Years ago, I was meeting with executives of a tortilla manufacturer.  The company had been around for 20 years and had terrific growth recently.  I asked where they saw the greatest opportunity for their company, and they theme of their response was around their tortilla chips.

When you think of tortilla chips, you might think of Doritos or Tostitos, but when you go to a Mexican food restaurant, they don't serve you Doritos when you ask for chips and guacamole.  This company pursued a more authentic Mexican food experience.  In fact, they excelled to the point that nearly every Mexican food restaurant within a day's drive used their tortillas and tortilla chips, a remarkable accomplishment.  But when they considered how they could get their authentic tortilla chips directly to their consumers, they were competing for shelf space against the likes of Frito-Lay -- and the enormous shelving fees they pay to grocery stores for the right shelf or end-cap display.

I'm looking for experts to have a rant, riff, or idea that they are wanting to urgently share with small businesses (owners and managers especially), or those who are considering buying or starting a business.

What's are businesses doing wrong? What has changed? What do they need to know about what you do that will keep them out of trouble? How can your experience/philosophy help them to become more successful?

As I travel to different membership organizations, I frequently talk about the role of chambers as marketers.  If we listen to our members, we can find niches of opportunity for them - and us.

There are 3 players here: The customer (member), the marketer (organization), and the technology (3rd party developers).

I enjoy my relationships with our industry's technology companies, especially Chamber WebLink and ChamberMaster.  These are the only 2 companies that have delivered on my criteria for a scalable customer relationship management solution for membership organizations.  Their platforms are dynamic, their development department are constantly adding features, and their leaders at the top are visionary.

Who and what you allow into your head matters.  Reading a book gives an author plenty of time to wrestle with your assumptions and state their case, and much of the opportunities I see for businesses in 2012 are framed by the authors I've invited into my head in the last year.

Derek Sivers is best known as the founder of CD Baby, but you may know him as the narrator in the viral YouTube video "Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy."  Sivers asserts that the most important role in starting a movement is not the leader.  It is the first follower, because the first follower teaches other followers how to follow.

In his book, Anything You Want (Domino Project, 2011), Sivers, a musician at heart, describes taking a new song to his voice coach.  Sivers would sing it, then his voice coach had him sing it an octave high, an octave lower, now twice as fast, now half, now like Bob Dylan, then Tom Waits.  It became hard to remember the original idea of the song.

Shaun Lumachi's star shined so bright that, on Saturday December 3, 2011, God decided Shaun would best serve Him by His side.  Damnit.

I think it was February, 2004, when I first met this young guy from the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.  He was walking up to the stage to receive an incredible honor - Chamber Staff Person of the Year from the Western Association of Chamber Executives.  I took note because based on the introduction, I expected someone much older.

Here was this Italian kid with a perfectly round noggin shaved bald.  Lumachi?  How do you spell that?  He was the Tasmanian Devil of the chamber of commerce industry.  He doesn't look like a chamber guy... maybe a mobster?

If you're unfamiliar with chambers of commerce, here's something you should know.  Chambers are independent.  There is no franchise.  There are no affiliations or licenses.  There is no mother ship.  So when someone comes along and makes waves, it gets noticed.  More than that, it gets copied.  Shaun Lumachi knew he had something worth copying, so he stepped out on his own to copy his successful strategies for other chambers of commerce.

Over the last 2 years, I've been writing 2 books.  Remembership is at the printer and I just signed the proof this morning (May 13, 2011).  It should be done by the end of May.

I'm particularly excited about my next project.  The working title, for now, is Business Tips from Experts You've Never Heard Of.

I've been reflecting on what it took to get to this point - a lot - especially as so many friends and colleagues have inquired about the process.  While most of them are curious to know how it is that I have enough to say to fill a whole book, I find that my favorite questions are about the business side of self-publishing.

I'm always talking about these books and products. Go get them. They are awesome.

Kodak Zi8

Digital video camera in black or raspberry or aqua. I use this Lavaliere Microphone and the Remote Control. Don't forget memory... or get the whole bundle. I just got this wide angle lens attachment and I love it for shooting within 3 to 4 feet.

I've been blogging on other sites for years, but it's time I moved my content to my site.  Below this post, you'll find a few of my favorite posts from those other locations over the years.  If they seem random, they aren't.  Soon enough, you'll see why they fit.

Back in the early 70's, the world's strongest shoe brand was born. Rather than calling it "The World's Best Shoes," Phil Knight called it Nike.

If Facebook was named "Another Social Network," it wouldn't be the world's largest.

There's more market power in being less obvious. I bet "The Human Bean," the coffee drive-thru near my home, does more business than one called "Coffee, Espresso & Stuff."

My best friend's kid sister did the unthinkable last summer. She opened a bookstore.

Perhaps Rebekah didn't get the memo about paper, or she's never heard of the Kindle and it's creator, Amazon.com.

She lives on the outskirts of St. Louis, but she didn't seek out a location in the city. She didn't go to the edge of town, or even a suburb. No, 40 minutes away she parked her bookstore in downtown Edwardsville, Illinois, pop. 24,000. If you saw the movie "The Lucky Ones" with Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams, you saw downtown Edwardsville dressed up as Denver.

I've been doing a lot of consulting work with Salem area business to get them up to speed on using social media to promote their products, services and customers. Once we get through all the techie-talk, the next question is always, "Now what do I write about?"

Content is king on the internet, and social media uses communities of users to create the content through interaction. I find that the best way to describe how to create great content is to show these clients and members some great examples.

It's safe to say I was a little more than excited to be one of 50 people in the world invited to an exclusive, private session with my favorite author and change-agent, Seth Godin. I think I was more grateful for the invitation from Seth's people than for my first trip to New York City. I couldn't wait to grab a New York bagel on my 8 block walk in the Big Apple from my hotel to the conference.

All bagels and cream cheese aside, Godin spent four of our five hours together in a casual conversation, spending only the first hour with prepared remarks about his latest book, Linchpin. The subtitle describes the book best: "Are You Indispensable?"

My Salem Area Chamber of Commerce and Tim Fahndrich of The Third River, Inc., were featured in the Wall Street Journal article, Filling in the Gaps. In the article, our Face2Face online networking platform is featured as a leading innovation in providing services using technology to businesses who need greater connections and visibility in this economic climate.

WSJ.pdf

Check the back door of your chamber, because online social networking may have snuck in to your organization while you weren't paying attention.

Online social networking, sometimes called Web 2.0, is creeping quickly into our world. Where most web sites are like a one way conversation, online social media are like a conference of thousands. Social Networking in Plain English Our members and customers are using LinkedIn, Twitter (huh?), YouTube, FaceBook and MySpace to get connected.

Here's where membership organizations need to pay attention: Getting businesses connected is one of your core functions. If a business person can use social media to connect with others in a comparable way, then chambers are less relevant because of it.