Action!

Go now - do it!

Right now!

In theater, breaking the fourth wall refers to addressing the audience directly. Recently I had an experience where the customer service rep “broke the fourth wall” making me a fan for life. How can you apply this breakthrough strategy to your business?

I found myself alone with my daughter, Shi, and did what most dads do in this situation: went out for pizza. My daughter is two years old and taking her anywhere requires a multitude of items including toys, diaper bag and the kid herself. We went to the local Round Table Pizza where I ordered a King Arthur and then had fun wandering with Shi until the order was ready. While eating, an amazing thing happened — the young woman behind the counter came around to see how we were doing.

Now I would expect this at a more expensive sit-down style restaurant. But at Pizza it was startling. In that moment I went from quietly enjoying my meal to becoming a grateful parent.

Most businesses that have a counter between the customer and the employees use that counter as a barrier. The unspoken message is clear as you walk up: this is my side, that is your side. Most employees would never think to cross that divide.

This got me thinking about the “forth walls” we put up between ourselves and our customers. From phone systems to email there is an invisible divide that keeps us on our side and them on theirs. Being Incluesive means bringing the two together.

It’s time to bring out the wrecking ball and knock down those walls!

Influencers are the people that make you think, lead or inspire earth-changing things!

On the left I have been listing my online Influencers.

Who influences you?

I am a fan of anything that brings people together and few communities are as strong as the open source community. These people work hard to bring quality, earth-changing products to you and me.

I am also a big fan of increased security, greater user control, system flexibility and fantastic prices.

My latest open source infatuation is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a flavor of Linux that is incredibly user friendly.

I used to dabble in Linux though it has been several years since I actually did any installs myself. Putting Ubuntu on my new laptop took less than an hour including downloading the free software, reading the directions, moving my Windows partition to make room and getting it all installed and running.

On this laptop I’m trying an experiment to see just how far open source has come. I do have a Windows XP partition just in case but even that only uses the commercial software for the operating system. The rest is all open source including OpenOffice, Thunderbird (for Win) and Evolution (for Ubuntu).

For the record, OpenOffice works even better than expected, especially Calc (their version of Excel) and Presentation (PowerPoint) looks amazing! I’m also particularly impressed with the robust features of Evolution.

Like you, I am an incredibly busy person. This transition has been easy and even… fun! In fact, I’m already thinking about setting up a server so I can get even more functionality from Evolution like an online calendar.

Total cost so far: $0

Total time: 2 hours (1 hour to install and a second hour to configure various programs)

If you are a small to medium sized business looking for ways to make life easier and reduce expenses (like the one where you have to track all your licenses!), there is probably a flavor of Linux out there waiting for you. Or, if you are unsure about the process go ahead and contact me. I’ll be happy to discuss my experience and offer suggestions for your situation.

Marketing face-to-face can be difficult for many (most?) people. I know I feel a sense of envy when a door-to-door salesman appears completely at ease talking to me about their product on my front porch!

Welcome to Full Contact Marketing.

Full Contact Marketing is any face-to-face meeting with any (potential) customer. It can be door-to-door sales or working a trade show booth or taking orders over a counter. Often, Full Contact Marketing is considered just customer service.

But it is so much more!

Your poeple on the front lines represent your business brand more than any advertisement or PR campaign ever could. People relate to people. And if that relationship goes bad…

Front line people = Your brand

Are you inspecting your people before they go out to represent you? Do you offer coaching to help them polish their pitch, service and appearance? How can you inject confidense into your Full Contact Marketing program?

I’ve moved this site over to the new domain (www.incluesive.com) that builds a stronger brand. It’s tougher on the SEO but the customer - you - come first!

I’ve moved several WordPress blogs over in the past. And I’ve always run into the same problems:

• Not all posts make it over
• Design isn’t an exact match

I’m still trying to figure out why the template changes. But I did find a fix for transfering data over cleanly: Technosailor’s WordPress-to-WordPress Import. It’s built for pre-2.1 versions of WP and supposedly is included in the 2.5 version. What I noticed is the exported code from the default setup has some errors. Technosailor seems to have cleaned them up so all posts move over nicely.

Special thanks to Aaron Brazell and Matt Mullenweg for making my life that much easier. Moving dozens of posts over by hand is time-consuming!

I used to work for an international chain of stores and by far the best experience was working under Melissa Fish. Melissa was a world-class manager who broke all company records moving from $0 - $100,000 per month in revenue in less than 6 months!

How did Melissa do it?

• Trust
• Clear job positions
• Clear chain of command
• Training!
• High expectations
• Transparency!
• Honest, open dialogue with every employee (even - especially? - the front line)
• Extra helpings of care

Melissa’s trust created an atmosphere of employee ownership. Nobody wanted to disappoint Melissa. Not because she was the boss. Because she was honest, strait-forward and opened the whole operation to every employee. We all felt like we made a difference. And we all learned how the business operated.

In those days I was surprised by the level of transparency at this one branch. I had worked at other locations and none of them had the same spirit of employee entrepreneurship that this one did.

In fact, when I left that job to return to school, my Introduction to Business course was a breeze because I already knew the topics, I only had to apply labels to them! My whole business career was jump-started by Melissa.

Melissa, if you are reading this, thanks!

PS. On the topics of “big picture” I’m taking this weekend off from posting in celebration of my wedding anniversary. See you next week!

“If you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers, and profits will take care of themselves.”

J. Willard Marriott

My Business Professor loved this quote. He would bring it up often as an example of leadership that sees through the clutter.

When you are trying (fighting!) to reach a goal, it is tempting to “control the situation” instead of trust your people.

Tip: If you can’t trust your people, what is it about your leadership that needs work?

(Follow-up Tip: Get started on it right now!)

Simple will sink in.

Simple will be read.

Simple will be understood.

Simple will be remembered.

Simple will be used.

Simple will be purchased.

Making things simple can be the hardest work there is to do! And the most rewarding.

Apply simple to everything from company memos to systems to the products you sell and see how powerful simple can be.

All of your vendors have a vested interest in your success. After all, the better you do, the more you’ll buy from them. And the more you will rely on them.

Most of your customers have a vested interest in your success as well. People like to support success (even if they are rooting for the underdog). People will root for you to win because if you win, they can claim part of your glory. And they will share in that glory in their own small, vicarious way. (“I was there!”)

So now that everybody is behind you, your business should take off like a rocket right? And survive the tough times - no problem! Right?

Only. Only. Only if you lead the charge. You cannot take the support of others for granted. If you do, the work will become harder. People resent being taken for granted. And they will distance themselves from you as a result (even if it hurts them).

It is your job to keep things moving. To give your people a rallying point. To give them something bigger than themselves to be part of. And with that, gain their loyalty.