Remember when Marty McFly from the movie Back To The Future, got into a time machine and traveled into the future.  He looked around at what he saw, then went back to his current day and told everyone what to expect down the road.  They were excited.

Well that future was yesterday…

It leads me to think… Have you gone 3 years into the future, looked around, and come back to tell your employees what you see.  If you do this, and write a Painted Picture, then the employees will be completely inspired to make it happen.

I describe in step-by-step detail here in Chapter 1 of Double Double, just how to write your own Painted Picture.  Get a copy of it free here.

1. Get out of your office. When creating a Painted Picture for your company you must leave your office.  If you sit at your desk or ‘hide’ in a boardroom, you’ll get dragged back into your typical routine and your mind can’t wander into the future.  Working from an office tends to put specific constraints on your mind, and that’s the antithesis of this exercise.  Forget current metrics, daily tasks and obligations, and the looming question of ‘how?’ and simply let your mind wander.

I have found that the best way to start your Painted Picture is to sit by the ocean, go up into the forest, find a spot in the mountains, or even do what I did when I wrote the Painted Picture for BackPocket COO: lay in your backyard in a hammock and just start sketching or writing.  Chapter 1 FREE here gives you more tools too…

2. Abandon your computer. In this specific instance, your computer is considered a negative device that will suck you into the vortex of daily emails and tasks. Get a sketch pad with unlined paper. Initially, it was hard for me to think abstractly because I’m so left-brained.  I turned the sketch pad sideways so it was in ‘landscape mode’ and I started mind-mapping.  I just began writing down my ideas about what my business would look like three years in the future.  Once I had put on paper all of the ideas in my head, I was then able to write a three page description of all of my thoughts.

3. Look at the road in front of you. Don’t focus on how you’ll make it happen.  Even with 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, I was by choice never a part of the process of creating the Painted Picture because I was the ‘how’ person.  I was able to attract the people and figure out the systems and processes that were scalable for implementation once everyone had conjured up their ideas.  In contrast, Brian was the ‘where’ person—he could look at the road ahead and see where he wanted it to go.  If I’d been involved in crafting the Painted Picture for that company, I’d have gotten in the way by constantly thinking about how we’d make it happen.

4. Get Creative – YES YOU ARE! Creating a Painted Picture requires you to get out of your comfort zone, and I encourage you to do so. Everyone is creative, so don’t even utter those words.

To ensure you’re getting creative, think about crazy stuff—maybe something too outlandish to share at a meeting or really spend too many ‘work hours” thinking about. I like to use a technique called ‘mind mapping,’ which allows you to plop down thoughts on paper without having to provide explanations of strategies for achieving the desired goal. Here’s a good rule: if what you think about during one of these sessions seems bizarre or unlikely, then include it in your Painted Picture.

5. Enlist support. When you finish your Painted Picture, share it with your employees, suppliers, bankers and lawyers. You’ll then start to see people align with your goals, and the picture will become a reality. It’s incredibly beneficial for your employees, who will use your Painted Picture as a means to understand their role in the grand scheme of things. I’ve even seen business areas within a company form their own version of a Painted Picture that then dovetails into the overarching one. Overall, sharing your Painted Picture with staff will prompt them to make decisions subconsciously in alignment with your vision.  Others with whom you share your Painted Picture will also consciously help you make it happen because they are energized by the clarity of your vision.

Here’s my painted picture (link).  I don’t care if competitors see it.  I want the whole world to see it because then I get everyone working for me for free!

6. Stick to a three year Painted Picture. Sometimes an entrepreneur I coach shares with me their frustration upon returning from vacation to find that their employees made ‘ridiculous’ or ‘bad’ decisions in their absence. Employees don’t wake up in the morning to make bad decisions.  They WANT to do the right thing, but if leaders don’t share company goals, then what do they base their decisions on? Employees can’t read your mind.

In order to create an effective Painted Picture, you need to keep one foot firmly planted in the present, while the other reaches out and taps on the soil of the future.  If you go much further than three years into the future, you’ll lose your balance and fall over.  Stay about three years out and then write down what you see.

Chapter 1 FREE here gives you more tools too… Make it happen!  The results will change your company and your life.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture and Leadership at 100MPH.

I first saw this video in the late 1980′s and was floored then by the way Steve Jobs led this retreat.

He’s a genius in action.  He keeps interrupting to keep the team focused on priorities.  Love the open & respectful debate from the team.

This is vision…  This is leadership…

I was buzzing when I saw it roughly 18 years ago.  Hope you do to.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture and Leadership at 100MPH.

Thanks SO much to everyone who helped make Double Double happen.

The first hard cover versions arrived today – they’re being shipped to bookstores online & offline today – pretty exciting…

These are the folks I need to thank…

This is the best news about turning around the economy & job creation that I’ve heard in decades. Keep it up USA. Other countries should follow suit.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

Last year while I was at a Global YPO event, I met THE go-to guy that YPO members use to help them sell their companies.

Over the year I started to learn a little more about why & when to sell…

Why Owners Sell Their Company

The Owner May Be Looking For:

• More time
• More liquidity
• Diversification of risk
• More stimulating (i.e. international?) work environment
• Access to ‘C’ suite
• Retirement/semi-retirement
• More capital (i.e. lead industry roll-up)
• Technology/Intellectual Property (IP) to gain efficiencies
• Pure old fashioned boredom

When owners start answering yes to these, then selling or mergers may be an option to consider.

Sometimes it’s even clearer and they KNOW it is time to sell

• A compelling event/reason to sell that has occurred?
• Could be a succession issue
• One of the “five D’s”:

o   Death

o   Divorce

o   Disability/disease

o   Debt

o   Disenchantment/deciding to do more with their life
How to Get the Business Ready For Sale Strategically?

• Identify strategic investors and understand how they could value the business to their shareholders at a level much higher than you value your business at
• Get your vision clarified for what a strategic transaction would mean to all shareholders
• Required vs. preferred outcomes identified (i.e. What do you NEED, and what would you LIKE) in order to sell

Why This Is A Good Economy to Sell the Company?

• Cash and corporate reserves are at the highest they have been at in the history of the world
• Private Equity firms, that have identified expertise areas/that can be strategic, are coming to a point where they need to deploy their funds, or return them (use it or lose it)
• As the world gets smaller, more international buyers emerge; leverage the international environment and how your products, intellectual property (IP), geographic location, cost advantages, technology, management skill sets bring value to international buyers
• And my opinion (and I’m an optimist) but I see a double dip coming soon, which means values drop fast…

What are you thinking of doing with your business?

Some companies I have coached on creating a Painted Picture have done an amazing job.

Red Balloon Days in Sydney, Australia, did a great job with their Painted Picture.  They made it jump off the page by having a designer use creative typography–cool fonts, animation, colors and varied type sizes–to keep the reader engaged and excited.  Email me if you’d like to read it.

Nurse Next Door in Vancouver, Canada, did a brilliant job constructing their Painted Picture. They brought it to life by creating a simple PowerPoint slide show complete with audio where co-founder Ken Sim reads out the Painted Picture while it’s being highlighted with photos and graphics. The visuals are an excellent feature, and get the reader engaged while anchoring ideas. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Tina Turner song they used (Kidding! Sort of) – but loved when they shared their Painted Picture on YouTube.

Sebastian Tondeur, the CEO of MCI based in Geneva, filmed a fantastic introduction to his company’s Painted Picture.  He stood in front of a green screen, and then had company graphics inserted.  He explained what the Painted Picture was and why he’d written it.  Sebastian’s company was operating in twenty-five countries when I helped him write the Painted Picture. Afterwards, he brought me to a company meeting to meet with the leaders of each country’s division so I could explain the idea behind the concept of a Painted Picture to them.  It was a great way to introduce the idea and instantly start to trickle it down to all eight hundred employees.

All of the Painted Picture Hall of Famers did exactly what you’re supposed to do with the exercise: they pushed beyond the drab corporate-speak and confining metrics, and answered the simple question, “What’s really possible for our company?”

See your Painted Picture as the ultimate opportunity to make your company shine.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

A great example of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?’s painted picture in action was when one of our amazing marketing managers Andrea Baxter said, “Can you imagine our company name on Starbucks cups?” I thought she was kinda nuts for suggesting such an idea, but I didn’t say anything.  When she said, “Don’t worry about how it’ll happen. As long as you can see it three years from now, I’ll make it happen,” I knew she was nuts, but I loved her passion and conviction.

A few months later Andrea told us we’d soon be on ten million Starbucks cups across North America–for free–with a quote and the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? name on it.  Nice!

Here’s the cool part:  Starbucks told Andrea that they’d put a quote from our founder on the cups but not the company name. In response, Andrea told Starbucks, “No, you have to put the company name on the cup!  That’s part of our vision.  It says so on our wall!” She sent Starbucks a picture of the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? ‘Can You Imagine?’ wall and convinced them to include the company name. Her belief in the idea helped the company achieve our goal of getting 1-800-GOT-JUNK? on ten million cups of Starbucks coffee.

Brian’s quote on Starbucks cups:  “It’s difficult for people to get rid of junk. They get attached to things and let them define who they are. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this business, it’s that you are what you can’t let go of.”  Brian Scudamore, CEO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Make your painted picture stick.  An unwavering vision that comes to pass will be celebrated 100 times more than something you’re willing to compromise on.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

At Burning Man 2010, I learned that thinkers don’t get their points across to do’ers.

Thinkers, who ramble on about their brilliant (which they are) ideas, just end up with a lot of other brilliant thinkers saying ‘ya, totally, I agree’.

However, the do’ers have no idea what the thinkers have said, are to embarrassed to say so… and nothing get’s done.

Net/Net: Lots of brilliant ideas swirling around with no one doing anything about them.

It’d sure be great if the thinkers could dumb it down for us do’ers a bit.

Thots ?

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.

One day when I was still at 1-800-GOT-JUNK? we were adding to the ‘Can You Imagine?’ wall, and I tossed out the idea of being studied by Harvard Business School for a future case study.

I offered it up almost as a joke, but I really could see Harvard studying 1-800-GOT-JUNK? because we wanted to build a world-class brand.

When Harvard did eventually do a case study on what we’d built, it further proved that you could achieve what you conceived and believed.

‘Conceive, believe and achieve’ became a mantra for us, and when Harvard learned about 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, it wasn’t by accident—it was because of our renowned wall.

The front entrance wall was used to express our desire to be included in a Harvard case study.  Eventually someone visiting 1-800-GOT-JUNK? said, “Hey, I know someone at Harvard who approves the cases, would you like an introduction?”

If we didn’t commit to the vision by writing it on the wall, it wouldn’t have happened. Either way, what we conceived and believed—getting into a Harvard case study—was actually achieved.

I’d love to hear what you’re visions are for your company.  Share them here…

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture.