What’s the first step to make your team more diverse, and why is diversity so important to business in the first place?
When you prioritize diversity, research shows that it generates better business results, including increasing employee retention! The best thing about diversity in the workplace? You have more perspectives, which means better ideas and more creativity.
In this interview with Pamela Slim, author of The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You, co-founder of a small business learning lab, and small business expert. You’ll discover what diversity means to the business world and how it can impact profits.
She founded her company in 1996 and focused her first decade in business on creating and delivering training programs for large companies such as HP, Charles Schwab, 3Com, Chevron and Cisco Systems.
Since 2005, Pam has advised thousands of entrepreneurs as well as companies serving the small business market such as Infusionsoft, Progressive Insurance, Constant Contact and Prezi. Pam partnered with author Susan Cain to build and launch the Quiet Revolution and the Quiet Leadership Institute.
Her upcoming book, and third book, The Widest Net: Unlock Markets and Discover Customers Right in Front of You, will be published by McGraw Hill in November, 2021.
In 2016 Pam co-founded, with her husband Darryl, the K'é Main Street Learning Lab in Mesa, Arizona, a grassroots, community-based think tank for small business economic acceleration.
She is frequently quoted as a business expert in press such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Information Week, Money Magazine and Psychology Today.
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The Widest Net: Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You
Pam's LinkedIn profile
WHAT YOU WILL DISCOVER FROM THIS EPISODE:
- The crazy story behind how I met Pam at the World Domination Summit.
- Pam’s knack for creating environments where people get along.
- How Pam created The “Pamily”.
- Why having a diverse group of friends in your life is a gift.
- Why you should consider bringing your family on business trips.
- Advice for those in cross culture or cross racial relationships.
- How Pam is raising her children to be comfortable presenting on stage.
- Pam’s “Unbook” Tour that led to her book.
- The moment when Pam decided to open a learning lab on Main Street in Mesa, AZ.
- Pam’s insightful perspective on in-person versus remote work.
- The BIG IDEA behind The Widest Net.
- How to reach your customers.
- What really retains your employees.
- How to build a diverse community.
- Attracting and retaining diverse team members.
- The first step to increasing diversity.
HIGHLIGHTS:
What reflective questions should employers ask and have conversations with their employees about during the pandemic:
- What is really the mission behind what you’re doing as a company?
- Why are you doing the work?
- What’s important to you?
QUOTES:
“There’s a human need for people to be together.”
“Having spaces with multiple uses is a very powerful way to create community.”
“If every Main Street had a place where people can wander in... it’d be amazing what communities could do.”
“Having a business coach right in the middle of Main Street is an amazing way to enable a community.”
“The problem is not that leaders in diverse communities don’t exist; it’s that they’re not visible.”
“Any company that has a really solid set of products or service offerings knows that they alone can never serve all of the needs that their enterprise customers have.”
“If you’re recruiting and you’re wanting to build connections with folks, you need the trust, and that trust is built by you spending time in communities.”
RESOURCES:
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