Sage Lewis

ShopLocal.com

Tribune Co., Gannett, and Knight Ridder(Parent company of the Beacon Journal) are trying with a new joint venture called ShopLocal.com.

What do ya think? Hot or not?

This is a pretty interesting article: Fast Company article on young 20 somethings.

Check out some of these excerpts:

Millennials aren’t interested in the financial success that drove the boomers or the independence that has marked the gen-Xers, but in careers that are personalized. They want educational opportunities in China and a chance to work in their companies’ R&D departments for six months.

These folks want feedback daily, not annually. And in case it’s not obvious, millennials are fearless and blunt. If they think they know a better way, they’ll tell you, regardless of your title.

“Nothing infuriates us more than busywork,”

I don’t have time to be intimidated,” says Anna Stassen, a 26-year-old copywriter at the advertising agency Fallon Worldwide who treats her bosses like “the guys.” “It’s not that I’m disrespectful; it’s just a waste of energy to be fearful.”

“These values don’t change over time.” So if companies want to attract, retain, manage, and motivate the next generation of workers, they’re going to have to adapt.

Millennials aren’t asking for signing bonuses or the right to bring their dogs (or parents) to work. They just want to be heard, which, when you think about it, really isn’t that much to ask.

I love this stuff. Do you think Ohio can handle these changes? Do you think an accounting firm in Ohio would let a new 22 year old play video games all day while they’re on calls, and doing general work? Ha! I can see that Red blood exploding out the ears of old school execs. It’s too bad people don’t want to retire in Ohio because those are the only people who are going to live here.

I’ve got to get started on my next Toastmaster speech. I’m giving it in a week and a half.

This is supposed to be something you feel strongly about.

I am thinking of doing something political. Or maybe something about Ohio and all of its trouble.

As for politics, I think I might like to talk about how both politcal parties are actually against the people. My feeling is that they polarize us so it makes their jobs easier.

I’ll write more later. But I wanted to at least get something down.

I’ve got to get started on my next Toastmaster speech. I’m giving it in a week and a half.

This is supposed to be something you feel strongly about.

I am thinking of doing something political. Or maybe something about Ohio and all of its trouble.

As for politics, I think I might like to talk about how both politcal parties are actually against the people. My feeling is that they polarize us so it makes their jobs easier.

I’ll write more later. But I wanted to at least get something down.

Today I’m grateful for inner peace. I feel the anxiety of work creeping up on me. But it’s not bad. I think I can fight it off. I don’t have anything particularly that needs to be done. Today is just going to be a low key day. Maybe I’ll watch a movie, maybe I’ll watch the Olympics. Maybe I’ll read a magazine.

Oprah told me I should start a Gratitude Journal. I’ve tried to start one several different times. But it never works out. For some reason, I can’t get in the habit of posting to it.

I thought I’d try posting to it here and see how it goes.

I’ve always known this. However, what’s interesting to me is that it’s actually a condition. I think I have a disease.

Here are some traits of a people pleaser that I resonate with:

• Men who identified with their mothers often tend to think of others’ needs first, and to neglect their own
• People pleasers’ focus is mostly on others and away from themselves.
• You may have experienced a lot of responsibility for the emotional or physical well-being of a parent or sibling.
• You care for others.
• You may have trouble with authority figures.
• You overdo responsibilities.
• You feel guilty about much.
• I’m inviting trouble if I ask for something.
• I feel guilty if I don’t put others needs before mine.
• I give more than I get back.
• I don’t like to let others down.
• I always take care of my loved ones.
• I’m a good person because I put others first.
• I always volunteer for overtime.
• I set important things aside so that I can please others.
• I don’t need much or ask for much.v
  
• My happiness depends on others being happy.
• I don’t have time for myself because I’m so busy taking care of others.
• I always listen to people’s problems.
• I never seem to provide enough.
• I wouldn’t be such a good person if I didn’t give so much.
• It’s far better to give than to receive.
• I feel bad if I do what I want.
• I can’t ask to have my needs met.

I am apparently a “Sacrificing” people pleaser. I have practically all of those traits. Here’s the definition:
SACRIFICE: This cluster gives us a sense of giving up our own needs for the needs of others. We do this to avoid feeling selfish or creating pain for others. This can lead to our resentment.

Apparently, if I want to get better, I need to do these things:

• Take some classes in assertiveness.
• Learn to take credit for things you do.
• Bring your attention to your own preferences and needs and see how you can address them.
• Delegate responsibility at home and at work.
• Practice confrontation. Challenge others opinions.
• Step around people who are self-centered and hook up with those who have your interests at heart.
• Ask for help if you require it.
• Keep a list of areas in your life where you are overly pleasing or sacrificing.

These are the sites I used to get this information:
People Pleasing
Coping with Stress - ‘People Pleasing: Having Trouble Saying No?’

This is an interesting topic simply because the business world seems to try on many levels to get you to give up your integrity.

It almost seems that lack of integrity is like a club that everyone wants you to join. “I joined, so it’s really important that you join.”

I see this so much that I sometimes wonder if I’m kidding myself. I wonder if having standards, values and ethics is an unrealistic way to run a business.

You hear people talk about integrity, quality, and ethics. But I wonder how many people actually adhere to them.

The problem with integrity is that it loses you partners, customers and money. It makes you stand up for things that others don’t want you to stand up for. Your values and integrity seem petty and unrealistic to others… especially if they want you to go against them.
Integrity and values wouldn’t be a topic at all if there weren’t penalties for not compromising them.

Let me give you some examples…

Here’s an easy one. We deliver work when we receive a signed contract and down payment. We’re actually very flexible with our contract. We mostly want someone to just agree to the work they agreed to. Not often, but every once in a while people go crazy over this. They don’t “do” down payments. They don’t sign contracts. They make us feel like we are asking for unheard of requirements.

Here’s another. A possible client will go with us if we just tell them what they want to hear. That we can guarantee doubling revenue. That we can guarantee they’ll get a top ranking for a specific key phrase. They’ll manipulate the conversation. They’ll twist our words… just so we’ll say it. It’s like they want to be lied to.

Or this. A potential client will go with us if we get involved in profit sharing. It’s what’s fair for everyone. This is a whole topic in itself because it’s the most gray. But let me say this, it’s not fair to anyone… mostly the client. A profit sharing search marketing agency only cares about getting you more sales. “Great,” you say. The problem with that is that they don’t care about ROI. They don’t care what you pay to get that sale, because they make the same amount. So, they will put you in the #1 position for many general phrases in the paid search engines (which you pay for) and drive as much traffic as possible to your web site. Increasing the total number of visitors to your site will eventually lead to more sales. But it won’t necessarily get you the best conversion rate. And it’s not fair to the marketer because there is absolutely no control. No control over the site, over the sales process, over the inventory, over the business.

These things and many others are hard to continually enforce. It’s hard because someone you may really like really wants you to do it. You want to make them happy and think highly of your business. It’s also hard because you are basically turning down money. So now you are making someone upset with you and you are losing money. …all because of values and integrity.

Would values and integrity, by themselves, be worth losing clients and money over? I would argue that values and integrity are intrinsically valuable. But that really doesn’t matter. Values and integrity give your business shape. They make you distinct. They give you your unique value proposition. Without them, you become one of just many other nondescript businesses.

Every dollar and client you lose because you stand up to your values and integrity are making you stronger and helping you align your company with who you really are. Ultimately, values and integrity make your stronger and better.

…at least that’s what I keep telling myself.

The reason I wrote the post, “SageRock Is In A Great Position,” is because I wanted to give a little background at to why I want to discuss Leadership Training.

As SageRock grows, leadership development is going to become an increasingly important part of my job. I have to say, I’m extremely excited about this prospect. I truly enjoy teaching and my favorite topic these days is business strategy. So, together, this will be very cool.

I feel like I’m a good leader. But I also feel that my leadership principles come naturally. That’s not to say I haven’t learned a lot about leadership. I am amazed at how much I don’t know. What what does come naturally is that I have a desire to be a good leader.

I think it’s the Good part that makes all the difference. People that want to lead and can lead are everywhere. But people that want to lead well… I think that is more rare.

It’s important, though, to clarify The Good, in this case. The Good I’m referring to is very specific.

The core focus of Good leadership to me is all about the concern, respect and empathy of the team you lead. Everything else is secondary. Money, customers… everything. It goes directly back to the SageRock Core Value.

I want to discuss why I feel this not only makes for a great place to work but also makes exceptional business sense. But that’s for another post.

My concern here is: How to you train: concern, respect and empathy?

How many people do you know that legitimately feel concern, respect and particularly empathy with anyone? They are not American traits, by nature. I certainly fail at it, and it’s my obsession.

As a leader at SageRock, those 3 traits must be continually at the forefront of your mind. You are a servant to your team.

My feeling is, that if a person wants to be a leader at SageRock (and really, who isn’t a leader here?) this can be learned and instilled. If a person doesn’t believe in these principles they shouldn’t be a leader and really probably shouldn’t be on the team.

So, this all leads me to what I’m thinking might be called, The 10 Commandments.

And that’s the next post.

Right now is a very exciting time at SageRock. For reasons we can’t exactly pin down, we are stronger than we have ever been.  There are at least three factors that are probably playing a part in that… but to exactly what degree, we’re not sure. They are:

• More agressive sales and marketing
• A new business model - The way we work with clients is significantly different than any way we’ve worked before.
• A good economy.

I would love it if I could give each of those a percentage of importance. But I’m not sure a can. We work really hard at measuring things. But this very well might be non-measurable… at least at this point. Over time, we might be able to weight things a bit easier.

However, you look at it, we are in a fortunate position.