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I’ve been reading Small is the New Big by Seth Godin today, and there was a highly relevant essay in this 2006 book. He discussed the concept of zooming.

2006 was a different time. Twitter would not be invented for another year. The housing boom was incredible with no end in sight. Zoom Video Communications was 5 years in the future.

When Godin said zooming, he meant “doing the same thing as usual, only different.” Most people are resistant to change because change is hard, painful, and expensive. However, expanding the horizons of what you are already doing is inspiring and exciting. During the crisis of Covid-19 that we now face, the companies best able to adapt by zooming rather than changing will dominate the new market.

Apple is a company that has been a mighty zoomer. They reached into market spaces from communications to video games to music to shopping, but they were able to do so because they had a wide zoomwidth.

Zoomwidth is how broad you perceive your existing domain to be, and thus how far you can move and pivot without having to deal with the painful process of change.

Rolling Stone magazine never became as big as MTV because their zoomwidth was narrow. Their ideas were limited by their self perception as a magazine while MTV saw themselves as a cultural medium.

Best Version Media, whom I work with, has a broad zoomwidth. Our CEO Dave Durand often reminds us that we are not a magazine company, we are a results company, and community magazines get results so we publish magazines. We are constantly researching and developing new ideas that will also serve the same mission of connecting local businesses to local communities. When we deploy one of these products, it won’t be changing, it will be zooming: doing the same thing as usual only different.

During the Covid-19 crisis, there’s a lot of different, and a lot of adaptation. Those businesses with a broad zoomwidth are better able to adapt quickly, because they don’t have to deal with the convulsions associate with rapid, urgent change.

As I speak with Realtors, I find some are in utter despair while others are more successful than ever. What’s the difference? The ones who saw the quarantine and said, “I work in person, and now I can’t work,” are paralyzed. The ones who said, “I work with people, and now I can’t work with people in person like I’m used to, so let’s look at how else we can do this,” are continuing to do business.

Best Version Media has always worked through in person meetings. We had no method for remote presentation, but our concept was that our publishers worked with local business owners, not that we worked with them in person. Our zoomwidth accommodated the concept of remote presentations. This allowed us to pivot rapidly and maintain activity almost without interruption.

Your business has likely been disrupted as well. Perhaps you have adapted easily, and perhaps you are completely shut down. Examine your own zoomwidth. Is it too narrow? Could you redefine your core competency more broadly to incorporate a line of business that can function under quarantine conditions?

Now is the time when flexibility and quick adaptation will be rewarded greatly. How broad is your zoomwidth?

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Michael Whitehouse is the author of The Guy Who Knows A Guy, publisher of Mystic Neighbors and Niantic Neighbors for Best Version Media, and a business coach for businesses looking to untangle knotty problems such as adapting to new realities. To contact him, click here.

Smart business owners are already thinking about where their business will be when the COVID-19 crisis is over. Many are using this time to remodel facilities, boost brand presence, and reposition their business during the crisis to better serve the community in order to engender goodwill when all this is over.

Continue reading “What if we enter a depression?” →

You’ve planned the dinner, you’ve sent the invitations, you’ve sold the tickets. Now it’s time to raise the money.

In this article, I will be discussing certain key points to maximizing the fundraising potential of your event. For the purpose of this article, I’m specifically thinking about fundraising dinners, but you will find the advice relevant to a variety of different fundraising event.

Continue reading “Making the Most of a Fundraising Event” →

One of the most viciously insidious things that our culture does to keep working class people in their place is this ethos of independence. We are taught this myth of independence: an adult should be able to do everything without assistance all the time.

A friend of mine recently had a situation in which her car was hit by a reckless driver causing damage which impacted her ability to earn a living. It was suggested that she should create a GoFundMe to ask for help in repairing the car and dealing with a few other unexpected expenses, and she was very hesitant to do so.

The myth is that this idea of asking for help online with unexpected needs is some new millennial phenomenon. I’m here to tell you that is garbage.

In days past, when a person would have an unexpected expense, the community would come together to pitch in and help. They would pass the hat, sometimes literally. Most churches have a Deacon’s Fund or similar concept. This is something that everyone donates to with the understanding that it will be used to help someone who has a need beyond their capacity.

Before many unexpected needs were addressed by formal insurance, this was insurance. If you broke your leg and couldn’t work for a few weeks, your neighbors would collect money to help with your bills and bring you food and help with the kids and all the rest. This was done with the expectation that when another neighbor was in need, you’d be ready to pitch in.

Obviously, this is idealized, and did not happen in every situation, especially as we started moving to cities and no longer knowing our neighbors. Thus came the need for formalized insurance programs, government assistance, and the rest.

GoFundMe and other similar situations such as for my friend are not some new millennial trend. Rather, it is a digital mechanism to replace the form of supporting your neighbor in time of need that has held society together for the past 20,000 years.

Furthermore, this is not merely an artifact of the past. This is the way things are done among people of means today. Naturally, people with money don’t have to worry about the same small shocks like fender benders disrupting their lives. An unexpected accident or short term disability digs into savings rather than creating a crisis. But when larger issues arise, they are able to turn to their network for support. The business owner who turns to a friend for a loan to keep their business afloat through a crisis. The parent who turns to their friend to help with a financial need for a child.

Why don’t we hear about this? Because if you are a person of means and your friends are as well, you don’t need to 100 people to put together the money to address your need. You can ask one or two friends, and know that they will be able to help you without dramatic hardship, thus no need for a public request for assistance.

Put another way, if you do not have great wealth, you have been made to feel shame for not having great wealth when you need money to survive. If you buy into this, you are buying into the idea that not being wealthy makes you a worse person.

I, for one, do not buy into this. In fact, I believe that our willingness to support our neighbors, even those we do not know, makes us better people. The success of GoFundMe and other similar platforms in helping people overcome temporary hardship shows to me that we still live in a world of good people and that there is still hope for good in the world.

So if you need help, post that GoFundMe. And if you see someone asking for help, help them as you can. Remember that, when asked “who is my neighbor?” Jesus answer was that everyone is your neighbor.

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If you’d like to help my friend Sarah, visit her GoFundMe here. If you are reading this after that request closes, consider finding another request and helping them. Even $1 or $5 can make a difference.

For more information about services for Realtors from The Guy Who Knows a Guy, click here.

The more undifferentiated your offering, the more you need branding. The more competition you have, the more you need branding. Realtors face competition from hundreds or even thousands of competitors and seem to sell an undifferentiated product. Arguably more than any other industry, a Realtor must brand themselves in the market if they are to be truly successful.

In my business as a publisher, it is my job to know many Realtors. My publication is a great resource for them. However, out of the 1200 or so Realtors in my area, I could probably only name a few dozen. The rest have so completely failed in branding that even I, a marketing professional whose job is to seek them out, am not even aware of them.

Of course, it’s not their fault. They’ve been taught by countless seminars from companies that offer property marketing services that marketing their properties is much more important than branding and marketing themselves. While marketing properties is vital for doing your business as a Realtor, branding yourself is crucial for building your business.

Continue reading “Realtor Branding” →

When you meet a lot of people like I do, you come many who are involved in network marketing or multi-level marketing. As an entrepreneur, I’m very open to opportunities which would allow me to leverage my connections to create revenues, but only if they really are opportunities.

Presently, I publish a local magazine, represent a local non-profit agency to help them find sponsorships, partner with a couple local consultants, in addition to my book sales, speaking fees, patreon. I’ve got a few revenue streams, but they all synergize so they make sense together.

I use a web site called Shapr, which could be described as Tinder for networking. It puts 15 people interested in networking in front of you every 36 hours which you can swipe left or right.

Just like on Tinder, it’s pretty hit or miss. You can make some high quality connections, and you can find people looking for the quick hook up. In the case of networking, the quick hook up is often the networking marketing opportunity.

I met “Susan” (not her real name) on Shapr, and tried to recruit me to ACN. Of course, the approach was not nearly so direct, so I let it play out because you never know when something good may come of a connection, and all I lost was 20 minutes on the phone before discovering that this was not for me. In this case, she suggested that she could get me in front of an audience of 20,000 to educate about networking, which is quite an opportunity, since my 2019 goal is to reach 1,000.

As you might expect, her “business partner” knew nothing about this speaking bit when he started pitching me on “opportunities.”

In fairness to networking marketing

In fairness to ACN (which is not the ACN from the Newsroom), it looks like they are a legitimate company that legitimately provides energy, telecom, and security services. They just market through an MLM format. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you understand that joining them is starting a business, not just adding a simple stream of revenue.

I know some people who are extremely successful with Isagenix. I’ve met at least one person who makes a living from ACN (who wasn’t trying to recruit me at that moment). I have also known people to do very well with Vector Marketing. The opportunity is absolutely real, and if you are in a bad career place and ready to work your face off to build a business, these platforms can do well for you, although I’d personally recommend Best Version Media over any of them.

However, if you already have a business (or four), then you probably don’t want to take on another.

Network marketing red flags

There are a few red flags when someone is trying to recruit you to a network marketing business.

1. No LinkedIn profile

Yeah, probably should have figured it out when I searched for Susan on LinkedIn and found no profile. Anyone who is serious in business has a LinkedIn profile. It may not be terribly active or fully up to date, but not having one is like not having a business card. It tells me that you’re not really a business person.

2. “Let me introduce you to my business partner.”

While it is possible that someone might be interested in recruiting you to their non-network marketing business and would want you to speak to their business partner, the phrasing is suspicious. Usually the “business partner” is their upline who is better trained and presenting and closing the opportunity.

Instead of “partner” they may say “coach” or “consultant” or “advisor” or anything similar. Same idea.

3. Non-specific business

If you have a business partner, your business has a name. As a solopreneur with multiple projects, I may introduce myself as associated with a few different businesses because I do so many things. However, if I’m recruiting someone, I’m recruiting them for one project, and that project has a name.

When they are vague about who they are, what they do, even what industry they are in, that’s a big red flag.

4. “Are you open to new revenue streams?”

Network marketing recruiters love this question. It’s basically saying “if I were to hand you a bag of money every week, would you want it?” Of course you do. I’m open to new revenue streams. That’s why I have six of them. But it doesn’t mean I want to launch an entirely new business and tie up my reputation in this company.

5. “You can do it a couple hours a week.” and “This works with what you’re already doing.”

You can learn French a couple hours a week, and in 90 years, you’ll be able to order a meal in Paris. There is no real business that you can build in a couple hours a week. There are some businesses that are natural synergies. A personal trainer selling Isagenix or Beach Body can increase their revenues without increasing their workload because they are selling a complementary product to their main offering. That’s not a new business, it’s adding a product line.

Don’t try to tell me that selling discount electricity and security systems synergizes with marketing and networking education. I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night.

6. “You don’t have to sell the products, just ask people if they’re open to new income streams.”

Check please.

I was almost open to the idea that ACN’s offerings might be a fit for my business. After all, I do talk to business owners a lot. If the products are good, I could promote them with my newsletter. Then I saw their true colors. They don’t care about selling products. Recruit, recruit, recruit. That’s a pyramid scheme. Eventually there is no one left to recruit and it’s game over.

Maybe I would be getting in early enough, but I refuse to sell an opportunity that is no longer available.

I’m quite open to representing a variety of products because I connect with a variety people, but I have no interest in representing your “opportunity.”

Network opportunities

There are many opportunities to leverage your network. Your best bet is to find local businesses seeking clients. Get a good understanding of their business and arrange a fair finders fee arrangement.

In some cases, these network marketing opportunities can function in the same way, but make sure that you are either prepared to take them on as an additional business or that you can execute on them with a minimal expenditure of time and energy.

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Three great ways to learn more about building your network:
Read The Guy Who Knows A Guy.
Subscribe to the email list.
Invite Michael to speak to your organization.