tedkassabi

Do you treat your business like the Cobbler’s kid that wears no shoes?  If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it’s an ironic phenomenon that happens to many business owners.  The long and short of it:  When Entrepreneurs actually stop doing for themselves the very thing they provide for their clients.    It’s referred to as  Cobbler’s Children Syndrome  (named after the proverbial children of shoemakers who don’t have their own shoes).   We are   ALL  guilty of this at one time or another. Myself included.  And I’ll admit it, because I get it.   Here's why this hits so close to home ... I've not only been there, I've struggled with this  over and over  again for decades. Whenever a client need comes up, I put the client first  (more often than not above the needs of our own company).  Tell me if this sounds familiar … You make a conscious effort to work “on” your business and even gain some traction from your effort(s).  All of a sudden a client needs something urgent, or a n

I heard a marketer once say, “Whatever business you  think  you’re in, you’re not.”  The sentence alone made me stop and listen.  He then followed that with, “I want you to forget everything you think your business is right at the present moment and shift your perspective to this thought:  You’re not in the [fill in the blank] business, you’re in the business of marketing and sales.”  I couldn’t help but think how true that statement really was.  Marketing attracts prospects  Without marketing, prospects don’t know you exist  Without prospects, no one can buy what your business has to offer  When you’re not selling what you have to offer, what you really have is a  hobby ,  not a business .   All too often Entrepreneurs fall victim to the misconception of  “Build it and they will come” ... Which could quite possibly be a big contributor to the 9 out of 10 businesses that fail within the first 10 years of being in business.   Did you know that out of the 10% which survive, another 9 out

When I hear the word legacy these days, I can’t help but think about a conversation I had with Sir Richard Branson last year about his 10 Generation Plan   (building something that can positively impact at least 10 generations).  How’s that for a powerful legacy?  Ever since that conversation, my perspective dramatically shifted especially when it came to thinking about the purpose of my business, and the impact I want my team and I to make in this world by helping other businesses aspire to achieve their unique legacies.  You could say my purpose became pretty darn clear... To help grow and scale mission driven companies into iconic legacies for generations to come. Infinite businesses.   Success for me would be to leave that footprint long after I was gone and have it live on for generations to come.  You see, no matter how successful we are… in life   OR   in business, a powerful reminder we all should embrace is that   we are all mortal, and our time here will eventually come to an

Most Entrepreneurs I meet are very confident in what they offer  (whether that be a product or service or both) , yet sales still stagnate and many  still  struggling to break through that invisible ceiling in their business… So why don’t more people want what they have to offer?   Some might try to convince them they have a sales problem. And although that’s a legitimate variable to consider … 9 times out of 10 it’s  NOT a sales problem .  Let’s take a quick step back for a moment  (I promise we’ll come back full circle) ... Imagine you see something you want to buy.  Do you solely base your purchasing decision on the item’s functional value  (i.e., what can it do for you) ?  Of course not.  Products and services are purchased for reasons much more complex than simply because you “need” them.   As human beings we’re more likely to make our purchase based on the emotions the product or service stirs up inside of us  (i.e., what does it make me feel like)?  As extreme as it sounds, that

The big, bad C word… CONFLICT. It’s one of the most mis-understood “challenges'' in companies today. I say this as a direct result of a recent experience my team and I encountered. So in addition to it being timely, I felt compelled to share my thoughts and perspective on this matter hoping it will help you and your team as much as it’s helped me and mine... Conflict by definition is,  “A serious disagreement or argument, typically a protracted one.”   To most, the word itself evokes feelings of negativity.   I’ll be the first to admit...I was guilty of that myself.   However, knowing what I know NOW, my perspective has entirely shifted.  This has become one of those “Ah-ha” moments I wish I would’ve learned much earlier in the game of business… It all started about 18 months ago... My team and I were on one of our weekly leadership calls.  The topic of integrating a business operating system into our operations structure arose. We had been thinking about it for some time, and

I don’t know many Entrepreneurs who haven’t plateaued multiple times and struggled to reach the pinnacle of success they dreamed about when they first made the decision to start their own business… So what do you do if you’re stuck, or don’t know how to get to the next level?  My  go-to  has always been to  find someone who has been there and DOES know HOW...   I’m sure you’d agree that we all have at least one or two things that we really excel at… it’s what makes us unique. Never have I met someone who excels at  everything ... Think about the most successful people running some of the most successful companies. Do you think they did it alone? Heck no.  Look at Apple. Many think Steve Jobs is solely responsible for Apple’s success and visionary approach. But he  didn’t  do it alone. Steve Wozniak designed the very first Apple computer and co-founded Apple with Jobs in 1976. In fact, Steve Jobs told his biographer that without Wozniak, there never would have been an Apple. They both r