OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go Wrong

We all go through times when everything is going wrong, everything is happening, and we just don’t know what to do. Sometimes people get busy doing the wrong things. When things are going wrong, doing more of them is not going to help the situation. Bill Carmody discusses some great options for what to do when things go wrong or when you experience difficulty in your business. He provides some key information that you should take advantage so that you can minimize when things don’t go as planned.

Listen to the podcast here:

What To Do When Everything Goes Wrong with Bill Carmody

It is time for Flash Topic. This is our seventh Flash Topic. I’m super excited to bring it to you. We have with us Tracy Hazzard, Bill Carmody, Salah Khalaf, Joe Tarnowski and yours truly. This topic couldn’t be more exciting. It couldn’t be timelier. I know you’re going to love it. I don’t want to waste any more time, let’s get right into it. Welcome back to Flash Topic.

Thank you.

We’re going to change it up just a little bit. The last time we did Flash Topic, we had one topic. I know I put it out there ahead of time, but we’re going to be even scarier and throw it out there right now. I’ve had weeks and weeks to prepare and you guys have had no time. It was Tracy that just reminded me that we had Flash Topic. I couldn’t have prepared too long. Bill Carmody is here, Salah Khalaf. Joe Tarnowski is here and Tracy Hazzard is here. We have a good panel and I know you guys are dying to hear the topic. What we’re going do is we’re going to just throw out this one topic and discuss it. I’m interested to hear because this has come up. I think that everybody goes through difficulty in their business and in trying to figure out if they should keep going. The question today is what should you do when everything is going wrong? I talk to people in all stages. I’m sure that’s what Tracy do, as you Bill and Joe, you meet people all the time and Salah, you have clients. I think we meet people in all types of aspects of their business. I know that some people come to me because at some point this is a last resort and unfortunately that’s a bad time to go seeking help. I see people in a multitude of different areas in their business when they’re doing great, when they’re doing okay, and unfortunately when everything is going wrong. What about you guys?

Everything has gone wrong usually.

Same here. Both at our sessions themselves, we have a lot of moving parts. Things happen, but also within the meetings with suppliers and retailers, something happens in the presentation or it’s just not going right. I think that’s a great topic. That comes up a lot.

Tim, one of the things my father said to me that I will use in these circumstances is when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

You said that to me last time and I’ve been using that.

That’s what came up for me when you talked about this flash topic because from my perspective, when things are not going wrong, doing more of them is not going to help the situation. That’s essentially where I find most clients are doing more and this uncanny survival technique kicks in, where people just get really busy doing the wrong things. The first thing that I usually look at is take a quick time out. Obviously, it’s not working, what does it matter if we keep going down the same path? That opportunity to step back and reset and taking the luxury of time, which most people don’t feel they have, but forcing yourself the discipline to really take a good hard look at what’s not working is the first path to see what needs to change in order to be successful.

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go Wrong
What To Do When Things Go Wrong: When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

I don’t think we have to continue. Bill, you’re saying that obviously when people are in desperate situations, there might be a little bit of panic involved and they might be thinking, “If I just work harder, if I just do more, if I just spend more hours, if I don’t sleep at all.”

It makes things worse and it has the opposite effect. If I’m on the hamster wheel running as fast as I possibly can, running faster is not going to change me being on the hamster wheel. I’m not making any forward movement and that idea of busyness is what gets people into the trap of staying stuck, of doing things that aren’t working, and doing more of the same things that aren’t working. The definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. To me it’s about stepping back and regrouping and rethinking about what you’re not doing that you need to be doing or what you are doing that you shouldn’t be doing.

I think you bring up a good point, both of you. To follow up on those points is something happens, something goes drastically wrong, a lot of times the body and the mind’s natural reaction is that fight-or-flight kicks in. You get very narrowly focused and you end up not seeing other possibilities that can help you out of the jam that you’re in. If you take a step back, force yourself to relax, even if it means stepping away for a little bit and then coming back to it and then come back to it relaxed with an open mind, usually the opportunities to solve whatever problem it is will come to the forefront.

Remember, we’re not talking about getting stuck, writing a letter, or an email. We’re not talking about, “I just can’t get past this application or vendor paperwork, so I’m going to take a break and come back.” We’re talking about a complete meltdown here, maybe your fourth straight quarter of loss or you’re out of money. We’re talking big things and I know that Joe, what you and Bill said still apply, but I want to make sure that we’re all talking about the same things. When I say things are going terribly wrong, I mean your business is at stake and things are really down the line.

I should get people because I’m at the front end of the process. I should get people when they have their idea, when they want to start, and instead I get a lot of people just like you do Tim who are so far down the road and everything has not gone well. They hired all the wrong people, followed all the wrong process, spent tens of thousands of dollars if not more, and they get to me and I look at them and I have to give them that harsh truth, just like Bill said. “You have to step back. I think we have to in a way put everything aside and figure out what’s left that we can work with and start again.” Obviously, they don’t hire me. It’s always a losing formula for them and for me to help them.

It’s such a hard place to come from because what usually is required is a radical shift and part of the problem is that when we’re in that place of the anxiety and everything going wrong, we lose trust in our ability to trust people to make the right decisions. We don’t trust ourselves anymore to make that. The only thing we cling to are the things that we’ve done before that worked maybe once or the routine or the things that we know. We cling to those things so hard that we prevent ourselves from actually making the shift that’s necessary. It is such a hard place to come from. I have to say I’ve been there.

I was in a business back in the late ‘90s, early 2000s and everything went wrong. We had a great product. We had a great product and a great business. We were selling Stylus pens for handheld computers and some of you who heard my show and stuff have heard the story before. We were doing all these great things. We were in the Palm economy which was so hot and so cool, and we got our patent infringed upon by IDEO, the largest industrial design firm in the world. 9/11 happened six months later just as we settle and then the dotcom goes bust. We had everything go wrong and the good thing for us was that it was like everything on the line, our family, our home, all of those things because I was in business with my husband.

If it hadn’t been for the idea that along the way, I took breaks and had some strategy and had people who were advising me who were not in my industry and who were not my family. If I hadn’t had that, then I wouldn’t have diversified out into places at which I could sell my company. That’s what I ended up having to do, was I actually had to break it up into pieces and sell all my patents and stuff separately. If I hadn’t set the groundwork for that, I wouldn’t have been able to shift that and do it. A “I have to give this up and I have to sell this off,” is a hard place to come to when you’ve got a dozen employees. It can be done but it is so hard to put yourself into that place.

[Tweet “When we’re in that place of the anxiety and everything going wrong, we lose trust in our ability to trust people to make the right decisions.”]

It sounds like you have some contingency plans in place. What do you guys think of the importance of when you’re going into something keeping like a contingency plan in mind so that if something does happen, you could pivot into something else?

That’s a great point. I didn’t know that they were contingency plans. I just knew this had been something that I was taught. Keep in mind, I was 27 years old or something. I was young and running a company. I was advised to have alternative streams of income. That meant alternative sales channels. I had started in what was direct sales over the internet and built our own website, but I had started at specialty sales, and so because I had that, that’s what saved me. It was the advice of having had alternative streams of income. Tim, what we were talking earlier is like, “Are you only on Amazon? Are you only in e-commerce or you’re only in that one world?” That makes it really hard to start to diversify.

I think I agree with everything you’re saying, but I also think that when everything is going wrong. Every supplier is so proud of what they have and the product they’re working on. I’ve seen it over the years where, “It’s the best thing ever,” and they don’t stop. They keep losing money and they don’t stop. Then suddenly, they’re way in the bottom, but really that’s when you see yourself in your business. When things are going wrong., take a minute, regroup. Assess what is going on, what can be and cannot be done, and just get yourself out of the middle of the situation you’re in and then research and see. You have to finally admit, “Did I create a solution for the retailers? Did I have a solution where the customer of the retailer is going to say, ‘This is the product, or is it my presentation? Am my introducing my business? Was I presenting it in the right way to the retailer, to the customer, to the public?” Whatever the case is, I think people need to stop, assess, and devise a solution that’s going to work. That’s my opinion.

That’s such good advice, Salah.

What I love about what Salah just said too is actually the root of a lot of the problems that show up especially businesses that are in growth mode, which is they fall in love with their products as opposed to fall in love with their customers. They’re so impressed with what they’ve built. “This is my baby. How can you not love my baby?” They can’t objectively see the problem because they’re doing everything in the world to prop up a product that may not have a market for. The customers may not be responding to in the way you expected them to. What Salah just mentioned is so important in terms of, “Look at this. Did we fall in love with our customers we look to serve, or did we fall in love with our product and are looking for ways to push it out there?” If that’s the case, it’s an uphill battle all the way.

That’s really interesting you say that Bill. It’s one of my consults that I do for bigger brands and I call it Cut, Clean, and Create. Once you enter the stage where you look at your overall program and it’s all based on looking at their product lines, I look at their product lines and I go through it and I decide what to cut. They usually flip out. They absolutely flip out that I want to cut some of their products, but usually it’s some of the older ones, but I practice this since day one of my very first job. I had to do this for Herman Miller and I had to cut 200 skews off of their textile program and they only had 500. That was a big deal and there was everyone angry at me for having done it, but it taught me the power of doing it. That cutting it, you’d be so surprised how much of a relief it is to your entire organization, to you. Just cutting that out, the operational shift that happens is amazing and the bottom line shift usually happens as well. The next thing we do is refresh some of the line and then we create new. It gives us the open field to go, “What makes sense now, now that our line is free of all this clutter?”

Bill, to your point about falling in love with the customer and not the product. I had an interesting thing I learned over at our session last week. There was this Brazilian supplier of dog shampoos and some other products and in order to prevent that exact thing from happening, they actually did something very interesting. When they were at our session two years ago, they didn’t come to sell. They were just bringing their products over, but we knew that they just wouldn’t be right for our market and just to attract the retailers. Instead of coming with the idea of selling products, he came on a fact-finding mission and used all of his meetings with buyers to get their input on what would be right for them. Then he came back this year with a whole new redesigned brand and I had a really, really great experience. I thought that was really interesting for someone to use direct meetings for that purpose and it worked out really for him.

I think when business is going down so bad also, when everything’s going wrong, that’s when I think it was too late. That business owners should have asked for help sooner than later and consulted with subject matter expert and get second opinions and talked about what could be going wrong. Am I doing the right things? I think one of the things that people can avoid getting into this mess is utilize listening skills a little bit. Things are going wrong so see what people around you that know what’s going on, what their opinion is. A lot of times the business owners that have everything going wrong, they’re not able to see reality and listen to others that have opinions on what could be going on.

Salah, I tell you, that’s one of the biggest challenges I see with entrepreneurs who surround themselves with yes men and women. People that are just not going to tell the truth, because they don’t want to get in trouble. What ends up happening is you have an entrepreneur who’s very strong in one capacity and they surround him or herself with other people in similar capacities as opposed to people that will challenge those assumptions and people that will ask the questions like, “This seems like a sacred cow, but let’s just focus in on how do we know we’re right here? Is it more important that you’re right or that you have the facts?” That to me is the most important thing. How do we know? Let’s just assume that we’re wrong. How would we know if we’re wrong? Let’s assume now for if we are right, how do we know for? What are the telltale signs? Oftentimes, we’re so excited by what we just built or the vision that we’ve created or some funding we just received that we’re just hitting the market hard as opposed to asking those questions. To Joe’s point about going in and doing a fact-finding mission, that is great. Tracy even, talking in the very beginning saying, “When people should come to me is at the beginning of the process where I can help them the most, not after they spent tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars and find out that it’s not working,” and that usually is what happens.

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go Wrong
What To Do When Things Go Wrong: We’re so excited by what we just built or the vision that we’ve created that we’re just hitting the market hard as opposed to asking those questions.

I think there’s going to be a second part to this question and I think that’ll be key. I think you guys have laid out some really phenomenal opportunities for people that are out there struggling or things are going all wrong. My small two cents is on the backs of what you guys have said, but one really big thing and you’ll have to bear with me a little bit because it’s a little bit biblical, but when you’re taking that step back, when you’re taking a break or a breather, go find a way to help somebody else. Take the focus off yourself for just a minute. I know it sounds cliché, but just find somebody else that’s also struggling and give them a little bit of your time. It will give you enormous perspective. The second that you stop thinking about your problems and start focusing on somebody else’s problems for just a minute, it will open up opportunities that you just weren’t seeing. I would encourage you, if you’re struggling and you’re going to take the advice of pretty much the entire panel here and take a step back and reassess and reevaluate, that while you’re doing that, focus a little bit of on somebody else and see how that works.

The second half of this overall is, yes, we talked to people all the time that are struggling or everything is going wrong. Let’s talk a little bit about how to stop things from going all wrong. What are some of the things that we can do on the onset? There are certain tragedies, like Tracy, you couldn’t have known 9/11 was coming. You couldn’t have known that this person was going to infringe on your patent. There are certain things in business that we just don’t know are coming, but there are also some things that we can do in preparation so that we don’t find ourselves looking the wrong way when things happen.

From my perspective, there’s one thing that I do every single year and over the last nine years. I’m pretty religious about doing it; it is pretty much reinvent my business every year. I take a minute every single year to think about, “Is it still relevant? Does it still have a market? Is there anything that we’re missing? Is this what people are still wanting? Five years from now, is this what people are going to be wanting or should we be pointing ourselves in a different direction?” I think pretty much I find every year that there’s something that we should be adding, changing, and doing to continue to make ourselves as relevant as we possibly can. In the ever-changing parts of retail where companies are either going bankrupt or being gobbled up, there are aspects of our business that needs to change. Me opening and starting this podcast was as a result of one of those sessions with myself to figure out is there anything that we need to be changing? What should we be adding, reevaluating the business, and so that was one thing.

Secondly, I think if there are certain aspects of your business that you’re just not good at or you just don’t know, you really need to seek out an expert and try to get a recommendation. Don’t try to just find somebody that says they’re good on the internet but try to get a recommendation from somebody and seek out an expert to actually help you and fill in those gaps that maybe you’re not the best at. We’re not all good at everything. I would say seek somebody out and share a little bit of the burden of what you’re trying to accomplish with somebody who does it on a daily basis and can really help guide you. That’s not to say follow anybody blindly. I’m not saying that, but I’m saying just open your mind to different perspectives and I think Tracy, this is a great opportunity for you to plug your new platform.

I wouldn’t do that to you.

You should. I want you to.

Thank you. This is the thing that I found. Tying into what Bill is saying is that people get stuck in and I call them, the yes men, the no women. It’s one of these things where you have people in your life who say yes to you all the time because they love you, but you also have people in your life who say no to you. “No, you shouldn’t do that.” Those are the people who love you even more. They’re just so afraid for you. You hear some of those people say no to you, you get into this place of like, “No. I can do it.” You’re in constant defying mode and that’s not healthy either. I’m a big fan of your process of getting out of your routine, getting out of your place and getting out of your inventors groups. What I usually find, because I lecture at a lot of them and so I’ll go around the country and talk to them, when you’re in that inventors group, I normally find that there’s always someone who is successful but they are no longer there. That’s the sign that you have to leave in order to be successful. You have to leave that small group and they may have been good for a while, got you some good resources, gave you a little direction, but they’re all stuck in their world and telling each other how great they are that they aren’t getting that outside exposure necessary. Getting yourself outside exposure is really important and that’s one of the reasons I built a platform.

It’s called Product Launch Hazzards. The idea is that people like Tim or are here for you. People who have stuff that you don’t know that you don’t know and you can ask them from day one because you’re on the platform. You’re here. They have office hours. You can walk in and ask them a single question that you have that’s making you wonder about the future. You can ask them now at day one instead of day 200 and you’re stressed because you ran out of money already. That’s the whole concept of it is that you’ve basically got this entire resource team on retainer but you’re not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for them. It’s going to help you get those questions answered early. To me, that was my way of figuring out as I was shifting my business constantly. I felt like I was leaving a lot of people behind, people who I wanted to help but I couldn’t find a way to help. It wasn’t in my services. There are all these other people like Bill and Salah. You guys are all here for them and Joe and you guys have great services and we want to be able to make sure that those people can find what’s next for them, but in an eye-opening way of, “These people all know how to make it work.” That’s why I built it. It’s been over a year coming as you know, Tim and they just launched this week.

[Tweet “It’s when you ignore it and throw more hard work at it and go into that grind that really gets you into hot water later.”]

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Congratulations on that and I love what you’re doing here. I will tell you that when I’ve been in this deep, dark place we’re talking about, the thing that turned it all around for me was having a coach. When I was an entrepreneur in my 20s, I was like, “No. I don’t need that. I’m just going to go for it. I know everything and I just go for it.” What I found was when I really ran into those brick walls, it was helpful to your point to have somebody who doesn’t have an interest in my business, somebody who’s not compensated by me to be able to have a conversation objectively and explore the problems that that I’m going through. One of the things that I’d like to do in this particular framework is I totally encouraged anyone who’s not familiar with your platform to go check it out, Tracy. I’ll do a similar thing too. I’ll throw my hat in the ring here and say anybody that’s listening to this episode that would like to get a free coaching call from me, they can go to BillCarmody.com/FlashTopic. What I’ll do is I’ll give you a free hour so you can experience what it’s like to have somebody who is not on your payroll, who’s not somebody there that will actually help listen to what you’re struggling with and come up with solutions.

Most of the time when I coach someone even for one hour, they are completely able to break through that one thing that’s really driving them nuts and they can use it as an opportunity to rebuild and regrow and I agree with you completely. This is the place to do it. Give yourself that space to step back from the day-to-day business, understand exactly what the problem is and figure out what that solution is. Every single person here on this podcast episode has answers that they’re not tapping into yet. It’s a matter of figuring them out and putting them forward.

Bill, you know that’s such a good point that you just made there because we all have these indicators when things are starting to go wrong. It’s when they’re starting to go wrong though that we need to listen to them the most and reach out the fastest. If you’ve even got that little inclination, you should definitely take Bill up on his offer. It is just that little nagging thing in there where you’re going, “I think this might be wrong.” You have a sense of it already. It’s when you ignore it and throw more hard work at it and go into that grind that really gets you into hot water later.

We’ve assessed what’s going on, we’ve consulted with people, of expert that may have an opinion on what’s going on, now it’s time to list the things that are positive in their business instead of, “Things are not well. Things are negative. These are not selling. These items are not good.” It’s time to really think about the positive things that could be happening and list those out and start prioritizing. Once you as a business owner start seeing some positives in what you are doing and take out the negatives, then you start thinking really creatively on how to devise that solution I mentioned earlier. I strongly advise to start looking at the positive things and stop being so negative. I’ve fallen in that many times in the past where everything is so negative, but I stopped thinking about, “Are there positive things?”

Salah, that’s so good. That is so important. I think you get that negative out there and purge it. When you list those positives, you can be grateful for them.

I feel like we should have a campfire right now.

I like the idea and I’ve used this a lot and I find that helpful. Some of you touched on getting those outside opinions, people that are not in your industry. It happens to me a lot because basically if somebody is not in my industry, like my friends, if I’m hanging out at a restaurant or a bar with my friends and then they’ll ask me, “What the hell is this about? What do you do?” What I find is that in having to explain things to someone who has no clue about our industry and what goes on, you have to be really on point. It really helps you learn more your own business as well because now you have to break it down into terms that someone can understand. I think that’s really helpful is having conversations and encouraging people outside of your industry to ask you about your product, your service, what you’re about, and it brings things to light that you might not have thought of before.

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go Wrong
What To Do When Things Go Wrong: Develop a culture of adaptability.

Everyone that’s listening or who might end up listening to this particular flash topic, everybody on this panel is having success in some way, shape or another, but everybody on this panel has also been in difficulty as well as some of them have mentioned here, including myself. The information that you’re getting is not read from a book per se or it could have been done from a book, but this is advice from people that have actually been there and done it and been in a dark place and made it out. Just because you’re in a dark place once and you make it out doesn’t mean that’s not coming for you again. You have to keep in mind that you have to pay attention to your business. You have to keep perspective because the world is always going to be there and nobody’s attacking you. It’s not personal and nobody’s coming after you and the world is not against you. It’s just life and in life, things get messy sometimes. If you take some of these strategies that have been put out here, unbelievable strategies from people that know, if you spend some time and think about that, then you’ll really be ready.

No matter what’s going on with your business, you’ll be ready for the good times. Like I said and like Salah was saying, “Don’t forget that there are positive things going on. You’ll be ready for the bad times. When things go wrong, you’ll know exactly what to do. You won’t have to take weeks and weeks and then try to figure it out. This podcast will always be there so you can listen to it again and again. Tracy’s platform is there, Bill’s out there offering just free whatever. Just flood his email account because when he’s offering free, you just got to go there. Everybody on this podcast is here to help you be successful and with that, if you have something that you’re struggling with or going through or if there’s some specific thing that maybe we haven’t covered here about what’s going on with your business, feel free to write in and let us know because there’s no better flash topic than one that’s come in from the field, that’s in real time and people are needing real answers and so we’re also here to do that. Final thoughts, starting with you, Tracy. Final thought, one on definitely do this when you’re struggling, and definitely do this when you’re starting out.

I think that last thing that you just said was just so critically important. When you reach out to someone, I recommend those that have been there and done that again and again, because when you’re in a place of really a big deep hole, you need stuff that has worked multiple times in multiple industries with multiple categories of products. Whatever it might be, you need someone who has a solution that will work, not one that worked once. Reach to those that have done it again and again.

I appreciate it and I would say that the other thing about the reason that I offered a free one-hour coaching session is actually I’m practicing what I preach, which is provide an irresistible offer. If something’s not resonating with your ideal customers, find out what it is. What is it that they want the most, what do they need the most, and then come up with something that’s absolutely irresistible? In this case, I think going to BillCarmody.com/FlashTopic and they’re going to see why I’m doing what I’m doing and I think it’s helpful to understand the context of which I’m offering this up.

Develop a culture of adaptability. Have everybody with that mindset that there’s always another way. There’s another way of looking at the problem. There’s another way of solving the problem and if they’re thinking like that all the time, 24/7, that when stuff does happen, they’ll be better able to accommodate it and find solutions.

We all at one point, when business is down, we need to do a reality check, what is the cause of the problem and to have a clear mind and then shift to a focus and shift that to a positive thought on positive things that are going on in the business. Get the negatives out and move forward and devise a focused plan of action that are maybe top three, four or five things that are working that can be successful to bring your business around.

I’ll leave everybody with this final little quick story. I had a customer or a potential client call me and he’d been in business selling the same product in the same exact way. When I say the same product in the exact same way, that’s exactly what I’m talking about for 35 years. He comes to me and he says, “My business is so down that I don’t know whether I should just fold and be done.” I took a quick look at his website and took a quick look at his product and the product actually was still pretty relevant. It’s just like 1970s. Literally, he had not changed anything in 35 years. My advice to him was quick and easy, is you got to do a brand refresh. You can’t sell ‘70s product in a ‘70s flowery Peace-sign way in 2017. Sometimes it can be as simple as that, but he did the thing. Just like everybody said, he reached out to say, “Can somebody help? Should I just fold this business or what should I do?”

[Tweet “Get the negatives out and move forward and devise a focused plan of action.”]

Sometimes that just that reach out, just that one act is going to give you a great piece of information that you can really act on. Everybody, thank you so much. A great Flash topic. I think that this will be one that people come to again and again and again, hopefully they are able to use every single thing that you guys said. I’m going to have some links going on with this particular podcast. By the way, let me just say that my podcast is now fully migrated to Tracy’s platform, Podetize, and I’m super excited about that. It’s taken just a little bit of time. You’ve noticed a little drag in podcasts out there, but now we’re fully moved over and all is well. I’m looking forward to building it on this new platform.

I actually did a video of the guy who I’ve mentioned that came to one of our sessions to get some insights and then we rebranded. I have a video of him talking about it so I can send that link.

Everybody on the panel, thanks for your time and I will see you next time.

Bye. Thank you.

Thank you.

Flash topic number seven is in the books. I don’t know about you, but what a wealth of information from some serious experts. People that have really been there, people that have been in the trenches, we all go through those times when everything is going wrong, everything is happening, and we just don’t know what to do. Guess what, you now have really four or five great options as to what to do when things go wrong. If you’re in the process of starting a business, you have some key information that you should take advantage of right now so that you can minimize when things don’t go as planned. I am so excited for you guys that you have this information and super grateful to the panel for really putting it all out there and making sure that they are giving you the very best information possible. Look at that, Tracy, sharing her new platform. Bill, offering up free consulting. You are definitely going to want to take advantage of that. All that information will be in our show notes and available for you to click on. I’m so glad that you had a chance to experience that.

As always, you’re finding us on Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, iTunes, please take the time and leave us a review. We appreciate it. We know that it means a lot to the people that are checking out our podcast as to the experiences you all are having with the information that is being provided. Thank you for being such a loyal group of Big Boxers. We appreciate you supporting the podcast. If you want to reach out to us, you can reach us on our website, TLBConsulting.com. You can catch us on Facebook @TLB Consulting. You can catch us on Twitter at @TLBConsult and as always you can join our closed Facebook group, which is On The Shelf Now. You just go to Facebook, type in On The Shelf Now and join and you’ll be in the additional conversation. That is all we have for now. We’ll see you next time. Until then, we look forward to seeing your products On The Shelf.

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go WrongI’m a high energy, audience-centered speaker and executive leadership coach who has lived in the digital marketing world since its inception.  I inspire, teach, and connect. Looking for your next keynote speaker? Goodbye, death-by-powerpoint. Hello, buzzing audience.

If you or your company is in need of a breakthrough, I would love the opportunity to help you. I offer 1:1 and group coaching to ensure the kinds of personal and professional transformations you seek.

If you need to improve the impact of your marketing, my agency, Trepoint, has been recognized by Inc as one of the fastest growing private companies in the America (two years in a row). And Entrepreneur named us one of the “Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America.” Let’s get started so that, together, we can create breakthrough marketing that delivers the kind of amazing results you expect from your business as you simultaneously live up to your greatest potential.

About Tracy Hazzard

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go WrongBased in Orange County, CA, I have spent than 26 years living and designing together with my partner & husband, Tom Hazzard. For clients we solve the problem of what to make, how to make it stand out with women & men, and most importantly, what it takes to make it competition-proof. Collectively we have designed & developed over 250 retail products that generate more than $2 Billion dollars in revenue. We hold over 37 utility/design patents with an 86% commercialization rate – double the USPTO-reported national average. We know what it takes to fight Goliath for patent infringement and win and why it’s not worth it (our experiences are even featured in an IP/entrepreneurship course taught through the Harvard Business Review in 26 countries).

About Salah Khalaf

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go WrongAn adaptable, customer-focused RETAIL MANAGEMENT LEADER AND CONSULTANT, with profit and loss responsibility. Leverages strong interpersonal skills to work closely with cross-functional teams, as well as outside partners, ensuring ongoing growth and lasting success for an organization. A forward-thinking leader, who implements processes to streamline operations and drive business growth, promoting continuous achievement for a corporation. Highly skilled in the areas of strategic sourcing and planning, communication, and decision-making. A proven track record, utilizing broad-based management skills in merchandising, operations, and negotiations to yield increased sales and profit.

About Joe Tarnowski

OST 126 | What To Do When Things Go WrongDynamic and innovative content development expert with a proven ability to find information needs within any industry and engineer a solution to meet those needs via the most relevant media – whether it’s print, online, or face-to-face. Skilled and experienced in both editorial and sales in the B2B publishing arena, with excellent presentation skills – whether one on one, a small group, or addressing a large audience at an industry event.

 

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