Steve Stoute On How To Get Your Brand “Poppin”

(On how he determines which companies to align his brands with) 
“it boils down to something very simple..called “Shared Values”. If two things coming together do not enhance each other and highlight each others strengths then those two things should not come together”

(On how to drive product sales)
“If you put in a very authentic fashion a packaged good or product in the right proximity to popular culture, you’re going to have product sales thrive as a result”

(On Knowing Your Audience)
“Play for the right audience. A lot of  people for the wrong audience. You cant put your act on the wrong stage and the wrong stage is trying to impress people, but not necessarily impressing yourself. A lot of times you find out that reality very far in life. In your 50’s, 60’s you find out all the things you did that wasn’t really for you, but it was for somebody else. I would play for the right audience and that audience is yourself…I walked in fortune 500 companies without a formal college education, but yet trying to convince them that they were doing was wrong and there was a lot of resistance. People didn’t want to hear that they were wrong coming from me, a young African American the didn’t have the ‘credentials’ that they expected from a person to have that point of view”

(Dealing With Nonbelievers)
“You have to set a belief system in your organization. Once you do that, if you have people who have not bought into the philosophy, you need to identify them and move them out quickly. It’s to their benefit and your benefit. If you ask most executives, they know within the first 30 or 60 days if a person is going to work out, but it takes them seven months to a year to get them out of the organization. That’s a waste of time…Bad behavior is contagious. And once that starts hitting a company, no matter how big you are, no matter how small you are, that will start the demise of a great organization.”

(Personalize Communication)
” We have to communicate, and we have to get off e-mail and pick up the phone, call our clients and walk down the hall and speak to our peers, because tone makes a gigantic difference in the way somebody receives information. It defines urgency. It defines intent. You need tone and mannerisms to build relationships. But if you mute all those things, you start to get people who are not necessarily aligned because they don’t get to know each other. They know each other by name, but they don’t know each other. And simple conversations around tasks and teamwork and how are we going to move forward get lost in translation if you’re not speaking to the person, and you’re just texting them or e-mailing”.

(Respect Ideas)
And ideas can come from anywhere. There are no titles around an idea. As the C.E.O., I’m the chief editor of the company, but I want the idea to come from anybody. There’s no bureaucracy around an idea. In fact, bureaucracy around an idea is the death of an organization. I tell people all the time: If you have a great idea, and you’re passionate about it, and it makes sense, and you can’t get your boss to hear your idea, then you should leave. That’s not an organization that you’re going to thrive in. You know why so many companies let great talent out the door? Because there was no platform for great talent to be heard, so they get frustrated and leave.

Diddy Makes History By Closing Time Warner Cable Deal Launching “Revolt Music”

Top 10 Reasons to Be an Entrepreneur

1. Opportunity

Susan Strayer Lamotte, a leader in talent acquisition and HR, says she’s motivated simply by “doing great work. That’s the difference,” she explains. “All the other stuff is gravy, but as an entrepreneur, I can decide what the work is like. What I get to do. And that’s the mecca for me.”

2. Autonomy

Some entrepreneurs simply want to avoid the daily grind that comes along with a career that isn’t self-sustaining. Says Aron Schoenfeld, founder of Doitinperson.com and DreamArtists Studios, “Fear of failure is what motivates me to keep going. [I’m] scared of going back to corporate and being a robot again.”

3. Freedom

Aaron Pitman, president and founder of API Domain Investments, agrees. “Freedom is my driver,” he says. “I always wanted to be able to call my own shots, be in charge of my destiny, and have the ability to set my own life.”

4. Responsibility to society

For other entrepreneurs, there are bigger societal issues driving their work. “For me, it’s also about an alignment of story,” says Josh Allan Dykstra, a consultant, author, and speaker. “As entrepreneurs, we are always analyzing the state of the world, examining the larger stories that are playing out on a macro/global level. While we strive to make sense of these big-picture stories, we are also searching for the places our personal strengths and passions can make a larger impact on the world. We make the most difference when we find where the intersection point of the thing that makes us feel alive also lines up with the bigger story, allowing us to improve society in some meaningful way.”

5. Impact

Justin Beegel, founder and president of Infographic World, explains: “[I love] knowing every action [I] take truly has a direct impact on the outcome of the business. When you’re an employee…what you do has limited impact. When you’re running the company, each and every thing you do can make or break it.”

6. Family

Ari R. Meisel, an entrepreneur, author, inventor, and triathlete, says what drives him to entrepreneurial work is simple: “[I love] being able to spend as much time with my family as possible.”

7. Change

Trace Cohen, founder and president of Launch.it, says what drives him is seeing change. “My current and previous company have all been about providing value to our users to enhance what they are currently doing to either make it better or more efficient.”

8. Legacy

Forging a lasting legacy is important for many workers. Both Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Media, and Lewis Howes, lifestyle entrepreneur, noted that leaving a personal legacy is a huge motivator in their decision to do entrepreneurial work.

9. Accomplishment

“That is what truly makes people happy, a sense of accomplishment,” says Pablo Palatnik, CEO at ShadesDaddy.com. “That’s why I do what I do every day, to accomplish my goals, and that [means] building a successful company.”

10. Control

Some entrepreneurs are driven by the sense of security that comes along with being in full control of their work. Joey Ricard says control of his own destiny–“or as some people like to call it, security”–drives his entrepreneurial efforts.

I’m a big believer that money is not what drives people to work hard. If you want successful, happy workers, take a cue from what drives you. Freedom, flexibility, social responsibility, the ability to do great work? Provide your workers with opportunities to thrive in these areas, and you won’t have to deal with workers who are motivated only by money.

VIA

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.