foundation | The Barefoot Spirit

Is a Knowledge-Hungry Crowd Finally Ready for Wisdom?

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 17:00:29 +0000

Is your email flooded with marketers pandering to your thirst for quick knowledge to “solve” the immediate problem at hand. Is your news feed is packed with ads promising six digits in six months, and all from your phone! “Just follow this process,” they say, “and you too will be a success!”

With the overflow of information at your fingertips, it’s easy to get the idea that whatever you want to know is instantly accessible. “There’s an app for that,” has now evolved into “There’s a cut-and-paste process for that.” But is process knowledge enough by itself? Just access, copy and apply, and all your needs will be fulfilled. Right?

By the time you figure out that the quick fix doesn’t achieve your desired results, the damage has been done. You are out both the fees you paid and the time you invested. You realize that the knowledge you attained was inadequate for the outcome you had envisioned.

Because you have been inadvertently “trained” by the very searching and training process itself, to copy examples, it is easy to miss out on the principles behind those examples. When you learned that process, did you really understand the commonality of principles that can be applied to other situations? “Who cares if there’s an overriding principle,” you might say, “I’ll just cut and paste a new example when I need it, and never have to learn the principal behind it.”

To learn and appreciate those overriding principles, lessons should start with a good solid foundation in the basics. But this may take more time than you were willing to invest. You may have to learn some things that apparently don’t immediately apply to the problem at hand. This would take time, too. So, you skip all that in favor of applying the process without the principles. You have knowledge without wisdom. You got the “how” without the “why.”

But the digital marketer, the preacher, and the politician are glad you’re impatient and want quick, simple answers. It’s easier to sell you a process than a philosophy. It’s easier to sell you a sensational headline than a history book. And it’s easier to blame and marginalize minorities when you’re looking for simple answers. Basically, you’re easier to manipulate if you let today’s over-simplified approach to knowledge dumb you down.

With all this knowledge, so readily available, why does the “crowd” continue to make so many mistakes? The crowd is knowledge hungry, but as history unfolds, we are seeing demonstrations of how easily the crowd can be, and has been, manipulated. The crowd can be easily spooked. Its weakness is impatience.

Sourcing the crowd for navigational assistance is one thing, but sourcing the crowd for instant decisions that impact our social behavior is quite another.

Simply put, is the crowd wise enough to rule directly? Will they be manipulated by ads that play into their suspicions? Will they elect one demigod after another in search of a quick fix without ever learning why the government has checks and balances? Will they allow the environment to degrade while they are transfixed by the latest trending story?

Without patience, healthy skepticism, and a thirst for principle over process, the crowd is limited to reporting status. True, this is very helpful. But before the crowd can be relied upon for guidance, it must embrace strategy over tactics, principles over examples, and history over headlines.

We’ve never before had so much knowledge at our disposal. The fact is, we are all quite new at this. How many disasters will it take for the crowd to gain the long-term wisdom it needs, and then use that knowledge wisely and not be corrupted by its ease of access? True wisdom takes time. Will we give it the time it deserves?

If this all sounds like an ad for classical education, it is! Until the crowd understands the basics, the big picture, and the implications of its own periodic stampedes, it will be relegated to telling you where the next road hazard is, or the room for rent.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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5 Ways to Build Trust and Grow It

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Thu, 26 May 2016 17:00:25 +0000

Good business relationships are built on trust. People who depend on you, from your creditors to your employees, need to confidently rely on you to treat them fairly. Once they know you can be depended upon, they will extend their cooperation and even make allowances for you. This is absolutely critical to your success.

The sooner you demonstrate that you are trustworthy, the faster you will receive the benefits, such as extended credit, loyalty, engagement, priority ranking, increased sales, and opportunities. The key is to be proactive. Look for ways to show all the folks you work with that you have their best interests at heart.

Here’s our short list for how to build and grow trust:

Communicate Often. Be clear about what you are doing and why. Don’t leave anyone in the dark guessing what you are up to. We recommend regular meetings with creditors, suppliers, outsourced services, and your own team. Alleviate their fears by sharing vital information early and often. The more they know, the more confident they feel about working with you.

Forge Alliances. Identify who gets ahead if you do and forge these strategic alliances. Treat these folks like business partners, such as sharing your plans for expansion with suppliers who will benefit from your increased business. Discover how you can work together to improve their business while reducing your need for capital, such as long-term contracts in return for free warehousing and better terms.

Mend Fences. When you make a mistake, don’t try to cover it up or blame others. It will only exacerbate the situation, lose you precious credibility, and hurt the relationship. When you realize you are about to miss a payment, call your creditors immediately. Be ready with a payment plan based on receivables that will bring your account current. This shows empathy for their position and the risk they have taken on you. Remember, you are judged more by how you handle a mistake than when everything goes smoothly.

Be Honest. If you harbor hidden agendas or deliberately withhold information to trap or manipulate others, this will result in you losing the relationship and your reputation in your industry. Voluntarily expose loopholes to reassure the people you depend on that you will not take unfair advantage of them. Show them you are a true partner, watching their back, not waiting to stab it! Don’t give them reasons to keep their guard up or you will only get the words, and not the spirit, of your agreements.

Service Your Customers. Nothing says, “I got your money and now you are stuck with my product” more than poor customer service. When you are all over them to make a sale but can’t be reached to fix a problem, you are killing your long-term business security and opening the door for competitors to take your customers. Customer service is more important than the product. Without it, your customers will no longer buy, and will feel an obligation to tell others about their bad experience. When you show them that you are treating them like a friend, they become loyal advocates.

Trust is built on a foundation of good behavior over time. The time involved can be reduced by the telling experiences that build or break trust. In the early days of a relationship trust can be lost easily. The way you handle an embarrassing situation is “the tell” that they are looking for to justify putting their faith in you or regretting the relationship. It takes a lot more than just saying, “Trust me.” You can trust us on this!

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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Overcoming the Challenges of Starting a Family Business

Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:00:04 +0000

You’re ready to join the other 22 million small businesses in the U.S. by starting your own family business. From cupcakes to computer security, family-owned businesses offer a variety of products and services unavailable from large companies. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that 90 percent of all U.S. businesses are family-owned. Consider the following tips when starting out and make this a fun and rewarding adventure for you and your family.

It’s All About the Business – And the Family. Businesses and families behave differently to be successful. Put them together and they still have their own needs. One of the biggest challenges, says Entrepreneur.com, is having that balance between the two. Being able to step out of your business role to take care of a family issue, and the other way around, is important to keep harmony. Some advice to keep things moving forward include:

Create physical boundaries for the business and family. Inside those boundaries you only speak about business or family matters. If some family drama flares up in the business area, walk to the family area and discuss it.
Respect each other’s roles wherever you are. In the business area, dad may be the accountant but in the family area, he’s still dad. Conversely, don’t mix roles for your benefit. “I’m your mother and I say that we shouldn’t be working with that supplier” doesn’t work in the business setting and just creates conflict.
Always be on the lookout when one space is encroaching on the other. Reviewing business plans at the family dinner table and planning Aunt Mary’s birthday party while in the office are examples of mixing business and family too much. Keep them separate.

Agree on Roles and Resources Early. Identify the strengths and weaknesses in each family member early and define the roles based on that. You want your business to succeed and at this phase, experimenting won’t help. Someone may want to try out the role of social media manager because it sounds interesting. If they don’t have the background or don’t know what a tweet is, however, they won’t contribute much to the company’s success. Once the business has a strong foundation with the right players, then there will be opportunity to sample other roles.

Supplement the Skills with Outside Resources. Most family businesses don’t have all of the skills they need in the family to cover all roles in the business. Success.com suggests being open to bringing in outside talent for those areas in which you’re weak. These could be consultants, virtual assistants, or partner companies to help you out with paperwork. You may have a great new power bar idea but no idea how to distribute it. A logistics company can get you headed in the right direction and even do the work for you. One day you may choose to take this on yourself.

Focus on the Most Important Tasks. Look at the tasks in your business and decide what should be the focus and what can be given out to other services. Designing and developing a quality product or service is your number one goal when starting up. Tasks such as creating a website or doing payroll can be done by someone else. CRM software in the cloud can connect with Intuit invoicing to manage the exchange of cash with your customers.

Get Better Oversight. SBA.gov suggests hiring someone initially to oversee the business and make recommendations as to how to get things running smoothly. Someone with business expertise and knowledge of what makes a family business work can help create the foundation. At some point, someone in the family can take over that role and continue working as the business manager. This may lower your risk of experiencing painful lessons early when mixing business and family.

Who We Are

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

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