Launch Youniversity

Turning Good Intentions into Reality in Your Career, Business and Life

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066: Celebrate Well: The Secret Fuel for Launch

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Celebrate Well on The Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
066: Celebrate Well: The Secret Fuel for Launch
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Summary:

You and your team are accomplishing big things. Big, difficult things. And with all the testing, tweaking and launching, it’s easy to lose sight of something just as important: celebrating. As Shane and David share in today’s episode, a pause to celebrate creates energy and momentum. It can even be the fuel to rocket power through the next launch.

Welcome to Episode 66 of The Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

Get Your Ideas Off The Ground: The Launch Loop ebook

Three Takeaways:

1. Celebrating reminds us of the why.

Moving straight from one big project or launch to the next one can be draining for your team. Taking the time to stop, thank and acknowledge your team will help remind everyone of the vision and their place in the vision.

2. Big and planned, or small and spontaneous.

Celebrating well doesn’t mean you have to throw a Christmas-party type of evening everytime you complete a project. Small and spontaneous works well too, like bringing in donuts or ice cream for the team. It really isn’t about what you do—it’s about making your team feel seen, appreciated and celebrated.

3. Delegate it.

If you’re not inherently inclined to plan celebrations, choose someone on your team who loves to help people celebrate. Give them full permission to give you a nudge when they think a celebration might be in order, and let them put it on the calendar and organize the details.

057: Get It Done in 2018: 13 Ways to Manage Your Time

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Get It Done: Ways to Manage Your Time via The Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
057: Get It Done in 2018: 13 Ways to Manage Your Time
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SUMMARY:

Welcome back to another episode of the Launch Youniversity Podcast!

You have big plans for 2018, but how can you accomplish it all? Today, Shane and David are talking about the techniques they use to manage their day, take care of their to-do lists and achieve their goals.

Welcome to episode 57 of The Launch Youniversity Podcast

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. Calendar plan once per week. 

Sundays are known as meal prep days for a lot of people, but what about calendar planning? Often, we look at our big picture goals, but we don’t do the work to break them down into realistic small goals. The way David combats this is with a weekly calendar planning ritual.

First, he looks at his goals for the quarter. Then, he breaks them down by month. Finally, each Sunday, he sees what he needs to accomplish over the week and breaks it down into days. He puts those tasks on his calendar and blocks out the time to do it.

2. Do what only you can do. 

Shane calls this “finding your genius.” It’s the place where passion and skill collide. For Shane, he’d like to manage the family finances, but over time he’s found that he doesn’t really like doing it and that his wife is better at it. Instead, Shane’s gifting is goal-setting and encouragement, so that’s what he puts his focus on. When you’re operating in your genius and doing what only you can do, you’ll not only find personal fulfillment but it’s where you’ll make the biggest contributions to those around you.

3. Get rid of low payback activities. 

Evaluate the activities in your life that offer little payback on getting you closer to the things you want to accomplish and either eliminate them or put boundaries on them. Social media is a prime example of how easy it is to get carried away in a low payback activity. There’s a bunch of apps you can download that help you track your social media time and put parameters on it. Or, you can choose 1 or 2 times a day where you give yourself a specific amount of time to check updates.

024: Personal Branding, Inspiration and Other Lessons from SXSW

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Personal Branding, Inspiration and Other Lessons from SXSW
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
024: Personal Branding, Inspiration and Other Lessons from SXSW
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Summary:

This past month, David and Shane traveled to one of the biggest conferences in the country, SXSW (South by Southwest). They made the trip to Austin, Texas to stay up-to-date with industry trends, meet fellow creators in the digital space, and find ideas and inspiration to implement in their roles back in Atlanta.

On today’s episode of the Launch Youniversity Podcast, David and Shane are sharing their five key takeaways from the conference.

Welcome to episode 24 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

The SXSW Conference
What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube by Erik Qualman
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Get Backed: Craft Your Story, Build the Perfect Pitch Deck, and Launch the Venture of Your Dreams by Evan Baehr
Jessica Matthews of Uncharted Play
Imagine Step of the Launch Loop

Three Takeaways:

1. Your personal brand is both your stamp and your shadow.
David and Shane listened to a powerful talk on personal branding while at SXSW. In it, the idea of a brand stamp and a brand shadow was presented. Your brand stamp is what you say about yourself, but your brand shadow is what others say about your brand.

Sometimes brand shadows are really positive. Sometimes brand shadows offer authentic feedback and helpful critiques. The best and most effective brands pay attention to their shadow. They listen to what people are saying, take their feedback into consideration, and engage with those who are commenting.

2. Apps could be gone in 5 years.
Does that sounds dramatic? At first, David and Shane thought so too. But after listening to a compelling talk about how people will use different apps less and less and brands will instead integrate into customer’s social media experience, it made a lot of sense.

Whether or not apps will be around in five years wasn’t the biggest takeaway of that talk though, it was that the world of digital and technology is rapidly changing. A few years ago people laughed at the idea of Amazon using drones to deliver products, but now it’s something that’s happening. If, as either entrepreneurs or intrepreneurs, we aren’t thinking and dreaming about the future, we’re going to end up behind.

3. Good work needs good inspiration.
One of the questions Shane left SXSW asking was: What am I doing to be inspired? At every talk Shane and David attended, their speakers saw a problem and were inspired to create a solution. Because inspiration isn’t tangible, it can be a hard thing to prioritize when your to-do list already feels a mile long, but the books you read, people you meet, podcasts you listen to and trips you take all can fill you with invaluable inspiration.

009: When Your Launch Doesn’t Go as Planned: The Story of Chick-fil-A BBQ Sauce

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When Your Launch Doesn’t Go as Planned: The Story of Chick-fil-A BBQ Sauce
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
009: When Your Launch Doesn't Go as Planned: The Story of Chick-fil-A BBQ Sauce
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Summary:

This week, Jeff is talking with David Farmer and Shane Benson of the Launch Youniversity team about a hard-hitting topic: Chick-fil-A BBQ Sauce.

At Chick-fil-A, David is responsible for Menu Strategy and Shane is over Customer Experience. In July of 2016, David and his team were developing ways to freshen up their BBQ Sauce by launching a new recipe. They followed the steps of The Launch Loop and successfully validated the new product in test locations. Everything pointed to a successful launch. But what happens when your launch doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to?

Welcome to episode 9 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

Three Takeaways:

1.  Launching is just the beginning. This is why The Pathways to Launch Sequence is cyclical, not linear. Immediately after your launch, it’s time to immediately go back to the Understand step. Talk with your customers, learn how they’re using the product, what they like, what they don’t like. Allow the feedback to shape and grow your product.

2. Customer feedback is a gift, don’t shy away from it. Often, our instinct is to either defend the product, or internalize the feedback and take it as a personal failure. Critical feedback isn’t a reflection of you, it’s an opportunity to make your product better. You can’t listen to and engage with your customers enough.

3. People respond to authentic brands. When the new BBQ sauce didn’t launch as planned, Chick-fil-A listened to the customer and began a plan to go back to the original recipe. They told their customers about their plan through funny but heartfelt videos. These videos allowed customers to put faces behind the Chick-fil-A name, and these videos now have over 3 million views.

000: Introducing The Launch Youniversity Podcast

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The Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
000: Introducing The Launch Youniversity Podcast
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Summary:

Welcome to The Launch Youniversity Podcast! In the first-ever episode, Jeff Henderson, David Farmer, Shane Benson and Kevin Jennings explain what Launch Youniversity is, why they’re passionate about it and how they hope it serves you, the listeners.

Launch Youniversity aims to engage the next generation of leaders who are driven to accelerate their personal and professional development by providing them with resources, tools, and advice to promote their ingenuity.

The Launch Youniversity Podcast helps go-getters, like you, discover what it takes to turn good intentions into reality in their career, business, and life.

Links + Resources:

Three Takeaways:

1. We’re all launchers. Whether you are launching your own business, a product, or an idea within your company.

2. There’s inevitably going to be uncertainty. If you’re willing to embrace the uncertainty, you’re going to grow.

3. You don’t need to know everything. Surround yourself with the people who have been there before.