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.

Communication + Education + Technology = Dynamic Results

In an information economy simply communicating to your potential and existing customers is no longer enough. With so many potential solutions, consumers are overwhelmed by choice, especially in the SaaS and Cloud-Based Solutions space. How do you differentiate yourself?

The answer: Consumer Efficacy.

By combining communication, education, and technology, Jill Schiefelbein creates customized solutions for your business. Whether your challenge is initial sales, increasing usage and adoption rates among current users, or retaining customers in subscription-based models, Jill can help.

Through a unique understanding of how humans interact with technology and how people learn, Jill examines your business and creates communication strategies aimed at enhancing the bottom line.

Want to learn more? Contact us for an brief analysis.

jill@thedynamiccommunicator.com

+1-480-280-9303

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

Developing Employees on Different Paths: The Principle of Equifinality

The idea of equifinality means that there are many paths to the same end—there are multiple ways to reach a final goal.

Think of navigating in New York City from Times Square to Lincoln Center. There are many different ways you can get from point A to point B, and many different methods of transportation to get you between points. Depending on traffic, subway schedules, weather, and other assorted factors, one way is likely faster than the others.

By choosing to take one way over the other—say on this given day it’s a taxi—you’re missing out on many other possible discoveries and observations that walking or taking a bus or subway would have presented.

If you’re focusing on cultivating a culture of innovation and developing your employees, those potential discoveries and observations are key to growth.

A fatal flaw that many managers make is assuming that their ideas or processes are always the best—the most efficient—and therefore need to be continually executed. This assumption (and acting on it) kicks any type intrapreneurial thinking to the curb. In doing so, you’re likely to lose top talent and have trouble retaining employees, especially millennials.

In organizations there are many ways to accomplish a single task. The concept of equifinality is alive and well. Yes, some processes may be more efficient than others, but often times in allowing employees the freedom to chart their own path, new efficiencies emerge.

An employee’s learning process in accomplishing a task is just as important as the task itself.

Here’s an example that applies to sales teams in almost any industry.

Think of a speech, or sales-script, written out word-for-word. If you give this document to ten different employees and tell them they must recite this pitch to-the-letter during all sales conversations, you’d ensure that the words coming out of their mouths were exact. But in doing so you’d be missing out on significant opportunities to develop individual delivery skills, provide employees ownership over their scripts, cater to a customer’s unique needs, and cultivate sustainable relationships between your sales force and potential clients.

How can you use the principle of equifinality to develop your employees? If you’re not sure, let’s have a conversation.

Note: In a previous blog I talked about three phrases that leaders should never use if they want to encourage innovation and participation. One of these phrases, “That’s now how we do things around here,” is very applicable to this post.

Bringing an On-Demand Mentality to Employee Development: How to Get Education to Employees When They Need It and Where They Want It

The training and development marketplace is flooded with sub-par providers. Institutions of higher learning are not adequately preparing graduates to enter the workplace and contribute in a substantive way. Brick and mortar models of classroom-based training and instruction do not allow for the innovation and collaboration that is essential for business growth. And needing to learn a skill for a project now, but having to wait weeks or months to take a seminar, is an outdated model.

Enter the growing potential of on-demand training and education.

Yesterday at Internet Week New York I attended a powerhouse panel with the CEO of Zeel, Samer Hamadeh, the GM of Pager, Toby Hervey, the COO of Handy, Alex Levin, a SVP at Postmates, Holger Luedorf, and a VP at Glamsquad, Amanda Rosenbergy. The topic: From On-Demand to In Demand.

Each panelist represented a different on-demand service niche—from massages to healthcare, from hairstyling to handymen.

The bridge that connects each of these businesses, though, is the realization that, within their respective verticals, they are bringing a service, instead of a product, to a client when and where he or she wants it.

My mind has not been this stimulated in a long time. I’m letting my geek flag fly.

I’ve worked in the online education space, in some capacity or another, for a decade. In that space I’ve witnessed significant changes about what constitutes learning, and numerous debates over the efficacy of synchronous versus asynchronous content delivery.

At the end of it all is the overwhelming understanding that there is no one best way to learn, and the simultaneous challenges that having the capability to deliver content through multiple channels, across various canvases, present.

I see universities and institutions of higher education struggle with delivering quality online instruction. I witness companies hiring trainers to come in for an isolated seminar given in a one-size-fits-all approach. And I see frustrated students and employees on both ends, because knowledge needs are not met.

Sure, we can go to YouTube and get information on any topic under the sun. But information doesn’t equal knowledge.

How do organizations bring the philosophies of on-demand services to employees in order to create a more engaged and productive workforce?

In the answer lies an opportunity.

Companies like Udemy, Lynda, Grovo and others are playing in this field with varying degrees of success, but I believe there are more possibilities to explore.

Here are three questions I see guiding the discussion:

How do we negotiate a person’s perceived self-efficacy on any given skill versus their actual performance?

The principles of on-demand service can apply easily to providing feedback. What mechanisms does your organization have in place to ensure that employees are getting feedback when they need it and when they want it? Are you giving feedback in a way that supports further learning, or is it obfuscated under the threat of essential improvement?

In general, we know millennial employees want more feedback than their Gen X counterparts. But how can we create the equivalent of a flight-attendant call button in the workplace to make sure the performance feedback needs are met?

How can we use principles of social proof and comparison to drive the desire for knowledge?

Social proof (a nod to the research of Robert Cialdini) goes a long way. Comparison and contrast can serve as a motivating force. When we can get employees to make the conscious choice to learn, of their own volition, organizations experience higher levels of employee engagement.

Think back to elementary school, before the time where “everyone is equal” in the classroom. I remember the giant chart on the chalkboard, with each student’s name and spaces for the gold stars for every book you read. Each week, when the stars were placed, I stared at that chart waiting to see if I had more stars than the other students. When I didn’t, I rushed home and begged my mom to take me to the library. If I lost one week, I ensured I wouldn’t the next.

I’m not advocating competition in all aspects of employee development, but if you create an environment where people are rewarded for improvement and recognized for contributions, you’ll have a workforce that is more eager to learn.

How do we feed training to employees in an easy-to-consume way?

People support what they help create. If you allow the employee to have some buy-in to his or her own personal development, you’re more likely to achieve sustained results that impact performance and productivity. I believe self-reflection and self-reporting are a part of this, as is the metric evaluation of learning, from both quantitative and qualitative methods.

I’m a big believer in what I (not-so-eloquently) call “digestible chunks” of learning. This philosophy led me to create a 52-video series called 60 Second Guru where I delivered subscribers a one-minute video, once per week, to help them improve their communication and presentation skills. This series continues to yield 25,000+ views each month. Organizations I’ve worked with often supplement my training or consulting with weekly videos delivered over a 6-26 week period with targeted questions that generate ideas pertinent to that person’s current position. In this way, I start to embrace the on-demand mentality. But I still have progress to make.

The availability of information is like an all-you-can-eat buffet. But organizations can strategically position certain entrees on the spread to increase consumption. What is your business doing to cater to employee development needs? Adopting an on-demand thought process is a good place to start.

Making a Wireframe for Your Team to Maximize Talent Conversion: What Managers Can Learn from UX

User Experience.

In consumer businesses, UX is traditionally viewed as a way to analyze and produce experiences that drive consumers toward an end goal. The focus of UX is largely external. The motivation for investing in UX is conversion, and, ultimately, the bottom line.

Let’s flip UX on its traditional head. I believe that managers can significantly benefit by viewing UX as an internal measure.

Today at Internet Week New York (#IWNY) I attended a presentation by Sarah Blecher of Digital Pulp who presented a more advanced definition (based on crowdsourcing) of UX:

It’s the moment when content, design, and interaction come together and how the user feels about it.

Imagine that—users have feelings, and businesses need to pay attention to them.

The same is true for your employees.

Here’s how you can use the three core principles of UX—content, design, and interaction—to transform your team’s experience in the workplace to achieve higher productivity, enhanced morale, and accelerated conversion of talent to profit.

Content

In UX, content typically refers to the text, image and video elements on a site. When you’re dealing with the experience of your organizational teams, the content pieces are the task at hand and the available resources.

If you want to set your teams up to optimize employees’ creative capital, you need to make sure their experience is as seamless as possible. When charging a team with a task, make sure that all of the information members need to complete the task is in a central location.

Communicate the output expectations clearly, and present, up front, the resources available.

If you’re not sure what resources are available, provide parameters. Creativity thrives in the face of constraint.

Design

When most think of UX, they think immediately of design. Design, however, is only a part of the equation. In organizations, employee design is all about the environment—physical, social and emotional.

If you want to maximize human capital, provide an environment that is conducive to the needs and personalities of your team members. This is where a high amount of EQ (emotional intelligence) comes into play.

As a manager, you need to know the fears, stresses, and motivations of your team members so that you may design environments where human experience is valued over productivity.

By paying attention to the feelings of your employees, and recognizing individual and collective needs, productivity rises organically in a way that is sustainable and not forced.

When employees feel valued, empowered, and comfortable (not fearful of) presenting ideas that could fail, you’ve set up an environment to maximize talent conversion.

Interaction

The last piece of the UX equation is interaction—how the user interacts or engages with your content, within your design. When developers study patterns of interaction, they get feedback that they use to modify or solidify content and design.

Managing others and leading teams involves recognizing how each individual works, and providing the necessary feedback so the employee can develop the necessary skills to perform at a higher level. Especially with the growing millennial workforce, feedback—and the frequency of providing feedback—is increasingly important.

In looking at how people learn, studies show that one of the key factors in performance and knowledge retention is the interaction between the student and the instructor. The same parallel is true for the workplace.

Employees who have better relationships—better interactions—with their managers have higher rates of productivity, workplace satisfaction, and an increased desire to perform well.

Analyzing UX should not just be viewed as a consideration when it comes to analyzing consumer behavior. Retaining top talent IS based on “user” experience.

Make sure your leaders are creating experiences that will keep these key players on your team.