Credibility Versus Visibility

A close friend was recently talking with me about where her daughter was considering attending college. She had before talked about her daughter attending Wake Forrest or Duke and a few other schools highly accredited for their academics. Her daughter now, was looking at a more local school that had, over the past few years, become such a huge in presence that to many locals it felt as if the school had become a big monster that had swallowed up the once smaller, more quant town. The downside was you couldn’t visit anywhere from a car wash, to a bank, to a taco stand that wasn’t recognizing the students and their patronage, you couldn't get away from the school mascot or colors, and the shininess of the predominant gigantism of the school made everything around it feel old, grubby and small. The good side, is that it had given the town a ton of exposure and therefore put it on the map.

A few years ago, I was involved in a community program that had you learn everything about your town. It was wonderful and something that really stuck with me. I remember studying and visiting the school. I was at first wow’d by how beautiful it was. The young energetic staff. The brand. I quickly was bothered by being wow’d by the brand instead of by the quality of education so I started asking about the academic part. That wasn’t nearly as focused on, or talked about, as the size of the dorm rooms, the on-campus eateries, the free car washes on Saturday. Oh there went the wow. Isn’t school, education about credibility and not visibility? Back to my conversation with my close friend, I was reminded of my impression of the school those years ago and started to ask her about the schools this and that in regard to academics. My friend pointed out how large the school was, how they’d been awarded this and that. I asked her again about the quality of their academics. She wasn’t so sure. The visibility had overshadowed the institution’s credibility.

I’ve thought of that a lot since then. Our business CCS is small. It’s not nearly as visible as it should and needs to be and that’s something we’re continuously working on. I’m not proud of where we are in regard to visibility. What I am proud of though instead is our credibility. We’re often referred to new clients by Editors, which is an amazing compliment. Our clients are long-term clients that truly trust and have faith in our work and abilities. We don’t over promise and we always over deliver.

No, we’re not rocking the visibility. We’re rocking the credibility and if I had my choice, I don’t want our brand and persona to be shiny. I want it to instead be meaty and meaningful.

Competing

I was late in the game on discovering how brilliant Seth Godin is. When I did sign up to receive his blog, about a week in I thought how in the world does he keep it fresh? How does he write what he writes without a care in the world whether someone gets it or not? He just writes. Smart, witty, most always on-point. He’s a legend in my mind. My daughter recently sent this post to me as it was High Point Market and I wasn’t reading much of anything. I was just in the mindset of making sure all was done and done perfectly. 

Godin’s post “What are you competing on” (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/03/what-are-you-competing-on.html), as usual, really made me think. In it, he lists about thirteen areas that people/businesses are competing on. Personally, I’m still reflecting on whether I’m competing at all as I hope I’m not. I hope I’m just doing the best I can to be the best version of me, and not playing that off of others. (The jury is out- wink). Professionally, I look at this daily as I believe knowing your ideals amongst others as being the best driver of success. So with that, I evaluated Godin’s “competing” theories against CCS’ culture and values.   

According to Godin, “In a hypercompetitive world, whatever you're competing on is going to become your focus.”. I thought long and hard on this and on this point I don’t agree. Our company’s 3 competitive drivers in his list of 13, are smarts, responsiveness, and trust. I don’t agree that these drivers are our focus. I would argue that instead, for us anyway, they’ve just been the drivers that have built our business, enabled us to really connect with clients, and build long-term relationships.  I didn’t even think of these as being competitive advantages until I looked at them through Godin’s lens. I will say though, that in a list that also includes competitive advantages of being picked, hustling, generosity, and so on, I like the lens our company is operating through. When I think of our innate, not focused competitive advantages, I’m prouder than ever of what we’ve built and are building.

Just Be You

So easy to say, sometimes so hard to do.

Have you ever had someone dress you up for an event, or use their clothes because yours were wet or your luggage was lost? It’s the weirdest, most uncomfortable feeling when you’re not dressed in the clothes that you identify with or that aren’t you. And you know what I’ve found in those moments? If I’m not being me, it shows; my discomfort comes through. It shines like a beacon.

It’s exactly the same way with who we are. If we’re not being true to ourselves, being ourselves, whatever or whoever that is, it shines through like a beacon. It’s hard in certain situations to just be you. A new client, a first date, meeting your to-be in-laws. If we can remember though that our true self is our best self, we can pull anything off. Bruce Barton said it best.

If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature. 

Bruce Barton

Being Exceptional 101

Why is it that we all, especially when we’re young, get stuck wanting to fit-in, blend; be part of the crowd, instead of doing the obvious and being exceptional?

Being exceptional may take some creativity and it definitely means having to be bold. Yet isn’t the act of being exceptional and the way it inspires others worth it?

I find the older I get, my noticing exceptional, or my being inspired is not an easy feat. Therefore, when I do notice exceptional, it tends to really get my attention.

Recently I was visiting my daughter for her birthday and we went to a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant. I’d actually been told about the restaurant prior to her moving to the area, along with a few other spots that we’d already frequented. The other spots were good, a couple of them, the word “groovy” would even apply. Upon pulling into this place I thought it too would be good, and likely a little groovy. When we walked in however, what I discovered was much much more.

Literally, upon stepping onto their front patio you were immediately transported to another place and time. You were in a foreign land that was colorful, ancient, and wise. Everywhere you looked, every nuance was on-point. Upon being seated in an outdoor back area, guests were placed in their own private little shacked area. The food came and it was perfect and there was tons of it. I had to visit the restroom during dinner. I found that it too heavily and fully held that same ancient charm the rest of the restaurant did. I left inspired and in awe. I’d experienced exceptional. It had crept up on me, taken hold, and it was wonderful.

What does it mean to be exceptional?  According to Merriam Webster: unusually good : much better than average.

I would say that I have to agree with Merriam Webster, but I’d go a little bigger. Exceptional is noteworthy and bold. Exceptional is breathtaking, memorable, makes an impact and inspires. Thank you to all who have the guts to go the exceptional route. I aspire daily to catch-up with you; and when I see and experience you, I go a little faster.

Listen up

When you’re in this biz, the PR/marketing biz, you’re an advisor. One of the firms I worked with the proprietor and CEO was adamant about our being advisors and leading the client. I often scratched my head in bewilderment at how much we led, but didn’t listen.

Shortly after that stint, I founded CCS. I wanted and needed to be with my family more, loved what I was doing, but thought there MUST be a better way of working with clients and I was going to find it, discover it, create it! My intention, my big idea, was to listen. I wanted to be a good listener. The thought… a good listener could in turn be a good advisor.

That was nine years ago. I’ve learned a lot since then, and I’m happy to report that it works. Our culture is to first listen, really listen, then advise and then, at the end of the day, respect our client’s wishes whether they’ve taken the counsel they’ve been given or decided upon a different path. It’s simple, but hey, it works and that’s what matters.

My Mentor

Mentor is a big word. It’s a word that has a lot of meaning. When I was a young woman I remember hearing it on TV or a movie, or by someone giving a speech thanking their mentor and thinking how cool it was, the idea of someone caring enough about someone’s future, fostering growth, that they’d take that person under their wing and make them better.

Fast forward a couple of years, I’m working in marketing and sales support, DB (we’ll call him) is hired and becomes my boss. This guy is old school, not super old, but definitely old school. He knows everybody, has a great, big reputation, he’s all that and shocker, he’s not a fan of me (or so I thought).

He was savvy, his dress, his talk, how he worked people, how he got things done (his way), he had more leeway than I’d ever seen anyone in the company have. He was smooth. Unfortunately, when I walked into the room all that savviness was out the window and was replaced with hardnosed, hard assed DB. It felt many times like he was two people and in fact looking back, he was.

To everyone else he was an associate, a co-worker, an employee, a friend, but to me, for me, he was a mentor. I will never be able to forgive how hard he was on me, but more importantly I’ll never forget how much better he made me. His lessons, though hard, stuck with me, made an impression and are with me still today. In truth, I didn’t like him very much. I respected him, but I didn’t like him.

Instead, I’ll always be grateful that he saw something in me and instead of taking the easy road of being the nice guy with me, like he was with everyone else, he took a different road and fostered what was to be great in me.  

Thank you DB.

What my mentor taught me:

It’s not about me. It’s about what’s best for the company.

Show up, whether you’re sick, down, hung-over, show up because you’re expected to.

It’s the good ‘ole boys club. Work with it, not against.

Work harder, work smarter than everyone else.

Don’t involve “feeling” words into any verbal or written communications (ie I think we should… Instead should be, I recommend we…)

Best business practices for working from home

Best business practices for working from home

I’ve read all kinds of statistics and known so many people who loved the idea of working from home, but couldn’t make working from home, work (no pun intended).

I get it. All the things that make working from home sound so great, are also the things that make it so tough.

Pros

_No boss looking over your shoulder

_Working at your own schedule

_Spending more time with your family

_No chatty co-workers consuming or wasting your time

_No commute to work (wasted time)

Cons

_No structure, easy to get lazy

_Really easy to do laundry or do a Netflix day. That press release can wait until tomorrow

_Lonely, no one to talk to, bounce ideas off of

_Easy to become disconnected, recluse

So with all that, how does it work? How can it work?

_1 Put structure to your business. Business practices. Everyone has a boss, even if you’re your own boss. Accountability. Accountability to yourself first and then to your clients.

_2 Have a routine. Ie. Mine. Get up. Make coffee. Drink coffee. Work, work, work. If you want to throw in a chore set a time limit for it ie. 30min clean house and do laundry. Set a timer. Once the timer rings. It’s back to work.

_3 Include your family as much as possible. This is tough when you have little kids, but involving them in your business in even some small way helps them understand the importance of what you do and the time it takes to do it.

_4 Make friends, find other “like minded” people in your profession or a related one talk through ideas, find ways of collaborating, brainstorm. You know the idea, two heads are better than one, three heads are better than two and so on and so on.