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Recently, there have been some pretty significant changes at Chandler Coaches. Namely, there is a new CEO on board and she has a reputation for being pretty demanding. Lali Chandler took her position on March 5, 2011 Since coming on board, staff report large scale changes at the company.
For one, there has been no client service provided since she made her debut! This was a planned stoppage and will continue for the coming months while the new leader and her staff adjust.
Since joining, Chandler has replaced the entire senior management team with her own recruits. Most hail from Canada though one relocated from the US to join Chandler Coaches.
See below for introductions to the new team.
(I am writing this post with Lali in a kangaroo wrap on my chest. This post is really just a trial to see if I can continue to blog as the mother of an infant. It is my third attempt to complete the post over a two day period. And while it looks promising that I will be able to press “publish” soon, I am learing that things can change at any moment. My new little CEO is demanding in a way that only infants can be. Happily, she is adorable and charming which makes “working” for her a labour of love. And I am going to press publish in the next minute or so even if this post is not well edited..it is that or nothing for now.)
For some related posts that are not tongue in cheek ( am having trouble finding good articles..there must be better ones out there?):
My coaching business has been in hibernation for one week. This is intentional as I am due to have a baby around March 4th (that’s in 5-6 days). I have been planning my “leave of absence” for a very long time. At times I have worried that creating a baby and a business at the same time were completely incompatible. At other times, I have felt strongly that they are complimentary projects.
It only occurred to me as I write this post to search for guidance on the net how to put a business on hold. Surprizingly, my search turned up only a few articles (a rarity these days!):
Given the paucity of information, I will share some questions I feel need to be answered in formulating a plan to put your business on hold:
How long will your business be “on hold”??Are you going on vacation? Extended travel? Are you sick? Are you having a baby? If the timeframe can be clearly defined and articulated, it is important to do so. If the timeframe is indefinite, you will need to decide what you are willing to communicate, to whom, and what the consequences might be.
What does “on hold” mean for your business? Will all operations cease for a period of time? Will you still be able to meet some orders or provide some services? What can your customers/ clients / prospects / employees expect while you are away from the business?
What boundaries do you need to set for yourself?What lines in the sand do you need to draw in order to execute the plan you intend? How will you walk away from your business if that is what is needed for whatever your reasons?
What do you need to communicate to others (to set boundaries and expectations for them)? What is your official line? Who needs to know about your plan ( i.e. your clients, colleagues, associates, employees, suppliers etc.)? When will you tell them? Where else will you share the news (i.e. on your website, in your blog, on your company voice mail, in an autoresponder in your email etc.)
Who will support you? Who will support you to stick to your plan? Who do the work if your business is still going to provide some products or services?
How will you manage your finances? What other sources of income will you have (i.e., private or government insurance, savings, line of credit, loans)? Will the business have ongoing expenses even while on hold? Are there new ways to generate income during the on hold period (i.e. referral fees)? Are there any tax filing requirements during the time you will be away from the business? Who will handle this?
What will your current clients and prospects tolerate? Do you have a loyal client base who will accept your leave and come back when your business is back in full tilt? Can they go without your product or service for the period your business will be on hiatus? Would it make more sense to refer them to another business you trust will provide them what they need? Will new prospects who want to work with you/ your business be patient enough to wait or will you lose them to the competition?
What can you maintain?Is there a middle ground that keeps you in the business just to the degree that you can handle (i.e. Can you still post to your business blog? Can you still respond to queries? Can you still attend some industry or networking events?). It is important to know what you still can do while still taking care of your other needs (i.e. looking after a baby or family member, getting treatment. convalescing, travelling etc.)
What is your “come back” plan? While you cannot necessarily expect to turn on the revenue tap the minute you come back to your business, you can plan how you will get things rolling again. Will you come back gradually or all at once? Whom will you contact to let them know you are back? What type of promotional offer could generate the right kind of business faster? Are you able to pre-book any business for when you are back before you leave the business? Might you consider partnering with another business for referrals? Will you need to do other work to generate income during the ramp up period?
How will you course correct? In case you need to do this again in future or want to help a fellow entrepreneur go through this process, how can you keep track of what you’ve done well and your mistakes (your key learnings)? How can you make course adjustments even while you are on leave?
In my case, I am taking a six month leave from my business. I may coach on a very part-time basis after 3-4 months depending on how I feel and whether or not I have a baby that is easy to care for. For the first 3-4 months, I will not do any coaching and I have clearly communicated this to all my clients as well as IMPACT Consulting , a Toronto coaching company for whom I do corporate leadership and business development coaching. While it took me a long time to commit to walking away from my business to take a maternity leave, I am now fully on board and I don’t expect to have any difficulties focussing on motherhood. I started telling clients very early (i.e. last fall) that I was pregnant and would be going on leave. An interesting thing seemed to happen with many of them…they accelerated their own processes in order to be in a good place re: their coaching objectives by the end of February when I planned to wrap up.
For a while, I considered bringing in associates to work under the Chandler Coaches banner. In the end, I decided I would prefer to simply refer work to other coaches whom I trust so that clients would get great coaching and I would not be managing others/ doing invoicing etc while on leave. As my pregnancy has been planned for a long time, I have put in place a plan to manage my finances while on leave.
Some of my clients plan to come back to my coaching practice when I am back. Others have finished their work for now. I will need to continue business development efforts to generate new leads and follow up with existing prospects and former clients.
I am sharing my plan here on my blog and may adjust my work voice mail. In my case though, I am not going to be travelling or in hospital while on leave so I will be able to correspond in a timely way with anyone who contacts me for business.
Time will tell what I am able to maintain. For now, I would like to continue blogging and I may make it to a few coaching breakfasts etc. I am not setting high expectations for myself and at the same time, I want to leave the door open for some part-time coaching before the end of six months if I feel like I am up for it.
So that’s my plan. In truth, I would love to be so inspired by my new little baby that I follow in Pam Slim’s footsteps and have an extremely creative business period post baby.
For now, while I wait for labour to start, I have time to ask you: Have I forgotten anything for my own business hibernation? Does my 10 point list need anything else? Have you got any real life “business on hold” stories to share?I would love to hear from you. ———
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A special homemade cake for Rowan's 4th birthday, January 2011.
I haven’t posted in more than a month and I cannot tell you how many times I have planned to post and how many ideas I have had about things I wanted to write about. I was fully intending on writing about what I am most proud of in 2010 like I did last year. And now it’s January 23rd and I haven’t done it. It’s truly ironic because there are so many things I feel so good about in 2010 (like finally succeeding to get pregnant, growing my coaching business substantially, spending some fantastic times with my family and friends, and making this kick ass cake for Rowan).
My close friend (and fellow coach) Tanya Geisler helped me break my writer’s block this past week through a simple reframe (she’s a very good coach):
What if your blog was just for you? What if you stopped writing what you think your readers want to hear and simply wrote about what you are learning?
Shear and simple brilliance! Shifting my focus to making my blog a journal of what I am learning (on any subject from leadership development to making complicated cakes) gives me a lot of freedom to simply write. I was telling Tanya that I enjoy recaping sections of business books I am reading as it helps me to solidfy my own understanding of the topic. Tanya again:
Great! Write to lock in your own learning. There are sure to be others who will appreciate that. But let their enjoyment be a by- product and drop the pressure to write for them.
Last Monday I attended a presentation by C.C. Chapman, author of Content Rules at 3rd Tuesday in Montreal (and yes 3rd Tues was on a Monday as Toronto got him on the Tues.). I didn’t get much from his talk other than “write about what you like and be yourself”. I have heard this message before. Combined with Tanya’s reframe though, it started to sink in.
And so it shall be. I will be writing about what I am learning and taking the pressure off writing specifically for small business owners or corporate leaders or woman going through transition. Maybe I wil change my mind in a while. Maybe my blog will start being all about mompreneurs as offered by my friend Deb Hinton (my baby is due in less than 6 weeks). From where I sit at the moment though, with a decent sized belly, some heartburn and no baby in my arms yet, I actually hope not… but I won’t make any promises. Life as I know it is about to change!
What would you like to be telling me one year from now (on November 29, 2011) in the major areas of your life, career and business? Here”s what I would like to be telling you:
I am the mother of a healthy 9 month old baby and I love being a mother; I am working with amazing coaching clients and my business didn’t suffer because I took 6 months of maternity leave; I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight and have never felt better/ healthier; I have met a great guy and we really enjoy spending time together.
This past Friday, several business owners and professionals came together to “Finish Strong in 2010…and Play a Bigger Game in 2011″. Denise Desmeules and I facilitated the workshop and coached participants to create their own vision.
Since the process works so well, I want to share it here as my holiday offering to you. It’s a 6 step process to Finish Strong in 2010…and Play a Bigger Game in 2011. Granted, it’s easier to do with a coach in a concentrated focus session or workshop AND you can definitely do it on your own:
Acknowledge what you are proud of in 2010- I am proud of my tenacity in becoming pregnant and my courage in business. What are you proud of?
Take a snap shot of your current reality- there’s a great tool called the Wheel of Life (I have also made one called the Wheel of Business) to help you quickly rate your satisfaction with all the important areas. This simple exercise can be very telling. What’s calling your attention?
Transport yourself into your bigger future- I recommend actually moving to a new physical location (leave that current reality behind) and envision yourself one year (or two, or three..you decide) into the future. This phase has no limitations and a dreamy quality. Let yourself go! In each of the areas of your wheel, what do you want to be saying at x date in the future ? Write one sentence about each area in the wheel. Remember…present tense only! By now, one or two areas are likely really standing out as the areas you need to focus on. Pick one area for now and work through the rest of the steps. You can always come back and worth through steps 3-6 for other areas. Bonus step: You might want to draw your bigger future. This can be an image, a symbol, a metaphor or a bunch of powerful words on a piece of paper. The point is to let your creativity run and capture your dream in picture format rather than just words.
Get clear on the benefits and costs- this step is muy importante! List out what acheiving your bigger future will bring you. On the flip side, get good and clear what it will cost you not to realize your bigger future.
Reduce the tension through action planning- the first step here is to state a S.M.A.R.T. goal and then brainstorm possible actions before you narrow the field. From your brainstormed list, pick a few actions that resonate with you and will truly help move toward your bigger future. And for goodness sake, pick a timeline and tell someone who will help you stay accountable to yourself (again, coaching is great for this AND you can do it with a colleague, a friend, a partner…as long as it’s someone you trust).
Enter the land of commitment!- the final step is as important as every step before it. Simply stated: who do you need to BE in order to achieve your bigger future? Receptive? Tenacious? Open-minded? Free? Passionate? You get to decide what quality will serve you best. Again, I recommend actually drawing a metaphorical line in the floor and stepping over it. Once in the land of commitment, you have a much greater probability of creating your bigger future.
What are you proud of? What’s your current reality? What do you want? What will you have when you get it? What will it cost you if you don’t get it? What steps do you need to take to get where you want to go? And finally, who do you need to BE? Your future is waiting. How can I help?
_________
P.S. By doing steps 2 and 3, you create a gap between where you are now (your current reality) and where you want to be (your bigger future). This is good because nature seeks to resolve this tension according to Robert Fritz. Think of an elastic band stretched between your two hands. The tension reduces when your two hands come together. Same deal for your current reality and your bigger future. The closer they come together, the less tension there will be.
P.S.S. It bears mentioning that when I use “bigger future’ it doesn’t mean bigger = more. Your bigger future might mean less responsibility, fewer material goods etc.
More than 40 years ago, McLuhan said, “the medium is the message”. This couldn’t be truer for Couture Media. This budding Montreal-based company offers tailor-made radio for business. What does that mean? Essentially, Couture Media creates custom music compilations with or without verbal messaging that play in retail stores, hotels and other businesses that pride themselves on creating a total brand experience which goes far beyond designed visuals.
Couture Media was born in 2008, the brainchild of Kara Yamich, a former music director at Q92.5 and her colleague Leo Da Estrela, who still works as Assistant Program Director at the same station. These two partners have a depth of experience in terrestrial radio (I learned a bunch of cool radio jargon while interviewing them!) and challenged themselves to create a business from what they originally thought was a “silly” idea.
Their biggest competitor in North America, DMX, has been around for 20 years using satellite radio to offer channels. DMX offers a less custom brand experience but are a very strong and established competitor who is becoming increasingly customized. From the start, Kara and Leo eliminated the limitations of satellite by delivering their content directly via the internet with their data stored “in the cloud” (cloud computing means storing information in the web space instead of on expensive servers); by using the internet as a platform and cloud computing, they can change things very quickly and have the changes reflected at their client sites (i.e. retails stores around the world) about 8 seconds later. It also means they need next to no infrastructure to run their business.
What’s been easiest so far is achieving an international scope. Since the internet is their platform, they can create custom programming for clients anywhere in the world. One of their earliest contracts came from the Golden Tulip Farah in Casablanca, Morocco.
Kara’s already made the leap to full-time entrepreneurialism and Leo is making plans to join her full-time at Couture Media. What has been challenging so far is creating enough cash flow to pay salaries for both of them (who have families to help support).
That they have passion, dedication and a big vision, there is no doubt. They envision Couture Media will be:
The world leader in building brand loyalty through music and being the leader in brand marketing when it comes to music and online channels (eventually branching out into music licensing for commercial, TV and film, consultants in music marketing on multi-platforms and being able to operate the business from anywhere in the world).
What they don’t have is enough sales. While they could likely get some financing to support them for a while, I feel strongly that they need a solid business development strategy and a consultative sales system/ sales process to bring rigour to their pursuits. And they identified themselves that they need more contacts for marketing directors at major chain retailers.
When people who are technically very strong decide to go into business for themselves in search of freedom and making their own way, Michael Gerber in The e-Myth, calls it an “entrepreneurial seizure”. Those who succeed in business recognize that they need to work “on the business” as owners and managers at least as much as they work “in the business” delivering the technical work.
Kara and Leo have learned a ton since starting Couture Media and are working to set themselves up for success on all fronts. A hard focus on business development and cash flow (i.e. making sales) will ensure the future “sounds” great for Couture Media!
An overwhelming majority of people who have experienced professional coaching are satisfied with their experience and would recommend coaching to others, according to a new study by theInternational Coach Federation (ICF).
the article goes on to say
Satisfaction levels can most likely be attributed to high returns on investment as well. In previous research the ICF found that coaching is generating a very good return on investment — a median return of seven times the initial investment for businesses, and nearly 3.44 times for individuals who use coaching (Results representative of survey respondent sample).
The survey was conducted for the ICF by the independent consultancy Price Waterhouse Coopers.
On Easter weekend, my fit brother and his fit fiancé (now wife) came to visit. Before their visit I had been pondering (ok lamenting) what I could do to increase my overall fitness. Their visit gave me the idea of boot camp as they were regular attendees at one in Halifax.
My fittest times in life have been when I was part of a soccer team or some type of group training program like The Running Room. I no longer had the courage for soccer and who really likes running anyway? So the idea of an outdoor group training program appealed. Well, actually it terrified me but I knew it was what I needed to push myself beyond what I was doing at the gym.
A quick search on the internet turned up two options for Montreal. I contacted both and got a very prompt and friendly email back from Sherry Shaban, Owner of Be Training. And so began my relationship with this small but growing fitness and wellness training company in Montreal. I am certain there were snow flurries during our first workout at Jeanne Mance Park but it served to make us all feel proud and courageous to be there. Every work out took some courage but it got easier and easier and I always felt a huge sense of satisfaction finishing a session.
Of course, Be Training is more than just boot camp. It is a unique in-home, in-office and in-park training company offering personal training for adults and children, nutritional planning and comprehensive wellness programs. You won’t find this gang in a gym or studio. That is because Sherry, a certified athletic therapist herself, believes in using very minimal equipment and the body’s own weight for resistance training instead of expensive machines that only work one muscle group. While Be Training may have a central location within the next year, Sherry insists that it won’t look like a traditional gym. At boot camp, park stairs, benches and the ground where all that we needed to get a heck of a workout.
A Be Training client getting personalized and safe prenatal training
Sherry’s attributes her success so far with surrounding herself with a highly educated and motivated team. Her staff are all certified athletic therapists enabling them to customize programs and train people who have injuries, mobility restrictions, are pregnant etc.
Sherry sees the world as possibilities. She says,
The sky is the limit when it comes to achieving your goals. People find a way to do what they really want to accomplish.
Don’t bother telling her why you didn’t lose the 10 pounds you “wanted” to lose. She’ll counter that you couldn’t have really wanted it or you would have done it.
She’s a living example of what is possible. She launched her company while she was pregnant with her first daughter who is now 20 months and she has since had a second daughter (now 4 months). When I started boot camp in April, Sherry ran some of the sessions. At 7 months pregnant, she could do more push ups than most of us in the camp.
Sherry is not easily discouraged in business. When I asked her what has been harder than she ever imagined she wouldn’t even respond as she said she finds way to surmount whatever obstacles fall in her path. She was willing to share what has come easily:
People’s trust in us has come easily. They find us on the internet and they try us out or they are referred by a current client. We haven’t lost a single client since we started.
This is because clients who commit to Be Training get fit fast, look great and feel fantastic. In my case, I also made some nice friends.
Impatience to grow the company faster than it’s growing keeps Sherry awake some nights (that and her 4 month old baby girl). She is learning that things take time to build in business and she’s learning to adapt the plan when reality proves that it needs to be altered.
Nonetheless, this personable, ambitious and dynamic woman has goals for Be Training and I would put my money on her attaining them. Over the next few years, Be Training will offer a month long “vacation-like” boot camp replete with meals and wellness education and within the next year she will have a studio location. Sherry says,
We aren’t in the personal training business. We are in the life transformation business and we will do what it takes to have people create their best lives.
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
The comparisons below are taken from Good to Great and apply to business.
Good to Great companies (GTGC) follow a pattern of build up to breakthrough (an accumulation of steps, one after the other, turn by turn of the fly wheel; it is an organic and evolutionary process).
Good to Dead companies (GTDC) [my wording] skip the build up and jump right to breakthrough, implementing big programs, radical change efforts, and chronic restructuring always looking for a miracle moment or new saviour.
GTGC confront brutal facts; GTDC embrace fads and management hoopla.
GTGC have a hedgehog concept and consistently stay within the three circles; GTDC are inconsistent, lurch back and forth and stray outside the three circles.
GTGC have the right people who follow disciplined thought and action; GTDC jump to action without disciplined thought and without getting the right people on the bus.
GTCG harness appropriate technology to their Hedgehog concept; GTDC run around like Chicken Little, fearful of being left behind the latest technology.
GTCG have internal alignment because their momentum is infectious; GTDC expend energy to align and motivate people to their changing visions.
GTGC let results do the talking; GTDC sell the future to compensate for their lack of results.
It’s been proven that companies that apply the concepts of GTGC eventually reach breakthough. What path will you choose?
Good to great transformations don’t happen in one fell swoop says Jim Collins. Collins uses the concept of a fly wheel (a massive metal disk mounted horizonally on its axle, 30 feet in diameter and 5000 lbs). The first pushes to turn the wheel take a lot of energy and the wheel inches forward. Add lots more energy and many more turns and at some point—breakthrough! Momentum kicks into gear and the heavy weight turns the wheel on its own.
Think of it. World Cup players don’t put on their soccer boots for a few hours a week and go out to score history making goals. Instead they practice, compete and are coached for years (these are all turns of the wheel). Sadly, even the momentum of the flywheel didn’t assure victory for the Brazilians, Italians or Argentinians this time ’round.
The flywheel is pertinent to you and your company. Perhaps you dream of being an “overnight successes” on the net. You think that a brilliant marketing campaign, a great peice of press coverage, a lucky break or innovation will catapult you and your company to riches. This is foolhardy thinking at best. Overnight success is rarely, if ever, overnight success. We just don’t pay attention to the steps that were taken to get there, preferring instead to focus on the tipping point. This kind of thinking will usually put you in Collin’s doom loop rather than the fly wheel. Though with this kind of thinking, you might not even get to be good, let alone great.
So how do you get on the fly wheel and avoid the doom loop? You’re not sure? I wasn’t either. Fortunately, Collins has a comprehensive comparison list. Take an inventory. Face the brutal reality. What path are you on? Do you want to be Good to Great or Good to Dead?
I am spending the summer in a cottage in the Laurentians. It is a working vacation, as in, I am living in a beautiful setting and working. At it turns out, I am surrounded by some other industrious creatures to inspire my productivity. The most noteworthy–a woodpecker!
Since I arrived (it’s been almost 2 weeks already), this crafty little fellow has woken me up every day around 5:20 a.m. by pecking several times on the metal eaves troughs of my roof.
I have only just learned that ritual pecking has a very important purpose beyond getting bugs: to attract a mate. (I would love to say he cuts a mean profile but in truth this photo is from the net and not of him). He chooses my metal roof right outside my bedroom window because it makes a much louder sound than any tree ever could. It seems that when it comes to dating, he believes in casting the net as wide as possible is the best strategy for attracting a nice Laurentian bird.
He is perfectly equipped with the right tools for the job: a chisel-like bill, an extra long tongue to get bugs under tree bark, strong claws and stiff tail feathers to help him prop up on trees (and roofs). He even has feathers around his nostrils to filter wood dust and a special sac in his forehead to cushion his brain from the impact of his pecking. If you are going to succeed in life, you do need the right tools.
Just yesterday I met with Christina Mucciardi, owner of Cook and Date. She has both the tools and the formula for success. She hosts events to help singles meet. Her events have a welcome twist: Montreal chefs, a beautiful Viking kitchen, divine food, an equal number of men and woman of a similar age and flowing wine. I suspect she’s likely had some woodpecker types attend her Cook and Date over the past couple of years.
I continue to wake up way too early every day, probably in anticipation of that loud hammering sound. And I think it might be for not. You see it has been two days since I have heard my man Peck. Perhaps he found his Laurentian bird!
Sometimes the work day doesn’t unfold as planned either.
So far today, I have written 2 blog posts from Cafe Sportivo in the heart of Montreal’s Little Italy. The owner (I think she’s actually the owner’s daughter) is a spirited woman with a great sense of humour. I enjoyed an excellent expresso and biscotti for $3. When I said “It’s only $3?”, she said, “What, you wanna pay more???”. I have also kept my eye on World Cup action (Uraquay is up one vs. Mexico).
I did not intend to spend my time this way today.
Au contraire. Today I intended to meet 2 prospective clients and also a business owner to discuss how our businesses are complimentary. It was to be a productive day in the city, a stark contrast to my new country setting.
My first meeting was booked for 8:00 a.m. To make it on time, I came into the city yesterday, slept at a friend’s house, got up at 6:30 and drove 30 min in traffic to get from NDG to Little Italy on time. Before, I continue, I want to make it clear that I do not feel sorry for myself. I am simply detailing what it took to make it to the meeting. 8:05 came and went, then 8:10, and 8:20 with no sign of the duo I was to meet. It’s 11:00 a.m. and I haven’t heard from them. Meeting #1 remains a mystery(12:30 p.m. – Mystery solved…the person simply put it in the calendar for tomorrow rather than today. We will rebook. No hard feelings).
On to meeting #2. I was to meet a prospective client at 11 in another part of town. He had a family urgency come up so we are rebooking for later this week or early next. It happens.
Meeting #3. It is scheduled for 2 p.m. with another prospective client. As of now, the meeting is on. And with any luck, at the end of today,I will be saying 1 out of 3 ain’t bad. I would be lying if I said that I won’t be dissappointed if none of my scheduled meetings come off.
But for today, I am listening to Roger Ward Babson who said,
If things go wrong, don’t go with them.
What about you? How do you react when things don’t go according to plan?
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.
Me coaching Marie-Claude Pelletier, President, Les Effrontés; photo by Phil Carpenter, The Gazette June 6, 2010
Hey, look who is featured today! What a pleasure to wake up and read the great coverage on business coaching (and my coaching!) as today’s feature on the front page of the business section of The Gazette: When to call the coach. Thank you Alison MacGregor for writing a balanced and comprehensive feature on business coaching.
Thank you, Marie-Claude Pelletier, my client and President of Les Effrontés for your openness to being interviewed for the article. Les Effrontés offers an amazing styling/ shopping service for busy business owners and professionals. Yes, I am biased AND I recommend them without hesitation.
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 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:
It is confirmed. My reputation is Golden. Retriever, that is! Yep. Ruff ruff.
In early January, I embarked on a journey to get information on how I am perceived by my current and past clients, colleagues, friends and family (well all the friends and family are current!). My motivation was curiosity. My intention:
To gather information I could use in my marketing (i.e. where is the sweet spot between the small business owners’ needs and my character strengths, coaching skills, experience and offerings; and,
To provide information for me own self development work with my business coach (i.e., how can I play to my strengths and accept/ modulate my weaknesses).
Like any tool, the Reach 360 would give me pieces to inform me but not the whole picture.
And so, as I hinted above, the bread of dog that comes to mind when people think of me is Golden Retriever. It don’t think they meant it in the Fido sense (as in, Lisa looks like a Golden Retreiver) but perhaps some did.
The question was worded something along the lines of “when you think of Lisa’s qualities, what dog breed comes to mind?”. Of the 31 respondents who filled out the anonymous electronic reach 360 questionnaire, more than half of them said Golden Retriever. And they weren’t picking from a drop down list. This was an open-ended question.
So why am I focussing on the dog question when I could be sharing with you what people’s perceptions of my strengths and weaknesses are or I could be listing the “brand attribute” words that were most often used to describe me? I guess it is because I find the dog section fun, funny, and pretty damn accurate.
Wikipedia says,
The temperament of the Golden Retriever is a hallmark of the breed …”kindly, friendly and confident”. Check. Well, my confidence waxes and wanes but I am consistently kind and friendly.
A Golden should not be unduly timid or nervous. Check
The typical Golden Retriever is calm, naturally intelligent and biddable, with an exceptional eagerness to please. Check.
Golden Retrievers are also noted for their intelligence. Ahem. All I will say here is that curiosity and learning are top values of mine.
These dogs are also renowned for their patience. Ok. We might have reached the end of the “how Lisa is like a Golden Retreiver” exercise.
Lest you think I am all Golden, I also got shepard, collie, Alsatian, afghan hound and “Royal Puddle“. I decided that the later came from a francophone coach colleague who told me over coffee the other day that she thought I was most like a ”un caniche”.
If you, your employees, or your friends and family could benefit from knowing more about how they are perceived in the world by those who know them well, I do recommend the Reach 360 and the Via Strength finder (both are free).
Be prepared for some introspection as you read the information that comes in. If you know yourself well, there will be few suprizes and some great tidbits you can learn from. And remember, feedback is feedback. It is someone else’s opinion and it is golden as long as you take it in stride!
As a business coach, my niche is small business owners. Of course, all small business owners are not created equal so I continue to refine my focus. To help me do this, I find it very helpful to conduct 1:1 interviews. During these interviews I learn what keeps business owners up at night, what they typically do to address their “pain” and how they go about finding help.
I so appreciate the time these entrepreneurs give to me to help me build my business that I offer a complimentary “no strings attached and I mean it!” coaching session to them or another business owner they want to pass it on to. I also sometimes write blog posts (see sample) as a way to spread the word about their business and their story.
And so, what’s the point? Simply this: if you are a small business owner who fits this profile and you are willing to spend 20 min on the phone with me (or have coffee in person for those in Montreal), I would love to hear from you soon:
Criteria:
Have been in business for 3-5 years++
Have at least 5 employees or associates
Work in any industry (though I have a preference for food, marketing, fashion, professoinal services/ consulting etc.)
Feel free to forward this link to someone who fits this profile. I look forward to hearing from you or someone in your network. Email me at lisa@chandlercoaches.com Thanks!
The three newest members of the MR. POTATO HEAD family offer tons of imaginative fun for playful toddlers. The charming PRINCESS SWEET POTATO figure comes complete with tiara and frog prince for royal adventures, and FRYER FIGHTER tater is ready to squelch flames with his handy fire extinguisher. Swashbuckling spud CAPTAIN POTATO CHIPS figurine has a peg leg, eye patch, and hooked hand and is eager for action-packed expeditions.
The Potato Head Family of Fredricton, NB!
It is all about Mr. Potato Head today because I had the pleasure of creating a whole Potato Head family while playing with my cousin’s toddlers—Aidan and Morgan—during the holidays in the maritimes. I created a replica of their family in potatoes and was so pleased with my rendition (very loose!) that I took a photo. Of course, the significance was lost on Aidan and Morgan who were too busy pulling them apart.
So what do the Potato Heads have to do with business or coaching? Not much in a direct kind of way and a lot from another perspective. Creativity is essential for business innovation but we business owners often get so immersed in the day to day of our operations that we squelch it in ourselves and our employees too.
Fast Company recently published the results of a long-term study on business creativity (entire article here) by Harvard professors Teresa Amabile and Leslie Perlow in which they bust a number of myths:
Myth: Creativity comes from creative types.
People who are tuned into their work, whether in accounting or production, have the best ability to tap into their creative process.
Myth: Money is a creativity motivator.
People are most creative when they care about their work and when they are stretched. Any entrepreneur will attest to this. Of course, the same entrepreneur, when stretched too much due to overwhelm, financial worry etc will tell you that his creativity goes out the window.
Myth: Time pressure fuels creativity.
People are least creative when they are fighting against time and there is a hangover effect of reduced creativity for a couple of days after people are crunched to be creative under pressure.
Myth: Fear forces breakthroughs. Love and joy spur creativity far more effectively than anger, fear and anxiety. When people are excited about their work on one day, they are more likely to “hatch” ideas the next, after sleeping on it.
Myth: Competition beats collaboration. The best ideas come from sharing and debating. Competition and secrecy to protect ideas does not give creativity the best chance to lead to business innovation.
Creating Potato Heads with kids, some journal writing and conversations with family about my business issues and a good dose of Rock Band passively filled me with great ideas for Chandler Coaches in 2010. Who knew that some of the best ideas would come while stepping away from the business and eating too much fruit cake?
Note: There was an important snowman involved in this creative process too.
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.
Most of us go on hero’s journeys in our lives and businesses. The idea of the hero’s journey or monomyth originally came from Joseph Campbell and had 17 steps. I learned about a 7 step version on a group coaching call this week and raced to draw it for you (I still love that grade 6 feeling of using markers and Bristol board).
So dawn your metaphorical cape and tights. As you read through these stages, think about your current business and life journeys. Plot where you are right now. I would love to tell you where I think I am in my life and business journeys, but I would rather keep you guessing.
The promised 7 steps of the hero’s journey:
1) Innocence-your life or business is ticking along. It might be dull but it’s safe and things are working.
2) Call to Adventure- you start to hear a calling to make a big change and it gets louder and louder (i.e. quite your job, buy the competition, climb Aconcagua…this is a plug for Coach Ian Renaud and his Project R.I.R.E…it is in French only)
3) Threshold Guardians- as soon as you decide to heed the call, guardians or protectors are sure to emerge. Their goal is to send you back to innocence (i.e. your wife who doesn’t want you to resign, your mortgage, your own sabotaging voices that tell you that you are crazy and you will surely fail)
Many people return to innocence at this stage, too scared to go on. Or as my mentor coach says, “they buy a big screen TV” and forget about the call altogether (although life becomes shades of grey even if the TV is in HD).
4) Road to Adventure- you made it past those powerful threshold guardians. Congratulations. You are on a journey of challenges, excitement, intrigue, and learning (i.e. you are building your business, traveling the world). Times are good. You feel free and full of hope.
5) Principal Ordeal- and then…seemingly out of the blue, you start feeling confused and trapped. You have come too far to go back to safety and yet you don’t know how to go on. This stage is not called the Principal Ordeal for nothing. It will really test your metal. You don’t know how long you will be stuck here and how you will go on, but go on you must (Hint: you need to get really quiet when you are here…the answers are inside you somewhere).
6) Flight/ Return- Yippee! Somehow you got silent. You found your way out of the fog. Your purpose is clear again and you know what you have to do to get the proverbial treasure back home (i.e. redefining your business offering, moving to a new city). Whatever the ordeal is for you, you found a way out of it and now you are on your flight to freedom again having “slayed the dragon”.
7) Celebration and Service- You made it. Perhaps you are hometown hero. Perhaps it is just a quiet victory. Whatever the case, you get to celebrate your success and share your treasures/ learnings. Revel in the victory and innocence of this time of celebration. Serve others. And keep your eyes and ears open. If you are true hero, your next call to adventure won’t be far away!
Where are you in the hero’s journey of your life or business? Tell us by commenting.
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.
Last night I was invited to Challenge Your World as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (thank you Martin Lessard!). Guy Kawasaki was spectacular as the keynote speaker. For the most part, Guy’s top 10 tips for entrepreneurs make a ton of sense. There are only a couple I dispute. My comments are in italics.
Build what YOU want to use- in other words, skip the market research, make the product or service and get going (see #8 too); build your product/ service with a partner for the lowest cost possible and ensure your partner has talents and skills different than your own.
Pay $0 for tools- WordPress for blogging is a prime example. I was given this sage advice when I started Chandler Coaches and it has served me well to date.
Pay $0 for marketing- there is no longer a need to hire a PR company pre launch or spend $$ on advertising. Agreed and I think you do need to spend a bit of money on a talented graphic artist who can create your company/ product identity…something people will recognize on your website/ blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
Suck down or across (not up!)-the person who will make your product a success is a “nobody” who will tell other “nobodies” how much he loves your product/ service. Because you don’t know who the nobodies are, you have to reach a lot of people. Forget about sucking up to stars and other influencers. This makes a ton of sense AND if you can find a way to get the Oprah Effect too, that won’t hurt!
Use Twitter and Tweetmeme- there is no better way to reach the masses. It is brilliant and it is free.
Pay $0 for people-get help from people who are willing to do internships or work for free. Sure, this might be fine when you are truly a start up with $0 cash flow. After that, once you are making $, it is not ok, in my opinion, to make $ on someone else’s back. Share and you will be rewarded. And what about hiring a start up coach like Alain Theriault (who is top of mind as I saw him last night) to help a bit on the front end? And then hire me when you are more established and I will help you grow in the direction you want.
Put everything in “the cloud”-this was for techies re storing data on servers
Ship, then test! Create a product or service that is good enough and get going. Don’t aim for perfection or anything close. “Cash saves all”. My partner Tanya Geisler and I recently did this with our new Coach Buffet concept and we got great feedback on our first two events. We couldn’t know what we know today if we had held off to refine the process.
Avoid venture capital (VC)-bootstrap your company for the first few years instead of looking for investors. When you have a proven product/ service and want to scale up, VC can be an alternative.
Niche thyself- be the unique/ high value player. And if you are the marketer, ask how you can convince the world you are the unique/ high value player.
Guy’s Bonus: Don’t let the bozos grind you down. In Guy’s world, the dangerous bozos are the rich, famous people whose opinions are given more weight than they should be. Resist the naysayers, especially if they are where they are in business/ life because of luck/circumstances and not intelligence.
Last night I was invited to Challenge Your World as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (thank you Martin Lessard!). Guy Kawasaki was spectacular as the keynote speaker. For the most part, Guy’s top 10 tips for entrepreneurs make a ton of sense. There are only a couple I dispute. My comments are in italics.
Build what YOU want to use- in other words, skip the market research, make the product or service and get going (see #8 too); build your product/ service with a partner for the lowest cost possible and ensure your partner has talents and skills different than your own.
Pay $0 for tools- WordPress for blogging is a prime example. I was given this sage advice when I started Chandler Coaches and it has served me well to date.
Pay $0 for marketing- there is no longer a need to hire a PR company pre launch or spend $$ on advertising. Agreed and I think you do need to spend a bit of money on a talented graphic artist who can create your company/ product identity…something people will recognize on your website/ blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
Suck down or across (not up!)-the person who will make your product a success is a “nobody” who will tell other “nobodies” how much he loves your product/ service. Because you don’t know who the nobodies are, you have to reach a lot of people. Forget about sucking up to stars and other influencers. This makes a ton of sense AND if you can find a way to get the Oprah Effect too, that won’t hurt!
Use Twitter and Tweetmeme- there is no better way to reach the masses. It is brilliant and it is free.
Pay $0 for people-get help from people who are willing to do internships or work for free. Sure, this might be fine when you are truly a start up with $0 cash flow. After that, once you are making $, it is not ok, in my opinion, to make $ on someone else’s back. Share and you will be rewarded. And what about hiring a start up coach like Alain Theriault (who is top of mind as I saw him last night) to help a bit on the front end? And then hire me when you are more established and I will help you grow in the direction you want.
Put everything in “the cloud”-this was for techies re storing data on servers
Ship, then test! Create a product or service that is good enough and get going. Don’t aim for perfection or anything close. “Cash saves all”. My partner Tanya Geisler and I recently did this with our new Coach Buffet concept and we got great feedback on our first two events. We couldn’t know what we know today if we had held off to refine the process.
Avoid venture capital (VC)-bootstrap your company for the first few years instead of looking for investors. When you have a proven product/ service and want to scale up, VC can be an alternative.
Niche thyself- be the unique/ high value player. And if you are the marketer, ask how you can convince the world you are the unique/ high value player.
Guy’s Bonus: Don’t let the bozos grind you down. In Guy’s world, the dangerous bozos are the rich, famous people whose opinions are given more weight than they should be. Resist the naysayers, especially if they are where they are in business/ life because of luck/circumstances and not intelligence.
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.
Kim Fuller is the mother of three. Her oldest is a corporate communications company called IDG Communications. After giving birth to IDG ten years ago, she went on to have two sons, aged 9 and 6. It was Kim who said her business is like a child that she “raised” from conception to maturity. She makes parallels to the dedication required, the thousands of hours spent, the messiness, the nurturing and the tough decision making along the way.
Having two real children while building her communications company was the biggest risk she has ever taken. Interesting, she links her biggest risk to what she is most proud of: controlled and steady growth. Kim says that the attention her children demanded required her to be steady and cautious about how she grew her business. And the controlled growth is what created a rock solid foundation that she and her team are building upon ten years later.
And rock solid it is. Now the clients are more prestigious. And they come with bigger budgets, wider scopes of work and bigger expectations. Meanwhile, IDG Communications stays quiet about their successes. You won’t see them self promoting at awards shows. They are too busy serving their clients and creating deep business relationships that ensure that the marketing work they create truly works for their clients. Some of their most rewarding work is done through Phil Communications, a division of IDG Communications focussed on the not-for-profit sector.
If up until now you are thinking that Kim is a quiet, risk averse mom, make no mistake. She’s a driver! She told me about wanting to reach a place of stability in business and then quickly self-corrected when she realized how the entrepreneur part of her would actually find stability quite uncomfortable.
Her biggest lesson came in year two when a major account ended and necessitated that she let go most of her staff to stay afloat. She not only learned to diversify, she also learned to stand up for herself and the company. The big account was keeping the company busy but was too demanding to be profitable. In asserting her company’s needs, she lost the account but opened up many new opportunities to do things differently.
Finance has been a challenge for Kim who has a degree in Fine Arts and not Accounting! To respond to this gap, she surrounded herself with smart people and a management accountant who is integral to her business success. Ten years later, she may still be a creative at heart and she knows her ways around her books too.
She’s most amazed at the trust her staff place in her decision making ability. I reminded her it is not by accident that she garners trust. She has proven herself time and time again and her people know they can count on her. She calls her current team a “dream team” which says to me it is time to systematize business processes to ensure that if key people leave, the business is not vulnerable.
These days, Kim is more business development (BD) and less art direction and creative. BD is the hat that is needed and she’s more than capable of wearing this hat.
2010 will see IDG launch a new offering that helps their clients through the marketing process. Her team likens it to a microbrewery who carefully crafts their brew with careful attention to every step. I won’t reveal more. You can check out their offering early in 2010.
Kim Fuller is the mother of three. Her oldest is a corporate communications company called IDG Communications. After giving birth to IDG ten years ago, she went on to have two sons, aged 9 and 6. It was Kim who said her business is like a child that she “raised” from conception to maturity. She makes parallels to the dedication required, the thousands of hours spent, the messiness, the nurturing and the tough decision making along the way.
Having two real children while building her communications company was the biggest risk she has ever taken. Interesting, she links her biggest risk to what she is most proud of: controlled and steady growth. Kim says that the attention her children demanded required her to be steady and cautious about how she grew her business. And the controlled growth is what created a rock solid foundation that she and her team are building upon ten years later.
And rock solid it is. Now the clients are more prestigious. And they come with bigger budgets, wider scopes of work and bigger expectations. Meanwhile, IDG Communications stays quiet about their successes. You won’t see them self promoting at awards shows. They are too busy serving their clients and creating deep business relationships that ensure that the marketing work they create truly works for their clients. Some of their most rewarding work is done through Phil Communications, a division of IDG Communications focussed on the not-for-profit sector.
If up until now you are thinking that Kim is a quiet, risk averse mom, make no mistake. She’s a driver! She told me about wanting to reach a place of stability in business and then quickly self-corrected when she realized how the entrepreneur part of her would actually find stability quite uncomfortable.
Her biggest lesson came in year two when a major account ended and necessitated that she let go most of her staff to stay afloat. She not only learned to diversify, she also learned to stand up for herself and the company. The big account was keeping the company busy but was too demanding to be profitable. In asserting her company’s needs, she lost the account but opened up many new opportunities to do things differently.
Finance has been a challenge for Kim who has a degree in Fine Arts and not Accounting! To respond to this gap, she surrounded herself with smart people and a management accountant who is integral to her business success. Ten years later, she may still be a creative at heart and she knows her ways around her books too.
She’s most amazed at the trust her staff place in her decision making ability. I reminded her it is not by accident that she garners trust. She has proven herself time and time again and her people know they can count on her. She calls her current team a “dream team” which says to me it is time to systematize business processes to ensure that if key people leave, the business is not vulnerable.
These days, Kim is more business development (BD) and less art direction and creative. BD is the hat that is needed and she’s more than capable of wearing this hat.
2010 will see IDG launch a new offering that helps their clients through the marketing process. Her team likens it to a microbrewery who carefully crafts their brew with careful attention to every step. I won’t reveal more. You can check out their offering early 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.
Over lunch I read three disperate things and somehow decided they were all connected (or that if they weren’t, I was going to find a way to connect them!). Aim…Aim is the common theme I see. And the three things I read are:
1) Chapter 12 of Michael’s Gerber’s The E Myth Revisited (E stand for entrepreneur) outlining the importance of “your primary aim”
Gerber insists that before considering building a business, we must ask ourselves these questions: What do I value most? What kind of life do I want? What do I want my life to feel like? Who do I wish to be there? Great people have a vision for their lives and they work “on” it each and every day. Like Gerber, I am a firm believer that one’s “primary aim” is the vision necessary to bring a business to life and one’s life to the business. I guide my coaching clients to develop their primary aim/vision. I have one too. I call it into question often. It frustrates me to no end sometimes when I don’t know how to live it. Nonetheless, I am happy to have it be my guide.
While I doubt Lynn’s books follow the same tack as Gerber’s given the different focus, I am betting that the leaders she interviewed had unfailingly articulated their aims to become women leaders long before they became women leaders. I am betting their aims were clear about what leadership would look like, taste like and feel like to lead long before they were in the actual positions they now hold.
Perhaps this one is a bit of an outlier. The way I see it though, it is precisely in the doing of business ownership/ leadership and in being a business owner/ leader that one is faced with huge spiritual challenges that send us reeling from time to time. Many of the challenges are practical. Some are existential. The true leader will go to the hard places to find answers. The true leader will frequently sharpen his/ her aim.
Carlos Castenada (as quoted by Gerber) said this,
The difference between a warrior and an ordinary man [woman] is that a warrior sees everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man sees everything as either a blessing or a curse.
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:
Many a business is born of a passion that has commercial possibilities. For Karen Kerk-Courtney, giving birth to her first child Ben in 2004 intensified her passion for healthy living. And when she couldn’t pronounce any of the ingredients listed on the hospital baby wash container (some of them 26 letters long!), she decided in that instant to clean Ben with water alone and committed to finding healthier alternatives.
So, you could say that her business was born with her baby though it took two years of extensive research and recipe creation before Bare Organics was officially launched in November of 2006.
For Karen, Bare Organics represents the ideal of what we all need to move toward—reducing over-consumption of unnecessary personal care products, making informed purchasing decisions and choosing all-natural, organic skin and baby care products.
Did you know that 60% of what you put on your skin can get absorbed into your bloodstream and that babies and children are especially susceptible? asks Karen.
Karen is proud to have created products people look for and are happy to use.
Like most bright and ambitious business owners, Karen says that hardest part of her business is finding enough time.
Everything takes 4 times as long as I imagine. Nonetheless, I am finally developing a schedule for manufacturing and packing and starting to carve out planning time but it’s orders that pay the bills so that is always the priority.
About six months ago, having reached a saturation point, Karen hired a business coach to help her see her blind spots and to hold her accountable to taking the business to the next level. She’s pleased with the work they have accomplished so far.
What’s been easier than she would have thought is fitting “family into business” and “business into family”. Even Liam, her 2.5 year old, speaks about Bare Organics when he’s with her on business errands.
Pursuing the development of an organic clothing line for kids turned out to be her biggest failure and her greatest lesson to date. She invested in large quantities of simple unbleached fabrics and production only to find that a competitor was offering much cuter fabrics and styles. She hadn’t done any market research and she paid for it. Fortunately, she recognized her mistake early enough and pulled the plug before she got in too deep.
Three years in, the next steps for Bare Organics are to get full organic certification (an involved and expensive process), launch a new brand and expand the retail base. Karen doesn’t hesitate when I ask what she needs most:
What Bare Organics needs most right now is cash for new product development and the organic certification process.
So any angel investor with a penchant for a healthier planet and healthier people can contact Karen to discuss how an investment can create an even healthier bottom line on many fronts.
As I write, my face is enjoying the natural oils of Bare Organics Serum and my legs are soaking up the moisture from Bare Organics Natural Massage Bar . While I have never been one to over-do it on beauty products, I am very drawn to the simplicity of a few quality natural products for all my needs. And knowing the woman and the story behind the brand made my purchasing decision very easy!
Many a business is born of a passion that has commercial possibilities. For Karen Kerk-Courtney, giving birth to her first child Ben in 2004 intensified her passion for healthy living. And when she couldn’t pronounce any of the ingredients listed on the hospital baby wash container (some of them 26 letters long!), she decided in that instant to clean Ben with water alone and committed to finding healthier alternatives.
So, you could say that her business was born with her baby though it took two years of extensive research and recipe creation before Bare Organics was officially launched in November of 2006.
For Karen, Bare Organics represents the ideal of what we all need to move toward—reducing over-consumption of unnecessary personal care products, making informed purchasing decisions and choosing all-natural, organic skin and baby care products.
Did you know that 60% of what you put on your skin can get absorbed into your bloodstream and that babies and children are especially susceptible? asks Karen.
Karen is proud to have created products people look for and are happy to use.
Like most bright and ambitious business owners, Karen says that hardest part of her business is finding enough time.
Everything takes 4 times as long as I imagine. Nonetheless, I am finally developing a schedule for manufacturing and packing and starting to carve out planning time but it’s orders that pay the bills so that is always the priority.
About six months ago, having reached a saturation point, Karen hired a business coach to help her see her blind spots and to hold her accountable to taking the business to the next level. She’s pleased with the work they have accomplished so far.
What’s been easier than she would have thought is fitting “family into business” and “business into family”. Even Liam, her 2.5 year old, speaks about Bare Organics when he’s with her on business errands.
Pursuing the development of an organic clothing line for kids turned out to be her biggest failure and her greatest lesson to date. She invested in large quantities of simple unbleached fabrics and production only to find that a competitor was offering much cuter fabrics and styles. She hadn’t done any market research and she paid for it. Fortunately, she recognized her mistake early enough and pulled the plug before she got in too deep.
Three years in, the next steps for Bare Organics are to get full organic certification (an involved and expensive process), launch a new brand and expand the retail base. Karen doesn’t hesitate when I ask what she needs most:
What Bare Organics needs most right now is cash for new product development and the organic certification process.
So any angel investor with a penchant for a healthier planet and healthier people can contact Karen to discuss how an investment can create an even healthier bottom line on many fronts.
As I write, my face is enjoying the natural oils of Bare Organics Serum and my legs are soaking up the moisture from Bare Organics Natural Massage Bar . While I have never been one to over-do it on beauty products, I am very drawn to the simplicity of a few quality natural products for all my needs. And knowing the woman and the story behind the brand made my purchasing decision very easy!
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.
I recently had an idea for a really cool coaching concept and I shared it with my friend and coaching colleague Tanya Geisler. Now we are partnering on the idea and getting more excited about it each time we meet about it. In parallel, the notion of hoarding (things, information) versus sharing has crossed my radar a few times (and you may have read that historically I haven’t shared well!) so I decided to examine it a bit more closely. But first let me make a distinction: I give my ideas with ease and frequency and truly delight in sharing them. Giving away things (i.e. possessions, money) is harder for me.
Royality free image from Fotosearch
A few days ago, I read The Wisdom of Sharing in my DailyOM email. In short, a traveller comes into a town that is besieged by famine. The villagers are suspicious that he will beg for food. Instead, he sets a large pot to boil and proceeds to make a “stone” soup by dropping a large stone from his bag into the boiling cauldron. He “sniffs the brew extravagantly and exclaims how delicious the stone soup will be”. As the villagers get curious, he mentions how good the soup would be with a little cabbage. As you can imagine, bit by bit the villagers bring cabbage, carrots, onions and beets until there is a substantial soup that feeds the village.
In times of constraint, it is human nature to hold back and protect what is ours. And yet, when it comes to creating a rich idea soup, it is hard to make it alone. I did a quick search for a “hoarding vs. sharing scale” to see if one existed. I wanted to assess myself. Why can I share my ideas with detachment and not do the same with my things? Instead, I stumbled upon a hoarding scale used by professional organizers to determine whether or not their clients’ hoarding is actually pathological (it’s free but you have to fill out some info before this site will share it). Hoarding, whether possessions or ideas, is about accumulating or keeping something hidden or private. It gives us a sense of safety and and security and enables us to pat ourselves on the back that we are being prudent and responsible. But isn’t the safety and security we feel a bit of an illusion?
The wise woman who writes copyblogger says that hoarding ideas is the same as throwing them away as your reputation is built on what you are doing now. I could have hoarded my coaching concept idea and kept it swirling around in my own head. For a while, I suspect I would have felt clever and creative. And then I predict it would have gone the way of the dodo bird, bumped off the back burner of my brain by my next brainwave. Instead, now I have a partner whom I love to work with on projects and we are developing an action plan for a September launch in Toronto and Montreal. Just today she came up with a brillant name for our concept and we have committed to dates for pilots in both cities.
I will share the concept here soon too. In the meantime, I will continue to work on sharing my things as often as I share my ideas…that’s the stretch for me. What’s yours?
I recently had an idea for a really cool coaching concept and I shared it with my friend and coaching colleague Tanya Geisler. Now we are partnering on the idea and getting more excited about it each time we meet about it. In parallel, the notion of hoarding (things, information) versus sharing has crossed my radar a few times (and you may have read that historically I haven’t shared well!) so I decided to examine it a bit more closely. But first let me make a distinction: I give my ideas with ease and frequency and truly delight in sharing them. Giving away things (i.e. possessions, money) is harder for me.
Royality free image from Fotosearch
A few days ago, I read The Wisdom of Sharing in my DailyOM email. In short, a traveller comes into a town that is besieged by famine. The villagers are suspicious that he will beg for food. Instead, he sets a large pot to boil and proceeds to make a “stone” soup by dropping a large stone from his bag into the boiling cauldron. He “sniffs the brew extravagantly and exclaims how delicious the stone soup will be”. As the villagers get curious, he mentions how good the soup would be with a little cabbage. As you can imagine, bit by bit the villagers bring cabbage, carrots, onions and beets until there is a substantial soup that feeds the village.
In times of constraint, it is human nature to hold back and protect what is ours. And yet, when it comes to creating a rich idea soup, it is hard to make it alone. I did a quick search for a “hoarding vs. sharing scale” to see if one existed. I wanted to assess myself. Why can I share my ideas with detachment and not do the same with my things? Instead, I stumbled upon a hoarding scale used by professional organizers to determine whether or not their clients’ hoarding is actually pathological (it’s free but you have to fill out some info before this site will share it). Hoarding, whether possessions or ideas, is about accumulating or keeping something hidden or private. It gives us a sense of safety and and security and enables us to pat ourselves on the back that we are being prudent and responsible. But isn’t the safety and security we feel a bit of an illusion?
The wise woman who writes copyblogger says that hoarding ideas is the same as throwing them away as your reputation is built on what you are doing now. I could have hoarded my coaching concept idea and kept it swirling around in my own head. For a while, I suspect I would have felt clever and creative. And then I predict it would have gone the way of the dodo bird, bumped off the back burner of my brain by my next brainwave. Instead, now I have a partner whom I love to work with on projects and we are developing an action plan for a September launch in Toronto and Montreal. Just today she came up with a brillant name for our concept and we have committed to dates for pilots in both cities.
I will share the concept here soon too. In the meantime, I will continue to work on sharing my things as often as I share my ideas…that’s the stretch for me. What’s yours?
I have had a number of no show coaching clients in June. I could take it personally (and admittedly in the moment when it happens, I feel a certain disrespect). But I know better. It is not about me and my coaching. It does, however, impact my coaching relationships and it certainly affects my business (though not in the dollars and cents way you may think). For you see, my clients pay in advance and when they miss an appointment without giving 24 hours notice, I still get paid. I don’t write this in a “laughing all the way to the bank“ kind of way. On the contrary, as a loving business woman, it actually pains me to be paid for a session that never takes place. And I have a hard time understanding how it can happen with regularity.
No-show clients affect many industries (think services like health care/ dentistry, beauty, restaurants etc.). Reasons range from the most benign (forgetting) to the most serious emergency and everything in between.
In coaching (or therapy for that matter), one tends to attach more meaning to the no-show client. Talk to any coach or therapist and he will tell you that clients who are up against something big/ on the verge of a breakthrough will often “forget” to show up for their appointment or will find themselves in an “urgent situation” that could not be avoided.
While this stock photo from Fotosearch shows the frustration I sometimes feel, I can assure you I do not do this when I have a client no-show!
I approach missed appointments with curiosity (and do my level best to keep the “ X*&^%!!” to myself!).
Client, where else are you not showing up in your life? What is a metaphor for this missed appointment? What are you avoiding?”
Pain in the ass questions?…perhaps. Important to ask?…definitely. There is juice here. And sometimes the missed appointment really is just that. A miss. The client’s daughter had an ear infection and her routine got thrown off because of it. End of story.
Of course, it’s not the end of the story for the business owner. For a massage therapist, one no-show per week is equal to thousands of dollars of lost revenue annually, not to mention the resulting unpaid time in follow up (i.e. contacting the client, rebooking, collecting a cancellation fee).
Per Se, a New York restaurant, supposedly charges $175 per seat for reservation no shows who do not cancel three days before. The most sought after restaurants can do this while less in demand locals will alienate their client base. In fairness, restaurants purchase food supplies to match the volume of meals they will serve and a few empty seats can be the different between surviving and profitability.
In the twists and turns of life and business, there will always be no-shows. Here are some ways to reduce the number of them in your business:
Have a missed appointment policy and stick to it- it is great to have a flexible backbone but don’t be a jelly fish;
Clearly communicate your missed appointment/ reservation policy at the beginning of the client/ customer relationship and at every relevant opportunity;
Handle each missed appointment promptly by dealing directly with the client- a stitch in time saves nine;
Keep track-missing one appointment is human. Two is a trend. After two missed appointments, well known money coach Morgana Rae says “You’re Fired!”
You are in business to serve and to prosper. Respect yourself and your business and your clients will follow suit.
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.
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!
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My business partner (and dear friend) 
Kim Fuller is the mother of three. Her oldest is a corporate communications company called 
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 
