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To many professional service providers, the concept of finding new clients and winning work is intimidating. Even the very term “business development (BD)” strikes terror in the hearts of some professionals. Among my coaching clients, the fear often comes from a mistaken assumption that to succeed in BD one has to be an aggressive salesperson. This couldn’t be less true. So put away your fake smile and your clammy handshake. These tips will have you feeling comfortable and improving your BD results in no time:
It’s a marathon, not a sprint: It may take multiple meetings and interactions via phone/email before you’re ready to propose your services or ask for work. Simply focus on advancing your relationship a little each time you interact. This takes the pressure off feeling like you have to land a big contract over lunch.
Meaningful conversations: Sharing meals with prospective clients can help bring in good work. But the most effective business developers always make lunch more than a chit chat over chicken Caesar. Know what you want to achieve and plan some questions that will help you bring the conversation in that direction when the time is right. For example:
What are you working on?
What does success look like for you/your business?
What gets in the way of achieving this success?
What kind of help do you need?
Talk less, listen more: In 2012, it’s no longer about the aggressive pitch. Instead, build a relationship and find common interests so you both win. Have your prepared questions and also let curiosity be your guide. When in front of the prospect, ask yourself what you’re most curious about and pose your questions from there. Your lunch date will find it refreshing.
Let your prospect guide you when to ask for the work: It’s great to have lunches, drinks and conversations. It is also great to actually win work! Each time you interact with a prospect, check in with them. “What is the logical next step? Have I earned the right to propose on this work? Can we start on this small project so we can solve this problem with you?”
For more on effective BD, check out Get Clients Now by C.J. Hayden. Hayden provides an excellent 28 day plan that will get you into action and bring results. And remember: It doesn’t have to be hard. It could even be fun!
Simon Sinek has codified how the world’s most inspiring leaders think, act and communicate. And he concludes that they do exactly the opposite of everyone else. In his 2010 TED Talk, Sinek draws his Golden Circle to emphasize how inspiring leaders/ companies communicate from the inside out. First why, then how, then what. Says Sinek,
People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
As we collectively mourn the loss of Steve Jobs, Sinek illustrates his code with Apple. Apple believes in challenging the status quo (why they do it); they do it thru beautiful design and easy to use technology (how they do it); they happen to make great computers (what they do).
Just this morning I was informally coaching a small business owner friend. She was rushing to write a proposal for a very large Canadian company. Winning this business would be by far, their biggest account to date. As I listened to her talk about how she and her partner rushed to create a demo product and crunched the numbers so they could offer a great price …(what they do), I was struck by how, in rushing to explain what we do and how we do it better than everyone else, we really miss the heart of the matter.
The alternative Sinek offers is to get really grounded in why we do what we do. I would add that gaining a deep understanding of why our prospective client does what he does can be profound. What beliefs do we have in common? This is the sweet spot where magic can happen. I believe that we all need strong champions and challengers in order to live our best life. This is why I coach leaders.
Why do you do what you do? Things will get a whole lot more compelling for you and everyone else once you take the time to figure this out.
…Heather Rossiter of Charlottetown, PEI, whose entry for Boy or Girl: Care to Wager? was within an hour and a pound! Heather submittted March 5th at 10:00 a.m. weighing 5 lbs 8 oz. Lalia MacLeod Chandler (Lali) arrived at 11:13 a.m. on the 5th and weighed 6 lbs 8 oz. Congratulations Heather! There hasn’t been even a moment post your victory until now so I expect your cookies will take a bit of time to get to you but I promise I will come good on the contest.
Here’s a photo of Lali taken during the past few days. She was beautiful to start with and becomes even more so with each passing day.
Sound asleep on her Nana
Thanks everyone for your participation. It was certainly fun leading up to her birth and a good distraction for me too.
Andy Warhol Shower Cupcakes ..."the idea of waiting for something makes it more enticing". The cupcakes at the other shower were "to die for" too!
This past Saturday I attended Bientôt Bébe, the hospital’s prenatal course, at the Royal Victoria where I will be delivering my baby sometime very soon. I was THE only single woman there among a sea of a dozen couples. The nurse who was leading the course didn’t seem used to having single women in the class and her language the entire day was focussed on the couple. When it came time to practice massage during labour, I was the “lucky” contestant called to the stage to be her guinea pig.
Fortunately, I have thick skin about this stuff. Even still, as we watched the video in which the husband was incredibly supportive during labour (many friends who are mothers would say this is the exception), I found myself feeling sad and very on my own. Certainly, I would love to to sharing the birthing process and my newborn with a loving partner and father. Ultimately though, I chose to have a baby myself because it didn’t feel right to create a family with any of the men I have been in relationships with. As I have told many friends, I have a lot of confidence that I will someday be sharing my child with a loving partner. I am just doing it backwards out of biological necessity. Perhaps my love life will unfold in keeping with this kookie horoscope a friend sent me earlier this week:
“CANCER (June 21-July 22): Your love story has elements of a farce mixed
with a soap opera, fairy tale, and ghost story. For a normal human being,
it might be too intense and convoluted to deal with; it requires so much
willing suspension of disbelief and involves so much letting go of certainty
that no one in their right mind would agree to its demands. Luckily, you’re
not a normal human being these days, and you’re not particularly in your
right mind. That’s why I say unto you: Ride this snaky tale for all it’s
worth. Enjoy every plot twist and riddle as if you’ve been given an epic
myth you can ponder and learn from for the next ten years. Happy
Valentine Daze, Cancerian!”
The flip side to this “woe is me” perspective above is that I have been showered with support through my fertility journey and particularly though my pregnancy. I cannot tell you if I have had more support as a single woman than a woman in a couple would have had but I suspect the answer is YES.
The newly painted baby room and some adorable gifts hanging out together.
If you read my last post, you know I like to make lists. I would love to make comprehensive list of all the support I have had just to see it for myself but I will surely forget to acknowledge someone. Instead I will talk in slightly more general terms: Two close friends hosted baby showers for me in Toronto and Montreal respectively. My Toastmasters group also held a “baby shower” themed evening; another close friend attended many medical procedures with me and will be with me in labour too; my dad flew up to Montreal last week from Charlottetown to do house projects and my aunt had flown up earlier and help me get organized; friends have done everything from sort baby clothes hand me downs to moving furniture and have even painted the baby room from top to bottom; other friends and my sister gave me maternity clothes (and baby clothes); my landlord has been shovelling all the snow; some of my clients have sent gifts; my mom is flying up on my due date to help me for 3 weeks! And I even received a baby book in the mail from my favourite blogger Penelope Trunk, who said I didn’t really qualify for her book give away offer because my baby wasn’t even born yet and then proceeded to send me a lovely book with a yellow bow anyway!
Duck at the Door from Penelope Trunk
And so, what I am learning these days is that perhaps I can have everything I want in life, just not all at the same time. And that having a supportive family and an incredible group of friends, colleagues and clients helps me feel strong. I am certainly not alone in any of this. And I am GRATEFUL.
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I have given myself full permission to blog on whatever topic inspires me these days. Generally, I like to tie my posts to some type of business theme. As I wrap up my work to take a few months off for a maternity leave, I am naturally more in tune with my naval and all things baby. Nonetheless, I think there are parallels one can draw to business too. Being an entrepreneur can be a very lonely endeavour unless one is surrounded by a village of support.
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Picture this: you are a barista at a Second Cup attending to your customers on a typical Monday morning. One of your regular customers walks in and asks for her regular coffee and then you notice she`s accompanied by a photographer, a camera man and a few other people..and they are all looking at you.
Anita Nowak and Raquel Lanziner. Photo by Dario Ayala, Montreal Gazette photographer.
The regular customer, my friend Anita Nowak launches into a little story about how she and a group of friends get together each year at Christmas to raise money for charity and how this year, $1675 was raised for the David Suzuki Foundation. Raquel, the barista, listens attentively and gradually realizes that the cameras are there to photograph her as Anita tells her that our group has decided to redirect $600 of the funds to her so she can have an MRI to diagnose the back pain that has stopped her from being able to ballet dance.
Raquel, overwhelmed with the news yet still full of grace, comes around the counter to hug Anita (I got one too!); she cannot believe this is happening to her. She thought she would have to wait 6 months to a year for the MRI; she really didn`t know what she was going to do because just last week she was among 3 people invited to a special workshop in Banff for summer 2011 but her spot would be given to someone else if she couldn`t dance.
Susan Schwartz, Gazetter reporter, was there to capture the story. And because of Susan`s story (and Anita`s media savy), the story continued to gain momentum. There is a follow up story in this morning`s Gazette.
Since the story ran in yesterday`s paper there have been the following highlights:
1) Susan Schwartz received this email (which shall remain anonymous):
Drinking my morning coffee, reading the paper, and you hit the spot. Please allow me to share in the glow of goodwill and kindness of Anita and friends. I would like to make up the $600 to the wonderful Suzuki association, AND important to me, pay Anita’s ticket (we stayed longer than we thought and Anita got a parking ticket). Good Karma needed and deserved here…while I am no scientist, there apparently is research that shows that the true act of giving creates real positive hormonal responses…I’m finishing writing this letter to you feeling pretty good, with a smile on my face, and it’s a wonderful way to start the day…please pass my warmest regards to Anita and friends…maybe next year, she will allow me to send a small token of my respect to her group’s organization of choice.
2) Montreal physician Sheldon Elman, CEO of the Medisys Health Group, called to offer an MRI for Lanziner at no charge;
3) Physician Jeffrey Brock, CEO of a company called MedExtra, emailed to offer to review Lanziner’s MRI and propose a treatment plan, also at no charge.
4) Sgt. David Sedgwick of Westmount Public Security emailed Anita: “In the spirit of the season, and to keep the ‘good karma’ intact, I’d like to offer to take back the parking ticket that you received” .
5) At 1 p.m. yesterday Raquel had her MRI at Medvue. Dr. Elman phoned her later with the results: a herniated disc, which she is confident can be managed with rest and other conservative treatment.
Today, Raquel is flying home to Vancouver for the holidays, armed with the knowledge that her back problem is curable and she will dance again!
This afternoon I was at prenatal yoga. During the relaxation at the end (which I truly wish was a daycare style nap time as it usually ends just as I am falling asleep), my mind was flipping from topic to topic: what labour will be like, my first sexual encounter, what I would eat for lunch, the snow outside etc.
It’s normal for the mind to flip flop all over the place. Call it monkey brain or whatever you want. In yoga (and apparently in child birth), the key is to observe the mind as it does this rather than be run by the mind. Of course, today I was much too hooked into my thinking, and much too sleepy, to be the observer. And none of this is the point of my post anyway (she says, halfway into the post).
I came across this post called Always Be Thinking About These Things by Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non Conformity) and it reminded me of our Finish Strong workshop last week. And well, my brain loves to make connections. So have a look at Chris’ post. And always be thinking about these things:
I would add “Current Reality“. You don’t always need to be thinking about it, but I believe you do need to have an honest grounding in your current reality so that you know where you are now. No hiding from the truth. No down playing. No upselling. No spin. Your GPS and Google Maps both do a better job when they know where you are starting from.
This month’s book club selection was a double whammy for me: good reading and good for business. The title–Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation–intrigued me when my friend proposed it and the timeline she issued us was a challenge. The book was only released around Oct 5th so we had to order it and read it within 3 weeks. We all said yes and off we were.
Johnson does for innovation what Gladwell did for success: shows us all the evidence of what needs to stack up to create good ideas. His concepts like “the adjacent possible”, “liquid networks”, and “the slow hunch” made for great book club discussion (7 present liked the book and one hated it). Read it yourself if you are intrigued by the topic. And if you just want tips on how to be innovative, I share with you the book’s conclusion (without all the technical rationale):
P.S. Widely read blogger, Penelope Trunk, recently wrote ”people sometimes complain to me that I have too many links to random stuff, and mostly I think, ‘Just don’t click on the links if you don’t like it’.” Well said Penelope! If you you happen to be in D.C. on November 11th, you can meet her in person at the Brazen Careerist party.
One principle of design: designing for emergence, struck a cord with me. Quoting designer Van Alstyne:
Each person’s individual life is emergent in the sense that it unfolds in ways that can be surprizing and sometimes quite wonderful. The nature of emergence is such that it cannot be fully controlled or designed. But you can encourage it; hence, you can design for emergence by providing the right conditions for growth, blossoming, enrichment, and evolution.
To design your life for emergence, you need to plan for possibilities and also allow for surprizes. Companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are excellent examples cited in Glimmer of companies who design for emergence. They create a platform that creates the conditions for growth and then marvel at the applications and uses that emerge.
Imagine if you designed your life and business in this way…to keep learning and adapting, focussing on conditions for growth and marvelling at the surprizes that come.
Design offers four principles:
Design your immediate surroundings (your ecosystem) in a manner that is self-sustaining and conducive to growth;
Some of my clients struggle with creating the life and business they want. They place too much pressure on themselves for a perfect design and get stalled when they cannot come up with it. There would be so much more available to them if they simply started anywhere, created a platform for emergence and and started living their design poised to notice and adapt to the marvels that emerge!
My coach colleague Denise Desmeules and I have designed a workshop called Finish Strong…and Play a Bigger Game in 2011. It’s for busy business owners and professionals who want to design their life and business for 2011. If you are in Montreal, we’d love to have you join us on November 26th from 1-4 (price includes a 1:1 coaching session too:).
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Fibonaci Spiral- image from Wikipedia
Why the sunflower image above? Van Alstyne talks about how sunflowers are designed for emergence (based on how their growth pattern follows the Fibonacci sequence…I am including this for the benefit of mathmaticians who might be reading…would a mathmatician really read this blog?). Essentially, sunflowers replicate the same growth over and over again and grow to insane sizes. He sees our human lives as having the same potential.
Ian Sherwood plays a house concert at my place in Montreal, Oct 2010
Last night I hosted an intimate and communal experience at my house. Almost 20 people partook and everyone seemed to have a fantastic time. Before you go too far in imagining what I am describing, let me stop you in your tracks. The event last night was a house concert and the artist was Nova Scotia singer/ songwriter Ian Sherwood.
House concerts have been around for centuries (think of chamber music from the middle ages) though the concept of hearing modern music in the home seems somewhat novel. There are some online hubs which create a network of hosts much like the couch suring concept for travellers.
Ian is a good friend of my sister Jill. He and she performed in dinner theatre together more than a decade ago and Ian spent about a month living at my house in Toronto about 5 years ago when he needed a short term rental. When I heard he was passing thru Montreal en route home to Nova Scotia from his latest CD launch in Ontario, we connected and decided he would do a house concert at my place. I had gotten the idea from my cousin Sarah whose boyfriend John Connolly did a recent house concert tour in the west. Ian has done dozens of house concerts and loves them so the idea wasn’t new to him.
Since I am not a music critique (and loved every minute of Ian’s concert last night), I am going to focus instead on the process of hosting a house concert and look at it from a business perspective (as in: the artist as a business person).
With only two weeks lead time and both of us being fully booked with our respective work, we decided we would put the word out via social media (a Facebook event) and that I would send an email invite to my Montreal friends, colleagues and neighbours. We would take whatever response we could get and Ian confirmed it would be worth it for him even if our audience was tiny.
In the end, we were almost 20. Ian played two spectacular sets. He’s an extremely accomplished singer/ songwriter and an incredible storyteller/ entertainer. I looked around the room often and sensed that Ian had really captured his audience.
While my motivation in hosting the concert was twofold: 1) help Ian establish a small following in Montreal and make a little extra money on his short tour 2) host a novel event for friends and neighbours, it’s interesting to look what it took to pull it off and what came out of it.
Inputs:
1-2 hours online creating the FB event invite and inviting people via FB and email;
3-4 hours picking up some groceries, cleaning the house and preparing some food for the concert
Approx $75 on food and wine (with lots leftover because some people brought booze and no one consumed much anyway)
2-3 hours travel and set up/ take down time for Ian from where he was staying in Montreal (and a lot more hours than that to drive back to the Maritimes today)
30 min clean up post concert
Outputs:
3 hours of fantastic music in an intimate living room enviroment for 20 people
Socializing and mingling over a drink before concert and at intermission; perhaps some new connections were formed
Maybe half a dozen CDs sold and an additional $150+ in voluntary donations for Ian
Almost 20 news names/ email addresses for Ian’s database (so he can promote future work/ tours etc.); these same 20 people will remember Ian far better than if they had seen him playing in the background in a bar or coffeehouse
My friend Christina Sciascia attended the concert. She is owner of Shaika Cafe in NDG, a popular coffeehouse that features live music nightly. Ian is welcome to contact her to book a gig.
Smiles on everyone’s faces when they left and lots of praise for Ian’s talent and thanks for my hosting of the event
Net:
Was it worth it for me? Definitely. I thoroughly enjoyed hosting it and hearing the concert. Was it worth it for Ian? He shared my sentiments. He seemed to have a lot of fun and left with a little extra cash and a little bigger following.
Would I do it again? Without question, Ian is welcome to play here if he needs a venue next time he’s in Montreal. I might even host other artists because I have the space and it was fun. I am not plugged into the music scene though so I am not sure where the next artist will come from.
What would I do differently? I would plan the concert a little earlier, sell tickets in advance for a fixed price (as I believe this would generate more revenue for the artist and encourage people to buy a CD the night of the preformance as well), and aim to have 30 or so people in my space (again to make it worth it for the artist).
If this post has sparked your interest in hosting a house concert, I say go for it. You will be building community, encouraging creativity, helping an artist/ solopreneur and you will make yourself happy in the process. What’s to lose?
Here”s a little bonus…Ian performing a portion of Dixieland Dirt Bovine last night from his first album (the video is shot sideways and is very dark. I am a coach not a producer!).
Conversation can be the most sublime of human experiences.
This comes from the German poet Goethe. Many would agree. To have a real conversation is a great joy.
So how do you do it in your day to day interactions? And more particularly how do you do it at work? It being a “have a real conversation” (not the “it”, which is typically frowned upon at work!).
Step one, according to Hargrove, is to give up being in agreement all the time. He says to bring in the paradoxes, real conflicts and dilemnas. Say what is really on your mind. It might just have the effect of holding up a mirror to yourself and others. You might just cause a shift from posturing and defensiveness to authenticity, creativity and learning.
Most people are more concerned with “looking good” than “being good” (this Hargrove has some excellent viewpoints and I am not just agreeing). Looking good at all costs leads to turf protecting, colluding, covering up mistakes and growing resentment inside as anger and frustration build up. I would say it even leads some to perfectionism which serves no one and in particular truly punishes the perfectionist himself.
So what undisscussble thing have you been harbouring?
In what areas of your life are you “looking good” instead of “being good”?
Sounds like answering these questions could be the start of a great conversation! I am all ears.
This image is a human embryo five days after a single egg was fertilized with a single sperm cell.
Ultrasound Scan of Fetus at 10 weeks Gestation
This is an ultrasound image of the same embyro at 10 weeks gestation. It already has a beating heart (and had one since 6 weeks gestation).
A view from the outside!
This image, much less clinical, shows the same fetus from the outside. In this image the fetus is 19 weeks old and is the size of a large mango!
And finally…
And if you hadn't guessed already...
Yep, if you hadn’t already guessed…this baby is growing in me. As of today, I am 19 weeks pregnant!
I gave a speech called “Creating a Meaningful Life” last night at my Toastmasters’ Club. I got quite emotional at one point while delivering it. You see, it’s a pretty big milestone for me to be almost halfway through my pregnancy. The road has been long and winding. One surgery, six cycles of increasingly invasive treatments, and 3 previous pregnancies all ending in very early stage miscarriages….this has been the road.
If you had asked me when I was 30 years old what I envisioned for my future family, my answer would have been far more traditional. Now I am embarking on single motherhood (for now). I feel confident the right guy will come along at some point AND I made the decision to proceed anyway because my biological clock was tick tocking really loudly (and yes, it really does become a lot more difficult for many women to conceive after their mid thirties).
Fear, anger, sadness, confusion, uncertainty and even jealousy–these were some of the emotions I cycled in and out of over the past few years. And the doubt. Oh my goodness the doubt! When things weren’t going well I would ask myself,
Is this a sign that I am not meant to be a mother?
Is it time to pursue adoption?
And the most difficult question of all (and one I came to hate because I really struggled with it)
Do I even want to be a mother anyway???
Fortunately for me, I had many cheerleaders along my winding road, most of them mothers themselves. They, in my darkest moments of doubt, affirmed that having a child would be my greatest joy and that I needed to continue on the road to create this in my life. I am so grateful to these women. They know who they are.
We recently read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years for our bookclub. The premise is essentially this: that we create meaning in our lives by the stories we live. Our lives, just like great movies, are more meaningful when the main character wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.
Well this story, my current story, still in progress, is creating great meaning in my life. And I needed to share it simply because I am looking at my life, my business, and my future though a different lens these days. I am still the same me. I still want to be a masterful coach helping high-aspiration business owners and professionals create their great story. I still want to be a loving daughter and sister and a true blue friend. And I still want to tango.
So don’t count me out. In fact, count me in more than ever. The plot is about to thicken. And so is my waistline!
Photo by Valerie Baron, Montreal Life in Photos Examiner
Take one professional or celebrity chef in a professional kitchen; mix with abundant fresh food ingredients, free flowing cocktails and wine; add equal parts men and women and let them marinate for the evening. This is Cristina Mucciardi’s recipe for CookandDate. And several times a month since 2008, she’s been turning out great results in Montreal. By next month (October 2010), she’ll be doing the same in Toronto and New York.
CookandDate has been covered frequently in the Montreal media since its inception so you can read about it in the traditional media for concept details. Or better still, if you are single, sign up for an event and become a member.
Cristina says, “Press is the one thing that has come really easily”. That’s because Cristina is an entrepreneur who’s found a sweet spot in the market. She created a concept that lines up precisely with her own sweet spot as a people connector and foodie. Growing up in a Montreal Italian family, she is passionate about gathering people around great food. And when it comes to CookandDate, her mission is to help men and women find their soul mates. That she takes it seriously is an understatement.
Cristina is radiant hosting a CookandDate event. Photo by John Kenney, The Montreal Gazette.
CookandDate defies classification as solely a cooking school, a dating service or a social club. That’s because it is all of these things combined in one. It’s way more than this too. As a by product of opening CookandDate, many opportunities arose for private parties (i.e. showers, birthday parties) and corporate events. In response, Cristina is splitting the company into two banners: CookandDate and CookandEtc. The later leaves her plenty of room to expand her offerings in response to the market.
Like many entrepreneurs I have interviewed, Cristina’s biggest failure/ biggest learning experience was getting burned with exorbitant web development costs early on. She says it was due to her lack of clarity on what she needed initially and her naiveté about IT. She’s fixed that now and while she’ll never be a techie, she knows who to work with and how to manage a project to keep a lid on costs.
Her new website will launch this week in sync with a special celebrity CookandDate hosted by Chuck Hughes of Chuck’s Day Off and Garde Manger fame. The new site’s database (3000+ and growing) allows those registered to view all CookandDate members and to see upcoming events. Those who attend an event get chatting privileges with all other members.
The upcoming openings in Toronto and New York keep Cristina awake a night simply because unlike Montreal, she doesn’t know the cities as well. While she will be present at all events, she won’t be living full-time in those cities to get a deep understanding of the culture. Cristina says,
I don’t know whether I need to run events at 9 p.m. in New York because they all work late but I will learn quickly!
This woman is smart and while she doesn’t like to fail, she will be nimble and adjust her concept to meet the needs of the promising markets in Toronto and New York.
When asked what she needs most right now, she says, “Access to large databases”. This could come from partnerships with companies that have a similar clientele.
It occurs to me as I write that I could talk to her about a CookandCoach! A couple of years ago I gave away a “coaching and chocolate chip cooking baking lesson” at a Christmas service exchange party I co-hosted. The recipient seemed to relish the combo so why not? It would be a like CookandDate meets Coach Buffet. It could fit under her CookandEtc banner, couldn’t it?
Well, I might be grasping here but Cristina is not. She’s got a formula that works and a niche that is all her own. It’s a nice place to be.
For years, Stephan Frigon wracked his brain to come up with an idea about how he could make money on the net. One morning three years ago, he woke up with his idea: an online platform to help gay men find relationships.
Stephan is a straight entrepreneur who worked for years in manufacturing businesses. Ironically, I met him via e-harmony a couple of years ago. While we didn’t hit it off for a relationship, we have helped each other in business here and there since. When met him 2 years back, I couldn’t have predicted that he’d become “the saviour” for the gay community!
Stephan first step in business building was market research to test his business idea. He discovered that Manhunt and Gay411 already existed and are very effective for those who want to find a sex partner …and fast. To his delight, what they lack is what he is now providing: GayCompatible, an online place for gays to meet a compatible partner for a long-term relationship. Where the other sites target younger males who focus on appearance and porn-like sex, Stephan is targeting the 30+, well educated, high income earning gay male who is looking for a life partner.
GayCompatible launched in April of this year. The membership is over 1000 already with the majority being Canadians, though some come from as far away as France, Australia and Poland. The potential market in North America is 33 million (3 million in Canada alone). And that doesn’t touch the rest of the gay world. A yearly membership is $200. You do the math. Stephan is 99.8% sure he has created a winner.
It has taken 3 years of research and development and $200K+ to date to launch the business (plus all his own unpaid time) . Somewhat analogous to e-harmony, gay compatible has a matching questionnaire that 3 Quebec psychologists custom developed and tested for Stephan’s site.
Stephan’s biggest mistakes came from his naiveté about how much effort it would take to program the web platform; it took far more time and money than he anticipated. He followed the advice of a family advisor who convinced him to buy a similar web platform and modify it. This solution didn’t work and it cost him months of time and a lot of money.
Stephan will run and advertising campaign this fall on Out TV in Canada and Logo TV in the US where he has the potential to reach 48 million gay and lesbian viewers in the US alone.
A year from now, Stephan says he would like to be telling me he has a few thousand subscribers. This would be growth of 300% in one year. Somehow it wouldn’t surprise me a bit!
For the gay men in your network who are tired of the current online dating scene, send them to GayCompatible. From what Stephan says, they will thank you.
And if you are looking for an investment opportunity, email Stephan directly: sfrigon@galemco.com
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa broadcast their show on the waterfront in Charlottetown. Photo from The Guardian.
Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa have been on PEI since the weekend. There visit has been much anticipated. I can see why. Today I finally had time to tune in and see Live with Regis and Kelly: Prince Edward Island, shot on location at Confederation Landing in my hometown.
I cried when I saw such hometown pride among the huge local audience (and to see my parents’ house across the Ch’town Harbour in the background of their stage). Okay, the piping music helped bring on my tears. I always cry when I hear pipers.
Over and over they show our red cliffs, pristine beaches, and succulent seafood. And this has been going on for weeks. Viewers could win a trip to PEI before Regis and Kelly were ever on location. A few weeks ago, neither Regis or Kelly had ever heard of PEI. Now millions of their viewers are getting to know the island rather intimately. Regis “hunts” for lobster; Kelly goes horseback riding in what looks like Crowbush. They rave about the food, the people, the scenery and island hospitality.
My parents and my Facebook friends have talked of little else all week. My sister, who lives in Nova Scotia, wrote on FB that she’d rather “get ripped” than see Kelly Ripa but she was joking (and with two little boys she no longer remembers what the word ”ripped” even means). As a PR and advertising/ sales professional she knows brilliant messaging when she sees it.
And it’s not just a win for PEI. Live with Regis and Kelly have enjoyed the largest ever Canadian following for their 3 shows to date in PEI. According to Executive Producer Michael Gelman (as quoted by the CBC), the shows from P.E.I. have generated more response than any other remote broadcast. Earlier on Monday, P.E.I. ranked number two in the top Google searches in the United States!
Apparently Melissa MacEachern at Tourism PEI is responsible for bringing Live with Regis and Kelly to PEI; my hat is off to her. The Chronicle Herald says the investment was $1Million but worth $4+Million l. A stunning set, marvelous coverage, tons of fun for islanders and surely a spike in curiousity (and hopefully visits among those who tuned in) is definitely worth that spend.
If you are curious, you can catch the last episode tomorrow (Thursday, July 15th)!
A few days ago I wrote an exuberant post saying goodbye to my city office. I remain exuberant as the cottage is a dream. It’s got everything I could imagine wanting or needing this summer –games, a docking station, a row boat, flowers everywhere, and even a rolling pin for making pies. It even has space for me to set up an office area in a way that doesn’t infringe on the cottage vibe. What is doesn’t have, is internet access.
My excitement about writing blog posts from my dock using the Rogers rocket stick was a bit premature. The brutal reality, which isn’t really brutal, is that the stick doesn’t work at the cottage. Not on the deck, not on the second floor, not on the dock and not on the huge rock outside (that happens to look like a beached whale). Nope. It doesn’t work.
It does work at the end of the road and up the hill if I want to work in my car 3 km from the cottage. And it works in the tiny town that is 5 minutes away, which happens to have a tiny and welcoming internet cafe anyway.
I have to admit, I like the challenge this poses. It means it is not business as usual. I have found that in life, when things get too routine, I change them on purpose. So the idea of subletting my city place and living and working in a cottage full time for 3 months this summer was partially born from my need to change things up.
Changing things up comes with its challenges. It’s like a minature hero’s journey. Emails slip in willy nilly on my Blackberry with no rhyme or reason and I cannot email out; I have no voice mail (yet) on the country phone line; and I need to come to the city for meetings at least once a week to keep building momentum in my business.
I say bring it on. I am betting that the type of clients I most want to attract to my business–high aspiration entrepreneurs and professionals– will overlook the technical glitches in favour of focusing on the fact that, like them, I too love variety and challenge. When I am sitting at some picnic table writing blog posts in the rain, I might change my tune. For now, I remain delighted.
Yesterday Seth wrote Goodbye to the office. His timing was good. I a have sublet my city place and tomorrow I am moving to a cottage in The Laurentians until mid September. My cottage will be my summer office (and playground too).
I will be packing:
A Rogers rocket stick for internet;
My laptop and printer;
A decent long distance plan for telephone coaching;
My hard files and office supplies
I am happily giving up:
My current routine;
Access to the Metro 5 min away (I will drive to the city weekly to see propects and clients…it is only an hour’s drive)
Full time city living, for now;
Because I am gaining:
A lake to swim and a dock to write from each morning;
Tall trees, flowers and country air;
A fun place to host friends for long weekends and colleagues for some collaborations;
When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like.
My “wherever I like” is an office on a dock. It’s my place to do things differently for 3 months…to expand my village. If you want to reach me there, email me for details. I’ve packed my rocket stick.
One of my friends is dating online. Currently, she’s despondent, confused and depressed.
The way I see it, online dating is like managing a sales system. You pour a bunch of suspects into the top of your funnel and take steps to weed out all but qualified leads. You talk to/ meet with the most compelling of them and through some strange mixture of art and science called dating all the while trying to ascertain if you are both advancing down the funnel. By the time you get to closing the deal, you need to feel very confident that you’ve now got a true fan who wants to do all his business with you forever amen! (which eliminates acquisition costs of a new lead yet could create other cost centres!). (more…)
While I may be a solo-preneur, I have involved family, friends (and some of their spouses!), mentors, advisors, coaches, consultants and even tango partners in my business. They are my village. I am even dedicating a page on my soon to be revamped web site called “About We”. (more…)
I am just back from the kitchen. I made a pan of date squares for my dear friend Milla who had to put her cat Felix down yesterday. In truth, while I would have made something to bring her anyway, I made the date squares to avoid screaming &*%#! because I wrote this entire post already this a.m. and lost it somehow when I went to add this image. So, you could say this post has some bad karma around it. Ironicallly, it is about good karma. So: Take 2.
What do dates squares have to do with my friend, her cat and this image? A lot. You see my original post was about “webs of indebteness”or reciprocity. I believe it is what makes the world go ’round. The concept has been on my mind for 2 weeks since Danny Iny got me hooked on Copyblogger and I read about the power of focussed generosity.
The past 2 weeks have been a perfect storm of ideas swirling in my head:
1) I recently read Seth Godin’s Linchpin (along with the rest of the world) and started looking around me to identify the Linchpins I know;
2) This reminded me of Gladwell’s Tipping Point and I started collapsing the notion of Linchpins with connectors. For me, Linchpins are often connectors;
3) I met up with a coaching colleague Britta Heintzen who is passionate about mind mapping; even her website is done in mind maps (I love it when people walk the talk);
4) I flew to PEI to surprize my mom on her 60th birthday and had some time on my hands to draw a map of all my connections. This entertained me for several hours and my really nice seatmate Mark (who hosts Friday night Kareoke in Kensington, PEI) seemed to be intrigued too. I am calling it my human map of connections (HMC). Mine is not scientific like the human genome but it took a good measure of geekiness to perservere.
5) I told my friend Jennifer about my HMC and her fascination prompted me to write this post. She sent me the image above as I was complaining that my laptop and camera have stopped talking to each other so I cannot show my own HMC; apparently a whole season of The L-Word was centred around The Chart. In this case, someone had “the chart” tatooed on her back. It chronicled who had slept with whom (does everyone want to be a The Girl with a Dragon Tatoo now?) My HMC didn’t do this but perhaps I could do this on an overseas flight sometime.
Part of my Human Map of Connections, if you could see it showed my friend Tessa introducing me to Liz before I ever thought of living in Montreal. A while after I made the move to Montreal, Liz took me to a special Laughter Yoga thingy that her friend Anita had organized for International Woman’s Day. At this event, I met Milla, Kathy and Tasha among others. Milla and Kathy started a book club and invited me. Jennifer was also invited and so on and so on …You see, I wouldn’t have had images for this post if it weren’t for Tessa’s generous introduction more than 4 years ago.
I have done the math. Based on the introduction to Anita, a natural connector, I know at least 40 people I may never have met. And knowing Anita, there are more to come.
Snce I moved to Montreal 4 years ago, I know 200+ more people. I have generated many of these connections myself through coaching, tango, volunteering and Toastmasters. And I am a connector too. Nevertheless, I am blown away by the impact connectors have had on my human map. May they continue their art and may we all continue to be indebted to each other.
P.S I am leaving now to take the date squares to Milla. This post has taken me entirely too long to write and I promise to never again be smug because I have written a good post early on Saturday morning when other people are sleeping. Never.
I am somewhere in the middle: digitally dabbling. This is according to the results of this Online Identity CalculatorI used earlier today to assess my online identity. This article by Meg Guiseppi, CPBS, MRW, CPRW of Executive Career Brand (as posted on www.workbabble.com) tells you why you too should find out how you rate, and do it regularly. And while Meg focusses on executives, when you are a business owner it is very important to test your company’s online rating regularly as well.
In executive job search, having accurate, brand-supporting search results associated with you is essential. Recruiters and hiring decision makers rely on online searches to uncover and qualify candidates like you.
If they can’t find you online, they may never find you, and you may miss the chance to be considered for those jobs.
Conversely, if they find anything to discredit you, you’re probably dead in the water, too. But don’t worry. You can work to build up positive results which will push those disreputable ones down to page 3, 4, or lower of results for your name, rendering them ineffectual. But remember that nothing on the Web is ever permanently deleted.
Your vanity search does not match any web pages. There is absolutely nothing about you on the Web – you have no online identity. You’re hidden from those who may be looking for you.
Digitally dissed
There is little on the Web about you, and what is there is either negative or inconsistent with how you want to be known – your personal brand.
Digitally disastrous
You have plenty of search results, but they have little relevance to what you want to express about yourself. Results for others sharing your name may be in the mix, too.
Digitally dabbling
There are some on-brand results for you. Even though there aren’t many results, the information about you is relevant and on-brand – nothing negative. From here, you can easily move to the next level.
Digitally distinct
There are lots of results about you that reinforce your brand – the right message about you is out there. This is the nirvana of online identity! You’re among or approaching the superstars in the world of online identity. But your work isn’t done. Google results can (and do) change overnight. You need to keep an eye on your online identity and keep building up the good stuff. There’s always room for improvement.
To quickly run your own digital check-up, try the Reach Personal Branding’s Online Identity Calculator. It’s a nifty little tool to assess how strong your online presence is.
When you take the quiz, you’ll be asked to type “your name” in a Google search and note the total number of search results, how many are NOT about you, and how many accurate, on-brand results ARE about you in the first 3 pages.
Among the 7 questions provided, you’re asked which statement best describes the career level for which you are aiming:
■ University/College Student or Recent Graduate
■ Entry-level (1-5 years’ experience) or Individual Contributor
■ Manager with 5-10 years’ experience, Director, Consultant or Small Business Owner
■ VP, Highly-regarded Consultant or Acknowledged Thought Leader
When you submit your answers, your digital ranking compared to the expected number of accurate results for the career level you chose is revealed – digitally disastrous, digitally distinct, or somewhere in between.
The quiz is free and takes about 5 minutes to complete. The results can be eye-opening and impel you to get busy. And if you “pass” the quiz, you’ll be given the code for the “I’m digitally distinct” badge shown above to place on your website or blog.
Need some help building your online brand identity and positioning your unique value proposition? Check out my posts:
I share the ingredient list simply to show you the choices we made and what we had to work with. It was like Christmas morning as we unveiled our lot; we were both impressed by the diversity of choices and the potential for the meal. Interestingly, our first take at a menu was a very safe pass. It was easy and predictable to group the oranges, grapefruit and limes as a great light dessert to accompany a bite of chocolate and to decide that the dates could be stuffed with the Stilton etc.
Quickly though, we realized we weren’t actually integrating our two sets of ingredients at all. So in the true spirit of the challenge, we threw out the idea of ”safe and proven” and moved to true innovation. It was really hard to let go of the idea of making a great tasting meal to focus instead on creating something new. Yikes, did we really have to risk good taste and use $100 worth of groceries just to prove our creativity? Yes, we did. The result of our more wild/ less safe meal was delight and pride:
Dates stuffed with Morbier, cashews and speck bacon
Frisee with Mango ginger Stilton, blood oranges, and curry vinaigrette
Farmer sausage with pink peppercorn chocolate sauce and mushroom chilli slaw
Mussels with papaya chutney, lemon grass, cilantro, and speck bacon
Citrus chutney salad with oatmeal crisps
While we aren’t likely to be invited to Iron Chef anytime soon, I think we were punching above our weight this time around.
Before I get all heavy about what I learned from the challenge, let me state emphatically that the day was a blast…fun, fun, fun from start to Fimo finish. That’s right. As if we hadn’t made enough food in our five courses, we then moved to creating miniature Fimo quesadillas and PEI strawberry shortcake with Tanya’s daughter while Greg did the dishes.
And so, the learnings (according to me):
We are most creative when we aren’t attached to a specific outcome
When you think you are being creative already, step back, turn up the volume even more and take another pass; there is always room for more innovation
When stuck, it is a great time to take an entirely different perspective/ approach that may seem totally unrelated to the problem at hand (i.e. this food challenge for a Coach Buffet problem)
In a business partnership, making playing together as important as working together
Have a support team; in our case, one husband (procurer of wine, food critique and dishwasher) one five-year old (who is fascinated by food made from Fimo) and two coaches (Tanya and me) who would have driven you crazy with all our “noticing” throughout the day!
And about that espionage….while shopping earlier in the day, one of us had a huge urge to look into the other’s bag while she had stepped away for a few minutes. If you do this challenge, don’t be suprized if it happens to you too. And if it does: stop yourself, get curious about what is going on for you, and tell on yourself the minute your partner is back. Your trust in each other will grow and you’ll have a good laugh too.
Tanya and I agreed to not read each others’ posts this week to avoid group think as we reflect on the learnings of our challenge. But if you are really curious about the almost espionage, I am betting her blog will tell you whether it was Ms. Morbier or Ms. Stilton who wanted to peak!
I am just back from a weekend in Toronto with my dear friend and business partner Tanya (hereto forward known as Tanya with no preamble about how we are both best friends and business partners!). The working weekend was set up about a week ago when we recognized that some face time was our answer to busting through the Seth Godin style resistance our lizard brains had been mounting at various times over the past month about next steps for our beloved Coach Buffet.
After a couple of successful Coach Buffet events in the fall and some demand for more, we found ourselves royally stuck. A new approach was the answer, we decided, so we spent several meetings in January designing a new virtual approach. And then, lizard brain again. It seemed that something was keeping us from moving forward to ship it out and make it happen.
As part of our weekend plans, we decided it was important to include some fun. We recognize that while all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, it makes us grumpy and grumpier! As coaches, we also know that inspiration can be found in funny places. Tanya challenged me to come up with something we could do during our visit that would be so memorable that I would write about it in my 2010 recap of what I am most proud of. No pressure.
You guessed it. Once again. Stuck. Zut, alors. What could we do? I help my coaching clients get unstuck on a daily basis and there I was stuck again.
Luckily, when you have a business partner who is also a coach, you don’t have to stay stuck for long. Together we brainstormed a challenge for ourselves that very well could make the ranks of things I am most proud of in 2010.
Our challenge:
Make a meal together for Saturday night. Big deal, right? Hold on.
The rules:
Visit at least 3-4 foodie neighbourhoods in Toronto together
Spend exactly $50 each and not a penny more (Tanya’s husband Greg sprang for the wine)
Split up to make purchases
Make no menu plans in advance
Hide our purchases from each other for the entire day. In other words, NO discussion on what we were each buying independently for our joint meal
Make a full meal together that would include every single ingredient we bought.
Eat every dish.
Insist that Greg eat every dish
The results? A pinch of stuck, a sprinkling of anxiety, heaping scoops of laughter, and five surprizing courses. All this and some almost espionage too. You will have to read my next post for that.
I haven’t been able to post anything since the earthquake in Haiti. I contemplated writing my response to the devastation . I thought of trying to make sense of it somehow or to write about it through different perspectives through the eyes of a coach . That all felt very contrived.
Today I am able to post something because the words of an 11 year old girl found their way to me. Johanna is the neice of my friend James. She says it so simply and eloquently. Goes to show that “through the eyes of a child” is a perspective we had better not forget.
My business partner (and dear friend) Tanya Geisler recently pulled off Coach Buffet Toronto on her own (I was feeling under the weather and couldn’t travel). As if that is not enough, she also managed to get Coach Buffet featured on the front page of the Life Section in today’s Globe and Mail! Check out Speed-interviewing: On your marks, get set – hire! by Globe writer Zosia Bielski.
So today we are celebrating being on the front page of the Life section, perhaps the most popular section of our national newspaper. Not bad, Tanya! Coach Buffet is on its way to becoming a household name!
The Globe article speaks of an increasing trend to speed hire (i.e. employees, babysitters, doulas and coaches!). Our inspiration for Coach Buffet came in part from the notion that putting participants and coaches in a room for a high energy evening of coaching would be efficient à la ”speed hiring” AND it was much bigger than that too.
You see, as coaches ourselves, Tanya and I know the power of coaching, even in short 15 min segments. We set out to create Coach Buffet as a way to help coaches offer real coaching to show how they help clients create incredible possibilities in their lives and businesses.
Equally important to us is that Coach Buffet participants (prospective coaching clients) receive real value on the spot, perhaps by getting unstuck in an issue they have been grappling with or by finding a way to look at the situation through a new lens. While we would prefer that participants leave the Coach Buffet event wanting to hire one of the coaches from the buffet, we also see it as a great positive when participants leave feeling inspired and with their eyes opened about the potential of coaching.
Come see firsthand what I am talking about. Our next Coach Buffet Toronto is on Jan 26th and Coach Buffet Montreal is Jan 28th. There is no better time than January to get off to a great start and I feel extremely confident that Coach Buffet can help.
Rivers Corbett is a force. His entrepreneurial story is epic. He’s a charismatic, experienced business leader and his passion for helping entrepreneurs is contagious. Read on to find out why the interview with Rivers was special for me.
We will pick up the story around the time when Rivers borrowed $1M as a young man to buy out his father’s hodge podge of businesses (an old marina, convenience stores, a nursing home and a wholesale meat operation). The loan enabled him to return to New Brunswick, the province he loves, as an entrepreneur with an income right off the bat. In hindsight it was a good decision although it was not without its pain including a hostile takeover by the board of directors of the nursing home.
All those original businesses have since been spun off or closed. Rivers’ main business is now The Chef Group which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary.
The Chef Group is like the Ford modelling agency but for chefs in the Atlantic provinces. We create culinary adventures and push the envelope on food delivery and food education.
Even the Chef Group story is epic as Rivers lived through embezzlement by his now ex business partner which was uncovered just last year. Fortunately, The Chef Group (now with 15 full-time employees) has come out strong and this year’s focus is on maximizing efficiencies to increase profits.
For an entrepreneur like Rivers who likes to chase shiny lights, buckling down to focus on efficiencies to increase ROI takes discipline. Fortunately, Rivers knows how to keep focus on his main business and indulge his passion for new business by helping other entrepreneurs through coaching and mentoring.
Named as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005 by the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, Rivers is a life- long advocate for entrepreneurs as he believes they are the backbone of our economy. Beyond the award, his most proud moments came when he reached a million in revenue for the first time and successfully battled depression twice.
What’s come more easily than he ever imagined is his willingness to expand his risk. He’s had colossal successes and failures in business and each time his confidence has grown through his learning.
I can now say with confidence that I will never have to be employed by someone else again. The money for my kids’ education is in the bank. I could never have gotten to this place without taking the risks I did. Each time I had to manage my fears in order to move forward. Now it gets easier and easier to take smart risks because the rewards are so great and I know I will survive.
Rivers has three themes that have served him well as an entrepreneur:
1) Attitude-he works a lot on personal development and surrounds himself with positive people including a business coach
2) Cash- he is always looking for access to cash (i.e. credit) for a day when he needs to put it into play
3) Team- he creates a team not only among his staff and suppliers but also among his family, friends and business supporters like his coach
I have booked Rivers for 39 minutes to share his top 8 things you have to do to survive and thrive in business beyond year five. Join us for this complimentary teleseminar on December 9th at 8 p.m. EST. Click here to register for 39 Minutes with Rivers Corbett.
Rivers and I have also teamed up to offer a mentor coaching program for start up entrepreneurs called The Business Success Train. I couldn’t think of an entrepreneur I would rather partner with for his depth of experience and passion are so compelling. It doesn’t hurt that we share maritime roots. We are both so very excited to help start-up entrepreneurs (from year 0-5 in business) through our Business Succcess Train program……join us on the train to your success!
Rivers Corbett is a force. His entrepreneurial story is epic. He’s a charismatic, experienced business leader and his passion for helping entrepreneurs is contagious. Read on to find out why the interview with Rivers was special for me.
We will pick up the story around the time when Rivers borrowed $1M as a young man to buy out his father’s hodge podge of businesses (an old marina, convenience stores, a nursing home and a wholesale meat operation). The loan enabled him to return to New Brunswick, the province he loves, as an entrepreneur with an income right off the bat. In hindsight it was a good decision although it was not without its pain including a hostile takeover by the board of directors of the nursing home.
All those original businesses have since been spun off or closed. Rivers’ main business is now The Chef Group which just celebrated its 10 year anniversary.
The Chef Group is like the Ford modelling agency but for chefs in the Atlantic provinces. We create culinary adventures and push the envelope on food delivery and food education.
Even the Chef Group story is epic as Rivers lived through embezzlement by his now ex business partner which was uncovered just last year. Fortunately, The Chef Group (now with 15 full-time employees) has come out strong and this year’s focus is on maximizing efficiencies to increase profits.
For an entrepreneur like Rivers who likes to chase shiny lights, buckling down to focus on efficiencies to increase ROI takes discipline. Fortunately, Rivers knows how to keep focus on his main business and indulge his passion for new business by helping other entrepreneurs through coaching and mentoring.
Named as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005 by the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, Rivers is a life- long advocate for entrepreneurs as he believes they are the backbone of our economy. Beyond the award, his most proud moments came when he reached a million in revenue for the first time and successfully battled depression twice.
What’s come more easily than he ever imagined is his willingness to expand his risk. He’s had colossal successes and failures in business and each time his confidence has grown through his learning.
I can now say with confidence that I will never have to be employed by someone else again. The money for my kids’ education is in the bank. I could never have gotten to this place without taking the risks I did. Each time I had to manage my fears in order to move forward. Now it gets easier and easier to take smart risks because the rewards are so great and I know I will survive.
Rivers has three themes that have served him well as an entrepreneur:
1) Attitude-he works a lot on personal development and surrounds himself with positive people including a business coach
2) Cash- he is always looking for access to cash (i.e. credit) for a day when he needs to put it into play
3) Team- he creates a team not only among his staff and suppliers but also among his family, friends and business supporters like his coach
I have booked Rivers for 39 minutes to share his top 8 things you have to do to survive and thrive in business beyond year five. Join us for this complimentary teleseminar on December 9th at 8 p.m. EST. Click here to register for 39 Minutes with Rivers Corbett.
Rivers and I have also teamed up to offer a mentor coaching program for start up entrepreneurs called The Business Success Train. I couldn’t think of an entrepreneur I would rather partner with for his depth of experience and passion are so compelling. It doesn’t hurt that we share maritime roots. We are both so very excited to help start-up entrepreneurs (from year 0-5 in business) through our Business Succcess Train program……join us on the train to your success!
I am writing this by way of reprimanding myself!! Just 5 minutes ago I sent out a reminder link on Facebook that I have 5 coaching spots left for my one time ”Business Success in 2 Hours” year end coaching sessions. The minute after I sent out the link, I clicked on a video posted by Start Up Coach Alain Theriault entitled “Top Five Things You Should know About Social Media”. Ouch. I know this stuff. Sometimes it just becomes irresistable not to spread the word via Facebook about things I am offering in my coaching practice. Sometimes, it is entirely justified. Other times it is simply a way to have a feeling of accomplishment at the end of a busy day!
There, I posted my year end coaching offering on Facebook. That’s good. I am sure some people will read and some might forward it on and perhaps someone will call…or will they?
NOT GOOD ENOUGH according to Mikal E. Bellcone, author of Social Media Advisor and contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine. Watch the video for yourself….it’s worth your three minutes.!
I have a background in marketing and sales so you could say I know better. But to err is human. And to be an entrepreneur is to take on the world and fall into the occasional trap of trying to be expert marketer, expert business owner and excellent coach all at the same time.
So back to the Top 5 Things You Should Know about Social Media. I have summarized the key points for you here:
It’s called social media, not social selling
Don’t forget what you already know about marketing
Choose the right niche
You have to engage
You have to have goals
The #1 mistake: Selling in social media…first be part of the conversation and opportunities to sell will arise.
The #1 tip: Be goal oriented; develop a strategy and know your ROI on every marketing expenditure. Set objectives ahead of time and measure!
I would add that taking the medium to longer term view in terms of building your brand through social media is also a good perspective to hold.
I am hitting on a theme lately: woman entrepreneurs who have given birth to new businesses around the same time as starting their families. I just interviewed Alysia Melnychuk, owner of Savon Populaire, a Montreal based organic cosmetics (soap etc.) company. Like Kim Fuller of IDG Communications, Alysia started her business just before the birth of her eldest child more than six years ago. And like many entrepreneurial moms, she used her maternity leave time to further develop her ideas so that when she returned to work she was rearing to go.
And she has been going strong ever since. Even the birth of her second child almost 5 months ago hasn’t stopped her. Though this time, she wishes she could pull back more. Her biggest challenge has been finding a way to replace herself. Her solution, by necessity, has been to farm out various aspects of her role to four different people on a part-time or project basis. Not surprisingly, no one person had her entire skill set. Parcelling out her roles and caring for a small baby has necessitated that this entrepreneur truly assume her company management role, leaving technician type soap production issues to others. As it is, she is putting in 20-25 hours a week still (often at night when her children go to bed).
It is hard for me to let go because I pride myself on creativity in our soap making and on quality. This is forcing me to do it and it’s good practice.
Her current situation also made her question her ability to continue with the current company set up. And selling is not an option as Alysia is too excited to walk away as the company is poised for a growth spurt. After very careful consideration, her answer is to create a co-operative.
Over the coming months, Savon Populaire will become a co-op with 3 partners who have an equal voice. There will be a lot more “letting go” to come for Alysia. Fortunately, her passion for creating body friendly, environmentally friendly products and her love of working in collaboration with people instead of in a boss/ subordinate role will continue to drive her. Savon Populaire will be all the better for it as one of the new partners is a herbalist who brings many innovative ideas and know how. Happily, the third partner is a current employee who is being groomed to step into a partner role.
The biggest risk Alysia ever took in business was to start the company in the first place. She did it with no capital and no cash flow. There were some very lean years at the beginning where Alysia’s resourcefulness is all that kept her company going. She told me of how she retrofitted a clothing iron to be her product sealer in order to save $300. It seems there have been many ingenious moves like this. She’s most proud that she has created something that now has worth in terms of brand equity and company assets that she could sell.
Alysia’s biggest failure (and greatest learning) came from realizing that remaining foggy on details where money is concerned is a recipe for big problems. Her initial naïveté didn’t serve her well and she’s now very careful to stipulate clear terms when money is involved.
Soon Savon Populaire will move from their Montreal Parc Extension workshop and manufacturing shop to new larger retail location (TBD) with local shopping traffic and launch a whole new product line. With two new partners, a new retail location, a new product line and a great deal of enthusiasm for what is possible, we can expect to see great things coming from Savon Populaire in 2010.
I am hitting on a theme lately: woman entrepreneurs who have given birth to new businesses around the same time as starting their families. I just interviewed Alysia Melnychuk, owner of Savon Populaire, a Montreal based organic cosmetics (soap etc.) company. Like Kim Fuller of IDG Communications, Alysia started her business just before the birth of her eldest child more than six years ago. And like many entrepreneurial moms, she used her maternity leave time to further develop her ideas so that when she returned to work she was rearing to go.
And she has been going strong ever since. Even the birth of her second child almost 5 months ago hasn’t stopped her. Though this time, she wishes she could pull back more. Her biggest challenge has been finding a way to replace herself. Her solution, by necessity, has been to farm out various aspects of her role to four different people on a part-time or project basis. Not surprisingly, no one person had her entire skill set. Parcelling out her roles and caring for a small baby has necessitated that this entrepreneur truly assume her company management role, leaving technician type soap production issues to others. As it is, she is putting in 20-25 hours a week still (often at night when her children go to bed).
It is hard for me to let go because I pride myself on creativity in our soap making and on quality. This is forcing me to do it and it’s good practice.
Her current situation also made her question her ability to continue with the current company set up. And selling is not an option as Alysia is too excited to walk away as the company is poised for a growth spurt. After very careful consideration, her answer is to create a co-operative.
Over the coming months, Savon Populaire will become a co-op with 3 partners who have an equal voice. There will be a lot more “letting go” to come for Alysia. Fortunately, her passion for creating body friendly, environmentally friendly products and her love of working in collaboration with people instead of in a boss/ subordinate role will continue to drive her. Savon Populaire will be all the better for it as one of the new partners is a herbalist who brings many innovative ideas and know how. Happily, the third partner is a current employee who is being groomed to step into a partner role.
The biggest risk Alysia ever took in business was to start the company in the first place. She did it with no capital and no cash flow. There were some very lean years at the beginning where Alysia’s resourcefulness is all that kept her company going. She told me of how she retrofitted a clothing iron to be her product sealer in order to save $300. It seems there have been many ingenious moves like this. She’s most proud that she has created something that now has worth in terms of brand equity and company assets that she could sell.
Alysia’s biggest failure (and greatest learning) came from realizing that remaining foggy on details where money is concerned is a recipe for big problems. Her initial naïveté didn’t serve her well and she’s now very careful to stipulate clear terms when money is involved.
Soon Savon Populaire will move from their Montreal Parc Extension workshop and manufacturing shop to new larger retail location (TBD) with local shopping traffic and launch a whole new product line. With two new partners, a new retail location, a new product line and a great deal of enthusiasm for what is possible, we can expect to see great things coming from Savon Populaire in 2010.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Tungle CEO Marc Gingras a few months back. Tungle is a free calendar accelerator… that helps you schedule meetings online and publish your free/ busy calendar (so your clients and colleagues can see when you have free appointment slots, for example, without having to call or email you). This short video on Tungle’s capabilities will impress you:
While Tungle is a great fit for any business professional, I see a fantastic opportunity for coaches and therapists who run a busy practice and want to make client appointment scheduling much easier by having clients book their own appointments online.
For Marc, Tungle is his way to positively change the world. His goal is to have all business people using Tungle to schedule their meetings. His biggest obstacle is the status quo. Changing people’s entrenched behaviours is challenging so his team works to make Tungle easier and easier to adopt.
The key to running a successful business, according to Marc, comes back to people almost everytime: having the right people in the right positions, creating a “get it done” attitude at Tungle, and aligning all the people (management, employees, the board and investors) toward the same objectives.
Getting the right people is not about technology, marketing or the competition; we need people with the right attitude and we have to put them in the right spot so they can shine.
Sometimes the people who are great at the start up phase are not the people who can build a successful mature company, Marc has learned.
Letting go of one of my initial start up people was the hardest thing. The reward is that the company turned around 100 percent so my decision was the right one and it was confirmed right away.
He’s proud of the team he has built and how he has transformed Tungle from a successful start up to a successful company.
Marc started his web career in 1998. During the time the tech bubble burst, he was managing a team of 30 at another company. While he feels that he let them down as he didn’t see it coming, he knows he won’t get caught like this again. He’s rounded out his finance and R&D expertise with sales and marketing know-how, surrounded himself by amazing people and now pays close attention to financing and budgets. Business lessons are painful AND effective!
And now what would Marc like most? Having more money to enable things to move faster and having more people using Tungle to reach a tipping point toward Tungle’s objective of having all business professionals scheduling their meetings through Tungle.
Be a part of this tipping point. Save yourself time every time you schedule a meeting . Avoid the time jungle. Tungle.
Bonus: Marc’s book recommendation for CEO’s on the move: From Good To Great by Jim Collins
Soup is your metaphor for the week, Cancerian. Symbolically speaking, it’s the key to your personal power and a model for the approach you should take in everything you do. On the most basic level, you might want to eat some soup every day. That will make potent suggestions to your subconscious mind about how to mix lots of ingredients together so that their value and beauty as a totality are more than the sum of their parts. Not just in the kitchen, but in every area of your life, blend little miscellaneous things into one big interesting thing.
You might think it flaky for a business coach to start a post with her kooky horoscope. Not so in my books. Metaphors like this are rich and are not to be overlooked.
In my case, the biggest soup I have been cooking lately is Coach Buffet. My co-chef is Tanya Geisler. We hosted our first ever Coach Buffet in Montreal last night. And late late, after everything was wrapped up, with our mouths yawning and our eyes half closing, we read evaluation after evaluation. The verdict: Coach Buffet #1 was a resounding success.
The recipe:
Creativity to dream a vision the guts and drive to make it happen
A business partnership and coaching every step of the way
Participants (professional and business owners) who, as early adopters, showed up fully…hungry for coaching and possibility
Friends and family who supported us through our first event (i.e. for registration, time keeping, photography/ design, spreading the word, access to venue and encouragement)
Openness to the miscellaneous things that will make this “soup” better and better and better
Back to the horoscope. I haven’t been eating soup daily. Frankly because I like making it for others far more than I enjoy eating it myself. Coach Buffet was this for me. We made the metaphorical soup and while others feasted, we were nourished.
Now, metaphors aside. We are building a scalable business franchise model. You will hear more about Coach Buffet.
Coach Buffet Toronto takes place on Tuesday, November 17th. Register online.
They are Chinese and Indian many other ethnicities. You often find them in hotels and on cruise ships. They are often overflowing with plenty, and some would say they are wasteful. Many people overeat at them. What are THEY?
Buffets, of course. They sound like a great idea when you are really hungry and you often regret it very quickly after when you have eaten too much and realize the food all tasted the same.
Why, you might ask, am I discussing the merits of a buffet in a blog focussed on coaching for small business owners and professionals? Some of you know the answer because I have been talking about it incessantly for a number of months now! Yep. Coach Buffet. It’s a new kind of buffet. Coaching is on the menu and we are serving possibility.
My partner Tanya Geisler and I are launching Coach Buffet as a new format for coaching (and a new business venture for us) to show professionals and business owners the power of coaching and to help prospective clients and coaches find a great coaching match in a very short time.
So if you will be in the Montreal area on Thursday evening (Oct 15th) and want to deal with a real life or business issue in a fun and meaningful evening out, join us at the buffet! Our line up of Montreal coaches—whose flavours range from start up business coaching to intuitive life coaching–will leave you feeling full of possibility and no regrets.
Coach Buffet hits Toronto on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009.
I have been dropping hints all summer about a new coaching concept my friend and colleague Tanya Geisler and I have been developing. So it is with great joy and anticipation that I let the proverbial cat out of the bag. The “cat” is a concept called Coach Buffet and it’s coming soon to a city near you…well, if you live in Montreal or Toronto, Canada, that is.
On October 15th, we will host Coach Buffet in Montreal followed by Coach Buffet Toronto on November 17th. I could leave you to research it it on your own but I am far too enthused to let you go so quickly.
The bottom-line version is that Coach Buffet is an innovative event that is designed to bring a dozen powerful life and business coaches together with participants for meaningful one-on-one coaching conversations in a social evening format.
Coach Buffet is ideal for professionals and business owners who feel stuck in some aspect of business, career or life in general and who are looking for possibilities.
For Montreal, our line up of coaches is extraordinary (by mid September, you can read all their bios on the site) and our venue is exquisite. I can assure you that powerful coaching will take place and strong relationships will form. As we say at Coach Buffet:
I have been dropping hints all summer about a new coaching concept my friend and colleague Tanya Geisler and I have been developing. So it is with great joy and anticipation that I let the proverbial cat out of the bag. The “cat” is a concept called Coach Buffet and it’s coming soon to a city near you…well, if you live in Montreal or Toronto, Canada, that is.
On October 15th, we will host Coach Buffet in Montreal followed by Coach Buffet Toronto on November 17th. I could leave you to research it it on your own but I am far too enthused to let you go so quickly.
The bottom-line version is that Coach Buffet is an innovative event that is designed to bring a dozen powerful life and business coaches together with participants for meaningful one-on-one coaching conversations in a social evening format.
Coach Buffet is ideal for professionals and business owners who feel stuck in some aspect of business, career or life in general and who are looking for possibilities.
For Montreal, our line up of coaches is extraordinary (by mid September, you can read all their bios on the site) and our venue is exquisite. I can assure you that powerful coaching will take place and strong relationships will form. As we say at Coach Buffet:
Thank you to my friend and strategic communications expert Deborah Hinton of Hinton : for sending me the following tips from Seth Godin:
1. Go where your customers are.
www.greentruckonthego.com
Jacquelyne runs a tiny juice company called Chakwave. I met her in Los Angeles, standing next to an organic lunch truck. Like the little birds that clean the teeth of the hippo, there’s synergy here. The kind of person that visits the truck for lunch is the sort of person that would happily pay for something as wonderfully weird as her juice. And the truck owners benefit from the rolling festival farmer’s market feel that comes from having a synergistic partner set up on a bridge table right next door.
I have had an intuition to locate myself in/ near Chateau St. Ambroise to be easily accessible to the many interesting small and medium sized businesses there. I even found a partner who will rent me commercial loft space in a very flexible manner. There is nothing stopping me…except me. Time to jump in!
2. Be micro-focused and the search engines will find you.
My friend Patti Jo is an extraordinary teacher and tutor. Her new business, The Scarsdale Tutor doesn’t need many clients in order to be successful. This permits her to focus obsessively and that gets rewarded with front page results on Google. Not because she’s tried to manipulate the seo (she hasn’t) but because this is exactly the page you’d hope to find if you typed “scarsdale tutor” into a search engine. Could she do this nationwide? Of course not. But she doesn’t want to or need to. Living on the long tail can be profitable.
I had lunch with my friend Tricia van der Walde, a Montreal massage therapist, this week. She said the same thing. She’s coming up first in Google for “Montreal lymphatic drainage”. It’s a speciality. People are finding her.
3. Outlast the competition.
I was amazed at all the empty storefronts I saw in LA on my last visit. On one particular block, three or four of the ten lunch places were shut down. And the others? Doing great. That’s because the remaining office workers who used to eat lunch at the shuttered places had to eat somewhere, and so the survivors watched their business grow. A war of attrition is never pretty, but if you’re smart about overhead and scale, you’ll win it.
A number of my coach colleagues –Tanya Geisler, Minnie Richardson, Ian Renaud, and Marie-Claude LaPalme – are building their businesses during this recession. Each of them has been cautious about taking on big overhead. Each of them is growing organically by word of mouth and through other promotions. the point is that all of them are growing. So am I!
4. Leverage.
Rick Toone runs a tiny guitar-making operation. His lack of scale makes it easy for him to share. When others start using his designs, he doesn’t suffer (he can’t make any more guitars than he already is) he benefits, because as the originator of the design, his originals become more coveted, not less valuable. He leverages his insight and shares it as a free marketing device.
Michael Port, in his best sellling book Book Yourself Solid advises small business owners to “give away so much value that you think you’ve given too much and then give more”. He descibes a college friend of his used to order his hero sandwiches saying “put so much mayonnaise on it that you think you’ve ruined it, and then put some more!”. Think mayonnaise and as Michael says, “invite prospective clients to experience what it is like to be around you and the people you serve”.
5. Respond.
This is the single biggest advantage you have over the big guys. Not only are you in charge, you also answer the phone and read your email and man the desk and set the prices. So don’t pretend you have a policy. Just be human.
Thank you to my friend and strategic communications expert Deborah Hinton of Hinton : for sending me the following tips from Seth Godin:
1. Go where your customers are.
www.greentruckonthego.com
Jacquelyne runs a tiny juice company called Chakwave. I met her in Los Angeles, standing next to an organic lunch truck. Like the little birds that clean the teeth of the hippo, there’s synergy here. The kind of person that visits the truck for lunch is the sort of person that would happily pay for something as wonderfully weird as her juice. And the truck owners benefit from the rolling festival farmer’s market feel that comes from having a synergistic partner set up on a bridge table right next door.
I have had an intuition to locate myself in/ near Chateau St. Ambroise to be easily accessible to the many interesting small and medium sized businesses there. I even found a partner who will rent me commercial loft space in a very flexible manner. There is nothing stopping me…except me. Time to jump in!
2. Be micro-focused and the search engines will find you.
My friend Patti Jo is an extraordinary teacher and tutor. Her new business, The Scarsdale Tutor doesn’t need many clients in order to be successful. This permits her to focus obsessively and that gets rewarded with front page results on Google. Not because she’s tried to manipulate the seo (she hasn’t) but because this is exactly the page you’d hope to find if you typed “scarsdale tutor” into a search engine. Could she do this nationwide? Of course not. But she doesn’t want to or need to. Living on the long tail can be profitable.
I had lunch with my friend Tricia van der Walde, a Montreal massage therapist, this week. She said the same thing. She’s coming up first in Google for “Montreal lymphatic drainage”. It’s a speciality. People are finding her.
3. Outlast the competition.
I was amazed at all the empty storefronts I saw in LA on my last visit. On one particular block, three or four of the ten lunch places were shut down. And the others? Doing great. That’s because the remaining office workers who used to eat lunch at the shuttered places had to eat somewhere, and so the survivors watched their business grow. A war of attrition is never pretty, but if you’re smart about overhead and scale, you’ll win it.
A number of my coach colleagues –Tanya Geisler, Minnie Richardson, Ian Renaud, and Marie-Claude LaPalme – are building their businesses during this recession. Each of them has been cautious about taking on big overhead. Each of them is growing organically by word of mouth and through other promotions. the point is that all of them are growing. So am I!
4. Leverage.
Rick Toone runs a tiny guitar-making operation. His lack of scale makes it easy for him to share. When others start using his designs, he doesn’t suffer (he can’t make any more guitars than he already is) he benefits, because as the originator of the design, his originals become more coveted, not less valuable. He leverages his insight and shares it as a free marketing device.
Michael Port, in his best sellling book Book Yourself Solid advises small business owners to “give away so much value that you think you’ve given too much and then give more”. He descibes a college friend of his used to order his hero sandwiches saying “put so much mayonnaise on it that you think you’ve ruined it, and then put some more!”. Think mayonnaise and as Michael says, “invite prospective clients to experience what it is like to be around you and the people you serve”.
5. Respond.
This is the single biggest advantage you have over the big guys. Not only are you in charge, you also answer the phone and read your email and man the desk and set the prices. So don’t pretend you have a policy. Just be human.
She describes her Synkro event as a Tour de Force…an opportunity to make people feel good and dance more. And it is. And so is she! She’s the M Girl– Annie Cremont–owner of ExperiencesM and creator of Synkro.
Part of Synkro’s charm is its mystic. My friend and coach colleague who invited me to Synkro in May said she had no idea what to expect but she “expected” it to be very unique based on her exchanges with Annie. You can say that again! I was amazed how quickly M-Girl and her team created a “let your hair down” space for the room full of 30/40/50 somethings. And that was just the beginning. We danced, and danced and danced. And at the end of the evening, I felt like I had been coached and cleansed. My head was clear and my heart was calm.
Dancing makes people feel good. It helps them get in sync with their mind and body. It is my personal mission to make 1 million people dance in the next three years.
I know she will succeed. But in case you think Annie is another Where the hell is Matt?, she’s not. While they both have big visions, an international focus, and a love of getting people to dance, Synkro is a a fully integrated, tested program that helps initially self -conscious people to get in touch with their own unique rhythm as a form of communication.
It is the perfect program to open or close a big conference or corporate meeting. It is also a perfect event to raise money for health and wellness because it helps people be in touch with themselves.
At a recent convention in Phoenix, Arizona, for the National Speakers Association (NSA), a show case for North America’s top speakers, many eyes were turned her way. She believes her timing to enter the US market is perfect.
As the economy comes out of recession under Obama’s leadership, the US is more open than ever to doing things differently. The US needs to dance!
M-Girl knows what she is talking about and she knows how to sell her concept. In 1999, fresh out of business school at HEC, Annie created Station M, an advertising and marketing agency. That gave her almost a decade of experience and a very large network. In 2008, she made a life altering decision to wind down Station M operations and pursue her dream to develop Synkro. She followed her gut when she realized that the 2-3 minute dance portion she added into each presentation she did on selling was the highlight for her and her audience.
Annie Cremont, the M-Girl, is a spectacular example of someone who is following her dreams and living her life aligned to her values. She radiates energy; she is smart and generous and she is going to make a million people dance by 2011.
If you would like to have a Synkro experience in Montreal, check out Annie’s special invitation for Monday Auguest 17th. She’s running a pilot and the costs are on her. If you miss out on the 17th, you can register for her next live Synkro which will be held at Gallery Art Avenue in Old Montreal on September 30th.
She describes her Synkro event as a Tour de Force…an opportunity to make people feel good and dance more. And it is. And so is she! She’s the M Girl– Annie Cremont–owner of ExperiencesM and creator of Synkro.
Part of Synkro’s charm is its mystic. My friend and coach colleague who invited me to Synkro in May said she had no idea what to expect but she “expected” it to be very unique based on her exchanges with Annie. You can say that again! I was amazed how quickly M-Girl and her team created a “let your hair down” space for the room full of 30/40/50 somethings. And that was just the beginning. We danced, and danced and danced. And at the end of the evening, I felt like I had been coached and cleansed. My head was clear and my heart was calm.
Dancing makes people feel good. It helps them get in sync with their mind and body. It is my personal mission to make 1 million people dance in the next three years.
I know she will succeed. But in case you think Annie is another Where the hell is Matt?, she’s not. While they both have big visions, an international focus, and a love of getting people to dance, Synkro is a a fully integrated, tested program that helps initially self -conscious people to get in touch with their own unique rhythm as a form of communication.
It is the perfect program to open or close a big conference or corporate meeting. It is also a perfect event to raise money for health and wellness because it helps people be in touch with themselves.
At a recent convention in Phoenix, Arizona, for the National Speakers Association (NSA), a show case for North America’s top speakers, many eyes were turned her way. She believes her timing to enter the US market is perfect.
As the economy comes out of recession under Obama’s leadership, the US is more open than ever to doing things differently. The US needs to dance!
M-Girl knows what she is talking about and she knows how to sell her concept. In 1999, fresh out of business school at HEC, Annie created Station M, an advertising and marketing agency. That gave her almost a decade of experience and a very large network. In 2008, she made a life altering decision to wind down Station M operations and pursue her dream to develop Synkro. She followed her gut when she realized that the 2-3 minute dance portion she added into each presentation she did on selling was the highlight for her and her audience.
Annie Cremont, the M-Girl, is a spectacular example of someone who is following her dreams and living her life aligned to her values. She radiates energy; she is smart and generous and she is going to make a million people dance by 2011.
If you would like to have a Synkro experience in Montreal, check out Annie’s special invitation for Monday Auguest 17th. She’s running a pilot and the costs are on her. If you miss out on the 17th, you can register for her next live Synkro which will be held at Gallery Art Avenue in Old Montreal on September 30th.
Earlier today I met with one of my coach colleagues. Though we haven`t known each other for a long time, we have a comfort and ease with each other that makes it seem like we have. She is Minnie Richardson. She`s a great coach and today she challenged me on an idea. You see, my colleague Tanya Geisler and I are launching a cool new coaching format next month and it involves, among other things, 15 minute laser coaching sessions.
Minnie felt concern that doing coaching in 15 minute bursts could make coaching like a fast food. Since we want coaches of Minnie`s calibre to join us in our endeavour, I took her concern seriously. Like her, I normally coach my clients in 45-50 minute sessions. However, she and I talked about cases where coaching was very effective in a much shorter format. We also agreed that it takes sustained effort over time for most clients to achieve the results they want. Coaching isn`t a quick fix but it can be a fast fire starter for ideas and change.
During my training and certification training, I participated in weekly triads with two other coach colleagues where we alternated roles between coachee, coach, and observer. We always set a timer for 15 minutes and when the time was up, the time was up. Every week I was amazed at the power of the coaching (of course, the more trained and practiced we became, the more powerful the coaching became!). There were times when I was in tears, uproarious laughter and everything in between. There was always some value and insight to be learned and something to ponder or do as a result.
When I step outside of coaching, I can think of millions of things one can accomplish in 15 minutes. It seems I am not alone. Top Google results yielded these links.
So whether you spend 15 minutes conceiving a child, getting married, or cleaning out your junk drawer, remember that a lot can happen in 15 minutes if you set an intention and show up powerfully.
Stay tuned for more info on our upcoming offering. It will be particularly interesting if you live in Montreal or Toronto!
Earlier today I met with one of my coach colleagues. Though we haven`t known each other for a long time, we have a comfort and ease with each other that makes it seem like we have. She is Minnie Richardson. She`s a great coach and today she challenged me on an idea. You see, my colleague Tanya Geisler and I are launching a cool new coaching format next month and it involves, among other things, 15 minute laser coaching sessions.
Minnie felt concern that doing coaching in 15 minute bursts could make coaching like a fast food. Since we want coaches of Minnie`s calibre to join us in our endeavour, I took her concern seriously. Like her, I normally coach my clients in 45-50 minute sessions. However, she and I talked about cases where coaching was very effective in a much shorter format. We also agreed that it takes sustained effort over time for most clients to achieve the results they want. Coaching isn`t a quick fix but it can be a fast fire starter for ideas and change.
During my training and certification training, I participated in weekly triads with two other coach colleagues where we alternated roles between coachee, coach, and observer. We always set a timer for 15 minutes and when the time was up, the time was up. Every week I was amazed at the power of the coaching (of course, the more trained and practiced we became, the more powerful the coaching became!). There were times when I was in tears, uproarious laughter and everything in between. There was always some value and insight to be learned and something to ponder or do as a result.
When I step outside of coaching, I can think of millions of things one can accomplish in 15 minutes. It seems I am not alone. Top Google results yielded these links.
So whether you spend 15 minutes conceiving a child, getting married, or cleaning out your junk drawer, remember that a lot can happen in 15 minutes if you set an intention and show up powerfully.
Stay tuned for more info on our upcoming offering. It will be particularly interesting if you live in Montreal or Toronto!
This post is a cut and paste from David Emerald’s recent TED Letter. I am respecting the copyright requirements by not editing the content to make a short and snappy post. Despite the length, I feel the post is worth a read which is why I am including it here. Check out The Power of TED for more. It is a simple story with a powerful message.
TEDBanner from website
In the end… we’re talking about choice… You choose your response to what shows up in your life-either as a conscious response or an unconscious reaction. When you simply react, it means you are choosing the way of the Victim. If, on the other hand, you stay mindful of current reality and determine how best to respond, you’ve entered The Empowerment Dynamic.
In last month’s TED* Letter we explored addiction to drama from the perspective of being in relationship – personal or professional – with someone else who is the addict. This month we turn our attention to an even tougher challenge: when we are the one who is addicted to drama. Admitting an addiction is the first step to transforming your relationship to the addictive behavior – as anyone who is familiar with the 12-step recovery process well knows. Addiction is part of the human experience and we all – at least to some extent – have addictions. All addiction pulls us into – and perpetuates – the Dreaded Drama Triangle (DDT). Each of the roles – Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer – has their own ways of fanning the flames and keeping the drama alive. The addiction to drama is fueled by the adrenaline rush of anxiety (or even fear) and results in reactivity in a variety of forms. So, when you “go reactive” (and we all do), which of the DDT role(s) do you gravitate toward? You may have one primary role or you may play all of them, depending on the situation. As you read the following descriptions of how each role plays out their drama addiction, pay attention to where discomfort arises. That may be the very place(s) to look!
Victim as Drama Addict – On the surface it may seem improbable that a person in the Victim role would “want” to perpetuate the drama. However, if one has adopted Victimhood as a way of being and a self-identity, there are a number of payoffs. (For more on Victimhood, see the February, 2006 and May, 2008 issues of “The TED* Letter” in the archives.) One primary payoff is the abdication of responsibility and accountability. “It’s not my fault,” is the song of the Victim and blaming a Persecutor for their powerlessness is the refrain. Another is that the Victim then can look for and become dependent on a Rescuer – be it a person or a thing, such as alcohol, drugs or some other way of numbing out from the feelings of powerlessness. A Victim may feel justified in lashing back at the Persecutor (“an eye for an eye”) and, in so doing, become a Persecutor themselves and add fuel to the flames of the drama.
Persecutor as Drama Addict – Persecutors are pivotal to the DDT. The Persecutor often gets the ball rolling or keeps it in play. There are a variety of ways in which this can happen, all of which stem from the Persecutor’s need to be “one up” and/or to dominate the Victim. The need to be right; the show of superiority; the blaming of the Victim for their circumstances are all ways the Perpetrator can ignite the drama. Arrogance, criticizing, finger-pointing, fault-finding and controlling may be ways in which the Persecutor’s personality expresses itself. Such behavior sometimes is conscious and purposeful, but many times it stems from the Persecutor’s own reactivity and fear of their own Victimhood. In either case, there can be the addictive “rush” that comes from the sense of righteousness that characterizes a Persecutor.
Rescuer as Drama Addict – A Rescuer loves to be the hero, rushing in to “save the day.” When they do, they enjoy the satisfaction – the “high” – of righting the wrong or putting out the “fire.” Only, in so doing, they reinforce the powerlessness of the Victim and perpetuate the drama (even if it seems to alleviate the “pain” of the moment). A Rescuer may even be so addicted to their role that they create the very situation into which they can later insert themselves as the hero (for example, “Savior Sam” mentioned in last months issue). What a drama-addicted Rescuer most fears is not being needed. When they do not feel needed, they then feel rejected or abandoned and move into the Victim role. Of course this only serves to keep drama alive. Which of the brief descriptions above elicited the most response from you?
Do you see glimpses of yourself in any one – or all three? I do. Here is an example from my own life – a “true confession” to illustrate both a previous addiction and the way I have transformed my relationship to it: Because of some early childhood experiences, I was “wired” to be hypersensitive to the possibility of abandonment in my relationships with “significant others.” The fear of becoming a Victim of such rejection drove the drama addiction. If I began to suspect any form of abandonment, I would react in one of two ways: Either by saying something harsh or cynical – thereby stepping into the role of Persecutor to get her to react and engage with me – or by withdrawing or pouting in hopes that she would react by becoming the Rescuer and making me feel better. Either reaction on my part perpetuated the drama and fed my addiction to it! As I came to identify the pattern, I looked for the “dream that was denied or thwarted” – what it was that I was really after.
In The Power of TED*, Ted points out that “All Victims have experienced a loss – a thwarted dream or aspiration…” (page 17, second edition). What I came to see is that both reactive strategies were dysfunctional attempts to create connection. As a Persecutor, I could get her to react and interact with me (though not pleasantly!) and playing the Victim so that she would be my Rescuer only served to reinforce the underlying sense of powerlessness and neediness. As a result, I now ask for what I want or need in my relationship with my wife and, if twinges of the old pattern emerge, I speak directly about the feelings so that we can process the situation as co-Creators. As this brief example illustrates, there are several simple (though not always easy!) steps you can take to break your own cycle of addiction to drama.
1. Identify and own your default drama role(s) – In what ways do you initiate and/or perpetuate drama in your personal and professional life? When you “go reactive” and enter the drama, which role(s) do you default to? As you take on the role of Victim, Persecutor and/or Rescuer, what is a typical way in which the drama plays out? What are the “payoffs” for you in the role(s)? What are the most common unintended consequences that come from continuing the drama?
2. Discern the “dream or desire” behind the behavior- What is it you really want? If a Victim, what is the dream or desire that has been denied or thwarted? If a Persecutor, is your behavior to prove your worth; to be right; to be superior – or is it to urge growth and development? If a Rescuer, are you wanting to be the “hero” and save the day and fix the other person or situation – or is to be of support in helping others find their own solutions?
3. Make the shift from DDT to TED* (*The Empowerment Dynamic) roles – As a Victim, shift your focus from reacting to what you don’t want or like to focusing on what you do want and take baby steps to move in that direction as a Creator. If a Persecutor, by shifting from an intention to look good/be right into a “learning intention” for yourself and others, you can become a Challenger that sparks growth and development. If a Rescuer, by shifting from seeing the other as a problem to fix into holding them as inherently capable and resourceful, you can support them by helping them clarify their own outcomes and create their own solutions. (Much more on how to make the shift between roles can be found in The Power of TED*.)
As human beings we will always be challenged by the push and pull of drama in our lives. By increasing our awareness of those ways in which we may be addicted to drama and how we initiate and/or perpetuate the toxic DDT, we can claim our capacity as a Creator to transform those old, outdated and habitual patterns into new, empowered, more resourceful – and more rewarding – ways of thinking, being and taking action.
Putting TED* into Practice: Breaking the Cycle This practice is best done as a journal exercise. Use the three steps above to identify and explore your own drama addiction patterns; discern your true intention, dream and/or desire; and commit to the making the shift in your roles and relationships.
Andrea Shepherd left her full time job as an editor at the Montreal Gazette to follow her childhood dream of opening a dance studio; her partner, Wolf Mercado Alatrista, who maintains a full time job at the YMCA to keep their family afloat during their start up phase, is also following his dream. Together, they are the founders of MonTango a thriving tango studio in NDG, Montreal.
Andrea and Wolf
All totalled, Wolf and Andrea have danced Argentine tango for more than 20 years. They taught together before deciding to open MonTango. Now, a year in, they see how their ability to “dance in the moment” with each other on the dance floor and in life helps them run their business. Andrea manages operations, communications and instructs. Wolf focuses on the client experience and instruction.
While MonTango’s initial mission was to teach people to tango, it now expands to creating community. Andrea says,
Bringing people together and creating friendships wasn’t our original purpose but it has become a wonderful by-product and is so rewarding.
You have only to spend an hour at a Sunday afternoon Cafe Croissant Tango to see that they have succeeded wildly on this count. And it is not by accident. Wolf and Andrea, and their teaching staff, regularly dance with beginner and advanced students, giving freely of their time, their enthusiasm and their instruction.
Of course, one doesn’t live on goodwill alone and dance studios are notoriously risky businesses. Expensive rent for studio space, competition, and changing dance fads can wreak havoc with the business model. Happily, social dance has never been more popular with shows like So You Think You Can Dance. It helps that Montreal is the tango capital of North America and that interest in tango, the most complicated and wonderful of the social dances (emphasis all mine!) shows no sign of slowing down. Even in a down economy with a lot of competition for students, MonTango has doubled its student number since last year.
The current supportive climate and endless hours working on and in the business have ensured their general trend in revenue is upward. Nonetheless, their dance in business has not been without hiccups. Some near misses have taught them:
Everything takes longer than expected (time management/ priority setting is key);
Word of mouth/ referrals are their key to successful growth because other marketing can be expensive or inefficient;
Hiring help in their areas of weakness (i.e. accounting) is necessary;
Finding teaching staff that will embrace their mission and follow their MonTango methodologies can be time consuming but is essential to ensuring students have a MonTango experience;
Preventing the business from creeping into all aspects of their family time is an ongoing challenge and a work in progress.
April marked MonTango’s one year anniversary. We celebrated by dancing tango to live music by Ensemble Montreal Tango. More than 120 tangueros/ tangeuras joined in the festivities. For MonTango, we, tango aficionados all, are more than clients. We are a community of friends. And what business doesn’t need friends?
So….If life is a tango, will you sit it out or dance?
If dance is your reply, MonTango invites you to try one of their free introductory lessons, from June 22 to 25 at 6 p.m. at 5588A Sherbrooke St. W. (corner Marcil). They will also hold tango dancing at NDG Park (across the street from the studio) every Friday from June 26 to Aug. 28 between 6 and 9 p.m. For info, click here or call 514-486-5588.
Andrea Shepherd left her full time job as an editor at the Montreal Gazette to follow her childhood dream of opening a dance studio; her partner, Wolf Mercado Alatrista, who maintains a full time job at the YMCA to keep their family afloat during their start up phase, is also following his dream. Together, they are the founders of MonTango a thriving tango studio in NDG, Montreal.
Andrea and Wolf
All totalled, Wolf and Andrea have danced Argentine tango for more than 20 years. They taught together before deciding to open MonTango. Now, a year in, they see how their ability to “dance in the moment” with each other on the dance floor and in life helps them run their business. Andrea manages operations, communications and instructs. Wolf focuses on the client experience and instruction.
While MonTango’s initial mission was to teach people to tango, it now expands to creating community. Andrea says,
Bringing people together and creating friendships wasn’t our original purpose but it has become a wonderful by-product and is so rewarding.
You have only to spend an hour at a Sunday afternoon Cafe Croissant Tango to see that they have succeeded wildly on this count. And it is not by accident. Wolf and Andrea, and their teaching staff, regularly dance with beginner and advanced students, giving freely of their time, their enthusiasm and their instruction.
Of course, one doesn’t live on goodwill alone and dance studios are notoriously risky businesses. Expensive rent for studio space, competition, and changing dance fads can wreak havoc with the business model. Happily, social dance has never been more popular with shows like So You Think You Can Dance. It helps that Montreal is the tango capital of North America and that interest in tango, the most complicated and wonderful of the social dances (emphasis all mine!) shows no sign of slowing down. Even in a down economy with a lot of competition for students, MonTango has doubled its student number since last year.
The current supportive climate and endless hours working on and in the business have ensured their general trend in revenue is upward. Nonetheless, their dance in business has not been without hiccups. Some near misses have taught them:
Everything takes longer than expected (time management/ priority setting is key);
Word of mouth/ referrals are their key to successful growth because other marketing can be expensive or inefficient;
Hiring help in their areas of weakness (i.e. accounting) is necessary;
Finding teaching staff that will embrace their mission and follow their MonTango methodologies can be time consuming but is essential to ensuring students have a MonTango experience;
Preventing the business from creeping into all aspects of their family time is an ongoing challenge and a work in progress.
April marked MonTango’s one year anniversary. We celebrated by dancing tango to live music by Ensemble Montreal Tango. More than 120 tangueros/ tangeuras joined in the festivities. For MonTango, we, tango aficionados all, are more than clients. We are a community of friends. And what business doesn’t need friends?
So….If life is a tango, will you sit it out or dance?
If dance is your reply, MonTango invites you to try one of their free introductory lessons, from June 22 to 25 at 6 p.m. at 5588A Sherbrooke St. W. (corner Marcil). They will also hold tango dancing at NDG Park (across the street from the studio) every Friday from June 26 to Aug. 28 between 6 and 9 p.m. For info, click here or call 514-486-5588.
About five years ago, George Thompson, President of Headcan Health Education Media, gave me a reprint of a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article that he was exuberant about. We were focussing on client satisfaction and the article—The One Number You Need to Grow– cut right to the chase (you will have to pay Harvard Business Review if you want to read the whole thing). George’s enthusiasm and the message still resonate. In fact, I believe I have integrated the notion into my very core.
Simply stated, one can take a very blunt and important measure of customer loyalty by asking two simple questions: the first about the quality of their customer experience and the second about whether they would purchase again/ recommend you (your product or service). The results of these two questions enable you to zero in on your most valued customers and leverage your sweet spot.
Today I was reminded of this concept –repeat customers who are willing to recommend your product/ service—as I read a report from Upwardly Mobile, Inc. This US group has created an online career management system by reverse engineering the networking steps taken by elite professionals (those earning $200K+) to build their careers. See their just released report on networking and career advancement. The key message here is that networking is not optional for career/ business success. Furthermore, it is about farming all the time rather than hunting in desperation when the economy drags your sales down or you find yourself job searching.
It strikes me that it all comes down to the same thing. For long term success, it doesn’t matter as much that you have 300 people in your LinkedIn network (though the optics are good) or that you have many customers with whom you have a shallow relationships. What matters more is whether these people will actually stick their neck out and recommend you to others.
Whether you are building and nurturing your network or focussed on client satisfaction and loyalty, here are a few points I believe in:
Help your network/ customer base without attachment to results or payback;
Be attached to what your network/ customers do for you; if there is no return over time, stop investing in them (hey, if Seth Godin can give contradictory advice, why can’t I?);
Refer clients to your competitors (if your competitor will serve them much better based on a specific need they have that you won’t serve as well);
Be brave. Once you feel there is some trust, ask your contact/client/customer if they will recommend you. If they aren’t comfortable recommending you, find out what their discomfort is and what you can do to turn it around.
And remember: to accelerate your business/ career/ life, there is only one number you need to grow. Don’t wait for a rainy day.
A 15 hour work week and days off in between to kayak and rejuvenate or be with one’s daughter. This is the schedule of Dan Quinz, philosophical engineer and entrepreneurial business owner of Acacetus Inc., a small Montreal consultancy working on embedded systems.
Dan places a very high value on freedom, solace and being an amazing dad. His rewards seem obvious but what has been risked and what is the secret to a 15 hour work week?
For starters, Dan is no ordinary engineer. He built his first circuit at the age of 9 and his first computer at the age of 11 in his basement. His career has spanned about 35 years. Some rough math shows he has invested over 60,000 hours practicing engineering and related fields. If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert, Dan has done it 6 times over. This was not risk so much as extreme dedication and sacrifice. Though in looking back, Dan says he was driven by passion and internal drive and didn’t see it as sacrifice then.
En route to racking up those 60,000+ hours, Dan eventually saw that marrying engineering and applied philosophy would help him deepen his understanding of the world we live in. Naturally curious, he reads widely from many disciplines and names this as one of his key success factors. He once solved a highly technical robotic control issue by modelling it to behave like an ant colony. Unlike the Ph. D educated researchers he was working with at the time, Dan felt he could take risks and trust his intuition and this provided the free thinking space needed to solve the problem.
Now, rather than being “the technical solutions guy”, he is more often hired as a mentor coach for entire engineering teams and executive management. His in-depth knowledge of philosophy and psychology has him so attuned to people, and engineers in particular, that he is able to observe/ assess and gently guide teams to synergy, innovation and vastly higher productivity.
In Gladwellian fashion, if we step back to look at other advantages that have favoured Dan, we find that in 2005, listening to his intuition, he set out to create the perfect tool to enable a car’s computer system to talk to a PC. Shortly after building his prototype, he found himself working on a contract where his solution would be the perfect one. He offered it up as a trial and a few days later was asked to quote on manufacturing thousands of units. He now sells and licenses it in the US and other countries which helps Acacetus be diversified.
But lest you conclude all this has paved his way to financial freedom (and his 15 hour work week), I will stop you at the pass. Dan once had an opportunity to license an operating system he had designed to a client for whom he was consulting. In his position of trust, he could have recommended his proprietary solution but he knew the impact for the client would be neutral at best (i.e. his client didn’t need it). At $1-$2M units a year this client was selling, he would have earned very well. Enter integrity. Saying no to this deal increased the trust of his client tenfold and shortly after he was invited to advise the president of a $400M US parent company on the brokering of a deal with a large (non bankrupting!) car manufacturer.
It is not who you know, but who knows you. I make sure the people who can best help me attain my goals know me well. I do this by serving them best and being honest at all times.
Even when it means walking away from millions.
Taking one more step back in Dan’s life reveals an ended marriage and an isolated childhood. These can hardly be considered life advantages. For Dan though, being alone created a lot of space for study at a young age. His marriage (ending with a custody battle), taught him to turn anger and despair into curiosity and resilience and showed him that no matter what, he would always uphold his integrity. These lessons had a high price tag. That Dan even shared them with me speaks volumes about his authenticity.
Today, Dan is a technically brilliant, emotionally mature, insightful and compassionate leader. His favourite reward is watching people develop and seeing the smile on their face when all of a sudden “they get it”!
And as for risk/ reward, Dan put in his time, listened to his intuition and had the courage to innovate over and over again. He continuously reinvents himself and his business processes. And now he chooses to limit it to 15 hours a week!
A 15 hour work week and days off in between to kayak and rejuvenate or be with one’s daughter. This is the schedule of Dan Quinz, philosophical engineer and entrepreneurial business owner of Acacetus Inc., a small Montreal consultancy working on embedded systems.
Dan places a very high value on freedom, solace and being an amazing dad. His rewards seem obvious but what has been risked and what is the secret to a 15 hour work week?
For starters, Dan is no ordinary engineer. He built his first circuit at the age of 9 and his first computer at the age of 11 in his basement. His career has spanned about 35 years. Some rough math shows he has invested over 60,000 hours practicing engineering and related fields. If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert, Dan has done it 6 times over. This was not risk so much as extreme dedication and sacrifice. Though in looking back, Dan says he was driven by passion and internal drive and didn’t see it as sacrifice then.
En route to racking up those 60,000+ hours, Dan eventually saw that marrying engineering and applied philosophy would help him deepen his understanding of the world we live in. Naturally curious, he reads widely from many disciplines and names this as one of his key success factors. He once solved a highly technical robotic control issue by modelling it to behave like an ant colony. Unlike the Ph. D educated researchers he was working with at the time, Dan felt he could take risks and trust his intuition and this provided the free thinking space needed to solve the problem.
Now, rather than being “the technical solutions guy”, he is more often hired as a mentor coach for entire engineering teams and executive management. His in-depth knowledge of philosophy and psychology has him so attuned to people, and engineers in particular, that he is able to observe/ assess and gently guide teams to synergy, innovation and vastly higher productivity.
In Gladwellian fashion, if we step back to look at other advantages that have favoured Dan, we find that in 2005, listening to his intuition, he set out to create the perfect tool to enable a car’s computer system to talk to a PC. Shortly after building his prototype, he found himself working on a contract where his solution would be the perfect one. He offered it up as a trial and a few days later was asked to quote on manufacturing thousands of units. He now sells and licenses it in the US and other countries which helps Acacetus be diversified.
But lest you conclude all this has paved his way to financial freedom (and his 15 hour work week), I will stop you at the pass. Dan once had an opportunity to license an operating system he had designed to a client for whom he was consulting. In his position of trust, he could have recommended his proprietary solution but he knew the impact for the client would be neutral at best (i.e. his client didn’t need it). At $1-$2M units a year this client was selling, he would have earned very well. Enter integrity. Saying no to this deal increased the trust of his client tenfold and shortly after he was invited to advise the president of a $400M US parent company on the brokering of a deal with a large (non bankrupting!) car manufacturer.
It is not who you know, but who knows you. I make sure the people who can best help me attain my goals know me well. I do this by serving them best and being honest at all times.
Even when it means walking away from millions.
Taking one more step back in Dan’s life reveals an ended marriage and an isolated childhood. These can hardly be considered life advantages. For Dan though, being alone created a lot of space for study at a young age. His marriage (ending with a custody battle), taught him to turn anger and despair into curiosity and resilience and showed him that no matter what, he would always uphold his integrity. These lessons had a high price tag. That Dan even shared them with me speaks volumes about his authenticity.
Today, Dan is a technically brilliant, emotionally mature, insightful and compassionate leader. His favourite reward is watching people develop and seeing the smile on their face when all of a sudden “they get it”!
And as for risk/ reward, Dan put in his time, listened to his intuition and had the courage to innovate over and over again. He continuously reinvents himself and his business processes. And now he chooses to limit it to 15 hours a week!
My learning and self discovery en route to coaching certification has been an extraordinary experience for me. I have been rewarded with amazing clients and coach colleagues. I delight daily in seeing my clients shape courageous actions in their lives and businesses. And I am continually inspired by my many coach colleagues with whom I share a vision of bringing a higher order of consciousness to the world.
Tango at the South Street Seaport, NYC, as taken recently by Christian Boulay (Montreal tango dancer)
When my clients reach a milestone in their lives, I coach them to pause and come up with a way to celebrate. So often in life, we brush off our successes and immediately set our sights on what is next. This Sunday I will move the furniture, put on my tango shoes, and raise a glass with friends and colleagues as I host a Tango BBQ to mark my certification in coaching.
What are you celebrating in life and business? How will you mark the occasion?
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a breakfast meeting hosted by the Association of Québec Women in Finance. I was blown away by the calibre of the women members—highly intelligent, witty, articulate and beautiful in their skin. The guest speaker, Joanne De Laurentis, was no exception. She’s currently president of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada.
Ms. De Laurentis humbly shared some points which defined her life: from being first born and revered by her entire family in Italy; to being forced to repeat grade three because she didn’t speak English when her parents first emigrated the family to Canada; to her extraordinary opportunity to work as Chief of Staff in the Ontario government during the Bill Davis/ Stephen Lewis days thanks to a neurosurgeon turned politician who could see her potential as an aspiring young woman.
Ms. De Laurentis shared four pieces of wisdom that have inspired her.
Realize a childhood dream. This comes from Randy Pausch’s last lecture. ; As a kid, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Now I coach…in my pyjamas (well,sometimes). Maybe I will design a clothing line for business coaches!
Show up.Woody Allen says that 80 percent of success is just showing up. Joanne spoke of how student government and volunteering opened amazing doors for her. I could relate. During my second year in undergrad, I felt completely disconnected and flat. A UPEI guidance counsellor quickly concluded, “You were student council secretary in high school. Go get elected to the Student Union”. I did. This was one of my life’s defining points. I showed up. I continue to show up.
Put in the time. Malcolm Gladwell’s demonstrates in Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. Intelligence, talent and opportunity count for a lot and practice makes better. To be a virtuoso, you have to play the violin A LOT. I am seeing first hand that my success in coaching and busines corresponds to the time I invest in becoming an expert.
Fill the fields that unfold before you. Scott Thurow points to Obama and his ability to seize opportunity and plant the seeds needed to fill his fields. I am continuously amazed that when I keep open to possibility, how many fields I can see.
I conclude with four words: Dream, Act, Practice, Sow!
The notion that business problems are personal problems in disguise I believe can be traced to Thomas Leonard, the father of modern life and business coaching. It’s simple. Businesses are run by people. And as you know, people have problems from time to time. On the surface, it is easy to accept that some business problems are personal problems but all business problems???
Before you dismiss this idea out of hand, put yourself is this business owner’s shoes and explore with me some examples.
The hypothetical scenario:
You are a 40 year old owner of CityBike, a retail operation in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that is about to expand to online sales of custom manufactured urban bikes.
Obvious connection between business problem and personal problem:
You hired a Director of Marketing a year ago to help you grow. He is going through a marriage breakup. Your company repositioning/ website revamp, slated for end of March to launch your new line of custom manufactured urban bikes, is now slipping into late May (if you are lucky). In this case, his big personal problem= your big business problem.
Less obvious connection between business problem and personal problem:
In 2002, you predicted a huge upswing in bicycle commuting in cities and this vision compelled you to start your company five years ago…a retail bicycle store. After four years of steady growth, you pressed go on manufacturing your own urban bikes to sell online and in your retail operation. This was your original vision but it took you four years to truly commit to it. In the meantime, a much bigger competitor has just come out with an urban bike that is selling like hotcakes, even during the recession. Your fear of committing to your business vision= your current business problem.
Downright subtle connection between business problem and personal problem:
Early on, there were some issues with the accuracy of the bike production samples from your Chinese manufacturer. This added frustration, time and expense that you didn’t anticipate. Surely I won’t try to make this a personal problem too? Well, I might. After all, your Chinese suppliers are people too! Who knows what was happening with your Chinese engineer and her team when she was developing your prototype.
Bottom-line:
You’ve built a very solid business. You are employing people. You are contributing to the economy and what’s more, you are helping protect the environment and improve people’s health with your urban bikes. Certainly, you cannot predict or prevent all personal problems (yours and those of your employees, suppliers, customers etc.) from impacting your business but you can learn to spot them earlier and learn to coach yourself and your people through them.
As we increasing makes links to personal life in the business world, one day I will be able to write a post entitled Business Success= Personal Success in Disguise!
Yesterday’s topic was company values (see The Value of Red Velvet Cake). Today I am on to the value of having a red velvet rope to keep non ideal clients out! Yes. You heard right. The idea belongs to Michael Port, business coach, and author of the widely read Book Yourself Solid.
Port conjures up the velvet rope you may encounter when you attend a high end, invitation only party. You show up and the bouncer only lets you past the velvet rope if your name is on the guest list. Port’s idea is to treat prospective clients’ metaphorical entry into your business this way too. He recommends becoming crystal clear on who your ideal client is in terms of their qualities (not their pocketbook) and going so far as to fire your “dud” clients–the ones who drain your energy and prevent you from being your very best with your ideal clients.
For my business coaching practice, you will get past the the velvet rope if you are:
a creator-you already know that it’s up to you to create the business and life of your dreams.
a natural partner-you are living proof that partnering on ideas, projects, goals and desires is a surefire way to manifest them.
fully alive- you are awake to possibility and your energy is palpable.
a connector-you get great joy out of connecting people to ideas and other resources.
a believer- you already know the power of business coaching, you have faith in the process and you know things will work out great.
If on the other hand, you are a victim of circumstance, a sole operator (in the sense that you are scared to involve anyone lest they steal your ideas), flat, a disconnector and a skeptic…my velvet rope will not be opened for you. Of course, it’s not likely that you will try to crash my party anyway.
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My business partner (and dear friend) 
Buffets, of course. They sound like a great idea when you are really hungry and you often regret it very quickly after when you have eaten too much and realize the food all tasted the same.
My partner 
The bottom-line version is that Coach Buffet is an innovative event that is designed to bring a dozen powerful life and business coaches together with participants for meaningful one-on-one coaching conversations in a social evening format.
M-Girl knows what she is talking about and she knows how to sell her concept. In 1999, fresh out of business school at 
The notion that business problems are personal problems in disguise I believe can be traced to 
For my business coaching practice, you will get past the the velvet rope if you are:
