Ordinary Life, Extraordinary Living

Wisdom on Careers and Business

I was part of a business panel last week talking about "Risk, Reward, Opportunity: Navigating a Changing Marketplace." This event was sponsored by the Northwestern Club of Colorado. My fellow panelists, Chris Onan, Madie Gustafson, and Brian Baldwin, are well-known in Denver business circles.

Some nuggets of wisdom from the panel:

1. Don't burn bridges.
2. Clean up your messes.
3. When networking, don't expect that you are entitled to anyone else's time. Get to know the whole person, not just someone in their professional role. Think of it as relationship-building, not a transaction. Give first before asking for anything.
4. Where there's opportunity:  Solve problems with fresh water and  energy. Food sector. Industries that fill Baby Boomer needs--co-housing, alternatives to retirement, creating meaning. Photo by jeremyfoo
5. You don't have to have your whole life figured out. Just worry about the next step.
6. Be adaptable, flexible. Be willing to try something new.
7. Money for start-ups is still available. It's just more expensive.
8. Be intellectually honest. Accept and work with the reality of your situation, even if it's not what others want to hear.
9. Cut your expenses.
10. There's never been a better time to start a company. 
11. Be willing to take risks, to push the envelope. 
12. Be willing to move into action, even if you don't have it all figured out. Perfection is the enemy of the entrepreneur.

For those of you who attended the event, please add what you learned from the panel.

Know Thyself

Q: What skill is most critical to your own and/or your company's success?

I came across this question on a discussion for a LinkedIn group. I wanted to share my response with readers of this blog.

A: Know thyself.

Photo by Esparta

Why?

• If you aren't aware of your own limitations, you can't tap into expertise that others could provide more easily and efficiently and joyfully.

• If you aren't aware of your gifts, where you naturally excel and get juiced, you won't be able to target your career in the right direction. You won't be able to put yourself in the right role in your company. You'll always be playing a role that doesn't quite fit.

• If you aren't aware of your own personal reactions to impersonal situations (e.g., the economy is not out to get you), you won't be able to see opportunities and work with the reality of tough situations. It will be easy to get stuck in a victim mode--reactive--instead of being proactive.

Everything else follows from awareness. With awareness comes choice.

What's a question that you've been pondering? Share it here and it may be fodder for a great blog post....

Advice on Careers and Business

A few places to look for good advice on your career or business:

• How To Hire a Career Coach from Marci Alboher's blog, Working the New Economy.  Marci draws on the advice of many coaches (I know, because I was one of them) to compile some thoughtful answers to the biggest questions around hiring a career coach. She does a nice job of covering a lot of territory in a concise article. Photo by runneralan2004

• Paul B. Brown's Toolkit column in the New York Times.  Addressing the concerns of small business, I stumbled upon this cache of great advice a couple of days ago. He covers everything from keeping the cash flowing to succession planning to the benefits of having a formal board of directors. I was searching for a blog posting I wrote several years ago, Googled my name and a few key words and came up with a Toolkit article in which Brown had quoted me, from an article I wrote several years ago and published on HR.com.  Funny how those things work.

• Risk, Reward, Opportunity: How to Navigate the Current Market Landscape. This career roundtable, on the evening of May 12 in Denver, is being hosted by the Northwestern University Club of Colorado. I'll be speaking on a panel with fellow alumni who are experienced business leaders--a serial enterpreneur who has launched 11 companies, an attorney who has played a pivotal role in shaping the cable industry, and the managing director of a local venture capital firm.  I'm usually more comfortable being the moderator for these kinds of events. (It's a lot easier to ask the questions than to answer them!) And I'm honored that I was invited to sit on the panel. If you'd like to attend, please click here to register. 

Photo by davida3

What's Your Networking IQ?

Over the last month, I've been thinking a lot about networking as I develop the Networking Naturally Program.  I'm working with a colleague from A Bigger Voice, Ellen Ingraham and together, we've developed a Networking IQ Test.

Take the test and see how you rate.

1. I have a positive perspective about networking.
2. I know how to network.
3. I know where to network.
4. I know who to network with.
5. I am comfortable starting and maintaining conversations.
6. I know how to ask for help.
7. I know how to follow up with a new contact.
8. I know how to keep in touch with my network.
9. I know how to add value to my network.
10. I have a clear strategy for building and strengthening my network.

For each statement that you answered with a yes, give yourself a point. If you answered no, subtract a point.

If you scored 8-10 points: You are a networking genius!  You've obviously reaped the rewards of networking and should be teaching the Networking Naturally Program with me. (Okay, not really. But contact me if you are interested in being a guest speaker for a future program.)

If you scored 6-7 points:  You are getting good traction from your networking efforts. You understand the basics. With some additional knowledge and practice, you could see big returns.

If you scored 4-5 points: You have some gaps in your knowledge, that when filled, could make the difference between seeing mediocre results and feeling like you have momentum.

If you scored 1-3 points: You are struggling to see the benefits of networking. Time to get some serious help if you want to make this part of your toolkit.

If you scored zero or below: You've got no place to go but up. You've got a great opportunity to learn about networking!  Go immediately to www.naturalway2network.com and sign up for the Networking Naturally Program. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Okay, just kidding.

In all seriousness, the Networking Naturally Program is designed to help you improve your networking skills, by first focusing on the underlying principles. We start tomorrow, April 8. Sign up at www.naturalway2network.com.

Photo by shashiBellamkonda

Young Entrepreneurs

Through Twitter, I'm meeting some interesting people. Two new followers are @joeldrapper and @9miles. 

Joel Drapper is a 15-year old blogger and web designer in the UK, home-schooled. He comes from a family of 11 kids. Yes, you read that right, one shy of a dozen. I'm particularly impressed with his story about buying a laptop:

"I wanted to buy myself a laptop computer so I worked many hours washing up at a hotel and chopping potatoes into chips for a chip shop. It was poor pay and I was chopping in a small unheated shed, with gnats everywhere and by the time I finished my 8 sacks of potatoes my jeans and trainers were soaked through. But I saved up and finally bought my own laptop."

9miles Media consists of a group of teens (ages 13-16) spread across the US who do graphic and web design. While their portfolio is still developing, they provide better content in their tweets than a lot of adults I follow. And it's clear that they are figuring out how to work as a virtual team. No small task, even for adults.

What does it all mean? There have always been young entrepreneurs. Now, the Internet not only provides a means for teens to make money with a computer, talent, and skills, but it also provides a vehicle for raising the visibility of these budding capitalists. I'm wondering what they'll be doing 10 years from now.

I also think this provides a perfect rebuttal to people who provide excuses to what they really want to do in life. Just get started, at whatever age you are.

Cool Things

With the Internet, sharing cool things is so much easier. A few cool things I've stumbled upon or which others have brought to my attention:

Cool article

• Bright Ideas for Dark Days. Article about how some companies in the UK are finding opportunities in the recession.

Cool ideas

• Vocation Vacations.  Service that matches mentors passionate about their work (e.g.  wine maker, sports announcer, hotel manager) with people searching for their "dream job." Individuals take a "VocationVacation," 1-3 days with a mentor, to learn more about what it's really like in a specific vocation.
• The School of Life. Based in London, this is a "new social enterprise offering good ideas for everyday living." They provide programs and services that enable people to live wisely and well--everything from a course on how to talk to strangers to "sermons" on curiosity, pessimism, risk, and good design.

Cool interviews

• Entrepreneurial Toolbox. Interviews with entrepreneurs. Make sure to listen to Brad Feld on why failing is an option and to Heidi Roizen on networking.

Cool video

• Jill Bolte Taylor's TED talk. In this video, Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, provides a front row seat of the inner workings of a stroke she suffered in 1996. In the process, she reveals what each of is capable of achieving through the use of our right brain--inner peace.

Cool site

• Big Conversations, Small Talk from Ideo. This is a Facebook page that poses a thought-provoking question (e.g., Is there an upside to the recession?) with Ideo staffers stirring the pot. Ideo is known for their innovative use of "design thinking" to solve problems.

What cool things have you seen lately?

Interview on A Bigger Voice

Interested in hearing more about my newest venture, straight from the horse's mouth? I was recently interviewed by Terry Morreale for W3W3, about  A Bigger Voice. Click here to find the link and read the backstory about reconnecting with Terry, a decade after being cubicle neighbors.

What Entrepreneurs Should Focus On

These ideas come from Barbara Mowry, who I recently quoted in another post about channeling your energy into a business.

Mowry was talking with the Denver chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. What I took away from Mowry's talk:

1. Start a business for the right reasons. Not money, but passion. It's your passion that can fill a gap in the world that only you see and feel--in a way that tugs at you, wakes you up in the middle of the night, or moves you to tears.
2. Manage ambiguity. Oh, boy. Have I seen this one in spades. Mowry points out that passion and energy are needed to navigate the ambiguity. Entrepreneurs will always be making decisions without complete data, with many pieces unknown. That's where gut and instinct come in.
3. Pick the right team. This point made me feel really good, given the team that I've assembled for my new venture, A Bigger Voice (www.abiggervoice.com). According to Mowry, pick people who are smarter than you, who have intellect, curiosity, and passion. There's that P-word again. Provide goals and metrics and communicate, communicate, communicate. Then get out of the way. A great team can overcome a mediocre business idea and make it great. A mediocre team will be unsuccessful with a great business idea.
4. Luck and timing help. Sometimes a lot. Mowry gave a great story about sudden downpour in the mountains of Colorado, at the home of a CEO, that extended a pitch from 15 minutes to over two hours. Yes, luck and timing to do help. And I believe "luck" often appears because we create the right conditions for it to show up--doing our homework, being alert, and following our inner voice.

I'm in the sponge mode of learning about entrepreneurship, by doing, by hearing from others who have traveled the road, and by reading. What are your best tips for entrepreneurs?

What Makes You Angry?

Something wonderful is happening with my work on A Bigger Voice, the social entrepreneur venture that helps innovators with remarkable wisdom create stunning results and sustainability.

This week, I got angry. And frustrated. And impatient.

I was angry because I saw the arrogance that comes with top down thinking and insularity. When I know the power of bottom up, of listening to all the voices. It was one of those situations when someone with positional power decides that they want something done, a strategic initiative. So they tell the "underlings" to just go do it. And oh, by the way, despite your best efforts, you don't get any resources to accomplish the mission. You'll have to figure that one out on your own. This does not just happen inside companies. It happens with "strategic alliances," in business relationships, between companies. It's maddening.

I was frustrated because change comes too slowly. I met someone who is a headhunter for marketing executives. You would think they would have a handle on how marketing has changed as a discipline over the last ten years and the boom of the Internet. That marketing is not about a one-way blast to a homogeneous audience anymore, but a two-way conversation with a niche and a multi-way conversation between and with customers. Got permission marketing?

Seems logical--looking to help companies with marketing positions, need to find people who are thought leaders, need to know what's happening in the discipline. And yet when I asked the headhunter if he was familiar with permission marketing or Seth Godin's work, I got a blank look. This could be a sign of someone who is not successful as a headhunter, or someone who is hired by companies who aren't and won't be successful in marketing their products. You choose.

Anger and frustration are good when they move you into action and provide a sense of urgency. I'm impatient. For things to change. For some of the dream of A Bigger Voice to be realized--when one voice can start a community, easily and effortlessly. When communities create stunning results, easily and effortlessly. When monetization comes not before, but after community-building. When doing well and doing good is not a platitude but a reality for many people.

When this happens, bottom up will be the new top down. When this happens, the conversation will be as important as the sale. Because the conversation is not just part of the sale, it keeps the sale going, and going, and going.

Am I crazy? I hope not. Or maybe I should say, I hope so.

I heard Barbara Mowry, a serial enterpreneur speak recently. She gave advice on being an entrepreneur. Her first piece of advice: start your business for the right reasons.

A Bigger Voice comes from that anger, frustration, impatience to see change happen. No better reason to start a business. No better time to be an entrepreneur.

What have you gotten angry and frustrated about recently? And is it enough to fuel you on the road to being an entrepreneur? I'd love to hear your stories. Click on the comment link below.

The Ugly Truth About Coaching Businesses

I talked today to a friend who I met several years ago, as members of an association for professional coaches. While the national association is going strong, our local chapter disbanded a few years ago. We reminisced about coaches we knew from the local chapter and where they are now. I was struck by how many trained coaches are not making a living at coaching. Some had decided to take on full-time jobs in other areas (e.g., teaching, psychotherapy, remodeling and home repair.) Others are supported by spouses with jobs to pay the mortgage and grocery bill.

I'm extremely grateful that I've been able to earn a living and support a family of four as a coach and consultant. Part of this is due to the fact that I embrace the business aspect of being a solopreneur. As one of my coaching friends said in email last year:

"What I know about you? You love the business.....;) and it shows in everything you do."

It's true. I do love the business. I love creating something from nothing, including marketing materials, coaching programs, podcasts, blogs. I don't mind writing proposals. In fact, I'm good at it. I'm comfortable with talking about money and see the world as a place of abundance, not scarcity. I drive to results and am willing to build a little at a time, over time. I like the challenge of figuring out a niche and then building a brand. I put my time into building the revenue pipeline. New coaches don't realize how many sample sessions and free speaking gigs (and blog posts!) you do to fill the pipeline. I like using technology to reach more people and be more efficient with my time. I learn from my mistakes. I stay connected with my audience. I make new, meaningful connections all the time and create lasting relationships with the best of them. 

This is not meant to be an essay on how wonderful I am. (On my worst days, my husband would provide you with an entirely different description.) It's meant to underscore that being a solopreneur is not for everyone, even if you know your craft well and love the work.

The coaching schools are getting better at providing support for new coaches who aren't naturally inclined to be small business owners. I'm hoping that individuals who are finishing their coaching training now will have a higher success rate.

The lesson here is not what you'd expect to hear from a coach:

Following your passion is sometimes not enough. Sometimes it falls short.

You heard it here first.