Mary Ann Hauser – Action Coach Team Hauser  https://teamhauser.actioncoach.com/

I'm Mary Ann Hauser and I own the Action Coach firm in Winston-Salem. Action Coach is a global company in about 80 some odd countries and our firm is in the top 100 on the planet almost months upon months and probably in the top 10 or 15 in the United States. In Winston and we work with about 20 businesses one-on-one and I'm going to use some of the experience as I have working with those businesses to share with you what we've learned about how to grow your business and survive. You know, I think in one of Angela's emails you said it's about surviving and thriving and that's hopefully what we're going to give you some resources to do.

So today I'm going to talk about how and why it's so important to not look back. But we're going to use some cool tools and I want everyone who's participating to do me a favor and go to up at the top of the screen here you see menti.com. Please take out your phones and go to menti.com and I promise you this will be kind of fun. Once you are there, I want you to put in the code 478792 and I'm going to give you a minute to get that all done and when the panelists think they're ready I'm going to use that as a cue that everybody else is ready and there should be a question there, "Have you used Mentimeter before?"

So we've got one person has used it, great, so you're going to be a pro at this. Two people have used it. We've got eight people voting. You know, a lot of times not everyone will vote, but we're going to give this a couple of minutes. This is just our test so that we learn how to use Mentimeter. Okay, we’ve got 10 folks that haven't used it. And down in the bottom right it shows you how many folks have voted so far. So that's a good test.

What I'm going to do now is just go to the next slide and this is an important question for all of the panelists, so we kind of get a feel for where people are. So if you think about your business, "Have you been in fact affected by Covid-19?" not infected, please. Negatively, positively, or is your business about the same? Let's just get a feel for the folks who are on the call.

Some people who have been positively affected have actually been a little reluctant to share that because they're feeling guilty. Don't let it. If you feel guilty, if you have been positively affected, hopefully you'll be able to be the folks who hire lots of folks on the back end if this. OK, so out of the 16 people who look like they're voting, unfortunately we have a much higher level of negatively affected. I probably should have put another graphic in here to ask what industries you're in because it does, you know, you'll get different skews based on different industries.

So, you know, we are at least for our business, we're four and a half months and counting into the pandemic, and if I think about it, what's that moment in time when it finally hit you then something happened? I can actually remember back to when I was a very small child when Kennedy died, and you know when the Challenger exploded, you know, there's those pivotal moments in your life that you can close your eyes and remember.

Our team and our office happens to be nestled between two lovely cocktail lounges and we were getting ready on March 15th, or March 17th rather, to go have a St. Patty's Day cocktail. In fact Burke Street Irish Pub here had started to play some Irish music and at about 4:30 we were packing up to go down and as a team go have a glass of Irish whiskey to celebrate. As we got the front of them, they both closed their doors. They had just gotten word from the governor that the bars had to shut down. That's a moment in time for me when somebody says, "When did this pandemic start for you?" That's the day it started for me and for my business. Within a week or two, maybe even less, we decided that we were going to work from home to be safe. And then the very next thing we did is we put together a planning workshop for all the businesses to help them figure out how do we plan to get through the next three months with this pandemic affecting our business.

What we've come to learn is that, right now, we should have less importance on long-term planning and more importance on short-term planning. That three to five year strategic plan, if you were to sit down and write it right now, we believe it's a waste of time. What we do need to do is have a plan that's going to carry us two to three months out and it's really important that we have weekly goals and KPIs, which are Key Performance Indicators, that we track.

On a call that we had this morning, we even talked about the importance of having those key performance indicators, somebody said, "If I can just get 15 leads this week, it'll help me get back on track." Then, let's take those goals to break them down into daily goals because trying to achieve 15 might seem overwhelming, but trying to achieve three in a day can sometimes be a whole lot more manageable, and you can plan for that.

You know in the virtual new world as business owners communication is more vital than ever. We have to have more team meetings. We have at least one every Monday morning for about an hour and a half to two hours with our team, but we want to not only just talk about work. We have all lost connection with human touch and with physical connection with the people that were used to seeing all the time. So make sure that we're not only sharing about what we're doing, but we're sharing about what we're feeling.

It's amazing how many of my clients are saying their employees that used to be really great employees are just off, because I think stress is affecting them, even when they're not even thinking about it. You know, anxiety is at a higher level than it's ever been even if the work they're doing isn't stressful. It's just because things don't feel like they used to feel. So celebrate the things that do seem normal.

I went to the street or outdoor dining event in downtown Winston and it felt fabulous, and we could couldn't wait to take pictures and get it out there, so that we know that people are still doing things that are normal. I think more and more people have been taking advantage of our local state parks and going hiking and going on getaways and staying in North Carolina and getting to the beach. But when you're doing that, please celebrate it, and celebrate it with your team as well because those normal things, actually, as we celebrate them take away some of the anxiety.

As business owners, catch people doing things right, even if they're at home. You know if you're working virtually find things that you can do where people are making a little bit of an extra effort.

We all know that social media is really important for getting, you know for understanding what's happening in our community, and for getting information about how to behave, but there's a whole lot of negative on there, so please snooze the negative people. I'm even snoozing family members more often than I ever thought I would.

But encourage dialogue and one of the things that we do is we ask people to share what's your high for the day, or your biggest achievement for the day, and what was your low for the day. We find that helping other people get over their lows is actually motivating for the people who are helping as well as it is for the people who have asked for help.

Then send gifts. Send note cards and greetings when you can. You know, because you know, that connection is so important.

But what I want to know when you opened up I said there is no going back. There is no normal.  That's why the rear view mirror you've all heard this is small and the dashboard is, you know, the front windscreen on your car is large. Speed is happening at a rate that we have never seen, you know, speed of change is happening at a rate that we've never seen.

If you think about the frog in the pot, you know, if you put a frog in cold water and you warm it up slightly, you can cook that frog and he'll be pretty comfortable till the end. But if you put a frog in boiling water, he jumps out. This change happens so fast for us, it was like that by boiling water and we keep tending to want to look back to go back to normal.

But right now at least for the next two to three, maybe even longer years there is not going to be that normal. Even if Covid-19 was cured miraculously tomorrow, we're not ever going to go back to where we were. Things have changed. The way people communicate has changed. Whole industries have changed.

So if we look at what are the industries that are changing. One of my clients is a wedding photographer and wedding videographer and he has several crews. They were completely booked for the entire summer. In a matter of two weeks, he had 90% of his weddings canceling on him, or postponing on him. His revenue stream completely sucked up. I mean it just, it was gone. So, he shifted and we work together to put together marketing strategies to get out to corporations and businesses who needed better communication now that we're in Covid. He was able to completely restructure an entirely new crew going out and doing corporate communication videos. Now when things go back to normal, his business will actually be double the size because he'll have a wedding division and a corporate division.

There are more opportunities for growth and I want us to recognize those. The people who sit on the box, they're sitting on a box and waiting for the world to change, and waiting for things to come back to normal are the ones who are going to struggle.

Somebody told me a story this morning that there was the man who sat on a box is whole life saying I wish I had more money, I wish I had more money, and finally somebody said, "Did you ever look under that box?" There was a million dollars sitting under there, but he never got up to make that move so, you know, what are those opportunities for growth?

Many businesses are also finding new ways to operate with a tighter budget. You know, a retail store that used to have 12 sales people on staff every day here in town, now because of the restrictions of the number of people, they figured out how to operate with three sales people rotating, and that allows them to have more patrons in the store. They're operating in a way that they found things that can streamline their business so, might not be the best thing when it comes to employment, but  when they come out of this, they don't need 12 people on the floor, they can still service a greater number of customers.

The other thing is our customers are so much more willing to adapt than they ever have been before. So make sure that we communicate with our clients more robustly than we ever have because they're willing to do business with you in a different way.

We work with a puzzle manufacturer who has sold in the last 3 months more puzzles than he sold in the previous 18 months. So his business has been supply chain challenges. How do we make sure that we've got enough inventory and to keep our previous suppliers happy while dealing with a whole lot more new retail customers?

Customers are buying more goods for their home. People are realizing their carpet is a mess and needs to be replaced because their home and their carpet looks awful, so they're finding ways to do business with people in the trades. I know that we've had our backyard redone because we had just been so much time in our yard. So make sure that you're looking for those silver linings.

The opportunities in your business, whether it's finding, you know technology that will help you get back more quickly when things open up. Are you using video to communicate with your clients? What are those new relationships that you can take time today to build so that as things do open up your business will be in a stronger place?

So I'm pretty much towards the end of what I had to share, but what I'd like to know is what are the opportunities that you see have you seen any opportunities in your business go to Menti. That should be the next question that pops up. I think you can put in multiple answers if there's one line item, you know put in one and then if you think it's something else you can re-enter but let's start to have the folks who are in our audience start to plug in. What are some opportunities that you see?

• More businesses need guidance.
• I'm a corporate event planner. I've pivoted to produce virtual events.
• The growth of live streaming events.
• Working from home on more of a regular basis. And depending on your home situation that can be good or bad, but I think there is an opportunity there.
• We have connected with loved ones in a way that we haven't before. I've actually connected with cousins that I haven't spoken to in forever.
• Creative shifts changing in ops. People are more open. You pick up the phone to talk to someone and they take your call now which didn't always happen in the past.
• There's more digital and virtual projects.
• Flexibility. Yep. There's way more flexibility of what we’re willing to do
• More time with my oldest before he goes off to college.
• Being more intentional. More intentional about everything.
• I also think that people are more appreciative. I can't tell you how appreciative I was to be able to sit outside and dine al fresco on Friday night and you know support a local business while, you know, getting back to spending time with family doing something we love.
• Connecting with non-profits and small business.
• Family time with my adult children.
• Upgrading a website.
• Growth in areas I've never had the time or energy to explore.

• Medical professionals. I actually have a thank you sign 0n my front yard that says thank you for the first-responders and medical staff.
• Nature
• Community generosity
• Teachers
• Kindness
• Resiliency