It's so easy sometimes on long holiday weekends to not reflect on the true meaning of the holiday that allows us to have a day off. I know that's been the case for me many times!

That being said, I would encourage all of you to remember the true meaning of this Memorial Day...to reflect on and give thanks for the sacrifices our brave men and women have made on behalf of our country and all that it stands for. I think it's safe to say that without it, we would not be the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

May your and your family have a wonderful Memorial Day!

By: Kathy Kent Toney, President of Kent Business Solutions

When I was teenager, I experienced the craziest road trip I’ve ever had in my life! I was a California girl going to college in small-town Iowa and I was in search of the cheapest way to get home for Christmas.

I settled on a non-stop carpool to Los Angeles with one other girl and two guys, traveling in an old Karmann Ghia.
Little did I know the perilous times that lay before me!

Here’s a sampling of what went wrong on that trip:

• One of the wheels fell off within three miles of leaving the campus. We traveled to Kansas City with only three lug nuts on each wheel.    
• The alternator died in-route to Kansas City.
• The headlights went out while I was driving in Kansas around midnight. I let the other passengers know I was no longer driving!
• Our brakes stopped working in Flagstaff, Arizona (elevation 6,909 feet). The car owner drove down the mountain using only the manual transmission’s lower gears to navigate. YIKES!
  
• TWO MILES from my house, something broke loose from the engine. The driver re-attached the part to the engine with something like a piece of string or rope.
  

Needless to say, it was a nightmare, and it’s a miracle I arrived home safe.

This story just proves the point that teenagers’ brains truly are not fully developed!  

So, what does this have to do with any business topic? It’s this…

Many companies start their digital transformation journeys on just a wing and a prayer like we did. They start out excited about the journey and then they encounter serious problems along the road. They may attempt to bolt things on to keep things from breaking any further.

Or, they may continue to forge ahead when something that's broken and they limp along the way towards their goal.

Much like my perilous trip, they may reach their destination, but it either took too long or cost them way too much to get there…OR, they’re in the unfortunate place where they never arrive at their desired end point.

If you’re starting a digital transformation journey and want to ensure you arrive at your destination on-time, within budget and with great results, then check out some lessons learned on this topic, based on my eventful trip:

1. Chose the Right Solution/Approach So You’ll Reach Your Desired Destination

An old, not-well-maintained Karmann Ghia definitely was not a good choice for our trip and It never dawned on my teenage brain to ask the owner how safe the car was.  

Lessons Learned: When choosing a digital transformation platform, do your due-diligence upfront:

• Determine your end goal
• Ask all end-user employees to determine their specific needs for a solution
  
• Do plenty of research and consult with experts to find the best solution(s) to meet your needs and budget
  

By doing this before you ever start, there's a greater likelihood you'll stay on-time, within budget and achieve great results. ​

2. Ensure Your Team Remains Engaged Throughout the Project

Our “team” was pretty engaged to reach our goal…except for me. This trip was a disaster in my eyes, and I didn’t want ANYTHING to do with helping to solve the problems. The owner, however, had to be…it was his car and responsibility to provide us transportation home.

Lessons Learned: As a team leader, you know it’s your responsibility to help the team effectively arrive at the destination. You’ll encounter detractors (like how I was on my trip) if they don’t see the process working well. So, it’s a good idea to explore the best ways to keep your team engaged.

One great approach towards this end is implementing Scrum. If a full implementation isn’t possible at this point, a small step towards that is starting out with a Daily Stand-Up meeting. It’s is great way to increase team engagement and help keep projects on-track.  

3. Celebrate Your Victories Along the Way

At times, it looked like we’d never get home. That’s why it was a mini-celebration every time the car was up and running!
 
Lessons Learned: Whenever your team reaches a major milestone, reward them with a small token of your appreciation, such as letting them leave a couple hours early one day. That will work wonders for increasing team satisfaction and moving forward to accomplish the end goal.
 

These ideas are just a tip of the iceberg to help you on your digital transformation journey. It’s certainly not an easy road to travel and having experts at your disposal can make all the difference in the world!

That’s why my strategic partner, Michael Cantu’, and I would love to be a resource for you! Michael has almost 20 years of making digital transformations work well for companies, including big organizations (like UnitedHealth Group) and smaller businesses as well. And I have over 35 years of experience helping businesses grow profitable beyond their imagination!

If you’re in a situation where you could use some advice, we’re offering a free 30-minute consultation to answer any questions you may have around digitally transforming your business.

If you’d like to take an advantage of this offer, just click the button below to schedule a time!

We’ve all heard the buzz words “creating value” and the importance of doing that with our business relationships and prospects. But how does one really go about doing that? What are some key things you can do around that?

To find out, I recently interviewed my referral partner and friend Frank Bonura, known as The Connector. This is the last of three videos on the topic of How to Build Relationships, Not Just a Network.

Please note: if you'd like to watch a video version of this interview, click here. ​​

Kathy: Welcome, Frank, it's really great to have you again!

Frank: My pleasure, Kathy.

Kathy: So, tell me—what are the best practices of nurturing a relationship base?

Kathy: Well, this might be the shortest video you've ever produced!

It's interesting that you say practices—there's just really one practice, and we all know what it is. We talk about it and most of us do it, and that's create value. The value most of us want to create, however, is typically targeted in that professional direction—bringing somebody a new client, etc.

I have learned over the years that creating personal value is much more impactful. If you really want to make an impact, do something for someone's family or create some kind of personal value. Many have heard me say this: if you want people to love you forever, do two things—make them money and help one of their kids.

Now, about personal value—you need to get to know someone. Again, we're back to the whole relationship thing. And people operate at different paces—people may need a little time to get to know you personally and trust you, but they’ll not necessarily share things [about themselves]. But anytime the door opens that you can create personal value for someone, go down that path, because it's massive.

I can tell you that 40-50% of my business has come from doing this, that at some time or another and through our relationship, I've created personal value for them. So, it's worked very well for me.

Kathy: That’s been true for me! I can think of an instance that's happening to me right now. I created some personal value for a gentleman years ago that actually came to me with a big potential engagement So yes, Frank—it definitely works!

Frank: Yes, it's huge!

Kathy: So that's a wrap for today. Thanks for joining us, Frank, I certainly learned some things over the course of these three videos that I plan to put into practice myself!

Frank: I've enjoyed it.

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Speaking of relationship bases, business leaders know how important it is to nurture customer relationships—to improve their customer feedback loops; however, many don’t know where to start at making improvements.

If that’s you, then download my free Customer Satisfaction Checklist to help you uncover areas where you can improve your customer relationships—so they'll keep coming back for more! 

How often have you wanted to quickly connect with someone to solve a critical business issue and didn’t know where to turn to get that help?

Or, would you like to know how to develop more quality relationships that potentially create your own good timing and luck?

If either of these sound like you, then keep reading!

I recently interviewed my referral partner and friend, Frank Bonura, also known as The Connector, to discover some insights around this whole topic.

This is the second of three blogs on the topic of How to Build Relationships, Not Just a Network.

Please note: if you'd like to watch a video version of this interview, click here.

Kathy: Welcome, Frank, it's great to have you here today!

Frank: It’s my pleasure, and thank you for calling me a thought leader!  

Kathy: Well, that’s who you are when it comes to developing amazing business relationships!

Tell me…what are the two primary benefits in creating and nurturing a relationship base?

Frank: The first one is this:

The more people you know and the larger and deeper your base relationships happen to be, that increases your ability to be a resource for others. And being a resource is what enables you to nurture your relationships. We know if you don't nurture your relationships, you just have a network of strangers.

The second one is this:

You actually end up creating your own good timing and luck. For instance, imagine you’re at home and you need something. What do you do? You call your friends.

We all do that if we’re looking for a particular service or whatever it might be; we call our friends—our relationships—the people we trust and respect.

Same thing happens at work. When a business owner or business leader needs something at work for their business, they reach out to their friends, to their relationships with people that they trust and respect.

What's worked for me is having a deep and broad base of relationships. I don't care what your station in life is, as long as you're a quality person, this what I’ve found to be true: the more people I know, I stack the odds in my favor that when a business owner or leader calls one of his or her friends, that friend is going to know me. And that could mean some opportunity for me, either personally or professionally. That’s what’s worked for me.

Kathy: speaking of creating your own good timing and luck, something similar happened to me several years ago with one of my best clients. I had been nurturing a relationship with a referral partner for quite some time. We had a meeting one week and that very same week, one of her clients reached out to her and asked: “Hey, do you know anybody that can work on this type of project we want to get started one?” She immediately thought of me and made the introduction.

Within three minutes of meeting my future client, he hired me on the spot. I would call that good timing!

Frank: Perfect. Great example. There you go!

Kathy: Yes, exactly!

Well, that's a wrap for today, Thanks for joining us again, Frank.

Frank: My pleasure. I've enjoyed it!
 
Kathy: stay tuned for our last segment on the Best Practices of Nurturing a Relationship Base.  You won’t want to miss it!

***

Speaking of relationship bases, business leaders know how important it is to nurture customer relationships—to improve their customer feedback loops; however, many don’t know where to start at making improvements.

If that’s you, then download my free Customer Satisfaction Checklist to help you uncover areas where you can improve your customer relationships—so they'll keep coming back for more! 

Ever wonder how to convert the stack of business cards you collected at a networking event into great relationships?
If so, then keep reading!

To answer this question, I recently interviewed one of my referral partners and friends, Frank Bonura, known as The Connector. This is the first of three blogs on the subject of How to Build Relationships, Not Just a Network.

Kathy: Welcome, Frank, it's great to have you!

Frank: Thanks for having me, Kathy!

Kathy: So, tell me what's the biggest difference between building a relationship base and just swapping business cards.

Frank: Well, that's the difference. A relationship base is just that—relationships—which implies mutual trust and respect. Networking very often is just card swapping. And some will say it's a matter of semantics. For them it might be, but there’s a massive difference between the two.

With relationships, you're taking the time to really get to know someone so you can create personal and professional value for them. People that get relationships are focused on that, not quid pro quo, like Adams Toyota telling them they’ll get a free diamond necklace with every test drive.

It’s about creating value when you meet somebody for the first time, bringing them something or doing something for them. It's not about keeping score. And anytime two quality people get together, in my opinion, therein lies the value.

Now, networking events can be of value, but I hate elevator pitches. The last thing I want to do is give somebody an infomercial about Frank Bonura, boring them to death. People are told how important elevator pitches are for networking events.

The problem with that is these pitches are all about them. I know some people who go to networking events and they'll ask questions like: “Hey, tell me about you.” That’s a better way to go about it.

Either way, networking events are like speed dating. It’s often to get to know someone. That’s why it's important to follow-up with some one-on-one time where you have an opportunity to really get to know each other. So, a Zoom call will never replace a handshake, but it’s a great start.

For years I've witnessed people coming back from networking events with a stack of business cards and they’ll just throw them in their desk or put them in a Rolodex, and that's about as far as it goes. So, networking events can be productive if you follow up to schedule meetings, have some meaningful discussions to get to know people and then convert those networking contacts into a relationship base.

The difference is mindset—how you approach it and the depth of knowing someone on the relationship-side. It's knowing them well enough to know what you can do for them as human beings—for themselves and their families. If you have that attitude, you’ll be much more likely to create value for everyone you encounter versus swapping business cards. That’s how I see it.

Kathy: I agree, Frank! For me, I try every day to start out with the idea that I want to create value for everyone I talk with. Not only is that a great motivational factor for me, but it really helps people and that's what it's all about, right?

Frank: Yes! All of this is really pretty simple—it’s about creating value for people. But you do need to be genuine about it. You can't fake sincerity for very long. In the end, this relationship process is really not complicated at all.

Kathy: I agree! Well, that's a wrap for today. Thanks for joining us, Frank!

Frank: My pleasure.
 
Stay tuned for our next segment on the two primary benefits of creating and nurturing a relationship base. You won’t want to miss it!

***

Speaking of relationship bases, how would you like to improve feedback loops to increase your customer loyalty?

If that’s you, download my free Customer Loyalty Checklist to discover ways you can improve your customer relationships so they'll keep coming back for more!