Be the Best at What Matters Most

JOE CALLOWAY is a leading performance expert who has helped hundreds of companies and entrepreneurs create and sustain success through his unique interactive keynote presentations that challenge people to take action on what matters most in their businesses. Joe has published five books, including Becoming a Category of One and Indispensable.

• 1 The Only Strategy You Will Ever Need 1Building Business at Bill’s Burgers 3“Amaze” and “Delight” 3Moruga Scorpion Peppers 4What If He Made a Better Hamburger? 4What Do You Think? 5An Undeniable Premise 5We Make It Too Complex 6That’s the Problem 6It Ends up Being about the Customer 7You’re Spread Too Thin 8The Three or Four Things 9You Don’t Need Gimmicks 9If You Win on the Basics, You Win It All 10There are No Silver Bullets; There’s Just the Bomb 112 It’s Really Not That Complicated 13Build Better Cars. Imagine That 153 So Good at the Basics That You’re Cutting Edge 17Substance, Not Flash 19A Powerful Lesson 194 Deciding What Matters Most 23Defining the Problem 25Somebody’s Got to Buy 26The Main Thing 335 Different Answers—All of Them Right 35Wide Open Choices 37Joe Calloway 37Benjamin Franklin Plumbing 39Wine to Water 41Pinnacle Financial Partners 41Southwest Airlines 42An Advertising Agency That I Read about Many Years Ago 43Somebody at Citi Cards 45What Fits Us Best? 45It’s Worth Doing Wrong 466 Relevance, Innovation, and Constant Improvement 49A Moving Target 51Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today 51Lip Service 51Improve Constantly and Forever 527 Culture, Focus, and More Focus: Memphis Invest 55A Little Company with Powerful Lessons 57Get the Fundamentals Right 57The Culture Book 58A Handful of Numbers 60Absolute Intention and Focus 61Clarity about Expectations 61Meetings as Opportunities 62Relationships That Wow 638 Working in the Business 67Thinking When You Should Be Working 69“When It is Time to Work in Your Business,” by Dr. Jeff Cornwall 699 Three is the Magic Number: Smile Brands 73These Three Things 75Pick a Lane 76The G3 Approach 76The Power of Simplicity 76The Ultimate Sophistication 77So Much Less Effort 7710 Winning and Losing Inside the Box 79There Aren’t Any Shortcuts 81Deliver on Your Promise Every Time 81They’ve Taken Their Eyes Off the Ball 81If You Win on the Basics, You Win It All 81Barneys versus Nordstrom 82It’s a Sucker’s Game 83I’ll Happily Take the Doughnut 83Your “Table Stakes” Aren’t Working 84Bells and Whistles Wear Off 84Glitz or Profit? 8511 Random versus Consistent 87What a Wonderful Story! 89That’s the Trap 89Regular, Everyday Customers 90If You Lose Inside the Box 9012 Simplicity and the Blue-Tip Flame 93You Can Move Mountains 95What You Need is a Force Multiplier 95Get Your Thinking Clean Enough 96Blue-Tip Flame 9613 The Trap: Let’s Do More 99Better is Better 101Lost in Trying to Be the Best 101For Alabama Football, It’s Process 103Treating Patients Like Customers 104When Patients Talk Back 105The Patients’ Lists 10614 Clarity, Process, and Profit: bytes of knowledge 109How They Did It 111The First Order of Business 112They are a Business Partner 113They Could Be Doing Better 113Defining Their Culture 114The Monday Morning Boost 115Plug the Holes in the Bucket 116Workflow and Time Tracking 118Get a Checklist 118Everything Tracked through the System 119Educating the Employees and Getting Buy-In 120How to Run a Business 121The Coffee Shop Generation 12115 What Matters Most to Your Team 125Understanding Employees Matters, Too 127Understanding 12716 Culture Drives Results 131That’s a Shame 133By Accident or Intentional? 133Everything in Alignment 134Making Culture Mean Something 134You Have to Fire Them 136Who Would Stay? Who Would Go? 137True North 13817 How Brands Win 141Consistently Better at the Basics 143Amazon 143Coca-Cola 144FedEx 144Apple 145Target 145Ford 146Starbucks 146Southwest Airlines 146Nordstrom 147It Works 14718 How the Internet is Killing Hype 149Why You Bought the Chutney 151Consumers Aren’t Shy 152They’re Talking about You 152Palm Trees, Azure Blue Skies, and . . . Cockroaches 153“I Would Like to Apologize” 155Do What You Say You’ll Do 15519 Leadership: Grunder Landscaping Company 157The Kid Was the Best 159The Responsibility of Leadership 160Getting Buy-In 161Spider-Man, Doughnuts, and Thank-You Notes 163You Can’t Just Put These Things on a Piece of Paper 164Talk about It and Live It All the Time 164He is True North 16520 When Everything is Pursued, the Important is Neglected 167Too Much Pressure 169Sister Bear’s Nightmare 169Executing in the Game They are In 170Purpose versus Panic 17021 The Rules You Can Break 173“Fortunately, We Don’t Know Any of Them” 175Visions and Missions are Great—and Optional 175One Size Does Not Fit All 176Changing the World . . . Maybe 177“We Make Great Carburetors” 179A Purpose That Took Morale Lower 179You’re Kidding, Right? 180It’s Just Supposed to Be Effective 18122 Focus 3 Ninety 183What Matters the Most Right Now? 185A New Approach to Focus? 186Where Do We Improve Right Now? 186Make It Last 187Get Absolute Clarity 187What You’ll Learn 18823 It’s 11:30 191Taking Action 193The Obstacle of Not Knowing 193Take Out the Trash 194Someone Busier Than You is Running 195It’s 11:30 19524 Ideas That Matter Most 19725 More Resources 201Index 205