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Why You Should Be Using Drip Campaigns

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When someone subscribes to your email list, it’s important to capture their newfound interest by making a strong connection. The best marketers use drip campaigns to quickly interact with new fans in a short period of time.

A drip campaign is an automated series of emails sent to your subscribers. The emails are sent on a specific timeline or based on user actions. There’s no denying their effectiveness. The email marketing app Emma found that targeted emails are far more likely to earn clicks than general broadcast emails. In fact, links in drip emails are clicked 119% more often.

Drip campaigns typically begin with a welcome email that reminds the fan how they signed up and what they can expect from you. Further emails can take different shapes depending on your goals. A campaign may introduce your fans to your best content or answer common questions about your product or service. Some campaigns are almost entirely educational, designed to deliver tremendous value to subscribers.

\"Drip

The most common structure of drip campaigns is called lead nurturing: an email course that solves a subscriber’s problem. The fan signs up on your website because he’s interested in the information you promise. They involve five to seven emails with a two-day delay between each. Marketing automation experts at Drip report that lead nurturing creates 50% more customers ready to buy.

Throughout the emails, the campaign offers information that soothes the reader’s pain points. Each email should end with a call to action, usually a link to additional content or offers on your website.

Toward the end of the course, position your product or service as a logical solution to the problem with calls to action that encourage the visitor to sign up. By this point, you should have offered enough value that the reader considers you an expert.

As you begin to craft your email series, use these guidelines.

DO understand your reader. You have to create your copy to solve their problems. First, you have to know what their problems are.

DON’T be sales-y right away. If you hit your fan too hard with sales copy, you’ll turn them off from the experience. You must provide value first.

DO end every email with a call to action. Just because they’re done reading doesn’t mean they’re done engaging. This can be a link to a blog post, a social action (like, share, follow, etc.), or a link to a landing page.

DON’T rush the reader down the buyer’s journey. For instance, content that compares your service to competitors should come after you convince the user they need a service like yours in the first place.

DO move the user into your broadcast list once the drip campaign has completed. Most email marketing applications offer procedures like this.

We\’d love to hear your feedback on drip campaigns – on successes, failures, or even programs that you like or dislike.

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Banks and the social media compliance debate

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We work with several financial institutions, and we know that one of their main concerns is compliance – How do you make sure that what you’re saying in your Facebook or Twitter feeds meets all of the rules, regulations, and guidelines of the financial industry? Compliance can be a headache, but that shouldn’t stop you having a good social media presence.

We’ve got a solution we think you’ll love. Here’s why you should consider adding social media and social selling to your marketing.

The way to make sure your posts are compliant is to be proactive – You need to create and manage a proper editorial calendar and have a solid review process for your content. Run your content calendar, posts, blogs, and social media strategy by your compliance department.

They’ll likely provide some advice on how to phrase your posts, what to add, and what to remove. Make sure the person responsible for your social media profiles has regular conversations and check-ins with your compliance team. That way you can ensure everything your publishing has a seal of approval.

As a local bank or credit union, you’ve built up a great reputation in your area. Targeted marketing is a good way to get noticed and to encourage personal and business customers to come to you, but that’s only half the story. If you want more chances to sell your financial products and services, you need to seek out and act on opportunities — We’ll explore exactly how you can do that.

If you’re a commercial lender, your main purpose is lending money to expanding businesses. In addition to income from loans, you can upsell other products like financial protection, insurance, retirement planning, and more. The question is, how do you find those expanding businesses in the first place?

Fortunately, there’s some good technology, which, combined with some tips and tricks, can help you create some powerful leads for your banking services. In this article we’ll cover three main areas – LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Twitter, and other social media.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

As the largest social network for professionals, LinkedIn is already a strong resource for businesses. Hopefully you’re already making the most of your bank’s LinkedIn presence, but today we’re going to focus on one specific part of the platform, LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator lets you collect together prospects from across all of LinkedIn, whether you’re connected to them yet or not. It has built in algorithms to help you identify potential clients and businesses who might be in need of your bank’s financial products. It helps you understand where people are changing roles, when organizations are launching new initiatives, and how a business posts about any changes.

You can bring all of this information together in one place so you can start having informed, relevant conversations with the people that matter — The decision makers in your target businesses. It helps you put context around these conversations too, building trust with your potential clients. Combine this with insights into your professional network, other’s profiles, and lead recommendations, and it becomes a very powerful tool for finding commercial banking prospects.

Twitter

You might not think of Twitter as a way to find business banking opportunities, but used correctly it can be a great way to connect with potential customers. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide:

  1. Follow the Twitter profiles of any businesses and professionals in your target geographical area.
  2. Review your Twitter feed to see what people are sharing — Are they discussing new opportunities, products, services or research?
  3. If they are, engage with them — But here’s the trick — Don’t try to sell them anything. Provide useful financial advice, professional banking support, and insight. The idea is to build up trust.
  4. Once you’ve built up that trust, you can suggest products and services to help them achieve their business goals.

It’s vital that you don’t just promote your banking products and services — That can turn people off very quickly. Instead, you want to spend time building up a good reputation and strengthening your expertise and authority.

Other social media

Finding leads isn’t just limited to Twitter either. Facebook, Instagram, even Pinterest can be good places to find new banking customers, if you know how to look. As with Twitter, start by identifying the people and businesses in your local area and connect with them.

Then, spend some time cultivating relationships — Share genuinely useful financial information and links to your Facebook page or Pinterest board. You’re looking to build a brand focused on financial trust. As you add to that content, you’ll get more visibility and potential customers will start to see you as the “go to people” for advice on their money.

As you can see, these tools can help you rapidly expand your banking market. When you start out actively seeking leads, and engaging with them in the right way, you’ll be able to build trust which will lead to more sales of your financial products and services.

Still feeling a little hesitant on tackling social media? Give us a call – we can set up a training session with you and your banking team.

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Yes, LinkedIn can be edgy

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Man, you are missing out if you haven’t tapped into this… I can’t tell you how many times a day I preach about the power of LinkedIn. If you do sales, are looking for a job, or need to expand your network of business peeps – LinkedIn is where the party is 24/7/365. It is by far the BEST place to prospect for B2B connections – yes, I said the BEST.

Oh…and if you HATE cold calling – like most of us, LinkedIn should be your BFF. I don’t cold call – never have, and never will. Sure it works, it’s a numbers game. You make enough phone calls and knock on enough doors eventually someone will say YES. That YES could take 100 phone calls – which is A LOT of time. Or you could make other people work for you and send you referrals. That’s what I do.

Those of you are still saying – yea, I’m not wasting time online when I could be picking up the phone…

  • 450 Million users are on LinkedIn as of this writing, and every second 2 new users sign up. It’s is the biggest “Chamber of Commerce Networking Party” in the world – sans the cheap wine.
  • It’s like a multi-level marketing company or a giant pyramid. You are at the top but the REAL power is in the base. It’s not who you are connected to – or Linked to – it’s who THEY are connected to
  • Six Degrees of Separation – If you use it correctly, one of your connections will know someone who can introduce you to your #1 prospect. WARM REFERRAL – far better than the COLD CALL

Tips:

  • Use the paid version if you are in Sales Beast Mode – such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator – it’s absolutely worth the money
  • If you own a business – Please, please, please have an active business page and post relevant stuff on there. People do look – they really do.
  • Your LinkedIn profile is by far the MOST important part of your personal digital brand.
  • LinkedIn isn’t a Ronco Rotisserie oven – you don’t set it and forget it. You need to nurture, spend time with, and embrace your LinkedIn account – DAILY.

Companies that get it on LinkedIn…

According to our pals at Hubspot – here are some of the top LinkedIn Pages out there – we tend to agree. (see the full list here)

Coca-Cola – With almost 1 million followers, Coca-Cola notes in the Hubspot article that they get great traffic from their LinkedIn Posts, more so than Facebook, and to some degree Twitter. Hmmmm….If I were a betting woman, I would have said that LinkedIn wouldn’t be as high a traffic driver for them – but they make it work. HOW?

They understand the audience – it’s professional, so they tie in professional business stories into their content for LinkedIn. Posts go back to their website Coca-Cola Journey – check it out! Interesting stuff! To some degree – edgy. The posts aren’t necessarily about soda at all – but about the audience and what they care about.

Hays – They claim to be the #1 Recruiting firm on LinkedIn and they aren’t afraid to shout it from their rooftops! Just like Coca-Cola – they post relevant content that drives traffic back to their blog. High engagement rates prove that what they are writing is exactly what their audience wants to read. It’s actually quite that simple!

We aren’t claiming it’s easy to be one of these top dogs. You have to understand your clients and your prospects before you can attempt to create & curate content that is relevant to them. (BTW – that’s what we help you figure out!)

LinkedIn, for companies, is more than just a place to find good employees, it’s a place to let your brand shine and to engage your clients and to woo your prospects.

Ready to get rolling?

Give us a buzz or use our contact form so we can make LinkedIn an addition to your digital marketing strategy.

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How to Get New Bank Customers with Beautiful Content like Blogging

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We all know that switching to a new bank can be…well, painful. The more accounts you have, and the more you automate the banking experience, the higher your retention rate. That’s great for your existing customers, but it doesn’t help when it comes to attracting new people to your business.

Most banks offer similar products and services, so creating a unique value proposition isn’t easy. What’s the secret sauce? How do some banks increase their retail numbers without putting lots of pressure on their service teams?

It’s all about telling a story and making it personal. Your customers and prospects want to feel like you’re speaking to them, that you “get them.” It all comes from your content – Understanding what you write and where you publish it are important, knowing WHO you are writing for is critical.

Let’s dive a little deeper…

Know your Target Client Profile (TCP) – What’s the demographic of your current customer base? Who are the potential customers you want to add? Where do they live? What is their socioeconomic background? Are they business customers? Retail? It’s critical to have a deep understanding of exactly who you want to reach – Their interests, aspirations, lifestyle choices, financial understanding and more.

Think like your TCP – Your content needs to be relevant to your TCP. What is most important to them? What’s going to grab their attention? How will it help? Will it answer their questions? Does it provide genuinely useful information? What will they read? How will they read it? When will they read it? A 20-year-old and an 80-year-old are going to have very different needs and ways of accessing content.

Create great thought leadership and product content – Thought leadership content is where your customers will get the most value. It’s about giving them insight, valuable information, and resources to help them understand and manage money better. When you combine that with information on your products and their benefits, you create a solid content strategy.

Share short, sweet, accessible, and relevant product information on your website – Your website is the place for your product information – make is easy to find and mobile friendly. Your bank’s website should also highlight your staff with pictures and bios. It helps your customers to relate to you, and people buy from others they know, like, and trust.

Blogging is the Grand Poohbah of content – Every bank should have a blog – It’s where your thought leadership and awesome content lives It’s where your staff can shine, and it’s what you will share on social media.

Keys to Blogging Success

  1. PLAN – Have an editorial calendar based on your TCP and your value proposition – Who are you going to write for, and what are your going to write about? Create five or six content areas where that you’ll develop. They might be: Your culture and team – Stories about your employees, what makes them tick, and what they bring to your business. Retail customer information – Speaking to your retail customers directly about the things that matter to them. Retirement planning, mortgages, insurance, loans, real estate, the economy, tips for protecting your home in winter, safety, etc. Financial education and guides – Creating guides, checklists, tools, and resources to help you customers get the most out of their money. Business customer information – Talking to business owners about what matters to them including business bank accounts, small business financing, insurance, etc. Community – The work you’re doing in the local community including sponsorship and other activities. Financial news – Talking about the economy, the stock market, and other interesting areas.
  2. SHARE – Build your brand and expand it through stories. The more people who see your name and your team, the quicker they will connect.
  3. CONNECT – People leave banks because they don’t feel the love. Intriguing content that speaks to them helps them feel connected, which makes them more likely to switch.
  4. REPEAT – For content to really hook your prospects, they need to see it over and over again. Be constant and consistent. Post regularly, share on social media, and get your name and brand out there.

Good examples of banking blog content

Here are some ideas on the type of content your retail audience would find useful:

  • Financial planning and budgeting — Financial planning in everyday life and making sure you’re saving enough. Budgeting for big life events.

• Dealing with loans and overdrafts — Responsibly managing credit and debt, including understanding interest, minimum payments, and credit limits.

• Investing — Ways to invest money including bonds, the stock exchange, index trackers, mutual funds, and other investment products.

• Retirement planning — How to plan for a good retirement including IRAs, 401Ks, and other pension plans.

When you can bring together great content with a good understanding of your audience and share your content in the right way, you’ll start to create momentum. You can capitalize on that, use it to win you new customers, and keep them happy.

If you need help writing your content or want to bounce some more ideas off us – give us a shout – that\’s what we\’re here for![/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]

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10 Habits of Hyper-Productive People

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I\’m Jenn (that\’s not me in the picture). I’m known at the Red Barn as the Ops Beast – and I didn’t get that name by procrastinating. I take pride in being efficient and quick while still maintaining the level of quality needed to do my job. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not perfect – but I’ve learned where I excel and how I like to work.
I’m sure you’ve seen articles before in your social media travels on habits of hyper-productive people – it’s a list of must-do’s to follow in order to conquer the world, your to-do list, and your inbox all before lunch. But let’s be honest – how many people follow all those guidelines – and I don’t know about you, but I’m NOT getting up at 4am.

So, lucky for you, I’ve created a condensed list, with my two cents of course…

Common must-do’s in order to increase your productivity.

Work backwards – no really, it works. If your end goal is to create a presentation for the Board, break down the timeline and task list into smaller, manageable subtasks with specific dates that will allow you to get the project done on time. You won’t feel so overwhelmed and you’ll be able to cross the subtasks off your list making you feel more accomplished!

Prioritize Your To Do List – Handle your most pressing issues first. I know it’s easy to get pulled into helping others or taking care of something that’s easy to knock off the list, but handling the Must Do’s first, will help ease stress and eliminate a last minute panic to meet a deadline.

Take a break – as often as you need to. I know this seems counterproductive, but your brain will thank you. Struggling to get through something that your brain just doesn’t want to do is basically torture. Take a break, get up and move around, and let your brain reset and refocus. You are bound to make less mistakes and use less time and energy in the long run.

Manage your energy – Your energy is just as important, if not more important than your time. If something on your to-do list requires a lot of energy and focus – do it when your brain and body are at its peak. For some this is first thing in the morning (like Cindy), for others it might be later in the day. This also works well for creative types – if you aren’t creative in the afternoon, don’t leave those types of tasks for when you don’t have any creative juices left in the tank.

Stop obsessing over email – if your inbox is flooded with emails every few minutes, stop checking it constantly. Set up a rule on how often you will check it. We think of email as a tool, but it can be ridiculously distracting. A good rule of thumb, if you can’t explain something in a few sentences or it will take multiple emails – just pick up the phone instead.

Stay healthy – Get enough sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition. This one is HUGE for me. I make sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep, eat fairly well, and have a set schedule of when I go to the gym. Unless it’s an emergency, I don’t compromise on these. They keep me sane and energized so I can embrace the Beast within!

Say No and Learn to delegate – These are NOT my strong suits – so I commiserate with you. It’s a process but learn to say NO if you simply don’t have the time to help others or take on additional tasks. Also, learn to delegate when possible. It’s hard to give up control, but if you don’t, you’ll burn yourself out.

Stop multi-tasking – trust me on this one. You are way more productive focusing on just one task at a time vs three. The time it takes you to bounce back and forth between multiple projects, is time that could have been used towards completing just one of them. Your brain needs to refocus and adjust each time you switch gears – plus it leaves you open to making more mistakes.

Plan for tomorrow– before you leave for the day, update your To Do List and regroup on what you need to accomplish tomorrow. When you get to the office tomorrow – you can get right down to work and crossing things off the To-Do list.

Create your own system – What might work well for me, may be a disaster for you. And that’s OK! It’s about progress, not perfection. Try making a few small changes each week and see how they affect your productivity. Remember, it takes at least 21 days to create a habit, so don’t throw in the towel after 21 minutes.

You’ve made it through the list, hopefully you’ve picked up a few tips and tricks and are ready to start down the road to a more productive YOU! I’d love to hear some feedback on what works, what doesn’t, and any additional tips you might have. Now get into Beast mode and start tackling that To-Do list!

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Delight Your Customers

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We’re all familiar with the 10 commandments of customer service: The customer is always right, know your customers, listen to your customers, etc. But in a world when news and opinions are widely shared on social media and stories go viral on the internet, why not delight your customers.

ReferralCandy, which operates a customer referral software program, compiled a list of 17 examples of how companies gave their customers something to rave about. The online publicity and word-of-mouth buzz these companies generated for customer service is epic.

Here are 5 of the best of the list. Enjoy.

Taco Bell’s “Operation Alaska”

“Yoquiero Taco Bell”A remote Alaskan town craving tacos was devastated when plans to open a Taco Bell turned out to be a hoax. When the restaurant chain heard about the cruel joke, it air lifted ingredients for 10,000 Doritos Locos tacos.

A Porterhouse steak would be nice

Before boarding his plane, Peter Shankman, an angel investor, tweeted to Morton’s Steakhouse Twitter account that he’d love a porterhouse steak waiting for him when he landed in New Jersey. He found one at the baggage claim, free of charge.

Virgin Trains has got your back

A teen trapped without toilet paper on a Virgin train from London to Glasgow tweets for help. A Virgin Trains social media staffer reads his tweet and sends a train employee to give him a loo roll.

Trader Joe’sto the rescue

Trader Joe’s in Wayne, Pennsylvania sent someone out in the middle of a winter storm to deliver groceries to an 89-year-old veteran. The man’s daughter frantically called several stores in the area trying to get groceries delivered. Trader Joe’s, which doesn’t deliver, brought the groceries to the man and didn’t charge him.

Zappos delivers shoes to woman for free

A women checks into a Las Vegas hotel and discovers she forgot to pack her favorite shoes. She tries ordering them online from Zappos, but they are out of stock. When she calls Zappos’ customer service for help, an employee buys her the shoes at another store and delivers them to her hotel room, free of charge.

You can read the full list of customer service feats here.

Need help generating visibility and buzz for your company. Click Red Barn for our contact info.

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You’re Wasting Time

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Productivity is your thing. You worked through the weekend…You wrote emails, put together a sales meeting agenda, and answered phone calls. So what if you were late for your friend’s birthday party and the lawn didn’t get mowed. You were still productive. Were you really? Research shows that working long hours actually saps your productivity in the long run. You might think you’re getting work stuff done by clocking in more than 50 hours a week, but the truth is you’re wasting time.

An interesting Stanford University study that looked at the productivity of females working in munition factories spread all over Britain during World War One proves the point.

The author of the study, John Pencavel, found that the output of the women who toiled more than 70 hours a week differed little than if they had worked 50 hours a week.

That’s right. All those long hours those women spent – Sunday was their only day off – loading gun cartridges didn’t matter to their output in the long run. In fact, the study found that productivity begins to fall after working 50 hours a week.

Yes, I know working piecemeal in a munitions factory during wartime in 1914 isn’t the same as working in an office, but the study proves that clocking in long hours in any line work is counterproductive.

Aside from zapping your productivity, working long hours can lead to fatigue, obesity, brain damage, stress, and even a news article. So how does one work less and still stay ahead of work obligations? There is plenty of advice out there. Business Insider ran a story highlighting entrepreneurs who manage to get things done by working fewer hours.

By working less you’ll get more and better work done, a Slate piece suggests. The thinking is that when your energy is depleted from working long hours you are prone to make bad decisions and mistakes.

So, next weekend, turn off your cellphone. Go for a bike ride, spend time with your family, take a yoga class. And mow the lawn.

Unplug…Have Fun…Get more work DONE!

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Dogs Make the Best Assistants

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Dogs make the best office assistants, really. One of the perks of working for Red Barn Consulting, is being able to work from home. I used to work the usual 8-5 office job, and my dogs hated it. They would start getting destructive because they missed me – and maybe my husband a little too. I don’t know how familiar you are with German Shepherds, but they are one of the most clingy dog breeds. They are so happy that “Mom” now gets to stay home with them all day. And I’ve found them to be very helpful as well.

\"Jenns

They help with a work life balance. My dogs help to keep me on a schedule. Every morning, they wake me up to start the day. They force me to take breaks throughout, get up and move around, and when I need to regroup – we go for a walk or a drive. Casey, our female, has a strict bed time routine, and she will stare at me until I follow her to the bedroom, so no late nights for me.
They are great listeners. Working from home can be tricky when you need advice. There’s no one to bounce ideas off of or to talk out things out with. Or so I thought! My dogs love it when I talk to them. They don’t care if I want to complain about my bad day or talk out the best way to get a task done. Plus, they are adorable when they do that head tilt!

Dogs are a networking tool. Having worked in customer service for many years, I’ve found that having dogs is a great conversation piece and helps with networking. There isn’t just a bond with people who are dog owners, but there’s an even bigger comradery with other German Shepard owners.
They reduce stress. It’s incredibly hard to stay mad or upset when your furry best friend is by your side making sure you are ok. Dogs are fantastic at reducing stress and providing other health benefits. According to WebMD petting your pet can reduce your blood pressure and help you produce relaxation hormones.

I’m an animal lover by nature, even donating monthly to the ASPCA.Their commercials get me EVERY time. And while the dogs haven’t figured out how to fetch the ringing phone, they still deserve a treat for being the best office assistants in the house. Want to check out your dog’s skills in the workplace – June 26th is Take your Dog to Work Day!

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Leadership: What\’s the Real Scoop?

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I’m sitting on a plane to Hawaii right now. A well-deserved….and needed vacation with my better half. Last night before I left, I was chatting with my business guru buddy, Robin Bienemann from Crimson Rook, about leadership. She said: lots of people talk about it (leadership), write about it – but what is it really and how do you transition from manager to leader?I’m paraphrasing as this XX year old brain forgets what I said 2 seconds ago. Sorry Robin. Anyway, it got me thinking – hey there’s a blog in here somewhere. Ergo – today’s latest.

When I think of leaders, I think of the following:

  1. My first business mentor, Art Weber of Sir Speedy Printing in Winston-Salem NC. I started there as a customer service rep through a temp agency making 8 bucks an hour – give or take a few pennies. I was a stay at home mom, looking to get back into the working world – oh and with a divorce on my mind. Mr. Weber pulled me aside early on and told me I had what it takes to make a great salesperson. He changed my world. Mr. Weber ran a tight ship, expected nothing less than perfection. He was, and is, well respected by his family, his employees, and his community. A true leader. Thank you Mr. Weber for the inspiration, the knowledge, and the confidence you instilled in me almost 25 years ago.
  2. My Dad – Bill Hageman. We had a rough relationship but in the end, he was a leader. Involved in his community, teacher, volunteer, and single parent after my Mom died at the age of 45. He never followed – perhaps he was too ornery or stubborn to do so. He instilled in me a sense of defiance, risk taking, and altruism. Dad also died too young at the age of 66 – I often wonder what his retirement years might have been. Would he be running Bernie Sanders’ campaign in CT? Probably, as he always said There’s always someone out there who has it worse off than you do…so suck it up– He took care of those people, and us.
  3. Onto the famous – Richard Branson. I love his leadership style: Employees first, clients second, and shareholders third. For him a job shouldn’t be a chore, but an adventure in life. Something to be savored. He has a zest for life, a passion for his company and let’s, face it –he’s just damn cool. I want my employees to feel like Branson’s employees. Except I would be one cool dudette vs. one cool dude.
  4. Pope Francis. Ok – so the Catholic girl in me survives. I’m far from a loyal one, but I do love our latest Pope. He is so incredibly transparent and true to his word. Even my daughter the self-proclaimed I’m now an atheist after years of catholic school adores this guy. He’s changed the way us non-practicing Catholics view our heritage. I might even head back to church. Chelsea (aka the atheist daughter) might even join me. To be continued…..
  5. Last but surely not least it’s all the visionaries out there. The folks that care about their team and believe in their companies or their causes. The ones who haven’t given up – they decide to be generals and not drill sergeants – the leaders of tomorrow. Keep it up – we need you. In the end being an owner or leader of a team does not make you a LEADER. Leaders are visionaries –managers are doers and implementers. The world needs both – but I can tell you when a company or cause lacks a leader, it will struggle and ultimately perish.

That’s my PSA for the day – hope you enjoyed it.

Aloha!

CD

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Leadership: What\’s the Real Scoop?

Leave a Comment / Culture, Uncategorized / By / / , ,

I’m sitting on a plane to Hawaii right now. A well-deserved….and needed vacation with my better half. Last night before I left, I was chatting with my business guru buddy, Robin Bienemann from Crimson Rook, about leadership. She said: lots of people talk about it (leadership), write about it – but what is it really and how do you transition from manager to leader?I’m paraphrasing as this XX year old brain forgets what I said 2 seconds ago. Sorry Robin. Anyway, it got me thinking – hey there’s a blog in here somewhere. Ergo – today’s latest.

When I think of leaders, I think of the following:

  1. My first business mentor, Art Weber of Sir Speedy Printing in Winston-Salem NC. I started there as a customer service rep through a temp agency making 8 bucks an hour – give or take a few pennies. I was a stay at home mom, looking to get back into the working world – oh and with a divorce on my mind. Mr. Weber pulled me aside early on and told me I had what it takes to make a great salesperson. He changed my world. Mr. Weber ran a tight ship, expected nothing less than perfection. He was, and is, well respected by his family, his employees, and his community. A true leader. Thank you Mr. Weber for the inspiration, the knowledge, and the confidence you instilled in me almost 25 years ago.
  2. My Dad – Bill Hageman. We had a rough relationship but in the end, he was a leader. Involved in his community, teacher, volunteer, and single parent after my Mom died at the age of 45. He never followed – perhaps he was too ornery or stubborn to do so. He instilled in me a sense of defiance, risk taking, and altruism. Dad also died too young at the age of 66 – I often wonder what his retirement years might have been. Would he be running Bernie Sanders’ campaign in CT? Probably, as he always said There’s always someone out there who has it worse off than you do…so suck it up– He took care of those people, and us.
  3. Onto the famous – Richard Branson. I love his leadership style: Employees first, clients second, and shareholders third. For him a job shouldn’t be a chore, but an adventure in life. Something to be savored. He has a zest for life, a passion for his company and let’s, face it –he’s just damn cool. I want my employees to feel like Branson’s employees. Except I would be one cool dudette vs. one cool dude.
  4. Pope Francis. Ok – so the Catholic girl in me survives. I’m far from a loyal one, but I do love our latest Pope. He is so incredibly transparent and true to his word. Even my daughter the self-proclaimed I’m now an atheist after years of catholic school adores this guy. He’s changed the way us non-practicing Catholics view our heritage. I might even head back to church. Chelsea (aka the atheist daughter) might even join me. To be continued…..
  5. Last but surely not least it’s all the visionaries out there. The folks that care about their team and believe in their companies or their causes. The ones who haven’t given up – they decide to be generals and not drill sergeants – the leaders of tomorrow. Keep it up – we need you. In the end being an owner or leader of a team does not make you a LEADER. Leaders are visionaries –managers are doers and implementers. The world needs both – but I can tell you when a company or cause lacks a leader, it will struggle and ultimately perish.

That’s my PSA for the day – hope you enjoyed it.

Aloha!

CD

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