Russ: This is a BusinessMakers WebXtra, a continuation of the radio broadcast of Erica O'Grady's interview of Hank Wasiak author of Change the Way You See Everything Through Asset-Based Thinking.

Erica: Speaking of motivation, so a lot of the-our listeners are actually small business owners or entrepreneurs, and they're looking for a way to increase their business or to improve their business or to-you know-create more clients are more contacts. How would asset-based thinking help them?

Hank: Yeah. Well, the first way that you do that is, as I said, getting in touch with yourself first and finding out who you are as a business-a clear articulation of what your values are and your culture. And I had the opportunity-through you-to meet the CEO of Zappos, who I-I'm just a big, big fan of what they do. So-you know-just look to someone like that to give you an idea about how you get your culture down. And then you have to look at every relationship as an asset, whether or not it's a relationship that works right now, if-you know-it may not be a sale you make today, but every contact and every relationship you have works for you. So you-you have to build that business and build up relationships. It's an asset bank that you have. If you handle them right, they always come back and pay you back. The other thing that we always look at is we have a thing called SOS-self, others, and situations. The situation thing is, as an entrepreneur and as a small business, you are constantly going to be faced with a bigger competitor, lack of funding, short supply, cash flow issues.

And if you can take each one of those-what would seem to be-discouraging situations and say, "Let's look for the asset in it and find it," you just get through it easier. So I think, as a small business owner and entrepreneur, you need all the encouragement and help you can get. And I think in today's world of collaboration and competition, but-you know-people are willing to help people. I mean, when we did our book, in terms of wanting to get ways to market it, we found other authors-some of our best collaborators-with us-you know-people that you normally, in the old days, would compete against, you collaborate with.

Erica: You and I have talked about themes and how there's certain themes in life, and we think the next big theme or next big trend that's coming is actually happiness. So talk about how happiness applies to what you do.

Hank: You really opened my eyes to something about that in that it's what we've done in our-a lot of our creative work at The Concept Farm was-was trying to get to-we have a little three-circle diagram. We have passion-get in touch with your consumer's passion-then try to figure out another circle called aspiration-whether they want to take it-and then you put your brand or your business in that little sweet spot on the circle and focus on that. And when you can help people take their passions and move them to the aspirational level, they become fulfilled, they become blissful, they become rewarded, and that is a-you know-from a-a branding point of view, is happiness. And they'll turn around and be happy with where they are and say, "That brand or that business helped me get there."

Hank: If you read the Advertising Trade Press lately, there's a lot of-especially in today's economy-negativity, anger, what they call hate advertising, and comparative stuff. Research has proven time and time again that that negativity and that building your business on the shortcomings of your competitors is not a happy way to do business-it's an angry way to do business-and people want to be around people that make them feel good and happy. They want to buy brands that make them feel good and happy. They want to go into stores that make them feel good and happy. They want to read books that do that. Not that you look at life through rose-colored glasses-there's crap that comes at you every day-but sort through that and make people happy, fulfilled and you'll be successful. You will be successful.

Erica: And I think at the end of the day, you'll inspire loyalty-

Hank: You do.

Erica: -which is a very tough thing for businesses-

Hank: Right.

Erica: -to do, especially when we are in this paradox of choices. We have so many choices. So standing out and being remarkable gets harder and harder.

Hank: And-you know-if you're a business owner. When you're talking to somebody, listen to them where you're really taking a genuine interest in what people do and listen and build upon it. It's a great mindset to have.

Erica: I think a lot of business owners today have forgotten it, and what you're talking about is very much the same thing that Dale Carnegie said years ago in How to Win Friends and Influence People-it's that same concept. And I think social media takes a turn back that way and says, "Listening is marketing."

Hank: Yeah, absolutely.

Erica: And that's a new concept for so many businesses and so many people.

Hank: You said something earlier to me, which reminded me of an important thing is about problems: Every business has problems-there are issues, there are customer service issues. The old mindset is cover them up, don't admit them-"No, we don't have a problem"; the new mindset is respond faster, have a principle and a book called tell the truth fast, respond fast, respond open, and respond transparently, and people will forget the problem very quickly and judge you and value you by the way you handle it. And you reminded me of that tonight, and I-you know-and I think that's a great thing to remind your listeners of.

Erica: Absolutely. Okay. So for all the people in our audience that are entrepreneurs or are thinking of one day becoming an entrepreneur or even an intrapreneur within a company, what-for you-were your biggest weaknesses that you had to overcome? And then on the flipside, what were your biggest strengths?

Hank: The biggest weakness I had to overcome was fear and not trusting that-you know-"Hey, maybe the right answer is inside myself", not-you know-you're trained in a culture, there's experts, and the right answer's on the other end of the phone and call this one and then call that one. But when it comes to saying, "This is my business. This is my passion", you're the only one that has the answer, and the more I got in touch with that, the more confident I became. Not that you have all the solutions-you don't need partners to help you-but when it comes to your inspiration and what you want to do, there is nobody other than you that has the answer to that, so look inside yourself first. And then the other thing that I learned-and again, coming out of the advertising business, very competitive, very cut-throat-you know-you never give your competition the edge-was the idea of collaboration. It's so important today, and the wonderful thing about today and social media is collaboration is enabled-it's enabled, it's easy, and it's uplifting-and you've got to always keep that edge-a little competitive edge-and I'm as good at that as anybody. But find those like-minded people that aren't afraid to give you the three or four secrets of what they did for their business, and I find the most helpful people sometimes can be like-minded competitors and people that are in business like yourself. There's a great saying from the Godfather, which is: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer", and if you take that in a positive framework, that's how you should look at your competition.

Erica: So I'm going to ask you what I think is always my favorite question: What do you want your legacy to be?

Hank: Wow. That's a good question. Well, legacy, to me, would be that I've left a good footprint in the industry that I've been. I've mentored people; I also teach university. But the legacy that I would like to be is if I could convince the next generation of leaders to be empathetic leaders and have a great set of ethics. But also one other thing-something that I didn't do until I was much later in life-take 20 percent of your time every week in whatever your passion and your expertise is and do good with it. Don't worry if it's going to make a nickel, but do good with it-put it to good use-and volunteer and get people in-as enthused about that volunteering and that "Wow, I helped something. I made a difference in whatever that good might be." Get them as enthused about that as saying, "I'm going to have the next buyout from Silicon Valley and then I'm going to make $50 million." Well, focus on that. If I could get people to listen and put that into their business model of the future, I'll-uh-I'll feel really good about that.

Erica: That's fantastic. I'm sure you're going to do it.

Hank: I'm going to try my best.

Erica: Well, I want to thank you for being here today, Hank. We've been talking to Hank Wasiak, who is the author of Change the Way You See Everything Through Asset-Based Thinking and as one of the principles of The Concept Farm. Thank you, again, for being here.

Hank: Oh, my pleasure, and-and you have a good connection when you do interviews. Thanks a lot.

Russ: And that concludes this BusinessMakers WebXtra, an interview that Erica O'Grady conducted with Hank Wasiak author of Change the Way You See Everything Through Asset-Based Thinking. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com