Every year, some established voices get stronger, others weaken and new ones arrive on the scene. Still, much of the recognition for thought-leadership goes to larger “magazine format” or multi-author blogs and larger online versions of print magazines.

I thought it was time to start honoring the individual, often less filtered voices in a more formal way, collect them into one place and share them with the world by creating the first-annual Business Catalyst Awards (BizCats). Collectively, these people provide not only a rich community and valuable insights, they also deliver an extraordinary, real-world, actionable education.

Here were the criteria:

• The BizCats honor leading individual voices who regularly share ideas, tools, strategies, insights and processes that serve as catalysts to the success of entrepreneurs and small businesses over the course of the prior year. Because the focus is individuals, larger “magazine” or multi-author format sites have been excluded. We love the big sites and they offer great value, but this is all about recognizing standout solo voices.
• The nominees were all hand-curated via a blend of my own exposure to them, the input of a small, informal committee of small business, entrepreneurship and marketing experts. There was no public nomination or voting, because frankly it’s become so easy to game things like that (think Mechanical Turk, subscriber lists and calling-in lots of favors from friends), they simply have no value any more.
• There are no numerical rankings, which we all know are worthless beyond bragging rights. Instead, each voice has been given an award for excellence within a specific category.
• Bloggers must have posted at least twice a month. There are, no doubt, great voices out there who post less often, but these awards are about honoring a larger, ongoing commitment to a community.
• If you agree with and appreciate the work that went into selecting the winners, great. If not, that’s fine, too. Shoot me an email if you’d like to introduce someone for me to keep my eye on over the next year as I begin to compile the list for 2013.

Quick disclosure, because I operate in the entrepreneurship, small business and marketing space, I know many of the people on this list personally. Still, nobody makes the cut simply because they have my phone number. For this same reason, I am excluding myself and my blog from consideration for these awards.

And, now…

The 2012 BizCats:

Top 5 Web Shows

Here are 5 standout small business and entrepreneurship web shows from 2011, along with sample show videos. Notice, too, how different the formats, production value and styles are. Each person owns the way they do it, rather than trying to be the next somebody else. One of the interesting trends I’ve noticed this year, as well, is that expectations about production value are going up. Chase Jarvis’ show is a perfect example of this.

MarieForleo.com - Marie Forleo – Small Business Strategy & Growth. Forleo’s weekly Q&A Tuesday, where she answers reader questions, is a quick shot of small business, often marketing-oriented adrenaline. For a weekly web show format, the comment section is also incredibly active and often full of additional insights.

TheRiseToTheTop.com - David Siteman-Garland – Lifestyle Business Profiles. Siteman-Garland’s interview-driven show expores not only the business strategies, ideas and challenges of online and offline entrepreneurs, but also the lifestyle challenges as well. David is high-energy, with a strong voice and personality, as he says “if you want fluff, go pet a bunny.”

Mixergy.com – Andrew Warner – Tech Founder Profiles. With a strong focus on the tech-industry and online entrepreneurship, Warner interviews the founders of many of the tech-world’s biggest success stories, as well as many other personalities around that community, including top VCs, seed-accelerator founds and more. He is great at asking the questions that make many others cringe, like “exactly how much does the company earn?”

Chase Jarvis LIVE – Chase Jarvis – Creative Business Strategy. Chase is a commercial photographer who bridges the gap between honoring the deep creative jones of your inner artist, but also developing the business, sales and marketing skills needed to not only make great art, but serve a need and generate a real, livable income.

BarefootExecutive.TV – Carrie Wilkerson – Home/micro-business Tips. Working from home with a focus largely on building business online, Wilkerson shares tips and strategies to build a lifestyle-oriented business, often from home or with some degree of flexibility and location independence.

Top 6 Audio Podcasts

Accidental Creative - Todd Henry – Creativity Tools & Profiles – A leading voice in the world of facilitating creativity in business, Henry interviews a wide range of entrepreneurs, creatives and thought leaders with the goal of sharing concrete ideas and takeaways. The profiless and stories are great and often spur ideas that inspire your own creativity and innovation engines.

Small Business Trends Radio – Anita Campbell – Small Business Trends & Profiles – SmallBizTrends.com founder and former general counsel and tech startup founder, Anita Campbell, interviews a wide variety of entrepreneurs, business thought leaders and marketers, sharing tips on operating and growing businesses in the current economy and beyond.

Marketing Over Coffee – John Wall & Chris Penn – Small Business Marketing – Run as a conversation between Wall and Penn with the occasional guest like Seth Godin or David Meerman Scott mixed in, the conversation usually focuses on a blend of marketing, PR and  with a strong emphasis on tech-driven channels and strategies and frequent left turns into popular topics of the day.

Duct Tape Marketing – John Jantsch – Marketing & Entrepreneur Profiles – An extension of his excellent blog (noted below), this interview-driven audio podcast series focuses on small-business marketing with a healthy mix of online, social media and old-school neighborhood and response marketing. Great for businesses of all sizes, but really focused on smaller business.

Breakthrough Business – Michele Price – This weekly interview-driven show covers a wide variety of topics, from leadership and entrepreneurship to the success mindset and social media. Price attracts a broad array of high-profile guests and the long format allows her to go deeper into issues and conversations that often bridge the gap between personal and business.

I Love Marketing – Dean Jackson & Joe Polish – Response-driven Web Marketing. This popular podcast and web show alternates between audio and video formats, so we thought it safest to add it here under podcasts. From two legends in the world of hardcore, response-driven marketing, this podcast covers ideas, strategies, tactics and interviews around accelerated business growth with a strong bent toward direct-response and it’s online evolution.

Top 22 Single-voice Blogs

AVC.com – Fred Wilson – VC-backed tech-entrepreneurship – Posting daily, well-known venture capitalist and co-founder of Union Square Partners, Fred Wilson, offers a wide variety of thoughts, strategies and conversations around tech-driven, most-often VC-backed entrepreneurship. Fred is also passionate about art and music, though, so don’t be surprised to find him threading those topics into the mix.

WhiteHotTruth.com - Danielle LaPorte – Bringing Soul to Business – An author, speaker, business builder, former Washington think tank guru, LaPorte doesn’t just write about the need to allow your business to be the embodiment of soul, she IS that very embodiment. You can feel it literally coming off the page with a strong, spiritual, poetic, yet clearly business-savvy voice and insights.

SocialTriggers.com – Derek Halpern – Customer Psychology – With an unusual blended expertise in the psychology of action/influence and metric-driven measurement, Halpern reveals common myths and gaping holes in online and traditional marketing funnels and shows how to tweak what you’re doing to inspire higher levels of action and conversion among visitors and customers.

AmyPorterfield.com – Amy Porterfield – Social Media Marketing – A former hardcore event and media marketer for Tony Robbins, Porterfield has since done a deep dive into the world of social media, content and community marketing. She posts with a strong focus on developing content and community as a key spoke in the marketing wheel.

IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com – Ramit Sethi – Behavioral Change & Influence. When Sethi started this hugely popular blog, the focus was contrarian personal finance, but it has since shift gears in a major way, focusing more on the psychology of influence, behavioral change and social dynamics in the world of work. Truth is, it was always about that, but now Sethi is more direct about this.

MariSmith.com - Mari Smith – Relationship Marketing & Facebook – Smith built her reputation as an expert in leveraging Facebook for business-building and marketing. But many of her posts go beyond tactical Facebook advice (which she offers) and explore the more important relationships that drive business and how to tap technology to facilitate them.

Seth Godin’s Blog – Seth Godin – Provoking Change, Embracing Art and Shipping – Acclaimed entrepreneur, author, marketer, thought-leader and provocateur, Godin is constantly prodding you to look at what you’re doing, what you’re assumptions are and whether they’re getting you what you want both in business and in life, then offering ideas to explore. Topics range from business to art to publishing.

Both Side of the Table – Mark Suster – Rapid Growth Strategy – Former tech-entrepreneur and now a VC in Southern California, Suster often writes large, in-depth thought and strategy posts on entrepreneurship that draw from his dual experience as both an entrepreneur who sold two companies and a VC in the business of funding and growing companies.

TaraGentile.com – Tara Gentile – Lifestyle Business Reality Check – Gentile has been making waves in the blogosphere over the last year. She explores many of the issues bootstrap and lifestyle entrepreneurs deal with with a wonderful blend of heart and soul meets pragmatic reality check, while leaving you with both things to think about and things to do.

QuickSprout – Neil Patel – Online & Social Marketing – Patel often focuses in on the opportunity for businesses, both online and offline, to leverage social platforms and technologies to gather intelligence and build more effective brands, models and marketing engines. Lots of great tactical information to be found with an always fresh perspective on how to approach things.

Unicorn Free – Amy Hoy – Humane Entrepreneurship – A contrary voice in the world of tech-entrepreneurship, Hoy shares a blend of personality laden (read “often NSFW) posts about building business slowly, methodically and decidedly un-start-up-like, without VC simply because, gulp, you love to do what you do and you can be paid well to do it without killing yourself or giving up a part of your dream.

Productive Flourishing – Charlie Gilkey – Sanity for Creative Entrepreneurs – Charlie started out sharing his unique synthesis of productivity strategies and tools for micro-entrepreneurs with a decided creatie bent, but his writing has evolved to more deeply explore and offer highly-actionable insights that expand beyond productivity and offer a dynamic framework for getting ideas out of your head and into the real-world.

Escape From Cubicle Nation – Pam Slim – Career Evolution & Bootstrapped Startup Strategy – Slim brings a certain sense of grounded, real-world spirituality to the process of exploring and then building a business around a deep interest, with a strong emphasis on doing the personal work needed to align what you build with who you are.

DuctTapeMarketing.com - John Jantsch – Small Business Marketing – With a strong focus on measurable marketing for small businesses, especially referral-driven lead generation, Jantsch does a great job of bringing practical tips and strategies into a mix with easily-accesible technology that often tends toward the productivity and management side of entrepreneurship as well.

Art of Nonconformity – Chris Guillebeau – Purpose-driven, Location-independent Entrepreneurship – Known by many for his quest to visit every country in the world in 5 years, Guillebeau has also built an extraordinary, location independent business while traveling the world. He shares his business insights along with notes about travel hacking on his blog. A great resource for those looking to build a location-independent, purpose-driven business.

Creativity Unbound - Edward Boches – Former Chief Creative Officer and current Chief Innovation Office at legendary Mullen creative agency in Boston, Boches writes about the evolving face of entrepreneurship, branding, advertising and the creative process. Often taking positions counter the industry, his posts are filled with insights about the shift in marketing from messaging to engaging, interacting and delighting.

ConversationAgent.com – Valeria Maltoni – Maltoni is a seasoned business strategist who has worked with companies of all sizes, though her insights are relevant to everyone from startups to global leaders. She brings a direct, often provocative viewpoint that raises questions, deconstructs popular business happenings and really makes you think.

Terry Starbucker.com – Terry St. Marie – Practical leadership – Living a double-life for years, former COO of a large cable-company, Terry St. Marie, operated under the online alias of Starbucker and became known as the co-founder of SOBCon. Then his company was sold last year, freeing him to focus his energies on writing about small business, entrepreneurship and leading with heart. Great, simple reminders and strategies.

ChrisBrogan.com - Chris Brogan – Social Media & Small Business Strategy – Over the last 3 years, Brogan’s evolved from being a leading voice in social media to becoming an advocate and solution provider for small businesses. You can see this both in his blog focus and in his work as the founder of Human Business Works, especially local mom and pop operations.

Successful-Blog.com – Liz Strauss – The Human Side of Business – With a long history in brick and mortar business and publishing, Strauss offers a blend of business wisdom with a strong emphasis on relationship building, purpose and simultaneously honoring what’s great in life. She’s also the co-founder of SOBCon, along with Terry St. Marie.

Smart Passive Income - Pat Flynn – While Flynn’s blog and podcast are ostensibly about generating a variety of business engines online, he shares ideas, specific tactics and insights that benefit entrepreneurs and small businesses across the board. He also reveals the details of his revenue every month, so you can get a very real sense of how each approach is working.

TheSalesLion.com - Marcus Sheridan – Blogging for Business – Marcus write with a very easy-going, conversational style and a focus on online community-building for the specific purpose of creating a channel that will help drive business. I also love that, like me, he comes from brick and mortar entrepreneurship, and brings that sensibility to his insights.

Wrap Up.

That does it for the 2011 BizCats. And, now a challenge. Follow as many of these voices as is practical for you for the next 30 days. The small business, marketing and entrepreneurship education they deliver collectively is really quite extraordinary.

And, if you’d like to bring other voices to the attention of the community, feel free to share away in the comments. We’ll keep a list to follow and consider for next year’s BizCats.

Here’s to a year of wonder, growth, compassion, service and, yes, profit, impact and success!

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I’ve been having a business identity crisis lately.

For the last several years, I’ve been sharing the intimate details of my family’s life and finances on my blog.

What started as an online accountability journal has blossomed into a full-time business with the potential to reach tens of thousands of readers. I’ve been extremely fortunate and undeniably blessed.

But I’m far from perfect, and recently I’ve been terrified.

Terrified of what the next step looks like.

Terrified that the next step will be the one the locks me in.

Over the years, I’ve realized that I can help change people’s lives in a couple different areas.

I can show people how to break free from financial lives that keep them trapped. I can teach people how to sell their crap and eliminate their excess clutter. And I can train people on how to grow online communities to raise awareness for their messages or businesses.

I’ve accomplished the first step many creatives struggle with. I know what specific problems I can solve quickly for people.

I know exactly where and how I can change lives.

But I’m still afraid.

I’ve had a couple book proposals outlined for well over a year. I have the connections, the market, and the ideas. But I’ve not written a single sentence of a single page.

Why?

I’m scared of being pigeon-holed into a specific topic or niche.

I’m scared of writing the personal finance book and being labeled a finance guru.

I’m scared of training people how to spread their messages online and being labeled a sell out.

I’m scared to spend months recording a video course and having people label me a douchey internet marketer.

*****

But you know what I realized?

Labels suck.

More specifically, spending my time running from hypothetical labels sucks.

I decide what happens next. I decide which labels stick and which don’t.

And until I take action, people wait.

I can change people’s lives, but not while hiding in a dark corner of the room.

Nothing changes… nothing evolves… until I suck it up and ship my best work.

There will always be something to be afraid of. There will always be a label waiting for me.

When they tell the story of my life, I’m not content with being a “good man who worked hard.”

I want to look back at my body of creative work and be proud.

I want to look back and see that I’ve improved the lives of the people I came in contact with.

I want to leave a legacy.

*****

Like me, you have a choice.

You can choose to wait. Or you can choose to start building.

I’m done stalling. I’m tired of waiting.

I’m ready to put the best of myself out into the world.

Are you?

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Adam Baker is the founder of Man Vs. Debt and the creator of  You Vs Debt, a 6-week online course designed to empower your battle against debt.

Straight up, total goofball, do not do this at home fun. Because life’s too serious to be, well, serious all the time!

Buy 10,000 books (yes, that’s not a typo, my dignity will cost you, lol) and I will shave your company’s logo on my head and dye my hair to match your brand.

Then, I’ll film the whole thing, have it professionally produced by my crack team of editors—which happens to include a gaggle of improv comedians, a Chihuahua named Doug, a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Justin Bieber and a disembodied unicorn head—and have it posted online for maximum fun and exposure.

And, of course, an offer like this deserves its very own, super-cheesy, over-the-top, whiz-bang-animated, movie-trailer-voice-over video. So, here it is…

If you want to be the one to lock up my head, do NOT wait. This is grade-A noggin real-estate people!

Do like the video says and email head@theuncertaintybook.com for the details.

Huggies & butterflies.

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The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them:

“When you dress properly and look clean, people treat you better. They’ll think you’re smart. And that you come from a good family with money. They’ll be nicer and pay attention and help you more. Don’t you want that?”

After I’d spoken, I fell silent and felt guilty. What an awful, biased, discriminating thing to say – and worse, I’d said it to my six-year-old daughter.

Some role model I was, right?

But I hadn’t been thinking when blurted that out. I’d been frustrated and irritated because I needed to take my daughter to the hospital, and she’d been (loudly) refusing to brush her long, curly hair.

I don’t blame her. She’d been sick, it was tangled, and it hurt.

Here’s the problem: No matter how much we wish the world to be a fair place that judges people for their inner worth and not their outer appearance… it just doesn’t work that way.

Sad, but true. Clean, well-dressed people are perceived to be more educated, skilled or experienced. And they get better treatment because of it. Disagree with me? Go stand next to a beggar and ask the first person to pass by for some help or a few dollars.

In business, things are much the same – and we know this. We dress well, have nice websites, and put our best foot forward for our clients. We realize (sometimes intuitively) that our appearance directly influences our reputation, our potential, and our chances of making the sale.

We want to look capable. We want to create a good impression. We want prospects to think, “This could be the guy we’re looking for.”

Let’s take things online, shall we?

Online, there aren’t any face-to-face interviews. It’s all websites and blogs and newsletters and emails. Sure, you have some Skype calls and videos thrown into the mix, but for the most part, people learn more about you and your business through written communication.

And how you present yourself in words means everything to your success.

It starts with design. People land on your website and in seconds, decide whether it looks appealing enough for them to stick around. If they like what they see, they start to read.

And they start making all sorts of judgements about you.

They decide whether you’re smart. Whether you’re sassy or friendly. Whether you’re professionally skilled or specialized in your field. Whether you’re experienced enough for what they need. And whether you’re nice.

They haven’t met you yet. They have no clue who you are. But they make decisions and assumptions about you and your business based on how you present yourself… in writing.

That means that what you write and the way you write it directly influences people’s perceptions – and in turn, how they treat you and whether they should buy from you based on those perceptions.

If they think your home copy sounds expert, they’ll assume you’re a good choice for their project. If your About page sounds personable, they’ll assume you’re a nice guy. If your Services page is clear and concise, they’ll assume you’re on the ball.

And if your sales copy speaks to them… they’ll trust you with their money.

They don’t even know who you are. Or whether you can do what you say you can do. Or whether your product is going to work or break.

But if you write compelling, engaging words… they’ll believe you’re everything your writing conveys.

The problem is that most business owners don’t know how to write in a way that reflects the image they want to present to readers. They might write well enough, sure, but does their writing create trust, build a bond and convey the right image to pull in sales?

Very often, no.

And if you’re writing your own business content, you’ll want to think about learning better techniques. Why? The answer is simple: If your copy is awkward, if your blog post is clunky, if your newsletter is boring… you’ve lost a sale. Probably several.

You’re leaving money on the table.

That’s not something you want to do, so here are 3 tips (and a bonus!) on how can improve your copy to instantly improve your business credibility – and of course, get better results.

Focus on “you”, not “I”

When businesspeople write about their company, what it does, and why it’s a good choice, it’s tough to write using a “you” focus. But the alternative is writing “we” all over the place. “We do this, we do that, we, we, we.” That gives readers the impression your business is arrogant and doesn’t care about them much. Go through your copy now. Rewrite every “we” so that it reads “you” instead – and see the difference yourself!

Cut the fluff

Most business people are long winded, especially when it comes to writing their own web copy. They think longer sentences sound more professional. But short, easy-to-read, easy-to-understand words create a better impression – yes, even if your visitors are high-level executives. Why use 20 words when 5 will do? Cut out all the fluffy words and trim your content down so that even a teenager could read it – your bottom line will thank you, and so will your readers.

Add some spunk

Some people think that “professional writing” means informative, bland and devoid of personality – but people (and customers) much prefer seeing a more human side, even in business. So go ahead and add personality to your web copy, with little phrases that make people smile or a bit of witty prose. Not too much, though: Personality is a seasoning best used with gentle moderation.

Cut back on the catchwords

Some people use so many catchwords and trendy phrases that it’s nearly impossible to figure out what they’re talking about. (Normstorming? Sounds cool, but what the…??) Trying to be too cool with your copy ends up losing you customers who think you’re just crazy. Be clear, never clever, and make sure you use simple phrases that site visitors understand at first glance – without having to think about it for 10 minutes.
Your online success directly hinges on your content and copy. So learn the techniques. Improve your writing skills. Put every chance on your side.

Because just like my daughter’s brushed hair and clean clothes got her better treatment, your polished words and well-written content bring you better sales and business results.

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Men with Pens’ famous writer James Chartrand recently launched Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners.

Then, last week, I announced a mad-cool 3-book pre-order bundle and a whole lotta people took advantage of the offer.

But, then I got a lot of emails from others saying:

“I’d love to be able to pre-order 3-copies of Uncertainty and give two to friends, but I’m a bit short on change these days. Any chance you could do something special for me if I pre-ordered a single book?”

Short answer…YES! Not only that, I’ve created a bunch of new bundles, give-aways and just posted the first two chapters to read.

Download the Intro & first chapter now.

You can now read the introduction and first chapter of Uncertainty. You don’t need to give me an email or anything. It’s available as an instant PDF download. So, go check it out, read it and share it around. Click on the download link to the right of the video here.

1-Book Pre-Order Experience.

One key element of the 3-book bundle I announced last week was a 6-week training with me. Every week, once a week for 6 weeks, starting around October 15th, you and I will come together on a live conference-line (or webcast for those who prefer it). I will take you deeper into six key areas in the book, explore the strategies and practices on a real-life/implementation level, share updated research with you and spend as much time as I can answering your questions.

What’s the value of something like that? Well, an hour Skype Borrow My Brain consult with me these days starts at $1,000. A skype lunch-n-learn starts at $2,500 and a 1-hour keynote starts at $12,500. And, you’re getting 6-hours of me for around $17, or whatever it costs for you to pre-order your copy of Uncertainty at any bookstore or website that works for you. Click here to learn more & claim your spot.

100 & 500 Book Pre-Order Experience.

Is your company, organization or group getting crushed by a lack of creativity and innovation? Are your people suffering more than they’re creating? If so, the very things you’re doing to try to spark creativity and innovation may be shutting them down. This book, the ideas and strategies in it, and the training experience I can deliver around it may well be your answer. So, I’ve created two special bundles for organizations.

When you pre-order 100 or 500 books now, you will essentially save your company between $2,500 and $10,000 and get me, a boatload of books and a set of strategies and practices that will change how your people live, create, relate and innovate. But, there are only 5 of each offer available. Click here to learn more & claim your event date.

Insane 10,000 Book Mystery Offer –

This is still double-top-secret, but you’ll know in a few days. You will not want to miss the video for this puppy! Even if you have no interest in the offer. Trust me on this…

Let’s Make a Deal –

A bunch of people have asked me if I could create some kind of custom pre-order bundle or experience. I thought about it, then decided, “hey, why not?” So I’ve also added a place for you to make me an offer. Maybe you work with a group of 25 artists or lead a small business or run a book group for the inmates in your cell block. Whatever it is, you can now make me an offer and, hey, we can talk about it! Just click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

The cool thing about each of these pre-order “experience” bundles is that you’re no longer just buying a book, you’re enrolling in an experience, one that not only brings the book to life, but illuminates the ideas, practices and strategies on a whole different level, while allowing you to ask me questions about how to make it all work in your own quest to create great art, business and life.

I love being able to create bigger experiences like this for you guys! Makes me feel good to be able to give you more.

If you feel like sharing these experiences, I’d be grateful.

Today’s guest contributor is former Wall Street Journal and Fortune writer, Erik Calonius. Erik collaborated with Dan Ariely on

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Do you remember that famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy confronts a Tunisian swordsman: The swordsman twirls his weapon menacingly. Indy backs off, perplexed. Then he suddenly brightens, pulls out his pistol, and bang, shoots his opponent dead.

In a newly published memoir, The True Adventures of the World’s Greatest Stuntman, the film’s stunt co-coordinator (and Harrison Ford look-alike), Vic Armstrong, describes how the scene came about.

And with it comes something special–an insight into Steven Spielberg’s special brand of visionary thinking. It happened like this, Armstrong says:

The cast and crew were in Tunisia. It was blisteringly hot. A stunt team had worked for two weeks choreographing an elaborate fight scene between Indy and a hulking swordsman.

But as they presented the scene to Spielberg one morning, a problem arose. “Look, I’m going to shoot whatever I can until three o’clock because then I’m getting out of here,” Armstrong recalls Spielberg saying. Peter Diamond, the stunt coordinator, was dumbstruck. He told Spielberg it would take four days to film the scene. Spielberg would have none of it. “I’ve got a plane coming at three, I’m out of here; I’ve got enough.” Other members of the crew protested, but Spielberg was adamant.

Assistant Director Dave Tomblin stood there in disbelief. “Well, it’s stupid doing the whole routine,” he fumed. “You might as well just shoot the guy with the gun.”

And here comes Spielberg’s visionary moment: There was silence, and then Spielberg brightened. “I’ll tell you what,” he exclaimed. “Let’s try that. Yes, let’s try just shooting him.”

And the rest is history.

The point is this: Some of us might have delayed our flight. Others might have created an elaborate plan to delegate the scene to others. But Spielberg displayed the mark of a true visionary. His thinking was completely out of the box: He grabbed an offhand comment, saw the genius in it and committed to it completely—and that’s what makes visionary thinking what it is.

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Which leads to a whole lot of shtick. Goofy “leave-behinds,”  like squeeze balls, popsicle sticks or M&Ms with your name printed on them. Or events designed purely to get attention.

Problem is, in a world filled with attention-hungry noise, it’s not enough.

Shtick doesn’t stick.

It may be cute. It may provoke a momentary “cool!” or “cuuuute!”

But for a stunt or attention vehicle to lead to business, you need to bundle it or better yet, replace it, with an experience of not only pattern interruption, but relevance, reason and resonance.

• Relevance – the attention-mechanism is actually intrinsically-relevant to the need or desire or the person or company
• Reason – it gives them a reason to (a) prefer your solution over another’s, and (c) buy, and
• Resonance – the impact of the attention mechanism resonates deeply with the recipient and provides independent value.

Anyone can come up with some kind of shticky event or doohicky that stops someone for a moment.

That’s not the challenge.

It’s what they experience and whether they’re compelled to act in a way that benefits both of you after your “intervention” that turns an attention-mechanism into impact and business.

Now, where’d I put that personalized bobble-head order form?

Today, just a year and a half later, it’s a multi-national company with more than 450 franchises sold under the name of Naked Pizza, including a flagship shop in Dubai. It’s on a mission not just to build a giant business, but to prove that healthful and profitable can go in hand in hand.

And it all kicked into high-gear when co-founder and chairman of New Orleans venture marketing company Trumpet, Robbie Vitrano, teamed with the original owners, changed the name to Naked Pizza and swapped its sign out for one that asked people to follow Naked Pizza on twitter.

I had an opportunity to sit down with Vitrano last month and, true to the naked name, he was incredibly transparent about how the team has been able to accomplish an astonishing business transformation and growth rate and what drives them beyond building a cool business.

What follows in an in-depth look at one of the most inspiring conscious business success stories in modern history…

Jonathan Fields: Your personal story is a pretty cool story, as is what you’re doing with Naked Pizza right now so I want to explore both of those things. So let’s step a couple of years back with you. You right now a major figure in this company called Naked Pizza, which is beyond a company, it’s more of a movement. But this isn’t what you’ve been doing for the better part of your life. Take me back to your prior career and tell me what you were up to.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. So the — it’s a bit of an iteration. You know, maybe that’s being too kind. It’s kind of stumbling forward through this advertising career that I’ve been involved with for a better part of my life, about thirty years.

So I started as a copywriter, started, you know, wanting to write the next great print ad and television spot and so you spend your time essentially in trying to apply innovation. I mean that’s essentially what people employ you to do and of course this great big ego fest associated with that or you’re trying to sort of create this issue from everyone. And I think in the process there’s all this great talent and all this great business building and all these great ideas being discussed.

But oftentimes, you get removed from the actual process of building businesses that maybe deserve to be built and perhaps have something to contribute to society that are maybe more considerate of their cause and effect. That maybe the only thing they exist for is not to create wealth or create jobs, but also to have some kind of positive social impact. So you sort of mash that up that it’s sitting in the back of your head and you go into this career and then you get a little bit older, you have children, maybe you each start to sniff around the midlife crisis.

And you start to say, you know, how I can use all these things that have accumulated, this different way of working, these smart people that I’ve had a chance to work with in a way that accomplishes the things that I love about advertising, which is innovation, ideas, use of media, art, words, language. And apply it towards building companies that are actually improving the world, like their core substantial social contribution. And that was something that was sitting on my shoulder for a while. And then and I’m from New Orleans so what I joke about is that, you know, oftentimes in popular conversations, they’ll say, you know, XYZ is having his Katrina moment, well my Katrina moment was Katrina, right.

So you go through that experience and all those things that seem a little far off get a little closer and you start to say if not now, when?

So coming back from Katrina, having an agency of about 45 people, we made some very specific decisions that we were going to work with the people that mattered to us, and in particular those organizations or those companies that were going to be involved in restarting New Orleans. And there’s a whole lot of back-story to that, but essentially, the people who came back were committed to that idea of saying, okay, our city really needs to be reexamined.

This is an opportunity to confront, deal with some of those problems and really ask ourselves what’s our contribution going to be. And my area is business and so if your job is to build businesses, it would be great to build businesses that are going to contribute to not only the recovery of the city, but perhaps in terms of that more macro conversation about whether a business should behave in a more responsible way.

So I got involved with a number of businesses that were involved in recovery, a number of organizations, raised a little bit of money that we can invest in some of those companies. But the sort of the dirty little secret of advertising is that we’re hopeless optimists so we think we can solve any problem with a creative idea, you know, a well termed phrase and you realize actually you need a little bit more than that to start up a company.

So we took a couple of baby companies in, we built out a space in a part of town that had flooded about a 12,000 square foot — a former ice house. And we’re going to use both our physical footprint to catalyze recovery in that area because the place is about — well it’s still about 60% recovered in terms of evacuees coming back into this area, but at the time it was right about 20%.

And then we’d also say, let’s use our talents to contribute to those businesses that are good ideas, but probably need to be further examined, further vetted, and maybe more focused in terms of how they would actually build this business and even scale it.

And it was through that process that I got involved with the original founders of Naked Pizza, which was then called the World’s Healthiest Pizza.

And it was through that kind of energy in the community, myself and a lot of other organizations, an organization I co-founded called Idea Village was involved. It’s kind of a non-profit businesses. And collectively in a very kind of barn-raising way, got involved with the World’s Healthiest Pizza and through about a year and a half of more professional affiliation, we decided to say let’s really do this.

So, let’s form a company, let’s go out and acquire some investors, let’s build a franchising company because we think that’s the right way for us to scale quickly. And so in a little building about 500 square feet that took about six feet of water in Katrina, we launched this idea of saying let’s take one of the world’s most popular and unhealthy fast foods and make it a recipe based on both actualizing ancient diets and also some of the way in nutritional science.

So to make this pizza logically correct and then take a billion dollar business model, the carry-out delivery pizza business model and use it as a Trojan horse to demonstrate that fast food can be part of the solution, and the overall academic of obesity and chronic disease that’s related to diet. And so that sort of brings me to the present.

Jonathan Fields: Right. And it’s really about showing that it’s possible to build business around conscious living, around health and have them be profitable and successful and roll that out; have that have a bigger impact.

Robbie Vitrano: From the very beginning things were a bit odd sized, maybe a little naïve. But it was essentially recognizing that from the very beginning it wasn’t — you know, let’s not go out and add to the confusion or the misinformation around what people have a bit of overinvestment in, the silver bullets that kind of solve the problem with diet and health. But let’s sort of focus on using this kind of very accessible metaphor as a way to reacquaint people with really a biological common sense.

It’s a 200,000-year-old nutritional blueprint that we’ve been following as a human species. And, you know, no one tells a deer how to eat, no one tells a bear how to eat. And so, you would think that the most so-called highly evolved animal you’d think would have some sort of common sense approach to what they should eat and not make themselves sicker or less healthy. But, you know, through a combination of things industrialization, food policy group, dollars and cents, you know, big agriculture, we’ve kind of changed that whole equation to actually create kind of this ocean of food and food like products, as Michael Pollan would call it, that are entirely misaligned with the foods that we’re supposed to eat.

So the idea was if you could use this highly accessible model and this highly accessible food, and demonstrate that you could take this one product and render it in a way that’s much more aligned with the way that anybody is supposed to eat. So a diversity of whole food ingredients, a diversity of fiber sources that feed both the human cells as well as this microbial system that has a lot to say about this nutrition and how vulnerable you are to infection. If you could create that and make that possible with pizza then maybe you could demonstrate that other producers of food and other suppliers of food could do the same and perhaps should be obligated to do the same.

So, we wanted to kind of puncture that myth that I think is perpetuated by people who are probably asking too few questions and maybe a bit too interested in their bottom line about offering products that ultimately harm instead of help in the name of creating so called jobs for capitalists. We think you can do both. Profit and scalability and mission and purpose are all inseparable in our mind. So we did a lot of little bon mots for that. You know, you can’t save the whales unless you can afford the boat, but the come on is that you’re trying to demonstrate this as a viable model.

And we also think maybe a third or more, that the world doesn’t necessarily need another Whole Foods for lack of a better example to sort of preach to the choir. What is kind of missing from the overall equation is outside of that 5% that’s jobs at Whole Foods and some really wonderful companies that are providing that, you know, whether it be Organic Movement or Alice Waters or whomever, there’s a whole host of people both in the US and around the world that really just want access to products, that are convenient, that are affordable that are tasty, but also healthy. So, we figured that not only can we offer this product as a tangible example of it, but we can also use it as an example to create greater engagement, greater activity and hopefully ultimately hold people more accountable than plow the plate.

Jonathan Fields: So I want to kind of deconstruct this a little bit because it’s pretty fascinating what you’re up to.

Robbie Vitrano: Sure.

Jonathan Fields: And so let’s back up a little bit and I want to talk about the business side of it, but also I want to talk about the human side of it. From the business side of it, you come into this thing and right now it’s called Naked Pizza and it’s a franchise model, which is a whole interesting conversation in itself. I don’t know if you want to actually go down that road.

Robbie Vitrano: [Chuckles] Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: But –

Robbie Vitrano: Happy to but, yeah, it’s full of glory and things.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. I’ve actually been in that role very briefly with the last company that I owned so…

Robbie Vitrano: But we can commiserate.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. It’s an interesting place. But it starts out as something called World’s Healthiest Pizza. Now, you’re a guy who’s in the world of marketing, communications, advertising, branding and what’s this name saying to you and tell me why has it evolved to Naked Pizza?

Robbie Vitrano: Well, the original guy, the archeologist and his partner, my partner now who comes from a real estate background, basically said let’s call it what it is. You know, it’s — we essentially made the world’s healthiest pizza so we should call it World’s Healthiest Pizza and the world will beat a path to our door. And what they did right was really focus on making sure there is integrity in the product and that they were able to really make something that delivered a truthful benefit.

What they probably were maybe missing a bit at that time was it was a little too preachy. And so, strike one was that people don’t particularly want to be preached to aggressively. And then secondly was that there’s a bit of a gag reflex associated with health and pizza if it’s too overt.

So you immediately raise a bit of a defense on the part of the customer that they say well if it’s a healthy pizza then it must really taste like shit, so, you know, or a cardboard, would be kind of. But the problem there is that you’re isolating so much of the market that really would dig and really enjoy a healthier pizza if it didn’t feel too medicinal. And the concern in all things like that is that, you know, is the tradeoff just too much.

You know, you’re asking me to abandon too much of what I like and it’s too risky especially if I’m a mother bringing a pizza into the house or bringing one over to my husband or whomever. So it ends up getting kind of pigeon holed as maybe too much of a female product, too much of a different sort of product that you’re making a compromise on taste.

So the thought was, you know, let’s take the good, which is the product really works and you’ve got a ton of attitude, it’s fun and we’re thinking about doing things in a big way. And let’s lower the bar of access a bit without losing the integrity of it. Let’s make it a little more fun, let’s make it a little more accessible. So let’s keep the good and just provide a little bit more of a easy, friendly handshake on the way to helping people understand what’s really important about not only product, but also the relationship with this company. So it took quite a while to get everybody comfortable with this idea of the name change, but I think once we did, it made perfect sense. So, you know, everybody had to come to it in their own time.

Jonathan Fields: Right. And which is interesting because the company is what, about a year or so old at that point?

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. It was about two years old at that time.

Jonathan Fields: And was it one location or more than one location?

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. Actually, they tried a couple of different thoughts there ranging from restaurants to a carryout idea to even playing around with a couple of different products. But the — so that was, you know, the wandering in the wilderness stage, the necessary exploration so were very much part of kind of the laboratory stage. And we still refer to the original location as the lab.

But, yeah, it’s at a time when, you know, you start with a product and then you start thinking, a bit about the business model. But probably we really hadn’t got past the product that we can actually give with a customer at the end stage.

Jonathan Fields: Right. And it’s interesting too because now you know if we flash forward, really it’s not that long ago that we’re talking about that.

Robbie Vitrano: No.

Jonathan Fields: — you were having these conversations. But the growth has been kind of interesting. You come from a much bigger world and probably your perspective is much bigger and much broader. So the notion of changing a name when it’s in one location or two locations or something like that is not a huge deal.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah.

Jonathan Fields: You’re still pretty early in the business cycle. But I’m guessing the guys who started this thing were saying, whoa.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. It’s — I mean I think the idea of going big and introducing scale into it was a part of those conversations. I mean again if you sort of take on this notion that, you start with that very open ended question, what if pizza was good for you, it does provoke you to dream big and think big. So almost by definition, if you’re going to go through that door, you tend to start thinking. If you are thinking about the social implications, you start to think big about this then you start to pay attention to things like that there are billions and billions of dollars of pizza sold, that it is one of the single most popular foods in the world that translates and transcends cultures.

So early on, I guess that reality was in our mind, although, you know, a fairly removed reality given what the company was comprised of and what we’re dealing with at the time, but it did happen in a very quick way. I mean once the ball started rolling and we started to get real focused on what the potential was… And I was excited about the company just because I really just thought, it was a great idea and it was very attractive because it was an opportunity to fly some of the things that I believed to be true. And oftentimes I had a difficult time convincing clients or, you know, the traditional role between ad agency and client convincing those dynamics to move where you’re able to impact all aspects of the business, not just the marketing.

You come in again. So, if you sort of fast-forward to where we are now, now you’re… About 18 months ago was when the idea was saying, okay, what kind of money do we need, what kind of infrastructure do we need to make this thing work. And so it focused on the idea of raising money, of starting to document sort of a business infrastructure, the franchise model, what sort of things did we need in the way of processes, documenting them. And again mechanically, you know, like most you’re not really sure what you don’t know at that stage. And you probably lurched a bit, over rely on advice because there’s always an expert that if we had a nickel for every time somebody came on and said, you know, here’s what you need to do.

But it was through the process of working through that, working with the different individuals involved in this and working through the process of thinking about what it is we wanted it to be and what were the right first steps that again about 18 months ago, we had a pretty clear idea that with a fairly small amount of money, we could articulate the key aspects of this company, focusing in on the carry-out and delivery model, about a thousand square foot box that’s surrounded by about 20,000 homes that you have the ability to deliver pizza to in about 30 minutes.

So, we studied the things that people like Domino’s do very well and we hacked into that model. I mean pure and simple, we didn’t try to reinvent the wheel or we didn’t need to. But the point was that we were making a different promise to people and we are able to keep promise with a product that actually did what it said, it didn’t hurt you, it actually helped you. And so you can get some — you can move very quickly by paying attention to the things that work and not being too eager to reinvent the wheel, and also it’s fairly thrifty.

And then the other piece to that which has, you know, received a fair amount of attention has been the use of social media.

Jonathan Fields: Right.

Robbie Vitrano: And again, social media wasn’t seen as sort of this magic elixir for communication and it wasn’t seen as being, oh, it’s free. What social media was that it represented basically the form of communication and interaction and engagement that was the perfect complement to this sort of business idea. And as you know, we’ve spoken to and I think a lot of other really smart people understand, that businesses that are built from the beginning with an expressed sense of social responsibility that are willing to be more authentic and a little more real and are willing to let go with the brand, are able to and rewarded with engagement that makes social media not only a great way for telling your story and getting it to a lot of people, but it also keeps you honest, which I think is equally important. You know, the social media basically, is the irrefutable truth that comes back at you and says, you know, wow that’s a really great idea or man are you full of shit.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah.

Robbie Vitrano: And give the evidence. That you have an opportunity to correct those things as you iterate the business model ultimately towards building a better relationship with a customer, which is the Holy Grail by any definition.

Jonathan Fields: And it’s funny you say it really keeps you honest. I’ve had the experience of speaking at a conference where the tweet stream or a particular session are being streamed live on a screen next to you. Talk about keeping you honest in real time.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah, exactly. It calls you on it quickly. But it’s refreshing. It’s an interesting way to build a business and I think it’s the way that, you know, people sort of want to but feel like they can’t or felt like they couldn’t build a business in years past. But now, people are again rewarded for doing it this way. And I think there’s a lot of really smart people that are now getting into business that maybe didn’t before because these new tools exist and maybe they needed to get in business before.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. And it’s really interesting because you can get a level of not only engagement but feedback about what’s working and what’s not working at a speed and I think on a level of honesty and integrity that was — it was so difficult just a couple of years ago. If you polled a bunch of people in a room and take them a little bit–

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah, I call them the feedback. And always the old way the focused group.

Jonathan Fields: Right.

Robbie Vitrano: And whether focus groups were right or wrong or whether the survey that the researcher put together for you with your end size sample was right wrong, it never felt real, you know? It’s like you’ve got this phonebook size report back that said that 65% of people like blue.

And you just never felt it, you know. I mean you look at it and think that’s not giving me any inspiration to create something interesting. But when you get a response be it Twitter or Facebook and people tell you a little bit more about it, you can follow up with a direct conversation, which we’ll do often. I find that much more inspiring to do better work. You know, it just feels more real. So again, I think it’s often just to me is the ultimate competitive edge and I believe it is. And if it’s what helps you kind of get up in the morning a little bit earlier and work a little bit later because sometimes you need to, I like that social media sort of mainlines that mentality in a way that I think is again good for good ideas.

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. And it’s interesting too because a lot of the concern for people especially entrepreneurs or not even so much entrepreneurs but larger brands that are concerned about entering the whole world of social media is the loss of control of their message.

Robbie Vitrano: Right.

Jonathan Fields: And there is a fear and that is a reality. You have to do it and put it out there and let it go and morph in sort of be spread the way it’s spread. But what you’re talking about is the really the flipside of that which is you get so much back if you’re willing to engage in the conversation and listen and respond.

Robbie Vitrano: Right. And I think, you know, to that too, we’ve thought about that quite a bit and I think, which you also have to be honest about is whereas we make a lot of speeches about the brand isn’t what we say it is, it’s what the customer says it is and it’s a consumer controlled media platform. But I think what really makes business ideas work and what makes social media work is that you’re able to express your point view in a clear way. So you’re still compelled to put forth your point of view. It’s not like you’re just sitting there like some kind of Gumby marketer or a business developer.

And just waiting for somebody to tell you what to do. In fact, there’ll be no respect in that anyway. So you still are compelled to sort of demonstrate why you deserve to exist.

So, it’s always peculiar to me. I get it because of the bureaucracy that exists in larger companies and more traditional companies. But I don’t think we’re dealing with any more vulnerability today than they did ten years ago. I just think it’s just a little more confounding to them. And maybe also at the root of it is, you know, a lot of the people that are intimated by social media are people that work really hard to trivialize it and although, it’s funny to trivialize, don’t throw the baby out of the bath wall, I think is the point that they’re missing so…

Jonathan Fields: Yeah. So let’s circle back to what’s actually happened with the company over the last two years or so. Tell me about what’s happening growth-wise. Where did you start, where are you at now and where are you going?

Robbie Vitrano: Well, so 18 months ago, actually about 12 or 10 months ago, we were still a single location business. One it’s not even 500 square feet, it’s 496 square foot, cinder block building that had a big chunk of glass missing out of the front window. But out in front, we took down the sign that said Naked Pizza and replaced it with a sign that said, Follow Us on

Twitter. Did that in the later part of 2009 and that was kind of our first volley across the, or at least our first shot across the bow kind of picked by TechCrunch and Mashable and really kind of set us going and really kind of opened our eyes to the possibilities.

Shortly after that, you had people like Mark Cuban get involved and the Kraft family, not Kraft Foods, but the family that owns the New England Patriots. Both are bona fide billionaires for what that’s worth. But they put a very small amount of money into this, this has largely been a bootstrap operation, but what they did was validate it, they credentialized the idea. And, you know, Mark Cuban is not a sentimental guy, but I think they all liked the idea that this — you know, and crack on the wall.

And so from there, we were up and running. We got enough money to go out and put basically, a franchise document together so we could qualify to issue franchises throughout the United States.

And the other thing that started happening around that time, we started to receive not only some major media play. Well, “The New York Times” was the first major article. We’re covered in Rob Walker’s “Consumed” column. But a number of other major publications and media started to cover us in addition to a number of blogs and online media sources. And that contributed to literally thousands of inquiries about investment and franchising. Now, that number is up to six thousand inquiries, which is a heavy level of interest. And the most important part at that point again, you know, to sort of making it up as we go was vending properly. We wanted the right people in the floor.

And, you know, it’s clear that our money wasn’t the same. And what was extraordinary, remember this was the middle of the recession, right. Although, I guess it ended, but we didn’t know about it yet. But here we were in the time where there was not capital available through traditional lending sources and small businesses were drying up, unemployment was at or above 10%. And what you found is there was a ton of money parked on the sidelines by really smart people and they were very interested in finding a way to use their money in a way that had more of a social contribution.

And the other thing that most of these people who came in the door had their personal experience. They stories about family members who either were suffering from obesity or type II diabetes mellitus or digestive diseases like Crohn’s. So, they had these personal stories that they really wanted to do something about. So we started to select as best as we could through the vending process people that we thought would be great partners for us that had the combination of dollars and understanding of social media and the heart to help us to start to bring this concept out of the garage.

The first stores started to open around the summer of 2010. So in a little bit less than a year, we started to open up the doors in our first stores. The first store that opened was in Miami at South Beach right in the heart of South Beach. We had developer there, somebody had a lot of experience in multi-unit and what that did was that brought people literally from all over the world to come check out the space.

And from there, we started to really dial in as to what type of people we want to do business with. By the end of 2010, we had about 450 stores under contract. Meaning 450 stores had been claimed by paying a franchise fee by developers to secure territory rights for stores. And now, they’re on a schedule that obligated them to open stores in a specific amount of time. So, that’s all very contractually documented.

Around that time, we also had, the gentleman’s name was Ian Ohan, hopped on a jet in Dubai, fly to Houston, jumped on a motorcycle in Houston and rode to New Orleans and tried to convince us that Dubai was the perfect place for our first international store. And furthermore, tried to convince us that international — we should move into international right away, which seemed absolutely perfectly absurd at the time.

So in August of 2010, we flew to Dubai the first time for all us. And what we found there, I mean in addition to 120-degree temperature was a place that although was reeling from the recession, which truly was, you know, basically this marketplace for business development in a part of the world that’s about 80% ex-pats. Essentially people are there to do business. So there was this crush of money and business development and interests, just capitalism on steroids was there. And so that unleashed another huge round of invested, or interested investors from the international stage. So, from the point, we agreed that we would do something in Dubai. Dubai is the way Emirate Airlines speaks to it. It’s about 6 hours away from 4 billion people, which makes it pretty attractive.

Not the least of which being, you know, the major markets of India and China, and India being one of the hottest markets for growth. And incidentally, in both Dubai as well as in parts of India that are experiencing, rapid growth, now they’re being afflicted by the same issues you see in the States in fact to a greater degree. So congratulations, our modern society is inflicting the Western diet upon the developing world as well to where obesity rates are now exceeding the US, type II diabetes rates are exceeding per capita the US. Dubai has a number two per capita.

So the brand fit well there. So while we were opening up brands throughout the US over the last year, we ended 2010 with about 12 stores open.

And we opened in January of 2011 our first store in Dubai in the Dubai Marina. And what was extraordinary about the experience was that the opening of that store coincided with the first revolts of protests that were happening across the Middle East initially in Algeria but in Egypt it was starting to kind of rock and roll and then spread throughout Syria and Yemen and throughout. What was interesting to see was that, our company, which was largely social media based at a time when these revolts which were all being fueled by social media, that sort of notion of politics and culture and commerce. You know, that social media was transcending these issues amongst the population that was primarily young, very interested in voice and participation.

So, what — you know, not in a validated way but in a way that seems pretty obvious to us was that our brand represented a brand that that newly engaged population could own. They loved that they could play with the brand and touch it. So we went out to the community in Dubai and we reached out to the entrepreneurial community, the tech community, the social media community. We even showed up as keynotes at health fairs, which featured doctors and medical professionals and then some pizza guys, you know, talking about the holistic response to health issues in society.

And that was rather extraordinary just to see the response and the success of that store in Dubai, the second one is opening next week and to see the response and reaction. We even documented that in a video piece that we produced that captures the story in other people’s words. We used the direct words from social media. And not highly curated lift on them. You know, we sort of took the innovation, just published it and it’s rather really long.

So, this year in 2011, we’ll open about five stores per month through the remainder of this year. So we’ll end the year somewhere between 60 and 70 stores open between the US and Dubai. We have several new markets that are coming on right now in addition to the 450. So we’ll be somewhere around 500 or 600 stores under contract. Philadelphia is coming on, Kansas City. We’ll be opening up in Manhattan in June. We have letters of intent for India, Australia, Japan, a few other countries.

So right now, it’s the process of focusing on, on the operational issues and the training and inculcating this culture with our partners in the franchise world. And we’re also going to be doing a couple of interesting projects. In particular, we’ll be the operator of stores in Phoenix. Phoenix, which you may or may not know is one of the more prolific and successful delivery pizza markets. And in fact we have a real, on view as we say for hot deserty places. But Phoenix sort of works out as the place that fits the model nicely.

We also kind of like the fact that they were spanked pretty hard by the recession as well so we’re making a pretty significant investment. We’re going to open up five or six stores right off the bat over the next couple of months. We’re going to put a training facility there. And we’re starting to reach out to the social media community, the technology community, the entrepreneurial community and we’re starting to get a really great response.

So much like Dubai, over a two or three-month period by the time we open up the store, we expect that we’ll have a great group of sort of advocates and like minds, not necessarily customers but people that help us do what we do and that we enjoy engaging with and learning from. And then we’ll start to you know focus more on the customers around individual stores. And through that network, we’ll start to do the things that we do pretty well, which is again start to take our product, which basically does what it says it’s going to do, but also is meant to be an example of some things that you can do a bit differently even in the terms of the questions you ask for business or the products that you consume.

Jonathan Fields: I mean it’s a pretty incredible journey in a remarkably short period of time and I’m blown away by what you guys have accomplished. I love businesses where people step up and say, you know what, we want to really do good, but for us to be able to do good on the level we want to do good, we also have to do well, and then we have to prove to other people that they can do well at the same time.

So the way you’re going about it, it just really strikes a chord with me and I’m back there saying go, go, go. I think it’s an amazing model also not just for what you’re doing, but you’re setting an example business model wise for a whole bunch of different entrepreneurs and the potential people who are on the front lines to step and say, you know, maybe I can go in with my money and do well and do good at the same time.

Robbie Vitrano: Yeah. It’s cool. But you can demonstrate that. I think there’s some great — I mean, you know, I was listening recently that corporate profits are at an all time high and there’s so much money that’s pent up right now that it’s being stopped in terms of how it’s being deployed whether it’s hiring within companies or investing. It is because there’s still just a lot of fear out there. And I think by demonstrating what the new marketplace looks like and maybe helping to redefine how people are successful in it. And there are so many companies that I think that are doing similar things and helping to demonstrate that if you can prove that it’s not just a — you know, it’s not a feel-good, it’s not a soft business idea, but that it can be accountable to the bottom line, but also create the kind of world that you like to bring your kids up in then there’s not a lack of capital out there.

There’s probably a lack of belief and will. So, yeah. I mean the stuff that I talked about with Alex in his show it was fun to see how he’s applying his advertising background to create a profit brand around ideas that need the attention and need the care and the customization. I think in the advertising industry alone as I spoke on a panel about this a few years ago when I introduced Naked Pizza to a New York audience was really amongst that small group at the time that I think it’s continuing to grow.

Advertising people are kind of in the middle of the action. You know, it’s up to them to maybe speak the truth, you know, the power while they’re in that position or that situation. But if you recognize what the market wants and you can demonstrate that it’s a viable business idea, I think there’s just enormous resources out there that could be deployed in a very, very different way than the past, but a very successful way nonetheless and really kind of fit the reality of this post recession, post mass media world.

When we’re looking for answers, solutions to problems and big ideas that will help us get where we want to go, though, we want the bee line approach. Strip it down. Give it to me fast and direct so I can do something with it.

But there’s a problem. when we have to pay real money for the latter, all hell breaks lose in the value-volume calculation in our heads.

Surveys show we now consider time our most precious resource, even over money. Yet all too often, we look for the biggest, baddest, most voluminous, time-consuming solution we can find for the money, assuming that the option with the greatest volume will provide the greatest value.

Manufacturers and marketers know this is how our brain’s work. And to take advantage of this irrational quirk, they create products, solutions and, gulp, books, that seem to present with the greatest “heft” for the money, even when they could have solved the problem or delivered the message in a substantially more streamlined format. One Legendary marketer calls this the “thud” factor, or the sound you want your package to make when it’s delivered and hits the table.

A thud, our brains tell us, is worth more than a whisper.

Volume and value.

Seemingly directly related, but in truth, often inversely related…when the currency is time and we’re in pain.

When we take money out of the equation, we all look for the greatest value in the shortest possible time when looking for solutions. Makes sense, we don’t want to waste a second more than we need to.

But when we introduce money into the equation, we turn rationality on it’s head. Now we search for ways to give up the greatest amount of time—a far more precious, non-replenishable asset—in the name of “getting our money’s worth.”

Thus the “Value-Volume Paradox.”

Perfect example, a story I’ve heard many variations of over the years…

A man walks into a dentist’s office, gets a checkup and learns he needs a tooth pulled. The dentist says it’ll take about 10 minutes and cost $1,000. The man says that’s a hell of a lot of money for 10 minutes work, to which the dentist replies, “I can make it take an hour if you like.”

So what’s the solution?

Abandon the quest for heft, embrace the quest for time-efficient value.

The greatest value is often capable of being delivered in tiny packages…if both provider and receiver are open to a relationship defined not by maximum volume/dollar, but maximum impact/dollar.

Or, as Good Ink, Inc. founder, Taylor Lindstrom, says in her twitter profile -

“I don’t charge for copy by the hour. I charge by the awesome. Which makes me expensive, but also – and this is critical – awesome.”

Thoughts?

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You know the thinking behind the much touted elevator speech. You’re supposed to figure out how to sum up your business in an intriguing way so it can be said between the 4^th and 7^th floor just in case someone asks you what you do. Trust me, you’ll never be asked what you do in an elevator; you’ll be lucky if someone even returns your guarded nod.

Of course elevator pitches are meant for networking events and other chance encounters with people who, gasp, might want to hire you to do whatever it is you do. The theory is it has to be brief or you’ll lose their interest; it has to be pithy so they will remember you.

For example, if you’re an accountant something like “I help non-profits track their profits and losses” might get someone to pay attention more than if you simply said “I’m an accountant.” Or, using myself as an example, I might say “I help people turn their dreams into words,” instead of simply saying “I’m a writing coach and ghostwriter.”

There’s certainly nothing wrong with getting crystal clear on what you have to offer and the elevator pitch might help you with that.

That clarity is a must if you’re to be successful. Mark Silver of Heart of Business does an excellent job helping people identify what it is they are actually doing. I tell writers Every writing project needs a purpose statement.

Being able to boil that purpose down to a few words is a worthy exercise for itself. But frankly, expecting to use it in elevators, on the subway, over the phone, at a networking event or in any face-to-face or most virtual communications with other people is bound to lead to disappointment, particularly if you expect it to reliably lead to more business.

What really leads to new business is your connection with people. Communication is, by definition, between two people – one listens while the other talks then, ideally, the process is reversed. To attract a client you’ve got to convince them you can solve their problem which means you have to listen to them closely enough to understand what their problem actually is. It’s about them, and how you can be of service, if indeed you can.

Sure, you need clients, but when you come from that needy place, you’ll end up with no clients or those who need you to work for free or darn close to it.

When, however, you listen deeply, even in an elevator, when you’re more interested in helping  than in getting, a couple of things happen.

First, people love to be listened to. Think about it. You know when someone really hears what you say. You also know if they are metaphorically biting their fingernails planning how they will talk when it’s their turn. Notice which you prefer – and know you’re not alone.

Next, because you’ve listened, and maybe even asked a question or two so you understand their problem more thoroughly, you’re actually in a position to know if you can help and how. Often that  means you’ll be suggesting a resource or another person who can do what needs to be done, with no apparent benefit to you. Sometimes the help you offer may actually be the service you provide and if your response convinces the person you’re talking with you can solve their problem they are likely to hire you.

Either way, both of you are better off. You’ve left the person you’re chatting with in a better place than they were before you met and you know you’ve come from the heart. If it’s a gig you land it’s likely to go well because you came from a helping, supportive, listening place; if it’s not, you’ll know that the world a better place just because you’re in it and responding.

I suggest instead of an elevator pitch you start with ‘hello.’ Then listen and see where the conversation naturally goes.

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Anne Wayman is a writing coach, ghostwriter and blogger at AboutFreelanceWriting.com and WhenGrandmotherSpeaks.com