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My presentations are very Seth Godin-ish, having almost no words on the slides, allowing me to work from a “conscious stream of thought.”
I outsource more and more using Virtual Assistants by sending work to places like India where I can get top work done to help me and my clients at a fraction of the cost.
their jaws don’t drop a little bit, you need to think bigger.
Get outside of your comfort zone. Get a little bit nervous. If you don’t have butterflies, no one else will.
During the rollout, it’s important to inform people that some points in the document will happen sooner than others.
And those other points may require things like technologies that will be invented, upgraded, or made affordable along the way and that in this moment don’t exist.
It’s a stackable vision in that sense, building from foundation to floor to walls, and upward...
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You’ll begin with an internal rollout. This involves sharing your Vivid Vision with all of your employees, all of your board members, and anyone inside the walls of the company.
recommend waiting at least a quarter before an external rollout.
Begin by handing everyone a hard copy of the Vivid Vision.
While the reading is being done, the CEO’s job is to look around the room to gauge people’s reactions.
This is not a forum for discussion or debate. This activity exists for employees to simply understand where the CEO wants to lead the organization. In later meetings, there will be opportunities to discuss how each statement will be accomplished, but for now, this material just needs to sink in and provide a source of contemplation and inspiration.
take a look at each sentence and decide what projects need to be tackled next chronologically and what actions are necessary to bring them to fruition.
what your quarter is going to look like, and you can chart that course accordingly with these sentences acting as a map.
Sure enough, about 15% of his company did, in fact, quit.
It’s OK to lose people because of the Vivid Vision. Those aren’t the people you want around in the first place. It’s better to know this on day one, than to spend two years trying to align and inspire them.
The only time it should ever change is if there is literally a massive and unexpected industry transformation or if your company is going through a 90-degree pivot.
This document is a beacon of light, safely guiding your crew.
Before you do this, make sure all your employees understand and embrace it.
What changed? You glimpsed the future. And that’s the purpose of sharing the Vivid Vision with the outside world. Now others will see the same image that you can see, and it inspires and excites them, too.
And while that feeling is certainly real, in actuality, no one else has the ability to execute your ideas.
Remember, you’re only showing them the final product; they have no idea how to get there.
There’s a certain vulnerability that comes with not having all the answers. It’s difficult to stand in front of a room filled with people and make a bold announcement. It’s even more difficult to do this without knowing the answer to the question, “How are you going to make that happen?”
Again, remember that the “how” is not your job. Omniscience is not a prerequisite for being the head of a company.
Trust and morale are at an all-time high.
They have close relationships with us; they trust us and see us as a true partner in the success of their business.
giving us referrals and testimonials and are thrilled to be included in our media interviews.
Because our marketing is a machine with LOTS of creative freedom, it creates incredible buzz among our customers and in the industry. We have positioned BG as the go-to source for B2B franchise expertise. Our efforts are thorough and transparent, and we track ROI on every project.
We have full integration of our CRM, billing, and shipping systems!
Customer service has visibility to every area and has become a...
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We awarded more than 180 new BlueGrace franchises,
They’re so happy they work with BG, that over 50% of our new hires come from employee referrals.
“Giving Grace” program. We have extended our “Cats versus Dogs” program throughout the nation and now supply over 150,000 pounds of food to shelter animals across the United States.
No matter which source of dread you experience, the solution is the same: take it one small step at a time. As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Begin by looking at the initiatives tied to one of these three main areas: core purpose, core values, or BHAG.
Next, look to your human resources to ensure that the human element of your operation is aligned and running smoothly.
and eliminating bad apples to work well.
for your own BHAG, consider all the different products that you’re going to need, and then think about when the different components of it need to be put together. If they are being put together, then think about in what order that must happen—consider when you’ll need to order the materials, for example, or line up the subtrades, or whatever.
To return to the metaphor, there’s nothing sexy about putting down the foundation; it’s much more enticing to think about putting the red knobs on the Wolf stove.
But working backward requires that those knobs be among the final tasks undertaken.
Another setback on the road to accomplishing your three-year plan is the coming-back-to-Earth that can happen after the retreat is over and you’re back in your office and everything literally returns to ...
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“Can you imagine getting our brand name on the side of a Starbucks cup?”
You’ll notice that those statements aren’t just inspirational thoughts but real goals.
You don’t want to change the items on the Vivid Vision during the three-year period unless there has been some massive, seismic shift in your industry or in the world.
My contention has always been that companies that execute this plan will double their revenue in three years or less.
Your job as the CEO is to align and inspire everyone and then get out of the way and let them run.
craft the next Vivid Vision, your confidence level will be exponentially higher, knowing that your team has the potential to gel.
loftier
As a result of this second version, I began to see with greater clarity which opportunities were essential to my goals and which were off course. In fact, decisions that I might have struggled with resolved themselves for the most part. For instance, I had a potential client with whom I enjoyed speaking on the phone, but I knew I would not enjoy coaching him. This person wasn’t in my sweet spot and wasn’t the caliber of client I was aiming for. I knew I wouldn’t engage passionately with him, so I suggested one of my associates would be a better coach. It turned out to be mutually beneficial
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We imbue our lives with greater meaning when our decisions are not just frivolous coin flips, but rather, well-strategized play calls.
