Blog

Responsiveness

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment
marketing office working business
Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

I left a message for a company yesterday again. They have still not called me back. I am thinking about moving on. Too bad. There’s a lot of business that could come their way. I tend to be a loyal person to the things I like.

In this instant, 24/7 world, there is this illusion that we can always obtain world-class service. That’s not true. I think we want it. But then we end up with a phone tree, wait times and no follow-through.

Business is still people. And people are hard to move towards responsiveness without leadership.

I still smile when I call my accounting software, FreshBooks, for support. Two rings into the call and I get a live person! It’s impressive. I love their responsiveness, and I tell my clients and friends about them every chance I get. They are part of my team, and I’m a fan.

There are a few other partners that have also set up their business around responsiveness. It keeps me delighted, and I stick with those partners. I trust them.

Maybe it’s my own need for quality. I practice mise en place. I believe in being responsive and love delighting people with a high level of service and care. That’s how I see it. Good business is about truly caring about another person and helping them get what they are looking for fast.

I don’t think that it’s a lot to ask. And I do believe most customers are looking for care and responsiveness. You don’t have to go far to hear the complaints of bad service or sloppy follow-up.

Can you imagine if your brand stood out because of your responsiveness? If you are constantly in a crisis or tripping over your own clutter and disarray, forget it. You won’t make it happen. You don’t care enough.

But, if you want to stand out, I bet opportunities and attraction make their way to your doorstep from a habit and setup of being responsive in all your dealings.

How can you make responsiveness part of your way of doing business?

Maintaining Energy

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment
abstract art burnt color
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Pushing on your work takes an intense amount of energy. And without energy, it’s hard to maintain consistency, perseverance and results. Energy is not a given. You have to foster your routines and habits to keep peak performance going.

I like to hike, play tennis, trail run and snowboard to get me into a bigger world and get the blood flowing. If I miss days, I get crabby and unproductive. The world becomes smaller and my problems become bigger.

Sometimes, when I am thinking about a deal, for example, and how to structure it, I will head out for a long walk. I don’t think about it. I get into freeing up my mind and simply sweating. Somewhere along the line, or when I’m finished, my legs and heart get worn out and that creative kick comes out. This approach tends to work well for me. I may sit down for another four hours and push on creating. I have new energy.

There’s this giant temptation to skip the habits that spend me, relax me or divert my attention. However, those habits are too important to sideline. Managing the ebb and flow of my enthusiasm, energy and focus matter towards getting results and pushing on all the fronts I care about with clarity. That’s why I consider managing energy part of work.

We are not simply brains swiveling on a post. We are whole beings that push our work out from emotion, determination and knowledge. There’s a lot of quality difference in our output from how we feel in the course of a day and how much energy we are bringing to our relationships and problem solving.

I think finding what works to keep the energy high is simply good business.

Dealmaking Is Slow then Fast

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment
person about to catch four dices
Photo by fotografierende on Pexels.com

I love dealmaking. I agree with Robert Ringer’s observation about dealmaking:

“There are no statistics to prove it, but after years of experience, I’m absolutely convinced that dealmaking is the highest-paid profession in the world.”

I think the creative pieces and bringing ambiguous, and often disparate parties and value together, is exhilarating. Great deals help everyone to win and get what they want.

Designing those deals requires insight and many cycles to drive a win and agreement. It’s why I often tell business partners that dealmaking is about going slow. Then fast.

The slow part of deal making is the art of the deal. Building rapport and relationships. Establishing trust. Putting the ideas forth that might take root. These are the building blocks that go faster with established relationships and much activity, but in the beginning of new ventures and relationships, they are slow to put forth and germinate. Often times, you have to push hard.

Fortunately, deals are everywhere. They need leadership, vision and management to develop. If you sell a known product, then your dealmaking has a lot of the components already set up.

If you have a custom, creative dealmaking offering, then there is a lot of time collaborating, designing and creating something from nothing.

I think that one of the best strategies is to be ready. Mise en Place. Anticipate that new conversations, opportunities, relationships and timing will come in the next weeks and months. Being ready by doing your homework, studying, gathering insights, having fast, efficient systems, and getting smarter are required to support the slow part.

If you have done the work then the fast part tends to take care of itself. The convergence of the details, negotiating, having solid agreements and delivering value transitions the dealmaking over to keeping your commitments.

You can always get better at the fast part. The slow part is where the payoff is if you pay attention to your approach, preparation and cadence. Where can you improve?

Prototyping Your Idea

~ Don Dalrymple ~ 2 Comments

There’s a saying that the enemy of the good is perfect. The longer I am in business, the more sensitive and skeptical I get of perfectionism. When I hear fixation on some endless detail that is not necessarily going to prove an idea, the less I want to invest in the venture or the person.

Ultimately, when perfectionism that results in diminishing returns becomes the focal point, the more a deal can go sideways.

When there is ambiguity and uncertainty, the goal is to find proof that your idea is valid. Designing a solid prototype that tells you whether you should refine, scale and go forward with your idea is the best strategy to hedge the risk of failure.

A little planning can go a long way. But, here’s a sequence you can use. Go small and get more information so you can go bigger as you overcome the uncertainty.

  1. What is the concept you are trying to sell? See if you can pitch the idea to ten people and see what the reaction is.
  2. Pre-sell the concept and see if you can make a few people happy with a prototype of the idea in in your product or service.
  3. Develop the use case around your delivered prototype.

The goal is to take marginal risk and get massive insight and information from each step. Then invest more as you see how people like or dislike what you are seeking to deliver.

This is true for customer service, business processes and delivered products.

How can I deliver a prototype?

Designing this first phase and watching closely on the adoption of your idea will tell you the next step. You can gain comfort in investing further or killing your idea altogether.

Troy Carter of Lady Gaga and Atom Factory Kept Learning and Unlearning

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

atomfactory

I like spending the weekends thinking, learning and relaxing. The weeks are such a grind and intensive with deal making and doing business. Today, I was having some reflections on the NPR podcast, How I Build This: Lady Gaga & Atom Factory: Troy Carter. I embedded it above and you can find the transcript here.

Troy Carter managed hip-hop and pop superstars as well as built a venture fund. He is remarkably honest, humble and sober. I respect him as a businessman and how he kept integrating what he learned and unlearned. He kept parlaying his skills and exploring avenues to create opportunities from hip-hop to pop music to social media to investing in startups. Even with his heartaches and successes, as many an entrepreneur goes through, he self-actualized, as he shared,

And just to be honest with you, the thing was I just said I want to wake up every day and do cool [expletive]. That was the mantra for me personally.

I can relate. We have to keep true to our inner compass and find fresh, relevant ways that we fit, apply our value and create opportunities in this fast-changing world.

In sharing this podcast, my friend Joseph over at InDev Capital and I were having some takes on Troy Carter’s podcast. I like what he said based on his work with emerging market real estate and the inherent skill and push it takes in his business,

Most everyone goes through “The Dip” and that is where the learnings are.

Well stated, for sure. Entrepreneurs understand this too well. They do pay the price for everyone else. Those learnings become cash flow, empires and job creation.

If you get a chance, listen to the podcast while driving or hanging out. Share some of your insights in the comments below. I would enjoy hearing your take. Enjoy and keep growing.

Schedule Working Meetings

~ Don Dalrymple ~ 1 Comment
adult architect blueprint business
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I am a big fan of working meetings. They cut through the back and forth of getting something done. It actually creates time and space to get real work done in real-time with another person or group.

Too often, we talk about the secondary stuff:

What we are going to do.

When we are going to do something.

Who should be a part of the work.

What resources are required.

In actuality, you can save a lot of time and get things moving by simply working.

So, when I see a thread going back and forth too often, my need for closure kicks in. Open loops drive me nuts after a while.

It’s inefficient to hide behind the chatter. Instead, lead. Make working meetings a part of your execution process. It’s energizing to bring together short, focused meetings to accomplish one thing. Here’s a simple way:

  1. Stop. Move an email and conversation that is going back and forth to a meeting instead. “I’m going to get us together to get this done.”
  2. Schedule. I have an article sharing best practices on putting a meeting together using your Google or Outlook calendar.
  3. Work. Open the call, online meeting or in-face time with one goal and let everyone know. “We are here to get this proposal created and emailed.”

In the meeting, simply facilitate and work. Ultimately, this is a process of leadership. You have to lead. Get the decision. Send out what you promised. Write up the new standard operating procedure.

When you find yourself procrastinating, perhaps the task feels undefined and overwhelming. A working meeting can increase the energy and motivation with other people to get clear and move bottlenecks through your pipeline of tasks.

That ability to move from talking to action is critical in an overly competitive and inattentive world. Cut through it with the determination to work with your team and customers. It’s efficient and fits the times.

The Discipline and Joy of Blogging from Seth Godin

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment

It is truly refreshing to listen to candor in a world full of hype and noise. The connected world today feels like high school. We are inundated by popularity and hype continually because of the internet. And we have the sage advice of someone who has been persistent, humble and substantive on why it is important to blog and read blogs in Seth Godin.

I think it’s worth a listen on his podcast on the topic:

 

blogs, platforms and permissions by seth godin

For a time I had blogged frequently and now seek to share on a weekly basis.

I started my blogging many years ago and my last lookup was 1,500+ articles. It’s been a pure joy.

I think I will take heed to Seth’s encouragement to blog each day to help people and make the connections from what I am experiencing inwardly to an outward, outside platform. Fantastic way to give a gift to the world and myself. It’s true, that I have seen that pattern emerge. Write to help people. It’s pretty simple.

I don’t write for SEO, popularity, likes, clicks, etc. I love hearing that a thought, strategy or idea helped in some way in business and life.

Anyways, I hope you can start the habit as well. When everyone is seeking to game some system, it’s refreshing to hear real thoughts and sincere pursuits. I want to continue to stay on that track. Much like Shakespeare said, “to thine own self be true.” aka, blog authentically.

Pursuing Work That Has No End

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment
architecture buildings business city
Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels.com

I heard a fantastic interview of an entrepreneur that adopted this motto in his ventures by Avot de Rabbi Natan,

“Do not be afraid of work that has no end”

I like closure and results. The kind of thinking that creates big movements, such as ensuring every human being has clean water, is daunting, to say the least. It’s the kind of commitment that stirs the soul to action, if we can find such a cause.

The hard part is to get above the noise of all the demands we have already committed to. I do think it’s good to periodically look up from our work and ask what direction we are headed.

We may find that we have emotionally shifted and that our priorities are misaligned.

Do I still care about this work?

Is there a new reality and opportunity to pursue?

Am I making an impact?

I think modern work moves at a dizzying pace, and it’s hard to get above the fray. Purpose, meaning and vision take deep thought, and that can be challenging, especially in the grind. However, I do often sense I am likely off course most of the time when it comes to work I have committed to. It’s that hunch I feel in the back of my mind while I maintain productivity around my commitments.

So, I try to keep some simple disciplines to keep thinking broader:

  • Morning routines. With coffee in hand, I like to be silent and let my mind and heart think and align on what is going on and where I am headed.
  • Constant questioning. I always ask myself and use conversations with others to evaluate my choices. Is there something better? I’m looking for better.
  • Perspective. I ask myself frequently, “Knowing what I know now further down the journey, would I have started this project?”

I think at a core level, we are deeply inspired with work that has no end and provides impact and meaning. It beats year after year of subsistence thinking.

Is there bigger work you should consider?

Build Dealmaking Empires

~ Don Dalrymple ~ Leave a comment
person holding silver pen signing photographers signature
Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

The willingness to fail is important, because no matter how good you become at the nuances of dealmaking, your bottom-line results are tied to the law of averages. ~ Robert Ringer, essay on Dealmaking Empire Builders

I bet there is a way to leverage, scale or parlay the skills or assets you have in business now into something broader. If you read the article above from Ringer, you can see the backstories of commodity businesses or early software projects. Those assets, transformed through dealmaking, turned coffee into Starbucks, software into Microsoft and bricks and mortar into real estate empires.

However, you can’t simply be working hard without imagining. Creativity and vision help you see something beyond what you are doing, arguably at a lower level of return.

What if you could turn your team into a larger profit center?

What if partnering with your competitors could lead to a bigger stage?

What if selling your product in an entirely different manner or market changes the profit equation?

What if you took your years of specific industry knowledge and shared it in podcasts and books?

It takes dealmaking prowess to see and push the idea into a new venue. Instead of earning a paycheck, you can create a distribution system or revenue stream.

Can you think about what you have going and what you know in a completely different light? Who would you need to talk with to get a different kind of deal going?

I tend to be an optimist and I can see different types of deals. I find it’s less about some novelty and more about curiosity and creativity. I want to make use of assets in the most profitable ways. That often takes understanding upside opportunities and who to talk to in order to make the deal a reality.

Yes, the law of averages is at play. So you have to do a lot of deals and keep that mindset of pushing on your ideas with others. That’s why practicing with frequency is the key to building dealmaking empires.

One Bad Deal Equals Ten Good Deals

~ Don Dalrymple ~ 2 Comments

downside.jpg

Have you ever noticed that drama people, those that welcome a life of continual crisis, can’t seem to ever escape their problems? It’s sad to watch a life full of crisis.

I think it can happen to all of us if we don’t protect our downside. Getting involved with crummy people and bad deals is hard to dig out of. Take a simple subscription for cable. It’s easy to sign up for. It’s a lot of hassle and steps to get out of. There’s a disproportionate aspect between enrollment and dissolution.

The same goes for relationships. They are easy to get into, but it is often an ulcer trying to unhinge from shady characters.

I often tell friends, “One bad deal is worth ten good deals.”

That’s a simple rule of thumb from business observations I have had over many years. If you work hard to avoid problems, build a boring business and be a little wiser to protect your downside, the upside tends to take care of itself.

So what about risk taking and entrepreneurship? I think that doing a bit of thinking to protect your downside is part of pushing against uncertainty. Throwing caution to the wind can be costly. Taking on what looks like a sweet upside deal without considering the costs can get you entangled in something like quicksand. The struggle to get out of a contract or undo the work you have put out into the world takes an immense amount of energy.

Furthermore, when we get vested in projects and commitments, we develop a sunk-cost bias that blinds our decision-making.

If I’m the cable company, I want you vested and emotionally committed. I want you paying your bill every month.

If I’m your business advisor, I want you to be smart and stay free so you can keep growing without friction.

Simply protect your downside vigorously. It will take ten good deals to overcome a bad decision, otherwise.