Category: Miscellaneous

In this article I will explain how to write a vision statement. You want to write one of these for its practical purposes of communicating your vision, but also because it is great content to put on all of your social sites, website, brochures, and products.

Two Main Components of a Vision Statement

James Collins and Jerry Porras wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review about what should constitute a company vision. They assert that “A well-conceived vision consists of two major components: core ideology and envisioned future.”  The core ideology is that which never changes and consists of the values and purpose of the company, even 100 years from now. The envisioned future is the lofty, very aggressive and dreamy goal the company wishes to obtain in the next 20 to 30 years. Something that hasn’t been done before by you, your company, or even mankind. It truly is up to you, but it should inspire.

Make Your Vision Statement Easy to Identify

Many companies have mission statements that look like vision statements. Others have vision statements that don’t necessarily call them formally a “vision statement”, they just talk about what they want to do in the “About Us” section of their website. Other companies have a formal mission statement that is separate from a formal vision statement. The purpose of any statement is to communicate effectively. Therefore, I think it is essential to call your vision what it is – a Vision Statement. That way your employees, your customers, your investors, and your supporters can rally behind and easily find the company’s vision.

Make it Easy to Understand

The vision needs to be in layman’s terms so that the lowest ranking person in the organization can understand it. Napoleon, before he would give written orders, would have a corporal read the letter first to make sure it could be understood by all. The same principle applies to companies and organizations. Don’t use industry specific language that no one understands and don’t use big words you have to look up in a dictionary.

Your Vision Should Short and Sweet

You want people to read your vision statement. You want them to remember it. You want them to understand it. Clearly, in this case, less is more. 1-2 sentences is ideal.

Vision Statement Examples

Below are a few examples of some formally declared and not so formally declared vision statements of some prominent companies.

Goodwill Industries

“Every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life.”

The core values here are implied – to empower people to contribute and reach their full potential. Yet, the vision is that Goodwill wants this for everyone, not just those within their organization or under their immediate influence.

This may or may not be obtainable by one company, but it does a good job articulating a vision. This Vision Statement is clearly identified, easy to understand, and is short and sweet.

Microsoft in 1975

“A computer on every desktop and in every home”.

A quick analysis of this vision today, as I write this article from my personal computer, brings me to say that this was a good vision statement. It had a lofty goal and here we are almost 40 years later in the age of mobile phones, wearable computing devices, and tablets. The desktop computer is all but obsolete with laptops and mobile devices now being the primary device in households. So Microsoft is finding itself having to update its vision statement. I would critique this statement by saying that it did lack some core values. It was all goal, yet no values. But this is better than all values, no goal. After all, a vision statement is looking toward the future, and Microsoft accomplished its vision. We just want to make sure we stand for something along the way.

Microsoft in 2014

“Global diversity and inclusion is an integral and inherent part of our culture, fueling our business growth while allowing us to attract, develop, and retain this best talent, to be more innovative in the products and services we develop, in the way we solve problems, and in the way we serve the needs of an increasingly global and diverse customer and partner base.”

Microsoft had to update its vision statement from the Bill Gates days. Here we see a vision statement that is very long, less clear, and more values-based. They are talking about innovation, yet there is no innovative goal (like a computer on every desk). It is easy to say you are going to be innovative, it is another to have innovation. This vision statement I think is horrible. It is too much of the how and why, and not enough of the “what”. It is too long. It is not easy to understand. This is probably a reason why Microsoft has not been at the forefront of much in the last several years. Apple, Samsung, Amazon, and Google are overtaking them in the technology space. Without a good vision, a company will fail.

Amazon

“Our vision is to be Earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

This is an excellent vision statement. It is clearly identified as a vision – “our vision”. It has the core values of being the “Earth’s most customer centric company”, yet it has the lofty goal selling everything online that people may want to buy. Amazon is moving closer toward that goal. People can go on Amazon and buy virtually everything they could possibly want, minus a few niche or novelty items. This is a great vision statement, in my opinion.

Macy’s

“Macy’s, Inc. is a premier national omnichannel retailer with iconic brands that serve customers through outstanding stores and dynamic online sites. Both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are known worldwide, and each has its own unique identity and customer focus.”

First thought that comes to mind – what the heck is an “onmichannel retailer”. Sure we can guess, but not being in the retail space this is a term that isn’t well known by many people. Wikipedia describes it as such: “Omni-Channel Retailing is the evolution of multi-channel retailing, but is concentrated more on a seamless approach to the consumer experience through all available shopping channels, i.e. mobile internet devices, computers, brick-and-mortar, television, radio, direct mail, catalog and so on.”

So back to my original point. Macy’s should not use this type of language. They should dumb it down a little for the average person to understand.

This vision is also too much of the how – it doesn’t include the what. It doesn’t really say what they want to be 30 years from now – the lofty dreamy goal. It almost seems like they are soft-balling their vision for fear of failure. They are already a global brand that is unique and known worldwide – mission accomplished. It is time to update it into something more visionary. They did do a good job communicating their core principles, however.

Northrop Grumman

“Our vision is to be the most trusted provider of systems and technologies that ensure the security and freedom of our nation and its allies. As the technology leader, we will define the future of defense—from undersea to outer space, and in cyberspace.

We will —

• Conduct ourselves with integrity and live our Company Values
• Deliver superior program performance
• Foster an internal environment of innovation, collaboration, and trust

In so doing, Northrop Grumman will become our customers’ partner of choice, our industry’s employer of choice, and our shareholders’ investment of choice.”

This vision statement is a little long, but it does communicate values and goals very nicely. Being a defense technology leader and ensuring the security and freedom of America is not small task – it is a worthy goal. Heck, they even talk about under the ocean, outer space, and cyberspace. This is some pretty lofty stuff – and sounds like they are doing a good job attaining it with all their national defense contracts. This is a good vision statement even if it is a little long. I would shorten it a little to 3 sentences, and move the rest to a values statement or some other statement.

In Summary – Vision Statement Essentials

In summary, writing a vision statement is not very hard. It is up to you. I leave you with the following points:

• Keep it short – 1-2 sentences. Three if you really have to.
• Include your core values that will never change, even 100 years from now after you are long gone.
• Include your lofty goal to accomplish in the next 30 years. Something a little cooky, yet attainable if all the stars align.
• Keep it simple for the average  person to understand.
• Inspire… Need some inspiration, watch this video.

Many of our clients have to set up their Hostgator pop3 email settings in order to use their email. This is a quick “how to” to help you get it done.

Setting up Outgoing Mail in Gmail

First, we recommend downloading all pop3 to Gmail. To configure Gmail pop3, go to the top right corner of your Gmail and click on the maintenance wheel.  A drop down menu will show up, click on “settings”.  Once in settings, click on “accounts and import”.

From there go to the “Sent mail as” section and click “Add another email address you own”. Put in your name and new email address provided by Grow To Win Marketing (for our clients). Make sure you deselect the “Treat as an alias” box.

It is up to you on the next step. You can choose to send mail through Gmail or through your own SMTP server.  If you choose your own SMTP server, you will have more control. If you choose Gmail, you will have the benefits of Gmail’s server. It is really a preference. For those who choose to use their own SMTP server, here are the settings to enter:

SMTP Server: gator4092.hostgator.com (this may vary depending on your hostgator plan)

Port: 465

Select: “Secured connection using SSL”

That is it. You are all set up on sending mail with your new address. However, you still need to be able to receive mail.

Setting up Receiving Pop3 Mail in Gmail

This section assumes the reader has read the first section above.

Next, under “accounts and import” click on the “Add a POP3 mail account you own” link. Then type in your new email address – we provide it to you as a client. However, it is usually configured like this: yourfirstname@yourdomain.com.  When the next screen appears, fill it out with this information:

Username: your email address

Password: (provided separately)

Pop server: gator4092.hostgator.com (this may vary depending on your hostgator plan)

Port: 995

Leave all boxes uncheck except “Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail. You don’t want to check “leave a copy of retrieved message on the server” because it will back up your server with clutter.

Gmail will attempt to send a message to that address, you just need to verify it and you will be all set.

Using Hostgator Webmail

To use webmail, go to https://www.yourdomain.com:2096/

However, make sure the “s” is on the http or it won’t go through.  When you put that in your browser, we highly recommend you bookmark it for future reference. It is always good to have webmail available as a backup whenever you lose your phone or Gmail is down (which only happens every 10 years due to some fluke).

When you get to the webmail link, you will get some kind of certificate error.  Click “proceed anyway”. Login in the webmail with your credentials. Then click on any three of the webmail interfaces.

We use Horde but you can use the other two if you prefer. It really is just a preference on which you like more. When you get in, you can send and receive mail as needed. We don’t recommend using webmail unless Gmail is down.  Gmail is far more superior than webmail.

Using Other Pop3 Software or Mail Clients

As this is a free market of ideas, different people have different preferences. So if you don’t want to use our Gmail recommendation, that is ok too. Some people prefer to download to their iphone’s mail client. Other people want to have all their email on their desktop. Whatever works for you. Here are the settings in case you want to set those up. It is the same as above, but in a cleaner format for you.

Username:  (provided separately)

PW:  (provided separately)

Incoming Server: gator4092.hostgator.com (if you are not a Grow to Win client, this will be different for you)

Incoming Port:  995 SSL

Outgoing Server:  gator4092.hostgator.com (if you are not a Grow to Win client, this will be different for you)

Outgoing Port: 465 SSL

We hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please post your questions below if we left something out or if you need help.

by Spence Rogers

We recently got in a Samsung Chromebook from Amazon.  So we decided to do a Samsung Chromebook opening here on our website.

Google is becoming more and more prolific across multiple tech platforms and services.  They have their own operating systems (Android and Chrome), their own browser (Chrome), their own web-based email platform (Gmail), their own calendar (Google Calendar), their own contacts manager (Google Contacts), their own social media platform (Google+), their own video content manager (Youtube), their own cloud-based server (Google Drive), and the best search engine in the world.

This is part of Google’s business model – to become self sufficient so that people use them as a one-stop-shop.  Because of this, they are trying to get people off of their local devices when it comes to storage, applications, and data and to move everyone into the cloud.  At first one would think this is terrible for privacy.  However, while privacy is being sacrificed, the efficiency gains of having all of your data backed up and integrated are probably worth it.  Your life will get a million times easier.  And, if you encrypt your important files and keep your super important files off of the web, you should be ok.

This is where the Chromebook comes in.  It isn’t your typical device.  It is built for ease of use and affordability.  It only has a 16 GB hard drive, but has amazing integration with Google’s online services mentioned in the previous paragraph.  Because the hardware is limited, the Chromebook can be very lightweight, has a faster start up time, and doesn’t require a bunch of software upgrades and installations.  Everything you need is built into the Chrome operating system or is in the Cloud.  It takes about 2 days to get used to, but once you are using it you don’t want to go back.

Here are the specs of this particular Chromebook model:

Below is the video of me opening my Chromebook.  Hope you like it.

by Spence Rogers

With the invention of the internet, computers, and mobile devices, knowing how to improve productivity is an essential skill to know.  So below are some personal tips that I have found to be very helpful.

Plan Ahead and Stick to the Plan

Either the night before or in the morning, sit down and write out what you want to accomplish during the day.  At a minimum write down three tasks that you want to accomplish.  Each task should be able to be accomplished in less than 1 hour.  If you think the task its too big for 1 hour, then just put a sub-task down to help you with the overall task or put “1 hour of working on X”.  For example, if you are in marketing and building a website (which usually takes weeks), just write down a task like “identify the site layout” or “research similar sites”.  Those should take about an hour. Also include 3 back up tasks.  Overall you should have 3 main tasks that you will get done and 3 back up tasks. Of course there are other ways to plan, but I have found this to be very helpful.

Stay Laser Focused

Keep coming back to the tasks you want to get done.  If you get distracted, take a breather and then come back and focus.  Close out all the applications on your computer and turn off all the distractions.  Stay focused on your main tasks for the day.  If you finish your main tasks, start working on your back up tasks.  Keep the tasks in front of you on a 3×5 card so you don’t forget what you are working on.

If you get Mojo – Take Advantage of It!

Often when writing, reading, working on a project, or even working out in the gym – sometimes you have your mojo and sometimes you don’t.  Sometimes you can write for hours or work out for hours and sometimes you are dog tired and can’t get anything done.  So when you have these bursts of creativity, energy, and motivation – ride them all the way through.  Instead of writing 1 article or 1 chapter, write 3 or 4.  Instead of working out for 30 minutes, work out for 2 hours.  You know what your weaknesses are.  So if you can accomplish a lot of something you don’t always have mojo for, take advantage of it.

Batching is Key

If you are like me you have multiple different things tugging at you.  And if you run a marketing company like I do, you have multiple clients.  So I have to be highly efficient with my time in order to accomplish the tasks that are needed.  So what I do is instead of doing multiple tasks from multiple topics, clients, and requirements, I pick ONE topic for an entire morning or afternoon and focus only on that topic.  A good example is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  I will do a ton of SEO all morning or a ton of SEO all afternoon for my company and my clients.  My brain is thinking SEO – I don’t want to switch gears to email marketing or social media marketing.  I want my SEO brain on and I ride the wave for all of my SEO requirements.  Same thing with bills – I do all my bills in one afternoon on a weekly or biweekly basis instead of opening bills every day and processing them.  There is a lot that goes into bills, so I get my letter opener, my scanner, my stamps, and anything else I need and I JUST DO BILLS.  I can’t tell you how much batching has helped me and it will help you too.

Automate Whenever Possible

There are many tasks that you can put on auto pilot.  Some people use E bills or auto pay.  This will save you time.  If there is an auto-responder email that will help you, use that.  If there is a mobile app that automates something for you, use that.  You can automate your computer backup or you can backup your photos from your phone to the cloud automatically.  Email providers have filters that help organize your emails which are also really helpful.  Get rubber stamps for things you write or type a lot – for example – your address or “for deposit only”.  Different people write different things, but you can get a cheap $5 stamp from any discount stamp store and it will more than make up for the time it takes you to write out all that info on every letter, check, or envelope.

Keep Good Records for the Important Stuff

Often you will need various information over and over again in your life.  Passport number, passwords, birthdays for close family and friends, drivers license number, important addresses, voter ID number, and about 20-30 other data points that are useful.  So if you keep these pieces of information in an organized fashion or on an encrypted & password protected document then you will be able to save yourself some time during job applications, insurance applications, buying a home, lawsuits, school registration, or whatever else may come your way in life as far as paperwork is concerned.

Digitize your Records

Being organized is a commodity.  So is having space in your office.  I can’t stress enough how getting a quality scanner (Snansnap makes a good one) and scanning your documents can help.  First of all you will keep more information than if you kept paper copies.  It is a lot easier to create a digital folder than to create a manila folder with a label.  It is a lot easier to search digital records.  It is even easier to share certain documents with family and friends via email or a secure cloud server.  In times past, people used to destroy bills that were 5 years old.  But now you can digitize them and keep them in a nice little folder called “2009”.  Date the file name and put a good description on the file and you are all set.  Shred all documents that are not highly important (a lien, a title, a birth certificate, etc. I consider highly important).  Still scan the highly important documents, but then save them in a safe place.  But the bills – you can send those to the shredder once you have processed it and scanned it.  Shredding is a lot of fun too.  One more quick tip – make sure you oil your shredder or it will die on you.

Give Yourself a Deadline and Communicate that Deadline

So if you have a task that is due at an unknown time in the future, calculate how many days it will take you and then add a day or two then put it down on your task list or calendar.  Only do this for important tasks and not the small stuff (like take out the trash – that is small).  But if you are doing something for a client or for a major event coming up like a wedding, put that task down.  And if others are waiting on you to finish that task, make sure you communicate when you plan to have it done by.  This will help them with the expectations and it will help you so that you now know you need to get it done.  And if you are going to be late, communicate that too.  Over-communicate deadlines or people will think you are flaky.  I always try to set expectations and then do my best to beat my deadline.  This is a very helpful way of staying focused.

Segment Your Lists

In the age of internet we all have Facebook friends, email contacts, Google+ Circles, Linked In connections, Twitter Followers, and the list goes on and on.  Some people you know from business, others you know as friends, others you may have added and you don’t know anything about them.  So it is important to find the main types of people in your list of connections.  So let’s say those main people are (as an example): Friends (people you actually hang out with), Family, Business Associates, and Classmates.  So you want to take the additional time and create labels and lists of these people in your Facebook, email, and every other platform.  Even Twitter allows lists.  And the reason you do this is because when you are in a bind or a pinch, you can quickly access the people who are important to you.  Did you know that you can invite entire lists of people to an event in Google Calendar?  Did you know that Facebook also lets you do this?  Or in Gmail, that same group of people that you added to an event can then be emailed as a group? This is important and the benefits are obvious.  So you can’t do this for every type of contact you have on every single platform because it would take a lot of time, but you can do this on the top 3 sites (email, Facebook, and Twitter – for example) with your top three groups.  That is a good place to start and it will save you tons of time later – trust me.

Identify What Your Time is Worth Then Farm Out and Sub Out

The question I ask people often is – what is your time worth?  And most people don’t know.  So you have to sit down and realize what that is.  Some people it is $10 an hour.  Some people it is $20 an hour.  An accountant or lawyer it might be $300 an hour.  For public officials who are on the speaking circuit, it may be $20,000 an hour.  So you have to determine what your time is worth based on your salary or hourly wage.

For this example lets say your time is worth $20 an hour.  So if there are tasks you know will take you 3 hours to do, then the opportunity cost (what you would make if you were doing your job or working on your business) would be 3x$20=$60.  So if it takes you 3 hours to mow the lawn ($60), but some guy is willing to mow it for $20, then you are being more efficient with your time by paying someone to do it.  Use those extra 3 hours you have now gained to be more productive:  Figure out a good investment or some other productivity hack that can help your bottom line; Cut household or business costs;  Cancel an expensive recurring bill for a bulk purchase;  Use your time to make your life better.

The more you can farm out and sub out the better you will be as long as the opportunity cost of you doing it is more expensive than what you are paying someone else to do it.

One other point is some time is does not have a price tag – time with your children or spouse – is a good example.  So in that case, if you aren’t able to spend time on doing the important stuff, all the more reason to farm out some of your tasks to someone else.

Call in the Car, Email at the Desk

Many people like to make calls at the desk.  I strongly caution against this if you do a lot of driving.  It is more efficient to email 5-10 people than to call one person.  Now sometimes you need to be at the desk to take notes and in those cases sure.  But if you are just calling to catch up with a client or you are calling about something that doesn’t need a lot of thought, then do it in the car on your way to wherever you are driving to.  If you are in the car, think of people you could reach out to and call them.  Why not?  You are driving anyway…  It is unsafe to text in the car and red lights are really not that long so it is way better to call.  And it is that personal touch of calling that often solidifies a relationship.

Double Up Tasks Whenever Possible

Think about ways to double up your time when you are doing routine tasks to add value to what you are doing..  For example, most people eat out.  We all get gas.  We all have to go to the store.  Why not get on Yelp or Foursquare and check in to those places?  That will give you a much better Yelp or Foursquare profile so when you rate places you carry more weight – your profile has more credibility when you do more check ins.  So if you eat out and a place is really good, you can rate it 5 stars and vice versa, if a place really burns you and they are off-the-wall bad, you can rate them with a low rating.  This gives you power and gives you a say in life.  When you have more of a say you are more valuable – it opens up more doors.  But all of this can be done while you are waiting in line or waiting on your check.  There are tons of examples of where you can double up your tasks without reducing efficiency.  If you are lying down at the beach, listen to an E-book.  Or a lot of people listen to E-books in the car when they go on road trips.

Get More Time

Need more time?  Go to bed earlier instead of staying up all night watching that show that you really don’t want to watch.  Then get up earlier and use that time to get things done.  So instead of staying up until 11:30 pm and then go to work at 7 am, go to bed at 10:00 pm and get up at 5:30 am and knock out some tasks.  People are more energized in the morning anyway, so take advantage of the mornings and cut off some time at night.

Overall, being efficient enables you to do more.  We are on this earth but a short time and the more we can do with our time the better we will be.  If you think of any other ideas, please post them below.  I am always wanting to learn more about how to be productive.

by Spence Rogers

Grow To Win Marketing is a proud sponsor of the Florida Liberty Summit.  This summit occurs annually in Orlando and includes speakers such as congressman Ron Paul, FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe, and liberty journalist Ben Swann.  This year is special because it is the first time both Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty have joined forces to host the event.  Usually Young Americans for Liberty hosts a state convention separately from the Florida Liberty Summit.

Grow To Win Marketing supports the same things Campaign for Liberty does and we are very glad to be a sponsor.  Campaign for Liberty is working on getting rid of Red Light Cameras, Common Core, and the egregious Affordable Care Act.

Congressman Ron Paul founded the Campaign for Liberty back in 2008 to further the cause of individual liberty.  Since then, Campaign for Liberty has trained activists all over the country on how to properly engage politically at the local, state, and national levels.  Each year Campaign for Liberty pushes individual liberty issues such as stopping the NSA wiretapping, stopping red light cameras, confronting TSA overreach, fighting the political targeting by the IRS, defending alternative currencies such as BitCoin, fighting for Right to Work laws, balancing the budget, working toward a Constitutional foreign policy, authorizing industrial hemp, fighting the money-printing by the Federal Reserve, and many other issues.  Ron Paul remains the Honorary Chairman and plays a supportive role in its success.

As a sponsor, Grow To Win Marketing looks forward to helping make the Florida Liberty Summit a huge success.  Florida Campaign for Liberty is a great organization worthy of supporting and we are glad to be a sponsor.

The event this year will be hosted at the DoubleTree Hotel at Seaworld in Orlando, Florida April 4-6.  To see the official Florida Liberty Summit page click here.

by Spence Rogers

There are several ways to save big on gas.  With the rise of gas prices, it is imperative that we all do what we can to save money.  You just have to be savvy about it, and it has to be easy enough for you to not take away from precious time doing other things.

Use Your Smart Phone

There are gas apps out there that let you use your location to find the cheapest gas.  One of the main ones is Gas Buddy.  When you need gas, just hit the Gas Buddy button and you will be pointed to the nearest, cheapest gas station.

Get a Cash Back Gas Credit Card

There are several credit cards that save you big on gas.  Below is a good list we compiled.

• US Bank Cash + Visa Signature:  This credit card gives you 2% cash back on gas.  It also lets you choose quarterly 5% categories ranging from charities, to restaurants, to cell phone bills.  It is a really good card, but you have convince them to let you apply via phone if there is not a branch near you.
• Chase Freedom Visa Signature:  This is a great credit card that has different categories every quarter.  At least one quarter of the year gets you 5% cash back on gas, and sometimes they do it for two quarters. This credit card is highly recommended.
• Chase Amazon.com Visa Signature:  This credit card gives you 2% cash back on gas, restaurants, and drug stores.  It also has a 3% Amazon cash back percentage.  This is a great card if you do a lot of shopping on Amazon.
• American Express True Earnings Costco Card:  This credit card gives you 3% cash back on gas nationwide and at Costco.  It is a good card if you have a Costco account or not.
• PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa® Card:  This credit card gives you 5% cash back statement credit for gas.  You have to have another Pentagon Federal Credit Union product to qualify for the card.
• Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express:  This card gives you 2% cash back on gas and 3% at supermarkets.  You can upgrade to the Blue Cash Preferred card to get 3% cash back on gas and 6% at supermarkets, but there is an annual fee.

Get a Costco or Sams Club Membership

Costco and Sams Club make money on membership fees and not on the gas.  So they provide products and services such as gas, eye wear, prescriptions, and cell phones just to get you to come in their store.  They want you to get value out of a membership.  The more value, the more you will stay a member.  The gas at these locations is usually 10-30 cents cheaper a gallon than other places.  But you should still check gas buddy.

If you do all three of these things, you are going to save BIG on gas.  We are talking about hundreds of dollars a year.