His honest approach gave me the purpose and inspiration to quit a well paid, well-respected job to launch my company ItIsWhatIt.Is.

Not content with being on the front page of the New York Times business section this amazing guy has joined the elite thinkers in the world and given us a TED talk.

Simon Sinek changed my world when I saw his TED talk. Marcus has also changed the way I think and sums up all that good stuff in these 12 minutes.

If you do one thing I ever ask you, watch this video. Don’t do it for me, do it for yourself. It might just be the start of a new chapter of business success in your life.

Trouble viewing? - Go direct to view on YouTube

Read Marcus’ own blog post about the Talk

This marks a day which will change my life in one way or another. I will be better off for doing it, but I will either leave this process with a significant dent in my net worth, or a gain to some degree. Either way I won’t regret this decision because the potential gains in other areas are so great.

Today I have chosen to leave a full time and well paid job working for a well respected company who I have aspired to work for, for some time. I leave behind the security of knowing where the next pound I earn will come from at the end of each month, to a world of uncertainty and risk. To some people this is their worst nightmare. To be honest if I thought about that too much I wouldn’t have done it. I am choosing to take on a career path where 4 out of 5 will fail. A path where I personally have experienced previous failure. Never the less, I am a product of the life I have lived and the things which I have experienced. The 30 years I have been in this world have been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs with my fair share of highs and lows. With full knowledge of all the negative outcomes which are possible, I still think the gains are worth the risk.

I used to think that money was the answer to everything. More money equals a better life, which was where I thought I wanted to be. The pursuit of wealth alone has led me down paths to places which I have no desire to go back to. Chasing money gets you to a place where you just raise the bar in terms of your expectations of material possessions, and the value you place on those possessions. You then find yourself in a position where you need to earn more money to pay for things which will eventually become the things which “used” to make you happy. This is no good thing. I believe if this is how you define success you will never reach your true potential.

I define success as having the freedom to do what I want, getting fulfilment from what I choose to do and that whatever it is I choose makes me happy.

The things that drive me in pursuit of my entrepreneurial life are to gain freedom, fulfilment and happiness but also to have a higher purpose. As Steve Jobs once said ”I want to make a dent in the universe.” In a 100 years time when I am no longer walking the face of this planet I want to leave a legacy of something more than my digital data trail of tweets and Facebook statuses. If I can find a way to improve the world in some small little way I will consider my career a success.

As I am writing this I can’t believe how much of a hippy I am sounding, but it’s the truth.

My mission is to help make the world more transparent for the benefit of all.

If you would like to find out more about my project please visit my prelaunch website ItIsWhatIt.Is or connect on Facebook – www.facebook.com/itiswhatitdotis or Twitter – www.twitter.com/itiswhatitdotis

The first version of the website will launch in a couple of weeks. If you would like to receive an email when the site launches please enter your email here.

Topics covered in presentation

• What is CRM
• How could social data be used with a CRM
• What is the future of business in with these ideas
• What CRM systems are good at and where they are not not so good
• Use case for social data for consumer packaged good industry (FMCG)
• Use case for social data for television production companies industry
• Use case for social data in retail – one
• Use case for social data in retail – two

Would love your feedback if you get a chance to watch any of the video.

Slides from event

Would love your feedback if you get a chance to watch any of the video.

Full write up without the video - Why you don’t need a social media strategy from #smwldn

Slides from event

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now but now I have finally done it!

On Monday 4^th February I started a new role at Dachis Group to lead their marketing efforts across EMEA.

I was sad to leave SAP as I had built up a big network of colleagues and friends. I want to thank a couple of people:

• Michael Brenner who gave me a great platform to write for the SAP Innovation blog. A platform that put my work amongst the highest people in the company Jonathon Becher (SAP CMO) and Oliver Bussmann (SAP CIO) to name a few.
• Todd Wilms for being an inspiring person to be able to work with. Who taught me a great analogy for how to be social. It’s not about the surf board it’s about living like a surfer.
• Margot Heiligman for being supportive and bringing me into conversations I never would have been a part of.
• Kris McKenzie for a being an understanding boss and supporting my social quest at SAP.

The whole of the CRM for all the fun times we had at our random team night outs, FKOM and the various escapades in Heidelberg (mainly in Vetters!).

Dachis is a company I had admired ever since I attended their Social Business Summit back in June last year.  I still remember the connected company presentation from Dave Gray and being totally blown away by this new way of thinking about how businesses can work. When the opportunity fell into my lap I didn’t have to think for very long to make the move.

I look forward to working in a team of people I admire for the way they are trying to make a difference in the world by challenging legacy ways of doing business.

For more information on Dachis visit www.dachisgroup.com/europe or follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/dachisgroup_eu .

If you would like to learn more about Dachis or my role please drop me a line through my contact page or through any of my social channels.

Do you want to find real followers who actually want to hear what you have to say, engage with you and re-tweet what you say?

Read on if you want to learn how you can add more followers to your total on Twitter.

This blog is the result of me trying out something I have heard Gary Vaynerchuk talk about in a lot of his keynotes. Gary talks about how he built up his following on Twitter by answering people’s questions. That’s it. I have always advocated answering people’s questions in your blog and this applies equally to Twitter.

The big mistake a lot of people make is that they think social media is just another way for them to sell their stuff. I think the opposite, as does Gary.

I do not want followers for the sake of having followers. It is not a vanity thing. I do not think having lots of followers is any use to people if they do not follow you for the right reasons. If you have a million followers who don’t care what you say it isn’t as good as 100 who do care what you say.

Having followers on Twitter (or any other social network) who actually want to know what you say will help you spread your ideas. This in turn will help you indirectly achieve your objectives, whatever they might be.

FYI My objective is to build a community of people I can learn from and be a filter for sharing good information and ideas with the people who follow me.

Below is an example of a question I found on Twitter. The question is from someone I had never heard of, never met and was in a different country and time zone!

The times are a-changing at LinkedIn. Goodbye, LinkedIn Answers. I won’t miss this Q&A feature very much. You? fb.me/1eDXx4zel

— Dan Gershenson (@DanOnBranding) January 20, 2013

I had heard that LinkedIn was closing down its question and answer feature. I had had quite good engagement when I went on there and felt I should share my thoughts with Dan. We struck up a short conversation.

Twitter conversation between @theotherhef and @danonbranding (I blame my iPhone for the spelling mistake!)

The trouble with social is that people treat it like an 18 year old trying to get laid. You need to wine & dine em first  

I noticed two email notifications come through

First of which was

Second was

Results

Within two tweets I had acquired a new follower, was re-tweeted to 6185 people and built one new relationship.

Here are some of the other benefits I have seen in the last week of this experiment:

• Increased followers

During five days of spending about 10-15 minutes a day answering questions on Twitter I had added about 50 followers to my Twitter total. To put this into context I had just about broken 500 followers on Twitter before I started so equated to about 10% increase. The first 500 took me a year to earn so 50 more in  week was great.

• Increase in engagement

Mentions and @ replies = 45. I may have had a couple (1-3 a week) of these if I hadn’t tried this experiment but the total was drastically increased.

Favourited tweets = 7. These people saved my tweet as a favourite which bookmarks my tweet for future reference. This is probably about the same amount that I have had through the previous year.

Re-tweets = 5

• Increase in reach

From just 5 re-tweets I increased the numbers of people’s Twitter feed I was in from 500 to 8695. This is a 17.4x increase in the number of people who may see my tweet and have the potential to engage with me.

• Increase in Klout score

I don’t put a lot of value in what your Klout score is but some people do. Especially those companies who think it is essential you have a Klout score over a certain level before the will even interview you for a job. So if this kind of thing is of interest to you, this method works. Over the 7 days my Klout score increased by just over 3 points.

Although the numbers included are not massive, if you take into consideration the percentage increase this experiment proves it is very easy to increase the number of followers naturally and only adding people who want to follow you for what you have to say or the value you can add to their network.

Would this work on other social networks?

This concept would work on any social network but is best suited to Twitter because most of Twitter is open for anyone to access and therefore you have access to more people around the Twitter-verse.

Further information

I will be writing another post to show you different ways to find questions for you to answer. Check back soon.

If you want to hear more from a guy who has worked these ideas and proved how well they can work watch the video below

Trouble viewing the embedded video? Follow this link > > http://youtu.be/dEN8NQK2Qso

Feedback

I would love to hear your feedback on this article and the ideas discussed. Have you tried or will you try any of these techniques? Is there anything you have tried which has helped increase the engagement you have with other like minded people on Twitter?

Are you sceptical if it will work in your business niche/sector/industry?

Are you trying to figure out if you should start a blog?

Then read on…..

While on holiday in Thailand I saw this article pop up in my Flipboard.

Link to article > > http://www.thesaleslion.com/blog-seo-branding-thought-leadership/
I read the post, saw the video embedded below and couldn’t wait to watch it. Unfortunately the local broadband was not quite up to streaming 45 minutes of video content, so I had to watch it at home. After crashing out for a few hours when I got home, this video was the perfect thing to keep my jet lagged brain busy while I could not sleep.

Trouble viewing embedded video? Click on this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bXer2u9F2w

From the title you would not think the article and presentation would help you sell.  However it contains some hard proof that his blog posts have resulted in sales. Marcus goes on to say that one blog article has resulted in $1.2m dollars in sales for his company.

NOTE: A blog is just a way of formatting new information on your website in a reverse chronological order

How does a blog post turn into a sale?

The above diagram show how the blogging process, brings new people to your website which eventually ends up as a sale.

Stage 1 – Answer customer questions on your company blog

You write the answer to every question your customers have ever asked you, as honestly as possible. More details on things to write about later in the post.

Stage 2 – People visit your site

People go to Google and ask a question about the product they are looking to buy or the problem they have. Chances are you have been asked the same question before. As a result, you should write the answer to that question on your blog so the potential new customer finds your answer when searching on Google.  The chances are that none of your competitors have written the answer to that question, so they will land on your website because you will be top of the first page in Google.

Stage 3 – Fill out form

Once a potential customer has landed on your site, hopefully it is well designed and easy to use. They will spend some time browsing other information which answers all of the questions they have on the products/services you sell. Hopefully the information you provide on your website is so comprehensive and informative they want to take things further and give you their contact details.

Stage 4 – Become a lead

Once they give you their contact details, they can enter the sales process. Depending on the type of product you sell and the length of the sales process, this may involve a number of different things such as:

• Adding them to your newsletter to keep them “warm” until they are ready to buy 
• Sending them further information to help them on their buying journey
• A sales person contacting them to see how they can help and to qualify the lead

If you have a product which customers can order through your website you may skip this and move straight to stage 5.

Stage 5 – Sale

Once the lead has been contacted by the sales person then a high percentage of the well qualified leads will be converted to sales. Hey presto BLOG = SALES.

What to write about?

There are different areas you should talk about to maximise the number of people who find your website. They all encourage an honest, open, transparent approach to your business. You want to have the goal of helping the potential customer buy so that they make the right buying decision. You need to have the confidence to stand up and say why they shouldn’t buy from you, as much as why they should. You are not right for every customer so do your best to explain why. If someone shouldn’t buy from you now and you are honest about why, it might mean they are more likely to buy from you in the future.

Cost/price

This is one of the least talked about things on a company website. Most companies are scared to talk about how much their products cost until they have had a sales meeting with the customer. One of the first things a customer wants to know is how much something costs. You should help them understand roughly how much your product or service will cost them.

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/cost/

Problems

All products have problems. When you are in a competitive sales position, your competitors may give conflicting information to what you have said. This is to help them differentiate their product or service from yours. You will say your product is great and your competitor will highlight all the problems with your product. If you are honest, open and transparent about the problems with your product,  you can set the record straight by educating the customer. If there is a problem with your product, tell your customer so they can make an informed decision.  If there is a common problem which has an easy solution – tell your customers.

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/blog/bid/22712/Top-5-Fiberglass-Pool-Problems-and-Solutions

Comparisons

When a customer is looking to buy product A or product B, what do you think they will be asking Google? They will more than likely type in “Product A vs. product B”. If you have an honest comparison then you can help a customer to make the right buying decision.  You need to have the goal of helping a customer buy the right product, even if it is not yours.

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/fiberglass-pool-information/fiberglass-vs-concrete-vs-vinyl-liner-pools/

Best

All companies have competition to some degree. If you are confident with the reasons why your customers should buy from you, you should have no reason not to talk about the good things your competitors do and why they might be a good company to do business with. The example below is hoping to catch people searching for “Who are the best <INSERT PRODUCT> company in <INSERT LOCATION>”. You need to write an article which does NOT feature your own company. Your aim is to help customers find the right company to buy from. If you recommend the best alternatives to your company, your customers can save time by researching only the best companies. Hopefully this research will help them realise why they should buy from you.

It also gives you the chance of coming up in Google when your prospects are searching for words/phrases associated with your competitors.

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/blog/local/bid/80632/Who-Are-The-Best-Pool-Builders-in-Richmond-Virginia-Reviews-Ratings

Awards

One of the ways to come up higher in Google search results is to get other people to link their website to yours. If you write about some of the products you sell and give company/product awards, then you will start to see people linked back to your site. This will help Google rank your website as a better search result than your competitors. You should not just give awards to products you sell, you should give awards to products you do not sell and to companies you compete with.

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/blog/bid/31713/Small-Inground-Fiberglass-Pool-Design-Awards-for-2010

Breaking News

When something happens in your industry you should be the first person to write about it. This means that when people go to Google to find out about what is going on in your industry you will hopefully be the first site to provide that content

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/blog/bid/49047/Blue-Hawaiian-Pools-Purchased-by-Latham-International-Viking-Pools

Thought Leadership

When things are not right in your industry – you should speak up. The example below is when the reseller/installer of swimming pools was unhappy with the warranties that came with the products he sold. The article does not single out an individual supplier but addresses a problem the industry faces.

Example article: http://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/blog/bid/42443/The-Most-Egregious-Fiberglass-Pool-Warranty-I-ve-ever-Seen

Summary

Your sole objective should be to educate your customers to make the right buying decision. Being dishonest with your customers may get short term benefits which will result in sales. If you are 100% honest and you tell people when your product is not right for them, in the long run you will be better off. The customers you turned away will trust you. They will be more likely to buy from you when your products do match their requirements and they will be more likely to recommend you to others.

Feedback

Have you used your blog to generate sales? Do you think these techniques will help you sell more?

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thanks for all your support in 2012. Here is to an even better 2013!

Do you want to know what social business is?

Do you want to know how it will change business in the future?

I believe there is no such thing as “Social Media”. It is just a phrase to describe the current state of the internet.

I believe social business is the future of business. Social business will be the way business is done in the future and eventually what we know currently as social business will just become “business”.

I have come up with my definition of Social Business.

Restoring the equilibrium of power, to make the values, interests and beliefs of the customer/employee equal to those of the company

Up until now the company has always dictated the way that the relationship works. A company decides what they want to sell and for how much.  A customer’s only power is whether to buy it or not. That balance is now changing thanks to the social web.  Multi national companies such as HSBC have been forced to change the decisions they have made due to a Facebook group set up against them. Even countries have been disrupted such as when the now historic action was taken during the Arab Spring.

Companies need to understand how social business will affect them before it is too late.

The above diagram shows a shared set of values. Every decision a company makes needs to favour the individual’s interests as much as their own. I will explain each of the values in more detail.

Shared belief

Both parties need to believe that it is right for them to do business together. Is it a good fit for both sides?

Brand desirability

A company wants to create a desirable brand and an individual wants to buy a desirable product which says something about their choice of product.

Successful growth

For obvious reasons a company wants to grow but an individual should want the company to grow so it can continue to provide new products and new versions to help with their future needs.

Best product

A company wants to have the best product so people want to buy it and an individual wants to buy the best product to help with their needs.

Fair price

Companies try to squeeze every penny of profit out their customers and their customers try to get every penny discount they can. Instead both parties should be aiming for an agreeable fair price.

Reduced costs

Companies always want to reduce their costs so they make more money. A consumer would want this too if they knew where the saved money was going. For example a company could say: If we cut our costs by 5% we will pass these savings on to you in price reductions or we have more money to invest in R&D so our next product will be able to be faster/better/bigger/longer/stronger etc.

Loyal relationships

Companies always want loyal customers who continue to spend more money with them but a customer would also want loyalty from the company. They want to buy a product and know that the company will be there for them if they have a problem and when they want to buy another product in the future.

Lifetime value

Companies always want to get the most value out of their customers but a customer wants the same thing too.  If a customer invests money in buying a product from a company they want to know that they are going to get good value so that in the long term that company will be able to support their needs going forward.

The result

Social business will help to accelerate the natural selection of business – like the evolution of species. The good will grow bigger and stronger and the weak will disappear and become extinct.

Summary

Social business forces companies to be more honest, open and transparent. You cannot hide things from your customers any more. If you are making decisions within your business that do not have your customers best interests at heart, then you will be exposed. You need to imagine a customer is sitting in you board room when you make decisions. Think about how they would react to that decision and how it would affect them. If you do this then it maybe a good barometer for you to use to make better decisions.

Social business is the future. It will only be truly successful when “Joe Bloggs” on the street decides that the ideas and theories behind “social business” is just “business”.

Your thoughts?

As always I would love your input. What do you think about these views? Do you think social is the future of business? Do you think companies need to be more customer centric or can they get away with not putting its customers as high up their priorities as they should?

A Buddhist monk prayer session in full flow. Hearing them recite their ancient chants in the Wat Pho Buddhist temple, home to the worlds largest reclining Buddha.

Passing my open water PADI Scuba diving course 18 metres under the Andaman sea with green turtles and leopard sharks to keep me company.

Riding an Asian elephant called Nancy bareback into the sea and then swimming with her after she decided it would be funny to throw me and my unsuspecting girlfriend into the sea

The one thing that struck me above everything is the entrepreneurial spirit of the Thai people. The less the person had, the more they tried. When you are on a remote island where there are no shops for miles, the locals set up stores in their houses to serve the community around them. Locals on the streets were working all hours of the day selling fruit for small amounts of money that the western world would not consider worth picking up off the floor. By western standards the low pay, long hours and shanty town living would deem their quality of life as unlivable. However, on the whole, the people seemed very happy. The holiday made me feel very humble and gave me some time to reflect on how lucky I am and the things that have helped make me happy. I wanted to turn these thoughts into two tips to help you live a happier life.

Perspective

Someone who is homeless and has nothing would probably be very happy if you were to buy them a hot drink or something to eat. A princess may be upset because she couldn’t find a new dress for her latest social event. Most people reading this will be somewhere between the two. In reality nothing is ever that bad and there is usually someone worse off than you. Whenever you feel that life is treating you badly and you are unhappy, consider how lucky you are in comparison with others less fortunate than yourself.

In the above video Rory Sutherland uses the example of the London Underground. He says the single biggest improvement in customer satisfaction was when they introduced a digital sign telling you when the next train was due. It turns out that the frustration you experience whilst waiting four minutes for a train, when you don’t know how long it is going to take, is significantly higher than if you know it is going to arrive in four minutes. This proves that perspective affects your happiness. What ever life has thrown at me, I refer back to these three quotes which have always served me well.

• Everything happens for a reason
• There is a silver lining to every cloud
• If it doesn’t kill you, it can only make you stronger

Purpose

Something I learnt from Simon Sinek changed the way I look at the world and the way I operate in it. It was his idea of “starting with why“. He talks about how to motivate people to take action and he uses it in the context of how to motivate other people. I used this idea to help me figure out what it is that motivates me. Simon explains the “Start with why” idea around having a cause, purpose or belief that you are working towards. Most people would say theirs would be to make money. He explains this is a result and not “your why”. When I was young I thought my purpose was to make lots of money. After watching this video it took me a while to start to figure out what my purpose was. This is what I have come up with;

I want to make the world of business better for individuals AND companies.

The way I have re-branded my blog and the work I do in the future will hopefully help serve this purpose. To be happy you need to have some kind of purpose that drives you in your life. It needs to be a long term desire to make something fundamentally change in the world or spread an idea. It needs to be a cause you are are passionate about communicating. You can work towards this goal with other like-minded people for the good of something other than yourself. This purpose can act as something which can help you make decisions in your life about what it is you do and don’t do. For example if you were offered a substantial pay rise to work in a new job that would not allow you to work towards your purpose, perhaps you shouldn’t take it. After the initial appeal of the extra money wears off, you will not be happy.

Summary

Research has shown that people are much happier when they live in the moment. This means trying to stop your mind wandering, thinking about positive or negative things, past or future. The research is explained in more detail in the video below.

If you can find your purpose, have a good perspective and live in the moment I think you will be well on your way to living a happier life. There’s no guarantee this advice will make you successful in business but it will hopefully make you happier in your life, which means you will enjoy the process of achieving whatever level of success you achieve.

Your feedback

I would love to know if you have tried any of these ideas or if you have any tips that you think I have missed out?