Tag: entrepreneurship

Keys to a Successful Marriage or Business Relationship: Lessons from My Grandfather.

Marriage is a fascinating human experience. It’s both highly rewarding and challenging. Yet while most couples put a lot of preparation into the wedding day, few put much, if any effort into preparing for the marriage itself. Which is why half of marriages end in I don’t. And a healthy percentage of the other half of marriages aren’t as healthy as they could be.

The Program

To help prepare for our marriage, my wife Dawn and I listened to an audio program called Marathon Marriage. We learned the many lessons and philosophies of the program and did all of the exercises shared in the 4 CD set. (At least it wasn’t on 8-track cassettes.) It was a good reminder that just as you need to prepare to run a successful marathon, you need to prepare for a long and successful marriage. So we stocked up on plenty of Gatorade and snacks. And we felt like we had a good game plan.

The Mentors

Then, on our wedding day I wanted to cram in one last bit of preparation. So I scheduled breakfast with my three marriage mentors, which included my dad and my two grandfathers (who would all laugh me off the family tree for calling them my marriage mentors). At the time, my parents had been married 32 years. My two sets of grandparents had been hitched for 61 and 63 years.

After we sat down at Emma Krumbees in Wausau, Wisconsin and worked through some Northwoods pancakes and sausage, I decided it was time for the knowledge share. I asked The Paternity Council, ‘What is the key to making a marriage great?’  With 156 years of experience at the table, I was about to get the fatherlode of great advice.

Then my 86-year-old maternal grandfather, Kenny Sprau, crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair and shared,

‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’

Um… WTF Grampy?  61 years of trial and error, nine kids and a World War, and that’s all you’ve got?  I wanted to give him a mulligan and see if he could hit it past the ladies’ tee this time. But he went on. ‘You have to keep doing the things that got you to this point.’

My Grampy, Kenneth Adam Sprau. (Thanks for the hair.)

Perspective On The Advice

While at the time the 29-year-old me was totally underwhelmed by the advice, over the past 22 years I have developed a deep appreciation for what Grampy Sprau said. Because when we are dating, we are at our best. The unfortunate tendency is to drop the hard work, energy, attention, and charm we put into the relationship after the contract is signed. Without pouring that effort, care and prioritization into the relationship, the relationship isn’t as healthy and strong as it was during your courtship and engagement. Which is kind of like leaving the cap off a bottle of soda-pop, only to realize that it’s the cap that keeps the soda popping.

Over our 22 years of marriage, I have recognized plenty of times when I was not putting in the same kind of attention and prioritization into our relationship as I did when we were just kids in the heartland, like in that little ditty ’bout Jack and Diane. It gets much harder alongside the demands of raising children, building a successful career, growing a business, and the effort required to fend off the Dad bod creep. But whenever I find that my attention to my bride has slipped (or I am reminded by my bride that my attention to my bride has slipped), I use Grampy Sprau’s advice, to help make the appropriate adjustments and corrections.

Applying The Advice To Business

Eight years after launching the advertising and ideas agency, The Weaponry, I have discovered that Grampy Sprau’s advice holds true in business as well as marriage.  You need to treat your potential clients and partners well. Act as if you would like nothing more than to spend the rest of your time together. Listen. Make them laugh. Show them you are interesting, kind and thoughtful. And then after you get the contract signed, keep doing what you’ve been doing.

In business, as in marriage, listening and collaborating are valuable approaches to your growth strategy. Clients and spouses alike really like that stuff. (Crazy right?)  When you respond favorably to a client’s request, they generate something called ‘good feelings’ about you.  And these ‘good feelings’ make them want to see you more and work with you more. And the result is business growth.

The opposite is also true.  If you are the all-time best seller at The Jerk Store, no one wants to be around you. This is true of both the individual and the organization.

If you recognize complacency, apathy or combativeness between your organization and your clients or between you and your spouse, stamp that out like a flaming bag of dog poo on your front porch. The behavior may feel justified today. But you’ll regret the justice leveled tomorrow when you’re trading the offspring in the McDonald’s parking lot.

Key Takeaway

Treat your spouse the way you did when you were dating. Treat your current business like new business. Never take either of them for granted. Work to re-win them every day. Even after you put a ring on it.

Thanks for the wise advice, Grampy.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Are you willing to trade a good life right now for a great life later?

I don’t believe in work-life balance. I never have. It’s just a nice mythical idea. Kinda like The Fountain of Youth. Or a happy Kardashian marriage. You can’t divide your life into 3 neat 8-hour blocks of work, personal time and sleep and become rich, successful and fulfilled. To have a wildly successful career you have to throw things out of balance. You need chapters of your life when you put a disproportionate amount of time and energy into your career. That’s what all of the most accomplished people you’ve never met do. It’s why they don’t have time to meet you.

Sometimes this means days of extreme dedication and focus. Sometimes it means weeks. But more likely, there will be many months and years where your career is the thing, Stephen King. You don’t have to ignore the rest of your life the way Michael Douglas ignored Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. But your career demands to be your priority during certain seasons. Just as farmers must put all their attention into harvesting when it is time to get the crop in, you must pay attention to the opportunity seasons of your career, and make all the progress you can before the window closes.

In the movie about your life, this part of your career would be the montage. You know, the part where they show quick clips of all your hard work, focus, skill development, late night sessions, early morning sessions, and burning-the-candle-at-both-ends kind of work. (You can learn everything you need to know about your montage in this 1-minute video from Team America, World Police.) If you are not willing to have your movie montage chapter (or two or three) you will not be dedicating enough focus and energy to your career to pull away from the pack.

Focusing your time and energy on your career instead of your personal life is like investing your money for greater compounded gains tomorrow rather than spending it on yourself today. That time invested in your professional development and in developing career capital will pay out in massive ways in the future if you don’t scarf your marshmallow today.

The sacrifice is worth it. But you have to keep the primary goal in mind to remember why you are not buying that timeshare in Gatlinburg or knocking off early to meet your friends at Applebee’s. And if you have a family, you and your spouse need to focus on the long-term payoff and be willing to sacrifice whatever nights, weekends, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and vacations need to be traded now, for better versions of all of those things in the years to come.

One of the great regrets people have in life is that they didn’t do the foundational work they should have done to achieve their dreams. It is important to know about this widespread regret while you still have time to do the foundational work. The work is more than a fair trade. The payout is so handsome, (like George Clooney handsome) that is feels like a small price to pay.

I have experienced enough chapters of significant sacrifice in my advertising career to fill a forthcoming book. In the first chapter of career sacrifice, I wanted to become a stronger writer. So I spent considerable time working on and improving my craft. I read all the time. I wrote far more than my professional peers. I studied other great writers in all John Rahs. (And I learned the word is actually genres.) I read great writers’ writings on writing. I experimented with words, style, structure, tone and humor. Through that focus, my writing got sharper, smarter, and more interesting.

Then I focused a disproportionate amount of time and energy on developing my presentation skills. Because girls only want boyfriends who have great skills. I took courses. I read books. I became a student again. I practiced and applied all that I was learning. This helped make me a strong and entertaining performer in business development meetings, sales pitches and client presentations. Which led to promotions and more responsibility. Because sometimes your hard work gets you more hard work.

Next, I focused heavily on creative direction skills, leadership and management. And within a four year span I motored from my first creative director position to executive creative director to Chief Creative Officer. The only position in my industry left was CEO. And I wanted that job too.

So I began focusing on what it took to run the entire business. I learned as much as I could about accounting and finance. I learned about human resources and non-surgical operations. I learned systems and processes. Project management and IT. I learned stuff that most writers and art directors in advertising never learn anything about. But then again, they get to go to Applebee’s and eat good in the neighborhood.

I didn’t want to wait for a CEO job to open or to wait in line for the CEO in front of me to leave, or die. So I decided to grab the role for myself by starting my own agency called The Weaponry.

As an entrepreneur you not only need to know a bit about all areas of a business, you need to create the whole business from dust. That takes more time, energy, focus, learning, sacrifice and work, work, work, work, work. Like Rihanna said.

Again, I sacrificed other opportunities in my personal life to make this happen. It’s the only way to make big dreams a reality. It’s not easy. But it has been both immensely fun and rewarding.

To share what I was learning through my entrepreneurial journey, I also started this blog. This is the 1023rd blog post I have written in the past 9 years. This too requires sacrifice. I write first thing every morning. I write 5 to 7 days every week. By 6:10 am I am in my office hammering away at another post, another story, another idea. While other people are still in bed or enjoying a cup of coffee and a good social media scroll.

By dedicating so much time to writing I further developed my storytelling skills. And I found my own unique writing style. Which sounds exactly like the way I talk. Now, I write books too. And writing books takes yet another level of dedication and sacrifice. Which is a sacrifice I am willing to make, because I understand the compounding benefits that come from that investment.

Key Takeaway

The great achievements in your career don’t come easy. They don’t come at a natural pace. They come by throwing your life out of balance. By heavying your load. By gorging on learning. And by giving more time, attention and energy to your work than others are willing to give. But by unbalancing your career early your life balance will flip later, and you will receive far more financial and career capital by becoming uncommonly great at what you do. Today, I have no foundational regrets. Instead, I have the rewards of a lot of hard work and sacrifice. And not only can you take that to the bank, you can take it on long, well-deserved vacations with your family and friends.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

There are no guarantees that your great idea will work every time.

Every day there are new songs, books, and blog posts. (Like the new blog post you are reading right now.)

There are new businesses, restaurants, shops, clubs and bars. Including shops where you buy clubs and bars.

There are new clothes, accessories and decoration.

And there are enough new social posts to fill a whole new social sphere every single day.

So why all the newness, Huey Lewis?

Because people have great new ideas worth betting on all the time.

However, you never know which good new ideas will wallop and which ones will whimper.

Sometimes your favorites will fail like New Coke and Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi ad. And sometimes your maybes will make a mighty roar. Like cat videos.

Learn from both.

And just keep swinging.*

The only real failure is to stop sharing your new ideas.

*Don’t actually be a swinger.

If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them. Especially if you know Kendall Jenner or anyone thinking about swinging.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How to do hard things.

When I was in college I had a summer job setting up large party tents in Vermont. I loved pitching a tent. It was hard. But looking back, that’s what I loved about it.

The hardest part of the erection process was driving the 4-foot-long steel stakes into the ground. The stakes create the foundation for the tent. You tie the tent ropes to the stakes to help hold the tent upright and sturdy.

To drive the stakes into the ground we used sledgehammers that were 8, 12 or 16-pounds. Size mattered. Because if you swung a bigger hammer you could get the job done in fewer swings.

Sometimes, when the ground was soft, the stakes would go in smoothly. But in Vermont and New Hampshire where I drove most of my stakes, the ground was very hard. They don’t call New Hampshire The Granite State for nothing. (And they don’t call Vermont the Granite State at all, but that’s just because New Hampshire already took it, for granite.)

But during those college years, I learned a valuable lesson about how to do hard things. Because the only way to get those 4-foot stakes in the ground was to keep pounding away until the job was done. More often than not the stakes went in an inch or less at a time. And sinking a 4-foot shaft neck-deep at that rate can be exhausting. But it was the only way to finish the job.

I applied that just-keep-swinging-till-it’s-done lesson in my athletic career as a track and field athlete at the University of Wisconsin. Today, I apply the same lesson to building the advertising and ideas agency, The Weaponry, writing my blog posts, newsletters and books. And simply not stopping until the work is done has never failed to produce results. Even when things get really, really hard.

Key Takeaway

The only way to get a job done is to just keep pounding until you are finished. Hit the task again and again and again. This is true when you are driving stakes in the ground in Vermont, building a company, advancing your career, trying to meet your fitness goals, or getting your education. Focus your efforts. Pound away. And just don’t stop until the job is done.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

The latest lesson I have learned as an entrepreneur is an expensive one.

Since I first launched The Weaponry, the advertising and idea agency I lead, I have learned a lot of interesting lessons. I didn’t become an entrepreneur for the life lessons. But entrepreneurship has a funny way of teaching you new things, whether you want to learn or not.

The Learnin’

Over the past few months, we have had to replace several computers. The Weaponry’s computers are not cheap. We are all Macs all the time. Like Roni and Cheese.

Many of our computers are supped-up machines built for high-end design, art, and video work. The kind of creative work we do requires serious machinery and significantly more storage than your garden-variety Apples. (Or would that be orchard-variety?)

But with all the computers we have had to replace lately I am not mad, frustrated, or worried. After all, this isn’t a quality problem. The computers were not stolen. And they did not run away to join the circus. (Do computers still do that?)

The reason we are replacing so many machines is the best reason of all.

We simply wore our computers out. We worked them hard. Our Weapons have kept our machines busy with demanding work for a long time. We have been slinging advertising, branding, videos, logos, design and illustration work for 8 years.

Many of our team members have been with us for 6 to 8 years now. All that work has been crushing our equipment. And like that popular TV show from the 70s with those classic hairstyles, it seems that when it comes to computer hardware and software, eight is enough.

Replacing our computers is a sign of success, demand and longevity.

And I am grateful for it all.

Key Takeaway

Businesses require investments in equipment and resources. One great reward of success is staying in business long enough to wear out your stuff. Don’t lament the new expenses. Recognize them as a sign of demand and longevity. You have earned the privilege of replacing your resources because you are still here. Still needed. Still sought after. The same is true in our personal lives. When you have to replace equipment it means you have outlived your stuff. That is a blessing not to be taken for granted.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Remember, what’s obvious to you now is extremely valuable to others.

I met with an entrepreneur earlier this week who has a startup. My friend is in the early stages of his newborn business where you don’t get much sleep and you change a lot of diapers. (Your own.)

As my entrepreneur friend talked about his startup experience, I realized I had advice that would help with each of his challenges. I shared some actions to take, resources to employ, strategies to consider and helpful materials to read. I also shared the relative merits of Zantac, Tums and Rolaids for heartburn and upset stomachs. Because I know what Rolaids spells.

I could tell that my friend found my guidance valuable. Both because he told me it was useful and because he later texted me and said the same thing. (I’m quick like that.)

However, what I shared wasn’t complicated, specialized or exclusive knowledge. It was simply logical common sense. Or so I thought. Until I thought about it more.

The Insight

It’s important to recognize that much of what feels like logical common sense to you today was once completely foreign and unknown.

You improve your logic and common sense every day. It is a byproduct of your experience and education. The more logic and common sense you accumulate the more valuable you become to others, both as a user of your own knowledge and as a coach, mentor or advisor. (Those are all different things. My friend Stacy Sollenberger taught me that in the book Guide Coaching.)

Since you were a wobbly, pooping-you-pants toddler you have collected a lifetime of logic and common sense. You have racked up far more than you know, and in more areas than you recognize. Realize that others don’t know what now feels obvious and commonplace to you. That makes you a valuable resource to people who are one or more steps behind you. You can offer tremendous help when you pass your baton of wisdom to them. (And good job not pooing yourself anymore.)

Examples

-As an entrepreneur, you can share your wisdom with anyone who is behind you.

-As a career haver, you can pass your knowledge to anyone junior to you to help them advance their learnings at a faster pace than they could through their own experience alone.

-As a married human you can share your learnings with anyone considering getting married, newlyweds and others passing through the various phases and challenges of the most important relationship you will ever have. This is true even if you are bad at marriage because you have discovered what doesn’t work. Like Edison said about his lightbulb moment.

-As a parent, you can pass along great insights and approaches to both new parents and parents who are passing through phases you have already passed through, like the valley of the shadow of death. Or raising 3-year-olds.

Key Takeaway

As you accumulate knowledge and experience it can camouflage itself as common sense. It is not. It just feels like logic because it has become an obvious truth to you. Recognize the value of your earned wisdom and share it with those trailing behind you on the learning curve. It will help them accelerate their own growth and impact. It will help them accumulate wisdom that will increase their value to the world. And as the people you share your knowledge with pass your baton of wisdom to others your positive impact on the world compounds without end.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

When you feel the heat of inspiration it’s go time!

I have heard countless times that time is our most valuable commodity. I believe this. After all, you can’t buy it. It constantly running out. And despite what Mick Jagger said, it’s not really on your side. (No it’s not.)

But right up there alongside time on the Mt. Rushmore of Most Valuable Commodities are inspiration and motivation.

They light your fire. Like Jim Morrison.

They lead to growth and improvement.

They create the empire state of mind that builds empires. Like JAY-Z and Alicia Keys.

They change the world.

Yet to be effective, both inspiration and motivation require you to act. To move. To do! Do! Do! (Not da-da-da.)

Unfortunately, both forces burn bright for a moment, then the moment’s gone. Like dust in the wind.

Which means when you feel the powerful heat of inspiration and motivation you have to go.

You have to cook while the heat is on, Glenn Frey.

You have to jump on the action you feel inspired to take.

Take steps to start that business.

Start writing that book.

Plan that remodel.

Create that art.

Build the prototype.

Plan that travel.

Create that event.

Get to the gym.

Enroll in that class.

Reach out to that person that could change your day. Or your life.

Acting on the heat of inspiration is how I started The Weaponry.

It’s how I wrote What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say?

And it is how I worked out last night at 10 pm after a 15-hour work day.

Key Takeaway

Take advantage of those precious sparks of inspiration and motivation. They don’t last long. But if you take action while your mind is in the red, the impact can be felt long after your time is up.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

9 Random things I share about myself in a new podcast.

I love to share stories. That’s probably why I started blogging in the first place. Over the 1001 blog posts I have published, I have shared a small country library worth of stories. But recently I sat down for a fun podcast interview to share stories with Kory Dogs, of ActionCOACH. (I kept thinking he sounded like the action hero Kory whose superpower would be saving Corey Feldman and Corey Haim from themselves.)

Kory asked me questions I don’t often get asked. Which means you hear some little-known details about my life.

9 Things You Learn About Me In This Podcast

  1. The 5 States I lived in as a kid.
  2. My connection to the Shawshank Prison.
  3. My unique experience on a bull stud.
  4. The surprising comment my boss made 2 years into my career that inspired me to start my own advertising agency. (No, it was not You’re Fired!)
  5. How I describe my leadership style.
  6. What I would do differently if I could go back and do it all again. (Which sounds like a Garth Brooks song.)
  7. The new things I want to learn.
  8. The book I recommend to all entrepreneurs.
  9. Who I would give a shoutout to at the end of a podcast when surprised with the question, ‘Who would you like to give a shoutout to, right now?’

You can read or watch the interview here.

Why listen or read when you can watch?

The Book Recommendation

During the podcast I talked about a book I suggest every entrepreneur, or aspiring entrepreneur, or spiraling entrepreneur should read. Here’s the excerpt, in case you don’t have time to watch, read or listen to the full podcast:

Kory: What advice do you have for business owners trying to do everything on their own?

Adam: I often advise business owners and entrepreneurs to read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. This book offers a fantastic framework for developing your business through systems and processes. It teaches you how to structure your business so that it can operate on a larger scale, similar to a franchise.

By thinking through your business in this way, you ensure that all aspects are well-organized. You create a mature system where you’re not overwhelmed by every detail. Instead, you take on specific responsibilities and avoid getting bogged down by tasks outside your main role.

For example, you don’t want to be the person who not only bakes pies but also handles HR, sales, and operations. The book helps you define your role clearly and understand what additional roles are needed in your organization.

I read The E-Myth before starting The Weaponry, and it provided a strong foundation for me. For any business owner feeling stuck in a cycle of chaos, I recommend this book to help you assess and address your challenges effectively.

For those who aren’t familiar, the book is called The E-Myth and its subtitle is “Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About It.” Essentially, it argues that if you don’t get the business fundamentals right, it won’t survive. But if you do, it can thrive. The E-Myth refers to the belief that only certain people are born to be entrepreneurs. Michael Gerber challenges this idea, asserting that anyone can be an entrepreneur. He presents a process and approach that can make entrepreneurship work for everyone.

Thank You!

Thanks to Kory Dogs of ActionCOACH for the interview. And for making me feel like I know a real-life action hero.

Thank you blog readers for reading this blog. It’s the only way to earn your title.

If you know someone who you thing could benefit from listening to this podcast, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

This is my 1000th blog post! Here’s how I did it.

In 2015 I read a book titled The Little Black Book of Connections by the self-proclaimed King of Sales, Jeffery Gitomer. One of the important tenets of the book is, Success is not about who you know, but who knows you. (Who knew?)

Gitomer goes on to share that the best way to have more people know you is to share your knowledge, expertise, ideas and experiences broadly. Which is what Kim Kardashian did with her first home movie back in 2007. And look how well that worked out for her.

Gitomer points out that platforms like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, editorial columns and books enable you to share your ideas with many people at once. In fact, it allows people you would never meet face to face to discover your ideas and be positively impacted by your knowledge and expertise.

What started with a single blog post has gone farther than I ever imagined.

Gettin’ Bloggy With It

In the fall of 2015, I began planning to launch a new advertising agency. So I decided to take Gitomer’s advice and start blogging to share my ideas about advertising, branding, and creativity. I also wanted to share what I was learning about entrepreneurship. Success leaves clues. And I wanted to share breadcrumbs for other entrepreneurs to follow. (It seems I failed to learn the downside of leaving breadcrumbs from Hansel and Gretel.)

I wasn’t sure how the whole blogging thing would go. I had tried it before. In fact, I had started 5 or 6 different blogs and quickly stopped. But this time I felt more inspired. I had Gitomer’s encouragement. I had a strong desire to succeed as an entrepreneur. (And I wanted to be able to feed my family.) I believed that writing a blog would be a great way to share my expertise, let people know I was starting The Weaponry, and share our growth and success.

I have always enjoyed writing. I started my career as a copywriter. So I figured that writing a blog would be fun. It would enable me to tap into my strengths. And most importantly, it would allow me to write funny things without a client or editor telling me no.

So I began writing in November of 2015. And like Forrest Gump, I just kept going, and people started to follow. I began slowly, with a blog post every week. Then I moved to 2 posts per week. And finally, I developed a 3 post-per-week habit, writing 5 days a week, and publishing on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, when Chick-fil-A was closed.

Today, less than 9 years later, I have published 1000 blog posts!

My writings have generally fallen into 3 buckets:

  1. Marketing: This covers the topics of marketing, advertising, branding, creativity, design, writing and yes, blogging. Which is totally meta. (Non-Zuckerberg meta.)
  2. Business: This includes entrepreneurship, startups, sales, network development, professional development, and my personal favorite, funny business.
  3. Self-Improvement: This was unintentional. But I have written a lot about personal development and motivation. I have learned so much over the past 9 years about how to do better and be better (through trial and error) that I felt I had to share these lessons.
These are all the countries where my blog has been read. North Korea, Iran and the croissant in Africa are holding out on me.

What Do 1000 blog posts look like?

  • 111 blog posts every year.
  • More than 2 new blog posts every week.
  • The equivalent of 10 full length 50,000 word books
  • A minimum of 2000 hours of writing time.
  • The equivalent of one full year of 40-hour work weeks spent writing blog posts.
  • The equivalent word count of writing The Old Testament of The Bible. (Truly I say to you, this fact hath blown my mind.)
Blogging created a pathway to publishing books. And holding books I published.

5 Benefits Of Blogging

  1. It provides original content I can share on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Medium and Reddit (Although Reddit readers hate everything, like Mikey.)
  2. It provides a great collection of well-considered and well-organized ideas and stories that are ready to be adapted to books. The hardest work of writing my books happens in the blog stage. The easiest work is collecting blog posts with related themes to create chapters and books.
  3. Blogging created a path to professional speaking. The blog posts led to a book. The book led to speaking opportunities. The speaking opportunities have created the best source of income in my Information Creation + Communication Ecosystem.
  4. Blogging organizes great ideas, lessons and stories to share as a professional speaker.
  5. The blogs have allowed me to share far more jokes and humorous asides than I would be able to share any other way. This is really the thing that keeps me writing.
I was excited to hit 200 posts back in 2018 when I was just a baby blogger.

6 Things I Want Everyone To Know About Writing 1000 Blog Posts

  1. Anyone can do it.
  2. There are no barriers.
  3. There are tons of tools and templates that make it easy. (I use WordPress to write and publish my blog.)
  4. The 2 key steps are: 1. Get Started 2. Don’t Stop.
  5. To sustain a blog you have to create a regular writing habit. Write at the same time for a set duration every day, or every weekday, or every Friday or whatever works for you. The habit is how it happens. (Which is also how you know someone is a nun.)
  6. Don’t do it for huge numbers of readers. You can’t predict who will read your posts, or how many people will read what you write. If you are like most people, including me, your reach and readership will always be lower than you would want. And my blog has been read in over 160 countries. But you can create good information that can have a huge impact on one reader. That’s the real win of blogging.

Key Takeaway

As the saying goes, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. And the best way to write 1000 blog posts is one post at a time. Find a topic or topics that you are really interested in. Get started. And just don’t stop. Write at a regular time each day or each week. And when people tell you they enjoy reading your posts, or somehow benefited from your writings, use that as fuel to keep going. The world needs more good ideas, lessons, and stories. You have them. So start sharing. You’ll be surprised by how many lives you can positively impact. And that is the real benefit.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

12 Lessons I have learned from 8 years as an entrepreneur.

When I set out on my entrepreneurial adventure 8 years ago I had a lot to learn. So I became a student of entrepreneurship in the same way that I became a student of Journalism, Psychology and Bratwurst at The University of Wisconsin. I read books, magazines, and blogs. I talked to friends who were entrepreneurs and business leaders. The non-standardized tests started in April of 2016 when I launched the advertising and ideas agency, The Weaponry. And I am still tested every day.

8 years later, I can’t imagine my career without this chapter. I have learned a lot about what it takes to launch and run a business. It turns out there is a lot more to it than printing up a batch of business cards and cool company t-shirts. (Although you should do those things too.)

I wanted to share 8 lessons I have learned along the way. Because 8 ideas from the past 8 years seemed well-balanced. But I had too many lessons to stop at The Ocho. So here are 12-ish lessons I have learned that you should know if you are thinking about starting your own business, or if you already have a business and you now need to get your fecal matter straight.

12 Lessons I have learned from 8 years as an entrepreneur.

  1. Don’t quit your day job*. This is the most important lesson. Start working on your new business as a side hustle. Use your nights and weekends to study, plan and create your business. Use the income from your day job to fund your embryonic startup. Start generating revenue from the new entity. Then, as your startup indicates that it will be able to replace your required income, you can transition out of your full-time employment. But allowing your startup to grow as a side hustle will take a lot of pressure and stress off the early stages of entrepreneurship. From my first paid project to leaving my day job was 5 months. But a year or two of side hustling is not crazy. It is time well spent. *Note: This lesson is only for people who currently have day jobs. If you don’t have a day job the next 11 lessons are for you.

2. Good people are gold, Pony Boy. Business is the ultimate team sport. A great business is simply a great team of people running great plays. Find the right people. Treat them well. They will make the company and the culture amazing. As an entrepreneur, you get to pick your entire team. It’s one of the best parts of entrepreneurship. That and picking the dress code.

3. Good processes make it happen. Your systems and processes enable success, reduce friction, and organize the organization. Determine your organization’s way of doing everything. Write it down. Share it broadly. It ensures that everyone in your organization knows that you always pass the Dutchie on the left-hand side. Don’t worry if the process isn’t perfect. You can always improve it when you discover a better way. Read The E-Myth by Michael Gerber and Traction by Gino Wickman to help you dial this in.

4. Great creative thinking is key. As an advertising and ideas agency, creativity is what our clients come to us for. This has to be great or nothing else matters, like Metallica said. However, all entrepreneurial organizations should focus on creative thinking. It is how you get things done when you don’t have all the resources you wish you had. And it is how you beat competitors who always do things the same old way. Because creativity creates competitive advantages.

5. Great customer service is a must. This is why your clients stay. Always think about your service, and how you can make it better. We want to treat our clients so well that they never want to leave. And we want to make sure they hire us again when they leave their current job for a new opportunity. This has happened more times than I can count. And I am relatively good at counting.

6. Business development is critical. You have to put focused effort into expanding your business. There is natural attrition that happens in business, even if your product and your service are great. The economy plays games you can’t control. So do a dozen other influences. Businesses that forget to find new customers eventually die. Sometimes they die slowly. Sometimes they die all at once. But the net result is the same.

7. Trust is everything. At the beginning of your entrepreneurial adventure, people will take a chance on buying from your new entity solely because of you. The company will have no real track record or history of doing what it says it will do. But you do. Be a trustworthy human. That personal trust will be the bridge that gets early customers to try your offering before you have real proof that your business is as good as advertised. (Also remember to advertise that you are good.)

8. Build in a fair profit. It’s not enough to have paying customers. You have to understand the cost of your goods or services. Then you have to build in a fair profit. Which means if your offering costs you $100 to deliver, you must charge $5, $10, $20, or $100 on top of that to make sure the business makes a fair profit. That profit is what keeps the business sustainable. Some customers and most procurement departments will try to beat the profit out of your business. Don’t let them. Know what you need to make, know your value, and stick to it. Like a cocklebur on corduroy.

9. Share the success with your team. Business success is team success. You have to recognize and celebrate the contributions of everyone involved. When you do, a good team is eager to create even more success. That stuff is addicting. Like Dot’s Pretzels.

10. Relationships are extremely important. The personal relationships you create help create your success. Those include your relationships with your team, clients, partners, vendors, bankers, brokers, accountants, lawyers and the media. But all your relationships matter to business. Because you never know where your next referral will come from. And you never know who you may need as a character witness. Or who may be carrying an extra kidney that you may need one day. And don’t neglect your relationships with your family to make the business work. My relationship with my wife Dawn has been the most valuable relationship on my entrepreneurial adventure. And I get to spend more time with my kids now as an entrepreneur than I did as an employee. Which is perhaps the biggest win of all.

11. You have to keep experimenting. Business success is an interesting combination of running tried and true plays and trying new things that create new advantages. It’s kinda like the way you have to keep things spicy in your romantic relationship. Businesses that keep experimenting with new technology, new offerings, and new models survive changes. So stay on your toes. (If you have toes.) Watch the horizon for change, both in your industry and the broader economy. Expect that the future will be different than the past and you will be prepared for the strange changes. Like David Bowie said.

12. Create a newsletter. This is a great way to stay in contact with your community, which includes team members, customers, partners, supporters, potential customers, potential employees, the media, fans, and your parents. Add value through each issue. Share your news and successes. Social media channels are beyond your control, and it can be challenging to get your message in front of your audience there. But a newsletter is your own media outlet. It is like an express train to your audience’s inbox. Choo Choo! We use Mailchimp for our newsletter. There are many good options you can find using the Googler. You can sign up for The Weaponry newsletter here to see how we do it.

Bonus

13. Learn to spell entrepreneur. When you become one you end up writing the word a lot. At least you do if you have a blog sharing your experience as an entrepreneur. To spell entrepreneur, remember that all of the vowel holes start with ‘e’ and you come last. Which is how I remember that there is a ‘u’ after the last ‘e.’

Key Takeaway

Starting your own business is an exciting and rewarding adventure. It enables you to design your own life. It combines the thrill of competitive sports with the satisfaction of having a positive impact on your team members and your community. To start your journey, do some prep work. But then get going. You will learn what you need to know along the way. Remember to always bet on yourself. It is the safest bet you will ever make.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.