Business

It’s Not Who You Know

chrisbrogan · July 24, 2019 ·

Chris Brogan, business and marketing advisor.

You’ve been told that it’s not what you know; it’s who you know. That’s almost true. It’s who you know that you maintain good relationships with that matters most. Warm contacts, not just contacts. Years ago, my friend and boss at the time Jeff Pulver told me, “You live or die by your database.” I’ve guided my business by that principle ever since, and it continues to pay off.

Warm Connections Beat “Contacts”

I’m typing this from the dining room table of two friends who are now also clients. I’ve known them for years now. Gary is a chef and author and Sylvia is a photographer and creative. They own a boutique inn located in the fabled Hamptons in New York, and through that, I’ve seen them nurture guests and deliver amazing customer experiences. They treat their friends as if there’s no one else in the world besides them and it’s a treasure to bask in their presence.

When they asked me to come work with them on a few projects (some marketing and some business work), I said yes without a moment’s hesitation. And while I’ve worked with the two of them in limited ways over the past several years, this is our first big business undertaking.

My point is this: these are the types of engagements you want in business. You want to work with people you like. You want to work with people who matter. And that takes time and effort.

The Opposite of Serendipity

Some parts of life happen by chance. They’re beautiful. Sometimes, we meet someone simply because they’ve wandered into our world. That’s great.

But for business purposes, and for life plans, and for mapping out a way to thrive, I have to caution you: your business success will increase if you learn how to nurture warm connections with people who you want to work with in business and in life. This particular success comes from effort, not serendipity.

How to Keep Contacts Warm

I could tell you the simplest method possible:

Make a simple spreadsheet with names and contact columns, an area for notes, and an area for an ongoing log of dates.
Ensure it has a “last contact” column where you can add a date.
SCHEDULE TIME to reach out and connect with people on your list daily (or almost daily).
Do this a lot.
Visit people when you can.

I know it’s insane. I know you wanted there to be more to this. But this is how it works. You connect. You observe. You leave messages. You recognize the good work of others. You find ways to help however you can, even in small ways.

And here’s the most important one:

You make warm introductions where it makes sense between people you know, and using the following model.

Ask party one if an introduction to party two might be helpful. Wait for a yes.
Ask party two if they’re willing to connect with party one. Wait for a yes.
Introduce both parties and get out of the way.
Follow up with party one and party two separately after the fact.

(I can’t tell you how many times someone sends an email to me and someone else without following this model and how rarely this is beneficial to either me or the other party.)

Trust in Relationships

I never connect with people solely for business. I have to like the person. I have to want to eat meals with them, drink beverages with them, and laugh outside of work with them.

And I just lied. I said “never.” Every time I end up doing business with someone I don’t really like much, it fails. Either I don’t give it enough love, or the other party treats the business relationship as transactional, and nothing good comes of it.

I don’t know. Maybe other people can do this. I can’t. I need to actually like the people I work with.

I just gave you a super easy recipe to work this way. Trying it might benefit your business. What do you think? Willing to try?

(And drop me an email – [email protected])

If a Recession is Coming Soon, We Have to Prepare

chrisbrogan · July 1, 2019 ·

The data is piling up. Nobody says we’re headed for a recession definitively because no one really wants to be wrong. But look at this from Brookings. Peek at these points in Newsweek. Some experts have a guess on timing, but that one reads a bit too political for me (economies aren’t exactly subject to political pressure as much as people like to claim their influence over them). I don’t know enough about this, so I look at what investors are saying.

When I think of recessions, I think about customer acquisition and retention.

The way through a recession is to service your existing customers such that they want to stay firmly in place, and this is also an opportunity to acquire new customers who feel poorly treated by your competitors. To get there, we have to think about all this from the buyer’s perspective. Remember, we’re all in the same recession. You know how you’re looking around at which expenses to trim? So are the people who pay you. You’re their expenses.

Acquisition efforts need to shift towards efforts to show your company’s ability to handle clients/customers with care and personalization. One of the biggest recurring complaints in business is that people feel like a number. This is B2B, B2C – it’s universal. We’re sick of fitting in. We want to go somewhere that we feel like we belong.

In these times, the “little guy” customer feels lost in the shuffle while dealing with your competitor, so show them how you’ll treat them like a VIP. Be clear about it. Give them tangible details like “We give you one number to call and text-message-simple service interactions.”

Retention becomes about helping your customers weather the same storm you’re going through. This can take many forms. If you’re doing net-30 payment terms, can you switch to net 45 or 60 for the next six months or so? Can you work with the clients through education efforts to get more out of the product or service you’ve sold them? Can you help them “stretch out” what you’ve sold to serve them longer? (Like hamburger helper for business.)

These are just a few strategies. In lots of cases – very many – it’s as simple as improving communication, outreach, and being more visible. I know that sometimes the feeling is that if you “lay low” people will forget about you and skip over you in the chopping process, but that’s not a great plan (in my not-at-all-humble opinion). When the chips are down, we remember the allies who got us through the rough months.

I’m working with companies on this and other acquisition/retention issues right now. I’ve got slots for a few clients, so if you want me to kick the tires on what you’ve got going on and make some informed recommendations and build a few plans out for you, just get in touch. I’m here to help!

Who Put Chocolate in my Peanut Butter?

chrisbrogan · June 27, 2019 ·

In his book, Choose Yourself, James Altucher turned me on to the concept of “idea sex.” Mash two things together. Get your ideas mingling with other people’s ideas. Little column A, little column B. That kind of thing. You get it, right? Just whatever you think it means, that’s what it means. But I think you’re already there. Idea sex is a good way to mash things for a better output.

Collaboration and sharing and getting better ideas comes from trying something new, something that doesn’t always go together, or not for necessarily for everyone. Kool-Aid pickles, for instance. That’s a thing (google it). I love China Poblano, Chinese and Mexican food mashed. Old and new. Whatever it is. Mix it all up.

Adam Sandler did this quite successfully when he collaborated with Dan Bulla on his 100% Fresh special on Netflix. (If you’re not a fan of Sandler’s other work, watch this. It’s really really really good. If you’re a fan, you don’t need me to tell you.)

Smash Your Ideas Together

Today (like today today), I realized my next book has to be two books mashed into one. Dented is about how we can be a bit dented and still show up at work and in life. The Picnic is about how companies can create better spaces for the people they want to serve. The ideas are mashed. They have to be. Take your dented self and bring it to the picnic. It totally has to go like that.

And the thing is, with ideas that don’t immediately make sense to you (like Kool-Aid pickles), it needs explaining. Over and over. This is where people muck it up. If you share your crazy idea and it goes over like a fart in church, you’ll be inclined to shelve that thought and move on to something else. Don’t do that right away. Give it a try. A lot of tries. Give more than a few people a taste and see if you can get the recipe just right.

On the Conan Needs a Friend podcast, Lin-Manuel Miranda talked about how he was working on this rap-musical multicultural adaptation of Ron Chernow’s book about Alexander Hamilton. People literally laughed in his face and thought he was joking. Jon Stewart poked fun at him on the daily show the day after Miranda debuted it (at the White House for the Obamas, by the way). Well, his joke has earned him almost half a billion dollars in gross receipts, an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize and plenty more accolades.

Keep Swinging

I’ve said for decades that the big difference between me and a lot of other people is that I’ll make 100 attempts at something, and if two of them succeed then I’ve got two more wins than someone who hasn’t taken one shot. Swing for your idea. Mash it with something else.

There are so many derivative and copycat ideas in the world. But give an idea just a little twist and it works. When Ridley Scott pitched Alien, he said it was “Jaws in space.” People got the idea right away (Julien Smith used this reference in Trust Agents). Years ago, Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield founded (the widely popular and innovative at the time) Flickr when they were really trying to make a chat app for video gamers. It was a shift from the original idea (the kids called this a “pivot” for a while).

Swing. Take more swings. Try new things. It’s all good. Find your groove by trying a lot of things.

Fear of failure? That’s so 1994. Stop it. Give it up. Fail. Shake it off (Thanks, Taylor), and then get back to it.

Ready? Go!

Chris Brogan (that’s me!) is a business advisor and keynote speaker, and an author, and all kinds of things. You can be all kinds of things, too! You’re invited to the picnic!

10 Years After Trust Agents

chrisbrogan · June 22, 2019 ·

Just about ten years ago, Julien Smith and I wrote and published a book called Trust Agents. It talked about the rising experience of companies being able to use the web to reach people directly and connect with them in a world where companies could no longer really control the information out on the web about their brand. It was a rallying cry to invite companies to be real and transparent and to connect with the people they most wanted to serve.

The book did well. It was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. It won awards from Inc Magazine, USA Today, 800-CEO-Read and more.

Ten years have past and I want to share what’s changed in that time. (I’ve written some thoughts on this already at LinkedIn, if you’re interested.)

Ten Years After Trust Agents

In 2009, I wrote: “Companies can no longer hide behind a veneer of a shiny branding campaign, because customers are one Google search away from the truth.”

It’s more true today. And people have endured ten years of feeling unseen and unheard. As companies adopted the tools (but not always the spirit) of the social web, they pushed information blindly to people without thinking much about who they were addressing. It felt the same as telling every woman at a bar that they’re beautiful and hoping the line worked eventually.

In 2009, I wrote: “Trust agents have established themselves as being non-sales-oriented, non-high-pressure marketers. Instead, they are digital natives using the Web to be genuine and to humanize their business.”

I would change this a bit. Sales isn’t bad. Bad sales are bad. A trust agent sells you something they believe will help you win the game you’re trying to win.

Make Your Own Game

The first of the six tenets of a trust agent was to make your own game. It means to define your own space. Be specific. Create the rules of the story instead of competing against other similar products. Amazing books like Play Bigger have really expanded on this in smart ways in recent years. I stand by this.

Julien wrote about how creating your own keywords was a much better way to win at SEO instead of competing with existing words. He pointed out that if you could earn enough media attention for a phrase you coined, all roads would naturally point back to your site. I’ve been using this trick since 2009 and if you look at the traditional SEO markers of my site, it stinks, but I have massive authority around all the terms I created for myself.

In 2019, there’s something more. We are in an age of identity, where people want to be very specific about who they are, what matters to them, and they want to support only those companies that share their values. If you can buy the same kinds of products from multiple sources, why buy from a company you don’t respect? Or most importantly, who doesn’t see you?

We’ve made our own games, and we want companies to see and speak to who we are.

Companies keep saying they know what people want.

“A black guy can’t do a country song.” On the day I’m writing this, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X is on its 11th week at number 1 on the Billboard Top 100.

“No one will want to see a black-led superhero movie.” – Black Panther made $1.3 billion at the box office.

“Women superheroes won’t bring in movie viewers.” – Wonder Woman made $800 million; Captain Marvel made $1.1 billion.

Inclusivity matters. Seeing people for who they are matters. REPRESENTING THEM IN MEDIA AND MARKETING AND YOUR BUSINESS PLANS matters.

One of Us

This chapter pointed out the importance of connecting beyond advertising. Not that ads are bad. They’re just one tool.

In 2009, I wrote: “Gaining the trust of another requires you be competent and reliable. It also requires you to leave someone with a positive emotional impression, which is something the Web has the potential to do quickly and well.”

We included our first of many references to the work of David Maister and Charles Green who wrote the amazing work, The Trusted Advisor. Julien was already friends with Maister, but we befriended both authors, and I still talk to Charlie Green about once a month to learn at the feet of a master.

Of all the chapters in Trust Agents, this is the one I feel companies discarded. I think very few marketing departments held conversations about the trust equation (even though Maister and Green helped companies make millions on this detail alone). And I know that very few companies set about trying to humanize their brands to reach people.

The Archimedes Effect

I’ve always called this “Julien’s Chapter” because he had a much stronger bead on what was going on here. Leverage was the topic. How do we understand leverage? What are the ways we can use arbitrage to our advantage. It’s still heady stuff, but if people spent a little time investing in this chapter, they often reported some great results.

The parts I contributed were about leveraging time better, about building stronger relationships, about making the most of your appearances.

One fun detail about this chapter is that I cover the first inklings of the rise of Gary Vaynerchuk, when we all started to realize that this guy was going to fly to the stars and back. It’s laughable now that I covered him in the book because he was already on the way to being a massive star.

Agent Zero

I believe with all my heart that nurturing a network of great people you want to serve is the absolute most important work of a person or a company. To be the connector that helps others thrive is a powerful business driver, even if it isn’t an instant kind of reward. (It never is.)

This talks through the concept of having to become more visible. To put your presence out there on the web. To be seen on the social networks.

Over the years, companies seem to only put their CEO, CMO, and a few very junior people out on the social web. They never did quite adopt the belief that having people reachable via the social web was a benefit to the company. And frankly, many people were afraid of this kind of visibility. These tools seem foreign. Interactions on places like Twitter feel fraught with peril. And so many brilliant people worry that they’ll “do it wrong” or “look foolish” and so their brilliance is withheld from the many who would benefit from this.

The people within companies who work on “Agent Zero” type work see great rewards. Sales professionals get it. Deal makers get it. But I wish more of the folks who have non-selling jobs but massive amounts of helpful ideas and thoughts would come out and play on the web.

Human Artist

I might have said that no one cared to do the “One of Us” work. Human artist is married to that. It was our effort to point out that the Golden Rule was alive and well. So many great works focus on this. Bob Burg’s Go-Giver comes right to mind. Same-Side Selling by Altman and Quarles. Many more. Tim Sanders and Love is the Killer App.

We wrote about transparency and empathy and intimacy, all topics that most every company in the world would rather pretend doesn’t exist, though they’ll talk about it in speeches or ads.

People are SO sick of feeling invisible, being lied to, having to “find out” that a company has done them wrong. They’re so fed up, and when there’s a chance to pick another company to deal with, they will.

In a 2017 study, Cone Communications found that 67% of people wanted to align with companies that shared their values, and that furthermore, most people wanted to align with companies who would move their values forward in some way.

Identity matters to individuals more than ever before. My 17 year old is both gay and trans. He spends a lot of time online finding and listening to like minds, learning how to navigate his life, and so on. He pays attention to which companies really support trans and gay causes and not just in June.

We all want people to love what we sell, but it is only when people feel seen and understood that they’re ready to pay attention.

Build An Army

This chapter is about scale. How do we grow beyond where we are? How do we find more hands to lighten the load. Of all the chapters in Trust Agents, I could never have predicted the outcomes that companies have developed in this area.

Automation is nearly the norm in so many areas. Robots talking to robots. Everyone agreed that we needed scale, but sometimes to the detriment of human contact.

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of places where automation is preferred. It’s the best. I love when companies reduce friction where they can (Roger Dooley has an amazing book on Friction).

But the human touch matters. We want it more than ever. And in a world where automation is doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting, it means we have opportunities to earn more attention, retention, and stronger business relationships.

Trust Agents in 2019

I think there’s a lot to update and revisit in this book. I’ve been talking with Julien Smith about looking this all over again. I spoke to my publishing friend Matt Holt. I’ve talked with all kinds of people who I’ve known for the last ten years or more.

Keep your eyes posted. You might see a lot more about this. And regardless, it was super fun to look back on it all.

I help companies earn the right to sell and serve the customers they most want to nurture. Connect with me, if you want some ideas and help.

What I learned at the Boston Pride March 2019

chrisbrogan · June 10, 2019 ·

The other day, I went with my Jacqueline and her mother to the 2019 Boston Pride Parade. We marched on behalf of the Upham’s Corner Health Center, who delivers community health care services in Boston. I marched because my son, Vince, is trans and gay(the parade marked his 17th birthday), and because I feel that it’s important to promote the rights of people around the topics of their gender and who they choose to love (between consenting adults, obviously).

I thought my mindset at the event was “Hey, good job, gay and trans and bi and other people! I’m marching to say I’m an ally.” And while that’s true, there was so much more. So much. I came away changed.

What I Learned on the Boston Pride March

First, I realized quickly that one of the core elements of this march is just for people to see each other and be seen. I know that sounds stupid. It’s a parade. But I mean seen and acknowledged. Some people are fortunate to have loving families and coworkers who fully support them. But so many more feel alone, feel invisible, feel like they have to hide. So here comes an event like Pride that says, “Let’s keep marching. You deserve to feel seen and understood.”

That “being seen” realization went so much deeper. All along the route there were people wearing “Mom Hugs” and “Dad Hugs” shirts, because sometimes parents can’t handle the reality of their children and that child (no matter their age) suddenly finds themselves without parental affection. I realized just how little affection people of any sexuality and gender get these days. I went for some of those hugs, and I get plenty of affection.

We Have to Better Understand This

When my oldest said “I’m gay,” I said that’s great. Your partner (no matter the gender) has to love you and treat you well. About a year later, he tells me he’s trans and gay. Okay, that one takes a bit more work because there are legal and biological ramifications to be considered, but I was just as supportive because whatever gender someone says they are, wouldn’t my roles be the same? Aren’t I supposed to love and support my children, no matter their gender? Of course I am.

Now think about work and school and life. My son goes to a tiny little hippie school so when he came out as trans, it wasn’t that big a deal. Go a half mile in any direction and you’ll see all kinds of people who don’t understand what it means, what it means to them, how they should respond, and so on.

What I’ve learned for me is that someone’s gender identity and gender expression has little or nothing to do with me. I find both binary genders play no role in whether or not someone can do their job or be good or bad people. I find that gender and sexual preference is really your own business and not mine.

Representation and Acknowledgement is VITAL

But that said, and this is so important, everyone alive wants to be respected and represented as who they are without compromise or shame. If someone says they’re gay, bi, poly, trans, or any of the many other ways people can now express their sexual and gender expressions, they want you to know and acknowledge and understand how they want to be identified.

THAT PART IS THE HARDEST PART FOR THE “STRAIGHT” PEOPLE.

It’s somehow difficult for us to make the change from “looks like a guy so must be a guy” to “I’m Chris. My pronouns are he/him. How about you?”

This upsets people. It feels like “too much” to some people. It feels somehow offensive to some others. But that’s what needs to change. That’s where a lot of us need to grow. That’s where “the way we used to do it” no longer covers it.

I Marched So Even More Can March

It’s “easy” for me to march. I’m straight, white, and privileged. I marched because I want to bolster the ranks of those who don’t always feel safe, those who don’t always feel seen, and those who don’t often enough feel loved and accepted. I marched because the LGBTQ+ community is part of our community.

And like you and everyone else, I might get some of this wrong, say something that doesn’t line up the way everyone wishes I’d talk about it. I’m always open to learn. But I’ll tell you why I’m out here. It’s because there’s so much value in all these people who get pushed to the corners and I want them at the picnic. If you met some of the great people I met at the march, you’d want them at the picnic, too!

I work with executives and leadership teams to deliver the results you say you value in your corporate culture statements. Let’s improve collaboration and creativity and bring some of that value to your company. REACH OUT.