Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2017 i Entrepreneur Magazine

Journalists ask questions, and people answer them. This is how the business works, and how it’s always worked. But: Why? Why do people tell us their stories? Why do they let us into their lives, their businesses, their most sacred of spaces? Honestly, sometimes reporters are shocked by the access they get. When I was a community newspaper reporter, my least favorite part of the gig was covering breaking-news stories about people dying in accidents or crimes—and yet almost every time I called a newly grieving family member, they’d graciously answer my questions about the deceased. And here’s why. Because people want to be heard. It’s gratifying—a confirmation that your ideas and thoughts and experiences matter, and are worth someone else’s time. In the right circumstance, it can be flattering,…

TOM GIMBEL, founder and CEO of staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network, started talking shop with his three kids when they were just 3, 5, and 7 years old. “I was a single dad, and this was a way to connect and engage,” he says. It worked like a charm. “They’d ask me months later about problems I’d told them about, and I’d be like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Their retention stunned me.” Now that the kids are teenagers, they regularly provide Gimbel with insight—and hold him accountable. “If I’m complaining about a hard decision like having to fire someone, they’ll ask me: ‘Is this what the company needs, and is it deserved?’ And if I say yes, they’ll say, ‘Dad, go do it!’ They push me to fix…

“Fake [listening to] headphones. I have these obnoxiously large, white-and-red headphones that go over my entire ear and can be spotted from miles away. Sometimes I just put them on even if there is no music playing as a signal to leave me alone. Works like a charm. Until my team reads this!” —SCOTT TANNEN, cofounder and CEO, bedding company Boll & Branch “Block ‘work time.’ My cofounder Alex and I both carve out 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on our schedules every day and protect it as best we can, so we can get through pressing items and avoid being a bottleneck to the team on outstanding questions.” —JORDANA KIER, cofounder and co-CEO, natural tampon company LOLA…

INBOX INFINITY “The day I realized my email was not my to-do list but just other people’s to-do list for me, I had this incredible realization: Constantly managing an inbox is like doing someone else’s homework! The minute I stopped running my day based on my email, I immediately became more effective. And it’s not about ignoring messages; being responsive is really important, and it’s indicative of your work ethic. Of course, there’s a line between knowing your priorities and being responsive. I start every day with a list of the three to five critical things I need to do and slot them into my calendar. When I feel like I’m on track to achieve them, I’ll check on my email. I delete anything I know is marketing and then…

Melanie Whelan is not new to customer service. Before joining SoulCycle as COO in 2012 and moving into the role of CEO in 2015, she cut her teeth at Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Virgin America (which she helped launch), and Equinox Fitness. Now, in the increasingly crowded world of boutique workouts, Whelan is tasked with keeping SoulCycle ahead of the competition—in the very industry it helped spawn. Her plan: Grow steadily from its 77 current studio locations, with an eye toward international domination; treat customers like family; galvanize her ever-expanding team; and of course, never forget where the company finds its soul. You joined SoulCycle as COO back in 2012 before moving into the CEO role in 2015. You had been working at Equinox—what was so appealing about this brand…

Sam Calagione is used to getting love in his hometown of Milton, Del. He created Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, one of America’s hottest breweries, and is a major employer in town. People wave and say hi. Out-of-towners ask to take selfies with him. So it came as a surprise when a liquor store owner ran over with tears in her eyes. “I have customers walking into my store trying to buy your 60 Minute IPA and then yelling at me for not having it stocked,” she said. “Then they’re leaving without buying anything. I’m a local entrepreneur, you’re a local entrepreneur—can’t you help me?” Calagione had heard this before. 60 Minute IPA was his most popular beer. It was the sort of hit craft brewers would kill for. And yet…

“I have a set routine I never break: Get up, walk to a coffee shop, have an espresso. It gets my brain ready to prepare for everything I am doing that day. When I’m home, I take my son, and when I’m traveling, I get to explore a new place.” —PATRICK QUINLAN, CEO, compliance management software company Convercent “At 6 a.m ., five days a week, I ride for an hour on a stationary trainer. The meditative state I achieve while working out always sparks new ideas, so I’ve started capturing those thoughts after my rides, either with Siri notes or old-fashioned pen and paper.” —NEIL GRIMMER, founder and CEO, personalized nutrition brand Habit “The Keurig is set to go on at 5:30. I like to have my coffee and…

1 Think ahead. “If I’m traveling through time zones, I prep my body by taking on that eating schedule 24 hours before I get there. I don’t have time to feel jet-lagged.” 2 Make it routine. “Great wi-fi is key—I’ve even brought my Eeros with me on trips where I’m staying in Airbnbs. If I’m in a hotel, I make sure there’s a decent gym and a great café nearby. Having a small routine on the road helps it feel less foreign.” 3 Hydrate. “I stay awake on international flights and pound water so I’m adjusted when I land. It’s a hard reset. My colleagues hate it because I get a ton of emailing done without distractions.”…

“Everyone steps out of their office at 9 a.m . and shares a piece of good news. It can be professional or personal, as long as it’s office-appropriate. It gets team members into a shared space and allows us to start the day on a high note while getting to know each other and talk about successes.” —MONICA GUZMAN, COO, public relations firm Konnect Agency “For our internal executive meetings, if one or more people arrive late, they have to buy lunch for the next meeting. This keeps people on time and gamifies the meeting. We laugh about it with each other every time.” —JOHN RUBEY, CEO, content provider Fathom Events…

1 Get up earlier. Bennett’s not here for excuses. Don’t have time for a workout? “Set the alarm an hour earlier!” he says. “I work in my home office from 5 a.m. until 7:30, then squeeze in a two-hour workout before my family gets up.” That shame you feel right now? Use that as your motivation. 2 Get out! “You can’t sit in a chair all day,” Bennett says. “I know people who sit on bikes at their desk, pedaling through work—but that doesn’t get you anywhere!” A change of scenery gets your creative juices flowing. If you can’t make it to the gym, he says, take a run or walk outside. 3 Shut your office door. Sometimes you simply can’t get out. “In the office, there’s nothing wrong with…

Tell me about the jargon situation at your old job. Oh, they had their own language. It amazed me. We had things like “G.S.D.” Are you a G.S.D. player? Get shit done. Gotta be G.S.D. all the time! We had “H.E.A.R.T.”—humble, effective, adaptable, remarkable, and transparent. Oh, “TOFU” and “MOFU”: top of the funnel, middle of the funnel. The whole funnel. I always thought the funnel deal was kind of crazy. Oh, and “delightion.” That was one of my favorites, man. That must have taken some getting used to. It was really shocking. At Newsweek we were all trained to take technical speak and put it into English. Our bias was always against jargon. We were always trying to undo it. These guys, on the other hand, took English and…

HAVE YOU EVER worked with someone who is full of big ideas and constantly hops from one project to the next? If so, you’ve likely encountered a case of what psychologists call shiny-object syndrome. This is when someone is so distracted by the world around them that they’re forever drawn toward new ideas, people, and stimuli. You likely know these people. Maybe you’re even one of them. Entrepreneurs are especially prone to shiny-object syndrome. After all, we have a lot on our plates, we love new people, we’re always on the hunt for the next big idea. But this is where we can get into trouble. Psychology researcher Sabine Kastner discovered that the more stimuli the brain is exposed to, the harder time it has focusing on a single task,…

When I graduated college in 2002, I knew I didn’t want to work for anyone else. So I founded a video production company called Cimaglia Productions. Did I go to business school? No. But I loved making videos, so I went on a campaign to impress every client I could—and, I suspect, won my first contracts by underbidding bigger agencies. Hey, I was just a kid with a camera. The next 10 years were about growth. I worked with major clients like Mercedes-Benz and Lavazza Coffee, and I created the first-ever high-definition segments for NBC’s Dateline. I said yes to basically every job and hired dozens of full-time cinematographers, editors, and producers. I doubled my company’s size every year for five consecutive years, and I leased an office in Chicago’s…

“ I recognize that in my place as a black man,” Tristan Walker says, “everything I do is judged two times in either direction. Two times positively, or two times negatively.” The 40 or so students sitting before him nod. They’re assembled here at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for a class called Entrepreneurship from Diverse Perspectives, where female and minority entrepreneurs and investors are invited to speak. The hope is to cultivate an appreciation for the value of diversity among the country’s next business leaders. If you’ve ever heard Tristan Walker speak, diversity was almost certainly the topic. A Stanford grad himself, he keynotes conferences on the subject. He’s been a fixture at SXSW. Almost any newspaper article, radio segment, or magazine story about diversity in business (including,…

“Before bed, I assess my day to see if my decisions were driven by fear, and why. I’ll take pen to paper and create two columns, one titled ‘Fear’ and the other ‘Brave.’ Ego-driven fear is filled with self-judgments that force you to second-guess your decisions and leave you in a state of paralysis; ‘brave’ is when I step outside my comfort zone and make decisions that are true to my goals. Going to bed connecting with moments when I was brave helps me stay efficient and purposeful the next day.” —DAVID ANGELO, founder, creative agency David & Goliath “I always read a book as the last thing before going to bed, almost exclusively fiction. Even if only for 15 minutes, it helps me remove myself from the cares of…

After attending a Vedic meditation workshop in 2015, MEG HE , cofounder of New York–based clothing company ADAY, committed to working the practice into her life—at least 20 minutes, twice a day. Mornings were easy, but the rest of her hours were packed with work. So she got creative. “I used to think my subway commute time was best spent answering emails or Slack messages, but that’s not quality work time,” she says. “However, it can be quality meditation time.” When her state of Zen caused her to miss her train stop, she sought out music to help her relax and remind her when it was time to exit. “I use Bach’s Chaconne by Hilary Hahn, which is 17 minutes long,” she says. “It’s easy to break down into five-minute…

“If you commute to work on the subway, with limited connectivity, as I do, think of one meaty email you’ve been avoiding writing and give yourself the length of the commute to really dig in. It makes the trip go faster and lets you start your day with a great sense of accomplishment.” —JAMES HIRSCHFELD, cofounder and CEO, stationery brand Paperless Post “We schedule regular 20-minute walking meetings with our colleagues. The limited window forces function and encourages both parties to be efficient in their communications. It’s surprising how many issues can be resolved or clarified in that tight timeframe.” —EVELYN RUSLI, cofounder, baby food brand Yumi…

ANJALI KATARIA was feeling overwhelmed by the long emails and voice messages her staff kept sending her. Then she had an idea. As the CEO of Mytonomy, which helps hospitals deliver a better experience to patients by engaging with them through short videos, Kataria thought short videos could help her as well. So she set up a system. “Every week, my direct reports text me a one- to two-minute video explaining their status, top items for the week, and any requests for me to act on.” She watches them on the go, often on the treadmill or in an Uber, and feels she gets 10 times the information she used to. “Video is a superior form of communication, and it builds stronger relationships,” she says. “And business success rests on…

“If you have anything selected (a cell in Excel, a file on your desktop) and press F2, it takes you into the name, and you can edit it right there. Seconds added back to your life!” Mac equivalent: CONTROL + U “This is simple but great when you’re formatting various aspects of an Excel cell. Rather than clicking on the font button, then the border button, color, etc., you get it all in one shot.” Mac equivalent: COMMAND + 1 “Conditional formatting is useful for analyzing data; you can format an Excel sheet to highlight certain cells. The last letter determines what you want to highlight: G for ‘greater than,’ L for ‘less than,’ B for ‘between,’ or E for ‘equal to.’” Mac equivalent: None The expert says: “Computer tricks…

DISRUPT  It’s written on our office wall and crossed out. We’re an app you can use to order alcohol, which means we operate in a highly regulated industry—one that makes and sells a controlled substance, and generates quite a bit of excise revenue for government at all levels. You don’t disrupt that. —NICHOLAS RELLAS, cofounder and CEO, Drizly TOP-TO-TOP  As in “It’s a top-to-top only, so I’ll debrief you after the meeting.” It reads as elitist and signals that if you’re not at the top, you can’t bring value to the organization—which couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve found that the best way to discourage jargon is with humor. We obviously overuse offending phrases in meetings to point out the ridiculousness, and before we know it the phrase dies…

There are massages…and there are massages,” says Lee Knowlton, the senior vice president in charge of global sales and international at Massage Envy, the Arizona-based provider of therapeutic kneading and skincare services. And as he tried explaining his company to would-be franchisees in Bangkok recently, he just couldn’t escape this wink-wink distinction. “I guess the image of Thai massage parlors is still a hurdle we have to overcome,” Knowlton says with a sigh. In heading overseas, however, Knowlton is following one of the hottest playbooks in franchising. “Thirty-eight percent of the unit growth of the 200 largest U.S. franchisors is now overseas,” says Josh Merin, a director at the International Franchise Association. “And over the past three years, 80 percent of the collective unit growth of these companies has been…