​Coach John Wooden, widely respected as one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history thought it was essential that leaders continue to listen and learn. On the paradox of success and listening as a leader, Coach Wooden remarks, “One of the reasons it’s extremely difficult to stay at the top is because once you get there, it is so easy to stop listening and learning.” 

We will discuss the dangers of a false sense of accomplishment, how to build real success and the essential nature of listening to developing a growth mindset as a business leader.

​Many entrepreneurs feel successful but they do not have any hard evidence to support their confidence. Like going to the dentist, they fear collecting financial data and allowing those numbers to tell them the truth. For most business leaders, if they have money to burn then they are successful. Keeping up with the Joneses is the common metric but it is not a true valuation of growth or achievement. Those cultivating a growth mindset understand the value of truth, regardless of how harsh it may be.

Achieving a level of success typically creates two extremes, either the extreme of comfort that will quickly lead to business death in the modern economy. The other extreme success can create is the insatiable desire for more at the sacrifice of everything else. Comfort entices us like a warm blanket and then smothers us as we give in to its deception. Businesses are dropping like flies, even large names that our posterity will never remember like Blockbuster . There is no room for comfort in the growth mindset.

​Blockbuster used to be an industry leader and thought to be untouchable, now the only store remaining is in beautiful Bend, Oregon. Not only does their business no longer exist but neither does their industry. Companies like Netflix and Redbox have to be aware that the rate of decline is exponentially faster than it was for Blockbuster. If these new companies do not continue to listen and adapt they will be out of business quicker than Blockbuster’s three decades. A growth mindset will not allow us to rest in our former glory.

The growth mindset starts with what comes in through your ears. Growth is a discipline that must be cultivated by allowing the right information to infiltrate your mind as well as educate your perspective. Proverbs says, "Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance." If you want to develop a growth mindset as a person in a position of leadership (PIAPOL) then you need to receive good information regardless of where it originates from. 

IZ Ventures - more than business coaching and consulting, we help you connect, collaborate and conquer. ​

What does it take to get your web presence generating leads and revenue for your business?

We all know that the internet is the information super highway with unlimited potential to unlock opportunities for our businesses. Yet, very few entrepreneurs know the secret codes to unlock the portals that stand between success and obscurity on the world wide web. We can spend endless hours studying the ins and outs of optimizing our content or we can partner with the right professionals. Greg Power of Real SEO Ninja has the unique ability to understand what is needed as well as the skill in helping your organization reap the benefits of a solid web presence. 

Greg, thank you for taking the time to share a bit of the secret sauce with us. Are you able to explain in less than three sentences what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to the layman?

Search engine optimization consists of the visible as well as the invisible (back end) actions made within the body of the website to improve the overall search visibility. This is done by constant updates to a website targeting specific keywords that potential clients are regularly searching for that could drive traffic your website. SEO is a full cycle of having a vision for what a business is targeting, developing a strategy for reaching into that client base and structuring the content to connect with those end users. With the right efforts in the set up of a webpage and development of optimization tools, entrepreneurs can expect increased traffic to the site. Traffic raises your webpage rank for specific keywords that in turn brings you into contact with people interested in your products or services.
​
There are plenty of businesses who have website but do not have an optimizatio strategy. What is the consequence of investing in a website but not paying attention to SEO?

If you want your website to drive potential clients to your business than you need to play the games by the rules that Google has established. A key component of this is getting your website indexed. If your website is not optimized then your progress could be held up by it taking Google too long to index your website. Without indexing your site basically does not exist to Google as the crawlers get delayed in their process on your web page. Instead of sailing the open seas of the internet you will be anchored in obsolescence, far from the first page of Google. 

How hard is it to optimize a site after it’s been set up poorly?

Like anything else, it's best to do things right the first time. Age of the domain where your website is registered factors into the equations of success for online presence. Looking at the age of domain, you can expect to have lost the equivalence in search rankings which are key to placement. Attempting to go back and fix something that was set up poorly can be costly. The effort to dig back through a site and fix the structure is difficult because it will likely require restructuring all URL tags, meta descriptions, tags, site structure...the list goes on and on. 

What are some keys that entrepreneurs and business owners an utilize towards  getting more out of their websites?

The number one technique we use for all of the websites that we construct for our clients is first analyzing relevant trends in searches. Your website strategy needs to be consistent with your goals as a business. Like good business practices, learning what your clients are searching for online and knowing what your top competitors are targeting provides key insights into where you should direct your efforts. There are a number of free tools and resources out there for this level of research or you can partner with professionals who specialize in these areas. Google trends in a common tool that will provide the user with historical data for search terms. Moz is another good free resource as well that offers a wide range of perspectives to maximize your efforts online.  


What makes Real SEO Ninja different from all the other web marketing and SEO nerd services?

At Real SEO Ninja we want to partner with our clients and take great joy in seeing them succeed. We pride ourselves in creating real value by helping businesses get the most out of their internet strategy which includes their website, SEO and social media. Real SEO Ninja attempts to simplify the nerdy aspects of SEO for our clients, showing them that dominating local search isn't as mysterious as so many entrepreneurs make it out to be. Instead of being another bill for your business, we strive to be an invaluable extension of your vision and growth plan. 

There is money to be made on the internet. Having a website is a key step towards building your empire. The difference between a good website and a mediocre one has a lot to do with quality of the visual, the content as well as the behind the scenes structure. SEO is all of the back end items that can elevate your presence and progress in getting the word out about your business. As with all industries there are professionals and there are pretenders, if you are interested in finding out whether your website and web presence are working for you, contact Real SEO Ninja today. 

​In the quest for exponential growth hacks those in a position of leadership ought to be careful not to become entrepreneurial hacks themselves.

​News of General Electric being removed from the Dow reminds business leaders to analyze whether their growth mindset is in line with their values.

General Electric is one of the largest organizations in the world with a diverse investment portfolio. When it comes to history, it doesn’t get much richer than GE who was founded by inventor Thomas Edison and banking mogul J.P. Morgan. In 1896 General Electric was one of the 12 original companies to be listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the Dow) which is utilized as a reference for health of the market and investments strategies. GE has grown internally as well as by acquisition and diversified their portfolio of businesses to become a leader in multiple industries to become a multinational conglomerate ranked in 2011 as the 6th largest firm in America.

Recently General Electric was removed from the Dow as an indication of its lack of performance, down 55% over the past year (a net of nearly $100 billion) with is stock being valued at an average of $13 per share in comparison to Walgreens which now replaces GE and has a value of $68. Many speculate that this is another brick in the wall, which the Wall Street Journal notes as, “The unraveling of its finance business and competitive problems.”

If your exponential growth strategy is through acquisition do you reach a point where there is nothing more you can buy?

If you grow by acquisition what is the collateral impact of poor integration of cultures between business units?

Back in 2009,  Forbes reported on a $50 million dollar fine issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that General Electric had to pay after, “An investigation into accounting shenanigans that severely tarnished the company’s reputation and helped set the stage for last years collapse in its stock price.” Forbes compares GE’s shifty accounting practices to those of professional baseball players using and covering performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in order to keep up their appearances on paper that they were meeting or exceeding analysts expectations. Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, the hand chosen predecessor to famed CEO Jack Welch, carried practices which many convinced themselves were in the spirit of teamwork where the company would shift money from businesses to reduce or minimize losses in other areas and in this particular case sold locomotives to what appear to be ghost companies to increase sales numbers.

If you focus on rapid growth does the haste have an impact on long term internal systems such as accounting and production with regards to sustainability?

If the accounting goals become the metric for growth, rather than a measure of progress, what consequences are there when an organization begins to manipulate the numbers to see what they want to see?

We can learn a lot from the fall of pyramid schemes such as the $60 billion dollar ponzi scheme pulled off by the now infamous Bernie Madoff in that the glut of growth can cast a wide net. While Madoff took the fall for being the master-mind behind the scheme, something he still seems to believe and relish, no participant in the earnings or the machine can wash their hands in the collective draw from the system. WNYC Studio’s Radiolab created a podcast titled Ponzi Supernova which dug into the story behind the worlds largest con and was able to get feedback from Bernie Madoff himself. In short, Madoff viewed himself as an outsider and refused to be dismissed which started a process of winning by any means and he stumbled across a method for doing just that.

If the accounting goals are the driver for business growth rather than the checks-and-balances of you operation, you can convince yourself – like General Electric, Bernie Madoff, or perhaps more notably the employees and participants in both declines – that what you are doing is necessary. What do we tell ourselves? Everyone is doing it. If you hear yourself say or think these four words then you shouldn’t ignore the historically proven red flags. Like professional athletes, do we tell ourselves, I’m only going to do this to jump start or get back in the game and then I will go back to doing it the right way? Again, our systems have red flags, but if we ignore them we are headed down a path that it is difficult to return from. The gains of rapid growth are alluring but the consequences are severe as in the examples above where building on shaky ground can erodes over a century of performance or shady dealings can land you in prison.

Three simple principles for checking yourself before you wreck yourself:

1. Have a vision for growth with checks and balances that keep you in line with your values – take regular breaks for self-reflection so that you don’t lose your soul to the grind
2. Establish your own board of directors who keep you in check – don’t just surround yourself with yes people
3. Keep peer mentors whom you can check ideas with – you may not be in the same industry but business is business and if they don’t understand what you are doing it may be an indicator that the idea should not proceed