The Need to Network

Rewind to sophomore year of college, and I am a networking fanatic. I spent a ton of time hopping from event to event in Boston, piling up business cards in stacks across my desk. Looking back, this wasn’t the most effective strategy. Meetings lots of people and adding them on LinkedIn is a good first step but it needs to be solidified by building relationships. Instead of endless networking, consider the following approach I have since embraced:

1. Be specific

Going to networking events takes time and energy. If you are going to put off serving your customers or building your product to network, you better have a darn good strategy for who you want to meet and how you want to help each other. More specifically:

• Who can teach you something and compliment your skillset?
• What are you looking for… designer, developer, salesman, friends?
• Do you want to find customers, mentors, partners? They might be in different places.

2. Be picky with events

Especially if you are in the entrepreneurship world, you will have your pick of many fantastic events to attend. Here in Boston, Paul Hlatky at GreenhornConnect.com makes that incredibly easy with the schedule and calendar that he manages online. Sort through the options and find what you believe to be the very best events for what you are looking for. If you try one and it isn’t what you thought, leave early.

3. Follow up meaningfully

Sending a quick email saying “it was nice to meet you” is a start but does not go nearly far enough. You must research each person you want to follow up with and share with them something meaningful - like feedback on their business or a recommendation of someone else to connect with. This is the start of building a relationship with them.

4. Build the relationship

Find reasons to talk to a person more. Maybe it is to ask their advice or opinion and offer your own for whatever they are working on. You don’t have to become best friends, but you should make an effort to keep up to date on what they are doing.

5. Be clear and abrupt

If you are courting a client through networking, don’t beat around the bush. Say, “It was awesome meeting you, I think your product is awesome, here is how I can help.” Now list precisely what value you would add.  

Remember, it should be fun and exciting to be meeting all of these new people. Enjoy it!

More Than a Haircut

I don’t care how much technology exists nor how advanced our society gets - real people interaction and exceptional customer service will always be key in creating feelings. Feelings impact my buying decisions much more than a 10% off daily deal coupon, and here is why:

Last week I wandered through Allston, MA near the influencers@ HQ in search of a haircut. I peeked my head into a few shops along Harvard Avenue, all busy, high priced or both. As I turned onto Commonwealth Avenue, I walked by a small shop called Volmmer’s Hair Salon. As I walked in, a man came out from behind a desk to greet me and ask if I’d like a haircut. I enthusiastically responded yes. I quickly learned that this man’s name was Volmmer, the owner and operator of the business.

While Volmmer ended up giving me a great haircut (he claimed that it made me look several years younger, which I’ll always take as a compliment), that is not why I was so impressed. Instead, it was Volmmer’s exceptional customer service.

1. He asked for my name

As soon as I sat down, he asked what my name is. Not how I wanted my hair, but what my name is. He then told me his name, and proceeded to address me by name for the rest of the hair cut. This made it personal, and it was gold. 

2. He understood time

Volmmer new I was at lunch while at work, and did not waste any time in getting me back to the office as soon as possible. Interestingly, we were still able to have an enjoyable conversation that fit right in.

3. He priced reasonably

I wanted to pay $15 for a haircut - that is the value I placed on it as a customer. So when other salons offered $18, despite being such a small difference, I wasn’t enthused. Sure enough Volmmer charged $15. I paid him $18.

4. He produced a great product

Being personal and having great customer service is awesome, but it won’t be good enough if your business doesn’t provide a quality product. Volmmer gave me an excellent haircut and provided excellent customer service simultaneously.

Ultimately, Volmmer impressed a customer because he took something simple (going and getting a haircut) and made it an incredibly pleasant experience. It didn’t take much: he just treated customers with respect, produced a high quality product and priced it appropriately. His small shop should be the model for every business a customer interacts with. Volmmer didn’t just provide a haircut - he made me feel appreciated as a customer. And that is why for as long as I am in Allston, I will be a customer of Volmmer’s Hair Salon.

Weekly Team Check-in

When 3pm rolled around around this past Friday, I climbed up through the pile of papers on my desk at influencers@ and headed to the conference room, where every 20 minutes I met with a member of the team and checked in. I asked them how their week was going, what challenges they were facing and how I could assist. 

This weekly check in is simple, easy and so important. Per the recommendation of my go-to COO expert, Ryan Durkin, a team leader needs to check in regularly with everyone at the company (while size allows for it) and get a pulse on how the team is doing. Let’s face it - the business week is busy. At a start-up, it is borderline insane. As a result, personal issues and work-related challenges can get pushed aside while everyone scrambles to meet deadlines. The Friday afternoon check-in ensures that those issues don’t get missed and can get resolved going into the next week.

The check-in is super casual. Consider the following questions to ask your team:

• How was your week?
• What challenges did you run into?
• Are you stuck on anything?
• How is everyone else on your team - are you getting along?
• How can I  help?

In addition to these questions, the key is to let each team member know what they did well and opportunities for improvement for the next week. These should be clear and actionable, ie “The design work on that flyer was fantastic! For next week lets work together on reducing the amount of verbiage that is used in copy for our marketing collateral.”

Super easy questions. 15-20 minutes for each person. Every week. Get it done.

Entrepreneurs Club Semester Finale

Just a few years ago I wandered into the Entrepreneurs Club as a freshmen. There were about 10 people in the room. Fast forward several years, and the Entrepreneurs Club is now one of the largest student organizations at Northeastern University and in July 2011 was ranked the #6 collegiate entrepreneurship club in the world, sitting near titans like Yale, Oxford and Harvard Business School. Each week, 75-100 students come out to the club’s exciting get togethers and our email newsletter is sent to a whopping 2,000 recipients in the University community every Monday. A team of 24 passionate student leaders run the organization, and do so with a $34,000 budget, all fund raised by the students themselves.

This semester, we’ve attracted incredible speakers like the founder of Newbury Comics, COO of CampusLive, President of Strong Women Strong Girls and many more. The Husky Startup Challenge graduated 18 new student ventures, awarded $5,500 in prizes and even had 300+ attendees, including President Aoun. Our members landed great co-op jobs at startups like Perkstreet and Zeo. We expanded into the College of Engineering with EGG weekend, where 9 new physical products were created and $2,000 in prizes awarded. On top of that, together with IDEA and CRI, we helped to launch the Prototype Fund and awarded over $15,000 in grants to students to build prototypes for their ventures.

The Entrepreneurs Club has been the defining factor of my college experience. Every co-op job and internship I earned as an undergrad was a direct result of meeting awesome people at the club. The E-Club was my first major management experience, and the learning opportunities were plentiful. More specifically, I learned:

1. How to manage people

From motivation to delegation, I gained exposure to many different management techniques and found a passion for team building and coordinating a large group of people.

2. When you have to be bureaucratic

I gained an understanding for why larger organizations start to add bureaucracy and learned that some bureaucracy is necessary while too much can stifle creativity and innovation.

3. The value of brand and design

The Entrepreneurs Club was so successful in part because of excellent branding and design work by our Creative Director, Wells Riley.

4.  How to motivate students 

Student engagement is a powerful tool. I learned about what motivates college students and how to get them excited and passionate about something in order to produce quality.

5. Event planning and logistics

The Entrepreneurs Club is an event planning power house. I learned how to properly execute high profile events and all of the little details that go into them

6. Coordinating with “the man” (administration)

Being in a leadership role in a student organization provides an opportunity to deal with upper-level administration. I leaned how to ask the right questions, get the right resources and gain significant exposure.

7. The importance of aritculating a mission and vision

I figured this out half way through the year: it is important to have a clear mission and vision that everyone in the organization understands. I worked with senior leaders in the group like Cory Bolotsky to craft a great one for the E-Club.

8. How to innovate your way out of challenges

Our team got thrown challenge after challenge this year, from having a room that was 3 sizes too small for our events to keeping everyone dedicated while balancing full course loads. Time after time we had to be creative to work around these challenges and succeed as a group.

9. The value of a strong culture and team unity

The E-Club’s culture might be its most valuable asset. We created an entity that people feel truly passionate about. As a result, they pour their hearts into making it the best it can be.

10. How work and fun should blend together as one

Finally, I learned a lot about work-life balance, and how to deal with a lack of one. Ultimately, it is great to have work be fun and let it all blend together. That is certainly how it was with team E-Club.

It has been an honor to lead such an outstanding organization, and our entire team of dedicated members worked so hard to make all of it possible. 

To the Eboard of 2012-2013… have a blast, keep building and get us to #1 in the world. 

Becoming an Influencer

I am very excited to announce that I will be joining the team at influencers@ as COO after graduation!

Influencers@ is an influence marketing agency that hits the streets and interwebs to help brands and solutions become the most talked about, wanted, and shared among the 18 to 30 year old demographic. We generate and delivers influence marketing via word of mouth campaigns, product sampling, street team promotions, brand ambassador programs, event promotion, staffing and promo tours. We also just launched our first software product, ChatterMob, which is currently in private beta. 

I first met the Chief Imagination Officer (CEO), Spencer Bramson, at the beginning of the semester when I invited him to be a speaker at the NU Entrepreneurs Club. The room was packed with students wanting to hear the story of how a 7 month old startup run by a 22 year old CEO could be earning revenue, running marketing promotions for major events like CollegeFest and here is the kicker - they have a ball pit in the office. I am incredibly excited about this company, and here is why:

1. Spencer Bramson is an absolute maniac

When Spencer spoke at the E-Club, we named the event “Marketing Maniac” and it fit perfectly. Spencer is the kind of guy that gets stuff done, and in the business world that means he delivers value to customers and drives revenue. He previously co-founded BuzzU and grew the revenue to over 6 figures at the ripe age of 20. Put simply, Spencer is a business rockstar.

2. We are earning revenue and profit… cash!

There is something to be said in the startup world about actually making money. After immersing myself in the Northeastern and Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem, I found that I am most attracted to companies that have simple business models: we deliver value to a customer and that customer pays us. Turning a profit at 8 months old is impressive and it is a cornerstone of the influencers@ culture. We are a business and darn proud of it.

3. A culture of ball pits, nerf guns and feety pajamas

This company easily has the most unique culture I have ever seen. There is a ball pit in the office. There is a wall of nerf guns. My sign-on bonus included a pair of feety pajamas, which I am encouraged to wear at the office. There is a lot more to this culture than meets the eye… it is a fascinating exercise in creating an atmosphere that is super appealing to college students to work in. 

4. Mix of service and tech product

On one side, we offer our clients influence marketing services in the form of campaigns, events, product sample distribution, etc. At the same time, we have just launched our first product into private beta, ChatterMob, which is a web platform where all you have to do for free stuff is chat. This unique mix of both service and product offerings provides a ton of exposure for anyone involved to see how different models can work together.

5. Wicked cool customers

We ran the marketing campaigns for CollegeFest and other clients include CampusLive and Mr. Youth. For a tiny new start-up, influencers@ has attracted an impressive list of paying customers, and this is just the beginning.

6. Building a key core competency: customer acquisition

Every entrepreneur knows that one of the greatest challenges is customer acquisition. When it comes to acquiring users and building brand awareness in the 18-30 year old demographic, we kick ass. That is why we love to work with local start-ups like PXT Money, Jebbit and SplashScore to help them build their user-base.

7. Learning and mentor-ship opportunities

My philosophy is that you learn best by doing. influencers@ is giving me an opportunity to take on serious responsibility and learn the way every entrepreneur should: by being in the trenches and having pressure. On top of that, I have an excuse to engage with fantastic mentors like Ryan Durkin to learn the ins and outs of operations. 

8. A wide open path to grow

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this opportunity is the potential to grow. We have ideas, but there is no way to really know what influencers@ will be like 18 months from now. By being part of a start-up that has the flexibility to capitalize on new opportunities that come our way, the possibilities are endless. And wow is that exciting.

Insatiable Initiative

I walk into the office on a warm Friday afternoon to find Freshmen Entrepreneurs Club member Nina Stapanov peering over a pile of boxes with tape in one hand and markers in another. “The closet is a mess so I’m cleaning it up!” declares Nina with a smile. She is right - the club’s closet in our Curry Student Center office is a disaster with old napkins and pens littering the shelves. Over 2 hours later, Nina is beaming in front of the closet and I cannot believe my eyes: all of our materials are in labeled boxes, the shirts are organized by size and a year’s worth of junk is discarded. “This is incredible Nina, thank you!” I say. What blows my mind is not how great the closet looks, but how Nina took initiative to do a mundane task without even being asked. Nobody assigned it to her and it isn’t in her job description; in fact, she doesn’t even start her role as Assistant Director of Marketing until next fall. Instead, Nina took it upon herself to clean out the closet because she is a team player who truly cares. She will do whatever she believes will better our organization, and the closet cleanup is just the most recent example. This exemplifies why Nina is such a great member of our team. I don’t need to delegate things to her; instead, she will take it upon herself to look for problems and fix them. 

Situations like this make me proud to be a leader of such a high performing team with people like Nina as a part of it. The absolute best case as a manager is when your people manage themselves. In other words, they do not need to wait for things to be delegated to them; instead, they are go-getters who seek out opportunities to add value. These are the teammates that are going to give the organization the highest ROI, and I’d hire them over and over again. While looking for character traits like passion, dedication and a “go-getter” attitude is key in recruiting, the organization must have a culture that backs up that attitude. The Entrepreneurs Club fosters an environment where we respect and reward people who go above and beyond. We take job descriptions very lightly - ultimately everybody is responsible for everything. As a result, our team members push to support every facet of the organization, even the cleanliness of the closet.

Crafting the Next Great Leader

I’m thrilled to announce that rising junior Matt Bilotti will be my successor as the next President of the Northeastern University Entrepreneurs Club. Our team’s executive board just voted him in, but that wasn’t a surprise for me; in fact, I knew Matt was going to be the next President since last October. This is the story of how a leadership development strategy crafted Matt from inexperienced sophomore to chief executive.

It is October 2011 when I walk in the door at an Entrepreneurs Club meeting. Sure enough, Director of Marketing sophomore Matt Bilotti is just a minute behind me, ready to get the room setup an hour before our 100+ person event. As I think back to recent events the club has put on, I come to an interesting realization: Matt is always “just a minute behind (or ahead) of me” when it comes to preparation. As President, I attend nearly every event the club puts on, which is usually about 6 weekly. There is only one other person that attends all of those with me: Matt. I never asked him to, he just shows up. He is at every meeting, every event and responds to every email. As a manager, this gives me a simple indicator: Matt cares. Matt’s passion for the organization can only rival mine. Needless to say, this was the first indicator that Matt has potential for the big job of President.

Once I discovered Matt’s passion, care and how it set him apart, I decided to spend more time with him. I invited him to more meetings and asked his opinion in more emails. Before we knew it, he was playing a Vice President role informally, taking on many of the tasks without the title or authority of VP. As Matt continued to add value in all that I threw at him, it hit me that he could be the next President. But at this point he is young and inexperienced. So what did we do? We created and executed the following leadership development strategy:

1. Critical Beyond Belief

When most people on my team make a mistake, I am generally pretty comforting, help them understand what they did wrong, and am lenient in letting it go. With Matt on the other hand, I was ruthless. I ripped apart his emails, comments and any written documents with a slew of constructive criticism on the weaknesses and specifically how he can improve them. When he made a silly comment in a meeting, I came down on him harder than anyone else.

This all got to him sometimes and I could feel his intense frustration. He might not have realized how much it burned me inside to see him agitated. But I knew I had to keep going. So I just pushed harder. I taught him how to send authoritative emails, engage with sponsors and motivate teammates to excel. 

2. Meetings Meetings Meetings

I pulled Matt into many management and recruiting meetings. He watched and soaked in how I handled on boarding new teammates and senior level management challenges. 

3. Expanding the Marketing Department

To give Matt more responsibility, we expanded the Marketing Department, created a new program called Marketing Marines which he manages and gave him responsibility for another brand new club program, Engineers for the Greater Good. Having oversight on these new programs gave Matt an opportunity to build his leadership skills in real life as opposed to just watching. 

4. Spending Time

Matt and I started spending a lot of time together. In the fall we would watch movies together on the weekends, and in the spring we started going to the gym together every morning. The gym was just an extended conference room - we discussed organizational successes and challenges, and used the time to brainstorm solutions. Matt was able to get a clear view of what the role of President was like because we interacted with each other so much.

5. Caring

Perhaps the most important element of this leadership development strategy is that I truly care about Matt. When he is struggling or upset, I want to help him and see him feel better. I want him to grow, learn and succeed, and over the past year I invested a lot of time into ensuring that he will. This element is why I was able to be so critical with Matt, and an important “secret sauce” in the leader development and mentor/mentee strategy. Below is an excerpt from an email I sent him in February when I sensed he was being challenged with the training:

“I know I am extremely critical and rough on you, more so than with anyone else. I know this can be challenging and aggravating at times. I call you out on stuff I’d never mention to most other people. While this is challenging to work through now, it will be immensely beneficial for you going forward. I am incredibly proud of you and all of your hard work so far this semester and your journey towards becoming the next great leader of our organization.

What I am doing now is a crash course to prepare you for that, which means that if it is to be done well it requires me to be hyper-critical. Most people won’t do that for you… they won’t call you out on things. Instead, they’ll let your weaknesses build up until you fall. That is a shameful disservice to you. Few people will have the guts to call you out… and those are the people you want to be surrounded by because they actually care about you.”

I joke that Matt was my biggest “project” this year; and all joking aside, it is pretty much accurate. Through all of the leadership development, meetings, constructive criticism and teaching, Matt has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. He is organized, forceful, insightful and can control a room. He knows how to identify talent and how to cultivate it. He still has a ton to learn, but I am confident that he is ready to take on the role of youngest President in the history of the club. Put bluntly, Matt will kick ass in his role and I cannot wait to watch him do it next fall.

Making People Feel Valued

I recently had the honor of being a judge at Northeastern’s Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo, RISE:2012. The event was planned by the university’s new Center for Research Innovation (CRI). It was a large scale event with many moving parts: nearly 400 students exhibiting their research, dozens of judges and attention from all of the major eyes at the university, such as the President’s office. 

Being a judge was a time commitment - it required me to review and rate several posters before the event and then meet each researcher in person to hear their pitch and pose questions. Tracey and the CRI team understood that, and considered ways to show the judges their appreciation. One way that particularly impressed me was the name badges provided (see photo on the right). These are not just little name tags; instead they are well designed, laminated displays complete with a head shot photo and title.

It seems like a simple little detail, but getting this badge made me so excited. It created a feeling within me that went along the lines of “wow, I must be an important part of this event.” As a result, I was quite excited to jump right into judging and was glad to give more time and effort to make the event a success.

The important lesson to learn here is how important the little details can be and how much of a big impression they can make. The CRI team went above and beyond to make the people supporting them feel valued. This attitude should be mirrored in every organization’s culture - it is certainly something that I hold in high importance at the Entrepreneurs Club.

Mobile Managers

Sophomore Program Director Danny Smith has a busy weekend. His own team for the Entrepreneurs Club’s EIP Program is promoting a local start-up at a big event on Saturday and he is also serving as a mentor in the Husky Startup Challenge and a participant in Engineers for the Greater Good, a 72 hour business and engineering competition. Despite this crazy schedule, a weekend like this is typical for Danny. As a senior leader in the Entrepreneurs Club, he makes it a point to not just focus on the program he runs, but instead go out and help with every other director’s program. As a participant, he learns how each program works so he’ll be able to offer tangible suggestions to his manager colleagues. When Danny is an attendee, he doesn’t expect special treatment - he sits with everyone else and goes through the same learning. This attitude is the epitome of what I look for in an excellent leader: willingness to go beyond your own department and care about the success of the team as a whole. Danny’s desire to learn, help and be a part of the community serves as shining example for everyone in the organization.

I recently read a parable about a tribal leader who always stays in his compound at the top of a mountain and rarely comes down to meet with his people and understand their problems. This is of course the opposite of what an effective manager should be doing. Danny’s actions on the other hand represent a much better way to do things: be a mobile manager. These managers:

• Talk: go out and speak to the people you manage and their customers. Gain a deeper understanding for their lives and what problems they face.
• Learn: take what your people and customers say to heart. Go beyond observing and think about what you can learn from the people you manage.
• Participate: be a customer and use the services that your organization provides. You’ll quickly earn a better perspective on what your people need.
• Advise: provide tangible action items that the people you manage or other managers can use to exceed their objectives.
• Go Beyond: go outside your job description and appropriately provide input and participate in other facets of the organization. 

Combined with other important qualities like clarity and respect, having people with a “mobile management” attitude is a great asset for any successful team… I’m glad to have one like Danny on mine.

The Value of Praise

Praise is an amazing thing. It can create powerful feelings and motivate people to perform, and yet it costs nothing and takes minimal effort. Praise is one of the best tools a manager has to keep the team happy and productive. Take the following email example from me to a Director on my team:

Hi Matt

Thanks again for your hard work today on the applications. I know it was a long day but I truly appreciate your input and the apps are going to be that much better because of it. Keep up the great attitude and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Greg

I spent about 45 seconds writing that email, and it made Matt’s day. Whether it is from a manager to a subordinate or the other way around, everyone likes to be reminded when they do a good job. Consider the following guidelines to be a praise-centered team:

1. Praise frequently, but make it count

I might send 2 or 3 emails like the one to Matt each day to different teammates. Anytime someone does a good job, I recognize it. At the same time, you don’t want to over do it. Sometimes a simple “thanks!” will suffice while other times an extra sentence specifically outlining what the team member did is better.

2. Be short and sweet

Praise doesn’t need to be in long essays or paragraphs. It can be a sentence or two that fits on a sticky note or takes 30 seconds to send from your Smartphone. Short sentences that get to the point quickly tend to be more powerful.

3. Balance it with constructive criticism

In order to make your praise count more, you also need to call teammates out when they make a mistake and provide constructive criticism. This isn’t to be hostile; instead it is to help them learn and develop as leaders.

4. Mix up public and private praise

While personal emails are a great way to deliver praise, public announcements to the entire team at a meeting or even a blog post about a teammate’s good work can be even more powerful. Consider having a healthy mix of both.

By leveraging these strategies and letting your teammates know when they excel, they will feel happier and learn more, ultimately leading to a better organization for everyone.