Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Strategy to Reach Your True North with Jimmy Newson

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Strategy to Reach Your True North with Jimmy Newson · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  If you don't have a strategy, people think, well, I need to be at a certain level before I
• 0:03
  start a strategy.
• 0:04
  Absolutely not.
• 0:05
  If you can start a strategy sooner than later, you already headed in the right direction.
• 0:09
  You know what your true north is, and now you're headed there confident.
• 0:13
  3, 2, 4, 0 ignition, liftoff.
• 0:21
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:24
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
• 0:30
  Emerson.
• 0:31
  Melinda's goal is to and small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:35
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 0:39
  Now here's your host, the small biz lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
• 0:47
  Hey there.
• 0:48
  Are you thinking about starting your dream business If you are, I have the path for you to
• 0:54
  go down so that not only do you start your business, but you start a profitable and
• 0:59
  sustainable small business.
• 1:01
  This fall, I'm gonna be teaching my become your own boss class live.
• 1:05
  It's a 10 week online class That is a hybrid.
• 1:09
  You get a little bit online, but you have a 2 hour live class with me every week for 10
• 1:14
  weeks.
• 1:15
  And I am gonna be teaching it this fall It is starting October 10th, and I really want you to
• 1:21
  come and get a real road map.
• 1:23
  Not only are you gonna help your business plan completed, but you're also gonna end my course
• 1:29
  with a pitch deck and a launch plan.
• 1:32
  I'm gonna help you start your dream business with a plan, and I'm gonna help you launch it.
• 1:37
  No other business plan course is doing that, and they're certainly not doing it with
• 1:41
  America's number 1.
• 1:42
  Small business expert.
• 1:43
  So I wanna invite you to head over smallbizladyuniversity.com and check out become
• 1:49
  your own boss.
• 1:50
  We're gonna be teaching it this fall starting October 10th, and I want you to sign up today.
• 1:56
  Alright.
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  Take care.
• 2:00
  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melita Eris of the small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to another
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  episode of the small biz chat podcast.
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  Today, we're gonna be talking about strategy and branding.
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  From every angle you could imagine.
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  So we are gonna be talking about how to use strategy to better inform your marketing
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  efforts.
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  We're also gonna be talking about how to build your brand online, and we're gonna talk about
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  how to build an authentic brand.
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  Now all of these work together, so I'm so excited to have my 3 grass because they all do
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  very similar things in very niche areas.
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  So I am so excited to have them here.
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  So if you're looking for ways to boost your sales, you're in the right place because one of
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  my guest experts is gonna talk about if you fix your strategy you will grow your sales.
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  And if you've been thinking about how to boost your brand online, I have a customer here, a
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  client who's gonna talk about how to grow your brand online.
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  Strategically, you don't have to be doing everything.
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  You have to be doing the right thing.
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  And authenticity is what it is all about today.
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  And I have a wonderful guest expert who's gonna talk about how she built an authentic brand and
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  how you can too Now here on the small biz chat podcast, we talk about how to start and grow a
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  successful business.
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  My guest all have amazing insight to share, and we really consider this a peer to peer
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  mentoring program for you in your business.
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  The mission of small biz chat is to end small business failure.
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  Now, hopefully, you're watching us on my small biz lady Facebook fan page or on my YouTube
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  channel.
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  Either way, I want you to like and subscribe and share so they other people can mark all of
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  this great small business insight right here.
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  So now it's time for me to introduce My first guest, and his name is Jimmy Newsom.
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  And Jimmy is a business and growth strategist and consultant He's an international speaker,
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  and he is the founder of moving forward small business.
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  He specializes in working with small businesses and entrepreneurs and he is a contributor and
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  leadership network member with entrepreneur.com.
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  Newson holds industry certifications in Google HubSpot, Sam Rush, Pascade, and many others and
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  serves as a board and committee member for various private government and nonprofit
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  organizations.
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  For more information about him, go to moving forward smallbusiness.com.
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  Jimmy, welcome to the small biz chat podcast.
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  Alinda, thank you for having me here.
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  I'm super excited to be here with you and our other distinguished guests.
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  So I appreciate it.
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  Truly.
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  Awesome.
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  So give us your backstory, Jimmy.
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  How did you get started?
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  Why would you become like the strategy guru?
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  Oh, well, it was a straight path, and my background actually started in the music
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  industry.
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  And I went into video production.
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  I actually made my first sale in 7th grade.
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  I was selling candy at 2nd period, which was kinda like the witchy hour because it was just
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  before people were gonna have lunch.
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  They were starving.
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  I didn't know it was entrepreneurship, but it it ended up becoming an entrepreneurship, but I
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  still didn't learn that word.
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  So it's probably about 25.
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  So there there was a huge gap there, but, you know, going from entertainment to video
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  production to marketing and then to business consulting advising, was actually not me.
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  It was actually the people around me who saw that I would bring a lot more to the table
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  around conversation.
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  And that's kinda what led me to strategy because one thing I realized is that strategy,
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  you know, as I talk to my partners, I talk to small business owners that I work you know,
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  sometimes you don't you don't have a base, a problem in finance, human resources, or or
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  marketing, you typically have a strategy prop.
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  And if you look at the strategy, the strategy will dictate, well, what should I be doing
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  based on what the strategy is presenting for me?
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  So that's kinda where we ended up.
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  So let's talk about strategy.
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  I mean, like, why is strategy so important?
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  Why does every small business owner need a strategy?
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  Well, let let's take
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  a step back.
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  At the end of the day, they I think a lot of small businesses think strategies for big
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  business.
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  And I've been blessed enough to be able to to work and then interact with both small
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  businesses and large businesses.
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  The the difference is there has to be a level of a translation.
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  You know, a small business can't execute on what a big business would do for strategy, but
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  there are lessons to be learned.
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  So we have to translate it and go, what does that actually mean to you?
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  As a small business.
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  So when we're able to do that, then it makes more sense.
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  We we we have the ability to be more agile as a small business But we, of course, we don't have
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  the resources of this of the large business.
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  So the more strategic we are, the better.
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  If we take a look at 2020 when the pandemic kicked in, 4,300,000 new businesses were filed
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  in the United States.
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  And that's up from 2019, and it's continued to grow.
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  So what does that mean?
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  There's more businesses There's more small businesses entering the market, and that
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  creates more competition.
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  A strategy is important because, one, it becomes the blueprint It tells you where you
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  need to be going.
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  It tells you what you should be doing.
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  But if you don't have a strategy, people think, well, I need to be at a certain level before I
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  start a strategy.
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  Absolutely not.
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  If you can start a strategy sooner than later, you already headed in the right direction.
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  You know what your true north is, and now you're headed there confident.
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  So what are the top 3 things we should be thinking about when developing a strategy or or
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  updating one, frankly?
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  Sure.
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  And there's and believe me, there's quite a few things because for every business, it is
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  differently different.
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  But the most important one for me is vision.
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  And most people look at vision values and all these things as kinda like woo woo.
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  In most cases, they're used that way, which is why you think of it that way.
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  But a vision tells you where you're trying to be in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years.
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  And now that dictates everything else.
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  Everything else that has to happen to grow your business has to point you in that direction.
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  So now you know what to say yes to and you know what to say no to.
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  The vision's number 1.
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  Second thing is market analysis.
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  When I talk to the market analysis of small business, I can see the fear in their face
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  because it sounds like some crazy strange word market analysis.
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  What does that mean?
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  There are tools today that can help you with market analysis.
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  And when you, the key is not under Knowing that there's a lot of data, the key is what do I do
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  with that data now that I know about it?
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  So you need to understand what is going on with in regards to market analysis, understanding
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  the market internally, externally, you know, a SWAT analysis, if you will, that aspect.
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  And then the third one is is resource allocation.
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  That's usually the biggest one.
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  You know, one of my mentors said, the great thing about entrepreneurs is they fall in love
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  with their ideas.
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  The bad thing about entrepreneurs is they fall in love with their ideas.
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  You know, It it's really about allocating resources.
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  You know, I I'd meet people, and I was one of them.
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  I had the record label, and I had the mileage company.
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  And I had the production company, and I was in the band.
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  You know?
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  And at the end of the day, it's okay to be that ambitious.
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  But if you don't allocate the resources properly, things don't move.
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  So those are the 3 things: vision, market analysis, and resource allocation.
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  Alright.
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  Well, I'm gonna obviously follow-up with market analysis.
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  So if I wanna do a market analysis and I obviously, that takes into a consideration your
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  competitive analysis.
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  Right?
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  And how do you kinda what are some of the tools and the best ways to get this information about
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  what's going on your industry and what's going on with your competitors.
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  Sure.
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  Now I I recommend a number of different tools.
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  My favorite tool is a tool called semrush.
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  Okay?
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  Which is an amazing tool.
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  It's very robust.
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  It covers not it covers SEO structure.
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  It covers digital ads, social media, content marketing, marketing, and trends.
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  So it's a all in one tool.
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  So it it can be a bit of a a cost inhibitor for a small business.
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  So there are other other tools, but if you make strategy and market analysis, a part of your
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  daily routine, this tool is worth it because I don't do anything from the gut anymore other
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  than look at it and go, I should probably stop eating.
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  Besides that, I it's you have to leverage tools these days.
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  You know, when we talk about AI and we talk about machine learning tools and all this, It's
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  a small business's best friend.
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  You know, I use another tool called, winmo.
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  I use I use a tool called age rep.
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  I use multiple tools, and these tools do all the heavy lifting for me.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, I also
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  my one of my favorite tools is actually spot food.
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  I really like spiders.
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  Owing competitors' websites too, but I like some of the tools that you talk about as well.
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  They're a little pricey for a small business, but they do get the job done Now let's talk
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  about setting goals.
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  Right?
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  So it's like I have my strategy.
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  Okay.
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  But how do I set sort of, like, my short term versus my long term,
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  you know, sort of like big picture vision goals.
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  Sure.
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  So I'm gonna give you a small of a structure.
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  So we use, in my organization, framework called Cascade.
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  K?
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  And so with Cascade, we're able we start with the vision.
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  Okay.
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  And the vision says this is where we're headed.
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  From the vision, we go into our values.
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  Now this was one that was hard for me to wrap my hair on it first because, again, I think
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  values.
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  Right?
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  But at the end of the day, The values tell us how we're supposed to behave, but the values,
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  you can't have a values for your customers and a separate set of values for your for your,
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  internal team.
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  The values have to be the same.
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  And, also, the values are not about trust, honesty, respect.
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  That should be a given It has to be really about what makes you unique.
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  You know, one of my board members said to me goes, one of your values is you fight like hell
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  or small business owners.
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  And I was like, oh, I never really thought of it like that.
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  Now let's put that into contact.
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  So if we look at that and and and if someone's deter choose it between me and somebody else,
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  You gotta choose the the the person a that says, you know, we we're trustworthy.
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  We're honest and respectful, but you're gonna choose Jimmy.
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  Why would I choose Jimmy?
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  Because one of his guys eat bikes like hell, he would not give up until you have won.
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  Which one are you gonna choose?
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  Exactly.
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  Number 2.
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  So if we go with those 2 things, next thing we do if we look at the goals, which are also the
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  focus areas.
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  Now we wanna focus on 3 main goals for the year.
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  If we focus on 3 main goals, which I call focus areas, then the objectives to get to those
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  focus areas have to align That way we can look at things as people set objectives without
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  understanding what the focus areas are.
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  So you're already headed in the wrong direction.
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  So it becomes a system, a cascading system.
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  You got your vision, values, focus areas, then your objectives from the objectives you create
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  projects and your KPIs, and now you can figure out how to measure.
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  Now you got yourself a system.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Listen, we come right back on the small bizchett podcast.
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  We're gonna be talking more with Jimmy Newsom about how to use strategy to run your business
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  better I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and we will be right back.
• 13:10
  Are you ready to become a boss?
• 13:13
  Hi.
• 13:13
  I'm Melinda and small business lady.
• 13:15
  Click the button below and take my free boss quiz.
• 13:19
  This assessment will help you learn your entrepreneur type and find the right business
• 13:23
  model for you.
• 13:24
  Get this information about the number one asset in your business.
• 13:28
  Yeah.
• 13:28
  That's you.
• 13:32
  Hi, everybody.
• 13:33
  This is Melinda Everson, the small biz lady, and welcome back to the small biz chat podcast.
• 13:38
  I'm talking with my guest, Jimmy Newsom, about strategy and how it should really inform every
• 13:43
  single thing you do in your business.
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  So Jimmy, back to you, How can you involve your team or your employees in the strategy
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  development process?
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  Is this something you should do as a business owner by yourself?
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  Or should your team be involved in developing the strategy?
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  Yeah.
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  And and that's where most small business owners make the mistake.
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  They develop in a vacuum.
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  If you want people to buy into the big vision, you want people to fall to to follow you on
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  that journey, you know, there are things that you have to do as a business owner to kinda set
• 14:14
  the the port to ship in the right direction.
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  But from there, you need to encourage open dialogue.
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  You need to give them the ability to to collaborate, to listen.
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  You know, you can even set high level objectives for your team, but then involve them
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  so they can actually go, well, The and let them choose the path because at the end of the day,
• 14:33
  the path is what's important.
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  But if they have brought into the path, do they understand how contribution is con contributes
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  to the big plan and how we how, you know, that that whole level of transparency, why we do
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  what we do, There's more buy in, and now they own it.
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  And when they own it, they feel more an obligation to fulfill on that obligation, that
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  promise.
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  You know, and and again, that's when it goes back up to the top.
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  You know, people wanna work for an organization that cares about a community.
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  So if you're always talking about your products and services versus your purpose vision and
• 15:07
  mission, you're already headed in the wrong direction.
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  So you know, you really gotta involve them in at at any and every opportunity, and the more
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  they're involved, the better the opportunity will be that things will work in the right
• 15:17
  direction and everybody's on board.
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  A 100% all the time.
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  So talk to me about the obstacles go.
• 15:23
  This all sounds great.
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  Everybody's gotta love developing the new strategy, and everybody's gotta work on Okay.
• 15:29
  Well, what are some of the obstacles that people run into when they are developing a new
• 15:35
  strategy for their business?
• 15:37
  Sure.
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  So cascade the tool that I use a lot, says it best.
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  They say execute when it comes to, you know, they say 9 out of 10 visit companies that have
• 15:46
  a strategy fail.
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  9 out of 10.
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  Not the ones who don't have it, but the ones who do have it.
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  And The biggest thing is they fail on execution and alignment is always the problem.
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  Okay?
• 15:58
  So you have to create alignment with the the, with and and that and that's all about
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  accountability.
• 16:05
  So the problem is always, you know, lack of resources, a lack of understanding about what
• 16:11
  we're trying to achieve, unclear, vision, values, and focus areas, or ones that are not
• 16:17
  really fleshed out.
• 16:19
  So it's very clear.
• 16:20
  You should be able to talk to me about your someone should be able to talk to me about your
• 16:24
  business without you ever being in the room.
• 16:26
  If you leave anything up to interpretation, There you are it's already unclear.
• 16:31
  I need to be able to sell for me if I never ever talk to the person that they're trying to
• 16:35
  sell it to.
• 16:36
  That's when you know your that everybody's on board.
• 16:39
  So the you know, it's it's a lack of resources, this lack of this competition, It's someone's
• 16:44
  doing it better than you at a a conversation yesterday about competition, but being in
• 16:49
  competition with yourself.
• 16:50
  I know I have competitors, but I feel like I don't have competition.
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  You know, and I'm not trying to serve everybody.
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  Whenever I hear the term, everybody's my customer, I run.
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  I do not want you as a customer.
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  I'm saying that right now for anybody.
• 17:02
  I'm not trying to insult you, but listen.
• 17:04
  I like to win, and you're making it.
• 17:06
  It'll win win for you.
• 17:08
  So there are a lot of things, but it's really about I understand that I need to make strategy
• 17:13
  a a part of our daily activity.
• 17:15
  Well, what about I want you to really ask you about Okay.
• 17:19
  So I have this strategy, but then something like the pandemic happens.
• 17:23
  Right?
• 17:24
  So when should a small business consider revisiting its strategy.
• 17:29
  Like, what, obviously, a global pandemic is like a once in a lifetime thing, but what
• 17:33
  normal things, like, should trigger a review of the strategy?
• 17:37
  Well, one, you shouldn't even need a trigger.
• 17:40
  You should be doing this on a regular basis.
• 17:42
  So you need
• 17:43
  to be reviewing your strategy If not daily, depending on your job position, at least weekly
• 17:49
  and monthly, we talk about creating meetings and, you know, there's this whole big big thing
• 17:54
  about getting rid of meetings.
• 17:56
  The problem is we gotta get better at them.
• 17:58
  You know?
• 17:59
  So we need to be having meetings and they talk about the different levels of strategy
• 18:04
  depending on if they're one on one meetings, department based meetings, board meetings, and
• 18:08
  only showing the data that's important and that data should always be rooted in strategy.
• 18:13
  Okay?
• 18:14
  So that's 1, 2, you need a tracking mechanism.
• 18:17
  So when I I set some pretty audacious goals for my business about in 2020 and I presented it to
• 18:24
  my board member.
• 18:25
  And this is kinda what really triggered me and scared the hell out of me at the same time
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  because I was like, oh my goodness.
• 18:30
  I I gotta I gotta make sure this happens.
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  And I know I can be a slightly distracted by the blinky shiny.
• 18:36
  So I put a I I've searched for tools because I'm a tools guy.
• 18:41
  That I to to help me.
• 18:42
  And so there are tools out there that could help you manage your strategy and also make it
• 18:47
  accessible every single person on your on your on your team and your organization.
• 18:52
  So everybody has direct access to the strategy, and they can see how they contribute to it.
• 18:57
  And so When something like the pandemic happens, you've already kinda have contingency
• 19:01
  plans in place.
• 19:02
  You can see how you can make adjustment.
• 19:04
  You can see where there might be opportunities for innovation.
• 19:07
  All these things start to happen, but you can't create a strategy and hide it away on a Google
• 19:12
  drive.
• 19:13
  Or if you're really old school, in a file cabinet.
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  So you need to put it in a place where it's easily accessible and people are accessible
• 19:20
  because it's a part of their job as of today.
• 19:23
  I love it.
• 19:24
  Alright, Jimmy.
• 19:25
  What is the best business advice anyone has ever given you?
• 19:28
  If you can't find someone to do it, don't do it.
• 19:33
  And I know that's definitely weird.
• 19:35
  And and and I'll I'll I'll put a little context behind that.
• 19:37
  One of my mentors was interviewing the guy who created Budruckers.
• 19:40
  K?
• 19:41
  And I was at the time, I was a hue huge in video editing.
• 19:44
  So I would edit all these things where I learned all these lovely stuff yelling out to
• 19:48
  you right now.
• 19:48
  And He goes, what after that thing you were doing?
• 19:51
  This huge project, he goes, didn't do it.
• 19:52
  He goes, yeah, but it was such a huge moneymaker.
• 19:54
  He goes, I couldn't find the right team.
• 19:56
  And we as entrepreneurs are notorious began for having 18 side hustles, and it's okay to have
• 20:02
  18 side hustles as long as you're putting people in place to do them.
• 20:05
  If not, put them on hold and focus.
• 20:07
  Stay focused on what you can do and and what can generate you revenue the quickest.
• 20:12
  And then if you have to reinvest that in the other side projects and put a team behind it,
• 20:17
  and let it work.
• 20:18
  That's what
• 20:18
  I learned.
• 20:19
  I love it.
• 20:19
  I love it.
• 20:20
  Thank you so much, Demi.
• 20:21
  Your valuable insight was so and so helpful.
• 20:24
  And next up, we're gonna be talking to an expert about how to build your brand strategy
• 20:30
  online.
• 20:31
  I'm willing to ever see the small biz lady You're watching the small fish chat podcast,
• 20:35
  and we will be right back.
• 20:40
  Hey there.
• 20:41
  Have you always wanted to start your dream business?
• 20:43
  Well, now is the time.
• 20:45
  My become your own boss class is back online this fall.
• 20:49
  Starting October 10th.
• 20:51
  Sign up for our 10 week online course, and you're gonna have 2 hour live weekly session.
• 20:56
  We're gonna give you everything you need to build your business plan, your pitch deck, and
• 21:01
  your launch plan.
• 21:02
  If you're ready to start your dream business, in 2023, do not delay sign up for this course
• 21:08
  so that you can start off the new year as an entrepreneur.
• 21:12
  Head over to smallbizladyuniversity.com, and you'll get all the details to sign up for
• 21:17
  become your own boss.
• 21:18
  The live course starting again October 10, 2023.
• 21:30
  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 21:34
  Subscribe to this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
• 21:40
  more fantastic information and interviews.
• 21:42
  You can find more sources small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 21:47
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 21:50
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.