I spend an inordinate amount of time in one on one meetings with entrepreneurs. And it occurs to me that there are two (and a half) simple skills that can be employed to great effect.

Tips for Dealing with Board Members

When getting advice or feedback, don’t defend, explore

If you’re seeking advice or feedback from a member of your board (or someone in a similar advisory capacity), present the issue, idea, or dilemma that you want advice on. Then listen. Ask questions. Engage in conversation. But DON’T DEFEND OR REBUT.

Your goal is to get that person’s input – not explain why their input is in your opinion irrelevant, wrong or just plain stupid. I’m not saying it might not be irrelevant, wrong, or moronic – it very often is (not very often, but you get my point.) If you’re seeking someone else’s input, you want them to open up and give you their full perspective. Analyze and critique it on your own time. You should leave the meeting with an understanding of their feedback. It’s up to you to decide (later) if it’s good bad or ugly.

Instead of defending (which often sounds like this: “I tried that but . . .” or “I hear what you’re saying but . . .” or “I don’t want to do that because . . .”), explore what they’re saying. Ask questions and listen. “What do you think we’ll learn if we do what you’re suggesting?” “What would you do next if that doesn’t work?” “That sounds great – if we couldn’t do that, what could we do?”

If you wanted help moving a couch, you wouldn’t nag the person about their technique until they dropped the couch – so don’t ask for advice and then immediately criticize it.  That’s rude and ineffective.

Eliminating the negative is not the same as creating the positive.

This is a bit more subtle, but just as important.  Let’s say you’ve got a problem.  And as a result of this problem all sorts of negative things are going on in your company.  And you’ve got an idea that will fix the problem – and eliminate the negatives.  So how should you sell the solution? You can either say “If we implement this solution, these problems will go away.” or “If we implement this solution, things will be better.”  Trust me, the second option, when available, is the way to go.  If you simply talk about eliminating problems, then people can get drawn into a debate about whether those problems are in fact problems, and whether the solution will eliminate the negative.  If you talk about enhancement (making things better), people are much more receptive.  Try it and see.

Bonus tip: STFU

Best way to get advice from your board members is to STFU.  Stop talking and start listening.  Don’t spend the limited time you have with your advisors talking – talk little, listen a lot.  Nuff said.

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One of my new favorite blogs is Epic Launch (http://epiclaunch.com/).  They’ve got a ton of great lists on their site, including one on keeping your marketing plan on schedule. I really dig this list.  With a lot of the startups I work with, one of the big challenges is keeping projects and tasks on schedule.  When you’re the only one minding the store – it’s damned easy for the emergencies to take over (even when they’re not emergencies) and for the work that requires a consistent and steady tempo to get done erratically and inconsistently.  That’s why this tip is so spot on:

“Visualize Your Web Marketing Plan

One of the best things you can do is create a visual strategy. Put together a month by month and day by day strategy in an excel file and keep track of all your efforts. Put together your plan of attack for 6 or 12 months so you can see what it is that you will be doing. The organization and visualization will allow you to stay on track with everything you do. It will also keep you motivated to continue moving forward with all the efforts you have planned. Keep in mind that this plan can always be tweaked and modified in order to stay innovative in your approach.”

Love it!  Check out Epic Launch and soak up the brilliance.

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My son is going to start playing t-ball this spring. It’s for 4 and 5 year olds – so they don’t keep score. They don’t track hits, errors, runs, etc. Which makes perfect sense since the point of t-ball is to learn the basics: where to stand, what it’s like when the ball is in play, what base to run to, etc. Keeping score, playing to win – these just get in the way of the purpose of t-ball.

Meanwhile, my favorite baseball team (sorry Tigers – you’re my five year old’s favorite team) the Chicago White Sox are 10-16, and only one game out of last place in their division – a division where they were expected to compete for first. The problem is their hitting. How do I know this? Well thanks to the Sun-Times and their kick-ass stats team, I know that the Sox haven’t “scored in the first three innings in 12 of the last 13 games and has scratched out all of 41 runs in the last 17 games.” Why does this matter? Because it’s the White Sox job to play AND WIN games. The owners of the team have invested substantial money in the manager, coaches and players with the purpose of winning.

So what exactly does this have to do with business? Well ask yourself – is the purpose of your business to win it all (i.e. achieve success) or is the purpose of your business to improve your skills (i.e. learn something)? Your investors and I hope you know the answer – it’s to win – to achieve success. So if you’re planning on winning – you better keep score – and not just wins and losses – but all the little stats that create wins and losses. The wins and losses follow from things like how many runs a particular pitcher gives up – and the batting average of the hitters. The success (wins, or money) follows from good work (hits, strike outs, or a fiercly effective email campaign).

Seems simple right? Except it isn’t. I’ve given advice to dozens of startups and very few of them know how many visitors their websites are getting. Few of them know how their average customer would rate them on a scale of one to ten. Ask yourself – how many emails did you send out? How many people opened them? How many visited your website? Etc. Etc. Etc. If you’re not paying attention to these fundamentals, you can’t improve your number of wins. You become a victim to your actions – not the master of your actions. This can be damned ugly. If you’re in the majors – pay attention to the score and learn how to make informed decisions to improve the score.

Are you playing in the major leagues or playing t-ball?

Here’s a quick way to tell the difference – have you been given money for your effort? Are you getting paid? I pay for my son to play t-ball – if he learns to hit – awesome. If he doesn’t at least he’ll have fun. Paul Konerko from the Sox? He gets $12,000,000 a year. He better get some hits. You should too.

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I just read a funny article: 6 Giant Blind Spots In Every Movie Alien’s Invasion Strategy

While reading the article, it occurred to me that the article’s advice to would be alien invaders also contained some interesting ideas that would be helpful to first time startup entrepreneurs.  With all apologies to the article’s author, S. Peter Davis, here are my 6 lessons startup entrepreneurs can learn from alien invasions.

6 Lessons Startup Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Alien Invasions

#6. Wear something – i.e. the basic basics will save your bacon.

Davis makes the point that a lot of alien invaders make the mistake of failing to wear clothes – thus making them susceptible to our local germs, or even things like water (recall the aliens in Signs).  When you think about it, wearing clothes is one of the most basic things we do.  It’s pretty straightforward – not complex at all – and failing to do it costs the aliens their whole invasion.

Lesson #6: Focus on the basic basics.
There are desperately simple things that are so basic they’re basic.  The basic basics if you will.  I’ve seen lots of first time entrepreneurs fail to do these basic basics. Simple things like:

• spell checking documents (seriously fucking spell check your fucking documents)
• having contact information in your signature block
• having an effective to-do list
• planning out your day (or at least portions thereof)

The list goes on and on.  The common denominator: simple, basic stuff.  Failing to focus on the basic basics can cost you big time.  Ask yourself, am I spending time focusing on executing the basics – like putting on clothes.

#5. Do your research – on everyone.

In alien invasion movies, the alien’s lack of basic research on the place they’re invading leads to catastrophic failure (like checking out if the planet they’re invading is covered 75% by something which will destroy you – like water).

Lesson #5: Research your attack

It’s damn hard to be successful in sales without doing your client research.  Client research comes down to more basic basics:  planning what you’re going to say BEFORE you call a client taking notes during client phone calls defining objectives and outcomes before you meet with clients (are you trying to understand their needs or close the deal – you better have done one before the other).
Simple fundamental research can prevent massive failure.

#4. Don’t Attack America First
The aliens can’t seem to resist taking on Uncle Sam first – on the theory that planets are like prisons and the best way to survive prison is to find the biggest guy and kick his ass.  Trust me, this doesn’t work in prison. The biggest guy will kick your ass – twice just to prove his point.

Lesson #4: Take on the little guys before the big guys.

If there are a few major potential clients who’d absolutely make your company crazy successful – you might want to practice on a few smaller less important clients first.  Work the kinks out where the stakes are low.  That being said – you can’t duck the big dog forever and when it’s time to face the champ – go for it.  Just be prepared.

#3.  Don’t Wait for a Counterattack

Every alien invasion movie features a big old pause where the aliens – having almost completely beaten us into submission – take a break and wait for our next move. This never works out.  Given enough time, the humans come up with something crafty – like glasses of water.

Lesson 3: Define the next move and take it.

I’ve seen first time entrepreneurs end a sales call, whether that’s a meeting or a phone call, and they think things have gone great. Then we talk:

Izzo: So how’d the call go?

Entrepreneur : Great, they love us.

Izzo: So what happens next?

Entrepreneur:  They’re going to think about it and get back to us.

Izzo: So what exactly are they thinking about?

Entrepreneur: I don’t know.

Izzo: So when are they going to get back to us.

Entrepreneur: I don’t know.

Izzo: I bet you’re still waiting for that girl from high school to give you a call back on that prom date aren’t you.

Know exactly what the next move is, when it’s going to happen, and take the lead in making it happen.  That client who’s “thinking about it” isn’t going to call back – neither is that girl in high school.

#2. Call for Backup

Having had their initial attack force defeated, the aliens tuck their tail between their legs and call it a day.  When really, having thoroughly softened us up – and having been exposed to our big winning move – they should come back next week and REALLY invade.

Lesson #2: Don’t go it alone.

Even if you’ve planned the phone call, practiced with other clients, and are prepared to set the next move – have you practiced? Have you talked to anyone about your plan? Somebody who doesn’t work for you and therefore feel obligated to blow sunshine where it doesn’t belong?
You have resources all around you – mentors, former teachers, former bosses, even the Starbucks barista – who’d be willing to look at your pitch, practice the sales call, or just give you feedback on your clothing choice.  Great entrepreneurs, indeed great people, are NOT brilliant loners – they are resource optimizers.  They take whatever resources are around and use them for maximum effect. Gates had Ballmer.  Jobs had Woz.  Bandit had Snowman.  Call for backup.

#1. Exhaust your Alternatives.

The aliens always seem to want our stuff (water, gold, unobtainium- something).  Except most all of those things are available on other planets which are not populated with angry little hominids who have thousands of nuclear weapons.

Lesson #1: You have options.

Entrepreneurship is all about overcoming obstacles – finding the why not where others see the can’t.  As a first time entrepreneur you can’t stop at your first defeat – or your fiftieth.  Figure it out make adjustments.  Make radical changes.  Can’t sell your product? Have you tried giving it away?  Can’t do that? Have you tried giving it away? Can’t do that? Have you found somebody else who wants it (i.e. changed your target market)?

Remember – only you can prevent alien invasions – and poor execution on your business. I’m off to have a glass of water.

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The Myth of Calling the Shots

One of the reasons I initially got into entrepreneurship was that I wanted to “call the shots.”  This is one of the most common reasons people cite for getting into entrepreneurship.  Being the boss.  Calling the shots.  Making the decisions.  It’s compelling.  And it’s almost completely false.  It’s one of the great myths of entrepreneurship (one of the others is ‘setting your own schedule’ – but that’s for another time).

Here’s why it’s a myth: you don’t call the shots – the market calls the shots.  While you get to make decisions, those decisions can’t be made in a vacuum.  Well they can be, but then you’re in business NFL – Not For Long.  I come across so many entrepreneurs who see entrepreneurship as one giant path of constant self-aggrandizement.  They see success as following their instinct and trusting in their singular vision. And that’s just plain stupid.  Your business needs to serve a need – its needs to connect with what the client wants.  And if you make it all about what you want – and your need to make decisions – you’re putting yourself first.  It’s not about you – it’s about the client.

Here’s another reason it’s a myth: you should surround yourself with smart people.  Better yet smarter people.  If you insist on making all the decisions – you’re closing yourself off from the advice and support of these people.  Or you’ve surrounded yourself with yes men and/or idiots.

When you think you’ll call the shots you’re subscribing to the view of entrepreneurs being brilliant geniuses ensconced in their ivory towers handing down brilliance from on-high.  If you look at really successful entrepreneurs, they are connectors. They form partnerships, they bring resources together, and they listen to clients.  What they don’t do is engage in the relentless arrogance of thinking it’s about calling the shots.

In my own experience, discovering this myth was one of the more painful realizations of running my own business.  It stinks to realize that it’s not about you and your brilliant ideas.  It’s about putting yourself out of the picture and focusing on the client.

Any other myths you’ve seen busted?

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I’ve helped several people put together business plans.  The business plan I put together for my comedy club was used as a sample form in a book on business plans.  Theoretically, I know something about business plans.  I’ve seen some bad ones.  The worst ones I’ve seen tend to be bad for one of these reasons.

3 Reasons Why Business Plans Fail

1. Filling in the Blank

There are plenty of software packages and business plan templates out there on the tubes of the Internet.  While they can give you  bit of structure when you’re completely lost and on your own – they can also have you focusing on issues which make little sense if any.  A business plan that’s intended for venture capitalists or other serious investors needs to have an exit strategy – a plan for cashing out the investors.  If you’re putting together  a business plan for a small business or some business that you want to build and grow – you don’t need an exit strategy.  Your exit strategy is filing for bankruptcy and moving back to your parent’s basement.  Don’t fill in the blanks if you don’t understand the blanks.

2. Failure to you know, plan

Want to create a bad business plan – don’t use it to detail what you’ll actually do, use it to provide a 10,000 foot view of something you need to have microscopic insight into.  This tends to be compounded by the fill-in-the-blank approach, where a business has a ‘marketing plan’ consisting of ‘generating great word of mouth, building the brand and engaging in social media.’  I’m reminded of a stand-up comic who asked an audience member what he did for a living.  The guy in the audience said “Nothing” to which the comedian replied “Then how do you know when you’re done?”  If your plan is that vague, how do you know when you’re doing it?

3. A Plan for World Domination

Not every business is going to be successful.  And yet every bad business plan seems to not only promise success, but promises the kind of success that results in each investor ending up with enough money to buy their own island and flood it with enough filthy lucre to sink the damned thing.  Project a reasonable growth arc and realize you’re not going to turn a web design company into the second coming of the Roman empire.

Avoid these common mistakes and keep your business plan alive. 

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One of the things I’m trying to accomplish with this blog (and with my life at this point) is improving the way in which entrepreneurs are trained.  One of the core elements of entrepreneurial training is coaching.  I’ve had a fair amount of experience with coaching in different contexts.  I’ve coached improv teams (at IO and the Playground in Chicago), and different entrepreneurs starting businesses (Go Comedy, and various entrepreneurs at Bizdom U), and I’ve picked up some tips from some great coaches.  So here are some tips for coaching people.  BTW, these tips can apply in almost any context where you’re helping someone.  If you’re working with someone to help them – then essentially you’re coaching them.

Sympathy for the Devil

Before launching into it, a few words on Mike Leach.  Unless you follow college football (and if you don’t you’re a communist), you may not know this, but Mike Leach was the Head Coach at Texas Tech.  Generally praised for innovative pass-oriented schemes, he was somewhat of a maverick among coaches.  He recently got fired for mistreating a player.  I’m not here to defend his tactics (although I’ve dealt with my fair share of people whom I thought were faking it when they claimed they couldn’t do something).  Rather I bring it up to simply say that coaching is a tricky business.  When your mission is to maximize someone’s potential, you often find yourself doing weird things that you barely understand, much less trying to justify what you’ve done in the court of public opinion.  In other words, being a coach, I feel your pain Bobby Knight and Mike Leach.  Also, your mileage may vary.  These tips have worked for me and helped me.  They may strike you as a bit nuts.  But listen to a Knute Rockne speech.  Coaches are nuts.

3.5 Guideposts for being an effective coach

1. It’s Not About You

It’s very important to focus on your goal as a coach – to maximize the potential of your players/coachees.  It’s not about buffing up your glory, making you feel good, validating your worth, etc.  It’s about them.  Be willing to do anything to achieve your goal – even if it deflates your ego, takes you down a notch or look like an idiot.  You also need to be willing to be thought of as an asshole – and play the part of asshole when necessary.  Some people are motivated when pushed. Some people are motivated to prove somebody wrong. You may need to be an asshole to motivate these type of people.  Be willing to be hated, despised, and the object of scorn.  Everyone loves success – and if you can help people achieve success, it won’t matter whether they love, like or respect you.  Your job is to put them in the best position to win.   Do that because nothing else matters. If you need unconditional love get a dog, don’t look to your players.

1B. Don’t cross the streams

Don’t become friends with your coachees.  It’s okay to like them, and when you’re no longer in the coach/coachee relationship, you can be their buddy.  That doesn’t mean you can’t be friendly with them.  But don’t forget the essence of the relationship.

2. The first pulse you take is your own

While you may occasionally need to take on the demeanor of an asshole or screaming lunatic, internally you’ve got to keep your pulse in check.  This is along the lines of not hitting your kids in anger (really – never hit your kids – but you get what I’m saying).  It’s okay to be angry, frustrated and even incensed to the point of blinding rage – but you always need to make sure the choices your making in your coaching behavior are coming from a space of maximizing performance – not venting your spleen. If you need to vent your spleen, kick the dog you bought back in tip #1.

3. Know your role, and shut your mouth

Your role is to maximize performance.  By focusing on that, and remembering that, you’ll realize that you needn’t coach everything that’s coachable.  I see rookie coaches absolutely destroy people’s motivation by criticizing everything that can be criticized in a performance, game or business plan.  If you call out every single thing that needs improvement, you’re not coaching, you’re showing off how knowledgable you are, and how observant you can be.  That makes it an ego driven process – and – tip #1 – it’s not about you.  You’ve got to say and do just enough to motivate maximum performance, then shut the fuck up.

Got any good coaching tips or experience with coaches you’d like to share? That’s what the comments are for friend!

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Mark Kramer of Kramer Communications has a great article on Forbes, The 10 Questions You Should Never Stop Asking.  In the article, Mark (we’re not really on a first name basis) details some of his experiences acting as an Interim CEO of a couple of magazines in Philadelphia. It’s a really great article, and all of his questions are dead on.  The implicit assumption of his article is that people started asking these questions at some point, and then stopped.  In my work with and study of small startups, it seems these questions don’t get asked initially.  If they did the business may never have started, or certainly would have started smarter with a better chance of succeeding.

The questions he brings up cut to the core matters I address at Bizdom U, (as well as in my saucy presentation at TEDx).

The Three Questions You Should Start Asking

Kramer’s first three questions (I’m rephrasing slightly) are:

• What is your purpose for existing?
• Who is your target customer?
• Why does anyone need what you’re selling?

I’m going to take these one at a time.

What is your purpose for existing?

First-time startup entrepreneurs often confuse their business’s purpose in existing with what the entrepreneur hopes to gain from the business.  To use a technical term, this is a Big Ass Mistake.  Your business’s purpose is most assuredly to help customers satisfy a need – not to bring you personal, spiritual, or emotional fulfillment.  If you think that’s why YOUR BUSINESS exists, you’re mistaking your purpose in life (fulfillment) with your business’s purpose (satisfying customers).  Confuse this at your own peril.  If you keep this straight, you’ll keep your business focused on the customer and helping the customer.

Who is your target customer?

You can’t help people, or more appropriately satisfy customers, if you don’t know who they are and what their needs are.  It’s a struggle, but you’ve got to disavow yourself of the notion that your business will appeal to everybody (or some equally ridiculously large subset of everybody).  It can’t, it won’t, and it shouldn’t.  It will appeal to certain people with common demographics or psychographics and those are the people you need to have in mind and help.

Why does anyone need what you’re selling?

Get out, talk to customers.  In person.  Face to face.  It’s uncomfortable in the digital age, but it will give you deep insight into what clients really want and how to best give it to them.  Mark nails it when he says “I have rarely seen a company fail if management literally spoke to customers and gave them what they want.”

A bonus word to educators, consultants, incubators, etc.

If you’re in the position where you’re advising someone on starting up a business, make sure you’re encouraging your advisees to ask these questions.  Push them on these questions.  Hard.  Really hard.  The kind of hard that leaves a bruise.  That hard.  We do no service to people if, in the interest of protecting their feelings, we are not blunt, direct and honest in questioning whether they’ve plumbed the depths of these questions and come up with honest answers.  In my opinion, this is the great failing of entrepreneurial education, consultation, advising and incubation: the unwillingness to give honest feedback to someone and tell them their idea (as currently formulated and researched) is most assuredly crap.  In the interest of being kind, and not ‘crushing someone’s dream’ we let them blindly soldier forward to their doom.  If I see someone running headlong toward the edge of a building, I’m not going to encourage them.  I’m not going to try and support them in their dream of flying.  I’m going to yell “Hey, asshole, you can’t fly!” We all need to be willing to be that direct and blunt.

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Over at the Art of Manliness, there’s a great series of tips on running a meeting.  The Art of Manliness, despite the off putting name (to some people – me, I get it), is overall a really excellent blog – and an example of how to build a community of common interest. The common interest on Art of Manliness revolves around shaving with a straight razor and drinking cocktails (both of which I can get behind).

My favorite tip from the many is:

Summarize the meeting. At the end of the meeting, quickly tick off a list of everything you have accomplished and resolved to do. Delegate tasks and make sure everyone is absolutely clear on what their individual responsibilities are. Don’t ask for “other business.” You’re just opening a can of worms. Remember, if it’s not on the agenda, it’s not going to be discussed.

I’ve been to lots of meetings dominated by lots of talk which feels productive.  It’s only later, when absolutely no action has been taken as a result of the meeting, that you realize not only was the meeting ineffective, but you’ll never have that hour of your life back.  You’ll be on your death bed, and your dying words will be “If only someone had set some action items.”

In the comments share your meeting horror stories or tips.

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I wrote the following tips for my current batch of entrepreneurs, but thought they might have more general application here.  Email is like a hammer: it’s a great tool when used effectively, and f*ing painful when it isn’t.  Enjoy!

Email.  We use it every day.  But are we using it as effectively as we can?  Probably not, if we’re not doing the following:

1. Use Reply All: Before I came to Bizdom, I hated Reply All.  I thought all it did was clutter up my inbox.  Now? I realize it’s the reason my inbox isn’t cluttered – it’s informative.  If I’m cc’ed on an email, I want to know how the conversation is going and whether the issue’s been resolved.  When I cc someone on an email, I want them to be part of the conversation.  Maniacal use of ‘Reply All’ helps this immensely.  Do it as a matter of common practice.
2. Informative Subject Lines: There’s a reason newspapers, blogs, and various other forms of media use headlines – it lets the intended recipient know what the communication is about.  It allows them to skim the headline and prioritize.  When you recycle an old email for convenience sake, you’ve made the subject line useless.  And ultimately put your own convenience over that of the recipient, which leads me to my next point:
3. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient: You want something from them, make it easy for them to give it to you.  You want them to read the email? Make sure the subject matches the content.  You want them to do something after they read the email? Ask.  An email with a document attached could mean “I need you to review this immediately” or “I just wanted you to have a copy of this” or “Hey look at me! I can use attachments!”  Without a direct call to action, you’re making it difficult to get the recipient to take any action, much less the action you want them to take.
4. Use a signature block: If someone wants to follow up on your email, make it easy for them to contact you.  Give them your email address, phone number, address, HAM radio call sign, whatever it takes. Signature blocks automatically added to your email achieve this in a no muss, no fuss manner.

When I was improvising, one of the big moments of self discovery I had was when I realized that everything we do onstage looks like a choice, so we should be conscious of that choice and make it a choice.  When it comes to something as mundane as sending an email, this same principle applies.  Ask yourself – what result am I trying to obtain with this action, and have I done everything to make that result obtainable. Have I given it 100%?

Some of you do this consistently and regularly, and clearly get what I’m talking about.  To you, I offer nothing but praise and encouragement.  Your efforts matter and you will be effective.

Some of you will think I’m an email maniac who’s obsessing about some minor points.   To you, I ask – faced with the choice of communicating effectively and communicating ineffectively, what would possibly justify choosing the ineffective route? Effective people take effective action – that’s what makes them effective.

In the comments, please share your email pet peeves or opportunities for excellence.

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