Category: business coach

The Unemployed Entrepreneur

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Entrepreneur_Shirt

Want to know the real motivation behind current entrepreneurs?

Being broke.

As a business owner each day you wake up needing to sell.

You either make money that day or you don’t.

Nothing is given to you. You have to fight for everything a.k.a. the daily grind.

Signing up as an entrepreneur basically makes you a sales person. Even though you’re the boss, you’re 100% responsible for selling. It’s tough work, not for the faint at heart. In fact, you become so accustomed to rejection you think you’re dating her.

But chasing your dreams does have a tremendous upside. Complete freedom is one of the best feelings you can experience and once you’ve been the boss, it’s tremendously hard to go back to working for someone else. In the right situation it’s possible, but chances are while you’re working, you’re strategizing how you can improve the process on your own.

The reason entrepreneurship is down with Millennials is because it’s too big of a risk. Chasing your dreams doesn’t pay well. If you like supplemental income for travel, dining out and adventures put that on hold. Considering starting a family? One of you better have a stable job with benefits or suffer a drop in quality of lifestyle.

Possibly a larger factor than a big, scalable idea is timing. Forget age, what life stage are you in: single and career driven or in a relationship and starting a family? The answer to that question will give you clarity on whether or not to pursue your dreams. Starting a business takes more of an investment in time than money, so your current level of responsibility will give you clarity on pulling the trigger.

Take it from someone whose priorities changed drastically over the past several years. What was a good decision before, isn’t the best decision now. Pride aside, your life goals change which calls for a life pivot.

Entrepreneurship can be for everyone, but think about the lifestyle you want to maintain and decide from there.

Pitch Perfect: You

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pitch-perfect

Recently I read a great article, Founders: Pitch the Promised Land, and it got me thinking…

Why don’t we pitch what we do more aspirational?

Fear. Fraud. Failure. Those are the voices in our head, but aren’t dreams what motivate us?

Whether you’re an employee or entrepreneur: you’re offering a product or service right?

Pitch their dreams.

Take your elevator pitch as an example. Try selling yourself to a stranger in 30 seconds or less; it’s challenging to say the least. That doesn’t include the fact rarely does anyone buy anything on the first impression.

But if someone is “shopping,” your goal is to deliver an answer as clear as possible. Why?

Because without clarity (a.k.a. confusion), the answer to your sales pitch is “no.”

The best stories are the ones that get you thinking. In this case, it caused my own self-evaluation.

Here’s my answer to the question, “So what do you do?”

Before: “I help small to mid-sized companies retain and train their Millennials.”

After: “Millennial Mastery.”

My initial answer is clear and straight to the point, but the revised statement paints an image (or at least causes you to ponder for a moment).

It is possible? How’s it done? What’s the cost?

The goal of a pitch shouldn’t be to get an immediate answer. It should be to get customers to want more.

Engagement in the workplace is talked about constantly, but it should also be integrated with sales pitches too.

So the next time you’re asked the question, “what do you do?” Answer in future-tense.

Let’s Start A Workplace Revolution Together

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josh-allan-dykstra

Josh is a good friend I met for coffee over 6 years ago. We were both at different places then, but our similar views on leadership and work kept the conversation going. Since we connected both of us became authors and dads. Josh is someone I always bounce ideas off of because he’s such an insightful and bright human being. He’s always been supportive of me and I am a big fan of his. I hope you enjoy a peek into this thought leader’s mind:

1) You truly are a thought leader. What does that term mean to you & how does it influence your work?

To me, leadership (for anyone) is about one thing: doing something that’s worth following. To that end, I’m always trying to spread thoughts, ideas, and stories that help others envision a better future for work, and inspire them to come along on the journey. Right now, for the vast majority of people on the planet, work truly sucks. It doesn’t have to be this way. We have all the tools we need to fix this—it’s a desire and design problem, not a capability problem. I want us all to start believing we can create something better… because we can.

2) At the core of what you do lies in making organizations better. Explain your philosophy briefly.

Most of us optimize many different parts of our organizations: marketing, finance, operations, etc. What we typically don’t maximize as a business driver is our culture—the human size of our business. What I mean is, every person in your company has a choice at every moment: will they bring their best self to their work, or will it be something less than their peak performance? We create organizations where people choose peak performance as often as possible, improving results across the board.

3) When we first met, we were both “kidless,” but now as a parent how has that affected the way you view/do work?

Being a dad has made me acutely more aware of the opportunity cost of my time and the finite-ness of my energy. I’ve always had some vague understanding that choosing one thing makes something else impossible, but that notion is now technicolor. And, at the same time as we added kids to our family, I’ve also added more colleagues to my company. Both changes are amazing… and also extraordinarily challenging. I’m doing my best to leverage the benefits of both these things: learning to continually do the things that are the highest and best use of my time at work and to find partners on my team to help make all the other stuff happen, in order to maximize the time I get with my kids. It’s remarkably difficult, but I’m slowly getting better!

4) You recently picked up and moved to a new state, what has that transition to a new “home” been like?

We recently moved to Denver after being in Los Angeles for a decade. We’ve been here now for about 6 months, and I’m afraid I’d be lying if I said we were somehow “settled!” My job has changed very little—in fact, that part of my life has mostly been made better as I’m now closer to a better airport—but the rest of life was completely uprooted, of course. Starting over isn’t easy for anyone, far as I can tell (and moving to a cold climate in the middle of the winter was just a serious bummer), but I will say that the wonderful folks of Colorado have been very kind to us. I’m extremely optimistic that this will be an excellent home for us and our kiddos!

5) You and I are strong advocates of leveraging personal strengths, tell my readers about the Strengthscope and how it can benefit them and their companies!

Let me put this as simply as I can: if your organization doesn’t have a strengths-based culture, you are simply NOT getting peak performance out of your people. Period. Here’s what I’ve learned over the last decade: humans are physically incapable of producing sustained excellence if we’re not utilizing our strengths in our work. My consulting group utilizes an assessment called Strengthscope® to jumpstart these conversations and help people re-orient their mindsets towards a path that’s far more productive and positive! We love it.

Are You a Confused Millennial?

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rachel-ritlop-confused-millennial

I’ve always believed LinkedIn and other social media platforms are about making a virtual connection in hopes of connecting with people you would never meet normally in person. That’s how Rachel & I met. Since we write about similar topics and have mutual friends, we got on the phone and chatted. After talking with her I was impressed with her takeaways and business acumen so I decided to interview her so that you, my readers might be inspired.

1) Tell us briefly how you successfully transitioned from counseling to a business/career coach.

Well initially I started out as a general life coach. I worked with people of all ages, from 17 to 80! My real passion started to come out as I taught twenty somethings how to find their purpose and “adult” effectively. During my first year in business I started getting approached by local businesses to consult on their behalf with program developments, social media marketing, and employee satisfaction. At around the year mark of my business is when I decided to rebrand my business to focus more on business and career coaching.

2) What advice would you give someone who is unhappy in their career?

I would probably ask them to explore what is causing the unhappiness to figure out if its something that could change with some inner work or if the person is in the wrong career all together. For example, someone can be really unhappy because they aren’t used to a certain type of structured work environment or having a boss, but love the work they are doing. In that situation the person should probably work with a coach or counselor to figure out what changes they can make to create more autonomy for themselves in the workplace. However, if someone actually dislikes the work they are doing, then I would have them write out the characteristics of their dream career and start working on an entirely new career plan based on whats missing for them and their intrinsic and current skill set.

3) Your alter ego, The Confused Millennial, has gained a lot of traction as of late. To what do you attribute this growing following?

I think it’s really relatable for people. I constantly get emails and comments from people saying how much they can relate or love the blog. I think most of us millennials are multi-passionate and the idea of narrowing our focus to one thing can feel pretty claustrophobic. The blog is a place to read and watch other millennials journeys, plus get actionable advice based on personal experiences. I think we all crave community and thats what The Confused Millennial is really doing.

4) I’ve noticed a big part of your brand is your complete transparency. Was that intentional or just you being you?

I’ve always been the type of person that what you see is what you get. I have a real hard time with RBF and hiding my emotions. When I moved my business on-line I made the decision to be “more polished” as a business/career coach since that’s what I thought I needed to do in order to be “successful”… but a month after the launch of rachelritlop.com I felt like I was a total fraud. I realized how much fluff I had consumed on the internet and I felt taken advantage of and just wanted to do something different than what all the “big coaches” were doing with their perfectly polished personas, and be true to me… which led to the creation of The Confused Millennial.

5) Recently you launched an Instagram E-Course. Tell my readers more about this great resource!

Yeah! It’s been great! It decided the last week of March to grow my Instagram following and in just three months I saw an increase in engagement from 0% to 8% and from less than 300 followers to about 6,000! I decided to put all the information I learned and tips into a course! Basically it takes you through the basics of Instagram, how to optimize your Instagram for engagement and conversations, how to take Instagram worthy photos with your iPhone, how to grow an engaged following and so much more! The course is available for sale here!

Taking A Bite Out Of SEO

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Rachel-Howe

Rachel Howe is someone I know through the social media platform Brazen. Back then it was a virtual place to meet other Young Professionals. Recently I had a client who asked me for a SEO recommendation so I scoured through LinkedIn and contacted Rachel to gauge her interest. Long story short, my client hired Rachel and everyone is happy. Since SEO can be an intimidating subject, I’ve asked Rachel to share her thoughts in the following interview:

1) Tell us a little bit about how you got started in SEO.

Well, what can I say? I don’t think anyone can say that they grew up wanting to be a search engine optimizer when they were a kid. Especially since the internet is less than half a century old! I did what I think most people who entered the profession ended up doing, I kind of fell into it. When I was a kid I used to want to be an artist or a veterinarian. I quickly realized that I was no good at science and biology. And, while I enjoy art and have taken a few college art classes, I knew that it wasn’t something I was passionate enough about to do day in and day out (not to mention when you’re putting yourself through college, being a starving artist just won’t cut it.). So, I studied marketing. I could see myself as a businesswoman and marketing combined my interest in using my creativity and business interest. I had no idea what I wanted to do though. When I graduated, I ended up working in the corporate setting for a couple of years. I knew that I couldn’t keep that up. It was just too draining. So I did things I liked like writing and marketing. I set up my own blog and started blogging about internet marketing. Soon after I got my first agency job at a small agency here in Milwaukee. And the rest is history ☺

2) What are some misconceptions about SEO that you’d like to clear up?

I think the SEO industry is interesting because there are people out there that give it a bad rap. There are “black hat” SEOs that try to game the system and make a quick buck, which are the biggest culprits. But there are also people that just think that you slap a few title tags on a site, stuff some keywords on the page and voila! The site is SEOed. While that would be great, it also does the profession a disservice. It is a profession for a reason. People make their livelihoods out of it and a lot of work goes into doing great SEO. It’s a large combination of things including understanding algorithms, code, marketing principles, PR and having good business sense. There’s a lot of work that goes into it, so my hope is that by bringing transparency in combination with education, we’ll shed more light into this up and coming, complex industry.

3) On your site, you talk about creating meaningful connections vs. solely driving sales and leads – why is that important?

A lot of people will tell you they can make you a ton of money with SEO and get you to the top of Google for “xyz” terms. The chances of them delivering on that is low. Yes, it is definitely possible, but there really are no guarantees with search engines. Things change all the time and you can only really estimate and put your best foot forward. Even if they could get you to the top and let’s say they convert here and there. Are they repeat purchasers, or just a bunch of one-timer purchasers or visitors? Because if all you get is one time purchasers or visits, you’d really be missing out on a valuable segment of your market, which is repeat purchasers. And going after that is a better use of your marketing dollars and time.

If you think about how search engines like Google evaluate websites, it’s really almost like evaluating a business as if it were the brick and mortar itself. You have to be a good, credible business in the real world and that translates on the internet. Which is largely due to the relationships you build and how you run your shop. So, it’s really important to think about the broader perspective when you get into marketing your business online, or anywhere for that matter.

4) If you had to sum up what you do in one word, what would it be? Why?

Marketing. At the end of the day, great SEO is more than just getting higher rankings. It’s helping people market their products and services.

5) Describe to my readers what it’s like working with you & why they should hire you!

I like to think that I’m easy to get along with and at the end of the day, I want to help people with marketing and growing their business. I think big picture, but I’m also practical. I don’t tell people what they want to hear, I tell them what they need to hear so we can focus on getting results. If you want to work with someone who’s honest, hard-working and cares about getting you results over a paycheck, then here I am! (of course, I want a paycheck, but you get the point 😉

How To Effectively Manage Millennials: A 6 Week Workshop

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generational-conflict

Starting Mid-June I’ll be hosting a 6-week workshop on: How to Effectively Manage Millennials.

Prior to that I plan to host a couple of free webinars with more information on the topics I’ll be covering, so stay tuned.

The workshops will be held in Santa Monica and geared towards anyone who manages Millennials.

The beauty of the in-person workshops will include the rich local network and collaboration of other professionals in the area. When it comes to leading effectively, there’s strength in numbers.

Why Artists Make Terrible Producers

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coachella-2016

Listen up aspiring/current entrepreneurs.

Imagine you’re a singer. You don’t write the songs or create the music, you just sing the song. The producer on the other hand never performs on stage, but they definitely run to the bank every time you open your mouth.

Neither is better. Just different.

For some reason 9 years ago when I took the leap from working for a boss to being my own, I thought I had to be an artist. The irony is while being employed I was a much better conductor than performer. Why did I make the shift: ego, naivety, achievement-oriented? All of the above.

Most of us do one role really well and the other one not so much. In my case I love coaching individuals, I’ve gotten much better at speaking and heck I even wrote a book. But I got away from what I do best and makes the biggest impact.

The latter matters more than the former. I’m a huge believer in strengths. Figure out what you’re great at and do more of that. The artist in me strayed away from the advice I’ve been giving, but the producer is aiming to get it back.

What I love most is: leadership development. Most of the time it happens through an organized program. As much as I love being directly involved, the biggest impact happens when the effort is multiplied through other leaders (think Uber driver vs. Uber, the company).

In a society where personal branding is mainstream it’s hard to step behind-the-scenes. But if you’re truly a producer, want to scale your idea and desire greater impact the shift from artist to producer must happen.

So choose the role that better fits you: artist or producer. Then proceed and make sure to stay in your lane.

Why Settling Is Worse Than Failure

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directv-settlers

A slow death…that’s what it feels like.

Settling is accepting lower standards for yourself. If you’ve stayed at a job years past when you said you’d quit, you’re settling.

At least with failure it means you tried something and the result didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to. The key differentiator here is: you tried.

The most successful people in this world fail more than you do. You only hear about their success stories because failure isn’t inspiring. Truth is in order to succeed, you have to risk failing. That means trying is better than settling.

Settling is waving the white flag. It says, “I give up.” It’s the belief that you’re a victim and you deserve less in life. The mind is a powerful thing and when you allow it to dwell in past regrets it freezes over.

If you’re feeling stuck in any part of your life right now, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather risk failure and try or live with regret for the rest of my life?”

No risk, no reward. If you don’t try, there’s a zero percent chance you can succeed. Settling is essentially telling yourself, “I can’t.” Once you believe that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Never settle.

The #1 Reason You’ll Leave Your Job

Scott Asai2 Comments

career_lightbulb

The #1 reason why you’ll leave your (current) job is: lack of career development a.k.a. growth opportunities.

From first glance there’s an assumption that includes a promotion, but not necessarily. The need for career advice is on the rise because most people don’t know what they want to do and/or they change their mind often. Blame social media or a plethora of options, but regardless its reality. Let’s start from the company’s perspective:

Why should we invest professional growth resources into employees who might end up leaving?

First response: efficiency. Back in 2008-09 when the recession started, the first thing to go was “luxury” items such as training. Jobs were being cut drastically and our economy went in the tank. The only job that was safe was: sales (gotta make money to stay in business). If you want people to perform better, they have to be trained. Some companies take the shortcut by hiring “experienced” workers then throw them in the fire. That’s one approach, but even if they know the skill set to accomplish the work, the culture is still a mystery. The reason most leaders micromanage is because they never train people under them properly. Part of career development is training on the job (feedback included) and figuring out if the role is a good fit. If it’s not, here’s the perfect segue into the next point.

Second response: saves time/money. If you’re concerned about pouring into an employee, then having them leave, don’t. If you had someone working for you and they didn’t want to be there wouldn’t you want to know earlier than later? Hopefully this gets caught during the interview process, but if it doesn’t training only reveals it. If you’re working for a company who invests in your professional growth, wouldn’t you be more motivated to work harder for them? This may sound too altruistic, but most people’s performance starts to decline (outside of personal issues) when they feel undervalued/under-appreciated. Practically speaking, helping people navigate their career path will provide clarity for the individual as well as the company.

In simplistic terms, here’s the equation: if my company takes care of me, I will take care of their customers.

Great customer service = brand loyalty = higher profits.

The most direct way to take care of people is invest in their career growth.

This is not a futuristic concept. This is current.

Retention is tied directly to career development, or lack thereof.

Scott Asai is a speaker/coach that has been developing leaders for 20+ years – athletes, companies and individuals. His focus is helping people develop leadership skills to advance in their careers. Scott tends to attract a large audience of Millennials and Introverts to his programs/events. His professional background consists of: B.A. in Psychology, M.A. in Organizational Leadership, Certified Professional Coach and Certified Strengths Coach.