“Clear your head and go put yourself in the customer’s shoes when they look at your product online.” Just one piece of excellent advice Bob LaLoggia, CEO of Appointment-Plus said at the kick off event of Free Lunch Fridays (FLF).
On Friday, March 29th, standing room only, entrepreneurs, startups and investors came together to network, share ideas and capture some takeaways from LaLoggia at FLF. His lecture “Jack-of-all-trades, Master of one,” was a healthy mixture of humor and relevant advice for business owners about how one must be agile and flexible in your approach to building your customer base and running a company.
“You have to be a jack of all trades to be a successful entrepreneur.” LaLoggia said.
To begin, LaLoggia tested the attendees with his B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. psychological entrepreneur test – asking the group to define their personality through a series of photographs with the intention of evoking self-awareness to ones’ pliable approach to business.
LaLoggia then broke down business into five components (marketing, sales, support, finance and technology) and shared how to enhance each one, build influence, and manage ones’ boundaries when it comes to acquiring customers. LaLoggia referenced the time when he would do anything to satisfy customers when they requested changes to his service, but quickly learned that you can’t please everyone.
“You have to learn how to say no. There are a lot of things you cannot do for your customers.”
LaLoggia also talked about the dark side of entrepreneurship, the selfish effort required to make it happen and toll it takes on people close to you. “There is a dark side to entrepreneurship-you can sacrifice your relationships for it.” Balance is important and you need a strong support system to make it all happen he stated.
Becoming a successful CEO doesn’t, and will never, happen overnight, and it takes constant education and growing on your part. LaLoggia suggested his “Geek In A Week” program to ensure that no component of the business gets ignored. Simply dedicate one week to each component and four hours each day to that aspect of your business. For example, marketing week one, technology week two, and so forth.
Attendees were all in a buzz after the event and looked forward to the next one. What the crowd said…
“The fabulous presentation by Bob La Loggia was great. I loved that he incorporated a lot of humor.”
“It was fantastic, very informative, you know, these are all people that are in the middle of the action. The startup scene is very vibrant in arizona and I think this is a very, very positive event.”
Free Lunch Friday in a minute…what you missed…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=digi5rmimEo[/youtube]
Watch the highlight video on our AZ Tech Beat Channel
The next Free Lunch Friday will be on April 26th with Pat Sullivan Founder and CEO of Jigsaw Health, co-founder and creator of ACT! and founder and creator of SalesLogix. Look to our website and social media outlets to sign up.
Watch Bob LaLoggia’s lecture and laugh and learn how to be a Geek In A Week…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18C1-W6EssA[/youtube]
Watch Bob LaLoggia’s speech on our AZ Tech Beat Channel
Free Lunch Fridays, a non-profit organization, has one simple goal-to provide community, content, connections and access to capital to the startups and entrepreneurs who fuel the ecosystem. The program runs the last Friday of the month and includes a lecture from a locally- to nationally-known entrepreneur or expert-the location of the event will shift around the Valley each month. The focus is to offer the startup community access to resources, experts, partners and capital. And you get a FREE LUNCH! FLF is sponsored by AZ Tech Beat and SeedSpot.
Special thanks to Axosoft for hosting the launch of Free Lunch Friday.
Would have been a better presentation if he didn’t blatantly rip off this article that came out the week before: http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/22/you-dont-want-experts-you-want-jacks-of-all-trades/
Or basically read the contents of Influence by Robert Cialdini without crediting either of them.
Sat in the audience and heard several people groaning about the talk. Shame no one speaks up in this town. I wish I had been able to stay and do so myself.
Wow Chris. How disappointing. So I just read the article you reference and except for the “Jack of All Trades” portion of the title, Bob’s talk and this article have virtually nothing in common. Too bad you didn’t stay for the talk so you’d know how wrong (and idiotic) your comment is.
Try watching the video – which is posted above before you make such false accusations. It would be one thing to criticize the content of Bob’s talk or provide counterpoints, but “rip off?” How exactly? Does this article provide the 5 points that Bob makes of all the things you need to know to be a great entrepreneur? Does it actually give you pointers of how to become jack of all trades?
Eh, I thought you were smarter than that. I gave you too much credit. So here’s to someone speaking up and calling out your bullshit in this town.
Thanks for commenting back Hamid – I speak only for myself obviously, but I know there were others in the audience who agreed. I agree the content doesn’t match up word for word, but the popularity of the post and the title and the theme all matched up. For the record I’ve talked with Bob multiple times and find him to be usually an intelligent and well spoken person. Hence my disappointment.
Feel free to continue the conversation, but opinions are what they are. I just wish others would speak as well so that I’m not the sole “asshole” voice.
My problem with your comment was not the opinion itself, but rather that your opinion that Bob’s talk was “a blatant rip off” of the Pando Daily article was simply based on the shared “Jack of All Trades” partial wording in their titles. As I read the Pando Daily article (which is more about AOL and Arianna Huffington than it is about advice for entrepreneurs), I was honestly searching for similarities to Bob’s talk. I found none.
Opinions can be made in the form of insults or constructive criticism. Yours was of the insulting variant, but without substance. The insult was not “just” because it was untrue. I, too, wish others would speak up to see what they thought.
Fair criticism Hamid – I’m certainly aware that I need to work on my wording sometimes with these things. Perhaps the content on the blog post isn’t up to the critique you have, but the Cialdini stuff is hard to refute.
Seriously Chris? Have you even watched Bob’s talk? Robert Cialdini (whom I had to lookup) is known for “6 key principles of influence” (Reciprocity, Commitment, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, Scarcity) which have nothing to do with Bob’s talk NOR do they have anything to do with the Pando Daily article which supposedly also rips off Robert Cialdini (by the way, were you pissed at Pando Daily for supposedly also ripping off Robert Cialdini?).
It seems to me like you are relating 3 completely unrelated things.
This thread is the problem with the Phx Community. (Not Hamid)
The adage of: “If you dont have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Needs to be digested by people in our community.
There is nothing to gain by publicly criticizing ideas, assets, people, etc.
In Major League Baseball, if one goes to the media without handling things internally, then you will be black-balled from the clubhouse, team, organization.
I think there are a few people who need to be aware of how serious it is to publicly criticize a very successful event. Chris, you even left early without staying for the entire presentation! At least talk shit when you sat through the entire lunch.
How many people came to last week’s Brownbag at Gangplank? Was there one?
…if you want to start criticizing others, make sure your own house is in order. Otherwise, it may bring down a house of cards.
Mike – respectfully disagree, see slide 134 of the Hubspot Culture Code presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/the-hubspot-culture-code-creating-a-company-we-love
“No Silent Disagreement.
If we disagree with a decision or direction we have the responsibility to speak up.
We trust our candor will not be used against us.”
Imagine if Phoenix took that mindset instead of “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”
Also not sure what the Brownbag has to do with anything, I’m equally critical of those.
But why even bring that up?
Are you trying to use defamation or imply he is plagiarizing?
Because those can be crimes… to accuse someone of those acts.
You may or may not realize it but your comments could be used against you in a lawsuit by the presenter or by the other parties who are involved in this.
The point isn’t about anything other than you choosing to speak slander about the event. There are brands involved and other interests who could see what you said as illegal and could file lawsuits against you.
The point is… be mindful about what you write, because you may think it’s only your opinion, but your opinion can be damaging and cause injury that other party’s can take legal action against.
I’m saying this because you accused the presenter of plagiarism:
“Would have been a better presentation if he didn’t blatantly rip off this article that came out the week before: http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/…
That sentence is reason to sue you for slander. At a minimum take you to court to make you defend yourself. Just be careful dude…
Michael, I couldn’t disagree more with the “If you dont have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all” comment. That is not the spirit of helping make things better. Criticizing is a good thing. Even your own comment breaks the “something nice” rule – but that’s OK. That’s a good thing. Criticizing can help make things better.
However, if someone is going to say something, make sure it’s a coherent statement, make sure it’s true, it makes sense and most importantly, make sure you can back it up, etc. Don’t just say random crap. If you do say random crap, then be prepared to get call out on it.
http://phxmafia.com/blog/giving-getting-criticism/
Some self promotion…
Clearly I was overly harsh in my initial post and likely should have just bit my tongue and left this alone or had a more private conversation about it.
Excellent presentation by Bob! I was unable to attend the event (even though I work in the building!), so I’m glad it was recorded. Bob is a naturally talented speaker. Translation: he kept me interested throughout.
As a “How-to-be-an-Entrepreneur” discussion, the presentation rightly covers the basics. Sure, over the last 20 years in tech, these are all lessons that I’ve learned at one point or another. The value of this talk, for me, is that every single point he made serves as a great reminder. None of us can afford to neglect any of the areas that Bob mentioned, and yet it is quite easy to get into an incomplete routine.
When we are reminded of things we already know, it can spark brand new ideas — and this talk is no exception.
Finally, his emphasis of the basics resonates very well with me. There may not be any secret sauce to success, but understanding, attending to, and maintaining the basics is always a good place to start.
Thanks for the excellent talk, Bob!
This was a fantastic presentation! I am officially a marketing geek this week!