Success Champions Magazine - July 2020

July 2020 • Issue 6 •Team Building

SUCCESS CHAMPIONS How Leaders Can Support Team Success: An Interview With Nikole Dickman The Badassery of hiring a team before you’re ready Is Firing More Important Than Hiring?

“Quote” Why you’re fucking up sales - 3 steps to grow your sales without being an asshole

- Author

Success Champions

Contents 6 4 Best practices for running a remote team

does need help crossing a street

By Amanda Catarzi

By Dave Bahr.

10 Are you teaching your team to lead or to be dependent?

34 The Badassery of hiring a team before you’re ready

By Laura DiFranco

By Dana Pharant.

36 faliure is a feedback mindset

14 The pros and cons of hiring vs outsourcing

By Pat Casello Maddox.

By Dale West

40 4 must read books on team building

18 Special Excerpt from “How to be a Sucess champion”

By Michelle Thompson.

42 Is firing more important than hiring?

By Donnie Boivin.

20 How leaders can support Team Success: An interview with Nikole Dickman

By Stacey Magovern.

44

grow a team to scale your business

By Lorianne Vaughan Speaks.

46 views from an outsourced team member

Staff Writer

26 Why you’re fucking up sales - 3 steps to grow your sales without being an asshole

By Sarah Ankney.

48 trello VS asana: managing your growing team in 2020

By Kevin Snow.

By Donnie boivin

54 is your purpose stronger than the apocalypse?

30 Sometimes a blind person

By Donald R. Dodson.

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Success Champions

Announcing Success Champion Magazine!

H

ey Champion, you are a badass. Thanks for reading the magazine I am excited about this issue as we bring together some amazing stories and awesome strategies to help you build and lead your team.

You will read the Story of Nikole Dickman and how she became a CEO and learned to lead a team, the personal evolution of hiring a team before your ready, and why firing might be more important than hiring.

for you and your business.

Unleash that badass within you and let nothing get in your way.

Do me a small favor. Visit our sponsors. Its because of them we can continue to bring you these stories and life lessons. Thanks for being you and thanks for helping me change the world.

Donnie

As we move more into a virtual world, I am excited at the innovation and the creativity of small business owners.

This time that we are in is a beautiful moment to see what your made of and go bigger, do more and be more creative. This is one of the best growths and action taking moments I have seen and I am glad to go on the ride with you.

I genuinely believe that those people who act now will win beyond what they first perceived as possible. Be your own champion and rock out.

Let your action be the show and tell

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Unleash Your Inner Badass 5

Success Champions

4 Best practices for running a remote team

By Amanda Catarzi

W “While working from home might have been a treat in the past, it’s now becoming the new normal for several companies due to the recent Covid crisis”

hen the Covid Virus first came on the scene in a America, many companies shifted to online platforms and adopted the work from home lifestyle as a temporary fix. With a second wave of the virus threatening our businesses and lifestyles, do you have the tools to ensure you can run a remote and effective team for an extended amount of time?

While working from home might have been a treat in the past, it’s now becoming the new normal for several companies due to the recent Covid crisis. Surrounded by pillows and typing away on your laptop in your pajamas may be a blast but how do you ensure your team is working just as efficient and hard as you are from your king-size bed? Don’t worry about putting real pants on, we will bring the answers to you!

There are many great pieces of advice out there and numerous viewpoints on this subject however we have managed to condense

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that information into the four best practices for running a remote team:

1. Create Clear Guidelines Working from home provides your employees with a lot of fantastic freedoms, therefore it’s important to be clear where the guidelines are.

Is there a specific time you’d like for everyone to be clocked in and working so that you can collaborate?

Do you have a morning or afternoon huddle scheduled for accountability?

What are the requirements for virtual meetings - Video on or off ? Though these details may seem silly to some, it’s in small details and habits that productivity is built upon.

2. Provide the Tools Needed Having the right tools to get a job done is big for productivity. Your team will feel supported and valued when they are given what they need to be successful. As a leader, make sure programs are up to date and subscriptions paid for. If one of your employees does not have reliable internet access, consider enabling HotSpot on their work phone.

Practically supporting your team with what they require to get the job done (within reason of course) is a great way to ensure they will give you the results you want.

3. Avoid Micro-Managing This might be a tough one for some leaders, especially during such chaotic circumstances. The pressure is high to yield a revenue flow and you may

Team Building

be tempted to micro-manage your team. Nothing kills production flow or creative energy like overbearing control. If you find the temptation too much to bear, shift your focus to outcomes instead of an activity. Are the tasks being completed well and in a timely order? If yes, does it matter when or how? You might find this new approach refreshing and even more successful than your previous, in office management style.

4. Be Accessible and Available While I’m sure you’ve built yourself a pretty self-reliant team, there are bound to be issues within this new structure and climate that will need your attention. Being accessible and available to your team will be paramount during this time. Not only will you be able to put out potential fires and nip issues in the bud as soon as they arise, you’ll be able to inspire and support your team on a

different level than ever before. This could look like having “open-door” times when your team members can video chat or call you if they need to run something by you or need your input on a particular task. Get creative, be flexible, and keep those communication lines open!

While we are experiencing new challenges it is important to remember that you are working with a group of humans. These humans may be affected by these changes in any number of ways. As a leader, it is vital to understand how your team members are individually impacted by the current state of the world and how to help them navigate those obstacles so that they can be the best versions of themselves for you and your organization. While this may sound like a large task, it starts with simply taking the time to care and listen. This by far is the greatest piece of advice we can give you as

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“Nothing kills production flow or creative energy like overbearing control.”

Success Champions managing-remote-teams. html MMA Fighter to Federal Legislation Writer.

Trauma Art Therapist at a refugee camp in Asia to Fundraising Specialist at a VIP Super Bowl party.

“Being accessible and available to your team will be paramount during this time.”

a leader. The more people feel safe, cared for, and supported, the more they’re willing to give of themselves.

Building a strong remote team can feel a lot like herding cats but we hope the information above will help you become a better leader.

References: Managing a Remote Team: 7 Best Practices. (n.d.). Retrieved July 04, 2020, from https://monday.com/blog/remotework/7-best-practices-managing-remoteteam/ McKendrick, J. (2020, April 09). 7 Tips For Managing Working-From-Home Teams, From An All-Remote Company.

Retrieved July 04, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ joemckendrick/2020/04/09/7tips-for-managing-working-fromhome-teams-from-an-all-remotecompany/ Aten, J. (2020, March 16). 7 Tips for Successfully Managing Remote Teams. Retrieved July 04, 2020, from https://www.inc.com/jasonaten/7-tips-for-working-fsuccessfully-

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Amanda has worn many hats and found herself in many different roles but her goal has always been the same; to fight for the oppressed and bring value to everyone she encounters.

Saying ‘yes’ where others might have said ‘no’ has given her many unique opportunities, relationships, and experiences. She has worked undercover with anti-sex trafficking organizations, created peacekeeping agreements between war generals, written bi-partisan federal legislation, and now runs the Marketing Agency, InkeryCo.

Success Champions

Are you teaching your team to lead or to be dependent?

By Dana Pharant

“I really thought that when I had staff I would be able to sit back and relax while they did all the work, and yet somehow I found myself even more busy than before.”

I

really thought that when I had staff I would be able to sit back and relax while they did all the work, and yet somehow I found myself even more busy than before.

How the hell did that happen?

I would roll into the office with my Starbucks expecting to enjoy my latte and get my work done in peace.

The door opens and a head pops in.

“Are you busy? I need you to show me how to get the accounting system to reconcile I can’t seem to figure it out”.

I would get up and head out of my office to their desk, leaving my lovely latte behind. Stand over them and walk them through the process yet again.

As I am heading back to my office to

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finish what I started. Another voice stops me “hey, we are out of toilet paper. Can you pick some up today, we are desperate?

Seriously? How is it that 6 people can be using the TP and no one bothers to note when it is getting low.

I grab my latte and run out to Costco, which is just around the corner. Hopefully that giant pack will hold them for a while.

As soon as I get back in the office, another staff says they have an irate customer on the phone, and they can’t get them to calm down. Could I work my magic on them?

Why is it that I seem to be the only one with “the magic”?

This was my life, the only time I seem to get my work done was when I worked from home and refused to answer the phone.

Team Building

By Friday I was so ready for some chill time with a friend, over some great wine of course.

After my 567th time complaining to my friend, she says to me “what do you train them to do? Do you train them to think or do you train them to be reliant on you?”

At first, I was mad, how dare she point that blame back on me. Could she not see that they were the problem NOT me?

After a few weeks, I let it settle in and took a really hard look at what she had pointed out. What was I actually training them to do?

If all I gave them was answers to their questions, then all I would get was more questions.

So, I set up a new plan of attack.

I had to train myself to resist the urge to answer any question with anything other than a question.

It was hard, and it felt so damn uncomfortable. I was sure that they could not figure anything out on their own.

Which looking back was a really horrible thing to impose on them.

Or, I would ask “what have you tried?”

Inside, I was feeling torn. I so desperately wanted to be the person they turned to. The one they needed and yet it was sucking the life out of me to be that person.

I would breathe in deeply and make a mental note to use my tools later as I stuck to my game plan of only asking questions.

With patience and persistence, they became brilliant. Much in the same way as your parents are very wise once you have grown up and left home.

I realized that if I wanted self-reliant and self-directed staff who helped me grow the business I would have to train them to think, and acknowledge them when they came up solutions.

After some time, they came to the point of telling me what the problem was and how they fixed it. I got to

Gradually (it really took about a year), I began to let go.

When they would come to me with a problem, my response would be “hum, that is interesting. What do you think we should do about it?”

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“I had to train myself to resist the urge to answer any question with anything other than a question.”

Success Champions

“I realized that if I wanted self-reliant and self-directed staff who helped me grow the business I would have to train them to think, and acknowledge them when they came up solutions.�

hear about their solutions and I was only dialed in when the team had all tried or they needed authority to do something expensive or radical.

As you build your team or grow your team, keep my mistake in mind and train them from, the get go, to be problem solvers. And don’t be afraid to lavish on the praise for them taking initiative.

You just might work yourself out of a job and into a business that pays you.

Having built a 7-figure business without sales calls and as a former Dominatrix, Dana knows all about owning her power and being unique. She has worked with

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clients for over 25 years, helping them step into the energy of the Inner Dominatrix.

She has written 5 books, won multiple awards and treats her own personal development like an extreme sport.

Success Champions

The Pros and Cons of Hiring Versus Outsourcing

By Dale West

J “Lower costs are always more attractive, but larger economic issues, political influence and patriotism are making many reconsider outsourcing.�

ane Business Owner faces challenges on a daily business. One of the most complex is staffing. Should she hire full-time permanent employees, outsource tasks or something in between? Here I will lay out a few pros and cons of each so you can make a more informed decision.

You have likely heard discussions about bringing manufacturing back to the US versus outsourcing to cheaper labor markets. This issue highlights some of the complexities of making the hire versus outsource decision within your own company. Lower costs are always more attractive, but

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larger economic issues, political influence and patriotism are making many reconsider outsourcing manufacturing processes and other jobs. For your business outsourcing does not necessarily mean offshore.

Consider the lawyer you might hire to review a big contract.

The hire versus outsource decision is often clear. When a critical position opens up through attrition the choice is clear. On the flip side there is no question when you need expertise to handle a one-time task outside of your purview again the answer is easy. There are, however, a myriad of situations that require more consideration and perhaps a hybrid solution.

For now, we will focus on a few common pros and cons of hiring versus outsource. Again, every situation is different and every employer/employee (or contractor) relationship is different.

First off let us look at what I will call the traditional model of employment, the full-time, permanent employee who works in

Team Building

your facility. The obvious advantages are you see this person every day closely interacting with your entire staff. That provides context to their work, collaboration creates consensus within the team, which improves the chances for success.

This person will grow with your company and adapt to your needs.

They are trainable thereby adding value to your business. Compared with an outsourced employee there are downsides, including the increased overhead of business infrastructure and the initial costs.

What if something like the recent COVID-19 pandemic strikes and payroll exceeds revenue? No business owner wants to layoff or even terminate staff.

The advantages of hiring a contractor can include lower cost and the flexibility to use their services only when needed. Some businesses set aside a fraction of

their manpower needs for temporary workers giving them the ability to adjust their labor cost to match the daily ups and downs in demand. The downside is that outside help does not have the context or relationships that an in-house employee enjoys.

Staff are often reluctant to accept an outside “consultant” and support their recommendations. The employer/contractor relationship is entirely transactional. You pay for “X” and that is what you get.

Nothing more.

In the online world, digital work is frequently outsourced overseas to lower costs. I have personal reasons that I do not consider this option, including a strong preference to keep work within my community.

Undoubtedly, at some point you have called a business and been connected to a call center overseas. Most often, communication is hampered both by differing cultural context

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“The advantages of hiring a contractor can include lower cost and the flexibility to use their services only when needed.”

Success Champions and speaking with someone whose English is a second language. All the while I am thinking I am getting a lower level of customer service in order to save the company money and I feel that money is going into their pockets and not to lowering my bill.

In addition to our core staff, we keep a long list of subject matter experts whom we have vetted and are available for special business needs.

For my business, we have developed an unusual employment model.

All of our staff are freelance professionals working part time for my business. Many have small businesses of their own. Some are retired and just cannot or do not want to entirely step away and some are stay at home parents making a few bucks doing something they enjoy. To minimize the downside of contracting, we conduct friendly online team meetings creating relationships and collaboration. In addition to our core staff, we keep a long list of subject matter experts whom we have vetted and are

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available for special business needs.

In conclusion, identify your specific needs, consider all options, or create your own solutions. As long as it brings value to your business, your employees and contractors AND YOUR CUSTOMER. Dale West is the Owner and Lead Developer of Mad Scientist Web Design, a full service website development and internet marketing agency based in Ft Worth, TX.

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Special Excerpt From “How to be a Success Champion”

Introduction

18

You’ve chased your dreams, but it feels like Dear Badass, You’re a trailblazer on this it is not enough. You’ve worked towards journey, carving your path. You’re amazing. impacting the world but you’re not there yet.

I see you! And this book is for you. I feel Your business isn’t in the place you’d hoped your frustration too. Life has something it’d be by now. I know you’re frustrated. Why more for you that you haven’t found a way to hasn’t this happened yet? You ask yourself. break through to yet. I know your strength.

It’s coming. The world is showing up. Step I know your power. I can feel it in my soul. into that greatness with me. Unleash that You’re meant for greatness. You’re meant to inner badass and lets blow some shit up. Run change the world. You’re a champion. You’ve with me and let’s go for it. Be awesome for always been rough around the edges and you yourself and watch what happens. This is know what a hard day’s work is. You haven’t that moment. This is that time you’ve read always felt equal but that has never slowed about; that you’ve heard about. This’s that you down. You’re a warrior among common moment they promised, if you can get past people. You’re a fire burning bright, ready this your world will open up. Step into that. to light the damn world on fire with your Own it. Let’s go. Let me show you how. business. I promise within these pages is the fuel to transform that flame into a bonfire. You will set the world aflame and change it because of your badassery.

You’re the light. I know you’ve been through trials. I know you’ve been knocked around.

I know you’ve had to pick yourself back up. And I know you’re still going. You’ve taken the hits and experienced the failures and you’re still here, each day taking another step and moving forward.

Success Champions Magazine

Special Excerpt From “How to be a Success Champion”

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Success Champions

How Leaders Can Support Team Success: An Interview With Nikole Dickman “I think a large part of the small business owners’ journey is that they find themselves where they didn’t think they were going to be, and then they have to find a way to make the best of it.”

S

till on the fence about whether or not to start a business? If you are, then you need to meet Envoy Managed Services CEO Nikole Dickman. Nikole’s IT company is the title sponsor for the Badass Business Summit this September, and the story of how Envoy was created might inspire you to take the leap from employee to business owner.

So Nikole’s journey from finance expert to CEO started when the company that she used to work for decided to relocate her and her team.

But instead of moving, she started a business, brought the team back together, and became the outsource partner for her previous company. It was a bold move for someone who

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had never really been a CEO of a company before.

“I didn’t think that this was something that I was going to do.

And in the end, it was a big shift to go from managing an organization to trying to figure out how to lead an organization,” Nikole said. “I think a large part of the small business owners’ journey is that they find themselves where they didn’t think they were going to be, and then they have to find a way to make the best of it.”

Nikole admitted that none of it was planned out in advance. But she knew the business idea was viable, so she followed her heart and her gut.

“Why not take the chance? What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

Team Building she noted. “The worst thing you can do is fail, and as long as you make something out of that failure, you learn a lesson.”

Of course, going from startup to scaleup is not without its challenges.

Nikole quickly found out that building relationships was crucial to business success. While a lot of companies would send their sales teams to attend conferences and networking events, Nikole wanted to attend them herself so she could talk with the people they want to work with. In fact, she said they never had a sales team because she didn’t feel comfortable having one.

“That’s sort of what made me decide to get involved and push outside of my comfort zone,” Nikole explained.

“I was in a sales meeting a while back, presenting, and one of the people in the room asked me, ‘You’re the CEO, why are you here?’ So I thought for a moment and said, ‘I’m here to figure out if we’re going to work well together.’”

To be clear, Nikole is not an IT expert. She doesn’t know all the intricate ins and outs of IT even though she runs an IT company.

But what she did was she took what some would consider a weakness and turned it into an absolute strength.

“I felt like, how can I possibly go out there and talk to people? I’m the wrong person. I can’t answer those technology questions. But I understand it on a basic level enough to communicate the message,” Nikole explained. “There’s a lot

of people sitting on the other side of the table that really need what we have, but don’t want to talk in acronyms and all these high technology terms. So what I thought was something that was going to hurt the sales process, I think helped it instead.”

“We have technical people that are there to talk about all the details. But it’s a relationship; and it’s still trying to fill the needs of the clients. I think maybe not knowing all the technical terms helps that in many cases,” she added.

But things didn’t always run smoothly for Nikole and her company. A couple of years ago, a major client decided to downsize and Envoy’s services were no longer needed. Throughout it all, Nikole emphasized the importance of the team. She believed that everyone has an important role to play and they either succeed together or fail together.

“Do I really want to let part of the team that we started the company with go just because that’s the easy answer? No,” Nikole stated. Instead, she got the team together and asked them to help her figure out a way to move forward. At that point, it was either go big or go home, so they formed what became known as Growth Task Force to ensure that she could keep her team together.

Nikole’s passion to protect her team is truly inspiring. So I asked her how somebody could rally their team like she’d done? How could they get their

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Nikole quickly found out that building relationships was crucial to business success.

Success Champions team to up their game and jump on board?

According to Nikole, having a foundational relationship with the team members was important. So as a leader, you need to take the time to get to know the people that are around you. You need to invest in them, understand what drives them, and what motivates them.

So as a leader, you need to take the time to get to know the people that are around you. You need to invest in them, understand what drives them, and what motivates them.

She also pointed out that business leaders shouldn’t be afraid to be vulnerable, that they shouldn’t be afraid to go to their team and say they don’t know the answer. “You’ve got a team around you for a reason, use them. They’re going to have ideas and they see your business from a different perspective. So there’s absolutely no shame saying, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

“Anyone should surround themselves with people that are smarter than them, and have their own talent set.

To not tap into that and use that would be a shame. Everyone around us is what makes our company successful. We all play a part and everyone has a perspective.”

So how important is it for a CEO of a company or somebody who’s running their own business to be authentic with their team, with the world, with what they’re doing? Well, Nikole believes that there has to be a balance between being authentic and being too open.

“There’s a balance and it’s not perfect, but you kind of have to feel your way,” she explained. “You have to be authentic, but that also

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comes from knowing that you can deliver on what you said, that you’re going to keep your promises, and that you are trustworthy. All those things build into it. So if that’s really who you are, then that should come through authentically.”

You can see that Nikole has learned a lot about herself in the past five years, and despite all the struggles she faced, she has come to appreciate the journey to get to where she is now.

“I didn’t ever think this is what I would be doing, but now it feels like this is exactly where I was supposed to be,” Nikole said. “I love feeling uncomfortable, and not because that part’s fun. I don’t love the fact that we go through challenges or crises or places where I’m forced into a decision. But I’ve learned to appreciate that this is where I am right now.”

That was one of the most powerful statements she made during the interview. Nobody goes through life and says, ‘Let’s see how uncomfortable I can get.’ But Nikole has evolved in the past five years, and she has transformed into something more.

“It has been an evolution to go from trying to please everyone. I think for a while, maybe that insecurity and just trying to keep everybody happy was actually stopping me and the people around me from doing what we needed to do. You can’t please everyone. But I certainly felt like that was my job. They’d taken a chance

Team Building

on this. Somehow I had to make sure every day and every decision I made everyone happy and that’s exhausting. It can’t happen that way.

So it’s been an evolution.”

“How do I give everyone a voice, but not a vote? How do we make sure everyone feels heard and that they’re living their best life while being a part of this team without trying to cater to every single person’s needs and wants? It’s a balance for sure.”

As we neared the end of the interview, I had to ask Nikole if she had any advice for anyone who’s contemplating starting a business or transition into another business

during the current situation, and she said that you have to make sure you have a sound financial model first.

“How are you going to do it?

How are you going to pay for it?

How is that going to work? How are you going to get your voice out there? How are you going to sell? It takes a long time to fill the funnel, unfortunately. So there has to be some sort of a plan,” Nikole explained. “You have to know that it’s going to work, then listen to yourself. If your gut and your heart tell you that you can actually do this, and you’re all in, then I would say jump in.”

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Nobody goes through life and says, ‘Let’s see how uncomfortable I can get.’ But Nikole has evolved in the past five years, and she has transformed into something more.

Success Champions So what’s next for Nikole Dickman?

Where is this journey going to take her?

“I don’t want to necessarily know what the future holds.

I want to be able to figure out what works right now,-...”

“I don’t want to necessarily know what the future holds. I want to be able to figure out what works right now, what we’re going to do to be elastic and continue to remain relevant and do things that are going to help our team move forward. I don’t want to write my script yet.

And I know that you need, from a business perspective, 10-year, 5-year, short term plans. All of those things are necessary. But if you plan it all out and you’re not open to seeing what else is in store, then you’ve just limited yourself, and I don’t want to

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do that anymore,” she noted.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Nikole being authentic.

Team Building

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Success Champions

Why you’re fucking up sales - 3 Steps to grow your sales without being an asshole

By Donnie Boivin

A

re you tired yet? Endless fucking content, zoom calls, blog articles, meetings, and everything else in the world, and you just can’t break loose?

“Stop doing the things that are not getting you anywhere and fucking learn to sell.”

The constant meetings with broke people, who won’t take action and suck the ever-living hell out of you and your business? Are you fed up with doing the same ole shit over and over again and your business is still where it was this time last year?

Well, I got two words for ya. STOP IT!!!

Stop doing the things that are not getting you anywhere and fucking learn to sell. Look I get it, you are good at what you do. You are amazing with your products and services. I know if the world would just understand how badass you really are you would have found freedom way before now.

I understand that frustration. I really get it.

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But are you really ready to make a change? Are you finally ready to go all the fuck in on you, and build this damn business?

If the answer isn’t yes…It better be fuck yes, I am fucking tired of working so damn hard and it not working.

I want you pissed off. I want you mad, I want you Hulk smash angry and ready to pick one helluva fight.

Who are you fighting?

YOU Yep, you are fighting you, your beliefs, your thoughts and your wussy like tendencies to not own your shit.

That’s it, we are battling our own self-worth demons. That fucking voice in your head that stops you from moving forward. The voice that says, “I hate sales, I am not good at sales” or “If I could just hire someone else to do the sales. “ Trust me that won’t get you anywhere except in a pit of despair

Team Building sucking your thumb and depressed.

You launch this business to get to freedom and freedom doesn’t come from nice, good enough, or being ok with being small. Nope, freedom costs and the bill is due.

Rules to Rock This Out is Simple.

You Don’t have a sales problem. Nope, you have a business development problem.

Everyone thinks they have a sales problem and it’s just not true. Hear me out on this.

How many times have you said to yourself, “If I can just sit across from them, I would close the sale” or “If I could just get a conversation I would get the deal done?” Everyone knows how to sell. You show and tell people what you have, and they buy. Cool the sales call is done. (I know there is more to it than that but really that’s it).

So it’s not a sales problem it’s a getting to the sale problem, it’s you don’t know how to prospect problem, it’s the thought that all the business development stuff is too much work problem.

You gotta turn that noise off and get good at business development.

All that activity before you even get to the sales call. The reach out, DM & PMs, the social content, all the conversations, and all the networking you can get involved with; That’s the

“You Don’t have a sales problem. Nope, you have a business development problem.“ magic in sales. It’s not what happens on the sales call it’s the ability to get there in the first place.

Understanding that the more effort you put into business development the more you will win. So, start.

Start striking up conversations, start networking, start reaching out, and get in the game. This isn’t something that is going to work overnight.

It’s a process, its discipline, and its constant.

Fanatical Discipline One thing that helped me over the years is flat out outworking on the proper things harder than anyone else. Literally doing the things that others did not want to do and doing them every day.

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Success Champions I have always been a morning person, up early and get to work. It wasn’t an early bird gets the worm thing.

Because the second mouse gets the cheese. It was just what worked for me. Getting going and getting to work has helped me in a ton of ways.

“Outside of fanatical discipline, it’s the ability to try something new while doing a mundane thing that will open the world up for you.”

The biggest thought is doing the shit that will move my business forward when I am at my best. I set a wicked habit in my business. It’s a simple habit but it has moved mountains in my business over the years. That habit? 10 reach outs no matter what. 10 reach outs every damn day without fail. It could be LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever.

But 10 reach outs to the extreme.

Having a vacation in Ireland, 10 reach outs, Sunday morning 10 reach outs, hungover from partying to hard the night before 10 reach outs.

It’s this discipline that puts me paces ahead of most. Because its work, it’s not fun, you don’t get a lot out of it most days, so most of you will give up after a couple of days. Some of you will give up after a week, and others after a month. This is why I outpace most.

The truth of the matter, you’re probably smarter, more charismatic, more loving, and more badass than I am. I really think that. But I will hit my 10 reach outs no matter what.

Why? Because that’s how I grow my business. That’s how I build this empire, and that’s how I change the world. Get fanatical about 10 reach outs. Get crazy and let nothing stop you.

www.DonnieBoivin.com 28

Fuck up – No really fuck up a lot and on purpose.

Outside of fanatical discipline, it’s the ability to try something new while doing a mundane thing that will open the world up for you.

People get bored doing business development things. It sucks to make videos, do reach outs constantly, and try to get conversations started.

It will beat you down if you let it.

That’s why you have to fuck up on purpose.

Literally, I want you to fail better.

If you do the same shit over and over again you are gonna get slow growth results over time. It’s better than what Einstein said because momentum is a thing and if its business development you will eventually find success. But if you play with the business development activities and try new things you will win. Watch a lot of these fuckers that are killing on social media. They don’t do the same shit over and over again. They are constantly trying new shit to see what works.

It may be a new dance or a new way to say something, but they are always trying to try new things. They know a lot of the shit is gonna bomb. Guess what they are ok with it. The next day they are gonna try something new and the day after that. Why because that’s how they win. They try knew shit, know its gonna break, and do it anyway because they know it will teach them how to do it better.

It’s like anything new you try in life.

Team Building Of course, your gonna fuck it up, it’s new. You had to break some shit to get where you are in life; and sales is the same damn way. Break some shit.

Try a new way to say hello in a DM, try a new way to do a video, create a different style of a blog post, reach out to that big named person but for the love, gawd do something bigger than you did it last time.

So, why are you fucking up sales?

Simply, you give a shit what other people think about you. You think you’re in high school and life is some sort of fucked up popularity contest.

Guess what, nobody gives a shit and nobody is gonna build your life for

you.

Do you really want to build this life, this business, and live that freedom you dream about all the time? Then do yourself a favor and go. Do the business development shit, have fanatical discipline and fuck up a lot.

It’s gonna be a lot of work my friend; and it’s gonna be a constant beat down until it’s not. Those willing to go through the shit and keep going will win as long as they stay in the game.

I believe you are a champion. Now fight for your success, fight for your life, and don’t let anybody tell you can’t do anything. You got this.

Unleash Your Inner Badass 29

Of course, your gonna fuck it up, it’s new. You had to break some shit to get where you are in life; and sales is the same damn way. Break some shit.

Success Champions

Sometimes a blind person does need help crossing a street: the fallacy of the independent business owner

By Dave Bahr

“Even though I am extremely selfsufficient, there will always be a time when I need help from somebody to do something.�

O

ne day in the summer of 2011, a blind man and his guide dog stood at the corner of one of the biggest intersections in Schenectady New York. There were turn lanes and the cars rushed by. Suddenly, several people offered to help him cross the street. He allowed a woman to help since they were going the same way. True, there had been many crossings like this that he had crossed before, but the day was hot and all of the noise was getting to him.

Everyone made it across safely,

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the man said thank you and goodbye to the woman and he and his dog went on their way.

You have probably figured out by this point that I am the person in the story. My name is Dave Bahr and I was born totally blind. I was doing an internship in Schenectady when that incident occurred. I had implicit trust in my guide dog, Katie. We had crossed dozens of streets like this one but we were both very tired.

Asking for assistance was the right thing to do.

In the main, I am a very independent person and do things

Team Building by myself.

Despite being a widower and having lost Katie the guide dog, I keep a clean living quarter, eat a decent meal, and am a successful speaker, published author, comedian, and coach. When my wife was alive, she was my eyes just as Katie the dog was. Thanks to a service called Aira, nowadays, I get help with reading mail and cooking.

You are probably wondering what all of this has to do with business and team building. As the above examples have illustrated, I am an independent person but I will always be somehow dependent on an individual whether they be human or canine. Even though I am extremely self-sufficient, there will always be a time when I need help from somebody to do something. The same holds true in the business world.

There is a common belief that small business owners must be independent. They must be the sole owner and handle all of the decisions from accounting to sales and marketing. The gurus out there will tell you that all of this is possible thanks to technology, funnel strategies, and automation. None of

this is true.

If you do not know how to do taxes or keep a balance sheet, you need to hire a human accountant. If you are not selling a product, you need to hire a human who knows about sales and marketing. Many so-called solopreneurs crash and burn before their business gets off the ground because they think they can do it all.

“Tech will solve all your problems!”

“This funnel strategy will make you money overnight!” Automate everything so you can live the life you love!” This is not how good businesses work!

Humans need connection. Even if the team that you create in your business is ad hoc and you hire one person as a virtual assistant, you are making connections. I will say it again, the notion of an independent business owner is a complete fallacy.

A good business needs a team.

Sometimes that team takes a little bit to develop. When I first got my guide dog, Katie, it took about 6 months for us to become a good working

Unleash Your Inner Badass 31

“Many so-called solopreneurs crash and burn before their business gets off the ground because they think they can do it all.”

Success Champions team. After that development, we spent ten years working together.

As a business owner, it is imperative that you have some sort of team. Accept that you will be dependent on somebody no matter what happens.

Looking back on that day in New York in 2011, I thought about what I could have done. I could have stood on the street corner and thought about when I was going to cross. I listen to traffic patterns to tell when the light changes. That particular summer day, my teammate shuffled a bit uncomfortably as her paws were hot on the sidewalk. I listened to my teammate’s needs. We got human assistance to speed up the process and made it across.

As a business owner, it is imperative that you have some sort of team.

Accept that you will be dependent on somebody no matter what happens.

Take that time to build the team, your business, bottom line, and overall well-being will thank you.

www.DonnieBoivin.com 32

Dave Bahr is an author, speaker, and comedian fo¬cused on demystifying the public’s perception of how to interact with people with disabilities. As the founder of In-Sightful Living, Dave works as an accessibility con¬sultant, aiding organizations to enhance their systems, environments, events, and cultures to be supportive of people with disabilities.

Blind from birth, he teaches that having a disability is not a hindrance, but an asset.

Dave’s funny and often irreverent wit allows him to use storytelling to illustrate that people should not be afraid of disability.

He encourages curiosity, tact, and hu¬mor over political correctness, fear, and ignorance

Success Champions

The Badassery of Hiring a Team Before You’re Ready

By Laura Di Franco

Y “As aware and amazing entrepreneurs we know that everything we want is only a matter of getting out of our own way long enough to get it.”

ou’ll need to invest in a team before you’re ready.”

I remember one of my coaches telling me this. I remember nodding over Zoom, and actually believing her. I also remember avoiding that advice for a while longer because of two limiting beliefs I had to overcome: I can’t afford it. And, I’m not ready yet.

As aware and amazing entrepreneurs we know that everything we want is only a matter of getting out of our own way long enough to get it.

Studying and mastering mindset is a regular hobby. We’re more badass at this than the average human. We had to be to make it work. But the one thing I see as I look around into this sea of awesomeness is one of the biggest issues that gets in the way of taking everything to the next level is being ready first.

www.DonnieBoivin.com 34

You’ll never be ready. It’s like when people try to tell you everything you need to know before you have a baby. It just doesn’t matter. You’ll never quite be fully ready for it. You can prepare. You can study, read books, listen to podcasts, whatever.

But you’ll never be perfectly ready for a move that changes everything.

And hiring a team to take your business to the next level will change everything. It will leave you crying with relief as you take a peek at that P&L and realize what you’re doing is working. It’s the only way to move forward when you have big plans to change the world. I mean, you can do it all yourself and burn out, if you want to. But I highly recommend hiring and building that team well before you feel ready. It will exponentially speed up your plan and strategy for world domination.

So yes, this is another mindset pep talk. And you’ve had them before.

The problem this time is you believe your limiting belief more than usual.

You’ve decided to grip the grab bar on the rollercoaster a little tighter than usual. You forgot you’re the kinda gal who likes to ride with her hands up.

Hands-up for me was hiring my friend Kevin Snow to do my email sales automation. I had a great recommendation and trusted it. But would it work? Can I afford for this to not work? Is this a risk I’m willing to take to do the experiment? All questions I asked myself as I took the action and signed up, feeling

Team Building terrified, but doing it anyway because I had procrastinated too long and doing everything was becoming exhausting. Plus I had no time to write anymore. I was spending so much time crafting emails that had piss-poor open rates and no sales, and I was frustrated as Hell. I was losing hours when I could have been writing my next book, or teaching my classes; things I loved doing.

Kevin wasn’t the first member of my team. My virtual assistant was. Kevin was the first member of my team that resulted in a direct increase in income. And at that point I realized that it wasn’t just building my team that mattered, it was building it with people who’d do the tasks I needed done that were well out of my zone of excellence, but that were also directly related to cash flow.

Your team will be comprised of different kinds of people doing different kinds of tasks so that you’re free to work the business development side of things. That will also result in cash flow. I now ask myself a couple questions on a regular basis: Do I have time to create? And, do I have time to reach out and talk to people? It’s really that simple. Everything else should be delegated.

out doing everything alone? Nah. I’d rather take the risk, build my team, and grow as I go. I’d rather take a chance and see what I’m made of. And I’d much rather be writing another book with a smile on my face knowing that my team is working that funnel.

You’ll never be ready. Build your team anyway. You can’t afford not to if you’re truly wanting to take this all the next step.

Laura Di Franco is the owner of Brave Healer Productions where she’ll help you share your story, build your business and change the world. With three decades of expertise in holistic physical therapy, a third-degree black belt and eight books, she has a clear preference for being badass but she’s also the champion of entrepreneurs who want to grow their health-based practices. Her writing workshops, business strategy sessions, and online writing club are just some of the ways she helps talented professionals maximize their professional impact. www.BraveHealer.com

It’s so easy to say this now. I got over the fear. I invested in people before I felt like I could afford it and well before I felt ready. Hands-up all the way. But what’s the alternative?

Staying stuck in a mediocre plateau and trying not to burn yourself

Unleash Your Inner Badass 35

“hiring a team to take your business to the next level will change everything.”

Success Champions and activity.

Failure is Feedback Mindset

Turn Failure into Feedback The only real way to fail is to give up. So how do you rebound from failure?

You move forward by learning from the past. You respond to the present in a new way.

I‘m not saying it’s easy. Failure is emotional and hits you where you are most vulnerable.

By Pat Casello Maddox

I

n 2013, at age 56, I was promoted to an interim position at my university. I knew I might not get it, but I wanted to show what I could do.

As usual, I dove right in to make the most of the opportunity. The hours were long. The boss was demanding.

The job was ambiguous.

“The only real way to fail is to give up.”

A year later I collapsed – literally. I had developed a herniated disc in my lower back by delaying a left hip surgery. It came on suddenly and severely.

I was informed my operation would be delayed further. They gave me a spinal injection, put me in a wheel chair, and sent me home.

I had no idea what would happen in the future. Secretly, I feared I would never walk again and lose the job.

The position was slipping through my fingers. And I lost my ‘go to’ stress relief — my physical health

www.DonnieBoivin.com 36

It helps you see your life and setbacks as parts of an ongoing journey. Failure can motivate you when your mindset is strong.

It also may temporarily leave you in uncertainty and doubt. Ultimately, if you continue to try, you rebound and start moving forward again.

The worst thing is to get permanently stuck. I decided to reframe the situation by turning failure into feedback.

Honor Your Feelings I grew up as an athletic kid. I was outdoors all the time, swimming and playing kickball with the boys in the neighborhood. I excelled at school. I had a lot of friends and went out to set the world on fire.

Suddenly I was less mobile and more dependent on others. I felt afraid and uncertain.

It is important to honor your feelings after failure. And equally important to move on despite them.

Team Building

Having time to sit and meditate was difficult. But it helped me learn more about myself, my strengths, and my future purpose in life.

Improve Your Mental and Physical Health I knew deep inside I could be happy and successful even in a wheelchair.

I also knew my life choices still mattered.

I learned to move around with the chair. It strengthened my upper body, self-confidence, and sense of freedom.

I am a teacher, a clinician and a writer. I am intellectually curious and creative.

I knew I loved helping others.

How could I continue to provide education and access to great goods and services?

Fail Forward to Success I took a leave from work for surgery.

During that time, I began to study copy and content writing.

After a year in a wheelchair, I was ready for surgery. That afternoon, they had me walk during rehab.

I used quiet reflective time to improve my gratitude for what I had.

This helped me realize the job was not a loss, but a stepping stone to open up my life.

I felt like a baby, learning to walk again with good and bad days, but steady progress. At home, I slowly strolled the halls with my walker twice a day for months.

Reassess Your Options

Regular routines helped me shift inside. Not only was my body better, but my mind and emotional life were becoming calmer, stronger, and more focused.

What did I learn from this experience? The interim job had been the result of circumstances rather than my dream. I took it without really considering my options.

Through a series of steps, I discovered something priceless along

Unleash Your Inner Badass 37

“I knew deep inside I could be happy and successful even in a wheelchair. I also knew my life choices still mattered.�

Success Champions the way. I realized neither my legs nor my job defined me. And that was the beginning of my recovery and freedom from failure and fear.

I knew I could be happy despite circumstances. I knew I could pick myself up and start again.

“Nobody wants failure.

Nobody enjoys it. But everyone is destined to experience it.�

Since then I have continued to perform successful projects for my university. I also am growing my writing business.

Nobody wants failure. Nobody enjoys it. But everyone is destined to experience it.

See your failures as feedback. Get up and fail forward to your success.

support health and wellness businesses in connecting great products and services with their current and future customers.

Pat Casello-Maddox is an SEOfocused copy and content specialist living in Minneapolis. She has many years experience as a healthcare provider, educator and writing entrepreneur. Her mission is to

As a certified SmartBlogger Content Marketing writer and an AWAI Copywriter and Case Study Specialist, she provides branded, engaging copy and content for B2C and B2B businesses.

www.DonnieBoivin.com 38

Team Building

Administrative Support for Speakers, Authors and Podcasters We are the DETAIL people!

We provide support so you can do what you do best!

LVS Consulting Services

LVSConsultingservices.com lorianne@lvsconsultingservices.com | t: 818.689.1824

Unleash Your Inner Badass 39

Success Champions

4 Must-Read Books on Team Building

By Michelle Thompson

B

uilding a productive and efficient team is not an easy task. You can’t just throw a group of individuals together and expect them to get along immediately. You need to find a way to bring them together and turn them into a cohesive team.

“You can’t just throw a group of individuals together and expect them to get along immediately. You need to find a way to bring them together and turn them into a cohesive team.”

To use a football analogy, it’s like how a quarterback cannot win the game on his own no matter how skilled he is. Everyone on the team has a role to play. The same is true in the business world. No matter how skilled you are at your profession, or how hard you work, you still need a team behind you that understands your vision and your goals.

So how can you motivate a group of people to work together effectively?

The answer is team building.

Team building is crucial for success in business. As Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is beginning.

Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success.” You

www.DonnieBoivin.com 40

need to find a way to get everyone on the same page so they can work efficiently as a unit, and they have to learn to rely on each other when times get tough.

So I’ve rounded up four books that can help you harness the power of teamwork and avoid the pitfalls that may prevent your team from working cohesively.

1. The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni Written as a fable about an executive’s struggle to create a cohesive team, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team explores the things that can prevent people from working together and it outlines the keys to overcoming them. The five dysfunctions suggested in the title of the book are: 1) Absence of trust 2) Fear of conflict 3) Lack of commitment 4) Avoidance of accountability 5) Inattention to results

2. The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork - John C. Maxwell In The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, Maxwell shares the principles that can help us build and maintain a successful team.

Each of the 17 chapters in the book represents a different law that the author thinks every leader should have in mind, and each one can help you enhance the overall success of your team. The laws that stood out for me are: 1) The Law of the Niche – This

Team Building law reminds the reader that each person has their areas of strength so you have to put them in the right position to make the most of their talent.

2) The Law of Mount Everest – This emphasizes the value of teamwork. It stresses that if you have a dream, you need a team to accomplish it.

3) The Law of Countability – This explains that your employees must be able to depend on each other no matter what happens.

4) The Law of the Edge – No team can achieve greatness without leadership so you have to train yourself to become a great leader.

5) The Law of High Morale – Maxwell explains that keeping morale high in the workplace is vital if you want to keep a team performing at its best.

3. The Dichotomy of Leadership Jocko Wilink and Leif Babin Since whether a team succeeds or fails is up to the leader, The Dichotomy of Leadership is a mustread for anyone who wants to build a great team. The main takeaway of this book is that everything about leadership must be balanced. As a leader, you must find a balance between micromanagement and a hands-off leadership style, you must learn when to lead and when to follow, and you must take ownership of the mistakes that you make. These are just some of the things covered in The Dichotomy of Leadership.

It’s a really good book that offers a lot of insights on how to effectively manage teams.

4. Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek In Leaders Eat Last, Sinek explains that creating a culture of trust is necessary if you want to build a work environment where your team can flourish. To do so requires you to put others before yourself. Sinek describes it as acting like a parent who has to make personal sacrifices for his family. You have to treat your employees as if they are family, and you have to create this circle of safety so every member of your team will feel safe in their role.

Automation and Outsourcing saved my sanity. After a life-altering stroke, at the age of 36, I had to start all over again.

From a successful MBA in Finance to a second grade IQ level... overnight.

Since my stroke, I’ve had to learn how to automate and outsource as much as humanly possible. It touches everything I do. Now, I am on a mission to help free you up from all the unnecessary tasks you do, and I’ll stop at nothing to help you get your freedom back.

Unleash Your Inner Badass 41

“No matter how skilled you are at your profession, or how hard you work, you still need a team behind you that understands your vision and your goals.”

Success Champions

Is Firing More Important Than Hiring?

By Stacey Magovern

O “The key is to have a process for firing. A system in place that allows the employee to know exactly where they always stand.”

ne of the most important things in business is knowing how and when to fire an employee. So often managers do not let poor performers go when they should due to guilt or dread. This is a huge disservice to other team members, the company and especially your clients. Accepting poor performance brings down the motivation level of the entire team. Acting gains respect, allows goals to be met and ensures happy customers.

The key is to have a process for firing. A system in place that allows the employee to know exactly where they always stand. This makes managers more confident and allows team members to accept their departure. When you have been tracking performance prior to a firing it allows you to refer to the trainings and warnings given prior to the event. Placing an employee on a 30- or 60-day performance plan ensures they don’t feel blindsided by

www.DonnieBoivin.com 42

the firing.

When it is time to fire them, the process is important. Set a meeting with the employee. It is best to have a colleague attend the meeting as well. Whenever possible, face-toface is the best way to convey the news. Be direct and concise. It is not a debate; the decision has been made. Listen to the employee as their feedback can be useful then repeat that their employment is no longer needed. Remember to reference all unmet goals and have paperwork available. I have seen many mangers apologize to the employee. Do not do this. You have nothing to apologize for it is not your fault and you are merely doing what is best for the company. It is business, not personal. Finally, thank your employee for their service and wish them the best of luck in the future.

After the employee has left it is important to gather your team and let them know this person is no longer with the company. Do not share details of the firing as this is a violation of privacy. It is better to reassure your team the firing was for cause and you are not eliminating roles. Focus on the future and when necessary create a plan to spread the fired employees’ workload throughout the team. In the end is up to you how the event impacts the person being fired and your entire team.

If you find yourself in the position of firing employees regularly then you have a problem in your hiring

Team Building process. Hiring and firing are linked to the manager and the processes in place. You may be hiring unqualified candidates, setting unachievable goals, or not giving clear training and expectations on required tasks. All of these problems are the managers responsibility not the employee.

Stacey Magovern went from outside salesperson to running a multi-milliondollar company overnight. The wife of a police officer Stacey’s passion for helping families of law enforcement became her business. She launched her company Point Blank Safety Services in 2012 with no way of knowing today her company would be one of the most successful traffic safety and security companies in Texas. She then used that success to pay it forward by founding a

nonprofit, Blue Family Fund that provides scholarships for First Responder dependents and financial aid to families of injured or fallen law enforcement officers. Stacey is not just the CEO and founder of these businesses but is also a published author and motivational speaker.

Unleash Your Inner Badass 43

“If you find yourself in the position of firing employees regularly then you have a problem in your hiring process.”

Success Champions

The Outsourcing corner

Grow a Team to Scale Your Business

Other things that take you hours like billing could be farmed out to a bookkeeping service, or tweaking your website can be contracted out to someone who can set you up in hours versus the days it would take you to figure out!

By Lorianne Vaughan Speaks

Y “You can stay safe and play small, or you can believe in yourself and get the right people around you to take your business to the next level. “

assistants is that you can contract for as little of 5 hours a week. Let them take the filing, research or clerical/ administrative duties off your plate while you focus on the high earning offerings - or your zone of genius.

ou can’t scale yourself !

There is just so much you can do in a day. When you get to the point when you are just exhausted and still have two more hours of work to get done before you crash into your pillow, it’s freaking time to hire someone...if not a whole team.

You know when it’s time, but it can be scary.

The first step is to hire an assistant (whether local or virtual), this can be done by hiring a 1099 candidate for minimal hours. The beauty of virtual

www.DonnieBoivin.com 44

I have a quote on my website that says: “Within nine months of hiring my first virtual assistant I went from making $1500 a month to 6 figures!

That was because she took all the things that I was doing (that I was having to learn how to do) off my plate and I could focus my high priority activities.”

-Melanie Benson Host, Amplify Your Success Podcast You can stay safe and play small, or you can believe in yourself and get the right people around you to take your business to the next level.

Do your due diligence in hiring and take time to hire the people who understand your business and whose

Team Building

personality jives with your own.

But quit thinking small or living in fear - take the step to growing your business through contracted specialists who will share their zone of genius with your company.

In the gig economy, which will grow even more with the Covid aftermath, now is the time to focus on your strengths and hire others to bring theirs into your business.

Messengers while they do what they love SPEAK! Lorianne has helped spearhead multiple best-selling book campaigns editing, proofing, through to launch and social media marketing to help authors create buzz and momentum throughout the social media platforms and increasing their message World-Wide. Lorianne and her team have made it their mission to empower speakers to deliver their message by handling the rest of the details!

In past articles I wrote of how to hire a VA and where to find them.

Check these out at https://issuu. com/successchampions/docs/ sept-success-magazine and https:// issuu.com/successchampions/ docs/january-final?fbclid=IwAR 12vqp0ROJjIb2vuB36wbxPr5h_ yfKWejUb5tNnyutv3tbi2nSQKSc3I. Or reach out as I will be happy to guide you through the process.

Lorianne Speaks is an expert in the area of Speaker/Author support. She amplifies the visibility of Authors/Speakers/

Unleash Your Inner Badass 45

“Do your due diligence in hiring and take time to hire the people who understand your business and whose personality jives with your own.“

Success Champions clear and concise.

Sassy Social Media

Views from an Outsourced Team Member

By Sarah Ankney

“Set out your expectations clearly before you hire the new team member.

They should do so as well. You want to make sure you are on the same page when it comes to all the things. “

A

s one of those outsourced team members many of you entrepreneurs need to bring in, I can say that I have had so many great experiences being a team member for others. I love to see them succeed, and being a part of helping them do so. I have a few suggestions to make not only your life but your outsourced team members life easier. I hope that these insights and suggestions are helpful to you.

Set out your expectations clearly before you hire the new team member. They should do so as well.

You want to make sure you are on the same page when it comes to all the things. I have had team members that have not met my expectations because I was not clear with them.

I have also had clients that have not expressed all their expectations, that so I was unable to meet their expectations. It is always better to be

www.DonnieBoivin.com 46

Please remember that your team member has a life outside of what they do for you, and often other clients they support. I have learned to set office hours so that I can get manage my time downbetter. I also let them know that I will answer messages within a 48-hour time frame. These are boundaries that are set in stone for me. Both clients and team members should have clear boundaries when working together.

Communication is key in any good relationship. I prefer to communicate through messenger and email, but it is all about preference. I like to keep my clients updated weekly if not daily. This lets them know I am staying on task and what is exactly being done on their account. This also elevates alieveiates the need for them tobe constantly checking in on me. They let go of this give me these tasks to clear up time, not to add more time to their schedule.

There is no dumb question my mom used to say, and when it comes to being a team member you should be asking questions so that you can get what you need and be able to complete the tasks that are asked of you. You will have to communicate when you need items from the client, and they need to ask you when there are items needed from you.

As an outsourced team member, I must be very task orientated and selfstarting. While I need some direction, I often am making the plans of what needs to be done on the account

Team Building before I must be asked or told. I need to be able to plan accordingly for these tasks, so it is nice for heads up when changes are about to come.

I know it is hard to let go of control of things, but you must in order to get your message and passions out to the world. You must let the outsourced team member do what you hired them to do. While you should be checking in with them and know they are taskschedule, you shouldn’t have to guide them in every direction. A good team member will let you know where you stand and where you are going with those tasks you are having them handle.

While hiring a team member is fucking scary, it shouldn’t be difficult.

If it is difficult, then it is often the not right fit for either party. When one of the areas I have mentioned lacksisn’t running smoothly, clearly communicate it the problem so that the problemit can be resolved or at least the other person can learn for the next time. Communication,

boundaries, and task orientated team members make outsourcing your team a breeze and a weight off your shoulders.

Sarah Ankney of Sassy Pinterest is a Pinterest Account Manager. She wants to empower your business with a bit of magic to help you get visible. Sassy Pinterest creates graphics and descriptions as well as manages your Pinterest account so that you can do all the things you need to do and drive traffic to your business. If you need assistance in your business to get traffic to all your sites, please contact Sarah Ankney to add another powerful marketing tool.

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“While hiring a team member is fucking scary, it shouldn’t be difficult. If it is difficult, then it is often the not right fit for either party.”

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Tech Corner

Trello vs Asana: Managing Your Growing Team in 2020

By Kevin Snow

A Implementing a project management system is the most popular answer to how to manage a growing team and more complex project load.

s your team grows it becomes more and more difficult to track what your team is working on and the status of different projects.

Having teams working remotely to help stem the spread of COVID-19 adds an additional challenge to effectively keeping your project schedules on track.

Implementing a project management system is the most popular answer to how to manage a growing team and more complex project load.

But picking a project management tool is a very personal choice that is unique to every business. You need to consider the size of your team, how complex your workflows are, your budget, and what features you need vs what features you want.

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And because you will be entering information about your business into it, you also need to consider its security.

There are several different tools on the market that you can use that fall into one of two classes, true project management tools and online team collaboration tools. Which category online apps fall into depends on their built-in features and ability to handle complex projects, ie: a rocket launch.

Two of the most popular tools used by business to facilitate collaboration and manage tasks are Trello and Asana. Both systems are considered team collaboration tools as they are missing the advanced project management features found in fullscale project management systems including native time tracking and financial management.

Trello vs Asana: Features The first thing you will notice when you log in to Trello is that Trello only offers a Kanban board layout.

This isn’t a bad thing. They have focused their development on one project management style, and it has paid off. Trello easily has the best Kanban set up I’ve seen in an online collaboration tool. Most of the core staples of project management are readily apparent, including task management, resource sharing within tasks, communication through task comments, and a shared team calendar.

However, Trello does have a limited feature list. But the features they

Team Building

have all provide capabilities that allow users to use Trello more effectively and in some innovative ways. For example, Trello took one common feature and turned it into a really cool feature. Some project management tools allow you to measure task completion using an arbitrary sliding percentage scale. Which in most cases is a totally useless metric.

Trello improved on this by tying the task completion percentage to an internal checklist you create, as shown in the image above.

Asana offers a longer list of features focused on providing project management basics and allows users to choose from Kanban boards, task lists, Gantt charts, or even a calendar when setting up their projects.

Asana has added a few unique

features that Trello lacks including workload management and progress reports.

Workload management allows you to track how much work each member of your team is juggling at one time and set limits on their workloads to prevent burnout. Workload is shown

as a visual timeline, highlighting areas where team members are within their workload thresholds and when their work exceeds their capacity.

The “progress� view on Asana is a view that lets the project manager announce to team members or guests

Unleash Your Inner Badass 49

There are several different tools on the market that you can use that fall into one of two classes, true project management tools and online team collaboration tools.

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When it comes to usability, Trello and Asana take completely different approaches to ensuring functionality for the end user.

how the project is coming along.

While Asana does include a more advanced communication capability for project team members than Trello, it isn’t Slack or MS Teams.

Fortunately, both systems integrate with Slack and provide robust notification and task creation capabilities within the Slack client.

Both Asana and Trello allow you to attach files to specific tasks, but in Trello the only way to see that file is to open that specific task. Asana has a “files” view that allows you to track every attachment in a project.

Winner: Asana Asana is the clear winner due to its wide variety of options and features available to its users.

Trello vs Asana: Usability When it comes to usability, Trello and Asana take completely different approaches to ensuring functionality for the end user. Trello is focused on

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being an out of the box solution that users can start using with minimal effort, whereas Asana wants to provide the most functionality and options for users while balancing that with the ease of use for the new user.

Because Trello is focused on one project management style (Kanban) it has been able to evolve its new user onboarding to be very intuitive and provides step-by-step processes to follow to create your own board.

Asana throws a lot of options at you right off the bat, starting with how you want to view your project.

They do a good job of walking you through the basic project set up steps and functions including setting up a new task and manipulating the task through as it progresses through the project. However, you aren’t walked through every function and capability Asana has to offer. However, it isn’t that hard to find the information and figure things out.

Team Building Mobile access is a key feature that any collaboration tool needs to have available and neither Asana nor Trello fail to deliver, although they do this in completely opposite ways as well.

Trello’s mobile app mirrors its desktop app almost identically which can create some usability issues when accessing it on your phone but on a tablet this is not an issue. The standard way of working with Trello cards is dragging them between columns. While this is still doable on the mobile app, it is not as easy as on the desktop app.

are SOC 2 Type 2 compliant meaning a third party has independently verified their security controls, and how those controls are implemented.

Both programs also offer two-factor authorization which increases the security of your account by forcing you to enter your password AND a temporary code sent to your device.

The number one indicator of security is a company’s history of breaches. I checked with my cybersecurity clients and they couldn’t find any history of breaches for Asana. No small feat for a company in 2020.

Trello on the other hand jumped with both feet into the mobile app world developing an app that considers how people use their phone and tablets making its feature rich environment easy to use on mobile platforms. Not every feature is available for mobile tough.

Trello however is not so lucky.

Their parent company Atlassian had products breached in 2010, 2017 and twice in 2019. One being a zeroday vulnerability that was publicly announced on twitter, and one was an exploit that hackers had been using for months.

Asana has focused on providing mobile users the key features needed to manage your tasks and projects on the go.

Trello also allows you to make a board public which allows Google to index it and adding it into google search results.

Winner: Trello

Winner: Asana

The Asana mobile app is pretty awesome but when it comes to ease of use, Trello’s simplicity gives it the win.

Without the relationship to Atlassian, Trello would have faired better in this section. But Asana’s clean breach history and how they handle user information makes it the clear winner.

Trello vs Asana: Security Whenever you compare cloudbased tools you need to consider the security of your data and your client’s data. Both Asana and Trello pass the basic security checks. Both of them

Trello vs Asana: Pricing Both Trello and Asana offer very similar tiered pricing options based on the number of users you have. As

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The number one indicator of security is a company’s history of breaches. I checked with my cybersecurity clients and they couldn’t find any history of breaches for Asana.

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your team grows, your monthly cost goes up. Both also offer discounts when you pay annually. Compared to other comparable software tools, neither Trello nor Asana are among the most expensive, but they aren’t the cheapest either.

Both Trello and Asana offer very similar tiered pricing options based on the number of users you have.

Trello offers three tiers; Free, Business Class and Enterprise.

Trello’s free plan is what puts it ahead of a lot of its competition. The free plan includes unlimited personal boards, unlimited cards, unlimited lists, 10MB per file attachment limit, 10 team boards, one power-up per board, 50 automated command runs per month, and two-factor authentication.

The power-up concept is important to understanding what makes the free plan so much different from the paid plans. Power-ups are à la carte features that you add to your Trello boards. With Trello, you customize which features (or powerups) you want for each board. And the number of features you can add varies based on the account type you choose.

The Business Class ($12.50 per person per month or $119.88 per person per year) and Enterprise

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(prices vary but start at $17.50 per user with a minimum of 20 users) accounts come with unlimited power-ups. They also both have a 250MB size limit for uploads and let you create an unlimited number of team boards. The difference between these two types of accounts has less to do with end-user features and more with backend management options.

Asana also offers a free version of its software, however the free option has more stringent limitations than Trello does. Asana structures it plans in the customary way with features available only at certain tiers. In the Basic (free) plan users have access to task lists, Kanban boards, calendars, app integrations, unlimited tasks, unlimited projects and unlimited file storage (up to 100MB per file), and up to 15 users.

Asana’s free plan is great to get your feet wet but most businesses will find that they will need to upgrade to either the Premium Plan ($13.49 per person per month or $131.88 per person per year) or the Business Plan ($30.49 per person per month or $299.88 per person per year) to get access to advanced features including

Team Building

custom fields, timeline, milestones, portfolios, workload tracking and approvals.

Or are you all about the ability to set up a quick Trello board? Let us know what you think.

Winner: Trello

Kevin Snow is the founder of Time On Target, a digital marketing agency that helps businesses effectively use technology to grow their business. Kevin has helped companies all across the United States shorten their sales cycle and increase their closing rates by utilizing sales automation to increase the time sales teams are in front of prospects selling. You can reach Kevin at kevin.snow@time-on-target.com

This one was really close, but Trello gets the “W” for this category based on the extensive list of features that are included in their Free plan.

And the Winner Is… You won’t be disappointed with either Trello or Asana, but if you are looking for a tool that can grow with you and be adapted to different teams or project types, our overall winner, Asana is the tool for you.

Trello comes out ahead for its quicker onboarding and ease of use, but it can’t compare to the overall number of features offered by Asana or it’s data security.

But that’s ok. Trello isn’t trying to be the most feature rich tool for business. It wants to be simple and easy to use so anyone can make a board; and it accomplishes that with flying colors.

Winner: Asana So, what do you think? Are you all in with Asana and its versatile features?

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“... if you are looking for a tool that can grow with you and be adapted to different teams or project types, our overall winner, Asana is the tool for you.”

Success Champions

Is Your Purpose Stronger than the Apocalypse?

By Donald R. Dodson

I

had been living the apocalypse for the last three days or so. It’s not what you think, though! Although a look outside might make you think so.

On a Friday afternoon I was working on a costume build for a Post-Apocalyptic-themed photo shoot set for that Sunday morning. It was a period filled with long hours, frantic creation under a time crunch, half-formed ideas brought to reality sometimes by sheer force of will and stubbornness, literally creating items out of stuff laying on the floor and in parts bins. It should have been grueling and stressful. But it wasn’t!

I loved pretty much every moment of it! It was like creative free-for-all. In part it was the genre, and in part I had fewer

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Team Building constraints as it was going to be whatever I could manage to cobble together by Sunday. (PostApocalyptic genre is like the Mad Max movies or the game Fallout, you are pretty much scavenging, so it leads to a pretty broad selection of creative options).

It was creative problem-solving for a purpose. “Practical Arts” if you will.

I got to repurpose items into new and not so new uses, fabricate new things and make them look old and beaten (like me, lol).

Then I had the added privilege of wearing my gear on the shoot and get lots of positive affirmation for my efforts the next day and in follow up posts from the photographers. For an artist it is immensely gratifying.

This isn’t about a new-found creative love affair with a genre. Nope. (Ok, maybe a little). Seriously though, what does this have to do with business? Well, one, the editor told me to run this article which is a bit longer than my original post which I wrote. And we do what the boss says.

On a Friday afternoon I was working on a costume build for a Post-Apocalypticthemed photo shoot set for that Sunday morning!

It should have been grueling and stressful. But it wasn’t!

Photo credits: Chad Harnish Christian Levens. Badass energy blade weapon build Will Fernekees.

In addition creating the leather gear from scratch, Dodson used lots of found materials to create his costume for the photo shoot uncluding licence plates, old straps, upcycled skating pads and military surplus, to “replicate” what one would wear in a post-apocalyptic world.

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Success Champions But more relevant to you, it has every damned thing to do about business. Read on….

This is that feeling deep in your gut that screams “This is my purpose!!” Because when your purpose, business and vision are aligned then you can be unstoppable

It’s about doing the right thing for you, your business and your overall vision.

In my case, it’s a reminder of my passion to create!

This is what I am damned good at.

THIS is what I was meant to do! And that, friends, is a damned good feeling.

This goes beyond mere positive mindset. This is that feeling deep in your gut that screams “This is my purpose!!” Because when your purpose, business and vision are aligned then you can be unstoppable!

Everything just makes more sense.

If you DON’T feel that way about your business, then you need to reassess what you are doing. Too often, people are in business for what seems like the right reasons, but realistically, in the long term they aren’t sustainable and likely to cause resentment. Maybe its too abstract, or its not “selfish” enough.

I say selfish because it’s gotta be something YOU want or love to do.

That “something” might be helping other businesses to be successful like Donnie does. It might be many other things but you gotta know, deep down that you love doing that.

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So, get out there and find your purpose.

Note, I created my costume from old clothes repurposed, dyed and distressed as well as the gear I am wearing. The license plate is from my first car. The other models who are all creatives in their own right made much of their own stuff, too.

Donald Dodson, owner of Dodson Designs, has been involved in artistic pursuits for as long as he can remember.

Starting at age 16 as a sign painter assistant, and after high school, he pursued a career in graphic arts, finding his home in graphic design and web design. After an eight-year stint as a teacher, Dodson, a combat veteran, longed to return to his passion for the arts and, at 49, started a full-time leather working business.

He crafts handmade, creative custom leather goods and accessories near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.