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Rarely is our perspective reality

By Kyle Chowning Leave a Comment

The Dove Beauty Campaign created an experiment. A forensic artist was asked to sketch individual women based off their own description of their faces. The artist never saw them, he only drew what they described.

Then, Dove brought strangers in to describe each participant to create a second picture.

Each personal sketch proved to be distorted and unrealistic. When strangers described what they saw, it proved to be more like the real face of each of the participants.

The participants were given a side by side comparison of what THEY saw in themselves, versus what OTHERS saw in them.

See for yourself and then wonder, along with me, how do I see myself, and is it realistic?

What’s YOUR reaction?

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Filed Under: Marketing

Why selecting the right business name matters

By Kyle Chowning Leave a Comment

Establishing your business name is a big deal. Not only will it be the mark and identifier that you will promote for the rest of your business’ life, but it can also say a lot about who you are, what era you were established and how forward thinking you are. Whether you like it or not, your business name says a lot about your company and it could be helping, or hurting.

In 2012, I purchased a company called The School of Worship in Franklin, TN. Having been a long time supporter of this company prior to my purchase, I always felt the business name was perfect. From a marketing standpoint, it described exactly what we were: a school that focused on worship.

A couple of weeks after I took control of the business, a good and personally influential friend of mine sat in my office and asked a very casual question: “Are you changing the name?” I hadn’t planned on it…until then.

Over the next couple of weeks, I began to circulate the idea of changing the business name. Let’s just say, I was surprised and even shocked at the feedback I received.

“What do you do in there?”

“Worship of what, and why do you need to go to school for it?”

Another asked if this is where worship leaders came to better their ability to lead worship.

Finally, the kicker was when multiple people asked if we were a cult. (Yikes!)

It isn’t important to determine if they were right or wrong, the fact was, they’re responses indicated that the local community was largely unaware or confused about who we were and what we did. Furthermore, when I stepped out of the faith-based paradigm, I began to see that our name could be perceived very differently than what was intended.

It was clear that we needed to change the name, so we did on January 1, 2013. We are now ROOTS Worship Arts Academy.

  • ROOTS was chosen because of its dual meaning: “root” of a chord, and the spiritual “roots” we’re helping parents establish in their students
  • Worship Arts was selected because we wanted an obvious indicator that we were faith-based company. This is our primary competitive advantage.
  • Academy was a no-brainer as it is a much more prestigious word than “school.”

In January, I pulled down the last visible remnant of the “School of Worship” branding. The plastic letters, now detached from the cinder block walls, left a weathered stain of a tenant that once occupied our facility. The blank wall left our building without a clear identity. Certainly our new ROOTS monument sign would help people know who we are, but with the overgrown shrubs and relatively small size, it wasn’t for sure.

Today, the main hedge in front of our building has been cut down 15″ to remove the visual impediments that kept people from seeing what we’re doing in our studio windows. Furthermore, the entrance of our building has a fresh coat of paint and nice big letters that spell and define exactly who we are, and what we do.

We are…

ROOTS Before/After Signage

ROOTS: Music Voice Dance. It can’t get any simpler than that.

In some ways, these letters represent more than a sign. To me, it marks that we are an established company that is going somewhere.

Some Naming Tips

1. Only bring people you trust into the early stages of the naming process

Naming is a very personal process to most people. If those who are giving you feedback are too far removed from you or the business, they could help or deter you from a successful and efficient outcome.

2. Be prepared to defend your names and ideas

Early on, my wife didn’t take to the ROOTS name, but it grew on her the more we talked about it. My confidence in the name helped her grow in hers as well. Your confidence is critical to choosing the right name.

3. Make the decision and go with it.

It’s very easy to over analyze and over-think a business name. At some point, you have to choose and commit.

Finally, I previously stated that your business name could give your customers an indication of your forward thinking skills, or lack thereof, in 1999, I launched my first business called Extream Media. Enough said.

Have you considered what people might think or assume of your business name? 

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurship Tagged With: , , , , ,

Building your business on value, not pricing

By Kyle Chowning 2 Comments

What if I told you that you could make twice as much from doing the same exact work, just by re-evaluating your value, not your pricing?

From time to time, I get the privilege to sit down with product creators and service providers to counsel them about their business. When we begin to dive into their financials, it’s easy to spot those that understand their value versus those who are focused on pricing. Hands down, value focused business owners are making more money.

What are you focused on: pricing or value?

value

In 2006, I transitioned out of working at RELEVANT Media Group and started a marketing company called Motiveight Marketing Group. My immediate focus was to build my income to replace what I was saying goodbye to at RELEVANT.

Within a few months, I had completely replaced my income from my previous job and was on track to build my dream: a sustainable marketing agency. Approximately six months into business, one of my projects completed and I was on the hunt for a new client. It was then that I got a call from a company that wanted to hire me to help them rebuild a magazine that they had launched a year earlier. Given that I had experience in launching five magazines previously, I jumped at the opportunity to help.

After my first meeting the opportunity materialized and they wanted a proposal to help them revamp the magazine, create a sustainable business model and transition them from losing money, to making money.

I put together a plan and determined that this would take around 45-50% of my time every month. So what did I do? I came up with an hourly rate, multiplied by the hours, added a little extra for the unexpected and came up with a price of $4500/month. Does that process sound familiar?

Then it hit me: Was I considering the value of this engagement, or simply my price?

According to McGraw Hill’s article on Consumer Behavior and Pricing Strategy,

“…it seems that whatever is being purchased must be perceived to be of greater value to the consumer than merely the sum of the costs.”

With that in mind, let’s do some math: My services were going to cost the client $54,000 a year, yet what they were asking me to do was create and execute a business plan that would take them from losing money, to making millions. It became clear that the value of my services was worth far more than what I had priced it at and I needed to re-evaluate this opportunity based on value, not pricing.

I submitted a proposal for $10,000 a month and through negotiations we landed on $8,800/month for the term of the contract. That’s a 96% increase in revenue simply because I looked at the opportunity differently.

When I talk to business owners about value versus pricing, it’s almost always met with resistance. The most fascinating part of the resistance is that it has nothing to do with pricing—other people, even their competitors are charging more for the exact same thing. The problem is always in their perceived value. Don’t miss this important point:

You aren’t making as much as you could, because you don’t believe you are worth it.

You are worth it.

What you do is valuable.

What you do is needed.

They want you because you are the expert.

They want you because you have the experience they don’t have.

They want you because they can’t or don’t want to do it themselves.

They want you because you can do it faster and more accurately.

They want you because they trust you and you are trusted.

They want you because you’re connected—you know people that they don’t.

They want you because you’ll do it right, on time and within budget.

They want you because you nobody else does it like you.

If you read this list and you still are thinking about the “yeah, but’s…” then re-read the list again, and again.

If you read this list and you struggle to find how you’re different or unique from your competitors, then it’s time to go back and re-discover the founding purposes that gave you the momentum to start your business in the first place.

Competition is Everywhere

  • 328,259 books were published in the US alone in 2010. Yet, aspiring authors continue to strive to add to the total every day.
  • There are over 300 cable television networks available in the US, yet, I know of several that are in the process of launching as I write this.
  • There are countless fastfood and fast-casual chicken, mexican and chinese restaurants in the US, yet I recently sat next to a guy at a local coffee shop planning his new restaurant.
  • In Nashville alone, there are dozens of music schools and academy’s for students to attend private lessons and classes, yet I bought one of them this past August because ROOTS Worship Arts Academy is different then my competition. In fact, I so believe in this differentiation—we’re the only faith-based music, voice and dance academy in the city—that I expect to be a national franchise within the next 5-7 years.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. You have to do the work to differentiate yourself and understand the unique value that you bring to your clientele.

On Competitive Rates

One last thing about rates, pricing and value; if you are too cheap, you will price yourselves below your ideal clients trust levels. In other words, prospect clients will overlook you because they expect that they’ll get what they’re paying for:

cheap product/service = cheap quality

I’ve lost more than one significant opportunity because I was priced too low and I did everything I could do prove my value to the prospect—it didn’t matter. They wanted someone more expensive. I wish I was joking.

High-quality clients are willing to pay good money for high-quality products and services.

Consider this…

It’s a difficult reality when you realize that your own perspective is or could be limiting your business potential.

Author John Maxwell wrote about this topic in his best-selling book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (affiliate link). He calls it the “Law of the Lid.” The “lid” happens when your personal leadership ability determines your effectiveness and potential impact on your business future.

If you want to run a business that will grow beyond its current levels, then you have to realize that you are likely the only person standing in the way of that growth.

Remember, you are more valuable than you think you are, and I’m not just talking about making money.

Your worth to the world is inestimable.

 

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurship Tagged With: , , ,

How to Secure New Clients & High-Dollar Opportunities

By Kyle Chowning Leave a Comment

If you’re a small business owner or consultant in a service-based business, the temptation to offer a multifaceted service menu will very tempting. As you network and meet new business prospects, inevitably, they’ll ask if you do work that’s outside your professional scope. Now that the weight of bringing home a paycheck is your complete responsibility, you’ll be very tempted to say yes.

Please don’t.

Those who claim to “do it all” are actually declaring that they don’t do any one thing well. Your clients want to hire experts who know their field inside and out.

swissarmy

In 2010, I relocated to Charlotte, NC to take on the Vice President of Marketing for Halogen TV, a new national cable television network. The job came with a monumental learning curve, and to be honest, for the first year or two, I felt like I was in completely over my head.

One of the most important responsibilities I had was managing a seven-figure marketing budget. While I’ve had experience with budgets in the past, managing a budget this size was very new for me.

Included in that budget was the ability and expectation that we would hire people, vendors and consultants to help us fill in the gap between what we knew and what we needed to know.

Shortly after arriving, I sought out the help of a consultant who we initially contacted because of their specific experience in a certain area of our business. During the interview process, I quickly realized that this guy didn’t have what I was looking for. He claimed that he could do it all. Given that I knew how complex the specific project was, it quickly became apparent that this consultant was telling me what I wanted to hear so that he could land the business. In the end, I didn’t hire him because I didn’t trust him.

According to respected author, Stephen R. Covey, author of Speed of Trust [affiliate link],

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

Had the consultant focused on building my trust in his specific knowledge and experience, then helped me see a path to success, I would have hired him on the spot.

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples of how trust drives the careers of two people I admire:

jeremy-300x300A friend of mine, Jeremy Cowart, is a professional photographer who has a portfolio that most photographers would kill for. He’s photographed musicians, actors and actresses, professional athletes and TV casts. He even had a chance to shoot the cast of LOST, but had to decline it.

If you don’t know Jeremy, chances are, the list I just gave you is enough to convince you that he is a legit photographer. Sub-consciously, you probably thought, “If those people trust him to take their photos, then he must be that good!” And you’re right, he is.

Trust has fueled his career and it continues to open doors for him on a regular basis in the world of photography.

Help-Portrait, an international non-profit that he and I launched in 2009, rallied 5000 photographers and 4000 volunteers to take, print and deliver pictures to the less fortunate at over 600 locations in 52 countries. It only took 110 days to activate people all over the world to join us on the first official Help-Portrait day (12/12/2009). Four years later, the movement has grown to over 20,000 photographers and 30,000 volunteers in 60 countries giving away nearly 300,000 portraits.

Currently, Jeremy is working on releasing a new photography iPhone app called OKDOTHIS that’s slated to release in the first half of 2013.

michael-hyattI was first introduced to Michael Hyatt in 2002. At that time, he was the Vice President of Marketing at Thomas Nelson. Shortly after I found his blog, then called “From Where I Sit,” he became the President of Thomas Nelson.

Mike’s career was built on the book publishing industry. If you read his blog today, his topics have evolved, but the bulk of his authority rests on what he’s learned from being involved in that industry.

As you can imagine, people flock to Mike for publishing advice. So much so, he now sells a series of books on “Writing a Winning Book Proposal.” Chances are, if you’re interested in writing a book, you’re going to, or have already, clicked on the link above. Why? Why not? The former President and CEO of one of the top publishing companies in the world is giving you the insiders secrets on how to get published, why wouldn’t you click?

The point is, Mike dedicated his life to becoming an expert in the field of book publishing (not all types of publishing) and now people trust what he has to say about that and other topics like social media, leadership, and productivity.

Today, Mike has a healthy career as an independent speaker, writer and consultant.

Trust is the key…to everything!

The Takeaway

When you’re tempted to do everything, think about people like Jeremy, Mike, and those around you who are respected, trusted and finding traction in their career and businesses. I can guarantee that they are known and respected for the specific work or field they’ve found success in.

Trust Tips

Here are a few things that I’ve learned along the way that you might find helpful as it pertains to building trust in your business or career:

  1. Focus on what you love to do – Discover what you love to do and find the companies that need the work that you love. That’s where the magic and most fulfillment comes. Theologian Frederick Buechner puts it this way: ‘Your vocation is where your greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need.” 
  2. Resist the “Jack of all Trades” temptation – Trust me, for those who have the ability to hire you for the kind of money you want to make, they want to hire experts.
  3. Don’t assume you know what they want – I can’t say it enough, ask questions first—and a lot of them. When people feel heard and understood, they’ll trust you more.
In what ways have you built trust with your clients?

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurship Tagged With: , , ,

Diversifying & Simplifying your Communication

By Kyle Chowning 1 Comment

No matter how much you try to communicate to people, each of them are unique, so HOW you communicate matters as much or more than WHAT.

No one method of communication works 100% of the time. No matter your personal preference, the reality is, everybody has their own preference and oftentimes it won’t line up with yours.

So, if you’re a business owner, manager, spouse or parent, take note. The people you interact with on a daily basis are unique, which means HOW you communicate with them is unique too. No one method will reach everybody.

Diversify your methods, break down the details, and be overly obvious (to you), because to most others, it’s not that obvious.

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Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

We’re moving back to Nashville!

By Kyle Chowning 28 Comments

Exactly three weeks ago today, we received a call that would change our course of life as we knew it. If we were going to jump at the chance to buy the business that we had been talking about for the past couple of months, we needed to move quickly. There was another offer on the table and we had only two weeks to get in the running.

A mans heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9

We made a plan and began stepping…quickly.

One week later, we had all of the elements of a deal, so we made an offer, and they accepted.

On August 31, 2012, Kristy and I will become the owners of ROOTS Worship Arts Academy (formerly the School of Worship) in Franklin, TN!

ROOTS Academy offers a unique twist on traditional lessons. We offer music, voice and dance to students of all ages, but the curriculum centers around developing the technical aspects AND cultivating a heart of worship. This is accomplished through both private and group lessons, but students can also join a worship band. Imagine being able to say that you’re in a band at age 8…yup…that happens at the School of Worship.

We couldn’t be more excited at the opportunity, yet humbled by the responsibility that we’ll have to train and release the next generation of musicians and worshippers.

As for my time at the Inspiration Networks (Halogen & INSP), bittersweetly, it will be coming to an end this Fall. I love my job and I love working in the television industry, but more-so, I love the people I work with. I’ve had the privilege of laboring alongside some of the smartest and hardest working people I’ve ever known. It’s truly been a joy to be part of the team and I will miss them all, a lot.

So, look out Nashville…

The Chowning’s will be back the first of September!

Updated: December 13, 2012

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Filed Under: Personal Tagged With:

Less is more

By Kyle Chowning 2 Comments

We’re trained to do.

So we do.

And do more.

That’s not enough, so do more.

But at some point, doing more means actually doing less.

Then, it’s about doing less.

And less.

When you whittle more down to less, you can honestly assess what you  have and what you don’t.

Then, you’re in a better place to add more, but just a little more.

A “more” for me, is this blog. It got whittled, and now it’s been added back.

Just don’t expect more, or less.

Hi! It’s good to see you again.

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Filed Under: Misc Tagged With:

You can’t do it all

By Kyle Chowning 1 Comment
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past 30 days: You can’t do it all.

But…

You can do it.

Whether it’s delegation, better planning, careful analysis, further education, seeking out more understanding from others, or simply saying no, you can do it.

You just can’t do it, alone.

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Filed Under: Marketing

Are You Selling the Next Generation Short?

By Kyle Chowning Leave a Comment

If you’re skeptical of the younger generation, their gadgets, technologies and liberties that you can’t imagine taking now, remember, you were once accused of the same thing.

The below article gives context for why we ALWAYS sell the next generation short. I’ve included one of my favorite quotes from the article that I would call a MUST-READ for perspective.

Simply put, many parents and cultural critics have passed through their “adventure window.” The willingness of humans to try new things and experiment with new forms of culture—our “adventure window”—fades rapidly after certain key points in life, as we gradually settle in our ways. The English satirist Douglas Adams put it this way: “Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

Consequently, once their adventure window slams shut, many parents, policymakers, or social pundits convince themselves that “the good ‘ol days” are behind us and the current good-for-nothing generation and their new-fangled gadgets and culture are steering us straight into the moral abyss.

Why Do We Always Sell the Next Generation Short? – Forbes.

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Filed Under: Millennials Tagged With: , ,
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