I spent the night last night at the men's homeless shelter here in Corvallis. Had a good time chatting with the guys and overall the night was pretty uneventful. Probably 30 plus guys at the shelter on a pretty regular basis. I hate to say it, but last night felt like a bit of a token volunteer effort. I get to go back to my comfortable warm house, and probably won't get time to stay at the shelter again for weeks or maybe even til next winter.

Prior to last night, I rarely paused to think about the homeless or poor people in our community, subconsciously marginalizing them and their situation, judging homelessness as simply a product of bad decisions. Sure, I care and give to causes and organizations in town, but how often do we actually connect with other people's plight and consider them as we consider ourselves? After getting a chance to hang out with them a bit, I realized the real lack of distance between their life and mine. Most of us are only a few bad decisions, an illness, or a job loss away from many of these guys' reality.

A song this morning stirred me, so I googled the lyrics for you to read. It's called Give me Your Eyes, by Brandon Heath. As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in an ergonomic chair with clean clothes, a breve at my right, my blackberry at my left, food in my stomach and a mortgage that is paid on time. At the very least, let's be grateful for what we have today, and have open eyes to others that are in a tough spot. Here's the song.

Look down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touch down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me you heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what's underneath
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work,
He's buying time

I’ve been here a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just move and pass me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
I need a second glance
Give me a second chance
To see the way you’ve seen the people all along

A Passenger van could make the difference

I joined the current Leadership Corvallis class more out of peer pressure than anything. Several good friends of mine were signed up, so I signed up. I'm not going to lie, it began as kind of a "me too" thing.

Leadership Corvallis has turned out to be one of the most enriching programs I've ever participated in. A great concept that has, and I think will continue to develop passionate leaders for Corvallis.

One key element of the class is the service project. At our first or second day-long class, we saw 5 or 6 project presentations from area non-profits. Then, we each picked our top 3 and later were grouped into teams for each project. My number one pick was Parent Enhancement Program. They wanted us to raise money to purchase them a passenger van. I figured this would be a good challenge. It definitely has proved to be. Thankfully, it was the only fundraising project for the 2009 class.

In our initial meeting that day, we learned more about what this van would mean to the community. Parent Enhancement Program overwhelmingly serves young, poverty level mothers and their young children. They provide nutrition and parenting classes, help these young women get their GED's and give them rides to critical destinations such as doctor's appointments, school functions, the library, and the grocery store. I'm of course abbreviating, but we got the gist of the organization and it's mission.

Our group has since connected with the project on a much deeper level. What we realized, is that this passenger van can mean some normalcy for the children in these mostly single-parent homes. Without a special mode of transportation, many of these kids would not go to their school events, get to doctors appointments, or visit the library to check out books. Most of us have never experienced a world where mom simply has no way of getting the kids to the library.

We started the project with a plan of pre-selling advertising on the van. Simply get 12 or 15 businesses to give us $1000 for us to put their logo on the van. Then get a graphics/vinyl company to donate a vehicle wrap. Pretty easy, right. Well, given the economy, we've shifted gears a bit and implemented more of a community plan. We figure, if we can get 300 people in Benton County to give $50 each, there's $15K for a van. Throw in some grant money, and we've got a van with a maintenance fund.

The response has been fantastic thus far. We've had several $100 donations, a $400 donation from New Business Generation in Albany, and dozens of $50 donors. We've got over $2500 raised so far. This project will happen. We just need some more people to partner on it.
Our "money in" date is May 1st. The van will be purchased during the week of May 18th.

Please consider how you can participate. All contributions are tax deductible. Please make checks out to Parent Enhancement Program. Checks can be dropped off at Chris Nordyke State Farm by Albertsons, or Downtown Citizen's Bank.

Ignite Corvallis- Powerpoint doesn't have to be lame.

Last fall, Jason Prothero of Proworks Corp, emailed me and asked if I wanted to be involved in the upcoming Corvallis Ignite. Not knowing much about the whole Ignite concept, I googled it and found a bunch of Youtube videos from the Portland event.

I perused the videos, and frankly was a bit intimidated. Many of the presentations were hilarious and had the audience roaring. I wasn't sure if I could pull something like that together at all, much less with all the other things I was busy with running a new start-up. I already told Jason yes though, so I was committed. I would look pretty lame if I backed out now.

First bit of advice- start mulling over your slide deck as soon as possible. Don't wait until a few days before the event. It is much more challenging than I thought, to put together a compelling/funny/persuasive deck of slides, when you've got exactly 20 to work with and they're auto-advancing every 15 seconds. So take your time, review it with friends or your spouse, and you're guaranteed to change it up at least 10 times before the event.

There were a ton of people at the event, and yet there was a great (dare I say) forgiving tone to the room. Everybody was excited, and in a way, living vicarously through the presenters. They're less spectators, and more participants. But it is a spectacle none the less. I was scheduled right in the middle of the roster. Fortunately, before my turn, there were several funny presentations to loosen up the room and also calm the nerves in the dugout.

I think my presentation went o.k. It was a bit dry, I wandered off script a bit, and got lost in some "uhs, ahs, and umms". Overall I'd give myself a B-. The cool part about it, was it really didn't matter how I did. People remembered the ones they loved, and the other ones just sort of faded into the background. It was a great platform to practice a skill that has enormous value to any artist, entrepreneur or technologist.

For those of you waffling a bit- Just go for it. Ignite is not only a great way to meet new people, but a safe venue to stick your neck out a bit and have fun trying something new.

I plan on presenting again, if the organizing group will have me. Maybe not this next one, but definitely in the future. I think I'll probably title my next presentation "Why Guy Kawasaki Rules", or maybe "How Local Biz Can Twitter their way to a Profit".

See you at the next Corvallis Ignite.

Everyone loves free coffee

Today I'm hosting my third school appreciation day out at Jamocha Joe's cafe in Adair Village. Each month during the school year, we host all the staff of a Corvallis area school. Any 16oz drink is free of charge from 6 to 8am.
I'm surprised this hasn't been done before here. This has been a fun way to spend marketing dollars. Not only is it a great way to thank existing clients, but a nice way to get our name in front of people, and help a locally owned coffee shop in a down economy.
I've already got schools booked for March and April. If you'd like me to host your school of choice, just let me know and we'll get it on the calendar.
If you have any other creative marketing ideas that would not only help us connect with new clients, but serve the community or a local business, please leave a comment. We're always looking for high-touch, connective ways to build our agency.



www.MyCorvallisInsurance.com


This message composed via Blackberry handheld. Please excuse poor formatting and/or spelling errors.

Learning from the Lost Customer

I'm pretty proud of the fact that we rarely lose clients. Sure, we have a percentage of clients who are purely driven by price, and they bounce around from time to time. For the most part though, we intensely care about the relationship we have with clients and we try to be creative and intentional about the service we provide. Recently however, I lost a client because they were disappointed in the experience they had with me. I thought it might be constructive to journal the experience, as it might give pause to other business owners and be an opportunity for us all to reflect. From time to time, all of us will screw up, but how can we gain something from such a downer as losing a client?
In this particular situation, I was really fortunate to get very detailed, candid feedback as to why they were leaving me. I had to beg for it, but they eventually sent me a lengthy email detailing their dissatisfaction. Here's a sanitized excerpt from the email (so as to protect the identities of the innocent:) This makes for a long blog post, but hopefully you can learn with me from the situation.
"Per your request, here is some detailed feedback. Note that I have no real reason to spend the time doing this, other than that I have managed people for the last 14 years and know how hard it is to get (or give) honest feedback. Maybe you will return the favor to someone else someday. Note also that I did not share any of this with [other agent].

We select the people we choose to do business with, not the other way around. We have longstanding relationships (>10 years) with our dentist, eye doctor, doctor, dental hygienist, hair stylist, etc. In contrast, you were picked for us, replacing someone who we knew well and were quite pleased with.

A big negative for me during our meeting was when you volunteered that you started the cartridge refill store in Corvallis. As you knew, my [spouse] and I are long time HP employees. We both work very hard to make HP as successful as possible. Our livelihood depends on HP doing well. HP drives much of the economy in Corvallis. Refilling businesses like this one negatively impact our company and our compensation. I would suggest you not volunteer this to your customers from HP. Note that [other agent's] office was full of HP equipment and [his/her] former employer was [high-end service oriented retailer] - a much better fit for us.

My son appreciated many aspects of his "New Driver" talk, but was quite surprised (as was I) that you volunteered how many bad things you personally did as a teen in Corvallis. He thought it was weird and hypocritical that his insurance agent did things he wouldn't even dream of doing. I would suggest that you tell stories about what your "friends" did, not you. You need to preserve your credibility as an adult and as an insurance agent.

I know you are supposed to try to sell financial products, but you should have assumed based on our professions that we were already well set in this area and didn't need anything from State Farm. You should have either dropped this very quickly, or not even brought it up. You should not have asked me to refer people to you who might be interested in financial products. I had absolutely no reason or motivation to do this.

The above left me with the impression that you weren't very mature and didn't have the best of judgment. These are 2 personality traits we value in our insurance agent. We are more comfortable choosing to do business with [other agent] and hope [he/she] is our agent for many years to come. Nonetheless, I hope you find this feedback helpful towards building a successful business in Corvallis.
Not sure how it reads to the detached third-party reader, but it hit me like a punch in the gut. One of those moments where you're overcome with embarrassment, then a bit of defensiveness, disappointment, and finally clarity. A bit of context for the above comments:
Regarding us being forced on them- this is true. We inherited their business from the outgoing agent. I understand this comment/criticism. Frankly, I feel like every day we interact with our clients, we have to earn their business. At the end of the day, they get to decide where to spend their money.
The angst over me disclosing having started the cartridge refilling store (Rapid Refill Ink) I get as well. I could have been more diplomatic, and completely omitted that business from my personal introduction. On the other hand, having run other businesses in the past, it's part of my story and body of knowledge and experience. I suppose the takeaway from this is, the first impression is a delicate moment. Better to proceed carefully and thoughtfully and over time become more vulnerable and candid.
The "New Driver" talk. This was a good gut-check as well. Helpful to put it in context though. I do a new driver talk with all of my young clients that are just getting their driver's licenses. Generally mom or dad come in with them, but the conversation is between me and the new driver. I present them with important things to consider regarding safety, how tickets or accidents affect their rates, and other critical topics around this new responsibility they're taking on.
I've done a handful of these talks, and I try to at least mention a couple stories of my own driving experiences or failings as a young driver. I am careful not to glorify my past foolishness, but rather present it in a regretful tone, highlighting the consequences I experienced and how the outcomes could have been much more tragic. My intent with including my stories into the new driver talk, was to engage them with real examples and help them make a connection between my actions and the very real consequences that followed.
However, after mulling over the clients feedback, I've come to a couple conclusions. First, my approach could be an effective and powerful one for some teens.(And I believe it has been for many I've talked with) Unfortunately, I think it's possible it might actually may be a stumbling block for some, maybe even making the teen more brazen like "my agent did stupid stuff when he was young, and it eventually worked out alright. Driving isn't really that serious of a deal. I'm not going to kill anyone". This is obviously the last impression, or takeaway I want to give my young clients. Secondly, being a younger agent, there's really not enough separation between myself and my young drivers. If I were a 50 yr old agent, this approach would probably be an okay one, given the expanse of time between my youthful folly and my current behavior and position. So, a good lesson learned. Time to re-tool the new driver talk.
Now, on the sales comment. This comment from the client kind of threw me a bit. I don't even recall the context. One thing that I can't help but zero in on, is this comment [he/she] made:
"you should have assumed based on our professions that we were already well set in this area and didn't need anything from [large national insurance company]"
This to me, is an unfair judgment. I'm of the thinking that as a licensed professional, it's critical I make no assumptions as to my clients level of savvy and planning. Doing so can (and has before) ended badly. The reality is, I've got many clients with PhD's and MBA's that rely on our judgment and expertise to help them make good decisions as it relates to our industry and products.
I do however, have a good takeaway from this feedback, and it centers around expectations. Without unpacking our philosophy a bit, our questions may seem outside the scope of service they expected. Most people are not accustomed to their insurance agency taking the kind of wholistic approach we try to take.
Now however, when we bring on a new client, we let them know how we approach our role as their agent, and what they can expect from us. Hopefully this will help us avoid people getting the wrong impression.
Finally (You can all breath a sigh of relief), the client's summary about my maturity and judgment- I think they assumed a lot from one 45 minute interaction from me. I'll let the verdict sit with those that know me best, and suffice it to say, all of us have room for growth and personal development, no matter where we are at in our career and achievement.
So, a bit long, but hopefully constructive for those who decided to read it. The moral of the story is that greater self-awareness is essential for a successful entrepreneur, and it only comes from reflection and periodic bits of candid feedback.