I had lunch with a friend and mentor on Monday. Christopher Skinner founded MakeBuzz, a very successful online business strategy consultancy. He’s had a lot of success building a service business, he is from New Orleans, and has an office in New York too. He has built online marketing integration strategies for clients like United Airlines and other big companies with gross revenue above $20 billion.
I asked how he has grown his business and been successful bringing on board those BIG clients, the whales that we all want to be working for?
Perseverance, perception of the client problem and make due dates. Something like that. You have to absorb yourself into the client’s needs, not yours. I basically have few friends, no hobbies, I stay close to my family and stay focused. Lots of self denial. I don’t think any of this is extreme. I am not that studious. As Geddy Lee says, ‘we are not that smart and can’t figure out anything better to do’.
There you go. Life inside of one paragraph. No different than anyone else that tries.
I appreciate his response, basically Christopher boils it down to focus and drive. Decide where you want your business to be, and do what it takes to get it there, without getting distracted by the unimportant. Thanks, have a great summer in Europe!
