Read Chris

"Delighted to help you Mr. Nordyke"

2011-08-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

My family and I stayed at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane this weekend. It is an amazing hotel. They have two locations- one that is around 100 years old, and a new sister property a couple blocks over that is 5 or so years old. We stayed in the newer "Tower".

So many things were excellent about the experience. One thing in particular stands out to me after leaving- their phone etiquette.

I really haven't given this much thought previously. My knee jerk reaction to over-the-phone wordtracks such as "how can I provide you remarkable service today?" or "Great morning, this is the _________ office, how can I help you?" has been to throw up a little bit in my mouth. Often, the wordtrack comes from a tired individual that is obviously regurgitating a mandated script or phrase.

However, this weekend, I heard it done well. And it was charming. Every time. It made me feel special and thats a feeling I want to replicate for my clients.

Here's a couple of the lines I remember most:

Me: "Can you transfer me to the Concierge please?"
Nice sounding energetic woman: "I'd be delighted to transfer you. Just a moment please. Have a wonderful evening."

Delighted. I love that. And she/he said it every time. It never lost its charm.

Here's another:
Me: (Dials zero and calls front desk)
Operator: "Front desk this is Susan, how can I serve the Nordyke suite this evening?"

A personal greeting is never old, despite the fact we all know it's powered by simple caller id. Of course both of these lines hinge on the delivery/tone, and the Davenport staff had it down pat.

Could your business benefit from adding a little charm and customer pampering with your phone interactions? I think mine can- I'll be brainstorming with the team this week.

If you use a simple phone script/phrase with your clients that delights them, please share via a comment below.

An Itinerary Written in Pencil

2011-08-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

There's 6'7" Todd on the right.

Recently I was asked to come speak on social media and grassroots-style marketing to a group of insurance agents in Spokane, Washington. Cara and I decided to turn it into a working vacation-I'd speak Friday morning from 9-1030 and then we'd use the rest of the weekend for some family time.

After the meeting we headed down to Riverfront Park and let the kids play in the fountain there. We grabbed a park bench and kicked back to watch the kids. A bit later a tall white guy with a long pony tail and large backpack sat down on the bench next to us. He was clean and dressed like he shopped exclusively at REI. After a few minutes I asked, "So, you trekking across the US on foot?"

Turns out he's a professional photographer, named Todd Erickson, that had thumbed rides all the way from Snoqualmie Pass where he lives. He had three photo shoots lined up and was just relaxing a bit in the park before his first appointment. Turns out in that expedition pack of his he had three lights and a bunch of other camera gear.

This trip wasn't a random experience for him. He's managed to get to age 41 without ever owning a car. He hand built his home in the pass over several years and functions entirely off the grid, relying on his iPhone for all Internet and phone communications. During the winter, he often has to ski 3 or 4 miles just to get to a road where he can put his thumb out to get further. Oh, and when he gets back from this working weekend, he's putting in a hydro electric system on a waterfall that's near his home. Quite the interesting guy. And because his home is paid off and he has no debt, sometimes he'll charge $1000 for a portrait shoot, and other times he'll do them for free if he likes the subject.

Before we parted ways, Todd suggested if we have time the next day, give him a call and we could shoot some family pictures in between his scheduled shoots. We got his card and planned on taking him up on it.

Later in the evening we exchanged some text messages to plan a shoot for the next day. The charge would be $100 and include all our edited images. Pretty reasonable we figured.

The next day we met him in the park and had a rad time. The guy is a genius with kids- they had a great time and we came away with some fun family shots too. He made the whole experience so relaxing and fun. I actually think we may try to connect with Todd again in the future.

Crazy to think such a cool experience happened without any planning at all. When have you scrapped your agenda to make a memory on a vacation?

On the Defense

2011-08-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

I'm defensive. Of course no one likes to admit that. My wife Cara and I have been talking a lot about this over the last 6 months or so, and after much self-reflection, I'm coming to realize just how ingrained it is in my gut-level responses.

Here's an example: we just came back from a 10 day road trip to Palm Springs, a family favorite haunt each summer. We had some food left over from the trip and I packed it in the cooler and placed it in the back of the swagger wagon.

At one of our stops, Cara asked where the food was, and then once I informed her it was in the far back, she asked "why didn't you put it in the empty captain's chair up closer?"

At a later stop, I rearranged things and did just that. Then a couple hours later we made another pee stop. Now with the cooler on the seat, the kids had trouble getting out of the van, to which Cara commented, "now the kids can't get out of the van without climbing over stuff."

Without skipping a beat, I responded "Babe, need I remind you that you were the one that asked me to move it there at our last stop?"

Yikes. Seems awful juvenile when you recount the situation out loud.

It's not just me. (Ha. Notice the defensive posture? Caught this after I'd already published the post) The more I reflect on this response in myself, the more I notice it in my dealings with others.

We love the idea of handling criticism well and talk affectionately about how valuable it is. Why then is our knee jerk reaction to defend and point the attention away from ourselves? Even in situations like the one above, we can't help but reassign blame.

There is something innate in us that seeks validation- to know that "I'm okay", so criticism or accusation results in an almost involuntary response of finger-pointing, explaining, dismissing or even anger. We cannot stand the feeling of being considered foolish or inadequate and the safest way to avoid that feeling is to strike back. Even "little stuff" can spark this response.

The more I dig in to this, the more aware I'm becoming of this in the moment. I'm finding if I'm conscious of it, I can sometimes catch myself before I react- whether it's with an employee, colleague or my wife Cara, half the battle is taking the time for the self-reflection.

Have any of you noticed this going on in your own heart? Have you had success in changing this gut-response? If so, how's it benefited your relationships or your leadership in your business or community?

The Death of a Salesman

2011-05-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

I hate salespeople.

If you are one, that probably caused some sort of visceral response. I don't really hate sales people, I am one, but I've been known to say that on more than one occasion.

I don't like feeling conspired against and I'm pretty sure you don't either. Unfortunately, that is the basis of most sales training that is out there. Courses on creating interest, answering objections before they come up, how to use a "trial close" to test their level of interest, and of course, the old boiler room mantra "Remember your ABC's- Always be Closing"- ya, I love that one the best. It's no surprise most of us hate sales people.

I'm right in the middle of Guy Kawasaki's new book "Enchantment". In the first chapter, Guy talks about the importance of disclosing your motivation and how it sets people at ease. I've found this to be true over and over again.

Occasionally when I have a newer client in my office for a review, they'll joke at the beginning "So, what do you want to sell us?" I could falsely tell them I'm not trying to sell them anything, that they are only here for a cursory review of their coverages, or I can simply be honest. "My goal is to sell you everything you need and nothing more" is the response I've more or less settled on. This of course means that some appointments, we end up canceling coverage that is no longer needed, or lowering coverage to a more appropriate level. Imagine that, leaving an insurance agent's office actually spending less money?!

I think we're moving into an era of transparency, and I'm excited about it. People are so bowled over by the glut of sales pitches they get throughout the day, I think folks are finding frankness and candor a refreshing change, and one they are drawn to.

Are we witnessing the death of the Salesman?

Lemon Bars and "Business Prototyping"

2011-04-25T11:41:00.000-07:00

Had a team member quit rather unexpectedly Friday morning-moving back to Portland. It came like a gut punch, but after a weekend of reflection, it's an awesome time to circle the wagons and draw in the dirt. I'm taking this opportunity to rethink everything we're doing. I'm taking myself through a process I'm calling "business prototyping"- rethinking my agency from the consumer's perspective. I buy things too you know. What would I want/expect from an insurance agent/agency?

What is the most ideal way to set things up? What does that service experience look like and feel like? How many people(employees) do I need to create that experience? What is the perfect way for a local insurance agency to operate, market themselves and engage with customers? What kind of sales process is both helpful to clients, and feels thoughtful and value-added? After the prototype is on paper, then we'll apply budget constraints, regulations, and any other absolutes, but I plan on camping here in the prototype phase for the next few days. No need to immediately recruit to feed our original model. Maybe a great chance to shift gears.

Over thinking it? I don't think so. We've been fortunate to have a lot of success up to this point without this kind of brainstorming and reflection. That's mostly due to our earnest and values though. I'm learning that that's not enough based on what we're trying to do and be for our clients.

I'm making an awesome batch of lemon bars out of the lemons from Friday morning.

Insurance ≠ Cool and other marketing problems

2011-04-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I had a conversation with a friend of mine that reminded me of a long term problem I've been contending with as the owner of an insurance agency- No one cares about insurance. Oh, sure, a few of you will say you do. The reality is though, with evermore interesting things to read and watch, insurance has fallen lower and lower on the list of preferred subject matter.

This is somewhat of a marketing and advertising challenge for me. Especially with regard to new media. What exactly do you put on a Facebook fan page for an insurance agency? If people don't care about insurance, why would they want to "Like" an agency fan page?

Despite my best attempts at generating interest, I don't anticipate insurance is ever going to be a hot topic on the social networks. So with that in mind, what do we do to engage clients? One approach we've taken is case studies. Shining a spotlight on real life families and their financial situations. We've removed all sales-e-ness, and I just report on the situations we come across in our office. It allows people to observe these financial topics as spectators. They then get to respond in two ways- "glad I've got that covered- wouldn't want that guy's life" or "hmmm. Probably should look into that myself".

Another approach we've taken is simply to get off the topic altogether. For us, one competitive advantage we have is how we make people feel. So we put photos of community events we do, photos of clients, we link to clients' websites and talk about stuff we're sponsoring in our community.

I rarely get a new client or a call from an existing client off our of "insurance" postings. However, common feedback from new clients is, "if we've got to pay for insurance, we'd prefer to pay you and have our stuff with you."

My advice if you've got a "non-sexy" product or service, focus more on the relationship and less on the product. I'll mod a phrase form Teddy Roosevelt- "They don't care much about your product, until they know how much you care."

Data-mining the Solution for Newspapers?

2011-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

My friend John Bergquist shot me this link and it got the wheels turning. Please add your thoughts and comments at the end:

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2011/04/who-needs-newspapers-one-couples-answer.html

I read this kind of article and see so much opportunity to offer product or service solutions to these "this is the way we've always done it" companies. All it takes is one executive that wants to be a hero for "saving the company" and all of a sudden there's budget for some wild and crazy solutions (That just might actually work).

We've seen this in the social media space- there's local consultants all over the country making a living on business owners that have finally relented and said "we probably oughta start doing this social media thing"...and then they throw money at it. The newspapers are clearly feeling the need to do "something"- that screams opportunity for those that think they have a solution, no?

When I mull over the newspapers problem, it seems to all come down to data...they have a hard time delivering value, because every reader is looking for a different reading experience so they flee to a variety of sources to sort of Jerry-rig their news consumption. What if there was a way the papers could start gathering and leveraging reader data, similar to how Facebook has...

From what I can tell, the user experience on newspaper sites is pretty static, you can search through different topics and sections, but ultimately, the user has to kind of bounce around and find what's interesting to them.

Is it possible for these sites to start tracking UI data, like cursor behavior, time on page, topic choice, time per article, etc and also aggregating that data with ad clicking behavior...Maybe this is already happening, but it doesn't seem that sites have adopted ad programming that is customized to the reader behavior/preferences...

For example, if over the course of 10 days to 2 weeks, I've spent a majority of my time reading about national politics, gardening and photography, it seems like with just that data, you could compare that to other demographic data and research to make some assumptions about the reader and other interests/needs they might have. With that info, you can not only play the "curator" role as far as the reading experience they get when they log in, but also more perfectly match them with advertisers. Currently what I see on my local paper and other sites, is just syndicated ads popping up based on keywords in the articles, nothing based on the fact that for the last 4 months on mondays, I've logged in to view the "business section" and "movers and shakers" only.

Is this space too heavy with ultra high-end algorithm magic, or can techie newcomers with database savvy start to offer these solutions?

Look at the insurance agent getting all geeked out again...

The Perfect Poached Egg

2011-03-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

The following vid is a bit long, and poor videography. However, I think you'll enjoy the experience vicariously. When was the last time a chef agreed to give you a cooking lesson after your meal? Great example for the rest of us business leaders moving into this ubiquitous social-sharing age...

"What brought you to the show today?" and other missed opportunities

2011-03-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

Cara and I took the kids to a home and garden- type expo thing today at the State Fairgrounds. We've always got some project either on our minds or in the works at our house. Right now we're in the doldrums of a landscaping project and thought we might get some good inspiration at the show.

I would guess there was maybe 100 vendors at the event. Everything from trex decking folks and gutter companies to cookware and household cleaner hawkers. I have no idea how much they paid to be there, but the man hours alone to get the booths set up and occupied isn't cheap.

As I was walking into the show, I was very curious from a marketers perspective. The nice thing about a "home and garden" show, is you know that just about everyone who attends is a potential prospect. When you have a booth at the State Fair, that isn't necessarily the case- there's a lot of people just wandering and killing time. But at this kind of more niche event, people show up for a reason, right? In fact, people even paid $4 at the door to get in.

As a marketer, if you're one that sells something in this space, this type of show seems like a great opportunity to meet people, start a relationship, build value, maybe even book some appointments to bid some work or go over a product catalog.

Unfortunately, the usual rules applied at this show, much like others I've attended or been a participant in. Here they are based on observation:

1. Be sure to keep your smart phone on you and reply to text and phone calls immediately.
2. Taking a lunch break away from the exhibition floor is a no-no- better to eat your food in front of passersby at your booth.
3.Don't stand up- sitting is less threatening to people that are "just looking".
4.Don't try to sell anything. You are just here for "top of mind awareness" purposes.

Alright, so you get my sarcasm. Why pay for a booth if you're not going to try and engage people. Especially when you know they are there for a purpose.

As we were leaving the show, it occurred to me, no one asked "what brought you to the show today?". A perfect conversation starter if I do say so myself. Sure, it might not be the Purple Power cleaner you're selling, but if you're the landscape architect, you just might get a response that leads to a new client conversation.

Earnest Get's You Halfway

2011-03-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

This month it will be 3 years since I started my insurance agency. It was about this time then, that I was recruiting my staff, negotiating the lease, and getting the place painted.

It's fun to reflect on how far we've come. We've had a bit of turnover as we've figured things out. Ervin is my last man standing from back then. I initially hired him as my executive assistant and he is now one of my licensed insurance specialists. I remember asking him in his interview if he'd be offended by a request to pick up my dry cleaning or change the burnt out headlight on my car. Ha. He's come a long way.

I've had a lot of good breaks and been given many benefit's of the doubt over the last three years, but I'd attribute a fair amount of our success up to this point to earnestness. What is earnestness?

I like TheFreeDictionary.com's definition: the trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose; "a man of energy and commitment"

I appreciate earnestness as a businessman and look for it when I recruit. To me, it’s a combination of a “whatever it takes” mentality with a high regard for relationship and “doing the right thing”. This “trait” will carry a person a long way. But on it’s own, has it’s limits.

We ran full speed our first year, and relaxed only slightly the second. This last year has been a strong one, but also full of reflection and change. It’s become painfully clear, that for our business to go to the proverbial next level, I have to get beyond earnestness, and develop systems, disciplines, and culture in our business.

I’m going to review 3 things I’m currently implementing in our business. I’ll reveal one in this post and the other two in a followup. Please leave your feedback, comments and ideas.

#1 Clearly defining 4 “results” goals and attaching to them 4 “activity” goals

What are we trying to accomplish, specifically, and what specifically do we need to be doing daily to get there?
This is making “holding people accountable” much more natural
It’s also giving our team much more clarity of focus

In past years, I’ve been all over the map. I’d get back from a customer service conference, and I’d create some new service initiative for us to focus on. Then I’d come back from another long term care insurance class and we’d be all gung ho about that. This year, we’re focusing on 4 mission critical objectives for our business. Every team meeting we’re reviewing those goals, and comparing our week to week results against them.

Amazingly, and it seems almost elementary when you reflect on it, we’ve been failing to make the connection between our “activity goals” and our results for the week. We get to the end of a busy week that either did or did not get the results we wanted, and somehow we weren’t focusing a sharp eye on how our activities might have been the culprit.

We instead devolved into pointing at what “fell through” or what “didn’t materialize” or which clients we couldn’t get a hold of to wrap things up or how “busy” we were with things. The real problem in many cases, was our four mission critical activities lagged, and thus so did our results. So this Friday we begin making that connection, and adjusting our activities to get the results we need and want.

Seems simple, but in the fast and furious life of an earnest young business, these principles get overlooked and instead, we just “work harder next week”.

Next post I'll be talking about "Creating Opportunities to Model Culture". By the way, I just added a "subscribe via email" widget to the upper right hand corner of my blog. A lot of people like to follow blogs that way. Basically put in your email and any time I post it pops right into your email immediately.

Cheers, Chris

A Culture of Criticism

2011-03-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've found myself giving and asking for criticism. A lot. I am so hungry to know what people think about their experience with my business. It's not enough to hear "you guys are great" or "I like Ervin".

What is it that is not being said- that's what I really need to hear. I really want to know how I can get better, but unless I hear it from you, I risk spending time, effort and money fixing or improving things that are currently unnoticed, or unimportant to my actual clients and future clients.

What is that one piece of feedback, that you're almost embarrassed to give me, because you think it might come across as nit-picky or petty? I want to hear that.

Or how bout that "feeling" that you got when I shifted gears and started talking about that sales promotion. You were confident I had good intentions, but it felt salesy and awkward. Ya, I want to know about that too.

Or maybe you heard someone else talking about my business and knew that if you were me, you'd love to know what they were saying. You're right, I'd really like to know.

I wrote recently about holding a "post-mortem" for small businesses. A chance to learn from eachother's failures. A bunch of the feedback I got on that pointed toward's people's desire to see struggling businesses get help before they went under. I feel that.

I want to be apart of, and perpetuate a culture of criticism amongst business owners. The business owners I like the most, ought to be the ones I share criticism with most freely. I want them to "survive and thrive." Frankly even if I don't like a certain business or product, if they adopt this cultural perspective, I want them to succeed too.

Of course, encouragement, affirmation and general positivity is also beneficial to all, but rarely does growth and positive change come from it.

I was so pumped this evening to get a response from a business owner I recently bought something from, after sending them some feedback. They appreciated it! The best part though- they included in their response some criticism for my business (they are also a new customer) and it was spot on. Great, actionable feedback. Something I just hadn't been paying attention to. Love it.

The Bible refers to this as "iron sharpening iron". I like that. Sparks fly. Sharp knives cut better.

If you're a business owner, or frankly anyone who has any kind of "ownership" role, please consider joining me in this fresh new culture of criticism.

Apple Romance

2011-03-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

The iPad 2 was announced today, and once again, I am smitten. So funny to read all the blogs though and see the Apple "haters" talking about how lame an announcement it was and how much better the Motorola Xoom is. Of course they are in the small minority and this iPad will sell even better than the wildly successful 1st iPad.

Those haters think we're all a bunch of fashionable lemmings, but I think it's something much more powerful than that. I think it's possible that Steve Jobs is one of the greatest marketers of all time.

Here's the thing- no matter how incredible the marketing, a crappy product won't succeed. Conversely, an awesome product poorly marketed is doomed to failure as well. Jobs understands marketing and has mastered both sides of the equation.

As consumers we want something that works. Every time. If it does what we bought it for every time, we are happy. If it does what we bought it for every time and it does a bunch of other cool stuff, then we are really happy. If it just plain works, does cool stuff AND is sexier than every other thing of it's type, then we're in love. And that's the Apple that Job's created. Some people just don't understand love and how it motivates people. Thus the haters.

Job's marketing genius has been rewarded with the adoration of marketers everywhere, thus resulting in some of the most wide-spread, free press adulation any company or product has ever seen before. People love to back a winner, especially when the winner is reliable, cool and sexy.

Can other computer companies pull off reliable? Sure. I can think of a few that do. Can other's pull off cool? Absolutely. Reliable, cool, and sexy? Not yet, and the outlook isn't good.

As a business owner, entrepreneur and marketer, there's a lot I can learn from Jobs. It might be a while before I figure out a way to make insurance sexy, but I'm nevertheless inspired.

A miserable and glorious trip- learning from the mountain.

2011-02-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a snowshoeing trip in the Oregon cascades. I left warm, slightly out of shape, pale-faced, and a bit burnt out. I returned with a few lessons learned and some fresh resolve.

This was our second annual trip. Last year a friend at church mentioned the trip and I quickly invited myself. We hiked in about 6 miles from the Cascades Highway, and camped at the southwest base of Broken Top mountain. I was hooked. Funny thing is, it was probably one of the most physically taxing things I've ever done, but somehow after the whole ordeal, that part was quickly forgotten.

This year I blew a ton of dough on good gear. I was freezing last year for much of the trip and this time around I was determined to have two things- warm gear and a cool knife. The cool knife part is purely machismo, but the warm gear part I was convinced would make the trip more pleasurable. Both were clearly important though. So I acquired a Fallkniven F1 with some birthday money, an insulated jacket, and some merino wool underlayers. I was set.

Much like our '10 trip, about 40 yards into towing my gear pulk down the common corridor at Bachelor, I thought, "this is going to be a terrible slog"-my thighs were burning within minutes and my boots were already causing a bad pressure point on the top of my foot. However, my chagrin was overcome by my pride- I had to "man up", I was with a manly group. We were comprised of an Army ranger/sniper, an avalanche certified outdoorsman, an ER doctor, a wildlife biologist and a couple of chaplains. I had to limit my whining and moaning. Limit is the operative word.

Halfway to camp, I was hearing the words of family and friends, "now why are you doing this again? Why would you want to hang out in the snow and cold without a toilet for days?" I actually didn't have an answer at that point, I couldn't remember the good stuff. I knew however, that I couldn't quit. The epic embarrassment of turning back just wasn't an option. Even asking the other guys to stop and rest on my account wasn't something my ego could handle.

As we neared the end of our slog, the guys breaking trail (there was 3+ feet of powder past the wilderness boundary) decided to pursue a new camp destination. They headed right off trail uphill to the top of the ridge. A good 100 yards uphill. Man did I ever complain. What the heck were they thinking? Last year's camp was perfectly fine, and only a quarter mile down the trail. I was carefully choosing the words of my rebuke as we trudged up the slow. Low and behold, we broke out onto the ridge and I was met with a beautiful snow field offering views of Broken Top and Bachelor. I held my tongue and just soaked up the beautiful landscape. The last 6 miles were quickly forgotten.

Later that first night, I lay in bed shivering in my 10 degree sleeping bag. It had been snowing all day and all evening, and now the wind was blowing. I finally made it to sleep, but awoke in the middle of the night shivering wildly. My breathing was fast and shallow and I couldn't control the shaking- I was panicking, thinking I was becoming hypothermic. I nudged my tent mate, the ER doc and told him what was going on. My other friend next to us must have heard me and called out "Go take a leak!"

It turns out that when it's very cold outside, it's really important to go to bed with an empty bladder. Your body kicks into overdrive to regulate the pee temperature apparently and that's what I was experiencing. Sure enough, shook my way out of the tent and into the powder, relieved myself, and quickly felt fine, albeit cold.

The next day was almost equally uncomfortable. I couldn't get warm. Here I'd spent hundreds of dollars on wool, fleece, a windproof shell and an insulating jacket and I couldn't get warm. By the evening, I had 6 layers of clothing on top. Lesson number two- tight layers don't make you warm. They also make it almost impossible to move- I could barely bend my arms. Your body really wants a snug baselayer and then some warm air circulating between that baselayer and a loose heavy insulating layer. I had the right equipment, but was using it the wrong way. (perhaps another blog topic altogether)

Day three was the best- cold sunshine and a great time with the guys. I'd learned a lot and was finally feeling good, able to really take in the scenery before our trip back.

Now overall, thats a fairly grim report. Why in the world do I go on these trips and rave about them afterwards? Snow camping pushes my limits and exposes my weaknesses like little else in my life and there's a singular reason for this- I can't turn back. In most every area of my life, when pressed on all sides, I've still got a pre-negotiated escape route planned. I can back off the gas, take a different turn, or return to a trusty excuse I've used and re-used. On the mountain, the only way to quit is activating that distress beacon- and that means death/injury or epic embarrassment. So you press through.

I love that. There is something really liberating about pushing yourself past the envelope, making yourself uncomfortable, even scared. This past weekend left me reconsidering my goals, business investments and vision. Am I too soft? Taking too little risk? Am I routinely forcing myself into difficult challenges and pushing my limits?

It's becoming clear to me that fearlessness and courage are muscles that require exercise. For me, snow camping is one workout that gets the job done. A long time mentor of mine made this statement about 10 years ago, and I've frequently reflected on it since- "When faced with two paths, always take the harder."

What are some other ways you develop fearlessness and courage in your life?

You can't obsess about your customer AND your competition

2011-02-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

There's a firestorm of conversations, media coverage and facebook activity around the topic of foodcarts in Corvallis. The people that have foodcarts are obviously for them. However, perhaps not so obviously, a few restaurant owners are bent out of shape over it. Some scuttlebutt about boycotts has even been floating around.

Here's the story: A lot of Corvallis folks, myself included, love visiting Portland for the uber-selection of locally made food, music venues and interesting boutiques. One great fixture up there are the "pods" of food carts and stands selling every possible ethnic food you could imagine for $5-$10.

Well, some of these Corvallis folks got a bee in their bonnet and decided Corvallis should have a similar experience available to people. A local Creperie decided to lead the charge by forming the Corvallis Food Cart Alliance and working to get the city code changed. Currently the code allows carts and stands to operate a maximum of 45 days per year.

Well this has sparked quite the response from a couple local businesses. One downtown restaurant owner recently stated his opinion to a reporter at our local newspaper:

“I, among many others, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in improving our downtown locations. To see a taco truck roll up out of nowhere and plant itself next to my business or anyone else’s for that matter is disgraceful to all our efforts.Not only do I oppose this proposal but I will propose that we reduce the amount of days that these mobile units are allowed to operate in our downtown location." - Brandon Dale, owner of Broken Yolk Cafe

Alright, so now for the insurance guy’s opinion. I think it’s unfortunate this has dragged on as long as it has. Let the people of Corvallis vote with their dollars. The regulations are already in place to ensure food safety. Food carts would be under the same scrutiny as a bricks and mortar business from a regulatory standpoint.

The real issue here is business owners focusing more on competition than they are on their customer.

As the owner of an insurance agency, I have all kinds of competition. Frankly, I face a similar competitive situation that Brandon is so up in arms over. Anyone can go study and get their insurance licenses and start selling insurance out of their living room. They can pay $250, get a chamber membership, start networking and be an insurance agent. One can start an insurance business for under a thousand bucks.

A vastly different approach than mine-I’ve got big dollars invested in the service model we offer to clients. I think it was worth it, but ultimately our clients and future clients will decide. Do they value the service infrastructure we’ve invested in, the staff I employ and the things we do in the community, or is it just window dressing, and the guy who’s 8% cheaper, working from home will do just dandily?

Some of those insurance folks grow to be quite successful, and I think that’s great- the strong and customer-focused survive. They deserve to be in business, so long as they remain true to what got them there.

I don’t have the time to focus on my competition. I am busy enough striving to walk out the marketing messages that we espouse on our social media channels and advertising. Its easy to say you’re about great customer experience, it’s an entirely different thing to live it and breath it. In the end, people decide if we’ve pulled it off. If not, they go elsewhere and we die.

I say let the food cart operators have their shot. If a restaurant can’t handle the competitive forces, they should close up shop, regardless of how much money they’ve put into it. My “efforts” and investment don’t grant me the right to stay in business. Customers get to make that call.

To advertise or not to advertise, that is the question...

2011-02-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

My takeaway from Super Bowl 2011- I can't remember a damn thing. The Packers won, right? So much for the tens of millions of dollars spent on ads.

This is really making me do a double-take. I'm in the process right now of solidifying my advertising campaigns in two hyper-local, targeted publications. I like their staffs, the publications are spiffy and niched, but does friendly and earnest staff, along with a half page color ad help grow my business?

We grew at a nice clip last year, while advertising in local pubs and on the radio- was it the advertising that made us grow? I am not sure. And therein lies my problem. I personally buy based on relationship and product/service experience, either my own, or a peers. Perhaps I am an anomaly though. Maybe others are compelled by advertising.

I can't afford to hire Weiden and Kennedy to mastermind my ads, but even if I could, would it matter? Did any of the ads you saw during the game, matter to you? Did they/Will they change your relationship with the company?

The strategy that keeps coming back to me over and over again is the Zappos schtick. Throw all your money into customer experience, be patient and earnest, and long term success will be yours.

Is that a naive strategy for a local insurance agency? Do you think the snappiest of today's ads were effective in changing buyer behavior?

Alright Fatty, This Ain't No Copy Shop

2011-02-05T11:11:00.000-08:00

"Listen Fatty, I'm not a copy shop, I'm a banker, and if I make copies for you, I'm going to have a line out the door of people opening bank accounts and credit cards, just to get free copies out of it. Oh, and by the way, the 24 hr fitness is out the door, 4 blocks to the left on the right hand side of the street. Look into it. "

Yesterday, one of my facebook friends posted a comment, that frankly, I couldn't help but comment on. He's a banker, a marketer, an entrepreneur, a hustler and I like him. He grew up in Corvallis and now lives and works in Portland. He's been a banker for almost 10 years now. Here's the post and the subsequent comments:

First of all, as an owner of an insurance agency, I feel I am qualified to comment here. We deal in a high volume of transactions every day, with a wide variety of clients- not unlike the business John engages in as a banker. (on top of that, I'm also a banker and licensed mortgage loan originator).

First of all, none of us are in the banking business anymore. There's no such thing as the insurance business, the printing business, or the personal training business. All that is left is the people business. Truly, everything is becoming a commodity from someones vantage point. At some point, you'll be able to buy virtually any thing or service online. Will that be the end of the local merchant or service provider? For many of them, yes.

The one thing that doesn't translate well online and over the phone is human touch, eye contact, attitude, genuine interest and caring. This is a competitive advantage "in-person" service and sales firms will have for many years to come.

Unfortunately, John is not alone in his gut-level reaction to the fat copy. In general, business is still short-sighted in it's view of customer interactions, thinking more about convenience, profit and policy in the moment, versus the long term impact on customer relationship, and the value of that customer for life.

The fat customer's request and John's response are actually addressed well in Ken Blanchard's book, Raving Fans, an awesome primer on revolutionary customer service. The book was written back in 1993- It was prophetic then, but now critically necessary.

In Raving Fan's, a the main character in the story visits a next generation department store. One of the things he notices during their tour is how there is no supervision of the dressing rooms- customers were allowed to freely take as many clothes as they'd like to try on, and from what he could tell, there were no security cameras in the store.

When he asked the manager about this, the manager responded, "We lose some product to shoplifting every year. We catch some of them, but many get away with it. However, why would we incovenience and show distrust to the overwhelming majority of our treasured customers, because a handful of bad apples take advantage of us?"

Is John really at risk of becoming a full-time free copier? Is that client likely going to post on their facebook later "Hey, if you're lazy, go open a bank account with John at XYZ bank and you can get free copies instead of paying 15 cents at Office Max". Will they immediately leave the bank and call all their fat lazy friends to tell them about the free copies they got while at the bank. And so what if they did?

This short-sighted, "We don't do that" old school attitude manifests itself in a number of ways, often subtle. The most typical I run into is this-

I've gone into a couple local stores, looking for this or that, can't find it, so I ask an employee. "Do you guys have this that or the other?". "No, sorry, we don't carry that." "Do you know where else I could get it around Corvallis?" "No, sorry."

Contrast that with the time I "needed" a pair of dress shoes for a business trip. I looked locally for what I wanted, couldn't find it, and then went to Zappos.com. They didn't have my size, but here's what the Zappos partner did without even flinching- "We will be getting those sizes in within the week, when do you need them Chris?" "I really need them day after tomorrow for a trip I'm going on." "Okay, well hang on one second..." About a minute passed and she came back on. "Are you in front of the computer? Go to Endless.com and type this in (...). They have the exact shoe you're looking for and it looks like it's even a couple bucks less, and they have overnight shipping available. Did you find it?"

She finished by saying" Hey Chris, I'm really sorry we didn't have what you were looking for this time. Please give us or call next time you need something. We'd love to help. Have a great business trip and enjoy those shoes!"

The CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, in his book Delivering Happiness, talks about how on pleasure trip he was hanging out with some friends in a hotel room after a bar crawl, and someone said, anyone know of a good place to get pizza? Tony joked (perhaps a little inebriated) Call zappos! One of his friends did, and without any prompting, the Zappos partner did some googling, looked at some reviews, found a delivery joint near their hotel and gave them the phone number for them.

Outlandish, goofy story? Sure. A little weird for a CEO of a $500M company to tell someone to goof on his employee? Kinda. An indication of Zappos' intrinsic, gut level, over the top service culture? Definitely.

Anyone else have a different take on the Fat Copy Requestor? I'd love to hear it.

Merchant Post-Mortem

2011-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

A business having to close it's doors due to failure(not enough sales and profit), illness or ownership issues bums me out. Most of the time.

(There are always a number of businesses in any town that miraculously thrive despite terrible customer experience or sub-standard product. Sometimes businesses get lucky and choose just the right high demand product and/or pick the perfect location. To that business I say: Enjoy it while it lasts. The world is changing and I hope you either change or go away.)

But I digress. There is potentially a silver lining to every business failure- A great opportunity for surrounding businesses to learn from it.

How often do we learn of a closing business, bemoan their passing via a few fleeting conversations or facebook posts, and then slowly (or almost immediately) move on without a thought about what lead to their demise?

I think as a community we can adopt a new ritual- A Merchant Post Mortem. Following the death of a business, we give it a couple weeks for mourning. Then we, a group of earnest merchants, business owners and service providers, meet to reflect on what happened and what could have been done.

It would be particularly great and a show of great courage for the business owner of said business to attend, but I'm not banking on it. In light of that, we'd be left to doing a lot of supposing, hypothesizing, and ideating- all of which would drum up a lot of creative energy. "What if they had done this, instead of that", or "You know, this reminds me of a problem we dealt with a few years ago...." or " what if they'd spent more money on this..." etc etc etc.

Maybe 4 people would show up to a post mortem one month, and 20 at another. Regardless, I think the discussion could be stimulating at a minimum, and potentially an awesome way to build more community, and generate more idea exchange and creative energy in our community.

I'm afraid we take the death of a business far too lightly (those of us that didn't own it). There's potentially a lot to learn from it. And for some, it may be a great opportunity to recognize that the very thing that killed the business, is a weakness or stumbling block that exists in their own.

What do all of you think. Too morbid to make a ritual out of it? Shoot, we should have started something like this years ago? I'd love your thoughts. I think it might be a smart thing for my local community. Post-mortem over local beers...

Quid Pro Quo and Yelp

2011-01-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine noticed someone complaining about the practice of businesses offering a discount or free gift to their customers if they would write a review on a site like Yelp. They thought this took away from the legitimacy of the business and the review site.

When we (Chris Nordyke State Farm) were first getting our Yelp profile set up, I announced a promotion where I would give away a free copy of a couple of my favorite business books to the first few people that gave us a review. After the fact I felt conflicted about it. However, I do not neccessarily think the practice is flawed for all businesses.

If a business offers a half off coupon, free cupcake or manicure, or a free appetizer when someone leaves a Yelp review, isn't the subsequent review an endorsement unto itself? Obviously the person liked the product or service- they were motivated to leave a review so they could engage more with the subject business or their product! I think this is a pleasant form of quid pro quo at work. Nothing wrong with people scratching eachother's backs.

Free stuff is fun. I often wish I had a product I could discount or giveaway for promotions, but alas, that's not the way insurance works.

For sure, the BEST review is the unsolicited one. However, it's important to remember the adoption curve that even Yelp is still working on. Not everyone knows about Yelp or is comfortable with the platform yet- if your customers were all familiar with it, a number of them would probably be inclined to write a review. Some still need the extra motivation to check it out- and frankly the ones who are only motivated by the incentive, will likely have their review screened anyway.

A Matter of Forks and Spoons

2011-01-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

For the last 4 or 5 years, I've been frequenting a local coffee shop. I love their quiches and egg scrambles. They've also got pretty good coffees. I've also been frustrated by a small detail in their service delivery. Scratch that- two small details in their service delivery.

First, for those 4 or 5 years of patronage, they've never once delivered a fork and napkin with my breakfast food. Let me elaborate a bit. When you arrive, you order your coffee and food. Inevitably your coffee is done before the food, so you go sit down and begin text messaging, reading a book, or working on your laptop. 5 minutes or so later, the food arrives, sans fork to eat it with. The frustrating point, is that they had to walk right past the container of forks and napkins to give me my plate of food. Frustrating and annoying. Thank goodness for them they have a prime piece of real estate.

I won't go into the second service detail, as it would give away the location. I'll pursue that via a comment card instead of via the blog. The point is, as small businesses, we've got to be aware of the details, and address them. We don't want our clients frustrated. There are too many choices for them. Goal number one should be to make it as easy as possible for our client to spend money with us, and enjoy it!

Here's a great post on the same topic that my friend Tim, of blog Deliver Bliss, wrote regarding a familiar retailer:

Customer Service Fail

Your thoughts?

Do as I say, Not as I do.

2011-01-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

My wife is a great source of conscience for me. The other night she gave me an epiphany and I thought it was worth sharing.

I'm a huge fan of netflix. Especially on my iPad. The fact that I can be lounging in bed, get up to go to the bathroom, and then return to bed, all while watching a documentary on obesity in America, is nothing short of cool. So I've gotten into docs and tv shows. The latter I tend to consume by full seasons at an unhealthy pace.

My most recent is Friday Night Lights. It's a highschool football drama along the lines of Remember the Titans. Inspiring, full of conflict, good looking people and some great, hardhitting football action. On NPR recently a tv critic listed FNL as the #1 Family Drama for 2010. I thought, oh, that's cool. I'll have to give it a looksee.

Here's the thing. After watching the pilot and the first handful of episodes, the show is all the cool things I mention above, but it's also sexually charged, full of high school kids drinking and "hooking up", even mentions of a threesome (girl seeking advice from her guidance counselor). #1 Family Drama? Candidly, I really liked the show. It hooked me in, and I was a fan. My wife Cara would watch, somewhat begrudgingly with me while she knitted away on a project or flipped through an Anthropologie catalog.

On Sunday, I fired up the Netflix app, and the next episode up was titled "I Think We Should Have Sex". The title referenced an ongoing relationship between the clean-cut boyscout starting quarterback and the coach's 15 year old daughter. We watched the first 12 or 15 minutes every once in a while one of us remarking "man, can you believe they call this family friendly?" or "jeez, I can't imagine what shows will be like when Lily is 15. What are we gonna do?" Finally Cara remarked, "If you don't want our daughter being exposed to this, why bring it into our home? Why are we exposing ourselves to it?" Man. Cut to the core.

Some of you may be thinking, "what is the big deal? You're an adult." Or maybe still others of you are thinking, "what a prude- the heightened openness about sexuality on tv is a really positive thing".

Here's what I think- I don't think it's a positive thing. FNL is obviously no different than much of the content on tv now, all of it is "normalizing" sexual exploration and alcohol experimentation amongst teenagers, long before they are emotionally, physically, or financially ready to deal with the consequences. As a parent now, it's got me worried. Times have changed, even since I was in highschool with regard to media.

Thanks to my wife for pointing out my inconsistency. My best plan moving forward- if I wouldn't want my kids to see it, I'm not watching it either.

If you agree, or think that's naive, I'd love to hear your perspective.

Fatal Last Words- Reflections of a Fellow Business Owner

2010-12-29T10:29:00.000-08:00

Recently a couple local businesses have announced they are closing. One of them was not a big surprise, but the other caught me off guard. I'm a client of both.

One has been a struggling sit-down coffee shop in a new era of high-profit drive-thrus, and the other a fantastic little downtown boutique with great merchandising, good selection, and owners with great personality and style.

This morning, over breakfast with my dad, the topic came up and it was interesting to get his perspective. He's a teacher of 30 some years and an avid consumer like me. We talked about a few of the local businesses that he and I no longer shop at, and why. What came up over and over was we could get better service, better price, and quicker solutions online or at a mall or chain store up the freeway. That's a bummer for those local businesses. Now, the sadder thing, is if you told that to those local businesses, they would simply throw their hands up in the air and say " we just can't compete with Amazon and the box stores..." Fatal last words.

Both of these places provided good service. The coffee shop, in my opinion had the best barista's in town. The boutique had two fun gals who were professional and courteous. Both prices competitive.

The trouble is, that's just not enough these days. Consumer's require a relationship, a sense of caring, a shared world view, common values, experience passionate self-expression etc or they will simply go to the store with better service, lower prices or more convenience. The local business owner has to engage with their customer in a much different way than they used to.

No matter how great you think you are local-business-owner at customer service, I guarantee you there is a Nordstrom or REI, or Zappos that is better. Better consistently. However, you have something they don't. You can adapt and move quickly to meet customer needs, you have a personal connection to your clients and your community that Zappos can't replicate. Advantage still goes to the small business owner.

So we're talking about all this and my dad relents, "you know, change is hard to make all at once. A lot of these business owners are older and all this stuff is new and different and comes with a steep learning curve..."

True. However, if you go to the doctor with an ailment, and he tells you if you don't do X you will die in 6 months- you're going to respond. The problem with our community's current condition, is that "everyone" in the local business community is "poo pooing" the new social trends, downplaying the critical and deadly shift that's happening in the marketplace. I would guess if we interviewed business owners who met demise in the last couple years, they'd point at all kinds of external factors including the economy, still not seeing it was a lack of customer engagement that killed their business.

As a fellow small business owner that is subject to the same competitive marketplace, learning how to connect with my clients in a meaningful way is my number one objective. 10 years ago an insurance agency's number one goal was- sell X amount of policies per month by making X number of calls every evening while people are sitting down to dinner and spend X percentage of your sales on newspaper ads. There was a formula for success, and if you followed it, you'd do well. Today, you still need to talk to a lot of people, advertise, and so forth, but something more and different is also required.

We're far from great engagement in our business- but you can bet we're noticing the warning signs around us and getting more serious.

We're in a different world now. A bit scary, but in a beautiful sort of way.

2011 Roadmap/MindMap

2010-12-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

Analysis paralysis gets me every time I try to put together a business plan. By nature I'm not a hard core planner, yet I know the value of having a roadmap, even if it's drawn on a napkin. Somehow though, I get to the end of each year, we're pushing hard to hit goals, and then it's January and we've done no reflection or forward planning. Instead "planning" is thinking-fast-on my-feet as the year rushes by.

Fortunately, I've got a small lead on the new year, and I intend on mapping out a plan. Trouble is, where do you begin? There are so many dang things we could change next year to improve on 2010, but I know I'm not a planner by default, so if I get too complicated, the plan will be abandoned before long.

I'm going back to basics this year, and I'm using a mind map as my starting document. Maybe that's all I'll use to refer back to. We'll see. I've read all the books, talked to many successful entrepreneurs, and you know what, if I think about it too much, I'll just never get down to it. Too many possible approaches.

So what is in the middle of my mind map? The three things I never stop thinking about year in, year out. These are the key attributes of my life goals and vision. What am I made for, what do I desire at my core.

Then, I'll branch out from there and look at 5 accomplishments that will get me closer to those things. What can I do this year that will carry my life and business further in the direction I want, and need, to go?

Finally, what are the 10 or 12 activities or changes I need to make to my daily/weekly/monthly living and insurance-agenting, to achieve those 5 accomplishments?

There's my mind map. Now of course, I'll probably have to come up with some collateral, some examples, explanations, metrics and some accountability/tracking methods so my team and I both have a visual on how we're doing. But that's where I'm starting.

Have you come up with a plan for next year? Have you got a better way of approaching this process? I'd love to hear about it.

Nothing, Never, Can't and other Fighting Words.

2010-12-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

I was party to a couple of tough conversations this last week, and was reminded of just how toxic bad attitudes can be. Our brain quickly goes into justification mode. "man, if so and so hadn't thrown all this stuff on me at the last minute", or " if so and so had just done their job right the first time". We then start the dark decent into absoluteism- "You never (!) show up to meetings on time", "I can't take care of that if I haven't been given good information", or "I I can't believe it, you've gotten nothing done!"

After hearing several of these fighting words, I finally stopped the other person and reviewed their statements with them. Really, never? Can't? Nothing? After taking a moment to think and respond, the frustration and anger started to dissipate. Finally, we were left with some constructive talking points, and the conversations ended well.

If I hadn't taken the time and initiative to disarm those choice words, the conversations likely would have spun out of control, leaving everyone frustrated and worser off.

Take a moment and consider an appropriate context for words like nothing, never, can't, won't, etc. They really aren't that useful, are they?

(couldn't have found a better image- courtesy of Diet.com :)

Following the Alien Abduction

2010-11-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, fact is, none of us likes to think about dying. So for the sake of discussing something critically important to your family, rather than talk about a more likely scenario like a car accident or another tragedy, we'll consider the event you are taken away in a UFO. A bit easier to chat about?

I'm in the insurance business. I talk with people every day about preparing for the unexpected. I give people advice everyday, including having an appropriate amount of life insurance and having a last will and testament. I have a confession to make: I still don't have a will myself.

For almost 4 years now Cara and I have been talking about this, yet continued to put it off. One decision that needs to be made, is who will take care of the kids if something happens to both of us (alien abduction)? We've finally settled on a couple of friends of ours. However, there still remains a number of huge considerations. As I work through these myself, I hope this is helpful for you:

For my wife and I's 8 year marriage, I've primarily been the money guy, paying bills, managing our income and savings, insurance, etc. It has nothing to do with Cara's ability to handle this stuff, it's simply been a matter of convenience- I naturally gravitate toward it with my business, so that's how we've taken care of things. If I die, without some significant planning, there's going to be a bit of chaos in store for Cara.

Here's my list:

1) What does Cara do about my business?

How do my employees get paid?

Is Cara a signer on my business line of credit?

Authorized user on my business credit card?

What does she do with the business long term?

2) Bill Payment

Does she have our password to Chase.com?

Is she familiar with all my payee Nicknames?

Does she know that our Home Equity Line is variable and she needs to adjust the automatic bill-pay occasionally?

3) Life Insurance Proceeds

Should she pay off the house or invest it?

How long before she needs to return to work?

Does she know how to contribute to the kids college savings plans?

Where should she put the money- I've been the investor up to this point?

These are just a handful of the questions she'll be faced with almost immediately in addition to the grief and pain of loss, and being a mother to our kids.

I want to minimize that. This morning, I met with a trusted friend and fellow business owner, and began a discussion about him being my proxy and trusted contact for my wife in the event of my death. We talked about me having that same role with his family. It requires an enormous amount of trust.

Here's what I'm considering doing: (I'll be consulting an attorney friend of mine before implementing this plan and I'd urge you to do the same.)

1) Make this person a signer on my bank accounts and authorized user of my credit cards- If something happens, I want this person to instantly be able to step in and help take finances off my wife's plate. Initially. I don't want her to have to stress about "figuring everything out" right away.

2) Disclose all my passwords to banking and investment sites, email, flickr, social media, etc.

3) Give access to my business affairs and meet annually specifically to update this data- balance sheet, cash flow, payroll, accounts, available credit, etc.

4) Provide a summary of all our insurance and financial affairs. Everything.

5) Develop a summary of my principles and values to guide and provide clarity for all other situations that might arise.

At this point, some of you are probably thinking I'm crazy. Maybe you're one of those people that has decided you can't trust anyone. That's not me. I've carefully vetted this person over years and am confident if we make this agreement, my wife and kids will be watched over and cared for just like his own wife and kids.

This will take a fair amount of time, but I love the fact that if something happens to me, I've already planned for a best case scenario for my loved ones. A really hard situation will inevitably be a little bit easier with some forethought.

Already in my career I've had several death claims. Take my word for it, one of the most loving and practical things you can do for your family is have life insurance, a plan, and an advocate identified to help guide your survivors through the long transition.

If you're abducted by aliens, do you have a plan?

Rad Stuff #2 Jawbone

2010-11-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

I'm one of those guys that doesn't need much of an excuse to buy gadgets, and bluetooth headsets are no exception. I've had no less than 4 of them now. I started with a Motorola (crap), moved to the Plantronics Voyager (awesome but ugly), then switched to the BlueAnt V1 (great looking but unreliable) and now have finished my search for a great device.
I had completely stopped using headsets until finally a couple clients of mine started giving me a hard time about talking on the celly while driving, so I figured I better get wireless again. All of my online review searches led straight to Jawbone, and specifically the Icon. The reports were glowing, so I worked my Amazon Prime account and picked one up.
Verdict after two weeks- in-ear sound quality, far superior to any other headset I've used. People I called and chatted with didn't appear to even notice I was on a headset, and when asked, said they thought I was in the office talking on the cell phone. (I was actually in my noisy compact car on the headset). Battery power is not quite on par with the Voyager, but plenty good to get through a full business day of taking and making calls.
It wears quite comfortably, in fact I got to where I was accidentally leaving it on and walking into appointments with clients. (One client joked, "oh, so now you're 1 part cyborg, 3 parts a$$hole!") I've become one of "those people" that look all self-important, walking oddly in circles, talking loudly in building lobbies. What can I say, it's handy, works well, and has me driving more safely.
One last note- I've had a couple software type bugs with it, and I can attest that the Jawbone phone support is literally one of the best I've encountered EVER. Knowledgeable, enthusiastic, quick and they document every note in a file attached to your phone number. They really know their stuff and never gave the impression they were "on script". I was able to quickly ramble with them about other imminent jawbone products (the JamBox!!) and get their personal take on it. It was a lot of fun, and they got my earpiece up and running again. Problem solved, and completely painless at that.
Great customer service is both a talent and a well-developed skill. They've nailed both.
The two calls I had with them were so good in fact, I'm trying to find an excuse to call them on speakerphone at my next staff meeting. They're that good, I want my staff to hear it! Imagine that, customer service so good, you look forward to having an issue. No way, right?!

Rad Stuff 1st Edition- The Mexican Mocha

2010-11-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

Those that know me, know that I'm a hopeless sneaser that can't help but blab about great stuff I discover. I figured that might be kind of a fun new focus for my blog. I hope you enjoy it.

The subject for my first "Rad Stuff" post is a Mexican mocha from the new Market of Choice here in Corvallis.

To be honest, my first two coffee experiences here were disappointing, with regard to taste. They serve Stumptown Coffee, which everyone I've talked to, raves about. I was not impressed though.

Something draws me back to Market of Choice- maybe its the huge investment they've made into the place(beautiful floors, great displays, etc), or the fact they source a ton of stuff locally, or the friendly staff. Glad I gave their coffee counter another shot.

Virtually everything in the bakery, deli and cafe are made there at the store, and the Mexican Mocha is no exception. They created a chocolate ganache which they add cayanne pepper, cinnamon and heavy cream to, in a perfect ratio. The result is a not-too-sweat treat with a wintery cinnamon flair and a warm peppery zing smoothed out by the 66% cacao ganache.

Amazing. So good I brought a carrier full to my staff meeting this morning, and the team loved it. Swing on by and grab one. You'll thank me.

Every PowerPoint should be 50 Megs

2010-09-22T20:53:00.001-07:00

I attended a presentation by a client of mine recently. Super interesting topic by a super knowledgeable person. Overall a dry presentation. Why? The entire presentation was made up of text, with the exception of a couple graphs. I attended the presentation because I'm hugely interested in the topic, but even I found myself tuning out and playing with my iPad.

I went back to my office, and determined I had to do something different.

I've been preparing a PowerPoint for a presentation I'm giving to a group of our State Farm operations and executive folks. They're giving me an hour and it's a topic I'm super passionate about- socially integrated marketing. Easy peasy, it's been fun putting it together.

Immediately, I pulled all the text out. This left a void, so I did some googling and found some more storytelling photos. And then I found some more.

I now have a PowerPoint with no words, a grip of photos that weave a story, and a huge dose of excitement and inspiration. See, without words to guide me, I can create my narrative on the spot, and that's interesting to watch. No one is going to check out of my presentation.

Unconventional, yes. Attention-grabbing, energizing, and effective? That too.

I tried emailing the file to my contact, and realized it was 50 megabytes. A bit hard to email in the corporate environment, so I had to host it online- A reminder that not many wordless PowerPoint prezi's have ever seen the light of a meeting room.

That should change.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Coachella Valley Part 1

2010-08-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo tour of our journeys:

The weekly Palm Springs street fair:

Lily got a chance to hold a Ball Python at one of the vendors was "wearing".

Lily was having a hard time sticking with us at the fair, and needed to have a heart to heart with Mom. Had to capture the facial expression and posture.

The kids both had a squirt bottle for the 105+ heat. Jack used it more on other people than himself.

This guy has been playing here for the last 10 years or more. He's got this great routine with an electric strings synth and loop machine/effects box.

This guy is John. The return of the old school salesman-showman. He put on a great magic show for the kids before making his pitch to the parents for a pack of children's magic tricks.

This guy has to be 5'10" and at least 240 pounds. An amazing breakdancer, especially for his size.

An org that rescues horses in the valley had a couple large draft horses at the fair. Lily got a kick out of feeding them carrots. Here's Cara taking her turn.

Salton Sea. Has a Hollywood-like past, but for the last many years has been slowly dying as the salt level in the water is rising year after year. Here's Cara and Lily looking at a skeleton of a Tilapia.

Despite the salt levels, apparently the Tilapia fishing is still quite good. There's no limit, and these folks had caught dozens by lunch time.

More to come on this odd so-cal site. Salvation Mountain marks the entrance of Slab City as seen in the movie, Into the Wild.

Location:Landmark Golf Pkwy,Indio,United States

A Matter of Stinky Feet

2010-06-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

I've had lots of questions regarding my Vibram Five Fingers, and after recently purchasing a pair of Soft Star Shoes RunAmoc's, I'm turning a lot of heads with those too. I've now had my VFF"s for about 7 months or so, and the RunAmocs about a month.

First of all, I highly suggest purchasing your VFF's through REI or REI.com. Their satisfaction guarantee is best in class. Last week I noticed the strap on both of my VFF's was beginning to break. There's a friction point on the shoes, that after while, it starts to cut the strap. A design flaw they may have addressed in the Bikila's. I took them to REI and without a hesitation they swapped me out with a brand new pair. Fair, considering I'd probably only put 20 miles on them- They should last longer. Nonetheless, REI is the only store that would have done that. (At least the only one that carries VFF's)

Okay, so the RunAmocs. They are handmade in Corvallis, Oregon. I actually met the cobbler that made my shoes. Very cool.

The shoes are a super-light moccasin that is comprised of a loose fitting perforated black leather, a pig-skin insole, and a 2mm (or 4mm if you choose) Vibram outsole. They have an elastic drawstring that keeps them snug, but comfortable. From the moment you put these on, they are comfort embodied.

They feel like they would be awkward to run in, given how loose they are, but I have not put them to the test. I've enjoyed them so much as an everyday wear, I've really had no compulsion to take them on a run.

VFF's had been my choice for daily wear. At one point I had two pairs, one for running and one for street wear. I love the lightweight minimalist feel they give. However, they STINK. Maybe I just have sweaty feet. I don't have athlete's foot or anything like that, but after two days of straight wear, VFF's are ripe.

I ended up taking back my second pair and using that money to buy the RunAmoks. A great decision. I've been wearing the RunAmocs for days on end. Hot weather and cool. My feet don't sweat in them, and they don't stink. At all. Soft Star told me I'd have less trouble with stinkage due to the natural materials they use. They said the leather would breath great, and it does. I am exceedingly happy with this.

One of these days I will do some runs in the RunAmocs. I know a number of marathoner's run races (including ultra's) in them, so I imagine I'll be pleased with them on runs too.

I continue to be very pleased with my running experience in the VFF's. Adequate protection from hazards on the ground, while still providing maximum feel and feedback. I will never return to normal shoes again.

2 Miles in My Birthday Suit

2010-06-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Some of you know I'm training for my first half-marathon, the Eugene Women's Half. Ya, I know. Talk to Paul Shih. He's the one that talked me into it (something to do with the included herbal footbath's at the end).

Well anyway, I wasn't sure when I was going to get my run in today, as I'm on Mr. Mom duty. My folks though, invited us over for dinner, so I had a shot at getting my run in while the kids played with Grandma and Grandpa.

The only trouble was, I didn't have my VFF's. I wasn't about to run in my strappy Nike sandals, so I took off completely
barefoot. A quick two mile route down Conifer, past Cheldlin, turning around after Conser- all on concrete and asphalt.

I didn't expect that it would be uncomfortable on my joints- I've never had any discomfort running in my VFF's, but my bare feet we're tender. Some of the concrete surfaces actually felt great on my feet. Nice and smooth or softly round and pebbly. Some sections however, were downright pesky. I had to dance over those sections, a couple of times pausing to brush tiny pebbles off my feet.

By the end of my run, I noticed a blister on my right foot. I initially thought it might have been a sliver of something, but after pulling a small piece of skin away and cleaning it out, it appears it was just a blister. No biggie. My other foot is tender, but no cuts or blisters.

All in all, the upside to the run was the light weight, uninhibited running. It felt great running naturally shod. And in a way, the periodic pain was a welcome distraction to the running. I ended with a great pace, and slightly less winded than my recent runs.

I'll likely stick to running with my VFF's, but in a pinch, running naked ain't half bad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

At $100/hr, Sometimes Apology is Not Enough

2010-05-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

When we make a mistake in our office, and it happens, more often than I like, I feel like I owe the client something, moor than just an apology.

Think of all the times you been on hold with Bank of America, or Verizon, or (you fill in the blank) for something that was out of your control- a mistake was made on their end, and you have to suffer through 10, 15, 20 minutes, or an hour during your day to get it resolved. Of course the call ends with a genuine "I'm sorry" (in most cases), but nothing to account for your time, taken from you.

Although I don't see this on paper, I tend to value my time at $100 an hour- free time is scarce. I have relationships I can be nurturing, whether it be clients, future clients, my family, or my employees. I also have things I enjoy doing like blogging, reading, working out, taking pictures. And frankly, I'm pretty good at what I do. There is a value on my time, and there's a high value on yours too.

It has always annoyed me, that after wrangling with these call centers for sometimes hours to correct a mistake of theirs, I get nothing in return for that expenditure.

So in my office, when we screw up, if it's caused our client time, in any amount, we nearly always send a card with a gift. Certainly, we can't apologize to the tune of $100 an hour, but I feel like it's important people are compensated for their time. It's a simple gesture, but an important one.

I like this. It doesn't quite make me feel better when I mess something up, and it's certainly not something I can be proud of doing. It just seems like the right and reasonable thing to do.

This post is tough to write, because I know we haven't executed this policy perfectly, but that's our goal. Of course a business' goal in the first place is to not make mistakes, but when they do, the great ones make it right. And sometimes an apology just isn't enough.

What do you think? Have you found companies that truly have satisfied you after screwing up? How did they show they valued your time?

Professional Networking- reflections of a small business owner

2010-05-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended our local Young Pros event. It was at Epic Day Spa and there must have been at least 50 or more people in attendance. A well-executed event and fun seeing many familiar faces and a few new ones.

As I was leaving, I overheard one of the young pros commenting to a couple others, " wow, that was tacky, did you notice how they just barged in to the conversation without even introducing themselves? That was awkward."

Over the course of my relatively short career in sales, business development and marketing, I've lived through hundreds, if not thousands of awkward social/professional moments. Some of those moments I've been the source of awkwardness,and many others, An innocent bystander.

Socializing in large groups, as a general rule, does not come naturally for most people, particularly when there's a professional tone or objective to the gathering.

If you're new to networking or attending groups like Young Pros or Chamber events or other gatherings, whatever your motivation is, allow me to share with you some best practices I've gleaned from many experiences over the last 7 or 8 years. I'll conclude with an article that think offers some additional practical tips.

When I first began building businesses, volume was the most important thing to me. I felt that the more people I knew, the better. Go to all the events, and figure out how to meet as many people as possible, along the way doing my best to remember everyone's names with various mental tricks.

This approach was not fruitless, but it doesn't scale well. I met many wonderful people over those first few years, and many have become great friends and clients, but it took substantially more investment, beyond just showing up, shaking hands, and asking what they do (where do you work?).

Over the last few years though, my focus has changed dramatically. I reflected on this as i left Young Pros. I'd rather connect with 1 person at an event, in a meaningful way, than shake hands and give my name and/or card to 50. (in fact I rarely carry biz cards with me any more.)

Most of those contacts and acquaintances from my early years that have actually become friends and clients, are ones I became personally vested in. I gave of myself in some way and/or spent significant time in non-business related conversation.

I'm finding it's best to focus on making friends, versus making clients.

I don't think my earlier years were markedly less authentic on my part, I simply put a lot more pressure on myself to be more "productive" at events and meetings. Turns out, "productivity" can come much more naturally and pleasurably than I initially thought.

If you're new to "networking" or just wanted to dig through a good read, check out some practical tips and reminders in this article from CIO.com

One of the guys in the article is Keith Ferrazi, who wrote the book, Never Eat Alone. Keith is very focused on networking via meaningful connection and authentic relationships.

How to Network: 12 Tips

Thanks for reading, would love to hear your thoughts about networking and navigating social/professional events.

*Photo by WHIR.com

Zappos and the Age of Reciprocity

2010-05-24T18:13:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of hubub over Zappos' recent web debacle that resulted in a $1.6m loss. Apparently some web dev person made a coding error that priced all items on the site at $49.95, even these. You can read the story here if you want the details.

Most of the coverage has focused on how rad Zappos is for standing behind their pricing despite it being a mistake. I actually find this humorous. This kind of thing happens quite often, of course maybe not on the same scale, but in every case I'm aware of, the company eats it. That's business. Mistakes generally cost money, and companies with over $1B in revenue make $1m mistakes. That is not news.

The story is interesting no doubt, because a "handful" of late night shoppers scored big time.

The real story though, is the love affair America has with Zappos, including the press and the blogosphere. I awoke to friends and bloggers I read tweeting and retweeting the story like crazy. Zappos has built up so much goodwill from it's Wow! service model, that people are chomping at the bit to promote them. They can't help themselves.

This is human nature. Robert Cialdini talks about this in his book, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion". When we give first, without expectation of receiving, there is an innate and powerful drive in that recipient, to reciprocate that generous act.

Zappos has harnessed this law of human interaction perfectly, and it's been costly-the word on the street is that Zappos technically has yet to make a profit (free shipping/returns, get well soon cards, bereavement flowers, and generally all around awesome treatment doesn't come cheap). And yet Amazon recently bought them for $1B. Crazy. Or maybe not so crazy when you consider the goodwill that Zappos possesses.

Jeff Bezos didn't pay a billion dollars for a web retailer. He paid a billion dollars for a deep customer portfolio that just can't wait to reciprocate.

Your Opinion Please, Really

2010-05-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Had a great chat with a friend of mine last night. At one point he said, "I want more of your opinion on me. More honest criticism. I like the cheerleading and affirmation, but I need more criticism. It's valuable to me. I'm interested in what you have to say."

Being positive, affirming, optimistic, and generally nice is virtuous, to be sure. But if it's not tempered with genuine candor and thoughtful criticism, it's pretty shallow and empty.

Offering criticism requires a lot of courage- it puts both the giver in a pretty vulnerable spot.

"Maybe I'm making too big a deal out of this."
"What if they don't agree with my perspective?"
"If they keep it up, then I'll say something- maybe this is an isolated occurrence."
"It's not my place to call them out. If they want my opinion, they'll ask."
"If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all"
"Maybe it's just a matter of personality- it's probably not worth bringing up"

We have no problem talking ourselves out of providing criticism/feedback. It's far more comfortable to avoid it.

Here's a thought to ponder:

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Brett the Barber and the Multi-Media Train

2010-05-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I participated in Corvallis Social Media Brigade's most recent event, the Multi-Media Train. The goal was to photograph and video as many businesses as possible on our route, and use that content online to promote them in a unique and long-lasting way.

Much to our surprise, most, yes you heard me right, most of the businesses gave us a cold shoulder. Here was a crew of movers and shakers in Corvallis, some families with kids, professional web developers, videographers, bloggers and other social media types, eager to help local businesses, and in some cases, they even turned us away.

I wish I could say I was shocked.

Granted, we were an odd bunch. This doesn't happen every day in Corvallis, and yes it's a little weird when a group of people comes in with video cameras and point and shoots aimed in your direction. However, is it that hard to see the opportunity in it?

For most of the shops we went in, we were met with blank stares, sheepish grins, and when given a chance to welcome us to their business on camera, at least 3 to 1 declined. Because our group loves Corvallis, most of this video will never see the light of day- because it'd be shameful for these business owners.

The question is, would it be shameful to the employees we met? Have they ever been taught differently? Have they ever been given license to think on behalf of the business? It certainly makes me stop and think, as a business owner. Do my employees know how I would respond should a group of passionate community folks randomly stop in my office? Would they respond with excitement and warmth, or would they try to protect our space and keep the "weirdos" out?

Now, before I end on a sourly reflective note, let me tell you about a RAD experience we had while on the train.

I insure a lot of barbers and hair salons. So I bounce around a bit, as far as where I get my hairs cut. One of the places I go is City Barber Shop. It's a little two person shop with a real barber pole hung outside of the door. No frills. Old school chairs, a tv, and a rack of magazines. They close at 5. We came by at 5:05 and the door was already locked and the blinds drawn. I could tell they were still in though, so I knocked on the door.

Brett came to the door and asked what we were up to. I said "We're doing a photo walk, taking video and pictures to promote local businesses, can we come in?" He said of course, put the barber pole back out, raised the blinds and started chatting us up. We finally have a live one, I thought!

Loyan Roylance was outside on the sidewalk, so I flagged him down. "We've got a taker, come on in!" I then asked Brett the Barber, "If you'll give Loyan a mohawk right now, we'll produce a YouTube video of it and throw it up online for you. You interested?" Brett replied, "Sure, come on over, hop in the chair."

Over the next twenty minutes or so, we all laughed and joked around, snapped 20 or 30 photos of Brett cutting Loyan's hair, and listened to Brett give us the history of the shop. The impromptu media event culminated with the group photo above.

That 30 minutes restored my faith in the small business. There is hope. Some "get it". Do you think it was worth his time to stay those extra 20 minutes and give a "free" hair cut?

(Oh, and by the way, Brett doesn't even own the business. He's an employee, and has been for 11 years.)

What are we teaching our employees? Wait, better yet. What are we modeling for them?

Never Just Say No

2010-05-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

I posted recently on the Madison Avenue Collective's blog. Would love for your thoughts and comments:

Here's a preview and a link to the rest:

Never Just Say No
Never just say no. There’s almost always a better answer, for both of you.

I monitor some keywords on twitter via some Hootsuite columns. One of them is “insurance” and I have a geo-tag with it to grab tweets mentioning “insurance” within a 40 mile radius of Corvallis.

Once every week or two I catch someone asking a question or mentioning they’re getting quotes, and I respond. Earlier this week was just such an opportunity. (Cont'd)

Lessons on Business from Marriage (or vice versa)

2010-05-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

As humans, we generally don't take criticism well. This really greets us in nearly every sphere of our life, but perhaps most painfully in marriage.

As a professional, I have both publicly and privately embraced the value of criticism. I cherish the rare bits of negative criticism I've received over the years, and actively evangelize the value of criticism to fellow business owners.

Despite that professional posture, I too struggle with criticism, specifically, as mentioned above, within marriage. Cara and I have been participating in a marriage class for the last couple months. It’s been a great experience, significantly heightening my awareness of how I communicate my wife, and by extension, others I interact with.

One of the things we’ve been encouraged to work on during this class, is truly committing to understanding our partner’s deepest needs. This involves genuinely seeking to understand our spouses feelings. Here comes the challenging part for me: when Cara reveals her feelings to me about something, my gut reaction at times is to take a defensive posture, or to explain to her why her feelings aren’t valid.

Case and point-
Last week Cara texted me earlier in the day asking when I’d be home from the office/work/meetings/networking. I told her my last meeting was done at 6, (at least that’s how I remember saying it). What she heard, (and what I probably did say) was that I’d be home at 6. Well, 6:25 rolled around and I finally traipsed through the door. You can see where this is going.

*Update
I shared the post with Cara, and afterward felt like it was only fair for me to share a bit more. First of all, this whole episode (along with the hurt feelings) started with a phone conversation as I was driving home from my meeting. That phone conversation ended with me hanging up on my wife. Ugh. Not proud of that. A moment of frustration- frustrated at myself that I was yet again late, but ultimately putting it on Cara. Oh, and for a bit more perspective, this particular week, I'd been out after 6 nearly every night of the week. (I don't at all want to present my wife as being petty or a nag. Quite the contrary)

Fast forward later into the evening. “Babe, I feel like you’re upset with me for some reason. Are you upset because I was late?” (knowing full well that was likely the cause of her funk) She replied, “ Ya, actually it really hurt my feelings that you showed up late. You said you’d be home, so I had dinner already to go and it’s been a long day with the kids.”

I then went on to explain why occasionally I don’t have control over when I get out of meetings/events. “I don’t have a 9-5 job, where once I leave the office, I just hang up the hat and I’m done.” and “I never know when I’ll run into an existing client, or take a call from someone who needs to get a policy going,” or “Look, it’s just 15 minutes. When was the last time you miscalculated and came home from work 30 minutes late? Did I give you a hard time about it?”

Man, it’s hard to bare this out for all to see. but truth is, this is my world.

My response ultimately shut the conversation down. Where can Cara go from there? I’ve just invalidated her feelings. She was trying to help me understand better how I make her feel, and I’ve essentially told her to buck up and get over it. Ugh.

Obviously, this gut reaction to defend and invalidate is not just limited to our marriages.

Have you ever taken a similar posture with a client that is trying to provide feedback? Has a business owner ever given you that kind of response? Is there ever a good time to “defend”, invalidate or marginalize the feedback someone is giving?

Share your experience, start a conversation. This is good for us to mull over. I'm curious if this example even resonates with folks. I tend to find a lot of lessons from marriage that have application in my business. If it strikes a chord, I'll continue to share these examples as they come up. -chris

The Upside of a Down Review by Andy Vaughn

2010-04-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

I liked this post by Andy so much I wanted to repost it. This whole conversation around online reviews is only going to be more important as time goes by-If you're a business owner, it is a must read. If you know a business owner, do them a favor and email them the link.

http://andyvaughn.com/2010/04/the-upside-of-a-down-review/

Communication 101

2010-03-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

Man, I feel like I'm in a season of learning experiences. I suppose that's normal with a young, growing business. Here we go...

Lesson: Talk to people the way they want to be spoken to.

I love social media, am still fond of email, and ultimately love face to face best. However, over the last year, I've been defaulting to social media for much of my communication.

Recently it rubbed someone the wrong way. Big time. The tone I intended to use didn't come across the right way, the medium itself was one the recipient was not comfortable with, and the key takeaways I hoped would get through were largely missed.

After apologizing and resolving the situation, I'm reminded that us early adopters and tech geeks can't assume that everyone else is comfortable being communicated with in tweets, emails, blog posts, and facebook messages.

A smart communicator chooses their method based on the person they're trying to connect with, not the method that is most convenient for them.

Alright, off to a client meeting.

Here's to better relationships,

Chris

My first "Bad" Review

2010-03-07T14:24:00.000-08:00

Well, we all hope we never get a bad review, but alas, none of us are perfect. Here is the exact yelp review and the URL, along with my response. (Unfortunately, Yelp only allows 600 characters to respond, so in my reply I included a link to this blog post)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/chris-nordyke---state-farm-corvallis

From Tom Q.

When we went looking for insurance, we checked with Nordyke because of recommendations. For all the recommendations, we got the feeling he was really just interested in building up his client base and adding another "chip" to his pile. We also felt that his political views were very "out there" for all to see. Now, it's not that we need our insurance agent to vote the way we do. But we don't need to know he doesn't, right?

We went elsewhere.

Tom, I'm sorry we gave you the impression you were simply a "number". Frankly I'm embarrassed. That is exactly the opposite kind of experience we want to create for our clients. I've tried to build my entire business around being relational, so I'm disappointed we failed in your situation. I'll talk with my team about it at our Monday team meeting.

Re:politics, I try to be an integrated person. I want to be the same guy I am at the office, that I am in my living room, at a city council meeting, or at the coffee shop with friends. Occasionally via Facebook or my blog I've mentioned my perspective on current issues simply to share my personality and perspective. If you've felt like I've forced my views on you, I apologize.

Thank you for leaving feedback. I'll take it to my team, and we'll work to do better.

Cordially, Chris Nordyke

Are Bad Reviews Really All That Bad?

2010-03-04T20:48:00.001-08:00

I found out today that someone was very unhappy with me about some criticism I posted publicly. My knee jerk response was panic. I'm a relationship guy. I work hard to preserve relationships and goodwill and when I know I've offended someone, my tendency is to quickly apologize and go into repair mode. I deleted the critical material.

This critique I wrote was as a customer. I had spent money with this person's business and was unsatisfied with what I got.

Last year I blogged rather transparently about a customer that left me. It was a painful experience. I asked that customer earnestly to provide me with some candid feedback and I was very fortunate they obliged. I've applied that feedback to my business, and to great effect. Here's the post, I'd still welcome your comments on it. Learning from the Lost Customer

I've found that in business it is extremely difficult to get good candid feedback from people. There will always be good reviews if you simply put out the effort, but it's tough to learn anything from them. (Not to say I don't love great reviews and testimonials)

Not-so-great reviews though, often present a much greater opportunity for a business owner, particularly in this uber-public new business paradigm we're in. Not only can I learn what people don't like about my business, but I have a chance to connect with them, clarify, change or correct, and then respond publicly to their critique. If I am earnest and sincere, the net effect may actually be more positive than the run-of-the-mill glowing review.

So on the one hand, I'm bummed that this business owner is upset with me, but also disappointed it didn't spark a better online interaction. I'll follow up with this person offline and hopefully mend the relationship. But for the rest of us, I think there's a best practice we can latch onto as business people.

Let's not only be a business community that responds well to criticism, but let's invite it, no, seek it out. None of us are perfect, but once we're alerted to our flaws, we can change, improve, and win again.

Are bad reviews really all that bad?

My Book List

2010-03-02T21:26:00.000-08:00

These are books I'm either enjoying, are challenging me and/or are having a formative effect right now on my business or personal life (In no particular order)

1) Switch by Chip Heath
2) Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
3) Drive by Daniel Pink
4) Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck
5) Trust Agents by Chris Brogan
6) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
7) Linchpin by Seth Godin
8) What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
9) Crazy Love by Francis Chan
10) The Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck

Delivering Happiness Coffee Meetup

2010-02-28T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning I'll be at a round table at Coffee Culture on Kings from 6am to 730. If you own a business or are starting one, let's meetup. We'll focus our chat on company/office culture, particularly as modeled by Zappos.com

I'll buy the first 3 people their coffee.

Cheers,
Chris

Nordyke on Gadgets, Take 1

2010-02-20T21:25:00.001-08:00

I've long struggled with an addiction to gadgets. Ever since I was a kid, I've been enamored with them. For 2010, I thought it'd be fun to share this passion with you.

My first review is of Built NY's Large Cargo Camera Bag. I first saw this at CES 2010 in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. I've been looking for a couple years, for a streamlined man-bag that also had some protection for my SLR- something I could carry my gadgets, wallet, AND my Nikon D90.

There is virtually nothing on the market. Anything that has the functionality, lacked the style, or looked too much like a geeky, boxy camera bag.

I instantly recognized it as a possible winner, and asked Built if they'd like me to review it, (At the time, it literally had no reviews) and they sent me one. So **disclosure** I got it for free. Thanks Built NY, with only one exception this has turned out to be a rad bag. Glad I asked.

Occasionally I will receive free items. Usually, it's an item that I've thoroughly researched and am seriously jones'ing for and/or does not have many (or any) reviews about it yet. Other times I'll review stuff I've purchased for myself. No matter what, I promise to give you a candid assessment of the product.

I know I'm going to have fun with this, I hope you find the reviews helpful.

What does Apple and Trader Joe's Have in Common?

2010-02-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to have a Trader Joe's in town. And I'm one of those "buy local" guys, for the most part. Trader Joe's reminds me of Apple actually. They are the one grocery store I can think of that is actually more of a "brand" than a chain of "places".
Trader Joe's feels like more of an enhancement to my lifestyle here in Corvallis, than a grocery store.

Here's three features that I think the Trader Joe's and Apple brands share:

1) They're easy. Not too many choices, but enough.

2) There are no bad choices- They have magically vetted the options to make sure I will virtually like everything.

3) They staff with "cool people"- Not a Zappos experience, but always above average.

3+) Great design- The stores are clean and fun to be in.

The more I think about it, the more I want to be like Trader Joe's when my business grows up. The easy pick. The one where you know it may not always be the cheapest, but it's always a good deal. The one where you always walk out having made a good choice.

Any other brands you can think of that evoke this kind of feeling for you?

Rolland Fields, 30 minutes ago

2010-02-02T15:09:00.001-08:00

Rolland is 48, looks good, smiles, has good hair. If you're a local here in Corvallis, I swear you'd say he looks like the late and great Scott Zimbrick. Rolland works for the NFIB, a business advocacy organization I support. I met him almost exactly a year ago when he walked into my office. Rolland just found out he has terminal pancreatic cancer.

Today he walked into my office with the same stride, the same casual smile, and his NFIB papers in hand. He asked me how business is going, and I asked him the same. That's when he filled me in on the cancer.

A couple months ago, Rolland went to the doctor with some pain in his side. Initial lab results showed nothing, then an ultrasound showed growths on his liver and a lymph node. A CAT scan revealed the cancer in the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer has been in the headlines recently, so when Rolland heard pancreas, he was speechless-6 months to live.

Rolland has been married 26 years, has a son who is a senior in high school, heading off to Corban College in the fall, and a daughter who's in 8th grade. You can imagine the flood of emotions and concerns that he and his family have experienced over the last 4 weeks.

Rolland has life insurance. Not as much as he wishes he had now, but some. One less thing to agonize over right now as he enjoys these last months (hopefully years) with his family.

Do you have a well thought out plan to protect your family? Are they prepared if something like this happens? Remember this on Valentine's Day- the most practical way you can show them you care, is with life insurance.

Frogs and Pollywogs- A Lesson for Our Local Merchants

2010-01-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Why can't more businesses be like Frogs and Pollywogs? I'll explain.

Most of you have seen me in my Vibram Five Fingers, the funny-looking gorilla shoes that make everyone point and stare. I bought them at REI in Portland. Great service, great experience and a great guarantee.

I tried to buy them in Corvallis. I've bought shoes in Corvallis several times before, and after reading Born to Run, I started asking around in Corvallis at the various shoes venues if any of them carried, or planned to carry the VFF's. Each location (I checked with 3) informed me they were too weird for our market and said they don't, and probably won't carry them.

So I bought them at REI, a store I really, really like. They make everything easy.

Fast forward to my totally rad experience today with Celia, the owner of Frogs and Pollywogs. Frogs and Pollywogs is an independent toy store in downtown Albany. Incredible store- great merchandising, awesome selection of high quality toys, and really great service. As a guy, one of the things I love about her shop is she offers complimentary gift wrapping with every purchase. That is awesome when you're either 1) a guy or 2) a guy on the way to a birthday party with kids in tow.

During my lengthy chat with Celia, the Fed-Ex guy dropped off a package from Amazon.com. I said, "sweet, you've got an Amazon delivery (smile)". Turns out, a client asked if she carried a toy item that she didn't stock, so she had ordered it from Amazon, unbeknownst to the client.

The reality for retailers, is most distributors or manufacturers have minimum orders that make it hard for them to stock everything they'd like to- too cost prohibitive. But rather than Celia telling them no, she instead told them she'll get it for them and have it ready for pick up in 2 days. The client never new she bought it off Amazon. Her perspective- why send the client searching when she has the power of Amazon to satisfy her clients needs?

Sourcing a product from Amazon.com didn't cost Celia anything. Of course she didn't make a profit on the transaction, but what's the economic value of a satisfied and loyal customer?

Why couldn't one of the stores in Corvallis done the same for me? They could have bought three sizes of Vibram's from REI, invited me to the store once the shoes came in, sized me, and then sent back the pairs that didn't fit. REI's return policy wouldn't have cost them much at all. Yet these same stores spend hundreds or thousands on traditional media advertising. What's more impactful?

Apparently this wasn't the first time Celia did this- it's a semi-regular occurance. Ultimately, she does whatever she can to satisfy requests. It's no coincidence that Zappos.com came up several times in our discussion. Celia's business has a number of similarities. Let's all pause and take a note from Celia.

Check out Celia's website www.frogsandpollywogstoys.com and swing by her store some time to meet her. (She's got kids- generally you'll find her there between 11 and 4)

Why am I so shocked and amazed by this level of service though? Shouldn't this be the norm? Everyone has access to the same tools, no?

What in the world is an insurance guy doing at CES? And what is CES??

2009-12-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

It looks like next week I may be traveling in a friends suitcase to CES. His company has been invited by Intel as one of their featured developers for their new Atom App Store. It's not a public event, so you have to be invited. Unless of course, you're me, and you invite yourself :) Looks like I may end up being the "camera man".

No, seriously, I really am decent with a video cam. At least a Flip. (haha, I think I have them fooled:)

Here's why I want to go- I love consumer electronics. I've been an early adopter and sneezer when it comes to CS for a long time. It started with cell phones. For now it's Apple products and e-readers. I've even become enamoured with a sister industry called "technical gear/clothing". Oh, and don't even mention web apps and social media. I am a hopeless early adopter.

I'm also a committed entrepreneur and aspiring angel investor. As my clients vote with their dollars to support my insurance agency, I want nothing more than to put that back in the community. One way I'd like to do that is as an angel- funding local startups with great ideas and talent to develop it.

If I'm going to be an angel investor some day, I want to have deep knowledge in a few areas (insurance, customer experience, sales) but also have a working understanding of a broad scope of industries and a decent knack for trend-spotting. That's where going to CES comes in. It will be a great learning experience, not just for my insurance agency, but for my bigger picture.

A little impulsive. Perhaps. But clearly aligned with my long term vision. Definitely.

Oh, and here's what CES is all about: http://www.cesweb.org/aboutces.asp Scroll down to "History"

Would Jesus Want Credit for All This?

2009-12-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure Jesus is too excited about the celebration we've constructed around his birthday. I don't mean that in a self-righteous way. I just mean, you look at the stories of what he did and said, and one has a hard time thinking he'd be excited about a lot of the parties and events put on in the name of Christmas. This whole thing started on account of Him, right?

For those people that consider themselves Christians, is it possible that Jesus was expecting something completely different for his birthday? (But instead we did what we do every year, but made sure He got the credit)

Don't get me wrong, I love being with family and friends and eating lots of food. I also loved taking my gift certificate to Backcountry.com and buying an Arc'teryx polo shirt. But again, is Jesus honored through all that stuff? Don't most birthday parties revolve around the birthday boy or girl?

And then this whole battle between the politically correct "Happy Holidays" and the (c)hristian-specific "Merry Christmas"...

I was flipping through the local AM channels on the way to be entertained by Rush Limbaugh's post holiday (probably pre-recorded) show. The 30 seconds or so I took in included the end of a rockish Christmas tune, then Limbaugh in his usually jolly style, " Happy Holidays everyone...no, Screw It, Merry Christmas!" Then he dialed up the next song and faded it in.

Does Jesus need his followers or republican entertainers sticking up for him?

That Time of Year Again, Part 2 "Build Your Own Board"

2009-12-23T11:06:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking about this for some time- I need a board of advisers. Big businesses have them, non-profits big and small have them, and I think an entrepreneur should have one. How it should work exactly, I'm not yet sure.

But here's why I'm eager to form one: I really need outside perspective and tough criticism to grow as an entrepreneur. In addition to that, I think there'd be huge value in opening up my business to a trusted group that can provide input on everything from marketing strategy to HR, to financial operations.

If I'm only getting input from others in my industry or reading business books, I'm probably limiting my potential success and suffering from smallmindedness.

So how could it maybe look?

I'd probably meet with my board of advisers once a quarter or twice a year. We'd meet over a nice dinner (that I would provide) and spend a couple hours in discussion. Prior to the meeting, I'd send them a proposed agenda, financial statements and suggested topics, and the advisers could suggest changes to the agenda beforehand. At the dinner, I'd present to the group, then open myself up to feedback and discussion for the remainder of the meeting.

At first blush, it seems a bit one-sided, but in my experience, the times I've advised other entrepreneurs or taught students, I ended up benefiting greatly from the experience. Not only is it gratifying to play a role in someones success, but it often becomes a shared learning experience. In fact, I'd be honored to be on someoneelse's board of advisers at some point.

I've already spoken to one potential advisor so far and received a warm response. I'll keep you posted as I pursue this.

Could you or your business benefit from a board of advisers?

That Time of Year Again, Part 1

2009-12-21T00:51:00.000-08:00

If you're tired, sleep. If you're awake, do something. I read that recently, I figure it's good advice. So I'm here at my office in the afterhours, working off a single cup of half-caff at a party earlier.

I'm working on my list of New Years resolutions. It's instinctual you know, to do this, every year, and it typically starts right about now. So here's part 1.

1) Spend less money. I've been in a cashflow crisis for the last couple months, and it's no fun. You remember the old addage "the more you make, the more you spend", well it's easy for a business to do that. Expense management is a new skill I will learn in 2010.

2) Time away every month. My wife still works part time as a nurse. Eventually she'd like to stay home. Really, she'd like to be working casual by this point, but we're not quite there yet. (I hired another employee instead) What I do have, is time. And in 2010, I'm going to start using it, for my family. A couple Fridays a month should do nicely.

3) Learn how to manage my team. I've got a team with a lot of raw talent, but I've not been guiding them. I basically hired them and turned them loose. This year, I need to learn how to set goals with them, motivate them, and then hold them accountable to their goals. I move at 100 miles per hour, but it's time to discover where the brakes are- I need to stop and manage occasionally.

4) I want to run- okay, this is an emotional knee jerk response. I'm still riding high off my recent finish of Born to Run by Chris McDougall. To say I'm inspired does not quite do it. Ultra marathons, probably not in my future, but work up to 5 miles a couple times a week, maybe.

5) Have friends over to our house semi-regularly. When Cara and I bought our house, we had a vision of using it for entertaining. It's a humble house, but it has a cool fire pit on the back patio, and a sunroom off the back of the house. We just haven't had people over much, and that bums me out. Time to use our house. Maybe a marshmallow roast in the near future. Don't be surprised if you get an invite.

More to come. I'd love it if you comment, and link to your blog with your resolutions. Cliche, I know, but still constructive.

Hello, can I speak with Mrs. Business Owner? This is the Young Pros calling.

2009-11-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Chris and I am with a group here in town called Young Professionals. Each month we meet at a different venue in Corvallis. We'd like to come to your venue next month for our event. We have about 300 or so on our email list and we routinely get 30-65 young pros at each of our events, just to give you an idea of what to expect.

We don't ask for much, in fact all you have to do is feed us something and give us a special deal on drinks so we feel loved. You can woo us as much as you want though. If you'd like to hang out with us during the event, test new menu items on us, have us taste new drinks, or otherwise treat us like VIP's we likely won't forget it, and will find ourselves compelled to spend more money at your venue in the future. We'd probably bring friends and we'll likely write about it on Twitter and Facebook for hundreds to see.

Please however, don't treat us like an afterthought. Don't make us feel awkward as we arrive- don't make us explain why we're here or make us ask you where everyone is at. Make us feel like you've been waiting for us, like you've been looking forward to it. Treat us like a date. We're here to get to know you and to put money in your pocket, tonight and in the future- if you play your cards right.

Please take advantage of us while we're here. We expect we'll get sold- you've earned the right by hosting us. It's okay to passionately tell us about your favorite new menu items and remind us why you started your restaurant or store. We expect you'll ask us to come back, and if you give us a coupon to help us remember, that's okay too.

My Daily Web Top 10

2009-11-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

After more than a year of really engaging online, I've settled on a handful of tools and sites that I'm referencing every single day, some of them many times a day. I'm always keeping my eye out for new tech and content, but here's the current ones:

1) Hootsuite- a super simple dashboard for my twitter activities.
2) Facebook- becoming a more significant communication tool for my Agency.
3) Gmail- still the best and most easily searched email platform.
4) Google Alerts- This is where I "listen" to what people are saying about important topics to me.
5) Amazon.com- shopping and researching galore
6) SethGodin.com - Godin is a great daily read for fresh insights on the new business paradigm.
7) Anywho.com - a great search tool for phone numbers.
9) HARO- HelpAReporter.com - Looking out for PR opportunities for my friends and clients (and myself)
10) WeLoveCorvallis.com - a local blog where people who love Corvallis gather to candidly discuss important topics/questions.

Any tools or sites I should check out that you use daily (or hourly) ?

Crusted Banana Pancakes- An epic kitchen encounter.

2009-11-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Chocolate goes with pancakes right? And coconut, well that's a no-brainer. That's what I thought this morning when this epic kitchen encounter took place.

Here's the recipe along with a couple photos :

1 1/4 cups sifted wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
Dash of salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk - you can sub in 50% half and half if you feel like it
3 (or 4) tablespoons butter- real unsalted butter. Never sub in margarine or other fake spreads.
1 1/2 fresh, but ripe bananas cut into slices (or chunks if your 4 yr old is helping)

Now for the interesting stuff:
Raw organic unsweetened coconut flakes - fine, not big flakes (Notice the recycled Adam's PB jar. You can buy this stuff in bulk at the Co-op)
Green and Black's dark baking cocoa- or whatever brand you prefer.

Here's what you do:
1)Mix equal parts of the cocoa and coconut in a small dish and set off to the side.
2)Mix all dry ingredients in a medium to largish bowl (to prevent over-splash)
3) Combine all wet ingredients in a Pyrex pitcher, (you know, the glass thing you measure milk and other stuff in) and whisk the egg til it's mixed in.
4)Melt the butter and pour into the wet container.
5) Mix the wet ingredients into bowl with dry stuff. Whisk until pretty smooth

The best thing to use for pancakes is a stainless steel electric skillet. (I may post a review on our Carico skillet that we got when we first got married, it's great.) Just make sure it's nice and hot.

Drop a couple big spoonfuls of batter in the hot pan, then place pieces of banana on top of the batter and let them sink in as it cooks.

Now for the fun part! Grab a couple finger fulls of the cocoa-coconut mixture and sprinkle over the top of the bananas and batter, then flip the pancake and push down slightly with the spatula. It should only need to cook another 20 or 30 seconds and then serve!

Be sure to flip it back over to display the wonderful golden bananas and brown crust from the cocoanut mixture.

Top with almond butter and agave syrup.

This makes for a delightful flavor encounter that kids and adults will love.

Please post your comments.

Thinking about subscribing to the GT after all

2009-11-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

I had to use three Winco bags last night to get the fire started.

Made me think, where's this morning's paper when I need it?

Don't get me wrong. I like the writers at the GT. I know Matt N. and like he and his writing. I like Mike, the publisher, as well. The GT produces great content. I am one of the sets of eyeballs/unique visits on www.gazettetimes.com also.

I just would have found it really useful to have a GT on hand last night. I could have read the 6 or so local articles and the half dozen or so other local tidbits and then used the Associated Press content that makes up 70% of the rest of the paper for getting my evening fire started.

Newspaper is great for getting fires started.

I've been trying to get Mike and the crew at the GT to adopt a hyper-local model for the paper for the last 6 months or more. You can see my previous posts/comments here and here.

The reason I'm so emphatic? Because I think it'd be good for the community and ultimately profitable for the paper- it might even save them from the demise that papers around the country are experiencing en mass.

People like to read about themselves, their friends, their kids, their politicians, the companies they work for, and what's going on in their community . There are now a multitude of places a person can easily consume their national and international news and information from- on demand. Why fill the paper with redundant material? Does making it fatter increase the perceived value? (apart from fodder)

Isn't there enough stuff going on in our community to write about? People doing both awesome things and bad things. People moving, people shaking? Here's an idea:source articles from the many great staff blogs the GT has online. Better yet, identify some quality local blogs to source material from and put that in the hard copy paper.

Is $12 bucks a month too much to pay for a handful of great articles a day and reliable fire starter in the evening? As soon as our Winco bags run out, I'll decide.

*all posts should be taken with a grain of salt. They are not intended to provide business advice from which to make informed enterprise decisions. The above comments were made by an insurance guy with small children.

My Vibram Friends Forever

2009-10-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

If you could be best friends with shoes... alright, that was shamefully corny.

Unpacked my Vibram Five Finger Shoes on Sunday. I've been waiting for these for a while. REI has an annual 20% off coupon that comes out every October, and I felt it was only responsible for me to wait til I received it to splurge on these rad shoes.

I wasted barely a day after getting the coupon to go online and buy them.

I wore them a bit here and there on Sunday, but today was my first full day in them, including a 1.8 mile run about 45 minutes ago.

Thing started out a bit rough- for the better part of the day, I couldn't help but notice my big toe crammed in the shoe. The rest of my toes felt fine. I expected this, given the large number of reviews online with the same gist. Supposedly this lessens over time. Overall, not uncomfortable today, but they didn't exactly disappear on my feet.

Now for the exciting news. My run in them tonight was nothing short of fantastic. First, I had the best run I've had since I started running again. I ran 75% farther and still wasn't out of gas. Purely anecdotal of course and obviously placebo, but nonetheless worked in the VFF's favor.

The first thing I noticed was that the VFF's made my calves extremely fatigued- almost to the point of cramping when I slowed to a cool-down walk at the end of the run. I'm going to have some serious beach calves before long.

Secondly, running in VFF's is very different from regular shoes. It feels more raw, a little jolting at first as you figure out your stride and foot strike. It feels like I'm having to relearn how to run- but in a good way. It's not jarring, but you definitely have to be conscious not to heal-strike and land more intentionally on your mid and fore-foot. (hence the extreme calf workout)

The last thing I noticed-my big toes didn't hurt at all during or since the run. These things stretch out and break in pretty quickly. They just feel dang good now (still have them on as I type) There's no driving need to get them off after your done running.

My experience my change, but first impressions are quite good. Infatuated you might say.

Do you have VFF's? Tell me about your experience...

How to Wow!?

2009-10-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

When was the last time a business or friend, or your spouse absolutely BLEW YOU AWAY with WOW?

I think about "wow" a lot and how I can infuse it in the way I do business, love my wife and kids, and be a good friend. Sometimes it feels like a daunting endeavor. You don't want to just mimic a wow experience someone else delivered, but at times, depending on your business or relationships, it's hard to mastermind something on your own.

It's easy to engineer good experiences. Wow ones, take thought and preparation.

Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing provides a great list of "wow" components. Check it out, then act.

http://bit.ly/13rdRR

*Photo Courtesy Drew McLellan www.drewsmarketingminute.com

The florists are catching on...

2009-10-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

Twila Weder, a friend and client of mine owns a successful florist here in town call Expressions in Bloom. (www.inbloom.com) She got the following best practices from a florist forum she follows. Despite the fact there's a glut of tutorials, lists and instruction manuals for social media, it's good stuff to read and review periodically. We're all still learning this new paradigm. A good primer to maybe pass along to a newbie- Chris

1. Avoid automation. People instantly unfollow people who write like bots. Demonstrate that you’re human by writing each of your tweets. It’s one thing if you write them and schedule them to go out later, but don’t publish automatic prescripted tweets.

2. Be personal. Personal tweets let people see who you are. If your tweets are just about your niche, then followers may think you’re just a robot. Lesson: Post occasional tweets that aren’t strictly about your niche.

3. Be a copywriter. To write effective tweets, learn about and use fundamental copywriting techniques. Write tweets so effective that even you would want to click on them.

4. Adopt it. Tweeting is a new form of writing, so make your own conclusions as to the fastest way to improve. But one great way to develop your own writing style is by adopting great techniques you see in others’ posts.

5. Be familiar. After you’ve mastered how to get people to click on your links, standardize your writing style so that your followers become familiar with your voice. When followers know what to expect, reading your tweets can become part of their daily routine.

6. Big message in small ways. If there’s a big event going on – a big launch maybe – the best way to promote it is to direct your followers to your blog. On your blog, you can update as much as you like. Twitter is not the place to publish updates every half hour.

7. Branch out. Use Twitter as a tool in your marketing toolbox, not as a complete business model.

8. Slide in. Twitter is great for opening up dialogue with big names in your niche, even JV (Joint Venture) partners. JV partners are effective marketers who can help launch your products. Ease your way into relationships with them by answering questions they ask in Twitter. In responding to them by tweet, you are helping them gain popularity.

9. Build better business partners. When you follow people you become familiar with their views and interests. Reading people’s tweets will help prepare you for meeting people face-to-face. You will discover common ground for discussion and relationship building.

10. Appreciate Twitter culture. Follow Friday is an example of how to use Twitter quirks to strengthen your relationship with your followers. Follow Friday is when members recommend other Twitterers to follow. Try recommending four or five people who you feel others will get value from following. Participating in Follow Friday is a great way to fit into the Twitter community.

11. Email it, blog it. Include your Twitter URL in the signature of your emails and blog posts.

October 1st Retreat

2009-09-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Me and the Chris Nordyke State Farm team are going off site this thursday. (Francesco's downtown in fact). We'll open the office at 830a like normal, pick up messages and return calls, and then head downtown at 930ish. We'll return to do the same at 4ish.

Our plan is to focus like a laser beam on two things for our business: Improving our followup, both from a sales standpoint and for better service quality, and improve the experience our clients have in our office and over the phone. There's a variety of ways we can unpack those objectives, and we plan to, over the 7 hours or so we have during the retreat.

I'll have my phone with me, and the ringer on loud. If you have an injury accident, a death claim(no joke), or a structure fire, don't hesitate to call it. Here it is: 990-8050. Otherwise we'll check messages and return your call quickly.

Here's to a growing business and an even better experience for our clients... Cheers.

Trade Show *Reminder

2009-09-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

A liar for $12.99?

2009-09-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

I was called a liar yesterday, and it turned out to be an expensive mistake for the Red Lion. Here's the story:

Yesterday afternoon I headed to Eugene for a gathering of agents. We were supposed to have dinner together and then attend a continuing ed meeting today. The dinner plans more or less fell apart, but I was already down there, and unfortunately you can't actually camp inside the Eugene REI. I thought about just driving home and then driving back in the morning, but I decided to call a few hotels instead.

The Red Lion Inn was the first one I called. (At about 845pm) I explained that I might just drive back to Corvallis, but was curious if they had any "last minute" kind of deals. We settled on $79.00- not bad to avoid a 2 hr round trip. The guy at the counter was nice, and also gave me a $20 voucher for breakfast in the morning- now that was a deal! The place was simple, but clean and didn't smell too bad. So far so good.

I have a great time reading the newest Dan Brown book, and end up having a good night sleep. The next morning, I go to the lobby to check out and get breakfast, but realized I left the voucher in the room, along with the room keys. I asked for a new one. The manager looked at his computer, and said he didn't see a voucher on my room receipt.

I told him the man at the desk last night gave me one with my room keys. He then proceeded to scan the computer screen some more, finally looked up and tells me he's sorry but it looks like I got the "walk in" rate and there's no record of me purchasing a breakfast voucher. I guess the guy last night did me a favor by giving me a voucher despite the special cheap rate.

I then realize I didn't have the keys to go back and get it. I asked again if he could just give me a new voucher, that the original one is back in my room. Instead he gives me a new key. I mutter under my breath as I turned to walk away, " so you're saying I'm a liar?". No response. I go back to the room and get the voucher and then proceed to have a decent $12.99 cafeteria-like breakfast. No sign of the guy- apparently he'd moved on, happy that I hadn't been lying.

I'll never stay at the Red Lion Inn again and I won't be urging friends or colleagues to stay there either. All to try and save $12.99. This guy just didn't get it. Even if I had been cheating him out of a $12.99 breakfast, he'd have been better off taking that chance and giving it to me.

Ken Blanchard captures this truth in his book Raving Fans- Don't punish 95% of your clients for the bad deeds of the other 5.

I mentioned my displeasure not just to him, but to one of his staff later. Then, just before typing this I called down there to try to give him one more opportunity to apologize. Apparently he'd gone home. The manager asked if he could help me. I told him that I wanted to give Ian one more opportunity to apologize for the bad experience I had before blogging it. The guy just chuckled and said Ian normally leaves at 3:30.

Too bad. The internet is forever.

Name Your Price- Really? Is that good for you?

2009-08-17T11:56:00.001-07:00

Just heard one of the major auto insurance companies touting their latest promotion "name your own price, only at __________". On the surface, seems like a great idea. Reminds us of the auction-style buying we came to enjoy on E-bay or other auction sites. All of us would probably love to say "I'll pay $50 a month and that's it."

The trouble is, (name of big insurance company, starts with a P) plays by the same rules all the other companies do- We can't change our rates to sell to the highest bidder, or charge what someone wants to pay. So how do they manage it? Well, they take the amount you're willing to pay, and give you a coverage level that corresponds with that number. What this means is you could end up with coverage that feels great in your budget, but doesn't protect you properly. We'd all feel pretty foolish if we took a policy just to save a few bucks, but in the long-run led to bankruptcy because we weren't covered properly when a worst-case scenario materialized.

This ad campaign, in my opinion, is a disservice to clients. What people ought to do is talk to an agent they're comfortable with, to determine what kind of liability limits they need, and what kinds of additional coverage make sense for their situation. Then, if necessary, work backwards from there to get as close to the needed coverages as their budget will bear.

Oh for a local newspaper again...

2009-06-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Myself and a number of community folks got to hear from Mike McInally, the publisher of the Gazette Times in Corvallis at a recent Leadership Corvallis class. Mike graciously donated his time to come speak to our group and put together a fun activity to show us what his news staff goes through on a daily basis to decide what stories make front page. We all had a good time and left with a better understanding of what goes into the daily paper we often times take for granted.

During his talk, Mike admitted to having a strong bias toward local news. I share that bias, and frankly wonder who exactly goes to the GT as a source for anything but local news. One could assume, that even if someone does look to the GT for national/international info, are they likely the demographic (probably over age 65) that the GT really wants to reach out to long term? Do the majority of their advertisers want to reach out to that crowd? Seems to me that the large majority of readers read the GT for local news and info, and then go to their google reader, yahoo news, the huffington post, salon.com , wsj.com or other online venues for their regional, national or international news.

I read the GT online to scan for people I know and local interesting stories. Unfortunately, despite Mike's bias toward local material, over half the paper appears to be supplied by the Associated Press. In fact, today's local business section didn't contain a single local story? Is there not enough going on in Corvallis to fill 5 or 6 pages? Is there not enough staff to manage the different beats for daily stories?

I'm not sure why local papers like ours continue to fill their pages with AP material, but it seems to me going to an all local model would be hugely profitable and generate a great amount of loyalty. Why not allow local people to contribute stories? Why not source local blogs? How much do the AP fees run, and could that instead be used to fund another local reporter?

A great example of this intense local focus working in a small town newspaper comes from the book "Made to Stick". Here's an excerpt.

Dunn, North Caroline, is a small town about 40 miles south of Raleigh. It has 14,000 residents and its workforce is primarily blue-collar. The local diner is packed in the morning with people eating big breakfasts and drinking coffee. Waitresses call you "hon." All in all, Dunn is a pretty normal place, except for one fact: Almost everyone in Dunn reads the local paper, the Daily Record. As a matter of fact, more than everyone in Dunn reads the paper. The Daily Record's penetration in the Dunn community is 112 percent, which is the highest penetration of any newspaper in the country. What explains this remarkable success?

The Dunn Daily Record was founded in 1950 by Hoover Adams. Throughout his tenure as publisher, Adams has believed newspapers need to be relentlessly local in their coverage. In fact, asked why the Daily Record has been so successful, Adams replies: "It's because of three things: Names, names, and names." In 1978, frustrated by what he felt was an insufficient focus on local issues in the paper, he wrote a memo to his staff, explaining his views. "A local newspaper can never get enough local names. I'd happily hire two more typesetters and add two more pages in every edition if we had the names to fill them up."

Look at how Adams communicates his core message. He says he'd hire more typesetters if the reporters could generate enough names. This is forced prioritization: Local focus is more important than minimizing costs! He also speaks in clear, tangible language. Is there a staffer who won't understand what Adams means by "names"? Adams can't possibly be involved in the vast majority of decisions at the paper. But his employees don't suffer from decision paralysis, because Adams is clear: "names, names, and names." Do we run the inspiring human interest story from the wire service, or the boring city council meeting with public testimony on the roadway bond issue? The boring city council story. It has more names, so it wins.

If the GT would head in this direction, I'd be a hardcopy subscriber, daily reader, and more consistent advertiser. Who wouldn't? Hoover Adams was right- people like to read about people and businesses they know. Names, names, names please.

Money Talks: Understanding Your Health Insurance

2009-06-03T17:14:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, June 9th
5:30-6:30pm
Madison Ave Collective

Health insurance can be confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. At Money Talks this month we'll go over the basics of health insurance and how you can be sure you have the right coverage.

Bring your policy paperwork to receive individual consultation during the Q&A session. Post questions beforehand to the Facebook event wall or send them directly to me.

Afterward head over to the Darkside Cinema to catch a 7pm movie. Money Talks attendees will receive FREE admission, courtesy of Chris Nordyke State Farm and the Darkside. Movie listings can be found at www.darksidecinema.com.

Your RSVP (via Facebook or hello@workwithrebecca.com) is appreciated. Attendance is limited to 20 people.

Benton Furniture Share Raffle

2009-06-03T10:16:00.001-07:00

Michelle Maddux sent me this about BFS's big fundraiser for the year. I've enjoyed getting to know Michelle as a client and hearing about a lot of great things Benton Furniture Share does for low income families in our community.

For more info on BFS, go here.

The fundraiser this year is a raffle for 2 tickets to the Oregon Jamboree. Whether you're into country music or not, the tickets routinely sell out and go online for $250 plus EACH. So if you're a country finatic or a crafty Ebayer, support a great cause and take your shot at a pair of tickets.

Here's more info about the Raffle.

To get tickets from Michelle or to donate furniture, call 754-9511

Money Talks for Couples- May 12th

2009-04-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

Most couples don't have the bandwidth to stay in touch when it comes to financial matters. One person handles this, the other handles that. Maybe you've figured out how to make this work. For most of us, it takes being a bit more intentional to really make financial headway.

I'm putting on "Money Talks for Couples" because most of our marriages need a pause button, an excuse to stop, reflect and maybe change tactics. Even the savviest of couples can benefit from a cooperative financial refresher course. Money Talks for Couples will cover topics ranging from understanding your health insurance at work and investing principles, to online personal finance tools and homeowners insurance. Each month we'll have a different focus.

The sessions will begin with a light buffet style dinner from a local restaurant, followed by a 1 hour learning segment, and lastly a 30 minute Q&A. Babysitting will be provided for the duration. Money Talks will be done by 7ish.

The May 12th session will provide an intro to the series, with an overview of family financial planning principles, and a tutorial on Yodlee.com a free personal finance tool.

Future topics will include:
Teaching our kids about Money
Life Insurance- Planning for What Happens Now?
Saving for College- What educational savings accounts make sense for you?
Investing- Maxing out the Roth and keeping your 401K in Check

This month's session will be held at the community center at Willamette Landing. Space is limited to 10 couples, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged. We need to plan for the right amount of childcare and food as well. Please RSVP to Rebecca Badger. You can reach her via Twitter @rebeccabadger, email rebecca@workwithrebecca.com , or via cell phone @ 231-6428.

ROI on Social Media? Not so fast...

2009-04-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me this link. The article is about whether or not social media improves the bottom line. Does it increase sales and productivity or does it ultimately become a time-trap? Having spent most of my career in sales and business development, it immediately piqued my interest. Have a look:

http://snurl.com/fyzzc

The opening of the article is "... companies are struggling to locate enough social-media-generated revenue to justify the time and resources expended on them...". This sort of pragmatic approach doesn't really work when it comes to social media and the business 3.0 paradigm we're moving in to. The whole premise of the article assumes that engaging in social media is an option. I think we're going to see that in coming months and years, it will become a pre-requisite to many, if not most new business relationships.

Here's my take: social media is a by-product of GenX/Yers hungering for more authenticity. The line between our personal lives and professional roles has become permanently blurred. With social media, it's less about the polished image and scripted messaging, and more about the true grit of what someone is bring to the table. Good, bad or ugly, at least you know what you're getting.

Social media personalizes and legitimizes your marketing and branding efforts. Someone has to actually care what you have to say, for your messaging to have impact. Things have changed. There's too much noise for simple TOMA strategies or old skool sales 101 alone. People now want a more personal experience and it begins with social media (and face-time).

Stein makes a great point though, as it relates to sales success. "The challenge is, once a connection has been made through channels such as LinkedIn or Twitter, salespeople still need to have the knowledge and resources to follow through to conversion...If I don't have the skills, the tools, or [the] people...then that sale will never happen," Stein is right, social media doesn't somehow negate the need for good salesmanship or technical ability. Social media is simply the setting in which credibility is established and trust is created.

So there's an insurance guy's take. Social media doesn't sell insurance policies. Social media simply provides a powerful and authentic medium for new relationships, and relationships are where all good sales are made.

School Appreciation Day @ Coffee Culture

2009-03-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick press blurb for the event we're doing tomorrow morning:

Free Coffee Tomorrow!

School Appreciation Day- Free Coffee at Coffee Culture Café (By Woodstocks Pizza) Tuesday, March 10th, 7-8am

Chris Nordyke, a local State Farm Agent, and former Jefferson Jaguar would like to provide free coffee for all Jefferson Elementary staff. This is part of a series of coffee events Chris' agency is holding for schools around Corvallis.

"I prefer to spend our marketing budget on creating fun experiences for people",Chris explained. "These coffee events allow us to thank our current clients, connect with future clients, and show our appreciation to schools in the Corvallis community."

If you're a Jefferson Elementary staff member, simply go to Coffee Culture on March 10th (Tomorrow!). All 16oz coffee drinks are free. Order your favorite- every category and flavor is free.

Come one, come all, the coffee’s on me,

Chris

Positive Writings from Grandpa's Journal

2009-03-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

My late grandfather was a voracious reader (a love I fortunately inherited) and a wonderful motivator. He loved to read books by authors like Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, Robert Schular, Og Mandino and many others. Any books that highlighted peoples ability to acheive via a positive attitude and determination. He was one of those people who everyone loved, because he always made you feel good. He spent most of his career as a teacher here in town and I still have past students remark about the impact he had on them...

Over the years, he compiled excerpts of these books into a handwritten journal. About a year before he died, I asked him if I could have it and he happily turned it over to me. By that point, his Parkinson's had virtually made it impossible to write or read- two things he loved desperately. You could see throughout the journal the progression of his handwriting. It got worse and worse, until the final entry remained unfinished. This book has become a precious possession that I read through periodically, either for my own inspiration or for an opening thought at one of our team meetings.

Periodically I plan on sharing some of his journal entries. Some from authors you might recognize and some sayings or truisms my grandpa coined or picked up over the years.

This first entry is by writer Og Mandino. Og was a World War II pilot and friend of actor Jimmy Stuart. The two flew together in the war. Og later went on to be a writer of business fables, one of them "The Greatest Salesman in the World". In it, he pens the Ten Scrolls of Success. Here they are in all their glory.

Scroll I - Today I begin a new life.
Scroll II - I will greet this day with love in my heart.
Scroll III - I will persist until I succeed.
Scroll IV - I am nature's greatest miracle.
Scroll V - I will live this day as if it is my last.
Scroll VI - Today I will be master of my emotions.
Scroll VII - I will laugh at the world (Keep perspective)
Scroll VIII - Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.
Scroll IX - I will act now, I will act now, I will act now.
Scroll X - I will pray for guidance.

2009-02-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T19:13:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-02-15T18:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-10T06:56:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-07T16:34:00.000-08:00

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.

The Agency Values

2009-01-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

Here's what we finished with:
1) We ask good questions, every time.
2) We always follow up.
3) We create great experiences for our clients and fellow team members.
4) We're transparent and candid with our clients and fellow team members.
5) We are consistently growing and maintain strong profitability.

Over Colorado enroute to Portland

2009-01-03T12:21:00.001-08:00

IMG_0733
Originally uploaded by chrisnordyke

I shot this from my window seat.

Jack's brunch

2009-01-03T12:19:00.001-08:00

IMG_0751
Originally uploaded by chrisnordyke

Working on Agency Values

2008-12-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

I'm motivated to re-tool my business plan for 2009 around a set of core values. Much will remain, but I want to make sure our plan is aligned just right with the values we want to espouse moving ahead. Not the easiest task. Here's what I have so far. I'm going to have my team critique, modify and add to.

Our Agency Values

1) People First, Profits Second
2) We always follow up.
3) We always perservere
4) We're transparent with eachother and clients
5) When we screw up, we quickly own it and make it right
6) We don't take ourselves too seriously
7) We ask good questions, every time.
8) We embrace learning and opportunities to share
9) We care for eachother and our clients
10) We have an abundance mentality

2008 Christmas Letter

2008-12-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

I have so much trouble with these things every year. Business is always good, the kids are always great, and the marriage is always wonderful, right? Ha. Yet again, here we have the proverbial Christmas letter. I tried to keep it as real as possible. Cheers.

Holiday Greetings from the Nordyke's

It's hard to even begin writing a Christmas letter without succumbing to cliche. I'll give it my best shot though (Ha.)

We're rolling in to this Christmas with the lowest balances in our bank accounts that we've seen in several years. Aren't business owners all supposed to be rich? Or what about the old trueism that "if you're looking for your insurance agent, you can find him on the back nine"? We really can't complain though- we've got a warm house, with a mortgage that gets paid on time each month, cupboards full of food, and we're all pretty healthy despite a 3.5 year old that sometimes acts like an alien.

I had two babies this year, fortunately I only had to give birth to one, and it should be profitable long before age 18. More on the agency later. First let me tell you about Jack.

Jack was born on April 24th like a bat out of hell. The entire labor was 1 hr. Cara's water broke around 8:30pm. By the time we had packed and raced up the hill to the hospital, it was 9. And at 9:26 Jack Xander Nordyke was born. Without an epidural- Cara didn't really like that part. I've got to hand it to her though, she was an absolute champ. One of those moments us guys have where we realize our wives are way tougher than we are.

Jack has turned out to be a wonderful kid. I had pretty much resolved that Jack would be our last. Everyone told us after Lily that our day would come, and the second one would be a nightmare. He's been a fantastic sleeper, a good eater, and altogether has a great personality. He's definitely Dad's boy. Whenever I'm around he can't take his eyes off me. That's kind of fun. He's also a huge smiler. Who knows, maybe we'll have another one after all. Or not.

Lily turned three in June. She's doing everything a typical three year old does- talks until mom and dad are going insane, destroys things just for fun, memorizes everything, even the stuff you wish they hadn't, and has a knack for spilling beverages. In addition to that, she's uber-bright. Many times Cara and I hear her say something, and we just look at eachother in disbelief. She's also super affectionate and kind. It's not uncommon for her to meet one of our friends, and upon them leaving to go home, beg them for a hug and kiss. Nearly every shopping excursion or trip out includes her walking up to random people and asking them for their name. It's possible she'll turn into quite the Cutco-selling machine.

Cara has shifted to kind of a nice schedule. It's taken some getting used to, but it allows us to still make a fair amount of money, but have her at home most of the time with me and the kiddos. She now works every Monday from 7a to 7p, and every other Saturday and Sunday, also from 7 to 7. Every other week, it's quite intense, but at least I'm able to be home most of those weekends to jump in and play Mr. Mom. Okay I'd be lying if I didn't admit to a lot of help from my parents, inlaws and my younger sister Lindsey. They have been absolute life-savers. We still have not had to use any non-family daycare, and we feel really fortunate for that.

Cara's also taken up a big interest in sewing. Recently she's been taking a sewing class at OSU. Every Thursday she carts around her Singer and bag of stuff. She's actually got a real talent for it. Our windows have possibly the coolest curtains in Corvallis, and Lily has a super-cute dress or two that Cara has sewn. She's also made several arts and crafts-style dolls and even given a few as gifts, to a warm reception. Lily also started pre-school this year, which was a nice change of pace for Cara, allowing her to grab some me-time, run errands, or just take a breather with only one munchkin in tow. Often times, you'd find her mid-morning or mid afternoon at the craft/fabric store. Then, later in the evening between 8 and 10ish she's be busy over her sewing machine.

Quick intermission- My parents moved from their house of 25 years. They made the mistake of asking us to store their wine fridge until they've moved into their new house. We've had a lot of great wine to enjoy as part of our "storage fee".

As far as me, it's been a really gratifying year. I spent January through March in Tillamook, Oregon, apprenticing with a insurance agent there. He has a couple homes, one in Oceanside, and one in Rockaway Beach, so for the duration I stayed in his 4 bedroom house across from the beach in Rockaway. It was an awesome two months. I took full advantage of my per diem by eating at the Beach Bite almost nightly. Really good fish and chips. The north coast is a really beautiful stretch of scenery. After work each day, I took my camera out and hunted for a view before sunset. Lots of great pictures.

In April I started my second business, and by July 1st, we were officially Chris Nordyke Insurance. Our first six months have gone well, and I've been really fortunate to get some great team members. I'm excited about 2009, with plans to hire another team member, possibly two. If you know someone awesome, send them my way.

In addition to the agency, I continue to spend a lot of time in the community doing not for profit stuff. Probably 25% of my time. It brings me a lot of pleasure and fortunately works well with the type of business I am in. I've continued working on SpeakerLunch and Young Professionals, and recently rotated off the supervisory committee at OSU Federal. With every meeting and event, It mostly feels like hanging out with friends.

The end of the year is a great time for reflection. For us, we find ourselves wanting to be more content with exactly where we are at. Because it's good just the way it is. We would like to have Cara work less. We'd also love to travel this next year. More than anything, we really want to carve out more time with friends and family.

Thanks for enduring our update. We always love reading everyone else's.

You can find Cara on Facebook as caranordyke and via email as caranordyke@gmail.com and via cell phone as 541.990.0732
You can find me just about anywhere online. It all just sort of accumulates. chrisnordyke on Facebook, chrisnordyke on Twitter, chris.nordyke@gmail.com for email, my cell at 541.990.8050, and if you'd like me to help on the insurance side, call me at 541.452.5200 or email me at chris.nordyke.mrrx@statefarm.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

The Nordykes

out of order- how not to kill the sale or delay a friendship

2008-12-20T09:56:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, we all do something that runs counter to our normal mod us operand i. Something that afterward, we end up feeling really embarrassed about. Thursday at Downward Dog was one such night for me.

A group of us decided to get together for happy hour, and 8 or 10 showed up. Good times. I met a few new people, and had a great time hanging with friends, mostly talking business.

One of the newcomers was a new business owner in town. I'd heard about him through some other contacts and had wanted to get in touch with him to find out what he was doing for his business insurance, a specialty of mine.

We got a chance to meet and chat for a minute or two and I popped the question, " by the way, who do you have taking care of your insurance for the office?" I hoped he would say that he'd not taken care of it- a chance for me to help. Unfortunately, he had already set it up as a requirement of the bank he got his loan through.

Normally, this is the point at which I would gracefully offer myself as a resource if he ever had questions, tell him it's great to meet him, and then transition to talking about some community groups he might be interested in getting involved with, talk with him about his family, and maybe introduce him to others at the event. I'd then make a note in my blackberry later, to follow up on the insurance thing a few months from now- hopefully after I've hung out with him at other events between now and then.

Unfortunately, I was stirred by my sales training of old, and went into a little bit of objection-handling, part of sales 101. I explained to him that even though he already has obtained coverage through someone else, that he still has the freedom to look at other quotes. If our coverage makes more sense, we can easily satisfy the banks requirement- we help people with that all the time. I then went in for an easy close and asked if I could follow up with him to take a look at his current coverage. He declined nicely, but the body language was clear- I'd been one of those annoying sales guys. Yikes.

I'm not sure what got into me. I am often guilty about being passionate about what I do. Rarely though do I regress back to my early days of sales 101. I prefer relationship, and then business. Sometimes it can be easy to cross that line from an elevator intro into a sales conversation when you know there is a need.

This whole interaction reminded me of a business trueism- people rarely can be persuaded to your point of view, until they feel like they know you. It would have been impossible for me to handle the guy's objections, because he didn't know yet if he could trust my answers. We still didn't really know eachother.

In retrospect, nothing wrong with getting into business conversations with new people you meet, but it's important to not progress farther than the relationship will allow.

In Between Meetings- A Brainstorming Tool

2008-09-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, I laid in bed, one hand holding the blankets tight up to my neck and the other holding my blackberry. As I was reviewing my task items, I had a brainstorm related to the Leadership Corvallis project I'm in on.

My knee jerk instinct was to email it or twitter it. Unfortunately, not everyone in my project group is following me on twitter, and contextually, most of my twitter followers wouldn't get it, and even if they did, it wouldn't seem twitter-worthy. As far as email, people could reply to all and comment, but that ultimately leads to a mess of email replies from different senders and in the end it will get deleted from the inbox.

It got me thinking about what kind of collaboration tools are available for corporate workgroups or non-profit boards/committees to contribute content via mobile phone.

Imagine this- at our first group meeting, our group leader collects a list of everyone's mobile phone, along with the obligatory email list. Then, the leader registers a unique domain such as pep.ideate.com Once that is set up, as group members think of ideas, comments, talking points, etc, they can simply text (SMS) them to this group domain.

The domain would have similar functionality to Twitter, but instead aggregate all submissions into a group feed. You could even program a feature to the site whereby people can receive SMS updates when someone posts something, and then reply directly to that post. It would look something like this on the feed:

@chris "I think we ought to consider not buying a van- maybe we can develop a pass with the local cab company."
--->Jim " The problem with that is, after the cards are gone, the non-profit will have to fundraise again for more cards.
--->Lauren " True, but the van will have fixed costs that will require additional funds as well- it will be tough to raise enough up front to cover all future costs"
@Lauren "What if we sold advertising to local companies prior to purchasing the van, and then wrap the van with their logos"
--->Carrie " that could work, but we'd have to charge a lot to cover the purchase
and it may be tough with the economy like it is."

Rough example, but you get the idea. When the next board/group meeting rolls around, it's very easy for the chair to summarize the ideas and discussion that happened since the previous meeting, and put together a meaningful agenda for the meeting. All ideas and comments are captured in a timeline- conversational flow. Part twitter, part gmail.

As a standalone solution, I don't think this has legs, but as a bolt on feature for enterprise intranets(Think Jive's Clearspace or MS Sharepoint), I think it could add a lot of value, especially with the proliferation of SMS amongst the 20 and 30 somethings.

Maybe this is mental gymnastics, but I think Twitter is on to something, it just doesn't have the right functionality for group and/or business application.

Cheers

Parent Enhancement Program- an LC Project

2008-09-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Beaver Cab, Community Partners and PEP - The Beaver PEP Pass

I recently attended a chamber of commerce meeting where the two owners of Beaver Cab spoke and talked about their business. I was impressed by their professionalism and passion for safe and clean transportation in Corvallis. They are even in the process of purchasing a hybrid suv to add to their taxi fleet.

Here's the vision and then I'll elaborate.

The Beaver PEP Pass

A card that would be distributed through PEP to young mothers and families in the most need of a transportation resource.
The card would be limited in it's use and provide transportation to certain destination categories such as:

Schools
Hospitals/Doctor's Offices
Grocery Stores
PEP office
Church or Places of Worship
Place of employment

Other restrictions or caveats can be placed on the card, but you get the idea.

The card would provide for 50 one-way trips regardless of the number of passengers or destination and would be punched after each use . Per PEP's discretion, new cards could be handed out based on need.

The Leadership Corvallis Team and PEP would negotiate a fair per trip price with Beaver Cab that would be good for a period of 1 year and then renegotiated each year after. This promotion or fundraising initiative could be easily managed by PEP for future years or as the need arises.

Businesses could sponsor a certain number of cards and can be publicly acknowledged for providing 150(or 500, you fill in the blank) critical rides to young single mothers and low income families in Benton County. Whatever the number, it is a direct way for businesses to impact the community in a positive way.

I think it is a great "cause concept" that businesses might respond well to. It's also a more sustainable option, considering there would be no ongoing insurance, fuel and maintenance costs into perpetuity. It would also allow PEP to focus more on programs/services and less on transportation logistics.

Once this program is set up, it's also an easy fundraiser. As PEP runs out of cards, they simply go to local businesses, perhaps many of the same ones that originally sponsored and communicate the need for more.

No insurance, no gas, no maintenance - (Admittedly a big concern for Nancy)

I spoke to Nancy, the Exec. Director of PEP. She is supportive of it. What do all of you think?

How to peel an egg...without peeling it

2008-07-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

I like eating eggs- a great source of lean protein and good cholesterol, but they can be terribly hard to peel without putting 10% in the trash along with the shell. Here's a great vid that shows a whole new approach. Courtesy of Tim Ferriss.

In the Box

2008-07-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

I got an email from a buddy a couple days ago that I thought was worth sharing. On one hand I shared his indignation, on the other hand, I found myself reflecting on moments where I've participated in similar conversations- at least in my head.

"The problem with some organizations is so clear if they would only step back and listen. This morning I had the dis-pleasure of sitting next to a sales meeting in a local coffee shop. The four people were all dressed in their white shirt/tie and deep in spread sheets. They were sorting through their territory, making plans, and discussing their various kingdoms. What struck me was the language being used which included "can 'em", "she should be gone", and "I didn't even know he was still there." This is a sad commentary on whatever the organization is. These are the people compensated to grow the business AND sustain the business. I would be willing to take a bet not one of their nameless/faceless reps would be caught saying "this a great place to work" or "I am committed to the organization." On the flip side, one of the criteria for me to move up one level where I toil reads "Makes personal sacrifices to achieve milestones and goals." No comment necessary! I look at these cultures and ask, just like one of the well tailored crew asked about an employee in their database, "i can just hit delete, right?"

I read a great book several months ago that has plagued my thoughts since- Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute. It talks about "being in the box" and the box is why I can relate to the comments and attitudes of the sales exec's my buddy listened in on.  Being " in the box", as described in the book, is being so driven by personal goals, outside expectations, ego, and acheivement, that you fail to see people in your organization as other people with the same hang-ups, ambitions, expectations and pressure as you, but instead as objects...or perhaps more as obstacles.

I consider myself a bit of a culture junkie, having read dozens of books by Blanchard, Collins, Peters, Lencioni and the like. I've also often fantasized with other entrepreneurs about creating a company with an idyllic dual-centric focus on customer and employee satisfaction. Unfortunately, I find myself " in the box" more often than I'd like to admit. It's all too easy to succomb to the demands of running a profitable business or meeting corporate objectives and reduce the people around us to resources or liabilities...

After reading Leadership... it's apparent to me that half the battle is recognizing when we're out of the box, and evangelizing that same awareness throughout our teams and/or organizations. Over time, a culture develops of people seeing eachother as peers with the same dreams, ambitions, and ultimately fears, and something new begins to immerge. Instead of turf wars, grandstanding, gossip and backstabbing, a sense of commeraderie, commitment and passion for common purpose takes over.

I highly recommend the book. Here's the link : Leadership and Self-Deception

Bootstrapping it- Tales of a Small Business Start-Up

2008-06-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

I'm a pretty transparent guy- don't have any hangups about talking with people about money and expenses, etc. I've been in the throes of a start up for the last several months, and all my friends know it- it's pretty much all I talk about. Recently a buddy (Paul Shih) said "why don't you blog on this, it'd probably be helpful to others considering a new business."

So here it is, if it's helpful, thank Paul; if it's not, blame Paul.

Let me first begin with some recent surprises. I purchased some signage from a similar business owner in an effort to save money. The signs I bought were L.E.D. lit channel lettered signs- about 2 ft by 13 ft. Retail I'd be looking at around $2800 installed.

So I figure a great offer for a used sign would be $1000. She accepts without much thought, and I hang up thinking I just scored a great deal. I felt great until I called Foress Signs to get a bid to move the signage and re-install at the new office.

Turns out they bill at $115 per hour and they suspect it will take around 7 1/2 hours. Well there's another $862.50. Unfortunately the costs continue to mount. Rules for the shopping center my new office is located at stipulate that the "raceway" (the backing of the sign) matches the color of the building. Too bad, as now the raceway has to be painted- another $270. But unfortunately it still doesn't end there. Above and beyond all of this, I've got to get permits from the City, totalling another $125 or so dollars.

So how much are those signs actually going to cost me? Let's see:

$1000 - great deal for used sign
$862.50- installing great deal
$270- painting the great deal
$125- buying off the City
Total cost:$2257.50

Okay, so still a good deal, maybe not a screamer like I'd planned though. $1200 is a lot of dough when you're starting a small business. Actually it's payroll for one of my part time employees for a month. Ouch.

Stay tuned for another installment.

Cheers

Lily at Wildcat

2008-06-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

I like this picture a lot. I did a bit of editing on it- upped the contrast and saturation a bit and sharpened the image. I like the lines that the rubberized ropes add. A fun picture and a cute girl.

Spontaneous Community...a Twitter experience

2008-06-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

I'm becoming enamored with Twitter. And yet, now a hundred tweets into it, it leaves me wanting more. Or maybe I just wonder what it could really be good for.

A little over a year ago Rebecca Badger, along with myself and 4 or 5 others started Young Professionals of Corvallis. We're now up to almost 300 "members" and regularly have 50-70 people come to our monthly Happy Hour events. It's been great to see young pros from all over the valley connect- people from a lot of different circles of friends. Unfortunately, it feels like now, all of us have a " young pro's circle of friends" now. Meaning, apart from our monthly events, we largely remain disconnected.

This afternoon, I was heading to the Downward Dog to meet some other young pros and to interview a potential board member. With the steering wheel in one hand, and my LG voyager in the other, I hastily tweeted my destination. Why? I had this utopian vision of one of my followers having some free time and hopping in the car to join us at the pub. Wouldn't it have been an interruption? Of course not, or I wouldn't have tweeted it in the first place. Now no one showed up(besides the ones I'd planned on). But I still dream.

One of the trends I've seen, and it's a result of social media's rise, is people blending their personal and professional lives into just, life. This is new for our generation. (the current 20 somethings) We've gotten tired of the inauthentic rhythm of putting on our work hat and then going home and putting on our family hat. At some level, we like the thought of just being and letting things fall where they may.

I like this trend- I think it leads to more genuine business relationships. In fact, I think we need more of it. In this internet era, we can't stop at simply watching the digital ticker tape of what people are up to and what they're blogging. There's a new opportunity in all this to connect, more often, and in a more unscripted, spontaneous way.

Imagine this, I'm at a young pro's or chamber event. I meet another cool business person and later I start following them on Twitter. A few days later I see them tweet that they're going to see Reefer Madness playing at the Majestic on Friday. Great idea. I get a sitter and take my wife. We run into said business person, I meet his/her spouse and we end up enjoying a nightcap at Magenta after the show. Now all of a sudden, instead of a "business" contact, I have just a contact, or... maybe even a friend.

This could actually play out in Corvallis- we're the perfect community to lead in this new medium. How rich would that be to have that kind of interconnectedness in our community?

You look good...

2008-05-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

I had a nice moment at a recent chamber meeting that gave me pause and reminded me of a simple truism in life- People like to be noticed.
I was leaving a Greeters meeting and one of the other business people said, " hey, you did something with your glasses! It looks good!" The fact of the matter was, I had gotten contacts several weeks ago, but no one but family had noticed.
Funny how something that simple can make you feel really good. In the end though, it proved to be great for this person's sales activities. When I needed to get phone lines installed in my office, they were the only one I called- she get's the business. The nice guys/gals don't finish last after all.
I thought about this as I was driving home from that meeting. Perhaps one of the greatest things we can do as entrepreneurs and business builders is not savvy marketing, although that doesn't hurt, it's not having the best looking office or the coolest car- maybe, just maybe it's the how well we notice people and how we make them feel.
It's interesting to me, when I observe my own buying habits, how simple my motivation often is.
I guess that's good news though for us bootstrappers. Maybe we don't need the big ad budget after all.

Bucket List

2008-04-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

So, the movie has made the "10 things to do before I die" kind of list quite vogue. I actually think it's a great exercise and have found myself inspired several times as I've read other's lists. So here's mine:

1. Give away 90% of a year's income and live on 10%.
2. Create a holding company of local businesses that creates opportunities for young hungry entrepreneurs to become business owners.
3. Buy a small hole in the wall in the downtown of Portland as a get-away for Cara and I, family and friends.
4. Take our kids overseas for a 1 year sabbatical.
5. Create six-figure jobs.
6. Have coffee with Jim Sinegal, the founder and CEO of Costco Wholesale and get him to talk at SpeakerLunch.
7. Buy a motorcycle.
8. Learn a new language and put it to use making new friends.
9. Adopt children.
10. Become a full time, anonymous philanthropist.
11. Become mayor of a town I love to live in.
12. Speak before a crowd of thousands.

Young Professionals- One Voice

2008-03-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

Matt Andresen of Turman Financial Group is working on finding a common voice amongst young professionals in the Corvallis area. Corvallis has long gone without the perspective of young pros when it comes to a variety of significant policy decisions.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2KwfePdBRq0qARg2vxf_2fcA_3d_3d

If you're a young pro, take a second, click on the link and answer the questions.

Cheers,
Chris

Lily and the Daffodils

2008-03-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

Lily and the Ladybug

2008-03-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite photos I took recently of my 2 1/2 year old little girl.

Jogging Guide

2008-03-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

So if you're an inventor reading this- we could make a lot of money together. Here's the concept. A portable GPS running guide.

I've started a running routine at least a dozen times during my life. It usually lasts between 2 and 5 workouts, and then I simply head straight to the weights and skip running. The problem- I get bored. It's a given that I'll be gasping for air, my gut will cramp and my muscles will cry out for mercy, but add boredom on top of all that, and I'm done.

The answer is a GPS solution. You've got a lot of sophisticated GPS systems in vehicles today. Cell phones like my Verizon Envy have mapping programs that will give you turn-by-turn directions to the nearest Safeway, dog park, or video store.

Why not create a handheld music player, or bolt on hardware for the iPod to provide randomly generated jogging routes every time a person inputs a distance or time for their workout. Music could play through the headphones, but could mute when directions need to be given "turn left on Circle Blvd. 500 feet ahead."

If iPod hardware is the tech to bolt on to, you could pair this with the Nike Plus system and the unit could log stride data, pace, etc. along with providing turn-by-turn unique jogging directions.
This could be an enormous hit with tri-athletes and marathon runners, as regardless where they are, they could plug in the distance or time(based on their pace for yesterdays run) and a unique running plan is created for them, and they are guided through it while listening to their favorite tunes.

It would also be a major hit with us average folks, as it would put an end to the monotony of jogging. Variety every day of the week.

There are a number of potential manufacturing partners that already have well-established distribution and marketing channels- Suunto, Timex Ironman, Apple, Garmin just to name a few...

Could be the next big thing. You make it, and I'll sell it.

All at risk...

2008-01-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

I met with a client yesterday. We'll call her Mrs. Customer. I had called her earlier in the week. We take care of her homeowners insurance, but not her autos, so I called to see if we could quote her cars.

Yesterday she swung in to drop off statements from her current insurer so we could be sure to quote apples for apples. What I saw startled me.

On two of her vehicles, Mr and Mrs. customer only had liability coverage of 30/60/25! You're probably asking yourself, okay, so what?

Let's quickly take a look at what these numbers mean. The first two number are a person's liability limits for bodily injury. This means that if you injure someone with your vehicle, the insurance company(IC) will pay up to $30,000 and then you pay the rest. If you happen to injure more than one person, the IC will pay up to $60,000 and then you pay the rest. The last number represents your liability coverage for property damage you cause- the IC will pay up to $25,000 and then you pay the rest. (How much do you think the damage would come to if you total one of these new BMW's? Or even just a new Toyota?)

Good insurance companies are great at keeping there promises, but don't expect them to do more than they promised. If you cause more damage than you have coverage, you will pay the rest, either out of your assets or potentially through future wage garnishment. It can be ugly.

Imagine if your cell phone slides off the passenger seat and you reach down to grab it from the footwell. In the process, you accidently veer suddenly into oncoming traffic and strike a Honda Odyssey with a surgeon, his wife and two children in it. If you killed that surgeon in the accident, how much money do you think his spouse is going to want in return? How much would you want if you were the spouse that survived? Everything you could get, right?

.....Oh, sure it's easy to be magnanimous now, it was just a mistake, anyone could have done it, money can't bring your husband back. It's easy to think that now. Time and time again, though, these situations happen, and lawsuits follow. Big lawsuits.

So back to Mrs. Customer. She and her husband are in their 70's. They own their home and property in the country. All their vehicles are paid for and they probably have a pension or cd's that they are living on in their retirement. One could assume their assets at least exceed the $30K of coverage they have in place. Unfortunately, their current agent wasn't asking these questions. In fact, Mrs. Customer admitted to me that they hadn't seen their agent in close to 20 years!

It's important to have a third party review your coverages every 2 or 3 years. They can point out gaps in coverage and offer a different perspective on financial planning. Don't wait til the accident has happened and you're served with papers.

Grand Central Review

2007-12-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

I got turned on to Grand Central by Tim Ferris and his 4 Hour Work Week blog. He saw it as a good productivity tool and a nice way of screening calls- allowing you to only take calls that are important and urgent. I love trying new tech things, so I quickly signed up for the beta. It didn't hurt either that Google recently bought Grand Central. If Google thinks it's cool, I'll give it a try. Google does just about everything right.
I've now been using GC for the last couple months. Any time someone or "something" asks for my phone number, I give out my GC line. When someone calls in, they're greeted and asked to state their name while the Grand Central customer is contacted. Then, when I pick up the call, I first get a message from GC saying that so and so is calling and I get three options: answer the call, send it to voice mail, or and probably the coolest feature, I can send it to voice mail and listen in on the message- if it is urgent, I can interrupt the message and talk to them. It's kind of a shocker for some people the first time. One thing I would like to see, is the ability to customize the greeting when people call. Sometimes I think people don't know what to make of the initial greeting, as it doesn't mention my name at all- sometimes they don't know if they called the right number. It'd be great if I could have a nice sweet female voice to annouce my name and then ask for theirs while she attempts to reach me.
It also has some other interesting features. One unique feature that I've enjoyed is the ability to create personalized voice mail messages for each person in my contact list. ie. " Hey John, sorry I couldn't answer. I'll call you back shortly." I think it's a nice touch. As an entrepreneur, any time I can differentiate myself, it's a good thing. The custom voice message is neat.
GC also allows me to customize which phones ring when certain people call. ie, when my wife calls, I can have both my office phone and my cell phone ring. I can also load my client list in the contact manager and have VIP clients not just go to the office phone, but also ring my cell phone to make it easier for them to contact me.
There's a handful of other novel features, but overall, those are the ones I find most useful. Will I keep using GrandCentral? Absolutely. I'm a bit curious to find out what it's going to cost when it comes out of beta, but as long as it's reasonable, I'll probably stick with it. At least until the next cool beta comes along :)
http://www.grandcentral.com/

Life Insurance

2007-12-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

I just got off the phone with a good friend. Right on the heals of hearing about Scott, my buddy tells me his dad was just diagnosed with a rare form of aggressive Leukemia. Apparently he had a persistent flu, finally went into the doctor, and after just a couple tests- bam, "you have leukemia". Apparently it was a big shocker. He really thought it was simply a virus. He's of a normal weight, has a good health history, doesn't drink or smoke, relatively low stress...
Being in the insurance business, I can't help but immediately think of his wife and whether or not they have life insurance, good health benefits and have their finances in order. Especially with life insurance, having a leukemia diagnosis makes it virtually impossible to secure any protection for his family now. Hopefully they did some planning before this happened.
The horrible thing is, people usually wait until it's too late to take care of their plan.
Don't get caught off guard- take care of your life insurance plan now.

Scott Zimbrick

2007-12-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in class when the email from Joan Wessell hit my desktop. Immediately saddened, I had trouble focusing for the remainder of class. I kept reviewing in my mind all my interactions with Scott. In reality, I didn't know Scott well. However, the few interactions I had with him, left a great impression on me.
My very first interaction with Scott was when I owned Rapid Refill Ink. I had been really involved in the chamber of commerce, and regularly attended all the Greeters meetings. At one of our summer Greeters, Patty Mulder made an announcement that they were looking for people from the business community to run for City Council. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to give her a call.
A few days later, she and Scott Zimbrick took me to lunch at the Dream. This was when I met Scott. I thought it was really neat that the Chief Marketing Officer of a bank would take time out of his day to come talk to some wet-behind-the-ears 24 year old kid about being a city leader. He made me feel important and capable. He encouraged me to run, spent a good hour explaining some of the current politics, his thoughts on where Corvallis needed to go, and what kind of commitment it would be. At the end, he gave me his cell number and encouraged me to call any time with questions.
This was the first of a dozen or so interactions with Scott over the last 4 years. During that time he connected me with donors to raise money for two different campaigns, gave my campaign extra funds he didn't need, met with me over lunches to strategize and stayed late after a debate one night to help me debrief with constructive criticism and tips for the next one. He took the time to help me, when he no doubt had way more important things to do.
Scott had a real pensive quality to him. When Scott said something, it was worthwhile. He didn't seem to waste words very often. I really admired that. He was also a master of diplomacy, without sacrificing his own principles.
Corvallis will remember Scott Zimbrick for many years to come for the contributions he made to our community.
You'll be sorely missed, Scott.

A little knowledge can save a lot of $$

2007-08-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

We have an intern working in our office. She was recently working with a client on their auto insurance and the topic of health insurance came up. The client had their health insurance through the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool (OMIP)
OMIP is a safety net for people that cannot qualify for individual health insurance due to a pre-existing condition. Unfortunately, due to the high risk group it supports, the cost for coverage is significantly higher. This client was paying $436 per month.
As I reviewed this info with our intern, one of the first questions I asked was " why did her previous agent set her up with OMIP?". It turns out this client had a 5 or 6 year bout with anxiety. (It ended almost immediately after retiring, imagine that.)
What this lady's prior agent failed to do was consider all the options. If he or she had dug a little deeper, they would have found out that the anxiety was not only no longer an issue, but was not a future concern for the client. There are plans that exist that specifically exclude mental health and thus she could easily qualify for one of those plans.
Long story short, we ended up writing her a new policy, and her monthly premium went from $436 to $202 per month.
It matters where you go for information. In this case it was worth $2,808 per year. If you need another opinion. Give me a call.

Weekly Manicures?

2007-08-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is sobering. We've all probably read something like this before. Read it now, or bookmark it and read it December 31st when it's time to brainstorm new years resolutions. Cut a few of these out and you can fund your Roth with the savings.
10 Money Drains

An ATM in Your Garage

2007-08-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

Disability Insurance is an unfamiliar topic for most people. I'm doing a brief seminar August 13th that will cover the basics and then some. Feel free to come. Go to my website and click on the "more info" link.