Gratuitous sorcery and incantations from actual Wizards.

Eighty-eight percent of the Fortune 500 companies that existed in 1955 are gone. Poof.

Half of them withered because they had a manager in the role of CEO when they desperately needed a leader. The other half were destroyed by a leader when a manager could have held the company together and grown it incrementally.

The most important role of a board of directors is to know when their company needs a leader and when it needs a manager.

Managers prefer incremental change, evolution.
Leaders prefer exponential change, revolution.

Managers guard the status quo. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Leaders invent new ways of thinking. “If it ain’t broke, break it, so we can create something new.”

Managers prefer a map and a path.
Leaders prefer unexplored territory.

Managers say, “Ready, Aim, Fire.”
Leaders say “Ready, Fire, Aim.” But this isn’t as crazy as it sounds. When shooting a cannon, this is called finding your range.

Managers focus on planning and execution.
Leaders focus on improvisation and innovation.

Managers make organizational charts.
Leaders make messes.

Managers are given authority over others.
Leaders are voluntarily followed by others.

Kodak, Blockbuster, MySpace, General Motors, and General Electric were overwhelmingly dominant in their categories until their Manager-CEO’s fell asleep while guarding the status quo.

Do not think the internet killed K-Mart, Montgomery Wards, Sears, J.C. Penney, or Bed Bath & Beyond. Walmart sells all those same products and they’re still doing fine because they saw the marketplace rapidly changing in August, 2016 and responded by putting visionary leader Marc Lore in charge of Walmart’s US e-commerce operations.

Amazon did $398.8 billion in 2021.
Walmart did $488 billion.

Managers mistakenly think they can lead.
Leaders mistakenly think they can manage.

I know only two men who can perform both functions. Dewey Jenkins is one of them.

If I had written those words during the 10 years Dewey and I worked together, it would have sounded like flattery. But now that he is retired and I have stepped away, I am free to speak the truth.

Good mothers can also perform both functions. Every good mother is a miraculous manager and a visionary leader.

I was raised by an extremely good mother and my sons were raised by another.

Good managers know what to “protect at all costs.” They know what not to change.

Bad managers look only for compliance and conformity, blind to the special abilities that hide within their employees. But good managers see those special abilities and call them to the surface where they can sparkle. A good manager encourages your special ability and uses it to maximum effect, while partnering you with someone who sparkles in the area where you are weak.

When you see a legendary duo, you can be sure that a brilliant manager put them together.

The genius of visionary leaders is that they charge full speed ahead when they see opportunity on the horizon. When they see a storm coming, they steer around it.

Visionary leaders recognize what is no longer working and do not hesitate to change it. Bang. Gone.

If you want to listen to the inner thoughts of visionary leaders and understand how their minds work, there are only two books you need to read.

1. Sam Walton: Made in America (John Huey and Sam Walton)
2. Iacocca: An Autobiography (Lee Iacocca and William Novak)

As a special bonus to yourself, take a look at – Where Have All the Leaders Gone? – a slim volume written by Lee Iacocca when he was 82 years old.

I love that book.

And I love you, too.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

If you need new branding guidance, book a call with no other than Wizard of Ads®. We'll help you figure out what new perspective on branding can work for your business.

Authority can be given to a person. Leadership cannot.

People with authority often have no followers.
People with followers often have no authority.

Leaders require no authority. They say, ‘This is what I’ve decided to do.’ And then they do it. Others see them doing it and decide to follow.

On Tuesday I was on the phone to my friend Manley Miller in New Orleans when he said,

“No one wants to be a leader anymore. Everyone wants to be a commentator. You want to know how to identify a leader? Just took for the person who’s making the decisions.”

The notorious billionaire oil man and corporate raider, T. Boone Pickens passed along this advice at the end of his life,

“Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader: Avoid the ‘Ready-aim-aim-aim-aim’ syndrome. You have to be willing to fire. Learn from mistakes. That’s not just a cliché. I sure made my share. Remember the doors that smashed your fingers the first time and be more careful the next trip through. Be humble. I always believed the higher a monkey climbs in the tree, the more people below can see his ass. You don’t have to be that monkey.”

In his book, “Where Have all the Leaders Gone?” Lee Iacocca, that innovative leader who breathed new life into one of America’s most important corporations said,

“The most innovative research is often killed during the peer review process. Why? Well, let me put it to you simply: Imagine if every time Chrysler wanted to bring a new car to market, it had to depend on positive reviews from GM and Ford. Are you starting to get the picture?”

During his rant at a Wizard of Ads partner meeting a few years ago, the dazzling Mick Torbay said,

“You need to understand something: the committee is not evil. The committee doesn’t want you to fail. The committee has nothing but good intentions. But the committee can’t innovate. More than anything, the committee wants to look good to the rest of the committee… So don’t be surprised that when you present a really, really great idea to a committee, the only thing you’re gonna get is a reason why that idea won’t work; one reason for every member of the committee. The committee will always pull you to the center. The committee will help you avoid risk, but risk and reward are two sides of the same coin. If you avoid risk, then huge success is out of the question. Are you okay with that?”

As we approach the beginning of a brand-new year, let’s go back to what I said in the beginning:

Authority can be given to a person. Leadership cannot.
People with authority often have no followers.
People with followers often have no authority.

Leaders require no authority. They say, ‘This is what I’ve decided to do.’
And then they do it. Others see them doing it and decide to follow.

What have you decided to do?

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.

I want you to:
be more productive,
reduce your mistakes,
shorten your learning curve,
and elevate your success.

If I am going to help you do these things, we must first look at what’s hiding in your blind spot.

Are you ready?

Teamwork in Business is Highly Overrated.

Teamwork is never the answer.
Individual responsibility is the answer.

A relay race is really just a series of individual runners, three of whom begin their efforts with an advantage, or a deficit, handed to them by the previous runner. If a runner increases that advantage or shortens that deficit, he or she was successful.

When individuals are rewarded collectively, we create the illusion of a team.

1: Individual responsibility brings out the best in us.
2: You create a committee when you remove individual responsibility.
3: Every bureaucracy begins as a well-intentioned committee.

But we love to be members of a tribe. Being part of a team – a tribe – gives us a sense of identity, purpose, and adventure. These feelings help us to perform as individuals.

Americans love football. But it isn’t the teamwork that attracts us. It is the tribalism and the tribal leaders.

Quarterbacks, running backs and receivers – the tribal leaders who score the most points – are paid a lot more money than the rest of the team. So why do coaches tell players that every member of the team is “equally important”?

I can’t help but hear the “Animal Farm’ voice of George Orwell, his tongue about to punch a hole in his cheek,

“All animals are created equal. But some animals are more equal than others.”

The role of a tribal leader is to instill the values, beliefs, and culture of the tribe into each of its members and each of its fans.

Tribal leaders are different from tribal managers.

A Manager – a Coach – holds each individual responsible for delivering the outcome that he or she has been assigned.

Steve Jobs did not invent the Apple computer. Steve Wozniak invented the Apple computer.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were not a team. They were partners, each of whom had specific responsibilities.

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me … they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone …. I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.” *

That is Steve Wozniak’s advice to you.

“Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy… Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”

– John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Wozniak was the first runner in a relay race. He handed the baton to Steve Jobs. When Jobs was forced to hand that baton to John Sculley in 1985, Scully stumbled and handed the baton to Michael Spindler who stumbled and handed it to Gil Amelio who fell on his face and left a 20-foot skid mark on the track.

Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1996 and brought it back to life. After he died in 2011, tribal manager Tim Cook lifted Apple to a $1 trillion stock valuation, the first ever in history.

Professor Scott Galloway made a piercing comment about the power of tribal leaders when he was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour,

“As societies become wealthier and more educated, the reliance on a super-being and church attendance goes down, but they still look for idols. Into that void steps technology leaders because technology… …is the closest thing we have to magic. Our new Jesus Christ was Steve Jobs, and now Elon Musk has taken on that mantle.”

Although I admired the abilities of Steve Jobs, he was merely the popularizer, the face, the dynamic leader, the pitchman, the philosopher, the high priest of the Apple religion. Without Wozniak, Steve Jobs would likely have been just another California techie bouncing from company to company in blue jeans, a black turtleneck, and sneakers.

I will leave Elon Musk up to you.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and we’ll hook you up.

There are only three reasons to have a list of core values.

    1: Inspire and reinforce “on-brand” behavior from employees.
    2: Assist in the orientation and onboarding of new hires.
    3: Inform investors, customers, and other interested parties of what they can expect from you.

PROBLEM: When your core values include aspirational words that describe attributes rather than actions, your core values list will be interpreted differently by different readers, regardless of any clarifying language that might appear beneath the aspirational words.

Use descriptions of actions
rather than create a list of attributes.

These are a few core values
that describe aspirational attributes
rather than observable actions:

“Transparency”
“Integrity”
“Quality”
“Accountability”
“Respect”
“Passion”

How do you know if a person is transparent, accountable, or passionate?
It is hard to know what a person is being, but it is easy to see what they are doing.

Actions are easier to recognize than Attributes.
This is why lists of attributes rarely ring true in the hearts of employees.
When you list aspirational attributes instead of observable actions:

1. Employees aren’t exactly sure what to do.
2. New hires are intimidated and confused.
3. Investors, customers, and other interested parties will not be able to clearly observe your core values manifested through the actions of your people.

If your employees do not see your core values modeled by their fellow employees and reinforced by management each day, you don’t have a core values list; you have a wish list, a poster on the wall that will quickly become invisible.

An actionable Core Values List will improve your company culture as well as the experience you deliver to your customers.

Ray Seggern teaches:
Your core values list is the STORY you are telling,
the daily experience of your employees determines your CULTURE,
and the reactions of your customers will be determined by the EXPERIENCE you give them.

If you have a Wish List of aspirational attributes rather than a Core Values List of observable actions, here are a few examples of how attributes can be expressed and described as actions:

Rather than say “Transparency,”
we might say, “We make only honest and accurate statements about our products.”

Rather than say “Integrity,”
we might say, “We always follow through on our promises.”

Rather than say “Quality,”
we might say, “We will only sell products that are expertly manufactured from the finest materials.”

Rather than say “Accountability,”
we might say, “We never make excuses for our shortcomings or try to shift the blame to others.”

Rather than say “Respect,”
we might say, “We use courteous language at all times and maintain eye contact when others are speaking.”

Rather than say “Passion,”
we might say, “We smile and display energy, attention, and enthusiasm at all times.”

In conclusion: A core values list, by definition, should contain only your core values. Don’t let it morph into a comprehensive list that feels like a sermon or a pep talk. Short, tight lists work better than long, rambling ones. Your core values list should not exceed 100 words. (The “actions” list in bold letters is 71 words.)

If you aren’t a showman or a storyteller, you’re still in good company. Wizard of Ads® can help you create the brand or marketing story you need to drive your user experience. Book a call.

I meet with dozens of people each year who tell me how they grew their companies to an impressive size, but then the growth slowed down. And then it stopped. They can see a lot more business out there; they just can’t figure out how to get it.

I used to call this, “hitting the glass ceiling,” but I don’t call it that anymore. Now I say, “You need to add more steps to your ladder.”

Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:

1. It is easy to pick the low-hanging fruit.
   According to the US Census, there are 17 million owner-operated businesses in America that have no employees other than the owner. I imagine them as 17 million guys named Chuck and each of them has a truck. All of these Chucks-in-Trucks live off the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. They provide pest control, plumbing, electrical work, window cleaning, gutter installation, A/C repair, junk hauling, roofing, remodeling, swimming pool resurfacing, cement pouring, and tax preparation. They make a living, but their businesses are not scalable. In fact, it’s not really a business at all. When Chuck isn’t behind the wheel of that truck, Chuck is unemployed. But Chuck survives because it is easy to pick the low-hanging fruit.
2. Most of the fruit on the tree requires a step-ladder for you to reach it.
   The steps on the ladder are preparation and planning, procedures and processes, recruitment and retention of customers, recruitment and retention of employees, vendor relations, profit margin monitoring, cash management, lines of credit, and then of course there is advertising and marketing.
3. Every successful person has a superpower, a core competency, an area of excellence.
   And when the growth of the business begins to slow, the instinct of these people is always to double-down on the things that got them to where they are. This is a very seductive mistake.
4. The steps that got you to where you are… will not take you to the next level.
   The business owner knows the steps that got them to where they are. They can name the reasons for their success. This is why they believe that doing what they have always done – but with greater intensity and deeper commitment – will lift the company to a whole new level. But it never does.
5. To get to the next level, you need to add more steps to your ladder.
   You’ve got to start doing things you’ve never done before. You have to identify your limiting beliefs. You have to go outside your comfort zone.

It usually takes business owners about 3 years of pushing and straining plus motivational talks, accountability partners and invigorated compensation plans that result in zero growth before they realize that they have already found all the customers who like to buy in the way the business owner prefers to sell.

Do you want to hear something really weird? I have learned that it is almost pointless to suggest meaningful change to a business owner until their business has been flat for about 3 years. It has been my observation that they will always resist adding more steps to their ladder until they have utterly exhausted their confidence in their superpower.

Has your business been flat for awhile? Are you tired of standing on your tiptoes at the top of your ladder reaching as high as you can with your strong right arm and finding nothing there?

Add more steps to your ladder.

To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.

Hungry people look for food.
Sad people look for hope.
Ambitious people look for opportunity.
Oppressed people look for escape.

But if food is available and you are neither sad nor oppressed and your ambition is – for now at least – satisfied, you are contented.

Contented people look for entertainment.

The company that wins more of the customer’s time is the one most likely to win their money.

What currency do you offer your customer in exchange for their time?

Do you offer them information?

Information holds little interest for persons who aren’t currently in the market for your product.

Information is valuable only to a customer who is currently, consciously in the market for a product they haven’t already chosen in their heart. This is when the search engine optimization energy of all your competitors will wiggle and wink at your customer from 46 different directions.

SEO is a last-minute, last-ditch attempt to win the affections of the undecided and uncommitted.

Why not win your customer’s heart before they need your product?

Great ads make customers think of you immediately – and feel good about you – when they finally need what you sell.

Would you like to win your customer’s time and attention?

Give them entertainment.

ENTERTAINMENT: “A thing to which a person chooses to direct their attention due to the pleasure it brings them.”

We direct our attention to many things each day that do not bring us pleasure: the obligations that come with employment and the ambushes that come with life; tax returns and kids in trouble, lawsuits and medical problems.

Entertainment is a currency.

You would be amazed at what you can buy with it.

You may recall that last week’s Monday Morning Memo ended with these lines:

Weirdly, Wizard Academy doesn’t advertise. The only way you’ll hear about the Academy is from an alumnus who thinks you belong.

And guess what?

You do belong.”

I was able to say “you belong” because you were entertained enough by the subject matter to read it all the way through to the end.

And now you’ve done it again.

This makes me happy.

It’s a clear indication that you are a self-selected member our tribe.

Welcome.

To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.