The Friday Habit

On this episode of The Friday Habit, Ben and Mark discuss the idea of making time and space for thinking, planning, and reflection, as inspired by the book “The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham. What if you were to spend the same amount of time thinking as you do mindlessly scrolling through social media? You may be surprised by how much clarity you can gain from setting aside this intentional thinking time, even if it is only 15 minutes a day.In his book, Cunningham outlines the 5 core disciplines of thinking time:Find the unasked question – Ask better and better questions of yourself until you nail down the core problem. Separate the problem from the symptom – Don’t stop at just diagnosing the symptom; there is always a root issue that needs to be uncovered and addressed.Check your assumptions – Don’t rely on your feelings or perceptions about how things are going; rely on facts and try to be objective.Consider second-order consequences – Think about the long-term implications and the potential domino effects of your actions.Create the machine – Design the process, execute, and surround yourself with the adequate resources.Also within the book, Cunningham offers self-reflection questions for further discovery. You may also find it helpful to set a timer during your thinking time, have specific materials and a dedicated space for thinking, and to bake thinking time into your schedule and then commit to doing it even if you have other things come up. Your action item after this episode is to block off 2 hours of dedicated thinking time for next week.Links:“The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Less-Stupid-Keith-Cunningham/dp/0984659269 Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/ https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

Our topic on this episode of The Friday Habit is emotional intelligence. Mark and Ben start out the episode by posing a couple of hypothetical scenarios and talking through the emotional intelligence implications of the typical responses to the situations. Emotional intelligence is your ability to understand and manage your own emotions and recognize the emotions of others, which are key components of being a good manager and leader.The four competencies of emotional intelligence are:Self-awareness – This is knowing the effect of your emotions on yourself and others. Studies have shown that while 95% of people think they are self-aware, only 10-15% truly are. The quarterly team check-ins discussed in Episode 26 and participating in a 360-degree feedback loop are great ways to gauge your self-awareness.Self-management – How do you handle stressful situations? Do you overcome setbacks easily? What are your coping mechanisms? The answers to these questions are a good indication of your self-management.Social awareness – Social awareness is your ability to “read a room” and be perceptive of others, recognizing the dynamics and emotions that are at play on your team at any given time. Another way to describe your social awareness is as your level of empathy and understanding of those around you and how those things affect the way you communicate and collaborate.Relationship management – Are you coaching or mentoring others? Do you properly address issues, or do you tend to avoid conflict? These are key indicators of your relationship management, but if you are self-aware and socially aware, you likely already know the state of your relationship management.Your action items after listening to this episode are to go back and listen to Episode 26 about quarterly team check-ins and to take the Psychology Today Emotional Intelligence test (link below).Links:https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/tests/personality/emotional-intelligence-test Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

On this episode of The Friday Habit, Ben summarizes the main points of one of his favorite books: “Fix This Next” by Mike Michalowicz. As we all learned in that one college psychology class, humans have needs in life that fall into 5 basic categories as defined by Maslow, from most basic to most complex: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow explained that certain needs must take priority over others as we go through life and it is important to prioritize the most basic before moving up the hierarchy.Michalowicz believes that a similar concept can be applied to businesses, and while two hierarchies might seem like a lot to place into the already-full hands of entrepreneurs, hopefully you will find that understanding the different levels will simplify things for you. He defines the business hierarchy of needs, from most basic to most complex as: sales – creation of cash, profit – creation of stability, order – creation of efficiency, impact – creation of transformation, and legacy – creation of permanence. In “Fix This Next”, Michalowicz outlines 5 questions for entrepreneurs to ask themselves about their businesses pertaining to each level of the hierarchy, providing a framework for areas to focus on before moving on to the next level. By asking yourself these 25 questions, you should be able to easily identify gaps and problems that need to be addressed and establish principles that will guide your actions moving forward. This is a great read for anyone who has built their own business or brand and anyone who wants to in the future, but this book does not fully serve its purpose if you don’t take action after reading it. Links:“Fix This Next” book: https://www.amazon.com/Fix-This-Next-Change-Business/dp/0593084411“Fix This Next” Book Website: https://fixthisnext.com/Free Resources mentioned: https://s3.amazonaws.com/MikeMichalowicz/FTN/FTN-Graphics-Charts.pdf Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/ https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

This episode of The Friday Habit podcast is this second part of our interview with Claire Chandler, author of “The Whirlpool Effect” and thought leader on great company culture. She begins by offering an exercise that founders can do in order to gain clarity and make decisions more easily. Claire suggests writing down and drawing a circle around the core principles your company started with. Then, draw another circle that includes what’s currently working well. The third and last circle should describe goals for the future. Once you have all three circles, move them together to create a venn diagram and see which ideas overlap. This exercise not only helps get things out of your head and onto paper, but finding that sweet spot of the overlap also helps create clarity for decisions that need to be made. Claire explains that this focus and clarity can be hard for founders who tend to have “shiny object syndrome.” She talks about how to confront this tendency and also goes over the FOMO (fear of missing out) that many founders feel when making an important decision. Being a founder involves uncertainty, risk, and unknown, but Claire reminds listeners that most barriers to success are mental. Her advice in this episode will help founders fight what’s holding them back from making their business everything they dreamed of.  Connect with Claire: https://www.amazon.com/Whirlpool-Effect-Claire-R-Chandler/dp/B07DP4T39Jhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/clairechandlersphr/https://www.clairechandler.net/https://www.talentboost.net/https://twitter.com/claire_talenthttps://twitter.com/TalentBoost Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/ https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

Our guest on this episode of The Friday Habit is Claire Chandler, author of “The Whirlpool Effect” and thought leader on great company culture. During Claire’s career, she has noticed that startups and small companies tend to have really good collaboration and culture, but as the companies begin to scale, they fall apart. There is a disconnect, she explains, between the people and the culture once a second generation of employees are brought on board because they do not have the context of the culture that has been laid out by the founder from the beginning.Her biggest recommendation for leaders before and after they notice this culture disconnect is to be crystal clear about the mission of the business, employing self-awareness and authenticity as you are communicating with your employees and stakeholders. Until this clarity is achieved and communicated, it will be impossible to replicate the culture and mission for new employees and receive their buy-in to the organization. After building this foundation, it is time for the founder to approach the “Founder’s Dilemma” of being hands-on in the business while training your people and trusting them enough to delegate tasks to them with your full confidence. Claire wraps up this first part of the interview with the concept of “telling them why” when it comes to giving directives and making decisions, which will help your employees understand your reasoning and learn for next time. Connect with Claire: https://www.amazon.com/Whirlpool-Effect-Claire-R-Chandler/dp/B07DP4T39Jhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/clairechandlersphr/https://www.clairechandler.net/https://www.talentboost.net/https://twitter.com/claire_talenthttps://twitter.com/TalentBoost Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com

We are picking right back with Mark and Ben’s interview with Matthew Barnett on this episode of The Friday Habit. Matthew continues to expand on his vision for customer service, being accessible and hospitable to every customer (or potential customer) who contacts your team. His approach is data-driven, recognizing that satisfied customers come back and buy more or new products and they also recommend your products or services to others. A great next step in improving your customer experience is visually mapping out their journey with you, taking note of the touchpoints, typical conversion points, and any gaps that you could look into filling. You can also reach out to advocates of yours or loyal customers for their feedback on the customer experience. Matthew recognizes that many people are hesitant or unsure about starting a business because of the unknowns, but he says that the best way to get into the market is just to do it. Start a website, post a few products, and see what happens. If you have a good idea, you will know pretty quickly based on the demand, but if you don’t attract customers after a little while, you might need to have an honest conversation with yourself about the feasibility of the type of company you want to have. You might need to take a step back and offer people what they really want or need as a milestone along the path to where you eventually want to end up. Finally, Matthew emphasizes the importance of setting up a culture and having scheduled team meeting, especially for global teams. Outside of work, he tries to read a book per week and he is a part of a founders group that serves as a mastermind of sorts, which is a great resource and source of accountability for him and the other members.Links:https://www.bonjoro.com/videofunnelplaybook “The Lost and Founder”: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Founder-Painfully-Honest-Startup/dp/0735213321 “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205“Traction”: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837 “Viral Loop”: https://www.amazon.com/Viral-Loop-Facebook-Businesses-Themselves/dp/1401323499 Connect with Matthew:https://www.verbate.com/https://www.bonjoro.com/https://au.linkedin.com/in/mbjbarnettConnect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

On this episode of The Friday Habit podcast, our guest is Matthew Barnett, founder of Verbate, a company using video data for qualitative research, and Bonjouro, an app that makes it simple to integrate video into your business operations and connections with your audience. After growing up in the U.K., Matthew decided to take the leap across the huge pond and start his adult life in Australia. He found this entrepreneurial spirit was beneficial in getting out in his new community and meeting new people who were on similar journeys. Before long, he had launched Verbate, a consulting firm that helps clients curate and analyze video feedback. Matthew started recording videos to send to clients and prospects as a conversion tactic and realized that this software was something that a lot of his current clients wanted to be able to use as well.Within 12 months, Bonjouro had outpaced Verbate and Matthew has never looked back. He and his team have found that businesses use Bonjouro for 4 main purposes: (1) leads – in response to inquiries, (2) activation – welcoming new customers, (3) reactivation – following up with lapsed clients, and (4) to ask for reviews and referrals – customer service follow up after delivery. The feedback they have received from the users of the app underlines the importance of that personal touch that can be achieved through video. Matthew is a huge advocate of automating processes but never relationships as evidenced by his passion for effective customer support teams. He believes that support is a growth channel and you should always go above and beyond for your clients because they will become your biggest fans and advocates if you surprise them. Connect with Matthew:https://www.verbate.com/https://www.bonjoro.com/https://au.linkedin.com/in/mbjbarnettConnect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

On this episode of The Friday Habit, successful entrepreneur Kevin Urrutia continues his conversation with Mark and Ben from the previous episode, so go back and listen to that episode if you missed it! Kevin describes the thought process that led him to get into e-commerce after the cleaning company he was running got to a certain sustainable point and he wanted to gain some new experience in a different field. He started out selling outdoor gear but realized that the barriers to entry were so low that he was facing a lot of competition, so he recruited the help of his architect brother to design a luggage line called Chester Travels. This business had a much higher barrier to entry and requires more capital to be tied up in inventory, but he has found that the profit margin is higher than his cleaning company which only requires payment when there is a job but relies entirely on people, who are unpredictable.Kevin and his friend Wilson have worked on business ideas together for their whole adult life, but Voy Media was their first partnership. They launched it to connect with other founders and open up conversations about all of their combined knowledge and experience to package up content that people would want. They are still working out the details of how to make this an educational company that will provide value to current and aspiring founders. Kevin says that one of the biggest pitfalls that leaders fall into is wanting everyone around them to be like them, when there is incredible value in surrounding yourself with team members that bring different perspectives and strengths to the table. So rather than looking for people who think and act like he does, Kevin focuses on hiring people with raw intelligence and good problem-solving skills because if they have both of these skills, they will be able to handle anything thrown their way. He emphasizes the importance of curiosity in all of life, having that drive to figure out what you don’t know or don’t know how to do yet. Finally, he encourages entrepreneurs to remember that your passion for the end result should drive you and that you don’t have to love everything you do as long as you have that passion. Links: “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr: https://www.amazon.com/Measure-What-Matters-Google-Foundation/dp/0525536221“The Great CEO Within” by Matt Mochary: https://www.amazon.com/Great-CEO-Within-Tactical-Building-ebook/dp/B07ZLGQZYC Connect with Kevin:https://chestertravels.com/https://voymedia.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/urrutiahttps://twitter.com/danest?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/ https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

On this episode of The Friday Habit, Ben and Mark talk with Kevin Urrutia, co-founder of Voy Media in NYC and many startups along the way. Kevin went to school for computer science and started a web development consulting business by generating leads through Craigslist. When he graduated, he got a job in Silicon Valley working for Mint.com, but he knew within a month that this 9-5 structured work culture was not what he wanted, so he jumped ship to work for a startup called Zaarly. This was the perfect situation for him and he was even able to continue working remotely when he moved back to New York until he realized that his heart wasn’t in it anymore. All this time, he had been building startups with varying levels of success and now that he was back in New York City, he and his buddy decided to put all of their experience to work building a cleaning company organized by online scheduling. They hired their own maids from Craigslist and paid them only when they had work for them, and this model has worked great for them over the past 5 years. They have expanded to several different areas of NYC as well as Chicago and Boston. Kevin explains that their keys to success were having a phone number, having local web pages, and optimizing their SEO. They have also acquired smaller companies to give them more market share.Be sure to come back next week for the conclusion of our conversation with Kevin! Connect with Kevin:https://voymedia.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/urrutiahttps://twitter.com/danest Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/ https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/

On this episode of The Friday Habit, Ben shares his 5 practices that will make you a better leader in the hopes that they will be an encouragement to you and will be spurred on in your influence of those around you. 1.     Learn your weaknesses – This is how you will grow and come to trust those around you to fill in the gaps. Be vulnerable about what you need and what you expect from others that will allow you to play to your strengths.2.     Define your “why” – You will work the hardest for what you care about. Once you have this passion defined, you will be able to identify what fits and what doesn’t.3.     Make concrete goals – They should be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound. This is a way of making the invisible visible.4.     Listen to your team – Learn to trust your team or they will stop buying in to your mission. Create space to listen to them, perhaps during a weekly meeting, and know that frontline workers are going to be the closest to the problems.5.     Stay curious – Commit to lifelong learning through podcasts, masterminds, audiobooks, networking, and video content. It is easy to be distracted or overwhelmed, but if you are not growing, you’re dying.Your action item after this episode is to learn your weaknesses and take the assessment at https://www.16personalities.com. Connect with us:https://www.thefridayhabit.com/thefridayhabit@knapsackcreative.com https://www.instagram.com/benjaminmanleyhttp://www.benjaminmanley.com/ https://www.brandvivamedia.com/https://www.facebook.com/Marklab2https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklab2/