Posts Tagged ‘Business Challenge’

I Never Get Sick, No I Never Get Sick, Noo I Never Ever…!

Posted: August 15, 2014 in Posts
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I say and hear this from my fellow entrepreneurs and committed workaholics quite often and we all believe it’s true even better we believe it’s true right in the midst of a cold or flu…no matter how bad the symptoms are.

BUT last week wow I was and am still a bit sick and it sucks and why did it happen, what caused these stages of symptoms to run through my body and basically kick my ass for the past 5 days?

I mean really kick my ass it was like food poisoning X 10 I pulled muscles in my throat and entire upper body just from puking so much for 4 days. I had a client dinner one night with my favorite as well as largest client so I pulled it together for the dinner came home and just continued puking but for those 3 hours of dinner I had to go into Superhero mode and wanted to (a lot of people would have cancelled, that’s a luxury that doesn’t come with this job).

Even some real Superheroes that were sick and couldn’t go out to save the world came back after healing to win:

1. Superman

2. Batman

3. Spiderman

One of my all time favorite examples of an entrepreneur being sick and still fighting on is Pete Sampras at the US Open in 1996 when he was throwing up his intestines in the middle of match against Alex Corretja in the 5th set and they were going to disqualify him…he pulled it together and HE WON!

1996 Sampras Video Clip 

(Yes I do believe athletes are entrepreneurs as well, we can talk about that in another post)

He used mind over matter and the passion of his moment he was in to switch into Superhero mode. At the end of the Open the entire world was cheering but Pete he probably didn’t even realize nor did he care what he just accomplished HE WAS SICK! He just wanted to go home and puke more and sleep and when that was over he would be able to sit back and realize what a champion he became that day.

Since I started being an entrepreneur at 19 I believed and still do sometimes it is mind over matter and I can mentally beat whatever illness I have, get my work done, make that dinner appointment and all is normal. Of course not considering the people everywhere I go that I am possibly infecting with a deadly virus (well it can feel deadly) and then they are infecting others and even worse their wife/husband and kids.

Way to go Brian you are so considerate you just possibly killed a small percentage of the population of NYC or wherever it is I am traveling to. Oops sorry…I NEVER get sick!

I remember around 2001 (I am horrible with tracking time) I was sick in a few ways, I was also scared really scared of the real world so I took a 3 month break from work, I had been going nonstop for 6 years to build the company…I was tired. I decided I would travel the world a bit, I would start dating again, and I was going to work on my foundation more. You know what I did, I stayed in my house for about 95% of the time and thought about everything in my life too much that I felt I screwed up in some way or just could have handled differently…total waste of time.

What pulled me out of this? Well for years I would tell people I didn’t have a choice I was called in for a meeting with one of the biggest record label owners in the world that I was trying to get as a client and I had to be at the meeting in 2 days…2 days I thought oh no I look like I a mess I need a month but well his ego was not hearing that so I had NO choice.

I realize now I could have said NO, you always have a choice and he didn’t pay his bills anyway so I actually lost money working with him, but I was back and ready to work. I went to my office, sat at my desk, read some reports and called a full staff meeting I was ready again and I wasn’t scared. After all what was there to be afraid of, to this day I have no idea except stuff I would make up or just think the worst possible outcome for. I was exhausted and making myself sick.

There are major diseases I will not consider/include in this but when it comes to a cold, flu, exhaustion or depression it’s a message from our mind and body to take it easy, what does it mean to take it easy:

-Get some sleep (try for 8 hours a night)

-Surrender to your body and rest, it is telling you it needs it, take a day off!

-Put an Auto-Responder on – I AM SICK! As the subject line

-Take a lot of deep breaths throughout the a day

-If you’re like me call your Mom : ) always makes me feel better

– Don’t drink alcohol or drink as little of it as possible

– Drink lots of tea and water

I have learned 99% of what I do now to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit from the help of my friend James Altucher and his creation of “The Daily Practice,” I have made additions and iterations to it for myself, you can do the same but do follow the key recommendations and concepts for optimal performance of self.

The Daily Practice By James Altucher

So I will leave you with this advice that you will not take from me so…LISTEN to your body and mind when they come together to send a message to you. I know you will take their advice because they know what is best for you.

We all get sick and tired and need a break and we get stronger from it, it’s not a sign of weakness and you will not be less of a Superhero by resting a few days you will be a better and stronger one for it!

Google Doesn’t Have The Answer…The Game Of Love

Posted: March 13, 2014 in Posts
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My heart skips a beat then causes knots in my stomach
My mind races and takes from me the energy I need to succeed
My hands shake more than before as I notice how much you balanced me
You held my hand

My body feels weak as it remembers who I no longer am and can no longer embrace
No lie yes my pride is hurt but I have little pride to open up to  you and just be me
I made mistakes, we made mistakes but I know I need and want to change to be your B
And I know how much you love me

My days are really hard to understand what do I do, where do I go and who can I give my happy energy to
I get lost in the moments of you being so sweet so supportive and the moments  of seeing you’re gorgeous smile, feeling your warmth and being best friends

The future I envisioned is now missing from my vision, remember I said I want to spend as much of life with you as I can! The small things the big things you have done  to support me, love me and bring me such joy all the worries would dissipate

I know what my errors were and how they continued after promises they wouldn’t. I am human as you are and we often would act or do similar things. We are a lot the same, come on we both cover our eyes during the gruesome parts of moves and TV.

No woman can compare or make me feel how important it was to have you as my girlfriend…an honor actually. I zone out on our super fun days from doing nothing to a beach far away. Then you started beating me in bowling it was still fun and our thing.

I have after searching no happier feeling than making you happy and excel in life. I want to see you fly and reach all the things you thought you couldn’t because I know you cam.

But yes love I am sad, I have to wake up without you and rush to start my day so I don’t stay in bed

They always say time will make these feelings pass. So is it wrong of me to not want them to pass, to not want to love anyone but you?

So maybe it’s you that needs to teach and help me, I’ve spent much time asking everyone but only you know. Or do I?

You know who you are and my wish is we don’t lose each other when finding each other was hard enough.

Don’t Take It Personal…Bollucks

Posted: July 22, 2013 in Posts
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“Just let me be great, let me be great.” – Jay Z F.U.T.W

Last week like many days in my business life something didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to and I got truly upset. It was early in the day but I needed to just go home and hide and take in what happened and yes do a bit of sulking.

I have been an entrepreneur since 20 years old when I started my first company a call center that pivoted to a data list broker and multi compiler. Business has been my college, my personal life and my source of great energy. Up until my most recent start up Gocella all of my companies were funded by myself and business partner Sev, also my best friend since I was 17 and we are still at it together.

Even Gocella was 1.5 years funded by us until we were introduced to Ryan Moore at Atlas venture who decided to lead a round that we didn’t even have planned…real boot-strappers. Smart guy : ) Thanks Ryan and Atlas and all our investors, rest assured we are building and working from the brain and the heart.

So yes I take it all personally I don’t know how not to because I feel that is what drives my passion to create successful companies and happy clients. I want everything I do to be great and that takes more than a brain and innovation…it takes heart. Well things involving our hearts are very personal.

I do know this makes things at times more difficult, overwhelming and quite exhausting. However it’s my formula and I refuse to change it, no matter how much sleep I lose sometimes, or tears I shed, or worries I create and amplify. It’s who I am and it is the way I am outside of work as well.

I want to not only make my clients happy but my friends, family and the special person in my life. All the same side effects though come with being so personal and unfiltered in my personal life just like I mention in business.

What if I didn’t take it all personally? I would feel like I wasn’t giving my all and if I didn’t have my heart in something and also I would feel like I was lying to myself, to people, prospects, investors, clients, friends and loved ones. This I will not do. My principles on lying are pretty crazy…yes I get the whole white lie thing but I just hope if I stick to this code, this formula, well it will come back to me from others.

Taking things personally means caring, appreciating, being grateful and trying my hardest to do great work, be a good person and you know what just being great. Let’s be great!

I try more now to at least not amplify the little things that happen to all of us, I try to let go so I can move on and make something else work out versus focusing on the negative or unexpected “let down”

But no matter what it’s all personal, it’s my life and it all affects me. Unfortunately I need to remind myself more often that I am not the only one going through these types of emotions and giving my all at any risk necessary…I am getting a little better at this from the help of great friends.

So the way I see it is, take it personally and people will know you really care, you really want to  be happy and make others happy and I don’t know how that can be done without putting your heart into your work and wearing your heart on your sleeve.

So for those that feel the same way, live the same way and struggle because of it…I say keep up with the struggle, confide in great friends and trusted advisers because in my opinion nothing will ever be great without someone’s heart being on the line and involved.

Take it personal, it’s your life we are talking about here it’s how you want people to view you and trust you.

Trust is what it’s all about!

So again let’s be great!

I Did It My Way…I Hope

Posted: June 8, 2013 in Posts
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I was wondering:

  • Should I send this text now
  • Should I send an email to question timing on a deal
  • Should I respond to an email just because the person is influential and wants to meet with me
  • Should I schedule the meeting even though I know the outcome is something I don’t want
  • Should I send flowers yet or again
  • Should I  delay launch again because I’m afraid I don’t have the best product ready
  • Should I wait for her to call or text me first
  • Should I apologize every time I feel guilty about not getting back to someone sooner
  • Should I…

Yup I know this list can go on and on and it’s a daily list we go through personally and professionally everyday and we all have one!

I don’t have to do much I’m an entrepreneur… I could wake up late, miss a meeting, take a day off to spend with my special someone, play pinball, I could send every call to voice mail, I could ignore any email I want and I can stop time that’s my super power. Well the real power and freedom is knowing I can do all of these things so I work that much harder on my life and my work.

However I will not progress, I will not beat my competition, my company won’t grow, I will fail, but I succeed and fight the fight because I know if I really wanted to I could stop time for a moment and all can be ok. This freedom is a gift that I must use wisely and share with only the most special people and parts of my life.

So how do we decide what we should do, I have thought about this a lot and sought advice from many but my friend James really broke it down to me by enhancing Einstein’s law of relativity to his own law to be announced by him. James and I agree a lot in business I’m his protege and business partner but more importantly his friend. I respect his advice.

Choosing whose advice to follow in life is very difficult in business and personal so I came up with my own rules on whose advice to listen closely to and sometimes follow. Also keeping in mind advice from others can be just a piece to of the advice we need to give ourselves.

Business Advice: This one is a bit easier for me because it’s more mathematical:

  1. What has the person done right and wrong in their career?
  2.  Do they admit and embrace their errors more than their accomplishments?
  3. What experience do they have on the topic or problem I need advice with?
  4. Knowing the difference between someone bragging versus just using a past experience as an example?
  5. What do they have to gain by giving me this advice?

Personal Advice: Comes down to just a few MAJOR rules/questions I have:

  1. My relationship with this person and how we have been there for each other over time?
  2. Never listen to any advice when someone says, you better take my advice
  3. When someone says, you don’t have to take my advice I am just trying to help
  4. When someone says, I know you are probably not going to take my advice but…
  5. When someone says, here is my advice but you will and need to do what is right for you and no matter what you do I will support you

The gut…what does that mean, do we grab our stomach and ask it what to do, do we wait until we think about something so much we throw  up and then boom there is the answer in the toilet bowl we are hugging?

My gut is my heart and every day I look closely at what I do to see if I followed my heart’s  guide me and then look at the outcome of all those things all those “shoulds” and how it made me feel emotionally and physically.

It is tough the anxiety that comes with this way of following your heart. My heart knows my brain well they have been working together a long time so I trust them. My decisions now come from a conversation between my heart and my brain that turns into heated arguments sometimes as my heart fears nothing sees no risk and my brain is concerned with emotions and how that may affect me, in the end they are both trying to protect me.

Emotions are tough, smiles, tears, butterflies in our stomach and fear sometimes all at once.

I feel so tough saying this as if I can handle any emotion and just move on…total opposite I am nervous wreck, I worry about my list of shoulds, I worry if people like me, I worry if I can’t close a deal in time, I pace for hours at times to think of all these things I can’t control but need to understand, I stay awake for hours worrying about other people, finances, product, family and love. This is because I care and when I am passionate about something or someone I must give my all…my best.

I am able to keep a lot of these emotions to myself or oddly feel they are meant for someone special to only know about so I can either scare them away or feel safe that they know my crazy side and still like me. So they can be the same with me and feel safe that I appreciate even their crazy side.

We are all “crazy”, we are all afraid of our feelings and we all just want to be loved for who we are…we all bleed.

My heart guides all of me and with my brain helps me have spirit so I can feel the decisions I make, so I can take risks to be me, so I can show the right people the right parts of me so I can obtain freedom and share it.

After 38 years I thought nothing could feel that new I was wrong everything is new everyday so treat your first like your last and your last like your first.

Listen to your heart and argue with yourself, you know you better than anyone.

Opinion: GM makes drastic advertising decisions or GM VS Facebook

Posted: May 19, 2012 in Posts
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So Facebook is not effective although nearly 60% of FB users click on ads, over 3 million brand pages are there, it is the largest data bureau in the world. Study: Nearly half of Facebook users never click ads

GM to Stop Advertising on Facebook – was GM really advertising in Facebook?

Missing communications and social context.

Especially when slightly comparing it to the GM website

And now the Super Bowl is too expensive even with massive traditional and digital media reach as well as a wide and engaged audience…

GM drops out of Super Bowl advertising

Message to who, with what goal and how can reaction be expected here that would lead to engagement, word of mouth, or sales lift?

Advertising is now more dynamic than ever so I agree budgets, creative and marketing communications should move with the engagement and the goals faster. However for a brand like GM that has the budgets for Super Bowl and mass community management I think the decisions being made are not dynamic just drastic.

If GM were to  run a Super Bowl ad that led to an engagement campaign and reduced spending in other areas that are not as measurable, success could come possibly in a short period of time.

TV is still a huge advertising channel but for who and for what and why is what we need to know before planning a TV campaign for a client, especially with the reach, relevance and engagement available to us with digital video.

We really now have the exciting opportunities to iterate, personalize, and optimize ads based upon real human behavior and opinion via socnet. The data is enormous now but the data is enormous now, so that said I think the key is paying close attention to optimize all media up and down the marketing funnel, “arbing” properly the creative, content, context, media and goal.

Our minds are like parachutes, they only work when they are open, and allow freedom of thought minus the fears.

Think prospect relationship management is what I tell  my clients, try not to crash the dinner party get invited, deliver a message that is more natural, use the social windows properly and combine them with traditional media and methods.

GM There is plenty of opportunity for you here and I am glad to see a brand like you being sensitive to spends that is smart but try not to lose sight and focus on the “long tail.”

PS – I wouldn’t hide any cars in some odd place and try to get people to find them and don’t think more celebrity power, think influence, reach and seduction.

There is plenty of opportunity to be effective right down to the dealer and point of purchase level with engaging, efficient, unique, and seductive marketing communications. The data can lead you there.

 

Also published here: GM vs. Facebook by Brian Rice – The Fearless Group Blog – contributor

Blackberry – A Troubled Relationship

Posted: January 24, 2012 in Posts
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Dear RIM,

(I hope you will receive this message via social media, since the decision you’re making has important consequences for your customers).

I’m speaking for myself and, to some extent, for all RIM customers. (Naturally, I encourage other customers to voice their own views.)

First, I want to thank you for the work you’ve done to date. I’ve been a loyal RIM customer and a brand ambassador when given the opportunity. Over the past two years, however, I’ve thought many times about switching to an iPhone or another competitor’s device.

While I continue to be happy with some of the features that sold me on you in the first place: amazing email functionality, superior security and your keyboard (I have a Bold 9900, and dig the device), I believe it’s high time RIM provides its customers some new reasons to remain loyal.

There was a great article in the NYT this weekend on Apple’s manufacturing which demonstrated the incredible emphasis Apple has on anticipating consumers’ needs during product development. It would be impossible for an Apple customer to read the article and not feel that Apple cares deeply about their product experience, considering even how their phone’s going to fare when placed in their pocket next to their housekeys. It’s a good read on American manufacturing that also touches on margins, work ethics and more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

I don’t have any special knowledge of RIM’s product development methodology and so can’t make a comparison. If RIM is working in similar fashion to Apple, planning a future with its customers based on their needs, I’d be glad to know about it. The way I see it, RIM and I are and have been in a relationship. I suppose I’m asking what RIM’s commitment to me is and what it’s done for me lately.

Relationships involve getting better at what you’re already really good at, learning what the other person really wants from you and then working on being more of whatever that is. For RIM, this should involve embracing niche markets and developing more of what they want.

I’m not going to give a full list of what I need from RIM right now but there are undoubtedly areas for improvement that benefit us both. These have to include merchant abilities (possibly in the works), a secured merchant app so I can have outside sales reps for my software company accept payments. One new reason why this is important is that Square, one of the most popular services, isn’t available for Blackberry https://help.squareup.com/customer/portal/articles/140388-can-i-use-square-with-my-blackberry- This would really make us both happier. Mobile merchant services is not a bad look considering…

I feel we aren’t communicating well. Maybe you have plans I’m not aware of—things that would allow me to worry less and be more enthusiastic about our future. I know, financially, you’re stressed out right now. Frankly, it’s that way for a lot of companies, so know you’re not alone and you’re in a better place than many others, I’m here to support you for the long haul. However, you can’t ignore that I’ve made plenty of sacrifices to be in this relationship. It’s time for you to reciprocate by making some compromises of your own.

I think it would be cool to see you working on a highly publicized incubator to build enhancements to the Blackberry experience. Make it fun, challenging (independent of your existing culture) and really focus this on utilization of existing customers; score us and the ROI on each of us.

You can’t be everything to everyone, so prioritizing our relationship right now is pretty important. Think beyond startups. Look for mobile companies and software that will really benefit your customers and help them provide products to us (Right now, they’re almost all very focused on Apple IOS and Android, understandably so). When I say “highly publicized,” I don’t mean a reality show, I mean publicized on social media and communicated to me and my friends and then their friends…because that’s how it works. Think Kickstarter concepts for RIM (not literally); source the interest from me, don’t be afraid to ask. You haven’t asked about me in a long time.

Another idea, Vlingo! I used the Christmas credit you gave me (thank you!) so it was free. That was cool because I was already testing the free trial, is there a way to work more closely with them? Are you already doing that? They’re the same company as Siri, right, but I tested Siri and, well, Vlingo needs work but has potential. I would just be cautious on advertising it too soon, I think there’s a way to find out what help Vlingo may need, what challenges they have, and what it would take for Vlingo deliver the best version possible to Blackberry users and then make it happen!

Well RIM you know how to reach me…

Cheers –

Brian Rice