I recently appeared on Zeb Welborn’s podcast “Defining Success.” We talked for about 40 minutes, covering entrepreneurship, networking and social media. Thank you Zeb for the invitation, and I hope to return when my book debuts.
Business Tip – Get People To Write Stuff Like This About You
My number 1 business tip to aspiring entrepreneurs: get people to say things like this about you.
“I really think Rizzo Tees is an example of a company who has it right – leverage social media, provide a simple online storefront with great products, and provide stellar customer service. When you combine those three things, you truly have something special.”
This means:
1. Be nice. Nice to everyone! Be nice to your customers. Be nice to your service providers. Be nice to the IRS when they audit you. Be nice!
2. Ship your product as fast as you’d like to receive something as a buyer.
3. Be hyper-attentive to mistakes you’ve made. Don’t be all paranoid. If a customer says “I never received my product,” don’t say to yourself “Man, I really think they received the product I shipped them. I have a delivery confirmation. I think they’re just trying to get another one for free.” No they’re not. And if they are, that’s no more than 1% of your customers. If your glass is half empty, go back to being an employee somewhere – just quit business altogether!
4. Finally, when someone does praise you like this, freak out a little bit! It’s extremely exciting when someone takes time out of their day to write a blog post about you. Praise them back, comment on their blog, and appear to be as thankful as you probably are. If you’re not touched by such positive comments, you may not have what it takes to conduct business in this new socially connected economy.
If my blog had been up and running in October 2009, I would have written this post back then! Thanks you Trey Connell for your continuing support of Rizzo Tees.
My Interview On The Rise To The Top
Recently I did a Skype video interview with my good friend David Siteman Garland, which he posted on his website, The Rise To The Top. I was honored to be featured on his site, and judging by the amount of retweets and Facebook shares, it’s been one of his most popular interviews ever. Quite humbling, I have to say.
I’d like to keep the momentum going. For those of you on Facebook and Twitter, I invite you to go tweet out the interview
—-> HERE <—-
… or just watch it below if you’re lazy lol. Thanks to everyone for your support!
Link Roundup on Rizzo Tees – What I’m Reading 4/21/10
Playing the part of Internet DJ, here’s a sampling of what I’ve been reading the past few days.
1.) 50 minutes of Peter Shankman – how can you go wrong? Peter talks about self-promotion, and it just so happens that his Help a Reporter service allows us to easily do just that. If you’re not using HARO, start today! I have used it several times with great success. Every single opportunity doesn’t result in a “hit,” but you will respond to enough chances that you’ll start getting press attention.
2.) Can the Care Bears really teach us about being a successful entrepreneur? Entrepreneurship is about hard work, good product, good timing, and confidence. I have low points in my own entrepreneurial life… times when I wonder if its all going to work… times of true stomach-churning self-doubt. If you can’t handle watching the 5+ minutes of Care Bears, just know that you have to believe in yourself in order to make your own luck, and eventually succeed.
3.) The difference between salad and garbage is….. timing! Sonia Simone at Copyblogger reminds us that direct marketing can completely flop if not truly targeted. Additionally, becoming an expert in a very specific niche can turn into successful inbound marketing, which I’m finding is a much superior way to market my product than outbound marketing.
4.) Chris Brogan implores you to stop adding him to your email newsletter. Bottom line – spamming people is bad. I am certain that I have, at one time or another, marketed myself in a way that could be construed as spammy. Maybe it’s one extra tweet about one of my products, or a Facebook wall post about my bacon t-shirts on a bacon fan page. Brogan talks about the rash of email newsletters he receives that he’s relatively certain he didn’t subscribe to. Marketers of Earth: you are just pissing people off with this! Maybe there’s an argument that for every 10 people you piss off, you’re reaching 1 person with your MLM message…. volume = $$$. It’s the v1agra spam email mantra – carpet bomb the Internet with your wares and sales will come. It’s a sucky life to live – don’t market your product in this way!
Entrepreneurship is Hard Work
What does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur? I think it takes:
- A great idea
- Great tools
- Patience (hugely underrated)
- AND hard work!
(whoops, I left out funding. Don’t forget the money!)
What do the fancy cars sitting outside of businesses teach us about the need to work hard?
Here’s the link to a podcast with my thoughts on the matter.
It’s OK To Be A Business On Twitter
I recorded this video back in December 2009 in response to some hating I was witnessing on Twitter. I saw people reacting negatively to the presence of businesses on Twitter, and not just the MLM teeth-whitening jerks. As a business, it is true that poor marketing in any form can and should backfire on you – this includes Twitter. If you yap yap yap about your business, never join the community, never help others…. you will meet with adverse results, and you might even have a few people tell you how they feel about your business.
That aside, my point in the video is that there are many small business entrepreneurs out there that live their business – the business is them, and they are their business. This is their life’s passion. So if you’re on Twitter and you’re passionate about the TV show Lost, and someone else is passionate about their startup business, there really is no difference there – it’s just two people rapping about their passions in life. Respect the entrepreneur!
The Stubbornness To Keep Showing Up
I hope I never run out of creative fuel, because Rizzo Tees would be screwed! Sometimes, tee ideas flow through me like a ghost, or blow me over like a hurricane … so I can relate to what author Elizabeth Gilbert is saying in this TED Talk. And she’s very funny! (I listen more when humor is involved.)
Rizzo Tees has been in operation since October 2008, and I have seen countless other tee companies go either dormant or out of business. If you have the stubbornness to keep showing up, that’s really half the battle. As we speak, we’re in the doldrums of winter. Rizzo World HQ (my basement) is freezing. Sales are slow. Now is the time to dig deep and keep on showing up!
If You Want Someone’s Business, Don’t Place Unnecessary Demands On Them
Are salesmen the scum of the Earth, or the harbingers of helpfulness and productivity? Or somewhere in between? As with everything in life, it depends. Second question – what’s the best sales approach? Ahhhh, it depends. Third question – how should you deal with a persistent salesman? Saaaaaaaaay it….. …. it depends.
I’m sitting at my desk, and I receive a call from a very huge, super well-known bank that shall remain nameless (they’re huge, you probably bank there). The caller is an older sounding woman with a southern drawl. She asks me if I’d like to meet with an officer from the bank so that they could explain their products and services to me. At my day job, we have several banking relationships, and we’re always looking to make more banking friends. We do not have any money at this bank, but for various reasons I won’t go into, it might not be a bad idea to get some money on deposit there. This is a sales call that I didn’t mind taking!
I asked her if it would be her that was coming out. She made it clear that she just makes these phone calls, and that the local officer in charge is Joey Joe Joe (I changed the name to keep it all anonymous here).
So I asked if it was Joey Joe Joe that was going to be coming out. She said no, probably not, but she couldn’t be sure – it would probably someone that works for JJJ. I know that it is probably impossible to be personal when you’re a gigantic massive bank, but this is failure number 1. I like getting to know human beings – I’m relationship-driven. For me, I would have liked to know who I’d be dealing with. Yes, I’d find out the day they arrive, but I felt like a number. I got the idea that I wouldn’t be forging a real relationship with a local banker. But I’m being a big baby about this; I digress.
She then says, “To make sure we send out the right person, I need to ask you some questions.” At this point, I always get really paranoid and think to myself, “How do I know she’s really from So-And-So Bank?” She doublechecks my name, business address, all that. And then she asks for our annual sales. I’m secretive about stuff like this when I want to be or need to be, so I said, “We can discuss that stuff in person when you guys come out here.”
She sternly says “I am going to need to get this information from you if you wish for the call to continue.” It is at this point that my eyes cartoonishly popped out of their sockets like horns (think Looney Tunes). Buh-duh-buh-duh- WHAAAAAAAAA? You called me! You are trying to earn my business.
I said back to her, word for word, “I’d really like to talk about this with a live human being, in person.” I’m sure I sounded like a real jerk, but it was an honest sentiment. An online bank like Ally.com is not relationship-driven, but my business banking relationships still are.
She persisted, and eventually she was able to get me to reveal a range of numbers that our sales fall within.
This blog post would be useless in the hands of the CEO of this big superbank that I’m going to be meeting with in a few weeks, but if you’re a just-starting-out, tiny, small, or even medium-sized business, this is advice for you: the number one word in customer service is listen. DO NOT FORGET THAT! You will see me blogging about this constantly – I will rap you about the head with it until everyone understands! You have to listen to your customers, pick up on their cues, make them feel comfortable, and provide them the information they need (not the info you want to shove down their throat).