Allow Yourself to Fail

I haven’t written on this blog in a while, and it’s because I wasn’t willing to confront my own failure. I had failed to create written blog content every single day for 100 days in a row, so I stopped entirely for months. It’s so obviously silly when you write it out like that.

I still have draft blog posts that could I could post, but I didn’t want to accept my failure. If I walked away from it I didn’t have to think about it. But I still thought about it, because I had ideas I wanted to post all the time.

What changed?

I started thinking about the content that I had created.

I thought about the work that was building on top of itself, and what that I wasn’t in a sprint to get there. I don’t expect to have millions of views on anything for a long time, maybe never, and both of those actions are totally okay.

I started thinking about all the fun things I could do with my blog, like offering free consulting services to businesses to grow my personal network.

I accepted my failures and it has made all the difference.

One Step (#18)

That’s the absolute bare minimum, but there are plenty of people out there who won’t take a single step towards what they want out of: life, their career, relationships, themselves, as they let days pass them by.

Take at least one step towards what you want every day – it’s that simple.

The trick is to enjoy the step.

The Lemonade Stand (Ep.1 – Origins, Scale & Value)

(Note: If the embedded player above isn’t working CLICK HERE to listen)

This is the first episode of The Lemonade Stand – thank you for joining! Please leave feedback in the comments if you have it. This is a learning experience and I am here to do just that.

In this episode, Chris Stoness, founder and CEO of Lemonade Window Cleaning (and Elite Window Cleaning), goes through the origins of starting out as a window cleaner himself, growing a multi-million dollar business in Canada, and applying that model to the United States.

We also discuss how the business intentionally re-branded, the changes that occur during the process of scale and how to shift your focus accordingly.

We wrap up by talking to the values of Lemonade Window Cleaning and the most important piece of the puzzle – people!

Thank you for reading this far, there are links to several socials as well as the Lemonade website below.

The 4 Types of Customers at Home Shows (and the 2 that Make You Money)

Precursor: I do not travel home shows for a living and I do not have a background in sales. Instead I went into the environment with my eyes open, pen in hand and ended up being part of a team that closed over 1100 clients at a 10-day Toronto venue. I then did some travel around Ontario to spur up business in areas where we were launching corporate locations.

I am a cross-breed of someone who has done the physical work (allows me to communicate service details with customers very clearly), someone who works with the service centre (allows me to live the customer experience) and someone who is behind all marketing and social efforts (allows me to see how people react to us – probably my favourite part of my job). When I go to a Home Show I go for 8-10 hours straight, usually with (1-2) 15 minute breaks on top of water/bathroom breaks (always stay hydrated). In my breaks I usually walk around to other booths and try to find a cured meat/jerky vendor – these are my favourite (sauce booths are a close second though).

I make it my point to try to talk to literally (yes I mean that) every person that passes my booth – everyone there is THERE TO BE SOLD TO. I am constantly astounded by the amount of sales reps at these shows that wait for people to come to them. I am also constantly astounded by the amazing customers that I’ve acquired who I did not think would buy, BUT DID BUY BECAUSE I ASKED (and had something great to sell).

There are a 2 things you need to do at a homeshow – recognize it’s a gladiator arena, and put on your salesperson skinsuit (shed all the “no’s” you get and covet your spoils of war).

Enough preamble, now onto who you’re going to see there.

Those that Buy (highly profitable, not time consuming)

These are your bread and butter. Make sure to get the details correct, but don’t bog them down with too much if you’ve already closed the deal. Yes they should know about your programs, but can you let them know at a better time if they’re in a rush (you be the judge, and consider you want to keep this client for life). On the flip side, if you have someone who is willing to listen to every up-sell you have in the book, go wild and ask them for all their family & friend contacts. Be courteous, but if you have something big to offer them in return, why not give it a shot? Recognizing opportunities like this can make you incredibly profitable – always pay attention to people who pay attention to you (basic reciprocity).

Special note: I find it incredibly important to re-emphasize talking to EVERYONE, even if you think it makes no sense. I have had my pitch land with so many people I never expected it to work on. Get your pitch down quick and clear, then get ready to say it hundreds of times. Understand that what you say to them defines what they see you as; you have to build their entire understanding of who you are.

Those that Ignore (not profitable, but not time consuming)

These people are awesome. You might feel like they’re being rude, but that’s just you (you’re trying to sell them something after all aren’t you?). It seems perplexing in areas like home shows, but honestly I hate being sold to as well (even when I could use the help). Let these people go by and if they cut you off mid-pitch so be it. Make sure to be polite, but don’t waste more breath if you don’t need to. They will find you if they need it (and sometimes they might) but if not they’ve just let you focus more energy on people that are going to make you profitable.

Those that Listen (long-run profitable, but time consuming)

This group and the last one are the tough to distinguish from each other, but you’re going to find out at some point. You have to be the judge of if someone is really listening to you, or if they’re waiting for their turn to speak. Building real relationships in a fast-paced environment is tough, but the connections I’ve made were much more meaningful and powerful because I sunk the time into them. Worst case, you’re sucked into a story, best case you’ve made a customer for life. Just don’t get sucked into a second and third story…especially if they’ve already told you no, aren’t listening to anything you say, and just want it to be their turn to talk.

Back to the people that ARE long-run profitable. These people will look from afar, maybe take a pamphlet and your information, but they likely won’t give you theirs. They may have friends or family that could want it, so make sure that you let them know about EVERYTHING for as long as they’ll listen (so long as you’re not overflowing with customers trying to pay, building a crowd is a good thing – it attracts more people and that’s the whole game). Tip: Honesty goes a long way in sales IF you can follow through, otherwise it doesn’t mean shit.

Get attention and keep it by educating. Don’t sell AT people who aren’t interested, but make potential clients immediately aware of what your benefits are (then make it clear where you can be reached later). The more people that know what you stand for the better, and a lot of the time it might not be the right time in that specific moment. These opportunities increase in probability of closing a sale dramatically if you can get follow-up information – rather than them following up with you – but it’s a tough game and getting used to people walking away knowing more should feel like a win to you.

Those that Waste (not profitable and incredibly time consuming – if you let them be)

This is the person that tells you “no” and then wants to stick around and tell you about their company or their brother’s company, BUT NOT IN A CONSTRUCTIVE WAY. These people are looking to get a rise out of you or talk about how much better off people they know are. Don’t engage because they just want to talk and your voice/attention is a valuable resource in an arena like that. It can be hard to try and work around them or dismiss them in a respectful way, but it’s critical that you find a way out of these situations before you find yourself invested by association of time shared together.

Talk to the people walking behind you, get your co-worker talk to them for a bit or make up an excuse to get rid of you. Or go to the bathroom. Or explain the situation at hand – you are busy and it’s important that you try and talk to as many clients as possible, not just them. Honesty goes a long way in an environment like this.

I’m going to try and mix in more long-form content during the 100 day stretch.

More “Home Show” posts coming in the future…

Do you have any other “types of customers” you run into at home shows? Let me know in the comments below.

Minimum Viable Audience (#14)

It’s not a new concept, but it’s an incredibly important one in a world where brand loyalty is low and a slew of options are at your fingertips. Not only do consumers not care about you (until you give them a reason to) but employees feel the same way. Linking the successes of employees to the expectations of the clients is what will cause you to be truly profitable in the long-run. Now how do you get there?

Think hard about how many people you need to “Jaw-drop” to sustain the lowest level of operations. Consider that impressed/wowed clients will make larger purchases, more frequent purchases and spread the word talking about how great your business/service/product is. The amount of clients you need isn’t the problem – it’s the relationship you build with clients that needs to change.

Figuring out how to create actual value with your client base is incredibly exciting too – one of the best parts of my job. Thinking about ways to delight people that I want to build decade-long relationships with.

If you don’t enjoy this part of the process then you should seriously re-evaluate why you’re doing what you’re doing (and you definitely don’t need to read this blog). If you’re in business only to make money, then I don’t want you taking my advice.Don’t try to scale garbage just to sell it. Don’t try to acquire hundreds/thousands/millions of clients if you don’t care about them. I have no respect for businesses that try to do this.

Start by creating value. Start with the clients in front of you. Delight them, then see what happens.

Here’s another tip for when you’re just starting out – don’t value your time so highly until you’re actually making something. If you’re not willing to do this, maybe your aren’t confident enough in your idea – to being a successful entrepreneur you need this confidence and you need the willingness to execute for yourself. Once you’ve proved something is there, then you start valuing your time appropriately to scale.

Future posts coming on how to link this value back to your employee performance/morale…

Presentation is Everything

Spoilers: For actual long-run success you will need product, team & delivery, but you can get away by starting with just presentation.

Presentation is what stops people in their tracks. It’s what gets them to circle around and come back to the aisle to read the label once more, just to make sure they saw that right. It’s what gets them excited before they really know what’s going on (this is so powerful – setting tone).

And you have to present to the right people – understand your audience and speak directly to them. If you can make a real connection with clients it will be so much more powerful in the long-run.

Spend the extra $30 for the fluorescent pink fake grass – it’ll make the booth pop!

Success is Iterative (#13)

Success is not a one and done. Businesses never really stop because they’re based on the concept of future spending.

If the financial systems which provide the underlying framework for how businesses operate are reliant on future cash flows, then the businesses are too.

And the way to longevity isn’t “staying the path” in the sense of repeating yourself, it comes from tinkering and tweaking as you go along the way.

All of the predictive systems and models businesses use are just that – models. They don’t define reality (though they certainly help to guide it). You need to test assumptions and experiment with your results continuously, that’s the reality.

Personal Criticism V. Professional Criticism

“Don’t take criticism in life from anyone you wouldn’t take advice from”

This might make sense in your personal life, but it’s nonsense for your business. Businesses need to accept criticism from anyone and everyone. The customers you most upset in the last email blast hold the key to not losing the next batch. By accepting criticism and addressing the problems the business has room to grow and even win back previously unhappy clients.

If you had a chance to get rid of a negative review and change that individual into a brand promoter wouldn’t you try?

The same goes for internal criticism. If you don’t take into consideration the concerns of your talent, you will soon find yourself talent-less (regardless of titles you may bestow on replacements). And we all know talent drives businesses.

Listen to everyone, then act.

No Rules, Only Consequences (#11)

This title is straight from the mouth of professor Keith Rogers (Smith School of Business at Queen’s University – holy shit that’s a mouthful). Who knows how many opinions influenced professor Rogers’ thoughts.

Look at Facebook violating privacy law in EU (which time? let’s say circa 2018) – they pay a fine and ultimately change their operation, but the damage has been done. And if you look at what the fines amount to it would have been more expensive to take out an insurance policy to cover themselves over the same period of time. It’s clear that the best decision is to play dirty and take the slap on the wrist down the road (how could you not?)

So, I’m not advising people to do anything illegal or really annoying, but if you’re in a place dedicated to selling and others are participating, you have to give yourself an edge. Maybe you’re not supposed to do____, but how could you know if you didn’t try? Most little things will get you a warning before being outright banned, but consider the context of where you are.

But let’s think about a farmer’s market (because I was at one recently). Why wouldn’t you have little signs at the parking entrance, or stickers to give to kids (so they can put them places), or reserve a special spot for your customers by decorating an area. If what you’re doing is interesting, engaging and overall positive it will be hard to say no.

The world is made up of people who go out and do things and make mistakes and make judgement. Vouch for yourself, stand tall and be genuine about what you’re doing. People who ask for things get them more than people who don’t.

Power in Attitude (#10)

I’ve recently found myself thinking over a conversation I had a few months ago now.

It was late one night and I was staying with friends at their picturesque home (which they have poured their heart and soul into).

I had been talking over the weekend about the recent success I was having in the business world (launching across Ontario and starting our Florida expansion). I talked about the growth, all the different roles I found myself in and the fact that I was now managing other people.

I was anxious.

The family friend who stayed up to have an evening drink with me was retired, but during his career had been both a principal and a superintendent (he’s also published a book or two).

He asked if I wanted any advice, and when I jumped at the opportunity he told me something like this:

“Have the power to be optimistic in the day. This is something YOU CAN CONTROL. It can go the other way so easily, so you need to have the strength to show positivity at the top.”