Top business advice and exit strategy for new business owners. . Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. Here are a few things I learned from the acquisition of The Moery Company: Grow your business. 80% of your time early on should be on business development and sales. You need to have a few things in place to make that happen: Good data. If you don't know who to contact, who to call, who to send a solicitation marketing piece to, you are nowhere. Communication and content bent towards thought leadership. We produce a podcast and videos multiple times a week that helps expand our brand awareness. Contact prospects directly. "Hey, I thought you might be interested in this podcast I just did on membership development. Here's a link to it." You always want to be present and always around. This way, it's not always about you selling; you'll have good data, you'll be connecting with people, communicating regularly, providing value, and you'll be continuing to send direct messages to those individuals. This is how you grow a business. Don't hire your first employees until it's physically painful and you can't go any further. You're going to be responsible for them. You'll feel the responsibility of feeding them. Most of the time, you have another gear left, and you can go ahead and go to the next level regarding your work and activity. You must build infrastructure as you hire. It isn't easy to extricate those processes or shut those things down. So realize as you're growing and expanding, you're building more capacity, but you're also going to be responsible for more infrastructure, which takes brainpower and work. Frankly, a lot of that's going to come back on you. Increase your pricing by about 25%. I guarantee you, the services that you offer are underpriced. Many times, you'll be afraid early that you're not going to get the job, but you'll get the work. Later you're going to be scared of going broke while you're doing the work. So go ahead and increase your pricing by about 25%. See what happens. I didn't do it that way, and then I had legacy clients that weren't paying enough for the services we provided. And it wasn't easy to bring them up. So think about where your floor will be and then increase 25%. Staffing and personnel relationships are two-way streets. It's all about the staff. The staff has leverage with their presence, and you have leverage with their salary. It's fair to be that way. Let's talk about the exit strategy. Think about it early on because you got to be ready when the opportunity comes. When my exit strategy came up, and I had offers, I wasn't prepared. Run the numbers with your financial planner because there will be scenarios that determine what you're going to do after the exit. Make sure you know those numbers, and you're familiar with the scenarios before someone ever approaches you about selling the business to them. Some people who are very close to you will resent the fact that you sell the business. That's just the way it's going to be. It's unfortunate, but it's just human nature, so be ready for that. The company moves on very quickly without you after you sell it. Especially if you set up something that's genuinely scalable and a good business, they're not going to need you that much. They're going to move on fast.
4 trends you should look out for as you head into a year of growth and success. . Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. Here are four or five items that I expect to be trends as you head into a year of growth and success. Member dues escalation and implementing cost of living increases will be more prevalent in 22. From all the client activity that I'm seeing right now, membership dues escalation and implementing cost of living will continue to become the norm. Another part of that is that associations are looking at new and adjacent membership groups or demographics they may not have served before. Once that starts to happen, we have more influence, more grassroots networks, and more capacity to reach folks that our benefits and services can serve. Eventually, they'll want to attend meetings and events. Continued growth of micro-credentialing from associations. You're going to see these little areas of emphasis, expertise, small training classes, little micro-credentialing, and certifications. I think it's going to become the norm for not only this being offered by associations, but by all sorts of educational groups. Increasing surge volunteerism. One of the things that we're starting to see from our younger demographics is they necessarily don't want to stay around for 20 years to be on our committee. They want to get involved in something that they're passionate or interested in, and then they want to move on. This is specifically going to be designed to connect younger members with our organization. We will continue to see soft event participation from a live event perspective. Some organizations will see a surge in activity and high attendance rates, but I think we'll see soft attendance by large. Probably off maybe 10% of our previous 2019 levels. Membership development is an ongoing process, and that will be one of the themes of this year. There's one thing that we know, membership segments, membership development, recruitment, retention, and engagement is going to become much more ingrained in association DNA. Those are some of the items I look forward to seeing in 2022. I look forward to being with you on the journey. Talk soon. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you! Connect with The Moery Company on Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter, and our Facebook page. Subscribe to our Moery Company News Briefing.
8 things CEOs should consider going into 2022. . Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. Here are some goals that I think leaders could consider for 2022. Call every single customer. I learned this tactic from my mentor, Red Cavaney, who was the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. He had a set of 3x5 notecards that had the name and phone number of every single member of the organization. He would call them and then put them at the bottom of the deck. Then he would call the next one and put them at the bottom of the deck. Whenever he had 10-15 minutes worth of time, he would work through that deck every single year. The value here is staying connected. C players. In terms of personnel, you have C players or mediocrity in every organization. If you give them one quarter to adapt, and change, but they don’t improve, it’s time they need to move on. Do you really understand the business model of your organization? What services, NOW - not five years ago, are generating the most revenue? What clients are bringing the most to the table? Not because of the money, but because it is what is most valued by the market. The market doesn't care about you, and the things that are resonating in the market are the items that you should be replicating and scaling. Establish a goal of doubling down on your content generation. This is the golden age of thought leadership. We probably have 12-24 months before we start seeing a decline, just like we saw on email open rates, the fax machine, etc. It's your time to capture mindshare this year. This doesn't mean marketing, this means advice, counsel, thoughts, and observations. As a leader, people want to see this from you. The leaders that are skipping this part of their portfolio are making a big mistake. Go generate revenue on your own projects. CEOs and leaders should be involved in sales and business development because you’ll learn about the things that resonate. If you're listening, the market will telling you what they value the most from your company or your association. Develop a “not to do list”. There are people clients and activities that are time suck and more than likely you know it. As a leader you can give this to someone else or eliminate the activity. Be self-aware. Pursue a merger or acquisition. There are a lot of chips on the table right now. Long term, you may want to take some off or you may want to put some on. There's lots of liquidity going on right now, people are looking for deals. Part of it is they recognize that they can't accomplish their mission or goals without dynamic change. Hire someone better than you are in a particular area. Hire somebody to take on some of your responsibilities, but make sure that they are better than you are. Go into some new areas that will invigorate and keep you sharp. Give back. Endorse someone on LinkedIn, write a thank you letter to someone that's helped you out, etc. It will make you grateful and make you happy. If you're grateful, happy, having a good time, you're going to be a better CEO than you were last year. I hope this was helpful to you. I really appreciate all your support. Talk next week on the Association Hustle. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you! Connect with The Moery Company on Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter, and our Facebook page. Subscribe to our Moery Company News Briefing.
Insights from a previous staff member, association manager and entrepreneurial leader on what your boss really wants but might not say. . Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. 1. As an individual team member, own your career. Ask yourself these questions from a professional development perspective. Are you training yourself? Are you learning? Are you engaged? Are you participating in professional development opportunities? You own your career, you own the professional development and learning aspect of it. 2. Show up. “Showing up” now with remote work is a bit more nuanced. Get there early, stay late, be engaged and be totally present. I guarantee you it's going to resonate with your leadership. 3. Meet the deadline. I don't expect perfection, it's never going to be perfect. When it's late and not perfect, now we're really jammed up. Meet the deadlines, discuss them and be clear about them. Your leaders and your team members are depending on you to deliver at a certain time. This also is something that bosses need to recognize. Don't be late in giving feedback to your team because it's going to jam them up. 4. Come to me with a problem and a solution. I realize that everything is not silver spoons, but also come to me with something that can be done to fix it and your role in fixing that issue. 5. I want feedback. We want feedback just like you do. Clarity is the goal, but let's discuss how it is delivered. Weekly one on ones or weekly reports are a great opportunity to batch your feedback and batch your progress on certain items. 6. Transparency. I believe people primarily first quit the boss, then the job. Most research says that pay is not the main reason why people are dissatisfied, and I think that's the biggest myth in the association space. Compensation leaks into every career discussion. Be confident that if you deserve compensation adjustments to bring that to the boss, but also be prepared if the answer is no. 7. Self-awareness and corporate awareness. Your number one priority should be your career, but I also want you to recognize I have to manage 12 to 15 desires, their career trajectory, and make the best call for everybody. The number one way to wear out your welcome is to be a high profile, me, me me attitude. 8. Can-do attitude and a smile. The best thing I can see from members of my team, what the boss really wants from you is a can-do attitude and a smile. Just a great attitude and a smile. I'm not looking for perfection. I'm not looking for people to hit home runs every day, but effort, positivity and candor are going to take you far. I hope they're helpful for you as you continue to grow, improve and excel. Can't wait till next week on the Association Hustle. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you! Connect with The Moery Company on Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter, and our Facebook page. Subscribe to our Moery Company News Briefing.
Here are multiple ways to assess the state of the association industry for 2022. . Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. A prelude to the state of the industry. First, attention to association work is going to increase over the next several years. There is a lot of attention on the stories of organizations, what they do, and how they lead people, but sometimes we only get half the story. There's a lot of coverage of stories with members leaving trade associations. The attention is always on the folks that don't renew or quit. If a large company chooses to leave, it's news. It's a reflection on the association's CEO's leadership and the direction of the association, but my point is, where is the reflection on the corporate CEOs leadership and the company's direction? They're the ones choosing to leave that great organization. Let's keep our eye on the ball on who we should be asking the questions. Not only the association but more so on the company that's leaving. Next, entrenched issues are now being addressed, that can't be avoided or ignored any longer. Unprecedented adjustment in our governance models, to diversify our leadership, to address the market realities of better company representation, but most importantly finding the skills that our associations need within the executives to lead the board and manage the governance of that association. Too many times we are focused on the company and the executives within the company, and not the skills that we need to take the organization forward. Membership growth and proactive membership development programs are being assessed by CEOs. Languishing membership programs drag down supplier relationships and partnerships, which is important to our top-line revenue, and our event and program attendance because we don't have engaged members. Workforce. I see this oddly in our motor racing sponsorships that I'm working on. These companies are using the sport to engage employees, recruit new ones, be a part of the team, and showcase that company for people that may want to work for it. They're doing it at the track, they're doing it through social media, and they're even taking the car and the driver to plants to engage with employees. Finally, a new leadership paradigm is emerging. CEOs are going to be assessed in a lot of different ways. Do they have diversification on their staff? Do they have diversified views on that team? It’s the end of looking over your shoulder leadership, in place we have remote teams. How are remote teams managed and led? The more flexible you can be, the more likely you’re going to keep your best people. Overall associations have been slow to change, but we have been through so much unprecedented change our staff and members don’t seem like it’s a big deal. They're going to apply that to their association relationship. Adapt, be self-aware and watch the market. It's your choice, you can decide whether to do that or continue to operate the way you used to. I'm pulling for you! I can't wait to chat next week on the Association Hustle. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you! Connect with The Moery Company on Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter, and our Facebook page. Subscribe to our Moery Company News Briefing.
Don’t get caught going into 2022 flat footed. Here are 3 tactics to lead you to success. . Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. The first quarter is absolutely foundational to a good year. How do you close out? How do you tee yourself up? I've got some ideas. First, close up your existing pipeline. Deals need to go up, they need to go out, and they need to get off your plate. I want as few outstanding deals leaking into next year, because they take up time and they take up energy. Second, I want to buckle down on prospecting through January 1st. Prospecting Stages: keep in mind that every sale needs to go through several stages. Awareness: do they know who you are? Familiarity: are they familiar with what you do? What are the services and benefits that you provide? Consideration: are they considering working with you based on their awareness, the familiarity with what you have to offer? Offer: then they move into the offer? Are they going to look at an offer from this company Action/Decision: yes or no? Third, I want to mention planning. Put together key portions of your 2022 plan. Scheduled it. Where, when, what the key themes are, etc. You want to be executing on January 4, not fixing to get ready. Prospect, plan, and close out the pipeline. These are the best ways to succeed for next year, which are very much dependent on how you end this year. I wish you the very best. Thank you for listening. I can't wait to chat with you again next week on the Association Hustle. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you! Connect with The Moery Company on Instagram, LinkedIn,Twitter, and our Facebook page. Subscribe to our Moery Company News Briefing.
The most popular podcast episodes, clicked on stories, reposted blogs, and engaged content were about failure, not the things we did right. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. Posting failure content came across as vulnerable and authentic, but it wasn't just that. I wanted to give the people what they wanted. I wanted to fall on my sword, and share the trials and tribulations that I went through. But today I want to tell you about what I did right, I want to pass those along too. Here are 10 things that were successful. First, I started a flexible workspace for my staff more than a decade ago, before it was in vogue or before we were forced into it. Work was what you did, not where you were. Two, a healthy sales mentality where we were obligated to let the prospects know about the opportunity, and then we sorted people out that were not interested. That was healthy and was successful. We didn't get all wrapped around the axle about when we were told no, or when we received objections. We're just sorting people out. Three, we developed a sales and business development platform that charged a retainer. Lots of people in the space will sell for free, and frankly, that is a cop out. It's easy for the salesperson to ignore if the value proposition is bad, they just won't sell it anymore. It doesn't encourage the client to collaborate or invest in the relationship because they have no skin in the game. So, we had a different model, we're going to charge you a retainer for the work, plus commission. I think that gave both people an obligation and commitment to the relationship. Four, we were willing to give away all the best tips through social media, webinars, speeches, and our entire thought leadership platform, because we had an abundance mindset. If someone wants to take the idea and run with it, well good for them. Five, I recognized that people knew what they should do, but most often they won't. We were pretty intensive about execution and did what many people thought was a good idea in the first place. That's how we were different. Six, accept that business is very personal. That doesn't mean I don't have a healthy relationship with objection, I do. This keeps the word “no” from being crushing to you. But I also recognize that being successful in an entrepreneurial endeavor takes everything that you have, and that means your full being which is very personal. Seven, burn the boats. Over the last couple decades, I've run into great people who would be fantastic entrepreneurs, but they were not willing to commit 100%. As a result, they had these little projects that were just a series of side hustle after side hustle. Eventually the main job became a side hustle, too. As a result, they weren't really excellent at anything. Burn the boats, 100% commitment makes you much more focused. In healthy way it also makes you kind of desperate, realizing that if this doesn't work out, you don't have another option. Eight, transparency around the numbers of the business. I always showed our team the profit/loss every month, that way they would have had more understanding about the decision-making process, and they knew more about the business. Now, they didn't always agree with the decisions that I was going to make around the business, but they certainly could see the numbers and have context of why I made the calls that I did. Nine, I still considered myself, even in the last days before we sold the business, a big part of the sales operation. I think CEOs and leaders need to be on the front lines of their business operation and that means in...
Listen to this podcast to discover what the 2 key factors are to any successful consulting project. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. When The Moery Company started up 10 plus years ago, almost 100% of our work was in business development and sales, but coming out of that, we start to get a lot of consulting projects. Questions we asked ourselves when The Moery Company started taking on consulting projects: is the value proposition right for our organization? Do we have the right dues structure? Does it need to be modernized? Does our governance fit with the organization needs for the future? Does our org chart have the right people in the right seats? That type of thing started to evolve and come out of the revenue development operation. I faced several decisions to make in consulting, I was worried that I wouldn't get enough projects. That was absolutely not the case. I had this bias that if I just had projects, and I had work, everything was going to be okay. I made the mistake of not being very thoughtful about my pricing structure that was fundamentally wrong. You can work your ass off and not make any money. I only negotiated downwards. I knew the floor, but I never tested the ceiling. My guess is you're unaware of the ceiling and you know the floor. Think about how you can move your pricing up and how you can escalate the service and deliver more and charge more because my guess is you have more altitude than you think. Now once we got the project, what did it look like? The more consulting I did, the more important I found a good process was imperative to having a successful project. My colleague, Joe Bates, really helped me with this, he followed a couple of different items that I want to pass on to you now. We had a set agenda and a launch meeting that addressed all the different scope areas of the project. After that launch meeting, we established a timeline that we sent to the client, and they agreed to. We had biweekly meetings. Some projects require weekly meetings, but most of them are biweekly 30 minute recurring meetings, where we review the project, we review the timeline, and we address any gaps that might exist. I also like to drop in a little Friday written update very helpful. The projects that are least successful are those where there's a lack of communication between the client and the consulting firm. I want to address a couple of things regarding the end game and the end of the project. Be clear in the agreement that there's one final presentation of the work and have a final date for when that program is finished. A project can leak into more work scope, creep additional appearances, and that really takes a lot of time and time is money. Additional presentations need to be extra. In the early days, I was very nervous about telling that client about other projects that we could do for them that we discovered during the initial consulting project. Now I'm not concerned about that. Believe me, if you have good project, the client wants to keep working with you. Give them that opportunity. I hope this content was helpful for you today. I'm certainly pulling for you. And I can't wait to speak next week on the association hustle. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Founder, JP Moery, talks about false metrics, or questions we ask of businesses that aren't relevant to their optimal performance and success. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. I went through this during my incredible journey of growing a business and how people would assess us. I’ve pulled together false metrics that we had asked us. 1st False Metric: how many employees do you have? What an antiquated system of evaluation. First, we're hiring fewer employees, we have more consultants and 1099 in all our organizations than ever before. There seems to be a risk involved with dealing with a small operation. We’ve lost some business because we were not as big as some of the competition, but I can guarantee you small and nimble can be much more effective and less bureaucratic. I can guarantee you that some of the smallest single entrepreneurs or solo entrepreneurs do the best work in the business. 2nd False Metric: where's your office? Many people in the association business have this infatuation with K Street or Washington DC. I watch associations all the time, I've worked with great ones, and I've worked with not so hot ones. Where they're located or what their addresses are has nothing to do with the value they bring to the organizations that they serve. 3rd False Metric: how much sales activity did you have? I was a big fan of a lot of activity for a long time in terms of sales, but I changed my mind when I started looking at the data. If you don't hustle and stay engaged enough with prospects, you will lose them. That is a major problem and challenge for most companies and associations, they don't have enough activity. It's quality engagement, quality hustle, it's good reps that are most important, not how many actions you had this day or that week. 4th False Metric: how much money did you raise? In the entrepreneurial world, it's a big quote, “we raise X amount of money in our series” or whatever it is. What people realize is that you've just given away a portion of your business, when you raise money or when you get funding. In fact, you're working for those people, you're working for them. Isn't that why you got into the entrepreneurial game in the first place, so you could work for yourself? So, if you want to work for someone else, don't become an entrepreneur, don't take funding. I'm a huge fan of bootstrap. Again, how much money did you make? Not a relevant question because it doesn't reflect your culture, the joy you get from working and collaborating with the teams and the clients. It's a less relevant measurement and metric than ever before. And believe me, I've been through both sides of that. It had nothing to do with the happiness and the joy I had on the job. The final thing I want to mention to you is to be thoughtful about what you want to measure, your core goals, your core values, etc. The way you set up your team and what they think the measurements should be our most important. Then you have to see if that matches up to the marketplace. I hope this content was helpful to you. I love bringing it to you. I can't wait to chat with you next week on the association hustle. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Face...
Let's start a business together! I want to talk about some of the things that I went through as I started to launch The Moery Company. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. 1. Job Descriptions I wrote job descriptions for every single role in the company three years ahead. I projected three years down the road, what jobs were going to be needed in The Moery Company. That was helpful because when I wrote out the jobs and the primary responsibilities, I signed my name to them. I realized, in the very beginning, I was going to be responsible for all those functions, because it was just me. 2. Establish a strong sales operation Three steps that you should consider as you develop the sales operation. First, you have to have great data. I'm starting a new racing sponsorship effort right now, and it's still about who's the right person? What's the contact information? Is it an audience that makes sense for my business? If you don't have that critical information in place, you have nothing. Second, how are you going to track your sales and marketing information? I’ve used Salesforce in the past, and in fact I just bought a brand new Salesforce subscription today for myself. I've got to keep track of who I'm talking to, and where is this deal in the sales process? What stage might it be in? If I don't know those things, I'll lose track very quickly. Third, what is the script in the narrative? You built this infrastructure, so you have the right people to talk to. Now what if they decide to talk to you? How are you going to explain your value? I have talking points on the value proposition that I'm offering. It includes things like, why do other companies buy, or why do other companies join my association? What are specific examples that I have of their success when they did join? 3. Getting started and maximizing your value We're trying to eliminate fear and mistakes from the buyer. So many sales don't occur because we didn't eliminate enough risk. We've got to do that in our pitch, then you're ready to go to market. 4. Hiring Process If you want to hire someone, here are some tips on hiring the first, second or third salesperson in your organization. I love to hire underdogs. Somebody that's got something to prove, a chip on their shoulder. Giving somebody a chance is a noble thing, and you start by giving them a substantial emotional deposit when you do hire them. If you're bootstrapping your business, it's going to be hard to compete or land the blue chippers. Sometimes you get value from folks that have been outcast by other organizations or just need a helping hand. The people that have hit a rough spot is possibly because the average business didn't train, coach, or pay enough attention to them. They didn't build a culture that you're going to build in your organization. So often, it's the company's fault, not the person. As you grow, you're going to learn that this hiring process is essential to your business. You're going to spend more time on personnel matters on HR. In fact, probably 75% of my time was spent on people matters. Making sure the culture was good, giving feedback, encouragement, etc. You're going to be spending so much time with and on people, HR issues, why don't you get it right at the beginning. Thanks for listening. I get so much energy from your comments and feedback on the Association Hustle podcast. I can't wait to talk to you again next week. See you soon. Best wishes. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media?
Here are 6 association developments happening right now. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. Founder of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. 1: It's time to begin the process of output-based evaluation of our teams. Office flexibility and time flexibility are certainly happening in terms of us having less control over when people work with us. We've got to really be focused on outcomes at the risk of being uncomfortable with our staffs. We still need to be very much in tune to output based measurement because we're not going to be watching how they work on a daily basis. 2: The need for participation focus from our organizations. We need to be looking at how we pull people toward us. Engagement is often a buzzword that we're seeing in the association space. Now that we are continuing, multi-channel engagement, virtual, hybrid, in person, lots of different ways that we're communicating, some of our members may have lost their bearings on how they can get value from us. So, I would schedule some regular onboarding programs or discussions or webinars about how you can be involved in the association because we can't assume that they know anymore, because so much has changed. 3: How to break down the walls between members and our staff. I'm amazed at how we have these firewalls between our industry and the association specialists that are meant to serve it. I see a lack of accessibility; not being able to see the staff and what they specialize in is a real mistake. One of the most valuable things I see that association’s send out is a listing of the staff and their areas of specialty or the issues that they cover. The association team is an extension of the company staff. Let’s make them accessible. 4: Reemergence of strategic planning During the pandemic, there was so much going on we didn't have much opportunity to look ahead because we were focused on so many urgent things. Association staffs and members are clearer than ever before about what is valuable and what is expected in the future. It's time to start developing those strategic plans. 5: The most intensive budget cycle in years is upon us. We've seen some examples of non-dues revenue being uncertain, we're not clear on how the meeting and event business model is going to move forward and how much we can rely on that. The thing that I’ve been noticing is how associations are really getting serious about their budget planning. 6: It's a great time to start listening to members and staff. They could bring you challenges, problems, opportunities to collaborate, but we really have to listen. We are upon the great resignation era. Let's not make that a thing that's happening in our association teams and in our association membership. One of the best ways to avoid the resignation era is to listen and to be closer to our staff members and our teams. If we do that we’re going to be a destination for people that want to work with us or want to be a member of our institution. We're about to see great separation from associations that are fantastic, and those that are kind of on inertia. The next 12 to 15 months are going to be absolutely critical in all these areas. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page.
What founder, JP Moery, would have done differently if he could redo it all. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. If I could do it all over again here are 10 things that I would change. 1: I would have hired slower, fired faster. I always waited too long to hire somebody which put me into bind and forced me to make accommodations or settle. Sometimes I didn't take the time to make sure they were the right person when I hired them, which ultimately put us in a bad situation. Take the time to make sure they are a good fit. 2: I would have confronted performance issues much quicker. As a leader I valued being liked too much. The employees and the company would have been better if I would have confronted things faster or been more intentional about it. 3: Be smart with family discounts. I had several friends in the association space and early on, I really appreciated the work. You work very hard on projects for friends or contacts in the industry. You want to build your brand, you want to build reputation, and you end up spending more time on them. However, I didn't price it the same. I worked harder on them, and I priced them lower for my friends. Looking back that was probably not the best business decision in the world. 4: Embrace thought leadership quicker for the association marketplace. Podcasting videos accelerated our business and our brand so fast. I would have done that a lot faster. 5: Know when to say no. I took every job, every piece of work I could get, even if I knew it was a stinker. I always had this default that if we were busy things would be okay. The downside is I burdened my staff with association partners that weren't collaborative, and that was bad for us. It probably affected our morale. In hindsight, I knew some of these weren't good projects, but I sold them and I gave him to somebody else to do and that was wrong. 6: Stop treating associations as a homogenous group of businesses. I always said you've met one association, you've met one association. But in reality, I didn't always practice that. There are some businesses that aren't well run, not led effectively, and frankly, sometimes not even honest. They don't have integrity. Just like every other industry, we're not special. We're not special because we're nonprofit. I should have gotten out of the deals when I could. 7: I would have had more executive coaching or help. I would have relied on my advisory board, or I would have relied on friends in the association space. They could have given me advice on how to navigate different things. You don't have all the answers as a leader, but sometimes I think we're afraid to admit it. We always want to have the answer for our staff and our clients. 8: Listen more, talk less. If I could have flipped the ratio of the times I spent talking and spin it to listening, we would have been a lot better. 9: I would have ramped up The Moery Company sales much faster. If you've listened to my journey, I was the lead salesperson for a number of years for the company, and it really just wasn't efficient or effective. I realized that once we brought our own sales team in, they were able to cover much more ground. They had more margin in their deals that they put together. 10: Be more intentional about diversity. We launched a business leadership diversity program with local high schools after the George Floyd tragedy. It was too late; I had a blind spot on this. I regret not letting some different perspectives in place in our company and with our advisory board.
Thank you for listening to the 300th episode of Association Hustle podcast, we are so grateful that you've been along for this journey! JP shares some exciting news about The Moery Company and its future. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. The Moery Company has been acquired by the association consultancy, Advancea, which provides technology solutions, affinity programs, member benefits, sourcing, and consulting for associations. When you think about what they're doing in terms of technology, affinity solutions, and cost savings for association members, and then combine it with the Big Red M’s sales, marketing, strategy services, and growing research component, we've got a perfect complement of a dynamic association industry combination. Here's how it is rolling out: For our association clients: The same team is in place, all our people have been retained, they're hired in their current roles. The Moery Company Brand: The Moery Company brand will continue in the industry, and that meant a lot to me. You'll continue to see The Big Red M around the association industry, it's going to evolve into a new era. Personally: My Moery Company work continues. I'm still working on client association projects. I'm will also be running alongside this transition to make sure it's successful. Our firm began its professional practice in 2010 and its growth and reputation over the last 11 years has been built from association hustle, hard work and a great team and collaboration with many organizations. Opportunities: I could see associations client's needs were evolving and expanding into some new opportunities for us. I thought we needed a partner that can provide the company with an opportunity to become a larger organization and offer a wider array of services and more depth. Finding and retaining great people is a challenge right now, and an organization that has more capacity means my friends on the team can benefit from stronger growth and career opportunities in a new and expanding organization. What does this mean to the Association Hustle podcast? I'm going to continue to produce this podcast every week. I want to make it more candid and more authentic. Final thank you’s… Kerry Doyle, thank you. Grace Lynch, thank you. Jackie Bessette, thank you. Amelia Mazza, thank you. Joe Bates, thank you. Matt Kerr, thank you. Bethany Murphy, thank you. Elizabeth Johnson, thank you. Mike Thomas, thank you. I want to thank you all for listening to the Association Hustle’s 300th episode, and I want to thank the entire Moery Company team for being on my journey. See you next week. Read full press release here. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
These are five frequent mistakes associations make that can easily be corrected to put you on the road to success. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. Five mistakes associations and how they can be fixed right now. #1: Improve Operational Excellence We need an appetite for that. There aren't a lot of CEOs and organizations, there aren't a lot of folks that are really focused on process, procedure, and execution Execution is not a priority in many facets of the association management area right now. And that's what we need. Let's fix it #2: More Focused Internet 2.0 Commitment When I made a more substantial commitment, my business grew double digit percentages. Many times the associations that are active right now, are only promoting a conference or a show or an event, it should be about content delivery, showcasing your members and what they're doing, tips and tools on how to make members businesses grow, etc. It should be at least four to five times a day, not just once, and not just to promote the next webinar. #3: Have a Plan for Digital Events Next Year We're so focused on protecting the old legacy model and hoping that it will come back that we may have forgotten the literally thousands of people that we engage, including new and young professionals that are now on board with us. We're forgetting about how we are going to cultivate that digital platform next year, it's a big opportunity #4: Provide Micro Credentials Quick, short kind of credentials on breaking issues and things. Look at what LinkedIn is doing in terms of digital badges on expertise and certificates, etc. #5: Identify the Five Perspective Member Companies or New Sponsors that Would Make a Difference in Your Organization Five perspective members that would make a difference because they joined, that would give resources to the association, and that we could help them the most. Question to ask yourself: Who are the key accounts for the next year in both non dues revenue and in membership revenue? I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
As associations are holding in-person meetings, focus on the content of the meeting and learn how to best prepare for association presentations. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. In-Person Meetings Implement your COVID policies so folks can get the great content that you have to offer. Some associations are hiring a third party organization to help implement those COVID safety policies. Overall registration numbers seem to be down 25%, from what we had pre COVID. Some of that might be safety, hesitancy, and the ability to travel. Other reasons might be there's so much work to do, that folks just can't even take time away from the office right now. Tradeshow floors are bustling, and they're ready to do business. I'm really kind of enthused about the new era of meetings. I think meetings will continue to be a hybrid, you've got a virtual component, and you've got an in person component. This might actually help those meetings extend themselves in terms of their value to the association. You might be able to deliver that content instead of over a three day period for the entire year. Preparing for Presentations at Association Meetings Know the audience, is this a committee that's never heard anything about the association topic? Or is it a task force that has been involved in the project, and they kind of know what's happening? I love to use a scene setter about association trends and how it relates to the topic. I found that context helps, and it builds credibility of the speaker. I present is qualitative information. What have people in the association told me about the topic, staff and members alike? What's the quantitative information? Do I have math and data that supports some of the components of what we're trying to address? Finally, what are my recommendations based on all this information? Don't forget to smile! I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Get a complimentary copy of JP Moery's Association Hustle book. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
The membership renewal process is much more than just billing or invoicing. Use the tools from this week's association hustle podcast to consistently retain members. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. 47% of associations are declining in membership right now, and that's the highest percentage since 2010. Renewal rates, however, remained strong at about 90%. But almost 40% of all associations report, a decrease in their retention numbers as well. In the area of membership development, I think one of the things we can do is pay a lot of attention right now on renewals: #1: I think we need to utilize people. We need to utilize chairman, staff members, and members of our industry that might compel others to renew their membership early. Many organizations are quite limited in their renewal process. Networking! #2: Can you demonstrate a signature membership benefit or service? Either through a webinar, an infographic, your advocacy program, or send out some compelling research that you've just completed. #3: Take your renewal process that you have today, and examine the communication strategy It's really much more than a billing or an invoicing process. Can we make it a specific initiative that can get people fired up? #4: I'm encouraged seeing growth officers being named to associations and senior staff. This is a great time of the year to interview all your sponsors, and see what they want for next year. Change the sponsorship program if you need to meet their needs and help them achieve their business objectives. #5: Right now, members want more people to hire. They're looking for a diversified pool of not only entry level folks, but executives as well. They want tools so they can recruit better. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Get a complimentary copy of JP Moery's Association Hustle book. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
A tip from this week's podcast: do not underestimate the power of client referrals when searching for business. Listen for 4 more must-do's for any business or association. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. #1: You have to sell the business and the value proposition. One of the biggest challenges I see in the association game, is they don't have a strategy for renewals or getting new business. #2: Brand the business like your life depends on it. Become a media company for your industry. The amount of content and information you have is not a problem. It is the cadence. It's the velocity. #3: Referrals. The referral essential in getting more prospects and leads. The very best associations are promoting members incessantly on their website and video content. #4: Talk about the problems you solve, not the features you provide. This directly applies to government relations. Talk about how you're fixing things for your members rather than features or weather reports. #5: Outsource your work! I use consultants and they are the backbone of our research and our consulting work. They have done all the communications activity for the last several years for us. They are a big part of our strategy and a competitive advantage, not a last resort for us. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Get a complimentary copy of JP Moery's Association Hustle book. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
Listen to this week's association hustle podcast to improve your growth as an individual, professional, and even a company. Identify your core mission and values, and you will find success by honing in on authenticity. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. I spent way too much time early in my career seeking approval from others, conforming, and maybe not even being my true self. I came from Washington, D.C. from Oklahoma. The fact that I didn't have the work experience made me feel inferior in the newenvironment. Some advice I give to my younger colleagues and people getting started in the space is this: it's your race. What's important is how valuable you become over your career, and that starts with how much you can help others. How I get energy for a big presentation, is by trying to be myself and offer the most help that I can. It's not that you have to be brilliant, or have the best ideas, but you're trying to help in the best way based on all the information and situations that you've been through. That becomes authentic. That's how you build brand, based on that legacy. Right now is a great time to think about how your association or organization got started. What's the mission and the options for growth, relevance, and influence? The folks that started your organization had a vision of what they wanted this to be, and it's a good time to use it. Balance your work to help achieve that mission. In your own personal career, your authenticity and what you're all about is more important than what other people think. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Get a complimentary copy of JP Moery's Association Hustle book. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
The importance of business development is just one of the many things CEO JP Moery has learned from his association mentors. Discover more on this week's Association Hustle podcast. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. What I have learned from my association mentors: #1: The importance of having resources, money in this case, to fulfill the mission of the association. Few leaders are willing to admit it. Business development should be a top priority. #2: The second thing I learned was that there's a very clear distinction between customers and members. If you give a lot of people the opportunity to be a part of your organization, with a strong business development core, you have the leverage then to limit access. #3: The other thing that I learned was the tenacious attention to government relations. If you're not a real player in that game, then you're just not going to be as valuable.Think about it. It's the reason why so many of our organizations are based where they are. #4: The lack of transparency or communications from the executive leadership team is crippling. Leaders are more powerful when they are constantly communicating with their team members, and have an open door policy. #5: Another thing I've learned from great leaders and mentors, is that they have bias toward action. I call this now a phone first mentality. I want to run up the score on downloads. So if you like this episode, would you share this on social media? Share it to your LinkedIn account! We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Get a complimentary copy of JP Moery's Association Hustle book. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.
Taking quick action is key to grow your organization daily and develop as a professional. Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core. Here’s JP. If you want to lead an organization, people, and be a thought leader in your space in an industry sector, I guarantee you, if you do it faster than others, there's going to be benefits to that. To use a sports adage, I don't have to be the fastest on my team, but I have to be the fastest at my position. Imperfect action is the key. You won't be perfect if you're performing more. I see too many organizations that wait to be perfect, and the opportunity passes them by. So what does a movement oriented professional look like? Every minute of the day is scheduled. The more specific their calendar is to a minute, the more you will get done. I have three revenue generation calls a day to make sure that our organization has some kind of revenue generation going on. I schedule it out every single day to make sure I stay sharp, and to make sure that I'm performing and have action in my calendar. This type of discipline is so powerful, Get five action items that you have to do every day to win the day. So many times, I see great organizations that are unclear on their priorities. As a result, everybody's doing a bunch of different things. There's not enough action because they're unclear about what the priorities are. Can you imagine the power and the speed of an organization that would move on its business objectives? I learned the value of speed firsthand. During the pandemic, some of our clients adapted quickly to virtual programs, government relations, clear goals and expectations of a remote workforce. And I saw the opposite. We hope you enjoyed this edition of JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. We’d love to connect with you. Check out our blog at moerycompany.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can also connect with JP on LinkedIn and Twitter at @JPMoery, as well as The Moery’s Company’s Instagram and Facebook page. Get a complimentary copy of JP Moery's Association Hustle book. Subscribe to The Moery Company's bi-weekly newsletter.