people skills, their ability to communicate by learning how to interact with customers in a positive way – they will. And the customer will benefit in the long run and so will you. Because when people see that doing something pays off for them they are more likely to keep doing it.

If you are a customer service rep knowing how to listen, how to recognize opportunity, how to problem solve with another human being – particularly one you’ve never met and don’t know! and learning how to think on your feet, on the fly, on the phone or on the internet is a skill-set you can’t learn anywhere like you can in customer service. Not only do you learn to think, you learn how to learn to be proactive and how to be confident.

If you’re a customer service rep the customer is the person who is going to help you become a better person, a more compassionate person, a better thinking person. The customer is going to help YOU achieve YOUR goals for yourself. Because the customer is your measuring stick.

Their satisfaction is what tells you how well you’re learning to apply those thinking, problem solving and interaction skills. So, stop thinking you are a servant or whipping boy for an angry mob of customers. You’re not. You are developing the most critical tools a successful business person can have – the ability to HEAR, really hear what your customer is saying; to know how to respond, what to do, to spot trends in what customers like/want/need or hate/love. That’s invaluable. Every minute you talk to a customer is your own private focus group.

It doesn’t matter if you are a in a formal customer service rep job for the rest of your life or not. The skill-set is what you’re after. You will have families, you will participate in professional organizations, some of you will teach. In everything you do from here on out your success at whatever you do will rest in learning how to listen, how to solve a problem, how to deal with angry people, how to control your own emotions, how to have compassion and empathy and how to interact with strangers in a way that leaves the world a better place. Customer service can teach you those skills if you listen. Your instructor may or may not *get it* but you can.

Those skills will be disguised as “customer service” but make no mistake about it – customer service is about YOU service. This is about YOU. I hope you understand what I am saying because if you learn to see the service you give as a way to hone your life skills – life will come so much easier to you and your success will be great.

101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe

Becky Blanton — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:02:10 +0000

Ed Welch gets it. Ed, a stay-at-home-dad, husband and entrepreneur noticed how businesses tend to chase away more customers than they attract. However most don’t seem to realize it. He took a unique and rather remarkable approach to educating them and wrote an ebook about what he observed. He writes:

Do you lead a tribe?
Suppose for a moment you think of your customers
or website visitors as a tribe.
Perhaps you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company – how do you care for your
tribe (customers)? Maybe you own a corner grocery store – do you take your
customers for granted?
Suppose you have a website or blog – your visitors are your tribe – how do you
care for them? Do you care more about finding new customers/visitors than
properly caring for those you already lead?
This list is meant to help you.
Whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company
or a blogger working to gain readers – this list is for you.
It isn’t designed to teach you what to do –
but it does show you what not to do.
For too long, I have watched organizations destroy their tribe
while naively wasting money to replace them.
If any of the items on this list ring true –
you’re probably destroying your own tribe –
one customer at a time.

Click on the link below to download your free copy of
“101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe”

101waystodestroyyourtribe

Tribes – An advance review

Becky Blanton — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:32:15 +0000

You wouldn’t know it at first glance, but leaders come in all shapes, sizes, ages and experience levels. And they’re changing the world. And they’re not asking anyone’s permission to do it either. Want to know how? On Oct. 15, 2008 marketing guru Seth Godin’s latest and in my opinion greatest book hits the bookstores. In the past Godin has merely pointed out how marketing needs to change. Now he’s identified the very people who will change it and indeed, have changed the marketplace as we know it.

Heretics, innovators, creators – call them what you may, but they’re here. And while the majority of the world wrings it hands, hunkers down to *survive* the next great economic collapse these are the leaders Godin predicts will break out and take over the marketplace. Corporations who don’t figure out what’s happening and make drastic changes are doomed to fail – indeed, many have already.

The book title tells it all, “Tribes.” From the begining of time people have gathered into groups – for sustenance, survival, religious and economic purchases. As long as people shared an interest and the abilty to communicate that interest, there have been tribes – groups of people who come together around that interest. Godin explains not so much about the tribes, but the leaders who lead them and how they came to lead them and what qualities they have that make them leaders. Understand one thing. The world is moving away from a top down management style and embracing groups of consumers. Those consumer tribes share not only an interest in a product, but a desire to be part of something more than a consumer demographic. And if your business doesn’t get it now, or soon – you’ll be on the outside looking in. And that’s not a real lucrative or desirable place to be really.

Disclaimer here. I’m a part of Seth Godin’s www.Triiibes.com experiment. Triiibes is a group of approximately 3,700 marketers, graphic artists, writers, students, musicians, business owners all of whom had the foresight to jump on the opportunity to participate in Seth’s social tribe. As an active member of the group I know it’s making history and so will this book. Buy it now. Implement it now and survive the coming economic shift.

Consumers are your enemy

Becky Blanton — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:19:51 +0000

You don’t know it yet, but the very people who’ve been buying your product, using your service and paying your bills with their disposable income are your enemy. They’ve decided you’re not treating them right. They’re tired of your lackluster service, the irritable, uncaring sheep you’ve hired to roam around your miserable little cubicle farm. They’re fed up with the arrogant, stubborn “I run the show” attitude of your managers and the declining quality of whatever it is you sell.

So they’re revolting. Most will simply walk away and you’ll never see them again. A few, like me, will post to www.yelp.com or simliar websites. We’ll tell our friends. We’ll post a YouTube video derriding and making fun of you and your service – like this. And pretty soon other people who have experienced the same sort of abuse or even just poor service or quality will join up with us. And we’ll find another company – someone smarter, more hip, more caring, more remarkable than you. And we’ll spend our money there.

Laugh if you want. But you know it’s the truth. Because you inhabit the same world we do. You have to shop for things too and you encounter the same morons and worthless drones behind the counter too. You’ve heard the sheep bleating. So you have two choices. Change or fail to change and simply fail.