Category: Entrepreneur Advice

Looking Past the Transaction

Rare is the organization that can look past the transaction.  Often, they're so fixiated on sales and sales forecasts.  The better idea here is found in the faith-based (not speaking about religion) approach to selling and relationship-building.  The belief in your product or service in such a way as to having faith that it will solve a problem or create a desired breakthrough.

This is tough work and it requires a steadfast reliance on the mission.  A career, a transaction-based business model or protecting market share will never do.

So the next time you look at that client or prospective client, do you see a transaction that benefits your business model?  I hope not.  You should see someone who has a problem you can solve and a relationship to be built.  There's no substitute for the latter.

We Need the Real Problem Solvers

The need for solving problems seems so obvious in our current environment.  But I'm amazed how far away that concept is for many.  Whether it's the job hunter or the board member of a non-profit, it seems like the idea of solving problems is rather foreign.  Now, I know we talk a lot about solving problems, but I'm referring to the talking and the doing.  I know this is hard to do in my country.  We've gotten a little soft on real problem solving.  Many are still operating as if we were still in the industrial age.

There needs to be a changing of the lens we use.  So put on a different pair of glasses and build the habit of being a problem solver.  You'll be glad you did, and so will the people and organizations waiting for your solutions.

The Loss and the Gain

As painful as it may sound, and potentially feel, being in a position where you have nothing to lose is a pretty inspired place to be.  I'll give you one caveat with that; it is a relative exercise.  In other words, your place of nothing to lose could look different than mine.

The following is a clip from Inc  They did a fabulous job featuring Ryan Blair, the author or Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain.  He has a perspective that I "get."  Take the time to watch and see if he doesn't make you think through your own perspective on how you view losses and gains.


 

My big take-away from Ryan's talk is you don't want to be in the middle.  It's a vulnerable place to be.  If you're not careful you'll wake up and find you're a slave to multiple things (job, money, power, etc.).  And remember, there are people who don't make a lot of money, don't have prestigious titles, don't get promoted, who are very wealthy.

Manage your life well!

 

Would You Be Willing?

Some key thoughts on well-being and the choices that connect:

Would you be willing to let work play a smaller role in your actions and thinking, if it meant you could devote more of you to your family?

Would you be willing to make less money, if it meant you would be better able to manage the stresses of life?

Would you be willing to spend less time on watching and following sports, if it meant you could use that time to volunteer in your community?

Would you be willing to change your diet, if it meant you could add 5 years to your life expectancy?

Would you be willing to take a class on communication, if it meant you would have a better relationship with your spouse or partner?

It comes down to your choices.  Your life will, and does, reflect that.

When Authentic Was Authentic

Masks 

I shouln't be surprised that we've come to the point where a segment of the marketing universe is coaching "authentic."  Yes, authenticity is now being taught.  I guess it's a new business opportunity to reform the fake.  Judging by this piece from the New York Times, many are jumping on the bandwagon.  But in your gut, you're probably not surprised.

If you're someone who is learning how to express yourself in a way that fits who you are or you are someone who's going through the process of reinvention due to job loss, then I get what you're doing and this post is not meant to rub you the wrong way.

The idea of advisment around authenticity comes from a motivation to build trust.  A trust to buy.  What many businesses forget is people don't trust because those same businesses would rather make a sale than make a long-term relationship.  In a long-term relationship there is a blend of give and take, good and bad, yes and no, you get my point.  From what I see most don't have the desire or stamina to deal with that.  Ironically, I don't know many people who want a one-sided (always in the favor of the business/provider) engagement as a customer or a human being.

What are we doing?  I mean really, is authenticity something that we need to coach?  If it is, then here's my authentic recipe/contribution to those who Really want to be more authentic:

  • Find out why you're here (Planet Earth). 
  • Define what you value most and give unwavering allegiance to those things.
  • Manage happiness and performance on a daily basis.  It's worth your time.
  • Consistently seek to get better through planning and goal setting.
  • Tell other people what you've found and are doing.

That should about cover it.

 

 

Human Beings Being Human

To understand the human psyche is a gift.  To understand it because you've lived it is matchless.

Why do people continue a pattern that they know in the end will lead to undoing?  Fear and a warped view of the world in which they live, I would say, are at the top of the list.  To face these two demons is very daunting for most.

If you're in the world of growing something, if you have a calling, if you are moved to make change, then you need to realize that often the choices people make are based on human beings being human.

Trust Built on Pain

Have you used your experiences with pain (heartache, disappointment, failure) to build trust with your followers?  Do they know where you've hurt?

As crazy as it may seem, it's our experiences with pain that build trust.

It's the "I don't have to look over my shoulder" variety.  So many people/clients/organizations are searching for this even if they don't know it.

Show them the way.

The Idea and Reality of Self-Employment

Dollar 

I never became self-employed because of some ache to be my own boss or the next producer of a killer app.  Far from it, I had a mission and corporate America had no interest or desire to fund it.

Most people I know who are great at entrepreneur pursuits have a mission.  I mean they have this burning in them that won't go away.  Even after trying to kill it, they continue onto the unknown, scary and sometimes insane world that is the mission.

So in the end self-employment is merely a vehicle.

This past week two big things came down the pike for me.  First, Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple and Andy Frank thanked me for some unintentional advice.  Andy's thank you was the bigger of the two.  Andy is working on his "thing" and was lamenting the process of incorporating.  I told him that only a mission could make it worth the price paid.  It was like holding up a mirror to my own face.  A gut check with gusto.

I am on a mission.

For clarity, let me explain my thoughts on the difference between the idea and the reality of self-employment:

  1. Everyone's self-employed.  The gal working at the bank, the guy serving the latte and the partners waiting for their first round of funding.  If you haven't noticed we live in a self-directed world. It's scary ironic that more don't get this.
  2. What you do for money can and will vary.  The world of going to one place and doing one job are gone.  It's our freaking obsession with comfort that has us unwilling to give up that life.  Our work and life will morph and contract in different ways.  This is especially true in an ever-changing global economy.
  3. Infatuation with output is killing us.  We see the car, the press release on the millions in funding and we want it!  Funny how we choose to ignore the near-collapse experiences of most entrepreneurs.  Quite frankly, I don't think I could trust someone who hasn't lost big.  Losing big is, or should be, a refining fire.
  4. Self-employment should produce humility.  That's all that needs to be said.
  5. Our (America) economic woes would be lessened, if not cured, by putting more emphasis on helping entrepreneurs versus the bloated manipulators.  Ever notice how many of the big boys manipulate things like lay-offs, write-offs and revenue to produce a shiny result for a group of people they hate.  That's not growth, that's Vegas. 

 

Life Currency

In my post last week on the new net-worth, I challenged you to look at net-worth in a different way.  I even went as far as to say your life depends on it (in so many ways).

An important thing to keep in-mind is the currency each of us is given in the following 8 areas.  Call it life currency:

Wheel of Life 
The currency is with you all of the time, if you haven't declared bankruptcy in any of the areas yet.  The irony is you can invest this currency in any way you like.  You can be foolish or wise, greedy or giving the choice is yours.

So what if you you awoke tomorrow and no one was interested in your career currency or your money currency?  How would your fair?  Could you find any currency in your family account or your physical account?

My words could fly in the face of what you hold dear (like your career or social).  And in many facets, you won't get any encouragement from your investment house (as in the money variety) or family.  You might get objections like "what about your retirement" or "how are you going to support your wife and kids?"  Hopefully, you noticed that I've never advocated you ignore those.  I am asking you to do just the opposite.  

Pay close attention to each of the 8 areas. 

The idea here is to adopt integration-every day.  Starting small and moving to the big and great.

 

 

Does the World Need Another Social Network?

Ok, I've taken the dive with Google +. There are many out there who are wondering if we need another social network.  I asked myself the same question this afternoon and came to the following conclusions:

  1. We do need more social networks.  That doesn't necessarily many another Facebook or Twitter.  Maybe it's in your community where you live or a cause you're passionate about.  It's right as breathing.
  2. If you're taking the bumble bee approach to social networking (online or otherwise), then you need to reexamine your motivations.  Take a hard look at who you are or who you were before you drank the kool-aid, and then order your social networks around that.  You've got to do this.
  3. Google + is rightly placed.  Google has such a huge influence around the ordering of content and flow, that for them not to be involved would be silly.  I'm not gushing over with Google fan-love when I write this.  Google is like Churchill or Edition; what they created and impacted was bigger than who they were as influencers.
  4. All of this flurry on social netowrks and the experiements, ventures and such created have produced good strategy and tactics for me.  Lord knows, you need good strategy and tactics for your brand (personal or business) these days.  I'd be overwhelmed if I didn't.  For example, I know why I interact on Brazen Careerist versus why I interact on LinkedIn.  By the way, strategy and tactics will also lead you to learning the art of saying no and turning off things that have a button.
  5. If we were living in the industrial age, then Google +, Facebook and Twitter would be nothing more than eye candy and entertainment.  Since we are no longer in the industrial age, you should start acting differently.  Differently in that you think like an entrepreneur, even if you're far from it in form.  If you don't start acting differently, you may wake up and find yourself in a ghost town of one.