There Are No Artists on the Assembly Line

Are you an artist or a white-collar assembly line worker? Most white-collar workers wear white collars, but they still end up working in the factory.

Seth Godin mentions in his new book Linchpin that "white-collar workers push a pencil or process an application or type on a keyboard instead of operating a drill press. The only grease they have to get off their clothes at the end of the day is the grease from the take-out food at lunch." After all it's factory work because it's planned, controlled, and measured. As soon as it is part of a system, it's not art.

If you're an artist, you tend to shake things up. You invent as you go. That's why MBAs often have trouble pigeonholing artists. A true artist can't be easily instructed, predicted, or measured, and that's what you're taught to do in business school. Art represents a chance to improve the status quo, not just make it cheaper inside a factory while wearing a white collar to work.

A good friend of mine, Jeremy Dearringer, is an artist. He co-founded Slingshot SEO, and leads research at this fast growing Indianapolis tech darling. His job is to explore and develop new ways to rank your company first on Google's search engine.

Jeremy solves problems that people haven't predicted, sees things people haven't seen, and connects people who need to be connected. As an artist, he applies artistic judgement combined with emotional labor. Jeremy's job is a platform for generosity, for expression, and for art.

So I pose the question again, are you an artist or do you "rock" a white collar to work, stressed out on the assembly line?

Hiring a Linchpin

Blogger Seth Godin reports that design firm IDEO is hiring marketers using a new technique. They ask applicants to make a PowerPoint presentation of their resume and then present it to a group of five people at the firm. The applicant has to defend the work, answer questions, and lead a discussion.

One more chance to stand out, not to fit in. One more way to discover who has the actual skills (engagement, rapport, intellect, charisma, openness) to thrive in a modern work environment.

Play a different game. Don't stick with mediocrity. Try something different that may help you seek out more diverse talent in 2011.

Happy Hiring.

This Time It's Personal in 2011

It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map of goals in 2011. Let's not fall victim to those cliche statements of losing weight, but instead layout a road map that outlines specific goals.

Below I've provided my top (6) categories for outlining goals in 2011.

1. Spirituality - e.g. Spend 20 minutes of quite time with GOD every morning at 6:30am

2. Health and Wellness - e.g. Work out consistently 4 days per week (running, biking, and lifting)

3. Job and Career - e.g. Top 40 Under 40 Award Indianapolis Business Journal

4. Intellectual and Cultural - e.g. Visit Chile and Argentina in the Fall of 2011

5. Financial - e.g. Gross 100K+ in salary and commissions

6. Deep Relationships and Giving Back - e.g. Mentor new sales rep at Morales Group Inc.

Those of you seeking to make a change should get more specific and map out in detail your future goals for 2011.

Happy New Year!

Burning Desire to Win

April of 1519, Hernando Cortes lands in Veracruz Mexico, about 200 miles from the Aztec capital. Cortes had one mission: defeat the Aztecs and take their gold. To do so, he had less than 400 soldiers. His first act upon landing was to burn all but one of his ships - he wanted no turning back (excerpt taken from Tom Batchelder's Barking Up A Dead Horse). Cortes had no idea of the dangers, but he did know that if the fighting got difficult, there would be no talk of sailing home.

Today we can learn a valuable history lesson from Cortes. As an aspiring business owner, I've seen that every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a BURNING DESIRE TO WIN, essential to success.

The most successful entrepreneurs have that burning desire to win, with no sources for retreat. So the next time you envision starting up a new business, ask yourself if you're prepared to burn your boats at the shore. Are you willing to not pay yourself throughout the start up period? Open to work 60-80 hours per week to develop the business? Ready to compromise time spent with family vs. the business?

And don't forget to ask yourself - - would you make courageous commitments where there is no going back? Can you lead by example?

"When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous."

What should a business lunch consist of?

I would categorize a business lunch into (5) categories:

1. Building a relationship and trying to make connections.

2. New prospective customer not looking to buy yet.

3. New prospective customer getting ready to buy.

4. Existing customers who you are building a relationship with.

5. Finding great food where you can be seen by other connectors.

When you sit down for a business lunch, make 1/3 of the conversation focused on relationship building. Share about those common interests or personal hobbies. And always try to make time to convey your business agenda.

Finally, try to establish a favorite spot that serves as your home turf. There's something to be said about knowing the restaurant staff by first name and making suggestions from the menu. My favorite spot is Cafe Patachou (Slogan - A Student Union for Adults) in the mid town area of Indianapolis. This location attracts several well known business professionals throughout the city.

3 Reasons Why You Should Post Updates on LinkedIn

1. Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA): TOMA owns the space that your product or service occupies between your prospects ears. That way, when they're ready to buy they think of you first. You can use LinkedIn to maintain top of mind awareness with your customers, prospects, and network. Once set up it's pretty simple and takes very little time. You just have to consistentily post content that is of value to your desired audience to maximize the results.

2. Real Time Knowledge: How else are you going to find out if a connection changed jobs, won a new award, joined a new group or found a new interest? With all the new updates, this opens up for a conversation with a prospect or solid potential contact.

3. Ease of Use: If you work off the social platform Hootsuite.com, updates and tweets can be scheduled in advance, thus allowing you to control when a post is created. My good friend Kyle Lacy, who is a recognized thought leader in the social space, creates several posts between 5-7am. Because time is of the essence for Kyle, he posts in advance and schedules the updates throughout the day.

"Follow Up" Sales Email That Doesn't Suck

Business professionals are writing (emails and text messages) more than ever before. We tend to also get caught in "voicemail dungeon", with no hope of catching people in their office. Today its more and more difficult to capture a prospects attention, yet alone a response back.

Try using this sample email (from Tom Batchelder) that gets a response and gets to the truth;

Subject Line: Lingering Situations

Hi John,

I tried reaching out to you a couple of times and haven't heard back. Unless you tell me otherwise, I will assume you are all set for the September study. If at any time you want to resume conversations about us helping you with one or all of your projects, certainly feel free to call me.

Warm regards,

Seth

In my past experiences, nine times out of ten I get a follow up response back from the prospect. Perhaps this might help you avoid the wasted time and effort in your sales process.

To building your network and your profits.