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Do You Practice Happy?

We hold the key to happiness. Each and everyone of us decides who is happy. Most important, we  determine our own happiness.

In a few weeks, my next book, Lead With Your Heart, arrives at the printers and soon thereafter hits the bookstores. I wrote the book to offer a new business model; one that begins and ends with people, not numbers. In short, my 35 years experience in business and a few additional decades experiencing life has left me with one over-riding principal: We spend too much time chasing numbers and not enough time creating great experiences for our customers, our clients, our employees, our family, our friends and ourselves.

Creating happiness is not about making people laugh, although it can be. It is about practicing a life philosophy based on a simple principal that has been around for thousands of years--love others as you want them to love you (sort of a New Testament version of an Old Testament saying). I use the "word" love instead of "treat" because "love" is the most powerful word in any language. So powerful in fact that no other word carries so much meaning in our lives. And because happiness must be practiced, it must be learned and shared to make it live, and because I believe that without happiness, without experiences that make us and everyone around us feel honored, respected, cared about and important, we cannot become whole. We cannot be at peace with ourselves and those around us. We cannot make a lasting difference that changes something or someone for the better.

In business when you Lead With Your Heart, loving others follows certain principals that look like this:

1. Always put people first, and profits will follow.
2. Always treat people with respect and dignity.
3. Always tell the truth.
4. Always offer a product or service that is second to none.
5. Always create great people experiences around everything your business says and does.
6. Always back up your products and services with a guaranty.
7. Always create a business culture and climate that honors everyone and encourages freedom to be creative, innovative, kind and caring.
8. Always see opportunities to get better and to be better.
9. Always create business values that represent life rules for living in a community that if any one of them went away, your business would change for the worse.
10. Always live those values.
11. Always practice happiness.

To make these things alive, powerful, life altering and business changing, they must be practiced and authentic, not merely spoken or written or created to sell product. Every day our business must do everything it can to reach out to people and make their day better because our business exists. It doesn't matter whether or not we sell coffee, beads, luxury items, or widgets, the people who work with us, who live in our community, who buy from us or who we touch in any way must gain from our existence.

If we built our business around a people-first mode and at some point we went away, we would be missed. That would be a legacy we could be proud of.

P.S. Writing a post such as this is meant to be thought-provoking and inspirational. In such a short space, we cannot adequately define our terms our explain the reasoning behind principals. I hope you can read this in that frame of mind, and feel free to agree or argue with or about any of the points made. That is what being open to learning requires: A discussion of ideas is not a discussion if it exists only as a monologue.

Can't We All Just Get Along Redux

If a Polar Bear and a Huskie meet in the wild what happens?

Animals at Play Posted on YouTube by speakingoffaith

In these photos, there is much for all of us to learn.

Experiences Should be Special

In the corporate world we are given paid vacations--two weeks up to about six weeks. I was one who  always took all the days I had coming. Wanted to, no needed to get away. And I enjoyed my vacation, often traveling to an exotic island such as Oahu or Maui or flying off to Italy or France.

Things are different today. I am an entrepreneur. No more paid vacations. I get away on my dime. But something else is different, as well. I still want to get away, but I don't really need to. So every year, on Labor Day weekend, my wife Kay and I take off for Newport RI. This year, we are leaving a day early, so it is a five-day vacation. It seems so special to me because it is something I want, instead of something I need. And Newport always exceeds my expectations.

I wonder. Do clients and customers feel that way when we not only fulfill their needs but exceed their wants by making the experience special?

P.S. Check out Seth's Post called Loss vs. Gain to see another perspective on what makes something special.

Collaboration Works Better Than Egotism

I speak and write frequently about creating happiness, which means doing everything we can to offer employees, customers, friends, neighbors and family great experiences, both in our personal and our business lives. Not only does doing so result in a better world, it also grows businesses by developing passionate employees and customers, who want to work with us and who want to hire us or buy our products and services.

Today, I want to thank my current clients and present them with The Heart Award. Because of my commitment to confidentiality, I can't name the clients, but they are readers and they know who they are. Why would I do such a thing with an award designed to be presented rarely and only to those well-deserving individuals and businesses who give back?

The answer is simple: These clients practice happiness. They are trustworthy, honest, credible and fair. They believe in collaboration, they listen and they work with us to create a better result than either of us--client or consultant--could produce on our own.

The most recent example demonstrating the greatness of collaboration arrived in my e-mail this morning. Last week, I sent the first draft of copy for review. For this client, we are building a web site, and the copy is critical to delivering the message to its narrowly targeted audience. Never an easy thing to do. In addition, the copy must work hand-in-hand with the client's design vision, which we will begin creating in the next week or two.

Having spent days researching, thinking and then writing the copy, it would be easy to think of it as my child. That would be a huge mistake. Just as a single person cannot produce a baby, neither can a single writer produce great copy. My job, as I see it, is to give the best copy I can to my client, so that they can easily make changes that achieve their vision. And that is exactly what happened. I captured the essence, the client made it their's.

At the end of the day, it isn't about our work (which always strives for highest-quality possible), it is about our client's happiness and results. It is about  creating a piece of work that touches the audience. That is best done collaboratively, between consultant and client.

So to all my clients this summer, thank you for getting it and for being the best you can be. I hope our work exceeds your wants, needs and expectations, and that we walk away at the end of the projects having achieved happiness.

How Will You or Your Business Make Someone's Life Better This Weekend?

Growing a business and personal growth have much in common. The quickest way to success is through  others. And what better way to reach another than to make their lives better or to help them have a great experience? How will you or your business do that between now and Monday? Will you...

1. Hug your kids and tell them they are special?
2. Kiss your wife or significant other and say you love them?
3. Reach out to a friend or a neighbor in some way?
4. Call a family member just to say hi and ask how they are doing?
5. Tell a customer or a client how much you appreciate their business?
6. Help a customer or client meet a special want or need?
7. Volunteer in your community?

Share a comment to tell us how you will contribute to creating happiness this weekend, or next week, or next month, or next year.

Create A Great Experience and Build Your Business

Subtitle: Make A Kid Laugh and the Planet Becomes A Better Place

This is a story about growing a business and creating experiences that result in happiness, defined simply as having a great experience. The story starts at my house and takes place in a brook, a forested back yard, and a deck. My wife and I play the role of hosts (business) in this story, and our Sicilian side of the family play the role of audience (customers).

Let the story begin. Oh, before we do, the story is in pictures only. You need to provide the words and the messages. We also need a tagline, several key messages, a target audience, a branding strategy and tactics, and a marketing strategy and tactics. Would the messages these pictures send work with any companies you know? Can or should we tell marketing stories in pictures without words?

 

Everyone Needs A Cheerleader

Running a business, going to a job, working for a degree, or being a house parent can be taxing, frustrating, and sometimes depressing. That's why everyone needs their own cheerleader. Mine is Emily.

Other than re-arranging her toys, her litter, and her food, she doesn't have many business skills. But she does one very important job in my office and my home: She makes me laugh and feel loved 24/7/365.

Her favorite way to cheer me up is to carry in her mouth any object that is movable, from a (live) mouse (they no longer visit), to a Swifter duster, to a ball. Then, she drops it nearby, looks at me with her big green eyes, and seems to say "Want to play?"

If I'm feeling blue, I can find her waiting for her pets and scratches in my inbox, in a window, on the back of a couch, or under the bedspread. My first touch usually elicits a tiny grunt, but then she gives in to our pleasures and allows me to get rid of the blues though her soft hair. She keeps me young with our chasing game, and never complains if I work late. In fact, she loves working overtime.

Emily is my personal cheerleader. If you don't have one, get one today. If you do have one, share with us.

Where Has Starbucks Steam Gone?

I make no secret of my business philosophy: People always come first and we sell experiences, not products and services. My philosophy is decades old but was sharpened during my tenure at Starbucks. Now I look back at my Starbucks experience and ask: Has the steam gone out of Starbucks?

Chairman and Starbucks guru and passion master Howard Schultz implies all is not well in Latte Land, as reported in Starbucks Gossip on Feb. 23, 2007. In an e-mail he says, "we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience." (See the entire e-mail below.)

Starbucks grew its brand by sourcing the best coffee beans in the world but by selling the Third Place Experience. Not home, not the office, but a place to relax and get away in the old coffee house tradition. But Starbucks has made some sacrifices in exchange for rapid growth:

1. More than a decade ago, it went to modular designs, allowing stores to be set up overnight and celebrate their grand openings in the mornings.
2. Starbucks installed automatic espresso machines to reduce line times.
3. Its packaging changed from fresh beans scooped from bins into bags to pre-packaged flavor-locked bags, again speeding up service and allowing self-serve for customers.

What has this done to the customer experience?

1. Modular designs mean a lackluster sameness to the stores. Character and local charm have gone missing
2. Baristas are automatons, meaning they no longer need to pull shots or to understand that the perfect shot is pulled between 18 and 23 seconds, and that the shot can never be allow to stand. And that their is a right way and a wrong way to steam. Not only are the sights and sounds gone, but so is the show.
3. The aroma of beans and pulled shots is gone. Starbucks no longer possesses its wonderful coffee smell.

Howard wants the experience back. But will a decade of changing the experience meet the new customers' needs of speed? And will the customers who left return? The brand has changed: Can it return to where it was in the mid-'90s.

Here is Howard's e-mail:

From: Howard Schultz
Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
To: Jim Donald
Cc: Anne Saunders; Dave Pace; Dorothy Kim; Gerry Lopez; Jim Alling; Ken Lombard; Martin Coles; Michael Casey; Michelle Gass; Paula Boggs; Sandra Taylor

Subject: The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience

"As you prepare for the FY 08 strategic planning process, I want to share some of my thoughts with you.

"Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.

"Many of these decisions were probably right at the time, and on their own merit would not have created the dilution of the experience; but in this case, the sum is much greater and, unfortunately, much more damaging than the individual pieces. For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista. This, coupled with the need for fresh roasted coffee in every North America city and every international market, moved us toward the decision and the need for flavor locked packaging. Again, the right decision at the right time, and once again I believe we overlooked the cause and the affect of flavor lock in our stores. We achieved fresh roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aroma -- perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal we had in our stores; the loss of our people scooping fresh coffee from the bins and grinding it fresh in front of the customer, and once again stripping the store of tradition and our heritage? Then we moved to store design. Clearly we have had to streamline store design to gain efficiencies of scale and to make sure we had the ROI on sales to investment ratios that would satisfy the financial side of our business. However, one of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store. Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee. In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee. You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores. The merchandise, more art than science, is far removed from being the merchant that I believe we can be and certainly at a minimum should support the foundation of our coffee heritage. Some stores don't have coffee grinders, French presses from Bodum, or even coffee filters.

"Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself, but we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it's time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience. While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated.

"I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.

"Finally, I would like to acknowledge all that you do for Starbucks. Without your passion and commitment, we would not be where we are today.

"Onward…"

Check out Seth's Blog for another CEO feeling similarly.

Values Don't Belong on a Shelf

The foundation of success is made up of values, ethics and a great passion to grow our business in  ways that make the world a better place. If money is our first priority, I don’t think we will succeed, unless our only measure of success comes in the form of government-issued paper.

By developing strong bonds through relationship-building based on values and trust, our business will benefit financially and we begin the long, hard process of converting customers into loyal customers, which results in long-term positive impact and payback for our business.

To create values, we begin by asking a few questions:

1. Do people believe what we say and do we say what we mean?

2. Is our business built on values that represent the heart and soul of the founders and leaders of the business?

3. Does the corporate culture buy into those values?

4. And do the values represent core beliefs held by the executives and founders that reach beyond profit?

5. Why should we expect anyone to buy our products or services if they cannot trust us to be honest and caring human beings?

When we read headlines and articles that indicate a business acted in a dishonest or untrustworthy way,  all our businesses suffer. In my opinion, if you haven't declared your business values, don't wait another minute to do so.

The first step is to identify the values on which the company will run. These values will never change and they must represent the true and authentic values of every owner and founder of the business. Everything that follows will align with these values. The values should be printed on every plan—including revised business plans, organizational strategic plans and departmental strategic plans. And those values should be used to evaluate everything the business says and does, before we say and do anything.

When we build our business on values and insist that everything we do is filtered through those values, we then build trust, credibility, and customer loyalty through our behavior.

In conclusion, success and business growth revolve around these 10 critical factors, with values the most important:

1. Credibility, Trust and Values
2. Relationships and Partnerships
3. Brand Development and Brand Management
4. Business Culture and Diversity
5. Under Promising and Over Delivering
6. People-Centrism
7. Planning
8. Visionary Thinking, Calculated Risk Taking, Strategic Thinking and Doing What You Do Best
9. Sales and Marketing
10. Listening, Solving and Meeting Real Needs

These things will create a business that we can be proud of.

Bikers & Starbucks: Who Would Have Thunk It?

A crowd of motorcycles, from Triumphs to Harleys to Hondas, cool quietly in front of Starbucks in one of Connecticut's most upscale, suburban town centers....

West Hartford is not for the weak of wallet, and neither is Starbucks. But inside the cafe sit bearded, braided and bold men, proud of their colors and conversing passionately about girls and bikes while sipping espresso. What gives?

Explains one biker, there just aren't many places in communities anymore where people can get together and just talk. Another speaks the Starbucks mantra: It isn't work, it isn't home (and it isn't a bar).

Mind you, these words are not being read from a corporate brochure or being spoken by a Starbucks agent of marketing. They are words out of customers’ mouths. These customers are brand evangelists spreading positive word of mouth (WOM).

This is a marketer's dream come true. Customers are quoting the Starbucks purpose, the Third Place Experience built around “One cup of coffee, one customer at a time.”

I often write and talk about defining success as exceeding a customer's wants, needs and desires by creating great customer (and employee) experiences. I call it "The Happiness Quotient." Starbucks does it better than most. We should all aspire to create great people experiences. It’s good for people and good for business.