Thanksgiving 2017

For the first time in my life, this Thanksgiving was spent in the house I grew up in with out either of my parents. My dad passed away 5 years ago and my mom has been in the hospital since the beginning of November.

I believe Thanksgiving is a choice that we make in spite of our present circumstances. Choosing thanks leads our heart and mind towards gratitude and away from the pull of darkness especially in the midst of tragedy. This lesson became concrete in my life a few years ago. It was my second birthday since my dad’s passing and the darkness had a grasp over my soul. If you’ve lost a loved one than you know this darkness. It’s a cloud of grief, memory, and sadness that envelopes you. My mentor, John, for several years has taught on the importance of being thankful. One practice is making a list of specific things you are thankful for in life. So, that October 9th, in my car and tired of that darkness, I decided to make my list (see picture from my journal) of thanks.

Losing my dad has been one the toughest experiences in my life, but there has been much good as well. Practicing gratitude, whether through a list or morning ritual, allows us to gain perspective and break away from the hold that emotions have over the truth. So many times, I allow how I feel in the moment to rule over what I know to be true. While death is hard, I found that in giving thanks there are so many good things in my life. For me, it was the debit of losing my dad but the credits of a closer family, incredible wife, my daughter waiting to be born, etc.

It’s almost impossible that when you make and read your list of thanks to feel your heart and mind being lead to the light. That’s gratitude.

Being thankful is a spark of fire in the darkness that bleeds out the night.

No matter your present circumstances, I hope you choose thankfulness. It will take disciple and fortitude, but in that choice you make – you will find freedom in gratitude and escape from the darkness.

My team is very talented, but with no software development experience, we had a lot to learn. But, we did it! In only nine months, we launched a cloud-based tax-credit software. Not only that, the product became a success, and we have grown rapidly.
We learned 10 valuable lessons about launching a software product. I would like to share them with you:

Lesson One—Double that budget

Be aware, development takes twice as long and costs twice as much than you think.  Beyond development costs are the security and privacy abilities of the product itself. If a customer does not feel your product is safe, or if you handle their data irresponsibly, they’ll leave forever. Prepare your best budget and best timeline. Then, double it.

Lesson Two—Prioritize

Knowing lesson one, take the time to intentionally map out the mission-critical core features that provide clients the most value.  Identify the items that solve the market problem. Develop those first.  Be humble enough to put some of your likes aside for the needs that matter most to the end user.

Lesson Three—Launch early

Guy Kawasaki said “if you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your software, you’ve launched too late.” While I would not say I’m embarrassed by our first version, I know it’s not perfect visually and not developed enough.  That’s okay; I know it will happen in time.

Lesson Four—Break the system

The only thing that can help temper your fear of launching your product is to test, retest, and test some more. There will be bugs, so try to break the system before it gets launched.  Do everything wrong.  What can go wrong, will go wrong.  Your clients will do things wrong, they will enter data incorrectly, and do things they shouldn’t. Be prepared.

Lesson Five—Be flexible and pivot

One of things I think we’ve gotten right in this venture is that we were flexible and moved as needed with development.  You must be willing to re-evaluate what’s in development, what’s next, and what’s the best item / feature at any given moment for the customer.  Not only should you be establishing what has the most impact, but you should also be measuring the development effort involved, moving items up and down the list.  For example, two weeks ago we had a client agree to move forward if we had a particular feature in our system.  This client represented over a 150% growth, but the development feature was at the bottom of the priority list. That changed within a hour of that client meeting.

Lesson Six—Engagement is priority number one

The biggest failure we’ve had as a startup is focusing too much on just signing new clients.  I can tell you with authority: this is a direction that comes from any leadership.  If we had focused on nailing client engagement from the start, our numbers would be 50%-100% bigger.  Don’t overlook how clients are using, or not using, your system.

Lesson Seven—Select a great partner

If you aren’t developing your software internally, you need to choose the right partner. We found a great partner, Codesmith, and it made all the difference. Make no mistake, the wrong partner can sink your project. Choose a partner that is committed to you, honest, and has the capabilities to take your product where you ultimately want to go.

When selecting a partner, make sure you:

• Like them as people. This is long-term relationship and you’ll be working with them a great deal.
• Accurately assess their capabilities.
• Select a vendor that is honest and will advocate for your success. Are they saying they are experts at everything? That’s a red flag. Are they willing to turn down your business if you aren’t a good fit? If no, another red flag.

Lesson Eight—Create Wins

This is a long process with many challenges. Celebrate often. When you and your team overcome the challenges, pause and enjoy the milestone. Relationships matter and they need to be nurtured. Don’t undermine your foundation, which is your people. This includes your vendors! Stay on their good side and reap the long-term benefits.

Lesson Nine—The first shall be last

At the beginning of this journey, I built up in my mind that software integrations with national partners was the achievement I wanted to claim. It was sexy and fun to talk about. The numbers were game-changing and I was excited about innovating.
But the deals weren’t closing.

I had to make a decision. Is this about my aspirations or serving customers and setting my team up for success?

So, instead of going from the top down, we went from the bottom up.  We focused on people that can sell our tool without a legal department or corporate bureaucracy in the way. Then, we reallocated time to focus on customer service, on-boarding, and engagement.

Go figure, it worked.  In the last 30 days, we’ve added 500% more customers.

Lesson Ten—Choose the right market

Launching a startup is already difficult, so don’t enter a crowded market. We are very blessed to operate in a market with virtually no innovation occurring. Nearly a year after our launch, we are still the only player offering software. By entering the right market, we gained two advantages:
We gained a first mover advantage. As we continue to iterate and improve, it will be very difficult for the competition to catch up.
It gave us the time we needed to make mistakes that were inevitable given our lack of software experience.
Conclusion

Software is powerful. It is already transforming our business. With a few integrations, the software segment of our business can be 2-10X our service business revenue in only 12-24 months! Think about that. It is allowing us to scale in ways we would have never imagined while maintaining the excellent service we pride ourselves on.

What risks should you be taking? What idea should you try to execute that can have significant impact.

As leaders, we have two primary jobs. The first is to determine the right ideas to invest in. The second is executing on those ideas.  The heavy responsibility of turning ideas into reality falls squarely on our shoulders. It is our responsibility to deliver the products and services that provide the value required to consistently meet payroll. If you are a leader who has too little time and is completely overwhelmed, I can relate. It is an undeniable truth that the pace of business is increasing daily. However, with the right tools, you can stay ahead of the curve. In this post, I’ll show you how I keep pace using Evernote and how you can do the same.

Capture

The beauty of Evernote is its flexibility to capture nearly any piece of information on the fly.  You can:

• Forward any email into Evernote
• Take pictures of important items like notes or diagrams on whiteboards
• Send existing pictures to Evernote or take new pictures in Evernote itself
• Create voice recordings
• Capture web pages using Evernote’s Web Clipper 
• Create Video
• Save PDF docs, PowerPoint presentations, and nearly any file to Evernote

I find capturing ideas with Evernote incredibly helpful in the following situations:

Light bulb moments

Articles and books

Contacts

Meetings

Communication

In my experience, great communication is critical to execution. Without effective communication, teams don’t work well. I use Evernote to create highly professional presentations, draft communications for employees and clients using saved templates, and even as a voice recorder while I am driving. I can use “notebook links” to create a table of contents for an ebook, or larger presentation.

Evernote is also great for editing, allowing me to provide and receive feedback through its note annotation tools. It’s all seamless and incredibly effective. In short, Evernote has helped me become a better leader through better communication.

Project Management

At any given time, I have several projects in process. I typically use a notebook or series of notebooks for each project. With Evernote, I am able to share projects, share tasks associated with projects, and provide annotated feedback to my team. I am able to collaborate with my team like never before. Because I know everything is captured in Evernote, I have the complete visibility needed to move the project forward.

I hope this overview helps you get up to speed faster on Evernote. Stay tuned. In future posts, I will delve more into the details about my workflow for each area: capturing, organizing, and execution.

BONUS MATERIAL

Have you ever had a feeling you could do more? Accomplish more? Congratulations, leaders are supposed to have that feeling. I’ll address the “problem” you face when you actually do have untapped leadership capacity.

I’ll start by saying congratulations again. You have more leadership horsepower to invest in the world! This is a very good problem to have. Many leaders find themselves unable to execute on the demands and expectations already placed on them. If you can do that, you’re way ahead of the game.

If you’re wrestling with the issue of excess leadership capacity, I have four suggestions.

Execute your current responsibilities with excellence. How was your last performance review? Are you consistently receiving the highest possible ratings? If not, you may have work to do before you begin to expand your reach beyond your current role. If you’re not receiving performance reviews, or you want additional perspective, conduct your own 360 survey. I’ve been doing them for about 30 years.

Proactively look for ways to add value beyond your role. If you’re nailing your current assignment, look around. Where in your organization could you lend a hand? Perhaps a cross-functional team, or maybe there’s a special project you could volunteer to help deliver. Or, maybe you could mentor young leaders. The list of options before you is long. Start looking around.

Consider additional education. I know this answer is not for everyone, and some of you have  many years of graduate and post-graduate education. However, for some leaders an MBA or even an MFA makes a lot of sense. (If the idea of an MFA sounds strange, I recommend you read the first four chapters of Dan Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind.) Or, maybe you can prepare yourself for opportunities in an area in which you don’t currently have the educational background required.

Look outside your organization for places to use your extra capacity.This last suggestion may be what you’ve been looking for. Assuming you’re crushing it within your organization, and you still have untapped capacity, look outside. Several times during my career I’ve suggested this with great effect. Perhaps you should serve on a non-profit board, or volunteer for a local charity. I know one leader who led a global ministry with the excess leadership capacity his organization didn’t need!

If you find yourself struggling with the issue of excess leadership capacity at some point in your career, you are asking the right question. Our leadership is really an issue of stewardship. I believe we’re accountable for how we use it.

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Mark Miller, Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness for Chick-fil-A, believes that leadership is not something that’s exclusive; within the grasp of an elite few, but beyond the reach of everyone else.  In the tenth anniversary edition of The Secret, Miller reminds readers of a seemingly contradictory concept: to lead is to serve. With more than 600,000 books in print, Mark has been surprised by the response and delighted to serve leaders through his writing.

The 10^th anniversary edition of The Secret will be released September 2, 2014.

Do you ever feel like this guy?

I found myself in this position about a year ago albeit with a full head of hair.  With a baby on the way (here now!), a growing business that I needed to scale, a family I want to spend more time with, and a recently purchased home, I had to find a way to get more done in 24 hours. 

Using a virtual assistant is something I had been considering, because of Michael Hyatt‘s leadership in this area, so I contacted one of the companies he recommends, eaHelp.com.

My virtual assistant has revolutionized my life and business. I wholeheartedly recommend eaHelp.com. I wish I had started sooner.

Recently, I was interviewed by eaHelp.com for their podcast. You can find a link to the interview below. In this interview, I share about the following:

Why and how I use my virtual assistant.

Finding the courage and honesty to delegate tasks we are weakest in.

Overcoming the fear of delegating time drainers like email. 

The importance of dreaming of what could be if you had help. 

As a leader, husband, and father, I couldn’t afford to plateau. You can’t either.  This is the truth:

[Tweet “Leaders, for your organization to grow, you need help and you need to make others successful.”]

Watch the 14 minute podcast by clicking the image below. I hope you learn from my experience.

I’ve thought and reflected about making decisions, legacy, and the future over the last 10 years in my journey in leadership.  The above quote has greatly affected the trajectory of my life. My question for you is this: are you authoring your own story?

This blog is where I want to share my story, because I want to help others with their own story and to clarify the catalysts and lessons of my own story. Whether it was at home or work, falling in love, or attending @catalystleader, at some point in the last year I’ve come to to the conclusion that being present in the moment requires being intentional about the choices we make every day.

I never really used the word intentional in my vocabulary until about 12 months ago.  It didn’t seem that big of a moment, but looking back it will be one that will define the rest of my life.  We all enter relationships with certain ideas or notions.  I did the same.  Never in the context of being ‘intentional’, but in my heart I wanted this relationship to be a great story, one better than the rest.  This vision and idea of a better story drove me to make choices that were intentional.

Being intentional isn’t easy, but being intentional requires vision in 2 areas:  your heart and your story.

Heart

One of my favorite movie characters is Ballium from Kingdom of Heaven.  Ballium believes that a man isn’t a man if he doesn’t make the world better.  All of his actions and heroics are driven by the belief.  He makes choices to protect and save the kingdom because he believes in his heart that this is his purpose.  Each of us has a purpose and certain gifts.  When you make choices from purpose that strong and clear, you will find yourself living intentionally.

Story

Story is a powerful theme and motivator. Every story has a character that overcomes conflict to achieve and resolve something.  When you know the story you want to tell you make decisions that drive the story – that is living with intention. Every story has twists and turns, but you adapt & make changes to make it to the next scene.  If you’re every feeling stuck or wondering what choice to make, play the next scene of your story out. My mentor (@jcrichie) gave me this piece of wisdom and it has been incredibly helpful in being intentional about my own story.

Intentional leadership isn’t easy and isn’t just a catch phrase.  It’s a tool and compass to start every day with purpose to make better choices.  Choices that allow you and me to be an intentional leader at work and home.

How are you living intentionally?