Why Your Last Strategy Failed

In working with companies that operate in various industries and markets it has become obvious that often times the main and only reason a strategic effort fails is not because the strategy was the wrong one or because it was executed wrong. 

The common mistake that the company's leaders encounter (aside from having a 'fake strategy') is that the strategic plan is too broad! too complex and non-specific. Your strategy should never be better than the people executing it! 

Understand that a strategy is merely a set of targeted objectives aligned with your corporate vision that clearly and very very simply lays out the steps to take to achieve certain objectives. A good strategy also has some contingencies because plans are never fully executed as written or circumstances aren't always ideal - a strategy should have adjustments in the plan. 

There are other mistakes managers make, such as assuming that the strategy is bad when is actually execution, or vice versa but that's a topic for another time. Here are my rules for keeping a strategy simple and thus improve its execution (assuming all others factors are good and in place): 

• Keep it simple - Strategy shouldn't be complex or abstract. Clearly lay out a course of action to where the most bottom employees would be able to understand it.

• Debate assumptions, not forecasts. Strategy is about trade offs, make sure that they are done right.

• Speak a common language. Dialogues between all parties needs to be simple and easily understood by all. No jargon and no fluff. 

• Continuously monitor the strategy's performance (ROI) and its execution. Strategy is often a trial and error towards a particular goal not a set in stone approach that doesn't deviate from written agreed plan.

My name is Humberto Valle, if you enjoyed this and found it valuable follow me here on LinkedIn. As consultant I can evaluate your business model, find operational gaps, improve your marketing strategies. My fees are flat and not by the hour which saves companies an average of 53% from other strategists and my efforts are preemptive which improve ROIs long term. 

The Broken Zenefits Sales Team

Zenefits director of sales department believes that the company is currently  "overpaying" their sales people. This director, a position I actually volunteered for and was rejected doesn't seem to know what to do to fix this. My understanding is that they believe that they lack incentive to sell and should fire everyone.

This is of course a really bad expensive idea and won't fix anything either.
I used to train sales personnel for Cox, Century Link, Unthink and various other small startup and some not so small household brands.

Here is what I would suggest:

Develop a culture based on the current employees and managers, conduct surveys to find out what hobbies, interests, professional development, incentives, reductions in tasks, etc. are being currently sought after by the sales staff. 

Implement changes that reflect the most popular ideals that embrace and create value to the company's mission and vision. Company culture and improved customer service is a competitive factor that cannot be easily replicated and can help create "Blue Oceans" for any company. 

The changes in environment, expectations, limits, reductions, promotions, ideas, etc. will take time to implement but it will be much cheaper than firing and rehiring. It will also drive those who don't fit the culture to weed themselves out, or have weed each other out. Then as you replace with new hires, make referrals a strong focus, they are cheap but also help enforce that like mindedness in a team. The goal is to have a set of shared values that are so embedded in each employee on their own that matches company culture that you drive entrepreneurship with a sense of responsibility and ownership onto the what the company is about.
If you have clock punchers, workers that are motivated by the "have to" or "need to" you won't make a good sales force out of anyone no matter how much you pay or how many you fire or train. Culture is key. Drive value innovation among your team. 

I know you think is obvious but you would be surprised how much is not for some managers out there. 

Also, and just as important - TRAIN BETTER. 

Improving sales teams with the right words, rebuttals, sentence compositions, and linking, etc. will make sales so easy that they would have less of a reason to not complete sales quota for the month.  

I'm for hire, feel free to add me on linkedin. 

Pay attention to mobile!

Is almost time to re-evaluate your marketing strategies for the 2014 year. Let's make sure you start by noticing (if you haven't yet) that mobile is where you out to be.  Market trends have shown a steady rise of mobile advertising and mobile based businesses. 

Everybody and their mothers use their cellphones for almost everything. All the time!  But there is a lot of noise online so ensuring that your mobile website or ad doesn't scare away potential customers you must focus on simplicity and ease of use.  Small screens means the real estate for advertising becomes more valuable and critical for your business. Don't waste your money and your customers patience with mediocre efforts or pushy sales tactics. 

Ask yourself: 

Do I have a responsive website? 

Is my content relevant to the media platform I'm using? 

Do I have pictures? Are they relevant? 

Does my consumer enjoy reading? visuals? 

Would they want a prize or freebie?

Have I personally used the platform? or experienced the process myself?

Think about mobile access the primary information point between you and your market with desktop browsing being an alternative often ignored. User experience is key for small businesses because consumers are often referred to your local shoppe by another local customer or Google you on the go looking for somewhere quick to find whatever you offer, and if you have a crappy website they'll go back to their map and check out the next one.

Stay healthy :)
Diana Valle, Unthink.me

Business Consultation

Why Employees are so Important

Random thought of the day... on employee retention.

Employee retention is key to success once you have them... Not marketing nor product quality. Employee satisfaction results in less time focusing on solving issues internally, better customer engagement, less overhead wasted, owner-employee mentality that drives employees to do what is necessary at a moment’s time rather than wait for leadership to direct which helps the Owner/CEO focus on bigger picture stuff… is all about employee retention.

Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Before anything CEOs have to be self driven and entrepreneurial. Even if you are an MBA at a large corporation with a large support system to help you do your job you need to be agile and a risk taker as the ideas and steps are taken by you the CEO. 

I am a self made CEO. I started my first company when I was in high school and had sold my second company by the time I had reached my 20th birthday, but I'm not a genius or tech guru and made my money that way. I started not knowing anything except for that if I hustled enough I could eventually make something of myself. Hustle is something I learned from listening to rap music or the streets but over a years time while I lived and worked with an uncle in Florida who had first made his way to this country illegally and at the time owned already over 200 acres of land, his own farms and companies. My uncle was up before sunrise and worked almost to midnight every single day. My uncle hustled. 


50 Cent, a famous rapper, has a movie I have particularly enjoyed a few times already. This movie is depiction of his rise from nothing to what he is now, a rap and business mogul. We get to learn the story of an inner city drug dealer who turns away from crime to pursue his passion which is rap.

Get Rich or Die Tryin'

This is something all CEOs should strongly believe in as is what has gotten us to this point, that fierce determination of getting things done for the better of our bottom line, regardless of what that might be. In my case it was financial freedom so yes, getting rich or die trying.

Just like the character who learns to adjust to his environment and get to the streets to make a living you must be able to adjust to the market your company is staking, go out there meet potential clients, talk to them and get to know their needs. Learn what they are talking about and what they think their needs will be in the future. 

Hustle, offer them something they need even if you don't have the physical product yet. When sales cover your costs, get it done and ship.
Always look for more opportunities, don't be afraid to challenge your company's limits to offer something you never done before, this is how you make your company better and get customers to realize that you truly are a hard worker and hustler to get your business in their business. 


I like to think of myself not only as an entrepreneur because I have now earned that badge of honor, but I think of myself as a free agent. I hustle every single opportunity I come across whether I have done it before and often even before really knowing if I can deliver but is because of the responsibility of committing myself to these opportunities by offering myself to them that I get to challenge myself and learn new things and most of the time get them done and earn money, getting rich. 

I am a super connector, I am rep agent, a CEO, an artist, consultant, marketer, PR consultant, copy writer, mentor, instructor. I'm a free agent. I'm a hustler.

Is because of this that I connect to movies and characters and music like is Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Hopefully in the future we can connect and chat, but is during my hustle that I will continue to earn whether is holding a job while running two companies, splitting time for freelancing, consulting or simply collecting dues for representation.

The Problem is Not The Problem

...But your attitude about the problem. - Who said that??

-Captain Jack Sparrow

So much knowledge wrapped up in a drunken pirate but we need to appreciate what he meant. As business owners, entrepreneurs and CEOs we are meant to be leaders and leaders only. Our job is not to do any physical or production based work but to think and lead the way for others to follow us towards a greater healthier company. With leadership in mind, you must always stay calm; you see leadership attitude doesn't mean staying positive but it means staying calm.

The ability to stay calm or staying positive is what differentiates good CEOs between great ones.

If you stay calm you can think clearly and plan appropriately regardless of what the certain future is. Being positive can lead you to making the wrong desicions based on hope and might not always solve but dissolve.

Here is are my 3 steps to making calm decisions during uncertainty:

1. Stay away from peer pressure, clear away from the chaos and take a day to be away from the office so you can think clearly without tangling emotions or bad vibes from others.
2. Write down every single thought, making lists help you analyze your thoughts and make the best solutions logically not emotionally
3. Make a decision away from the chaos. Once you have come to a conclusion ensure yourself with optimizism as is the best you could and only go share your decision once is being made, so that second thoughts dont blurr your goal and logical thinking.

Stay calm my friends.

&

Happy Fourth of July.

Improving Your Public Speaking (Part 1)

I want to talk about something that is very common to business people, including many CEOs and that is public speaking. Nervous energy gets to us all in different ways, but we need to overcome that in any way to deliver a strong presentation and great first impression.

The main problem I see is that most people wait until the last days before a presentation then begin to practice their presentation or pitch or worst, work on slides and then wait until the night before and try memorizing the slides the night before is due.  The most obvious solution is practice.

1. When you practice, try to practice right away and don’t even wait for you to finish with the presentation you do this by practicing with each slide or point as you go, if you make changes is better because now you can deliver a same idea with different approaches and or seem more natural if questions do arise.

Practicing in segments really does help and is proven to be more effective than practicing entire presentations.

2. Make friends, get acquainted with the environment in which you are presenting or at least the hosts and or some of your guest listeners this will reduce the professional expectations a bit and will turn more into a business talk among friends.

3. Practice on visualization, people who can visualize the setting with those involved. Try to be very detailed with the image and picture yourself delivering a calm and clear message. This will help your game.

4. share the presentation with friends and get positive feedback and try to emphasize on the goodness of the message rather than what you think people will be thinking about you and your message.

5. Take deep breathes right before the presentation such as counting backwards from 10 with deep breathes between digits.

So What's an Entrepreneur?

There is a common definition embraced by most of us including universities that is a person who can not only spot opportunities it uses the limited resources to supply to the market with that need.  An entrepreneur is more complex than the definition and is a title, a sort of badge of honor that you get to proudly wear after such great dedication, struggles, thick skinned push through and a lot of late nights.

During my  businessschool years, the textbooks tried to convince us that an entrepreneur is even someone who simply buys franchises and runs them.  If you go by the definition provided by textbooks, then yes it is. I have never agreed and here is why:

1.       Entrepreneurs are good at spotting market needs in a larger scheme of things, while those who simply have money and buy franchises might not necessarily know anything about supply and demand, just have money and buy one for their neighborhood or the parent company lets them know where to put it.

2.       Entrepreneurs take a huge risk often borrowing against their homes and other assets but even on a more personal level. Entrepreneurs often risk their jobs, as is estimated that half of all to be business owners use their employer’s resources for their startup preparations. The money invested in opening a location, buying equipment and merchandise or hiring a team, is all a great risk that is taken by us, entrepreneurs. This risks make us better leaders, while the ability to fill out a bank form and call yourself franchise owner does not.

3.       The dedication and ability to focus and see past all the noise and negativity that might be provided by social media and those around you. Entrepreneurs are great at staying focus and seeing opportunity in anything that can be otherwise perceived as an obstacle by others.

Now, I don’t want to take away from franchise owners, being an owner of any kind does take risk and a lot of franchise business owners do risk their own money or other assets to acquire and operate a franchise, but the level of complexity involving character, knowledge, agility and hardcore determination is unparalleled to a full pledged entrepreneur who spots opportunities on his own and sets out to change the world.

Entrepreneurs are the rocks stars of the economy, we make things happen and drive innovation for an ever evolving need.

Are you a business owner? A franchise owner? What do you think, would you agree with me in that franchise owners are typically not entrepreneurs?  Leave your comments J