Great Customer Service Without Asking - Tresanti Wine Cooler

Customer Service isn't something we are used to any more.  At least I am not.  When my Tresanti Wine Cooler started getting louder and louder, I really thought I was going to have to take it back to Costco.

As a small business owner, I have a love - hate relationship with Costco.  I know how many small business owners lose business because things cost less at Costco.  At the same time, the quality is very high, and the ability to return anything except electronics forever is very appealing to me.

The ability to return stuff forever has had another effect.  This week I had two large heavy purchases from Costco fail, and both customer service lines get a five star rating from me.

People that know me, understand that I let a lot of stuff slide.  If it bugs me I'll bottle it up and hope it goes away, and when it doesn't then I make big changes quick.  I have been known to dig up an entire yard because I let a sprinkler problem go too long and then one day BANG for whatever reason I wanted it fixed that day at any cost.  Emergency contractors love guys like me.

When my Tresanti Wine Cooler got loud enough and my wife wasn't around, I called the local Costco, and they had one left.  The plan was to run it back and get a new one before she knew about it.  Costco shoppers know this is a hazard of shopping at Costco.  When they run out, you are out of luck.  Anyway, I started emptying the cooler, planning to load it in my truck and return it to Costco.

As I was emptying the top drawer, I found the tag with an 800 number that my wife left in there.  She must have known I would do this when she wasn't home.  I called the number and said "The fan is loud, really loud".  The guy says "Ok, there are four, can you tell me which one?"  I could only isolate it to the bottom compartment so he says, "That is good enough, I'll send you both fans for the front and the back of the bottom section."

I unplugged the cooler while I waited for parts.  When the fans showed up, I was impressed at how well thought out the cooler was for repairs, and how easy it was to repair.  Now it is nearly silent.

Most things today are snapped or glued together so when they break they go to the dump and you have to buy another one.  The Tresanti Wine Cooler was assembled with screws and was very easy to take apart, replace the fans and put it back together. A great buy from a company that was thinking ahead and backed their product.

I had a similar experience with my Sentry Safe.  Have you had any great customer service experiences lately?

Who Do You See In Your Mirror? Survivor, Dreamer or Visionary

What mode are you in, survivor, dreamer or visionary?  As children we see a world with no limits, and try anything.  We'll eat food off the floor, stick our hands on a hot pan, and jump into a pool having no idea how to swim.  Somewhere along the lines we learn fear.

Some kids learn fear early.  Their parents are quick to stop any action which has any risk.  Kids who are raised alone tend to have more protective parents.  younger kids of larger families tend to get more leeway as parents realize, the kids will eventually figure out the hot stove hurts and they'll quit touching it.

As we become adults the same things happen to us.  Our bosses tell us to toe the line.  Banks say they'll take our homes if we don't make the payments.  In extreme cases you might lose your job and not be able to eat.  This is how people end up in survival mode.

Sadly I meet more and more people in survival mode every day.  Some of it is likely my environment so my evidence is strictly anecdotal.  There are all kinds of studies to measure where people are mentally like the index of "consumer confidence".  I haven't seen a "visionary scale" where we measure how many people are in each of the three categories I mentioned.

A visionary is someone like Richard Branson,  Bill Gates or even actors like John Travolta, Henry Winkler or Tom Cruise.  No matter what happens they are always looking forward.  They see more possibilities and are rewarded for it.

At the other end of the spectrum are the people in survival mode.  Survivors are people who worry about getting work tomorrow, or feeding themselves or their family tonight.  They aren't looking at next month or vacation next year.  They are just struggling to survive.

For generations, prophets and success coaches alike have said that it all starts in your head.  If you are worried about putting food on the table tonight, the best you will be able to do is put food on the table.  If you are worried about changing the world, food will happen because it has to happen as you put your efforts into changing the world.

Once you hit survival mode, you enter a very difficult place that usually takes some major event to break you out of that mode of thinking.  Sometimes bankruptcy can shake you loose, yet some people have gone bankrupt multiple times.  As a business owner who has had successful businesses and not so successful businesses, I can tell you that explaining to your family that you are broke can be very motivating. 

I can also tell you it can be very depressing.  I have personally known people who took their own lives when they hit bottom.  When you hit the bottom you only have two places to go, up or out.  Out should never be an option, we should always have somewhere to turn.  Sadly not everyone does.

In the middle are dreamers.  They are doing ok, think big and maybe even talk big but never seem to move forward.  They are always looking at what other people are doing, and trying to emulate their success, all the while staying put.

If you think you are a visionary, ask yourself this, How much better off are you this year then you were last year?  True visionary are much better off.  If you are about the same or only a little better off, you are closer to being a dreamer.  If you answered that you are a little worse of, or definitely worse off, you have slipped into survival mode. 

If you are truly in a visionary position now, you have already done this and know where you are going.  If your are a dreamer, you might have done this but haven't really focused on it.  If you are in survival mode, you haven't even thought about it.

What is "IT"?

"IT" is your vision.  Your vision can't be complicated, and it must be clear.  Last year I had a dozen goals or "things" on my vision board.  One of my personal coaches said to reduce it to three because twelve things where simply too much to focus on every day.  He said my vision board was too cluttered and therefore my mind was getting cluttered.  He was right, I had stalled and fallen back to "dreamer" mode.  It was the same advice I had been giving clients.

I learned as an instructor pilot in the military, it is always easier to see what other people can do to move forward and make great leaps of progress than it is to see what you are doing wrong or what you can do to get ahead.  Using that philosophy, I hire coaches just like people hire me.  The key is to listen to them.

When I trimmed my list down to three major objectives, I hit the first one in just a couple of months and took it off the list.  Then I added another.  I will probably only get six or seven of my original twelve goals completed, but the reality is that a couple of the goals probably weren't that important anyway, and I'll forget what they were when it is time to add them back to the list.  More importantly, I probably wouldn't get more than two done had I not trimmed the list to focus on no more than three at a time.

Spend time asking yourself how you are doing right now compared to last week, last month and last year.  If you are worried about putting food on the table tomorrow, make that your goal, and as soon as you have it figured out, don't relax and don't let up.  Take time to create your three major goals for the year and spend 15 minutes each day thinking about them until you can say you are better off and have accomplished them.  Then do it again with three new goals or objectives.

Always move forward even if the steps are very small and slow.

Put your mind to work while you sleep and get out of survival mode.  It won't happen tonight, and it won't happen tomorrow, but it will happen.  If you are in dreamer mode, pick one big dream, and give it everything you have.  You'll get there.  It might take a year, or it might take ten.  In the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never, never, never ever give up."

As I write this I am thirty pounds lighter than I was a year ago.  One goal done....Next.

How To Get More Work With Less Effort.

Can you really get more work with less effort?  The simple answer is yes.  That is the whole point of the focused approach.  When you get really good at one thing, that one thing will bring you all of the work you want.  In fact it will bring you work that you don't expect.

Since last September, my wife has been a background actress.  In some ways you can say I am now too.  The difference is most of her income is money from acting where mine isn't.  Acting would be like a third or fourth place after marketing, training and writing.

The funny thing about it is that I get about half the work that she does with zero effort.  She works very hard at it and is much better than I am.  Speaking on stage is acting, but acting is way harder than speaking on stage.  On stage when I give presentations, I don't care where the camera is and the audience is always there.

Last week we saw two events that are worth discussing in this blog.  First we went to Long Beach to work on a TV show where people from the audience get to speak on TV and give their opinion on camera.  Half of the people were background actors filling in.  It is a way for non-union actors to get some speaking practice on camera.

On Set & In Wardrobe

Most of the regular patrons and background actors were very normal and talked about the product as if two friends were asking each other for advice.  One couple, turned up the acting and really went all out to pick it apart.  The whole room stopped and stared.  The interviewer jumped up and walked out of the room, talked to the director and the interviews were abruptly ended.

Just prior to that we went to Burbank California to meet some casting directors.  There we witnessed another exchange I thought would be worth understanding.  I already posted this on Facebook because I thought it was so important as a lesson in business and life.

A woman in her mid twenties with tattoos all the way down her arms, commonly called gang sleeve's, and those tribal ear hole enlargers, which she called "ear plugs", was asking for more roles as a conservative parent, office worker, lawyer or detective.  Roles my wife gets regularly, and since we aren't parents, she always wonders why they pick her to be a parent.

The woman went on to explain how she has a great wardrobe of "conservative" clothes and has "tricks" to hide her tattoos and ear plugs.  She spent another couple of minutes trying to convince the casting directors to use her more for those roles.

Politely the first casting director said that there are thousands of people that want those jobs and it is easier to pick the ones that don't have tattoos and ear plugs because there is less of a chance the director will send them home and be mad at the casting director.

The woman argued for another couple of minutes.

A second casting director responded, "With all of the shows that allow tattoos and ear plugs why don't you just submit for those?  Looking around the room, you are the only one here that fits that role. "

The woman didn't know.  It is possible that the woman was "conservative" and the ink and ear plugs were just bad choices.  More likely, the ink and ear plugs were a reflection of her real personality.  She looked very comfortable with them, and arguing about them.  My advice would be, don't argue with your boss before they hire you, but that isn't the point here.

Both of the casting directors basically said the same thing.  You will get more work with less effort if you just be the best "you" that you can be.  That is true in any field of work.  If you are in the wrong line of work, the best "you" will eventually find a way to move on to where you belong, or someone will recognize your talent and take you there.

My wife also began to understand that as an 18 year veteran of elementary school classrooms, she is the "look" that Hollywood likes to use as a parent and she is great with kids making her the perfect TV "parent".  She also has an MBA and Real Estate License with a great business wardrobe.  When she gets to the set to be a lawyer or detective, wardrobe is always happy and never has to find her clothes and dress her up.  It makes everyone's job easy when she just takes roles as herself.

Last November, I was standing with Jerome Hamilton, so I asked what I could do to move up the food chain.  He said 'Brother, you just keep doing what you are doing.  Look around at the rest of the background, you'll get there faster than you think."  15 minutes later he was right.  I got an upgrade.

Don't get caught up worrying about getting ahead the way other people get ahead.  Look in the mirror and be the best that you can be, enjoy your life as you and things will happen.

Makers Mark Rips a Page From Walmat Playbook

Makers Mark Bourbon ripped a page out of the Walmart playbook and is getting a reduced alcohol content.  So What?

Since the beginning of modern commerce or as we call it,  business, being able to deliver a product for a lower price and in higher volumes has been the path to wealth and success.  Some brands have avoided this trap and been able to command a premium on their name and the quality of their reputation.

In business, you have a choice to market to the masses who will accept a little less so they can spend less if it "feels the same".  You also have a choice to market to dedicated fans.  Many say that loyalty is dead.  If you believe that show up at any In-N-Out Burger at 12:00 noon and see if you can get lunch in under five minutes.

I have never bought a McDonalds shirt, but I own three In-N-Out T-shirts that I paid for.  I'd have more if they gave them away.  Loyalty isn't dead, businesses just lowered the standards to reach more wallets.

Wal-Mart was a case study while I was attending college and getting a business degree because of it’s ability to negotiate a slightly different product and give the appearance of delivering it at a lower price.  T-shirts were a little narrower at Wal-Mart than Macy’s even though they had the same label.  Today that is standard practice with companies like Costco and Outlet Mall locations.

Consumers have embraced this trend, and are actually the reason why all of this is happening.  Outlet Malls are filled with stores which are simply offering lower quality goods with similar styles as their named partners.  One of my favorites, Brooks Brothers is where I first figured it out.  I looked at a jacket while wearing some Brooks Brothers slacks, and the texture didn’t match.

The sales lady sheepishly explained that the jackets in the factory stores are marked “compare at” because they really are a different jacket of a “similar” weave, made in a completely different country.

At the time my wife laughed, and said that all of the branded stores in the Outlet Mall did the same thing.  Now I only go to the outlet malls to buy Crocs and Fleece Pullovers.  As far as the rest goes, I want the real deal.

A while back Breyer’s was purchased by Unilever.  Unilever quietly switched Breyer’s from “Ice Cream” to “Frozen Dairy Dessert”.    It looks like Maker’s Mark Bourbon is going to do something similar.  Recently Rob Samuels, the COO of Beam Inc that owns Makers Mark sent out a message saying they can’t make enough to meet demand, so they are going to reduce the alcohol from 45% to 42%.  

What is 3% more water among friends?  With a brand like Makers Mark, there are a couple of other options that just about all of us understand.  First they could reduce the money they spend marketing Maker’s Mark to help reduce demand or they could increase the price to reduce demand.  In either case the company can increase profits without degrading the product.

Even though I don't really drink Maker's Mark, I ran to the store and grabbed my last two bottles of the real Maker’s Mark before it is gone.  I guess it was like trying to buy the last of the real Levi's a decade or so ago.  

Bill Samuels Jr. posted a note on the Maker’s website saying that he wanted to post directly instead of Rob (The COO).  His note asks readers to reserve judgement until they try the new bourbon.

What do you think?  It is clear they aren’t going to market the product less, so should they raise the price or lower the alcohol content?

Are You Setting Goals? Is It Working For You?

Goal Setting is something that every self help book and coach that I have read recommends.  I am no different as a coach and a marketing trainer, and yet I see people fail to reach goals all the time.  If goal setting works so well, how come so few people set goals, or keep up with them?  And among those that do, how come so many report that they aren't achieving any of their goals?

Who are the people that seem to get everything done and accomplish all of their goals?  What is the big secret?  

While talking with several clients over that past month, one stood out.  He had a different attitude and his business, or rather the business he manages accomplished something they had never done before.  They put a car together and built a team to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.  I stopped by because they said I had to see what the car looked like after the event.

In the game of life, we are always looking to win, and in this case, the goal was not to win the 24 hour race, it was to merely finish.  Finishing was the goal and what the team called a win.  They did it.  If you get a chance, go see the car at TruSpeed.  If not click the picture so see the timeline on Facebook. 

Next year, maybe set the goal to place, but for this year finishing was a cause for a big celebration. 

So how did they do something that other teams couldn't do.  Much more experienced teams didn't finish the race, and yet these guys did.  They admit they finished with a little luck since the only thing holding the engine in the car as it crossed the finish line was one transmission bolt.  The engine mounts were gone and what is normally a rock solid motor shook like a scared dog.

Tyler (the team GM) and I talked about the accomplishment.  It took a year of planning broken down into little daily goals that led to the race.  One foot in front of the other each day until race day.  Like all of us, Tyler had some challenges keeping the entire team moving forward.  To begin with racing a 24 hour race is not a cheap endeavor, you have to raise money, find sponsors, build a car, find drivers and get all of that stuff from the west coast where they work to the east coast for the race.

Just like any goal that gets accomplished, Tyler broke it down into bite sized pieces, so at the end of each day, they could say they did something.  At the end of each week they did something bigger.  At the end of the month they did something even bigger.  At the end of the year, they watched their car cross the finish line at Daytona, never mind the condition.

You can achieve any goal big or small by doing the same thing and keeping one foot moving in front of the other.  If you want to set a big goal, set it, but then break it down into realistic daily and weekly goals.  Instead of making a daily goal to "get a major sponsor", break it down.  Expect that it will take 300 calls to get a major sponsor.  Knowing you need that commitment 2 months before the race, your goal is 30 calls a month for 10 months. 

If you make a daily goal to make just 3 calls each day, you will hit 300 well in advance of the 2 month deadline.  Better yet, when you get that sponsor well ahead of the deadline you get the satisfaction of lining through the goal as done.  You also have a reason for a small celebration.  Never forget to celebrate success even if it is just a milkshake or smoothie.

Goals work, the trick is to make them realistic, and to make sure the goals you set are truly important to you.  Setting goals you don't really want to accomplish is just an exercise in frustration, and a mental note to self that you don't reach your goals.  Setting goals that aren't realistic like "learn to fly by flapping my arms" isn't any better.  Either way you tell yourself that you can't do it and you are a failure.  Successful people set goals they can achieve, and the more blood, sweat and tears required, the bigger the satisfaction and celebration.

If you set goals that are very big then you have to break them down into smaller achievable tasks.  Do that for a year, and my bet is you have your best year ever.

Are You Your Biggest Road Block?

When I meet successful people and then later talk to people who want to be successful, there is one major difference that jumps out every time.  Simply put, the people that want to be successful are their own road block.

The argument is always the same. Those who want to be successful, have a list of reasons of why they aren't the success they want to be.  It is really an amazing phenomenon.  When Og Mandino wrote "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he covered it.  When "The Secret" came out, it hit this issue head on.  Napolean Hill talked about it in his series "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Laws of Success".

So if so many people that study success so clearly see the problem, why do people still fight it?  Why do they argue when they ask for advice?

The sad truth is that somewhere in their life, someone convinced them that something was true.  If you aren't seeing the success that you want in your life, maybe you fit in this group and don't understand it or don't yet see it.  You might even see this in other people without realizing that you have the same issues in your mind.

Be Good To Yourself.

Somewhere in your past someone might have convinced you that you wouldn't ever make it.  Maybe someone told you something like "You'll never amount to much" or "With grades like that you'll just be a janitor".  These words at a young age become seeds that grow in our minds.  When success is getting close, we make excuses to make sure we live up the the expectations set by others.

Here is the key, stop trying to live up to their expectations, and live up to yours.  In Og Mandino's follow up to "The Greatest Salesman In The World", he wrote 10 vows  that he believed people should live by in order to be successful.

Recently I said that success was a simple two step process.  First was to define your own success, and second was to get there.  The process is easy, the execution is what separates the successful from the rest.

The first vow in the second part of "The Greatest Salesman In The World" was to never belittle yourself.  In simple terms, never say anything bad about you to yourself.  Never do it.  When you do, you just add water and food to the seeds that someone else planted.  Never look in the mirror and say "I am fat", or "I am stupid" or "I am lazy".

A guy asked me one day about why I was so "driven".  Yes I work alot by most people's standards, but I have fun in all of my work, so to me it isn't really work.  I answered with a question.  I asked him why he wasn't.  His reply said it all for both of us.  He said "I am just lazy I guess."  After a moment of silence, he said "That's it isn't it?"

He waited for me to reply.  Eventually, I said "If you believe that is the problem, then yes, that is the problem."

He realized that the only thing that separated us was our beliefs in ourselves.  If you believe that you are lazy because someone told you that you were, you will become lazy.  If you don't believe them and work to prove them wrong, you will.

It is funny how many times I talk with people who can name a person they want to be like, and in the same sentence say they want to hang out with a group of people.  When I ask them if their ideal person or role model hangs out in that group the answer is always "no".

TV shows us people living "the life" and not working.  What they don't show is the hundreds or thousands of hours of work that they put into becoming the best at what they did.  Malcolm Gladwell did an excellent piece of research when he wrote "Outliers".  He not only covered the importance of being the best at what you do, he found the alignment of the stars that allowed certain people to catapult way out of the norm.

Being the best is half of the equation, being in the right place at the right time and seeing the potential in the future is the rest.  Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates couldn't have become what they did five years earlier or five years later.  Their drive to excellence would have made them a big success, but only the right timing allowed them to create Apple and Microsoft when they did.  In fact, if Bill Gates was just a week later in his meeting with IBM, we might not have ever seen the PC as we know it today.

As you move to make 2013 your best year ever, look at yourself in a positive light.  Take the negative words out of your vocabulary and bury them in the yard.  Don't be fat, be a plump 200 pounds working to 175.  Don't complain about your skin, be the person spending a few minutes each day getting better skin every day.

Start listening to how you think about yourself when you get dressed, look in the mirror, comb your hair and go out into the world.  Stop the negative thoughts, focus on the positive thoughts and you will see a change just around the corner.

Go out and make 2013 your best year ever with a little positive thinking about the most important person in your world, YOU.

When you start making progress, never look back because your feet start to go where you look.  Look forward, keep both feet moving forward, and you life can only go forward.

Life is a Beach, keep it fun!

Oh yeah, have fun doing it too.

How to Be A Success? Start At The Beginning

Success is a funny thing, we all talk about success, successful people, successful projects and successful businesses, yet we all define it a little differently don’t we.  Ask any three people to define success, and you will probably get three different answers.  This month, Inc. Magazine’s cover proclaims there are “11 Rules for Success”.

I probably have a different perception and therefore definition of success than you do.  Because I realize we are all unique, I usually suggest three different books to help people decide what their definition is.  When I am hired as a business coach, or if my company is hired as a marketing agency, our first mission is to understand what our customers call successful.  I overlooked this thought process in my first book and am now re-writing the book because of it.

In business, “more business” isn’t truly successful except maybe to financial “analysts” on Wall Street who have never run a business.  Each business and business owner will define success differently.  The IRS simply defines it as more profitable, which isn't a bad start, but how profitable is successful to you?

As a person, you can’t be something you can’t clearly define for yourself.  Therefore it is important for you to have your own clear definition of success.  Only then can you be “successful” in the eyes of the most important person in your life, you.

Success can even have different breakdowns in your life.  For example, you can have family success, financial success and athletic success.  For me athletic success might be an 8 minute mile.  You might want to run a 5 minute mile.  Maybe success is skiing at Northstar 110 days in one year.

We might both say financial success is being a millionaire or a billionaire.  What then defines a millionaire?  Is it one million in assets?  Gary Keller, a founding partner in the Keller Williams Real Estate empire, defines a millionaire as a person making a million dollars per year in income.  He is a little vague on net or gross, but he defines it as income.  So must a billionaire have a billion in income?

Success is like a puzzle, there are a lot of pieces that have to come together just right to complete the picture.  Each of us has a unique picture of success.

Defining success isn't easy.

In the 1930’s, Napolean Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, had one of the first “Success Academies” in the United States and likely the world.  He taught a program based on his intimidatingly thick book, the Laws of Success in 16 Lessons.  The book is 1600 plus pages of wisdom.   I highly recommend it if you want to build a business that you can one day call “successful”.

Mr. Hill used the Rockefellers, Fords, Bells and Edisons as the examples of success.  His definition focused on the being the biggest in whatever field you chose.  Many people don’t equate success this way and have a hard time reading 1600 pages and remembering all of the lessons.  Since we can’t all be the richest man in the world, and might not even want to, many people who read the book only end with a view of success they don’t want.

Is The Greatest Salesman a Success?

A little later, a guy named Og Mandino wrote a series of short and easy to read books, with the most famous being “The Greatest Salesman In The World”.  He narrowed the rules of success down from 16 to just 10, and published a book of just under 150 pages.  A size just about anyone would be able to read.  

Mr. Manadino’s approach is along the lines of a fable.  A story about how the greatest salesman came to be and how we can all be great at something.  The greatest salesman teaches us that success isn’t necessarily money and things.  Something that many people believe today.  

The Humanetics Approach

Another great series of books that are little known for some reason are by Richard Wetherhill. Mr. Wetherhill was the founder of a business and wrote books for his employees to help them and his business succeed.  Today those employees own the business and give away the books at alphapub.com.  

Humanetics is the name Mr. Wetherhill gave to his approach to life and success.  Tower of Babel is probably the best book to start with in this series.  Since the books are all free, short and easy reads, I recommend them all.  If you don’t have a tablet, here is a way to save $100.  Buy the tablet, and download all the books for free.

In fact, the “Laws of Success in 16 Lessons” is also available as a free download if you do some digging.

So Now What is Success?

At the end of the day Success really is a two step process.  First you must define it, so you’ll know it for yourself when you get there.  Second you have to get there.

All of these books and articles offer some great ideas on how to get there, but until you know where you are going, getting there is nearly impossible.  Columbus was a success because he proved the earth was round, not because he missed his goal of sailing west to India.  Finding an entirely new continent was simply a bonus for being right.

Success starts at the beginning because that is where you define it.