Category Archives: The WIMS Guide

The Project Lifecycle

At its core, project management is about focusing on a plan to execute a series of tasks to accomplish an end goal within a specific constraint. Projects take many different forms and are often defined by having to perform complex tasks under the constraints of limited budget and time. Before diving into the article I suggest that you the reader take the time to go back and look through the WIMS Guide archive to read some of the other insights from myself and my colleagues.

I have addressed some matters related to project management and am going to embark on a further process of highlighting my experiences moving through the world as a project manager. Projects can be scary, and this is something which I am aware of and address these myself as I go through my daily life both professionally and personally. Projects do not need to be fretted or feared but should be embraced to tell the stories about your own journey and the strengthens the organizations you are a part of through your career, civic engagements, and volunteer organizations.

Getting started with a project

A five part project, lifecycle which was compiled by Villanova University is a good starting place to understand the values of going through a series of steps to complete successful projects. These five distinct phases occur over the life cycle of a project. The ability to see structure through the course of a project and learn about the structure of the project lifecycle is valuable to both the project manager and the entire team who is implementing specific pieces of the project and are not entrenched in the language and specifics of project management.

Project Initiation: This serves the starting point for the entire project. Often feasibility and value for the course of the entire project are measured at the on set of the project before any additional planning has commenced. If the project seems feasible and profitable the project manager will move forward with the project and showcase how this specific project fits into the core of current business operations.

Project Planning: The project has been given the go ahead and planning is needed to get it up and running. A plan will differ slightly for every project but will often include an outlined schedule, budget, how risk will be addressed, and the scope of the project to outline necessary resources and departments involved in different phases of the project.

Project Execution: After the plan has been written the work on the project will be done. The deliverable goods or services will be delivered through a series of deadlines to involved stakeholders and sponsors. Executing a project can only happen by following and updating the project plan as work is accomplished and some tasks are met.

Project Monitoring and Control: As tasks and work is completed some deadlines will not be met and adjustments to resources and timing are necessary. The project manager must monitor, document, and control these changes to ensure the project can move forward towards completion.

Project Closure: The project will have an end date when it is delivered to the customer. The end of the project should involve communication with the stakeholders across the project and serve as an important closure point for the team members to look back on the time they spent on it. Furthermore, this closure can serve as a celebration to enjoy the successful completion of the project while sharing lessons learned and spending time with some project members for a final time.

Concluding Thoughts

The steps surrounding the project plan are not rigid steps which need to be followed like financial equations but are guidelines to improve the process and outcome of projects of all sizes. Project Management offers ways to improve scheduling and optimize different tasks across projects for both individuals and teams. Empowerment occurs working through complex projects using a well-developed project plan. It is vital to understand that while projects are difficult the ability to deconstruct them into simpler steps will allow the lifecycle of the project to be completed in an easier and more rewarding manner.

Resources

“The WIMS Guide.” WIMS Guide. Retrieved from https://www.wimsguide.com/tag/the-wims-guide/.

“Project Management.” WIMS Guide. Retrieved from https://www.wimsguide.com/category/project-management/.

“Project Management.” WIMS Consulting. Retrieved from https://www.wims-consulting.com/project-management.

“Five Phases of the Project Management Lifecycle.” Villanova University. Retrieved from https://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-management/5-phases-project-management-lifecycle/.

Photo by Jo Szczepanska.

2019 YP LeaderCon

On August 2, 2019 I had the pleasure of attending the second annual YP LeaderCon held by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. The event was at the beautiful UNCC City Center and brought together emerging leaders from around the Charlotte region. By attending this event I was given an opportunity to learn and grow, hearing from speakers and other professionals in their 20s and 30s while validating the steps I am taking in beginning my professional career and helping to grow my personal brand.

The sessions I attended included a range of topics including networking, financial planning, the power of professional organizations, and the importance of mentorship in personal and professional situations. Across these sessions a common theme continually arose which was the power of taking ownership of your actions and directing the course of your life.

Beginning a career is certainly challenging requiring an individual to balance paying off debt including student loans, becoming acclimated with the culture of your new job, navigating the job market, and deciding which professional organizations to join and prioritize which events to attend. Sometimes the most important thing to do during the initial years of your career is to establish the skills that will drive your entire career while also understanding what attributes you value. We can become so accustomed to saying yes that saying no to things that do not provide value to our lives should be where we focus our main energy. Having an understanding of the things we truly value will help prioritize decision making and reduce time spent on unnecessary actions.

During the event, a topic that was highlighted across sessions is the importance of seeking help from others. The session led by Lisa Medley explored the value and importance of seeking out resources through mentorship, sponsorship and coaching. Many people understand the importance of mentorship from the professional sense yet the aspirational, personal, and family should be used to create buckets of different mentors to become a better person across all aspects of your life. This is an area I will look to improve on by seeking additional mentors and using the people around me as resources. By gaining skills and relationships from mentors I will be able to learn from them while also providing them new skills as I continue to form strong relationships through mentorships and as I progress in my career further mentoring others with the information I learn.

I value the time and the opportunities I had during the YP LeaderCon and the importance the Charlotte Regional Alliance places on growing young talent in the entire metropolitan region. Seeing professionals beginning their careers I could see the dynamics of the modern workforce as I gathered with young professionals who worked for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and regional firms with a strong presence in Charlotte. One of the top reasons I am proud to call the Charlotte area home is the commitment to fostering business relationships and improve the entire community. The hints of Southern charm that are spread across the shining city of Charlotte shows the power of the New South. The sessions were filled with young people from across the country who have moved to Charlotte because of its robust job market and abundance of recreational activities. This trend should continue as more people and companies are attracted to the region and top talent is retained to ensure sustainable growth across the entire Charlotte region into the future.

Reconnecting With Your Network

You did it. You went dark. You ghosted. Pulled a professional Irish Goodbye. You haven’t spoken or been in touch with the majority of your network for some time. Could be a couple months, or even over a year. I know I’m guilty of it. You change careers/jobs, move to a different part of town or new city, or experience a major life-changing event like a new relationship, marriage, or have your first child. For one reason or another, you lost touch and some people got left behind.

This is completely normal. Things happen, and priorities change. But what do you do when you want to reconnect to some, or all, of your old network? Well realizing you want to reconnect is the first step. We went around asking others who have been in that same predicament, what they did that worked for them. Below we compiled a list of the steps they took to warm up their own networks and get “reintroduced to the wild”.

Just do it.

Sometimes we over think things, and talk ourselves out of doing something that will ultimately benefit us. Maybe you only reach out to a couple people you still stay in contact with, or you limit the amount of outreach when trying to get back in touch with your network. Ultimately, those who want to stay in touch will respond to your efforts, and those who don’t will ignore the effort. Save yourself the time and worry and reach out to everyone.

Get Active

Now this can be vague, but its actually really simple. Get active in the same circles as your old contacts. Whether its posting more on social media, attending the same networking groups, or professional organizations. Getting active will put you back in front of those people. We need to stay in front of those we want to keep us top of mind.

Own up to it (but not too much)

It’s been a while since you’ve spoken. Odds are, you won’t be able to just pick up the conversation where you last left it like nothing happened. A brief acknowledgement of the passing of time will add some context to the rest of the email. However, be careful not to sound overly apologetic. Include any pertinent information, like a change in career, major move, or family addition. Avoid anything that sounds overly apologetic like “I’m so sorry I haven’t been around.” Or “I hope you’ll reconnect with me again.”

Be Transparent about your motives

This one should be rather straightforward; you want to reconnect. Make sure this is in the message somewhere. Whether you haven’t spoken in a while, you changed careers or positions, or whatever the reason. If you want to remind them of who you are, it would be smart to include your previous position, place of work, or where you were when you first met.

Don’t sell anything or ask for a favor

Clearly there is a reason you want to reconnect with this group of people, but this isn’t the time to ask. Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said it best,

“If I make deposits into an Emotional Bank Account with you through courtesy, kindness, honesty, and keeping my commitments to you, I build up a reserve. Your trust toward me becomes higher, and I can call upon that trust many times if I need to.”

If you haven’t spoken to these individuals in some time, odds are you don’t have the trust built up to ask anything of them. Use this as an opportunity to give something of value.

-Ask them what you can do to help them.

-Congratulate them on a recent accolade.

-Offer some information or research that may be useful to them professionally or personally.

Sharing with them something new you’re working on is ok, but stop short of asking them to buy or become a client. If they’re interested, they’ll ask you for more information. This is the first step of a marathon, building a relationship doesn’t happen in a sprint.

Write like a human/ Make it personal

You’re trying to reconnect, which means putting yourself first and actually connecting. You may represent a brand or company, but people connect with other people. Greet them by first name “Hi Christy,” or if you don’t have their first name a simple “Hi!” or “Hi there,” will be ok. Keep the tone conversational, as if you were talking to a friend. A rigid tone can be confused for bulk email, and make it seem impersonal. Lastly, avoid any banners, images or special fonts. Plain Text works best, as that’s the default look for most of our personal emails.

Follow Up!!!

Congratulations! You did it! You put in all the hard work and reached back out to your network. When you get responses to your message, thank them. Gratitude goes a long way to keeping the relationship going.

Now you have to keep it warm. The fortune is in the follow up! Stay consistent with your outreach and keep in front of them using whatever platform works best for you. Keep active in whatever in-person groups make the most impact. If you join a non-profit, make sure its one you have a genuine interest in (we can tell if you’re faking it or using the group for other reasons).

General Do’s and Don’ts

-it. Seriously, just put an email together or even just walk into an event. Do something.

-Be transparent and own up to the lapse.

-Remind them who you are and where you met.

-Give something of value. Real value. Try to benefit them personally or professionally.

-Keep it friendly and personal.

-Be genuine in your efforts. We can all spot a fake.

-Use plain text.

-Follow Up. Stay Consistent. Show Gratitude.

Don’t

-sit on your ass.

-be overly apologetic.

-assume they remember you.

-Sell them something or ask a favor. I cannot over emphasize this enough.

-give them anything cheap. People recognize and appreciate value.

-send a bulk mailer with fluff (fancy borders, fonts, images)

-let another year go by before you reach back out again.

Hope this helps get you back out there!

Sea Level Rising and What the Future Holds

Where are we headed?

What exactly does it mean to be sustainable and do behaviors that people follow determine if they are or are not following a sustainable lifestyle or does sustainability have to be engrained into the core philosophy of an individual?

I do not know the answer to this question, and I will not attempt to get to the bottom of what drives people to choose sustainable choices be it monetary, spiritual, or moral. In the past few months I have found myself thinking about not what draws people to becoming sustainable but the deeper question of does it matter how we live and how can we, as individuals make decisions that will help protect the earth. The earth needs to be protected not only for future generations but for those of us alive because the world and unexpected climate events are already impacting the world and causing irreversible effects. Instead of playing a blame game of who should take the burden of climate change the only path forward is to work with individuals, non-profit institutions, and corporations. While full cooperation is impossible the world needs cooperation on a stage never seen before to offset the costs on the economy and more importantly the environment.

Center for Climate Integrity

A recent report from the Center for Climate Integrity highlights the pressing nature of sea level change and how this one aspect of climate change will have immense impacts on coastal communities, the economy of the entire nation, and millions of Americans. This study highlights impacts of one of the major aspects of climate change being rising sea levels and how to handle the costs of these changes. Coastal regions have vast importance on ecological, economic, and cultural importance with vibrant communities. These communities also are home to many marine mammals, birds, and unique ecosystems including salt marshes and lowlands which add to the beauty of the coastal communities and can help as carbon sinks in marshlands that can reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

Coastal Impacts

Beyond the beauty of these coastal regions, commercial fisheries and farms in these coastal regions provide fresh food and jobs. Many of the areas which will be hardest hit by the increased sea levels are popular tourist destinations which provide a valuable tax base and employment opportunities to communities. From the Florida Keys to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the Outer Banks of North Carolina popular summer destinations face increased risks of rising sea levels. North Carolina, faces the third highest cost in the lower 48 from rising sea levels with projected increased costs in the Old North State to be over $35 billion by 2040. This places the economic costs behind only Florida and Louisiana and part of the total costs which could exceed $400 billion over the next 20 years with many of the costs incurred over the next decade.

Projected costs to build sea walls by state. Credit Center for Climate Integrity

Now what

The first step in advocacy is understanding the issues at hand, gaining background information about the causes of climate change and sea level rising will allow for beginning the dialogue on these issues. Here in North Carolina, some unique geography in the northeast part of the state means the one congressional district, the 3^rd District, has the highest economic impact of any congressional district in the nation representing over 80% of the total cost in the state from sea level rise. While congressional district boundaries change the impacts of coastal changes from rising sea levels will dramatically impact the tourist centers of the Outer Banks.

The small coastal communities that many people only think about during yearly beach trips or when shrimp cocktails are order face uphill battles and will bear the brunt of the burden of rising sea levels. All is not lost. Actions can be made which will help protect the coastal communities including reaching out to local politicians, beginning conversations about how to combat climate change, and making purchases when possible to companies that value sustainability. The fight to protect our coasts is not over and by understanding that actions can be taken the coastal ecosystems can be protected.

The costs of climate change can not be thought of as after thoughts because communities are already dealing with the effects of climate change and rising sea levels. The impacts of climate change are not set in stone and can be minimized through advocacy, taking individual decisions to reduce your carbon footprint, and taking the steps to hold large corporations accountable for their carbon emissions and incentive sustainable investments.

Sources

Debruyn, Jason. “Rising Seas To Cost NC $35B In Just 20 Years, New Study Finds.” WUNC 91.5 North Carolina Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.wunc.org/post/rising-seas-cost-nc-35b-just-20-years-new-study-finds.

“Study: U.S. Costal Communities Face More Than $400 Billion in Seawall Costs by 2040.” IGSD: Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development. http://www.igsd.org/study-u-s-costal-communities-face-more-than-400-billion-in-seawall-costs-by-2040/.

The Cost/Benefit of Being a Student Athlete by Evan Shirreffs

Picture walking out of your dorm room at 5am on a Friday morning with a jug of water in one hand and a granola bar in the other. With sleep still in your eyes you’re wondering, “what will the workout be like today? Intense conditioning or a grueling squat day?”

Then, as you reach the door to the parking lot, you encounter a few students stumbling around, standing in their outfits from the evening before. One of them lost their student ID at some point during the night in between shots of liquor and their failed attempt at chasing after that one cute girl from Calculus class. Lucky for them, here you come to the rescue before they pass out in the bushes.

During my first few weeks on campus as a football player at the University of Miami, this moment put into perspective what the following few years would encompass.

Sooner or later, every student-athlete has experienced a similar moment that made them realize the depths of dedication it takes to play a sport in college. To say it is a job is honestly an understatement. Do not even get me started with compensation, but the pure will it even takes to commit to such a rigorous lifestyle is much more demanding than any job could ever be, and that’s coupled with much less reward.

What job is so physically taxing that by the end of an early morning lift session, you need to take a nap before most of your colleagues are even awake? What job gives you twice as much “optional” work as mandatory work, yet expects all of it to still get done despite the repeated statements that, “school comes before football?” If this was truly the case, then why would my only free time to study be after hours in the library with the thought of that early morning practice distracting my efforts to learn the importance of a balance sheet, or developing a business model for a business world that I have only heard of in theory and not yet experienced?

Learning class material was never the issue for me. It’s a bit easier to go into an exam with a general concept of what will be on it, and BS an answer that will satisfy your professor. If you BS your preparation for football however, you will be exposed by your opponent. And he will let you know about it before you even get to the sideline to get ripped by your coaches and teammates as well. As a quarterback, I need to know everything that all the other ten guys on the field are doing. The amount of focus it takes to go through hours of daily practice, meetings, and film is something that is quite difficult to understand until you must do it. No other position is like that; few positions in business are like that either.

Yet with all the challenges involved, the cool thing about committing to something like this lifestyle is the absence of regret, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes from doing everything in your power to succeed, even if the venture results in failure. In a society so focused on perfection, it is hard to see the value in failure. Football has taught me that success is never possible without failure.

I have lost battles for starting jobs, had coaches that did not believe in my style of play, I missed games because of injuries, not performed when my number was called, but none of that is what defines me. Failure not only showed me that I was not as badass as I thought by beating me down during some of the toughest moments of my life, but it gave me the opportunity to overcome obstacles during those times that makes success so much sweeter.

Failure gives you the chance to learn how to respond when things are not going your way. It humbles you when you most need it. This has been the single most impactful lesson learned from football. When you accept that the outcome you are working so hard for may not be attainable, you learn to fall in love with the grind and process of even giving yourself the opportunity to reach the result you are striving for.

As I sit behind my computer screen gathering my thoughts on my final collegiate football season to come, and my eventual “transfer” into the real world of business, I cannot help but smile at the opportunities ahead. I have no idea what the future holds, but I know that nothing I face in life will be as hard as the days of being a student-athlete. I understand that there is so much to still be learned, but there is no doubt in my mind that I will be successful in whatever career path I take. In all honesty, I just fear not finding that one thing in the real world that I am as passionate about as football. But I know that when I find it, I will make a difference in this world.

-Evan Shirreffs

WIMS Client Spotlight: Introducing Vitafy – Matching Patients and Doctors Nationwide

The Healthcare industry is in the midst of change and disruption. Large healthcare and insurance firms seem to dominate the market, leaving little room for the consumer to understand or make informed healthcare choices. Vitafy’s mission is to shift power (or verified information) back to the providers and patients.

Vitafy is a newly launched healthcare provider directory that includes the nation’s largest database of medical professionals and physicians. Every medical specialist has a unique profile that is customizable and includes quality metrics, comparisons, interactive reviews, and offers price transparency.

They have over 4 million providers listed from over 800 specialties across all 50 states. However, rather than just posting this publicly available data, which can often be inaccurate, they allow Vitafy member Physicians to leverage it to your advantage. They enable the Vitafy members to take back control of the information that’s out there about them to ensure it’s accurate, up to date, and working for you, not against you. We also help make it significantly easier for patients to find you and simplify the process of the, being able to reach out and book an appointment.

Their innovative platform gives you the doctors, a panoramic view of your information, along with the ability to update and maintain it. In addition to their specific information, it also provides comparative analysis insights on how you compare to other providers in the area on a variety of data points. The value of having this control is immediate and without all the red tape and layers. Vitafy member Physicians and Medical Professionals can directly influence the perception the market has of them and generate more new patient inquiries and appointments.

Vitafy believes in a relationship with our members. So, they’ve developed three affordable packages that even include regular consultation with Google Marketing advisors.

They are committed to you and will be continuously adding new and innovative features. We’d be honored if you’d give their platform a shot and join them on their mission to help shift the power back to the providers and patients! Enter the Promo Code: HCPM201 for a 16% discount on your premium plan.

Summer Reset

Where has the year gone!!!??? Is this a thought that is going through your mind too? The calendar has turned to June and the temperature has increased. The summer travel season kicked off Memorial Day and will last through Labor Day with millions of Americans taking trips from National Parks to beaches. In addition to the much-needed break and the refresher a summer vacation offers the opportunity to revisit goals from earlier in the year, make new goals, and improve the world around you.

The best way to hold yourself accountable to goals is to set ones that push you towards success while having realistic time frames. Instead of making a series of goals in January for the entire year plan out different times in the year for goal setting and make more realistic goals. Break down goals by season and plan goals for the winter, spring, summer, and fall. Now that the summer is here take some time to take steps back and revisit what priorities you have. During this season of travel and relaxation goals and improved decision-making go hand in hand.

Everyone has different ways of formulating goals and inevitably you are the best person at determining if you can reach your goals. By understanding how some of your past goals have gone future goal making may be easier to make. I know that for me I need to be in the right mindset to begin making goals and often set time aside to clean and organize things to push myself into setting and achieving my goals. The beautiful thing about people is that everyone is different, and no two people will take the same path and establish the same series of goals. Instead of following the conventional New Years Resolution, find a system that works for you to create goals so that you are working with a strong framework to ensure that the path you set out on is built with a good foundation.

As the warm months of June, July, and August take hold I will offer a few suggestions on how you can get into a mindset to help yourself make the most effective goals on both the personal and professional level. Take time to unplug and walk away from technology to revisit where you stand in your life and what changes need to be done. The noise of the internet, particularly social media, can drive decisions to be based on short term outcomes and not with a focus on long-term sustainability. Take a weekend or a week to go and experience the world outside of the internet sphere and use this experience to think about and prioritize what is important in your own life.

Whatever goals you set aside take the time to identify someone who can help you along the process. I am a strong believer in collaboration and the power it can add. Seeking assistance when needed shows the ability to take a step in the right direction while working through processes with someone else and gain their opinion. Listening to others is important and can be difficult, more so for some people. Listening to others and taking the time to gather information and talk things out with others before making critical decisions can be crucial. Being in the right mindset and talking with others can spur new ideas and open new perspectives.

Summer serves as an opportunity to visit new places, grilling with friends, and taking family vacations which provide lifelong memories but also can cause stress levels to increase through planning and coordinating group activities. These projects and endeavors should be undertaken in a meaningful manner where they serve the goal of making everyone’s experience more enjoyable. Take the time to make reflections on what occurred and use these experiences to strengthen your goal making process.

The summer is not a break but should serve as a reset period. Our world is constantly going at full pace yet many of the most important things that will happen in our lives are the simple things that we might miss if we do not take the time to enjoy them. Take the time moving forward to thank those around you in service industry positions, write meaningful handwritten letters to loved ones, and partake in community events to improve the place where you live. These rewarding tasks will reap many rewards and can improve your outlook on life and push you to make better decision while also becoming more present in your life. We only get one life to live so let’s take steps to make it the best life we can for ourselves and those around us. Start with the simple things making an effort to improve your life and in the process making the world around all of us a better and more civil place because it is needed more than ever in our current time.

2019 World Cup

2019 FIFA World Cup

From June 7^th through July 7^th the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held across nine French cities to be crowned as the best team in the world. This serves as one of the major sporting events of the year and will draw major media attention from around the world. The start of the World Cup is less than two weeks away and the events of the games will be the culmination of years of hard work and dedication by players, coaches, and event organizers.

Major sporting events like this serve as an insight into the complexities of organizing major events on the world stage with world class athletes and major global media attention. Project management from coaching and players making complex decisions in the middle of a game to the years of planning from local and national politicians, business owners, and stadium operators. From the soccer pitch to the logistics and planning all aspects of the Word Cup must be planned out using project management frameworks from executing to reflecting on how plays and designs play out.

The Game

The course of a sporting event provides many opportunities to take on leadership roles under pressure and uncertainty. This includes the opportunity for players who have smaller roles to make major plays to shape the outcome of the game. A good team member will understand that their individual decisions to the collective decisions made by the team will position itself in a better overall position even if certain players must limit their role on the team to improve the cohesiveness of the team.

The glory of scoring the winning goal can only occur behind the decisions made by players on the field under the instruction of coaches, dietitians, and a complex training regimen. The ability to get a team into championship shape occurs over years and is not an overnight process. This is a lesson which everyone can learn when working on projects. To succeed putting in the time is necessary. Every team needs a strong support system who can provide tips and help along the process from inception to completion. The stars of the American soccer team have been training and finalizing their preparations for the World Cup, in a similar way to how officials from FIFA and across France are in the final stages of preparing venues for the World Cup.

Setting the Stage

The players, media, coaches, and fans who will be descending on France will be staying at accommodations and attending games across the country in stadiums from Paris to Nice. The work that goes into preparing for a World Cup goes far beyond the soccer field and includes upgrades to stadiums and constructing new amenities for those visiting France. When the World Cup commences remember it is a marvel in project management from the perspective of the players, the decisions they have made leading up to and during the games, along with the organizers of the event, the decisions they have made in the past and the decisions they make through the Word Cup.

The WIMS World is Expanding!

As business has continued growing rapidly for WIMS Consulting, the preexisting business model of leveraging elite independent contractors to assist with client projects has needed to evolve. So, we’ve begun growing more in-house as well in order to focus on enhancing client service by way of emphasizing project management and streamlining operations. Simultaneously, we’re more focused on continuing to grow and take on new challenges as well.

What’s been happening with my company’s EolianVR and Augmented Reality Real Estate (ARRE) either which have been exploding with growth recently too. We’ve landed deals with government entities, major health care companies, and are closing in on major real estate companies from brokers to developers to architects as we’ve refocused on improving development. We’ve also just filed a full patent to further expand on our provisional patent. It’s been an insane year and it’s not even halfway through yet. By the way we’re also hiring (Unity Developers particularly, and front end even more specifically).

Just wanted to take a few moments to update those that may be interested on some of latest developments in our world.

We’ve had Craig Oliver on as a project manager for a while now yet his role is continuing to evolve and grow with experience.

Tom Schaefer, Jr. has been brought on as a strategic partner to head up our business development efforts in both Charlotte and Miami (and beyond).

We’ve got interns Evan Shirreffs and Taisha Johnson who are helping with marketing, CRM, finance, and additional projects as well. Their roles will continue to expand as well heading into the summer.

Further, we’ll soon be announcing new partnerships as they’re formalized within the next month or two with people/firms in Los Angeles/San Diego, Atlanta, and New York in addition to more in Charlotte/Miami to go with our existing ones.

We’ve also got some new packages rolling out over the new few weeks to leverage our partnerships with Picnic Table Video Productions and Novelty Technology.

We are committed to working with the best and brightest team to ensure we bring the greatest possible solutions to our clients, maximize the value we bring to them, and to ensure they grow their revenue to unprecedented levels.

What is 10X?

If you’re an entrepreneur, a sales professional, work within your city’s start-up ecosystem, or are a follower of one of the dozens of personal/professional growth coaches, chances are you’ve seen or heard of “10X”. This has become a hot term in the last half-decade, and I wanted to break down my interpretation of what this means, and how it’s meant to be applied to your efforts. It started as a way to describe the “best” engineers who are 10 times as productive as their “worst” counterparts in the field of software development. The term has been appropriated, perhaps most famously by Grant Cardone in his book “The 10X Rule”, as an understanding of the levels of effort and thinking required to break out of the average results and truly succeed.

The first component in The 10X Rule (get it here free, just pay shipping) takes a closer look at how we think about success, and how we set goals. While we’re taught “slow and steady wins the race”, this puts our mindset in a place where average is OK. However, average is a sliding scale. If everyone is struggling, your struggles are justified. We set smaller “realistic” goals, limiting our belief in what is possible. I believe this way of thinking is rooted in the fear of failure, so we celebrate even the smallest victories. Failure is necessary for growth. As we fail, we learn what doesn’t work and improve our efforts for the next attempt. Welcome failure, set audacious goals that are “10X” what you originally thought possible. 10 new clients a month instead of 1. Raise $1 million for your start up instead of $100K. Thinking in these magnitudes, even a “failure” of getting 3 new clients or raising $200K is still better than the original goals.

Now thinking at a higher level than before is great, but making them happen can seem daunting. This is where the second part kicks in, and understanding the order of magnitude of your actions comes into play. Break down what it takes to reach your goal. Does it take 5 meetings to get that 1 client? Schedule 50. Does it take 10 calls to get 5 meetings? Make 100 calls. Don’t have 100 people to call? Start building your network by sharing what you do with others and ask them if they know anyone that fits your ideal client profile (ICP). Start somewhere and create the activity to get to the next step.

“But Tom, I’m a solopreneur and I’m already working 60 hour weeks, I can’t possibly work 600 hours a week, it’s impossible.” or “Those numbers aren’t realistic, in my industry a 20% growth is considered a huge margin.” Excuses are a justification of our fears. We stay in a comfort zone to avoid failure. Well a solopreneur can leverage tools like CRM to manage a sales and marketing strategy, making scalability much more attainable. A strong digital marketing campaign can grow an audience 100 times what was previously done with more traditional methods at a fraction of the price (and often at no cost at all). The fear of failure is stopping more people from succeeding than the actual failures ever will. Stop thinking small and start doing, because nothing ever happens overnight, and every great journey begins with a single step.

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