What's Next is What's Important

Many people have asked what the next thing may be for me.  While I am not yet ready to name it specifically I will say that I’ve made some pretty big decisions and that it’s time to return to my roots in serving small business and rather than taking over an existing company, this time I am working with some like-minded friends to found our own.

We had a long meeting a few days ago and those who know me know that if I am going to stick around for a long meeting the subject matter will be something that is near and dear to my heart.  It is true.  I have a deeply rooted respect for the folks with the courage to found and stick with small businesses of all kinds and have successfully built companies whose specific focus is to find ways to help these businesses succeed.  This new company will capitalize on what I and the folks who are partnering with me have learned along the way.

In our meeting we came up with several core assumptions describing why we are doing what we’re doing.  These assumptions are:

1. The choice to start a small business is not due to failure in a large one, but rather vision and drive to pursue one’s individual dream.
   
2. The pursuit of that dream is a lonely one and success is rooted in an effective support system.
   
3. Small business people are visionary experts in their chosen field of practice.
   
4. The only effective way to serve small business is through connection and collaboration.
   
5. Small business people don’t need tools, they need solutions.
   
6. The internet creates leverage-able crossroads for efficient communication.
   
7. Readily available, best-of-breed solutions are more than sufficient to serve most small business needs.
   
8. Time is any small business person's most important asset.

The business built around these assumptions will leverage today’s workforce in ways that directly address the characteristics of the emerging working generation.  The founders understand and respect the desire for flexibility and the opportunity to pursue one’s own dreams while at the same time creating meaningful value for the company and its customers through focused and efficient contribution at work.  Rather than having to change an existing culture to address these needs we have the benefit of establishing a culture that leverages them.

The business built around these assumptions understands that it’s path to success is directly tied to the success of its customers.  It is built to leverage the recommendations of its existing customers as its primary new customer acquisition channel.  It is built to be responsive to customer feedback, with an understanding that our customers know their needs better than we ever will.  It is built with ears to hear and eyes to see these challenges as opportunities for the creation of new and better solutions and it is built with a core belief that relentless refinement, invention and reinvention will pave the way to success.

I am excited about the coming year.

When the good things come to an end ...

If there are good reasons why some people die and others live I would love to know what they are.  Too often in my experience it isn’t just the good people, but the best people who seem to go young.  With too much of life before them they’re gone.  I have to admit, it makes me wonder.

Don Rhymer is such a man.  Giving without needing thanks.  Funny, but always in a self effacing way.  I wish I’d known him longer.  Knowing him made me a better person.  He’d hate hearing that.  It’s how he was wired.  It was never about him.

Just a day ago or so my friend Don lost his battle with cancer.  In the end he was with his family and his closest friends.  Everyone says it is better that he is gone.  In one sense it is.  His suffering is ended.  In another sense it isn’t.  Death is so final.

Don would say we’ll see him again and I believe that.  He was that good a man.  If there is a heaven Don is there.  No question about it.  I think though that somehow he’s probably still thinking about us.  Looking down and wanting to give, help, laugh, touch, listen, live.  That's the way Don lived his life.  If there is a way to help, Don will find it.  That’s how he is.

Sadly, the power of life and death was not bestowed on me.  Mine is simply to wonder.  I know though that if I am to truly honor Don then what I need to do is stop focusing on this thing that I can’t change and start finding the things I can.  Don found humor in the worst of circumstances.  From the depths of his pain he also found and exhibited real love.  There are lessons in that and, perhaps, it is these lessons that I am meant to ponder.

I nearly always say at the end of these things that what’s next is what’s important.  Today I don’t think that’s the case.  Just for now, what’s past is what’s important.  I can leave what’s next for tomorrow.

Goodbye my friend and thank you for the time we shared.  I’ll miss you along the way and will love and help those you loved as best I can.  It’s what I know you would have done for me and, I guess, that’s going to have to be enough.

An Update for Don's friends.

My friend Don is battling cancer.  Many of you know him and many only know him through the blog he keeps, “Let’s Radiate Don,” a sometimes hilarious, always poignant account of his battle.

Lately things haven’t gone as well as anyone would like.  Most especially Don, and right next to him Kate, his lovely and amazing wife and of course, right behind them their equally wonderful children.  Don and Kate and their kids are known to many, many people and we all want to help.

It’s hard isn’t it?  At least it is for me.  What can I do?  How can I help?  It’s especially hard when the fact is that there isn’t much to do.  I am not equipped to give the help that is needed.  

For those who want to know how Don is doing I will tell you that he is resting comfortably and he has been with the people he loves the most, his family and his very close friends.  He isn’t in much pain and he is able to converse at times and not as much at others.  I don’t think he would want to share much more than that.  It’s funny.  When we really think about it, we don’t need to know much more than that do we?

Kate is also with her family and with her closest friends, including, much of the time, Don.  Classically, one of her big points of stress is an inability to answer all of the loving offers of help she gets via text, voicemail and email.  I think she wants those who know her to know that she knows you are there and she is grateful and she needs time and space, if for nothing else than just to give as much of both to Don at this point as she can.

We never know quite what to do in these times do we?  Prayer seems such a hapless pastime.  Is God really there?  Does He really care?  Don would say yes.  Perhaps that should be enough for all of us.  What His response will be is, as in all things, up to Him.  That is not a reason not to pray.

I also know Don well enough to know that the last thing he would want is for everyone he knows to be sitting around worrying about him.  If you truly want to help I think he would say, find an excuse to laugh.  Hug someone you love extra hard.  If you need a little encouragement read one of his classic blog posts about his oncologist who hated him (but turned out ok) or swallow therapy.  

Don’s not gone.  He’s here among us.  He’s fighting. What tomorrow will bring is tomorrow’s business.  For today I choose to celebrate my friend and to say a prayer and focus love and strength on Kate and Dave and Kathy... And it’s my birthday, I should get at least one special wish.

Using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to Grow Your Small Business

Understanding the options and uses of the various social media channels is a challenge for any small business.  In this area pretty much anyone from my generation (those over 35 to be sure) would strongly agree that younger folks have an advantage.   Those (damn) kids grew up with Facebook so they know how to use it.  For anyone who’s a little older, no matter how long we’ve been on we always feel a little like we’re visitors in a foreign land.  (this is actually good, and I’ll get to why in a minute).  Here’s the thing.  The biggest mistake any small business can make is to ignore this important new channel.

If the bridge to success in new world marketing is connection with customers, social media channels are the elements on which these bridges are built and sustained.  Most of today’s small businesses get this.  The problem is figuring out how to pull the strings to get the results you seek.  Many make the mistake of simply putting up a quasi promotional Facebook fan page and establishing a pithy twitter ID and then wonder why no one cares.  

The biggest thing to understand is that the connection that occurs when social media is used best is not a connection between a customer and a business.  It is a connection between people.  Businesses post quasi advertisements on Twitter all the time promoting specials, new products, etc.  While in very rare cases these announcements may have an impact, in most they won’t and so the business decides that Twitter doesn’t work.  That’s a little like deciding a cordless drill doesn’t work when you try to use it with a dead battery.  You did nothing to ‘charge’ the audience and so the audience doesn’t respond when you attempt to connect.

To build an initial following it is a much better idea to enlist highly connected customers as your allies.  If you are releasing a new product, release it to them first.  Get them to tweet about it if they love it and then re-tweet their love for your product.  These ‘tweets’ (after while you get used to the vocabulary) will inevitably spawn questions from others and the power of your social web increases dramatically if you are vigilant and transparent in responding to those tweets, not as THE COMPANY, but as an individual connected with the company.

Some restaurants are beginning to learn how to use this to their advantage.  Imagine a customer’s surprise and pleasure when after tweeting that they are headed to the restaurant that night for dinner, the restaurant responds and lets them know that their favorite table has been reserved for them.  (and imagine what that says to everyone who follows either the restaurant or the individual).  The same can be managed in a connected world of Facebook where an image of a newly purchased pair of shoes from a local store can be followed up with a comment from the store letting the customer know how much they loved seeing the customer.  

Note that in neither case would I recommend following up the initial comment with a promotional offer of any kind. Doing so is a pretty major violation of the unwritten etiquette of social media.  You are essentially hijacking their comment and that’s a no no.  However, dropping them a note on their thread as any friend might changes the dynamic of your relationship.  You are no longer a faceless business.  You are their friend.  It is on these connections that social media gains its real strength.

In my next post I’ll give you some tips on effective ways to manage all of this (so you have time to actually run your business).

Social Media for Business. Demystifying a Powerful Channel

There are a lot of folks who purport to be experts in new world advertising.  There are few who really are.  The reason for this is simple.  Saying that you’re an expert can get you paid a lot of money by people who are trying to figure it out, and, no one has really ‘figured it out’ yet.

There is no question that for any business the process of getting your message across has become a much more complicated thing than it used to be.  When I first started in marketing, advertising was a pretty simple equation.  We used variables of reach, frequency and CPM to determine whether our message was getting to the people we wanted to hear it and we used tracking variables such as unique phone numbers, promo codes and sales incentives to determine whether the people we wanted to hear the message were moved by the message.  On that basis we could pretty easily determine whether we were making money or losing money on our advertising dollars.

Then came the internet and then came social media.  The internet by itself didn’t change much.  In fact, for savvy users it made things even easier.  I no longer had to rely on consumer behavior to know if my adds were working, I could track clicks.  And then came social media.

Personal recommendation is the true power of social media and engagement is the fuel that drives the bus.  The trick is that in most cases the way engagement is driven must be subtle and active.  Consumers should be invited to participate but they should never feel forced to participate and any sense of manipulation is death.

In order for social media to truly work, companies must establish an online personality and they must interact with consumers in their (this is to say, the consumer's) chosen media.  When a consumer complains about poor service via twitter, respond.  When a consumer posts an image of a favored product on Instagram, respond.  Encourage consumer information sharing and story telling via heavier media such as blogs.  

The real key to engagement is a sense of connection.  Connection is fed by acts of transparency.  Transparency is fueled by authenticity.  Trust is built through consistency.  For these reasons it is just as important for companies to “fess up when they mess up” as it is to celebrate when something is great.  Frankly, it’s MORE important.  What is really interesting about the emerging communications marketplace is that consumers understand that companies are going to mess up.  They’re even willing to forgive when it occurs.  In my experience, companies give consumers too little credit. So it isn’t whether or not you are perfect, it is how you engage when you are not.  I was always fascinated by the fact that I gained far more twitter followers when things weren’t well than I did when things were good.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting a series of social media oriented how to’s designed to help small businesses understand the value, nature, and use of today’s media channels.  Please feel free to ask questions, debate, etc., directly on my blog.  After all, that’s engagement, right?

It's Not About Me. A Note to the Pictage Staff

It is humbling to read so many comments with regard to my departure from Pictage and the differences so many see in the company over the last few years.  To be honest these things aren’t easy for me to read.  I’m my least favorite subject.

Yesterday when I had a chance to address the team at Pictage there were some things I tried to say.  As hard as I tried when it came down to it I couldn’t hold back the emotion and I’m not sure they heard what I wanted them to hear.  

These two thoughts are connected.

It’s not about me.  

When I arrived at Pictage I had a fundamental understanding of business and a love for photography.  I knew nothing about the pro-photo space or what “pictagers” expectations for the company might be.  There were a lot of misconceptions.  These things are normal.

Many people asked me early on how I knew what to do.  My answer was always the same.  It still is.  I didn’t know what to do.  The team at Pictage did.  I listened to them and I listened to our clients and I found that I was hearing the same things.  All I really did was set them free to do what they wanted to do.  

In my first speech as CEO to a bewildered and deeply concerned staff I asked them for two simple things.  I wanted them to be honest with me about the challenges they faced and I wanted them to be willing to work hard to solve the problems we faced.  They didn’t just rise to the challenge, they killed it and in doing so created a groundswell of appreciation between our customers and the team that fostered true community.  There are few things I love more than seeing the personal connections they’ve made and understanding the shared passion to work together to create something great.

In my tenure I was unable to solve all of the problems we had.  Far from it.  To be sure, we changed the perception of the company in the marketplace and in doing so we greatly simplified customer acquisition.  In 2012 over 95% of new customer signups are referrals from existing customers. We have no overt marketing activities.  The service either works or it doesn’t.  When it doesn’t, no harm, no foul.  We move on.  But the fundamental challenge created by industry change remains.

Many people who have commented on the blog, on the Pictage Forums and in so many touching and heartfelt personal messages have expressed the same sentiment.  “Will the new guy keep it the same?”  Frankly, I hope not.  I think he’s smarter than me.  I think he’ll figure things out that I couldn’t.  I think he’ll make changes that will make the company even more successful and in doing so, bring even better services to our clients and to their clients as well.  I’m going to be doing my best to help him.

But as smart as he is, we won’t succeed on our own.  True success will simply build on the patterns of the past.  The people who will drive it are the people who DID it when I was the head cheesebag in charge.  (the title that most Pictage staff know is truly mine).  After working alongside of them for the last three years my faith and confidence in them is immeasurable.

It’s not about me.  It’s about them.  It’s about the unique relationships they share with each other and about the unique connection they (we) feel with our customers.  It’s about listening and studying and being willing to risk and change.  It’s about being open to being wrong and being willing to fix it when this is the case.  It’s also about standing up when you’re right and having the courage to say so.  They have all of that.  They had it when I arrived.  They have it as I leave.  I may have fed it but I didn’t create it.  All of that is on them.  They’re still there.  I’m hanging around to help them and to continue to be inspired by them.

That’s what I was trying to say yesterday.  Maybe it’s better to have said it this way.

Onward,

JC

All Good Things ...

Change happens.  It's kind of a theme of mine.  Many of you have heard me say it.  Still waters are dead waters.  That really applies to everything.  If the granite face of Half Dome is changing every day why wouldn't everything else also be changing?

The news is true.  As of the end of this month, I will no longer be the CEO of Pictage.  That doesn't mean though that I won't be involved with the company.  In fact, I'll be very involved.  The investors who have stepped up to take a controlling position in the company have asked me to take an active role as Chairman of the Board and to maintain my less formal role as spokesperson.  I'll be speaking at the uberpug in Nashville next week, at the PUG in Maine the day after Labor Day and at the New York City PUG during the second week in January.  I'll also be continuing to interact with Pictage's amazing customers on the Pictage Forums.

I've loved the time I've spent with you all.  I can truly say that as an industry you're an amazing and inspiring group of stunningly talented souls.  The photography marketplace has great character (and great characters).  While I had my hands on the reigns I did my best to move Pictage into a place where it could serve the industry as it changed.  We succeeded in some places, we failed in others.  That's how life is.  I'm immensely proud of what the staff accomplished during these three short years, for themselves and for the legacy of the company started so many years ago.

This blog existed before Pictage and it will exist after.  While many of the posts here have been directed at the photography marketplace specifically (for obvious reasons) the undercurrent really works for all small businesses and helping small businesses succeed has been my real passion for many years.

I always say what's next is what's important.  I really mean that.  I don't know what's next for me yet.  At least through the end of the year I'll be pretty busy around here.  When I know I'll probably say something about it here.  Both of my readers will be relieved.

I'm still just me.

Onward.

JC