It is much easier these days to have your voice be syndicated and reach a wide audience. However, how many people that you like and respect would you consider to be approachable? How approachable are you?

Great leaders recognize that it is important to be approachable. Seth Godin, author of Tribes, said that he reads all non-anonymous e-mail (even if he doesn’t always reply). Harold Taber, former President of Coca-Cola Los Angeles, said that he spent time almost every day interacting with people at all levels of the organization (from executives to shipping clerks). US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has open dialogs on Twitter.

Has your own sense of importance prevented you from being available to the people in your community? I have found myself guilty of this by not always following up on all of my e-mails or phone calls. Yet, I’m learning that if I want to be able to approach the people that I respect then I should have the same courtesy for those who respect me too.

I describe my company as a newmedia real estate company. We are BOTH a tech company and a real estate company. It is easy for me to classify my business like this because we spend a majority of our time on the tech side trying to reinvent the real estate business. Yet, I believe that more and more businesses should, rather MUST, consider themselves as a tech company if they are going to remain relevant in the next 50 years.

When you view yourself as a tech company then you make the investments in systems, processes, and R&D to stay ahead of the curve. You create the trends instead of trying to follow them. You’re excited by innovation not frustrated by distractions that you don’t understand.

Last week, I was having a conversation with the CEO of a SoCal printing company that has been in business for the last 30 years. They are very successful and have 40 full-time employees. They actually benefit from old-tech with computers, printing systems, and the latest desktop publishing software. In our conversation I encouraged him to think of their business as a tech business.

For many in the printing industry tech is both good and bad. They love the improvements in their production process but hate having business go the way of the internet (i.e. websites and blogs instead of brochures and newsletters). Their whole industry has a choice, they can either become tech companies with advanced printing capabilities or they can lose to those people in the industry who do.

Everyone will agree that printing is now a commodity. So it’s not the printing that gives a company it’s competitive advantage. It’s not branding either. It’s tech. It’s the intellectual property that makes one company different than everyone else. It’s no longer to be ok to just be a good printer. That’s expected. Now you need to be a good innovator AND a good printer.

This way of thinking should extend to everyone and every type of organization. Any type of business, non-profit, governmental agency, or individual should add tech to their title. They should obtain the creative thinking skills and invest both time and money in these areas. I want to see the local bureaucrat embrace technology and find ways to innovate and add value to the community. I want to see the non-profits investing in R&D to permanently solve problems instead of just trying to clean up the mess after they happen. I want to see individuals saying they have these tech skills that they are applying every type of thing that they do.

Tech is no longer reserved for Silicon Valley. Tech companies should exist in all industries, in all cities, in all aspects of life. You don’t need to change industries to become a tech company. In fact, if you change your business to be the most tech savvy business in your industry you’ll be setting a new standard, inventing a new way of doing things, and creating a new set of expectations from the customer.

two things happened on the same night.

(1) tried takeout from a sushi place near our house
(2) vomited four hours after dinner

do these two things have a cause and effect relationship? maybe not, but unfortunately the sushi place doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt.

This week we took our son to his first mountain experience. We chose to go up to the Idyllwild Inn where my old friends Josh & Emily White are the hosts. In a world of cookie cutter hotel experiences the Idyllwild Inn is a refreshing change.

There is something special about a business that has been family-owned and operated for generations. Josh & Emily are the 4th generation at this Idyllwild, CA landmark. It is very clear that the rustic mountain experience is important to them. You can tell it by the way that they keep all of the rooms extremely clean, the constant improvement projects, their community involvement, and the way that they interact with guests and staff… that this is a place that is unique.

While most other businesses search to find their “story”. They have more stories than they have time to tell. It is no surprise that they book out for Christmas a year in advance. That people plan annual vacations for a week at a time for “their” cabin. (These too are booked far in advance and they plan their year around their trip not the other way around).

Idyllwild is a secret in Southern California for one reason: It’s not on the way to anything. You have to go there intentionally. Most Californians are too lazy for that! I’m sad that it took me years to get back myself and experience the Idyllwild Inn (the last time I was in Idyllwild was for a backpacking class in college).

I’m glad that we made the journey up to Idyllwild for my son’s first mountain experience. Hopefully it will become a tradition and he’ll take his kids there too.

What if you were given the opportunity to have lunch with Seth Godin or Donald Trump but you could only pick one. Who would you dine with? Would the choice change if you were paid $5,000 to sit down with Donald but it would cost you $5,000 with Seth?

If given that choice I would chose Seth gladly paying the $5,000.

Why would I make that illogical choice when I could have been PAID $5,000 to have lunch with Donald Trump? Because it’s not about them it’s about me.

I would chose Seth Godin because he has had a bigger impact on me and my business. In my opinion, he is also more humble and approachable. I believe that I can become like Seth but it would be very hard to replicate the same business playbook as Donald Trump. I can start a website that makes money by connecting people. I can’t, and don’t want to, build a 50 story skyscraper in the OC and call it Mobley Tower. I think that best way to make your first billion today is different than when Trump did it. Maybe that belief comes from the fact that I’ve done experiments with Seth’s teachings but I don’t have a lab that would work for doing trial and error in major real estate development projects (once again all about me). I can have a feature page on Squidoo but becoming the next “The Apprentice” isn’t high on my priority list.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a bash Trump and praise Godin post. They have written two of my favorite books (All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World & Trump: The Art of the Deal). The both are successful entrepreneurs and I’d like to meet them both in person some day. I’ve learned a lot from both of them and I will continue to in the future. The same decision might be different for you and that’s o.k. because when it’s your choice it’s all about you.

I’m in the process of setting up an internship program with the Crowell School of Business. This is the same school that I did my undergrad and MBA. It turns out that one of the people who is point-of-contact was my old ‘Intro To Marketing’ professor. I got a D in his class and when I started my MBA I was on academic probation due to that one grade.

Honestly, I really enjoyed his class. Les Harmon is a great teacher. His classes were engaging and I don’t think I missed a single lecture. His presence at the school caused more people to chose marketing as their emphasis than any other field. (I still chose management).

If the class was so great, why did I get a D? I arrogantly thought that if I knew the material then that would be enough. I even went so far as to sit down in his office and say, “I can summarize the entire course in one sentence.” After listening to what I had to say he said something like, “You’re right but I still have to give you a D because you didn’t complete enough of the daily assignments.”

While it doesn’t show up on the transcript… that was one of the best lessons I learned in college. You can’t just know what to do… you have to actually do the hard work on a daily basis. I think that is the problem with a lot of really talented creative people who are not successful. They think that their talents will be enough so they don’t bother to do the daily things that would make someone even less skilled a success.

This was actually a wonderful reminder to me as I start the next phase of my startup company. All the plans in the world are not going to work unless we do the daily tasks that are necessary for success and let honesty and hard work be our constant companions.

A lifelong friend taught me a lesson this week. There is a lot of power when you start talking about your dreams as if they already exist. If you say something might happen then very few people believe that it will come to pass. You might not even believe it to be true. Yet, when you say, “This is going to happen and we’re excited about it” a funny thing happens… People believe you. Then when other people believe it’s much easier to push the doubts away and catch the vision yourself. I’ve seen first hand how something that was just an idea gets momentium, people join the team, and before you know it the idea is a thing or an event or a business.

One word of caution, this can also work against you if you apply the same practice to something that doesn’t have value. Granted it could be harder to excite people with the story but the principle can be used for bad as much as good.

Language and the stories that you chose to share have more power than you think. Chose them well.

Ten years ago the reach of a small business expanded from a local sphere of influence to a global one. Initially that was great and the advantages resulted in more competitive prices, greater diversity of product offerings, and an expectation of instant results.

One thing that was lacking was trust. Companies like Amazon and eBay have been successful because they built it back into their business models with customer feedback.

The next trend that I see is a reinvestment in what is local. Online and in stores people like to feel connected to place and community.

The challenge is taking the skills and advantages that were learned by opening up the boarders and applying those standards to local enterprises. Even a small business that has a brick-and-mortar business needs a website. Do they need full eCommerce functionality? Maybe not, but they might need an online menu or store hours. People expect that now.

What will people expect tomorrow? I think it will be a hybrid of both that I like to call hyper-local.

I’m trying to accomplish this with my hyper-local real estate brands like Homes Near Campus or Columbus Square. I’ve found it difficult finding quality, consistent, and relevant content that is valued by the community. It requires an investment that doesn’t always have a clear ROI but one that I believe will pay for itself long-term. I fear that if we’re not leading the trend then it will be so much harder catching up.

Well done viral marketing from Office Depot.

Yesterday Microsoft launched is new search engine Bing with an expensive advertising campaign. I bet the owners of bling.com are super exited as the value of their domain has increased the chance that they can convert that domain into real bling.

Of course the first search that I completed was for “Paul Mobley”. I’m happy to say that Microsoft got that right by putting me up on top. =)

Yet, for me that will likely be one of the last times that I use the search engine. Is it me or is this new launch of little or no importance? How much market share will they be able to capture from Google and Yahoo? Do they honestly believe that a major marketing campaign will change the ingrained behaviors of millions of internet users? Even if their system was good why would we want to give them another monopoly?

I predict that Bing will go Bust.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a FICO for your small business?

Judging personal credit is easy. You just look at the FICO scores from the three credit agencies and see how you stack up to the statistical average. What if that existed for small business. A FICO type score that took into consideration your branding, competitive advantage, innovative ideas, and market share. This would be a useful tool for the entrepreneur in determining which ventures warranted continued investment and effort.

Unfortunately, this tool doesn’t exist. Some of the best business ideas were launched at the wrong time and others were under-captatilized. The best in those four areas doesn’t guarantee success. Rather luck often plays a role.

Yet, despite the propentency to failure… America was founded on the idea of independence. That we are free to create our own path, and therefore, our own success or failure. If you have an innovative idea then you should cultivate it. If you have consistent branding then you should be rewarded. If you have a competitive advantage then you should exploit it. If you have market share then you should defend it.

If there was a FICO score that graded your business would you listen to it or continue to forge your own way? Would you abandon a business that had an excellent small business FICO but was under-capatilized or experiencing economic difficulty?

American Express is continuing it’s attack on small business owners. The latest battlefield is the credit lines of small businesses who have never been late on a payment or gone over their limit. It’s understanding that the risks have increased for AMEX but you would think they would try to keep the best customers instead of kicking them when the economy is down. Here is a short excerpt from letter directly from American Express to an employer of six people.

Given today’s difficult economic environment, all of us need to think about how we control expenses and reduce risks. At American Express we want to be a responsible lender during prosperous times and more challenging ones. This means carefully reviewing the spending and debt profiles of our Cardmembers – and making difficult decisions.

Translation… we over extended ourselves and we need to cover our butt. We believe that the short-term risks are greater than the long-term impact of not being there for our best customers when they need us most.

Your credit limit may have changed, but your value to us has not. We remain committed to our relationship with you.

Translation… please try not to hate us to much. Even though our actions say that we don’t trust you we want you to continue to believe that you are important to us.

Good luck American Express. You’re actions are tarnishing your brand. You used to be the best friend of small business. Now you’re becoming a fair weather friend. We’ll remember how you treated us during these “challenging times”.

urbanspoon is an entrepreneurial success story that is worth talking about instead of all this fear mongering stuff (that I’m guilty of too). It’s a company that is lead by three guys Ethan, Adam, and Patrick. From what I can tell back in November 2006 they landed on the concept of collecting information about local restaurants and had launched their “proof of concept”. Since they lived in Seattle they started there and did all they could to get information and timely reviews about all of the Seattle restaurants by real people.

With the advent of the app store for the iPhone they really began to get some notice. By then they had expanded to multiple cities across the world and they kept it small with the three of them doing the bulk of the work. In early November they were in the Top 10 Free Apps with more than 1 million downloads. You may have seen the Apple commercial that started playing within the last 30 days. After that they doubled the downloads.

Here is the timeline that I was able to parse together:

Nov 2006 – urbanspoon.com in Seattle only
July 2008 – Free App on iPhone
Nov 2008 – 1 million downloads
Dec 2008 – 2.2 million downloads

I’ll admit, I didn’t know about it until the commercial. At the time I was in Anchorage, AK and was eating some pizza. I instantly downloaded it from the App Store and when I shook it for the first time with no insight beyond my GPS location it recommended Moose’s Tooth Pizza. The exact place that I had gone with some locals. Later I showed it to another local and the first shake gave the place they had dinner that night. Very cool.

Ethan said in a recent interview, “Advertisers are pushing their own iPhone apps, and a very few take advantage of the location-based nature of mobile, but for the most part they are still thinking about the iPhone as a small-screen web page. I think that will change. Mobile has immediacy, location, intimacy — a bunch of things the web is missing. Over time advertisers and publishers will figure out how to take advantage of all that.”

Their business model is simple. Solving one of life’s problems (like suggesting a place to eat) and doing it well. Food is a local business but it takes a more global approach an leveraging the power of technology to make a difference.

Most of there revenue is generated by advertising but they’re also building a community even if they don’t know it. Well done Ethan, Adam, and Patrick!! You deserve all the success that you’ve received.

I was looking at the stats recently and noticed that the amount of spam that I’ve received on this blog is slightly greater to 1:1 (spam to posts). What is the strategy behind all of the effort that is made to build either fake community, blatantly stealing original content, or promoting illegitimate business activities? The amount of creativity and energy that is wasted on these efforts is amazing. I know it’s sometimes hard to tell when something is spam but the best thing that you can do to stop this stuff is to:

1. fight back with your own automated defense, and
2. stop giving them money by buying stuff.

We need to be smarter and more creative than them to protect our community.

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, my wife and I needed to go grocery shopping. We had just finished moving to our new home in Tustin, CA and needed somewhere close. A quick Google map search on my iPhone revealed that there was a Stater Bros just north on Redhill about a mile.

The place was really busy being the day before Thanksgiving but we needed the stuff so we braved the crowd. We wound up filling a cart with $250 worth of items including some perishables and frozen foods and proceeded to check out.

Let me start off by saying that the cashier that helped us was very nice. The rest of the story is an example of bad management, bad marketing and bad systems. So here is where things went bad… When I went to pay (and complete my fist shopping trip in a new area) I discovered the hard way that their credit card system was not working.

The first attempt with my American Express card resulted in an error something like “transaction count exceeded”. The cashier asked one of the other employees what it meant and what to do. They asked me to try it again. After my wife and I tried 3 different credit cards issued by different banks I decided to try to use my debit card (which I never do). The same error occurred for this one too. The only proposed solution was to go to their ATM and pull out enough cash to pay for the order.

At this point I asked for a reasonable concession. Not only had they wasted my time, with something that should have been working seamlessly, I was also going to save them money for credit card merchant fees and I would incur additional fees myself from two banks for a problem that was not mine. Therefore, I asked for commitment from the cashier to discount the order by $5 or $10.

Up to this point I was very understanding. Like I said before, the cashier was nice and it was not his fault that the merchant account provider had limited the store’s transaction limits. When the cashier was unable to authorize this accommodation I asked to speak with the manager. The store was so busy that the manger was working a register and my guy had to switch with him so he could talk with me.

Apparently the manager was having a bad day. He made it clear that my only two options were to either get cash from the ATM and pay or to leave the cart in the store and leave. He did not care that it was our first time in his store and that the failure in the system and management’s response was hurting their brand and costing them more than the $5-10 requested. He claimed that he did not have the authority to provide the discount.

At that point we left and we don’t plan to return. As we walked out of the store some other vocal person, who only had a few items, was telling everybody coming in that they would not accept credit cards. Apparently she had the same problem but she had enough cash in her pocket to cover the tab.

We still needed to buy stuff so we searched for another grocery store. We went to Ralph’s and discovered that they had a better selection, cheaper prices, and they accepted my AMEX card the very first time. The contrast between the two was clear and they’ve increased their “share of customer” with us.

I talked about the Stater Bros issue with my Dad and brother the next day (one is in marketing and the other public relations). We all agreed that it was Stater Bros fault for not having a credit card system that worked. They didn’t have a backup strategy or if they did then the staff was not trained (including the manager). The result was a negative brand experience, the loss of a sale, incurring additional costs for restocking, etc. The one thing they did do was get people talking (but not in a good way).

Your brand experience is impacted every day by good and bad experiences. If things don’t go as planned then be prepared to backup systems and policies that are able to restore things to normal with the least amount of damage. If done really well a problem solved can turn a normal customer one that is extremely loyal.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. Don’t shop at the Stater Bros at 14171 Red Hill Ave in Tustin, CA
2. Make sure your systems are operating properly before a high volume day
3. Give managers enough authority to operate the business
4. Teach every employee that the brand, and the story of the company, is being written with every transaction
5. Get people to talk about how your business exceeded their expectations
6. Even if you can’t solve the problem at least pretend like you care.
   

Greg Creed, the President of Taco Bell, said last week that their goal is to be, “the other number one” by growing to $10.6 billion in sales within 5 years. (Note: The “one” is McDonald’s). Today I am proud to say that I have reached the status of “the other number one”. At what, you ask?

For a while a Google search for “Paul Mobley” wouldn’t land me on the top page. Now I’m the other number one and my LinkedIn profile is in the top 20 too. It’s not an thing of vanity (at least I hope not) but it’s a practical thing in building a reputation in business. People want to be able to find you on Google as one of the factors for judging trust.

The photographer Paul Mobley, from New York City, has been ranked number one for quite a while. We’re not related (to my knowledge) but I do respect him a lot for his wonderful photography and ability to capture the uniqueness and character of a person. Honestly, I hope he stays on top since deserves it more than I do.

I recommend that you go to his website paulmobleystudios.com and look at the work that he does. Second, I recommend that you buy his new hardback book titled, American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country. It would make a great Christmas gift for anyone who wants to connect with something real.

Nicky Senyard wrote a wonderful article for Website Magazine.

She said, “In a community, relationships come before sales. Business, in other words, is not the first order of business. Leveraging communities is a great way to boost sales, but you actually have to become a respected and trusted member before you can tap into that potential.”

You can’t just snap your finger and have a community to lead and give you money. Building relationships is not a very fast way to make a buck but it’s much more rewarding and meaningful. In the end, I believe it will be most profitable too.

One of the most common things people do is focus on themselves then try to maximize their income by various marketing tactics. These could be the old status quo way of doing things in your industry or the latest “Web 2.0″ marketing tricks.

Now is the right time to rethink your business model. Where is your focus? If you have only been trying to maximize your own value you may run into trouble soon (if not already).

[Develop] a strong customer value proposition. Many companies begin with a product idea and a business model and then go in search of a market. Success comes from figuring out how to satisfy a real customer who needs to get a real job done.

Source: HBR Dec 2008 “Reinventing your Business Model” p. 53 (Reprint R0812C)

If you don’t provide value for the customer (and yourself too) then your business model is doomed to fail. Go forth and create value.

There is a lot of fear and confusion right now. This is often made worse by the media. What is the cure for this sickness? CONNECT WITH REAL PEOPLE.

A dear friend of mine, Kurt Daradics, is one of the social catalysts who has been critical to my success in business. He, along with some other heavy hitters in LA and the OC, have collaborated and brought together many groups and organizations into one major networking event and holiday party. The goal is to make real connections with real people.

On Thursday, December 11th from 5:00pm to 10:00pm, the Digital Family Reunion (DFR) is bringing the Southern California technology and business communities together for the holidays at the Skirball Cultural Center. In association with some of the region’s top trade associations and social networking groups, the DFR is throwing a major holiday party. The DFR’s goal is to reignite old relationships, spark new ones, and set the stage to kick off 2009 with a bright new start. Just what we need right now!

Scheduled attendees include leaders from all the major industry sectors such as media, entertainment, finance, publishing, venture funding, software, commerce, education, and many more.

Visit www.digitalfamilyreunion.net and join the collective conversation.

UPDATE 11.20.2008 :: WE GOT A PROMO CODE TO GET $20 OFF EACH TICKET :: USE DFR16 WHEN YOU BUY Your Welcome. =)

DFR Holiday Party 2008

My wife and I were flying to Anchorage, Alaska as I wrote this post. She requested that we upgrade our tickets from coach to first class. I agreed, not because we feel entitled but because she is pregnant and a 1:12 bathroom to passenger ratio in the first class cabin is a “necessity”. Honestly, I agreed because I love her. Normally I wouldn’t spend an extra $50 per flight per person but in this case her comfort was more important than the money.

Alaska Airlines does a great job providing service to it’s customers. In fact, I’m such a fan that it’s the only airline we use when flying from Orange County to Seattle or Anchorage. This opinion is based on flying coach multiple times per year but they do an even better job in First Class.

Yes, the expectations are higher in First Class but for a long time I thought that it was an expensive price to pay for a nicer seat, a few free drinks, and a meal. I was never upset that the people in first class were treated better. They paid for it… It is expected.

So what’s the point? Why did you spend your time reading about something that you already know?

The point is that in business it is an excellent strategy to treat all customers good but a few of them better. Don’t feel bad about it. In fact, it’s ok to let all your customers know the standard that qualifies them for special treatment. This gives you license to treat your most profitable customers better. All of the other customers will either strive to be treated better (if that is important to them) or they’ll better understand the cost of your product, service, and/or time. They’ll respect you more if you don’t just give them everything they request for free.

Putting this strategy into action:

(1) identify the things that are special, valuable, and rare in your business (this could be your time, the most in-demand property, an extra service, etc)
(2) protect these things and make them exclusive
(3) reserve these things for your best, most profitable, customers
(4) communicate the difference to all your customers
(5) be fair and allow everyone access if they pay the cost (might not just be financial)

I don’t always fly First Class but it’s good to know that I’m worthy of it. Take a lesson from the Airlines (maybe it will be the secret in taking your business where you want to go).

This week LinkedIn released some new applications. One that was of interest to me was for WordPress. PaulMobley.com is published using my own server running WordPress. I was impressed on how easy it was to integrate the blog posts into my LinkedIn profile. If you have both a WordPress blog and a LinkedIn profile I recommend adding this feature. Thanks to whom ever was involved in making the application possible!