Posts by David Shriner-Cahn
STP063: Building a Business vs. Building an Asset with Scott Fritz
After founding Human Capital in 1997, Scott Fritz grew the company into a nationwide player with 2007 annual revenues of $170 million dollars. He also acquired Atlantic Insurance, a property and casualty agency, re-branded and re-positioned the agency, and sold it – all within two years. In this interview, however, he goes back to the beginning—when he spent two and a half years without a paycheck. He describes the factors that produce a successful business at its inception—in particular, why a certain amount of “failure is not an option” attitude can be helpful to getting a business of the ground.
He also discusses:
- Building a business vs. building an asset
- Getting “out of the way” of talented employees, and how to let people do what they were hired to do
- Building owner wealth vs. building company value, and why owners should take wealth out of a business—and how much
- Transitioning yourself out of the business you founded, in three steps
- Positioning your company to be acquired, and why it’s the same as positioning your company to acquire others
- Learning to be okay with passing your work to someone who may not be capable of 100% of what you did—but why 80% is good enough
Fritz is the author of The 40 Hour Work YEAR; he currently oversees funding and strategy for Vision Group Management, a website transaction company focused on the acquisition and monetization of over 50 websites around the world. He is also the founder of Growth Connect, specializing in transforming businesses into assets, and an active angel investor.
Learn more about Fritz at 40hourworkyear.com, which provides details on his book, coaching business, speaking, and more.
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Individual and Team Success: Mary Andrews’s Favorite Coaches
In her interview on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, Mary Andrews described how she drew on her Olympic and other athletic experiences to form her understanding of how individual and team success works. Here, she supplements that background with details on the people who have also helped shape her coaching philosophies: 1. Marilyn King…
Read Full PostSTP062: The Four Lessons You Can Learn from Olympians with Mary Andrews
Former Olympian Mary Andrews specializes in working with business leaders who have achieved individual success, and are working to take on responsibility for the broader success of their companies. Here, she discusses the four things that we can all learn from Olympians regarding how to achieve success, beginning with the ability to believe in possibilities of success, and learning how to name and claim what you want. Drawing on her Olympics experience, she also discusses the interplay of individual dynamics with group performance, and how group success can be achieved among teams and communities.
Other topics include:
- How competition can inspire everyone to do better
- Why “adding a team member” is a misnomer (you’re not “adding”; you’re reforming the whole team!)
- Why everyone should think about leadership—not just managers, bosses, and partners
- Succession leadership—how to move from being in charge to helping others prepare to step into leadership roles
- Why being successful doesn’t mean you have to “do it on your own”: why coaches can help you maintain focus
Andrews is President of Andrews Performance Corporation. She holds a Masters Degree from Stanford University, and has more than twenty years of experience in the field of individual, team, and organizational performance—specializing in helping leaders who are dealing with too much to do, not enough time, and frustration with the lack of exciting results.
Get in touch with Andrews via email at MOAndrews@AndrewsPerformance.com or learn more through her website, www.andrewsperformance.com.
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Inspiration, Example, and Mentorship: Clemantine Wamariya's Influences for Changing the World
In her interview on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, Clemantine Wamariya described several people who have influenced her as she seeks to make a difference in the lives of the forgotten citizens of the world. Here, an excerpt of that interview, in which Clemantine describes the people who have had the greatest impact on…
Read Full PostSTP061: Defining Self-Identity and Maintaining Mentor Relationships With Clemantine Wamariya
Clemantine Wamariya came to the United States with her sister Claire in 2000, having survived the Rwandan genocide and several years of living in refugee camps. A recent graduate of Yale University, she is currently working on a startup that will connect top African students at U.S. universities with international companies that will provide entrepreneurial, technological and philanthropic opportunities for them to grow into the leaders that their countries need.
Here, she discusses:
- How to help people understand what it means to be “a citizen of the world”—and also what it means to be a forgotten citizen of the world
- The power of defining her own experience, and not allowing others to define her as a “refugee” or in other terms that invite assumptions
- Surrounding herself by people that inspire and enable her to maintain her focus
- The possibilities offered by “criticizing by creating”
- The importance of maintaining two-way relationships with mentors
- Living with a sense of wonder and surprise—even while acknowledging that things will go wrong
A social entrepreneur and a storyteller, Wamariya is currently working with her sister on a book on their experiences in war zones and refugee camps, and how they worked together to rise above these environments. She is on the board of Women for Women International, and was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Holocaust Museum Board. She is also an advisory board member at Refugee Transitions.
Learn more about Wamariya through her website at clemantine.co; or through social media: Twitter (@clemantine1), Facebook (Facebook.com/Clemantine.me), and Instagram (@clemantine1).
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Customer Service, Public Speaking, and Magic: Shep Hyken's Influences
In his interview on Smashing the Plateau yesterday, Shep Hyken detailed how strong, example-setting leadership can influence all employees to treat customers well. Here he expands on the people who have, in turn, influenced him: 1. Zig Ziglar (now deceased) and Tom Hopkins (@TomHopkinsSales): Hyken writes, “I saw Zig and Tom at a ‘rally’ in…
Read Full PostSTP060: Creating a Vibrant Customer Service Culture With Shep Hyken
Shep Hyken has expanded the customer service practices he learned as a twelve-year-old magician into a career as a customer service expert, professional speaker and bestselling author. This week, he speaks about how crucial a healthy customer service culture is to any company, and how companies of any size can help foster a culture of positive feedback—not only through treating customers well, but by treating their own employees well.
Other topics include:
- Starting a business in 2015 vs. starting his first business in 1983
- How online content marketing can help you identify new customers while serving your current customers
- The importance of a flexibility of mindset, at companies of any size
- Why good leaders need clarity of vision, and how employee training can help everyone share that vision
- The importance of hiring new employees who fit a company culture
- What we can learn about leadership from Walt Disney’s picking up garbage at Disneyland
Hyken specializes in helping companies build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. He write regularly for Forbes.com, and has authored several books, including Moments of Magic (1993), The Amazement Revolution (2011), and Amaze Every Customer Every Time (2013). He has also created The Customer Focus program, which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.
Learn more about Hyken at www.hyken.com.
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Social Media Mentors with Brian Honigman
On his interview on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, Brian Honigman discussed how business and individuals can get smart about social media. As for his own social media mentors, he describes how “The list goes on and on and on! And mostly people that don’t really know that they’re a mentor or an influencer…”…
Read Full PostSTP059: Smart Social Media Management with Brian Honigman
Brian Honigman is a marketing consultant, freelance writer and speaker, with a highly diverse background at agencies, global brands (including Dell), and small-but-hot start-ups (like Sumall). Here, he discusses what companies need to know about social media, and why finding the right audience, and promoting your content in the right places, is just as important as producing that content in the first place.
He also discusses:
- Being sure that your business is not “blogging for the sake of blogging”
- Identifying your “ideal audience” online, and targeting content to that audience
- Bringing together data analytics and business intuition to make smart social media decisions
- Testing whether social media could help your business
- Keeping a long-term perspective on social media, even in an instant-gratification medium
Honigman helps brands with content marketing and social media strategy; he has spoken at NYU, UNICEF, Huffington Post Live, and is a contributing writer to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the World Economic Forum, Entrepreneur Magazine and others.
The last Wednesday of every month, at 1pm EST, Honigman hosts a Twitter chat using the hashtag #InsiderChat. Learn more at www.brianhonigman.com or follow him on Twitter @BrianHonigman.
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Marc Mathios's Recommendations for Family Business Success
In his interview on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, Marc Mathios discussed the challenges that come with helping to lead—with his two brothers—a third-generation, New York-based manufacturing company. Here, he provides us with two further recommendations: one that can be universally applied to any sales business, and one that he recommends particularly for family…
Read Full PostSTP058: Family Business Dynamics and Finding the Right Customers with Mark Mathios
Marc Mathios is the Principal of Ace Apparel, a New York-based manufacturing business founded in 1938 by Mathios’s grandfather Morris. Mathios and his brothers must be doing lots of things right: they’re beating the odds (currently at 13%!) on keeping a third-generation family business running successfully. In this interview, Mathios discusses how family dynamics can help a family business—and also how to address family dynamics when they become a difficulty.
Other topics include:
- How to respond to mistakes constructively, whether they are systems failures or individual employee misjudgments
- What it’s like to run a manufacturing business in New York City in 2015
- Using your current customers as models to find more of your ideal customers
- Why wrong-fit customers can prevent your company from moving forward—even if they come with big contracts
- Why waiting for the “perfect moment” to act can keep you on a plateau
- Creating comfort in a workplace as a form of effective leadership
Ace Apparel & Promotions creates apparel with custom corporate logos; all of their apparel manufacturing, embroidery and screen printing are done at their New York City factory. Prior to joining Ace, Mathios worked for 5 years at Ernst & Young as a manager working on accounts in the financial services industry.
Learn more about Ace at www.ace-promo.com.
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"A Great Example of American Entrepreneurship": Ric Edelman's Family Business
In his appearance on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, Ric Edelmen spoke at length about the influence that his entrepreneur parents had on him, and how he learned about how to run a business from them. Here, in an excerpt from that interview, he tells the story of how his parents built their business,…
Read Full PostSTP057: Ric Edelman on Communication, Learning From Failures, and the Importance of Delegation
Ric Edelman is the Chairman and CEO of Edelman Financial Services, a business that he and his wife Jean founded twenty-seven years ago. Since then, he has been three times ranked the #1 Independent Financial Advisor in the nation by Barron’s and has published multiple books on personal finance. In this interview, he attributes his success in the financial industry partially to his lack of background on Wall Street; Edelman also has no MBA. Instead, Edelman describes how his degree in Communications set him up for success in helping ordinary consumers understand financial planning.
He also discusses:
- Why financial planning “isn’t about the stock market,” but about how people live their lives
- Why it’s not “who you know,” but “who knows you”
- How to plan to learn from failure, not success
- The difference between taking risks and being rash
- Why it can be so hard—and so important—for entrepreneurs to acknowledge that they are not the best person for every job at their business
- The three necessary steps to making sure that your employees succeed
Edelman Financial Services manages $13.7 billion for more than 26,000 individuals and families. The company has 38 offices coast-to-coast, and has won more than 100 business, advisory, communication and community service awards. Edelman hosts weekly radio and television shows, and has published eight books on personal finance, most recently The Truth About Retirement Plans and IRAs (2014). Learn more at RicEdelman.com.
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Supportive Communities and Work-Life Balance: Mark Asquith's Influences
During his interview on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, DMSQD co-founder Mark Asquith spoke about maintaining work-life balance and not letting entrepreneurial perfectionism become a liability rather than a strength. Here, he shares the people, communities, and texts that help him keep a sense of perspective as he builds his business. 1. My wife,…
Read Full PostSTP056: The Strengths and Liabilities of the Entrepreneurial Spirit: Managing Time and Perfectionism with Mark Asquith
Mark Asquith is a co-founder of design and digital agency DMSQD. He has described how in 2012 he burned out, a moment that led to his reassessment of his business strategies and subsequent greater success. Here, he speaks about maintaining a sense of perspective on one’s work, and how to manage time and self-expectations, so that the entrepreneurial spirit remains a strength, and doesn’t lead to burnout or wasted energy.
Other topics include:
- What business owners need to know about investing in digital content
- The power of delegation, the risk of burnout, and “superhero syndrome”
- How to balance developing new business with producing the work that generates revenue
- How to be “ruthless with your time”
- Why there “are no competitors”
Asquith hosts Excellence Expected, a podcast that helps entrepreneurs take on their biggest issues, with the involvement of the world’s greatest business minds. He is also the founder of PodcastWebsites.com with John Lee Dumas. Learn more about Asquith at Excellence-expected.com or through his Twitter at @em_two.
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Michel Bayan's Inspirations for "Openness to Possibility"
In his interview yesterday on Smashing the Plateau, Michel Bayan (EVP at Fragmob) discussed how to maintain a sense of perspective during periods of intense stress. Here, he shares some of the people and philosophies he looks to for inspiration and balance: 1. Yoga and “Eastern thought in general” “When one door closes, another one…
Read Full PostSTP055: Reinventing the Direct Selling Industry for the Digital Age with Michel Bayan
As EVP of Marketing and Business Development at Fragmob, Michel Bayan is working to reinvent the direct selling industry for the digital age: his company works with direct selling companies, selling them tools that help them more clearly understand and analyze their sales figures and compensation plans. Here, Bayan discusses how he moved from being a classically-trained actor into the direct selling industry, and how understanding storytelling, and how stories move people, has helped him be successful in a business he never imagined he’d be involved in.
Bayan discusses:
- Why direct selling is “the last truly democratic opportunity in the world”
- How to balance forward drive and momentum with openness to other possibilities
- How mobile technology will reshape the direct selling industry in the next five to ten years
- Why you need people that are not like you in your business (and why “the nuts are the ones that come up with great ideas”)
A writer and speaker in direct selling, Bayan has advised numerous companies in the industry on their digital strategy, and how to build (or rebuild) their brands to succeed in the digital age. Fragmob is on Twitter (@fragmob) and Facebook (facebook.com/fragmob); follow Bayan on Twitter at @michelbayan.
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Eric Lofholm's Top Three Recommendations for Sales, Marketing, and Mentorship
In his appearance on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, sales expert Eric Lofholm touched on many topics, from successful sales psychology to business adaptability. Here, he provides the top three influences who have shaped how he approaches his business: 1. Jay Abraham “Jay has taught me how to think in combinations. This is Steve…
Read Full PostSTP054: Sales Psychology and Business Flexibility: Eric Lofholm on Success in Tough Economic Times
From an inauspicious beginning as a self-described “sales failure,” Eric Lofholm has reached tremendous heights in sales: he is President and CEO of Eric Lofholm International Inc., which professionally trains people in the art of selling. In this week’s episode, he attributes the beginnings of his success to learning how to combine his natural talent for teaching with an effective sales system. He also explains the business strategies that helped his company weather and recover from the 2008 recession.
Topics include:
- How formal training can help people overcome the internal resistance to sales caused by the “stigma to sales in our culture”
- The advantages of a “90-day blitz” model for sales efforts
- How to respond to urgency with flexibility
- How publishing—through podcasts, online magazines, and YouTube—can help establish you as a thought leader in your field
- Why it’s so important to understand the mechanisms of your own success
Eric is an instructor for CEOSpace and Networking University, and is the author of How to Sell in the New Economy (2010) and Duplication: The Key to Creating Freedom in Your Network Marketing Business (2014). He also produces a free app, which includes a podcast; to find it, search for “Eric Lofholm” in Apple’s App Store. Learn more at SalesChampion.com or Twitter (@EricLofholm).
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Growing a Business in a Changing Industry: Wil Reynolds and Jeremy Pound’s Reading List
Yesterday, SEO experts Wil Reynolds and Jeremy Pound faced off on Smashing the Plateau, and quickly found common ground in their philosophies towards managing client expectations in a field of few (or no) guarantees. This synchronicity was mirrored in their reading recommendations: both independently recommended Chip Heath for entrepreneurs looking to expand. For growing and directing a…
Read Full PostSTP053: Search Engine Marketing and Client Expectations: Wil Reynolds and Jeremy Pound Face Off
Jeremy Pound is the founder of JuicyResults.com, a search engine optimization firm with a flagship service of a guaranteed SEO. Wil Reynolds is the founder of Seer Interactive, a digital marketing agency. Both are in the search engine industry—but while Jeremy’s company guarantees its search results, Wil has said that a guarantee it is not possible in this swiftly-changing industry. Can these two entrepreneurs find common ground?
Certainly they can! Both agreed that their goal is to help search engine users find content that is useful and relevant to them, and to help the user and their client connect when they should. In this rigorous discussion, they also address:
- The difficulty of measuring accomplishments (or even accountability) in a constantly-changing and unpredictable business environment
- Choosing to pursue revenue vs. rankings
- The importance of performing due diligence before working with a client, and treating a client like a potential business partner
- How sharing risk with a client should affect business decisions
- How to help a client choose between branding vs. direct marketing approaches
- The keys to long-term business success in a quickly-changing industry
Wil Reynolds founded Seer Interactive in his apartment in 2002; the company now has a team of over 100 people and offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Reynolds is its current Director of Strategy. Follow him at @wilreynolds.
Jeremy Pound is the founder of JuicyResults.com, and writes and speaks regularly on how organizations can best take advantage of the web to grow their customer base. His book The Bootstrapper’s Guide to SEO is forthcoming. Follow him at @jeremypound.
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Tony Rose’s Recommendations for Understanding Human Capital
Following his interview for the Smashing the Plateau podcast, Tony Rose provided listeners with a set of five recommendations for becoming a better manager of different kinds of capital—particularly, in these books, of human capital. 1. Dan Sullivan, a.k.a. “The Strategic Coach.” Rose writes: “His simple processes for entrepreneurs are life-changing. He convinced me I have…
Read Full PostSTP052: Accounting for Happiness, Fulfillment, and Business Health with Tony Rose
Tony A. Rose is a founding partner of Rose, Snyder & Jacobs, a partnership of certified public accountants.In this interview, Rose draws on more than thirty-five years in the industry to talk about finance, fulfillment, and happiness, where they intersect, and how understanding their dynamic can help lead to business success.
In his interview, Rose covers a range of topics including:
- Defining and connecting wealth, happiness, money, and fulfillment
- The importance of measuring and maintaining business capital—not only financial capital, but also human, intellectual, social, and structural
- The strength of “knowing people who are strangers”
- How periods of ambiguity, discomfort, and danger can be turned to a business’s advantage
- What prevents people from making the changes they need for their companies to thrive
Rose’s firm provides a full-range of assurance, tax, and consulting services for small public, closely held, and family-owned businesses, with a specialty in high-net-worth individuals and their families. Rose is a is a Legacy Wealth Coach® and a Certified Kolbe Method Consultant®, as well as the author of Say Hello to the Elephants: A Four-Part Process for Finding Clarity, Confronting Problems, and Moving On (2008) and Five Eyes on the Fence: Protecting the Five Core Capitals of Your Business (2014).
Learn more about Rose at RSJCPA.com.
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From Influence to Imagination: Dorie Clark and Eric Ruben’s Recommendations
During their appearance on Smashing the Plateau, Dorie Clark and Eric Ruben drew on their huge range of experiences (in law, literature, performance, business, academia and more) to discuss personal branding and reputation management. After the episode, each provided a list of two people who had influenced them. The resulting list is a wonderfully diverse set…
Read Full PostSTP051: Personal Branding: Overhyped, or Underrated? Dorie Clark and Eric Ruben Face Off
What can we learn when politics, academia, business, showbiz, and the literary worlds collide? Between the two of them, Dorie Clark and Eric Ruben have a tremendous breadth of experience, and both experts take different approaches to the same topic: personal brand and reputation management.
Clark is the author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future (2013). A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, she is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Entrepreneur, and is a speaker for clients including Google, Microsoft, Yale University, Fidelity, and the World Bank. A graduate of New York’s Cardozo School of Law, Ruben is a former veteran entertainment professional, and has performed in film, TV, commercials and in off-Broadway productions. He has traveled across the country performing stand-up. He also has over twenty-five years’ experience as a counselor, litigator, literary agent, and talent manager.
In this episode, Clark and Ruben discuss their different approaches and attitudes toward personal branding, including:
- Personal branding: overhyped, or underrated?
- The value of doing good work—and the value of publicizing it
- Why social media can be a double-edged sword for an online reputation
- How to distinguish yourself in a crowded marketplace
- How developing a personal brand can be “fundamental” to your ability to earn a living
Dorie Clark is an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a Visiting Professor for IE Business School in Madrid. She has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and more. She is recognized as a “branding expert” by the Associated Press and Fortune, is a frequent guest on MSNBC, and appears in worldwide media including NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and the BBC. Her book Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It comes out this April. Learn more at dorieclark.com or follow her on Twitter @dorieclark.
Working in partnership, Eric Ruben assists his clients in determining how best to achieve their personal and professional goals. He can be reached by Twitter (@ericrubenlawyer) or through his website, RubenLaw.org.
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