Escape from Cubicle Nation

Resource if you want to write a book to help move your business forward

I am happy to support my good friend Sophfronia Scott today, in the launch of her book Doing Business by the Book.  Sophfronia really helped me to organize my thoughts as I was writing my book.  She is an extremely smart (Harvard grad!) down-to-earth person (you can trust her), and has spent a lot of years helping aspiring writers become published writers.

Check out her launch page here -- you can get a bunch of free stuff in addition to the book.

Congratulations on making it happen Sophfronia, I KNOW how much work it is to finish a book!

Take back the economy

The few of you who have known me since my early twenties know that I have a bit of a rebel spirit.

At nineteen, I had plans to change the world, redistribute wealth and solve poverty.  You know, typical youthful enthusiasm.

Then, after spending a few years studying and living in South America, I saw that some problems were deep and systemic.  Entrenched.  Long-term.  Hard to solve.

So I got a bit discouraged.

Until I found a way to marry my intense desire to solve social problems with a small group of people who needed help.  In the form of young teenagers in San Francisco who were desperate for a bit of mentoring and love from a stable adult.  I taught martial arts to these youth, and saw amazing, awe-inspiring things.  Deep, systemic changes that altered the entire course of their lives.  And the lives of those around them.

Then I realized that massive change happens one person at a time.

That is how we will all move out of our current, collective economic rut.

So I am excited, no, really thrilled, to participate in Make a Referral Week:  A Small Business Stimulus Program sponsored by my friend John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.

During the week of March 9-13, we will do everything in our power to get everyone referring leads to small businesses.  A whole bunch of small business experts, including me, will share ideas, tools, information and resources to get you started.  Look at the educational events happening during the week here.

You may think I am being a bit melodramatic about how important this is.  I am actually dead serious.

Your referral might hit someone's business right when they are considering shutting their doors.  They may be behind on their mortgage.  They may stay up nights worrying about paying the bills.  This impacts personal health, families, relationships and communities.  We all get scared, and collectively panic.

We have to stop. 

Deep, systemic change will start with us, one referral at a time.

Here is how to participate:

• Sign up at the Make a Referral Pledge Page
• Spend the week referring the heck out of trusted friends/partners/colleagues
• Watch the magic happen
• Never stop
• See the economy, like a Phoenix, rise from the ashes, one empowered businessperson at a time

How to become a masterful presenter with Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me

I spent many years speaking to groups across the country, and even teaching presentation skills to hundreds of salespeople and engineers.

It was always fascinating to me since it combined so many favorite subjects:  motivation, communication, fear, physical movement, design and creativity.

In today's podcast with Nick Morgan, I took my learning to a whole new level.  His new book, Trust Me:  Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma integrates a lot of new research about the brain to help speakers become truly masterful.  We talk about:

1. Why you do need to practice to appear spontaneous
2. How your brain drives your body language which can make you lose credibility (or gain it) before you even open your mouth
3. The specific steps to build great trust and credibility with your audience
4. Why the "Tell em what you are going to tell em, tell em, tell em what you told em" presentation structure that has been the standard for years is totally wrong.  (I gulped a bit on that one, since I used to teach this)
5. How to structure the content of your presentation for maximum impact
6. Where to start if you are considering professional speaking as part of your business model or marketing strategy

Listen to or download the conversation here. 

Do you have a safety net?

In today's economic climate, I am not surprised that there is HUGE interest in figuring out how to set up a backup plan or safety net in case your job or business goes away.

At the same time, I find that clients, blog readers, and the working population in general is not quite sure how to go about doing it, despite a lot of information available.  As someone recently told me, that could be part of the problem -- there are so many options, it may be overwhelming.

I really want to spend some time working on this problem, so would appreciate it very much if you would answer one question here: Click Here to take survey

Thanks in advance for your help -- I will share the results with you in a few days.

Free Entrepreneur Strategy Roundtables with Sramana Mitra

I have recently started to read blogger and Forbes columnist Sramana Mitra.  She has a really fascinating perspective as the founder of three start-up companies, and adviser to hundreds of others. 

She wrote the book Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 1 (I guess that means there will be more volumes coming!) which I haven't seen yet, but look forward to reading.

In the next few weeks, she is offering some free strategy sessions which I encourage any of you in the high-tech start-up arena to attend.

Background and Registration Information

Early stage entrepreneurs generally cannot afford a top strategy consultant to help solve problems on product strategy, channel options, positioning, financing, etc.  So, as part of her effort to rejuvenate the economy through promoting entrepreneurship, serial entrepreneur and strategy consultant Sramana Mitra will be hosting some free online Strategy Roundtables with Dimdim--the open source web conferencing platform.  If you think some of your readers might be interested, please let them know about these events on:

 

Wed., Feb. 18, 11:30am-12:30pm PST

Wed., Mar. 11, 9-10am PST

Wed., Mar. 25, 10-11am PST 

 

During each 60-minute session, entrepreneurs are invited to pitch Sramana their ideas in a 3-minute presentation.  She will review the material in real-time and provide feedback on each pitch, as well as address specific strategy questions from the entrepreneur.  Afterwards, she will take questions about strategy from other participants.  The session is open to 1,000 people, but only the first five to sign up for each session will have the opportunity to pitch Sramana and discuss their business.  The rest of the attendees can listen, and learn from the interaction.  More often than not, the same questions are on many minds, so listening to the roundtable discussions is always a good learning experience.  For more information and to register, click here.

 

Great new entrepreneur question needing your advice: challenge with spouse

I am getting excited about the "open source career coaching" possibilities, as my friend John Fritz recently called the "Jon the ballplayer" series.

So here is a juicy one for your input.  I am withholding my opinion on this first (for you Tom ;) but will share my view once I read yours.

Says Gentle Reader "Dave":

I imagine I'm not the only one in this situation.

1. I want to be an independent coach and also run my own projects.
2. I already have a couple of clients and several more leads and would like to quit my day job now to make room for growing that business.
3. My wife is going to try to change employers (she is a teacher) and the prospect of neither of us being in a stable job is too much, so she wants me to keep the day job.

So there's the tension. I want to quit now. She is afraid that that would be too much stress and instability.

We have enough money to easily cover a year's worth of expenses, I've proven the ability to get clients, and my day job (where I work with my uncle) is about to shift me into a new role which would be a real problem if I abandoned it shortly thereafter.

I feel confident that it would be best to make the move sooner rather than later, but my wife sees that as inconsistent with supporting her and mitigating the risk of her job search which she rightly feels that I owe her at this point.

I have failed at an attempt like this in the past which led to her supporting us for several months. We both agree that this is different, however, and that what I have learned has changed things. We are 24 and 25 years old.

I would be interested in your thoughts on the situation if it wouldn't be too much trouble. Thank you for your time.

After I asked if I could post his question, he clarified here:

I want to make sure my wife's concerns are represented fairly, and of course, my email slants toward my side a bit. So, forgive me for adding to the length here, but I want to be considerate of her viewpoint.

She is supportive and cautiously optimistic about my new venture, but she feels like as though I ought to be willing to support her as she did for me during the previous attempt. I am willing--I see that as entirely consistent with my desire to do my own thing, supporting her that way.

She's big on the idea of at least one of us having a "steady job," and she also wonders what other people will think if I go trying to be independent again despite the previous failure.

You don't necessarily need to include all of this, of course, but for us to get the most value out of the exercise, I want to make sure I'm presenting as close to the full picture as possible.

Stuck? You may need somebody to stand by you

A friend mentioned today that we are in another age of "creative destruction."

 

In other words, everything we got comfortable with is being blown to bits. Consider these statements which may have seemed very reasonable a short while ago:

• Jobs are stable
• Big banks don't fail
• My retirement accounts are safe
• My home will maintain or increase its value
• My parents are taken care of
• My business will continue to grow
• Ed McMahon is relaxing at home after a long career

And, for some:

• I have a job

I have been chipping away at the "jobs are stable" myth for quite awhile now.  And suddenly, I don't feel like a heretic, since reality is proving this to be the case.  We are all self-employed, no matter our employment status, and the sooner we realize this, the better off we will be.

 

But despite knowing that there is some real good that can come from our individual and collective discomfort, while you are going through it, it can feel pretty lonely.

 

This is what I picked up on when I received the first email from Jon, the 23 year-old employee who had the opportunity to quit his job and go play ball in Germany.  He was concerned if he was making the right move, he didn't want to disappoint his parents, and he didn't want to do anything foolish that would jeopardize everything he had built in his life so far.

 

The outpouring of advice and support for him was really remarkable.  And perhaps more profound, in my opinion, was that it also impacted his parents.  When they realized that they were not alone in providing career advice to their son, and when they saw that dozens of people all over the world were concerned for his happiness and success, they let go of some of their fear.

 

Jon set a wonderful example of reaching out for support in a time of uncertainty.   

 

Intellectually, especially if you have lived on the earth for a few decades, you know that any challenge or difficulty or discomfort usually brings positive learning and growth. You may have your own dog-eared copy of my favorite book The Prophet by Khalil Gibran:

On Pain

 

And a woman spoke, saying "Tell us of Pain."
And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief..."

The key to making it through the awful, scary parts of life is to get someone to stand by you.

The process is not complicated:

• If you feel the weight of a challenge (financial, personal, health-related), find someone safe and confide in him (or her).  Let him know what is going on, and share any fears or anxieties that you have boxed inside. Hearing yourself talk about your challenge can give you a different perspective. And receiving sympathy and support from someone you trust will go a long way to lesson the anxiety you may be feeling.  If you stay stuck in your own head, the tendency is to completely lose reason and perspective. 
• Look to others who have gone through similar situations and come out thriving. It seems the media is on a bit of a shark feeding frenzy of bad news lately.  There is a huge blast of "look how many poor schmucks got laid off today!" on every media platform.  And this can make all of us feel on edge.  To combat this, limit your news, and follow stories and individuals who have lived through really difficult economic and personal challenges and came out swinging.  Yes, times are kind of rough at the moment.  But it doesn't mean we need to curl up in a ball and act defeated.
• Stand by someone else.  When I have my down moments, one thing that always makes me feel better is to do something that will help someone else.  Often, this is writing a blog post that addresses a common concern. Sometimes it is connecting two people who I know will benefit from each others expertise or service.  Sometimes it is just taking an extra moment to really listen to someone who is in my life, like my son's preschool teacher, or the pharmacist at my local grocery store.  By doing so, I have learned that my pharmacist is a poet, and my son's preschool teacher wants to write a book.
• Don't try to do everything yourself.  Do you have great ideas, but are a bit challenged getting them off the ground?  Now is an excellent time to look in your extended circle for joint venture partners.  I am working with my good buddy and fellow business coach Michele Woodward on a marketing program for our tribe of Martha Beck coaches.  I have forgotten how fun it is to work with someone else, especially someone like Michele who is open, fun and creative.  By working together, we are delivering a better program, more quickly, than if either of us had done it ourselves.
• Get connected with those outside of your day-to-day circle.  I realize that not everyone is a social media weenie like me, but if you are open to new things, experiment with online communities like Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. It may make you feel much more optimistic about employment and work opportunities if you realize that you don't have to meet with employers or clients in person to make a good living.  I will probably never meet most of my clients face to face, but through the wonder of technology, we find each other to our mutual benefit.

I received this video clip from my friend Rafe Eric Biggs. We met about ten years ago, when we were both leadership coaches in the Bay Area.  He was the picture of perfect health.  And then:

In 2004 I had a life altering experience. While traveling on spiritual retreat in India, I fell from a building and broke my neck. In an instant, I became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down. In that single moment, my life was transformed from "having it all" (a successful leadership coaching practice, a home in Sausalito, a beautiful girlfriend, and a healthy body) to "losing everything" - or so it seemed. I have spent the last several years learning how to take tragedy and transform it into a positive extraordinary experience.

Your own challenge may not be as life altering as Eric's.  But you can get a feel for his resilience and heart by taking a moment to watch this video clip.

Thanks for standing by me.  I will do the same for you.