An Interview with Laura Vanderkam
By Jose Palomino, September 2010

I recently read 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam and I found that it spoke a great and new truth regarding time and life management connected to time. Her book pulls out some seemingly obvious facts about time – and places them into a fresh context. It provides a new framework that is powerfully liberating for anyone (like me) who’s been trying to put 2 gallons of life and work into a 1 gallon jug.

I’ve mentioned this book on other blog posts and tweets over the last few months. It brings a fresh perspective to a topic every “do-er” wrestles with: time. Laura’s book has received some great praise, including:

• “In 168 Hours…Laura Vanderkam, a highly regarded journalist and mother of two young sons, shows that it is possible to take your career to the next level while having a full personal life. “It isn’t easy, but it is doable as long as you actively choose how to spend your time the way you want.” –Cali Williams Yost, Fast Company
• “While 168 Hours certainly gets up in your business for wasting time, it’s not some dull or preachy book about time-management: It’s a compellingly written, logical argument against the emotional complaint “I’m too busy,” presented alongside practical advice and an engaging collection of time-use tricks.” –Christine Whelan, The Huffington Post

All the more reason I was so pleased that I recently connected with Laura and discussed her book and future focus.  The Interview is in three parts.

Part 1: It’s a Choice

Laura, our readers are people getting things done and, I think, looking for ways to change the world. So first off, Laura, why did you think to write this particular book at this time in your life?

When my first son was born in 2007, like many new parents, I tried to figure out how to make the pieces of my life fit together. So I set out to write about the “time crunch.” But every time I tried to track down numbers that would prove it, things became slippery.

Eventually, I realized that was because much of the talk about how overworked and sleep deprived Americans are, is misleading, and is based on our worst days, not our average ones. I also started doing the math.

If there are 168 hours in a week, and you work 40 and sleep 56 (8 per night) that leaves 72 hours for other things. Even if you work 50, that leaves 62. This is a lot of time. So why do people claim that there isn’t time to build a career, raise a family and have a life? I set out to explore that question.

• • • Total Hours per Week: 168
    • Work: 50
    • Sleep: 56
    • Everything Else: 62

As a young mom and a professional writer, was the subject of time and achievement something you have always thought about? Or did something specific prompt you to think about this now?

Certainly motherhood put the topic in my head. But the more I ponder these issues, the more I realize that I’ve never liked the idea of claiming we “can’t” do things because of some nebulous force, like lacking time. Better to realize that much of life is a choice, and if something isn’t working, we can choose to live differently.

Next… Part 2: A New Old Idea

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Laura Vanderkam is the author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (Portfolio, 2010) and Grindhopping: Build a Rewarding Career without Paying Your Dues (McGraw-Hill, 2007). She is a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors, and her work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Scientific American, Wired, The American, Portfolio and other publications. Laura also blogs at http://www.my168hours.com/blog/

While exiting the bathroom during a recent pit stop at a local coffee shop, I reached for the door and saw a big sign that said
“ALL employee’s must wash their hands!” It wasn’t very elegant and it didn’t look very polite. However, the sign made me wonder: why is it there? It doesn’t really make for a wonderful customer experience in the bathroom (i.e. thinking that you’re in a fancy place because a fancy restaurant wouldn’t have a sign like that).

Don’t they train their employee’s to wash their hands? Isn’t that a prerequisite for the job because they are serving bagels and coffee with their hands? Then it hit me…

That big sign was really for customers – it communicated that it was an important part of their training and service commitment.

In that regard, it actually made me realize that many companies don’t make enough of a point of leveraging their training and policies as part of their marketing message. This is a subtle move. You would never put a tag-line ‘Our employee’s wash their hands’ on a sign to advertise your store but putting up the sign in the bathroom does get the point across.

So how else can you communicate the various things you are doing to make your employee’s the best they can be for your customers? These can be subtle ways or they can be explicit ways that translate into increased customer value. I know that washing your hands is “table stakes” and not a “value add”, but it’s nice to know that these bagels were prepared with clean hands and people with rubber gloves.

Notice how many companies claim the same thing? We see lots of websites and marketing materials stating similar value propositions – “best in class”, “unique in our commitment”, “maximize return on investment” and all that “value prop” jargon.

If everyone’s claiming the same thing, then what’s the difference? A value proposition should speak to a product’s or service’s uniqueness (preferably why they are new, useful and ‘wow’), but when everyone’s claiming they’re the best, we think it’s time to rethink and reevaluate propositions.

If you’re a new company just starting out, then take time to write an excellent value proposition using the questions below as a guide. On the other hand, if you’ve been in business for quite a while now, then review this list again and see if you can sharpen and rewrite your value proposition to truly reflect what your business is about.

When trying to define and communicate your value proposition in today’s tough economy, these are some of the most important questions to ask:

• What is the need or problem of the customer that your product or service aims to provide a solution to?
• What are the benefits of using your product or service?
• What do you offer that is not being offered by the competition?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’re ready to get down to business: write a superior value proposition – one that is truly unique. Here are some tips on developing or updating your value proposition:

• Customize your value proposition according to the specific needs of your prospects/customers. Don’t just write a general statement.

• Value propositions are not static. Just as your customers’ needs change, so should your value propositions, in order to meet their changing needs.

• Watch your competition. They may announce new capabilities, so be prepared to offer newer, better ideas/capabilities too and state that in your proposition.

• Mind your relationships. Someone once said that the greatest value often lies outside the product you are selling, such as the relationships between employees, between customers and employees, between top management and clients. Your company’s reputation, responsiveness and trustworthiness are all a part of your value proposition, so make sure you also emphasize those dimensions as well.

We’ve all been here at some point: You get out of bed, follow your daily routine, and end up facing your computer with the usual workload. You then find out that your boss will be in for a surprise visit to check on everyone’s reports. You did work on yours, but have not really had the time to review everything for accuracy. You’re running out of time, and you have no choice but to face the music. You never expected your boss to ‘visit’ at such an odd time!

Many times during our work life, we have been in situations where we are left with no choice but to face the unknown unprepared. Pretty much like marketing, in fact.

Everyday is a challenge – you never really know what kind of reaction you’ll get, whether or not your product will actually sell – and to the degree you’ve dialed it in for. Yes, you can plan and execute your marketing strategies, but although you can more or less predict the outcome, there will always be unexpected things – good or bad.

Developing a variety of Marketing strategies are vital for every campaign, especially when you’re just starting out. Remember it’s a trial-and-error process. You try several strategies to see which would get the most responses, to determine which ones are the most effective. Whatever you do, you must prepare for the worst. You may get excited in the implementation of a strategy which you think will work, but unfortunately if it becomes a flop, don’t worry. Figure out what went wrong, and try a new strategy.

The lesson here is simple: Expect the unexpected.

Make sure that your marketing expectations are realistic. And by “realistic” I don’t necessarily mean conservative or negative – just grounded in something you believe is true.

One of the reasons why many business owners get frustrated with their marketing campaigns is because they often want instant, favorable results.

It may sometimes be scary to expect the unexpected, but understand that you will most likely get best results from your marketing campaigns when you adopt a positive, try-and-try-again attitude. Focus on building awareness and credibility for your brand, and you will find that more prospects and customers will want to do business with you soon.

Remember when we were little kids and were often reminded by our parents to say ‘please,’ ‘may I’ and ‘thank you?’ These words are short and simple, but are very powerful nonetheless.

As we grow to be adults and strive to achieve success in our careers, we often forget the power of these words and fail to remember that using them often can go a long way. They can earn us respect, gratitude, admiration and yes, love.

Marketing and salespeople should learn a thing or two from one of kindergarten school’s most valuable lessons: politeness and gratitude.

When was the last time you said thank you to a new or returning customer? Personalized thank you notes are a way to get more business. Check out some sample thank-you notes for sales and you’ll see what we mean.

Saying thank you is one of the most excellent habits to cultivate. Words of gratitude are always wonderful to hear. It does not only make the recipient feel good – it makes YOU, the speaker, feel good as well.

In this buy-and-sell-oriented world, a simple ‘thank you’ means a lot, and it’s also one of the things that make customers, clients and prospects come back. Thank-you notes, whether in physical form or sent via email, are a great opportunity to put your name in front of your customers, strengthen relationships, and help you stand out.
Here are some key opportunities for saying ‘thank you’:

• Getting new business from a person or a team
• Getting a flattering remark or suggestion from a client, customer or even an employee
• Getting referrals from a client or customer
• Getting excellent work done by employees that led to more customers

There are plenty of ways to say thank you. As a marketer or salesperson, get creative. Never underestimate, in particular, the power of a handwritten thank you note. Whether you say these words in person, via email or over the phone, deliver it with much enthusiasm and really mean it. It can make a big difference in the way you do business, and in how the world sees you.

So here is a recent example of customer service that was not only inadequate but could have been downright dangerous.

A couple of weeks ago I developed pretty severe back pain. I went to the Doctor, who gave me medicine. That night and the next I did not feel that much better. Still in great pain, I called the doctor’s office and asked to speak to him but he was not available.

The receptionist asked “What’s the problem?” I answered, “I saw Dr. so-and-so yesterday and he gave me this pain medication and I need something stronger”.

Her response, without giving another thought to what might be going on in my life and who I was was, was to simply state “oh, there’s nothing stronger”. She added the kind of silence at the end of the statement that clearly indicated, that in her mind, the conversation was over. It was time for me to get off the phone and leave her alone.

Of course I insisted that I talk to the Doctor, which I did a little bit later and we went over some possibilities:

• “…well you could double the dose..” (I did not think I could do that on my own as these were – as the receptionist mentioned – strong medications)
• “… or we can give you a different medicine”

I said “what does that medicine do and why would you consider it, doctor?”
[and here's the kicker] he said, “because it’s stronger”

So a few quick observations:

• First, It struck me when I initially spoke with the receptionist, that it was unlikely the doctor was going to prescribe a medication that - in the entire world of pharmecuticals – was the strongest dosage/medicine known to man. Was that likely? Was that even possible?  For a sore back? As it turned out the doctor doubled my dose and gave me an additional medication, a muscle relaxer, which actually took care of the pain within a day or two.

• Second thought, which really started getting me angry in retrospect, and one of the reasons I am blogging about it now was… What if I had been a senior citizen? Much like my mother would be – a typical stoic from a generation that did not question the doctor or the doctor’s office. She would have quietly hung up, gotten off the phone (ushered off the phone as the receptionist wished her to be) and would have simply suffered in silence with pain that was not resolved by the given medication.

So the moral here is…

Do you know the kind of information – the quality of information and the tenor of the information – being communicated, by ALL your client-facing staff?

This may seem like an obvious “doctor’s story” or healthcare parable, but it is not just a doctor’s story. It’s an e-commerce story, it’s a retail story, it’s a B2B contracts discussions story… It is all of those stories and it is an area that is all too often unobserved, undeveloped and unmeasured in any meaningful way in companies throughout the world.

This is happening all the time, every day.

Is it happening in your company?

Building up my DVD collection was a long-term commitment. I would go into Blockbuster and look for the 4 for $20 sales, and I built up my DVD collection pretty nicely that way. A few years ago I tried Netflix, and although I was pretty happy with it, I always seemed to be too busy with too much travel to really enjoy and use the service enough to justify the monthly expense.

More recently, I found myself passing by the Redbox Kiosk in my supermarket – but if you like classic DVD’s like I do, Redbox doesn’t quite cut it. And, although its fee structure is simple and very reasonable ($1 a night) – it can and does add up if you forget or are too busy (or traveling) to return it.

We will, we will “ROCK YOU”

Recently I read an article on a device called a Roku (they pronounce it “Row-Queue” – but I think it’s better, as in “we will Rock You!” www.roku.com ) a very innovative, indispensable, and frankly inspirational value prop in the world of video.

It is about the size of a five-pack of CDs. And it connects my TV to a huge library of movies and television shows.

The initial attraction to the device is that it can stream movies from Netflix. As I have a standard Netflix account, the streaming service is free. The second very attractive feature is the device is wireless. There are no connections to figure out to make it link to my home wireless network. The overall setup was very easy. It supports standard definition and HD (more or less).

A recently added advantage is it can now tap into Amazon’s video streaming service, which has (Amazon says) over 40,000 videos. This service is not free, however, and works similar to iTunes: you can purchase, or you can rent for 24 hours.

I’ve watched several movies, and all looked and sounded very good. I can pause, rewind, fast-forward like a DVD.

The Roku player comes complete with everything you need to get connected right away. It even includes the standard yellow, white and red cables. Or use the HDMI or component connections with your new HDTV. All you need to do is just plug it into your TV. As to connecting to your broadband connection – wired or wireless – it’s your choice. With built-in Wi-Fi, the Roku player is easy to connect to your home network. All you need is a high-speed Internet connection with at least 1.2 Mbps (such as a mid-level DSL connection). It only takes a few minutes to set up.

So what did I get for $8.99 a month: I get one (usually newly released) movie sent to me by mail (I’ll manage about 4 in a month) – the classic Netflix value proposition - but what I also get access to is streaming video on the Roku device, with over 10,000 movies and shows, with many old favorites and so on. You get the best of the new through DVD delivery, but also TV shows and classic movies (I enjoy Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis – which is why my kids think I had visited dinosaur petting zoos as a child). Of course, NetFlix’s on demand library has plenty of newer fare too. Amazon’s offering is pay-per-selection, so I don’t use that as much – but it’s there and it just works.

So you get the best of both worlds – the newest movies delivered to your house, and the classics “on demand” in real-time through the Roku device with no incremental cost (via NetFlix), streamed straight to your entertainment system as long as you have a good broadband connection. I even have an iPhone app to control my NetFlix queue. If I want Blue Ray DVD’s, I can get those through Netflix – under the same program.

So why is this important?

Well, it’s not “world peace” important, but the point is that someone finally made a movie service feel like “what I want, when I want it, and with no hasssles or crazy costs.” All you can eat video entertainment for under ten bucks a month!

There’s major innovation (sure to be short-lived in this kind of tech category, of course), indispensibility (it will permanently change how its customers “do” movies) and inspiration (it is easy, fast and “wow” – did I mention it gives me what I want, when I want it?).

With the introduction of this great device and their brilliant partnership with both Netflix and Amazon Video-on-Demand – I’ll never buy a DVD again!

I thought you might be interested to hear about a book by one of the most effective and positive professionals I know – someone whom I am privileged to call my friend:

The title is “Business Relationships That Last: 5 Steps To Transform Contacts Into High Performing Relationships”, by Ed Wallace

He’s already gotten some great advance praise, including:

“Ed has it exactly right: intent, character, making and keeping commitments, credibility, and authenticity–are all invaluable drivers of performance and relationship building that can lower expenses, speed up production, and tear down the barriers preserving market status quo.”
–Stephen Covey, Ph.D., author of the New York Times bestseller The Speed of Trust

Ed’s book is timely. In fact, recent research indicates that 88% of CEO’s and sales executives believe that their business’ success is based on outstanding relationships. Yet, despite the razor thin margin for error in today’s business climate, less than 5% of these same executives actually have strategies to advance the relationships that are so critical to their success. Consequently, business relationships have been reduced to a series of short term transactions between Blackberrys, not people!

Ed’s developed a process to deal with this. In five easy-to-follow steps, Business Relationships That Last reveals how to transform any business relationship into a valuable source for revenue, leads, and advice. His approach is balanced and shows how to be valuable to your contacts – so it’s not about “gettting yours” – but about builiding truly reciprocal relationships that matter, too. Ed combines memorable anecdotes with a clear principle-based framework that shows you how to balance your hard business skills with the often-overlooked soft skills of relationship building.

I really believe this is a must-read book for every forward-thinking executive!

You can order your copy today at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders.

Business relationships that last. Now, that’s a good idea!

Ok.. I’m reading this book, The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris.

It’s been on the top of best seller lists and it consistently caught my attention at B&N.

So.. I’m about half way through and here’s some thoughts:

1. The title is a bit of a misnomer. It is catchy and controversial (lots of blog-pinions on this). I think “Life Design” is more accurate (but hey, a best seller is a best seller – so they weren’t “wrong”).

2. The concepts are sound – and a wake up call to anyone who finds that Saturday rolls around and you’re still on item 3 of your Monday to-do list.

3. The idea of outsourcing aggressively is attractive to anyone in a demanding business life (see point 2). Can it work for me? I’m going to try it out with a toe in the water.

4. The bottom line: think about filling your schedule from the most urgent and important UP – and eliminate interruptions.

5. Ferris sees information overload as the key problem to doing any of this, so he advocates a SEVERE approach to eliminating email and telephone interruptions (but what about my Blackberry??).

So – why has this book been so successful?

First – it promises something attractive for many people feeling “squozed” by success or hammered by the recession.

Second - it is very engagingly written – with clear declarative statements affirming a path anyone can take, according to Ferris.

Third – it promises to lay out specifics to act on (second half of book – which I’ll get to, as soon as I finish reading and responding to my emails….).