What sets a good consultant, mentor or muse apart? Yesterday I met with Lisa Turner, a very good friend and business partner, who helps people eat better with Inspired Eating. I’ve been helping her launch a new tasty, healthy iPhone application and address her holistic marketing needs more strategically. In less than 15 minutes brainstorming with me, she knew which direction she wanted to take with her product and what exactly she needed to do next.

I knew that “thinking in someone else’s box” has always been a skill of mine. I just did the Strengthsfinder test: Arranger, Connectedness, Empathy, Positivity and Adaptability. Pretty much right on the money. But I really liked the way Lisa described it – “You don’t just think Outside the Box or put your lens on my issues” she said, “you get completely outside of your box and into mine”. Other people gave her advice that would have started her down new, different directions. Instead, I focused my advice on fine-tuning where she wanted to go, and helping her find the shortest distance between that and where she was now.

So I realized – even though I’ve been very focused on FoodWired lately, I still enjoy getting out of my box entirely and jumping completely into someone else’ box. And now that I’ve finished up a pretty intensive engagement, I am looking for a new inspired box to jump into. If you need help launching or course-correcting your website, search engine marketing or social media, give me a shout. Like Lisa, maybe I will be the Muse you are looking for. I’ve got the new business cards to prove it.

I recently ran across a slide show put together by Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter + Bogusky fame. In it, he proposes a new model for rapid social entrepreneurship. One of the key takeaways is to wrap everything around a “Common” brand – that by banding together under a “Common” brand, we will make conscious capitalism happen faster and more effectively.

While I agree whole-heartedly with their intent, I simply don’t think it’s the most effective way to crank the wheels of social change. I’ll disregard the fact that “common” sounds a bit too much like “communist” to me for now. Putting that aside, I believe that people connect emotionally with brands. I don’t want to connect with the same brand across all industries. I want a brand to reflect the passion and commitment of its founders and I want those founders to have a conscious understanding of how they impact the world around them while doing all they can to change it for the better.

I believe the resources that the Common model can provide new entrepreneurs are valuable. I wish they could be made available to entrepreneurs that still want to maintain their own brand identity and uniqueness. And perhaps one day they will.

I hope the Common machine pumps out lots of new businesses that truly impact the world positively. If my own ideas don’t take off, perhaps I’ll be knocking on their doorstep some day. But for now, I choose to steward my own fledgling ideas and brands into the universe to see what sticks.

So stay tuned – they are coming. And if you have an idea of your own – don’t be afraid to pull the trigger. Whether it’s “Common” or not.

I have been using Groupon for a couple of years now. I haven’t expanded to the other local coupon vendors popping up, because frankly – there’s only so much mail I can handle getting delivered to my inbox every day. And they were first. Another example of first-mover advantage. Very rarely have I been inspired by Groupon to purchase a service or product that I wasn’t already considering or a local brand that I didn’t already love. Moral of the story – Groupon’s true value to me as a consumer is in the deal. Unbelievably good deals are my expectation. When I get that deal, I don’t walk away associating that unbelievably good deal with the vendor. I associate it with Groupon. And as a consumer, I have been fairly happy with that.

The promise to local vendors by Groupon is quite different. Their value proposition to local small businesses is in delivering a slew of new customers. And I have seen it work. Too well. With the yoga studio who suddenly has two dozen people who want to sign up for a class that only holds one dozen, for example. Or the nail salon who has a Groupon expiring in one week and can’t fit in any more appointments. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a seemingly easy and promising way to attract new customers is turning off those customers, or worse – preventing them from becoming customers in the first place.

Any small business will tell you what the number one way to grow a business is – referrals! Word of mouth, viral marketing, loyalty programs, whatever marketing buzzword you attach to it, the reality for most small businesses with limited marketing budgets is that they can’t afford a fancy, high-priced expert consultant like myself. They pride themselves on doing a good job, selling a quality product, providing excellent customer service and asking those customers to refer others who would benefit. The companies that do well are the ones that grow and sustain themselves. Otherwise, the smoke and mirrors eventually fade away and the doors eventually close.

Groupon has an interesting business model. Those unbelievably good deals you get as a customer are not such unbelievably good deals for the business. In most cases, HALF of the money you are paying goes directly to Groupon, leaving very little left over for the business owner to truly run their business effectively and profitably. The problem then being – they are not incentivized to provide that quality product or enhanced service to gain your loyalty. And if they aren’t incentivized to do that, it can quickly turn into a customer detracting campaign rather than a customer attracting campaign.

Ever heard of Yelp? It’s another great way for local businesses to get the word out. Encourage customers to review your business. Read your reviews. If people are unhappy with your business for some reason, address it. Correct it. People will love you for it. If you need a visual example of what can happen when a Groupon campaign goes wrong, just check out Sweet Life Nail Bar in Denver, Colorado. (Click on the Rating Details link). Within one month of their Groupon expiring, their rating turned into a marketer’s worst nightmare and plummeted.

Note: I contacted the owner of Sweet Life Nail Bar to make sure she was aware what was happening to her online reputation. While she decided not to honor the expiring and/or expired Groupon certificates for pedicures, she suggested contacting Groupon for resolution. While that did not help in my case, it may help other folks who felt abandoned without recourse. If you successfully achieved resolution with Groupon, I’d love to hear from you.

For local businesses who have integrity and a good product, you are still better off following the golden rules of customer service than losing your shirt running an unprofitable Groupon campaign. If you do use Groupon to grow your business, make sure you have an offer with terms you can live with – without substantial breakage. Honor groupons or offer other promotions to customers who don’t have a chance to use them and you will win their business. Oh – and if you operate in Colorado (Denver, Boulder or Northern Front Range especially) and you have a healthy, local and/or sustainable focus on food – I have a project to help you. Drop me a line.

The CDC is requesting public comments on new federal menu labeling requirements. Take this opportunity to make sure they know what you care about.

*** Federal Menu Labeling. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking public comment and information to help the agency implement a new federal law that requires the posting of calorie content and other nutrition information on menu items at certain chain restaurants and similar retail food operations and vending machines. The new law, Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act signed into law March 23, 2010, sets uniform federal requirements for such labeling. Comments should be submitted to the FDA by September 7, 2010.

For more information, please visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-16303.htm.

Is your brand tired? Need to kickstart it this year? Here’s a great article by AdWeek on some principles to innovate your brand and your customer experience along with it.

1) Create better realities.
Why not provide real value to your customers? Your Customer Experience is the embodiment of your Brand. Make sure both are aligned with what your customers’ are actually looking for.

2) Don’t be design blind.

3) Be “brand led”.

4) Think 365 – not 360.

5) Be interesting.

I just found out about the C3 Summit from a fellow CORE member on LinkedIn. Thanks to Jo Ann Hair for pointing out this inspiring video. It seems logical that as conscious consumerism begins to spread, businesses must respond in a significant way in order to succeed but I had no idea that such large players had already figured that out. It turns out I didn’t come up with the concept at all. Don’t you hate when that happens? I am, however, happy to join the movement and help spread the word.