Business Results - Leadership, Passion, Technologies and Processes to make business thrive.

What is you Contribution Equation?

 
I like math - I always have and always will. I often think in equations. For many things I do, I crank out a quick ROI calculation in my head - mostly subconsciously and instantaneously, but I do it. As many of you know, I left Leverage Software on October 27th. Since my departure I have been trying to determine how I want to split my time between earning, helping entrepreneurs and giving back philanthropically.

After meeting a bunch of awesome people at Summit Series, spending a bit of time with Tim Ferris and Scott Harrison from Charity Water and generally thinking about how I want to spend my time I have defined my Contribution Equation (and created a new term in the process, I suppose). I am defining the Contribution Equation as the formula for how I spend my time professionally and philanthropically. It considers working hours only - let's assume 50 hours per week. It doesn't include personal time with friends, coaching, family time, etc. Of course, there is some overlap but the Contribution Equation is the deliberate way in which I spend my time to earn and contribute. So, here it is - what's yours?

• 50% of my working hours - earning $$

• 25% of my working hours - advising companies for equity only (or none at all, in some cases)

• 25% of my working hours - volunteering and philanthropic endeavors such as planning, advising, fund-raising, donating, and development for things that I believe in and wherein I can provide tremendous value

For me, this equation represents the appropriate blend of present earnings, equity upside and giving. It allows me to most effectively leverage my capabilities, experience and passions to help a bunch of people less fortunate while satisfying my financial goals. I'm sharing this to ask you to think about your Contribution Equation. If you are reading this post, you are likely more fortunate than 90% of Americans and 99% of the people on this planet. Will you consider the giving part of your Contribution Equation?

Remember, giving can be in the form of expertise, money, time, connections, promotion, etc. For many, the equation might be 99% and 1% (giving), which is an awesome contribution. I would suggest that you write it down, because it allows you to turn your desires into action and execution. One way to think about the Return part of the ROI equation, with regard to giving, is that you might:

• feed a bunch of kids
• provide safe drinking water which prevents disease and death
  
• prevent a suicide
  
• help to raise a child 
• educate a child or adult
  
• provide skills and financial resources to support a family economy across the globe

Those are pretty awesome returns, aren't they? It doesn't take much to make a huge contribution.

What is you Contribution Equation?

Be well.

@mwalsh

It's a new day with new opportunities. Best wishes Leverage!

As the title implies, I am embarking on new and exciting things. Before describing what I'll be up to, I wanted to share a few things about my experience with Leverage Software.  

Nearly 8 years ago, I had an "ah-ha" moment that set me into action to launch Leverage Software. I wanted to create a better way for business people to develop and share relationships and information. I tapped my buddy Joe and after a couple of back-of-the-napkin sessions I convinced Joe to join me. With passion and enthusiasm, Leverage Software was launched.  

Among the most valuable and important outcomes from launching and growing Leverage are the relationships that I have built over the last 7 years. I am thrilled to have developed friendships with customers, partners, employees, analysts, vendors, investors and even competitors. These relationships will last a lifetime.  

I am honored to have worked closely with hundreds of companies to launch innovative communities. These customers share my vision as they embark on new ways to communicate with their customers, partners, employees, members, students and staff. They were and continue to be brave as they push the communication envelope.  

I am fortunate to have collaborated with so many great employees at Leverage over the last 7 years. The lean development team rocks, customers rave about client services, marketing is passionate and effective while sales has always found the perfect balance between extracting an order with confidence and conviction while making clients really happy as they deliver the value proposition with great respect, knowledge and enthusiasm.  

Among other responsibilities as founder and CEO of Leverage, I was responsible for vision and strategy. It is amazing to see something move from one’s never ending stream of thoughts  (I mean never ending - just ask Kate how many texts she received over the weekends) into action and client value through a team of smart and dedicated colleagues. As a leader, I am proud of the business that I created and we built and am excited for what the future holds for Leverage.  

The most important and valuable return on the investment that I made over the last 7 years are the lives that I have touched and have been touched by while at Leverage. I received a couple of incredibly heartfelt communications over the last couple of days. The most important of these was a "thank you" from one of my colleagues. She thanked me not only for mentoring her but also for empowering her and growing her confidence, which will have an everlasting impact.  This reward makes the last 7 years incredibly worthwhile.  

The next 7 years should be amazing for Leverage. The last 90 days have been the best in the history of the company. By every important business metric, Leverage performed better than ever. In addition to strong metrics, which shall remain confidential, Gartner recognized Leverage as a Visionary in the Social Software category. As a major shareholder, I am optimistic that Leverage will continue to thrive over the next several years. The passion, work ethic and intelligence of Leverage employees and customers will drive that success.  

So what am I up to? I am excited to work with a few companies on really exciting projects - pitching in where they need my help to make their businesses thrive. I will be working on strategy, vision, execution, partnerships, sales execution, and plain ole' just getting it done - I want to help companies ROCK! I will provide much more detail over the next week or so, and you can catch a glimpse here. I will also spend time advising companies and investing time on philanthropic passions.  

With enthusiasm, I thank all Leverage customers and partners - past and present; and wish them the best. To my former colleagues at Leverage, please take care of my baby and grow it into something even more valuable than it is today.  

I am excited for my upcoming projects and working with many of you as we develop deeper relationships with the end goal of building tremendous business value. If you believe that you can use my help, contact me here. Spend every day living your passions.  

Cheers,  

mike

Leadership - important skills for parents, coaches and CEOs

As founder and CEO of Leverage Software, a parent of two active boys and as Coach of a little league baseball team; I have noticed common leadership attributes across these three responsibility sets. Whether it's leading a team of employees or a team of eager 6-8 year old baseball players or raising kids, the leadership strategies and tactics that deliver results seem to be the same.

• Get people excited to accomplish the tasks at hand.
• Provide inspiration and encouragement.
  
• Set a strategy to align goals.
• Be passionate, positive and deliver encouragement.
• Celebrate risk taking as well as failure.
• Let people make mistakes under a watchful eye.
• Set challenging but attainable goals and objectives.
• Explain responsibilities and expectations so people can be accountable.
• Celebrate and reward with enthusiasm.
• Provide feedback and input even when not asked.
• Find the balance between driving hard with being a trusted resource.
• Be an inspiration and lead by example.

These skills and approaches have allowed me to drive results forward and appreciate the return of the excitement of accomplishments of others. Whether 4 years old or 40, we all wish to improve and win. There's nothing better to see someone accomplish a task for the first time, or perform better than they ever had before or accomplish things that they never thought possible.

Anyone can lead - you don't need the title to be a leader. People want to be led. Go lead someone today. You will be thrilled by the results!

I need a Super Search & Recommendation engine

I need a Pattern-Based Super Search and Recommendation engine - who's on it?

I'm tired of searching - this is what I want - someone please build it for, or call me, and we'll build it together.

version 1 - this should be easy (Google 2.0)

I search Google all the time therefore it knows what I'm looking for and have looked for over the last 6 years. I want Google to recommend things to me that it should know I like based on my search activity. For example, Google should know that I recently searched for the following terms:

tablet hotels
soho
seth godin
soho house

Why aren't they recommending a killer airline deal on an airline, such as Virgin America, that has a look and feel of those things that I have searched? Why aren't they suggesting a 20% discount offer at 60 Thompson? Why don't they tell me that there is a signing party for someone that I should be interested in, if I have spare time during my visit to New York? Why can't someone package up my search history and recommend 10 things that might interest me?

version 2 -  slightly harder - maybe Bing is trying to do this - perhaps Ask can do this (are they still around?)

Take all of the activity that I wish to share including a complete profile of my wants and capabilities, my event history, my Twitter feed, LinkedIn, Facebook, Dopplr, Slideshare, YouTube channel, etc and make KILLER recommendations? By KILLER, I mean that I act on these things > 25% of the time.

I want a daily list of suggestions based on all of these data sets. I want suggestions on where to stay, what to do, who to meet (yes, I'll upload my calendar availability), what to buy, etc. I also want to be able to drill down to understand why they thought I would like the suggestion, if I want to drill down, but the recommendations should be good enough that I don't need to. I want to know which of my 1 and 2 degree connections within my social sphere have recommended or commented on these things. If you give this to me, you will save me  a ton of time and I suspect lots of money, while generating huge revenue from the vendors you recommend (take 7-12 % of every transaction - let's call it 10%).

Here's an example:

I like the beach, beer, wine, all tablethotels hotels, baseball, sushi, social networking, among other things. I have searched for things like these, not exactly, but similar to them.

When I visit LA, I want the Super Search and Recommendation engine to recommend that I stay at Shade Hotel (and offer a discount) in Manhattan Beach, have dinner at Club Sushi, make me aware of an art opening that night or a local TEDx event at the beach, and show me the connections whom have recommended these places. It should also let me know that Hennessey's on Hermosa Ave will be playing the game and the starting time of that game. It might also suggest that I try to meet Chip Conley who may be in Venice one of his newest hotels. Let me know that there is a store on Hermosa Ave that sells Nixon earphones and Billabong shorts, if I have time to stop by. Oh, you recommended that I fly either Virgin America or Southwest Airlines and provide the quote at the time of the recommendation. Though I like both airlines, I'll likely choose Virgin America because @PorterVA is awesome and I love the airline.

I'll spend about $1,900 on this 3 day trip and you will make $190 - not bad for a couple of recommendations. I'll be happy to use Super Search because you save me a couple hours per week and a bunch of cash and your vendors will love you for selling off their inventory.

Is this too much to ask? Does anyone else want this? Does anyone want to build it for me or with me? you can also ping me at @mwalsh.

Are you creating profit?

Is there profit in what you do? Do you add a financial benefit to the bottom line? Can this be represented in numbers (increase in revenue minus total costs of what you do, including all overhead).

I went to the office in South Park this morning to retrieve my laptop and cars were being towed to make way for a street fair that's happening today. As I'm sure you have all experienced, being towed in such a hassle. I'm wondering what the profit is to the city, or is it a cost and the car just needs to be removed? If the car needs to be removed, is there a better way to make that happen, maybe not, but it's worth thinking about.

Here are the numbers associated with a tow, that come to mind:

Revenue generated by the tow:

The parking ticket - $100
The check to the tow yard - $180
Anything else?

Total - $280

Here are the costs (all estimates):

The officer on duty at overtime pay, for the 15 minutes to issue the ticket, with overhead - $50
The costs of the truck, with overhead - $75
The payment to the tow-yard - $75
The back-office processing of all the stuff that needs to happen to process payments, etc - $50
Processing of vehicles that are never retrieved and/or court sessions for those that fight the ticket - $30 (I made this up to make the numbers work, but there has to be some of this going on).

Revenue = $280
Cost = $280

Profit = 0
Headache to vehicle owner = massive.

It seems to me that it's about a wash - everyone loses, or at least no one wins and the owner of he vehicle definitely loses - perhaps at an all in cost (including time and opportunity costs) of $500.

As an owner, I would be willing to pay $100-$200 to avoid all that hassle associated with a tow, and the city would make more profit - let's call it an idiot tax (credit to Jack Ryan for the term). Perhaps I opt into a service that includes having my phone number on a sticker such that I can receive a call to correct the mistake of leaving my car. I bet that half of the people who were towed this morning would rather have tossed on their PJs, walked downstairs, handed over a $100 and gone back to bed, as compared with what faces them today.

These numbers may be hogwash, but think about your next set of financial decisions in this way - is there a more profitable, less typical and less painful way to generate more profit?

I'm just sayin.

Sunset or Sunrise?

A couple times a week I'll walk to the nearby gym with a cup of coffee. Recently, I caught this sunrise along China Basin in San Francisco. It made me wonder why there aren't more sunrise photos as compared with sunsets. Search Google images and find 41,500,000 sunset images and 17,000,000 sunrise images. Search Flickr to find 6,150,000 images of sunsets and 1,500,000 sunrise images.

Where's the love for the sunrise? Why are sunsets getting all the attention?

It strikes me as interesting because a sunrise represents something pretty important - a new day, another chance to change the world, the ability to impact one or more lives, to volunteer, to decide to be the best boss, colleague, parent, teacher or friend you can be, to kick ass at something, anything - just for the sake of kicking ass, to step up, to make a difference.

I think I was particularly struck the morning I took this photo because it was shortly after Ted Kennedy's funeral Mass, and the words that were spoken about him were so amazing. If you haven't listened to those words, find it on YouTube and watch - they were pretty amazing words. It made me think that I need to step of my kindness game - to be better to more people because I have been given the means to provide what others may need.

So what's the message of this post?

It's a new day - go change the world for someone today, for the better. Even if it's for today only - go kick some ass and make a huge difference.

       

You wanna share - really? Share your Top 5 mistakes (lessons learned) of 2008 - now that's sharing!

I'm seeing a flood of "Top 10" lists for 2008 and predictions for 2009. I find them interesting and valuable. I learn a ton - maybe more, however, from my own mistakes and mistakes of others. I want to share my Top 5 mistakes with you so that you can avoid making them, or at least think twice before you move to action that might be costly. I would be very grateful, as would our readers, if you did the same. I think learning through mistakes is often more effective than learning through success but none of us can afford to make 100 mistakes in 2009 so let's learn from each other and share the costly mistakes, and ultimately the powerful benefits.

Be bold - be courageous - tell us what to avoid, or just share your comments with us.

Cheers and Best Wishes for a Kick Ass 2009!

In no particular order:

1. I made some bad travel decisions

Though it's never easy to determine how to most effectively spend one's time, I could have avoided a couple of trips that had a low probability of a meaningful ROI. Sometimes it makes more sense to run the probabilities and opportunity costs, multiply the "gut" factor and determine the probability for a high Return on Investment; than to just go for it. I could have saved a bunch of carbon, gotten more sleep, and taken care of more people that deserved my time and attention if I had run the numbers. That said, just going for it often does pay off so I'm likely to make this same mistake in 2009. Next time I consider flying across the planet, I'll ask a couple more people what they think.

2. I spent too much time with potential investors

I could have redirected 200 hours of investor related activity toward spending with my customers. Our customers and employees ARE Leverage Software, our investors are not. We are grateful for our fabulous investors, but our customers and employees deserve more of my time than do existing or potential investors. If you are a potential investor reading this, you best have a REALLY good pitch planned for me, otherwise, I'll see you in 2010 if at all.

3. One bad hire

I am really pleased with the growth of Leverage Software and our hiring decisions. We continued to add great talent to the team in 2008 and will continue to do so in 2009. That said, I made one hiring decision that went against my gut. It didn't work out. Fortunately, we recognized it quickly and terminated the relationship several months ago and within only a few months of the hire. The two learnings here are 1) listen to your gut - chemistry is everything and 2) if you make a bad hiring decision then address and resolve it fast. Bad hires can cause huge cultural problems.

4. Not spending enough time with those I should have

In general, I didn't spend enough time with people that I should have. The reason for this is that I spent too much time with people I shouldn't have. For 2009, I'm going to try to make better decisions about my time allocation. If anyone has any suggestions for the readership, please let us know. For example, I'm planning to attend TED, SXSW and other conferences in 2009. Should I be spending my time at CES instead, or avoid conferences altogether and spend that time with customers, partners, prospects and employees? In some cases, I can and do meet with customers, partners and potential customers and partners at these events - so that seems reasonable. At TED, however, this typically is not the case and it is a significant investment of time and energy. I can't imagine missing TED, but maybe it's not the best use of my time (I think it is, by the way). These are decisions that I find difficult to make. How do you decide? Perhaps we should all conference through Twitter?

5. Cobblers shoes

We did not take enough time in 2008 to completely launch our customer community. We fully launched our employee community and partially launched our customer and partner community but it is not yet fully interactive. We are committed to launching fully in Q1. We now have the appropriate resources in place to manage the project and we certainly have an outstanding client base whom have asked for it and have patiently awaited the launch. I commit to delivering this to you in Q1. We want your feedback, your recommendations, and to see you collaborate with your peers - we're looking forward to harnessing your enthusiasm and ideas in a more efficient way!

I hope that this "Top 5 (lessons learned)" saves you some time and money. Feel free to share. I want to hear your lessons learned.

Cheers,

Mike

Top 10 Ways Associations can Use Online Communities to Increase Member Acquisition and Retention and Drive Revenue

Online communities can be incredibly powerful ways to allow association members to meet, share ideas, and connect with one another.

Here are the top 10 ways to begin using social networking and online communities at your organization.

1) Promote peer networking to members.

Networking builds relationships and advances careers. By using an online social network to promote peer networking, your association can provide a unique value to its members, adding an online component to a pre-existing "off-line" capability.

2) Unify members that are geographically diverse.

Since many members may not have the opportunity to connect face-to-face, online social networks enable you to connect members who are distributed across a number of cities in a meaningful way.

3) Increase attendance at conferences and other events.

Events are an excellent way to use online communities to encourage association members to connect with one another. Online communities can help extend the importance of your conferences because members can pre-arrange meetings before the event and follow up with one another easily after the event. In addition, an online community provides an exceptional outlet for idea sharing around event topics.

4) Drive membership renewals.

Because they provide the opportunity for 24/7 peer networking, online communities can make an association more visible and more relevant to your members, making an association "top of mind" to individual members throughout the year.

5) Create "private places" for members to collaborate around new ideas or initiatives.

Advanced social networking tools provide for both "open" and "private" areas within an online community, so that officers, project leaders, and employees might have a space to collaborate with one another.

6) Encourage members to promote themselves to each other.

Many online communities thrive because certain key members of an association – in the online world, these are typically called "community evangelists" – have a mechanism with which they can contribute new ideas, connect with members, and drive their own professional status within an organization. An online community makes it easy for top contributors and influential thought leaders to shine.

7) Be the first to offer a unique social networking application for your industry.

Here is a surprising fact: many of the most successful association online communities thrive because its members do NOT spend a great deal of their time behind a computer. This is because these members are frequently neglected by many technology providers – and thus they have limited communication outlets to utilize. Use online communities to increase the value of what your association offers.

8) Use an online community to promote member retention.

In those areas where association members can turn to local organizations, competitive associations, and other venues to network with one another, an online community can be useful in preventing member attrition. Use your online community to encourage engagement among members and as a channel for promoting thought leadership from within your association and with key partners.

9) Develop new offerings to attract and retain valuable sponsors.

Because an online community provides a set of "online spaces" where its members can collaborate and connect, sponsors frequently find these highly used and very visible areas attractive for sponsorship opportunities. In addition, sponsors can review user-generated content to gain added insight into their own products and services.

10) Use social networking to learn more from your association members.

One of the strongest values that an online community can provide is that it offers a communication channel for real-time feedback and member insight – as members will frequently share ideas and suggestions for which aspects of the association are the most important to them. To ensure the greatest success, play an active role in your online communities and be open to what your members have to say.

See how some of your peers are benefitting by enabling a member community.

"Over 2,000 participants from around the globe are already connected and using ToyConnections to network with their peers, build valuable relationships, share ideas, and find new products and services that can help grow their businesses. ToyConnections is quickly becoming an indispensible tool for anyone who wants to keep the pulse of the toy industry."

- Joan Wyche, Registration and Buyer Relations Manager, Toy Industry Assocation, Inc.

"HIMSS uses ‘HIMSS Connect,’ to enable members to share insights and knowledge throughout the year. HIMSS Connect is especially helpful to members prior to and during HIMSS’ large national conference and exhibition, which draws over 29,000 attendees. A member may call for a connection with other members who have recently undergone a major software implementation, to share implementation strategies and lessons learned. Others use the tool on site to learn about job opportunities and career trends in other areas of the country."

- Vish Kalambur, MCP, PMP, Senior Director of Software Applications Development, HIMSS

Kids Rock - a celebration at Town School for Boys

I love seeing kids join together with a common goal. Whether it's to play soccer, baseball, provide community services or entertain; kids know how to share and work together to meet their common goal. I was really impressed and moved by this group of 5-6 year old boys at the Town School of Boys in Pacific Heights in San Francisco. When we enrolled Zack in private school we were tentative, but public school in certain neighborhoods in major cities is, sadly, just not an option.

We couldn't be more pleased with Town or more proud of Zack and his classmates. Suffer through the poor video quality for the important message.

Get out and do something important TODAY - not tomorrow, today!

cheers.

mike

Town School for Boys Winter Concert from mike walsh on Vimeo.

Brady Come Back - Patriots Nation

There's no community more important than family. Check out this hilarious video of my Brother-in-Law, Matty Bleakney, a comedian from Boston. Enjoy it - I did.

Paris Hilton's use of Social Media - this time the video distribution is intentional

This is worth a watch. I'm not sure whether Conde Nast is an official sponsor (likely the case) or just happened to be the magazine of choice by Paris, but I'm sure they received some benefit from this. I'm posting this simply because I think it's funny and interesting how quickly this stuff spreads. Create something, anything, and see what happens. Enjoy!

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die