By American Express open, helping you get business done. Hi, everyone. Im jj ramberg and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your growing business. Have you ever heard of Conversational Commerce . If not, pay attention, because it is changing the way consumers shop. Its basically where shopping meets messaging. We wanted to see how it all works so we followed along with a company dirty lemon, that has ditched the traditional distribution and is now relying 100 on text. If you want to buy a dirty lemon, theres only one way to do it. Every transaction that we have had, every person that has purchased the product, has bought via text message. That means you cant find dirty lemon in a store, a restaurant, a vending machine or any other place you would usually look for a drink like this. You want to try one . You have to order at least a case and start tapping on your phone. Theres an Incredible Opportunity in the beverage space, as largely held by two very large organizations, which is coke and pepsi. And i think that they are offering products to consumers that they dont want. When zack norman launched the company two years ago, he knew he had to do Something Different stoond out. He had already mastered that in the flavors like collagen, charcoal and ginseng, but he had to be innovative in the way he ran the business in order to compete with the big guys. This beverage expert thinks dirty lemon could be on to something. Texting is a Global Communications forum. And they have harnessed it beautifully. So to be able to order dirty lemon exclusively by text helps build cult. Thats sort of this interaction, theres again the exclusivity and the intimacy in that. In that way, its very disruptive. Text message historically is reserved for Close Friends and family. And i feel lucky as a business to be communicating with customers over that medium. He had considered an app or website but found them to be too cumbersome. This is unique because its platform agnostics. You can order dirty lemon on an iphone if you want to and just order the product. And sms is, i think, the most common means of communication of our time. It just makes sense for us to be there. Reporter zack found inspiration in casper, Dollar Shave Club and warby parker that cut out the middleman and created directtoconsumer model. When we launched the company, we started to think through ways to this is dirty lemon owns it. Every dollar we use to continue to entice the monitor, we can continue to advertise in the future and in the future. Most of the times, the money just goes to 65. With someone who has deep pockets and needing a luxury organic experience, you dont find this at a grocery store. Dirty lemons packaging reminds you to remind yourself that youre fabulous. That is sort of what thaw do. Its i hold this. I take this out of my celine handbag with my iphone x and im fabulous. Thats the primary message of the packaging. Thats particularly true because they dont have a retail presence. So they didnt create the packaging to necessarily be disruptive on a retail store shelf. They did it so they could be an accessory for the type of consumer that thinks this product will work for them. Reporter zack wants to be at the cutting edge of all parts of his business. So he concentrated heavily on machine learning, helping to drive parts of his business like Customer Service. If you say, can i get an update on my tracking . The system knows based on that stream of words youre looking for a tracking label. If you say, im pregnant right now, i have a question on this specific ingredient or something, it will held to Customer Service. This means he can provide topnotch Customer Service without a large team of people. And the very close and immediate relationship he has with his customers gives him a clear platform to try out new things. Were able to integrate very quickly, put it into the market, test things on a very, very small level and then roll it out to our National Audience if we see success with it, because we are not dependent on shelf space to run our business. Much of what they do is run by data which they collect via text and once in a while the goodold fashioned way, in person. On valentines day, they launched a new drink, rose. All they had to do was text their existing customers and invite them to a popup shop where they could sample the flavor. That was a concept we came up with last summer. And now were in the data we collected there and are launching this to a National Audience. So far this mentd is working for dirty lemon, but author cautions those following too closely. The ability for a brand to use text the way dirty lemon has depends on the specific product that has a specific marketing approach in how they talk to the consumer, again, as mass aztecs as text is, im convinced Consumers Want to purchase that way. As technology changes, so will the company. And he says they will continue to try to stay on the cutting edge. Theres an opportunity for the beverage to be disrun tuf. And we are giving it our best shot to be there in that space. Trust is key to any business relationship. And deciding who to trust is not that easy. When all of your clients before you even see them, it can be difficult. Apop up shop. You can to make sure you trust them but that they trust you. Tell him to take a deep breath, okay . Well get him out of jail. Gail brandenbaron is the owner of malley bonds in downtown washington. She started there 30 years ago as a secretary. And then 15 years later when the owners took over, she was handed the business. Gail invited hum to join her company. When he retired, i said, what are you going to do all day . He said, i dont know, and i said, how about you come work for me . I had a clunt and saient and have a crook on the line. She said, theyre not crooks, theyre clients. Thats the only time that happened. Gail is president , denny is vice president. Together their Company Bonds their climates out of jail. So they can return home. The only person who has been allegedly accused of a crime. And that is requiring full premium, 10 , whatever the amount is. And require collateral for the full amount. Fortunesing for a low is not enou enough. One of the biggest things they need to do is face questions on who they are bonding out of jail with thousands of dollars connected to each other is costly. If we dont pay them, we pay the forfeiture to court. Most businesses dont deal exclusively with defense customers, but nefrlvertheless,w do i know this client is trustworthy . The red flag i listen to is if thaw are hesitant in giving personal information. If theyre really uncomfortable with if lets uh know where thaw live. Thats a red flag. And then the next question is, are you a grandma . Grandmas not around, they will probably be going out the door here. The green flag is connection with family, friends, people who still believe him. They call it a circle value of love. I will email the documents to you and you take them to your grandmothers house for signature . Okay, great. And what that means is that when that person comes to the door, who is it that is going to guarantee that they come back with their Court Appearance . The flip side is that they make sure share Clients Trust them, enough to follow their advice. It is critical that they give us good information. If we seem to care and we do. That builds trust, faster than anything. And having answers for the family, a family that has never been through this before builds trust. Everybody knows them and respects them. I think denny and gails word is often taken without any question. John henry brown is a seattlebased criminal defense lawyer who says hes seen how the trust they given the premium the barons place on trump, its no surprise they turn away many more clients than they accept. I need to full you in on what happened up there after you left the courtroom. They say they never read the police reports, but i already know the allegations. You keep as a business and they will take care of you. Starting something from scratch is never easy, but seeing others do it gives us all a little inspiration when things are getting tough in our business. Jane brown hull went on from here is Savannah Guthrie with her story. Here we are. Wow. This is like home sweet home. That feeling that we all know, having the space in the world that you feel comfortable. Your business sense is to make homes feel a little sweeter. Yeah, exactly. Jean brown is a ceo that matches homeowners with work for their renovation. A lot of people look around and say, i would like for it to look better but are totally overwhelmed by the process. Is that where you come in . So, yes. We have done thousands of renovations at this point. In 2007, jean began renovations on her own f. I was like, i got this and not this. And i thought, i think i have a better way to do it. I was like, i know how to solve this. On sweetens website, homeowners complete a form on the renovation and are matched with three contractors. Who is right for their renovation project. We then follow your project from the starting point all the way to completion. We make sure that our guys are doing a great job and you got to give them a rating. The great thing about it is we can do it for free against the homeowner. So some people even call me the contract whisperer. What does that mean, the contract whisperer . Im unlikely champions for those who want to be painted with a broad anding intive brush stroke. And general contractors have. Jean grew up in new london, connecticut. For the earliest age, she learned no job is too small. I was that kid who was scooping up and boulding stuff. My counselor said, you should be an architect. Not knowing what that was, my dads mom grew up in the south, after an africanamerican woman, she couldnt read or write her whole life. I watched her sign her name as an x. Oh, tired. This is, like, too much. Im like, oh, come on. Jeans hard work has paid off as sweeten has 990 million in investment projects. What is your idea for those who have the entrepreneur moment . What would you tell them . I have two pieces of advice. Dont quit. And keep smiling. What do you think makes a good boss . One of the things i have definitely learned the most out of this whole experience is that you be yourself. Im being the best i can be. Thats the best thing that i can do as a boss, to encourage people to do that. Im here with brian long at southwest who just got off a panel to talk about what were going to talk about here. Youre the founder of keep. Can you explain what that is. Something that is rewarding. Imagine finishing a run in a running app. Good d. It used to be if you would go to buy an expensive ad on television or you couldnt afford it. Now places are expensive that you want to go, et cetera. Everyone wants a lot of eyeballs the. That traditionally set of performan performance. Theres things like cost for act weation, cost for purchase. These are the types of metrics that a facebook and google have to wake up to. So there are now ways to use tools to see how effective your ad was to literal ly the way yo bought it. You cannot think, okay, i spent x amount on this ad, will it give you a positive return . Through of the new brands that have Digital Channels of selling but have been able to build the brand component, there used to be a very thick line between the two, but those things effectively mark it to someone brand, you film with them. You have the focus it issing. Then they get bigger and i see them on television. So eventually they get out to the big brand advertising. What are things you can do if we cant spend big bucks on advertising . The latest, hottest thing is called the cdp, the Customer Data platform. All it is is lingo for owning your own data, having the ability to manage it. If you are a small to medium si size, imagine everyone who walked into your store, everyone who has visited your site or anyone who has shown interest is now on the cdp. People may have heard of the hub spot and kind of collect the data and just be able to hit those through facebook or twitter because you know this person has shown interest by using their signs. Its about making more sense of the data that you have, rather than a guessing game in this day and age with all the information we have. Anything else to think about . Theres always new technology on the way that businesses should leverage, right . If you are competing with a small to large brand, they may not have the agile to to hang on to be our experience. These things are now a lot more easy lets sake you want your sales folks presence. You can create a chat bot to have people ask questions about different makes and models. Always a way to experiment with that. You can be the cutting edge but dont be too bleeding edge. Look at your competitors. Let them stumble a bit and see whats been effective for them and stick your nose in there and figure it out. You can work with Companies Like yours where you reward people so they want to keep coming back. You want marketing that people like. You cant afford to have something spray and pray thats annoying people. You just spent a lot of money to make someone hate you. Youd rather spend money to have people like you at the same time. So great to see you. As much as we may like to ignore it, stress is real. In fact, a recent study shows the majority of americans have experienced high levels of stress or anxiety at work. How do you cope . Here are five tips you can try. One, keep track of your triggers. Whether you keep a physical journalary use a smart device, note the times, situations, people or situations that cause you the most stress and develop a plan to combat anxiety before it starts. Two, spend time with friends. If youre feeling anxious, then being alone may make that worse. Carve out time to be with people you care about. Three, make healthy choices. Instead of yelling at someone, grabbing a beer or starting to eat a bunch of junk food, think about doing something healthier when feeling stressful. Exercise. Take a deep breath. Phone a friend and eat healthy. Four, listen to music. Its been scientifically proven that music reduces feelings of stress n anxiety for some people. And five, take breaks often. Everyone needs some down time. Schedule time to take a brief walk away from your desk in order to rest your mind and recharge. This week, were launching the Second Season of oufr podcast, been there, built that. We kick it off with john foley, the founder of peloton, the company thats brought spin classes to your home. This company is valued at over a billion dollars but john tells me how until just about four months ago, he was scared they may not be able to go on with their plans. I was really, really taken with his story. He was inspiring. Honest. And i learned so much to bring back to my company. I hope you all get a chance to listen to it. Please give us feedback. The podcast is still pretty new. Wed love to hear what you think. Been there, built that wrts where you can find wherever you get your podcast. Should you hire an expert to handle your social media or do it yourself . And the one thing every Business Owner mufst be good at. So thats the idea. What do you think . I dont like it. Oh. Nuh uh. Yeah. Ahhhhh. Mmmm. Oh. Yeah. Ah. Agh. Ddd. No. Hmmm. Uh. Huh. Yeah. Uh. Huh. In business, there are a lot of ways to say no. Thank you so much. Thank you. So were doing it. Yes. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. We help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. Heres a question from susan. We are about to embark in a new direction in the medical industry. Last time i built a practice, there was no internet and no social media. Should we hire a social media expert . Should we go it alone . Which social media platform best serves our needs . I love this question. People assume because there are social media platforms that we should use all of them and Hire Resources and people. The reality is thats often the wrong move. My argument is all about roi, which is just putting content out there and hoping for the best with no strategy or plan, no social media savvy, just because you put somebody in the seat doesnt mean youll get that return. Instead of putting money into social media manager or social media ad buying or anything like that, figure out how to get your customers to use social media on your behalf. Get them to refer your business. Talk about the emotional experience, the grit service that youve provided to them so that they are the ones talking on social media, not your brand. We now have the top two tips to know to help you grow your business. Lets introduce our panel. Carly strife, bark, the business behind bark box. And less mcewen of predictable success an incubation consulting company. Good to be back. Les, its been a little while. Whats something weve learned while weve been away from each other . One thing ive been working with all my small Business Owners the last couple of years is the super par that they need to have which is mundane but incredibly powerful. Its the ability to effectively hire. Its awful. For most Business Owners the notion of having to hire somebody ranges between a distraction to root canal times 3,000. And so what happens is if you dont get really good at it, if you cant just punch in, hire, bring somebody in, youll do anything except starting the process. Heres what it really amounts to is you put up with mediocrity. How do you hire well . Its a little hard work but its not complicated. I hate to say it. Go on the internet and type, how do i hire effectively. Theres a hundred little courses online. 20 brilliant books about it. And there are five or six skills. First of all, build up a bank of potential new employees. Always be looking for people who you might hire in the future. File them away. Learn how to interview effectively, ask really objective questions and stop depending on your golden gut which will get you into trouble and learn how to make the decision and pull the trigger rather than putting up with people who are mediocre. What will happen is your business will average down to the level of your most mediocre employee. It is true. Its the worst. I had to learn a lot. Im sure you did. You were three people at your company at some point. Now 300. Yeah, hiring is hard. Congratulations on all of your success. Thank you. Youve had a profitable quarter. More than 200 million in revenue expected in bashirk box bark co. What did you learn . Really prioritize your challenges. So clear the roadblocks right in front of you. If you are worried about what youll solve two years from now when youre at scale youll never get off the starting blocks. I think reed hoffman says if you arent embarrassed by the first product you put out, you arent going fast enough. We went from idea to launch in three months and weve iterated every month on the product. You continue to do that because youve launched a number of businesses under bark. And killed a number of businesses under bark. So as fast as you need to be at starting them, you also need to be fast about killing them. Thats exactly right. Taking an objective view and really looking at, do the customers really love this or did we miss the mark and acting fast. Thank you both so much. Thanks for having us. This weeks your biz selfie is a toung twister. Its from phannie phuggin who makes phannies boozy jams and jellies from New Hampshire. Thats a fantastic picture. She sells them at stores and fairs and is part of the made in New Hampshire community. Pick up your smartphone, take a selfie of you and your company and send it to us at your business msnbc. Com or tweet it msnbcyour business. If you use twitter, yourbizselfie. Thank you so much for joining us. We love hearing from you. If you have any questions, comments or want to say hi, send an email to your business msnbc. Com. Also head to our website. Its openforum. Com yourbusiness. We also put up a whole lot of other content on there for you. And connect with us on all the digital and social media platforms as well. We look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, im jj ramberg. And remember, we make your business, our business. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye we help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. Welcome to politics nation. This morning, where did i come from and where am i going . Three days ago, i went to sacramento, california, for yet another funeral for a brother who died too early. And three days from now, im going to commemorate the loss of one of historys great spirits. 50 years to the tragic day. Want to know how the two stories
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