I discovered five things. First, there are a great deal of views and opinions out there. More than 400,000 results popped up. In my unscientific, quick scan of the suggested reading, it appears the vast majority of these articles are written by baby boomers or Gen Xers.

My second observation is that basically every piece written communicates frustration and vexation on the part of the (older) writer towards his or her younger subjects. After a few reads, this actually becomes humorous. Much of the writing and advice comes across as flabbergasted and distraught parents reacting to their own out-of-control teens.

The third area concerns the broad generalities that have been assigned to this youthful workforce. They are labeled as entitled, opportunistic to the point of being “hustlers,” self-centered, nonconformist and disloyal. The only credit they seem to receive is that they are good with technology and social media.

Fourth, I was struck by how superficial and hokey the advice is for managing these “disastrous youth.” There are “11 tips,” “seven strategies” and of course, “five tricks.” This content is either comprised of generic common sense or insultingly positioned command-and-control techniques that would obviously backfire with anyone who has talent and a modicum of self-esteem.

My fifth observation is how incredibly adversarial all of this comes across. It is definitely “us against them,” with the older, supposedly learned and experienced set sounding supremely “right” yet appearing almost entirely defensive.

I am now 48 years old and remember fondly when I was the young upstart. All I wanted was to learn, be given a chance and make a valuable contribution. My experience in working with Millennials has proven they largely want the same things. I owe much to the leaders and managers who mentored me and allowed me huge opportunities to fall flat on my face just so I could pick myself up and do it right the next time around.

I cannot offer up sage advice that will instantly solve the “managing Millennials” problem because I do not believe it exists. The issue may actually reside with the management old guard who are defending the status quo long after the quo has lost its status. I relish the opportunity to work with Millennials so together we can learn and make valuable contributions. If this strange and unnecessary divisiveness exists at your company, the only ones benefiting from it are your competitors.

The post Managing Millennials Shouldn’t Be A Problem appeared first on The Agency Post.

After she left, I picked up one of Ms. Brown’s books and thumbed through it. I was struggling with trying to understand a certain management style at the time, and one passage in particular struck me.

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.”

A large part of our jobs as creative directors — or any type of leader — is to be a motivator. To put people in positions where they can win. To do that, I have to be an arbiter, an anthropologist, an observer, a cheerleader, and, in the words of my friend Scott McAfee, managing partner at Sanders Wingo, I have to practice ruthless creativity.

To practice ruthless creativity, you have to be allowed to try, fail and get up again without risk of shame. Shame kills creativity. It kills spirit. It kills innovation.

In today’s analytic-driven, algorithm-in-lieu-of-creativity, quantify-qualify-and-ROI industry that advertising has become, there is no room for pain and discomfort. All of the systems we now have in place are built to create a perfect marketing society. Somewhere Orwell and Huxley are high fiving, albeit sadly. How often do you see some snarky, often anonymous reviewer post the word “Fail!” on a bad Facebook post or a review of an ad campaign that they deemed fell short of the mark?

Failure Good. Shame Bad.

Failure in itself is not a bad thing. In fact, it is quite the opposite. But failure’s little toady, Shame, who is always hiding in the shadows, is the thing that causes problems.

For instance, before any of us embarks on a new initiative for a client, a blank page on our computer screen reminds us that:

• Failure is a bad thing to be avoided at all costs.
• Failure signals the end of the world because of something called Shame.
• Shame can summon the world’s full nuclear arsenal and aim it at our forehead.
• Shame hurts, so therefore, coming full circle, avoid failure at all costs.

And round and round it goes — the merry-go-round from hell.

Some company cultures, and a very few people, are wired to expect motivation from fear. But I suspect in most cases, the people who fail, learn and try again are the ones who find their own brilliance in the end.

Shame is an insidious little troll. And most of us downloaded the software at an early age. For me, it was getting punched in the mouth on the playground in first grade. The kid knocked my tooth out, and I lost it in the grass. I was ashamed I lost the fight, and I was ashamed nobody would believe I lost a tooth. Okay, I was 6. Give me a break.

Just Don’t Invite Shame to the Party

The point is we all carry the feeling of shame. And, except for the few of us who are truly delusional, we all fear it. So maybe the most effective way to separate shame from failure in the daily course of creativity is to:

• Share our stories of failure and learning.
• Examine our actions as leaders the next time someone fails.
• Examine our organization’s expectations to align them with our goals of inviting creativity.

This is especially important in today’s always-on marketplace. There is no time to sit around and study ads as if they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. A fear of failure is not only less healthy for the psyche, but also it is a cancer for the company as a whole. How many advertising agencies have lost clients because they couldn’t respond quickly enough to client needs and the marketplace simply because they were afraid to make a move, afraid they’d come up with the wrong answer?

One of my favorite recent examples is the tweet from Oreo Cookies during the recent Super Bowl blackout. “You can still dunk in the dark.”

Fast, smart, opportunistic and engaging. The greatest line ever written in advertising history? Nope. But the timing was what it needed to be. If they succumbed to the pressure of shame and fear of failure, they’d probably have just opened a job, put six creative teams on it and would be having night and weekend meetings to argue if the creative might offend children ages 5 to 11 who are afraid of the dark.

Believe me, I’m not saying give everyone a trophy just for trying. I’m not saying coddle, sweet talk or wrap your associates in a blanky. But if we want people to express their full creativity and potential, we need to give them permission to fail. And keep Shame locked in the crawlspace under the garage.

Remember that transformational leaders inspire creativity because they let others fail without letting them be failures.

The post Let Them Fail But Not Be Failures appeared first on The Agency Post.

There were several over the years — almost every one a gem — and she (yes, they were all female) did my timesheets. My travel. My expense reports. My calendar. She walked into meetings to pull me out if I was late or pushed my next obligation back. She made my copies, brought me lunch. She made sure my husband knew what city I was in and when I’d be back in town. She was a lifesaver. And she was just one benefit of being — as I have described to others who have made the bounce from giant monolith to small independent — a “Big Agency Brat.”

As far as “Big Agency Brats” go, I was pretty easy. Made my own travel plans through the agency travel desk when they changed on the road, called my own cabs, got my own coffee and lunch. I pretty much kept my own calendar and tended to be on time (or close to it) for meetings. More often than not, I made my own copies, too. Heck, I even added paper to the printer on several occasions and called the IT guy when the toner was low. Some may disagree (hopefully none of the assistants I so loved), but I tried not to be too bratty.

Cut to last April in a small, bustling office in Seattle. A smaller agency had welcomed me into their fold — an agency full of old friends and former co-workers. An agency of hope and talent as well as (surprise!) people who honestly try to help one another out. Really. I remember after sitting in my first all-agency meeting (we did then and still can squeeze into one room) and saying to my colleagues: “Everyone’s really, genuinely nice to each other here. I’ll try to get used to this.”

Now don’t get me wrong. Most of my career has been filled with positive experiences: good friends, wise mentors, you name it. And when things weren’t as, um, positive, I proudly look back on these times as “learning experiences.”

Oh, and speaking of “learning experiences,” let’s get back to my new job and my new life. Sans assistant, of course, I gamely sat down to do my first timesheet in our agency’s timesheet program a week or so into the gig. I stopped looking at the clock after two hours. I think I had half a bottle (or more) of wine that night just trying to forget the horror that was that timesheet. I swear that program was designed by sadistic left-brainers who, at a young age, decided that right-brainers must be punished and punished severely. Then there were the expense reports (oh yeah, I used to sign those…), ands of course, the copier.

The copier. I have a copier at home. I was a freelancer for a year at one point in my life. I can do this.

Actually, no I can’t. I can print, yes. I can even collate and staple. But for the life of me, of the four paper trays on that monster, none of them ever seem to be the “empty” one. I think the paper hops around when the trays are closed to trick me. Of course, kind, patient co-workers swoop in to help. I haven’t even asked where the toner cartridges are. Nor would they tell me if I asked. Wise move on their part.

Oh, and the timesheets? No problem these days. I have learned to click on the least intuitive box in the spreadsheet and my job numbers pop up in seconds. Click. Save. Done.

Take that, left-brain sadists.

The post Big Agency Brat Changes the Toner Cartridge! (Not really) appeared first on The Agency Post.

Even if you ignore the need to innovate, your competitors may not. It needs to be wholeheartedly embraced by all groups in an organization. However, it does not happen by itself. Innovation is often fueled by immersive, inspirational and incessant elements. This is especially true when it comes to mobile and social.

Immersion

First, to really understand and expand on any experience, you need to be as immersed as possible. This might seem obvious, but too many concepting sessions take place with participants only pretending to know about the topic at hand. You need to get your hands dirty to be in the proper mindset. For example, you cannot effectively partake in location-based services (LBS) discussions until you’ve truly lived the experience. Go and register for the social and networking accounts to really understand the intricacies. Experiment with the product to understand how everyday users view the experience. Use it with your friends and family. This is so important because social is inherently collaborative. This type of immersive engagement is exponentially more rewarding than reading about the topic on Wikipedia. That said, I’m anxiously waiting for my Google Glass Developer Edition to arrive this year to immerse myself in the Google-augmented experience.

Inspiration

Having firsthand-related experience and insight allows for the sharing of unique and qualified perspectives. Each one of us has valuable viewpoints from different angles, (e.g. technology, creative, management). By sharing these different views, it naturally opens up people’s minds and inspires them for further discussions. Collaborative brainstorming and work sessions need to have representation from various capabilities for this to be effective. For example, the building blocks for a successful app may include an intuitive user interface, timely and relevant content, insightful marketing and seamless technical execution. This is a joint effort among various participants.

The same philosophy applies to these collaborative sessions. Include others and benefit from their insight. This will inspire individuals to challenge themselves and others on the topic. You will often find creative account service guys or technical creative folks. Do not silo people — inspire them.

Incessancy

Establish a prototyping initiative that develops straw men from key concepts. Immerse yourself in technical prototypes and in their successes and challenges. Then repeat. Innovation discussions must be incessant in order to avoid stagnation. This allows for the constant inflow of fresh ideas and possibilities, especially in the evolving mobile and social spaces. In particular, concepts such as responsive web design (RWD) and the second screen will be further defined in this coming year. Widespread and mainstream applications of these ideas are still in their infancy. Take advantage of this to experiment and refine your ideas with the team.

Innovation is critical in all organizations as fresh ideas introduce agility and nimbleness. It opens the doors for brands to evolve and become stronger market leaders. It can give your organization a competitive advantage by getting a taste of possible things to come. This is critical in the mobile and social arena as startups continue to percolate and technologies continue to evolve. To stay ahead of the crowd, you need a collaborative effort that involves participant immersion and prototyping. And don’t make this a one-time effort — It should be an ongoing, inspirational practice. If you don’t practice innovation, your competition might already be a step ahead of you.

The post Innovation Has Three I’s appeared first on The Agency Post.

But it’s not really your fault.

It just so happens that all of our organizations suck. And I mean this quite literally. They are life-sucking. Our companies — how they are structured now — suck in (at least) three ways:

1) They suck the resources from our planet — often with no long-term thought of the repercussions.

2) They suck the energy out of us — the people who work for them — by treating us like we are machines.

3) They suck the meaning from our existence through pointless tasks that don’t create any authentic value for us or larger society.

Often they suck in the more “informal” sense by being too slow, too bureaucratic and too static.

The organizational systems we’ve built encourage slowness over speed and command and control over collaboration.

They emphasize process over passion and homogeneousness over imagination.

They reward rule-makers instead of rule-breakers.

But a slow, process-driven, rule-filled world isn’t the world we live in — at least not anymore.

Our companies are built for a different time playing by yesterday’s rules, not tomorrow’s.

They’re living in a world that doesn’t exist.

This is a bit scary if we stop and think about it. Our business models — the very things that provide our livelihoods, pay our rent and buy food for our kids — are built on terribly antiquated practices. In most of our companies, we are using the organizational equivalents of lobotomies and bloodletting to try to fix our problems. These destructive, outdated practices aren’t making anything better — and in many cases, they’re making things worse.

Let me provide a couple examples.

Phone Trees (Customer Engagement)

Would someone like to stand up and explain how an endless phone tree system helps customers feel “their call is important?” The only thing these modern-day torture devices do — when we finally break through to a representative — is condition us to forget that the person on the other end is a real human being.

Performance Reviews (Employee Engagement)

Can anyone actually make the argument that a typical weakness-focused performance review helps a business work better? Is helping us suck a little less than we did last year really our best path to excellence?

Do either of these things create any kind of real value? No. They are simply relics of a bygone era, and it would be nice if they’d go away faster. In place of these old-school, life-sucking traditions, we can and should create some new processes.

Customer Engagement

Instead of medieval methods of “talking” to customers, we can use web-based tools like Get Satisfaction or Workface to humanize the connection. More importantly though, we must recognize that the balance of power between buyers and sellers has shifted. Buyers now have more information than ever before, which means that we can’t just talk at them; we need to listen to them.

Your community is open to giving you feedback, I promise, but there needs to be a streamlined and simple way for them to give it. Of course, all the feedback in the world doesn’t matter one bit if your employees don’t care to do anything with it. Which brings us to…

Employee Engagement

For most of us, the work we do is complex — and getting more so with each day that passes. When work gets complicated, it requires more intrinsic motivation. Many people refer to this kind of internal drive at work as employee engagement. In other words, organizations now require the discretionary energy of their people to get work done. But this kind of energy isn’t accessed by dangling a carrot. Over the long term, you can’t pay for it or “threaten it” out of people. It can’t be taken at all. In fact, it can only be given.

If you want to make an immediate impact on engagement, start focusing on your people’s strengths. Employees who get to use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged at work. More than that, you’re even making an impact on their overall well-being — these people are also three times more likely to be happier with their lives in general!

Our organizations suck now, but they don’t have to. By adjusting the way we think about our companies and making a few simple shifts, we can dramatically impact our workplace.

Wouldn’t you rather have a life-giving place to work anyway?

To learn more about changes in the business marketplace, read Josh Allan Dykstra’s book, “Igniting the Invisible Tribe: Designing An Organization That Doesn’t Suck,” You can connect with him on his website or on Twitter.

The post Why Your Organization Sucks (And How to Change That) appeared first on The Agency Post.

While the full study details all aspects of the agency-client relationship, the key findings highlight several swings in these relationships, in marketing planning, and in the communications business as a whole.

Although this report may seem dim for some of us, there’s never been a better time to be in the ad agency business.

Several years ago, we saw a trend of clients seeking “specialist agencies.” Clients would say, “I want an SEO agency to handle SEO, a social agency to handle social media, a media buying agency…” You get the idea.

The thought was that specialist agencies (or micro specialist agencies) held core experience and expertise that full service agencies just didn’t have. Some respondents reported to engage as many 20 agencies at one time. That’s 20 phone calls to make when promotions change, when product launches have to hit the streets and when actions need to be taken. Sounds terribly exhausting and fragmented for a client — no wonder they were unhappy.

Large agencies and agency holding companies could not move fast enough to efficiently bring creative solutions in new media. Like trying to steer the Titanic away from an iceberg, they may not have been able to navigate the waters of new media and new challenges. They relied on partner specialist agencies and left it to the client to attempt to integrate the process.

However, some agencies are more nimble.

We invested in the key talent, tools and resources in-house just as early as the specialist agencies, thus giving our clients a fully integrated client experience. Our digital integration began way back in 1997. Today, brand strategists, creative developers, search marketing specialists, user experience designers, mobile marketers and local marketing experts all gather under one roof to solve a collective client challenge.

In the last year alone, 70 percent of our last new hires came from specialty agencies. Specialists left their previous posts because they wanted to be part of the strategic planning process, not part of a narrow service solution. They wanted to be partners, not vendors.

The report not only underscores the power of integrated agencies — it shows the shift to mid-sized agencies. The article notes, “Big agencies handle the majority of advertising dollars, but they don’t articulate a better value proposition to clients. 73 percent of the study respondents believe that small and medium-size agencies are more creative.”

Ultimately, clients do not want an “insert-media-of the-moment agency here.” They want a business-building agency. They want quick answers from a team that can move as fast as they can. They want efficient and creative solutions, no matter what the channel, the device or who the target is.

Great for us; bad for others.

The post Discontent with Agencies: Become a Partner, Not a Vendor appeared first on The Agency Post.

And so I started thinking about the idea of communication. We’ve all got infinite tools for communication at our disposal, and yet, it’s still hard to reach certain people. I’ve had co-workers who you can tweet at, Facebook, LinkedIn, email and call — and yet, they were impossible to actually get a hold of.

Having these tools is great, but actually being available within a workplace to listen and help when things need solving is what really matters.

Here’s the simple truth: Communication starts with making time, not finding tools.

That’s not easy for me to say. I love my tools. I will not have my Gchat or my TeuxDeux taken away.

But I’m also reminded that my tools are all about pushing. I push content and ideas and stuff out, and then it comes back at me — twofold.

With all of this stuff coming in and out, there’s not a ton of time for actually listening. And I’ll quote Alex Trebek directly here: “It’s very important in life to know when to shut up.”

Amen to that.

There are times to push, and then there are times to be quiet and listen. For those times, you might have to put the tools down.

Don’t get me wrong: Some tools actually make collaboration easier. I’m looking at you, Asana  and Do  and Yammer.

But many of the tools I love most just divide my attention. There’s a reason I have to shut down Gmail and Twitter when I really need to work.

For me, the best ideas come from good conversation. The best workplaces start with constant communication.

Like I’ve said before: Listening and curiosity are linked.

When you listen to each other, you actually give yourself the chance to collaborate and create new stuff. Isn’t that worth prioritizing?

So take time to listen — and take a few minutes today to put down the tools. Put people first instead.

Takeaways:

How many ways do you attempt to communicate? I use the phone, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. That’s a lot, and it’s probably too much. I should probably cut back — and so should you. Figure out your primary method(s) of communication, and put the rest on the back burner.

Make time for face-to-face: There are excellent ways to make yourself more accessible at work. Keep an open door policy. Hold regular office hours for employees, or just make your way out from behind your desk and talk to people. Listening never hurts.

The post Communication is About Time, Not Tools. appeared first on The Agency Post.

Socrates said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

Is it realistic — in this rapidly shifting landscape of advertising and marketing — that we can promise we have “been there, done that, and therefore know precisely what to do to support your brand, marketing or PR challenge?” And if we are so foolish as to overtly make that pledge, can we live up to it over the long term?

What’s underneath the search for an agency? Is it to find an “all-knowing” team of experts, or “mostly-knowing” partners a client can count on through the inevitable unknowns, who appear capable of supporting business results, and who exhibit a particular kind of confidence that brings a sense of ease to the work and the relationship?

A façade of “always-knowing” isn’t necessary to project confidence and competence. Think about it. If always-knowing isn’t possible, then pretending it is is not an honest foundation for a trusted and long-lasting relationship. If your agency culture is “we always have the answers,” you’re set up for a big fail, assuming you’re actually invited to engage with a client from upon your lofty pedestal.

Transparency is the new way, so take a breath and relax into the space of “not-knowing.” I promise it’s ripe with potential and rewards.

When the mind already “knows” the answer, it’s no longer in a state that’s engaged and receptive to new information, insights and most importantly, ideas — the currency of our industry. The opposite of this state, the ability to relax with not-knowing, is what ancient wisdom calls “beginner’s mind.” At our agency it’s a core value, something our employees and clients find refreshing and in the end, productive and profitable. It’s good for business.

Let’s look at the two dominant categories of “not-knowing.” Okay, maybe there are three, but no need to cover the version that emanates from the perpetually bewildered types. That’s not you!

1. Not-knowing based on a lack of experience or knowledge
2. Not-knowing based on no clear best response, often born of life’s larger dilemmas. (Do I need to let this employee go? This strategy is logical, but it doesn’t feel right. My kid just failed math, again. What do I do?)

No matter which type of not-knowing is your “flavor du jour,” taking a mindful approach will bring clarity over time and can even immediately open up your powerful, internal creative source. We dare to be authentic when we say “I don’t know. Let’s explore it.”  It’s how we reinforce credibility with our clients and confidence in ourselves.

Mindful of “Not-knowing”

Free your mind from the subtle — or gripping — fear of realizing you don’t have the answer, or perhaps the background and experience to respond, on the spot.

Where does that fear originate? It’s likely some version of believing you’re not sufficient, you’re not enough. It’s a judgment that causes the mind to contract and limit our potential and what we have to offer. It easily becomes a habit, accompanied by coping strategies that keep us in a loop of being less than who we are. This is not our true self, our capable and occasionally brilliant self. It’s some fraction of us that we self create when we aren’t mindful of all that’s present. We’re just a slice of the whole, because the whole of us can’t show up when we reject any part of our experience.

Here’s what mindfulness can look like in the face of not-knowing. It’s a four-step process to staying open:

1. R E A L L Y ? Check in with yourself. Do you have the answer, or are there things you need to ask or go find out?
2. If you don’t know, can you recognize and relax in the not-knowing?
3. Can you allow the feeling of not-knowing to be present and to experience it fully? This means meeting it with something that’s called non-judgmental awareness.
4. And finally, can you not identify “your self” with the “not knowing?” When we confuse who we are with our stories and emotions, we get smaller, along with our thinking and creative capacities. Through mindfulness, we change our relationship to not-knowing, and discover it’s not a weakness and it’s not who we are. It just is.

Practice this, and you’ll ask smart questions, be authentic, absorb new learning, gain important insights and most of all, tap your full potential for your agency, your client and yourself.

Try this inquiry to help you shift into a place of personal and creative power.

Reconnect with the experience of not-knowing. Call to mind a memory, recent or distant, where you simply didn’t know, yet felt you had to have the answer, be the expert. Let that memory be fully present and meet it with curiosity. Notice the thoughts and emotions and see if you can locate the response your body has to them. What are the physical sensations? Now look to see if there a story present, some version of, “I’m not enough.” A standard you’re unconsciously holding? A belief you may not have known you were carrying? Now (here’s the paradox) meet this belief with a deeper inquiry, the inquiry of a beginner’s mind. Let the simple phrase “I don’t know” dissolve a belief that’s limited YOU and your creative power. Repeat the process by introducing “I don’t know” as often as it takes to feel the mind relax its grip around the your personal unexamined versions of “not enough.” 

Relax into wisdom at work.

The post The Personal and Creative Power of Not-Knowing appeared first on The Agency Post.

And so the Twenty-Five Hour Workday was born.

We came up with the idea that the entire agency would work 25 hours straight creating a marketing campaign that we’d donate to a local business. How’s that for living the brand? Only question was, who’d be the lucky client? We decided it should be a scrappy startup – just like we were 25 years ago – and we’d hold a contest to find just the right one. Starting from scratch to build a new brand would offer a ton of flexibility, along with all the rewards that come with pro bono work.

First came the announcement of the contest with instructions for young companies to enter: There’s no shortage of startups hungry for marketing support. After a few weeks and more than 40 entries, we narrowed the list to three ultra-worthy businesses. Though their industries were diverse, they had one thing in common. They were all trying to create their brands from the ground up — a nice opportunity for any agency looking to make an immediate impact. The three chosen companies then had to work their social networks and get votes on our website to help them win. After more than 15,000 votes, You and Who was declared the winner.

The more we learned about this company, the more we fell in love. You and Who is a buy-one-give-one business that sells artist-designed t-shirts. For every shirt sold, one is donated to someone in need. A company with a conscience. Who else would be more deserving of a total brand makeover in 25 hours?

As the big day approached, excitement reached a fever pitch around the company. We split up the entire agency into various committees to ensure everyone was involved, engaged and had a job to do. Though we played up the strengths of each employee, many were asked to step outside their comfort zones. Everyone was set to pull together on one project, toward one common goal. Some were even given the opportunity to learn from people they don’t typically work with. This was already shaping up to be something extraordinary.

During 25 straight hours, something amazing happened. You bet we strategized, designed, wrote, and worked, worked, worked. That was to be expected. Oh, and we impressed the hell out of our new clients. But this thing — this contest designed to get people outside of our company to realize how special our agency is — really had the biggest effect on our staff and our company. We worked together — all of us — toward one common goal for a day plus one hour. The bonding experience was immeasurable. No one saw that coming.

When all was said and done, we got the press and attention we were looking for. And we created a brand for a neat little t-shirt company that introduced itself to the world at SXSW. But, most importantly, we drew strength and inspiration from our communal efforts and from our happy client. Helping a fledgling company gave us the opportunity to get back to our roots, and we’ve grown as a result. Oh, and we super-charged our brand inside and out. Now that’s hardworking.

What are you doing to live your brand?

The post Living Our Hardworking Brand (For 25 Years and One Extra-Long Day) appeared first on The Agency Post.

For the first time in years, each one of our employees is critical to the business, engaged in their role, and passionate about what they do. This didn’t come because we were lucky or stumbled onto it. In the beginning we were just as passionate. We had just as much hunger for growth. We weren’t aligned though. We didn’t know what the company was and how it could serve the masses. We had to hone our tools and find a place in an industry where our talent could play. Of course it ended up being in an industry that was mid-collapse and a genre that didn’t really exist. From what I’ve read though, that couldn’t be a better scenario.

Lessons we learned along the way (and are still learning):

Be aligned with your mission. Make sure everything you do can successfully pass through that filter. If it doesn’t feel right, then it isn’t. Let it go and keep the space for what does.

Love your people. Take time to get to know them. Learn what they love to do. Figure out what ignites them. Even if it’s completely unrelated to your industry, you’ll be surprised how it can wrap around the block and tap you on the shoulder.

Don’t be afraid to lead honestly. When everyone understands what the business is going through it’s easier to invite them to join the fight. Earlier this year we released our Profit and Loss statement from 2011 with a little narrative about the companies current state and our objectives for 2012. We invited questions. We have no secrets. That does amazing things for breeding trust.

Have the tough conversations. If something feels funky, have the conversation. If that conversation is tough for you, try leaning on partner for support. Chances are though, if the conversation feels scary, it probably needs to be had. Tough conversations have led to letters or calls of resignation, but they’ve also allowed for bonds to strengthen. Both scenarios were what was best for the company.

Engage. Find a way to engage daily/weekly/quarterly. For us it started with a quarterly retreat hosted by one of the team members. We covered travel and food costs. We talked shop, played games and just got to know one another. The first one was sloppy because it wasn’t the right combination of people. The second one was amazing. This has grown to a private Facebook group for all our staff, permalancers, and freelancers. We interact multiple times a day and it’s totally self-policing. The quarterly retreats are slowly becoming a place to bring some of the outside staff in to play and get to know the company. The core team finds other ways to meet as often as it needs to band some heads together.

What were some of your lessons?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.

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