Faheem Moosa

“Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to” said the Cat

“I don’t much care where…” said Alice

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go”, said the Cat

from Lewis Carroll’s *Alice in Wonderland

I’m very happy to be nominated as Expert of the Month at DemGen. It has given me the opportunity to share a few things I strongly believe in… When I began brainstorming on what I would write about over the next 4-5 weeks, I figured it was best to systematically spell out for you the exact process I go through with clients in DemGen’s flagship program, The Future Vision Map ©

In the course of six one-on-one sessions, clients define and build their vision and strategy for business success. Over the next 4-5 weeks, I will be walking you through the entire program – blog post by blog post. Not bits and pieces, but the WHOLE thing, so if you wish to build your Future Vision Map on your own, you can.

Why?

Ever since Simon Sinek wrote his book, ‘Start with Why’ a couple of years ago, I’ve been extra inspired to ask ‘why’ I do everything I do – both in my personal life and my business life. So before we get started with this series of articles, let me first explain to you why we at DemGen bother with The Future Vision Map at all.

At its core, The Future Vision Map (FVM) is, as the name implies, a map that lays out the terrain in which your business competes, along with specific destination points you wish to reach. It all starts with the entrepreneur’s vision – where he or she would like their business to be in 3-5 years time, and ends with an Action Plan of how that vision can be achieved. A couple of differences between a traditional business plan and a FVM include:

1)      Considerable time is spent in defining and crystallizing an entrepreneur’s vision before beginning to develop business strategies and action plans;

2)      A FVM is not a 50-page document you keep on a shelf. It is an actionable living, breathing document that you refer to regularly when building your business.

Here at DemGen, we encourage clients to build their FVM prior to seeking our marketing, operations and business support expertise. Time and time again, I have personally seen clients receive two key benefits during our FVM sessions. This is why we do it:

1. Clarity and focus

It doesn’t matter which stage of business you’re in – ideation, start-up, growth or decline. Running a business is like decision-making on steroids. Everywhere you look, there’s a decision to be made. Not only that, in order to grow sales and profits as well as manifest your business vision, you need to take calculated risks.

Now, you really can’t make good decisions and take calculated risks without a strong understanding the business environment, your industry or your business’ internal resources and capabilities. You may think you know a lot about what’s going on, but from time to time, it’s important to take a rain check and see whether your gut feeling matches reality. Taking the time to go through a process of visioning and planning will turbo charge your decision-making ability and give you the confidence to take calculated risks.

2. New ideas for products and services

Yahoo!’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer is an ideas expert that served at Google for 13 years. She recently mentioned that at Google, new product ideas came from strategic planning. Google is one of the most innovative companies in the world, churning out more products and services than most other companies around. They know that by bringing their best minds to the table and taking the time to understand markets, customers and themselves better, they can create more A-ha! moments that see the birth of new products and services. These new products and services keep the company relevant and boost revenues and profitability.

In conclusion, visioning and planning can take a backseat as we often find ourselves putting out fires on a daily basis. But if done properly, visioning and planning can give you the spark necessary to take your business to new places – boosting revenues and profits and ultimately giving you the life you want. Next week, we’ll deep dive into the first phase of the FVM – defining your future vision, where we’ll look at six aspects of your business and how you can create a strong future vision for each. Stay tuned!

For now, I’ll see you in the comments. Ask me anything about strategic planning and future visioning, and I’ll try my best to answer. Each week, readers with the best comments and questions have a chance to win something from DemGen. So don’t hold back – I look forward to hearing from you.

Faheem Moosa is DemGen’s lead business strategist and developer of the Future Vision Map. He can be reached at

Faheem@demgen.com

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.

As an expert in your field, it is your responsibility to be a conscious leader that is aware of the impact you can have on the world.  Gary Evans, DemGen’s Founder and Chief Growth Officer elaborates in this video…

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.

As an operations and systems guy, certain things just stand out for me… I see opportunity to fix, improve, maximize, economize, systematize and monetize. Most of my professional life was in operations, quality systems – ISO 9000, event management and training and development. My job was and is to observe, ask questions, expand opportunities, develop a plan and deploy a team together to fulfill the objective.

On my morning and evening walks I pass two Elementary schools. In the winter I’ve noticed one school in particular with an average of 1-2 windows open after hours or on weekends. Lights are also left on overnight or throughout the weekend. Not only does this scream inefficiency, but I’m paying for it with my tax dollars. Okay, so I haven’t been losing a lot of sleep over it, but since I’ve been thinking of what we do at DemGen, such things tend to come to mind and the light came on at 6AM this morning about this one!

So the question arises ~ what inefficiencies do you have going on in your business right now? Let’s narrow the focus to the human part of the equation. Are you overstaffed or understaffed? Are the wrong people in their roles and/or have the wrong skill sets? Are YOU, the entrepreneur, maximizing your revenue generating potential? We could also get into the whole EQ or emotional intelligence of the collective. I’ve read that the collective average intelligence (intellectual IQ combined with emotional EQ) can be drastically reduced by one person who exhibits poor control or ability in applying these innate skill sets. (I’ll get more into this in another post coming up on conscious leadership.)

At DemGen we invest a lot in ensuring that our team is working within their unique skills. Sometimes as roles evolve we need to make adjustments and split a role into multiple roles, for example. I sense it’s a good exercise to recommend keeping this top of mind in periodic reviews – review your workloads, who is responsible for what, and on what timelines. Ensure all know how it fits into the big picture and provide feedback loops and check points. We do this on a regular basis and it helps keep things and people healthy in all ways. If someone has been given a task that is not within their optimal skill set – we remove it while removing the de-motivated feeling and uplifting the motivation or MOJO factor.

Operational efficiencies are a key area of support that we assist our clients. Creating systems, having a plan or Future Vision Map is essential for all businesses. EMyth revisited is a great resource for any entrepreneur.

Gary Evans

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.

Imagine camping in the middle of nowhere for 5 days with a small group of people you’ve never met before – with no supplies other than what you carried on your back after being dropped off by a bus on a road you didn’t think a vehicle could make it through…

I am ever grateful to have had that experience when I was 13 years old.  I remember vividly when the first guy to try on the pack (that would eventually become mine for the trip) fell over backwards!  Yes, I probably laughed for a moment with the rest of the guys, but then I quickly deduced who would be the next candidate…moi.  I learned a lot in that week about the deep woods stuff we see on shows today (but had no reference at all back then).

As I sat down to craft this message and considered my first real experience with a strategic partner, I was pleasantly surprised to revisit this long ago experience.

And really, isn’t running a business similar in many ways?  We feel our way through it and it gets easier and the experience becomes more fulfilling when we share it with more people and leverage our experiences and rewards.  AND….we have a much better survival rate the better we get at this.  Leading with leaders.

At DemGen, affiliates, alliances, joint venture relationships all fall under the same level of importance and are classified as a Strategic Partner – an important relationship to us.  The structure and design of these relationships are different, but the intentions are the same.

A strategic partner can arrive in many forms.  For example, I consider all of our team members KEY Strategic Partners, as they are all individual entrepreneurs and strategic to our business and that of our clients.  We take time to ensure there is a good fit for all parties involved and help each partner identify, clarify and hone their unique skill sets so they can operate in a flow state of competence.

DemGen also considers clients, prospects, complementary service and product providers, friends of the team, previous colleagues and alliances that we have met, that know, like and trust what we do to be Strategic Partners.  Our belief is to reward and offer value for value.  In other words if someone refers business to us and we benefit, so will they.  While many of the strategic relationships I’ve mentioned may seem straigh forward and grow organically, there are those that need to evolve through working together on short projects or in marketing lingo ~ to test and measure.

We are just about to launch one such project with a three-month trial that allows both parties to test out each other with limited risk.  In this case, the partner company has a need to outsource the sales and support side of their business and wanted to align with a team that can scale and evolve the business.  They like our capabilities and similar experience with other companies, and because they are up and running with some cash flow we are comfortable developing a base + revenue share model.  We’ve taken the time to get to know this company and they came to us because they are friends with one of our previous clients.

Like all relationships in life…they evolve.  Some that appear to be a match made in heaven can turn out not to be (we’ve had that experience as well).  But we all learn and grow and our intention gets clearer over time as does our ability to manage emotions and have a healthy dialogue.  One of DemGen’s core ingredients is focusing on the development of our (individual and collective) EQ or emotional intelligence.

Our passion is to help small to midsize businesses realize their ideal future vision.  I encourage you to review how to incorporate Strategic Partnerships into your growth plans to help your business thrive.

Gary Evans

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.

Hello, my name is Gary Evans, and I’m an entrepreneur. I start out that way because I feel it’s important to acknowledge that in ourselves. And also because I sense many of us are here for various reasons, yet if you find yourself here – claim it, make a science of it, discover the art in it and… Enjoy it!

At times throughout my entrepreneurial experiences, I have not always attained the above statement. In fact at many times, I probably was not fully aware it was even possible.

I started in business at the age of 13, because I was 6’2″ and hung out with my Dad at auctions on Sundays. I liked the atmosphere and quickly learned the lay of the land – when you would and could make money and when not. It was basically EBay live and the spirit still exists alive and strong with Auction Hunters and Storage Wars. I was chosen by the Auctioneer to hold up the items – I was the gopher and became pretty intuitive with what to grab next in sync with the auctioneer. So that was my job, but I also made extra money by buying items and re-selling via the auction. Sure I’d love to say I made my first million this way, but I didn’t. I learned a lot about human nature, buying and selling and got my first taste of being an entrepreneur.

Fast-forward a few years of following in my father’s footsteps and cooking for a living. I started out in small restaurants, eventually becoming a partner with my Father and Aunt in a small Mom and Pop restaurant at the age of 18. I learned a lot fast as due to many circumstances I became the main operator with a little help now and then from my partners. Great experience, although I don’t recommend working for three months straight (seven days a week) without a day off and going to the local barn dance on your first night off.

I decided to advance my skills in the kitchen and become an apprentice chef (Yes, Gordon Ramsey’s did and probably still do exist in the industry). Fast-forward some awesome experience with top chefs and venues to starting and operating my first real business enterprise as a Catering and Event management company. This was a high acceleration into my true creative abilities. I slept on average about 4 hours a night because I was so wired I couldn’t sleep and didn’t require it for about the first three months. I knew I was tapping into a higher state of creative consciousness and I loved it. I had so many alliances in the industry, everything I thought, I was able to put into action real-time and it flourished.

Like most entrepreneurs, I was always eager to learn everything I could about business and soon felt a calling to move from hospitality management to the corporate world to round out my skill set. The change to corporate training and development, HR outsourcing and quality management was educational to say the least.

I also became aware of certain skills I was not good at. Rugged individualism was my modus operandi (a phrase coined and used by Dan Sullivan ~ Strategic Coach), that I would become aware of 15 years later.

In retrospect it’s easy to see now what I was missing then and the core list is: Systems, clear strategic thinking and plans, and the leverage of a strategic, tactical team. And this has been the case in every other business I have had and enterprise I’ve been involved in strategically growing. In total I have personally had five solo businesses. (DemGen is the fifth, adding a partner early on with complimentary skill sets is a big part of why we are still here 7 years later.) Out of the previous four companies, 3 were profitable, yet were too reliant on me. Regardless, I had created a job for myself and it was a great learning experience. I have also been involved at a strategic level with some shoestring start-ups to significantly financed ones.

So this brings us up to today. What have I learned and how can my team and I add value to you and your business? Back to the basics I learned at age 22 and over and over again throughout my professional life… If you are missing some essential strategic thought processes in your business, don’t have it systematized and/or are lacking in “A Team” performance. I suggest you have a conversation followed closely with action with someone like us. Be brutally honest with yourself! If you have a viable business and you KNOW you are missing a few essential pieces ~ make the commitment. Go from Good to Great as my friends from results.com say, “The difference is in the execution.” Or as we say – implementation.

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.

Thanks for engaging in my final blog post as June’s expert of the month!  At DemGen we have been discussing the pitch lately….specifically the ‘Elevator Pitch’.  A great metaphor in my opinion; a 30 second explanation about your business idea or as brief as your average elevator ride – I read that the phrase was coined back in the days of the tech boom by entrepreneurs looking to quickly position their idea to possible investors.

I am sure many famous entrepreneurs had ‘Elevator Pitches’.   Mark Zuckerburg for example, the founder of Facebook , most of us have seen the movie documenting his rise to the Forbes list but did he ever sit in front of his laptop working on his ‘Elevator Pitch’?  I will bet 100 ‘likes’ he did!

Nowadays we can sit back in our p.j’s and watch entrepreneurs pitch their ideas on ‘Dragons Den’ and the hit spin off from the Canadian show ‘Shark Tank’.  All of us entrepreneurial junkies really dig the shows, and it is a great example of the importance of a good elevator pitch.  Watching the Sharks love a product and start a bidding war is intoxicating but admittedly I find it can be difficult to watch them crush a fellow entrepreneur’s dream of making it big.  Especially when their decision is based on the fact that they didn’t like the pitch!

Regardless of if you end up on Shark Tank or not; a quick, concise explanation of the features and benefits of your product or service is a must have both on-line and off-line.  And especially in elevators!

DemGen is holding an exciting contest around this very subject, looking forward to filling you in!!

Kristen Babrociak

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen All Rights Reserved.

Gary Evans

We’re more than half way through 2012…  Are you on track for 10x business growth?  The concept of 10x thinking was introduced to our team by Strategic Coach, of which I am a student.  And while assertive growth plans have always been a mainstay for us ~ I have found that projecting for 10x growth is an invigorating and worthy exercise.   The speed and pace of developments in business and technology means you should always be thinking BIG and focusing on the big picture.  Your competitors surely are.

The potential for enormous business growth is at your fingertips.  Technology, tools and systems are available to remove any limiting factors.

If you aren’t focusing on 10x growth, you need to take an honest and accurate account of your business.  Why don’t you believe this goal is achievable?  Do you have a Future Vision Map in place to achieve your goals?  “You’ll never reach your end destination if you aren’t clear on where you’re going” and “The best time to have a map is before you go into the woods” are common mantras from industry gurus.

At DemGen we always think BIG – both for our clients and ourselves.  We’ve been lucky to experience substantial growth in 2012 and felt the need to revisit our own Future Vision Map.  (There’s no better way to prove that our recommendations work than using ourselves as a case study!)  As we implement the resulting new strategies and systems we’re now putting in place, we’ll be sure to share our successes and any insights we learn along the way.

Since clarifying our vision, the good news just keeps rolling in!  We’re signing on new clients daily, and just as importantly, just renewed for another great year with our very first client from 6 years ago.  We love keeping our clients happy and surpassing their goals!  That’s why we do this in the first place…

Through my experience as a serial entrepreneur, I saw the need for DemGen after witnessing many businesses fail due to losing focus on the priorities and trying to do it all themselves.  We’ve since incorporated the lofty goal of fixing the economy with the help of our clients.  The ‘new economy’ will be forged by experts, like you, with specialized information to share!  Delegate what you want, when you want and pay only for the time you use.  We believe in the future, all support will be virtual…  (We’ve been saying this for over 6 years and are excited to see everyone finally ‘gets it’!)

When you’re ready to move the needle x10 for your business, we look forward to talking to you!

To your success ~ Let’s Grow!

Tweet

Gary

© 2012 DemGen  All Rights Reserved.

We have launched a partnership and affiliate programs.

In doing our due diligence, we recently spoke with Paul Miltonberger, Founder of Partnering Academy and an expert in the field.

We learned so much from our initial conversation with him that we decided to interview him to share his knowledge with our clients and friends!

Paul Miltonberger

Paul is a highly acclaimed, international speaker, trainer and coach. As the Founder of Partnering Academy he trains, coaches and teaches business owners, non profits and executives in transition how to use joint ventures, referrals, endorsements and other partnering strategies so that they can accomplish more in their life and make more in their business.

Q: Paul, what led you to start Partnering Academy?

A: Over the years, I’ve had the privilege to have worked with thousands and to have personally coached hundreds of people from a dozen countries in more than 50 industries who own their own business or want to own their own business.

Time and time again, regardless of the size or type of business, I saw some businesses succeed and flourish while others struggled. Everyone was working hard but there was a clear difference in results between those who had mastered partnering and those who had not. Too often, I saw businesses that were stuck because they lacked the resources they needed to get to where they wanted to go. The problem, however, was not that they had limited resources, everyone does. The problem was that they didn’t know how to partner to get what they lacked and needed.

Profitable businesses partner all the time in many different ways. They combine and leverage their assets and resources with the assets and resources of others.  I founded Partnering Academy to teach businesses how to partner and how to partner right. I am convinced that if we all learn how to partner better than we do, small and medium sized businesses will be the vehicle that drives us to a sustained, economic recovery.

Q: Based on your experience, what are the top benefits of partnering?

A: Partnering empowers everyone and any business with truly unlimited potential, ability and capacity. When you learn how to partner and learn how to partner right, you can accomplish more, faster and easier and with less cost or risk, than you can ever possibly hope to accomplish on your own.

If you had all the resources you needed to get to where you wanted to go, you’d already be there. But you’re not. Blocking your path on your way to where you want to go, no matter how you define your Point B; is a wall, maybe two.

Trying to get to the other side of your wall without partnering is like trying to get to the other side of the wall by pushing against it, alone, in the dark. You will never succeed. It does not matter how many more hours you push today than you did yesterday. It does not matter how much harder you decide to push tomorrow than you did today. You will never get to the other side of the wall pushing against it, alone, in the dark. You simply don’t have the resources you need to accomplish your goal.

You only succeed after you “adopt a partnering mindset.” It starts when you ask, “Does anyone know how to get to the other side of this wall?” Instantly, someone turns on the light. Options are immediately visible; a door, a person with the key for the door, a person with a ladder, the end of the wall, a person with a shovel.

Someone has what you need; find them, partner with them. No matter your goal, someone has the resources you lack; find them, partner with them.

Perhaps best of all, partnering provides enormous upside to any business with little if any downside. The partnering strategies we teach our clients are fast, easy, low or no cost and low or no risk.

So, you can learn how to partner and get not only to Point B, but beyond, or you can continue pushing against the wall, alone, in the dark. Our clients prefer the profits they find in the light.

Q: What types of businesses can use the partnering strategies you teach?

A: No matter who you are, what you do or where or how you do it, no matter if you are a solopreneur in a home based business or own a business doing $10 million in annual revenue; you can and must make partnering a core, foundational part of your business.

Q: Some have experienced and all of us have heard of “bad” partner stories. Isn’t partnering risky?

A: Not when you learn how to partner right. We provide our clients with our famous, Partnering Checklist. Using the checklist, they position themselves as an attractive partner. They also use the checklist to identify and properly evaluate potential partners.

Most “bad” partnerships are doomed from the start. People simply didn’t learn how to partner right. They chased money. They did not consider whether there was an alignment of interests. One of our training lessons we call, “Partnering Right: The Art of the Deal.”  It’s our 10 step guide to picking the right partners, creating profitable joint ventures and protecting yourself from getting into bad deals.

I should also add that “business partnerships,” where you have shared equity in a single company, and which provide most of the “bad” partner stories, represent a very small percentage of what we call, “partnering.”

Q: What are the partnering strategies you teach at Partnering Academy?

A:  I broke partnering down into 5 proven, easy to consider, strategies: Business partners, Joint Venture partners, Marketing partners, Referral partners and Endorsement partners. We explain them in detail and walk our clients through the right way to create and maintain these partnering relationships.

Q: Can you share some partnering success stories with us?

A: Absolutely, thanks for asking.

– Four firemen combined their assets and distinct, different talents and opened a new business that none of them could have or would have done alone. They expect a 75-100% annual return on their money as early as the first year.

– A restaurant owner uses marketing partnerships to drive more than 1,000 new customers to his two restaurants every year.

– A consultant formed a joint venture and generated more than $349,000 in his first year.

– One client leveraged her relationships and got connected with Billionaire Sir Richard Branson who played and loved her financial education board game.

– One client made $2,500 in pure profit by making a single referral.

Partnering works for everyone and any business. Partnering provides you with truly unlimited resources. You can accomplish more and make more when you learn how to partner and how to partner right.

Q: What is the next step for people who want to learn more?

A: Visit PartneringAcademy.com and take advantage of our FREE three part video training series. I packed this free video series with killer content and ideas that people can put to use immediately.

Go to PartneringAcademy.com and sign up for our FREE video training series.

And most importantly, stop pushing against the wall, alone, in the dark. Instead, Adopt a Partnering Mindset, Now!

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen  All Rights Reserved.

Expert (noun) A person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field; trained by practice; skillful or skilled; a person who is wise through experience.

If you take the time to become an expert in your work or business field, the confidence and credibility it brings will in turn lead other experts to your doorstep.

Is it worth it to put in the time and effort it will take to be the best?

When we need help or are looking for information on a subject or about a product, we all look for someone who is knowledgeable about that product or service. We don’t want to throw away our hard earned money on something that isn’t worth it. We search testimonials and reviews because we all want the best advice – the expert advice!

While there is no certification for becoming an expert, sound advice based on personal experience gains you a reputation for expertise. The effort and time that you put into becoming qualified in your niche draws others to you as they look for answers. Many times, these same people who come to you are also experts in their field and when you associate with them, you slowly come in contact with more and more people whose influence can increase your customer base.

Customers expect to pay more for qualified “technicians.” Document your credentials and each small step that you take in becoming an expert. Track all referrals, no matter how small, as these may help you later on in your business. Become a master at distinguishing which opportunities are best for you and why they are best for you. This is the type of information that will help you help others as they come to you.

Experts are looked upon as mentors by many. Those who are new in business or any field are not yet aware of what is most important. You, however, being the expert you have become, can help them achieve their goals by pointing out which things really matter and advising on those which can be left out. Share your insight and knowledge, especially with the media as they will come to think of you as  someone to contact for news updates in your niche or market.

Create your own niche and stand out and above your competition. Make sure you are impeccably competent in the skills that you specialize in. Commit to improving yourself in your field, be open about the way you do business so others can learn from you and be confident in your abilities, for that is the secret to being a real expert!

Tell others the reasons behind your motivation and exactly what you do that makes you an expert in your business. At the same time, confide in those who ask you questions. Tell them the truth – that you don’t have all the answers as there is always something else to learn and there are always other experts. Understanding why you do what you do for a living is a huge percentage of mastering your talent and providing what others can’t.

Hands on experience wins every time and being able to show others just how you reached the pinnacle of your expertise creates motivation for them to do the same. This benefits everyone.

Knowing how to do something, whether it is business related or otherwise is the basis of being an expert. Being able to solve a problem for someone else, without following a set of rules or ‘how-tos’; knowing just what needs to be done to reach a goal is a process that makes you an expert.

Lead the way, rather than following!

Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.   ~ Robert Heinlein

Chris Draper

June 18, 2012

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen  All Rights Reserved.

image courtesy of marketinghackz

Gut hunches and intuitive flashes save precious time, increase the accuracy of decision-making and serve a very practical purpose in your business. Those flashes of insight are an immediate source of wisdom coming from the sum total of all your life experiences.

Creativity, innovation, clarity and inspiration are all fueled by your intuition. Each hunch shows you new possibilities and provides sudden answers to looming questions. There are many, varied and unusual stories of intuitive hunches providing unconventional solutions to insurmountable problems, creative breakthroughs and financial successes.

Intuition inspires you to create a workplace where your team’s authenticity, talents and energy are nurtured, a place of empathy where being real is valued far more than being right. Emotional reactivity and indifference are the two extremes that are barriers to effective teamwork. In the middle lies the most powerful position you can take in business management, the sweet spot where your team aligns with you.

Seeing with the heart, and not just the head, is the payoff zone created by intuition.

Your ‘felt’ connections and emotional alliances produce new sales and strategic partnerships. They also create repeat sales and customer satisfaction. This process of engagement is the vital emotional relationship at the core of your business.

Specific suggestions for growing your intuitive powers coming soon!

Tweet

© 2012 DemGen  All Rights Reserved.