Jessica Higgins, JD MBA BB, is a public speaker, author and expert in the field of Lean Six Sigma and organizational culture design. Her mission is to help others succeed in the work place. She is based in Miami Beach, FL and travels worldwide for her work in culture design.
What motivated and inspired you to start your own business?
Organizational cultures are so broken in so many companies today. I’m on a mission to fix that.
Tell us about your business.
We are the only end-to-end culture design solutions firm in existence. Everything from assessments to physical art installations, we do it all. Doing it end-to-end makes it more effective, and less expensive.
In a world full of big consulting firms essentially selling you data, hours and reports, we understand the problem and then give people the tools and strategies to make your ideal work culture a reality.
Are you currently running any promos/contests/giveaways that you would like our readers to know about?
We’re in pre-release mode for this really great leadership tool that integrates culture conversation into meetings, recruiting and onboarding. I’ll give 40% off to anyone reading this, just because I haven’t released it to the public yet.
Zappos, Microsoft and our other forward-thinking clients have them and love them so the plan is to release it in 2018 — as soon as I find the time.
List awards/certifications/accomplishments.
- Two years ago we won a national Finny award for Disruptive Content for a piece of lead generation content we created for LinkedIn.
- Last year we won an Aster award for Excellence in Culture and another Aster award for Excellence in Communications.
- We’re about to release another piece for LinkedIn that’s even better, so I’m confident in our chances for more awards in 2018!
Where is your business based?
Miami Beach, Florida.
What were the first few steps you took to get your business up and running?
I tried going alone for a while, which was a disaster, and then partnering changed everything. I am a huge believer in diversity: diversity of people, skills, backgrounds. Adding the diversity layer by joining a group of extremely diverse people was what really got me going.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness of your business and getting new customers?
We believe in helping people and practicing what we preach, so we publish content to give guidance and then people contact us when they have a problem and we can help in a deeper way. Also, word of mouth from our clients.
What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Getting business leaders who are used to the status quo to step outside of themselves and favor more effective approaches, rather than familiar ones.
How did you overcome these challenges?
I think the market is showing us what culture can really do for employees, customers and shareholders. From Tom’s Shoes to Uber, it’s becoming more obvious, so that’s helpful.
Also, I make it my mission to educate people that revenue doesn’t have to come at the expense of employees.
There’s an alternative world where great employees achieve even greater outcomes, and we call these breakthrough organizations.
How do you keep motivated through difficult times?
I’m extremely self-motivated so when happiness and excitement aren’t driving me, fear and terror are driving me. “Difficult times” should never be an excuse. Just keep going.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competitors?
We’re cheaper, more effective and a small team of specialists. The consulting model is all about big teams, lots of hours, lots of invoices, and few solutions. I came from that system so I knew it well, hated it and completely hacked it.
What is the best advice you have received recently?
I listened to a great podcast from our collaborator, Seth Godin, recently. He explained that writer’s block isn’t real. It just means you are confused. Ditto that for any project.
The way through, whenever you find yourself blocked, is to keep working with full awareness that it may be completely terrible work, but it will get better. I’m applying this to everything I do.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
Don’t let anyone except the market decide who you are or your value.
What are your favorite business tools/resources and why?
I love our BeemPro robots at the office and am toying with the idea of mailing them to clients so I don’t have to travel. If one client takes me up on it, I’ll be a floating robot head on-site while home in Miami Beach (probably in my pajamas). That sounds amazing.
What is a good article or book you have read recently?
“Willpower Doesn’t Work” by Benjamin Hardy. He’s an amazing writer, an amazing friend, and the most read person on Medium.com. His work is solid.
What are you currently learning about for your business or looking for help with?
I’m constantly learning. Help me with anything! My favorite type of information is random and surprising so I’m keeping the request wide open.
What are your goals for the next few months and how are you striving to achieve them?
I’ve been brushing up on my web development skills and want to become a web developer again. I enjoy learning new things, and this was actually my first job ever. When I was 13 or 14 I sold websites to local businesses in my town, back when it was literally code-writing.
Now everything has gotten so easy, I want to learn all of the cool new stuff you can do. All of my free time these days is spent watching Youtube videos and reading about web development. You can learn anything on Youtube.
What social media outlets do you use? List them below.
Instagram @jessicahigginsdotco
Twitter @gapingvoid
Facebook facebook.com/jessicahigginsdotco
Website jessicahiggins.co
Email jessicah@gapingvoid.com