// 4 Thoughts on creating content for your business//

I had this idea of launching the Lamon Luther website and a documentary style video at the same time.  Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I forgot how much went into the creative side of the brand.

One thing I did do right was hire some professionals to build the website, and film the documentary.  Lets save that for another post.  The issue I faced was I am so bought in to this movement that I can have a tendency to miss things.   In other words, my heart is so heavily invested, that Im like the carriage horse with the side-blinders, only seeing whats ahead of me and not what is around me.  When it comes to Online presence, you must view all angles, making sure you’re connecting to everyone.

This became apparent over the weekend in two separate incidents.  First with the brand mock ups, and secondly with the Documentary.  My Brand designer did everything I asked of him, he sent first revisions, and we tweaked.  Then he sent me second revisions, and I loved all of them.   I was so excited I opened my computer to share the revised logos with my wife, and she said - “those tools look like golf clubs”.   I pretended she was kidding, but she was right.  I later emailed my designer, and he agreed completely, voicing his concerns earlier to a co-worker.  I missed this detail because I was trying to create some back-end “intentionally” that only I would get.  

The second incident came in the form of an email.  I shared the lamon luther documentary with a friend and mentor that I dearly trust, and after reviewing it, he gave me solid advise that I just missed all together.   I had so much invested in the story, and he created scenarios of different viewers and again, he was right.  I would have missed this and published something decent that could have been great.  An important side note was this is not my videographer’s fault.  It was my fault.  Too many times we blame the videographer.  I should have created great guidelines for my videographer and should have took in different viewer perspectives.  By doing this we will expand our viewing capacity tremendously.

Learn from my mistakes-

1. Let other people, who will give you honest feed back view your material.   Your grandparents are probably not the best candidate for honest feed back.  These people are out there.  You dont want cheerleaders, you want people who will give you good critique. 

2. Your Baby (Brand, Video, Logo, Table, Insert what you create here) has flaws.  Mommies always sees baby as perfect.  Then Folks come along and they can see flaws in baby, that mommy cant see.  After All- thats baby.  And moma loves baby.  Dont be so invested in your work that you can see flaws.  

3. When searching for creatives to hire, share your story first.  Self_explanatory. 

4. Hire creatives that you trust.  I can honestly say that both guys I have working for me,  I completely trust.  But trust was earned by me spending the time to interview each of them and spending countless hours reviewing their work. 

BP

// 4 Must Read Leadership || Business Books…//

May I suggest 4 essential leadership || business books for you?  If you run a business, lead a team, or desire to some day these books are great reads to help you learn how to become a better leader, which in return will help you have a great organization.   This may be old information to some, but here goes.  

1. EMyth - Michael Gerber

2. 21 Irrefutibal laws of leadership - John Maxwell

3. Good to Great - Jim Collins

4. Entreleadership - Dave Ramsey

You can grab all 4 for less than $50 and I gurantee the return on investment will multiply its-self greatly.  The key is applying what you read. 

Build Hope

BP

// Where do you do your best thinking?//

Earlier on Twitter, I posted that I do my best thinking behind a push mower.  Its cool to see so many friends that feel the same way.  

It made me think of the story Jim Collins shared in the book Good to Great.  He told of a man by the name of Darwin Smith.  Under Darwin’s leadership at Kimberly-Clark, he made some bold moves that would end up saving the company.  He was in all regards a Level-5 leader.  The intresting thing about Darwin was he did his best thinking by moving rocks with his tractor.  Not locked in his office, or board room, but on a tractor simply moving rocks. The story goes that if he moved all the rocks to one location, he would move all the rocks back to the orginal location.  Darwin would spend hours “moving rocks” until he had clear understanding.  Darwin knew himself well enough to put him an environment that cultivated thinking. 

For me its pushing a lawn mower, for you its _________?   Only you can feel in that blank.   What ever it is, do it, and do it often.  We need you on your A-GAME if we are going to change the world. 

To great thinkers-

BP

// Musicians- Check these road cases out. //

http://blog.gessato.com/2012/03/22/the-roadie-by-karpenter/

// 5 things you need to know before running down your dream.//

One of my favorite Tom Petty songs is “running down a dream.”

This song is like a theme song for me at the moment.  

Last week a flood of emotions came to mind as I reflected on what has transpired over the last couple of months.  So many ups and downs, but well worth the journey.

For those of you that don’t know, I quit my job last January to help provide sustainable opportunity (AKA a JOB) for a few homeless guys living in the woods in my community.  I did have a solid plan in place, but what happen over the last few months is by far the most challenging experience of my life.  I reflected over the last couple of months and I wanted to share 5 things i’ve learned that might help you if you are chasing a dream.

1. Throw your expectations out the window.  If you are a dreamer then you’re gifted at creating a sub-realty of what could be, or will be if I pursue this dream.  The truth is chasing a dream will force you to be put in scenarios and make decisions that your never intended or thought you could make.  It will never be picture perfect as you imagined, but if you listen to your heart its well worth the ride. 

2. Whatever you thought it would cost, multiply it by 2. Truth is your dream will cost you more than you think.  Probably twice as much as you think.  Budgets are great, but its hard to predict hard cost until your knee deep in your venture.  You need to create a budget, but add margin- and I ain’t talking about butter.  Also keep in mind the physical, mental, and emotional cost.

3. Surround yourself with smart people. I’m blessed to have some really smart people in my corner.  I go to them for advise and try to always ask the right questions.  Remember to respect their time.  After all they are probably running their own successful business.

4. Look at your Dream/Business through the Valuation Lens.  Nothing is free and everything you do in your business will cost you something.  I had to learn this the hard-way that every thing in my business has a value.  In other words, everything you do will cost you something and has a value associated with it.  My company, Lamon Luther is given materials to build furniture, however I have a cost in picking up the materials, and cutting them down before I can even use the material.  So the value of my materials is not free, its what ever it cost me to pick them up and pay my guys to cut them down.   

5. Before you spend time fixing problems in your business, fix yourself.  I heard recently that our business failure is not caused by lack of opportunity, but rather a lack in our leadership.  The opportunity for your business, or dream to thrive is always out there.  Yet Its always easier to blame the economy, the market, the consumer, our employees, our equipment, before looking at ourselves as the problem. Be proactive, not waiting for business to come to you.  Your dreams has kinks that need to be addressed, but please don’t forget to fix yourself first. 

Give Hope-

BP

// “Hope for the Craftsman”//

In my opinion, every great organization is built on a simple mission statement.  This collection of words directs the path to where the org is heading, and is a barometer to which its employees can measure success.  

President Obama based his entire campaign on one word, and I don’t think I have to remind you what that word is.  Respectively, It doesn’t matter which side you align yourself with, you cant argue that President Obama was able to create a tribe based on one simple mission statement.  This in return allowed him to win the election. 

Understanding the value of a simple mission statement forced me to spend some time crafting what Lamon Luther would be known for. We landed on “hope for the craftsman.”

Over the last 5 years almost all furniture manufacturers in North Carolina have unfortunately gone out of business because they cannot compete. This at one time was the US made furniture hub.

The thinking behind this statement is simple: More than the products we sell, we wanted to be known for providing hope for the person that creates with their hands.  Its a dying art, as jobs are being lost to oversee production of products.  

I’ll be releasing more on how we are going to be doing this soon.  In the meantime follow LamonLuther on twitter for the latest updates.