Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living

Seth Godin on Changing the Future

An interesting post from Seth Godin. Sage advice for solopreneurs building a business, trying to get their website up next week or next month or next year.

Self-Employment, 2007

About once a year, since I started my own business, I’ve done a review of what I’m learning. This year’s reflections come from having made it through the lean start-up years and having moved into a more sustainable place.

Here’s what I know now:

• Make time for the creative muse. It’s easy to get sucked into the day to day tasks required to run a business. I’m the marketing, sales, accounting, R+D, and customer fulfillment departments all wrapped into one. When does the off-site retreat happen? The creative muse must have time to explore, dream, play, and create! This happens in my yoga practice, while I’m running down the gravel path to a local fishing pond, when I’m in my garden pruning the rose bushes and snatching leaves of lettuce for my lunch. It also happens on Sunday morning bike rides and late at night, blogging a few posts for the next week. I decided to take a cue from coach and entrepreneur, Andrea Lee, and declare a “creative hiatus” in August this year. Two weeks of no appointments, no client work, no business development. Only writing and time in my garden and fun with the kids before they go back to school.

• Move into action, measure and learn, then take more action. I’ve made the mistake of thinking I need to have everything lined up before taking action, whether it’s more research, the right number of participants, or a clearer picture. Take a few strategic actions and keep the detailed planning to a minimum. Make that group coaching program a pilot, test out a new marketing campaign with $10 of pay per click ads, try out that public workshop with a friends in your living room. Things will evolve. Trial and error is the solopreneur’s best friend.

• Focus on putting one step in front of the other. This is a corollary to the action/measure/action concept. It’s easy to get overwhelmed thinking about the work involved in developing a new product or building an audience. I recently spoke to a group of coaches about my experiences with podcasting. At the end of the call, participants had mixed feelings—some were inspired to get started on their own podcast. Others were discouraged by all the different pieces to pay attention to. If you consistently bite off small chunks, at some point, you’ll have created something substantial. When I started with my first podcast in April 2006, I focused on getting the first episode out. Then another. And another. By the end of the year, I had more than twenty episodes posted or in production. By keeping a tight focus on just the next step, I created momentum and ease.

• Niche to save time and energy. This is something I’ve heard for years but never understood fully. I discovered the power of niches after focusing on whole brain thinkers. It made it easy to write marketing copy to attract my ideal client. (For an example of this, see www.boundarycrosser.com). I’m clear on which projects to pursue, ones that build my expertise in my niche or get me in front of my ideal audience. I can tell quickly if a potential coaching client is a fit for me and if there’s no fit, I feel good about making a referral. I know which networking events to attend. I know who and what to say no to.

• Let curiosity and passion drive what you say yes to. The beauty of being self-employed is that you can say yes to the crazy stuff that companies and bosses would say no to. I spent hundreds of hours last year creating four different podcasts, requiring me to interview experts in their field. Individuals who have written books on branding, advised companies on innovation and started laughter yoga clubs. A dying friend who knew what it meant to live and die well, another friend who understands the essence of being a boundary crosser and a guru on using storytelling in companies. This love of interviewing others, to draw out their wisdom, came out of nowhere. But once I did a few, I knew I wanted more. Say yes to what fuels you.

Having my own business has allowed me to dream and to create, to be strategic and to be tactical, to use my intuition and my intellect. It has taken more of me than I knew I had and given me more than I imagined. I am independent, yet connected to many people. I laugh and cry and feel more deeply than ever before. And I’m filled with new ideas each day.

I can’t think of a better way to spend my time.

Self-Promotion

Marci Alboher, the online career columnist for the New York Times, has a great thread on self-promotion. Start with this posting on her blog and then go backwards.  Don't forget to read her NYT columns, titled, "Selling Yourself By Showing Yourself, In a Good Way" and "Tools and Tips for to Create Buzz Around Your Ideas" that started the discussion.

As a solopreneur, self-promotion comes with the territory if you want to eat. I call it visibility, publicity, "getting out in the world."

I've also seen how self-promotion is not only appropriate but necessary as an employee. How can you be of greatest service to an organization if they don't know who you are and what you can do?

My other random thoughts on self-promotion:

• If you are worried about being too pushy, vain, or obnoxious in talking about your work, you probably have nothing to fear. The people who give self-promotion a bad name are the ones who don't have any of these worries on their radar screen.

• The crucial question around self-promoting is this: "Self-promotion in service of what?" I know. It sounds pretty obvious.  But when we get down to what it looks like to do this in a genuine way, it comes down to service. How am I using my gifts? In service of what?  Helping others?  Promoting a cause?  Getting a message across?

• People can sense whether you have good intentions for tooting your own horn. So get over it.  Become big in the world. I wrote an article, titled "How Big Will You Dare to Be?" that expands on this idea.  Really, you don't have time to waste, waiting for someone to give you permission to be as big as you can be.

I'm curious as to what this posting has triggered in you, what self-promotion Gremlins are lurking close by.  Let me know your thoughts.

Best Places to Live

My town, Louisville, CO, was named this past week as one of the Best Places to Live by Money magazine. Louisville came in third, behind Hanover, NH and Middleton, WI. The article portrays a Pollyanish lifestyle.  While that's not entirely accurate, it does have a low crime rate, proximity to open space, and the conveniences of a metro area. I've always enjoyed living here and now the rest of the world knows why.

Boundary Crosser as Game Changer

New post on my boundary crosser blog about how individuals who operate in multiple worlds but fit wholly in none can see the drawbacks to the status quo. Rather than try to fit in or convince others of their view, boundary crossers are ideally suited to completely change the game. Steve Jobs is a classic example of this.

Click here to read the entire post.

Getting the Word Out

A few events that I'll be doing that you might be interested in:

Monday, July 23, 1pm PT, 2pm MT, 3pm CT, 4pm ET. Free teleclass. The Life of a Boundary Crosser: More Interesting, More Effective. I'll talk about what I'm learning about boundary crossers as well as provide details on the Boundary Crosser Group Coaching Program. Sign up at www.boundarycrosser.com to get the bridge line.

Tuesday, July 24, 4pm PT, 5pm MT, 6pm CT, 7pm ET.  Free teleclass. Podcasting for Coaches, Consultants, and Other Solopreneurs. How can you reach more of your ideal audience, around the world, 24/7, with something more compelling than a website?

At its best, podcasting is a way to create your own radio show over the Internet. And like great radio shows, it has a brand (i.e., a promise of value that is delivered consistently) and a target audience. The 21st century twist is that listeners can subscribe to get your show automatically. They are always tuned in and ready for the next episode.

Unfortunately, most solopreneurs, including coaches have not figured out how to leverage this technology to build their businesses. This call peels back the covers on both the technology and the business-building aspects of podcasting.

To register, click here. If you are not a member of the Co-Active Network, click here to become a member. Membership is free.

Weds, August 22, noon PT, 1pm MT, 2pm CT, 3pm ET. Career Life Balance Radio Show. I'll be interviewed by Coach DQ, Dawn Quesnel about boundary crossers. The show can be heard by going to www.wnri.com, through streaming audio or if you are in the Southern New England area, by tuning into 1380 AM radio.

Starting Sept 6, Boundary Crosser Group Coaching Program. The pilot for this program will start on Sept 6 and continues every other Thursday through November 15.  All calls take place at 10am PT, 11am MT, noon CT, 1pm ET. Because this is a pilot, where I'll be learning as much as you on what we are creating, I've heavily discounted the price--$100/month. I can take no more than 8 participants. The next group will start in January 2008 at the regular price. For more details, go to www.boundarycrosser.com.

And as Seth Godin would say, now back to our regularly scheduled program.....

Finding the Right Fit, Part 3

This is the final installment of a series of postings on finding the right fit when interviewing for a job. The first posting talked about the role of values in creating a good fit. The second posting explored how talent plays into the right job.

This posting is about passion. A lot has been written about how your best work is one that fulfills a passion. I've seen in my own life how true this is.

Recently, I ran into someone I worked with as an engineer in the early 90's. I had not kept in contact with anyone from this period of my life, so I was curious as to what happened to many of my colleagues. The funny thing about the telecom industry in Denver is that many of the same players get recycled from one company to the next. More than a decade and several companies later, familiar names pop up in the same office.  So it was with my friends from U S WEST.

As I talked with my friend about the technical world that he was still a part of, I realized how far my passions had taken me in another direction. I can't imagine going back to an engineering job--even though I was good at it and I liked the people. Most of my talents were fully engaged in scoping out technical requirements for software development--crossing tasks off my list every day, focusing in on the important aspects of a new telephone feature, learning and gathering data as I went from one project to the next, and serving as project manager more than once. And yet, this work came up short for me.  All because of passion.

Some of my coaching clients sing the same tune--competent at their work, but without the spark that makes each day meaningful and satisfying. Sometimes it is a misalignment of values. For example, a divorce attorney who values harmony.  Often it is a matter of work that is strangely distant from our hearts.

If you're not sure of what your passion is, ask yourself these questions:

• What condition in the world touches you deeply, making you sad or angry at the thought of no possibillity for change?  For me, I care deeply about bringing the human spirit into the workplace--creating teams that click, nurturing employees to thrive, and developing authentic leaders.  If I thought there was no hope for change, I would be demoralized, depressed, and yes, angry. This passion comes from having lived in workplaces that I knew could feel better, where performance could improve.

• What do you spend time learning more about, independent of the level of knowledge you already possess in that area?  Although I spent 15 years in the telecom industry, I never got into the technology. Voice Over IP, SIP protocol, ISDN (I'm really dating myself now), OSI layers, Signaling System Number 7. None of it interested me outside of the specifics I needed to get the job done. I tried subscribing to industry magazines and they piled up on my desk, unread.  Whenever I moved offices, which seemed to be about every 18 months, it was always a relief to throw all of it into the trash. By comparison, I still hunger to know what makes teams tick, what's inside of me that I can bring to coaching, and how organizations adapt to continuous change.

• What work feels meaningful and brings you joy, independent of the pay? When I'm having a bad day, I know that if I have coaching calls, I'll feel better afterwards. I always do. After I work with a team, often I am on the receiving end of heartfelt thank yous. My first reaction is to be grateful--to see it as a privilege to do the work and to have the trust needed to do it successfully. My next reaction is of feeling well-used, that my work has purpose to it.

At a job interview, how will you know your passions are a fit for the job? Beyond the intellectual steps of matching the job content and the mission statement of the company with the answers to the questions above, first and foremost, notice how you feel in the interview. Do you pinch yourself that you are really interviewing with this company, for this job?  Can you already imagine yourself working there? Does the work of the company feel important to you? Feelings are an indicator as to whether your passions can be satisfied.

To summarize, finding the right fit starts with your own self-awareness--of your values, talents, and passions. Without that awareness, it's a bit of a crapshoot as to whether you'll enjoy a job long-term.  The newness wears off, as does the salary increase or perks, and the reality of the work sets in. What you are left with is what you have to sustain your spirit over the long haul.  Using your talents, honoring your values, and fulfilling your passions are more than enough to sustain you for the journey.

New York Times Column: Shifting Careers

I'm quoted in this week's edition of Shifting Careers, an online career column for the New York Times.  The column focuses on questions posed by readers who are young grads, with each situation addressed by a different coach. If you are more than a few years out of college, check it out anyway. Much of the coaching is applicable to individuals who are further along in their careers.

BTW--This is a great column to read on a regular basis. It covers a range of topics on how individuals are shaping their careers and shows you how to apply the learning to your own career.

The Impact of Blogs

I've been blogging for two years.  300 posts, 112 comments.

An article in today's WSJ talks about how blogs have been around for 10 years. Interviews with prominent bloggers and readers of blogs, ranging from Mia Farrow to Newt Gingrich to the founder of Craigslist, gives a sampling of the impact of blogs. From providing alternative viewpoints to raising the visibility of pet causes to giving the smallest voice a megaphone, blogging has changed the world.

An interview with Elizabeth Spiers, founding editor of Gawker, reflects on what makes for a good blog:

"Of the various blogs I've written or produced, the ones that worked best--the ones that had the biggest and most loyal readerships--always had a few consistent qualities. They were topically focused, often in niche areas. They published regularly and frequently, typically during office hours and several times a day. They published content that was original or difficult to find...They were usual well-written...They engaged their readership by soliciting feedback and responding to it, in the form of asking for tips, allowing comments or otherwise demonstrating some level of interest in their audience's preferences."

I fall short on a few of Elizabeth's criteria. And yet, I'm curious as to the impact this blog has had. I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Quieting the Mind

"Leadership is in short supply today. For me, I start my workday early...not only to think but to quiet my mind and spirit. It is during those few hours that solutions that are less harsh come to me."

--Koh Poh Tiong, CEO of Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd, a Singapore company with 32 breweries in 11 countries, with distribution in more than 60 countries.