SAMBA Blog

Leadership - Look Where No One Else is Looking

Part of being a good leader is building a great team. This implies judgment and understanding what functional skills and personality traits are needed.

When you're looking to find and hire great talent, you ought to think of hiring as a marketing exercise. You should seek to stand out from the crowd. In fact, you shouldn't even be near the crowd.

Most employers and average job hunters all congregate in the same places. There are a few dominant online job boards everyone goes to. Craigslist, Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder - they look different but work much the same way. Employers go to these destinations to post job openings and descriptions because that's where all the job hunters go. Job hunters go to sift through all the job postings because that's where all the employers are posting.

The problem with these systems is that they are designed for you to conform to a process. You cannot help but look average, just another employer in the monstrous crowd.

If you want superior candidates instead of average candidates, do something different. A few suggestions:

1. Blog about new job openings - If you don't have a company blog, go start one now. If you do, the regular readers of your blog will be great candidates or will know great candidates they could forward the openings to.

2. Check your data - Who buys a ton of your stuff? Who is a loyal customer? Bring them in for informal chats. You might find a devoted employee in the select group.

3. Check your customer service department - Who is always complaining about your stuff? Who is a problem customer? Who keeps giving your call center folks a hard time? Bring those people in, they may have some solutions in mind, give them a chance to prove they're right.

An experiment in viral marketing

A recent post I wrote called "How to start a business that works" got a lot of attention.

In it I criticized businesses for trying to force their products to go viral (crossing their fingers, hoping that people will talk about them).

I went on to argue that if you want your ideas to spread, you have to abandon trying to make people talk about your current products (because if they're not already, they probably never will) and start by creating remarkable products that people will naturally want to talk about. 

"In fact virality is so priceless it's worth organizing your entire business around it!'

Easy to say, while I'm hiding behind a blog post, right?  Well I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is...

Today I launched Marie Coiffure, an experiment in viral marketing.  It's an internet makeover show that revolves around a weekly contest.  Each week anyone can enter, and the winner earns a free makeover with a celebrity hairstylist and makeup artist.  Next, we film the makeover, and air it as an episode on our site.  And we're partnering with some of the very best salons in New York City to make this happen. 

It's free to enter, free to win, free to watch.

I think it's a pretty remarkable idea.  Unfortunately, nobody cares what I think.  What do you think?

How to be a Good Member of a Board of Advisors

There are plenty of good pieces on the Internet about how to build a good board of advisors.  Go ahead, Google them.  There is one super post about why you shouldn’t bother to build an advisory board by the smart guys at 37Signals. Essentially, they’re saying that too many supposedly critical things are myths that keep you from building the company and products.  But what if someone has approached you to be an advisor to his company?  There aren’t very many pieces about how to be a good advisor.  So how do you provide value as an advisor?

1. Don’t be a professional advisor.  Don’t go seeking to sit on a bunch of advisory boards.  Few things deserve your time and attention so be selective - get involved only with companies where you have unique insight and passion to contribute.  And I mean don’t be a professional advisor. If you ask for cash compensation, you’re a problem and not a solution, especially for young startups with limited resources.  If the management team desperately wants to compensate you, accept a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of equity in stock options that vest over time.  Don’t be a resource drain.

2. Get out of the way.  Too many advisors want to get actively involved in a company’s operations and tell management what to do.  The management team should know more about its business than you do and if it doesn’t - you’ll never be an effective advisor for the company anyway.  Being an advisor should never be an exercise in ego.  If you have to insert yourself to feel valuable, you’re the wrong guy.  Only get your hands dirty if the management team asks you to dive in.

3. Challenge convention.  Unlike members of a formal board of directors, you as an advisor cannot be held liable for the company’s actions.  This allows you to be more objective and give uncensored advice.  This freedom is probably the most enjoyable thing about being an advisor.  You don’t have to have all the right answers, you just need to be gutsy enough to question everything the company does and how it goes about doing it.  This is where you can have the most impact on the company by helping management to consider different strategies.  Focus on strategy, not tactics.

4. Open up your network generously.  You’ve spent your whole career cultivating valuable relationships.  Connect the company to potential investors, partners, and customers.  Of that list, customers rank supreme.  Investors and partners will show up if the company has a growing customer base.  But potential customers could care less who a company’s investors or partners are.  So if you know someone or some organization who could use the company’s products or services, be the leadoff hitter on the sales team.  But hold the management team to high standards.  Make sure milestones are being met and progress is being made before you haphazardly make introductions.  Let management know that if they do their job, you’ll be their biggest evangelist.

5. Get out of the way.  Did I mention that already?  This time what I mean is to know when the company has outgrown your expertise and ability to contribute.  There is a lifecycle to all engagements and you don’t want to be the person to outlast your welcome and usefulness.

Real Life Practice

So Ameeda Chowdhury recently asked me to join the board of advisors at Snazl. She can be sure I will adhere to the guidelines outlined above.

A spark plug of an entrepreneur and bootstrapper, she co-founded Snazl straight out of college a couple years ago.  She has an ambitious vision to change the world of social media by introducing a whole new level of interaction.  It's one of the reasons I joined because I developed social media widgets at my previous startup.  Also, what she's building addresses my prior post about the specialness of a real-time, live Internet and also Seth's Bandwidth-Sync chart.

The challenges facing Snazl are daunting, yet exciting, so it's going to be fun.

A Remarkable Story

My first impression of Seth Godin upon meeting him was that he is an extraordinarily efficient person.  You wouldn't think of a "creative" as efficient in the sense that a supply chain manager, hamburger flipper, accountant, or the Octomom are efficient.  But Seth conducted interviews with about thirty candidates for the SAMBA program in under three hours.  He made up his mind on who fit perfectly soon after and, it turns out, he picked an amazing group.

How amazing? That remains to be seen. Everyone in the group was so remarkable, I felt like the straggler who needed to keep up, especially when falling countless times skate skiing.  Of the SAMBA crew, I was probably the least familiar with Seth's ideas.

My talented SAMBA fellows are all immensely grateful to Seth for the time and energy he gifted to us.  We all want to thank him in some way.  But I think the greatest thanks we can give to a teacher who is so generous is to take what he taught us, practice it in the real world, change the world for the better, and succeed beyond his wildest imagination.  Then we can extend the change he initiated by teaching others.  So we'll see just how amazing we can be.

Here are a few lessons that made the greatest change in me and they have little to do with an MBA:

Be Brave.  You can start off a little clueless.  You can even start off as a complete outsider.  You can lack the resources others more fortunate start out with.  But you must have courage - this is the foundation of it all.  Everything else can be made up for right?

Be Purposeful.  Some might say this is the foundation, even more important than bravery.  Maybe.  I think that if you're brave and you're willing to venture out and explore, you'll find your purpose eventually.  So instead of sitting there trying to come up with the perfect and grand purpose for your life, get a little gumption and get in the mix!  You'll find your purpose if you're looking for it and doing something.

Seek Change.  Change yourself.  Change others.  Change the world.  Change is painful but necessary for growth.  Real, substantive change has the potential to create the greatest value.  This is good advice whether you're a college senior, corporate warrior, first-time entrepreneur, business mogul, parent, or spouse.  Back to the foundation - serious change requires bravery and purpose.

Be Generous.  This depends on if you fundamentally believe that generosity produces value and surplus.  Does generosity produce economic value and surplus?  Does generosity produce reputation value and surplus?  Does generosity produce influence value and surplus?  We believe it does - but you'd have to practice it to find out for yourself.

Be Persuasive.  How? Learn to tell good stories. Paint stories that capture the imagination because they are artistic, empathetic, emotional, exciting, incredible, overwhelming, unique, unexpected.  Use your new-found persuasion powers to sell your vision, your product, your service, your point of view.  Wield this superpower to cause massive change.

Keep Promises.  We saw Seth do this every single day.  We live in a world where intangible assets are often far more valuable than material assets.  One of these intangible assets is reputation or credit, before it became primarily a financial measurement.  If you're striving to increase your value as a person, keep your promises - especially when it becomes uncomfortable to do so.

My Promise on the six principles above: Regardless of what you're trying to achieve in any field of endeavor you choose to engage yourself, you'll increase your chances of success exponentially if you practice the six principles above.  You already knew that deep inside.

Bonus Grab Bag!  Here are some of the more tactical things we learned relevant to today's changing business environment. Should satisfy the MBA in all of us.  You'll notice that they all tie back to the big principles:

- Recognize the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur.  Either one works but you should figure out which you want to be.  This ties back to purpose.

- You can generate a lot of business ideas if you try.  The trick is in choosing the right one for yourself.  Seeking change and having a purpose will help here.

- When writing a business plan, work backwards from success with concrete steps.  Concrete steps imply some level of control, that you can exert influence on.  No miracles allowed.  Each step should have more than one pathway to success.  This should not turn into a gigantic document.  Business plans that seek change have a greater chance to succeed.

- Marketing is a whole new game.  The old ways don't work much anymore.  The power belongs to the people.  You cannot simply buy attention anymore.  You have to build permission assets, tribes, communities, ideas that spread.  Learn to tell great stories and your ability to persuade will help you thrive in new marketing.

- When working in a team, be first to spread the credit for success around.  When failure happens, be first to take responsibility.  If this doesn't feel natural, you're not doing it right.  It may feel painful in the short term but you're building a long term reputation that everyone will want to associate with in the future.  This is related to keeping promises and being generous. 

- Design is the last great competitive advantage.  You can design everything - not just your logo or website.  You can design the way your customers interact with the company.  You can design the way talent interacts within the company.  You can design your company culture.  This is more art than science and that's why it'll remain a source of competitive advantage for a long while.  It is also much harder than it looks, which is another reason why it works and is so valuable.  Design is persuasive.

- When writing press releases, make it more about the customers than about your own company.  Most press releases are ego-stroking exercises for company executives.  Don't be that executive.  Why is your release important to the market?  Not why is it important to your company.  Check persuasion.

- Pricing tells a story!  It is a signaling strategy that is a marketing discipline.  You don't have to just mark your costs up by 100%-200% as a rote formula.  Don't price in the middle of the market.  Be the most expensive luxurious offering or be the cheapest most disposable solution.  Interestingly, this requires bravery to not price with your crowd of competitors.

- Sales has changed little.  It is still mostly an emotional process.  You simply need to learn to close.  Always be opening; always be closing.  Sales isn't the tough slimy racket it is often portrayed.  When what you have to offer can improve someone's personal or business life, you have the noble duty to change his life!  Every venture needs good salespeople and good sales processes.  Be persuasive and brave.

Seth, thank you for your time and attention.  I am truly grateful for the special experience and change of the last six months.  I am also grateful for the people who gifted us SAMBA fellows their attention by reading our posts and sending encouraging words.  I am going to set out to give thanks to Seth now by doing something remarkable.  I hope everyone reading this will choose to do something remarkable too.  This is only the beginning.

Permission is not Permanent

So you've built a permission asset, you're on easy street right? No. Don't be one of those startup guys that think successfully raising some money means you've won the game. This is only the beginning. Permission only lets you continue to delight the customer.

How did you gain that permission in the first place? You earned it by doing something remarkable enough that folks decided to give you permission to keep pitching.

Permission is not permanent. You have to constantly delight your customers with your new pitches. You have to constantly add value. As soon as you start pitching things to them that are not relevant, not remarkable, not right, you will lose that permission asset.

Let them know you value their permission. It's not always easy but you have to keep over-delivering.