Boomers Can’t Wait!

November 18, 2011 by 2 Comments
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As I have been working on the changes to Doulos Marketing for 2012, I have come to one undeniable conclusion:

Boomers Can’t Wait!

With all that is unfolding right before our eyes (Occupy Wall Street, a Congress that cannot function, an economy that cannot rebound, a housing market still reeling, manufacturing jobs gone for good, etc ….) it is time for average Boomers to once again step up again and lead the way to better things. Better ways to work, to serve our communities and to strengthen our families as well as ourselves.

Add to all of this that we Boomers are the largest group of chronically unemployed and I say again: Boomers can’t wait!

So, here is a simple plan that is filled with risk, excitement, fear, and, in the end, a way out of these dark times to a brighter day:

  1. Get up every day with a desire to be significant. Now I am not suggesting that everyone has to have a master plan designed to “change the world.” What I am suggesting though is that we don’t just go through life like it is an exercise in futility. We are here on this planet at this time for a reason. Find yours and live to bring it to pass!
  2. Go out every day to be the best person that you can be. If you have this “best person” mindset, you will treat others with dignity and respect (even people you don’t agree with or even like); you will work hard in everything you set your mind/heart/body to do; and you will continue to look to the benefit of your efforts to your company, your customers, your community and your family. You will see the dignity in everything you do and be able to end each day knowing you did what was right for you.
  3. Give back to those whose lives are not where yours is. One of our biggest struggles we have in this country is realizing how much we really have on a world-wide scale. So many of us have so much and so often we see what we have as “rights” instead of the blessings of liberty. When we recognize that we are truly blessed we will be much more willing to step out and help others so that they can have what we readily enjoy.

Now we can debate a lot of things these days, looking for the right people to blame, demanding that others “pay their fair share”, or shouting from the roof tops “its not my fault.” But, in my view, its time to stop that because too many of our generation will be destroyed without remedy looking for the mouse in the cookie jar. Boomers simply can’t wait any longer! We must choose to step up, step out, and be counted again.

The “new” Doulos Marketing is dedicated to charting a course for this to happen. I hope you will keep reading, keep passing the message on, and keep looking for ways to reach out to other Boomers who like sand at the beach, slipping through the cracks. (And the older we get the harder this task will become.) It’s really up to us. Will you join the effort?

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Saturday Update – 6

October 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This week has bee a very sad one for the Boomer generation. One of our greatest visionaries lost a long battle with cancer. Hope you enjoy the video and choose to be the best person you can be in this stage of your life!

What do you think? Leave your comments and let’s get a conversation started!

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Social Entrepreneurship and a Local Business

August 1, 2011 by 4 Comments
Corporate Social Responsibility

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I was reading a book today about managing a social media strategy for your business. I was struck by something that the authors said that I have thought to be true for some time. While speaking to the responsibility a business has to its social media followers they said, “Consumers are evaluating their providers with the social responsibility yardstick today more than ever. Companies that don’t measure up in the consumers” eyes risk being taken to task and exposed of all the world to see.” (The Social Media Management Handbook, Nick Smith and Robert Wollan with Catherine Zhou, pg. 13 – Affiliate Link) This is often called social entrepreneurship and it is as important for local businesses as it is for multinational corporations.

My take on this quote is that, like it or not, we live in a world where people want more from the businesses that they work with than just the product they sell or the services they perform. Instead, they want to work with companies and entrepreneurs that see their place in the world as something more than just a place to make a dollar. They want to see that we are concerned with what we produce, how we produce and how our products/services/business benefit not only the customer, but society at large.

Even though local companies/entrepreneurs don’t have the time or the resources that large companies do, customers still expect to see and hear that your company is concerned about making society better with our products, our services and/or a portion of our proceeds. The more that you make this social entrepreneurship known, the more your customers will see the heart of your company and the more prepared they will be to not only buy your products/services but the more they will be your vocal advocates both on and offline.

Now it’s your turn!

What do you think? How do you make your social responsibility known and visible to your customers?

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World Changing Entrepreneurs

May 26, 2011 by 4 Comments
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World changing entrepreneurs (also know as social entrepreneurs) are the kind of people that see the issues and challenges that life hands mankind and looks for a way to solve those problems. I, being one of these entrepreneurs, struggle though with which problem to attack and with identifying what success looks like.

You see, for the social entrepreneur there is a two-fold bottom line. Company profit is a driving force, but profit is of minimal benefit without the development of a successful remedy for the companies “cause.” To have a world changing dream is wonderful, but if the best we can do is identify the problem then the dream will always be just that …. a dream. Genuine success comes to the social entrepreneur when he/she can bring the dream to life.

I had the privilege of attending a graduation ceremony for a Leadership course recently. There were a group of 16 bright individuals, with drive and passion who were looking for ways to solve problems in our community. Yet, in the end, the director of the program said that the results had be to create more questions than were answered. You see the hard work for the world changing entrepreneurs is not in discovering the problem or even in asking the appropriate questions. It is in finding the answers that will bring about real change! (And doing it in a way that can financially sustain that change.)

The whole idea of changing the world has an almost universal draw, but the willingness to start something that will actually bring change often requires more effort than even the most ardent entrepreneur wants to tackle.  So, here are some things to consider before you begin your world changing journey:

1. What is the one cause that you can “hang your hat on?”
2. Do you have the capacity to create a solution to successfully change the world in the area of that cause? Global causes are great things to stimulate the mind to think, but do you really have capacity to make a global change, or should you look for a cause in a more local area? (World hunger and world peace are great causes, but can you really tackle these causes?)
3. What can you do in the development and growing of a business model that will directly effect your cause?
4. How will you measure success both financially and socially? If you don’t know what success looks like, you will never achieve it!
5. Does your business plan create something that is sustainable without outside influence (when you take money from outside entities … banks, investors, governments, etc. they will have a say in what/how you do things!)

Being a world changing entrepreneur is a noble profession. The question is how and where will you begin?

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