Vivid Vision

Check Your Modesty At The Door

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When a lot of people are envisioning their future and that of their company, they often downplay their potential successes to avoid coming off as conceited or pompous.

I am not one of those people.  Nor should you be.  However, to be clear, I keep my ego in check when describing my Vivid Vision (formally Painted Picture) too.

When I put together my Vivid Vision, I see myself as very successful. My speaking calendar is full, my roster of clients has grown and includes really awesome start ups, as well as large companies.  Companies beg me to sit on their boards, heck, even my home life is balanced and amazing.

If you know me personally, you know I am not a cocky, arrogant braggart—so why all the sudden bravado?

Because having big dreams means setting lofty goals. And lofty goals ensure success, even if you don’t quite achieve them. Before you laugh, let me explain.

If you picture yourself in a sparkling, modern new office, or see your image on the cover of Fast Company, you’ve set the bar pretty high. You’ll need to work hard to get there. You might even fall short, but undoubtedly the effort you put in trying to make these visions a reality will have you moving in a positive direction.

What’s the benefit of picture your company growing by a steady 10% a year? Or envisioning a future where you’ve hired 10 new employees? You can achieve these ‘goals’ with just a small bit of effort.

Some might call grand visions of success as egotistical. I call it confident optimism. If I had suggested three years ago that I would be where I am now (a thriving speaking businesses, an impressive stable of clients, phenomenal digital content sales) I would have come off as conceited to a lot of people.

I’ll admit this has been a hard sell to clients in the past. When I try to get them to write down some of these lofty goals in their Vivid Vision, be it appearing on a TV commercial or landing Fortune 50 clients, they balk. “People who read this will think I’m delusional,” they say.

“Let them!” I reply. History is littered with doubters who scoffed at big dreamers. It never stopped visionaries like Henry Ford or Sam Walton. In fact, I bet it motivated them.

Do you think Steve Jobs lets modesty temper the vision he sets out for Apple? He’s famous for sharing his far out visions, and then creating an environment where achieving them is the only option. Engineers or managers that think his ideas are unattainable simply don’t last.

So forget the humility, you need to pump yourself up in your own Vivid Vision. If you aren’t going to do it, who will?  And again, you aren’t conceited, you’re simply describing the future state of yourself and your company, 3 years out…

Vision without execution is hallucination, once it’s written, here are some tools to make it happen (available digitally or as DVDs)…

The Vivid Vision Hall of Fame

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When I mentor CEOs globally, I endeavor to give them a war chest of skills that will help them long into the future. One tool that I ensure each of them has is a Vivid Vision (formally Painted Picture). I’ve talked about these invaluable documents a lot in other blog posts. They are one of my hallmarks.

And why am I such an advocate? Because time after time, I’ve seen them work.

Over the years, I’ve worked at creating Vivid Vision with dozens of organizations, from small boutique firms to $700 million enterprises.  I now have writers and designers in the wings helping to perfect them for CEOs around the world.  email me if you’d like an intro Cameron@BackPocketCOO.com

In this post, I thought I’d share a little detail about what some of these companies did to their Vivid Visions that really made them pop.

Red Balloon Days, an online retailer that sells exceptional experiences to Australia and New Zealand, had a graphic designer give their Vivid Vision the royal treatment. Bright colors, cool fonts, funky images—the document grabbed the reader’s eyeballs and refused to let go.

So often, companies fear injecting life into their documents or presentations lest they appear ‘unprofessional’ or ’amateur’. Sure, there are times for somber, professional presentations, but I strongly support adding flair when the opportunity presents itself. I stop short of cheesy cartoons or using Comic Sans font, but believe that bright, colorful annual reports, proposals and Vivid Visions are far more effective (and more fun to read).

What do you do when you are a global organization with offices in 25 countries and you want to introduce the concept of a Vivid Vision to all of your employees? If you’re Sebastien Tondeur, the CEO of MCI (a global event management firm), you film a slick, professional introduction that explains exactly what a Vivid Vision is, and how it relates to the company’s future.  MCI went multimedia with their Vivid Vision to take their written version to the next level. This global conference and meeting planner has grown from $100 Million to over $500 Million since doing their first Vivid Vision 5 years ago.

I could go on and on, but what’s important to remember is that any Vivid Vision is exceptional. You don’t need flashy graphics or CGI visuals , you just need to take the time and effort it takes to visualize your company’s future. Who knows, you might end up in my Hall of Fame.  If you’d like a few samples of great Vivid Visions from CEOs like you – email me – Cameron@BackPocketCOO.com and I’ll send you a few.

Here is What My Company Looks Like in 2016…

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Every three years I lean out into the future and describe what my company looks like.  I pretend in a way, that I’ve gone into a time machine and I can vividly see every aspect of the company three years out.   So, I write down exactly what I see.

I have no idea how it all happens to turn out this way yet.  But I’m crystal clear on what the future looks like.  Sharing it with you, helps it become reality.  And now that everyone is clear on what the future looks like, we can start putting the plans in place to make it come true.

Here is my Vivid Vision and how to create it.

I’d like it if you’d help even one sentence of it come true.

Raise Your Goals – Empire State Building was Built in 419 Days…

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Raise Your Goals for 201427b

 

The Empire State Building was built in 419 Days.  If they could do that, surely you can grow more than you’re planning on right now.

Most companies simply set themselves up to grow slowly, by setting goals that are too low.  I just got off the phone with a CEO who said, well, we’ll grow by 15%.  I challenged them, and they’ve now decided that 40% is much smarter, and very doable to.

If they could build the Empire State Building in 419 days, perhaps you’re not stretching yourself and your employees enough.

  • Set your goals for 2014
  • Commit to 10 projects to make those goals happen
  • Break the projects down into all the tasks that need to get done
  • And then work your plan.

Plan your work, and work your plan.  Don’t set yourself up for low growth.  You’re better than that.

Think Ahead (But Don’t Get Ahead of Yourself)

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We’ve all been in job interviews and fielded the inevitable “Where do you see yourself in five years?” question. It’s a tough one to answer without appearing too ambitious or too complacent.

But I think this question is flawed for a whole other reason. In our fast paced world, how on earth can you accurately describe where you’ll be in five years?

If you’d have told you five years ago that we’d be watching live TV on our cell phones or spending hours a day on something called Facebook, I’d have slowly nodded and made a mental note to never sit beside you at a dinner party.

At the rate of change we’re seeing now, you could very well be married to a robot and living on Mars in five years.

That’s why I suggest my clients look three years ahead when creating their Vivid Vision (formerly Painted Picture). It’s far enough into the future to allow for some optimistic dreaming, but short term enough to avoid having technological advancements make your plans seem dated and useless.

Trying to visualize where your company will be further out can get overwhelming. There are too many factors to consider, too much to cover and too many contingencies to build in. And, after all that effort to soothsay what your company looks like in 10 years, some MIT grad will come along and render the whole thing moot by inventing some revolutionary device that completely changes the game.

Keeping your Vivid Vision to three years out also gives your employees a chance to wrap their heads around it, and still have time to incorporate it into their day-to-day decision making process.

And, as a bonus to you, three years means you won’t have to continually undergo the process. I suggest my clients begin working on their new Painted Picture about six months before the existing one is complete, so you’ll have plenty of time to focus on making it come true before you need to ‘paint’ another one.

Hopefully you’ve hired ambitious people, and shorter-term Vivid Visions allow them to advance and move up without disrupting your plan. If you try to forecast further out and share a vision of the company that doesn’t accommodate growth for certain employees, you might find yourself losing talent.

I usually work with young, ambitious entrepreneurial types that got where they are by always looking into the future. Getting them to scale back a bit and focus on only the next three years can be a little difficult. But I explain it to them like this; in order to create your Vivid Vision, you have to keep one foot planted in the present, and lean out to test the soil in the future with your other foot. If you lean out too far, you’ll fall down and likely stain your flashy future pants (I assume they’ll be shiny and silver.)

So don’t get ahead of yourself. Craft your Vivid Vision three years out and get to work making it come true, Those 36 months will be over before you know it!

One of THE Nicest Notes I’ve EVER Received

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Just the other day I received a note from an 85 year old gentleman in the USA.  It was about my TED Talk where I talk about looking for entrepreneurial traits in kids, and nurturing them to be entrepreneurial.

Here are a few of his points…

 

  • Hello Cameron: I am eighty five years old and I saw your video on TED. It cleared up something which has bothered me and I have been trying to figure out for many years.
  • My father was an entrepreneur who started many businesses, one of which, a food concession business was bought by the Minnesota Vikings and still exists today.
  • My grandparents were poor newly arrived immigrants when my father was born in Minneapolis. They were still very poor when my father was taken out of school after the fourth grade, at age ten, and went to work. He did what a ten year old could; swept floors, ran errands, shined shoes and sold papers.
  • I have always wondered why he never seemed to resent what seemed to me to be very cruel behavior by his parents. Taking him out of school while his older brothers who were going to be a rabbi and a doctor got to stay in school.
  • I now see that he was bored in school, didn’t find it interesting, and was a behavioral problem that my grandparents couldn’t understand or deal with.
  • I now also see that it was as much his decision to go to work and help support his family as theirs to take him out of school.
  • Thank you very much for clearing up something that has bothered me for fifty years.

Those are the kinds of notes that make what I do for a living worth while…  Touching the heart of an 85 year old – who now understands why his grandparents did what they did, to his father… WOW.

He wrote me again today and added to the story…

  • I don’t know if I fully expressed how much I was riveted when you started to discuss the entrepreneurial child and how he would respond and feel in school.  I immediately said to myself: “he is talking about my father”  I can only imagine how it was in 1900 when he was bored with how easy everything was  and impatient for things to get moving, and probably disruptive.  He might well have been expelled, and how my grand parents, who did not speak English, would have been unable to understand or cope with what was happening.
  • I mentioned that I never really understood how my father could be so close to his mother, who I always thought was a real witch for taking him out of school and making him go to work at such a young age. I now see that she realized that this young ambitious boy could provide  for the family in a way her husband, who couldn’t speak English, and  who spent most of his time praying and studying the Talmud never would.
  • I can now understand  that my dad was proud to be able to bring home the proceeds of his work to his mother so she could buy food for the family, and how this led to a real bond between them.
  • I have a doctorate from Harvard.
  • My father, who taught himself how to read and write, taught himself accounting, journalism, public speaking, business administration, finance, and the other things necessary to start and run five businesses was the one who was the smart one in the family.

We NEED to remember – that entrepreneurial kids are NOT like the doctors and teachers who want us to ‘conform’.  We are different.  Nurture us.  Don’t medicate us.  Imagine if they’d told this gentleman’s father to sit still, pay attention, and put him on medication…

Please share my TED Talk.  It’s making a difference.

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Meetings Suck: Turning One Of The Most Loathed Elements Of Business Into One Of The Most Valuable

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We all know that meetings suck, right?

You hear it all the time. It’s the one thing that almost everyone in business can agree on.

Except it’s not actually true… 

Meetings don’t suck.

We just suck at running meetings.   

When done right, meetings not only work, they make people and companies better.

In Meetings Suck, world renowned business expert and growth guru Cameron Herold teaches you how to use focused, time effective meetings to help you and your company soar.

This book shows you immediately actionable, step-by-step systems that ensure that you and everyone in your organization improves your meetings, right away.

In the process, you’ll turn meetings that suck into meetings that work. 

In life, we always hear about people who’ve made huge decisions from their gut – without data.Today, I want you to make a decision, not only from your gut, but also from some data.  A decision that is only $12 per employee but will be priceless for your business.

Right now, your gut is telling you something is wrong with your company’s meetings.  You KNOW everyone complains about meetings.

People HATE going to them, they HATE running them, and they really have NO idea which meetings are truly necessary but they hold meetings simply because they think that is what they SHOULD do.

Even some of the smartest CEOs in the world complain about meetings – Elon Musk publicly told employees at Tesla & SpaceX to walk out of meetings if they weren’t being run properly.

I sent Elon a message saying that wasn’t going to fix anything – the key is to fix the root of the problem – NOT continue to ignore why meetings suck.

A Meeting is – Any phone call, video call or occasion where 2 or more people meet to discuss or work-through office topics.

Most employees on average spend 1-2 hours per day in meetings.

And likely, none of those employees – front-line staff or leaders – have had any training on how to attend meetings or participate in them, LET ALONE How to RUN THEM.

Consider this…

If the Average employee spends just 1 Hour per day in meetings – that’s 1/8th of their time.

If the Average employee earns $50,000 per year.

And they’re spending 1/8th of their time in meetings, that means you’re paying $6,250 dollars per year for just ONE employee to attend meetings.

The reality is, employees spend 1/8th of their time – and 1/8th of your company’s payroll – doing something they have literally NO idea how to do.

The Reality is…

95% of employees are booking & leading meetings – and they have NEVER been trained on how to run them.

95% of employees have had NO training on how to show up and participate in the meetings they attend daily.

And 95% of employees and companies have no idea what meetings are even necessary to hold.

Meetings CAN be hugely effective – IF you know how to run them

Meetings don’t SUCK, we just SUCK at running meetings. 

Investing $15 per employee – to help ensure the $50,000 a year you spend on them is an obvious and easy choice.

This could be the most impactful $15 you’ll ever spend and will save the company’s money, time and resources instantly.

Buying a copy of Meetings Suck for 100% of your employees and having them read it this month will have a huge impact on your company’s success.

book-5

Free PR: How To Get Chased By The Press Without Hiring A PR Firm

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Public relations has always been an essential part of doing business which is probably why you’re shelling out big money to an outside PR firm. But the truth is that you don’t need them. You already have all the necessary tools in-house to do as good a job as the so-called experts. 

Cameron Herold and Adrian Salamunovic have taught thousands of company execs how to exploit free media coverage and ditch these expensive, often ineffective outsiders. 

Cameron & Adrian have also built in-house PR teams, spent decades learning how to generate Free PR and how to leverage public relations to complement their sales and marketing strategy. 

In Free PR, you’ll learn how the media world operates while you gain invaluable insider knowledge and actionable advice on how to: 

  • Build your own in-house PR team
  • Provide effective interviews
  • Score great media coverage for free with just a few easy steps 

Landing public relations coverage for yourself and your company is a powerful tool to help elevate your personal brand. PR is easier to generate than marketing, PR is easier to leverage than marketing and PR is more cost effective than marketing. In other words, Public Relations is more critical than ever in growing your brand and your business. 

You’ve got more passion, commitment, a larger stake, and a deeper understanding of your business than any outside PR firm could ever have. So stop wasting money and take the reins yourself.  Learn the secrets to landing TONS of Free PR for your company.

What they’re saying:

“I think PR is the core for promoting any business. Public relations acquires customers! That’s what’s cool about this book.”

– Kevin O’Leary,  Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank

“The ultimate guidebook for those looking to get press, grow their brand, and get in front of the masses. Free PR is the roadmap you’ve been looking for.”

– Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

“Adrian and Cameron will show you the secrets of getting massive exposure for your business. This book is packed with actionable insights from two guys that actually know how to to do it.”

– Dan Martell,  Serial Entrepreneur & Investor (Intercom.io, Unbounce)

“I told Cameron to write the book on generating free PR. I’m excited to see that he’s finally sharing his secrets with the world. This is a must read for any entrepreneurial company and marketing team.”

– Verne Harnish, Founder of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and author of Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)

book-3-1

Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future

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Many corporations have slick, flashy mission statements that ultimately do little to motivate employees and less to impress customers, investors, and partners. 

But there is a way to share your excitement for the future of your company in a clear, compelling, and powerful way and entrepreneur and business growth expert Cameron Herold can show you how. 

Vivid Vision is a revolutionary tool that will help owners, CEOs, and senior managers create inspirational, detailed, and actionable three-year mission statements for their companies. In this easy-to-follow guide, Herold walks organization leaders through the simple steps to creating their own Vivid Vision, from brainstorming to sharing the ideas to using the document to drive progress in the years to come. 

By focusing on mapping out how you see your company looking and feeling in every category of business, without getting bogged down by data and numbers or how it will happen, Vivid Vision creates a holistic road map to success that will get all of your teammates passionate about the big picture. 

Your company is your dream, one that you want to share with your staff, clients, and stakeholders. Vivid Vision is the tool you need to make that dream a reality.

miracle-morning

The Miracle Morning for
Entrepreneurs: Elevate Your SELF to
Elevate Your BUSINESS

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READY FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH AS AN ENTREPRENEUR AND ACCELERATED SUCCESS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

A step-by-step guide to enjoying the roller-coaster ride of growth — while getting the most out of life as an entrepreneur. A growth-focused approach: The book is divided into three sections, which cover planning for fast growth, building a company for fast growth, and leading for fast growth. Each topic the author covers — from creating a vision for the company’s future to learning how to generate free PR for a developing company — is squarely focused on the end goal: doubling the size of the entrepreneur’s company in three years or less. A down-to-earth action plan: Herold’s experienced-based advice never gets bogged down in generalities or theory. Instead, he offers a wealth of practical tips, including: How to design meetings for maximum efficiency; How to hire top-quality talent; How to grow in particularly tough markets; How to put together a board of advisors — even for a smaller company; How even the busy entrepreneur can achieve a work/life balance.

READY FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH AS AN ENTREPRENEUR AND ACCELERATED SUCCESS IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?

Hal Elrod’sThe Miracle Morning has helped redefine the mornings and the lives of millions of readers since 2012. Since then, careers have been launched, goals have been met, and dreams have been realized, all through the power of the Miracle Morning’s six Life S.A.V.E.R.S.

THESE SIX DAILY PRACTICES WILL FUEL YOUR EFFORTS TO CREATE AND SUSTAIN POSITIVE CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE.

Now The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs brings you these principles in a whole new light—alongside the Entrepreneurial Elevation Principles and the Entrepreneur’s Elevation Skills. These are essential skills that you need to create a successful business and personal life. Cameron Herold— Bestselling Author and a widely-respected expert on entrepreneurial mindset—brings his wisdom and insight to you using Hal Elrod’s powerful Miracle Morning framework.

DEVELOP A VISION FOR YOUR BUSINESS, AND BECOME THE INFLUENTIAL AND INSPIRING LEADER YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE.

The principles and skills you’ll find in this book will help you to channel your passion and achieve balance in a remarkable new way. – Learn why mornings matter more than you think – Learn how to master your own self-leadership and accelerate your personal development – Learn how to manage your energy—physical, mental, and emotional – Learn how to implement Hal Elrod’s invaluable Life S.A.V.E.R.S. in your daily routine – And much more… You’re already an entrepreneur. Now discover how to take your success to the next level by first taking yourself to the next level. The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs is your roadmap to masterfully building an empire with a powerful vision, utilizing your areas of personal genius, with the right team at your side.

Start giving your business and your life the very best opportunities for success, right now.

double-double

Double Double: How To Double Your Revenue And Profit In 3 Years Or Less​

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A step-by-step guide to enjoying the roller-coaster ride of growth — while getting the most out of life as an entrepreneur. A growth-focused approach: The book is divided into three sections, which cover planning for fast growth, building a company for fast growth, and leading for fast growth. Each topic the author covers — from creating a vision for the company’s future to learning how to generate free PR for a developing company — is squarely focused on the end goal: doubling the size of the entrepreneur’s company in three years or less. A down-to-earth action plan: Herold’s experienced-based advice never gets bogged down in generalities or theory. Instead, he offers a wealth of practical tips, including: How to design meetings for maximum efficiency; How to hire top-quality talent; How to grow in particularly tough markets; How to put together a board of advisors — even for a smaller company; How even the busy entrepreneur can achieve a work/life balance.