An interview with Debra Miron. Through her firm Miron Marketing, Debra is a marketing strategist. She works with businesses to quarterback their various marketing platforms and tactics, such as social media, digital, SEO, community publications, traditional print, TV, radio, newspaper, to knit it together into a cohesive overall strategy.
Michael Rauh is the CEO of Chelsea Groton Bank, based in Groton, CT. We discuss local banking, community engagement, and have a fascinating discussion of leadership and the value of empowering your team.
Christine Nucci runs Coparenting Solutions, and she works with divorced parents to put their children’s needs first. Too often kids can get caught up in the cyclone of divorce, but she coaches parents with techniques and resources to help create the best outcomes for the kids.
Lorraine Duncan’s commitment to helping people has led to her to becoming a business coach and a social media expert. In this interview we discuss many great tips for success on social media as well as the path that took Lorraine to coaching by way of a chance meeting at a wedding reception.
Jack is the 2019-20 governor of Rotary District 7980 which comprises the southern half of Connecticut from border to border. With the International Rotary conference planned for Hawaii, this year’s governors were nicknamed the Aloha governors. It turned out to be a very eventful year to be a leader.
In this interview, we talk about what Rotary is all about, Rotary’s response to Covid 19, and the island that Jack and his wife own in East Hampton, Connecticut.
We have a fun interview with Mark Nickerson, First Selectman of East Lyme. He shares a bit of his personal story, his love of music, and quite a bit about what it takes to keep a small town government running. As the publisher of Niantic Neighbors, I love East Lyme, and it was such a pleasure to get to connect with Mark.
We have a great interview with Michael Mish, Assistant Vice President for Residential Lending at Eastern Connecticut Savings Bank. Michael clarifies and demystifies the world of mortgages in an interesting and engaging way. I learned a great deal from this interview, and it really drives home the importance of working with a professional who can really guide you through the process.
In this episode I interview Connecticut State Representative Joe de la Cruz. We talk about what it’s like to serve in the state legislature, the importance of bipartisanship, and searching for the missing minion in the Groton town wide scavenger hunt.
We are excited to bring you an interview with Dr. Colleen Davis of GOAT Physical Therapy and Wellness. Dr. Davis is a physical therapist and certified personal trainer. She bridges the gap between tradition PT and regular exercise. We have a lot of fun talking about how she serves a key range of clients, the adaptations of her business to the Covid-19 world, and a few tips to stay healthy and keep moving when your routine is disrupted.
2006 was a different time. Twitter would not be invented for another year. The housing boom was incredible with no end in sight. Zoom Video Communications was 5 years in the future.
When Godin said zooming, he meant “doing the same thing as usual, only different.” Most people are resistant to change because change is hard, painful, and expensive. However, expanding the horizons of what you are already doing is inspiring and exciting. During the crisis of Covid-19 that we now face, the companies best able to adapt by zooming rather than changing will dominate the new market.
Apple is a company that has been a mighty zoomer. They reached into market spaces from communications to video games to music to shopping, but they were able to do so because they had a wide zoomwidth.
Zoomwidth is how broad you perceive your existing domain to be, and thus how far you can move and pivot without having to deal with the painful process of change.
Rolling Stone magazine never became as big as MTV because their zoomwidth was narrow. Their ideas were limited by their self perception as a magazine while MTV saw themselves as a cultural medium.
Best Version Media, whom I work with, has a broad zoomwidth. Our CEO Dave Durand often reminds us that we are not a magazine company, we are a results company, and community magazines get results so we publish magazines. We are constantly researching and developing new ideas that will also serve the same mission of connecting local businesses to local communities. When we deploy one of these products, it won’t be changing, it will be zooming: doing the same thing as usual only different.
During the Covid-19 crisis, there’s a lot of different, and a lot of adaptation. Those businesses with a broad zoomwidth are better able to adapt quickly, because they don’t have to deal with the convulsions associate with rapid, urgent change.
As I speak with Realtors, I find some are in utter despair while others are more successful than ever. What’s the difference? The ones who saw the quarantine and said, “I work in person, and now I can’t work,” are paralyzed. The ones who said, “I work with people, and now I can’t work with people in person like I’m used to, so let’s look at how else we can do this,” are continuing to do business.
Best Version Media has always worked through in person meetings. We had no method for remote presentation, but our concept was that our publishers worked with local business owners, not that we worked with them in person. Our zoomwidth accommodated the concept of remote presentations. This allowed us to pivot rapidly and maintain activity almost without interruption.
Your business has likely been disrupted as well. Perhaps you have adapted easily, and perhaps you are completely shut down. Examine your own zoomwidth. Is it too narrow? Could you redefine your core competency more broadly to incorporate a line of business that can function under quarantine conditions?
Now is the time when flexibility and quick adaptation will be rewarded greatly. How broad is your zoomwidth?
Michael Whitehouse is the author of The Guy Who Knows A Guy, publisher of Mystic Neighbors and Niantic Neighbors for Best Version Media, and a business coach for businesses looking to untangle knotty problems such as adapting to new realities. To contact him, click here.
