Archives for November 2018

November
30, 2018

9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Wheels up at 6 a.m.: That’s the only rule for my Friday morning mountain bike ride. No excuses.

I ride with a crew of high-tech guys from Samsung, Intel, Facebook and other Bay Area companies, for an hourlong loop around St. Joseph’s Hill, near Los Gatos. We’re long gone by 6:05 a.m., so if you’re not there, you’re left behind! There’s no waiting for anyone — even if you’re the CTO of Walmart. We all have to get to work on Fridays, and we want to get our ride in.  

Related: How a Bike Trip Across New Zealand Helped This Entrepreneur Realize Her Dream

I’ve been mountain biking now for more than 20 years. I grew up in Morgan Hill, a small town 10 miles south of San Jose, tucked between the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west and the Diablo Mountains to the east. So mountain biking is second nature: It seems that in Morgan Hill, everyone rides the singletrack — kind of a rite of passage.

(It helps that Morgan Hill is also the headquarters of Specialized, a homegrown — now internationally-leading — cycling brand.)

How I merged my love of mountain biking with my passion for work.

Mountain biking is an important part of who I am, but that wasn’t always the case. I spent some years away from the sport when work took over, and I seriously neglected my body. I can pinpoint the exact day when I decided to get back into it. I was at an eBay leadership event in Santa Cruz.

One morning, about half the team members suggested a run in the woods before starting. I had been a collegiate athlete, so I thought, “How hard could this be?” It wasn’t that hard of a trail, but that didn’t matter; within minutes, I thought I was going to die. Literally die. I faded back from the group, sat down on a tree stump and waited for them.

One of those guys, the late, great Bob Hebeler, who was a triathlete and in the best shape of everyone in the group, ran back and waited with me. He encouraged me to run another half mile before walking with me the rest of the way back. That was the moment.

I started riding (and running) again, and Hebeler and I became friends. And it was from that moment of kindness that I learned a valuable “best practice” for life and work: that the strongest guy on the team should always help the weakest — lift that individual up and help him or her improve. It’s one life lesson that I always keep close.

In the years since, I’ve achieved a much better balance between taking care of business and taking care of my body. Work is still very demanding, and I travel a lot; but whether I’m in Bentonville, Ark., or Bangalore, India, I still like to catch a quick ride — for the cardio, but also to focus my mind. And, believe it or not, I’ve learned a good many other life lessons from the saddle. Here they are:

1. Watch the trail in front of you.

Keeping an eye on what lies ahead is crucial in business and mountain biking alike. Many executives get too bogged down in the day-to-day activities of running a company to see the changes taking place in their business, market, industry — and in my case, technology — and are therefore surprised by them.

A recent Harvard Business Review survey of 270 corporate leaders showed 42 of them indicating their belief that the inability to act on signals crucial to the future of the business was the biggest obstacle to innovation in large companies.

“Too many companies wait for the annual strategic off-site to roll around before they address the changing dynamics of their market,” the article stated. And I can relate: On a mountain bike, there’s just you, the bike and the trail; and the difference between exhilarating success and a potentially nasty spill comes down to experience and split-second decision-making.

But in business there will be no such surprises if you have: a) the right people on the ground, constantly looking forward and providing feedback, so that you can make the best, most strategic decisions; and b) the right processes, technology and corporate culture to quickly react to and implement changes.

Image Credit Courtesy of Jeremy King

2. Stay balanced and flexible through rough straights.

Our riding group’s weekend mountain bike rides are longer and take us further afield: the Saratoga Gap Trail, the Soquel Demo Forest Flow Trail and around the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Related: Richard Branson Blogs About His Near-Death Bike Accident

We’re frequently riding drops and corners on jagged terrain that we don’t know as well. And there’s a lesson there, too, in terms of biking: When you ride through uncharted territory, the key is to keep your weight central on the bike and your feet on the pedals. That way, if you hit some rough patches, you’re less likely to lose control.

Finding your balance in business is just as critical when you’re confronting some unexpected bump. What’s key there is to keep confident about your abilities and roll with whatever the terrain throws at you. Never stiffen up or get locked into place. Soon enough, you may realize that you’ve been down a similar path before, and you’ll remember how you conquered it.

3. Surround yourself with the best gear (and people).

For decades, I rode the same Specialized Rockhopper I’d bought back college. It never let me down until I started riding with guys who were much better than I was, and better equipped. Suffice it to say, I learned the painful way that gear matters. The same goes for business: The technology you use can either empower your organization or limit its abilities, so you’ll want the best you can afford.

Countless companies have been transformed by technology, of course, from the disruption of IT organizations by the SaaS model, to companies like Netflix that changed business models, using new technology. At Walmart, we’re seeing dozens of examples of long-running business processes that can be dramatically upgraded and efficiently replaced with machine learning.

So, keep an eye out in your own business: Make sure you continue with your lifelong learning, and remain acutely aware of what’s happening around you.

Similarly, surrounding yourself with the best and brightest people means that you will constantly push one other to do better and achieve more. When everyone on your team is challenging and supporting everyone else, businesses can accomplish amazing things.

4. Push hard — even when no one’s watching.

When I’m grinding on a steep, technical trail and come across an easier path, human nature compels me to take it, but I never do. I’ve learned over the years that you can’t take shortcuts in life or business and expect superior results.

Everyone is familiar with the axiom, “Integrity is what you do when no one is watching” — it’s a critical quality of the best business leaders. In fact, integrity is one of the top leadership attributes, according to The Economist Executive Education Navigator blog. The blog described a survey by Robert Half Management Resources in which both the employees and C-suite leaders polled placed a high premium on integrity among executives.

Tim Hurd, the survey author, observed that, “Companies with strong, ethical management teams enhance their ability to attract investors, customers and talented professionals.” In short, integrity is essential for motivating team members, because if they don’t see that quality in you, they won’t adopt it in themselves.

And me? I’m not opposed to finding better, more efficient ways of doing things, but while taking shortcuts may make your job easier or advance your career, ultimately it’s the organization that will suffer.

Image Credit Courtesy of Jeremy King

5. Appreciate the big picture.

When you’re ripping downhill on the trail, you have to focus. But when you’re climbing upwards, there’s a lot of time to think and appreciate your surroundings. Some people wear headphones when they ride, but I don’t.

I want to hear the wind, the birds, the sound of my tires and my bike on the road. Those sounds make me think. And when I get to the top of St. Joe’s, I like to stop. There’s a beautiful view there of all of Silicon Valley, and oftentimes the sky is clear all the way to the Bay Bridge.

I like to imagine that I can see all the stuff that’s going on down there — the startups, the entrepreneurs and innovators and the captains of all those industries — getting ready to start their day and take charge. Many of those leaders are visionaries, and to get to where they are in business, they, too, had to stop and look at the big picture.

Nothing gives perspective quite like pausing at the top of a technical trail, taking in the scenery … and then owning it on the downhill. In business, when you don’t have the big picture, the scenery owns you.

Related: These #5 Women Bikers are Riding on The Road Less Travelled

Mountain biking — the sport, the community, the outdoors — has become an essential part of my life that keeps me focused, supports me through tough decisions and reminds me of what’s important — in both life and business. Riding the trail is not for everyone, as my many cuts, scrapes, broken bones and terror-inducing experiences will attest. But if you ever find yourself in the hills of St. Joe, we’d love to invite you along on our Friday ride. Wheels up, 6 a.m. sharp.

November
28, 2018

5 min read

In this series, Instagram Icon, Entrepreneur speaks with the individuals behind popular Instagram accounts to find out the secrets of their success.

When Molly Yeh started her blog, named My Name is Yeh!, nine years ago, she filled it with food adventures around New York City and recommendations of restaurants she loved while she was studying percussion at Julliard. “In the beginning, my blog was exclusively read by my mom,” Yeh recalled to Entrepreneur.

But in the summer of 2013, after she moved with her now-husband, a fifth generation farmer, to his family’s farm in Grand Forks, N.D., she realized her blog wasn’t only a scrapbook and diary, but something that could be her career.

“I suddenly had all of this time on my hands, so I just threw myself into the blog and then worked on photos, recipe development and networking with other bloggers, growing a following and growing it into something that could be a business,” Yeh said.

Five years later, Yeh has 323,000 Instagram followers and counting, is the best-selling author of two cookbooks, Molly on the Range, which was named one of the best cookbooks of 2016 by The New York Times, and Yogurt, all about the versatility of the dairy product. And she is the host of Food Network’s Girl Meets Farm, which is now in its second season.

Yeh attributes her success to making her personal story a part of her cooking. “I treat every reader as if they were a close friend,” Yeh said. “My greatest inspiration is my Chinese and Jewish heritage and my travels. I like talking about the things that are most meaningful to me.”

We caught up with Yeh to get her advice about building a brand in the food industry and how she stays productive.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

With all your different projects, what goes into a typical day?

I have entire days where I’m in the kitchen and I’m recipe testing or I’m preparing for a photo shoot. I have days when I’m photographing with my photographers for a blog post and I have other days where I’m writing blog posts and then of course other things like filming the show. [For Girl Meets Farm] I spend an entire month just focused on the show. I typically tend to schedule it by half days or full days focusing on one thing.

What is your content strategy? How do you decide what and when to post?

I look a lot at holidays and at the seasons, what’s going to be good in my garden and what’s going to be good on the farm, like when my rhubarb patch comes up, I like to schedule rhubarb recipes. When my apples on the apple trees are looking good, then I use them. Then there’s special occasions like birthdays or the Olympics — I loved creating content around that. My traveling too. Any time I come back from a trip I have a huge list of recipes that I want to make.

Related: This Style Blogger Got Her Start in Her Dorm Room. Today She Has Over a Million Followers and a Fashion Line.

What has the transition been like taking on the books and the show in addition to the blog and social media?

I’ve found that these are all different outlets for the recipes that I love to create. I have had to divide up my time a little differently because when I’m filming the show and when I was working on the book, I couldn’t put as much time into the blog. There were still recipes I wanted to do but I was just showing them in different formats. It was an interesting thing to play around with because with the show, of course and with any video, recipes are so much easier to show.

Like icing a cake for example, I can demonstrate that, whereas writing it down in a blog post is a challenge. But then there were other types of recipes that are appropriate on the blog that might be more specific, or when I like to chart works in progress. So that isn’t something that I would necessarily put on the show or in a book in print, but I could definitely talk about on the blog.

What advice do you have for other people who want to build brands in the food space?

Figure out what it is that makes your story and your perspective unique and really own that. There are so many food blogs, so many food publications and recipes just saturating the internet every single day. There is this misconception that in order to be a blogger or anybody on social media you have to continuously put out content. I am way more for quality over quantity. I would much rather see one great blog post a month than 10 blog posts a month all of different variations of the same thing that I’ve seen 20 times before. I want to see something new.

Check out some of Yeh’s favorite Instagram posts below.

Cookies! I could decorate cookies all day, these are some of my faves.

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November
27, 2018

7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Overwhelming workloads, toxic office environments, and social media overload are leading to more burnout than ever before. These bosses and Advisors from The Oracles share how they handle the stress — and prevent it.

1. Delegate.

My job has changed dramatically since we grew from a small team to over 350 people, and I expect it will continue to change. Molly Graham led Facebook’s early growth and saw her team jump from 25 to 125 people in just nine months. She likens working in a rapidly changing organization to giving away a Lego as a kid. Learning to assign work to others is definitely uncomfortable at first and something you have to get used to, but the only way to build a big, awesome company is to have amazing people working with you toward the same goal.

It can be hard to switch off in startups, but it’s really important. My partner and I often go for long walks. I love yoga, although I don’t get to it as often as I’d like. I also love traveling and try to go overseas each year to reset and recharge. —Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, which is valued at over a billion dollars

2. Rest, exercise, and learn to say no.

It’s normal to feel exhausted if you constantly work hard. That’s nothing a weekend of rest and relaxation can’t fix. I love reading novels, spending time with friends, and heading to the beach or mountains. If you still dread work or feel disillusioned, you may be experiencing more serious career burnout. The natural reaction is to take a vacation, but that’s a short-term solution.

Get intentional about what you want and what fulfills you. Look inward to discover your purpose. Think about whether you are meeting your goals, and if not, ask yourself what needs to change. Re-engage by giving back to others as a mentor or thought leader. Figure out how to regain control of your time at work by delegating or learning to say no. And don’t forget to exercise — it’s a great stress reliever. —Gail Corder Fischer, Executive Vice Chairman of Fischer & Company, a leading global corporate real estate firm that provides consulting, brokerage, and technology solutions

3. Begin your day proactively.

It’s so important to start your day proactively rather than reactively. I always spend time with my coffee, my journal, and a book to get into a good head space before the day begins.

It can be really difficult to set aside time to recharge your batteries when you feel like you’re swamped with work. But that’s when you really need to be strict and let go of the guilt. Find time to eat energizing foods, work out (even if it’s just a walk outside), and grab 10 minutes just to breathe and be intentional about your work. —Natalie Ellis, award-winning serial entrepreneur and CEO of BossBabe, the world’s largest online community of ambitious women with a six-figure monthly recurring revenue; follow Natalie on Instagram

4. Free yourself from distractions.

Growing a successful business takes time and focused work, without interruptions. I turn off email and social media notifications, which means I don’t allow others to dictate my priorities. I create my schedule at the beginning of the week and set times to check in on parts of the business. This creates space to be proactive, not reactive, which minimizes overwhelm and overload so I’m free to maximize my output.

As a business owner, I do find it hard to truly switch off. I’m an achiever, so I naturally want to be doing or creating something. I’m most relaxed when reading a nonfiction book, free from distractions and able to lose myself in thoughts. The time and space to actively think is priceless and allows me to recharge before a new week ahead. —Danielle Canty, speaker, chiropractor, serial entrepreneur, and co-founder of BossBabe, the world’s largest online community of ambitious women; follow Danielle on Instagram

5. Remain focused.

We must fiercely protect our goals and time. That starts with being clear and focused on your vision, purpose, and life goals. I regularly ask myself how an activity, conversation, or relationship supports those things. There are times when an overwhelming workload is unavoidable, but tasks I’m passionate about rarely make me fatigued. Fatigue typically arises when my daily demands are not aligned with my purpose, which can quickly result in burnout. 

I’ve designed a morning routine to manage the challenges of daily life, feed my soul, and energize me. I wake up at 4:50 a.m., grab my water bottle, and join a 5 a.m. call with like-minded people for five minutes of inspiration. Then I spend 30 to 60 minutes doing cardio and finish by writing what I’m grateful for. I’m also intentional about how much time and energy I give to social media and the news. If you let them dictate or clutter your schedule, it inevitably leads to fatigue, frustration, and burnout. —Eileen Rivera, CEO of The Rivera Group; real estate coach, speaker, and licensed California realtor with over half a billion in sales

6. H.A.L.T.

I’m super disciplined with set routines and rhythms. Even though I exercise, meditate, and eat properly every day, I still experience burnout. That’s why I practice H.A.L.T., which means I have to stop whenever I get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.

I have a Type A personality and push myself to extremes, which is why H.A.L.T. is so important for me. Whenever I feel burned out, I just stop and ask myself: Am I hungry, angry, lonely, or tired? If so, I give myself permission to stop and take a break. —Peter Hernandez, President of The Western Region at Douglas Elliman; founder and President of Teles Properties

7. Change your mindset and expectations.

Burnout is serious. A Swedish study found that those with burnout symptoms from chronic occupational stress aren’t as capable of regulating negative emotion. That’s because the connections in their brain responsible for that process were significantly weakened. This is why it’s extremely difficult to work in the midst of burnout. It kills your productivity and takes a heavy toll on your mental health and relationships.

My struggle with burnout spiraled into depression and anxiety. To overcome it, I did three things. First, I made my goals and expectations more realistic. Then I set a sustainable daily workload. Finally, I take time each day to reflect on how proud I am for what I’ve achieved, rather than focus on what I haven’t. I remember how grateful I am for what I have and for the wonderful people in my life. —Sarah Chrisp, founder of Wholesale Ted, 27 years old and the only established female in the e-commerce educational video world with over 200,000 subscribers and seven-figure profits

Want to share your insights like those above in a future column? If you’re an experienced entrepreneur, please get in touch here.

Want to suggest a future topic for these entrepreneurs to answer? Email suggestion@theoracles.com, and it’s very possible we’ll make your suggestion the focus of a future article!

November
26, 2018

5 min read

Xsolla, a 13-year-old payment provider for the gaming industry, saw an opportunity and pounced. The opportunity: game developers needed a one-stop shop to help them create and monetize their games. The solution: Xsolla built a hub that offered the all of the tools, services, and collaborative expertise its customers were craving. The result: A roster of more than 1,100 games, including the mega-hit Fortnite (which any teenagers in your life are probably playing while you read this).

Entrepreneur spoke with founder and CEO Aleksandr Shurick Agapitov about his company’s success and the ins-and-outs of serving an industry that loyal fans will spend $140 billion on this year.

What problem is Xsolla helping solve?

In the video game market, the advancement and easy access to technology has immensely lowered the barrier to entry to create a game, but the barrier to building a successful games business is high. Clearly, not every game will be as popular as Fortnite, but we were there from the beginning with them. We help developers get their games seen, paid for and played on a global scale. Through our product portfolio, we are giving developers the necessary tools, resources and infrastructure that they do not have — whether it’s building a dedicated store to sell directly to their consumers, transacting in-game payments, connecting influencers interested in playing the game, or navigating the new world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. 

Related: 5 Exciting Innovations in Gaming That Entrepreneurs Absolutely Must Know

How many employees did you start with, and how many do you have today?

I started the organization alone in Russia over 13 years ago. I did everything myself. When I needed a website, I built it. When I needed a legal contract, I created one. When I needed a logo, I designed it. Naturally, and thankfully, we have come a long way since then, and I am happy to have a strong team to support me. Today, privately held and headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices and R&D centers throughout Europe and Asia, Xsolla has 270+ employees serving more than 1100 developers on over 2,000 projects around throughout the globe. Every day we are in constant communication with the smartest people in the world — game developers — who build rocket ships for fun. 

Xsolla founder and CEO Aleksandr Shurick Agapitov

How did you land your first client? 

In the very early days, I rolled up my sleeves and cold-pitched potential clients online on ICQ until they became clients. I started in virtual currency, but then moved on to payments targeting the game developer and publishing community. That early strategy laid the groundwork, and permission, to become what we are today.  

Since then, Xsolla has aligned with the likes of Valve, Twitch, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and PUBG Corporation, and expanded our portfolio of services to include payments, e-commerce, antifraud, analytics, customer support, content optimization and delivery, authentication and more. 

Related: Upcoming Pokémon Game on Nintendo Switch Hopes to Capture Huge Mobile Fan Base of ‘Pokémon Go’

What does having a game like Fortnite on your roster/as a customer do for your overall business?

We signed Fortnite when the game was first developed by a very small team in Warsaw. This was before Epic Games, so we’ve been there since the beginning. We then worked Epic to bring Fortnite to the global market like we would any other game, as you never know what will become a massive, breakout hit. We are thrilled to see so many gamers — young and old — really embrace the game.

We have also had great success with other key partners and games, such as Perfect World, a 3D adventure and fantasy MMORPG; Neverwinter, based on the D&D classic; Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds from Bluehole. Others we work with include Nexon, Bigpoint Games (Germany) and Phoenix Point by Snapshot Games (Bulgaria).

Related: 8 Proven Habits for Ultimate Success

What are the biggest concerns in this industry?

Everyone knows that content is king. Our industry is rapidly changing and we must stay current of the economic, political and technical establishments within our developing world. For me, this means constantly adding and integrating new solutions to address our developer, partner and customer needs.

What is your process for innovation?

Innovation comes from everywhere and everyone. My process for innovation? First off, I’m a gamer. I observe. I look. I listen. I play. I listen to my customers, developers, gamers and my employees. I research. I look at the trends. I strategize. I consider. I test. I then create a process and put things into action. I don’t mind failing as long as we’ve tried our best to create and innovate for our partners.

November
26, 2018

9 min read

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

Of the $3.36 billion spent on Cyber Monday last year, the Instant Pot, a DNA test, and the Amazon Echo were among the most popular purchases, according to a USA Today poll of its readers. None of those picks were particularly surprising: Instant Pots and ancestry tests had been topping 2017 bestseller lists long before the holiday shopping season rolled around, after all, and tech products like the Echo always sell well on the biggest online shopping day of the year. 

Similar gadgets and gear will undoubtedly be a major draw this Cyber Monday, too, but don’t overlook all the deals on digital wares when you do your holiday perusing; many of them are veritable steals. In fact, you can save hundreds of dollars on online courses in the Entrepreneur Store now through Cyber Monday.

Below, you’ll find 20 online training bundles on a wide range of skills that we’re offering for only $20 apiece.

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17. The Complete Learn to Code Bonus Bundle

Coding skills are just as important as reading and writing abilities at this point in time. Feeling a little rusty? Enter: This bestselling bundle that covers Ruby on Rails, Python, various coding languages, cloud computing, and more, plus an insider look at what it takes to build a social network.

Learn to become a full-stack developer with this complete bundle for $13.50 with promo code: CMBUNDLE75. 

18. The Complete Affiliate Marketer Bundle

What if we told you there was a way to make money online by doing almost nothing? It’s true, and it’s called affiliate marketing. Through his 19-hour guide, you’ll learn how to generate blog post ideas, build a brand, and make a functional Amazon Affiliate store with the end goal of earning passive income via customer referrals.

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19. The Complete Six Sigma Training & Certification Bundle

Never looked into Six Sigma? You should: It’s the project management methodology preferred by Amazon, 3M, and Bank of America. This six-part bundle is designed to get you certified in both Six Sigma as well as Lean — a similar set of management techniques — so you can raise your earning potential as a project manager.

Take steps in the right direction and become certified in Six Sigma with this $14.75 bundle with promo code: CMBUNDLE75. 

20. The Ultimate Guide To Google AdWords 2018

When it comes to running a website, the magic word is traffic. Enroll in this 18-hour course and you’ll learn how to use Google AdWords — the search engine’s online advertising platform — to reel in new customers and keep them hooked in the long run.

Become an expert in AdWords for $7.80 with promo code: CMSAVE40.