August 28, 2024 • 30 mins
Could the key to disrupting the natural products industry be as simple as embracing naivety and rapid prototyping? Join us in an enlightening conversation with Mike Maddock, our guest who will be speaking at the upcoming SOHO Expo event in Orlando. We explore how disruptors bring innovative approaches and fresh perspectives that often elude larger companies. Mike dives deep into his extensive experience working with CEOs and C-suites, sharing the common traits of disruptors and the invaluable role of peer groups for entrepreneurs. You'll hear firsthand how learning from others can provide growth strategies to overcome business plateaus.
Moving forward, we dissect the diverse professional archetypes within organizations. From visionaries to strategists, operators to rainmakers, each role brings distinct strengths and potential pitfalls. We delve into the partnership paradox, where differing perspectives can create beneficial tension. Mike introduces a game-changing two-by-two matrix from his book "Plan D," designed to align team members based on their job competence and core values. This segment offers profound insights into the dynamics of teamwork and how different archetypes can complement each other to drive innovation and success.
Finally, we tackle the challenges of scaling a business and the importance of placing team members in the right roles through the Kolbe assessment. In preparation for the upcoming SOHO event, participants are encouraged to complete the Kolbe assessment for a more tailored experience. Topics such as finding complementary partners, differentiating invention from innovation, and managing an overflow of ideas will be covered. We wrap up with a discussion on the exciting potential for industry disruption, especially by independent retailers, and leave you with valuable marketing tips to stay ahead in this rapidly evolving field. Don't miss the opportunity to gain insights into leading industry disruption and setting yourself apart in the natural products market.
Take the quiz to see what kind of leader you are...
https://flourishadvisoryboards.com/which-flourish-seat/
Connect with us:
Email: info@naturalproductsmarketer.com
About Amanda Ballard
Amanda has worked in natural products marketing in the retail setting since 2016 and has a great understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities that retailers in this industry face. More than anything, she wants this industry to continue to boom and believes much of that success hinges on the ability of retailers to do well in their businesses and market their products effectively.
About Tina Smith
Since 2014, Tina has worked with multiple natural products businesses, discovering how to market their CBD products online, without having their payment processor shut them down, to letting customers talk about their health issues those products have helped them solve. She knows first hand how experts like you offer the best products and a superior customer experience, that is why she is committed to helping you find an easy way to grow your natural product business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Maddock (00:00):
I promise you that there are people in the
audience.
That will be the disruptionthat the industry needs.
The real question is is itgoing to be you?
Tina Smith (00:15):
Welcome to the Natural Products Marketer
Podcast.
I'm Tina and I'm Amanda.
Amanda Ballard (00:20):
And we're here to make marketing easier for
natural product businesses, soyou can reach more people and
change more lives.
Tina Smith (00:29):
Welcome to the Natural Products Marketer
Podcast.
We're joined today by MikeMaddock, who's going to be
speaking at the SoHo event inOrlando in September, so we're
really excited to have you here,mike.
Mike Maddock (00:43):
I'm excited to be here, hello, amanda, hello.
Amanda Ballard (00:47):
Welcome back.
It's been a while.
Mike Maddock (00:49):
It has, but it's good to be back.
Tina Smith (00:51):
So we thought we would get a preview of your
discussion that you're going tobe sharing at Soho so that
people can know what they're infor when they get there.
And we noticed that your talkis all about disruption.
So tell us, why did you pickthe topic of disruption for
these natural products retailers?
Mike Maddock (01:11):
Well, a long time ago, a long, long, long time ago
, I started a consulting firmcalled Maddox Douglas, and over
the years, maddox Douglas hasworked with CEOs or C-suites
from 25% of the Fortune 500.
So big brands you've heard ofand what we were doing for them
was helping them launch newproducts and services.
(01:32):
And I know, because I've beenin the room, that small
businesses and entrepreneurs arethe boogeyman that keeps these
CEOs up at night, and so thesepeople are disruptors.
They're typically the thingsthat they don't see coming.
They create the new products,the new services, the new
business models.
So I figure the room's going tobe full of disruptors, or
(01:53):
people that ought to bedisruptors.
So why not talk about thequestions that disruptors ask
themselves?
Amanda Ballard (01:59):
Yeah, that's really interesting.
So you also run these peergroup and advisory boards and
you're helping these CEOs andoperators solve the big problems
.
So what are the biggestquestions and concerns that they
have?
And I mean, I know you alludedto these little guys keeping
them up at night.
What other problems are theyfacing?
Mike Maddock (02:20):
Well so let me tell you a little bit first
about a couple more things aboutdisruptors, because I want to
see if people in the audiencerecognize themselves in this
story.
So disruptors have a few thingsin common they're often new to
the industry.
Being new to an industry helpsyou see things that others are
(02:41):
missing.
They're not B2B people or B2Cpeople.
They've created B2Me firms,which is to say that they know
their customers better.
They're so close to theircustomers that they understand
the customer's needs far beforelarger companies can.
They're naive to rules.
They don't understand what'sbeen tried in the past, what's
(03:05):
illegal, what's worked, whatshouldn't work, what should work
, et cetera.
So the fact that their naiveteactually gives them an unfair
competitive advantage.
Disruptors tend to be naturalprototypers.
They want to rapidly experimentso they can fail forward
quickly and you can imaginethat's not what big companies do
(03:26):
and they get bored very easily.
And to your question, amanda, alot of the people who wind up
in these peer groups what aredisruptors?
They're people that want to seethe world differently or
they're afraid they don't.
So the questions that I hearfrom people in my peer groups,
(03:47):
these advisory groups, thenumber one question is how do I
move past my current plateau.
They're afraid that they've hita plateau and they want to get
through it very quickly, whichreminds me of a story.
I was at a conference in MIT andmy friend Vern Harnish, the
(04:08):
founder of EntrepreneursOrganization, stood in front of
one of those giant whiteboardsthat you had in Psych 101 in
college and he said I'm going toshow you some things.
And he wrote 1 to 5, 5 to 10, 10to 20, 20 to 30, 30 to 40, all
the way up to 200.
And then, over one to five, hesaid this is your issue.
With one to five employees.
(04:28):
And over five to 10, he saidthis is your issue.
He went on the whole board andat the end he put and wrote an
issue for each size company andhe put down the marker and said
does anybody have any questionsNow?
This room was filled with about100 entrepreneurs from all over
the world and we all went justour jaws dropped because he
(04:49):
nailed the issues for each oneof those companies the companies
had at that particular momentin time and each one of those is
a plateau, each one of those.
There are things that happenand people in these peer groups
would rather learn from wisdomthan intelligence said
differently.
They'd rather hear from someonewho's already been through that
plateau, who may see itdifferently than they do, so
(05:11):
they can scale more quickly.
Tina Smith (05:14):
Yeah.
So okay you are talking about,people are sitting there in
these peer groups and they'retrying to learn from other
people who have already beenthere and scaled past that
plateau.
And it just makes me think youknow personal experience.
I've hit plateaus myself whereit just feels like you're at a
revenue level or a success levelthat, no matter what you do,
(05:37):
how much money you spend, howmuch time you put into the
business, it feels like youcan't get past that because
there's some kind of ceilingthat's happening and sometimes
it's all in my head and you knowit's a mental block, but
sometimes it's a people orresource issue, or sometimes
it's a different kind of issue,and so these are the kinds of
plateaus that you're talkingabout taking people through.
Mike Maddock (06:03):
It's probably things they've been working on
again and again and they justdon't know how to fix.
Yeah and I.
First of all, tina, I want tocommend you for being so
transparent, because being in aroom full of other P&L owners
liberates you to be able to havethe conversations like oh my
gosh, I'm embarrassed, I've beenat $500,000 for three years, or
I've been at a million dollarsfor two.
(06:24):
I can't get over this hump.
What's going on?
I like to say that wisdom islearning from other people's
mistakes and intelligence islearning from your own.
So who has the wisdom?
There's a tenant in designthinking that sounds something
like if you keep trying to solvethe same problem over and, over
and over again and can't solveit, you're probably working on
(06:45):
the wrong problem.
So the magic is being able tobe surrounded by people that
naturally look through a lensthat helps them see your problem
differently than you do it.
My friend, marshall Goldsmithwrote a book called what Got you
here Won't Get you there, andsometimes the very superhero
power that you have is what'sholding you back.
(07:08):
So you need an advisory boardor people in your company who
can kind of shake you and gowhoa, I see it differently than
you.
So a great example are you twoTina, you look through the lens
of strategy and Amanda, you lookthrough an operational lens, so
you can look at the sameproblem and see a completely
(07:29):
different possible solution.
And that's what makes companiesscale being surrounded by
people that see thingsdifferently than they do.
Amanda Ballard (07:38):
So how do you help how businesses identify who
those people are on their teamor what gaps they have in their
advisory group, whether it's agroup that they would you know
put together through what you do, or if they're just building
their company from the ground up, like, how do you identify who
those people are and where youneed to plug them in?
Mike Maddock (08:06):
times the stories you know.
After you've been coaching CEOsfor a while, you start to
recognize a pattern Like um.
So, for example, I'm avisionary, and every visionary
has a superhero power and, and,uh, an accompanying Achilles
heel, like there's.
It's like the flip side of thecoin, and so, um, a visionary.
And visionaries are people thattypically start companies, so I
(08:29):
would imagine, for example,that most of the people that run
small retail companies, whostarted them, are either a
visionary or a strategist,because visionaries are about
challenging convention.
They feel like they can dosomething different.
Their blind spot, though, isboredom.
They want to move on to thenext thing, so, even if they
(08:49):
found a pattern that works, theywant to fix it, and it's like
crazy and this is somethingthat's been a trend in my life,
I guess.
Move on to the next thing,because I get bored doing the
same thing.
Strategists are the other peoplethat tend to start companies,
and their superhero power ismapping and measuring, and their
(09:12):
Achilles heel are unintendedconsequences.
Why?
Because strategists don't liketo implement.
Strategists like to figure itout, delegate it and say if it
doesn't work, call me and we'lltinker with the engine, but they
get really tired ofimplementing, and since they're
not on the ground, they don'tsee sometimes the impact that
(09:33):
their ideas are having to peopleand process etc.
So I test people, if anybody'sinterested.
Actually, onflourishadvisoryboardscom
there's a 10, no, it's eightquestions.
I think you answer eightquestions.
It takes about a minute and ahalf and it'll tell you the seat
.
There's six different seatsaround a great advisory board or
(09:54):
peer group.
It'll tell you which one younaturally will find yourself in.
Well, tell us more becausethere's.
Tina Smith (10:01):
You said there's six seats, so tell.
Well, tell us more, because yousaid there's six seats.
So tell us more about the otherseats, because I'm guessing
that if you're putting six seatstogether, these six different
types of leaders.
So Amanda's question earlierwas how do you know who you need
in that seat?
And I'm guessing you probablyneed one from every other seat
(10:22):
that is, somewhere in youradvisory board or people that
you can tap to help you solveproblems.
So tell us more about the sixseats that we might be looking
for if we're not a visionary ora strategist.
Mike Maddock (10:37):
Okay.
So and this is informed againby my you know, I think the
greatest coaches were the worstplayers oftentimes, and so I
have to tell you if I sound likea Mr Smarty Pants.
All of this is based on mewatching people that are smarter
than me run and scale companiesand the mistakes that I've made
in my own companies.
So I wrote a book called Freethe Idea Monkey to focus on what
(11:01):
matters most, and I focused onthe idea monkey and the
ringleader.
What matters most, and Ifocused on the idea monkey and
the ringleader.
In today's parlance it would belike a visionary and an
implementer, an operator, avisionary and an operator.
Amanda, I already outed you asthe operator.
You're an operator.
Typically, companies are startedby visionaries or strategists,
so you two are kind of a yin foreach other's yang, and great
(11:23):
companies have a Roy and a WaltDisney.
The other all six charactersaround a flourish table or a
great peer group goes operator,strategist, rainmaker, visionary
, tech, futurist andorchestrator and, as you might
imagine, each one of those has asuperhero power or a lens that
they see challenges through andthey have an Achilles heel that
(11:47):
often is their blind spot.
So great leaders figure outthat superhero power, the blind
spot and, importantly, on theirexecutive team or peer group who
needs to be around them so theycan break through plateaus more
quickly.
So do you want me to go throughthe superhero power and blind
spot of each one?
Would that be interesting?
Amanda Ballard (12:07):
I think it would .
Tina Smith (12:08):
Yeah, me too.
Plus, you haven't said anythingabout Amanda's weaknesses, but
you pointed out mine.
Mike Maddock (12:16):
Let's go back to your weaknesses, tina, just for
a minute, okay.
So repeating visionary, you'reabout challenging convention.
That's your superhero power.
Your Achilles heel is boredom.
You move on too quickly.
Strategist, you're aboutmapping and measurement, and
your blind spot is unintendedconsequences because you don't
(12:38):
like to implement.
So sometimes you miss things onthe ground.
The operator, amanda.
Your superhero power is aboutsystems and metrics.
Systems and metrics.
Your blind spot is novelty.
So what happens is most largecompanies, eventually, are run
by operators.
(12:58):
Operators don't like change,they don't like novelty.
They're all from Missouri,they're from the show me state.
You need to prove to them that,if something's working, that
you prove to me that this willbe more effective.
Prove to me that we shouldchange Show, when the world is
(13:25):
shifting very quickly.
In a time of great change,operators sometimes really can
bring a company down becauseit's time to pivot, and they
don't like to pivot.
No pressure, yeah, no pressure.
You're fine, it's all good.
I have all kinds of wonderfuloperator stories.
I have all kinds of wonderfuloperator stories.
There's also just a quickdigression.
(13:46):
There's a partnership paradoxand the partnership paradox is
if you get along really wellwith your partner, all the time
you've got the wrong partner,because we don't like to hear
that our baby is ugly and whenyou're looking through a
different lens you might thinkthat's a really good looking
baby.
But your partner shouldoccasionally go oh my gosh, that
(14:07):
is an ugly baby and nobodylikes to hear that, and that
causes tension Plus two.
Under pressure, you go in theexact opposite directions.
If you're a visionary and anoperator, for example, the
visionary, under pressure, wantsto reinvent.
The operators, like double down, we know how to do this batten
the hatches.
So it causes a lot of tension.
(14:28):
So that's the partnershipparadox.
Let's keep going.
The rainmaker um, the rainmakeris all about finding and binding
sales.
That's a superhero power and Ilike this one.
The achilles heel is thesausage machine, because a real
rainmaker doesn't give a ripabout what it takes to get the
work done.
(14:49):
How many people are going tohave to work on the weekend?
How many people are about tohave a nervous breakdown?
How complicated it is?
They want to go whale hunting.
They want to bring in the whaleand say slice and dice, it
Don't bother me with the details.
Details, tech, futurists are allabout digital leverage, how to
(15:10):
leverage the robots, etc.
Ai, whatever the big trend isthis month.
And their blind spot are thehumans, because they often are
callous about how AI might makesomeone feel, or the jobs will
be lost.
So they tend to look past thepeople dynamics.
And then, finally, theorchestrator.
Their superhero power is aboutculture, cultural dynamics, you
(15:36):
know.
You know how core values, etcetera, how the culture of a
company can make it stronger,faster, better all the good
things.
And their Achilles heel ispluralism.
Particularly when it comes toinnovation, I can tell you that
if everybody thinks it's a goodidea, it is not a disruptive
(15:57):
idea.
And if your job is to check inwith everyone in the company, by
the time you do that, it'll betoo late to launch that product,
service or business model.
So pluralism is a real issuewith orchestrators when it comes
to being inventive.
Tina Smith (16:13):
Yeah, I'm just thinking about some sales people
.
If I can imagine some of thethings like Rainmakers that you
were talking about, I canimagine some of the things that
they might say like yeah, we cando that, mop's team is going.
We cannot do that.
Mike Maddock (16:32):
I have a wonderful friend that used to work with
me.
She actually became acongresswoman.
You know who you are, maria orMarie, I should say.
And Marie would sell a nuclearsubmarine, like she would come
out and go.
Someone would goie, marie wouldsell a nuclear submarine, like
she would come out and go.
Someone would go, can you buildus a nuclear submarine?
And we're like, and she'd go,oh, we could totally do that.
(16:52):
She'd come back and tell uswell, I just sold a nuclear
submarine.
We don't know how to build anuclear submarine, we'll figure
it out.
You know she was making rainone way or another, um, that's.
You know you have to be, uh,you have to be a true believer
to be a great, uh, rainmaker.
You know you gotta get as manyno's as possible in one day
(17:12):
anyway.
Amanda Ballard (17:13):
So I'm curious if because I've seen this happen
before you have, you know thesecompanies that have managed to
grow in spite of their flawseveryone has flaws, right but as
you get into like these, youknow tens of millions, hundreds
of millions of dollars inrevenue and you look around
these boardrooms and you see somany people that look the same
(17:35):
and think the same.
If someone's hearing you knowthere's six seats and they're
like well, all my seats arefilled, but they're filled with
the wrong people, like how wouldyou navigate those waters of
being?
Like, hey, we have way too manyrainmakers and no operators.
How do you handle that?
Mike Maddock (17:55):
Yeah, so in Plan D , which is the book I'm speaking
to, there's a two by two.
That's really useful.
Two by two, that's reallyuseful.
And the access are let's see,really good at their job,
doesn't know their job, high incore values, low in core values.
So bottom left is doesn't knowthe job, doesn't carry your
(18:20):
values.
That's an easy one.
Got to get rid of that person.
Bottom right, high in corevalues, doesn't know their job.
Yet you train that person up,top right, high in core values,
really good at their job.
These are your A players.
You love them.
You do everything you can tokeep them.
And the worst quadrant is thetop left, the people that are
(18:41):
really good at their job butthey do not hold the same values
, and this is typically arainmaker.
This is the person that you makeexcuses for because they have
such great relationships, theybring in so much money, they
have such good ideas.
But guess what, if you holdonto those people and I have the
(19:01):
people in the top rightquadrant, the ones who are
really good at their job andhave really high values start
looking at you and saying you'rea liar and I'm leaving because
you're not upholding the valuesof the company.
That's the most dangerousquadrant of all.
So I would start there.
I would start by looking atpeople that might be really good
at their job, but they're acancer in your culture and
(19:24):
everybody knows it.
Everybody can see it.
You know it too, and you aremaking excuses for them because
you're afraid of something.
What you ought to be afraid ofare the people that are watching
you and saying I can't believethat she or he is putting up
with this stuff becauseapparently our values don't
matter around here.
Tina Smith (19:43):
Yeah, yeah, so just I'm thinking about that.
That's a great way to sort ofmeasure the team that you have
and you're talking about likehigh court, high and core values
and good at their job.
But what if they all are highand core values and good at the
same job, kind of what Amandawas saying.
(20:04):
Like if you've got, like youneed the six different people,
sort of speaking, into your life, so your, your whole company,
is really good at rainmaking orat operating or whatever it is.
So, yes, you can fire people.
That might take some timebecause you've got seats that
you need to get right with theright people, and I know you've
(20:26):
had this experience before whereeveryone's been the same in the
room.
So what do you do when thathappens?
Mike Maddock (20:35):
Yeah, so thank you , I have had this experience.
Specifically, I had a companythat went from $5 million to $8
million to $10 million to $12million to $15 million to $18
million to $20 million, 10million to 12 million to 15
million to 18 million to 20million in revenue inside of
about three and a half fouryears.
So we were a rocket ship.
(20:56):
And then we went from 20million to 18 million to 16
million to 15 million to 12million.
I'm like, oh my gosh, what ishappening?
And I had an executive coachcome in and test all the people
I loved.
Executive coach, come in andtest all the people I loved on
our team, only to find out wewere all quick starts, except
for one person.
So we had a room full ofvisionaries which made us really
(21:18):
good at pivoting and really badat executing.
So how would I have handledthat differently?
Number one I would test myexecutive team to make sure I
understood when they're havingthe best day of their life and
when they're having the worstday of their life, which seat
they run to.
It's the same seat.
You want people that arereliably running to that
rainmaker seat, the strategistseat, the visionary seat, et
(21:39):
cetera.
I did not do that.
I did eventually, and we had tomake some pretty dramatic
changes.
The next step is this Stopthinking about people.
If you have a heart and I knowyou both do you get connected to
people and you're like man, Ilove that person.
I couldn't do that to thisperson.
So take the names off the chart.
(22:02):
Have a discussion with yourexecutive team about the things
that need to get donespecifically.
What are the things that weneed done in this company?
How are we going to measurethese things and then start
saying who can do these thingsand see if you have people for
those spots.
(22:23):
If you don't, then the next bestthing to do is saying, okay,
well, we need, if this companyis going to run to find people
for those spots.
It's a difficult conversation,but I can tell you, if you start
with, what are we going to dowith Tom?
No one's going to.
I protected a person in ourcompany for forever because I
(22:43):
could not.
I could not let this person go.
I just couldn't do it.
What I really needed to do isstop thinking about a person and
say what does this company needfor the good of the whole?
What are the roles?
Sorry, I didn't answer yourquestion the first time, Amanda.
Tina Smith (22:58):
You were answering part of the question, because
that assessment is so helpfuland useful.
When you have a team of peoplethat are working with you and
these retailers absolutely haveteams of people that work with
them and if you think about thiswhole core value and can you do
your job thing, it's reallyimportant, especially whenever
(23:19):
they are customer facing there.
They are you on the floor, tothe people that you serve.
So I think that's incrediblyhelpful.
And there also is thisleadership thing and it's
interesting because I was justputting together a
responsibilities oraccountability chart for a
client and I put all thedifferent roles and then I put
(23:40):
the client's name everywhere,because they're trying to do all
the roles, all the roles, andI'm like, reasonably, this is a
job and this is a job and thisis a job.
So when it's right and you haveto prioritize, but when it's
right, you've got to find reallygreat people to fill these
roles and in the meantime,you're covering for them.
(24:03):
So what's the first thing youwant to get off your plate?
And it was a really goodexercise and they really like
seeing that on paper becausethey can take it to their
leadership team and be like Ineed help running this company.
Mike Maddock (24:20):
And Michael Gerber wrote the e-myth, the
entrepreneurial myth, and that'sone of the hacks that I
remember from that book exactlywhat you just did, tina, where
you're laying out what does yourcompany look like?
At $5 million, at $10 million,at $20 million, what are the
things that need to get done?
And you're right, when you're astartup or when you're a very
(24:41):
small company, your name is on alot of those little boxes.
I remember when I my firstcompany, the bills would come in
and I would write the data inthe top right corner and stack
them up and then, when the checkcame in, I'd go I can pay four
of these like that.
I was in charge of accounting.
You do not want me in charge ofaccounting.
It's a bad idea and I got outof that role as fast as I
(25:06):
possibly could, not only becauseI um, I just hated it, but
because I was not qualified todo it.
But somebody had to do it untilwe grew.
It's also a great argument forgrowth.
We were talking about what todo with these people if they're
in the wrong seat.
Well, when you grow, there arelots more seats, and I trust the
(25:27):
visionaries out there to figureout a new division, a new
company, a new seat for thosepeople, as long as they're in
the right one.
So it's a hard part of businesswhen you scale.
Tina Smith (25:43):
You mentioned testing your leadership team and
I know that you gravitatetoward the Colby and there's
actually a place on your websitewhere people can take the Colby
and enter it.
So if you wanted to I'm sorryenter their Colby results.
So if you wanted to test yourleadership team and then have
(26:05):
someone like you talk about thesix different seats, you could
have your leadership team takethe Colby.
Amanda and I did, and I had youlook at it and tell us which
seats that we filled, and otherpeople can do that too.
There's a form right on yourwebsite where you can submit the
Colby scores and I think you'llbe happy to talk to everyone
(26:25):
about their Colby scores.
Mike Maddock (26:27):
Sure, I'm hoping to talk to thousands of people
about their Colby scores.
Sure, I'm hoping to talk tothousands of people about their
Colby scores in the next twoweeks.
So, absolutely, my purpose isto connect people in possibility
.
So when people call me and say,hey, I'm curious about this, if
I can help them I will.
So for sure.
And I respond to all the noteson my website.
Stephanie, my chief of staff,makes sure that I respond to all
(26:51):
the notes on my website.
Stephanie, my chief of staffmakes sure that I respond to all
the notes on the website, soplease do.
I mentioned earlier there's aneight question.
If you don't have your Colbyscore, the eight questions will
get you started, but a Colbyscore will get you all the way
and I can give you a much morein-depth look at you know, your
superhero power that way.
Tina Smith (27:10):
Yeah, and just because if people are coming to
Soho in September and they'llget to meet you in Orlando and I
know that you're happy to speakwith anyone there but if they
want to take this test beforethey come, then they'll actually
be able to tell you which seatthey're in or which seat their
teams are and they can have apersonal conversation with you.
So it'd be a great idea ifpeople took that before they
(27:32):
came to the event.
Mike Maddock (27:35):
Yeah, thank you, tina.
Amanda Ballard (27:37):
Yeah, so we'll make sure to link that in the
show notes for you so you canreference that.
Tina Smith (27:41):
Yep, okay.
So I know you're kind of atease sometimes, so why don't
you tease us a little bit?
If the listeners do come toSoho, what can they expect to
walk away with?
Mike Maddock (27:55):
What can they expect to walk away with?
Okay, we will talk a little bitmore about how to find a yin
for your yang.
We started that conversationhere.
I'm going to talk about howyour expertise gets in your way
and what to do about it.
The most important questionthat a disruptor asks themselves
I'll touch on that, and that isthe question that helps
(28:17):
disruptors completely shiftbusiness models how to move from
being inventive to a trueinnovator.
There's a difference betweenbeing an inventor.
Most of us think we're beinginnovative, but we're just
inventing stuff.
I'll teach you how to do that.
I'll talk about what to do whenyou have too many ideas.
You know some of you are goingto come to the conference is
(28:40):
like I've got so many ideas Idon't have enough time of the
day to implement any of thesethings, so we'll talk about that
.
And then, finally, my favoritething to talk about is how I get
away with showing pictures ofbutts on stage.
So you're going to want to hearthat.
Tina Smith (28:55):
Well, I can't wait, I know.
Amanda Ballard (28:59):
I am on the edge of my seat already.
Tina Smith (29:30):
Yeah well, we're excited that you're going to be
at Soho this year and definitelylook forward to the disruption
conversation not going to happennow, and especially with
technology shifting you know thesands under our feet constantly
.
I think this industryspecifically is ripe for
disruption to happen and I wouldlove to see the independent
retailers be the disruptors thatthis industry needs.
Mike Maddock (29:52):
So I'm excited yeah.
I promise you that there arepeople in the audience.
That will be the disruptionthat the industry needs.
The real question is is itgoing to be you?
Amanda Ballard (30:07):
Thanks so much for listening to the Natural
Products Marketer Podcast.
We hope you found this episodeto be super helpful.
Make sure you check out theshow notes for any of those
valuable resources that wementioned on today's episode.
Tina Smith (30:18):
And, before you go, we would love for you to give us
a review.
Follow, like and subscribe onApple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube
or wherever you're listeningtoday, and make sure you join us
for our next episode, where wegive you more marketing tips so
that you can reach more peopleand change more lives.
I promise you that there are people in the
audience.
That will be the disruptionthat the industry needs.
The real question is is itgoing to be you?
Tina Smith (00:15):
Welcome to the Natural Products Marketer
Podcast.
I'm Tina and I'm Amanda.
Amanda Ballard (00:20):
And we're here to make marketing easier for
natural product businesses, soyou can reach more people and
change more lives.
Tina Smith (00:29):
Welcome to the Natural Products Marketer
Podcast.
We're joined today by MikeMaddock, who's going to be
speaking at the SoHo event inOrlando in September, so we're
really excited to have you here,mike.
Mike Maddock (00:43):
I'm excited to be here, hello, amanda, hello.
Amanda Ballard (00:47):
Welcome back.
It's been a while.
Mike Maddock (00:49):
It has, but it's good to be back.
Tina Smith (00:51):
So we thought we would get a preview of your
discussion that you're going tobe sharing at Soho so that
people can know what they're infor when they get there.
And we noticed that your talkis all about disruption.
So tell us, why did you pickthe topic of disruption for
these natural products retailers?
Mike Maddock (01:11):
Well, a long time ago, a long, long, long time ago
, I started a consulting firmcalled Maddox Douglas, and over
the years, maddox Douglas hasworked with CEOs or C-suites
from 25% of the Fortune 500.
So big brands you've heard ofand what we were doing for them
was helping them launch newproducts and services.
(01:32):
And I know, because I've beenin the room, that small
businesses and entrepreneurs arethe boogeyman that keeps these
CEOs up at night, and so thesepeople are disruptors.
They're typically the thingsthat they don't see coming.
They create the new products,the new services, the new
business models.
So I figure the room's going tobe full of disruptors, or
(01:53):
people that ought to bedisruptors.
So why not talk about thequestions that disruptors ask
themselves?
Amanda Ballard (01:59):
Yeah, that's really interesting.
So you also run these peergroup and advisory boards and
you're helping these CEOs andoperators solve the big problems
.
So what are the biggestquestions and concerns that they
have?
And I mean, I know you alludedto these little guys keeping
them up at night.
What other problems are theyfacing?
Mike Maddock (02:20):
Well so let me tell you a little bit first
about a couple more things aboutdisruptors, because I want to
see if people in the audiencerecognize themselves in this
story.
So disruptors have a few thingsin common they're often new to
the industry.
Being new to an industry helpsyou see things that others are
(02:41):
missing.
They're not B2B people or B2Cpeople.
They've created B2Me firms,which is to say that they know
their customers better.
They're so close to theircustomers that they understand
the customer's needs far beforelarger companies can.
They're naive to rules.
They don't understand what'sbeen tried in the past, what's
(03:05):
illegal, what's worked, whatshouldn't work, what should work
, et cetera.
So the fact that their naiveteactually gives them an unfair
competitive advantage.
Disruptors tend to be naturalprototypers.
They want to rapidly experimentso they can fail forward
quickly and you can imaginethat's not what big companies do
(03:26):
and they get bored very easily.
And to your question, amanda, alot of the people who wind up
in these peer groups what aredisruptors?
They're people that want to seethe world differently or
they're afraid they don't.
So the questions that I hearfrom people in my peer groups,
(03:47):
these advisory groups, thenumber one question is how do I
move past my current plateau.
They're afraid that they've hita plateau and they want to get
through it very quickly, whichreminds me of a story.
I was at a conference in MIT andmy friend Vern Harnish, the
(04:08):
founder of EntrepreneursOrganization, stood in front of
one of those giant whiteboardsthat you had in Psych 101 in
college and he said I'm going toshow you some things.
And he wrote 1 to 5, 5 to 10, 10to 20, 20 to 30, 30 to 40, all
the way up to 200.
And then, over one to five, hesaid this is your issue.
With one to five employees.
(04:28):
And over five to 10, he saidthis is your issue.
He went on the whole board andat the end he put and wrote an
issue for each size company andhe put down the marker and said
does anybody have any questionsNow?
This room was filled with about100 entrepreneurs from all over
the world and we all went justour jaws dropped because he
(04:49):
nailed the issues for each oneof those companies the companies
had at that particular momentin time and each one of those is
a plateau, each one of those.
There are things that happenand people in these peer groups
would rather learn from wisdomthan intelligence said
differently.
They'd rather hear from someonewho's already been through that
plateau, who may see itdifferently than they do, so
(05:11):
they can scale more quickly.
Tina Smith (05:14):
Yeah.
So okay you are talking about,people are sitting there in
these peer groups and they'retrying to learn from other
people who have already beenthere and scaled past that
plateau.
And it just makes me think youknow personal experience.
I've hit plateaus myself whereit just feels like you're at a
revenue level or a success levelthat, no matter what you do,
(05:37):
how much money you spend, howmuch time you put into the
business, it feels like youcan't get past that because
there's some kind of ceilingthat's happening and sometimes
it's all in my head and you knowit's a mental block, but
sometimes it's a people orresource issue, or sometimes
it's a different kind of issue,and so these are the kinds of
plateaus that you're talkingabout taking people through.
Mike Maddock (06:03):
It's probably things they've been working on
again and again and they justdon't know how to fix.
Yeah and I.
First of all, tina, I want tocommend you for being so
transparent, because being in aroom full of other P&L owners
liberates you to be able to havethe conversations like oh my
gosh, I'm embarrassed, I've beenat $500,000 for three years, or
I've been at a million dollarsfor two.
(06:24):
I can't get over this hump.
What's going on?
I like to say that wisdom islearning from other people's
mistakes and intelligence islearning from your own.
So who has the wisdom?
There's a tenant in designthinking that sounds something
like if you keep trying to solvethe same problem over and, over
and over again and can't solveit, you're probably working on
(06:45):
the wrong problem.
So the magic is being able tobe surrounded by people that
naturally look through a lensthat helps them see your problem
differently than you do it.
My friend, marshall Goldsmithwrote a book called what Got you
here Won't Get you there, andsometimes the very superhero
power that you have is what'sholding you back.
(07:08):
So you need an advisory boardor people in your company who
can kind of shake you and gowhoa, I see it differently than
you.
So a great example are you twoTina, you look through the lens
of strategy and Amanda, you lookthrough an operational lens, so
you can look at the sameproblem and see a completely
(07:29):
different possible solution.
And that's what makes companiesscale being surrounded by
people that see thingsdifferently than they do.
Amanda Ballard (07:38):
So how do you help how businesses identify who
those people are on their teamor what gaps they have in their
advisory group, whether it's agroup that they would you know
put together through what you do, or if they're just building
their company from the ground up, like, how do you identify who
those people are and where youneed to plug them in?
Mike Maddock (08:06):
times the stories you know.
After you've been coaching CEOsfor a while, you start to
recognize a pattern Like um.
So, for example, I'm avisionary, and every visionary
has a superhero power and, and,uh, an accompanying Achilles
heel, like there's.
It's like the flip side of thecoin, and so, um, a visionary.
And visionaries are people thattypically start companies, so I
(08:29):
would imagine, for example,that most of the people that run
small retail companies, whostarted them, are either a
visionary or a strategist,because visionaries are about
challenging convention.
They feel like they can dosomething different.
Their blind spot, though, isboredom.
They want to move on to thenext thing, so, even if they
(08:49):
found a pattern that works, theywant to fix it, and it's like
crazy and this is somethingthat's been a trend in my life,
I guess.
Move on to the next thing,because I get bored doing the
same thing.
Strategists are the other peoplethat tend to start companies,
and their superhero power ismapping and measuring, and their
(09:12):
Achilles heel are unintendedconsequences.
Why?
Because strategists don't liketo implement.
Strategists like to figure itout, delegate it and say if it
doesn't work, call me and we'lltinker with the engine, but they
get really tired ofimplementing, and since they're
not on the ground, they don'tsee sometimes the impact that
(09:33):
their ideas are having to peopleand process etc.
So I test people, if anybody'sinterested.
Actually, onflourishadvisoryboardscom
there's a 10, no, it's eightquestions.
I think you answer eightquestions.
It takes about a minute and ahalf and it'll tell you the seat
.
There's six different seatsaround a great advisory board or
(09:54):
peer group.
It'll tell you which one younaturally will find yourself in.
Well, tell us more becausethere's.
Tina Smith (10:01):
You said there's six seats, so tell.
Well, tell us more, because yousaid there's six seats.
So tell us more about the otherseats, because I'm guessing
that if you're putting six seatstogether, these six different
types of leaders.
So Amanda's question earlierwas how do you know who you need
in that seat?
And I'm guessing you probablyneed one from every other seat
(10:22):
that is, somewhere in youradvisory board or people that
you can tap to help you solveproblems.
So tell us more about the sixseats that we might be looking
for if we're not a visionary ora strategist.
Mike Maddock (10:37):
Okay.
So and this is informed againby my you know, I think the
greatest coaches were the worstplayers oftentimes, and so I
have to tell you if I sound likea Mr Smarty Pants.
All of this is based on mewatching people that are smarter
than me run and scale companiesand the mistakes that I've made
in my own companies.
So I wrote a book called Freethe Idea Monkey to focus on what
(11:01):
matters most, and I focused onthe idea monkey and the
ringleader.
What matters most, and Ifocused on the idea monkey and
the ringleader.
In today's parlance it would belike a visionary and an
implementer, an operator, avisionary and an operator.
Amanda, I already outed you asthe operator.
You're an operator.
Typically, companies are startedby visionaries or strategists,
so you two are kind of a yin foreach other's yang, and great
(11:23):
companies have a Roy and a WaltDisney.
The other all six charactersaround a flourish table or a
great peer group goes operator,strategist, rainmaker, visionary
, tech, futurist andorchestrator and, as you might
imagine, each one of those has asuperhero power or a lens that
they see challenges through andthey have an Achilles heel that
(11:47):
often is their blind spot.
So great leaders figure outthat superhero power, the blind
spot and, importantly, on theirexecutive team or peer group who
needs to be around them so theycan break through plateaus more
quickly.
So do you want me to go throughthe superhero power and blind
spot of each one?
Would that be interesting?
Amanda Ballard (12:07):
I think it would .
Tina Smith (12:08):
Yeah, me too.
Plus, you haven't said anythingabout Amanda's weaknesses, but
you pointed out mine.
Mike Maddock (12:16):
Let's go back to your weaknesses, tina, just for
a minute, okay.
So repeating visionary, you'reabout challenging convention.
That's your superhero power.
Your Achilles heel is boredom.
You move on too quickly.
Strategist, you're aboutmapping and measurement, and
your blind spot is unintendedconsequences because you don't
(12:38):
like to implement.
So sometimes you miss things onthe ground.
The operator, amanda.
Your superhero power is aboutsystems and metrics.
Systems and metrics.
Your blind spot is novelty.
So what happens is most largecompanies, eventually, are run
by operators.
(12:58):
Operators don't like change,they don't like novelty.
They're all from Missouri,they're from the show me state.
You need to prove to them that,if something's working, that
you prove to me that this willbe more effective.
Prove to me that we shouldchange Show, when the world is
(13:25):
shifting very quickly.
In a time of great change,operators sometimes really can
bring a company down becauseit's time to pivot, and they
don't like to pivot.
No pressure, yeah, no pressure.
You're fine, it's all good.
I have all kinds of wonderfuloperator stories.
I have all kinds of wonderfuloperator stories.
There's also just a quickdigression.
(13:46):
There's a partnership paradoxand the partnership paradox is
if you get along really wellwith your partner, all the time
you've got the wrong partner,because we don't like to hear
that our baby is ugly and whenyou're looking through a
different lens you might thinkthat's a really good looking
baby.
But your partner shouldoccasionally go oh my gosh, that
(14:07):
is an ugly baby and nobodylikes to hear that, and that
causes tension Plus two.
Under pressure, you go in theexact opposite directions.
If you're a visionary and anoperator, for example, the
visionary, under pressure, wantsto reinvent.
The operators, like double down, we know how to do this batten
the hatches.
So it causes a lot of tension.
(14:28):
So that's the partnershipparadox.
Let's keep going.
The rainmaker um, the rainmakeris all about finding and binding
sales.
That's a superhero power and Ilike this one.
The achilles heel is thesausage machine, because a real
rainmaker doesn't give a ripabout what it takes to get the
work done.
(14:49):
How many people are going tohave to work on the weekend?
How many people are about tohave a nervous breakdown?
How complicated it is?
They want to go whale hunting.
They want to bring in the whaleand say slice and dice, it
Don't bother me with the details.
Details, tech, futurists are allabout digital leverage, how to
(15:10):
leverage the robots, etc.
Ai, whatever the big trend isthis month.
And their blind spot are thehumans, because they often are
callous about how AI might makesomeone feel, or the jobs will
be lost.
So they tend to look past thepeople dynamics.
And then, finally, theorchestrator.
Their superhero power is aboutculture, cultural dynamics, you
(15:36):
know.
You know how core values, etcetera, how the culture of a
company can make it stronger,faster, better all the good
things.
And their Achilles heel ispluralism.
Particularly when it comes toinnovation, I can tell you that
if everybody thinks it's a goodidea, it is not a disruptive
(15:57):
idea.
And if your job is to check inwith everyone in the company, by
the time you do that, it'll betoo late to launch that product,
service or business model.
So pluralism is a real issuewith orchestrators when it comes
to being inventive.
Tina Smith (16:13):
Yeah, I'm just thinking about some sales people
.
If I can imagine some of thethings like Rainmakers that you
were talking about, I canimagine some of the things that
they might say like yeah, we cando that, mop's team is going.
We cannot do that.
Mike Maddock (16:32):
I have a wonderful friend that used to work with
me.
She actually became acongresswoman.
You know who you are, maria orMarie, I should say.
And Marie would sell a nuclearsubmarine, like she would come
out and go.
Someone would goie, marie wouldsell a nuclear submarine, like
she would come out and go.
Someone would go, can you buildus a nuclear submarine?
And we're like, and she'd go,oh, we could totally do that.
(16:52):
She'd come back and tell uswell, I just sold a nuclear
submarine.
We don't know how to build anuclear submarine, we'll figure
it out.
You know she was making rainone way or another, um, that's.
You know you have to be, uh,you have to be a true believer
to be a great, uh, rainmaker.
You know you gotta get as manyno's as possible in one day
(17:12):
anyway.
Amanda Ballard (17:13):
So I'm curious if because I've seen this happen
before you have, you know thesecompanies that have managed to
grow in spite of their flawseveryone has flaws, right but as
you get into like these, youknow tens of millions, hundreds
of millions of dollars inrevenue and you look around
these boardrooms and you see somany people that look the same
(17:35):
and think the same.
If someone's hearing you knowthere's six seats and they're
like well, all my seats arefilled, but they're filled with
the wrong people, like how wouldyou navigate those waters of
being?
Like, hey, we have way too manyrainmakers and no operators.
How do you handle that?
Mike Maddock (17:55):
Yeah, so in Plan D , which is the book I'm speaking
to, there's a two by two.
That's really useful.
Two by two, that's reallyuseful.
And the access are let's see,really good at their job,
doesn't know their job, high incore values, low in core values.
So bottom left is doesn't knowthe job, doesn't carry your
(18:20):
values.
That's an easy one.
Got to get rid of that person.
Bottom right, high in corevalues, doesn't know their job.
Yet you train that person up,top right, high in core values,
really good at their job.
These are your A players.
You love them.
You do everything you can tokeep them.
And the worst quadrant is thetop left, the people that are
(18:41):
really good at their job butthey do not hold the same values
, and this is typically arainmaker.
This is the person that you makeexcuses for because they have
such great relationships, theybring in so much money, they
have such good ideas.
But guess what, if you holdonto those people and I have the
(19:01):
people in the top rightquadrant, the ones who are
really good at their job andhave really high values start
looking at you and saying you'rea liar and I'm leaving because
you're not upholding the valuesof the company.
That's the most dangerousquadrant of all.
So I would start there.
I would start by looking atpeople that might be really good
at their job, but they're acancer in your culture and
(19:24):
everybody knows it.
Everybody can see it.
You know it too, and you aremaking excuses for them because
you're afraid of something.
What you ought to be afraid ofare the people that are watching
you and saying I can't believethat she or he is putting up
with this stuff becauseapparently our values don't
matter around here.
Tina Smith (19:43):
Yeah, yeah, so just I'm thinking about that.
That's a great way to sort ofmeasure the team that you have
and you're talking about likehigh court, high and core values
and good at their job.
But what if they all are highand core values and good at the
same job, kind of what Amandawas saying.
(20:04):
Like if you've got, like youneed the six different people,
sort of speaking, into your life, so your, your whole company,
is really good at rainmaking orat operating or whatever it is.
So, yes, you can fire people.
That might take some timebecause you've got seats that
you need to get right with theright people, and I know you've
(20:26):
had this experience before whereeveryone's been the same in the
room.
So what do you do when thathappens?
Mike Maddock (20:35):
Yeah, so thank you , I have had this experience.
Specifically, I had a companythat went from $5 million to $8
million to $10 million to $12million to $15 million to $18
million to $20 million, 10million to 12 million to 15
million to 18 million to 20million in revenue inside of
about three and a half fouryears.
So we were a rocket ship.
(20:56):
And then we went from 20million to 18 million to 16
million to 15 million to 12million.
I'm like, oh my gosh, what ishappening?
And I had an executive coachcome in and test all the people
I loved.
Executive coach, come in andtest all the people I loved on
our team, only to find out wewere all quick starts, except
for one person.
So we had a room full ofvisionaries which made us really
(21:18):
good at pivoting and really badat executing.
So how would I have handledthat differently?
Number one I would test myexecutive team to make sure I
understood when they're havingthe best day of their life and
when they're having the worstday of their life, which seat
they run to.
It's the same seat.
You want people that arereliably running to that
rainmaker seat, the strategistseat, the visionary seat, et
(21:39):
cetera.
I did not do that.
I did eventually, and we had tomake some pretty dramatic
changes.
The next step is this Stopthinking about people.
If you have a heart and I knowyou both do you get connected to
people and you're like man, Ilove that person.
I couldn't do that to thisperson.
So take the names off the chart.
(22:02):
Have a discussion with yourexecutive team about the things
that need to get donespecifically.
What are the things that weneed done in this company?
How are we going to measurethese things and then start
saying who can do these thingsand see if you have people for
those spots.
(22:23):
If you don't, then the next bestthing to do is saying, okay,
well, we need, if this companyis going to run to find people
for those spots.
It's a difficult conversation,but I can tell you, if you start
with, what are we going to dowith Tom?
No one's going to.
I protected a person in ourcompany for forever because I
(22:43):
could not.
I could not let this person go.
I just couldn't do it.
What I really needed to do isstop thinking about a person and
say what does this company needfor the good of the whole?
What are the roles?
Sorry, I didn't answer yourquestion the first time, Amanda.
Tina Smith (22:58):
You were answering part of the question, because
that assessment is so helpfuland useful.
When you have a team of peoplethat are working with you and
these retailers absolutely haveteams of people that work with
them and if you think about thiswhole core value and can you do
your job thing, it's reallyimportant, especially whenever
(23:19):
they are customer facing there.
They are you on the floor, tothe people that you serve.
So I think that's incrediblyhelpful.
And there also is thisleadership thing and it's
interesting because I was justputting together a
responsibilities oraccountability chart for a
client and I put all thedifferent roles and then I put
(23:40):
the client's name everywhere,because they're trying to do all
the roles, all the roles, andI'm like, reasonably, this is a
job and this is a job and thisis a job.
So when it's right and you haveto prioritize, but when it's
right, you've got to find reallygreat people to fill these
roles and in the meantime,you're covering for them.
(24:03):
So what's the first thing youwant to get off your plate?
And it was a really goodexercise and they really like
seeing that on paper becausethey can take it to their
leadership team and be like Ineed help running this company.
Mike Maddock (24:20):
And Michael Gerber wrote the e-myth, the
entrepreneurial myth, and that'sone of the hacks that I
remember from that book exactlywhat you just did, tina, where
you're laying out what does yourcompany look like?
At $5 million, at $10 million,at $20 million, what are the
things that need to get done?
And you're right, when you're astartup or when you're a very
(24:41):
small company, your name is on alot of those little boxes.
I remember when I my firstcompany, the bills would come in
and I would write the data inthe top right corner and stack
them up and then, when the checkcame in, I'd go I can pay four
of these like that.
I was in charge of accounting.
You do not want me in charge ofaccounting.
It's a bad idea and I got outof that role as fast as I
(25:06):
possibly could, not only becauseI um, I just hated it, but
because I was not qualified todo it.
But somebody had to do it untilwe grew.
It's also a great argument forgrowth.
We were talking about what todo with these people if they're
in the wrong seat.
Well, when you grow, there arelots more seats, and I trust the
(25:27):
visionaries out there to figureout a new division, a new
company, a new seat for thosepeople, as long as they're in
the right one.
So it's a hard part of businesswhen you scale.
Tina Smith (25:43):
You mentioned testing your leadership team and
I know that you gravitatetoward the Colby and there's
actually a place on your websitewhere people can take the Colby
and enter it.
So if you wanted to I'm sorryenter their Colby results.
So if you wanted to test yourleadership team and then have
(26:05):
someone like you talk about thesix different seats, you could
have your leadership team takethe Colby.
Amanda and I did, and I had youlook at it and tell us which
seats that we filled, and otherpeople can do that too.
There's a form right on yourwebsite where you can submit the
Colby scores and I think you'llbe happy to talk to everyone
(26:25):
about their Colby scores.
Mike Maddock (26:27):
Sure, I'm hoping to talk to thousands of people
about their Colby scores.
Sure, I'm hoping to talk tothousands of people about their
Colby scores in the next twoweeks.
So, absolutely, my purpose isto connect people in possibility
.
So when people call me and say,hey, I'm curious about this, if
I can help them I will.
So for sure.
And I respond to all the noteson my website.
Stephanie, my chief of staff,makes sure that I respond to all
(26:51):
the notes on my website.
Stephanie, my chief of staffmakes sure that I respond to all
the notes on the website, soplease do.
I mentioned earlier there's aneight question.
If you don't have your Colbyscore, the eight questions will
get you started, but a Colbyscore will get you all the way
and I can give you a much morein-depth look at you know, your
superhero power that way.
Tina Smith (27:10):
Yeah, and just because if people are coming to
Soho in September and they'llget to meet you in Orlando and I
know that you're happy to speakwith anyone there but if they
want to take this test beforethey come, then they'll actually
be able to tell you which seatthey're in or which seat their
teams are and they can have apersonal conversation with you.
So it'd be a great idea ifpeople took that before they
(27:32):
came to the event.
Mike Maddock (27:35):
Yeah, thank you, tina.
Amanda Ballard (27:37):
Yeah, so we'll make sure to link that in the
show notes for you so you canreference that.
Tina Smith (27:41):
Yep, okay.
So I know you're kind of atease sometimes, so why don't
you tease us a little bit?
If the listeners do come toSoho, what can they expect to
walk away with?
Mike Maddock (27:55):
What can they expect to walk away with?
Okay, we will talk a little bitmore about how to find a yin
for your yang.
We started that conversationhere.
I'm going to talk about howyour expertise gets in your way
and what to do about it.
The most important questionthat a disruptor asks themselves
I'll touch on that, and that isthe question that helps
(28:17):
disruptors completely shiftbusiness models how to move from
being inventive to a trueinnovator.
There's a difference betweenbeing an inventor.
Most of us think we're beinginnovative, but we're just
inventing stuff.
I'll teach you how to do that.
I'll talk about what to do whenyou have too many ideas.
You know some of you are goingto come to the conference is
(28:40):
like I've got so many ideas Idon't have enough time of the
day to implement any of thesethings, so we'll talk about that
.
And then, finally, my favoritething to talk about is how I get
away with showing pictures ofbutts on stage.
So you're going to want to hearthat.
Tina Smith (28:55):
Well, I can't wait, I know.
Amanda Ballard (28:59):
I am on the edge of my seat already.
Tina Smith (29:30):
Yeah well, we're excited that you're going to be
at Soho this year and definitelylook forward to the disruption
conversation not going to happennow, and especially with
technology shifting you know thesands under our feet constantly
.
I think this industryspecifically is ripe for
disruption to happen and I wouldlove to see the independent
retailers be the disruptors thatthis industry needs.
Mike Maddock (29:52):
So I'm excited yeah.
I promise you that there arepeople in the audience.
That will be the disruptionthat the industry needs.
The real question is is itgoing to be you?
Amanda Ballard (30:07):
Thanks so much for listening to the Natural
Products Marketer Podcast.
We hope you found this episodeto be super helpful.
Make sure you check out theshow notes for any of those
valuable resources that wementioned on today's episode.
Tina Smith (30:18):
And, before you go, we would love for you to give us
a review.
Follow, like and subscribe onApple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube
or wherever you're listeningtoday, and make sure you join us
for our next episode, where wegive you more marketing tips so
that you can reach more peopleand change more lives.
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