"I've Got a Golden Ticket!"

My new friend @Ribeezie direct messaged  me, (also known as “DM”), on Twitter this morning and told me to “Now bring back some of that good stuff and share ” about Zappos Insights inaugural conference.  Zappos, a billion dollar online commerce destination, is known for their leadership in customer service.  Insights was created as an educational forum to guide entrepreneurs to successfully attain milestones. It was a privilege to be a part of their LIVE event, a revolution in leadership and corporate happiness. One of the speakers at the event, social media maven Brian Solis,  said it perfectly, “In the end we’re measured by our actions, not our words.”

Three huge takes aways from the event that will transform the productivity and efficiency in our organizations.

1. Share….Stop self promoting and start listening. Share information that you know delivers value because you have been listening. Whether it be employees, personal relationships, twitter followers or facebook friends. The way to effectively intrigue people to  take action is fueled by being inspired.
2. Discover your foundation before you start building.… The most crucial component in determining success in a company and in your personal development is first discovering what matters to you most.; Your core values.  It starts with you, outside of your professional life. The business owner behind closed doors.  When you look in the mirror what do you see? Integrity, Transparency, Adventure… Deceit…? In order to grow we must be honest with ourselves.  It is so clear to me now that if I had taken the time to discover, write down, and share my core values with my team  it would have reduced management, increased productivity and complimented my company vision. But instead I found ego was something in my company that created road blocks for our success. What’s interesting is ego is so far from my personal values. If I had taken the time to write down what’s important to me, I would have quickly discovered my team mate  strayed from our core values and that situation could have been remedied with eloquence and efficiency.

Zappos Core Values: Direct Link

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

3. Half of the world is searching for the other half of the world, but don’t know how to find them.  Brian Solis emphasizes that before even planning an online marketing strategy establish your identity. Most brands don’t even strategize, they just jump on a band wagon. But lets say you are developing a strategy, before that DISCOVER your identity that you plan to communicate in this strategy. I LOVE that Brian reinforced this. I hadn’t even thought of charting out my brand identity before planning. I figured my identity is obvious. Surf brand means you’re a surfer right? No, not necessarily. You must establish your brand to stand for something. A Cause. Something bigger and selflLESS than selling a pair of board shorts.

Establish your brand identity

I am absolutely exhilarated to to be visiting the Zappos headquarters tomorrow in Vegas. My company team has been vigorously studying the phenomenal Zappos culture which we do our best to emulate each day. I have personally been a fan of Zappos since about 2002 after discovering the site was the fastest loading site on the web. Being the geek that I am I was fascinated and had to know how they did it. I think their upload time was under 3 seconds and with a homepage full of graphics. Completely impressive.

Zappos.com is all about their WOW effect “delivering ‘WOW’ through service”. From their lightening speed delivery times, Monopoly Game, Culture Book, sending flowers to a grieving customer, 100% satisfaction guarantee free return policy, upload times, in house Life Coach – Dr Vik! and now Zappos Insights helping businesses achieve “The Road to a Billion and Beyond.”… Zappos WOWs me.

A little something from their Monopoly “Wow” cards:

“Take a leap of faith on a new venture, pay each player $50″

“Take a step outside of your comfort zone, collect $150″

“Reap the reward of taking a risk, collect $50″

"The Road to a Billion and Beyond"

Future Billionaire Girl in the making!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo_sBQGiRLc]

Okay so this week at South by Southwest I went to “Getting Things Done the Simple Way” taught by John Zeratsky. I was not going to miss it. I rolled out of bed forgoed brushing my teeth or an awesome Austin shower to rush to the panel in order to achieve the treasure hunt of eliminating my email count and all my “contacters” feeling victory in receiving attention to their email. I mean if Tony Hsieh, CEO of the greatest customer service company ever Zappos.com and one of the most attentive entrepreneurs I’ve meet Gary Vaynerchuk can resend to 1000 plus emails a day, well then so can I! So I will keep you posted on what system I figure out works for me so I can “put a little Zappos in my day,” BUT in the meanwhile watch this. A little treat from Gary Vee and my tech crush Kevin Rose. (Who doesn’t crush on Kevin Rose?)