BOBC Podcast Transcription #6: Metrics Of Success, Community and Zappos
INTRODUCTION:
In today’s world, we are what we measure. We hear it all the time now — data analysis, big data, consumer preferences, artificial intelligence and computer learning to show us what we see, feel and even touch. What does that mean for your creative business? Umm, everything. If experience is what you truly sell, then making sure that you define the success of that experience in your own iconic way is crucial. Enter metrics of success, the coffee table idea and Zappo’s. Listen in…
BODY:
Today, we’re going to talk about really what we measure and what I call the metrics of success. And we hear it all the time now you know, data analysis, big data, consumer preferences, and even how computers and artificial intelligence are learning to show us what we see, what we feel, even what we touch.
And, and the question is, what does that have to do with your creative business? And you know what I think, well, pretty much everything. And the reason is, is because If experience is truly what you sell then making sure that you define the success of that experience and make sure that that is iconic and how you see it as successful is everything.
And so that’s how we get to metrics of success and really a discussion about a coffee table and a little review of who and exactly what is Zappos.
So when we decide how we want to be as creative businesses, What we have to really understand is that we’re selling experiences. We’re selling journeys. We’re selling our way of telling the story of the art that we’re going to create. And when we use the way that typically people define success. Did you make some money? How fast did you get it done? How perfectly did you get it done? Those are what I call metrics of success, and they may or may not have bearing on your creative business. And so today, what we’re going to do is really focus on getting you to be purposeful in understanding what is your definition of success.
And that definition of success, of course, is overall. Was the project beautiful? Did you make money and all that sentiment? But really what we need to be more present to is the idea that as we go about our business, we understand that if we choose to see success in a different way, we have opportunities that we may or may not have had before.
Even before the people that we have in our world and that’s, of course, relevant to every conversation we have today, but far more foundational, far more about how we have an appreciation for what we define as, a positive experience. And it has many, many implications real implications for how you operate in the world and what you’re actually going to communicate with clients that’s far more than, you know, maybe the dude liked the couch and think it’s pretty right. That’s, that’s there, but it’s the underneath of it, the way that what we care about and how and why we care about it gives us permission to measure it. And that’s the thing that we have to understand about today’s world.
Is that we hear it all the time, right? Big data. We hear kind of even computers that take all the information that’s out in the world and tell us what we’re going to see, what we’re going to think. And we use that information to create ever more particular experiences. Just think about. Companies like Facebook and Netflix and everything streaming where they know every one of your consumer tastes and they try to create product that will be for you to experience.
Right? That’s where I’m going with this. And I’m trying to take that sentiment and that idea and kind of turn it on its head and say. If you appreciate that, if you say, this is what you should care about my art and my business, then that is truly what people will start to care about. And in doing so, you will start to create a community and create a community that gives opportunity for you to be proactive.
And when you get to be proactive, ultimately what happens is that the success of your business will not be about you reaching out to a consumer or vice versa, straight up and down. If you think, if you think of it as a pyramid, right? That where you’re at the top and they’re at the bottom and you’re trying to reach and connect that place.
One, one noted there right? So you think about it as like, you’re the one at the pinnacle and there’s a bunch of consumers there and it’s just a 2d model, right? That’s actually not what I’m talking about. I’m trying to say to you that, Ultimately, the success of your creative business is when the community starts to talk to each other.
So instead of the link going from you at the top to each one of them, they start to connect with each other and in the connection of each other, that ultimately makes a stronger foundation for you. And let’s make sure that I can ground that, right? I want to ground that in the idea that as you define iconic metrics of success, you will then be able to give yourself permission to create a better story and a better experience and a better journey.
And I’m going to ground that today with two thoughts. The first thought is… A coffee table and interior designers installing that coffee table. And so if you ask interior designers, the most important person during the installation, the most important company is the installer, the person that’s going to or the business people. The business that’s going to help that designer, install the furnishings and the items that are meant to go into a home so that it can be presented that a design can be presented as a designer intends. And usually these installers are exponentially more expensive than traditional movers. Why? Because if the floor gets scratched, if a piece gets damaged, if there’s not flexibility in moving things around the way that the designer needs them to be moved to make sure that that, signing of the painting, if you will, is not as they want is not as she wants, then it becomes problematic, right? So those people are helping the physicality of those people helping in the meticulousness to which they work is beyond. Why? Because if something gets messed up, then, you know, you can only imagine that it just takes months, if not years, a year of work and flushes it for for the moment anyway. So the investment is in that installer.
Okay, so that brings us to the coffee table idea. A lot of times designers have assistance and people that are helping them out. And let’s just say there is one of those situations and the main designer gets called away for a little bit. And a junior designer sees the coffee table and realizes that coffee table is about 6 inches off. And the coffee table, it’s heavy, but not so heavy that like a quick bump with your butt or your legs might not move it pretty easily. And it is, you know, it’s, it’s resting on its plastic, you know, grounding and stuff like that. And, and you could move it, right? You couldn’t physically pick it up, right? One person can’t pick it up, but you might move it with your legs. So there is the definition of a metric of success. What does that designer to do? She’s young and there knows that, hey, she could solve the problem in about 30 seconds. Right. But the risk is that the floor gets scratched. The risk is that the table gets damaged. The risk is that it won’t play out the way she wants it to, even though she may or may not make the decision.
So what is the metric of success? Is it getting done fast? Because if it’s getting done fast, then guess what? You know, hey, she would be rewarded for taking that risk to move the table 34 inches, right? Or is the metric of success getting it done right? Because the reason I gave a pretty detailed conversation about the installer is imagine that installer had left. Imagine that calling that installer back would cost $1, 000 to move one table six inches or four inches. What is that designer to do? And does that designer know what she’s supposed to do does the client know what she’s what she’s going to do and what the client pay for that thousand dollars to get the installer back to move that table four inches. What is the metric of success? Because, hey, risk is risk, you can go to Las Vegas and you can play roulette and you spin the wheel and if you happen to bet on black and the ball rolls on black, you’re good. Except if it rolls on red, you lose all your money, right?
So, what is the value of the risk? What is the metric of success? And how is that conversation played out? It seems like such a small thing. And yet you can see how it is a definition of your creative business because it requires a level of communication, a level of discipline that gives you permission to say, we only do it the right way.
And if that means spending another $1,000 to get someone back to fix what we believe is off, we will do that. And everybody knows that. From the client to the installer to the junior designer, everybody knows it. And that is a metric of success, right? So that is really where I’m going today is that if you choose to operate in a world where we all kind of understand things in a way like, Hey, you know, today was really interesting as we record this, right? We’re having some technical issues, right? Web problems, noise outside, things like that. And it’s kind of upsetting, right?
But think about that in terms of tolerance think about that and what we expect we expect the internet to work we expect that hey we’re gonna have a quiet place we expect such perfection and we’ve taken all of the slack out of the system when we come to expect expectation so our metric of success for, you know, does the car start? Does the internet work right? Do you can you make a phone call is we don’t expect any slack in that system. We just expect it to work. And so we bring that expectation to our creative businesses, and it just isn’t because that’s the thing about creating something is that you don’t know if it’s gonna work.
And the experience of that creative process is also fraught with unknowns. And so if you’re not there defining that metric of success and telling clients what they should care about, how are they supposed to know and how are they supposed to value it with you? That’s the coffee table idea. And where it goes is understanding that you too have choices.
Even today, you have choices to upend what is known, right? And you can scale businesses if you make different choices. So the very notion that you would choose to call back those movers, you would say, well, that just slows me down and I can’t go where I need to go. Well, that’s enter the story of Zappos, right?
And a few facts about Zappos. Zappos was bought by Amazon in 2009 for a billion two. That’s $1. 2 billion , right? So, pretty good sale. At the time, Amazon sold more shoes than Zappos did. Zappos, if you don’t know, is an online shoe seller. Started that way, is much bigger now. And Amazon sold more shoes and had a better distribution network because they’re Amazon.
So, what was the reason that Zappos would be attractive to Amazon and one word answer, culture. Culture and a decision to do things that were opposite. What do I mean by that? Zappos philosophy is to stay and engage with customers as long as possible. The reward, the metric of success is not how fast and how many clients you can talk to. It’s how long you can stay engaged with the client. The record, I think, is eight plus hours, right? And a fun story and something that Tony Hsieh was an original investor, became the CEO and and ultimately is wrote a book delivering happiness talks and his story is about more than one time Zappos, you know, had a policy could return the shoes in 30 days.
No problem. And this person, man, well, two stories, man and woman didn’t do that. And Zappos sent an email and said, Hey, you know, we noticed you haven’t returned the shoes. And they said, Hey, didn’t do that because my Mom died or my Dad died. And I had to attend to the funeral. I’m so sorry. So what did Zappos do?
Zappos, not only did they send the UPS to pick up the shoes, so the person didn’t have to then deliver them to UPS, but the next day they sent flowers, condolence flowers. Now, what does that mean? Of course, Zappos lost money. Of course, they didn’t make money. They took back the shoes. They didn’t get money they invested that whatever they cost in the UPS pickup and also the flowers. But did they get a client for life? Of course they did. And has that story been told over and over and over again these last 13 years? Absolutely. So that is a metric of success that comes from defining your culture and what is for you a metric of success.
And for a creative business, that means that you have to decide two things. The first is, are you truly going to be proactive and engage in meaningful conversation? And the second thing is, are you really going to search and try to dig a bunch of holes or are you just going to dig deeper holes?
For so many of you, it’s about getting the next client. And sometimes that means the current client isn’t really there. There’s only one bride. There’s only how many times is somebody going to kind of redo their home. So for so many is I have to get the next client, but what is so intrinsic and iconic and important to understand is that you get the next client because of the way the current client talks about you.
That is true. Word of mouth, word of mouth in today’s world. Even in the hyper, you know, Pinterest / Instagram / Tiktok world we live in is still what do people say about you and what do they talk about and if what they’re saying is, wow, you know, they came through in the end. I was a little worried about that, but man, they did it in the end.
Then what they’ve just done is insult you. Right. And you haven’t focused on true metrics of success, but instead of what they said was, you know, every day was a new experience with them. And I just felt so well taken care of, and they really care, they care about things that I wouldn’t think that they would, but they really do.
That is a different way of being. And that’s what I mean by having that conversation between each other, creating community and the opportunity that community offers is foundationally different than simply, you know, trying to scream as loud as you possibly can through media and everything else.
And where you really don’t want to have a conversation. All you want to do is be picked. All you want to do is if I scream loud enough, you will pick me instead of saying, Hey, no, I’m going to pick myself and I’m going to be proactive and reach out to have a conversation with you and I’m going to do that by telling you the metric of success by telling you what I care about by telling my employees what I care about and making you understand why it is crucial that we either do kick the coffee table a few inches because speed is what we do, but much, much, much, much more likely is we only do it the right way, and that means we’re gonna call back the installers to help us, and we’re going to move it, even though it cost you $1,000 because doing it the right way is far more important than just getting it done.
And so that is up to you. And that is, as we chart our way forward, the idea that you can redefine what success is and look at the end of the day, I know you need to make money. I know I’m not a Pollyanna. I know that you have to have the wherewithal to keep going. I’m just simply telling you that that trust is a foundation that foundation will give you the next thing and that trust is built on your willingness to say, this is what matters to me.
And so if you truly want to have a conversation, don’t just put live chat on your, on your blog or your website or even on Instagram, right? Truly mean it. Truly mean that you want to have a conversation and define that conversation and make sure that you really want to be engaged in conversation because that is the metric of success will lead you to the next conversation which will lead you to being a guide as as their artist doing the work for them to transform their lives.
And so that means you’re going to be invested in saying to yourself, what is it that I care about that you think about my business? And I will set about defining the metric of success. I will say what does matter to me when right? And when I do that, I will measure it. I will find success in how many conversations that I have today.
I will find success in how many times did we, do the right thing. I’ll find success in not just did we make money, but did we get an effective decision, right? The few people feel more empowered by what we asked them to do for us, right? And that is Zappos. That is Zappos upending things, doing things that are different. Becoming other.
And then through that way of defining what it is that you care about, people will start to see, Ooh, I want that too. And that will become your choice. And from there you will grow, right? And that is the challenge that we all have, because it is so easy to default to what we believe metrics of success should be right. It should be, do you make money? It should be, do you think do things fast? It should be that, do you get, you show the pretty picture to get the new client? But it isn’t true. And it’s going to become ever less true as we go forward in our connection economy. And if you don’t believe it, might I tell you that when Zappos was purchased by Amazon, they did, you know, a lot of money, let’s call it $600 million today, they do well over $2.5 billion.
So the connection economy matters and the way that you think about that connection economy and the way you contemplate metrics of success will define the journey. And it’s up to you. It is up to you to be proactive, up to you to be engaged and take that wherever you can. Thanks so much for listening until next week.
This week’s question comes from Andy Kushner from Kushner Entertainment. Andy is a long time client and I love that he, he listened and he’s helped me found this podcast and he gave me a great question something that we actually talk about a whole lot. And he had a listen last week and he said, I’m in the event entertainment business and I’ve always had a hard time getting my clients to pay me a design fee per se for my services.
Does this mean that I have to give up on ever being paid for my creative work. And I love that question because it gets down to the difference between literal, right? Can I charge a design fee? Can I charge this to you and get physically dollars for it, and gets more to the ephemeral value of money, right?
See, money to me is energy. And energy gives you permission to say, what do I care about? Right? So, you know, if what it is is that you don’t, someone doesn’t want to just pay you for creative, whatever it is, they just can’t get there. And so they just want to pay, just tell me how much it is. Okay. I understand that.
That doesn’t preclude you from saying, well, this part of it. Right this part of the fee is related to creative and what that means is like okay what am i gonna do what are the things that have to happen how does it have to happen what is my deliverable for it right how am i going to say hey what is it that i want you to decide upon right. So if what happens is that you make it part of your vernacular, even if you’re taking, let’s call it 50 percent out front and 50 percent two weeks out, you can still make it clear that, hey, you know, no matter what, we’re just not moving forward unless I can tell you what we’re going to be doing. And therefore I’m asking you for a decision, not necessarily dollars, but a decision and that decision is permanent.
You can’t go back and I’m going to show you my creative and have you say yes or no to it. That’s getting paid. Right. That’s getting paid because it says, Hey, this is valuable and you need to value it. Now, do I wish that, that there’s a way to charge for creative and sure. Right. But I also want to be very literal about it.
You don’t have to call it a creative fee for it to be a creative fee. It could be an engagement fee. It could be a save the day fee. It could be a deposit, right? Whatever it is. So long as you are definitively speaking to, it becoming a piece of what you need in order to get to the next step past design, right, then, then that’s what it is.
Then you’re actually getting paid and you’re still being rewarded for the service, if you will. So my point is, the following is that. You know, if you can’t specifically get a payment directly for a design fee, many ways to skin that proverbial cat and through that, right, you can also say, hey do I respect myself enough to ask for that decision when I do come up with design and that decision can be pay you money or it can be a decision or maybe both, right? So I hope that answers the question.
