Archive for May, 2006

I am a big fan of “Customer Evangelism,” the word of mouth framework for developing customers that tell others about your company or service. Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have developed a great blog, written a book and published a manifesto about the subject.

The idea is…

• When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they can become outspoken “evangelists” for your company. This group of satisfied believers can be converted into a potent marketing force to grow your universe of customers.

Customer evangelism is a great topic and we all can probably think back to the person who told us about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts or Starbucks coffee and realize the influence of friends or family that are truly customer evangelists.

But what about Employee Evangelists? Are there employees that are so thrilled with their job and the experience of working at their company that they become outspoken evangelists, telling everyone they meet how great it is to work at XYZ company?

I think there are…

In fact I’ve met many people like this. They like their boss and agree with the vision and direction the company is going. They feel passionate about what they are doing and they definitely have a purpose in life. They are great team players and look at life through a positive lens.

Rosa Say, over at Talking Story has a post today about reinvented work. I think one of the best ways for business leaders and managers to reinvent their workplaces is to actively decide to create employee evangelists.

Three things come to mind when talking about jobs that are so exciting that everyone needs to know about them…

1. Communication: Clearly a top priority is clear communication between management and employee. This needs to be more than e-mail and the occasional phone call. It needs to be face to face, open and honest, and happen on a regular basis. In her book, Rosa has an article about the “daily five minutes“, where each day, without fail, managers are to give five minutes of no-agenda time to at least one of their employees. This is the type of communication than creates evangelists.
2. Vision: Company leaders and managers need a cohesive vision for the company and it’s employees. Workers need to know where they are going, how soon they will get there, and what is expected along the way. When a clear and compelling vision is communicated well, the ideas and vision will spread like wild fire. People will want to come to work and take the next step to success.
3. Passion: Employee evangelists need to be doing work they are passionate about. No hum drum boring cubicle existence here. Evangelists need jobs that they are good at and need to feel like they are making a difference. This takes creativeness and vision from the company leadership. Job skills and personality profiles should be taken into consideration when creating job descriptions. Teams of success minded employees will create an incredible synergy that will permeate everyone’s daily work experience. Passionate employees will go further, make better decisions, and take into account the vision of the company.

In short, creating employee evangelists should be a top priority of any leading edge company.

Make it fun, make it exciting, and give us a vision where we are going!

If you do, we’ll all be excited about coming along for the ride!

In a world that is supposed to be heading to a paperless utopia, we still use paper for a lot of things. I notice at work that we are adding newer and faster printers all the time. Printers that hold thousands of sheets of paper and print over 25 pages per minute. Reams and reams of paper with toner on them end up in recycling bins everyday.

The interesting thing is that the major job description of the new millennium may be “putting toner on paper.” Even with quick broadband connections and high speed computers the lowly old fax machine still chugs away everyday, spitting sheets of paper with signatures or hand input data out to those in need.

This has been an amazing week here at Success Begins Today. A couple of our posts were picked up by Lifehacker and another by lifehack.org. The post on the Five Minute Organizer (Walleteer) had over 10,000 visits last week. This paper based organizer seems to have found a niche with people that find traditional PDA’s a little less than ideal.

I have a Sony Clie PDA and I find it useful for storing phone numbers and other static data. The problem with it is carrying it around and syncing it up. It’s too big to put in my pocket so I usually carry it around in a pocket in my notebook. Out of sight and out of mind, the battery usually goes dead before I remember to recharge it.

The paper based Walleteer works well for me. I can take it almost anywhere, it’s flexible, and I can remove cards and place them on my desk where they are constantly in sight. For me, paper is still the best solution for note taking and organization. I’ve been looking at the new PDA phones such as the Treo 700 which combine the convenience of a phone with the practicality of a PDA. The reviews are mixed and some don’t seem to be quite ready for prime time. I’m hoping that the next versions will be easier to use.

We have a couple of new paper based solutions lined up for next week. The Five Minute Diet Planner and the Five Minute Mission Statement are in the works. Both should fill a niche that many people have. Most of my friends are constantly on diets and they are all looking for a way to track their daily progress and stay motivated. What better than a pocket record keeper/motivator that goes with you anywhere.

I’ve been a part of mission and vision statement planning over the last couple of months and the frustration of finding the right words is a big problem. I have been on a panel that literally spent hours trying to find one word. The Mission Statement Builder may help alleviate the problem with a quick reference feature.

I just want to say welcome to all of our new visitors and a big thanks to all of the sites that linked to us. Be sure to bookmark this site as we have some fun new items on the horizon.

If you find the Five Minute Organizer helpful be sure to checkout these other paper based tools.

Five Minute Flowchart
Five Minute Motivators
Five Minute Outliner
Instant Garage Sale

For additional paper based solutions check out the DIYplanner site.

I am an outliner. I love to outline speeches, stories, and just about any project that I’m starting on. An outline is a starting point and having a good tool for creating one is very important. I usually outline in Microsoft Word, which allows me to move things around and put my thoughts in any order I wish. I usually put down the main points first, and then fill in the sub-points and substance of the project.

The power of MS Word is flexibility. I can see my thoughts and then put them in order. But how do you outline when a computer is not available? I’ve tried paper, but I find myself erasing more than writing. There must be an offline tool that offers flexibility and speed to get your ideas on paper fast but with the ability to move things around.

Enter the Five Minute Outliner. This little tool fits in your pocket and you can take it anywhere. The tool works simply. Grab a Sharpie and put a project title on the title card. Put your main points on the main subject cards provided and lay them out on your desk. You now have a starting point. Move them around if necessary. When you get the proper flow and order you are ready for step two. Grab your fine point Sharpie and start writing down sub-points on the sub-point cards. Put the cards down on the desk below the main points.

The sub-point cards are flexible. If you are working on a project with lots of changes put one sub-point on each card. If the project is rather static you can put multiple sub-points on one card for easier visibility. The Outliner is flexible and is great for group collaboration. You can pass out a main subject card to a small group and then give each team member a sub-point card. The ideas will come fast and furious. The cards allow the group to arrange points quickly and easily. Within minutes a complex project can be outlined in a group setting.

Get back together and layout the whole project. In minutes you can fine tune the project. You can discard and consolidate ideas easily. Soon you’ll have a workable solution. The best part… stack the cards in the order of the outline from top to bottom. Put the title card on top and clip them together making an outline walleteer. This will fit easily into your pocket or purse and allow you to take the project intact and in order back to your computer.

Grab some mini clips and stack your outline on your desktop tower. You can now input your outline quickly and visibly into your computer. The desktop tower is easily made with a clothes hanger dowel and a large clothespin. This tower is great for computer input or visual feedback. I use the tower when I practice a speech that I have outlined.

When you are done with your outline and you need a synopsis use the “jogger” card. This is a vertical aligned card with lines for your major and sub points. This card is very useful for speeches and meeting prep. Put it in your pocket or purse and take it with you. The card is small enough to fit easily on a podium or lectern for quick reference. Never forget your place in a speech again. The card is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand so it will be less distracting to an audience when using it for notes.

Instructions for use:

• Download the Five Minute Outliner Template for MS Word
• Open the template and modify as necessary
• Print out on Avery business card stock (10 Card)
• Break cards apart
• Fill in a title and main points
• Fill in sub-points
• Arrange as necessary
• Fill in the jogger summary card
• For portability stack cards in order and clip together with mini clip
• Transport easily in pocket or purse

This tool has made speech and meeting planning much faster and easier for me. In a few minutes I’m able to get my main points down and try different sub points and project order. The flexibility of this tool makes outlining quick and fun.

Try it today!

Other Five Minute Tools you may enjoy…

Five Minute Flowchart
Five Minute Organizer
Five Minute Motivators

It’s Saturday morning and you try to put away that new gizmo that you picked up on Friday night at Costco. You open the closet and try to find a place for it. You stuff it here and there but finally realize there is no room for it. If you put it in the closet you can’t close the door… time for action. You have no time to sort and carefully lay out items… you need something quick and easy… something to solve this problem now… you need an instant garage sale.

The problem is… you hate garage sales. They always take a lot of time, require a lot of haggling, and stress you out. You put your stuff out in the driveway and hope someone will buy it. The usual result is a sunburn, a lot of arguing over a 50 cent item, and a few bucks in your pocket… hardly a good way to spend a Saturday.

You need a solution. You need the marketing expertise of a Seth Godin to help you market your stuff and the organizational prowess of a David Allen to plan things out and get people there. You throw your hands up in the air in frustration… but then you see this link on the web page… hmmmm an “instant garage sale kit.” You download the small file and follow the directions. Suddenly things are looking up and a smile comes across your face… you can do this.

You quickly print out a couple of sheets of marketing materials followed by three garage sale signs. Instantly you are energized. You grab a Sharpie marker and start writing prices and grabbing item after item from your closet. You tape the brightly colored tags to each item, clearly marked with a price. You grab all of your items and head for the driveway. You have your spouse take the directional signs down to the corner and put them up.

Soon people are lined up at the end of your driveway. The brightly colored labels make price selection easy. Instead of haggling you are selling. Ker-ching after Ker-ching, the sales ring up. As the selection dwindles people start bidding up the items. Those marketing labels are working great. Soon all of the items are gone and your wallet is bulging. You list each sale on the garage sale roster and add things up. A cool $100 in less than an hour. Not bad for an hour on a Saturday morning.

You can experience the same thing this weekend.

The Garage Sale Kit Includes:

• Colorful Marketing label template
• Three directional sign templates
• Sales roster template

Additional Materials Needed:

• Avery Business Card Stock
• Colorful Paper
• Sharpie Markers

Here’s how to do it.

• Download the Instant Garage Sale Kit
• Print out 3 or 4 sheets of Avery Business Card Labels
• Print out 3 Directional Signs on brightly colored paper
• Grab a Sharpie marker and start pricing
• Tape labels to each item
• Place your items in a salable location (driveway etc)
• Place directional signs on street corners
• Sell, Sell, Sell!
• Tally your sales figures up on your sales roster

Here is a quick and easy way to instantly turn a garage sale into a pleasurable and profitable experience.

Years ago I had a job where I used the program Visio to create flowcharts. The program was in its early stages but the power of organization was wonderful. I could move the shapes anywhere I wanted and I could easily see the workflow that I was after. The nice thing was the ability to quickly move things around.

That is the power of the, “Five Minute Flowchart.” Print a half dozen business card flowchart sheets, break them apart, grab a Sharpie, and have fun. You’ll soon have a business card flowchart on your desk. Then you can start moving things around.

Don’t like this card here… then move it. Grab a different colored Sharpie and mark things up. Have fun… break the rules. Make yourself the CEO and add others below you. Send the workflow downstream. Create your own corporation.

This Microsoft Word based template allows you to add text from the computer or you can print them blank and enter text by hand. The template includes the 10 most popular shapes and arrows for basic flowcharts. You can cut and paste different shapes in your template to modify them the way you want. Add color and texture for added emphasis.

Once you have modified your template and printed it out, break all the cards apart and clip them together with a mini clip. Take this Flowchart Walleter to your next business meeting and wow your co-workers. People will be amazed at your creativity and organizational prowess. Pass out some cards and Sharpies and have a flowchart party. The creativity will soar and you just may find the answer you were looking for.

Instructions:

• Download the Five Minute Flowchart template
• Open in Microsoft Word
• Add text to the shapes or print blank
• Cut & paste shapes as needed
• Print out on Avery Business Card stock (10 card)
• Break cards apart
• Lay them out on your desk or table
• Create a great flowchart
• Modify as necessary

Options:

• Add color and texture to your shapes for added emphasis
• Add other shapes and lines from the auto shape menu in Word
• Print cards double sided for added versatility

Bottom Line: Have fun and be creative. I have found that this little tool is very helpful for many projects.

Update: Check out our new deluxe version with over 40 new symbols

Related Projects:

Five Minute Motivators

Five Minute Organizer

Mind Map Your Stress

Sudden Mind Idea Mapper

Words are powerful. Words mean things. Just seeing a certain word can be a motivating experience. That is the idea behind, “Five Minute Motivators.” Power words on a card that you can take anywhere, put anywhere, motivate anywhere. You print these power words double sided on standard Avery business cards. Break them apart and clip them together. Slip them in your pocket or purse.

When you get to work place a power word on your monitor to motivate you through the day. Put one on the top row of your keyboard to remind you of something important. Put one on the refrigerator door to help you stay on your diet. Simple, yet effective, power words can help you reach your goal or create that new habit… fast.

You can even create a “motivation station” on your desk that will keep you focused during the day. Using simple materials such as a clothes pin, mini clips, and a pencil, you’ll have a tower of power on your desk in no time. The Five Minute Motivators work seamlessly with a standard Walleteer. Add a card to the top of the stack and you’ll be reminded of an important theme throughout the day.

These power cards are also totally customizable. Add color, change the font, and add some pizzazz. Change the cards quickly in Microsoft Word. Feeling blue? Print a power word in blue or add one in red to lift your spirits. Want a new word? Add it quickly to the blank card provided with a Sharpie marker.

Your spouse just called and wants you to remember to bring home milk… Just add it to your remember card. Like string around your finger, the remember card tapes easily to your car dash so you will remember to stop at the store on your way home. The “take it with you” card is a great reminder by the front door. Write down those things you always forget… keys, lunch, or notebook and put them on the card. When you walk out the front door you’ll see the card and be reminded to take them with you.

Create your power stack in just minutes.

• Download the Power Template and unzip the file.
• Open both pages in Microsoft Word
• Modify as needed
• Print page one on the front of standard Avery Business Cards
• Turn the printed cards over
• Print page two on the back side of the cards
• Break apart and clip together
• Place the cards as needed for daily motivation

Powerful words at your fingertips. Put them in strategic places and you’ll be amazed how simple little words can have a profound effect on your life. Just imagine the look of joy on your spouse’s face when you actually remember to bring home the milk. Priceless!