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Archives for June 2020

The 1 Tweet That Caused A Ban On Electronics On Airlines.Html

Best-Kept Travel Secrets

The 1 Tweet That Caused a Ban On Electronics on Airlines

Electronics travel ban got you down? You can stay sane with these simple measures.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

The 1 Tweet That Caused a Ban On Electronics on Airlines
Getty Images

If you have been on any international flights since March 2017, or have had any scheduled, you may have heard a rumor that electronics are no longer allowed in an aircraft cabin. For some people, it may seem nothing to worry about, but for those (like me) who have experienced it first-hand, it is a confusing, harrowing and even dangerous situation both personally and professionally.

A quick timeline:

On March 20th, Royal Jordanian Airways tweeted “Following instructions from the concerned US departments, we kindly inform our dearest passengers departing to and arriving from the United States that carrying any electronic or electrical device on board the flight cabins is strictly prohibited.”

It is important to note that prior to this, there was no electronics ban to any Middle Eastern country from the US.

After this, however, other airlines noted that they had received intelligence notices from the US suggesting that they implement measures by March 24th that would affect flights in 10 airports within the Middle East — but only on 8 airlines that serve those locations.

The nature of the ban is itself confusing. All “electronics items larger than a cell phone” are to be confiscated, checked into the cargo area of the aircraft, and can be reclaimed later.

Recently, while traveling on Turkish Airlines through Istanbul, I saw this in action. Only my personal laptop, kindle and laptop power cord were taken, leaving me with my external cell phone power packs (li-on) and cell phones.

For others, it was not so clear; I saw noise-cancelling headsets, electric razors, laptops, portable keyboards, external hard drives, etc, taken and placed into anonymous black cases.

As a security professional, this sight alone made me reticent to continue to do business that takes me to the Middle East — and that may be the entire point of this ban.

For this 11-hour flight, all of the business people on this flight, and hundreds of other flights per day to and from the Middle East, are now separated from their data. If you’re like me, you keep it encrypted. However, you have no control over what happens to it while in the care of the airline.

Therefore, for entrepreneurs and business travelers, while this ban is in place, here are my three recommendations for how to survive the ban while keeping your company and client data safe.

1. Keep important files off your computer.

If its something that you have a duty to protect, or is confidential, make sure it is something that you aren’t handing over to someone else. Keep client files on an encrypted thumb drive that remains on your person, or in an encrypted cloud storage solution that you always have access to.

2. Travel with as few electronics as possible.

Your cell phone is as powerful as a computer, so for a short trip, you may be able to get away with your phone and an external keyboard. The airline I flew, Turkish, provided all travelers with free WiFi access for the duration of the flight, to allow us to do business anyway.

3. Keep flying.

This is not the fault of the airlines, so please don’t cancel your flights or plans. While flying Turkish Airlines, they gave us stellar treatment despite the poor circumstances surrounding the ban.

While I’m hopeful this will be a temporary measure, with these simple steps you’ll be able to keep sane while flying.

Jun 5, 2017
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of JCRT
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of JCRT

When New York State went into quarantine in mid-March, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra had just moved JCRT, their direct-to-consumer shirt company, to a new office on Pier 59 in New York City. Founded in 2016, JCRT celebrates all things plaid and camouflage, with colorful patterns named after David Bowie and Kate Bush albums and movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Stuck in a rentalhome in rural New Jersey,the married Costello andTagliapietragot to work. Heartsick that the city that had been their base and home for years was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, they wanted to do something to help friends on the frontlines.Costello began sewing masks from whatever sample fabrics he had on hand.Tagliapietra boxed them “by the hundreds” and the couplesentthem to wherever they heard PPE was needed.

“Everything was sort of unknown at that point,” Tagliapietra says. “We were very happy to be able to even do that.”

After sewing about 600 masks (“My hands were tired!” Costello jokes), they were able to reopentheir factory in the Dominican Republic, which been closed due to government quarantine and curfew rules, and began producing masks for sale and donation, giving more than 12,000 to first responders. They’re donating a portion of their retail sales to the New York City Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund, benefiting health care workers, supporting small businesses, and vulnerable workers and families. Without any marketing other than their social feeds, Tagliapietra and Costello estimate they’ve sold 45,000 masks through JCRT and raised more than $65,000.

Now they’re selling masks and collared shirts made from a black, red, and green plaid, with proceeds going to Movement for Black Lives. Over the Father’s Day weekend, which also included the commemoration of Juneteenth, they donated 100 percentof the sales of those goods to the organization.

JCRT is a second act for Costello and Tagliapietra, who previously founded a women’s wear business called Costello Tagliapietra in 2005. Their runway shows were written up in glossy fashion magazines and the founders got a lot of press for their shared plaid-on-plaid aesthetic and impressive beards, which led to theirbeing dubbed “the lumberjacks of fashion.”

Keeping their operation small also allows the foundersto decide where and how to focus their energies, including supporting the causes they careabout. They’re nowat work on another fundraiser, this one for Pride month,with proceeds going to the Ali Forney Center, a New York City-based program for LGBTQ homeless youth.With their factory up and running, JCRT also continues to release new designs, sellingdressshirts, pants, jackets, bags, and accessoriesthrough their website.

Jun 23, 2020

The 1 Thing You Need To Do Right Now To Fund Your Startup.Html

Money

The 1 Thing You Need to Do Right Now to Fund Your Startup

Trying to get money for your idea? Stop having coffee dates and do this instead.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

The 1 Thing You Need to Do Right Now to Fund Your Startup
Getty Images

Have you got an amazing idea?

Is it something that will change the world?

Would you give up everything you have to turn your idea into a reality?

If you answered yes to those three questions, it’s likely that you have a bit of entrepreneurial blood in you. However, being entrepreneurial does not necessarily mean that you are business savvy, nor that you have the skills and practical expertise bring an idea to life.

This is where most people go wrong.

Often, people think that those three things are the only factors in raising capital, when investors barely consider them at all.

You don’t know what you don’t know

Admitting you need help is a difficult thing, and it becomes especially hard when you aren’t sure who or what to ask for. When all you have is an idea (even if you’re clear on that idea) it’s easy to become paralyzed by where to go next.

Seeking a patent for your idea may seem like the right move, and depending on the type of idea, you may be right. In 2015, there were almost 650,000 patent applications in the US, compared to only 300,000 in 2000, due in part to the rise of services like InventHelp.

However, patents are expensive, can take a long time to be issued, and even once you have one, they’re exceptionally hard to enforce if you have no entity with deep pockets behind you.

Finding mentors and advisors might also seem like a good idea, especially if you’re looking to put together a solid team to build your product, but you need to be clear on what these people will do for you. If they’re simply people who will answer an email once a year, they’re not very helpful.

If they will give you their time, money, and domain expertise (at a minimum), then they’re worth your time. But attracting people to an idea is difficult unless you’re a charismatic person, and keeping them around for very long is even harder.

The key to success

Before spending your money on filing a patent or your valuable time on finding mentors and advisors, you need to validate your product.

As an investor, the main question I want answered about a product is:

How will this make me money?

As the founder, therefore, before you ever come think of coming to me, you need to have that answered back, front, upside down and sideways. Prove your concept.

This means you are going to have to put real time and effort (and probably a lot of your own, your friends and your family’s money) into talking to people, gathering data, building a prototype, and building buzz about what you’re doing before getting to the phase where someone else will put substantial money behind you.

Coincidentally, this is why the majority of Kickstarters and Indiegogo campaigns fail — if you try to launch them before you’ve validated your product, then you’ll quickly find that people aren’t interested. Instead, wait until you’ve gotten a moderate amount of interest in the form of a mailing list and social followers before attempting to crowdfund.

Stop wasting time trying to get other people interested in putting money behind your idea; instead, build something for them to be interested in.

Mar 31, 2017
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of JCRT
Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of JCRT

When New York State went into quarantine in mid-March, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra had just moved JCRT, their direct-to-consumer shirt company, to a new office on Pier 59 in New York City. Founded in 2016, JCRT celebrates all things plaid and camouflage, with colorful patterns named after David Bowie and Kate Bush albums and movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Stuck in a rentalhome in rural New Jersey,the married Costello andTagliapietragot to work. Heartsick that the city that had been their base and home for years was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, they wanted to do something to help friends on the frontlines.Costello began sewing masks from whatever sample fabrics he had on hand.Tagliapietra boxed them “by the hundreds” and the couplesentthem to wherever they heard PPE was needed.

“Everything was sort of unknown at that point,” Tagliapietra says. “We were very happy to be able to even do that.”

After sewing about 600 masks (“My hands were tired!” Costello jokes), they were able to reopentheir factory in the Dominican Republic, which been closed due to government quarantine and curfew rules, and began producing masks for sale and donation, giving more than 12,000 to first responders. They’re donating a portion of their retail sales to the New York City Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund, benefiting health care workers, supporting small businesses, and vulnerable workers and families. Without any marketing other than their social feeds, Tagliapietra and Costello estimate they’ve sold 45,000 masks through JCRT and raised more than $65,000.

Now they’re selling masks and collared shirts made from a black, red, and green plaid, with proceeds going to Movement for Black Lives. Over the Father’s Day weekend, which also included the commemoration of Juneteenth, they donated 100 percentof the sales of those goods to the organization.

JCRT is a second act for Costello and Tagliapietra, who previously founded a women’s wear business called Costello Tagliapietra in 2005. Their runway shows were written up in glossy fashion magazines and the founders got a lot of press for their shared plaid-on-plaid aesthetic and impressive beards, which led to theirbeing dubbed “the lumberjacks of fashion.”

Keeping their operation small also allows the foundersto decide where and how to focus their energies, including supporting the causes they careabout. They’re nowat work on another fundraiser, this one for Pride month,with proceeds going to the Ali Forney Center, a New York City-based program for LGBTQ homeless youth.With their factory up and running, JCRT also continues to release new designs, sellingdressshirts, pants, jackets, bags, and accessoriesthrough their website.

Jun 23, 2020

The 1 Airline Rule You Must Know To Keep You From .Html

Best-Kept Travel Secrets

The 1 Airline Rule You Must Know to Keep You From Getting Stranded

Have you ever been stuck at the airport? Hidden within the fine print of your ticket are terms that can make your situation better.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Covid Resource Center

How Everlywell’s Julia Cheek Makes Big Decisions Quickly

The Austin-based healthtech entrepreneur talked with Inc. about the strategic moves that led to her company’s breakthrough success.

The 1 Airline Rule You Must Know to Keep You From Getting Stranded
Getty Images

Have you ever booked a flight only to find out later that it was delayed, or worse–canceled?

You’re not alone. In only a single month of 2016, over 120,000 travelers were affected by canceled flights out of London Heathrow. Due to a problem with the baggage system, customers were left stranded in the airport for days, many having to cancel their holidays.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, solving a logistical mess like this is not easy. More passengers end up stuck due to overbooking and strict airline schedules, which can mean if you miss your original flight, you could be waiting a while for another one.

Even as a seasoned traveler, I’m not immune to the effects of system delays. On a recent trip, I was notified via email and text alert by United Airlines that the first leg of my three-flight journey was going to be delayed, causing what is called a “misconnect.”

There was no need to panic. I simply used the following three steps to make sure I still got to my final destination on time:

1. Know your rights.

The first thing to always do when traveling is to familiarize yourself with the contract of carriage for your particular airline. Different airlines have different rules around what they will cover in the event of a delay or cancellation, and even what the very definition of “cancel” or “delay” is.

In the instance of my United flight, a mechanical delay was causing the issue. This afforded me multiple options, including the right to ask United to book me on another airline if a seat in the same class of service is available.

A great source of finding updated Contracts of Carriage for your airline in plain text can be found on Airfare Watchdog.

2. Find an alternate route.

Once you know the general framework, you can now start to get creative on how to get to your final destination. Before talking to the airline, come up with another way for you to get there.

Is there another flight on your airline that will work? Maybe there’s a different airport you wanted to fly into or out of. Here’s your chance to do the legwork to find a brand new itinerary.

In my case, after a quick scan of flights, I found that while there was no way for me to make either of my next two legs due to the delay, there was a completely different itinerary I could take that would get me to my final destination only half an hour later.

A great tool for this is Tripit Pro. It also has the bonus feature of letting you know ahead of time when your flights are going to be delayed, before even the airlines send out the memo.

3. Call the airline.

I cannot stress this enough–do not wait until you are at the airport to handle any issues. There are a limited number of agents at the airport and a large number of passengers. If you wait until you arrive, you may lose the possibility of your newly found itinerary.

The majority of the time, if you call up the airline already having done the research to find new flights that work for you, they’ll be appreciative and book you on whatever it is, no matter if that flight cost $1,500 to your $99 basic economy ticket.

You’re doing them a favor by being polite and helpful. So, of course, remember to be polite and helpful, and don’t panic.

While I was waiting politely on the phone for my rebooking, the agent apologized to me multiple times and managed to snag me the last bulkhead seat available on my international flight at no extra charge.

If all else fails…

If you can’t find an alternative, and you are stuck at the airport, there are still things that can help. Airlines offer differing amounts of monetary and other compensation depending on where you’re flying in and out of, and depending on the type of delay, your credit card may as well.

Refund.me is a service that helps passengers on flights to and from the EU claim compensation from delayed and canceled flights.

While things turned out OK for me, for many other passengers on my flight trying to make connections it wasn’t so rosy–they ended up with an unplanned overnight in our connecting city. The airline provided hotel vouchers for them and rebooked them for the next day.

However, with these tips, you can slide through any delay like a pro, and avoid having to wait it out for days at the airport.

Aug 15, 2017
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
How Everlywell's Julia Cheek Makes Big Decisions Quickly

When Julia Cheek founded Everlywell in June 2015, she was, by her own estimation, “perhaps the least qualified person to start a health care startup.” And yet, as her Austin-basedat-home lab testing companyapproaches its fifth anniversary, she finds herself overseeing a staff of about 100 people, providing home tests for allergies, food sensitivities, thyroid conditions, and, as of May 2020, Covid-19. The company raised $50 million in its last round of funding and was listed at No. 3 on the Inc. 5000 regional ranking for Texas this year.

In anInc. Real Talk: Business Rebootlivestream, Cheek, 36, spoke withInc. editor-at-large Tom Foster and took questions from viewers.Their conversation ranged fromhelping her team cope with quarantine to making big decisions. Here are some highlights.

Think Big and Think Fast

In May, Cheek and her board decided to give away $1 million to labs across the U.S.to help them develop a working test for Covid-19. For a startup still counting every dime, it wasn’t an easy check to write.However, Cheek saysthey made the decision quickly. “It took about an hour,” she says. “It was one of the fastest and easiest decisions made in the history of the company.”

She knew that funding those labs would speed up development of an at-hometest. She also had to make decisions internally to offset that cost while doing everything possible to maintain head count. That meant scaling back every discretionary dollar her team could find–Goodbye, office coffee!–in order to do the right thing and keepher team. “I wanted to protect as many jobs as possible,” she says.

“It was the right decisionmade at the right time,” she says now. A month later, she’s hiring.

Look Out for Your People

When asked how she deals with the challenges of running a companyfrom home (with a new baby) as well as whilewitnessing the protests in the streets, Cheek was quick to stress the importance ofmakingsure her colleagues are able to cope. “I worry like a mom about every one of our team members,” she says. That means asking herself how her team is doing all the time and asking herselfhow she can make their days better. Sometimes that means encouraging them to disconnect from Zoom or other digital platforms and take care of themselves. “Our primary focus is: What does every employee need for their mental health?” she says.

As for her own self care, she’sbeen developingwellness routines, including taking many meetings while walking and doing her best to separate her home workspace from the rest of her house.

The Funding Challenge

Cheek spoke at length about the difficulties she encountered while seeking funding as a female founder, despite the fact that she went to Harvard Business School and had a strong network.

“It was hard for me,” she says. “So you can imagine how hard it is for people of color, especiallywomen of color. I heard a lot of noes. What I learned is that it only takes one yes.” Among those yeseswas one on-air boost from Shark Tank‘s Lori Greiner, which doubled Everlywell’s sales overnight.

Ultimately, Cheek says, people needto talk about funding obstaclesopenly and honestly and encourage entrepreneursand investors to confront theirbiases. “It’s important that founders hear stories and become part of the solution,” she says.

Related:

Julia Cheek’s Bold Decision in the Time of Covid

Watch: Kendra Scott on Connecting to Your Customers

Jun 4, 2020

Studies Prove That Power Posing Doesnt Work Heres What To Do Instead.Html

Lead

Studies Prove That Power Posing Doesn’t Work. Here’s What to Do Instead

It turns out that the feel-good shortcut to success may be just a placebo.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Jun 1, 2020
Studies Prove That Power Posing Doesn't Work. Here's What to Do Instead
Getty Images

You have five minutes before an important meeting. You will play a significant part in how it all turns out. Do you spend the time going over your notes until you are irrefutable, or stand in front of a mirror in a “Superman” pose? If you do the latter, you’re not alone.

Almost 55 million people have watched the TED Talk by Amy Cuddy, “Your body language may shape who you are,” in which she discusses the practice of power-posing. She specifically claims that by adopting a an expansive body posture, aka, a “Power Pose,”will lead to two effects:increasing feelings of power and altering a person’s hormonal response.

The practice is, in essence, a”fake it till you make it.”

The problem is, the science behind it was never really that strong to begin with. It turns out, Cuddy’s original research did not pass the “p-curve” test –in other words, the 2010 studyjust barely met the criteria for statistical significance. Additionally, no team — including Cuddy’s own — has ever been able to successfully duplicate both original claims.

In 2017, both the European Association of Social Psychology published the results of seven and Michican State University another fourindependent studiesshowing that “feeling powerful may feel good, but on its own does not translate into powerful or effective behaviors.” In addition, they found that the measured effect is no better than that of placebo.

In response,in 2018 Amy Cuddy and her team publisheda 2017study of their owntorefute the contradictory studiesthat proved that power posing makes peoplefeelpowerful. However, it does not go as far as her original paper in provinganycorrelation to a real, hormonal change.

So, if power posing doesn’t actually work — then what does? Here are some things you can do that have been proven to positively affect your body:

1. Practice assertiveness.

There is a fine line between being polite and being aggressive – and for many this is one of the most difficult skills to learn. However, it can be one of the easiest places to start when building your confidence.

The next time you order something at a restaurant that isn’t exactly how you wanted it, politely –but firmly –bring up the error and ask for a resolution. The more assertive you are about the little things, the more confident you will be in all aspects of your life.

2. Become a sponge.

One of the main reasons that people feel a lack of confidence is that they feel outclassed by the people around them. If you’re suffering from imposter syndrome –the conviction that you don’t know enough about a particular topic when other people think you do –the best way to overcome that is to start learning.

In my first managerial role, I was asked to do many tasks that I had no idea how to do. Instead of letting my lack of experience hinder myself and the company, I asked questions, read books and gained additional certifications to ensure that I had knowledge and skillset required.

3. Support others success(and failure).

While it may seem counterintuitive, one of the best things you can do for your own self-confidence is to sincerely appreciate other people’s skills and successes. If you try to measure yourself against someone else, instead of simply understanding the value other people bring and building trust, you will become jealous –and that will lead to negative results.

I frequently have deep conversations with colleagues about their successes and failures –and we don’t shy from asking personal questions either. This enables us to have a strong support network where we feel naturally confident.

Thereisa strong correlation between confidence and success — more confident you appear, the more people will trust in you. Unfortunately, while there are no shortcuts to becoming more self-confident, practicing these steps will give you real, long-term results.

Oct 30, 2019
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Stop Wasting Time On Clients Who Wont Close Heres How Ai Will Make You Better At Sales.Html

Sales

Stop Wasting Time on Clients Who Won’t Close. Here’s How AI Will Make You Better at Sales

By sticking to his strengths, CEO Andy Byrne has gotten Sequoia to back three companies in a row. Can gold strike three times?

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Inc. 5000

This Entrepreneur Hated PowerPoint So Much That She Invented Her Own Presentation Software

With the Digideck, Sportsdigita founder Angelina Lawton created a media-rich sales tool used by pro sports organizations all over the world. Now she’s seeking to corner a new market: the pitch-from-home sales team.

By Inc. Editorial, Inc. Staff
Stop Wasting Time on Clients Who Won't Close. Here's How AI Will Make You Better at Sales
Getty Images

No matter what type of company you have, how many people you convince to use your product or service can mean the difference between success and failure.

While we may use marketing, advertising or good-old-fashioned chutzpah to reach our goals, for many the most reliable way to get people to convert into customers is still using some sort of sales force. Some companies have eliminated the humans that do this, relying on their newsletter signups,landing pages and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)tools like Hubspotto get the job done. Others have full-blown sales teams — but no matter which way you go, the process looks eerily similar.

It’s a problem that Clari CEO Andy Byrnehas seen before.

Early in his career, he started working with Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital, who then funded him in his second company, Clearwell, which they then sold for $410 million. When looking to start his third, he and CTO Venkat Rengan were kicking around ideas on a whiteboard in his garage. They decided to focus on machine learning for the enterprise market. With that simple premise, they approached Sequoia, and with their previous track record had no trouble raising a Series A.

And what is that premise? As Byrneputs it, “In the last 10 to 20 years, the best way to get data was from humans, but that is a flawed approach. The modern approach is to automatically harvest multiple signals from emails and calendars and call logs, etc. As you extend that automation, you can track sales team and customer engagement, behavior and interest.”

Quite simply, CRMs are antiquated.With machine learning and AI, you can have a better chance of closing those all-important sales.

AI frees up people to do useful work.

AI is good at doing repetitive tasks — but not so good at the “human touch” stuff. By minimizing the amount of busy work they have to do (like looking up previous emails and calls), your staff will have much more meaningful interactions with potential clients.

It gives you more data.

Current CRMs are designed to capture the information that people put into them. With an AI tool, you can have pre-populated systems acting proactively, giving sales teams background information they need ahead of time, freeing up more resources.

It captures the right information.

Says Byrne, “CRM’s are designed poorly. The user experience needs to morph to different workflows and speak to the human.” In other words, you’re only as good as the tool you have — and if it doesn’t prompt you for the right information up front, it can’t display it for you later.

Tools like Clari don’t come cheap — as an integration with Salesforce (and other tools), you’ll pay an additional 25 percenton top of your subscriptions. (Similar tools like Spiro and Aviso, incur similar monthly rates.) However, Byrne feels the 300 percentreturn you get from the service is worth it.

“AI will be the death of BI. We won’t be hearing that term much longer.”

With his pedigree, you can’t help but believe he’s on to something.

Jul 12, 2018
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Angelina Lawton
Angelina Lawton

When Angelina Lawton ran communications for the Tampa Bay Lightning, she could never understand how a company with such an exciting product–professional hockey, for goodness sake–managed to be so dull when it came time to pitch potential sponsors.

“We were doing these huge pitches for naming rights with these boring PowerPoint presentations. It felt very stale,” says Lawton. “I kept thinking, we can do better.”

Her frustration spurred her to start a boutique agency, Sportsdigita, whichspecializesin making flashy presentations for pro sports sales departments–“a movie-trailer for franchises” is how she describes them. Nine years later, executives at more than450 teams, stadiums, and arenas haveused her multimedia slideshows, called Digidecks, to sell everything from merchandise licenses to luxury suites, she says.

But now the pandemic haspostponed professionalsports seasons, and widespread protestshaveLawton’s bread-and-butter clients–the sales groups–lying low. To keep revenue growing and her company afloat,Lawton ispivoting to target customers in new fields from financial services to health care.

Work-at-home sales teams at all kinds of businesses must now figure out how to close deals from afar–and they can use all the help they can get.

“Covid-19 has opened up people’s eyes to remote selling and collaborating,” says Lawton. “Our product is perfect for that.”

When Lawton first started marketing souped-up sales decks to sports and events companies, the multimedia opportunitieswere obvious.Looking to sell advertising rights to the billboards in the outfield? Show a star centerfielder leaping for a catch in front of them. Marketing the luxury suites for your arena? Play clips of the games, concerts, and monster truck rallies that clients will be able to see up-close from the box.

In 2016, she decided to focus on the hard part, the software–andbegan selling it as a service sosalespeople could produce the digidecks in-house. The move put her into direct competition with legacy competitors like Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as subscription-based online software, such asPrezi. Even so, since pivoting to this software-as-a-service model, Sportsdigita revenue has grown over 200 percent, to $4 million in 2018, which putthe company at No. 1,993 on last year’sInc. 5000 ranking of fastest-growing private U.S. businesses. It ranked at No. 146 on this year’s Inc. 5000 series Midwest list. Today, 80 percent of the company’s revenue comes from software subscriptions, and the rest fromservices. Clients include the Los Angeles Lakers, the Philadelphia Eagles, and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Now, with sporting events on hold and tensions high from weeks of protests, high-profile sports teams don’t want to be seen as tone-deaf amid the unrest. Like entrepreneurs across the world, Lawton was forced to rethinkbasic assumptions about her company and customers.

Her company has already made some early scores: insurerMutual of America, Cargill, the giant food conglomerate, and Jostens, the seller of high school yearbooks and class rings, have signed on as clients. They haveexisting libraries of media–salespeople can populate the decks with pre-loaded photo and video options from their ownexisting ads, and then present them in tandem with Zoom calls or other videoconferencing software.

Next, Sportsdigita is planning to add videoconferencing to Digideckas well, requiring new kinds of software expertise and putting the company up against the likes of Zoom.

For Sportsdigita, the new revenue has offset the slump in sports, andLawton says the company is once again on track with its pre-Covid growth targets.And her new clients? Their presentations may lack the same jaw-dropping action of their pro sports counterparts–but their infographics and bullet points are leaping off the screen like all-stars.

Jun 15, 2020

Steve Jobs Convinced Mark Zuckerberg To Focus On Community By Understanding This 1 Thing.Html

Marketing

Steve Jobs Convinced Mark Zuckerberg To Focus On Community By Understanding This 1 Thing

Stop trying to get everyone to be your customer. By instead focusing on the way people are convinced to buy, you’ll increase your conversion rate.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Covid Resource Center

How Everlywell’s Julia Cheek Makes Big Decisions Quickly

The Austin-based healthtech entrepreneur talked with Inc. about the strategic moves that led to her company’s breakthrough success.

Steve Jobs Convinced Mark Zuckerberg To Focus On Community By Understanding This 1 Thing
Getty Images

One of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur is getting sales. Often, we focus so hard on creating the best products that we don’t have any effort left to find andconvert customers.

This leads to more money spent to acquire customers and more frustration in the long run. Often, companies end up failing for just the simple reason: they can’t convert sales.

There are multiple factors that come together to determine what type of information someone needs to understand something. Additionally, there are other, completely different factors that determine how a person can be convinced to purchase your product.

A person can either be convinced by seeing, hearing, readingor doing.In addition to these four patterns, people are either convinced in one of the following ways:

  1. Automatically (right away)
  2. After a Period of Time (different for every person, can be measured in minutes, years, or in between.)
  3. After a Number of Times (a finite number, such as the classic seventouchpoints to close a customer.)
  4. Constantly -(in other words, these people always need new proof to be convinced.)

While people may have dominant learning styles, their convincing patterns are not necessarily connected. An experiential learner might need to read about someone else’s experience before going out on their own.

If you’re working as a traditional sales person with one-on-one interactions, it’s easy enough to identify your customer’s convincing pattern- you can simply ask them questions and then change the conversation appropriately.

However, when doing online marketing, you’re going to have to have a multi-pronged approach that can check all the boxes.

The first step to understanding what type of materials to create for your product is to understand the behaviors of people with these patterns.

1. Convinced by Seeing

Have you ever heard the phrase: “I’ll believe it when I see it?” Someone who is convinced by seeing will use “visual” language when they speak. They will say things like “We need to see this through” or “Can you picture this?” This type of person will want instructional videos, infographics, and visual representation of your product that they can physically see in order to be convinced to buy it.

The Dollar Shave Clubadis a goodexample of showingproduct in an engaging way.

2. Convinced by Hearing

People who are convinced in this way are looking for the quality of someone’s voice and the authority provided by it. They say things like “Sounds good!” and “You hear what I’m saying?” and they look for support in the words that people say out loud.

Using testimonial videos and other social proof is a great way to convince people by “hearing.”

3. Convinced by Doing

For some people, the only way to convince them is to let them try things for themselves. By accomplishing a task, they’ll be able to come to their own conclusion. The only thing you will be able to do is give them the task and let them go.

Steve Jobs famously asked Mark Zuckerberg to go to India to learn about community – which then helped shape the future of Facebook.

4. Convinced by Reading

This type of person wants to scan information in written form. They will be convinced by having documentation, either summarized or long-form, but they want to consume it themselves.

Reportedly, Director Rian Johnson was only convinced to take on directing Star Wars: The Last Jedi after reading the script.

    As an entrepreneur, you should aim to sell to people who are relatively easy to convince. Avoid those who require you to consistently try to advertise to them, as the cost is too high to convert them.

    For online sales, people who are convinced automatically and after a number of times are the easiest to tackle, and depending on the phase of your product the easiest way to go is via “Hearing”, through social/viral content. The second easiest is a combination of”Seeing” and “Reading”, with content in video and written channels.

    For scaling purposes, avoid anything that requires you to target “Doing” types, as well as people convinced “after a period of time” or “constantly”, as thoseboth represent high effort and low return.

    That said, in today’s internet, be cautious. While there can be some funny side effects of these convincing patterns, such as the “conspiracy” surrounding a non-existent movie in the ’90s (that often affect people who are Automatically Convinced by Reading) these can also have dangerous consequences. Ensure that you are clear on your purpose and intent when publishing any content.

    By understanding these simple patterns, you should be able to convert the maximum number of people to your product.

    Dec 19, 2017
    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
    How Everlywell's Julia Cheek Makes Big Decisions Quickly

    When Julia Cheek founded Everlywell in June 2015, she was, by her own estimation, “perhaps the least qualified person to start a health care startup.” And yet, as her Austin-basedat-home lab testing companyapproaches its fifth anniversary, she finds herself overseeing a staff of about 100 people, providing home tests for allergies, food sensitivities, thyroid conditions, and, as of May 2020, Covid-19. The company raised $50 million in its last round of funding and was listed at No. 3 on the Inc. 5000 regional ranking for Texas this year.

    In anInc. Real Talk: Business Rebootlivestream, Cheek, 36, spoke withInc. editor-at-large Tom Foster and took questions from viewers.Their conversation ranged fromhelping her team cope with quarantine to making big decisions. Here are some highlights.

    Think Big and Think Fast

    In May, Cheek and her board decided to give away $1 million to labs across the U.S.to help them develop a working test for Covid-19. For a startup still counting every dime, it wasn’t an easy check to write.However, Cheek saysthey made the decision quickly. “It took about an hour,” she says. “It was one of the fastest and easiest decisions made in the history of the company.”

    She knew that funding those labs would speed up development of an at-hometest. She also had to make decisions internally to offset that cost while doing everything possible to maintain head count. That meant scaling back every discretionary dollar her team could find–Goodbye, office coffee!–in order to do the right thing and keepher team. “I wanted to protect as many jobs as possible,” she says.

    “It was the right decisionmade at the right time,” she says now. A month later, she’s hiring.

    Look Out for Your People

    When asked how she deals with the challenges of running a companyfrom home (with a new baby) as well as whilewitnessing the protests in the streets, Cheek was quick to stress the importance ofmakingsure her colleagues are able to cope. “I worry like a mom about every one of our team members,” she says. That means asking herself how her team is doing all the time and asking herselfhow she can make their days better. Sometimes that means encouraging them to disconnect from Zoom or other digital platforms and take care of themselves. “Our primary focus is: What does every employee need for their mental health?” she says.

    As for her own self care, she’sbeen developingwellness routines, including taking many meetings while walking and doing her best to separate her home workspace from the rest of her house.

    The Funding Challenge

    Cheek spoke at length about the difficulties she encountered while seeking funding as a female founder, despite the fact that she went to Harvard Business School and had a strong network.

    “It was hard for me,” she says. “So you can imagine how hard it is for people of color, especiallywomen of color. I heard a lot of noes. What I learned is that it only takes one yes.” Among those yeseswas one on-air boost from Shark Tank‘s Lori Greiner, which doubled Everlywell’s sales overnight.

    Ultimately, Cheek says, people needto talk about funding obstaclesopenly and honestly and encourage entrepreneursand investors to confront theirbiases. “It’s important that founders hear stories and become part of the solution,” she says.

    Related:

    Julia Cheek’s Bold Decision in the Time of Covid

    Watch: Kendra Scott on Connecting to Your Customers

    Jun 4, 2020

    So Your Meeting Attendees Stood You Up Heres Exactly What You Should Do Next.Html

    Startup Life

    So Your Meeting Attendees Stood You Up. Here’s Exactly What You Should Do Next

    If your meeting attendee doesn’t show up, don’t stress. Follow up with these steps.

    By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

    Jun 1, 2020
    So Your Meeting Attendees Stood You Up. Here's Exactly What You Should Do Next
    Getty Images

    It’s ok, it happens to all of us. Odds are, you’ve missed at least one meeting in your life. Whether it was a quick phone catch-up or an in-person heart-to-heart, life can get in the way –unless you’re Bill Gates, who has his time scheduling down to a science.

    If you’re the person being ghosted, however, it isn’t always easy to be so empathetic. While you sit there waiting patiently, the minutes tick by as you come to the realization that the other person is a no-show. It is all too easy to allow your emotions to get the better of you.

    Instead of losing your cool and damaging your relationships, here’s a good framework for how to proactively avoid being stood up –and handling it if you are.

    1.Send meeting reminders.

    It’s a poorly-kept secret that most entrepreneurs pack their schedule with so many things that they can’t possibly get them all done –and then forget all the things they actually need to do that aren’t on the schedule. This causes most entrepreneurs to be perpetually busy – and it becomes easy to miss things that aren’t top of mind.

    To combat this, you need to make sure that you send a gentle reminder via their preferred communication method (SMS, Email, etc) at a time that is actionable for your meeting. If in-person, send one both the day before, and an hour before the meeting to allow for travel time. If a phone meeting, send one 10 minutes before with the relevant call-in information.

    2.Employ the five-minute rule.

    If the person has verbally accepted your meeting invitation, whether they actually clicked “yes” on the calendar request or not, you have a reasonable expectation they will appear. Therefore, if you get their voicemail, or they aren’t on Zoom, don’t waste your day.

    Wait no more than five minutes for them to call back, or login –or ten minutes for them to show up in person. Any more than that and you’re actively choosing to waste your own time –and risking your emotions getting out of line.

    3.Send a polite follow-up.

    Now, the best thing to do is to send a quick message apologizing for you both missing each other and suggesting a follow-up. Never place any blame on the other person –it will make things easier to reschedule if they see you are sincerely willing to forgive their indiscretion.

    A good template to use is:

    Dear [Name],

    I’m so sorry we weren’t able to connect. Please check my calendar to find a time that works better for you so we can talk soon!

    Me

    In many cases, you’ll get an immediate reply to find that the person was either simply running late, had technical difficulties, or honestly forgot your meeting. In any case, by handling it quickly you’ll often be able to get it rescheduled right away, and with minimal difficulty.

    4.Know when to walk away.

    Sometimes, the reason you’re being ghosted is because they’re really not that into you. If you’re a salesman trying to connect to potential clients, or an entrepreneur trying to talk to investors, you might be doing all the right things and they still never show up.

    Look for a pattern –if the person always says they’ll meet with you and then never shows up, they likely never will. Maintain your polite and calm demeanor –remember, it takes 99 no’s to reach a yes. Don’t waste your time on the people who don’t see your value.

    With these easy tips you’ll gain precious work hours back –and lower the drama in your work life at the same time!

    Oct 31, 2019
    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    In 2017. While Many Now Have Plenty Of Time On Their Hands For

    I’ve had to switch from contacts to glasses because of all the screen time and video callsshe says. Vechery co-founded her home-fertility-test startup

    Richard Branson Says This Is Most Important Thing For Entrepreneurs To Do And You Can Start Right Now.Html

    Icons & Innovators

    Richard Branson Says This Is the Most Important Thing for Entrepreneurs to do — And You Can Start Right Now

    Most people simply don’t, or won’t, ask for help. Here’s how to break out of the mold.

    By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

    Inc. 5000

    This Entrepreneur Hated PowerPoint So Much That She Invented Her Own Presentation Software

    With the Digideck, Sportsdigita founder Angelina Lawton created a media-rich sales tool used by pro sports organizations all over the world. Now she’s seeking to corner a new market: the pitch-from-home sales team.

    Richard Branson Says This Is the Most Important Thing for Entrepreneurs to do -- And You Can Start Right Now
    Getty Images

    Have you ever helped someone simply because someone asked you to? Think about any time you may have purchased cookies or candy from a co-worker, or volunteered somewhere that wasn‘t your idea, or simply gave your time, money or effort in some way to another person.

    I’m positive you won’t need to think very hard–we do it all the time. It’s easy to help other people when they are asking for it.

    Now, think about the last time you actually asked someone for help. For some people, this will be much harder. We tend to have an aversion to asking other people for what we need–or want–for fear of rejection and the embarrassment that comes with it.

    When starting out, Richard Branson realized that running a business required multiple hats. After discovering where he excelled and where he didn’t, he found other people to assist him.

    While it seems trite, the fear is all too real. Being told “no” when you’re at your most vulnerable can be too much to bear. However, successful entrepreneurs know one thing above all others: how to properly ask for and accept help. Whether you need to ask for time, money, or resources, most businesses don’t get off the ground without the support of many people.

    What can you do to become more comfortable with asking for help?

    1. Ask for something that doesn’t matter.

    When we think about asking for help, a lot of times we only conceive of things that would be a “huge imposition” to someone else–and then don’t ask because we assume we’ll be rejected. Instead, try to ask for something that someone would likely say yes to, and that if they do say no, it wouldn’t upset you overly much.

    If you practice with a few of these, you’ll gain enough confidence to be able to ask for more important things.

    2. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

    I hate asking for things — It’s one of my least favorite things. However, one time when I needed a ride from the airport, I forced myself to ask my friends rather than rely on my usual Uber. What I found was that my friends were more than willing to pick me up–they saw it as a way to spend quality time together, and not a chore.

    If you can get over your own squeamishness, you can accept the help others are trying to give you.

    3. Be specific in your ask.

    Once you have gained a bit of confidence and lost some of your embarrassment, then comes the time to start asking for more important things. In meetings, ask directly for a follow-up. Ask for feedback, next steps–even for information about any competition you might have.

    A specific request is much easier to answer.

    4. Assume nothing about the outcome.

    The most common problem people have with asking is making assumptions about what other people can give them in return. When you’re concerned with a problem, you often have tunnel-vision about how to fix it.

    By simply letting people know that you have a need, you may be presented with a solution that you may not have thought of.

    If you don’t ask–you don’t get anything. After all, what’s the worst that can happen?

    Jan 30, 2019
    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
    Angelina Lawton
    Angelina Lawton

    When Angelina Lawton ran communications for the Tampa Bay Lightning, she could never understand how a company with such an exciting product–professional hockey, for goodness sake–managed to be so dull when it came time to pitch potential sponsors.

    “We were doing these huge pitches for naming rights with these boring PowerPoint presentations. It felt very stale,” says Lawton. “I kept thinking, we can do better.”

    Her frustration spurred her to start a boutique agency, Sportsdigita, whichspecializesin making flashy presentations for pro sports sales departments–“a movie-trailer for franchises” is how she describes them. Nine years later, executives at more than450 teams, stadiums, and arenas haveused her multimedia slideshows, called Digidecks, to sell everything from merchandise licenses to luxury suites, she says.

    But now the pandemic haspostponed professionalsports seasons, and widespread protestshaveLawton’s bread-and-butter clients–the sales groups–lying low. To keep revenue growing and her company afloat,Lawton ispivoting to target customers in new fields from financial services to health care.

    Work-at-home sales teams at all kinds of businesses must now figure out how to close deals from afar–and they can use all the help they can get.

    “Covid-19 has opened up people’s eyes to remote selling and collaborating,” says Lawton. “Our product is perfect for that.”

    When Lawton first started marketing souped-up sales decks to sports and events companies, the multimedia opportunitieswere obvious.Looking to sell advertising rights to the billboards in the outfield? Show a star centerfielder leaping for a catch in front of them. Marketing the luxury suites for your arena? Play clips of the games, concerts, and monster truck rallies that clients will be able to see up-close from the box.

    In 2016, she decided to focus on the hard part, the software–andbegan selling it as a service sosalespeople could produce the digidecks in-house. The move put her into direct competition with legacy competitors like Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as subscription-based online software, such asPrezi. Even so, since pivoting to this software-as-a-service model, Sportsdigita revenue has grown over 200 percent, to $4 million in 2018, which putthe company at No. 1,993 on last year’sInc. 5000 ranking of fastest-growing private U.S. businesses. It ranked at No. 146 on this year’s Inc. 5000 series Midwest list. Today, 80 percent of the company’s revenue comes from software subscriptions, and the rest fromservices. Clients include the Los Angeles Lakers, the Philadelphia Eagles, and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

    Now, with sporting events on hold and tensions high from weeks of protests, high-profile sports teams don’t want to be seen as tone-deaf amid the unrest. Like entrepreneurs across the world, Lawton was forced to rethinkbasic assumptions about her company and customers.

    Her company has already made some early scores: insurerMutual of America, Cargill, the giant food conglomerate, and Jostens, the seller of high school yearbooks and class rings, have signed on as clients. They haveexisting libraries of media–salespeople can populate the decks with pre-loaded photo and video options from their ownexisting ads, and then present them in tandem with Zoom calls or other videoconferencing software.

    Next, Sportsdigita is planning to add videoconferencing to Digideckas well, requiring new kinds of software expertise and putting the company up against the likes of Zoom.

    For Sportsdigita, the new revenue has offset the slump in sports, andLawton says the company is once again on track with its pre-Covid growth targets.And her new clients? Their presentations may lack the same jaw-dropping action of their pro sports counterparts–but their infographics and bullet points are leaping off the screen like all-stars.

    Jun 15, 2020

    This One Tweet From Richard Branson Will Change Your View On Tardiness Forever.Html

    Icons & Innovators

    Richard Branson Just Schooled Us All About Being on Time

    Time is money, and just by showing up on time for meetings you’ll save thousands of dollars a minute for your business and clients.

    By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

    Richard Branson Just Schooled Us All About Being on Time
    Getty Images

    It’s ok. You can admit it. We’ve all done it.
    There’s probably some meetings sitting on your calendar right now that you don’t know why they’re there, or that you aren’t interested in, or worse – you’re dreading going to.

    So why did you agree to them in the first place?

    Richard Branson is arguably one of the busiest men on the planet. He has spoken at length about how he uses exercise to boost his energy and uses to-do lists to make sure he stays on top of everything.

    A key component that keeps him going and pushing through, however, is his passion for everything he does. For example, consider this tweet:

    “Jumped out of traffic jam & sprinted through Manhattan to make live interview calling for climate action”

    With those few words, he was able to convey his view on how important it is to show up on time.

    It’s respectful.

    Many people would consider it perfectly reasonable for him to call up the studio and explain that he’s stuck in traffic and ask for them to stall. Instead, he dashes across town to get there at the time he promised.

    By being on time, he’s communicating that he values the time that other people are giving out of their lives to spend with him.

    It creates a balance of power.

    This is Richard Branson after all, multibillionaire. Founder of Virgin Brands. Icon. And when it comes to meetings, none of that matters. In this instance, he is an attendee, not the person running the meeting. If he allowed his celebrity status to encroach on the proceedings, he could undermine the leader.

    If he were to be late, he would be signaling that his time was more valuable than everyone else’s. Instead, he took extraordinary means to ensure he was on even footing with everyone.

    It’s cheaper.

    In a business, time is money. Each minute you start late is multiplied out by the number of people sitting there waiting for someone else to arrive. While contractors who bill by the hour wouldn’t necessarily care, a CEO like Richard Branson would be very aware of his tardiness to the bottom line.

    A live TV news show can cost anywhere from $4000-$25000 per minute. It’s reported that Richard Branson’s time is “only” worth $50 a minute. Every minute he is late spirals costs for the production, which is both fiscally irresponsible and terribly rude.

    It makes you more credible.

    It goes without saying that if you are a responsible person who shows up on time and doesn’t keep people waiting all the time when an emergency situation does come up (which does happen) people will give you the benefit of the doubt.

    It is important to note that Richard Branson has been delegating his normal workload in order to bring light to the devastation done to the British Virgin Islands and the rest of the Caribbean.

    You’ll be happier.

    Occasional bouts of running through the streets of Manhattan notwithstanding, by being on time for meetings you’ll be less rushed – which in turn lowers your stress levels. Having lower stress increases both your energy and your happiness, which will give you more productive meetings.

    That being said, make sure that you don’t overdo it. Sir Richard tweeted “must admit I’m exhausted” from all the running around, but he still gets up at 5AM to work out every morning.

    With these tips, you’ll never look at meetings the same way again!

    Sep 21, 2017
    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
    Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of JCRT
    Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of JCRT

    When New York State went into quarantine in mid-March, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra had just moved JCRT, their direct-to-consumer shirt company, to a new office on Pier 59 in New York City. Founded in 2016, JCRT celebrates all things plaid and camouflage, with colorful patterns named after David Bowie and Kate Bush albums and movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

    Stuck in a rentalhome in rural New Jersey,the married Costello andTagliapietragot to work. Heartsick that the city that had been their base and home for years was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak, they wanted to do something to help friends on the frontlines.Costello began sewing masks from whatever sample fabrics he had on hand.Tagliapietra boxed them “by the hundreds” and the couplesentthem to wherever they heard PPE was needed.

    “Everything was sort of unknown at that point,” Tagliapietra says. “We were very happy to be able to even do that.”

    After sewing about 600 masks (“My hands were tired!” Costello jokes), they were able to reopentheir factory in the Dominican Republic, which been closed due to government quarantine and curfew rules, and began producing masks for sale and donation, giving more than 12,000 to first responders. They’re donating a portion of their retail sales to the New York City Covid-19 Emergency Relief Fund, benefiting health care workers, supporting small businesses, and vulnerable workers and families. Without any marketing other than their social feeds, Tagliapietra and Costello estimate they’ve sold 45,000 masks through JCRT and raised more than $65,000.

    Now they’re selling masks and collared shirts made from a black, red, and green plaid, with proceeds going to Movement for Black Lives. Over the Father’s Day weekend, which also included the commemoration of Juneteenth, they donated 100 percentof the sales of those goods to the organization.

    JCRT is a second act for Costello and Tagliapietra, who previously founded a women’s wear business called Costello Tagliapietra in 2005. Their runway shows were written up in glossy fashion magazines and the founders got a lot of press for their shared plaid-on-plaid aesthetic and impressive beards, which led to theirbeing dubbed “the lumberjacks of fashion.”

    Keeping their operation small also allows the foundersto decide where and how to focus their energies, including supporting the causes they careabout. They’re nowat work on another fundraiser, this one for Pride month,with proceeds going to the Ali Forney Center, a New York City-based program for LGBTQ homeless youth.With their factory up and running, JCRT also continues to release new designs, sellingdressshirts, pants, jackets, bags, and accessoriesthrough their website.

    Jun 23, 2020
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