The Stars Do Not Always Shine
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of Victor Habbick
Many sports teams around the world have developed their brands due to the championships that they won.
The New York Yankees is one team that most of the world recognize because of their 27 Major League Baseball championships they have won in baseball.
Notice I did not say “World Series Championships.”
In the National Football League (NFL), the most recognizable brand whether you love them or hate them, is the Dallas Cowboys.
They have always found a way to remain relevant despite being mediocre for about two decades before they won their division and a playoff game last year.
And in the world of soccer (football in the rest of the planet), everyone recognize teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich.
Each of these clubs have a rich history of winning championships in their respective leagues and the UEFA Champions League.
They are also among the richest clubs in the world according to the 2014 Forbes rankings.
And guess where Real Madrid was at?
No.1. with a value of 3.44 billion dollars.
It is not an accident that Real Madrid is No.1.
Even though they were dominant in Spain’s La Liga for most of their existence, they figured out that “star power” was what brought their fans to the matches.
The club was facing a huge debt at the time when they brought in Florentino Perez as the “president” in 2000.
Perez implemented the “Galacticos” policy in which put the focus on signing world class players that will allow Real Madrid to market their brand to their fans.
As a result, he signed recognizable football players like Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo. etc.
It took a special coach to manage these world class players and Vicente del Bosque was the right person for the work.
He led Real Madrid to an Intercontinental Crown and UEFA Champions League crown in 2002 and a La Liga title in 2003.
Unfortunately, del Bosque was relieved of his duties after the 2003 season.
My guess was that they were some football players on the team that was not happy with their playing time.
Real Madrid signed Manchester United’s David Beckham that same year.
It was a smart strategy on their part and has allowed them to be one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
This policy has continued as they signed more star players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale
During the 2013-14, Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey tournament against arch-rival Barcelona and the UEFA Champions League crown after defeating cross-town Atletico Madrid 4-1 in extra time.
Real Madrid added more star players like Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez during the summer of 2014.
Rodriguez got on Real Madrid and many other’s radar after he scored 6 goals in five matches during his first World Cup appearance last year.
Despite the additions, Real Madrid was not able to duplicate last year’s success though they were favored to repeat.
The Galacticos was trailing Juventus 2-1 entering the second leg of their semifinal matchup.
Real Madrid had an away goal in their favor due to the UEFA rules of which an away goal is the decider.
If X, which is the visiting team, scores two goals and Y, which is the home team, score one goal in the first leg of the knock out stages, then Y will have to score two away goals in the second leg and prevent X from scoring a goal in order to move on to the next round.
Real Madrid, who was the home team in the second leg, had to score one or more goals and prevent Juventus from scoring an away if they wanted to make it back to the finals.
Real Madrid had gotten their home goal thanks to a penalty shot by Cristiano Ronaldo that tied the aggregate at 2 and put them in position to move on to final due to the away goal.
However, they could not hang on as Juventus’ Alvaro Morata scored the much needed away goal in the second half and was able to hang on for the 3-2 aggregate win to move on to the finals and knock out the star-studded Galacticos.
The most interesting part of this narrative is that Morata is a Real Madrid “reject.”
Morata, the Madrid, Spain native, did not have much playing time while he was on the Real Madrid squad.
As a result, he was dealt to Juventus last year.
Real Madrid believed that the star power was going to get them back to the final.
They did not realized that sending Morata to Juventus would come back to haunt them.
Morata was the person who scored one of the two home goals for Juventus in the first leg and then put the nail in the coffin of Real Madrid with the crucial away goal.
And the fact that Morata did not “celebrate” those two goals showed his deep respect for the club because it allowed him to be where he is at in his football career.
There is also a possibility that Real Madrid might not win the La Liga crown as they are four points behind Barcelona with two games to play.
So if they fail to win La Liga in addition to their UEFA Champions League failure, there is a possibility that they could break up the squad and let go of current head coach Carlo Ancelloti because of their failure and their “infighting.”
So the lesson business owners can learn from “Real Madrid” is that:
You should not focus on hiring “rock stars” for your company because you will have to do everything you can to satisfy their egos.
The “rock stars” will let you down most of the time.
A person who you think is not a great fit for your company, might turn out to be the best person for your company because they could end up helping your competitor to be more successful and knock you out of business.
You cannot panic and let go of people when things are not going your way.
Lastly, you can’t expect to win them all because if you do, you get so spoiled by the victories that you will miss out on opportunities to teach your employees on becoming great leaders through the ups and downs.
To close out, here are some of the lyrics from the Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” that shows why no one including Real Madrid can’t always get what they want.
“No, you can’t always get what you want
aaaahhwaw
But if you try sometime, you just might find
You get what you need”
What are you thoughts on having only a star-recognized team if you run a business? Should you follow the foot steps of Real Madrid? You can leave your comments below.
How To Convince People That You Are “Insane”?
By Cheval John
Most of the people were raised to the drum of “If you want a really great and stable job, you need to gain a quality education.”
They go to high school and learn about subjects that they are not interested in.
They study really hard for the SATs and ACTs so that they can make a high enough score to get into the best universities that money can buy.
When they get over that hurdle and know that they are “college material,” they are looking through different colleges to see which ones will get them towards the goals of attaining the all illustrious degree.
If they are a five-star athlete, recruiters from major colleges are paying visits to their home to try and sell to them their school and why they should compete for them.
They are continuously counting down to the day when they are finally free from the rigors of high school and are out of their parents watchful eye.
For most, they have selected the university that they want to attend close to the day of graduation.
If they are a five-star athlete (a.k.a. football), they are making their announcement on the university of their choice in front of a large television audience dubbed as “National Signing Day” broadcasted on major national networks like ESPNU, Fox College Sports, Big Ten Network, etc.
Then that day arrives when they achieved their high school diploma and are excited about the possibilities of going to college.
Once they arrive on the college campus, reality sinks in of achieving “independence” and the opportunity to choose which major they want to study.
They put in the grueling hours of doing labs, homework, writing papers, studying for exams for the four years (six years for some) to achieve the elusive goal of a college degree.
They want to be among those who made it through the rigorous demands of the university and proclaim that they are a college graduate.
They do not want to be among the majority who failed to achieve the college degree because that would be a failure not only to themselves, but their parents who spent their hard earned money to send them to college.
If they make the 40% of people who achieve their college degrees according to this 2014 story by NPR.org, they believe they are set for life.
The day arrives when they walk across the aisle to receive their college degrees and are excited about the possibilities that are waiting for them.
When most of the college graduates achieve their first entry-level job, they are excited to start the track to promotion.
They are in the workforce earning the salary, living the “American Dream” that they grew up with.
All of a sudden, they got an epiphany that they want to strike out on their own and follow their dreams.
When they tell their family, friends, etc about the decision, they wonder if they have gone “insane.”
They are wondering why you left that great company that have the benefits to go out into the unknown world of entrepreneurship.
Most have probably tried to convince the aspiring entrepreneur that 8 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first 18 months of operation according to this Forbes article “Five Reasons 8 Out of 10 Businesses Fail” by Eric T. Wagner via Bloomblerg Businessweek.
Though they are well meaning, they try to bring you back from your “insanity” of starting a business and to reconsider your decision to become an entrepreneur.
However, you don’t relent and decide to start your very own business.
I highly suspect that Brandon Sobotka heard the same concerns from his closest friends when he started his company, “Integrity Human Performance.”
Many might not have understand his vision of helping people who are either entrepreneurs or business leaders, to increase their productivity and profitability without overworking themselves to death.
Even if you try to explain to them why you have to follow your destiny of owning a business and the desire to make the world a better place, they still believe that you are “insane.”
In their minds, the reasons are valid because you are the one who have to figure out a way everyday to make the venture work.
It makes sense to them that you are insane because you are going into unknown territory of entrepreneurship.
So what should you do if you have a tough time in convincing your friends and family of why you decided to become an entrepreneur and leave the perks of the company that provides you a “stable” salary?
Don’t waste your time explaining to them the reason why you became an entrepreneur.
What you should do is come up with creative ways to make your company a success.
When they see the results from your hard work to build your company into a profitable business the right way, they will understand to a degree your decision to become an entrepreneur.
Maybe they will get inspired by your success and decide to become an entrepreneur themselves and hopefully realize that you were not insane after all.
The Flexibility Of Being A Small Business
By Cheval John
Photo Courtesy of Dream Designs
Everyone is celebrating national small business week.
It is in honor of all of the small businesses which plays a huge part in the United States economy.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2014 report, they were 28,443,856 small businesses currently in operation in the U.S.
The majority of the small businesses are non-employers (22,735,915).
Though these non-employer businesses would like to have employees, they probably enjoy being solopreneurs.
Another thing that you can factor in with these solopreneurs is the fact that their non-employer businesses could be side businesses because they are taking the small steps towards full-time entrepreneurship while they are at their current full time work.
One of the best things that small businesses have over the larger corporations is the flexibility to pivot when the market changes.
They do not have to worry too much about letting go of their workers if the economy is in a recession.
Though this is great news, you might still have the “I do not have enough money blues” to compete with the larger corporations.
That is not the mindset to have because you can still compete against the larger businesses even if you do not have the “large budget.”
Despite having “limited” resources, you have the ability to be very creative on how you market your product or services with the biggest game changer of all: SOCIAL MEDIA.
Social media is a place where anyone can interact with a person even if they are thousands of miles away.
With platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., you can be very creative in how your share your message.
My suspicion is that you are like many of the small businesses who understand that must engage with your audience on a daily basis to earn their trust and eventually a new customer.
You also realize that gaining the trust of the customer is a long term goal and that it will take time to earn their loyalty.
If a corporation want to get their message out in the world, they buy advertisements, sponsor television events like college football, basketball, etc. to get in front of the large audience that are tuning in to watch the events.
That is why the smartest companies, intuition says the majority of small businesses, are participating in group chats on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to build their audience.
They are also blogging to showcase their expertise.
Like Stephanie Shirley, owner of Bennis Public Relations Inc.
She shares about the ups-and-downs of running a business through her company’s blog
Mrs. Shirley was very creative in building a loyal following of nearly 1,000 fans because she has been very transparent with her readers.
Because of her transparency, she has taken her business to the next level.
Another way that small businesses can market their product or services is through a podcast.
You might be thinking “Why not just a blog?”
Though blogging is very, very important, the blogosphere is over populated.
According to statista.com, there were 173 million blogs in the world in October of 2011.
That number has really increased tremendously since that report came out.
It is also possible that they are more blogs out there that are not currently active at the moment.
So the number of blogs could possibly be close to 400 million.
However, they are about 300,000 podcasts.
And with the amount of people who uses smartphones which is over a billion, that is a huge opportunity for small business owners to reach a global audience.
And iTunes reported in 2013 that they had over 1 billion subscriptions of podcast from their website.
Another thing to consider about podcasting is that Apple created the Carplay system in 2014 that allows anyone to connect their iPhone to their car’s dashboard.
The Carplay system is set to be in 50% of cars hopefully by the end of this year.
So with less competition and huge access to potential listeners, small businesses can start a podcast and build a loyal audience in addition to having a blog.
They also do not have to worry about being their true selves when they are sharing their message out to the world unlike the corporations.
So if you are a small business and are looking to take your business to the next level, consider starting a podcast and also a blog because it will allow you to grow your audience the right way and you will not have to worry too much about using a marketing budget to share your message.
That is something that larger companies will probably not be able to do because they will have to get approved from a hierarchy of executives before they can share their message.
The Right Way To “Amplify” Your Message
By Cheval John
It seems like in every generation, there is a new buzz worth that catches fire and add a new meaning to the English language.
One of the buzz words that is really catching fire seemingly this year is “amplification.”
You might wonder what does amplification mean?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, amplification means “the particulars in which a statement is expanded.”
So if this definition is right, a person want to make sure that their statement or message have a wider reach and be able to stand out.
In the age of social media, it is really noisy because everyone is out there sharing valuable information and trying to stand out from their competition.
The problem is that many are using the same mechanism like posting on Facebook, Tweeting on Twitter, etc. to try and get notice.
If you are a business, you are trying to find ways to amplify your message and make a sale.
They will try to find out which social media platform to use to get their message out and gain more customers.
Many businesses and people will go into using social media as a way to only promote their products or service.
Unfortunately, they miss the boat.
What they fail to realize is that they should not use social media to self-promote and turn people off.
Instead, they should use social media to engage with their audience and build a loyal following.
And for those who do understand the use of social media, they are standing above the noise and are amplifying their message.
They also understand that blogging is overcrowded and that one of the ways to stand out on social media is having a podcast.
They see that a podcast is another way to create a loyal following and slowly, but surely build trust with their audience and gain a loyal fan base.
They also see that podcast has a much smaller competition compared to blogs.
It makes sense because they are about 300,000 podcasts in the world compared to about 450 million blogs according to Cliff Ravenscraft, longtime podcaster and host of the Podcast Answer Man.
And the listenership of podcast has been steadily growing over the last decade.
According to the Edison Research, 46 million people have listen to at least one podcast in a month this year.
So does it not make sense for anyone including small business owners and solopreneurs to have a podcast?
I think so.
Britt Michaelian think so too.
Mrs. Michaelian recently launched the Mass Amplify Show earlier this year and it is really doing well.
It has been on iTunes New and Noteworthy within the first weeks when she launched it and is continuing to do well.
She has interviewed different guests like Bryan Kramer, Ted Rubin, Porter Gale, Brian Fanzo and many others who have amplified their message.
Though Mrs. Michaelian has been a best-selling author, reported from the Red Carpet for major events like the Billboard Music Awards, and even helped launched the Ricki Lake Show Social Network, she understood the changing times and was prepared to reinvent herself.
She shared with me on “What’s The Word?” last night about how she had a successful launch with her podcast, “The Mass Amplify Show”
Hint: Mrs. Michaelian had co-hosted or hosted several podcasts before the Mass Amplify Show:
One of the important lessons that people can carry away from this episode are:
1. You have to reinvent yourself in order to keep up with the ever-changing world of social media.
2. You must bring value to others if you want to stand out from the crowd
3. You must give, give, give
4. Your career path will change overtime and you will have to learn how to pivot.
If you follow Mrs Michaelian’s advice, you are on your way to amplify your message and stand out from the crowd.
Do you know of other ways to amplify your message? You can leave your comments below.
Creating More Options For Your Future
By Cheval John
Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Affiliate and I receive a commission based off of recommendations of books.
I remembered the day I “received” my first college degree.
The atmosphere was really cool on that May of 2008 evening.
Mind you, I had already graduated with my Associates Degree in December of 2007.
The community college system decided to hold one ceremony for people who had graduated the previous fall, about to graduate in the spring and summer time.
For four years, I was working towards obtaining the first degree which led to me receiving my Bachelor’s Degree in 2009.
I had started college late at the age where most was receiving their degrees.
I was so focused on getting the degree as quick as I could that I prolonged the process of earning the degree.
I had seen many people who was making the money at their dream job thanks to the degree that they held.
It was standard for anyone who had a degree to obtain the great job with a great salary.
I was so ready to get out of the quote and quote part time job and joining the workforce where I thought people were working at a “stable” job.
I was soaking it all in and realizing that I was one step closer to finally joining the workforce and being able to finally achieve financial independence.
As the graduation ceremony went on, the speaker, who was a professor at the community college system, spoke about the different reasons of having a college degree.
One of the reasons he gave was the fact that you had more “options.”
Now when I heard that, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Sure I already knew the importance of a college degree.
I spent time looking at all of the statistics of the earning potential of those who held a college degree.
Like this one by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 report via the American Radio Works.com website which stated that a person who held an associate degree had a median earning of $42,000 while a person who held a bachelor’s degree had median earnings of $55,700 dollars.
The same report indicated that a person with a Master’s Degree had an earning of $91,000 and a doctorate degree holder would have a median earning of $100,000.
With those numbers, I had felt that I had finally achieved the goal of earning a college degree.
And according to the professor who had spoke about having more “options” because of the degree, I was thinking that I was very close to breaking out of the “unstable” part-time jobs.
Many did not foresee what was about to happen later in 2008.
Everyone was living the life because of the U.S. economy being stable.
The ones who were working in the stable jobs had the degrees and also seemingly had more options.
That statement of having more options with a college degree would not remain true thanks to the sudden “Great Recession” that took everyone by surprise.
The housing bubble burst.
Lehman Brothers went under and Fannie Mae was also under.
Stocks drop to a point that it caused panic in Wall Street.
The ones who were living the high life and were at their respective companies were suddenly out of work.
They did not see the sudden layoff coming.
The so-called “American Dream” of where people have the stable job and the white picket fence was over.
Even with the stock market rebounding, companies are still not hiring.
That is leaving many to wonder when the “middle class” was going to return so that everything will return back to normal.
What they don’t realize is that we are in the “New Normal.*”
They don’t understand that the jobs are permanently gone because companies are shipping most of the jobs overseas because it is saving them money.
I can say for certain that I saw this first hand when a newspaper shut down the sports reporter position after the original person left.
They saw it as an efficient way to save the paper more money.
What many should be doing right now is to create their own work and be in control of their destiny.
According to this article by Vivian Giang of Business Insider.com, 40% of the American workforce will be freelancers by 2020.
So if they are at the stable job and are making a living, they should create a side business so when they do get laid off, they will have something to supplement their income.
Nick Loper, who runs Side Hustle Nation.com, certainly has done a lot of side-hustle work over the years.
He has been an editor for authors, interviewed other people who have created side businesses that eventually led to their full time entrepreneurial journey on his Side Hustle Nation podcast, have written 6 books including repurposing his last two books from his podcast, “The Side Hustle Path Parts 1 and 2,” etc.
You must create your own work, whether it is on the side or full time.
The reason is you will have more options when the sudden layoff hits you.
Are you prepared for the New Normal? Have you created a side business? You can leave a comment below.
*Term New Normal was first said I believe by Hank Blank
Share this: