Do you need Powerpoint?

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While slide decks can be a useful tool in some presentations, Steve Jobs was famously against them. When having staff present him with their arguments for or against certainly decisions, he famously believed that:

People who know what they’re talking about don’t need Powerpoint

If you need to make an argument about an upcoming direction, then you should make your point and have a discussion about it rather than going through a bunch of slides.

Ultimately, it’s not unlike the idea of only using paper for proposals after a deal has been reached. Have a discussion, figure out the direction, and then just write down the results.

No slides?

Of course, Steve Jobs famously used slides in his major presentations, but I think those are different for two reasons:

  1. His slides were very simple, more of just emphasis on his words than on presenting content.
  2. In those situations, a discussion with a room full of hundreds of people wasn’t feasible anyhow.

I see Seth Godin do something similar. He’ll use slides for many of his talks, but they’re very simple slides — the majority are simply an image to go along with whatever story he is telling at the time.

In fact, in his “Nine steps to Powerpoint magic” post from years ago, his very first suggestion is to not use Powerpoint at all! He says:

Most of the time, it’s not necessary. It’s underkill. Powerpoint distracts you from what you really need to do… look people in the eye, tell a story, tell the truth. Do it in your own words, without artifice and with clarity. There are times Powerpoint is helpful, but choose them carefully.

We have a variety of slide decks that we use in our business, and we’ll continue to use many of them, because there are cases when walking through some slides can be a great way to explain an idea with visuals. In most of our meetings, though, we try to simply have a discussion with the other party to help us all understand what the other is looking for and to plot the best path forward. In those cases, slides just get in the way.

Don’t have all of the answers; have all of the questions

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At the end of most episodes of Seth Godin’s Akimbo podcast, they run an ad for the altMBA that includes a great line from T.K. Coleman that includes the quip that “there is no great thought leader who can outthink the internet“. While I personally work hard to have many answers available in my head, the real benefit is generating more questions.

Asking more questions is a great thing to do. It helps uncover missing pieces or makes us view things a bit differently. Even better, the right questions can help uncover pieces that no one even knew were missing.

In a recent blog post by Seth, though, he took it even a level deeper:

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Rarest of all is the person with the humility (and confidence) to realize that even the list of questions can remain elusive. Finding the right questions might be the very thing we need to do.

If you’re not sure how to find more of the right questions, the “5 Whys” can be a good tool to help get there, and it’s super easy. Ask a basic question, follow it with “why?”, and keep asking “why?” to every answer. It can be a road that leads to sounding like a curious two-year-old, but if done correctly it can uncover great things.

Here’s a quick example showing how that might work:

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Having the right answer is great, but having the right question can be even better.

Speed shouldn’t be a measure for untimed roles

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At the time of this writing, we’re looking to hire a new Web Support Manager at GreenMellen. We’re taking candidates through a fairly typical interview process, but speed is not a major factor in this. We certainly want to respond quickly to our clients, but if someone doesn’t have an answer to a question right away, that’s ok. They’re going to be faced with questions they can’t answer from our clients, too, and the key is whether or not they can find the right answer.

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Malcolm Gladwell has talked about this topic repeatedly in podcasts and interviews, as it drives him nuts. To pass the LSAT exam and get into law school, speed is crucial. It’s a long test and you need to move quickly. But why? This is measuring how fast students are, not necessarily how smart they are. When they become a lawyer, they’ll have time to research and look things up, and their ability to ultimately come to the correct decision is what really matters most.

Malcolm sums it up this way:

When we decide who is smart enough to be a lawyer, we use a stopwatch.

That’s not to say there’s an easy answer here, as you can’t give infinite time to the test. Do you double the allotted time? Triple it? Having not gone down that road myself, it’s not something I can really answer.

I just know that if I need to hire someone that can handle rapid-fire Q&A at a conference, speed matters. For the rest of our roles, the outcome is the main thing we should be worried about.

Friendly versus ruthless rivalries

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There are many kinds of rivalries in the world, from business to athletics to “yard of the month”, and they can be a good thing. In a recent episode of the WorkLife podcast, host Adam Grant gave the example of Ohio State and Michigan in football — when one succeeds, as Ohio State has been doing recently, it pushes the other to be better. They offer some great stats to help support that.

When it comes to rivalries, there are essentially two kinds: friendly and ruthless.

Friendly Rivalries

I’m a big fan of friendly rivalries, as that’s essentially what our Meetup is all about. It’s a room full of our competition, coming to get ideas from us and then share their ideas with us. While digital marketing is technically a zero-sum game, it’s really not, as there’s plenty of work to go around.

Folks like Brad, Aaron, Kathy, Diana, and dozens of others are sometimes direct rivals with us, but we’ve all gained more from one another over the last decade than can be put into words. Friendly rivalries like that can be absolutely amazing.

Ruthless Rivalries

Inside of the WordPress community, friendly rivalries like that are very common. I’ve found that inside the rest of the digital marketing space (outside of WordPress), things aren’t as pleasant. Two examples come to mind:

The local firm:
We’ve been in our current studio for about nine years ago, and another marketing firm is a few buildings over. We’re friendly with them, but there’s a weird wall in our relationship. Best I can tell, we compliment each other’s services very well, and there have been a number of times over the years where I thought they’d be the best solution to solve an issue for clients of ours.

The problem is, I’m not sure. I’ve tried repeatedly to grab lunch with them or otherwise simply better understand what they do, and they have no desire to do so. I suspect they only see us as a rival and want to keep some distance.

I can respect that view, but I think it’s cost both of us some revenue over the years.

The business connection:
A few years ago I was at a business luncheon, talking with a gentleman there. As we discussed what we do, and we realized that we were both in digital marketing, our reactions were complete opposites: I wanted to learn more and try to connect, and he uttered something like “well then you’re not going to buy from me” and he bolted. It was very strange.

Rivalries in sports are often ruthless, and I think that’s part of what makes them fun. In business, though, they don’t have to be and the more you can befriend your competition, the better off you’ll all be.

How not to grow a business

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I was talking to some new business owners yesterday that were working to get things off the ground, and they asked about failures that we’ve seen over the years. Successes can be great to study, but failures are often great learning opportunities.

While things at GreenMellen have gone pretty well (we’ve made it nearly 12 years at this point), we’ve had our share of mistakes over the years. Here are five that come to mind.

Wrong office

Ali painting our first office

When we were first considering office space, we found two options that could be great for us. One was absolutely perfect, and the other was a much smaller (and less expensive) option. We went with the small one and regretted it almost immediately.

We did it for the right reason (not committing too much money), and things have worked out great since then, but in retrospect getting the right office the first time would have been good move.

Mis-hires

We’ve done well with our hires over the years, and I wouldn’t trade a single person on our team right now — they’ll all literally extraordinary. That said, we’ve made two less-than-perfect hires over the years.

We loosely follow the EOS model for running our agency (I’ve mentioned it a bit here) and they have a concept of making sure employees have “GWC” regarding their role:

  • Get It: They understand what’s needed and can execute.
  • Want It: They have passion for the position.
  • Capacity: They have time and ability to make it happen.

In our case, we had one that didn’t “want it” (he simply didn’t care) and one that didn’t quite “get it” (he was a great team member, but wasn’t the right fit for that position). We’ve learned our lessons from those, and have been more careful (and very successful) with our hires over the past few years.

LLC vs S-Corp

We formed our company as an LLC, but it seems an S-Corp would have been a better move. It’s not a huge difference, and I don’t understand the nuances of each, but it’s something you should consider carefully when you’re first starting.

Being too generous

This is a tough one, because we pride ourselves on being generous. We’re generous in how we treat our employees, we’re generous with how we serve our clients, and we’re generous with how we share in the community.

While this has done far more good than harm, we got ourselves in a tough spot a few years ago by being a bit too generous with our benefits and bonuses with the team. It wasn’t even the generosity that caused the issue, but the lack of a plan behind it. We still offer solid benefits, bonuses and other great things to our team, but now they’re all done with solid planning and calculations that serve the best interests of everyone.

Saying “yes” too much

This is one that I still struggle with, and it comes from two directions:

  1. My desire to try to help everyone. This hurts us the most when I bring in very small clients that we all want to help, but they take up time that could be devoted to more profitable work that will keep the company healthier.
  2. My fear of work drying up. It hasn’t happened in 12 years, and we’re currently as busy as we’ve ever been, but I always have a thought in the back of my mind that business will suddenly slow down so “we’d better take this client, even though they’re not a good fit”.

It’s a tough balance, and something I’ve improved a lot on in the past decade, but it’s something that will always take more work on my end.

More good than bad

I don’t want this to be a negative post. Over the years, we’ve done far more things right than wrong, and I still can’t believe what we’ve put together. That said, it’s always good to review your mistakes and continue to refine your efforts to be the best you can be every year.

The customer is always right in matters of taste

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The idea of “the customer is always right” goes back to the early 1900’s. Among others who coined the phrase was hotelier Cesar Ritz, who said “If a diner complains about a dish or the wine, immediately remove it and replace it, no questions asked.”

It’s not necessarily a bad policy, but can have a big downside when people realize they can take advantage of it. Or, perhaps they’re just going a bit nuts like when William Foster said it in the classic movie “Falling Down”:

The solution is to reframe the idea entirely by adding that little bit to the end — “…in matters of taste“.

In matters of taste

From a marketing perspective, the customer is never wrong. If you offer two colors of a product, your opinion on which color is better doesn’t matter much — the “better” color is the one that people purchase more frequently.

Or if you work in a hair salon and a client wants their hair cut in a way that seems odd to you, it doesn’t matter. They’re the ones paying, and their desire is what matters most.

Find the friction

The other way to look at “the customer is always right” is to take a minute before deciding if they’re actually wrong or not; they may just be misunderstanding the situation. Zendesk has a great analogy that goes like this:

Let’s run through a hypothetical example. Imagine a customer reaches out and says their web chat or bot is broken. A quick glance at their account and it’s clear that there’s a problem with the implementation. One approach is to tell the customer they’re wrong — the product is working fine, they just didn’t set it up properly.

But why? Maybe our documentation could be clearer. Maybe our onboarding emails or in-product messaging could be improved. Assuming the customer is always right is about assuming responsibility for our own customer experience.

The customer may not always be right, but it’s worth finding out what they think. Taking the time to really understand what your customers are looking for can not only help in your day-to-day business, but can be an advantage when trying to rank better in Google. A little empathy can go a long way, even if the customer isn’t really right every time.

What do you think?

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I’ve had a bad habit over the years that my team has rightfully called me out on, and it’s one that I’m trying to break. I’ll find an interesting article and send it to one of them and simply ask them “thoughts?”. That’s not helpful.

Richard Millington recently had a great post where he unpacked the similar phrase of “what do you think?”. When someone is asked that, Richard says:

If you’re cornered, you might give a quick reply and then try to move on. The approach just feels a little weird.

The obvious catch with an online community is people aren’t cornered. If the approach is off and there’s no real benefit of replying, people don’t reply.

The solution is to set more specific intentions with your request. Ask if the budget allows for what the article suggests. Ask if they’ve tried that app before. Ask them to review the article to discuss at a future meeting. Be clear on your intentions.

At our Meetup next month (it’s free and virtual – join us!), we’ll be digging into managing follow-up. While much of the discussion will be about us following up with others, the flip side of that is creating situations that lead to better follow-up from others. Asking “thoughts?” will keep an email lingering in an inbox, while more clear tasks will be taken care of. Clarity in your requests will likely yield better results.

What do you think?

Hotshots shouldn’t get bogged down on tasks

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In his new book, “A World Without Email“, author Cal Newport pushes people to consider how administrative work affects performance. In particular, he says:

Why bother hiring a hotshot if the bulk of their time is spent doing administrative work?

I don’t know if “hotshot” is the right word, but I completely agree with his logic. We’ve worked hard to hire employees that are smarter than us (and they surely are!), but it’d be silly to hire talented people and then watch all of their time disappear into email and task lists.

That’s not to say that we’ve solved it, as there is always plenty of administrative work to do, but it’s something we’re continuing to refine. Brooke, our project manager, doesn’t let anything fall through the cracks, so we’re increasingly making her the point person for all tasks that need to be done. While she is keeping things running smoothly, that allows our talented staff (Ashlea/Development, Joanna/Design, Robert/Strategy) to focus on their best skills.

In fact, that really points back to Cal Newport’s older book “Deep Work“, on finding time to really focus on your core competencies. We’ll never get there 100%, but the more we can push toward it, the better we’ll all be.

Don’t lie to get the project

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Seth Godin recently published a blog post that ended with two great mottos:

  1. “You’ll pay a lot, but you’ll get more than you paid for.”
  2. “Our secret is that we don’t lie to get the project.”

I agree wholeheartedly with both of those, though the second one is a little tricky.

Back in 2016, a local politician wanted help rebuilding their website. We talked to her about what she needed, which was fairly substantial, and told her it would take 12 weeks to complete. She said that was far too long, and needed it done in six. I talked with the team some more about how we could speed things up, and the fastest we could do it (and still do a great job) was 10 weeks. The politician went elsewhere because the six-week timeline was non-negotiable.

I kept an eye on her site over the subsequent weeks and months, and the new site went live 23 weeks later…

The problem, of course, is that the other company lied to her (perhaps unintentionally, but lied nonetheless), but they still got the job.

The solution is largely a matter of time and trust. As you make connections and do work, if you can grow your reputation and expertise, people will learn to trust you over the unknowns. Over the last 12 years, we at GreenMellen have done a great job (I think) in providing great results to our clients, which leads to great referrals to others.

Unfortunately, if you have a brand new business there is no shortcut here. Start today to provide amazing service and support, and make sure the value you provide exceeds what your clients are paying. Over time, it’ll pay off in major ways.

Shallow fun versus deep fun

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I was recently listening to a podcast with Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Grant, and they got into a great discussion about having “fun” in your work. They disagreed initially, but as they unpacked it they ended up on the same page. The key was separating “shallow fun” and “deep fun”.

Daniel Coyle explained the difference quite well in this post, saying:

There are two types of engagement. The first type is shallow fun: when employees play games. The second type is deep fun — when employees take ownership of their experience inside the group.

Messing around and having a good time can be great, but won’t last. The key to success for employees (and the business as a whole) is inspiring more deep fun. Ultimately, as Daniel said, it comes down to allowing employees to take ownership of their experience. To me, that means giving more trust.

When it comes to work, I see trust as being the opposite of micro-management. If you trust people to do their jobs, then you can avoid micro-managing and they’ll be more likely to experience a degree of deep fun in what they do. This past year with the pandemic has forced a lot of companies to give more trust to their employees since most were having to work from home, and it seems that overall it’s gone well. It’ll be interesting to see how that shakes out in the coming years, but finding a way to let your employees take some ownership of what they do can lead to some wonderful outcomes.