“FEAR is the first thing impeding progress.” ~Jesse Moore

Embed respect for the customer’s time into your processes and practices.

For example:

• In a sit-down restaurant, minor errors in an order are mildly annoying, but can usually be dealt with fairly quickly.  When it’s drive-through or take-out, and the customer won’t discover the problem until they get home, it’s critical to double-check the order before handing it to them.
• In a restaurant, some items are time-sensitive. If someone asks for extra cream, they’re not drinking their coffee until they get it. If they want honey for their pancakes instead of syrup, they’re not going to eat them until they get it. Make it a practice to take care of any extras before the food for which it’s needed is served.
• Here’s an example of someone doing it right:  Men’s Wearhouse has tailors on-site at all of their stores.  If all you need is a pants hem (which is always needed on dress slacks), they take care of it while you wait, and you only pay for any given alteration once. That saved me one time when I had to wear my MW tux and had gotten a little bit big for them. The tailor opened up a few minutes before the store opened, let out the waist a couple of inches while I waited, and didn’t charge me for it.
• Another example:  Discount Tire will check and rotate your tires (purchased from them, of course) for free, while you wait, pretty much no matter how busy they are. For even more time savings, you can make an appointment online.

Do you know of another company that’s doing this well? Share in the comments below.

A4 Thanks to social media, people with innovative ideas, disabilities have gotten a stronger voice #bufferchat

— Creativity with Kay (@creativitywithk) May 25, 2016

In the process of researching The Virtual Handshake, I had the pleasure of meeting scientist, researcher and disabilities activist Gregor Wolbring and discussing this topic with him at length. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 3. Keep in mind as you’re reading this that it was written back in 2004:

Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the Internet, said, “The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” When you are meeting people virtually, disabilities that would hinder or prevent face-to-face social interaction can become a nonissue.

Dr. Gregor Wolbring

Dr. Gregor Wolbring is a biochemistry and bioethics professor at the University of Calgary and founder of the International Centre for Bioethics, Culture and Disability. He offers information worldwide through his Web site, virtual discussion group, and online courses. He develops most of his contacts virtually.

A wheelchair user himself, he says, “I find online interaction very empowering because it allows me to reach more people and help more people than I would ever be able [to] without it. I just hope it will become more broadly available and the digital divide for disabled people becomes smaller.”

Wolbring sees virtual interaction as a social equalizer for disabled people in five key ways:

1. It allows disabled people to interact with so-called nondisabled people without having to reveal their nonnormative body structure or functioning. This allows disabled people with low self-esteem and with high fears of rejection to communicate with the world.
2. It allows disabled people to interact with people all over the world, even if they are not able to travel because of financial or mobility restrictions.
3. Virtual learning allows the teaching of disabled people who otherwise have no access to education. Less than 2 percent of disabled people in developing countries are in regular schools.
4. It allows for dissemination of knowledge that would be too expensive for disabled people to obtain otherwise.
5. It allows for more efficient advocacy.

He notes that every Web site designer should be aware that many Web sites and Internet tools are still not disabled accessible. The World Wide Web Consortium provides free accessibility tips and tools.

How has social media impacted your life in this context? Has it opened up new possibilities and relationships for you? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear your story.

1. Contrary to popular opinion and a few magazine pundits, deflation is NOT bad and doesn’t stifle economic growth. It is, as prominent Austrian school economist Philipp Bagus put it, “a fast, smooth, direct, and ethical way to a sound financial system.” This is the free market doing its job to correct the inflationary interventionism of governments around the world. It may be painful, but even if so, it is the lesser of two evils. If we don’t go ahead and pop the bubble, it will eventually explode — hyperinflation, and that is far worse. Let the market do its job and just ride it out.

2. Time in the market is much more important than timing the market. If you’re in it for the long haul, i.e., retirement or wealth creation, not a quick buck, then riding it out is the best tactic. Think about it — where else are you going to put your money? What other investment isn’t going to feel the ripple effect of the stock market plunge? It’s kind of like changing lanes on the freeway — you’re really probably better off just staying in your lane. Even if occasionally that may not turn out best, the thing is — you have no way of knowing it. You have to stick with the odds, and the odds are, you’re better off holding long. Historically, the people who have sold off in a crash are the ones who lose their money long-term.

So do whatever it takes today to calm yourself down, chill out, and go invest in yourself — that’s something that always pays great dividends.

Now some of this stuff is just normal wear and tear, or a fluke, but the leak really got me thinking…

Consider the fact that one sloppy soldering job connecting two pieces of pipe 12 years ago is now causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.  One case of someone not checking carefully enough on something that was going to be permantently buried under concrete.

What are the equivalents of that in your life and work?

Sure, a single typo probably isn’t going to cause thousands of dollars of damage, and even this isn’t the life-and-death matter of, say, working on the space shuttle or packing a parachute. But what is the worst-case scenario that could play out if you cut corners and do less than your very best work?  Even if the risk is very low, sometimes the consequences are so high that you simply have to take the time to do the job right.

So while I’m generally all for keeping a positive outlook and expecting the best, sometimes you really have to ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Have you had an experience in your business or personal life where one small mistake had huge consequences? Please share it in the comments.

It doesn’t have to be long. Seth Godin’s post from yesterday was 49 words.

It doesn’t have to be every day. Some say it’s awesome, others say it’s silly. But try it for a week, or a month, to start building the habit.

There are two keys to making this happen:

1. Schedule the time. Personally, I recommend planning on it earlier in the day, rather than later. First of all, your mind is fresher (I wake up with ideas that would make great blog posts, don’t you?). Secondly, if you miss it, you can still make it up at multiple opportunities later in the day — lunch, after work, after dinner, before bed, etc.
2. Make it easy.  Make your “Add New Post” page the first bookmark on your bookmarks bar.  Have your content ideas and curation sources at your fingertips, ready to go. Learn the tools that make the process easier.

Now go write!

Cynicism is so 2000-late. Get over it. It’s not hip or cool or intellectual. It’s only occasionally funny, and then best reserved for the appropriate context, which is not everyday conversation.

Ayn Rand was even more detailed in her indictment of cynicism:

There is nothing so naive as cynicism. A cynic is one who believes that men are innately depraved, that irrationality and cowardice are their basic characteristics, that fear is the most potent of human incentives—and, therefore, that the most practical method of dealing with men is to count on their stupidity, appeal to their knavery, and keep them in constant terror.

In private life, this belief creates a criminal; in politics, it creates a statist. But, contrary to the cynic’s belief, crime and statism do not pay.

A criminal might thrive on human vices, but is reduced to impotence when he comes up against the fact that “you can’t cheat an honest man.” A statist might ride to power by dispensing promises, threats and handouts to the seekers of the unearned—but he finds himself impotent in a national emergency, because the language, methods and policies which were successful with parasites, do not work when the country needs producers.

Ayn Rand Letter, III, 26, 3

“Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.” ~ James Russell Lowell

Online reputation management is a hot topic these days.  While it affects individuals of every profession and companies of all sizes and industries, direct selling companies and distributors face some unique challenges, as I describe in my latest article for Networking Times, Keep It Clean: Twelve Steps to Protect Your Reputation Online.

For one thing, the problem is universal in the direct selling industry. 88% of the DSA Global 100 have negative results on page one of Google for a search for their company name.  Over 75% have one or more negative words (“scam”, “pyramid scheme”, “lawsuit”, “complaints”, etc.) in Google’s instant search suggestions:

Now, it’s not that other companies and other industries don’t have that negative content out there — Google any telecommunication or utility company plus “complaint” and you’ll be stunned.  Look at just the Pissed Consumer page for Verizon:

It’s not that the negative isn’t there for them — it’s just not showing up on the first page of Google.

So what’s the difference?  It’s simple: a) these companies put out massive amounts of content, and b) mainstream media tends to ignore the direct selling industry except when there’s a huge (and probably negative) story.

Another challenge direct selling companies face is what we call “brandjackers” — professional internet marketers who create content targeting company names for SEO, often in conjunction with “scam”. They promise an independent review, and sometimes they’re even positive, but their ulterior motive is to sell something of their own:  leads, marketing tools, their educational product, or perhaps a competing opportunity.

Finally, you have to deal with the fact that the field is competing with the company. It’s certainly preferable to have distributors ranking ahead of competitors or negative sites, but it can be very frustrating when a distributor has their (probably unauthorized) version of your opportunity video ranking ahead of the official one, both on Google and on YouTube.

Are you or your company experiencing these yourself?  Want to know what to do about it?

1. Check out 12 Steps to Protect Your Reputation Online for an overview of the process.
2. Subscribe to my blog. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be expanding on each of those 12 steps as individual blog posts, including specific tips and resources.
3. If you need help now, check out Momentum Factor’s Online Reputation Management services and let’s see what we can do. You can also contact me directly and I’ll be happy to help.

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