Provoke Better

Want to attract talent with staying power? Start by writing better job ads and descriptions. I'm going live on Tuesday to show you how.

Join me on Zoom at 2:30 p.m. ET on October 8 to learn how to reduce employee churn from the start.

Details and registration here: https://provokebetter.com/webinars/mfgworks/

I designed this one with in mind, but all are welcome. The frameworks can be applied to provoke better for any (and even organizations).

are in full swing at Baker Park. This annual event is so much fun, and Provoke Better is proud to be the medal sponsor for the winners.

Congratulations to techfrederick for putting together another great day of comraderie, competition, and networking. 😎

Toxic work cultures don’t just lead to “quiet quitting”—they’re fueling the rise of "quiet vacationing."

Employees feeling the need to secretly take PTO should be a serious red flag.

“When employees feel that they must lie to take PTO—a benefit they’re entitled to—it signals they don’t believe their organization encourages workers to disconnect and recharge,” says Karyn Rhodes, VP of HR Services at isolved, as quoted recently in Forbes.

Here’s the hard truth: Productivity thrives when employees disconnect and return with clearer minds.

Without refreshment, burnout is inevitable, affecting 65% of employees.

So if you’re celebrating an “always on” mentality, you’re ignoring the ME-conomics that drive both personal and business success.

ME-conomics honors the personal drivers—experiences, growth, and contributions—that lead to a life well lived.

If you fail to support your team in taking time off, you're not just burning them out, you’re breaking trust - which leads to disengagement and eventually, attrition.

Instead, do this to building a healthier culture:
1. Attract the right talent: Prioritize healthy boundaries in interviews.
2. Encourage better workflows: Don’t make weekend work an unspoken requirement.
3. Advance employees who set boundaries: They make better leaders.

When was the last time you tried one of your grandmother's famous recipes... without the recipe?

Now, imagine asking a stranger to do the same.

(That cake probably won't bake)

And yet, too often, companies inadvertently end up doing this to new hires.

They expect them to succeed in a new job, with a new team, without a clear sense of what success looks like or how to get there.

Instead, you can boost their productivity, reduce everyone's stress, and keep top talent around longer with clear, consistent processes.

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If you're ready to stop the cycle of turnover, let's talk: https://provokebetter.com/contact/

If you want more targeted insights, join our list: https://provokebetter.activehosted.com/f/49

"Does mission REALLY matter during recruitment?"

Yeah... it does.

Much like you, when I decided it was time to expand my team, I had to prioritize what qualities the candidate needed.

- Highest education level?
- Best references?
- Most experience in the field?

Or, how about, "Most likely to believe in me, my company, and our collective future." That was Austin Shifflett.

Of all of those qualities, you can guess which one is the hardest to learn from an Employee Handbook.

I prioritized mission alignment because I needed someone who cared about more than showing up, collecting a paycheck, and biding their time until a better offer came along.

Chances are, you currently have an open position that would be better filled with a mission-aligned candidate.

Let's chat about it: https://provokebetter.com/contact/

Don't even think about spending $$$ on another job board until you've read our findings for better recruitment & retention.

Consulting for tech and manufacturing, I hear the same things all the time.

"This new generation of workers is just different," or "nobody wants to stick around at the same company anymore."

I wanted to know more. So I asked - and our research and client interviews told us:

- Higher alignment is key to attracting the best people

- Employees would rather quit than suffer through bad processes

- Advancement opportunities are too few or too hidden at most companies

Experiencing any of these, yourself? Let's chat.

https://provokebetter.com/contact/

The paycheck is no longer enough to keep high performers connected with and loyal to a job.

Employees today are hungry for careers that wake them up to a "why" behind their daily tasks. That ignite a sense of belonging to something bigger.

Employers often fail to connect the dots with them, and this contributes greatly to current trends like "quiet quitting" and poor retention rates.

It wasn't really the puppet that helped Carol Spinney find purpose, it was the larger mission of Sesame Street.

When people find purpose in their daily tasks, they don’t just stay—they thrive.

What are you doing to help your team members connect what they do to a sense of purpose?

If you need help aligning business objectives with departmental goals with individual performance plans, we can help.

Because if an individual can finally feel like their work matters by making a funny voice while inside a hot, heavy costume, we know that everyone deserves to find that same level of fulfillment in their roles.

What worked in business 5 years ago doesn't work the same way now.

Marketing is more fractured, talent recruitment is tougher, and processes seem harder to establish and stick to in hybrid work environments.

My team and I are putting together some new videos and tools to help with this and we want to hear from you.

This 5-question survey is completely anonymous (even to us) and will help shape what comes next: https://soz386twjnq.typeform.com/to/FpQWBRdZ

We are particularly interested in hearing from steady growth businesses in , , and industries.

Save me from guessing! Please tag or share with someone you know in leadership at a company like that.

This secret paradox of growth is slowly killing the entrepreneurial spirit: Distill before you expand.

Here's how most people get it wrong.

1. You want more (revenue usually) so you try to sell more things.
2. If you are successful, you need more people to deliver the things. So you hire and increase your overhead.
3. Which puts even more pressure on selling more to cover the extra labor expenses, and the stressful cycle continues.

Instead of getting trapped in this endless, fruitless hustle, distill first.
1. Distill your products and service lines down to the top three profit makers.
2. Distill your delivery model of those products to the simplest version that repeatably meets the customer satisfaction threshold.
3. Distill your timelines to the quickest, most direct way to deliver without sacrificing quality.

Once you've burned off the inevitable impurities of your current business model, you'll have a lean, scalable version that is truly ready for expansion.

If you are working on intentional, sustainable growth and want some guidance to help you get there faster, schedule a call with me: https://calendly.com/go_whitney/quickcall

About to leave to lead a workshop on process design. Good thing I'm not flying for this client! 😅

Did you know that $400,000 in are available to help you grow your ?

"ACCESS GRANTED" has funding available that you can use towards equipment, building fit-out or renovation, inventory, professional services, website design, marketing, and more.

Preferences will be given to:
- Small minority and/or woman owned business.
- Physically located within The City of Frederick limits.

Applications just opened up and are due by August 12, 2024.

Details and the application form are available here:

ACCESS GRANTED | Frederick Business, MD ACCESS GRANTED is a grant initiative aimed at supporting and empowering women and minority owned businesses. This program will provide essential financial capital to help businesses thrive and overcome barriers to growth. Grant opportunities through ACCESS GRANTED are available to both start-up and....

"Can I trust you?" 🤔 "Can I vouch for you to my boss?"

These questions lurk in every B2B client's mind. And you might be blowing it before you even meet if you don't know what evidence they use to answer those questions.

In a recent meeting of the mastermind group I run, we talked about where each of us turn for information. Where do we look when we are trying to solve a problem?

This is exactly what prospects do when they begin a buying journey. Days, weeks, or months before you might ever know they are in the market, they are doing homework.

When they are ready to buy, what it all boils down to is TRUST.

So how do you get that? How do you and your brand become someone that is trusted?

Don't screw this up. If you get this wrong, it won't matter if your solution is really the best one. No one will buy it.

Here are the top three Trust Factor answers and what they mean for you:
1. "Is it someone I know?" Be visible. Contribute. Connect.
2. "Is there brand credibility?" Be good at it, with hashtag evidence like reviews and testimonials to prove it.
3. "Do many other people trust them?" Be engaging by responding to comments, and promoting content for more views and listens.

Want to know more about how to get great social proof? Free article and video here, no sign-up required: https://lnkd.in/e2_wGV9h

New technology will not solve a process problem. It simply makes the problem happen faster...
.. and with more notifications. 🔔🔔🔔

I read a great article in today about "process debt," which the authors described as "the build-up of often antiquated, functionally isolated, and customer-disconnected ways of doing work."

Does your company have any of those bloated processes hanging around, well past their expiration date?

If you don't know, here's a fun (painful?) way to find out:
Ask two people with essentially the same responsibilities to diagram how a certain process gets done.
If they can't give you identical pizza-tracker versions of the stages, who is responsible for each one, and how it increases value for the client, that's a red flag. 🍕

Calibrating hashtag and hashtag alongside the people doing the work is one of our favorite things to do at Provoke Better.

Our Skinny Process Framework draws a direct line between growing your business and OUTgrowing your busyness.

Because every company should have a skinny task stack, not just a skinny stack.

Want some help? Send me a message.

"Whitney, I'm not sure you fully understand our problem."

My prospect had just reviewed my proposal, so I braced for what I thought was going to be a "no." Instead, he gave me a very valuable lesson in sales.

This was over 15 years ago, before I had taken any real sales training - even though I was completely in charge of revenue generation for the company I co-founded. Sound familiar?

He continued...
"I am concerned that what you've outlined here won't give us enough of your time and attention to resolve the issue we are having. Add 50% to the focus and scope, and then I'll sign it."

Gulp! 😬

In that moment, I realized I had made three costly mistakes - maybe you've done the same:
1. I hadn't listened closely enough when he described the problem and what it was costing his company NOT to have it resolved.
2. I priced my input (estimated hours) instead of pricing the VALUE of the outcome I could help his company realize.
3. I failed to think more broadly and give the prospect a choice of yeses, so he could decide how fast, robust, and durable he wanted the solution to be.

That's a lesson that's impossible to forget. And here's a short video to tell you more about how to do #3, so you, too can increase your .

Choice of Yeses This is "Choice of Yeses" by provokebetter on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

"Have you heard of Meconomics? If you haven't this is an episode that will change the way you look at business leadership."

This is how the Future Factory Podcast show notes describe Hahn's insights.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p6oe9dJw-k&t=1s

Listen now on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3xx2S3uwfaPUZEpcGVRrJJ

Then grab the resources at https://provokebetter.com/future/

Meconomics - How to Build a Business That Doesn't Tie You Up Have you heard of Meconomics? If you haven't this is an episode that will change the way you look at business leadership. Today we hope to help guide you tow...

There are times when owning a business feels like you're working MORE hours for LESS than you're worth. The MEconomics are upside down.

It's the worst. So, so, many of my clients used to feel this way and in some cases, they didn't even realize it was happening!

Here are three tell-tale phrases that get my spidey-senses a-tingling in the worst ways:
"Most of my day is spent putting out fires" 🧯

"We could fix it, if only we had more ___" ➕

"I can't afford to take time off" 🏖️

If you've said ANY of these in the last week, then buckle up. You've fallen into the Busyness Trap.

Busyness is a Thief!

Hustle culture tells us that to be successful, we have to do more, be more, hire more, spend more, make more. Endless more.

How often do we allow work to steal our waking hours, forcing the rest of our lives to take a back seat?

Busyness won't help your business if it robs you of your health, your relationships, or your precious, irreplaceable time.

You know what I want for you instead? More energy. More freedom to choose how you want to spend your life. And yes, more personal time and revenue from the business you are building.

Your business needs to serve you, not the other way around.

Start to get clear on what really matters to you by defining and protecting your MEconomics. Here's a free guidance video and worksheet for you. No sign-ups, no strings attached: https://provokebetter.com/webinars/meconomics/

Sure, you were prepared for hard work. But what slowly depletes many service-based small business owners is more than the long hours.

If you want to grow your business while OUTgrowing your busyness, join the Growth Academy.

Install success systems built specifically for companies with 1-10 people who primarily sell services instead of "widgets."

Members typically see their profit increase over 30% in the first year. Plus, they report more free time and less stress.

Secure a big future for your small business.

Registration just opened for the Academy experience that starts May 8. Get the details and register now at https://provokebetter.com/business-growth-academy/

Comment on this post and get a code for 10% off any package.

We're offering another free webinar, this time to help your business become AI-enabled. Details and registration at https://lnkd.in/eENmiJEG

Want to train ChatGPT so you can rapidly draft business communications (like job descriptions and marketing content) and NOT be embarrassed, lose trust, or worse?

I've gotta tool for that!

Join me on February 15 from 2-2:30 p.m. for a Pay-it-Forward Webinar.

Yes! A replay will be available if you can't attend it live.

Suggested for small business owners, and marketing and HR professionals who use ChatGPT now but want better results.

Details and registration at https://lnkd.in/eENmiJEG

We are launching a brand new FREE live webinar series this month with my most personal topic: ME-conomics.

Your business endeavors should support your life instead of disrupting it, right? Yet how often do we allow work to take over while the rest of our life takes a back seat?

This webinar will help you define your top ME-conomic drivers, and then optimize your life for time, revenue, and impact.

The webinar is January 25 at 2 p.m. on Zoom. Register now at https://provokebetter.com/webinars/

In honor of a sold-out Frederick "SheWeek" in less than 3 hours, we've changed our cover image to that time that Whitney Hahn got to interview Frederick Community College President Dr. Annesa Cheek. Good times...

Er mer gerd! One of my fellow leaders invented a "Genius New Way to Create Social Media Content." She combined two of my favorite things: a good brand story and decahedron dice.

( Fans of D&D might recognize that a decahedron dice is a 10-sided dice. 🎲 If that is new to you, we love you anyway. But you are NOT as cool as we are. 😉 )

Here are 24 minutes of improv-inspired fun in video and podcast formats from 🔦 Annie Schiffmann https://lnkd.in/emBDiD5i 🃏