Category: Blog

Innovations From Great Ideas

Truly great ideas have been responsible for some of the biggest innovations in today’s world, behind some of the biggest corporations and at the heart of some of the most important parts of our everyday lives. While today’s world is full of numerous exceptional ideas, good ideas are nothing without the right people behind them. Good ideas would remain stagnant without the right people behind them to move these ideas forward and to turn these ideas into reality. The philosophy behind truly great ideas is that they have truly passionate people behind them so they can become more than just ideas, they can become reality.

So, how do these ideas transform at the behest of the passion of an individual person? It all takes the right person with the right idea and the right motivation to take that important first step. It takes quick, passionate and powerful implantation in order to take an idea and transform it into something more. For years, this philosophy has been at the heart of the teachings from successful business coach JT Foxx. The idea of speed of implementation has been one of the most important principles behind JT Foxx’s methods for success with his expert business teachings and they have led to the blossoming of some of the biggest successes in today’s business world.

With the right speed of implementation you can morph and change an idea drastically, and guide those ideas in the right direction so that they can reach their true fulfillment. Being the passionate, driving force behind an idea and being the one that takes this thought or dream into something more, takes initiative and the courage and speed to implement that idea. Speed of implantation means not being afraid to share your ideas. It also means not being afraid to make the first step and not being afraid to do the work that it takes to implement the idea and get the ball rolling on transforming the idea into something more. It takes a speed of implantation to no longer worry or feat the repercussions of revealing your idea and to take that first step.

Armed with confidence, and the willingness to stop talking about your ideas and start turning them into something more, the confidence you have to take the first step can be the confidence needed to carry you on through the next step and forward in your journey to implementation as you find new doors open and new ideas coming to life. Good ideas, are just that; ideas.

Dell Sets New Records As They Go Private in $24.4 Billion Landmark Deal

dellWhen Michael Dell, head of Dell Inc. revealed he struck a massive deal this week to take the company private; the entire business world was in shock over the numbers involved with this ground breaking deal. As the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis first hit, Dell’s deal, which will have the company partnering with the Silver Lake private equity firm and Microsoft Corp, has taken the company a long way from its humble beginnings.

The record-breaking deal was agreed upon in an effort to take the powerhouse company, which began in a college dorm room, and turn it around without the pressures or feedback from Wall Street. After 24 years in the public market; the company which was once at the top of the personal computer realm, needed a massive change and that change came in the form of a $24.4 billion deal. After nearly a decade spent falling off their pedestal, the executives needed something that would put an end to their floundering; and according to Michael Dell and his team, this was just what the company needed.

According to reports involving the heavily scrutinized deal, Dell executives are still planning on sticking to their original expansion strategy from before the deal and will look to expand their software and computing services to large companies. The new movement for the company has many assuming that the focus on entering their corporate market and for becoming a full service provider for large companies will have Dell abandoning their low-margin personal computer business which first helped them rise to the top of their market.

However, Dell is keeping quiet on whether or not they have plans to abandon the personal computer sector and they are keeping quiet on what they will be doing differently as a private entity. Although there are many shareholders who are demanding more information and some who are claiming insider trade, there are others who believe this move is inevitable due to the recent decline of Dell’s share of the market.

Although the numbers surrounding the deal have had many in shock as the 11th largest buyout in history moves forward; many are still focusing their attention on the man at the center of the deal. After a hiatus from the CEO position, Michael Dell returned to the company in 2007 to attempt to turn Dell around. However, his attempts never gave Dell the boost they were looking for. This means now the company simply needs to hope that this new foray into the private sector will give the once high reigning company the edge it needs to regain its prominence in the market.

Yahoo and Other Businesses Making the Move Away from Telecommuting

yahoo_logoLast week, when it was revealed that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer; had plans to change the current format of Yahoo, a great deal of debate arose regarding the presence of remote workers in businesses today. Mayer openly released a statement revealing that she would be banning telecommuting among Yahoo employees as a way to build a more collaborative work environment. However, with Yahoo’s long term business model which has had a strong reliance on ‘work from home’ employees; there has been some backlash from the decision, primarily from the telecommuting workers who will now have to change their current work style to fit in with the new Yahoo model.

The decision to make the change at Yahoo is the same decision that many other smaller companies have been making as well in an effort to grow their business and build a stronger sense of community within their offices. However, since the Yahoo change will be impacting more than 11,500 employees; the decision has gotten a great deal of attention. However, in a difficult market where it is imperative for managers to make certain their team is performing at the highest level possible, changes like this are often needed.

The goal behind the new Yahoo reformation is to help employees make better connections and to build a stronger more community based work force within the company. While many current employees who will have to give up their work from home status to start working from a more traditional office setting are speaking out against the change; other experts in the business field are weighing in as well.

Acclaimed business coach JT Foxx is one of the many business gurus who is supporting the decision and who is helping to shed some light on why many companies today will need to eventually move away from the telecommuting model. Foxx; who has spoken out in many of his coaching seminars about proper techniques to managing team members supports the move by Yahoo and many of the other companies that are deciding to bring their employees as a way to implement more effective leadership within an organization. While the movement back towards more traditional office settings is one that is causing some uproar among telecommuting employees it is a decision that many companies are making after discovering the positive impact that re-instilling a sense of community can have on many companies today.

Happy Washington’s Birthday (For Real)

George WashingtonYou might think actually I’m late with this post because we celebrated President‘s Day back on Monday.

But as it turns out, today February 22 is really George Washington’s birthday. To honor the “Father of our Country,” I thought I’d take a look and see whether George Washington said anything that teaches us about the spirit of entrepreneurship and the principles of success that I teach today.

As it turns out he did.

For example, Washington certainly embraced the entrepreneurial spirit. Here’s what he had to say about the “spirit of commerce”:

“A people… who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.”

I share the same view. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you have the right mindset. It’s how I got to my first million dollars and how you can, too – if you apply yourself, pursue your own advantages, and adopt an “I will succeed” view of your life and your business.

Here’s another gem:

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.”

Great lesson here. I’ve had plenty of success in my life, but there have certainly been failures along the way. The key? Make failure work for you by learning what went wrong so you can fix it in the future. But to do that you have to meet it head on and be completely honest with yourself When you just come up with crummy excuses, that’s indeed worse than no excuse at all.

And this is what Washington had to say about the value of relationships:

“Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”

Here Washington reveals the importance of relational capital – who you know and, more importantly, who knows you. Your reputation means everything and amassing the right relational capital yields big dividends in the end. But pick these relationships carefully. As George Washington says, avoid “bad company” because negative people will just bring you down.

As I said, while we celebrated President’s Day on Monday, today is really Washington’s Birthday – and it’s worth reflecting on what he said about life and business.

So take a $1 bill out of your wallet and look at that famous portrait of George Washington. There’s a lot we can learn from this great man who led us to victory in the Revolutionary War, became “the father of our country,” and left us much to think about when it comes to entrepreneurship, learning from failure, and building up your relational capital.

AIDA: Music to my (marketing) ears

aida-lyric-opera-chicago-400x228There’s an opera called “Aida,” which was written by Giuseppe Verdi more than 100 years ago, but I’m not writing about music today. I’m writing about marketing.

You see, “AIDA” also stands for one of those magic formulas of marketing and advertising. When you’re evaluating your own advertising, AIDA is a great acronym to keep in mind when you want to make sure your marketing is as persuasive as possible.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Here’s how it works. When writing or designing your marketing materials, follow the formula:

  • Grab ATTENTION: Get the reader to notice your message with unique images and headlines
  • Raise INTEREST: Find something to say that would be interesting – even fascinating – to your prospect (not just interesting to you)
  • Build DESIRE: Once you’ve grabbed attention and built interest, sell the prospect on why they should really want your product or service.
  • Encourage ACTION: Make your best offer so the prospect actually takes some form of action – either to identify themselves as a lead or make a purchase.

Anatomy of a landing page

Let’s see how this AIDA approach works. I happened to run across a landing page for GEICO, the company that sells car insurance. They’ve been advertising on television for years so the company already has a significant branding presence based on their amusing gecko character with the British accent.

GEICO

And here’s how AIDA applies on this page:

  • The gecko, a signature of Geico grabs attention. He’s been on TV so long that he already has substantial brand equity and does a good job reinforcing the brand
  • The headline about why customers love Geico enhances reader interest. It’s interesting because most people don’t “love” their auto insurance companies.
  • The testimonial builds desire. It’s about saving money, and who doesn’t want to save money on something like car insurance?
  • Finally, the quote box at the bottom encourages action. It asks you to start the process of getting a quote by entering your Zip Code.

Obviously, I don’t know exactly how well this landing page does, but Geico is a successful company (a division of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway) that insures millions of cars across the US, so I figure the company has tested a wide variety of landing pages to find out what works and what doesn’t.

So there you have it. Just apply a little “AIDA” (the marketing formula, not the opera) to your advertising and see your results perk up. It will bring music to your ears and put money in your pocket.

Super Bowl Style Sales and Marketing

chick-football1I’ll let you in on a little secret. Like many people, I enjoy watching the Super Bowl almost as much to see the creative advertising as I do to watch a great football game.

And whether you’re talking about marketing or football, you can’t deny that the Super Bowl is BIG.

How big? Enormous from a marketing standpoint. Take a look at this article from Ad Age: Continue reading →