Escape from Cubicle Nation

Bounce back from failure

Who doesn't love the film Rocky or hearing about how J.K. Rowling lived near destitute while her Harry Potter manuscript got rejected by scores of publishers right before hitting it richer than the Queen of England?

A lot of our view of failure in popular American culture is romanticized.  The fact is, while you are failing, it feels really awful and does not become the enlightened lesson that you share until you have ten years perspective between you and the excruciating experience.

Author and speaker Barry Moltz addresses this topic in his most recent book called Bounce:  Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success.

I interviewed him for a podcast where he shares a lot of great insight into things like:

• How to view failure not as a deep lesson from above, but as an integral part of starting a business
• How to not stay stuck in emotional wallowing right after blowing it big
• How to make sure you are connected with why you are trying new things that sometimes lead to failure
• How to bounce quickly from failures so that you maintain positive forward momentum and are able to accomplish your goals

In the podcast, I referenced the tremendous new e-book by my friend Jonathan Fields called The Firefly Manifesto.  This gives some great insight and tools for those of you who may have just been laid off, or who are working in unstable industries (which would be just about everyone these days!). 

Take a listen to this 30-minute interview here and let me know your thoughts on failure!

How to strike a balance between giving content away for free and earning a living

I am the first person to tell you that blogging and podcasting can completely change your business.  It has done gigantic wonders for mine:  brought clients, partners, a book deal, friends, press coverage and intense joy since I love to write so much.

This is not to say that it is not hard sometimes to balance "giving information away for free," like writing long blog posts or producing podcasts or twittering or writing ezines, with "real money making activities" like coaching or teaching or writing for pay.

So here is a simple structure to help you balance your "be a mensch and help people" instinct with "pay your mortgage and car note" instinct.

Start with "The Thing"

When you talk about writing content for business purposes, you need to have a focus.  I find the best possible place to look for this focus is right in the center of your gut, for the kinds of things that you find totally compelling, fascinating, important, infuriating or exciting.

Your "Thing" may be:

• Teaching personal finance skills to college students and recent college grads or
• Improving the grammar skills of average writers or
• Helping software engineers launch small businesses or
• Distributing free paper toys to encourage parents and kids to spend time making things together or
• Helping Baby Boomers use social media networking tools to ensure they stay employable

The key here is that you must find something that you care enough about to devote a substantial amount of time thinking and writing about it, and you must have a hunch that there are real, live humans somewhere on the planet who have enough dollars or euros or rupees or pesos to pay for it.

This is where some people can get tripped up, when their "Thing" has no real chance at "monetizing" which is the hip word both marketers and parents like to say when they really mean "Nice hobby, slacker. When are you going to get a real job?"

Define "The People"

Finding your area of passion and interest in is a huge step.  But it will be irrelevant unless you can define the specific characteristics of the people you want to talk with about The Thing. There are a million ways to describe your people:

• Demographics:  Age, race, geography
• Common Interests:  Religion, Politics, Red Bull, Social Media
• Professions or Education:  Engineers, Stanford grads, Life coaches
• Psychographics:  glass half-full, optimistic, heretics, humorists
• Life Situation: Empty nesters, parents of ADD children, single moms, recent college grads
• Hobbies:  Jets fans, knitters, martial artists

When you create a really clear picture of the kinds of people that you would love to work with, it makes it much easier to decide what kind of content to develop for them.

For example, if you were a career counselor, wouldn't it be easier to reach 25-30 year old finance majors who graduated Summa Cum Laude from a top 10 school who live in the greater New York area, rather than "Generation Y?" 

Many people wiggle when asked to choose a particular group of people to work with since it feels restrictive.  My thought is if you don't stand for something, you will go for anything.  Consequently you will grab no one and earn nothing.

If you gain traction with one group, you can always expand to a broader audience.  The opposite is much more difficult.

 

Define "The Content"

Once you know The Thing to talk about and The People to talk about it with, now comes the fun part:  Deciding what to talk about.

In my own experience, this is not something that needs a whole lot of guidelines or planning.  When you care about what you are talking about and enjoy the people you are talking with, ideas flow, many times more than you can actually capture in a blog post or ezine article or podcast.

If you do get stuck, I always lean more towards the needs of The People vs. my passion for The Thing.  What do they care about?  What do they want to know?   I use the following content guidelines for people who read this blog (that's YOU!):

• What problems do they face?
• What really scares them?
• What is not being said on this subject on other news sources or blogs?
• What can I share that will make their life easier?
• How can I make them feel more supported and confident?
• Who can I put them in contact with (via links or references) that will give them good information and advice?
• What will be fun and interesting to write about?

While we are talking about written and recorded content here, realize that this information is the source of every product or service in your business.  You should never spend lots of time developing content that is not directly related to work you want to do with The People.  Good content can be re-purposed, repackaged, enhanced, digitized and/or turned into a book or workshop or presentation.  When you share great information freely with the right people, it becomes your research, marketing copy, sales collateral and branding material.

When people complain about how long it takes to write a blog post or record a podcast, I always ask them where else they would rather spend their time.  Usually it is something very professional sounding, like "generating leads for my business" or "marketing."

To which I usually encourage them to stop writing the time-consuming posts (which demonstrate competence and expertise in their area of specialty) which are sent to annoying people (like those that have been naturally drawn to their content and blog or ezine and have willingly signed up to receive more information) since it is so burdensome (hitting "publish" and instantly reaching thousands of subscribers is so tiring) and focus on something really effective like making cold calls to people on a list you purchased for $5,000 who have never heard of you.

Choose "The Vehicle(s)"

There are a lot of ways you can distribute content freely and effectively these days.  In broad categories, using things like:

• Blogs (these days I am an overwhelming Wordpress admirer even though this blog is currently on Typepad - I will be moving soon)
• Podcasts (you can record using a paid service like Audioacrobat or a free one like Skype, hosted by a whole range of companies, my favorite being Libsyn)
• Video or Vlogs (from the popular YouTube to Viddler, there are many other options which smart, technical people can tell you about)
• Ezines (basically, an electronic newsletter which can be sent to your list anywhere from once a week to once a month. I use AWeber to manage my list)
• Webcasts (using things like UStream, where you can simultaneously share and record video, audio and chat)
• Good old fashioned mail (someone, somewhere, must still appreciate getting a hard copy of news from you).

The way to choose your best vehicle(s) is to think about the consuming habits of your People.  Do they spend a lot of time on the internet?  If so, a blog may be the answer.  Do they own iPods and commute long distances on public transportation?  Podcasts may do the trick.  Are they more old-school email users, who get wigged out with too much technology?  Ezines may be a good solution.  Are they more versed in video than Chris Pirillo?  Do a webcast.

Depending on the needs and interests of your audience, you may choose a variety of these communication vehicles to regularly broadcast your juicy, useful and interesting content.

Position "The Sticky"

Unless you are Kevin Costner, "Build it and they will come" is not necessarily a common occurrence on the internet.  "Build good stuff for the right people and make yourself easy to find" is a bit of a better strategy, but not without a good, well-placed equivalent of fly paper, to forge an ongoing connection with people who stumble upon your site.

You certainly don't want to jump in someone's face like an over-eager door-to-door vacuum salesperson, but at the same time, you want to make it crystal clear how to subscribe to your blog or join your ezine list.  Some nice examples of clearly placed and obvious "sticky spots" include:

• Social media wizard Chris Brogan.  Notice how clearly his subscription button stands out on the right-hand side of the page.
• Finance expert Ramit Sethi, who I talked about earlier, has a super-clear newsletter box right at the top of his blog
• I am going to tease my friend John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing a bit, since I don't think his subscribe button necessarily jumps off his blog page.  But check your eyes when you visit:  he has 225,000 subscribers!  Holy smokes, Batman, something about this is working.

The key is to not make new waves of visitors have to scratch their heads and figure out how to stay connected with you.  Create a clear, compelling sticky part of your website or blog, so that you can start to communicate with Your People on a regular basis.

Once you build a list of subscribers, feed them with good stuff, nurture them, ask their opinions and be of service.  Just don't become the internet version of a jewelry salesperson on the beaches of Acapulco. I totally understand everyone needs to earn a living and rich, fat tourists are good prey.  But it can be exquisitely annoying to be approached every five minutes when you are trying to lay on a beach, get sunburned and read a John Clancy novel. The same is true for your list.  An occasional "would you be interested in this" message is fine, but constant vending will make people either get really rude or run screaming. I only send a maximum of two messages a month to my list, and I still get people unsubscribing due to email fatigue.

Execute The Commerce

If you have set up all of your Thing, People, Content, Vehicle and Sticky elements the right way, your business should flow like a silk nightgown skimming a beautiful woman on a Saturday night.

Hopefully, you haven't hid the fact that you write about web design and usability because you are a web designer.  Or that you write about social media and Hawaii because you are a Hawaiian social media powerhouse. Or that you write about location independent living because you run a guesthouse in Culebra or travel the world teaching people how to live and work anywhere. Or that you write about productivity and organization because you are a productivity consultant. 

Don't be embarrassed to tell people what you sell!  If you have been delivering good content over an extended period of time, most people will be more than happy to support and promote your business as thanks for all the great stuff that you provide for free.

As for those who will call you a sellout the first time you sell an ebook for $5.95 after spending years helping them for free, that is why God created comment moderation and the delete key.  Haters thrive everywhere, and you cannot let their selfishness get you down. You have every right to make a living and should not be ashamed to sell your products or services.

As for a (there isn't any but why not throw out a number anyway) magic formula between sharing content freely and charging for it, I like the percentages Robert Middleton told me many years ago when describing the philosophy he termed being an Infoguru:  Give 80% of your information away for free and change a premium for the remaining 20%.

This seems to have a nice "good karma vs. pragmatism" ratio and will allow you to live with yourself while you make a living.

---

This post developed out of a talk I did at PodcampAZ in November, 2008.  My 22-year old son Jeffery Slim hand-drew the illustrations which I scanned and used as backdrops for the talk.  I think you can see that his "Thing" is hand-drawn art.  Thanks for sharing your work so generously Jeffery!  You can see how the image translated to the screen courtesy of Chris Lee:

Isn't it about time for a little Reality Check?

Seems like just about everyone has an opinion these days about what to do in our current state of dismal affairs.  Buy low, sell high.  Run back to the safety of your job.  Do like The Great Depression and build The Next Great Thing .  Market like hell.  Live on Top Ramen and Dollar Store sodas.

Rather than this fleeting, news-driven advice, I prefer down-to-earth, market-agnostic advice.  Which is the kind of stuff you can find in Guy Kawasaki's new book Reality Check.

Guy has been on my High Council of Jedi Knights for a long time.  And not just because he has been a link sugar daddy (my affectionate nickname), driving good traffic to my blog.  But because I admire his writing, business sense, heart, drive, and willingness to experiment and take criticism.

In this book, he has culled the best posts from his popular blog How to Change the World.  As someone who has just done a blog-to-book project, I know this is not an easy task.

He explains the focus of the book in the jacket cover:

"I wanted to provide hardcore information to hardcore people who want to kick ass, and I wanted it in something you can hold in your hands - a book.  Why?  Because a book boots up faster than a blog and is not dependent on internet connectivity, battery life or the ineptness of HTML printing."

My top ten favorites from the 94 chapters:

1. The 10/20/30 Rule of Pitching (specific, useful advice for constructing a presentation, even if you aren't pitching for money)
2. The Top Eleven Lies of Entrepreneurs (pragmatic advice for not embarrassing yourself in front of investors or partners)
3. The Art of Bootstrapping (how not to kill your credit score and alienate your spouse)
4. The Myths of Innovation (an interview with author Scott Berkun)
5. The Art of Branding (close to my heart - I like Guy's take on it)
6. DIY PR (do it yourself public relations for the acronym-challenged)
7. How to Get a Standing Ovation (presentation advice from one of the business world's best presenters)
8. The Art of Firing (real, human advice for the unpleasant but necessary task of any manager or entrepreneur)
9. The Art of Evangelism (practical advice from someone who has done a lot of thinking and acting on the subject)
10. My Hindsights in Life (original written over a decade ago, with a great new update - gives insight into not just Guy's mind and ethics but heart)

This book really is a great read for not just aspiring entrepreneurs but entrepreneurial employees. Think of it as the much heavier business cousin of "The Elements of Style," a critical resource to have at arm's length to steer you on a good path and keep you out of trouble.

Tomorrow, November 18 at 5pm EST, I will be on a teleseminar discussing the book with Guy, Rich Sloan of StartupNation and Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing:  How Smart Companies Get People Talking.  It should be a fun and useful conversation.

To sign up, go here.  If you can't listen live, sign up anyway and you will get the recording.

If you want me to ask or comment on anything in particular, let me know in the comments here. 

I will be on Twitter during the call -- if you don't follow me already, please do!  www.twitter.com/pamslim

Who says following your dreams shouldn't be hard?

I was on a coaching call with a client.  We were reviewing his target market, business model and strategy.  At about halfway through the call, his voice got choked with emotion.

"I have just put so much effort and energy into this and am not seeing the results I expected.  I know I am meant to do this work.  I love it.  Why does it have to be so hard?"

My first reaction was to comfort him, and to search for a quick solution that would start the flow of clients his way in just the manner he desired.

 

Then I thought, who said anything is wrong with things being hard?

 

I have come to the realization that we cause ourselves a lot of stress by believing that if we just choose the right business, or quit our loathsome job, or find the perfect internet marketing system, or get that book deal that things will become easy.

 

Why is easy desirable?

 

Anything I have done that I consider worthwhile in my life: building a martial arts organization, finding the man I truly love, mentoring youth, writing a book, creating a remote coaching business and having children have all been extremely difficult at times.

 

I think it is the difficulty that makes the success juicy sweet.

 

In technology-fueled modern business, we are addicted to immediate results.  We jump at anything that will take something complex and make it appear simple.  We believe the hype when internet marketers promise instant six figures a year when you sign up for their limited-time 4-figure program (at least you know they will hit six figures this year!).

 

There are some tricks to setting up an efficient business with minimal effort.  And there are some really great people out there who have good information to share that will be worth the investment.

 

But you will only get the return on your investment when you really work the process.   In my own experience, I have invested in classes that had a very poor return not because the information wasn't valuable, but because I didn't take the time to do the homework.  And I have absolutely killed results when I applied myself and took the content in other classes seriously.

 

The process of hard work vs. quick tricks makes me think of my initial reaction to a few stories in Four Hour Workweek.  I really like and admire Tim Ferriss, and think he has fantastic advice in his book.  But as a former serious martial artist, what bothered me about his story of technically winning a martial art championship by interpreting rules instead of studying for years is that I felt he missed the discipline, stamina and growth that comes from doing thousands of push ups and sit ups, training when you would rather stay home on the couch, and getting your face smashed on the floor hundreds of times.  This, in my own experience,  is what deepened my understanding of and love for the art.   

 

I don't think that Tim meant to say that scrapping together a victory on the dance floor or martial art ring was his end game.  He has demonstrated with his incredibly detailed blog posts and rigorous speaking schedule that he believes at working hard at the right things.

 

And the right things are different for each of us.

 

Here is my take on "bad hard" vs. "good hard":

 

Bad hard

• Trying as hard as you can to appear smart, professional and accomplished in a field you secretly loathe
• Trying to force someone to love you, who doesn't
• Spending twelve hours on an administrative task that is complex, boring and not your strength when someone smart could do it in 30 minutes for fifty bucks
• Doing lots of standard processes manually (like sending 6 emails back and forth to set up a meeting instead of using an online scheduling tool)
• Working with people over an extended period of time who are not your ideal clients
• Scattering your efforts over multiple projects so that you don't have the proper time and attention any one of them deserves

Good hard

• Trying as hard as you can to get a business you love off the ground, running into unforeseen snags and getting different results than you expected
• Spending days, weeks and months and sometimes years figuring out your ideal customer and working like a dog to serve them great stuff
  
• Taking on big challenges that push against emotional, mental and physical boundaries
• Sharing your project, or idea or product with people you admire when you don't feel it is quite ready for prime time in order to get feedback that will make it useful and effective
• Meeting unexpected life challenges with both pragmatism and optimism.  As Jim Collins shared so eloquently in Good to Great, illustrating what he calls the Stockdale Paradox: "You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulty, AND at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be."

What I am going to tell my client next time if he says "This is hard!" is "EXCELLENT!  When you are doing the right things, leading your tribe, tackling tough problems and creating truly useful products and services, it shouldn't be easy."

 

But it sure will be good.

 

Update from Pam

Hello everyone!

I know it has been a bit quiet on this front in the last couple of months, so I wanted to give you a quick update about what has been happening, to be followed by much more later!

• First and foremost, I finished the first draft of the book!  It was an amazing, arduous, fantastic, wildly difficult and totally joyful experience.  I don't think I have ever worked so hard on something my whole life.  There were many moments along the way when I truly did not think I could finish it.  But with amazing support from my family, blog readers, Escape from Cubicle Nation Advisory Council, Twitter buddies and my editor, I made it to the finish line.  Thanks to ALL of you for your help, whether or not you realize that you helped.
• My joy at finishing lasted a total of three days, when I heard from my editor that while she appreciated the depth to which I covered the topics, I have to chop a bunch to make it work as a book.  Every author I have spoken to says the same thing:  the editing process is what really shapes a great book, and also drives the writer crazy.  I am so close to my favorite stories and analogies and helpful hints that it will be hard to hack them away.  But hack I will do with gusto, since I know that will make the book easier to read, and ultimately more useful.
• The good thing is that things I hack from the book can be re-purposed as blog posts.  As I was writing, I kept having the desire to share new thoughts and insights with you here on the blog.  But that which is new in the book needs to stay behind the curtain until the book comes out, which is May of 2009.  So this way I get to sneak some content that would have been in the book, which will benefit us all.
• Speaking of blog posts, I can't wait to get back to some juicy content-filled posts that are more than brief updates or book reviews.  The image at the top of this post will be in one of them to come soon, based on a talk I gave at Podcamp AZ, on how to strike a balance between giving away content for free and making a living.  I had a great time with the audience, and can't wait to share my thoughts with you soon.  My son Jeffery drew the images I used in the presentation, and he was excited to get feedback on their impact as well. 
• I have been hopelessly behind on reading a bunch of books that authors have sent hoping for a review.  Hopefully I can chip away this month and next, and share some good resources with you.  First on my list is the very patient Barry Moltz, who wrote a very relevant book for our world economic situation, which is called Bounce:  Failure, Resilency, and the Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success, that helps you understand and thrive in the face of failure.  I am hoping he will join me in a podcast, where we can really get into the fascinating topic.
• I will be digging out from unanswered emails, and hope to get back to people soon!  If you have been waiting to hear from me, thanks so much for your patience.  Just a little bit longer and I will be caught up.
• In preparation for the book launch and also just because it is time, I will be overhauling the design of my blog, integrating it with my website and hopefully making it easier to read, more pleasant to look at, and a more useful repository of good information.  That will be quite an endeavor, but I really look forward to it, as it is time for a fresh look.
• I will be planning activities for next year which will include workshops and talks around the topics covered in the book.  I have had a great time teaching the Finding Your Own North Star workshop this year, and just finished up with two groups.   This experience has led me to want to work more closely with groups, since there is a power in numbers that enhances the normal 1:1 coaching sessions I do with clients.  Stay tuned for more to come, and I will definitely ask all of you for input before rolling anything out.
• I can't wait to spend more time with my family.  The last few months have been grueling, and I have worked all weekend for many weeks in a row.  This simply feels awful since I have small children.  I know from this experience that I do NOT want to create a business model that keeps me away from my kids.  Any one of you with children knows the feeling of looking your 3-year old or baby in the eye and saying "Sorry honey, I can't play, I have to go to work."  The crushing look of disappointment is enough to start the tears flowing.  So no working weekends in 2009, no matter the opportunities!

So that's the roundup!  Thanks again for all your patience and support.  I cannot wait to get back in the flow of doing what I love best:  writing blog posts.  As they say, "you can take the girl out of the blog, but you can't take the blog out of the girl." 

Here is to a great new year ahead!

Now stop reading and GO VOTE!  What a historic day for all of us here in the U.S.

Cheers,

-Pam

Entrepreneurs, who doesn't need an Online Business Manager?

There are a few people who have truly contributed leaps and bounds to my understanding of running a business online.

Tina Forsyth is one of those people.  I met her through my participation in lots of teleseminars about Multiple Streams of Coaching Income, a collaborative venture between Tina and coaching maven Andrea Lee.

Tina helped me decide the logical steps to take to build my virtual coaching practice, combining free information and services with targeted and useful paid services.  It was her brilliant suggestion, for example, to invite new ezine subscribers to attend a once a month free group coaching call instead of taking hours each week to respond to individual questions on email.  I felt like a gigantic yoke of guilt was lifted off my shoulders as I now had a way to meet the needs of new readers without spending hours of time online.  (Gary Vaynerchuk may be the only person on the planet who still answers every single one of his emails.  While I applaud his intentions and enormous heart, I question his sanity, as email can overtake your life, and keep you in an endless state of reactivity.  He will be here in AZ at our entrepreneurship conference this month, I will try to talk sense into him then.  :)

For those of you like me who started this whole virtual service business with zero understanding of lists and shopping carts and affiliate programs and e-products and virtual teleseminars, you will understand when I say it can be wildly confusing, complicated and frustrating.

You, like me, probably hired partners and virtual assistants to take over parts of the "back office," to moderate success.  But I always wished that I could just turn everything over to someone who was hugely capable and not in need of tons of direction to manage it all for me so I could focus on the big picture, where I love to play.  Tina says:

"We are seeing more business owners who are ready to hire at the management level. They already have teams of virtual assistants, webmasters, designers and other contractors, but what they really need is someone to manage all of this; to play a bigger role in their business so that they can grow to the next level. We affectionately coined the term online Business Manager (oBM) back in 2003, for the simple fact that it seemed to describe best what we do for our clients."

Now THAT sounds like exactly what I need.  In Tina's new book Becoming an Online Business Manager, she breaks down the role, responsibilities and advantages of Online Business Managers, geared towards people who might consider the role themselves.

A sample oBM job description from the book reads like this:

The Online Business Manager will:

Have 5+ years experience in one or more of:

• the fields of marketing, ecommerce, programming, coaching, business management, human resources, project management, personal development or other related area of study, or equivalent.
• Work with the very energetic CEO/Owner of the business to create new passive revenue streams, taking them from idea to sale
• Manage administration, logistics, human resources and infrastructure of a growing online business
• Recruit additional team members and train/manage them into their respective functions
• Be familiar with and/or practically experienced in all facets of Internet marketing including:
  • Product planning and research
  • Copywriting
  • Website design and creation
  • Creation of graphics and user interface
  • Product packaging
  • Traffic generation
  • Conversion and
  • The overall strategic marketing plan that creates a cohesive whole out of these elements
• Have experience creating and implementing a business plan in a competitive environment
• Be a relationship builder, client service oriented and a team player
• Understand advertising, affiliate programs and joint ventures; be able to hold and cultivate key relationships
• Diligently maintain and create a standard operating procedure or business training manual for the business
• Be fiscally responsible

I read this description and literally felt my mouth start to water.  If I could find a tried, trusted and true partner with these qualifications, there is nothing I couldn't do in my business.  So why isn't it easy to find these people?  Tina says:

"I believe that there are many professionals out there who have the skills to be working as an oBM; they just haven’t realized that this opportunity exists. having worked virtually for almost a decade now, it’s easy for me to forget that this way of working is still quite new to most people and because of that there is a gap between the business owners who are looking to hire oBMs and the people who could potentially be working for them in his role."

Why is there such an alarming gap?

"For business owners, it is a matter of not knowing who or what they are really looking for. They may have a faint idea they could benefit from hiring someone to help them manage and grow their business online, but they often have no clue what that role looks like. They aren’t clear themselves on what it is they need, which of course makes it quite hard to find someone! Quite often, when we describe the role of an oBM to the business owners we speak to, we hear, “yes! that’s exactly who I need on my team ... now where do I find someone?” and that leads us to the other side of the gap, that there just aren’t a lot of people out there who are actively working as oBMs, consciously or unconsciously. so when these clients start looking to fill that role, they are having a tough time finding the person they need."

I think Tina's new book is going to deliver a tremendous service to both cubicle escapees in need of meaningful work and business owners needing top-notch management.  There is a lot of really practical information which you can use to position your services, or scope out the kind of support you need to take your business to the next level.

You can buy her book here.  You will see my endorsement on the sales page.  I am including an affiliate link because I trust Tina enough to raise my own children, and because I am saving up to hire my Online Business Manager.  :)

Ready to lead your tribe? Join me, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink and Keith Ferrazzi on Monday

Some books just get under your skin.

That is how I feel about Seth Godin's latest book, Tribes.

I have been aware of the book for awhile, when I joined Seth's experimental online community named Triiibes a few months ago.

I had to laugh when I saw the name for the first time, since I was working on a chapter of my book called Recruit Your Tribe.  I assured Seth that I chose that name before knowing about his new book.  Tribe is a big word around my house since I am married to a Navajo man, and through his company we work with other Native American tribes all over the state of Arizona.

The concept of the book is quite straightforward, quoting Seth: 

“It’s simple:  there are tribes everywhere now, inside and outside of organizations, in public and in private, in nonprofits, in classrooms, across the planet.  Every one of these tribes is yearning for leadership and connection.  This is an opportunity for you –an opportunity to find and assemble a tribe and lead it.  The question isn’t, Is it possible for me to do that? Now the question is, “Will I choose to do it?”

I have been haunted by this question on every one of my coaching calls since I read the book.  A lot of times, clients wonder if they have what it takes to implement a business idea. To make money.  To be able to quit their job and take care of themselves without a paycheck.

But shifting the question to "are you ready to lead your tribe?" brings things to a whole new level.  It changes the game.  The results have already been so powerful they give me the chills.

Finding You

I vividly remember when I decided to find my own tribe, you all.  I knew that I didn't want to consult in large companies anymore.  The environments were getting more and more toxic.  I knew that most people were interested in getting out, not learning how to operate more effectively as employees.

I felt that there were people I could help.  But I didn't have any idea how to reach them.  This was before I knew about blogs (really -- before starting my blog three years ago, I didn't know what a blog was and had never read one).

What was I to do, sneak into the cafeterias of former clients and slip their employees fliers?

Thankfully, I started to blog.  And it was like being given a golden key that opened the back door to a vast community of people desperate to know that they weren't crazy for hating their cushy jobs. I found my people and have been laughing and learning with you ever since.  And as I thought about it, I guess I have been leading too, in my own way. 

For all these reasons, I am really excited to talk to Seth live on Monday about his new book.  And joining us will be Dan Pink, bestselling author of A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone.

Elizabeth Marshall, founder of AuthorTeleseminars.com (and recent co-author herself of The Contrarian Effect with Michael Port) will lead the discussion.

To sign up, go here.

I really hope you can join us. I am very excited about the book and the call.  If you can't attend live, sign up anyway and you can listen to the recording at your convenience.

Seeing as this panel will happen three days before I turn in the final copy of my own book (October 30, really, this is it!), I am hoping that sitting on a call with three best-selling authors will zap me with some magic book selling mojo-filled fairy dust. A new tribe, perhaps? :)

 

Phoenix-only request: want a free money makeover from The Arizona Republic?

This just in from a friend at our local paper, the Arizona Republic:

RECEIVE A MONEY MAKEOVER FROM THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

The Arizona Republic has enlisted the help of financial coaches to examine a family's specific financial problem or goal and come up with recommendations.  Readers must be willing to share their story and suggested solutions with the public in the newspaper. Please submit your issue in 400 words or less. Preference will be given to specific over general issues or goals. Send by email to living@arizonarepublic.com. Please include your name and a daytime phone number.

Blog Action Day Today - It doesn't have to be about money

I did not want the importance of Blog Action Day to slip by even though I am up to my eyeballs in final edits on the book.

For those of you who haven't heard:

On October 15th bloggers everywhere will publish posts that discuss poverty in some way in support of Blog Action Day. By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause.

It isn't about the money

I feel wildly, completely and passionately committed to helping youth fight poverty.

From the age of 20-30, I was a martial arts maniac, training and teaching the Afro-Brazilian style of Capoeira.  I co-founded a program called the Community Action Project (CAP), where we offered free classes to local youth that lived in poverty, rough neighborhoods, and with difficult home lives.  We started with just one youngster, Jimmy Jarquin, a shy, chubby 14-year old immigrant from Nicaragua who fled the war with his Mom and settled in the Mission district of San Francisco.

Jimmy brought his cousin, then another kid joined.  Soon, a small group of youth were training hard. The program grew by word of mouth.  The kids were passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic.  We grew to 250 students in San Francisco, Daly City, Oakland and Hayward.

I taught the martial art classes along with co-founder Master Preguica, but also spent a lot of time in conversation with the kids.  We talked about family struggles.  Drugs.  Homework.  Girls.  College. The regular kinds of challenges faced by teenagers in an urban setting.  I wiped tears.  Gave hugs.  Proofed papers.  Gave unwanted dating advice, just as any good Mom or Auntie would do.

And the kids responded.  Compared to an average 50% high school graduation rate for their neighborhoods, we had a 98% rate.  Many went to college.  Most steered clear of drugs, gangs and alcohol, huge magnets in their environments.  Many opened capoeira schools themselves, teaching kids in their local communities.

Without the support of programs like ours, there is no question in my mind that many of the kids would have been dead or in jail.  Many were already in gangs when they came to us, and got out.  They had brothers, fathers, mothers and sisters dealing drugs and in jail.  There wasn't a lot of hope.

The secret ingredient was not money but love.  Good, old fashioned caring and concern.  These kids that looked tough and menacing on the outside were desperate for a bit of parental love.  It was like magic.

So instead of worrying about donating money when times are tough, why don't you do this instead:

• Find the local Boys and Girls Club in your area and volunteer.  I don't care what you do, your presence, positive attitude and encouragement will help some young people.
• Connect with a young person in your own family.  You don't necessarily have to work with an organization to make a difference.  You could make a big impact on a niece, nephew or grandchild that wants the support and love from a trusted family member.
• When you see a young person on the street, no matter how different they may look from you, smile at them.  They need to feel that adults are encouraging. Don't be afraid of them -- they are all our children!
• If you have the time, teach a class.  My dear friend Carlos Aceituno was a shining example of a great teacher and father/uncle figure. It doesn't matter what your area of expertise is -- accounting, computer programming, music, dance, your skills will be appreciated.
• Support your local youth arts and community programs!  Fight to preserve programs that serve youth.  Nothing makes me more angry than talking about young people in urban America as a scourge, a "problem" that has to be dealt with.  Punishing and locking up youngsters will not help.  The love and support of positive adults will not only keep them out of trouble, it will totally alter the course of their lives.  If I had to bet on the outcome of juvenile hall (aka prison training ground) vs. structured, active youth programs to change lives, I will bet on the programs EVERY time.

Jimmy turned into a world-class athlete, and now teaches youth in his own community.  That is him in the center of the photo in the top row, flexing his muscles and showing off his hard-earned 6-pack abs. I am so proud of him I could burst.

A few posts I have written in the past referencing my precious kids from CAP:

Graffiti is a transferable skill and other business wisdom I learned while volunteering
Get out of your mental ghetto
Speaking marketing nonsense?  Get a gang member coach

Youth is my passion, but you can still blog about whatever cause gets your heart racing. Check out the Blog Action Day Get Involved page.

---
Emily (my editor) if you are reading this, sorry I stopped writing the book for 20 minutes!  I couldn't help myself. :)

Stop searching for the perfect job and start finding your life's work

Many of us have talked at length about the pursuit of a meaningful, rewarding career. We have lived through tyrannical bosses, mergers and acquisitions, exhausting work and travel schedules and various states of financial panic. We saw the job market explode and shrivel before we knew what to do about it, and comforted far too many friends and former colleagues who spent huge stretches of time out of work. Some of us were those people and wondered if we were destined to become the modern equivalent of dust-bowl farmers.

 

Just about every single client I have ever worked with has started their career quest by wondering what job would be of interest. The problem is, when you focus first on the perfect job, you automatically narrow your opportunities to jobs you are familiar with.

 

Jobs are temporary things, often enticing on paper until you realize that as soon as you get comfortable in your position, it will change, your boss will change, your team will change or your organization will change. That is just the nature of business. Therefore if you go into a job excited by the position or the person you will be working for and not the work itself, you often set yourself up to be disappointed.

 

Your life's work on the other hand, are activities that you have natural talent for, which energize you and stimulate you and do not change no matter what "job" you happen to be in. I found this for myself when I began to think about my own life's work. I reflected back on all the things I have done in my career and I came to the realization that the core of my life's work is about transformation:

• As a young community development college student, I was passionate about the capability of communities to transform themselves from repressed and poor into empowered and economically viable with grassroots leadership.
• As a martial art teacher, I continually was awed by students' complete physical transformations from being disconnected from their bodies to developing lean, mean fighting machine physiques and strong, empowered minds.
  
• As an organizational consultant, I love watching leaders, teams and organizations transform from bitter, blocked, political and unfocused operations to smoothly running places where people want to work.
  
• As a personal coach, I am amazed to watch individuals completely transform their thinking about what their life could be.
  
• As an addict of home improvement shows such as Trading Spaces and Clean Sweep, I get more excited than I should about watching a shabby 1970's family room turn into a place of peace and beauty, all on $1,000 budget.
  

By realizing that I thrive on transformation, I can be in many different and difficult "job" situations (even while self-employed) and still feel excited and motivated to be learning something that contributes to my life's work.

 

How do you begin to understand what your life's work is?

1. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle (you may end up needing a couple of sheets of paper).
   
   
2. In the left-hand column, list the jobs you have held over your working life. In the right-hand column, take one job at a time and answer the question:
   
   When I really enjoyed this job, what was I doing?
   
   
3. List all these activities in the right-hand column. When you have finished with your first job, go through each job on the list and continue to add activities on the right-hand column.
   
   
4. Next, in the left-hand column, list all the volunteer activities or hobbies that you have been involved with over the years. In the right-hand column, answer the same question:
   
   When I am really enjoying this volunteer work or hobby, what am I doing?
   
   
5. Once you have completed your list, look at all the items in the right-hand column and try to see patterns. You can group your thoughts in categories if it is more helpful.
   

How can focusing on your life's work help to find more meaningful jobs or a new business?

 

When we look for career direction with a "job" focus, it is very easy to see things in a linear fashion. How could you possibly go from a trainer to a restaurant owner?

 

When you look at things in terms of your life's work, the transition can be very clear: For example, as a trainer, what kind of work did I enjoy?

• Working with all kinds of groups of people to figure out what they were interested in
  
• Creating comfortable, interesting environments
  
• Creating colorful, creative displays and presentations that contributed to a comfortable environment
  
• Carefully planning and defining learning objectives and creating a clear path to get there
  
• Ordering interesting food for my classes
  
• Getting teams motivated and aligned around a single goal
  
• Individual interactions and conversations
  
• Trouble-shooting and solving crises in the moment
  
• Developing a proposal and delivering on-time and on-budget
  

All of this experience can be very helpful in opening a restaurant. Clearly there are some skills or experience that you don't have, but often it will be less daunting than if you view it as a "total career change." When you look at your life's work, many possibilities begin to appear. By looking at your total life work experience, you will feel confident and prepared to make significant career changes.

 

---
(Photo credit, my son Jeffery. Gratuitous picture, vaguely linked to topic -- you can have your grapes and eat them too! It is my baby Angela's first birthday today, so I had to post her sweet face.  Happy Birthday Sweet Pea, thanks for the joy you bring to me every day!)