Seth Godin Medicine Ball Sessions

I just completed a three-day course, workshop, event, and guru-session with the famed business thinker Seth Godin.

There were roughly 70 of us, selected through an application process, throwing the medicine ball back and forth in Hastings on the Hudson, NY.

The Medicine Ball analogy was precisely what was occurring.

If you’ve ever worked with a partner in a gym and tossed the weighty mass back and forth, then you have a visual of the discourse and interactivity.

Back and forth-Seth would offer up a “Riff” and then he’d open up the floor for responses.

Seth Godin teaching at Medicine Ball three day sessions in NY
Seth Godin teaching at Medicine Ball three day sessions in NY

Interviews with fellow graduates Medicine Ball Session Podcasts

It was absolutely transforming.

So many of the events or seminars I have attended were structured where your job was to take notes and then take home a list of tasks to accomplish.

This was an exchange. A workout for both Seth and every member in the gym. And I will never be the same.

Thanks, Seth and fellow Medicine Ballers.

Straight lines and failed business plans

A+B=C… right?

The shortest distance from Point A to Point B is a straight line. In mathematics this is true, but is it true in life?

What if life doesn’t work this way?

Straight lines and failed business plans - Aaron McHugh Work Life Play Podcast

Let me tell you a story.

A buddy and I had an idea for a company in 1999, cubicleplanet.com. It was going to be brilliant. Long before social media, before Facebook, Ning, Twitter, Flicker, LinkedIn, we had this idea that people in cubicles wanted to be socially connected. We envisioned each cubicleplanet member being united in the Global connection by plotting their cubicle with GPS coordinates on the Global CubiclePlanet map.

Every college kid in his dorm was getting $2.xM in funding, or so we thought. So, we entered contests, wrote a business plan (which was pathetic), printed t-shirts, cut a radio commercial, and waited for our millions to roll in.

Nothing happen.

We did not win any of the “Eat dinner with a VC” contests. No rich uncle stepped up to offer us seed money.

But…

I was doing some guiding in the mountains on the weekends. And one of my clients left his shovel in my car after our winter survival outing.

He was a CFO at a local software startup. I had to drop off his snow shovel on Monday. I asked, “Would you read my business plan?” He said “Great idea, but you’ll never get money for it. Come work for us instead.”

The straight line theory is idea>business plan>funding=millionaire.

Or, is there another theory? What about having the courage to dream the outlandish, ridiculous, bad idea (too early for the market) that leads the way for the next opportunity.

idea>business plan>forgotten shovel>want a job>launches a career in software sales=priceless

So, is it failure? Or, is it courage? Failure is a perspective.

Which will it be for you?

A Prize Fighter, a Scrapper, and a Sales Strategy

I heard a great Sales person depiction this week that seems worth sharing:

Picture two Sales people, like two boxers.

The lights go down. The announcer shouts with beat thumping music accompaniment, “Let’s get ready to RUMBLEEEEE…..”

The Prize Fighter

Creative Commons by Joe Smith&Wesson

He shuffles down the aisle toward the ring. A gaggle of his support crew all wearing matching outfits follow in tow. Out in the parking lot, back at the gym, this guy leaves a wake of tired people. Always needing more, always wanting more, always requiring more from his ever-growing team.

He fights to get paid.

He wins big fights. He doesn’t even show up for the little ones. “Go Big or Go Home” is his mantra.

I’ve worked with guys like this. Always going for the proverbial sales “Whale”-size customer. Always requiring tons of internal resources, more marketing, more features from development, more (fill in the blank)…..

And, they close a big deal once a year or every two years, so they silence the naysayers.

The Scrapper

He has his trainer and brother-in-law. No entourage or girls in bikinis. (Sounds like the first Rocky movie, huh?)

Man, this guy can fight. He fights with heart and guts and gumption. He doesn’t turn down any fight.

He can jump in the ring with the Prize Fighter or he can trade blows down at the YMCA with the local neighborhood hero. And he wins. His team trusts him, and he trusts them. There is substance and meaning to his training.

I’ve worked with sales people like this. And I love their style. They wake up early, swallow their blended shake of raw eggs, and do the work. They make the calls, learn the product, and develop a conviction for their solution.

They require so much less energy on their surrounding team.

And they also win.

Everyone has a style of winning.

I’d rather carry the stool of a Scrapper than be on the payroll of the Prize Fighter.

Which are you? How do you fight?

Which of these companies would you invest $10,000 in?

You have $10,000 to invest in one of two technology companies.

They have the exact same business model, competing against each other in the same market space.

You are looking to maximize your return on investment in two years.

The differentiation is the management team’s approach to work environment.

Company #1 is traditional

Company #1 believes in a traditional work environment. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

You cannot be a minute late and the phones shut off at 5 p.m.  The employees are provided a predictable vanilla environment.

The management team is very focused on cutting costs and increasing customer pricing.

They have a worldwide customer base on a 10-year old technology platform.

Company #2 wants to slay dragons

Company #2 believes in a non-traditional work environment.

They let you bring your dog to work, park your bike indoors on the bike rack in the lobby, and have a beer tap in the kitchen.

Work hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. but some show up late and some stay late.

Some work after-hours and weekends.

The phones don’t shut off; they roll over to after-hour cell phones.

The management team is very focused on retention and recruitment of the best talent they can find.

They believe the biggest dragons to be slayed are out in the marketplace.

Which company will provide you a higher return? 

Where would you put your money?

Work to change the world

I can’t say enough about this concept of recruiting great talent.

If you don’t have the right talent on the bus, then you will be beat eventually.

You might have the best widget or the biggest customer list or the coolest wizbang.

Eventually, someone else will come along with half as much money, half as many people, and less than half of your experience.

And they’ll win.

Why?

Mission over money

People love being apart of a great mission even more than making one more dollar.

In this article from Fast Company, the writer drives home the point that today’s digital talent isn’t driven by salary amounts or your employee cafeteria.

Instead, the liberators and heretics of the digital workforce are motived by the chance to change the world.

It’s a great article on what motivates some rare breed of people to innovate instead of just punch a clock.

“Why doesn’t digital talent want to work at your company? It’s not because you’re a consumer packaged goods company, rather than Google. It’s not because you’re in Ohio instead of Silicon Valley. It’s not because your salaries are too low, or because you don’t offer free food and laundry services.

It’s because you’re not providing them the right opportunity. The talent you want would be happy to work in an un-air-conditioned garage in New Mexico if it meant the chance to change the world.

This, the opportunity to do great things, to make a real difference, is what drives most digital talent--whether they’re developers, designers, producers, marketers or business folks.

Most companies don’t offer this, so they skip your company and work somewhere that’s more innovative and exciting. End of story. But the good news is that you can offer them something exciting and great. The promise of changing a giant, behind-the-times organization into an Internet-savvy business is an incredibly exciting challenge and a big way for ambitious people to make an impact.”

Read the rest of the article here

Are you unhappy in your work?

Full article-

“The study found that 70 percent of employees are now either disengaged or under engaged at their job”.

And, are you surprised? Look around you. How many of the people that you work with every day are what you would call “engaged”? Are they bringing their best? Am I? Are you?

What if we brought our best starting tomorrow, even if it was not noticed or appreciated or valued? What would it do for us as individuals?

TGIF Labor

Nameless person

nameless department

phone/email

didn’t create it

didn’t cause it

can’t cure it

This is an email signature I came across, in real life, not a Google search. “Thank God it’s Friday,” TGIF laborers.

Don’t get me wrong I love to play.  I work daily at finding new ways to live well outside of work.  And yet, it’s this kind of posture that I believe actually makes the walk from Monday morning to Friday afternoon that much longer.

I hold onto the belief that work can be fun, innovative, adventurous, challenging, rewarding, personal, and too large a part of my life to approach like this.

How about you?  Have a similar story(s)?

“You didn’t say never”

Have you ever provided a guard rail to your kids or to your employees?

But you were light on the list of bullet point rules of boundaries that are excluded?

photo by gypsybrassbands

Example- “I need you to turn this into me by Friday, every week.”

Or, “Hey son, I do not like you watching that TV show, I think there are better shows available”.

Neither of those examples provide a list of explicit bullet point adjoining rules and regulations. Right?

This week I had a situation where the response given to me for why the guard rail was crossed was, “You didn’t say Never.”  Yep.

You are right. I didn’t say, “I need you to turn this into me by Friday, every week….and NEVER be late” or “Never….watch that show”.

Who wants to be that guy?  Not me.

I prefer guard rails as fundamental boundaries but negotiation can always enter the discussion.

“Hey, I can’t make the Friday deadline…..I’ll have it to you on Monday. Is that ok?” Of course. That sounds so much better than, “Hey, I did not receive your report on Friday.” And the answer, “You didn’t say I could never be late”.

I think I’ll add this to my growing list of excuses not to EVER use.