BarnRaisers

I hope this holiday season finds you reading a good book.  In my case, that book is Life by Keith Richards, who surprises not only because he writes well (with the help of James Fox) but, even more surprising, remembers everything lucidly.

Keith is a great storyteller.  Here are 6 lessons in storytelling I learned from Life:

1. BEGIN WITH AN EVENT:  This book begins with Keith and Ronnie Wood on tour in the US in 1976.  They stop at an Arkansas diner and are soon looking down the gun barrels of a half dozen redneck cops.  In the parking lot is their car with secret compartments filled with every imaginable drug.  If one of your fascinations with Keith Richards is his 9 lives, what happens next fulfills every one of them.
2. SET THE STAGE:  Working class England in Post World War II begins his writings about childhood.  Craters from bombs line the middle of streets and food is rationed.  But the establishment of time and place is important for perspective.  We develop an appreciation for the storyteller, his affection for his parents and his lifelong attachment to his mom.
3. DEFINE WHAT HAS TO BE ACHIEVED:  Once the original nucleus of the Rolling Stones forms, Keith states their mission a number of times.  He and the band are “a bunch of white guys intent on bringing black blues to the world.”  Throughout the book, even though some players change, the band find new life every time they realize these roots and lose their way whenever this focus is clouded.
4. DEMONSTRATE DRIVE:   There are no shortage of homage to heroes that inspire.  He is driven to: 1)  Play guitar like Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry; 2) Capture the showmanship of Little Richard and James Brown; 3) discover the wonders of “open tunings” on guitar; particularly open G tuning with 5-strings and 4) realize his musical story, after 40+ years, is still unfolding.
5. PLACE OPPONENTS IN THE WAY:  There are opponents of every kind:  The law (in the US and England), judges, police, managers who turn greedy, the press, guys who don’t like that their girlfriends like them, girls who mob them to the point of suffocation; even band members with split personalities.
6. SHOW HOW, ONCE YOU GET TO THE END, THE STORY CAN BE REPLICATED BY OTHERS:  The messages of love what you do, learn from what you encounter (both good and bad) and be grounded by a strong sense of family are the consistent themes behind his journey.  Although none of us will have a life like Keith’s, it’s clear these values can be practiced by anyone and guide him until he goes.

Now, if I could learn some of his lessons on song writing and guitar.

Are you reading any good stories this holiday season?  What lessons are you learning?

Did you know Amish businesses succeed at double the rate of American businesses in general?

There are good reasons.  Now I’m not Amish but, in my opinion, the Amish are masters at social marketing.  No group puts the good of the community first as well as the Amish.

In his inspiring book, Success Made Simple, Erik Wesner sets out to find out why.  What he discovers is great learning.  The Amish are among the best new business incubators in the country.  Here are 8 social marketing best practices that cause their businesses to thrive.

1. FORM YOUR BUSINESS AND NETWORK AROUND SHARED VALUES:  Amish home builders, for example, don’t begin a business thinking about the financial pay-off.  It’s more around values like being able to mentor employees or form lasting relationships with customers.  They place values before rewards.
2. REPLACE FEAR WITH FAITH:  If fear is a driver, you’re out for yourself and what you can grab today.  If faith is the driver, you’re part of a larger belief system where there is a source of strength and security and hope appears when hard times occur.
3. PRE-INSTALL THE FAMILIAL ASPECT:  When a family is in need, an Amish community gets together and raises a barn in a day; something that would take that family months to do on their own.  Everyone in the community is automatically treated as if they were an immediate member of the family.
4. HELP PEOPLE AND PROFITS HAPPEN:  The need to make a profit never is expressed.  When you help people, profits come.
5. COMMIT TO CRAFTSMANSHIP:  To show high quality craftsmanship in what you produce is proof of your principles.  It also establishes a reputation that commands a premium price.
6. PITCH IN ON THE UNPLEASANT TASKS:  The Amish are masters of leadership by example.  When you pitch in on unpleasant tasks, it reinforces how important the goals are and helps others in the community learn faster.
7. FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:  There is no substitute for excellent customer service and showing appreciation to your best customers.  That’s because the Amish know there is no better way to build business than word-of-mouth.
8. REPLICATE SUCCESS THROUGH STORYTELLING: The practice of storytelling is a bedtime ritual.  But it’s also a way to use a compelling narrative to reinforce principles that work and have success repeat itself.

My thanks to Erik for this great read and the folks at Leadership Now for bringing this book to my attention.

I hope these best practices are useful to you in your business.  They’re reason why the name, BarnRaisers, was chosen for this business.

What are net promoters? Consumers who rate products on the internet?  Mommy Bloggers? People who Tweets about brands on Twitter? Fans on Facebook? Hold that thought.

For students of relationship marketing and CRM, net promoters are the driving force of Fred Reichheld’s book, The Ultimate Question. Fred studied and surveyed the customers of 100′s of companies and came to a singular conclusion: The most admired and profitable companies are the ones with the greatest percentage of net promoters – people who enthusiastically answer in the affirmative the question, ”How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?”

Fred developed the Net Promoter Score (NPS).  The NPS is the percentage of people who are “promoters” of a company minus the   “passives” and “detractors” (NPS = P – D).  Reichheld’s work is known for its statistical significance and high correlation with business success.  In 2006, the companies with the highest NPS were:

• USAA (82%)
• HomeBanc (81%)
• Harley-Davidson (81%)
• Costco (79%)
• Amazon.com (73%)
• Chick-fil-A (72%)
• eBay (71%)

By 2008, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, in Groundswell, delivered research showing 80% of people rate and review products favorably on the internet and their social networks. If companies with an NPS of 80% rank among the highest in Reichheld’s work, Li and Bernoff’s research is particularly good news for businesses and brands.

It means companies that use interactive ratings are reviews are likely to have a higher NPS, be more admired and have greater profitability. Li and Bernoff’s research also showed:

• 76% of customers use online reviews to make purchases
• 96% of sites that have them say they are an effective merchandising tactic
• Only 25% of e-commerce sites have them now

So, from Reichheld’s, Li’s and Bernoff’s viewpoints, we’re in the “net promoters era.”  If your company isn’t taking advantage of it, shouldn’t it be?

Six months after starting BarnRaisers, a friend offered some sage advice.  He said,   “you’ve made it to the middle of a rope bridge, too far to look back and you definitely don’t want to look down.”

The next day my business partner gave me The Dip, by Seth Godin, a quick 80 page read that would take most people less than an hour.  I read and reread it many times.  Remembering the rope bridge, I knew we were in the middle of the dip.

The Dip is about your talents, your goals and being the best, especially when your efforts are at their maximum and results are at a minimum (see the graph above).

According to Seth’s law that you decide the life you want to lead, when you’re giving much more than you’re getting, conditions are ideal for producing the best results.  That’s because expectations are highest you’ll quit.  So, since less people continue, those who stick deserve greater rewards.

The alternative to going through the dip is to find yourself circling in a cul-de-sac.  Regardless of the path you choose, you still have to decide whether to quit or stick.

There are great quotes to help with the dip.  Dale Carnegie said, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”  Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”

These are great motivations.  So are the writings in The Dip.  And, because The Dip is about a journey and progress, you look toward the periphery, instead of down.

Let me say at the outset this is a nondenominational blog.  I’ve been reading Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life which might sound like a self-help book, but it’s not.

Whereas self-help books tell you purpose, essential change or course correction in life comes from within, the point of view here is you’re not here by accident.  Your purpose in life has already been individually thought out and finding it happens, not by looking within, but surrendering to something larger than yourself.

It’s also deals with community as good as any book I’ve read.  One reason, as the book devotes a chapter, is we are here to belong.  Because, through belonging, we learn and put in practice the seven characteristics of fellowship which are to:

• Share our true feeling (authenticity)
• Encourage one other (mutuality)
• Support each other (sympathy)
• Forgive each other (mercy)
• Speak the truth in love (honesty)
• Admit our weaknesses (humility)
• Make group a priority (frequency)

Although it could be read faster, the book is meant to be read and considered a chapter a day for 40 days  because 40 days is considered a time spiritually significant for  transformation.

There have been 133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002.  They have been read by 346,000,000 people since 2008.  There are 900,000 blog posts within any given 24 hour period.  Positive perceptions of a company increase by 36% if they have a blog on their web site.

With numbers so large, it may seem no individual blog really matters.  I believe just the opposite.  It’s significant proof of our need to belong and commitment to fellowship.  So, if you blog or you read blogs, keep it up and keep the seven characteristics in mind.