Escape from Cubicle Nation

Real life example of "how to kiss corporate life goodbye"

Through the Carnival of Entrepreneurship, I ran across this entertaining post by Chris Pearson called How to:  Kiss Corporate Life Goodbye.  Chris details his experience leaving a corporate job and setting out on his own to design websites for a living. 

He has a nice lead in and tease:

"Does the idea of a corporate gig give you that warm, fuzzy feeling? Is a raise of 6% per year until you retire to a $20 storebought cake and a Rolex your idea of financial well-being? Did you know that health insurance really isn't all that expensive? Hey, college boy, do you run around campus to hit up interviews each spring?

Stop already! There are tons of myths out there that protect the corporate lifestyle, but you need not be fooled. If you want to be continually robbed of your freedoms, be my guest, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. On the other hand, if you want to know how to avoid the corporate rut forever, read on!"

I love it when I hear a story of a real person who made the shift from bitter corporate drone to happy (and in his case golf-playing) entrepreneur.  And at the risk of sounding old, he is just a spring chicken!  Makes me proud and hopeful about the next generation.

More power to you Chris!

Photo by Nara Vieira da Silva Osga

How to get more action at your blog

I was very pleased to read Guy Kawasaki's excellent post The 120 Day Wonder:  How to Evangelize a Blog.  In typical Kawasaki fashion, he outlines 10 concrete, specific steps you can take to get more action, links and buzz going about your blog.

I had lamented in What do the "A List" bloggers have that I don't? that Guy's very first post garnered 21 trackbacks and 32 comments.  Now he shares that he spread the word about his new blog to his mailing list of 10,000.  That sure explains some of the instant action!  Not to mention, of course, that he has a very well-established and respected presence in the entrepreneurial world, as well as a loyal following from his books.

Some of my favorite ideas from his article:

"1. Think “book” not “diary.” First, a bit of philosophy: my suggestion is that you think of your blog as a "product." A good analogy is the difference between a diary and a book. When you write a diary, it contains your spontaneous thoughts and feelings. You have no plans for others to read it. By contrast, if you write a book, from day one you should be thinking about spreading the word about it."

"4. Collect links for blog rolling. This is something I wish I had done on day one, but I was totally ignorant of this linking thing. If I had to do it over again, I would look for all the interesting blogs that cover similar topics to my blog. Then, on day one I would have blog rolled them all and ensured that  Technorati pinged my blog, so that the bloggers  might find out that I existed. I use Blogrolling.com to create my current blog roll."

"6. Supplement other bloggers with a followup entries. Read the blogs of the top fifty or so bloggers (using Technorati's ranking is fine) and see if you have in-depth knowledge about their topics. Then instead of leaving the typical, dumb shiitake comment (“I think you're an orifice who shouldn't make money recommending products that you've invested in.”), craft a real essay that complements the blogger's entry."

"10. Make it easy to join up. A blogger named Steve Nipper showed me the list about this. I had no idea what Feedburner and FeedBlitz did until he  told me about them. The bottom line is that you should enable your readers to get to your blog in multiple ways. It's no different than distributing physical products through multiple channels. "

One of the things I like the best about the blogging world is that many smart, insightful people like Guy are willing to open up and share what they learn about building a business.  I think it demystifies the whole process and makes us little fish gain confidence that we can indeed jump out of the fishbowl and into the big ocean.

Why do some struggle with their life purpose while others seem born knowing it?

I was watching Oprah today (one of the benefits of a flexible work at home schedule!) and was blown away by the profile of a 10-year old boy named Noah McCullough.  According to Oprah's website,

"Noah McCullough has been called a presidential prodigy. Even though he's only in fifth grade, he plans to run for President of the United States in 2032. While most kids are at summer camp, this 11-year-old whiz kid went on a 10-state tour in 2005 to lobby for social security reform. Having read over 250 books about the commanders-in-chief, Noah impresses with his vast knowledge of presidential trivia. He's had the opportunity to challenge some of the biggest names in politics on presidential trivia—and he usually wins!

Noah says his interest in American presidents began during the 2000 presidential election when he was only 5 years old. "There was a mock election in my school and I wanted to learn more and actually vote for the real reasons, like adults do," says Noah."

This kid already is passing out bumper stickers with his name on it for the presidential election in 2032.  What I found totally amazing and fascinating about the profile is that I absolutely believed every word he said and felt his passion was genuine and deep.We have all seen examples of scary Stepford-like children who profess to want to be a math genius/beauty queen/doctor when we really know it is their psychotic parents who are driving them harder than Romanian gymnastics coaches.

Noah is different.  He radiates a beam of focus, intensity and light.  I absolutely believe that he will reach his goal and happily jump into the presidential race of 2032.  (Not a moment too soon to straighten out my Social Security - you got my vote Noah!)

Why is it that some people are born like Noah and have a totally clear picture of what they want to do with their life while others desperately reach for meaning and direction, unsure if they even know what they are passionate about?

In my experience teaching lots of career development classes, I think that the fundamental problem is that we are all wired differently, but society places a higher value on single-career folks.  Some, like my father the photographer,  prefer a single, deep career track that lasts their whole working life.  Others would prefer to try a little bit of Alaskan fishing followed by investment banking topped off with yoga teaching.  Those in the latter group that have "tapestry careers" or "renaissance souls" often feel bad that they "just can't stick with one thing and make it work."  So instead of embracing the great diversity of talents that they have, they beat themselves up for being slackers.

And indeed there are some that try on different careers as you change your underwear, just so they can avoid committing to any one thing and facing the frustration of the learning process.  This is really a different issue than the person with multiple talents/interests that goes deep in each one for a defined period of time, then moves on to the next with equal intensity.

The only advice I give in this area is to relax and embrace whatever work pattern comes naturally to you.  If you have multiple interests and aren't sure which one to pursue as your own business, do some research and choose the one that sounds the most interesting and holds the most potential for success in the marketplace right now.  Then just experiment!  Start small so that if it doesn't work, you won't lose your shirt.

If you are a "renaissance soul," maybe your life's purpose is learning a little about a lot of things so that you can be an excellent teacher or parent or entrepreneur.

If you are a single-minded person like Noah, you might just find yourself president at age 36.

BOTH are valid career paths!

Unhappy with unequal wages? Wear red on Equal Pay Day, Tuesday, April 25

I ranted a few months ago about my displeasure that in this day and age women (and people of color) are still making less than men for equal work.  It seems like the folks at the National Committee on Pay Equity are actually doing something about it by promoting Equal Pay Day.  They describe it this way:

"Each year, the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) organizes the national observance of Equal Pay Day to raise awareness about unfair pay for women and people of color in America. Equal Pay Day is observed in April to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. Tuesday symbolizes the day when women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week. Because women on average earn less, they must work longer for the same pay. For women of color, the wage gap is greater, as shown in our fact sheet. "

I know that there are many theories as to why this condition still exists, despite great gains by women in business.  I have my own totally unscientific poll going that says that the vast majority of my female clients, family and friends have a harder time negotiating than their male counterparts.

I think it will take a whole range of solutions to remedy this problem.  I choose to do my small part by helping women come from a place of strong self-worth and value when creating a business and preparing for negotiations.  And although I still get knock-kneed when negotiating about money, I always push myself to do a little better each time. 

If you think unequal pay is a problem and want to do something about it, please wear red on Tuesday, April 25 and support our friends at the National Committee on Pay Equity.

Or if you are a good negotiator yourself, help your neighbor or daughter or mother next time they have to negotiate pay.  Every little bit counts!

Freedom is not a state of employment, it is a state of mind

Many people want to break into the world of entrepreneurship because of the freedom that it espouses.  If you are working inside corporate walls, you can often feel smothered, choked and oppressed.  As my best friend Desiree likes to say, "you feel the boot of The Man pressed up against your neck!"

The reality is a bit more complex.  Your freedom is not defined by the walls you are in, whether they are the soft beige of a cubicle or the cheery walls of your own home office.

Why?  Because freedom is not a state of employment, it is a state of mind. 

If you truly want to live an "empowered" life - one where you feel strong and secure and joyful and able to take on tough challenges, you first must free yourself.

Don Miguel Ruiz in the book The Four Agreements describes it this way:

"Your whole mind is a fog which the Toltecs called a mitote (pronounced MIH-TOE'-TAY).  Your mind is a dream where a thousand people talk at the same time, and nobody understands each other.  This is the condition of the human mind - a big mitote, and with that big mitote you cannot see what you really are.  In India they call the mitote maya, which means illusion.  It is the personality's notion of "I am."  Everything you believe about yourself and the world, all the concepts and programming you have in your mind, are all the mitote.  We cannot see who we truly are; we cannot see that we are not free."

This manifests most clearly in the way we see ourselves as corporate employees.  We say things like:

"My company never lets me express my creative self."
"I can't speak my mind in this company or I will get fired."
"The corporate politics here suck the life right out of me."

Here is the truth:

YOU choose not to express yourself inside a corporation.  YOU choose not to speak your mind.  YOU let the life get sucked out of you. 

Someone once told me when I got out of a very unhealthy relationship  "No one can take advantage of you without your permission."  I remember being quite angry when she said that, since I was still in the state of victim, nursing my wounds from what I perceived to be unfair and cruel treatment.  But upon reflection, I realized that it was absolutely true.  I alone had chosen to stay in an environment that was unhealthy.  Once I got that lesson, I never went back to that unpleasant emotional state, and now have a respectful, loving and healthy marriage.

If you don't take responsibility for your own actions right now as an employee, nothing will change when you go out on your own as an entrepreneur.  You will just replace a few words:

"My company (replace with client) never lets me express my creative self."
"I can't speak my mind in this company or "I will get fired" (replace with my customers will leave.)"
""The corporate politics" here (replace with The headache of managing the details of my business) suck the life right out of me."

So how to you begin to break free?

When you wake up tomorrow morning, look in the mirror and say to yourself, "I am choosing to go to work today so that I can receive a paycheck and take care of my financial obligations.  I am going to learn everything I can today that will help me reach my next goal of opening my own business.  If I don't like what is happening, I can and will change it.  I accept any consequences of my actions."

All this might sound like crazy psycho-babble coming from a true California granola head.  I can't force you to try it, I just encourage you.  Taking responsibility for my own career has made me feel truly free and prosperous.  When I start to feel oppressed or out of control, I take it as a sign that I am not doing the right thing, remove the boot of The Man off of my neck and move on to the next stage of my business.

Why good accountants are like Yoda

   

I am the world's worst accountant.  I am serious.  I love looking at numbers when someone else prepares them, but I get really cranky, exhausted and headachy (if that is indeed a word) when I have to do the bookkeeping myself.

Early in my business career I learned that a good accountant can make a world of difference.  When I was volunteering as the Executive Director of a non-profit arts group in San Francisco, I was saved by an amazing accountant whose services I got for free through a program called Business Volunteers for the Arts.  Marco was kind, thoughtful and encouraging and could whip out a balance sheet in less time than it would take me to sharpen my pencil.  He helped me to prepare the annual financial statements, reviewed grant proposal budgets and generally cut my stress in half.

Throughout my own business history, I have been helped by a lot of great financial minds that made me feel relaxed and capable right when I needed it.  I have also lived through some tremendous nightmares, such as when my husband's accountant disappeared right during a tax audit by the IRS ... YIKES!  (That was a good lesson in perception though since the IRS auditor turned out to be kind, understanding and helpful and got us through the audit without the accountant. THANK GOD!  I will never say an unkind word about the IRS again)

I think the best relationship you can establish with your accountant is modeled after Yoda and Luke Skywalker.  Your accountant's (Yoda's) job is to share wisdom, push you (Luke Skywalker) out of your comfort zone, teach you to do things yourself, and always remind you of The Force within.  For if you completely abdicate your financial responsibility, you are not watching your business as you should. There are some of you who are already extremely comfortable with numbers and see that as a fun part of running your new business.  But for the other, dare I say artsy-fartsy minded entrepreneurs-to-be (like me!), this part scares the life out of you.  Here is what to look for when searching out your very own Yoda:

• Respect.  I don't care how messed up you think your finances are, the job of a professional accountant is to treat you with dignity and respect.  If your potential accountant is condescending or judgemental about how you have managed your finances in the past, get a new one.  Dealing with money is as much about managing emotion as it is managing a balance sheet.
• Mastery. I felt exceptionally good talking with my accountant about my taxes today since I know that he really knows his stuff.  He reads up on tax law changes, has full academic credentials and has a healthy business himself with many clients.   Make sure that yours is equally as competent to avoid an unpleasant audit (see note above!).
• Discipline.  I expect my accountant to plan well, advise me in advance of upcoming deadlines and hold me to a clear plan of action.  I have so many things on my plate as an entrepreneur on any given day that I need him to ensure that I meet the rigors of my financial obligations.  Don't trust someone who lets things slide, takes a long time to get back to you or is always losing or misplacing important documents.  If he or she misses an important financial deadline on your behalf, YOU are the one who will be held accountable for the mistake.

With my own Yoda by my side (thanks Steve!), even days like today (taxes due!) are pleasant.  May the financial Force be with you too!

Want to understand your "body compass?"

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed yesterday for an audio segment by The Happy Path coach Sandra Sinclair.  She is beginning to build a series of monthly interviews with experts in the areas of life transformation and change.

We had a live session where I walked through an amazing exercise that I learned from my mentor Martha Beck called The Body Compass.  It is a very powerful way to get in touch with your inner voice and find out what it has been trying to tell you about your right life!  It has made an amazing impact on my life since I learned it from Martha.  I did the exercise with Sandra and we had a really nice conversation.  It is about a 30 minute interview, so if you don't have time to listen on your computer, download it on your ipod and listen to it while going for a stroll this evening.

Click here to go to The Body Compass interview.

Please let me know what you think about it!

Discussing spirituality and entrepreneurism ... should I go there?

I was having a coaching conversation with a dear friend and client today and she turned the tables on me.  "I notice that in your blog posts and ezine that you rarely talk about anything spiritual.  But working with you and knowing you personally, I see that is a big part of what you bring to your work.  Why do you hide that part of yourself?"

That got me thinking all day.

I do consider myself a spiritual person and see my spiritual life and work life as intimately connected.  I think it is impossible to discuss with people what their purpose is on earth and what their unique gifts are and not move into the realm of the divine.  A core value in my work, and my spiritual life, is to help people connect with their true calling, personal power, spirit and voice. Then they can build a life and a business around it.

As I think back to what motivated me to help people get out of corporate jobs and start their own businesses, it really was during some miraculous spiritual conversations inside companies.

• There was the time I was working late on a large-scale global project with a client. In his corporate role, he was strong, competent and professional.  As we wrapped up work for the day, somehow the conversation turned to career and life planning.  We got into an intense discussion about the things that were deeply important to him.  Slowly, he opened up and shared with me how he was feeling choked, oppressed and totally stuck in his life.  We talked a long time and I shared some thoughts that came straight from my heart and soul.  I could feel a different vibration in the air, and got that feeling in my chest when there is a strong spirit close by.  At the end of the conversation, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said "I think that God sent you to me."  I felt humbled and totally joyful.  What I knew had happened is that I had removed the barrier that exists in a corporate setting and made it safe for him to speak his truth.  The fact that he was Christian and I am not made no difference. 

• A few years back, I was facilitating a conference with a partner in New Orleans.  The company was privately held, and had a long history of egregious management behavior, especially towards women.  Since this was the third year we had worked with them, there was much more openness and trust in the group.  So we took a risk and had 3 women talk to the whole group of mainly men about what it had been like to work in a totally sexist environment for so many years.  The room of 50+ people hung on every word the women said.  There was the "job interview" one described where she had sat in the lobby waiting to be interviewed by a top executive.  A few minutes later an assistant came to get her.  "You passed the interview," said the assistant.  "But I didn't talk to him," she said.  "Oh, he saw you from the balcony and thinks you would be a great fit."  The women told the stories with humor and grace.  By speaking their truth, they healed some old wounds and everyone in the room felt touched by a divine spirit.  The air was electric, and I knew I was witness to something very special.

In a corporate environment, it is frightening, uncomfortable and sometimes illegal to talk about spirituality.  So much of what you learn in that environment is to cover your true spirit so that you don't appear strange, weak or morally suspect.  People are desperate to speak their truth and acknowledge that they do have a spiritual foundation.  I truly enjoy talking to people about that, and find that it comes up with every client I work with.

So why is it awkward to talk about it in a more public vehicle like a blog or ezine?  For me, I don't ever want anyone to feel uncomfortable or like I am preaching or pushing my beliefs on them (because I am not!).  I am lucky enough to have in my close circle of friends Unitarians, Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Buddhists, traditional native medicine people, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Jews and probably a few Atheists.  I grew up with Methodist grandparents, but non-religious parents.  Throughout the years, I have had a whole series of spiritual influences that have shaped my connection with Creator.  I don't affiliate with a religion, but engage in regular spiritual practice and prayers with my husband, who comes from a traditional Dine (Navajo) medicine background.

So thanks for letting me take a little risk and share my thoughts with you on this subject.  Does anyone else have the same struggles when discussing spirituality openly in connection with your work?

The 3,000 hits in one day result of reddit.com

I am always looking for ways to build up traffic to my blog so that I can spread my message to those who need it, and establish a strong platform and community of people interested in the next phase of my work.

I don't remember where I read it, but I heard about a website called reddit.com where you can submit blog posts that display on their site.  I am wildly ignorant about these services at the moment since it is all new to me, but from my understanding, it is a democratic way of exposing your posts to many thousands of readers.  New posts come out every few seconds, and readers vote on the posts that they like the best.  Those that are viewed very frequently rise to the top of the "hot" list of links that displays on the home page of reddit.com. According to reddit, "We'd like reddit to be the source for everything that's new on the web"

In my prior submissions, I had gotten a nice little uptick of 100-150 visitors to my blog in one day.  With my current small but sweet numbers, this was a healthy boost, and I appreciated the increase in traffic.  But I was bothered that sometimes my posts would get some negative votes, reflecting some unhappy readers.  I think that many of reddit's readers are very technical in nature, and tend to shy away from anything that appears too "fluffy" or peppy.  Regular readers know that I am optimistic and exuberant by nature, and have a hard time doing anything but building people up.

So last night I decided to write a post that spoke more directly to my technical reddit readers to see if it would made a difference in the number of visitors to my site.

Boy did it - today I got over 3,000 hits to my blog!  I was very shocked and amazed.

I also got over 100 positive votes for the article.  I did get a few near-flame comments in the process, a new experience for me.  My usual readers are truly kind, supportive and enthusiastic about my topics.  It reinforced for me how grateful I am to have such a good circle of kind people around me.

My people are creative types inside corporations who have strong entrepreneurial urges but fear leaving the safety of a big job.  Some of the visitors from reddit may fall into this category, but many don't.  I still think the experiment was a raging success, as I learned that when I speak directly to a particular segment of my audience, they listen!

If you are a blogger and include technical folks in your target audience, I suggest you give reddit.com a try.  Let me know what happens!

How the techno-geeks kicked my ass for my own good

In my time as a corporate consultant, I spent many years teaching classes and facilitating meetings in the heart of Silicon Valley.  I moved down there after spending 12 years in San Francisco, where I held down my last known "real job."  I grew up somewhat of a granola head in Marin County (the place on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge - and for those that don't understand the 'granola head' reference, it is an affectionate term I give to hippies) and spent a lot of years doing creative work through my obsession with capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art.

So the first time I walked into a conference room populated almost entirely with engineers, I was in for a very rude awakening.  I don't remember the subject of the first class I taught, but it must have been something along the lines of career development or management skills.  Before the first word was out of my mouth, a student flagged my attention:

"Excuse me, but do you know that the percentages don't add up correctly on the graph on page 27 of the workbook?"

I must have mumbled something like "Oh - ok, thanks for telling me" while inside I was thinking "Who the hell cares, and why are you skipping so far ahead in the workbook before we even begin?"

After that I must have tried some lame icebreaker exercise that I thought was creative and fun.  They ridiculed it and refused to participate.  I felt like I had stepped into a bad dream.

All day I endured challenge, tough questions, attacks to my credibility and tough stares.  If I didn't fancy myself a tough martial artist, I would have cried in the restroom.  But I held it together.  From that day forward, I made it my mission to try to understand the mind of a highly technical person since it was so far away from my own.  What I learned:

Cut the crap.  Lose anything from my presentation that was perky, Marketing or HR-ish. 

Back it up back it up back it up.  Not my laptop, the facts of the presentation.  If I was going to use a quote from a study or say casually "70% of the world are visual learners, while 20% are auditory and 10% kinesthetic," I better have the citation for the specific study, research pool, date of publication and detailed analysis.  Highly technical people like engineers detest made-up numbers, especially when they are used to support an argument. 

Make it relevant to them. If I was teaching a class on delivering tough performance reviews, I would take a real-life example from the students in the room (names withheld of course). Case studies or made up situations were prime targets for those that wanted to prove that the class was meaningless.

Have a sense of humor.  Once I got to know and love working with technical folks, I learned that after I made it through the first couple of rounds of criticism by demonstrating my expertise, I could relax and have some fun.

Don't wimp out.  The technical person hates someone who whimpers and acquiesces to pressure almost as much as a lie-spouting salesperson.  They put pressure on you to make you think and to see what you are made of, not to be a bully.  I have to admit that I used the threat of physical violence first thing in my classes.  I have a strange sense about who will give me trouble as soon as I see a group assembled, so I would usually walk up to the most cynical and/or biggest one, look him in the eye and say "in addition to my professional background, I am also trained in martial arts and not afraid to use it."  This usually got a big guffaw from the rest of the room, and I almost always got a smile and respect from the potential troublemaker.

Don't believe them when they say they don't care.  Some of the kindest, most creative and thoughtful people I met in my years consulting were technical folks.  Once I gained their trust and friendship, they were really open and considerate.  I had one engineer at Cisco refer at least 10 new clients to me based on the career coaching work we did together.  (Thanks Eric - wherever you are!)

I am absolutely sure that the ass-kicking I took from my technical clients has made me a better trainer, coach, businessperson and marketer.  Not to mention a more empathetic human being. And for those of you technical folks who are reading this, sorry I don't have a table with the exact percentage improvement I made in each category described above.  You just have to take my word for it that it was a lot.