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Tag: Leadership

  • Become A Pro At Setting Attainable Business Goals With These Tips

    Become A Pro At Setting Attainable Business Goals With These Tips

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Business leaders are constantly setting lofty, impressive-looking goals for themselves and their companies. But what good are those goals if they’ve been thrown out the window within a couple of weeks? It’s time for business leaders to take charge and set intentions that can actually be achieved — not just high-minded ambitions that will fade away soon after.

    Instead of settling for vague directions, they should strive to make their objectives actionable and attainable with the right activities. Now more than ever, it’s essential for businesses to have tangible outcomes rather than empty promises.

    Related: The 5 Golden Rules of Goal-Setting

    Let your managers manage

    Sitting in the C-suite brings its perks, but it also removes you from many of the day-to-day operations your company executes. Your team leaders, however, are in the trenches. While executives set the direction, they should require their team leaders to set the milestones. These critical front-line players have an intimate understanding of how their team performs and what attainable milestones are.

    Without practical goals, employees risk simply shutting down or meandering aimlessly through flavor-of-the-month objectives. With realistic milestones, teams are fueled by purpose. Encouraging your team leaders to set these milestones ensures they are realistic and translates to buy-in.

    It bears repeating that your team managers require some direction. A clear, unbiased look at the last year can help set them on the right path. Executives should look at what was successful in that past year, determine why it worked, and figure out how to carry those same successes into the next year. Provide your front-line managers clear guidance on company goals and next steps, then step away. If you become a micromanager, you will squeeze your company to death.

    Related: 8 Reasons You Should Give Your Employees More Control

    Hold regular Azimuth Checks

    Once you’ve established realistic milestones for the year, it’s time to hold your team accountable for meeting them. One way leaders can do this is with quarterly reviews. And look, I get it. These meetings seem like a time suck. In practice, if it’s not ten minutes or less, I’m trying not to zone out on you. But at the end of the day, these quick check-ins can ensure that you and your team are on the same page and that everyone is clear on their expectations. Quarterly reviews vastly improve transparency as well as give leadership a chance to reinforce a united front.

    Regular meetings provide a great opportunity for communication down to the lowest level and create a more personalized feel than the typical canned newsletter. Most people send those newsletters straight to their trash folder anyway. Your employees want to know what’s going on in the organization and where they’re headed, and they want to hear it straight from the top.

    However, C-suite leaders can’t be the only ones presenting these ideas and goals. During these presentations, the entire leadership team needs to bring their A-game; the rest of the company needs to feel their excitement. We don’t have time to be company cheerleaders at every given second. More importantly, most people who work for your company barely see the CEO, so the front-line managers need to take that vision and share it with the rest of the team.

    Regular company-wide check-ins assure employees that their jobs are secure, that they’re working for a company with an actual vision and supporting goals, and that their leadership is motivated to succeed. On the ground level, I tell my team leaders that I want every single presenter to come to that room with three things they’re going to do this year to improve themselves as a manager, which helps them set personal goals that hopefully align with the company goals.

    Related: The Real Secret to Entrepreneurial Success (That’s Not What You Think)

    Implement accountability to track progress

    Organizations move by the minute, so you must monitor progress and hold your people accountable. Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) is a must, and it can be good practice to make progress open knowledge throughout the organization. My company displays everyone’s KPIs on centralized screens in our offices. This may cause many leaders to recoil in horror, but this transparency provides several key benefits.

    First, it helps your team look out for teammates. I don’t believe you should automatically eliminate your bottom 10% — you should motivate them instead. Displaying everyone’s progress on KPIs lets your subordinate leaders notice if someone is suddenly underperforming so they can spring into action and figure out the issue.

    One of our employees started missing KPIs, and our open tracking allowed her managers to notice. After some investigating, we found that her mother had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and she had tried to leave it at home to avoid burdening the rest of her team. You can’t leave things like that at home, though, and instead of jumping to conclusions and terminating her, we were able to help her get through this trying time by letting her work remotely so she could care for her mom. With this accommodation in place, her KPIs skyrocketed back in no time.

    The other benefit of KPI tracking is that it fosters healthy competition in your team. One of my companies had a banner year last year, and the top performers were able to double their salaries through bonuses. Peer pressure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By encouraging some competition among your team, you can help them reach milestones you wouldn’t have thought possible. Your team may very well be capable of reaching new heights, but if you’re not holding them accountable, they almost certainly won’t.

    Related: Fostering This Trait Is One of the Hardest Things for Leaders to Get Right

    Your team deserves success

    A key responsibility of a good CEO is to develop the next generation of CEOs. I want my employees to be CEOs someday, and I want them to be millionaires. But to do that, we need accountability measures. You will always have individuals trying to set the bar as low as possible; you have to hold them accountable.

    The most important thing to remember is that you need to be self-aware when setting these goals and milestones. As a CEO, I have a BHAG. But that doesn’t mean your employees have to have the same. Be fair, be realistic, but encourage them to push the envelope whenever possible. Treating your employees like future leaders can help them develop the maturity and sense to carry out your company’s vision. Your team deserves success, and you owe it to them. Crafting realistic and attainable goals is only one small way to do that.

    Shannon Scott

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  • 5 Internal People Every CEO Needs

    5 Internal People Every CEO Needs

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Every leader knows the phrase, “It’s lonely at the top.” It’s true that leaders often experience loneliness. Many times, they are the only one who knows everything about every person and situation in the company.

    When a leader has no one to share their personal troubles or triumphs with, it can drain their energy and lead them to make poor decisions. They have no one to expand their thinking, share their ideas with or from whom they can receive insights and inspiration.

    No leader should ever find themselves alone in their struggles and decisions. Leadership is about having a team of people to provide help and support through the difficult moments of the hour. Here are five internal people every CEO needs on their team:

    1. An excellent executive assistant

    One key person that a leader needs on their team is an effective executive assistant. Executive assistants help executives by supporting the CEO with critical tasks and responsibilities and acting as an extension for information for the organization’s leader. Trust and effective communication are essential attributes of this person on the team.

    Many business owners can be tempted to forgo hiring an executive assistant because they would prefer to put those resources in other parts of the business. However, when the leader produces, the organization produces. The executive assistant enables the leader to be more effective and productive.

    Related: 5 Tips For Building a Strong Leadership Team

    2. A capable and prepared second in command

    A powerful benefit of having a second in command is that they can take the reins when needed. By nature, most leaders have a deep drive to create a better company but are often frustrated by a lack of time, people, or resources to help make their plans a reality. A second in command or an operations person can help bring continuity to the operation and insight into many parts of the organization.

    The leader should find responsible people who will help them think intentionally about the next steps of the organization. When leaders have people they trust to make decisions and lead well, it enables the top leader to spend their time working on the business and not just in the business.

    3. A strategic numbers person

    Every CEO needs a person close to them who understands and can interpret numbers. Numbers don’t lie, and numbers tell a story. Many business owners and CEOs are not gifted with the ability to know and understand the truths or the story that the organization’s numbers tell. Every CEO should manage by a few key numbers in the organization.

    Many businesses struggle to make and keep a profit. A strategic numbers person will help the CEO to manage key metrics and help the leader to make wise decisions that will ultimately make the company more profitable.

    Related: Why Entrepreneurs Should Choose Insights Over Instincts

    4. A operational and process expert

    Every business will have processes. The growing business will have a clear understanding of the critical processes that will set them up for success. These critical processes could include processes around payroll, customer and team members onboarding and offboarding and systems around procurement.

    One way to grow the organization’s processes and systems is by onboarding an operational expert to your team. This person might perform as a general manager or as an operations manager. Their primary task is to examine how things are done and work to improve efficiencies throughout the organization.

    5. A high emotional intelligent people person

    In business, it is always about the people. People will propel your organization forward or consistently bring it down. Working with people is difficult because people often are not a finished product. People need to be trained, developed and invested in to reach their peak performance. Having someone in the circle of the CEO with an eye for bringing out the best in people will be a key to achieving the business principle of “improve your team to improve your organization.”

    The people person will have a high emotional equivalent and be able to see multiple sides of an issue. People in life deal with a multitude of issues. Often those issues can be brought into the workplace, and good people can be left to underperform without a person who can walk them through how to overcome their problems and improve themselves and their personal performance.

    As companies grow, they will often develop an HR department. As the CEO continues to expand their team, they need to consider having a people person close to them to help them discern who can be trusted, how to handle difficult people issues, and what people policies will be necessary to build a robust team culture.

    Your team can make you better

    The CEO Team is critical to the leader’s success and the organization they lead. Many business owners understand the value of their team as it relates to their business but can neglect to build a personal team around them to help them achieve breakthroughs, uncover blind spots, and wrestle with day-to-day decisions professionally and personally.

    Ken Gosnell

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  • Win Back Your Time With These 4 Alternatives to Boring Meetings

    Win Back Your Time With These 4 Alternatives to Boring Meetings

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    There is perhaps one thing all employees will collectively agree on: Meetings steal time, and a lot of it at once, too.

    The average number of meetings held every week has been steadily climbing, and that’s no surprise in today’s hustle culture work environment. A survey conducted by Dialpad of more than 2,800 working professionals found that around 83% of them spend between four and 12 hours per calendar week attending meetings.

    On average, employees end up spending 30% of their workweek attending meetings, and in some cases, these sessions are nothing but wasted hours that could’ve been used more productively.

    Meetings are not only taking a toll on employees but on the economy as well.

    The burden of meetings in the workplace is not only costing employees, and their employers valuable time, but it’s also costing the economy billions each year. One study predicts that unproductive meetings cost the economy around $37 billion annually.

    Amid the pandemic, teams quickly managed to navigate the virtual office with video conferencing platforms to help them effectively communicate and link with their fellow team members. Although this presented a temporary solution for the time, the aftermath has seen employees now complaining of video fatigue, unorganized meetings, limited digital features and a lack of work-life privacy for those employees working from home.

    It’s often hard to say whether meetings can be productive or not, yet in the same breath, depending on the need or requirements of the company, most meetings end up becoming catch-up sessions for employees, leading to valuable hours being lost and team members being held back.

    Instead of deep diving into the pros and cons of meetings, it’s time to take a look at some of the alternatives to meetings that entrepreneurs can embrace in the new year. Though the transition might be hard at first, it’s often better to stay ahead of the curve than to continuously implement outdated practices that no longer serve the good of the company and its employees.

    Related: You Might Reconsider That Team Meeting When You Find Out How Much it Really Costs

    1. Embrace digital collaboration tools

    With the rise of technology in the workplace, whether it’s onsite or remote, it’s time that entrepreneurs embrace collaboration tools that help to establish more transparency and team assessment.

    Using digital collaboration tools will not only help streamline communication and brainstorming sessions, but it can help keep employees accountable with team reports and provide entrepreneurs with more transparency in terms of the reflected reports. Additionally, it’s possible to set near and long-term goals, making it easier for employees to track their progress, and define their productivity.

    It’s better to have a shared objective among employees, to ensure that every person is on the same page and that there is clear guidance going forward. This not only helps employees make better use of their time but also helps them work more effectively in teams towards a company goal.

    Digital collaboration can help to break down teams as well, making it easier for like-minded employees to discuss work-related topics, spark creativity among each other and boost employee communication efforts among each other.

    2. Make better use of email

    Yes, that meeting you scheduled could’ve been an email, and it’s a shared opinion among many employees these days. Instead of having employees attend meetings that might have nothing to do with their work, try and send out a team email that contains the most important information you want to share.

    For decades we’ve been using emails to communicate with clients, businesses and other colleagues, and most of the time we’ve managed to get the right message across.

    It’s important to make use of emails more sparingly instead of filling up employee inboxes with hundreds of unnecessary and unimportant emails every day. Make sure to send out one or two emails every day, perhaps one in the morning and one at the end of the workday to make sure all employees are on board for the next day.

    Emails work just as well as regular meetings, especially for the smaller and less important information sessions that don’t necessarily require an entire team to attend.

    Related: Got Too Many Meetings? Here’s How to Cut Back

    3. Send a recorded video

    Another alternative could be to send a recorded video to employees. This is perhaps more suitable for situations where a walk-through of a new project or process needs to be discussed, or an explanation needs to be added to a specific point.

    Video messages can be short yet informative and, in some ways, they can be a bit more personal than simply sending out a daily email or weekly roundup newsletter.

    With video messages, it would require you to record on demand and cover as much information within the video snippet as possible. There is also the possibility that you might need to edit the video, which will require you to have access to video editing software.

    Although this alternative might not be the most conventional, it’s by far an easier and more time-efficient practice than having members join a conference call that requires a stable internet connection to maintain video quality throughout the call.

    4. Initiate message threads

    Often employees that work in an office or on-site will collaborate through a team management platform such as Slack, Nifty or Google Teams. These platforms allow for seamless communication between members and can easily be an avenue through which employees can share information and other important documents.

    As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to share a message or document via the platform that will help to initiate a thread that can get employees more involved. Keeping employees engaged means that everyone is clear about the message and those that have any queries can have their questions answered in real time.

    It’s perhaps best practice to initiate a thread once all employees are online or present and indicate when a thread has ended. This way employees will know when they are required to attend and whether relevant information will be shared among participants.

    Related: Could Banning Meetings Be the Key to a Happier Workforce?

    Final thoughts

    It’s not possible to completely cancel out the importance of meetings, whether in person or virtual. Today’s employees often regard meetings as pointless and a waste of time, and instead of having this attitude manifest itself within your company and business, ensure that you seek out some alternatives to unproductive meetings.

    The idea with meetings is to share valuable information between interested employees, but also ensure that all team members are on the same page regarding progress and any potential changes that might be ahead. Be sure to choose an alternative that suits the company and its employees, and better yet, make sure to implement a structure that encourages employee engagement and effectively communicates the message.

    Pierre Raymond

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  • 3 Authentic Ways Brands Can Celebrate Black History Month

    3 Authentic Ways Brands Can Celebrate Black History Month

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Did you know that in 2019, 46.8 million people in the United States identified their race as Black, alone, or as part of a multiracial or ethnic background? While this is only about 14% of the United States population, their influence will continue to grow as their buying power does — which is projected to reach $1.8T by 2024. This sharp increase in buying power can be attributed to the forecasts for the Black population growth. Between 2020 and 2060, the Black population is expected to increase by 22%. What does this mean for marketers? There is projected to be a substantial shift towards multicultural marketing over the next few years instead of a more traditional, generic approach.

    We are already seeing this shift play out in advertising, in the first half of 2022 alone, more than 6,000 advertisers spent over $1.2 billion trying to connect with Black and African American consumers across traditional media, including television, magazines and radio. This shift towards a multicultural approach allows for more authenticity in marketing and provides greater exposure for historically marginalized groups. Black consumers (like many other minority consumers) are looking for authenticity, representation and most importantly — action. They want brands to be their voice and partner in fighting injustice. This is critical when considering how to implement a marketing strategy that attracts instead of alienates the Black consumer.

    Are you looking to ramp up your multicultural marketing efforts, specifically your Black marketing efforts? Here are three ways your marketing department can authentically celebrate Black History Month and Black culture year-round:

    Related: 6 Ways to Celebrate Black History Month Beyond February

    1. Amplify Black creators, leaders and changemakers

    Organizations traditionally have a much larger reach than individuals. Therefore, it is recommended to leverage those social media channels to shine a light on those with a limited social media reach. By spotlighting changemakers, activists and other key players in the Black community, your organization will transition from being a company that celebrates Black History Month and to being seen as an ally and partner in the Black community. An excellent example of an organization that did just this is Target. The organization launched an initiative called “Black Beyond Measure,” where it created a YouTube series that highlights leaders within the Black community. There is also a section of its website dedicated to buying Black, thus leveraging its platform and its traffic to spotlight those with a limited reach.

    2. Show the face behind the logo

    It’s imperative to show the people who make your organization and company culture what it is. Those individuals include social media fans, customers and employees. All of them have ultimately played a role in the success of your organization and deserve to be spotlighted. Black consumers want to engage with diverse content and buy from brands featuring Black talent. In fact, 69% of Black viewers are more likely to watch content in which they’re represented, and 55% are more likely to buy from brands that advertise in representative content.

    A great example of a company showing the face behind the logo is GymShark’s “To the Heroes” campaign, which celebrated three community heroes for the barriers they broke and their overall impact on the community. In addition, the campaign’s creative was made by an entirely Black team, from the camera crew to the makeup artists and health and safety officers.

    Related: How Can You Truly Make a Difference for Black History Month?

    3. Leverage an existing campaign

    If your company has an ongoing campaign, it is recommended to leverage it by including it in your overall Black History Month campaign. This will help your brand maintain authenticity while naturally incorporating Black History Month into your content mix. An example is Adobe, which leveraged its weekly social series, “Women Create Wednesday,” to feature four Black creators who inspired change in their community. This was a seamless way to incorporate Black History Month into their overall marketing strategy.

    Another thing to remember when creating a Black marketing campaign is that the Black community is extremely brand loyal, with 66% of Black consumers more likely to return to a brand with advertising that authentically reflects their race/ethnicity. This is critical because when the Black community sees your brand consistently celebrating their culture, including them in DEI marketing campaigns and overall traditional campaigns, getting involved in the community and exhibiting cultural empathy, your company will gain their trust, and eventually, their loyalty.

    Black History Month is here and should be treated as a launchpad to a 365-day multicultural marketing approach. Brands must remember to be vocal not only during the shortest month out of the year but also year-round. This will, in turn, prevent your marketing tactics from appearing performative and will position your organization as an ally and advocate. By truly understanding the communities’ pain points, serving as a voice for the voiceless and shining a spotlight on those leading change within the community, you will develop a lifelong customer and a partner in the success of your organization.

    Related: Don’t Phone It In for Black History Month: 5 Ways to Show You’ll Be Dialed In All Year

    Christine Alexis

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  • The Key Strategy to Building a Winning Team

    The Key Strategy to Building a Winning Team

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Business leaders young and old face the same problem — how to form a solid team that will work hard to promote the business’s success. Whether it’s a new business or an established one, the people you recruit will be crucial to your survival. If you select them strategically and mindfully, in theory, your business should be stronger and more prosperous. But what does that mean, exactly? In my case, it means surrounding myself with people who have different skills than I do — a strategy I highly recommend in any type of business.

    There’s no place for ego in business

    From a young age (and without even knowing it), I started forming a habit of surrounding myself with people who have different skills. In high school, I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts from 6:00 a.m. to noon on the weekends. It was a hectic shift, but I loved it because it was fast-paced and there were a lot of hands on deck. I usually worked the window with one other person, and I always chose a partner who had a strength I didn’t. At this particular Dunkin’ Donuts, there was no intercom before you got to the window, so all orders were taken at the window. I was really good at remembering orders and making them quickly, so I always partnered with someone who was good at handling money, because I wasn’t as quick at making change as some of my coworkers were.

    Fast-forward to when I was in college. We had a lot of team projects, and I would take a similar approach to choose my group. I would partner with people who were better writers and not as good at presenting, strategizing, organizing or big thinking.

    I carried this habit over into my career, and it is what makes my relationship with my business partner so solid. He and I have the same ethics, values and philosophies, but our strengths are very different. He is more analytical and methodical. I am more creative and strategic. He digs into the finer details, while I tend to focus on the big picture. We rely on each other and are open about our strengths and weaknesses. Neither of us is shy about what we need. We leave our egos out of it, and that can be a problem for so many leaders, who have a hard time admitting they are weak in certain areas. So, instead of asking for help, they “fake it ’til they make it.” I have never been the type of person to do that because I recognized early on that pretending to be good at everything will only lead to disaster.

    Related: 6 Steps for Hiring the Right People to Build Effective Teams

    You never want to be the smartest person in the room

    It might be cliché, but it is sound advice. Seeking out people who know more than you enriches your own experience. When my partner and I formed our marketing agency, we made it a point to hire people with specific strengths, surrounding ourselves with people who are smarter than we are. Some leaders are intimidated by people who might be more skilled or knowledgeable than they are, and their egos just won’t allow them to see the benefit of having friends and colleagues who can contribute more than they can. We actually seek out these people, and in doing so, we are open about our goals and why we want to add them to our team.

    I specifically hire people to poke holes in my strategies. I need people who have different skill sets to make me and the agency better. This benefits our clients and ultimately our business because we never have to fake anything.

    Taking advantage of others’ knowledge and skill is not a weakness — it’s a strength. Your clients will see better results and be more satisfied with the products and services you provide. Your business will build a reputation of being reliable and trustworthy, which can be a rarity in today’s environment. Your team will be more cohesive and willing to work together because each member knows where they fit in and why they are valuable. Overall, having a team of people with diverse skills and knowledge is a winning strategy for everyone.

    Related: Want to Build a Great Team? Never Be the Smartest Person in the Room

    Jackie Cullen

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  • 5 Reasons You’re Stuck In the Weeds, Instead of Spending Your Time Strategically

    5 Reasons You’re Stuck In the Weeds, Instead of Spending Your Time Strategically

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    If you’re like most leaders, you have what amounts to an infinite workload. There are always more messages to process, more people to contact and more projects to manage.

    You’ve probably responded by working longer and harder, until there are no more hours in the day and you’re wearing yourself ragged.

    But there’s another way. I’ve spoken with over 100 CEOs – my own clients and guests on my podcast. They’ve mastered the art of working on what matters.

    Here are five common mistakes that keep good leaders stuck in the weeds, and how you can get started on a more strategic path.

    1. You’re using time, not investing it

    The best leaders realize that “you can’t change gear with your foot on the accelerator.”

    Instead of using their time (solving this month’s issues), they invest their time to build relationships and capabilities that make future progress far simpler and easier.

    Getting started: Pick a recurring low-value task and invest time to simplify, systematize or delegate it. Use the time you’ve just saved to rinse and repeat.

    2. You’re trying to free yourself up from operations

    Most people start by trying to free themselves up from all the lower-level tasks around them. But it’s the wrong approach. Whenever we free up a few minutes, we just find more things to do.

    Instead, take a lesson from one of my clients who achieved “instant delegation mastery”. His wife admitted to hospital, seriously ill. Because it was clear that his real priority was to be with her, he abandoned his excuses and half-hearted delegation tactics and freed himself up overnight to be with his wife.

    So, don’t try to free yourself up “from” operations. Instead, free yourself up “for” truly important activities.

    Getting started: Set a three-minute timer and brainstorm important questions you want to answer. Pick just one and turn it into a project that you are determined to make time for.

    3. You think you have a productivity problem

    Most people believe that what they really need is another productivity tip. But as I explain in detail in my book, Making Time For Strategy: How to Be Less Busy and More Successful, there are four barriers that need to be addressed if you want to become more strategic.

    Tactics is just one of them.

    For example, a barrier that most people overlook is Influence. You may know exactly what it would take to free yourself up, but you can’t persuade your boss to let you skip the pointless team call, you’re afraid to tell your colleague you need to leave their project team, and you’re unsure how to stop your team from dragging you into low-level problem solving.

    Getting started: What’s one conversation that you need to have to extract yourself from a big drain on your time? Schedule it now.

    4. You feel guilty when you’re not efficient

    It’s easy to feel unproductive and irresponsible when we take time out from immediate operational concerns.

    As one new CEO said, “I know I need to work on strategy, but when I close my office door to strategise I feel horribly guilty that I’m not being there for my team.”

    However, we have a choice — be efficient, or be creative.

    Creativity isn’t efficient: It involves experimentation, struggle, and a sense of wasting time. But creativity is where breakthroughs occur. And the chances are that you’re over-rotated in the direction of efficiency.

    Getting started: Start small. Block out a tiny period of time, decide on a strategic topic you want to work on, and take it from there.

    5. You’re not solving for your team

    You might already have created space in your own calendar for strategic work. But it’s difficult to elevate your focus if the rest of your team is drowning in busywork.

    It’ll be hard for your team to take on activities that you delegate. And it’ll be even harder for them to find time to implement any new ideas you generate.

    Getting started: Engage your team in conversation to raise awareness of these issues. Remember, your team members are probably making all of these mistakes too!

    The big warning from speaking and working with those 100 CEOs is that it’s dangerous but all-too-easy to work on operational issues, leading to tunnel vision and incremental progress. So, ask yourself: What’s one thing you can do today to make more time for strategy and pursue your breakthrough goals?

    Richard Medcalf

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  • 5 Key Benefits of Posting Reels on Instagram

    5 Key Benefits of Posting Reels on Instagram

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    As social media platforms continue to evolve and adapt to the changing needs of users, Instagram has introduced a feature called Reels. This feature, which allows users to create 15-second video clips set to music, has quickly gained popularity since its introduction in August 2020.

    The ability to edit videos in a new, innovative and extremely user-friendly way has gifted millions of Instagram users a new skill and creative outlet for producing content in ways they were unable to before. Though Instagram was not the first platform to introduce these fast-paced videos, its design has the unique ability to reward a majority of uploads with hundreds to thousands of views — it keeps users hooked! It is 2023, and Instagram Reels have become a significant part of the platform and offer several benefits for users.

    Related: 7 Instagram Reels Ideas to Better Connect With Your Audience

    1. Wider audience

    One of the most significant benefits of Instagram Reels is the ability to reach a wider audience. When a user creates a Reel, it appears in a dedicated section where users can discover and engage with new content. This means that even if a user has a small following, their Reels have the potential to be seen by a much larger audience. This can be especially useful for businesses and influencers looking to expand their reach on the platform.

    Related: Why Instagram Is Every Entrepreneur’s Most Powerful Tool

    2. Drive traffic

    In addition to providing a creative outlet, Instagram Reels can also be a great way to drive traffic to a user’s profile. When someone discovers a Reel they enjoy, they may be more likely to check out the rest of the user’s content. This can lead to an increase in followers and engagement on the user’s profile.

    3. Promote products

    Instagram Reels are also an excellent tool for businesses looking to promote their products or services. Since Reels are set to music, businesses can create catchy and memorable content that is easy for users to share. This can be especially effective for products or services that are visually appealing, as Reels allow businesses to showcase their products engagingly and interactively.

    4. Brand awareness

    Reels are great for content creators to show off their creativity and talents; and for viewers seeking fast entertainment, but they can be handy for businesses that want to increase their reach and brand awareness. There have already been countless brands that have become mainstream solely by promoting their business through platforms like Reels and Tiktok. With an audience this wide, it’s crucial for all businesses to have some sort of presence on these apps because they can lead to an easy reach to new audiences, and best of all, it’s free!

    Related: 6 Innovative Ways to Increase Brand Awareness

    5. Hashtags

    Instagram creates large communities with similar interests by using hashtags. Hashtags are a way to organize specific videos into niche categories that will be appreciated by an audience that actively searches for them.

    For instance, if you are a pastry chef, you might want to use #baking to have a higher chance for your video to be shown to people who already enjoy baking and pastries. This will lead to more likes, shares and views on your video. You are not limited to a certain number of hashtags, so your video could include hashtags: #cakes, #cooking, #bakery, #pastry. You can even get very specific, like #pastryphotography to target a particular audience.

    Related: #WhyweuseHashtag

    How can you use Reels to your advantage and promote your profile or business?

    First, you must understand how trends work and why specific videos get more views than others. While it’s true that Instagram Reels hand out views as if the world was about to end, if your video doesn’t align with the algorithm, it will never see the success you’re hoping for.

    Try using reels as a viewer; you might notice that most videos are not entirely original. You will probably realize that many clips have the same content and audio with only slight variations. This is because the algorithm encourages creators to copy and build off of one another’s content; this can be demonstrated with the “Duet” feature on TikTok, where a user copies another clip’s audio and context and creates a similar video in response or to parody to the first.

    So, to align with the algorithm, try adding trending music with a related design and context set-up but with your own content and creative touch.

    Try Instagram Reels for yourself, using these new insights about the platform! These quick and addicting videos have an audience as big as the sea. They bring together communities with matching interests and could grant you recognition and free business impressions. Don’t get frustrated if your videos don’t go viral starting out. After all, Instagram reels are meant to be fun, so just put out what you think is worth watching and let the algorithm find an audience for you!

    Sean Boyle

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  • 2 Key Steps to Improve Both Yourself and Your Business

    2 Key Steps to Improve Both Yourself and Your Business

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Understanding yourself and your demons is what separates average entrepreneurs from great ones. The ability of a business owner to look inward and not only understand their abilities but also focus on ways they can improve those abilities and curtail their weaknesses is a key factor to success, no matter what industry they’re in. As an entrepreneur, you can approach personal development in several ways. Here are two that I focus on to make myself a better husband and leader in business:

    Accept your shortcomings

    The first step in accepting your shortcomings is to acknowledge that you have them. It can be one of the most difficult parts of the process, but it’s the foundation for all forms of personal growth. Accepting your shortcomings and weaknesses takes a high level of self-awareness, which is critical for entrepreneurs.

    You need to ask yourself: Am I living up to all of the potential that I have within me? If the answer is no, it’s your responsibility to reflect on the causes of your shortcomings and why you’re not maximizing the potential that you know you have. Are your shortcomings due to a lack of discipline? Are they the result of a negative habit? A lack of self-esteem? Fear of failure?

    Once you identify the root causes, develop a plan to address your shortcomings. Don’t be afraid to push yourself. This could involve setting goals, seeking training or education, and committing yourself to consistent habits that you know will lead you to success. It’s big, it’s scary, and it’s challenging, but it’s going to force you to grow, and in turn, your business will as well.

    Overcoming shortcomings will serve as milestones on the road to reaching a better version of yourself. You won’t know what you’re capable of unless you’ve gone up against a giant obstacle and won. When you face your demons and win, you send a clear message to yourself: I am a badass, and I can overcome obstacles that are in the way of reaching my goal.

    When you’re feeling down, you have reference points to anchor your self-worth to. You’ve overcome struggles in the past, so you know you can overcome the current one. You find validation within yourself. You stop seeking external validation because you’ve already proven to yourself that you’ve got what it takes. When you become good enough for yourself, you stop caring what other people think.

    I’ve been up against these giants for nearly my entire life, from being addicted to heroin at age 18 to running 37 miles on my 37th birthday. Each time I’ve faced one of these big, hairy audacious goals and won, I’ve been more confident and capable as a businessman, leader, friend, husband and father.

    As much as you might feel that your shortcomings hold you back, once you overcome them, they differentiate you as an entrepreneur. Accepting your shortcomings, adjusting and moving forward is the exact same process you will face as an entrepreneur in growing your business to the best possible version it can be.

    The more you practice this in your business, the more it provides you with more tools in your belt for the next challenge you face as an entrepreneur. If you have a pulse, it means that you’re going to face struggles in this life. The same goes for a business. There will always be new obstacles to face and new challenges to overcome, but accepting the shortcomings of yourself and your business and moving forward is what will lead you to be a formidable competitor in any industry.

    Refine yourself constantly and consistently

    Your job in personal development is never over. Frequently, people become content with where they’re at when they’re comfortable, and they stop pushing themselves to grow. When they end up in this position, it means they’re no longer showing up for themselves and who they care for. There are endless ways you can continue to work on yourself, but here are a few key suggestions:

    Manage your time effectively. Learning effective time management in your personal life is going to be one of the greatest skills you will learn as an entrepreneur. Time management forces you to analyze critical tasks and establish clear priorities. Identify your most important tasks, and focus on those first. Get to the root of why you’re procrastinating. Identify what that habit is all about.

    Create a schedule, avoid distractions, and know when to delegate tasks when other people can take on the workload, letting you focus on the most critical tasks in your life. All other elements of personal development depend on managing your time and developing habits of success.

    Take care of yourself mentally and physically. The road to being a successful business owner is going to be full of struggle. It’s tough, and it’s taxing. It’s also what weeds out those who can endure from the people who can’t. If you are going to perform your best as an entrepreneur — as a leader within your business — you need to make sure you’re paying your necessary dues by taking care of yourself mentally and physically. Set aside time in your schedule to make sure you’re showing up for yourself, moving your body and recharging in the ways you find rewarding.

    Commit to learning 24/7. Constantly seek to expand your knowledge. Read a book. Listen to a podcast. Look for mentors and educational resources. There are endless online resources and courses that can teach you valuable skills and knowledge, but it’s up to you to make sure you’re carving time out of your day to commit to learning. If you’re starting entrepreneurship and you don’t have the capital to spend on courses, there are tons of free resources on YouTube and podcasts with valuable information.

    This will help you learn from others who’ve both succeeded and failed, not only in entrepreneurship but in every other aspect of life that is relevant to you. Committing to expanding your knowledge also helps you stay informed on the latest developments in your field, which helps you stay ahead of the competition. If you want to come equipped with the right tools and skills as an entrepreneur, you have to make learning a priority.

    Personal development is about staying uncomfortable, becoming comfortable with what’s unfamiliar, and honoring yourself. Ask yourself every day: What am I doing to create a new ceiling for myself and raise the floor of what I once was? Make intentional decisions to continually raise the ceiling of what’s possible for you. You’ll learn to adapt to change, and your business will grow with you. If you focus on facing the demons that currently control your habits and overcome them, it’s inevitable that you’ll witness endless growth within yourself and your business.

    Trevor Cowley

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  • How One Entrepreneur Turned $40 Into $4 Million in Revenue

    How One Entrepreneur Turned $40 Into $4 Million in Revenue

    • Tori Dunlap started her financial-advice blog with $40 and grew it to $4 million in revenue last year.
    • Today she teaches customers how to invest, save money, and build startups of their own.
    • She shares the most important investments for any business owner and what founders should avoid.

    This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

    Tori Dunlap started her business as side hustle in 2016 with just $40. Last year, her business booked $4 million in revenue.

    Dunlap has scaled the multimedia platform Her First $100K to also include a podcast, book, and more than 2 million social-media followers. Through her financial-advice platform, Dunlap shares her guidance for investing, saving money, and building a business.

    In a conversation with Insider, Dunlap shared the most important business investments she’s made and what founders should avoid. This is an as-told-to story based on an interview with Dunlap. It has been edited for length and clarity.

    Run a lean team, until you don’t have to

    I started the business with very little money, just $20 for the website and $20 for the domain. That low startup cost was crucial for the business, especially because it was a side hustle at first.

    Sometimes new founders try to take on too many expenses at once, which can drain your finances. Whether it’s purchasing brand-new equipment to launch or investing in too many ads before the business concept is proven, founders should keep it as lean as possible until their business is earning money.

    Most of my investments were in the form of time and energy for the first few years.

    People are the most important investment

    While I started the business on my own, outsourcing tasks and bringing people onto the team was the best investment I ever made. In fact, the moment I could outsource, I did: I hired my first freelancer when the blog was still a side hustle.

    They only worked around five hours a week and I couldn’t pay them much because the business wasn’t making a ton of money. But if I wanted it to grow beyond a side gig, I knew I needed the help.

    The first tasks I outsourced were email marketing, graphic design, Instagram posting, and calendar management. I realized that anything I didn’t have to physically be there for could be outsourced to save time and energy.

    I get a lot of messages from other entrepreneurs asking how I was able to trust others to help me build my business. There are great people out there with many different skills and strengths, so I relinquished control because I realized I couldn’t do everything alone.

    If you can afford to hire somebody and you don’t, you’re actively holding your business back.

    Investing in trends can be a waste of money

    Dunlap invested in her podcast after her audience showed interest. Courtesy of Dunlap

    Founders should remember their core business goals when making any financial decisions or investments. Decide your own priorities and determine your finances that way.

    I often see founders taking on too many expensive new ventures. For instance, it’s very tempting to go all in on creative projects, like a podcast or a YouTube show. But make sure that whatever you’re investing in will actually help you achieve those core goals.

    It can be a waste of money if you’re paying for something just because other business owners do.

    So many people want to be entrepreneurs because they look up to other founders online. Social media can make it seem like you need to buy the latest equipment, tools, or products or invest in new branding or expensive marketing tactics. But founders should take a look at their books and determine if any money is being spent just to keep up with a trend or someone else’s business model.

    Instead, think about the long-term effects of how that new venture or product will make you money in return.

    Alexandra York

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  • Tech CEOs Are to Blame for Mass Layoffs: Analysis

    Tech CEOs Are to Blame for Mass Layoffs: Analysis

    This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

    In an attempt to explain why the company had laid off 12,000 employees, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, said executives decided to slash jobs after a “rigorous review” of Google’s internal structures and organization. Pichai suggested that the company “hired for a different economic reality” than the one it faced and that the layoffs were necessary to set Google up for the future.

    But while Pichai, who made $280 million in compensation in 2019, said he took “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” he failed to elucidate those choices. He didn’t mention that during his time at the helm Google has been hit with billions of dollars’ worth of antitrust fines, been left in the dust by OpenAI’s ChatGPT despite “pivoting the company to be AI-first,” and seen its core search product get steadily worse. And though Pichai later said at a company town hall that “all roles above the senior-vice-president level will witness a very significant reduction in their annual bonus,” including his own, the vast majority of the pain from his missteps seemed to fall squarely on the shoulders of the 12,000 people who were let go. The employees who were laid off — via email — included several high-performing staff members and longtime employees, such as an engineer who’d been at the company for 20 years and who described the sudden layoff as a “slap in the face.”

    This sort of responsibility dodging is running rampant around Silicon Valley. CEOs at companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Meta set their companies on an unsustainable course, investing in boneheaded new ventures and assuming the pandemic-driven tech boom would be a new normal. Now that those expectations have been shattered, rank-and-file tech workers are bearing the brunt of these bad decisions, while the executives most responsible for the messes face little to no meaningful consequences.

    Any executive who participates in decision-making that leads to hundreds or thousands of people losing their jobs should be the one leading them out the door. Pichai and other tech CEOs shouldn’t be making $280 million a year or even $1 million a year — they should be fired for poorly managing some of the largest companies in the world.

    CEOs made mistakes, workers bear the brunt

    In their layoff announcements, pretty much every tech company placed the blame for the cuts on the economy. At Amazon, the cuts were supposedly necessary because of “supply chain difficulties, inflation, and productivity overhang” and economic uncertainty. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff cited the “economic downturn we’re now facing” as the reason for the company’s 10% headcount reduction, and Workday laid off 3% of its workforce based on a “global economic environment that is challenging for companies of all sizes.” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman pinned the blame for his company’s decision to lay off 2,000 employees on the “challenging macro-economic environment.”

    But in many instances, the real source of concern at these companies comes down to boneheaded decisions made by CEOs — whether it’s Mark Zuckerberg at the company formerly known as Facebook, who authorized a hiring binge over the pandemic and invested billions of dollars into his metaverse folly before having to cut 11,000 jobs, or Tobi Lütke at Shopify, who laid off 1,000 people based on a bet on the future of e-commerce that “didn’t pay off.”

    While many of these companies have made serious strategic blunders, layoffs won’t solve those problems — cutting workers won’t suddenly make the companies more productive or improve their products. And many of these tech behemoths are still eye-watering ly profitable, making the economic case for layoffs questionable. Microsoft’s profits declined by 12% in the last quarter of 2022 from the same quarter in 2021, but it still pulled in a whopping $16.4 billion. Amazon pulled down a profit of $2.8 billion in the most recent quarter, below the online-shopping highs of the pandemic but in line with its historical average. But the company still turned around and laid off 18,000 employees.

    It seems that when profits or even projected future profits slipped a bit, something had to give — and it certainly wasn’t going to fall on the CEOs. When one company chose to lay off thousands of people, it became optically justifiable for other companies to follow suit — a natural way for the CEO to seem “disciplined” or “responsible” despite the brutal cost to employees.

    While they may protect the CEO’s reputation or placate investors, layoffs are immensely damaging for workers, even well-paid tech employees. People who are laid off face long-term career damage and harm to their mental and physical health. Not to mention that layoffs are of dubious value to the company; studies have found that layoffs are a net negative for productivity, that they suppress innovation, and that they can lead to a long-term decline in profits. Studies have also suggested that layoffs make life harder for the employees who weren’t let go, especially since many of these companies cut back on benefits and other services that could help remaining workers. Given the human and business downsides of layoffs, a CEO’s top priority should be to avoid them at all costs.

    Some companies have managed to do just that. Apple has managed to cut costs without layoffs in part by reducing Tim Cook’s salary by 40%, to $49 million. While one can’t necessarily applaud a company for paying a CEO “just” $50 million, there’s something to be said for the chief executive willing to slash their own pay before resorting to letting employees go. Similarly, the chipmaker Intel’s CEO took a 25% pay cut and reduced the salaries of his executive team by 15% to avoid broad layoffs.

    For the companies that turned to job cuts, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of their CEOs. As the sole person in charge, they’re responsible for misjudging the macroeconomy, making terrible investments, and then following along with the industry in a shortsighted attempt to please Wall Street. And yet, despite a smattering of pay reductions, none of them have faced real consequences. By focusing on “broader economic uncertainty” rather than admitting the cutbacks are because of executive mismanagement, CEOs can save their reputation while sidestepping the blame.

    With great power comes no responsibility

    The blame-shifting of these tech companies and their CEOs is not unprecedented, or even that uncommon. Corporate America has pledged fealty to the almighty executive, applying a totally different evaluation matrix to CEOs than to other employees. Because of this noxious adulation for the most powerful person in the company, companies will contort themselves to try to save money in any way other than cutting the pay of or firing their most responsible and most expensive employee: the chief executive officer. CEO pay skyrocketed by 1,460% from 1978 to 2021, and the ratio of average-worker pay to CEO pay ballooned from 20-to-1 in 1965 to 399-to-1 in 2021. And it’s not as if this staggering rise in pay has made CEOs any better at their jobs. Top executives abandon companies when they anticipate a recession and always treat workers as disposable, even during a hot economy. Analyses have argued that these staggering pay packages are far from justified.

    When high-ranking executives make a serious blunder, they almost always get the benefit of the doubt. The modern executive lacks any actual responsibility or oversight, only occasionally reporting to typically pliant boards. They’re largely insulated from the consequences of their actions, even if they’re performing poorly. If any other kind of worker made a series of decisions that led to a double-digit drop in profitability, they’d be threatened with termination or terminated. Instead, tech CEOs have passed the pain off to people who in many cases were performing well in their roles. And while many employees in tech and elsewhere have received generous severance packages, they pale in comparison to the payouts that failed executives have gotten on their way out the door. Take, for example, the car-rental company Hertz, which let go of 10,000 people in 2020 as it stumbled into bankruptcy, all while paying its executives $16 million in bonuses.

    If CEOs are expected — and paid — to be some visionary demigod at the top of an organization, they should be expected to bear that weight and pay a commiserate price when they mess up. At some point, the chief executive has to be held as accountable as the people they employ. There is no reason that the best-treated and highest-paid member of an organization should experience less scrutiny, unless the company does not truly care about operating efficiently.

    If companies are wary of firing top executives, then fine, refashion the job of the modern CEO. Instead of trying to be swashbuckling saviors with gobsmacking salaries allowed to operate the company with relative impunity, these top executives should focus on actual management and execution to sustainably grow their companies. Instead of focusing on short-term investor relations and public accolades, CEOs should put in the time to manage their companies and help improve the products they create.

    The fundamental problem with corporate America is that it no longer makes any sense. The CEO, the most powerful and influential person at the company, is now a figurehead who receives all the benefits of a company’s success without being endangered by any of its failures.

    About Discourse Stories

    Through our Discourse journalism, Insider seeks to explore and illuminate the day’s most fascinating issues and ideas. Our writers provide thought-provoking perspectives, informed by analysis, reporting, and expertise. Read more Discourse stories here.

    Ed Zitron

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  • 3 Expert-Backed Strategies for Facing Fear

    3 Expert-Backed Strategies for Facing Fear

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Comedian Jim Carrey might not seem like an expert in facing fears as an entrepreneur, especially since many of us associate his corporate experience with losing a fight to a ballpoint pen in the 1997 film Liar, Liar. But in 2014, he delivered a commencement speech to the graduates of Iowa’s Maharishi International University, and he had some surprisingly sage words.

    “So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality,” he said. “What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect.” But fear, he says, isn’t so much about practicality as it is about focusing on worst-case scenarios. He goes on:

    “My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

    Being an entrepreneur is inherently risky. But the usual risks have magnified in recent years given the uncertainty of the economy in the wake of Covid, the new challenges of managing remote or hybrid teams, and even unrest and conflict abroad. Here’s how to keep moving forward, even in these trying times.

    Related: These Are the Thinking Habits Most Likely to Destroy Your Life, According to a Therapist

    No action is still action

    It might seem as though staying still will somehow protect you, like a deer that freezes when it hears human footsteps. But as Harvard Business Review‘s Sabina Nawaz points out, “not making a choice is, in itself, a choice.”

    Rather than trying to shrink from decision-making, Nawaz suggests starting small. “Instead of ignoring the requests to make a decision, assign resources or launch a project, identify one next step to get moving. For example, you can poll half a dozen customers about how they use your product to further inform the path forward,” she writes.

    Changes, whether they’re within your business or the economy as a whole, will happen with or without your consent. Trust yourself to make decisions with confidence, and do the best with the resources you have. Remind yourself of all the obstacles you’ve overcome and the challenges you’ve confronted head-on to get to where you are. What tools did you use in those moments? What skills did you develop as a result? Keep those times in mind, and remember that you’re more resilient than you think.

    Related: 5 Fears All Entrepreneurs Face (and How to Conquer Them)

    Silence the noise

    In 2020, I fell into a trap that consumed many of us: Doomscrolling. The constant assault of bad news and scary statistics took its toll on my mental health, and I found my sleep and appetite were out of whack.

    When we’re afraid of something, it’s often easier to give in to distractions or worse, validate those fears with information we find online. But spiraling doesn’t fix whatever it is we’re afraid of; in fact, it makes it worse.

    Instead of hunting for evidence to support your fears, turn down the noise and focus on your actual concerns. Nawaz suggests naming the “perceived nemesis you’re avoiding,” and then creating a spreadsheet with three columns: Worst-case scenarios, the current situation and the ideal outcome. Note down what would need to happen for each possibility to occur. Mapping out the route to these outcomes may help you discover that the worst-case scenario really isn’t all that bad, or it can be avoided with a shift in direction.

    At the same time, it’s also helpful to limit the amount of negativity you’re subjecting yourself to. After I started restricting my news consumption to just 15 or 20 minutes daily, I found myself feeling less anxious and more able to run my company with a clear mind.

    Related: Why Many Entrepreneurs Fear Success — and How They Can Overcome It

    Get in touch with your emotions

    Being an entrepreneur requires a high degree of emotional intelligence — and part of that involves understanding how your feelings are influencing your behavior. For instance, if everything you do suddenly seems terrible, take a step back. Is it actually terrible? Is everything really going to fail? Or is this less about reality and more about your mindset?

    The good news is that emotional self-awareness can be learned. One method I’ve found helpful is practicing mindfulness. When I feel anxiety clouding my judgment, I like to use a method called RAIN, which meditation teacher Tara Brach talks about in her book Radical Compassion:

    • Recognize the fear when it comes up. Is it related to work, or home?
    • Allow it to coexist within you. Sit with the fear, rather than trying to fix, control or judge it.
    • Investigate it. Focus on your body, and try to pinpoint the origin of the fear.
    • Nurture the feeling. “You might just put your hand on your heart and offer a kind or soothing message to yourself,” Back advises. “You can say to the fear, ‘Thank you for trying to protect me; it’s okay.’”

    The urge to be risk-averse makes sense. As Brach points out, fear is your mind’s way of trying to protect you. But for most of us in the modern age, fear is more existential than it was when our brains evolved. In some cases, fear is a good thing: It keeps us on our toes; it can motivate us to do our best work. The key is learning to use it to your advantage, rather than paralyze you.

    Related: 7 Deadly Misconceptions About Entrepreneurship and Starting a Business

    Aytekin Tank

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  • If You Want to Give a Great Speech, Avoid These 5 Mistakes

    If You Want to Give a Great Speech, Avoid These 5 Mistakes

    Before an important speech, we must always ask ourselves what success looks like at the end of our talk. Is it simply presenting facts and not forgetting anything we planned to say or leaving people transformed forever by our words?

    Farrah Smith

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  • Are You a Winner? How to Truly Define Winning in Your Business

    Are You a Winner? How to Truly Define Winning in Your Business

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Businesses gauge their performance typically with dozens of goals and metrics. But you can’t do everything at once. The challenge is to get people focused on the one thing that’s most important right now. If it moved in the right direction, it would eliminate a weakness (or capitalize on an opportunity) and improve financial outcomes. You improve that, and you win.

    However, not every company clearly defines winning. A catalog of goals can pull the organization in multiple directions and stretch finite resources. Numerous goals can inherently be at odds, working against each other and for conflicting purposes. For example, a cost reduction goal might undermine an innovation goal requiring a significant investment.

    Andrea Olson

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  • New Study Reveals Why Not Investing in the Work-From-Home Office of Hybrid Employees Has Dire Consequences

    New Study Reveals Why Not Investing in the Work-From-Home Office of Hybrid Employees Has Dire Consequences

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    A new study by Logitech of 3,000 employees and 1,000 IT hardware decision-makers in large organizations found that 89% struggle with video and 85% with audio in their work-from-home office. Less than 40% received accessories other than mice and keyboards from their organizations.

    While these results are concerning, I didn’t find them surprising. When working with client organizations to help them figure out the best hybrid work arrangements, I invariably get pushback when I bring up investing in hybrid worker home offices. CFOs don’t want to “waste” money on employee home offices after already paying for a set-up at the office; in turn, IT and facilities directors express reluctance to stretch their already-thin resources to support the tech and ergonomic needs of staff working from home.

    After all, these leaders say, we already gave in to employee demands for flexibility and allowed them to work from home part of the time. They can pay for their own equipment and furniture.

    Related: They Say Remote Work Is Bad For Employees, But Most Research Suggests Otherwise — A Behavioral Economist Explains.

    The reality of work from home office setups for hybrid employees

    In reality, the large majority of workers don’t pay to equip their home offices. When I ask about this issue in focus groups for my clients, employees tell me it’s the company’s job to fund their work-from-home needs. They feel it would be unfair for them to buy whatever they need for their home office just for the sake of doing work for the company. Indeed, in a survey I ran on LinkedIn with over 200 respondents, over two-thirds of respondents believe companies should cover the costs of equipment.

    So they end up struggling with technology and ergonomic challenges. Doing so harms their productivity since they can’t work as effectively. It undermines their wellbeing, due to physical discomfort from lack of ergonomic furniture and mental discomfort from concerns about how they appear on camera. It undercuts retention because employees feel frustrated and resentful over not having the equipment they need to do their job well.

    And it hurts their collaboration and communication: poor video and audio quality are a bigger problem for those the employee is communicating with rather than for the employee themselves. That involves other employees, but also external stakeholders, such as clients, vendors and investors.

    Related: Avoid These 3 Tempting Habits For Remote Work Productivity

    All of that harms a company’s bottom lines: as I tell leaders with whom I work, do they really want to lose a sale because they didn’t get a good microphone for their sales staff? That’s not an exaggeration: the Logitech study found that 37% of respondents hold video calls with clients.

    With 79% of companies switching to a hybrid work modality, according to the EY Work Reimagined Employer Survey, a large portion of the work employees do for a company will be done from home offices going forward. Given that, I tell my clients that it’s imperative to invest in equipping staff for work from home.

    Logitech insights on challenges and opportunities for the work-from-home office

    To find out more about the challenges and opportunities of equipping hybrid workers, I interviewed Simon Dudley, Head of Analyst Relations at Logitech, about the release of their study. He told me that Logitech discovered a common experience among most survey respondents.

    At the start of the pandemic, companies told staff to grab whatever they could from the office in the transition to remote work. And that’s what staff mostly ended up using for their home office, along with whatever additional equipment more tech-savvy staff had at home or, in some instances, chose to buy online. IT departments adopted a reactive posture: as Dudley stated, “IT departments sit there and basically wait for the phone to ring for someone to complain, at which point they go and try and fix that problem.” The problem with that posture? Most staff members “don’t even know what they could do to make their life better. But they do know what they’ve got today isn’t great.”

    The Logitech study confirms employee concerns: 64% struggle with poor or inadequate light in their homes; 60% have poor sound quality through computer speakers; and 58% need to sit in an uncomfortable position to be on camera. They waste valuable work time figuring out technology: 53% check if their speakers and microphone are working, 41% fiddle with the viewing angle of their camera, and so on.

    Yet staff don’t feel it’s right or fair for them to purchase better equipment and furniture themselves, and don’t feel empowered to reach out to IT or facilities to fix these problems. As Dudley said “the users are like, well, I assume this is the best that’s available. I mean, they’ve given me a laptop. I’ve got all the things, how can I say to the IT department, I want better when they don’t even know better exists?”

    Of course, it’s not only IT and facilities that need to step up. Dudley pointed out that HR needs to get involved. After all, they are responsible for talent management. Optimizing employee productivity, wellbeing and collaboration through support for worker home offices should be a major concern for them. Dudley told me that it’s simple: just go to HR and ask them “how much does it cost you when your workers are off sick with RSI issues or with eye strain or with migraines.” By comparison, the cost of equipping a home office is small, and this wellbeing benefit doesn’t account for boosted productivity and collaboration.

    Related: Malcolm Gladwell’s Fears About Remote Work Are Real. It’s Your Brain That’s Telling You Lies — Here’s Why.

    Work from home office funding: A case study

    Then, I asked Dudley to give feedback on how I helped my consulting clients determine how to support the home offices of their workers, using the example of the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute.

    First, we surveyed staff to determine their needs and concerns regarding technology and furniture, focusing on how we can help them be more productive and have better ergonomics and wellbeing. We encouraged employees to volunteer any suggestions on specific technology and furniture solutions they found to be a good fit for their needs. We also had the Institute’s IT and facilities staff conduct in-depth research on market options based on survey results.

    Then, we determined an initial list of standardized equipment that IT and facilities felt comfortable they could support in employee home offices. We shared the list with staff members in another survey and revised it based on their responses.

    Next, we purchased equipment for staff members and shipped it to their homes. For anyone who needed help with the equipment, we arranged for home visits by IT and facilities staff. To address tax concerns, we developed a policy asking staff members leaving the organization to donate any bulky furniture that was impractical to return to facilities. Finally, we covered the costs of fast broadband for staff.

    Dudley applauded this approach as exemplary. He did highlight that sometimes staff don’t know what they need because they may not be aware of relevant capabilities, and thus encouraged providing more hands-on guidance and expertise. I integrated that approach into my work with future clients.

    Conclusion

    In short, failing to invest in hybrid worker home offices is penny-wise, but pound-foolish. We know that much if not most of the work done by staff members for the large majority of companies going forward will be from home offices. And most employees won’t buy quality tech and furniture: they feel it’s not fair to ask them to do so. Companies that fail to invest in home offices will lose out on productivity, wellbeing, retention, collaboration and communication, all of which will reflect poorly on their bottom lines.

    Gleb Tsipursky

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  • 5 Marketing Strategies That Work Even in Uncertain Times

    5 Marketing Strategies That Work Even in Uncertain Times

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The startup world is in disarray as I write this, and the economic outlook is not great. Many companies are performing mass layoffs, scaling back on initiatives and rethinking their entire approach to sales and marketing. It won’t always be this way — it’s a cycle — but that doesn’t make it much easier while you’re going through it. The big question every marketer seems to have is, “What can we do?”

    Start with these five startup marketing moves. They make a great foundation for any marketing strategy, even in the best of times, but they’re particularly prudent in the worst. Implement these, and when the cycle comes back around, you just may find yourself head and shoulders above your competitors.

    Related: 5 Marketing Mistakes Startups Must Avoid in Order to Survive

    1. Talk to your customers!

    When in doubt, talk to your customers. What are they going through, what do they need, and what do they anticipate happening over the next three, six, 12 months? What’s troubling them may be news to you, and what’s troubling you may not matter to them at all. Here are a few questions to get the conversation going:

    • How are things now compared to this time a year ago?

    • Are you looking to spend more, less or about the same in this area?

    • What’s your biggest challenge right now?

    • What do you think the biggest challenge will be in six months? 12?

    • What would make you buy this thing or upgrade your account?

    • What would keep you from spending money on this?

    • What are we doing that you particularly like? That you don’t?

    Use these customer interviews to shape your marketing.

    2. Create frictionless buying experiences

    The best customer experiences remove everything that stands in the way between the customer and making a purchase. “Frictionless” is always a good target, but uncertain times like these are when you need to look for over-the-top ways to remove friction.

    A few ideas to get your gears turning:

    • Build a migration tool that enables customers to switch their data from competitors to you.

    • Offer something incredible for free or at a massive discount to get people in the door — your lowest tier plan, onboarding, shipping, a managed service, etc. Hubspot did this incredibly well during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    • Show the product or pricing, and put the control in the buyer’s hands.

    • Do the work for customers — create templates, packages, widgets or something similar that they would normally have to invest time and energy into.

    Through this, you can turn a nasty landscape into a great opportunity for both you and your customers.

    Related: 7 Free Steps to Market Your Bootstrapped Startup

    3. Communicate clearly and consistently

    The companies that are present are the ones that are remembered. This is especially true in times of uncertainty, volatility and crisis. The caveat is that you cannot simply repeat what everyone else is saying. You must lead.

    Take a stance on a topic, flesh out your positioning and messaging, and communicate it. If there’s so much volatility that you don’t yet know what your position is or don’t have the data to make a decision, share that. Bring people into the loop. Become the go-to brand or thought leader. Getting all eyes on you creates significant leverage for your sales and marketing.

    4. Bet bigger where you can

    A knee-jerk reaction in uncertain times is to cut back, but think about it: All of your competitors are cutting back. This is the perfect time to double down on what’s working. You can increase the gap between yourself and your competitors. Then whenever the cycle rights itself, you’ll be so far ahead with so much momentum, no one will be able to catch you.

    You still need to be responsible with your resources. If you can invest actual dollars into projects and channels that are already working or that you know your customers need, great. If you don’t have the money, invest your time.

    Options that take more time than money include:

    • Building your presence and brand on social media

    • Content creation for your blog and other channels

    • Public relations and earned media — find outlets and ways to tell your story

    • Refreshing your existing content, website and workflows

    • Search engine optimization

    • Strengthening your customer or follower community

    Note: If you’re under pressure to increase revenue yesterday, account upgrades and repeat purchases are likely your lowest-hanging fruit. Otherwise, invest in creating a larger gap between you and competitors.

    Related: 7 Paid Marketing Steps to Fuel Your Startup’s Growth

    5. Audit your operations

    Operations tend to fall in the bucket of “we’ll worry about that later.” You typically have enough fires to put out trying to create and capture demand, among other tasks, that operations get pushed to the side. But these times when everyone is pausing and reevaluating are perfect opportunities to review your operations and metrics, like:

    • Cost to acquire a customer

    • Customer retention and repeat purchases

    • Annual contract value or annual spend

    • Workflows

    • Automations

    • Customer personas and buying journeys (see section 1)

    • Quarterly objectives and key performance indicators

    “That which gets measured gets improved.” Audit your operations and other metrics to determine how good or bad of a situation you’re really in, where you can improve and where you can afford to bet bigger (see section 4). Use this data to inform your marketing strategy.

    Don’t react too soon

    All things come in cycles. No matter how daunting the current situation is, there are sunny days coming when your business can thrive. Be careful not to make such hasty decisions — you don’t want to suffer long-term in exchange for temporary relief. Watch your metrics, take care of your customers, communicate clearly and consistently, and take a few big bets. You may be surprised by how well things can turn out for you.

    Kenneth Burke

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  • Having a 10-Year Plan Is a Bad Idea. Here’s Why — and What You Should Do Instead.

    Having a 10-Year Plan Is a Bad Idea. Here’s Why — and What You Should Do Instead.

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    “Everybody has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth,” Mike Tyson famously said in 1987. History teaches us that we will face conflict when we don’t plan and often when we do. Over 60 years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” We learn valuable information during the exercise of planning and not just the understanding that even the best plans can and will change.

    When planning for your business battles, do you ever really know what is ahead, and most importantly, what to do? Strategic planning can help create mechanisms and mindsets to allow you to respond to the battles ahead, but it is not a one-time thing or a “set it and forget it” activity.

    It is a plan that shows the way forward for your business, spelling out your company’s goals and why they are important. It can also guide you by outlining things to consider when responding to opportunities and challenges.

    Related: Why Having a Strategic Plan for Your Business Is Essential

    Why are long-range strategic plans not realistic?

    I believe in one- and three-year strategic plans and re-establishing them each year. Just keep in mind that a strategic plan is a roadmap for a company to achieve its goals. It’s also a tool to unite your teams, motivating them with clarity, direction and focus.

    Not that you wouldn’t want to have a list of items you want to achieve long-term (I do have one), but because we live in a world that is changing faster and faster, we must adapt our plans in an agile way and harness the power of technology and systems to help us.

    Companies need to be fluid and mobile. In a changing world, the future is no longer easy to predict based solely on the past. What we need is a strategy that breaks away from the old three-ring binder plan already starting to gather dust on the shelf and instead devises one that is adaptive and directive.

    This is why the one-to-three-year timeframe helps and why a 10-year timeframe is obsolete before it even begins.

    Related: 5 Actionable Strategic-Planning Tips To Boost Business Efficiency

    What should strategic goals align with?

    If strategic goals are your long-term objectives, operational goals — or, as we call them, lead measures — are the daily milestones that have to be reached to achieve them.

    While aligning your business goals with your strategic goals can be hard to do every year, we must make an effort. Don’t forget that the actions you take each day should mostly roll up to achieving your goals.

    For our franchise brands and us, our three main goals each year are franchisee success, revenue and profit. Each brand determines success, but revenue and profit numbers change each year. What’s important is to have your main strategic goals supported by lead measures — actionable items you will do each day and week that will lead to accomplishing the goal.

    So, for example, if you are a salesperson and have a goal of $XXX sales this year (revenue), what do you need to do to make those sales?

    Look at your sales funnel to determine the steps and the quantity of each step you need to make your goal: how many leads or prospects; how many points of contact, calls, presentations, discovery days and follow-up calls; or how many applications?

    Related: How to Fall in Love With Strategic Planning

    How do I prioritize goals and to-do lists?

    One recipe for disaster is never doing the most important things and always doing the urgent things. While balancing them, you should stay focused on the most important goals.

    It’s not about “to-do” lists or checklists — it’s about your goals. The only thing worse than not having goals is having too many goals. I believe that three primary goals per year and two to three lead measures for each are good.

    While there are set goals and trackable lead measures, don’t forget that there’s never only one way to get something done; there are multiple ways.

    So, encourage your team members to do what they feel is right. Find out what they want to do rather than just telling them what you would do to achieve it. Weaving that strategy into your planning together will help you get better results.

    In The Power of Positive Leadership, author Jon Gordon famously advised us not to focus on the numbers. We must trust the process, and when we keep doing things the right way, the numbers will eventually rise, those wins will come, and the desired outcomes will occur.

    Ray Titus

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  • How to Create a Successful Product Portfolio

    How to Create a Successful Product Portfolio

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Crafting a successful product portfolio might sound daunting, and it certainly can be if you’re not well-prepared. But in reality, it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process. With the right strategies and knowledge, you can create and maintain a strong product portfolio that meets your customers’ needs and stands out from the competition.

    In this article, we’ll walk through the steps necessary to craft a successful product portfolio.

    Related: How to Nail a Successful Product Launch

    Do your research

    Before you start creating your product portfolio, you must do some research and understand the market landscape. Gather as much information as possible about your potential customers, competitors, and industry trends. This will help you develop a compelling product roadmap and ensure your products stay on top of the latest technological advances.

    Consider using various research methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups or observation studies to gain insights into customer needs and preferences. Other data sources include industry reports, competitive analysis, analytics from existing products or customer feedback from existing users. Take the time to analyze all available data points to get a complete picture of the current market environment and identify growth opportunities.

    Related: Assume Potential Customers Don’t Know Anything About Anything

    Identify your goals

    Once you’ve done your research, it’s time to set goals for your product portfolio. Think about what success looks like for each product and establish clear objectives with measurable metrics such as customer satisfaction scores or user engagement numbers. To ensure accuracy, break down objectives into smaller tasks and milestones that can be tracked more easily over time. This will enable teams to assess progress regularly while also allowing flexibility should plans need to change due to unexpected circumstances or new requirements arising mid-way through development cycles.

    Consider long-term implications such as future expansion plans or scalability issues when setting goals. This will ensure that products remain relevant in the years ahead, even if certain technologies become obsolete or new solutions enter the market.

    Design with intent

    When designing product features, take the time to think through their purpose and how they can benefit users. Consider who is using the product and why they may want or need certain features or functionality. This could range from simple usability enhancements for novice users to advanced capabilities for more experienced ones. Keep an eye out for any gaps between user intent and existing features that a new offering in your portfolio could fill. This could open up opportunities for growth while also providing value to users at the same time.

    Try to incorporate design elements that resonate with different types of customers — whether visual design styles that match branding guidelines or interactive components that are easily accessible regardless of experience level with a certain type of device or technology platform.

    Related: 5 Strategies To Build an Online Portfolio Boosting Any Business Website Performance

    Execute effectively

    No matter how well-planned a project may be, ultimately, its success hinges on execution. Develop an agile workflow that allows fast iterations while preserving quality standards, making progress visible throughout development cycles. This will enable teams to make quick decisions based on feedback from stakeholders and changing market conditions without compromising overall results.

    Utilize feedback from customers and other stakeholders along the way. This can help identify problems before too many resources have already been invested in a particular direction. It also ensures that all points of view are considered when making decisions about feature development or improvement. This will help create products that truly meet customer needs rather than just incorporating features because they sound good on paper but don’t necessarily deliver real value in practice.

    Strive for transparency throughout every stage of development. This will build trust amongst stakeholders involved in the project and make it easier for everyone involved to keep track of the progress being made against established milestones & objectives.

    A successful product portfolio requires careful planning, research, intentional design and effective execution. By investing the time to do these tasks correctly, you can create products that meet customer expectations and deliver significant value in return. Whether you’re looking to launch a new product or revamp your existing one, following these steps will ensure that your portfolio is strong and positioned for success.

    Christopher Massimine

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  • Meet the 37-Year-Old CEO of OnlyFans, Amrapali Gan

    Meet the 37-Year-Old CEO of OnlyFans, Amrapali Gan

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    • Amrapali Gan is the Indian-born CEO of adult subscription platform OnlyFans.
    • The 37-year-old had stints at Red Bull, Loewell Herb, and Cannabis Cafe before taking the top job at OnlyFans.
    • Gan sees OnlyFans as a social media platform for everyone, not just sex workers.

    This article originally appeared on Business Insider.

    Amrapali Gan is the CEO of OnlyFans, the online subscription platform known for hosting adult content.

    Amrapali Gan at the Time100 Next at Second on October 25, 2022 in New York City. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

    Before taking over the role of CEO at OnlyFans in December 2021, Gan had been with the company for less than two years. She began working for the London-based social platform as the chief marketing and communications officer in September 2020.

    Gan, 37, stepped into the top role after founder Tim Stokely left the company in December 2021, Insider previously reported. In August 2021, OnlyFans announced it would ban sexually explicit material, only to reverse the decision several weeks later. Stokely’s departure came just a few months after the reversal.

    Gan was a surprise choice as CEO, having been at OnlyFans for such a short time. But Gan said that her relatability sets her apart from other tech CEOs.

    “You have business leaders that went to fancy Ivy League schools; they’re not approachable. I’m the exact opposite,” Gan told Time in a July 2022 interview.

    Gan did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.

    Gan is one of the dozens of Indian-born CEOs helming tech companies.

    CEO of OnlyFans Amrapali Gan speaks about

    CEO of OnlyFans Amrapali Gan speaks about “Who we are and where we are going” on the second day of 2022 Web Summit in Lisbon. Horacio Villalobos/Corbis/Getty Images

    Gan was born in Mumbai and grew up as an only child in Virginia, per Fortune.

    She is currently based in Miami, but was previously living in Los Angeles. After attending California State University, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public relations and organizational communication.

    Gan later obtained a certificate in entrepreneurship from Harvard Business School Online.

    Prior to becoming CEO of OnlyFans, Gan marketed a cannabis cafe and energy bars.

    Prior to joining OnlyFans, Gan was the vice president of marketing and publicity at Cannabis Cafe in West Hollywood. Her earlier career included communications roles at Lowell Herb, Red Bull, and protein bar company Quest Nutrition.

    “To the outside world it was this unknown woman coming in to run one of the biggest tech businesses,” Gan said at the 2022 GQ Heroes convention.

    Gan’s résumé is different from most tech CEOs, but she said her assertiveness makes her well suited for the top job.

    “I’m someone with a non-traditional background, but someone who also has a very strong point of view,” she told Time.

    Gan has an active OnlyFans page, where she posts her favorite artists on Spotify and snippets from her daily life.

    Screenshot of Amrapali Gan’s OnlyFans page. OnlyFans

    Gan’s feed is filled with posts about her rescue dog Foxx, her interviews at conferences, and what she likes to do for fun. In a post on January 1, Gan said she prioritizes fitness and enjoys climbing, pilates, and running. A video she posted showed her rock climbing and attending a Formula 1 race.

    But she also uses her account to connect with the users of what she describes as an “18-and-over creator platform.”

    Gan said she opened her own OnlyFans page so everyone would be able to send her a message.

    “I’ve been very outspoken about embracing our adult creators,” Gan told Time, adding that she uses the account to “see what the community is doing, follow creators, and most importantly, be able to connect directly with them and send them messages.”

    Gan wants to rebrand OnlyFans into a platform where personal trainers and chefs can post content — alongside adult creators and sex workers, according to the Fortune interview.

    Instagram screenshot of Amrapali Gan's page.

    Instagram screenshot of Amrapali Gan’s page. Instagram

    Gan said she wants OnlyFans to be known for more than just its adult content, and transition into a mainstream social platform akin to Instagram and Twitter, per Fortune. OnlyFans currently earns almost $1 billion in annual revenue, but Gan still wants to expand the platform as the gig economy continues to get bigger.

    “Ultimately people want to have jobs and do things that they’re passionate about, whether that’s cooking, or cooking naked, which is a real account you can follow,” Gan told GQ Magazine in a 2022 interview.

    “It’s truly a place where someone’s biggest fans are going to make that extra effort to subscribe,” she added.

    Marielle Descalsota

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  • 5 Things All Successful and Profitable Media Productions Need

    5 Things All Successful and Profitable Media Productions Need

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Great television shows and films have staying power, which means they capture and keep the viewers’ attention and often motivate them to action. For some shows, this could mean tuning in week after week for each new episode.

    For documentary films, it could mean changing a lifestyle or habit to help effect change. Successful media productions have several qualities that help encourage viewership, inspire action and leave viewers satisfied. For the producer, successful productions mean an increase in profit. These essential qualities cross genres, locations, production lengths and much more.

    A structure to fit the genre

    There are various ways to develop a storyline, but certain expectations exist for particular genres. Many television shows follow the three-act structure that tends to define literary works. The beginning, the middle and the end divide a storyline across an individual segment and an entire series. The characters, settings and plot unfold differently through these periods, giving the viewer a way to follow the show without getting lost.

    It’s also important to remember how the audience will watch the production. Productions developed for television must account for commercial breaks or other interruptions, such as programming changes. Building up tension with dramatic elements or omitted information can keep viewers engaged with the show and keep them from changing channels during a commercial. In a film, think about where to insert some comic relief or how to bring an audience down from an intense moment of action.

    Related: 10 Ways Producing Television Taught Me to Succeed

    A clear but unique point of view

    For a production to receive the attention that will (ideally) make it successful and profitable, it should stand out and be distinct from other shows or films in its genre. There is an audience for every type of production out there, but chances are, someone else is already filling the market with a product.

    Viewers want a fresh new take on something familiar. Changing how you host a talk show or incorporating elements you need to become more familiar with gives you a way to present something different. The newness of your presentation and idea needs to make sense while generating the necessary curiosity to see more.

    A storyline containing meaningful conflict

    Whether you’re filming a sports theme, documentary, talk show or comedy, it’s imperative to include significant conflict elements to generate viewership and satisfy your audience. Conflict can take many forms and add to the development of an idea, such as with a talk show. Healthy conflict involves reasoning between two or more ideas to inspire dialogue. It could also include situations that test a particular character, whether physically, intellectually or emotionally.

    If you’re developing a television series, incorporate conflict that spans the entire series or across several episodes. The desire for resolution helps attracts viewers over the duration, but working in shorter periods of conflict within an episode can attract and hold their attention over the short term. In longer films, it’s crucial to keep conflict from playing out too long, at least with brief moments that offer some sort of resolution. An audience needs hope when watching characters they can trust and relate to.

    Related: 5 Steps to Craft a Story That Hooks Your Audience Every Time

    A screen full of believable characters

    Your storyline and presentation engage more viewers when the characters are interesting, relatable, and believable. This is important whether you produce a daily talk show, mini-series or full-length film. Your audience wants to be captivated by those they are watching, whether it’s their interactions with one another, how they respond to situations or how they handle emotional or physical challenges. While not everyone can relate to being a superhero, the drama and friction inherent in unconventional relationships are something many can appreciate.

    If the media production is a newscast, keep the audience in mind when selecting anchors for a particular story or segment. Seasoned anchors may appear more sympathetic and understanding when discussing sensitive information or social problems. Characters developed for a comedy shouldn’t abandon all maturity and seriousness, especially in real-world scenarios where subtly is necessary.

    Related: Top 10 Horror Movie Entrepreneurs

    A dialogue that enhances character perception

    Whether it’s a rom-com, sports talk show or marketing production, the audience knows the importance of less is more when it comes to dialogue. Unnecessary, filler conversation is unappealing and creates the perception that the production is slow or out-of-touch. All dialogue or discussion should work to draw the audience into the storyline or segment, often done through humor, honesty, passion and more. Make sure the dialogue fits both the show and the character. When a character is known for a sense of humor or the inability to be discreet, it helps bring the characters to life and causes the show to stand out from others in the field.

    These are just some of the critical factors to consider when planning your next media production. While it’s important to have your idea and vision for the work in mind, it’s how the audience will perceive and engage with the end result that matters. Their loyalty is what makes it successful and profitable.

    Eric Weinberger

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  • Blake Lively Knows Being a Perfectionist Is ‘Weaponized’ Against Women, But She’s Micromanaged Her Way to Millions, So She’s Not Stopping Now

    Blake Lively Knows Being a Perfectionist Is ‘Weaponized’ Against Women, But She’s Micromanaged Her Way to Millions, So She’s Not Stopping Now

    The “Gossip Girl” actress is done apologizing for being a control freak. After all, obsessing over every little detail is what’s made her mixer brand Betty Buzz a raging success.

    Paul Kix

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