If you prefer to watch instead of read, check out the embedded video blog.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8cwaspD7s

1) BlueGurus.com has a new look!  We do this every year, usually in December when things are quieter for the holidays.  We update the “theme” every year to show how easy it is to re-brand your website every 3-5 years without having to redo all your content.  The content lives in WordPress, and all you have to do is set up and configure a new theme to completely change the look of your site.

2) There is a new Blue Guru on our team… please welcome Melissa Zarda!  Yes, she is related to “the” Zardas of Kansas City’s Zarda BBQ.  Actually, that is how I met Melissa initially… we were working on the Zarda BBQ WordPress web site together.  Since then we have done Spay & Neuter KC together and I am happy to have her on the team.  She is a great WordPress web site developer and hit the ground running on multiple projects that we are working on, including a new web site for Mike Pasley and his team at Central Packaging.  (The new site is not done yet, but we will put it in our portfolio when it is complete)

3) A recent study shows that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook or Twitter.  This is something that we knew in practice for years, but it is nice to see some data to back it up for those of you “metrics” people out there.  Follow this link to the article on HubSpot.

4) Hometown Threads Embroidery for embroidering your company logo on just about any fabric, including shirts, briefcases and more.

It always makes me chuckle a bit because I wonder what prompted him or her to make that statement and I’ve been around long enough to know how many knee jerk decisions don’t ever get implemented.

So if you get that question, you can be politically correct and say “Great, boss! That’s exciting! Let’s do it!” . But once you are done with that, you really should start asking some questions that don’t always have easy answers, such as: 

1. WHY? (the most important and underutilized question in business today)

2. What do you mean when you say we need to be “all over social media”? 

3. How often, or do you even use, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn?

4. What do you think being “all over social media” will do for the company?

5. Are you ready for, and committed to, the entire company undergoing a massive culture change? (Social media absolutely, positively is tied to changing the culture internally and externally. And in most organizations, a real “culture check review” hasn’t happened in a long time…or ever.)

6. Who do you think in the company needs to be involved in this social media effort? Why? (there’s that question again)

7. What do you think social media is all about?

8. Are you committed to executing the social media plan that we come up with, even if that could mean redistributing workload, adding staff, changing processes, and more?

9. Do you understand that you don’t just start “doing social media” and sales come flying in the door?

10. Do you think you will start writing blog articles and that your audience (who you likely haven’t been communicating to consistently for years) is going to read everything you post and then pick up the phone and want to buy?

11. How long are you committed to doing this?

12. Do you realize that the concept of ROI with social media is still being debated? (clearly not as many businesses would be engaged in social media if there wasn’t ROI, but getting your arms around the fact that much of the ROI isn’t measurable is the hard part for most C-level types).

Once you get the answer to those questions, then you’ll really know if your CEO/Owner/Manager/Fill In The Blank Leadership Position is really ready to “be all over social media” or if this will go in the pile of “great ideas that we were never fully committed to”. 

Although our journey of developing a social media program for LPF is still in its infancy, the Blue Gurus have been invaluable in getting us to connect the dots and realize the importance of social media in our sales efforts.  We have seen measurable results since starting our relationship with Jason and Mic. The Blue Gurus are also trusted consultants to our company having guided us in crafting our IT strategies as well.
- Jim Stuelke, CEO and President, LPF High Performance Coatings

Jason has worked with Jim Stuelke and the team at LPF High Performance Coatings since 2003. Besides being a trusted resource, Jason and Jim are good friends. Looking at the old and new pictures below, you will be able to tell it was definitely time for a new web site!

Jason worked directly with Dana Brown, VP of Sales, to create the new site. Because Jim is a K-State alum, the color purple is incredibly important to him and to the branding of LPF High Performance Coatings. 

Now that LPF High Performance Coatings has a site that they are proud of, they are updating their blog weekly and reaching their vendors and customers in new and exciting ways.

Terri’s husband, Mike Hurd, is the Director of Marketing for The Downtown Council of Kansas City. So when Terri heard that The Downtown Council of Kansas City needed a new web site, she not only let Jason know, but she set up the meeting too! Three other firms had submitted quotes, and after an hour with The Downtown Council team, Jason earned the business.

The key factors were as follows:

1. The collaborative nature of how Blue Gurus does WordPress web site projects ON SITE over 4-5 half-day sessions per week.

2. Timing – Blue Gurus could get the project done faster than every other company they were looking at.

3. Price – The final price for Blue Gurus was half the cost of what the other proposals were.

Since launching the site, we have worked with The Downtown Council of Kansas City every month on their web site and social media efforts. We’ve added new functionality, changed things around, and made the site better. We think this is an important lesson for all companies. Your site is a living, breathing, “thing” and you need to routinely give it the attention that it deserves. Especially when blogging…and The Downtown Council of Kansas City does an excellent job with a team-based approach to blogging.

Finally, every single person on The Downtown Council team contributed to the final site. They were responsible for their own content and they all learned how to add content themselves using WordPress.

Prior to Blue Gurus, Bistro 303′s website was not user friendly. It was idle and unchanged for years. After hiring Blue Gurus, I am able to update and change with ease. And with using their advice on Social Media sites, we have actually been able to grow and improve sales in this ever changing economy. – Jeffrey Schmitz, Owner, Bistro303

One Spring day, Mic and his wife Missy, as they often do on Saturdays, went to the Kansas City River Market to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables. After they had gathered their goodies for the day, they wanted to grab lunch. They went back and forth on a location and then Missy said, “Hey, let’s go to Jeffrey Schmitz’s restaurant, Bistro 303!” So how did thet know Jeffrey Schmitz? Well, Mic went to grade school and high school with Jeffrey and his sister Lori was in Mic’s class.

So off to Bistro 303 they went. Mic and Jeffrey hadn’t seen each other in awhile so they spent some time catching up. Jeffrey asked Mic what kind of work he was in and during the conversation Mic mentioned that Blue Gurus does WordPress web site projects ON SITE with clients and typically are done in 4 half-day sessions. Jeffrey mentioned that his web site was old, needed to be updated badly, and that he was frustrated that he didn’t have control over the content when he wanted to make changes to menus, etc.

Mic explained that WordPress solved all of those problems. Before Mic and Missy left after lunch (By the way, the Croque Madame sandwich–and all of their food–is delicious!), Jeffrey agreed to moving forward with Blue Gurus for a new web site.

Oh, and one more “small world” note: While working on the project, Mic and Jason (owner of Blue Gurus) discovered that they had both worked for Jeff’s dad at Godfather’s Pizza in Wichita during their high school years! How crazy is that?

Mic noticed that the blog was written very well and was very informative. He also noticed that Lori’s email address was at the top of the post. So Mic sent an email to Lori complimenting her writing style and suggesting that she should be blogging regularly for her company too. The two exchanged a few more emails and then decided to meet. Mic and Lori hit it off instantly.

During the conversation, Lori mentioned that the first thing that KCIM needed was a new web site. She had a $30,000 proposal on her desk from another local company. Mic explained that Blue Gurus does WordPress web site projects ON SITE and that we would get the bulk of the work done over 5-6 half day sessions at her office for about a third of what the other company quoted her. Lori asked for a proposal and a day later we got the signed contract and dove into the project together.

So, as is often the case, I suggested we meet at one of my favorite spots, The Blue Moose, in Prairie Village. (It’s the perfect spot for me. It’s close to home. It’s got BLUE in the name. And it’s where Jason and I first talked about working together.)

We had a great conversation, sharing life and business experiences, talking about the way we believe business should be done, and talking about how we might work together. Later that day, I followed up with an email thanking him for the time and I shared a couple of blog articles that I thought he’d enjoy (I’m Just Trying To Get Away From People That Suck and 10 Reasons Why Your Business Should NOT Be On LinkedIn)

He replied back and told me that he printed off both articles and handed them out in his latest sales meeting. He also said he talked to his boss about the possibility of hiring me to do some LinkedIn training together soon.

A few minutes later he sent me another email that made my day…heck, made my week. I want to share it with you now. My honest and sincere hope is that you think about this entire interaction as I’ve described it and see what business lessons (of which there are many) you can take from this story and apply in your own personal and professional lives.

As always, thanks for reading and supporting Blue Gurus. Ok, here’s the email:

“I forgot to mention in my last email, that I implemented one of your concepts today with my sales manager and it worked to perfection. I won’t go into a long story via email (I’ll tell you more the next time we are together), but essentially my manager came to me today asking how he should “spin” a controversial situation to the rest of our sales team because he was worried about how they would react. I thought about my answer before responding to him, and then I told him about meeting you and how important it is to be open with employees and communicate with them as opposed to putting blinders on or avoiding certain topics.

So I asked him, “Why can’t we just have a professional conversation with them, explain the situation, ask them if they have any concerns, and address them right then and there?” He took my advice (actually your advice), had the tough conversation with the team, it went over very well, they seemed to appreciate the direct approach, all questions were immediately addressed, and then we moved on. It was amazing how effective that approach was, as opposed to the old “politically correct” tap dancing approach that corporate and management usually takes. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you thank you and your techniques work!”

Part of what Jason and I do every day in our roles as Social Media Coaches is consuming information. Not only do we like to, but we HAVE to because the world of social media changes at an unbelievably fast pace.

New social media platforms are popping up every day (Google+, Pinterest, etc.) and it’s our job to determine which of these may “stick” (and have the potential for adding value to our clients) and which are just platforms that superusers get excited about because they provide competition to “the Big 3″…Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

One thing I have believed for awhile now is that video is going to continue to grow in popularity. Many of you may know already that YouTube is the #2 ranked search engine (behind Google, which, not so ironically, owns YouTube).

We’ve seen numerous articles and videos over the last 2-3 years that have been predicting the increased use of video and some larger companies/brands have already done it (Does the Old Spice guy ring a bell?). We believe that 2012 is the year when video will play a larger role in the content marketing strategies of companies…both large and small.

I’ve talked to Jason about this numerous times over the last year and so he dove in and made this short video below. Take a look and let us know what you think. You are going to see a lot more video from Blue Gurus in 2012 and we’re excited to share our thoughts and expertise in a more “live” setting.

If you have trouble viewing the video, click this link.

What I want to share with you today is that the award wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the person who was the inspiration for this blog post and who is, without question, one of the smartest people I know in Kansas City.

Now he doesn’t even know that I’m writing this, because if he did, he probably wouldn’t have wanted me to. So I’m being sneaky here…at least, of course, until this post shows up in his email inbox and is blasted across all of our social media accounts.

I’m sharing these with you after my observations of working with him for the last two years. This list is far from exhaustive, but it’s a GREAT start if you and your business are looking for ideas as you set goals for 2012.

So, without further adieu, let me share “10 Business Lessons From One Of The Smartest People I Know In Kansas City”:

Jason Terry, Principal of Blue Gurus

1. Lead by example. At the same time, take a vested interest in helping others develop personally and professionally.

2. Be passionate every day about what you do. It makes a world of difference…and a difference in the world.

3. Help someone every day. In fact, help SEVERAL people every day. Make it a habit.

4. Communicate clearly, openly and honestly with people. Nothing builds trust in a relationship quicker.

5. Be exceptionally reliable. Do what you say you are going to do. EVERY TIME.

6. Be confident in what you do and how you do it, while at the same time being wise enough to know you don’t have all of the answers.

7. Proactively and consistently recognize great work, great deeds, and great people. (Did you know that Jason has 56 Recommendations on LinkedIn? That’s more than anyone I’ve ever seen. Even more impressive than that? He’s GIVEN 75 Recommendations. I challenge you to find ANYONE on LinkedIn that has given more.)

8. The little things aren’t so little. (I think of the award Jason gave me, the blog article he wrote, the lunches he picks up when we’re working together, the bonus that he distributes at year-end, the technology that he equips me with so I can do my job effectively every day, how he routinely takes the time to tell me how much he appreciates me and the work that I do, and the conversations we have about business and life. To all of you in leadership positions out there, the positive ROI of genuinely caring for, and investing in, your employees, is impossible to quantify.)

9. Being a part of a team and collaborating is far more rewarding, fun, and just plain smarter than doing it alone.

10. Be the solution. (I’m constantly amazed at how many times I’ve seen someone pose a question or a problem and Jason jumps in and says “Yes, we can help you with that!” Sometimes he doesn’t have the answer, but he knows he will find it.)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on other great people in Kansas City (or anywhere for that matter) and the lessons you’ve learned from them throughout your career. Share them in the Comments section below for all visitors to enjoy.

For the past 2 years, Mic and I, along with our wives, get together for a Holiday Party Celebration.  The big twist this year was that I presented Mic with the Blue Gurus 2011 Employee of the Year award.  For those of you who know us well, that statement might make you chuckle.  For those of you who don’t know us as well, there are only two people that work for Blue Gurus.  Mic and I.

The important message that I wanted to give to Mic is how much he is appreciated.  The important message I want to impart with this blog post is that no matter how small or big your company is, you MUST take the time to recognize and appreciate the people that make your company successful.

Mic is coming up on his two year mark working for Blue Gurus.  In that time, he has brought a considerable amount of passion, knowledge and relationship to the table.  Two brains are almost always better than one, and it is clear to me that we are a better company today because of Mic’s efforts.  Mic and I work very well together.  I am an energetic entreprenuer jumping from idea to idea and he is an excellent implementation and list person.  More often than not, the final decision to our discussion is usually a blend of both of our input.  I appreciate Mic so much.

So what are you doing with your staff this year?  Dinner?  Awards?  Are you doing something creative to recognize them?  Special parking spot?  Red hot chili pepper over their desk?  Cash?  Comment below and let us know the cool things you are doing for the great people helping you succeed!