Dynamic Communication Book

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Communication is more than words. Successful, DYNAMIC COMMUNICATION is measured by the actions and results that you generate—not the messages you produce.

GROW Your Business

Get 27 actionable strategies that you can implement to grow your business. Each chapter can be read independent of others, so in as little as 10 minutes you get an idea that can change your business.

Lead Your Business

Contributions from top entrepreneurs like Grant Cardone, John Lee Dumas, Jay Baer, Kat Loterzo, Robin Koval, Ekaterina Walter and 20+ more, give you real advice from real success stories.

Manage Your Business

Feedback is the motor oil that keeps your business engine running. Learn how to manage your teams and keep your people innovating with proven communication and engagement strategies.

Strategies to Accelerate Your Business

8 Parts. 27 Strategies. 100% Action.

The Bare Basics

Things you need to understand about communication

Sales Machine/Ninja/Badass

Providing service and growing sales

Marketing that Educates

Creating value-filled, magnetic marketing

Oh the Humanity!

Public communication strategies that help you connect

Speak Out, Speak Up

Giving presentations that inspire action

Inner Workings

How to manage teams, meetings, and get buy-in

Like a Boss

Leading and managing so people want to work for and with you

Retain, Innovate, or Die

Strategies for employee retention and development

A Conversation on Social Entrepreneurship with Eva Longoria

This month I had a cool opportunity–a chance to chat with Eva Longoria (now Eva Longoria Baston) about business, social entrepreneurship, and her passion in making the world a better place. While many people were focused on her upcoming wedding (which, truthfully, I was unaware of until doing a quick “news” search prior to the call, that I didn’t even think about it–we’re not personal friends, it’s really none of my business) Longoria had something else brewing behind the scenes.

On May 19th, Longoria was announced as one of four judges on Chivas The Venture–a social entrepreneurship competition where 27 finalists are vying for a piece of $1,000,000 in funding.

This was particularly a neat experience for me, as we had our conversation less than 12 hours before I got on a plane to travel to Rusinga Island, Kenya–a rural island community among the poorest of the poor–where I spoke to multiple groups about microfinance opportunities. Hearing her passion for social entrepreneurship added even more fuel to my fire about my service on this trip.

And, quite frankly, we had a great conversation and I wish I could sit down with her, share a cocktail, and talk shop on women, education, and business.

“Using business as a force for good is not only a passion of mine but, really, it’s the only way that we’re going to change the world.” –Eva Longoria Baston

Read the article to learn four steps you can take to make social responsibility a priority in your business, and to see more thoughts from Longoria about social entrepreneurship and her role as a judge.

Original article released May 23, 2016 on entrepreneur.com https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276070

Cool Innovations in Digital Marketing

Attending SXSW you expect to see a lot of cool stuff. What you don’t expect to see, though, is avocados. But this year Avocados from Mexico–the marketing arm that represents the Hass Avocado Importers–took center stage with some unique and delicious innovations. And I was fortunate enough to be there to chat with the minds behind the creative efforts.

Check out these two articles at entrepreneur.com to learn more about the efforts and get a boost of inspiration for your next collaboration. The second one, especially, provides unique insights for digital marketers.

Guacamole and Music Make for a Delicious Combination at SXSW: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272702

Combine more than 60,000 hungry SXSW attendees who will come through SouthBites, free samples and musicians who want to expand their reach and you have a recipe for collaborative success.

Results are In: #GuacNRoll was the Most Popular SXSW Hashtag: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272906

“There is no paid media stronger than human influence. Our strategy in the digital conversation is focused around social influencers and leveraging brand ambassadors. By engaging attendees inside and outside of SXSW with a common hashtag, and partnering with musicians at SXSW in our Guacamole Showdown, we were able to do this at a high level that achieved a wide reach,” says Ivonne Kinser, Director of Digital Strategy at AFM.

Define Your Brand: Pick Your Parking Spot

You’re starting a business. You know what you’re good at. And of course everyone can use it, right?

Wrong.

A common mistake that many entrepreneurs make is starting out too broad. This entrepreneur herself is not immune to that mistake. In fact, I’ve made it multiple times in different forms before settling on where I now target my marketing efforts. However, many of us fall prey to the fear of missing out, thinking that if we don’t spread out over a broad area we’re going to be skipping opportunities. In 3 Steps to Defining Your Space I provide detailed advice of how to stop thinking about your business as a highway and think about it as a parking spot.

But if you really want to differentiate yourself—if you want to claim an area where only you can land, a lane is the start, but it’s not enough.

Screw the lane. Pick a parking spot.

Multiple people—multiple businesses—can travel down the same lane. But only you can own your parking spot.

If you want to find out how to do the following steps, be sure to read the article, originally published on entrepreneur.com on November 9, 2015: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252549

  • Step 1: Pick Your Lane
  • Step 2: Define Yourself
  • Step 3: Locate Your Impact Area

Capture Leads, Increase Sales, and Create an Additional Revenue Stream with Webinars

In my world, there are three types of webinars that you can use in your business. The first, the lead generation webinar, is where you are running a free webinar to get information and then sell something during/after the webinar. The second, a one-off webinar, is where you charge a set amount for a single webinar and then there are no other promises. The third, a webinar series, is like a master class where you can run multiple webinars as part of a bigger process or picture. Check out my article at Entrepreneur.com which breaks these down even further.

A webinar is a LIVE, interactive seminar done online. It’s a way for you to captivate and engage an audience. It’s a venue for interaction where you can gain valuable insights from your audience or help them come to valuable insights of their own.

Webinars are a great way to capture leads, increase sales and, my favorite, provide an additional revenue stream.

Published September 25, 2015 on Entrepreneur.com https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250980

How Andy Warhol’s Sketch Inspires My Business

In 1962 Andy Warhol did a pencil and paper sketch of his now-famous Campbell’s soup can rendering. He then went onto duplicate key elements of this sketch onto 32 canvases which are now prominently displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In this exhibit, the pieces are displayed along a single shelf lining four walls of a room–which is meant to mimic the cans’ placement on what could be a grocery store shelf.

But the canvases are not always displayed in the way they were originally intended.

Typically, when these pieces are on display at MoMA they are arranged as you see in the image on the right–in four rows of eight cans.

Regardless of how they are displayed, these cans hold a sort of fascination for me. Many debate whether or not to call these works “art” or if they are rather just visual transmissions of information. To me it matters not.

To me, it’s about the experience of how you can take a single object–in this case a soup can–and translate it into many different forms. For Warhol, it was all about how he interpreted the soup can and decided how to manifest his interpretation into something tangible.

And it all started with a sketch.

Often sketches are blue prints for great things to come. They’re created in a medium that is easily malleable, erasable, and disposable. Discarding these sketches, though, can be a costly mistake.

As I’m staring at this 1962 sketch my mind wanders: What are the sketches in my business? What ideas did I map out but discard because they didn’t immediately turn a profit? Are there key elements in my sketches that can be duplicated, rearranged, or re-purposed?

If you go back and look at all of the sketches that you’ve done for your business, there are likely key elements in there that are, like Warhol’s soup cans, worthy of replication.

The challenge is to find those elements, put them on your own canvas, and display them in a way that makes people want to engage with you and your work.

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Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship Killers: Phrases to Avoid

Creating an environment where innovation is encouraged is important for businesses who want to harness the power of employees’ ideas. In this article for Entrepreneur.com I provide three phrases to avoid if you’re trying to create an entrepreneurial spirit in the workplace. Read the full article for more details, including alternative conversation paths.

If you want to retain good employees, attract talent, and cultivate intrapreneurial spirit, DO NOT use these three phrases.

1. “Stick to your job. That’s not in your job description.”

2. “We don’t have the resources.”

3. “That’s not the way we do things here.”

Full article published July 31, 2015 at Entrepreneur.com https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248986

Three Tips for Cultivating an Innovative Workforce: Attracting and Retaining Talent

Turn-over and the inability to attract innovative employees are two problems that plague many organizations and stunt business growth. Cultivating an environment that rewards entrepreneurial thinking—or intrapreneurship—is one key change a company can make towards keeping and attracting proactive and forward-thinking employees.

Here are three tips to help.

Tip 1: Provide time and space for innovation.

If you want employees to come up with new ideas, you need to give them time to create without penalty and during standard business hours. One of the most well-known examples of this practice is Google, who gives employees 20% of their work week to use creating ideas for Google-related products and services.

Doing this communicates to employees that you value their time and insight—that you welcome their ideas and encourage them to be active participants in the organization. In turn this produces a work environment where employees feel invested in the company and its success.

Tip 2: Generate a process for idea submission.

A lot of companies will provide time for innovation, but then leave employees wondering the proper way to actually communicate their ideas. Providing employees with a process for submitting or pitching their ideas lets them know what information needs to be presented, what research needs to be done, and gives direction for execution. This framework also can reduce time spent evaluating ideas, as only those ideas that are a bit more fleshed out will make it to the presentation stage. (Note: This doesn’t mean that quick, spur of the moment ideas aren’t valuable—in fact, sometimes they are the best ideas. But providing a venue for those, separate from the formal pitch, is essential and perhaps a precursor to the presentation.)

An example of a company who does this well is DreamWorks. At DreamWorks, employees at all levels can get education on how to pitch an idea. successfully—a program that encourages creation from all employees, not matter what their job role or title.

Tip 3: Reward the process, not the result.

One sure-fire way to squash innovation is to penalize employees if ideas don’t work out. Do not view this as wasted time. Instead, view this as time when an employee was actively participating in the betterment of the company. When you give employees permission to fail, they are willing to be more creative—more innovative and risky—with their thinking. This can often lead to the best ideas.

A great example of rewarding the process comes from Calgon who, upon advice from Alan Weiss of Summit Consulting Group, created a “Best Idea That Didn’t Work” award, giving respect to the process, and not the end result.

Innovation and Participation Killers: Three Phrases Leaders Should Never Use

Creating a culture that breeds and nurtures innovation is important in today’s global economy. Employees are increasingly mobile, and Generation Y and Z employees, in particular, aren’t afraid to leave and find new jobs if they don’t feel valued.

If you want to retain good employees, attract talent, and cultivate an environment of participation, creativity and innovation, DO NOT use these three phrases.

Stick to your job. That’s not in your job description.

Want to make an employee feel that they have no use beyond their immediate job description? These phrases kill any organizational buy-in and stop any incentive the employee had to think of ideas outside of their immediate scope. This tells employees that their thoughts have no value to the organization as a whole, and that the only thing that is important is their singular function.

Instead, ask questions.

  • How do you see this idea fitting in with your current charge?
  • How do you see this idea expanding your responsibilities?
  • How do you see this idea benefiting the organization as a whole?

Asking questions gets employees to make the connections on their own, that you might want to make for them. It also can give you enhanced understanding of the employee’s vision and how it can contribute to the greater goal.

We don’t have the resources.

This phrase is commonly used by managers without regard to the consequences. When you tell an employee this, you’re also communicating that his idea isn’t worth exploring or that her contribution isn’t good enough to warrant consideration. Managers that want to increase innovation find a way to provide resources for promising and invested employees, or encourage the employee to find the resources for him or herself. They also know that creativity thrives in the face of constraint.

Instead, issue a challenge.

I don’t have the resources immediately at my disposal to approve this today; however, why don’t we think of a couple of ways we could rearrange our priorities to make your idea a possibility.

or

I like this idea and want to think about how it fits into our overall strategy a bit more. Come up with a few solutions for how we could integrate this idea within our current operational plan and let’s meet tomorrow to discuss.

This lets the employee know that you do value the idea, and that you want to consider how the idea could come to fruition. It also encourages the employee to invest more time in his or her idea, which will increase buy-in to the organization and to your leadership.

That’s not the way we do things here.

Want to make an employee feel like she’s on an island and not a part of the team? Use this phrase. Telling an employee that he doesn’t know the way things are done communicates two negative things: (1) that he doesn’t know the organization well and that he should, and (2) that outside ideas, perspectives and innovations are not welcome.

Although organizations have rules and policies, it doesn’t mean that they should never be re-examined. Maybe this is the time and place to do that introspection.

Instead, encourage integration.

In the past we’ve approached this idea from a XYZ perspective. However, I think this new idea has promise. Let’s see how we can integrate your solution with our existing operations to improve the organization as a whole.

You can also challenge the employee to think of those means of integration and bring them to you for a conversation.

Remember, as a leader your team’s success is your success. Foster an environment where creativity and innovation can thrive and watch your team succeed.

Repurposing: Using Established Processes for Creativity and Results

For the second year, renowned evolutionary theorists met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the now-annual Festival of Bad Ah-Hoc Hypotheses (BAH-Fest). Here, researchers use traditional scientific methods and processes to develop satirical theories. The winner of the 2014 BAH-Fest presented a theory of how belly fat in middle-aged men evolved for floatation purposes to save his family from drowning.

I read an article by Angela Chin in the December 1, 2014 Wall Street Journal about this event and, aside from being amused, realized that there is a deeper lesson in this event—the repurposing of traditional methods for creativity and refinement.

In business, we have the tendency to take ourselves too seriously and often become unilaterally focused on a single objective—or the bottom line—that we miss the bigger picture.

Researchers and scientists often fall prey to this same behavior.

BAH-Fest is a way to shake off the traditional paradigmatic approaches and go back to basics—focusing on the scientific method and presenting sound (albeit satirical) research.

This mental shift to satire, while still remaining true to methodological roots, allows researchers to break from a one-track focus and give a presentation at an event which expands a greater goal of science—to bring about understanding, and, where appropriate, societal change.

I imagine that the “real” work from participants benefits immensely from this creative mental break, and brings about a renewed focus and clarity.

This can be replicated in your organization.

  • Where have your employees lost sight of the bigger picture?
  • What processes aren’t being followed well and are causing lapses in productivity?
  • How can you repurpose a process or system in your organization to unleash creativity?

Think about how you can create an outlet for innovation. By doing so, you can get back to basics and reunite your employees around the bigger goal or vision and expedite forward progress.

Need help? Let’s communicate about it.