We’d be forced to identify and extract the underlying principle behind examples obtained from real life experiences, textbooks or teachers. We knew we couldn’t possibly learn and retain every example. So we had to grasp the principles so we could apply them to future problems. We would have to recall our learned list of principles to discover how they might apply to a new problem that we had never seen before. We used these principles like tools that could be adjusted to resolve challenges and problems we experienced.

Instant Access at Our Fingertips

But, why go through all that trouble if you could instantly access every example on Google or YouTube? So much for looking for the principle and retaining it. MacGyver R.I.P.!

We have friends who have thousands of books downloaded on their reading devices. When we ask, “Why do you have all those books when you know you will never read them?” They say, “Just having them makes me feel like I have sort of read them. I have access to them and that’s a step closer to reading them!” So much for feeling obligated to read a book you bought.

It’s interesting that so many folks are worried that robots will take away their jobs when they already think their “work” is simply to find an example, cut and paste. No problem solving is required for that. Simply oversimplify a challenge, copy a pre-existing solution, and paste a one-size-fits-all “solution.” Isn’t that what robots already do?

Instead of solving the challenge using principles, you might just say, “Like What? Like What? Like What?” expecting and demanding that there is an exact example you can copy and paste. If only someone, usually your boss, would just tell you.  It’s so much easier to not have to reason it out! It’s so much easier to not have to remember things! Besides, why bother when it’s all right there at the end of your arm?

And that’s just the problem, isn’t it? Today’s tech natives are born with a crutch on the end of their arm that it can threaten their memory and cognitive abilities. Parts of the brain we used to depend upon are getting used less and less. As we become more dependent on technology, we rely less on our own cognitive abilities.

Learning from Stories

Our friend and business namesake, Marilyn Barefoot, writes a compelling and well-researched post on this subject. She reports on growing warnings about how dependence on tech can decrease our attention span, make us more easily distracted, impair our social interaction, and well, get us downright addicted.

Marilyn is an expert on brainstorming and story as a form of learning. In her post “Your Brain on Stories,” she examines how researchers have actually measured the parts of the brain that are activated and the rewarding chemicals released when we listen to a story. It’s fascinating! And it’s hopeful.

People learn from listening to stories. When you create the scene being described together in your mind, you are pulling the props, colors, and moods out of your memory and imagination. Then, you are attaching the action to that creation. Because you are participating in the reception of the story, you have an investment in it. Now you are more likely to recall the principles that the story demonstrated later when you need them.

Experiential Learning Through a Business Audiobook

This is the kind of experiential learning experience we are aiming for in our new Audio Theater Business Book. We’ve taken our NYTs Bestseller, The Barefoot Spirit and actually had it theatrically performed for you, not just read to you. It is a series of short stories in which professional actors play the characters. And we have added an original musical score and sound effects.  We hope to engage your imagination in a true-life business adventure that will entertain and demonstrate time-tested principles that will be at the ready for you to easily recall and apply to your own life and business.

We that dramatic business story-telling just might be the redemption for the technical crutch at the end of your arm! It is a wonderful way to activate your brain while being entertained.

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.

The post Dependence on Tech Crutches Threatens our Cognitive Abilities appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

But now, it’s Spring already, and before long, the year will be half over. Spring is nature’s “new year.” This is when it’s obvious to everyone that life is returning, and it’s time to grow again. Isn’t it time we renew some important relationships that might have fallen by the wayside in our struggle to grow our businesses? It is so important that we all stay connected, really connected, with our friends who mean the most to us. Let’s call them now!

Old Folks. When was the last time you spoke to the oldest living members of your family? A word from you can make their day! Many seniors feel alone and forgotten. Letting them know that they are important to you can actually improve their attitude, and their health. Sure, they’re unplugged, and technology has passed them by, but that’s all the more reason to reconnect with a personal phone call to make them feel like they’re still part of your life.

New Folks. What about those new folks you met that you liked so much – that you haven’t spoken to since? Take a look at your calendar. Identify the guests you have had, or visitors you have met on the trips you’ve taken in the past year. There is still time to cement those relationships with a friendly call or note reminding them of the good times you shared and that you are happy to have met them.

Old Customers. What about those former customers you are no longer doing business with? Take a look at your accounts over the past year or even two years. Look for clients and customers with whom you have already concluded business. Now is a great time to reach out and say hello. You want them to know that they were more than just a customer. Ask them how they’re doing and what their challenges are today. You may be surprised they can provide leads to even more business.

Foreigners. How about the friends that live in another part of the world you haven’t seen for a year or so? Think about the trips you’ve taken in the past few years to other countries. You met foreign nationals and American tourists. Whatever happened to them? You have that wonderful experience in common with them. They would love to hear from you again. We found that especially with foreign nationals, they can become friends for life if you just stay in touch.

Disabled. Who do you know who’s had an injury you can check up on? Who do you know who had a serious illness or underwent an operation requiring therapy and recovery? While you have been focused on your business, these people were taken out of the action in their businesses for a period of time. Some of them may still be recovering. They feel somewhat isolated themselves knowing that the world is spinning on without them. Spring is a great time to call these folks, wish them well, and tell them you are hoping for their speedy recovery.

As we come out of winter and into spring with the promise of new growth, new opportunities, and new friends, this is a great time to secure the important relationships we already have. Don’t let them drift away or become part of the past.

A simple telephone call or even a short note right now can keep those relationships alive and healthy. These folks will be so glad to hear from you and catch up. Don’t try to do it on Facebook or with a once a year summary letter. It’s too impersonal. Communicate just with them and just for them. Show them you care and still intend to include them in your life. It will mean the world to them!

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.

The post 5 People to Call Right Now! appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

You’re starting to get bored with the same old stuff that you get in your food box every week. There’s nothing new in there and since you’ve stopped shopping at your grocery store you’re no longer exposed to new branded products. It’s too much trouble to even change your order now because you wouldn’t know how to change it anyway. And so, you resign yourself to getting more of the same. You’ve sacrificed variety for convenience.

Sound a little far-fetched? It’s not as far away as you think. As more and more grocery stores promise speedy home delivery to save you the trip to the store, your choices are being reduced by the very technology that enables the ordering process. One of the ways this technology is dumbing down your shopping experience is with the assumption that you’ve already chosen the brands you like, and, unspoken but implied, that you will never change! This is especially true once you start reordering your “same as last time” purchases.

Sure, online grocery shopping will certainly attempt to account for this in a very profitable way. They will charge producers for pop-up ads that target the types of previous purchases you’ve made. They will also tell you what other products were purchased by people who have bought similar branded products. But in order to see these pop-ups you must be on their site every week. Not very likely.

What will happen in fact is that many people will not even go back to the site once they’ve set up their initial order. They will simply give the store permission to deliver the same order with the same brands as last time. But viewing the store visit as strictly an act of replenishment, collection, or delivery to replace your larder is forgetting something very important. Discovery! Not to mention, Entertainment!

When you go into a physical store you enjoy what some psychologists call “retail therapy.” The act of setting time aside, making yourself presentable, changing your scenery by physically going to a store, interacting with other people in real time, asking for and receiving suggestions, being exposed to a variety of choices in every category, and stumbling upon that new, impulse, notion buy, all add to revitalization and discovery.

Stumbling upon that new, impulse, notion buy doesn’t really happen online. So the last brand choices you made before you started getting your “regular reorders” are generally the ones you’re stuck with.

And what about new CPG brand producers? Their challenge of building a new CPG brand just got a whole lot tougher! With Walmart adding to the ever-growing list of retail grocery stores offering online delivery, impulse buys are going to become a thing of the past. The growth of online ordering with home delivery will inadvertently create repeat customers who want “more of the same!”

The brands that are already established will benefit greatly from this change because it’s too disconcerting to shop for new brands in the first place. There’s always the anxiety that the new brand you choose will not perform as expected. There’s always the worry that you will have to choose yet another new brand, and another and another until you find a satisfactory replacement. This is hard enough to do with the store visit. Imagine how hard it’s going to be without tactile comparison and displays of new brands that you stumble upon when in a physical store. May as well stick with the old brand even if it’s not performing…

Once again, we see technology that’s being sold to us as improving our efficiency really just dumbing us down to the point where we are willing to accept less choices. To save a little time, will we give up discovery? Will we let the improvement in our food brand choices end with the last trip we made to the grocery store right before we started re-ordering the “same as last time?” Sounds pretty boring, doesn’t it?

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.

The post Are We Sacrificing Choices Just to Save a Little Time? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

As fast as things are changing, they are about to change even faster. Technology is making it progressively easier to access the knowledge, experience, and resources of the crowd. We have already seen how applications of crowdsourcing technology can provide funding, services, and navigation. Now this technology will accelerate innovation, problem solving and even politics.

We recently had the honor of interviewing the founder of Crowdsourcing Week, Epi Ludvik. Epi is responsible for pulling together the top crowdsourcing practitioners in the world and bringing their insights to corporate c-suiters and entrepreneurs worldwide.

To read the complete article, please visit Entrepreneur 

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.

The post How Crowdsourcing Is Shaping the Future of Everything appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Since it can’t measure the quality of the content, it measures the amount of reaction the article, post, podcast or video gets. This is all measured in “likes,” comments, or shares. The algorithm assumes that somehow quality is determined or measured by engagement.

You may find yourself slowly beginning to buy into this over-generalized and simplistic rating system in the absence of anything better. Seems like everyone else is going along with this as well, so you feel somehow validated. This is the first mistake.

After a while, you begin to believe that quality is a hierarchy of engagement. After all, it’s the only game in town. Or at least the most popular game! But are these algorithms really smart enough to decipher true quality?

Or conversely, can true quality content be suppressed due to lack of engagement? Or worse, once we buy into this ranking system can we be manipulated? Can clever digital marketers work the system to build artificial statistics to make certain content look more important to sell you stuff that doesn’t work? You bet!

In other words, we all are now voting on what’s important at the expense of critical thinking. Do those early votes in the form of engagement push content at us at the expense of content that may be wiser, more thoughtful, and more valuable to the human experience? You bet!

This is a seductive process where we can easily get carried away with trendy distractions at the expense of hard-won historical lessons. Are there more important indicators of value than what gets the most engagement the earliest? We think so and we are worried that those indicators can be lost.

Are smart phones really smart? Or are we dumbing down to the levels they can measure? Don’t get us wrong, we love the new technology and couldn’t live without it. But we constantly have to work around overly simplistic algorithms.

For instance, we love Pandora, but have to get through their algorithms to get the kind of music we like. Seems like everyone has a different work-around because of the overly simplistic algorithms. Our friend Bill says, “I spend the first few days listening to everything they play on a given station. I quickly hit the likes and dislikes so I don’t get too much of their simplistic idea of what I like.” Mary, on the other hand says, “I only hit the ones I dislike so I still get variety without getting into a rut.”

Bill and Mary are dealing with judgements some programmer made about what was important. Was the tune Bill first chose sung by a woman, then give him all female artists. Never mind the beat, melody, or lyrics. Bill knows this and immediately jumps on his next choice so this doesn’t happen. But the more Bill chooses, the less new offerings occur because of the limits of the algorithm. Mary know this and only communicates what she dislikes.

How many people like a post but don’t engage? Most! But if they don’t engage, does that make the post wrong, less news worthy, or less important? Algorithms can’t measure the silent majority because they are silent! They can only measure engaged feedback.

So now a potential minority or a troll farm can work the algorithms and influence your thinking. They may even cause you to take or allow action because you believe it’s what the majority wants. It’s not.  It’s what the programmers have said was important because it’s all they could measure.

If this all sounds like a call for a return to critical thinking, it is! This year! Let’s consider the source as we move forward.

Our centenarian neighbor says, “When airplanes first came out, they’d walk on the wings, light ‘em on fire, and fly ‘em through barns! Nobody ever thought they’d be going to Chicago in one.” Is that where we are today with the algorithms that control what gets amplified in social media? Are we still in the barn storming days?

Let’s not get dumbed down to what an algorithm can measure! Let’s elevate history, proven principles and classic standards – even if they don’t get a lot of engagement these days. We’ve had enough cute kittens and baked lasagna!  It’s time to move onto stuff that matters.

You only have a limited amount of time. Don’t be fooled into thinking that engagement alone is a measure of value to you, your business, or your community. For instance, we get very little engagement on our 2 weekly posts and we know why. Our readers are business people and simply don’t have the time to engage.

However, our articles are often picked up by major business publications such as Entrepreneur, C-Suite Network, and the Business Journals in 43 cities. We often get replies to our newsletter that say, “Please keep these coming,” “Awesome,” and “I can’t wait to try this in my own business.”  In 4 years, we have had only 2 unsubscribe. Check out the best of our 30 years of successful business experience.  And don’t feel obligated to engage. We’re happy to help!

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.

The post Buying into Algo-logic Can Be Costly appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The attendees have put their money where their mouth is with over $1B in investments to help industries and countries abandon oil and coal.

Big guns like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and other top energy and investment fund leaders unveiled a plethora of projects designed to fund efforts to lessen the effects of climate change.

The World Bank announced that it would cease financing oil and gas projects in two years.

The “America’s Pledge” coalition to honor the 2015 Paris climate goals now represents half of the U.S. economy.

Eight U.S. states will be developing electric vehicles. The Gates Foundation has created a hurricane relief investment fund for the Caribbean and another to help farmers to develop low-carbon technology and adapt to climate change.

The projects aim to speed up the end of the combustion engine to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming.

In other words, as President Macron of France says, big businesses and successful economies of the future will be producing and utilizing renewable energy. If you were looking for a mega-trend to capitalize on, or an expanding market with no apparent end in sight, this is it!

Why not do your business on “main street” and go with the flow? Just imaging the opportunities that are presenting themselves in these otherwise detrimental circumstances:

Fire. We’re going to get burned! Much better fire protection, fire-resistant building materials, and fire-fighting equipment are in demand. How about better warning systems, temporary housing, and integrated disaster status information systems? And we are going to need better forestry practices, underground transmission lines, and better fire retardants.

Water. We’re going get thirsty! We need more and better clean drinking water delivery, destalinization, collection and storage systems. How about technology that saves water to be used for cleaning, manufacturing, and crops? Add water purification and water-free sewage systems.

Power. We have to get off the grid! This includes alternative and local generation devices, breakthrough battery technology, independence from wires for power transfer and communications, long-range electric and other zero emission vehicles.

Air. We’re choking! We need carbon sequestering technology. It will be in demand as carbon tax begins to become the norm as the world gets more serious about this situation. Replanting of the forests and rewarding for the preservation of trees are definitely on the agenda. Carbon scrubbers and alternative power plants for industry will be in demand as they begin to pay the true cost of production and compete with producers who are carbon neutral.

Food. We’re going hungry! We need to improve production and nutrition while reducing water and petrochemical use. Demand for food produced closer to consumers is increasing. New types of aqua culture and advance in protein production will take the lead as traditional farming and cattle grazing becomes unsustainable.

Flood. We’re going under! We need to move out of harm’s way, float, submerge, or literally stem the tide. We have entire cities that will have to be saved or abandoned. We’re talking dikes, piers, and elevation techniques. We need hurricane resistant buildings, disaster relief, and independent power, sanitation, and communication systems. And don’t forget first aid, evacuation, and mobile hospital technologies.

So, these are just a few opportunities envisioned due to the effects of climate change that are already upon us. They may have once seemed futuristic, but now our lives literally depend on them. Your new business can contribute to this megatrend. We hope this short list inspires some folks to choose a business that provides even a partial solution to these needs. The world as we know it is relying on your new technology to survive. And so is its population. Now, go get ‘em!

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.

The post Now is the Time to Start a Climate Change Mitigation Business appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

You can’t get a driver’s license without knowing the rules of the road, but you can vote without knowing the rules of the government – unless you are a naturalized citizen! Then you have to know the divisions of government, what they do, and how they check and balance each other. Why should native-born Americans know any less?

As we get further into the information age, we have become more and more inundated with a constant din of information and noise. Is it any wonder we have such short attention spans? Is it any wonder we want to hack everything so we can get the process without the principles?

We may think that all this access to information is making us smarter, but isn’t it just dumbing us down with over-generalized sound bites, sensationalized headlines, and simplistic explanations? Just having access to information doesn’t make us smarter. There needs to be a learning process that involves deductions, analysis, and validation in order to improve our intellect.

In the last election, we had two candidates, one at each extreme of the political spectrum. Each one addressed two very different crowds. But what both crowds had in common was a simplistic view of what the president could do legally. And it was wrong! Neither candidate could actually deliver what they promised without breaking the law. Nonetheless, both candidates got votes …and one got elected!

Why? Is it because we’ve grown so impatient that we want simple answers that sound good to us and we don’t know enough about how the government works to realize they are impossible to execute?

Are we now living in a country whose citizens think that they are voting for a cure-all candidate who can exercise extra-legal power to “get the job done”? If so, what’s to stop future candidates from pandering to this uninformed “populism?”  As long as we don’t make knowledge of basic Civics a requirement, nothing!

Many folks who preferred a candidate who was not on the final ballot simply didn’t vote. They were not willing to cast their vote for the “lessor of two evils.” “That’ll show ‘em!” they may have thought – But without their vote, they got 4 years with the “greater of two evils.”

Hostile governments know what Jefferson warned us about. They know that we are likely to take action without fact checking. That’s why they spent millions on Facebook ads and tweets. They know the ads and tweets will get passed on before they are verified. Why? We’ve become impatient and want simple answers fast! This enables them to spread distraction, polarity, and chaos. This enables them to divide and (possibly) conquer.

The evidence is mounting that US election, the Brexit vote, and the Catalan succession votes were all at least influenced by foreign ads that played on simplistic cure-all themes.

Most of the world’s democracies are parliamentary systems where the prime minister is elected by the legislature, not directly by the people. So, to change government you just vote for the opposition party so that you can presumably cause a vote of non-confidence and form a new government, more to your liking. But in practice, fragile coalitions must be formed because the multi-party system may not allow a clear majority in those legislatures.

In the US, our founders wanted to allow us the ability to vote for legislators of one party and a president of another. The problem is, however, that the decision you make on election day lasts 4 years! Even more reason to have an educated population.

So, if this sounds like a plea to bring back Civics class, it is – to save our democracy, to save our economy, and to save what really makes America great, diversity!

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.

The post Is Tech Dumbing Us Down and Making Us Vulnerable to Mob Rule?  appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

When we began the Barefoot Wine brand, we were using calculators, and ended up with the internet and social media. We saw and used every iteration of digital technology as it proceeded, developed and improved. Now we can’t live without it! And we are chomping at the bit for the next big thing. But are we still, in the scheme of things, in the barnstorming days, like the airplane was for so many years?

Are we ready for the “advantages” that technology brings? Has social networking actually hurt our social skills?  Has the sheer amount of information impacting us reduced our attention span? Have we become so impatient we will act on over-simplified answers?  Have we gotten to the point where what’s new or sensational is more important than what ultimately effects our health and well-being? Do we have a reliable independent source of news beyond our “friends” on Facebook?

These are the challenges we face now, in the early days of the information revolution. Like the early days of the airplane, we are still “barnstorming” with tools that have a much greater potential.

The improvements required to meet that potential are not so much in the technology, but in us! We need to realize how much technology has changed us in just the past decade. By returning to time-tested classic values we have a better chance at getting the most out of technology. Here’s our short list of classic values which we think should be driving technology:

1. More Visual Communication. Text is a great tool when you need to get picked up at the airport. Email is great tool for documenting what’s been said. But live video is the best tool for first meetings (if you can’t do it in person). Voice is second best. But real-time visual and audio communication conveys reactions, feelings, and queues you just can’t pick up in virtual communication. You can avoid misunderstandings by demanding and using more real-time communication.
2. Less “News” from “Friends.” Prevent yourself from being manipulated by fake news sources and network ads that are designed to exacerbate political differences. Realize that as a society, and as an economy, we need the cooperation of those with whom we disagree – to maintain our livelihoods, and our freedom. Open your mind to understanding opposing ideas by talking to “the other side.” Demand fact-checking before you pass along information to your network, and be skeptical when you get “news” from your “friends”. Respect science!
3. More History and Civics. Regard history as a teacher, a warning, and a path toward wisdom. Don’t look at it as something old, outmoded, or irrelevant. There is a vast difference between retro and classic. Learn and understand how entire countries have been subjugated by misinformation and the exploitation of prejudices. As the Irish statesman Edmund Burke said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” This is as true today as it was during his lifetime, 1729-1797. By learning civics, you will understand what our governing bodies and offices can and cannot do. You will be less likely to vote for candidates who promise more than they can legally deliver.
4. Less Simple Answers. Appreciate that there are no absolutes. There’s lots of grey! Learn the nuances before you act. Don’t let the current state of technology pander to your impatience to quickly “get to the bottom of it.” Stop saying, “Just tell me the one thing.” The real answers are never simple. Seek sophisticated answers that discuss various sides of the issue. Stop looking for who’s to blame, or how to make 6 figures in 6 months!
5. More In-Person Conversations. Don’t “hide” behind a technological “shield” to protect you from personal contact. Have a meeting, talk to some people, become vulnerable. Learn some lessons about human-to-human, in-person interactions. People will appreciate your undivided attention. Your social, business, and cooperative relationships can reap many benefits. Stop using social media as a substitute for real social interaction. Social media is a great way to let folks know what you’re up to, but don’t let it atrophy your social skills.

Realize that technology, and more important, how we use it, is still in its infancy. Our standard of living, our economy, and the peace and tranquility of our lives depend on it.  Let’s take control of this “airplane” before our impatience lets it take control of us! Get out there and say “Hello!” to a real, live person!

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.

The post 5 Ways You Can Steer Technology in the Right Direction appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Why this obsession with sales? It’s how everyone gets paid – everyone! Without sales, there would be no need for production, marketing, R&D, HR, legal, admin, and CEOs – nobody!

Why is the Barefoot Spirit so important today? Because many of us have actually lost our focus on sales in favor of engineering, programming, technology, legal, HR, and production. We have gotten to a place where we think that a killer app, a disrupting technology, or a new financial model is somehow more important than sales. They’re not.

In fact, in what we call the Barefoot Startup, the product itself is determined by sales. The design is not complete until after a thorough understanding of what the market wants and how the market will be accessed.

Today many believe that business success is based on securing financing. It’s not! You can secure financing and never make a sale. You can have a burn rate that quickly smokes investor dollars without sales.

We have allowed ourselves to believe that getting into a major box store is in itself  a recipe for success. It’s not. It’s only the beginning, not the end. Real success is staying in the market with sustained and increasing sales.

In fact, we have seen companies that have discounted the importance of sales and elevated marketing – who will gladly take a bow when sales are up and blame “those salespeople out in the field” when sales are down.

Today, you can even get financing with a cool idea, no real sales plan, and no sales experience. Startups are not alone in this thinking. Investors abound who take sales for granted. They shouldn’t.  The startup failure rate is on the increase. According to Small Business Trends, over 50% of small business startups fail in the first four years.

No one’s idea, no matter how brilliant, is going to sell itself. All ideas must be sold and more importantly resold on an ongoing basis.

Today, much of the focus is on the cost of goods, when it should be on the cost of sales. If you can’t service what you sell, you are soon off the market. If you can’t achieve a positive cash flow quickly, you are back trading more of your precious equity to the investor just to keep the lights on.

The current thinking seems to be that if you have a good enough idea, and a catchy marketing plan, you just hire some people to sell it. If they don’t, just fire them and hire some more. Right? Wrong. With that attitude, you never find out why your idea didn’t sell – until it’s too late!

How has this happened? Sales itself has gotten a bad name. Nobody wants to be “salesy!” Nobody wants to face personal rejection. Sales is generally not taught in school. And salespeople are seen as shifty characters, out to trick you, only after your money, and with very little to offer in return. Good salespeople offer excellent customer service, and should be the highest priority for a startup, not the last.

From startups to enterprise companies, the time is right for the Barefoot Spirit. Now is the time to focus on the top priority for success, sales!

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.

The post Why is The Barefoot Spirit So Relevant Today? appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

Is there some formula, procedure, or process you can just cut and paste that will protect you? Is there a failsafe way to survive the dangers of entrepreneurship? Is there just “the one thing” you need to know?  In spite of the daily hype, pandering, and outrageous claims to the contrary, the answer is a flat “No!”

After we monetized our equity in the Barefoot Wine brand, we were encouraged by colleagues to write about how we did it; specifically, how we handled the unknown. The answer, in retrospect, was a set of guiding principles; some we had previously learned and applied from day one; some we learned by asking questions of others; and some we learned the hard way. There is no “just one thing!” It is a multifaceted approach to doing business we call “the Barefoot Spirit.”

A big part of the Barefoot Spirit is the Guiding Principles for Success, GPS for short. These are critical and learnable standards, attitudes and soft skills that we used to minimize risk, prepare for the unknown, improve the quality of our decisions, and reduce our need for capital.

With the information revolution and the advance of technology, we saw a whole new generation with a whole new approach to business. We saw new platforms, and new products and services. We saw the disruption of so many old ways of doing things that in the process, we may have inadvertently thrown out some classic business principles. A big mistake!

With an accelerating failure rate, loss of investor capital, and increasing inability for startups to achieve positive cashflow, it’s finally time to bring back those classic principles. When it comes to the past, take the best and leave the rest. The best of the past is a big part of the Barefoot Spirit.

When you start a business, prepare yourself for the adventure! Just like a seasoned sea captain, you wouldn’t dare go out to sea without being prepared for the unknown. You need radar, sonar, weather satellites, charts, a GPS and a sextant to back it up.

Being the captain of your “entrepreneur-ship” is no different. It doesn’t really matter how good your idea is if you run out of capital, lose your people, or lose your buyers. Just like the sea captain, you need a set of guiding principles and standards to hold your decisions up against to make better ones. You need to know how to gain the confidence of your investors, employees, vendors, and buyers.

We have identified 20 Guiding Principles for Success that, if applied, will mitigate your risks, and better prepare you for the unknown. They worked for us and they can work for you. Interested? Stay tuned as we explore them in the coming months. Like our audiences, you too may be saying, “I can’t wait to get back to my business and try the GPS out!”

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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