S1-Ep1_Small_Biz_Reinvention

The Reboot Genie
Season 1, Episode 1 - Small Business Reinvention
Speaker/Genie: Nadine Vogel

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Intro: 
Hello and welcome to the very first episode of the rebooted, Jeanne podcast, that reinvention, and re-imagination, whether personal, or professional. We all have times in our lives when we need a reboot of some kind. That's what this podcast is about. I'm Nadine, Vogel CEO of springboard, Global Enterprises which, for over 16 years, has been home to many businesses. I'm also the wife of over 35 years, A mom to two beautiful adult, daughters my oldest with significant disabilities and your reboot Genie. I've delivered keynote presentations all over the world on a variety of topics, but the ones that get asked about the most other ones focused on the Journey of Life. The motivational inspirational presentation that get audiences. Not just thinking about the r word of reinvention relevancy, and we imagination. But acting on them in order to improve their lives in those around them. So, let's take this journey together. Join me on each and every episode of the reboot Genie.

Episode 1:  
Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the reboot Genie. I'm Nadine Vogel your genie. Today's topic is going to be on the issues of reinvention especially when it comes to your business. Start with the definition of reinvention, it's the act of staying relevant in an ever-changing competitive environment. It's about altering, your product customer base, or even images to thrive in the marketplace, whether today or tomorrow? Now, we know as a result of covid. This has been difficult for a lot of us, trying to figure out how we reinvent when we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. That's what I want you to think about. I want you to think about how we do have that plan. What is that plan? Look like. So, the first thing I'd like you to do is think about your business and in one sentence, describe what you do, what you provide. So for springboard, it's mainstreaming people with disabilities in the workforce, the workplace and the marketplace. This is what we do. We work with corporations to do that. So, think of that description, it can't be a paragraph. That can be two paragraphs. It's really one sentence next. Think about the term evolution We're can your business how can your business evolve? What aspects of your business can you grow in? What does that growth look like? It could be a completely different or additional Market. It could be an expansion of a market you already in the think about where it is, you can grow. And by the way, this could be growth through acquisition, it could be a growth through alignment with another business but just put that down. Then I want you to think about the issue of Extinction, Where are you gonna go? Where is your business going herbal? Is it in a market? Is it relative to a product or a service? And then understanding why? If the honorable and in what scenarios, it is going well, who is it gonna be able to do? We have to describe these things and write them down as we do if we want to be able to reinvent this business? The next is to think about distinction. What will you do or perhaps? Even today? What are you doing or what have you done to avoid commoditization? I had, I had a boss, Joe Jordan. Many years ago who said, Nadine, do that, which others can't do won't do, or don't know how to do? That's all I want to say to all of you. How are you distinct and different and how will you be distinct and different tomorrow? You know, when the coat when covid first came about, people were talking about pivoting And, That's okay. The pivot to change. But did that really move us forward or just changed us in a different direction. I believe we need to look at pivoting as it. Relates to moving forward, taking the steps to getting us further ahead to not being a commodity. Whether as a product or a service, So, think about how would you change your product or your service or their new selling or marketing initiatives that you can undertake Are there things that you can do to enhance your business image? And that's really important. Because when you think about business image, I'm not saying change your logo or change the name of your company but rather how people view your business? That's really important. It's not so much what you think it's what others think of you and how others talk about you when you're not in the room, right? Or talk about your business when you're not in the room.  So, it comes down to, you know, if you ever entered an exercise program you know that you have to look at your routines, and what if anything do you have to alter.  You have to say, are there habits that I need to break or habits that I need to start to implement. And, that does not happen overnight. Right? We have to change the routine and consistently act on that routine, so it becomes a habit or a new habit.

What item if you think of your talent and skill set as a CEO of the business and or the talents and skill sets of some of your key people. What are those things that perhaps to this point, you've not exploited? You know, for me, I worked in financial services in in Special Needs estate planning. I created a whole industry around that many many years ago and obviously it related to disability, but it took me a long time in the business to really recognize if that was a skill set that I had, I was recognized for, I still have and still considered a leader in that yet was not employing in my current business. Was really for me, taking a look back and think. Okay, there's a talent, a skill that we have, what do we need to do? So that we bring it to relevant today as relevant as it was years ago, but maybe come at it from a different direction. So in order to do that, the first thing you have to think about for your business is what's your what's your business personality? What's your business culture? And we talked about this a lot in corporate you hear the term corporate culture but even the smallest business has a personality or a culture that is going to weigh in on how effective you are an implementing and in Reinventing and so you can look at it.

The company as a whole but you can also look at it in your approach to people processes products, promotion of the company, you know, even your profit. So like, you know, those are five peas, right? Product process, people promotion and profit. Well, what's your approach to this? What is your business personality? Is it? Go big or go home? Is it very conservative, not taking risks. You have to really consider this This because it's going to impact, not only what you can do, but what you're willing to do? Because at the end of the day, you have to be accountable, not only to your customer and certainly our employees. You have to be accountable to yourself. For me, we are a very passionate business. We are a very purpose-driven business and it was as a result of those two. It's really enabled us to have a lot of power in the marketplace. So I want you to just take a step back and think about all of that because I need you to reimagine what that looks like, what your business looks like. If you consider all of these things, right? When we have a crisis and I would say, covid certainly was part of that crises reveal, you know, weaknesses that we may have, but price, he's also can reveal tremendous and amazing opportunities. And yes, it can involve course-corrections or recalibrations, whatever you want to call it. But what I believe is when one window closes It's not just another window that opens. Its lots of Windows Doors, but you have to be able to take a step back and recognize, what is being open to. All right, so I want you to take a step back, think about what we talked about and jot, some of these things down. At the end of the day, you know, I talked about that, you have to be honest with yourself, right? You have to be truthful with yourself and accountable but in order to do that, you also have to stay authentic, authentic to your brand and to what you deliver. So as an example, it's springboard. We always have always said we stay in our lane and what that means is that we stay in that world of disability, that doesn't mean that we don't touch on areas that disagree. Bility intersect with perhaps lgbtq or veterans but we are very authentic in terms of who we are. And then as a result of that transparent in what we know and what we don't So at the end of the day, what does this mean? What this means is that if you really truly want to reinvent or feel, you need to reinvent your company, you have to think about it, in terms of relevancy, in terms of really understanding your business and what the evolution is, what's going to make it potentially extinct. If you don't do certain things. And more importantly, what is your distinction among others and by the way, when you think through this, it could be different than what it was a year ago. 

Don't be afraid of that and say, oh my gosh, what happened? That's okay, because that's part of the reinvention process, if you're not comfortable, when you go through these series of steps and you say, wow, I don't even know my business anymore, I'm at a loss. I'm not sure what to do. It's okay because you know, when his fear, you can either run from it. Where you can run to it in charge and I'm all about charging to it. Because if you do that, you'll pass, you'll fight through that fear and uncover. Some amazing amazing things about your business about your customers. Which will let you as a business owner, really elevate your leadership in business in the industry and just be recognized in a very differenFt way. So I hope that this episode of the reboot Genie was helpful to you, obviously we focused really on business ownership and small business ownership. Next episode will focus on some other topic that I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the reboot Genie. 

Thank you for listening to the reboot genie. Credits go to executive producer Nadine Vogel springboard Global Enterprises Ivette Lopez and Gretchen Vogel The reboot Genie Redux music, Rafael, Dacosta, Benjamin Tan and Rhoda Bernard. They are from the Berkeley Institute for Arts, education, and special needs. So again, thank you for listening to this week's session of the reboot Genie brought to you by springboard Productions. It's a wrap.

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