Effective Networking

I'm currently in Dallas at the Hospitality Operations & Technology (HOT) Conference and will be speaking tomorrow on Business Intelligence. Tonight we had the welcome reception and I knew no one...literally I had never met a single person in the room. I know they say more people are afraid of public speaking than being burned alive (or something crazy like that). I however have no problem standing in front of a bunch of people (friends or strangers) and talking about almost anything and could probably go on for hours (I can tend to be long winded at times). I think it is great fun. But being in a room full of people I don't know and starting up a conversation is roughly equivalent to being stabbed in eyes with red-hot forks. I have flash backs of being at the jr. high dance with that deathly fear of being rejected, but knowing I had to ask in order to dance (which is a whole other story for another post). Why is that?!I know it is part of being a consultant. You have to network. So here is a question to my small group of readers and smaller group of commentors.

"What is the best way to start an interesting conversation in professional setting...like a trade conference?"

Oh, and "So what do you do?" cannot be an answer. I'm looking for something more interesting and original.

Business Success and Partnerships

I was meeting with a friend the other morning about a new business idea. His idea was awesome and could really change some of the cooperation and communication in his industry. He was having doubts about his idea though because many of his peers kept saying, "Oh that will never work because people won't risk losing profits by working with you."

For clarification I've left my friend's name and the industry out of the post because he hasn't yet got the company off the ground. But he's got a doozy of an idea!

We had a great conversation on how to overcome this problem which made me think about the concepts of launching a new company where partnerships are a must (which is just about any company). Currently my biggest client is because of a reference from a company that offers the same consulting services, but without a portion of very specific expertise that I have. The company is probably losing $30,000 to $50,000 in revenue by referencing me. However, if I can help turn things around then their upside revenue will exceed $2,000,000 with the client. If I can't turn things around the risk is $50,000, but their annual revenues are beyond $800 million so no big risk for them.

The point here is that if you can create an upside with little or no risk for your partner then you really create a win-win scenario. My example is maybe not great because their is no risk for me, but that is beside the point. Here are a few things to think about when creating a partnership that you need.1. What is your motivation in creating the partnership? This is an important question because your motivation MUST be something other than you make money. Is there a bigger benefit that helps you, your partner, and your joint customer. A partner will see right through you if a big motivation is not to help them make money. Guy Kawasaki says a key element of any new business must be "to make meaning", and that is this point. The partnership must help make meaning for all involved.

2. Evaluate the value of each partnership and ensure the returns are balanced for you and the partner. If the upside value is almost all yours, then almost all returns may need to be your partners. If the upside is all your partners, then almost all the returns may need to be yours. Don't not do a partnership because there is little direct profits. There may be indirect profits (see #5)

3. My dad always taught me "Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered". It is easy to get caught up in squeezing the partnership for all it's worth. Fight that urge and take what you should versus what you can.

4. Figure out a way to make the partnership low risk. For example, if you want to sell another persons product they will probably not risk losing revenue to your gain. In this situation figure out a minimum sales number before you take profits. This way your potential partner only gives away a portion of the profit when they sell enough to accept it. You can also build in levels of profit sharing here where the more you sell the more profit you get.

5. Recognize that recognized names can bring customers. If you are the little dog in a partnership the big dog may get you leads because they are the big dog. In follow up to point #2 it may be beneficial to just have the partnership and take little (or even no) profit. Rather negotiate an endorsement of some kind. Free press from an influential person and/or company can bring bigger revenues and encourage other partners to join. Creditability for any new business is huge. Acceptance and endorsement from credible sources is priceless.

My final note is don't quit because people don't like your idea. Talk about it with people. You'll be amazed how the idea changes through each conversation. You will turn it into a great idea or realize it probably won't work and scrap it for a better idea.

Reunions Are Awesome and The Great Experience

This past Saturday my friends Ryan and Chase got married. I love weddings because marriage is awesome (I may be partial since I'm married to an awesome woman) and because when good friends get married it generally means a reunion with lots of friends.

My best friends in the world were at the wedding and we had such a great time. I should have taken more pictures but we were having such a great time hanging out. Our little house was packed out with DocRoc and Weir sleeping on the couch, and the Wold family in the upstairs bedroom. Paul and family also spent most of the day time hours with us so it was a blast. I feel so blessed to have such good friends that will always be there for me if I need them.

The wedding was also fun because we had such a great time with the wedding photographer. I know some pretty awesome wedding photographers and Josh Gruetzmacher was awesome because he helped personalize the experience for the guests as well as the bride and groom. Most weddings I've been to have a photographer that stays behind the scenes to do their job. Well Josh was going far above and beyond by trying to hook Weir (a guest) up with the table of single girls. He put it best when said it was "a land of milk and honeys" over there. If you can quote scripture, make it so the person saying it and receipient was the same name as the guy who first saw the land of milk and honey, and create an innuendo all at the same time you have creating a memorable experience to an art form.

Josh (the wedding photographer one) is awesome and for someone so young could teach a lot of seasoned photographers what it means to create a remarkable experience. I'd recommend him now and that really is the point isn't it?

I did get some pretty good random shots through.

Andy's GQ advertisement (I think Lisa may have actually taken this picture).
The evening sky was a perfect shot with these cool Japanese lanterns
There was a beautiful sunset that night.












They had really great all white table settings.

Who Do You Know?

Tomorrow morning Chrystal, Brody, and I are leaving for Phoenix to visit family and hopefully meet with a prospective client. All the communication that I've had to date with them has been that they are not interested at this time. I have an inside connection that hopefully will be able to at least get me a lunch meeting.

As a consultant who you know can often be more important than what you know when trying to get a meeting. Use your network (but don't abuse it), the worst they can say is no.

Be Encouraging...and Honest

A few weeks back I posted about starting kevin sturm Consulting. Starting your own company is nerve racking, stressful, overwhelming, and really fun. The amount of responses I got to my email was almost overwhelming. I have five weeks left in my job and the amount of encouragement I have recieved in starting out on my own is making me feel so blessed.

If you haven't sent someone an encouraging message today, do so. It feels great to give and get encouragement.

Here is some of the messages I got. The title of my post is "Be Encouraging...and Honest". One response I got was so wonderfully honest (the bottom one). It was from Chrystal's aunt who is/was uber successful and smart. Loved this one becuase it helps me keep perspective of how some potential customers may be.

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"congrats dude... i'll be praying for you. i've been in the same boat of late, where i feel like i need to take the fork in the road. hopefully soon we'll find you with a wealth of clients to consult and me with a new book on the store racks... " -jw

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"Way to go Kevin!! The first step is the hardest but once you've madethe decision, all that's left is making it work. Word will get aroundand soon you'll have to hire your own staff to keep up with it all andnext thing you know, you'll live next door to Omphara. I'm excited foryou. The next few years are going to be interesting for your family.Take some advice from an old fart? Stay intimate with your loved onesand keep what's important to you close to your heart. Don't let thejob swallow you up. That's it, no more advice." -jb

_________ (this one blew me away)
"Hey buddy. Congratulations on taking such a big step; I know it's got a be a little scary walking away from everything that you've worked for, but if anyone can do it, I know you can. I also know that you wouldn't do this without going through everything that you needed to, and getting the right answers. :) I just want to make sure that you know that, in the event you run a little short on working capital before you get everything up and running, let me know - I don't have much, but I'll help out as much as I can, financially or any other way. I have that kind of confidence and faith in your abilities and know that you've been in the business
long enough to make this work. Sounds like I should start the Kevin Sturm Fan Club, huh? :) Keep me posted; you'll be in my thoughts and prayers. Just don't forget us little people when you're rolling in more money than you can ever spend! :)" -kd
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"Wow! How fun, You go Kevito. As in everything that you have tackled thus far, I am positive you will give it your all and be a screaming success." -tl

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"Hi, KevinCongratulations on following your heart. I wish you well. My one piece of advice (for now) is to attend to marketing one full day of every week. " -bp

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"I wish you well in your new opportunity. It is not easy to take the riskier path, but that path may be the right one for you. You will never know unless you try, and if you never tried you would always regret not trying. I'm betting you will be successful. I wish you well & I look forward to hearing about your progress." -jd

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Nicole and I wish you the best of luck in your new venture. Please let us know if there is ever anything we can do to help you out. One thing that we have found in building Nicole's marketing consulting business is that you need as much help as you can get from your friends. We are here for you if you need us. A challenge of starting your own business is that there are so many things that you need to accomplish, and you are behind from day one. Its not that its all hard to understand or difficult to accomplish, the challange seems to be that there are so many things to get done that its hard to think of them all and to consider all the issues before deciding how to act. We found the book Getting Started in Consulting by Alan Weiss to be very helpful. Its not an earth shattering book full of revolutionary ideas, but it is a very helpful and complete list of things to get done with some good ideas about how to accomplish each." -db

_________ (I love the honesty)
I know you are excited about your new opportunity, Kevin, and we sincerely hope it turns out fantastic for you. I have some misgivings, but that is because I see life through different filters than you do,which is okay, and what makes the world turn round.........I rarely if ever worked with consultants that I thought were worth a flip, so I tend to be suspicious of anything that has the word consultant in it. Like you said in your blog, though, integrity is the single most important description that could ever be attached to your business name - never compromise that, although it may be harder than you think when you need your fee to cover a house payment and groceries for the month..... I personally never ran across any consultant in my career who didn't have all kinds of hidden agendas that made it impossible for them to be objective. Hopefully, you can be the first competent one I'll meet! Having said all that stuff-with-a-slightly-negative-bent however, we do wish you only the best and hope you are wildly successful... Keep your goals and your principles lofty, have a plan, and another one to back the first one up! We're rooting for you............" -aw