Leadership | BrandingBlog by Dave Young

Soundbites: Fire Fast, Hire Slow

January 25, 2012 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

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This is age old advice in management circles.

Kinda funny how hard it is to do in practice. And it’s one of those topics where you look at business owners and managers and you think, “They really should take this advice.” I really want to talk about the “fire fast” but I’ll just touch briefly on the hire slow, because there are loads and loads of resources on how to hire people. Just remember that the worst thing you can do is hire the first person through the door that you think could probably learn to do the job. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Customer Experience, Leadership, SoundBites, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged With: fire fast, hire slow, SoundBites

BrandingBlog Radio: Year-End Tax Advice from Adrian Van Zelfden

December 16, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

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I’ve been getting Adrian Van Zelfden’s “Tidbits in Time” emails for several years. He’s a huge history buff and he enjoys a historical almanac to the point that he started sending out a monthly missive to share his celebration of what happened when. He started by sending it to his friends. None of that opt-in stuff, just a “hey, you might enjoy this as much as I do” kind of spirit. And, when you get an email, any email, from the smartest CPA/Lawyer around, what do you do? You open it and read it.

For his friends who also happen to own businesses, he started putting a section at the end “For Business Owners Only.”

The December issue had a 12-page, single-spaced PDF attached to it full of Adrian’s best Year-End advice to business owners. As I skimmed and scanned it, I knew that this was information that would be helpful to a lot of my readers, so I got Adrian to join me for conversation and this podcast is the result.

If you’d simply like to get to know Adrian, you could bail out after 15 minutes or so when we start to get our hands dirty in the numbers.

If you’d like a copy of his checklist, go to Adrian Van Zelfden’s Facebook Page, Tidbits in Time and click on the “Join My List” link in the left column. He’s also given me permission to send it out, so if you join my list you’ll also get a copy. A third option is to go to vanzelfden.com and shoot him an email. You’ll get a good sense of his dry humor if you google the latin phrase in the header of that page.

So…how good is he?

In 30 years of helping clients with taxes and going with them to countless IRS audits, he’s often walked out with the IRS owing his clients money. More importantly, he’s never lost a dime of his client’s money in an audit. That is, his record is perfect. He’s never had a worse outcome than having the IRS say, “Yep, this tax return is just fine. No changes.” Damn. That’s good.

I like doing interviews that get me a bit out of my comfort zone. Finances, taxes, government…you get the idea. For an example, if you haven’t listened to my interview with Pamela Yellen, you missed out on her surefire way to grow your cash without exposing yourself to risk. And now, I hope you enjoy Adrian and that you find his timely advice worthwhile as you seek to keep more of that hard-earned money for yourself while staying out of trouble with the IRS.

Filed Under: Leadership, Money, Podcasts, Uncategorized, Wizard Academy

BrandingBlog Radio: Veteran’s Day Guest – Joe Perez

November 11, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

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Joe Perez makes me proud to be an American. I’ve known Joe for about 6 years. We first met at an event at Wizard Academy. I always knew him as the operator of a landscape architecture company in San Antonio. We’d run into each other now and then, when we were both in Austin. It wasn’t until we attended the Awesome Sauce class this August that I found out about his military adventures and his new company.

Turns out Joe spent the last days of the Cold War chasing Soviet agents across Europe. He was in Berlin when the wall came down. When I mentioned that his resume read like a character in a Tom Clancy novel, he said, “funny you should mention that,” and proceeded to tell the story of how his unit was involved in Clancy’s research for Clear and Present Danger. Wow. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buzz This, Leadership, Podcasts, Wizard Academy

BrandingBlog Radio: Dennis Collins on Sales Management

October 18, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

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Dennis Collins retired from a 42-year career in radio on October 6.

I caught up with him for this week’s podcast to gather a few of his priceless management and sales management gems of wisdom. We also talked about his future plans and how he will be making himself available for consulting and training opportunities. If I had a sales staff, Dennis would be my go-to guy. If you want me to put you in touch with Dennis, drop me a line.

This week’s podcast is sponsored by Shortcut Blogging.

Filed Under: Leadership, Podcasts, Sales Management Tagged With: podcast, Radio Advertising

Marc Maron and Paul Reiser on Getting Started

October 8, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

I was out on a walk today listening to episode 192 of Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast. (One of the podcasts that inspired me to get started with my own podcasting.) Maron is one of the best interviewers I’ve every heard and his podcast is a wonderful window into the world of all your favorite standup comics.

In this episode, he’s got Paul Reiser in his garage studio and is reflecting on getting started in comedy.

A 19-year-old Maron first met Reiser on a trip to NYC to see comedy. He walked up to Reiser’s table and asked him how to get started doing comedy. Reiser told him, “You just do it.”

A few minutes later, Reiser tells him about some advice he got on writing screenplays shortly after his appearance in Diner. He asked Barry Levinson, “How do you write a screenplay?” Levinson told him, “OK. You write, ‘Fade in’ and you keep typing.”

Good advice for starting just about anything you ever wanted to do.

Filed Under: Leadership, Quotable, Strategy

BrandingBlog Radio: Jean Carpenter-Backus on Financial Spooning

September 13, 2011 By Dave Young 2 Comments

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Jean Carpenter-Backus is gaining fame through her moniker “The Naked Accountant.”

I interviewed Jean on a beautiful Friday morning in Austin, TX out on the plaza at Engelbrecht House, the student dorm at Wizard Academy.

We talked about how she found Wizard Academy, her unique classes and her plans for new books and some ideas for preventing embezzlement in a small business.

Jean has led a most extraordinary life. We don’t go too deep into the back story in this interview because the Austin American Statesman recently did a lengthy biographical sketch. I encourage you to read it.

I hope you enjoy listening to this one as much as I enjoyed interviewing Jean.

Links:

Article about Jean in the Austin American Statesman

Jean’s web site

Wizard Academy’s Money and Cool Chicks

Filed Under: Leadership, Podcasts, Uncategorized, Wizard Academy Tagged With: embezzling, Jean Backus, Naked Accountant

BrandingBlog Radio: Roy H. Williams on The Desire for Instant Gratification

August 16, 2011 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

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Roy in Tuscan Hall - 2004

Roy H. Williams is the original Wizard of Ads and central hub of our consulting group. We had a good time chatting about the biggest mistake most business owners make when it comes to their advertising…The Desire for Instant Gratification.

Before we got to the subject, we chatted briefly about Nebraska and his single sojourn through the state. What do you think was his most memorable stop? You’ll have to listen to find out.

We also talked about the extensive research he’s done on the new Pendulum book, due out in the 1st quarter of 2012. There are still seats available for the class on November 15-16 in Austin.

I took this photo in May of 2004, shortly after he purchased land for Wizard Academy. He is standing in a barn that was to become Tuscan Hall. Fortunately, the barn was blown down by the wind before it could be remodeled and they had to basically start from scratch.

Filed Under: Advertising, Leadership, Podcasts, Wizard Academy, Wizard of Ads

BrandingBlog Radio: Zig Zag Principle with author Rich Christiansen

August 2, 2011 By Dave Young 6 Comments

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This week I had a chance to catch up with my friend, Rich Christiansen. Rich is one of those guys who just can’t sit still without building a business. McGraw-Hill is publishing his latest book on business building and business growth strategies. It’s called The Zig Zag Principle and it’s coming out on October 4, 2011. What I really like about Rich’s books is that he bases everything on strategies that he uses every day. You won’t find un-tested academic theories, just great advice on what actually works to build a business.

Pre-order it by going to The Zig Zag Principle web site.

Filed Under: Buzz This, Leadership, Podcasts, Strategy

Persona Based Leadership

April 15, 2010 By Dave Young Leave a Comment

The best reality show on TV right now for business owners is Undercover Boss on CBS where the CEOs of big companies are learning some valuable lessons by interacting with their rank and file while in disguise.

As a business owner, you have a leadership style. Unless you've worked at crafting your leadership style with training and intention, it's quite likely to simply be your natural style based on your personality type.

So, what's your personality type? Do you know it? I've been using a personality-based approach toward marketing for my clients for the past 6 years. We based our messaging and strategy around what we know to be true of people's decision making styles. We anticipate their questions and their actions.

Turn it around and point it back at yourself as a leader and you'll quickly uncover your strengths and maybe some areas where you are failing and don't know it yet. Yes, you'll identify your blind spots.

Bruna Martinuzzi has shared some great advice for leaders based on their personality preference for Extraversion or Introversion. (If you don't know your personality type try this free test. You're looking for the first letter in your 4-letter type…E or I.)

Martinuzzi's advice for Extraverted Leaders:

Circulate information ahead of a meeting. Provide as much written information as is feasible before a meeting so that introverted team members have a chance to reflect on the material in order to give you their best thinking.

And for Introverted Leaders:

Beware of voids created by non-communication. A void will be quickly filled by rumors, misinterpretations, and grapevine musings. Take the initiative to share information. Be inspired by Seth Godin’s exhortation that “the less people know, the more they yell” and make sure that you communicate early and often.

The entire article is a good read for a business owner. It gives 6 good tips for both types of leaders.

Filed Under: Leadership, musings, Strategy Tagged With: Leadership, personality type, persuasion architecture