Many entrepreneur’s just love creating new innovative products and services. Over the years, I have coached and consulted with many business owners who continuously “hide in the trees” by constantly creating new things all the time and never truly connect with their customers. As the leader of the company, the founder must continuously connect and ENGAGE customers to launch the business forward.

An example an amazing company that is connecting through their mission and message is Innovative Journaling LLC. I met the team at Innovative Journaling about 8 years ago after writing my second book Never Say “I Wish I Had” (I needed a high quality journal to go along with the methodology in the book). Based in Santa Fe, NM – Innovative Journaling clearly understands the importance and impact of connecting with customers. Innovative Journaling’s mission is to inspire individuals to create and keep stories through a journaling practice. Check out their website, http://innovativejournaling.com/your-journal-pages/

Innovative Journaling is way more than a company that sells high end leather journals and bags. They connect with their loyal tribe of followers by posting what they write about, their stories and why journaling is such an component of their lives.

As the founder, Arthur Scharf mentions on the website, “We are leaders of ourselves in every sense… intentional, creative and connected first and foremost with ourselves.” Connecting with ourselves first is his mission and message that resonates with his customers – clearly they are unique, different and not just a typical online retailer of leather journals.

What I find very interesting is that beyond just producing journals, Arthur walks his customers through his world of being an expert artist through his DIY video’s. They are fabulous and clearly illustrate how he connects with his customers. Check out this DIY which shows how he makes leather lace for the journals – http://innovativejournaling.com/do-it-yourself/

As we all gear up for a great 2016 business year, it’s important to reflect on how we all did with connecting and not just communicating to our customers and partners. Ask yourself the following questions:

How many thank you notes did I send to my customers in 2015?

How often did I speak to customers and review the notes of the conversations?

Did I listen to what our customers wanted in terms of new innovative products, shipping, packaging, delivery?

How did I deliver intentional value to my customers beyond what we are selling them?

Is my content focussed on increasing a customers knowledge beyond our product or service?

What are our goals (write them down!) for 2016 to connect and better engage with our customers?

What percentage of our sales came from existing customers vs. new customers?

Think about building a community and focus on your customers intentionally in 2016. Don’t hide in the trees!