A Bigger Voice

3 Resources Every Wisdom Entrepreneur Should Know About

Communicate. Engage. 

Simple words that are hard to do well.

Here are three great resources that have helped me communicate to and engage with my tribe more effectively:

• The Art of Explanation by Lee LeFever. A book on how to explain? I thought I was decent at explaining concepts until I read this book. And then I realized how much I didn't know.  LeFever lays out a simple, elegant methodology for making sure you bring your audience along when conveying ideas, especially if you suffer from the "curse of knowledge".  After reading the book, I was able to explain this methodology to a coaching client over the phone in a matter of minutes and help her apply it on the spot to her situation--a testament to how clearly written this book is. Photo by Jeff the Trojan

• 7 Tips to Beautiful Powerpoint by Eugene Cheng. Not all PowerPoint is bad. This slideshare presentation is a great resource for understanding how to use slides in a visually engaging way. It encapsulates ideas from several books I've read on designing presentations:
  7 Tips to Beautiful PowerPoint by @itseugenec from Eugene Cheng

  Notice how the presentation itself is an example of what to do (while pointing out what not to do!) I especially like the references to tools that can help you implement the ideas (e.g., sites to grab free fonts, get ideas on color schemes and download photos).

• Gamify to Tighten Up Relationships and Create a Close-Knit Highly Engaged Tribe.  It's a mouthful, isn't in? In this winning blog post from a contest on "Awesome Engagement Strategies", you'll get an inside peek at how engagement is not just driven by value, but by fun.  Yep, people like to have fun.  It's a good reminder for me, because I can easily forget to have fun. Make sure you take time not only to read the post, but the many comments that provide the nuances around human behavior, fun, and engagement. 

If you're like me, you love new ideas.  And let me be the first to say: Ideas without action are a waste. 

So take one new idea and try it out. Today. You don't have time to waste. And neither do I.

12 Proven Ways to Build Your Tribe

On January 1, it was announced that I am one of the finalists in the Awesome Engagement Strategies Contest, sponsored by firepolemarketing.com.  I entered as a way to spread an idea that worked incredibly well for connecting with my tribe--meetups in different cities.

Each finalist is sharing their engagement strategy through a guest blog post, on firepolemarketing.com, throughout January. Mine is being published on January 21. Finalists are encouraged to get the word out about the contest. Finalists will be judged based on quantity and the quality of comments on their blog posts.  Photo by The Industrious Indigo!

My First Reaction

Ugh. I hate being part of a popularity contest.  I hate begging for votes. I hate spamming people. 

I went to firepolemarketing.com to look at the other entries and immediately was intimidated--one post had 127 comments!  Granted, half the comments were the guest blogger responding to comments. But still.

It's About Being of Service, Stupid

Luckily, I figured out this wasn't about me. It's about being of service--to you, the reader, and to everyone else who wants to figure out how to build their tribe (including my coaching clients!)

A Gold Mine of Great Ideas

Each of the finalists is sharing their *best* strategy for building their tribe.  This is not theory or a slick program. It's real world experience with proven results. Each blogger was instructed to give clear guidance on how readers could implement their strategies, ranging from how to get over your fear of blogging and really enjoy the process, to using FB successfully to engaging with video. Take a look for yourself here. It's truly the best of the best from over a dozen people actively building their tribe--more than any one person could put together.  Photo by Stock Picks Expert.

Move Into Action

The results come from *implementing* great ideas.  So avoid being a knowledge whore. (I can't say why, but that phrase just popped into my head--oh, wait, I think it's because it's close to "knowledge hoarder".) Too many people collect great tips and never take the next step of applying it in their world. So they never get the results. Instead:

1. Schedule 30 minutes to read through all of the awesome engagement strategies.  Seriously. Do it. 
2. Pick one or two ideas that resonate with you.
3. Let a friend in on how you will apply the ideas and by when.
4. And get going!

P.S. If you find my post compelling enough to leave a comment on (remember, it won't be published until January 21), I'd be mighty grateful.  But really, this is about you getting some great strategies, in one place, to help build your tribe.

 

 

How Writing About What Bugs Me Garnered 19,000+ Views

My big lesson this week:  Write about what really bugs you. And then solve a problem for others.  Photo by jjpacres

Last fall, I was frustrated by how I saw people were using LinkedIn endorsements--without much thought, and creating more noise than impact. I pitched the idea of an article to the editor at NextAvenue.org, who I had done work for earlier in the year.

The article, "How to Make the Most of LinkedIn Endorsements", was published last week on NextAvenue.org. Five days ago, the editor put the article on the NextAvenue blog for forbes.com. Since then it's gotten over 19,000 views!

When I asked the editor why this particular post had gotten so many views, he replied, "I think you hit a nerve, because many people are puzzled about LinkedIn Endorsements."

I remarked that other media outlets had already written about this topic, and that it was satisfying to add value, in spite of coverage elsewhere. What I heard from the editor pointed to what readers value--receiving concrete suggestions on what to do and why, rather than just resonating with a problem. Simple, but often overlooked. 

This article is not my favorite writing or one that represents my best work, but it solves a problem that others have. As an entrepreneur (social or otherwise), it can be easy to focus on a zillion other things that must get done or look interesting to pursue. Going forward, I hope I can remember what really matters--being of service. 

Wise Voices from the Unreasonable Institute

This past summer, I volunteered my time to work with a "Fellow" from the Unreasonable Institute, an accelerator for social entrepreneurs from around the globe.  One of the things that I admire about this organization is their ability to package wisdom and story in both written and visual form.  It helps their cause and makes what they do more accessible.

I was delighted when I started to receive their newsletter, with blog posts written by their fellows, staff, and mentors. The writing is top-notch and the what they have to say--wisdom for your journey--is even better.  Here are two that I especially like:

• Confessions of a Serial Mentor by Cheryl Heller. This is an inside look at how the best mentors think and what motivates them.

• The Three Pillars of Excellence: Availability, Affability, and Ability by Teju Ravilochan.  Teju is one of the co-founders of the Unreasonable Institute and what struck me when I met him last summer was his warmth and presence.  He practices what he preaches. 

BTW--the Fellow I worked with last summer, Samanthi, is featured in this video by the Unreasonable Institute. They've done a marvelous job of telling her story!

 

Learning Community-Building From the Best

Community-building is work that feeds the soul. It not only does good in the world, it makes you a better human being, for having connected deeply to your fellow man (or woman). So I'm delighted to point to two resources for building community online and in-person:

 

Online Community-Building

If you're a reader of the blog, Escape From Cubicle Nation, you'll know that Pam Slim has a loyal and large following.  Sure, Pam knows her stuff and is an engaging writer. But that doesn't totally account for posts that frequently get dozens of comments.
Building a community is at the heart of why Pam does what she does.  She's offered up this wonderful post, How To Build a Strong Business Community.  Her first tip, "Use the "success of others" as your metric for success", is what sets Pam apart from other people who talk about community building. When you embrace this idea fully, it's a game-changer. Photo by oatsy40.

While Pam has built her community largely through virtual means, her tips extend to the offline world.  

 

In-Person Community-Building, Oct 11 in Denver

I've been a fan of management guru, Peter Block (even before he wrote his classic books, Flawless Consulting, The Answer to How is Yes) ever since I stumbled upon his "Employee Manifesto" from the '90s. Block has a way of telling you what you don't want to know, but what you need to know, in a no nonsense manner.  Over the last decade, he's focused on the art and science of community building.

Block is a deep thinker and fortunately, in this chapter of his work, he's trained others to think along the same lines. My friend and colleague, Patty Beach, has trained with Block and is holding a workshop on Oct 11 in Denver, "Community Building - the Alchemy of Engagement". Click here for more details.

Here's a video that will give you a taste of this type of learning in action:

Block's work is masterful and seeing the immediate impact is inspiring.

Building Community, One Pasta Dinner at a Time

In my 2009 interview with social media analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, he noted that building a community has to be done both online and in-person to be effective.  He talked about how he makes time for meetups when he's traveling, as a way to stay in touch with his community. In his mind, this is just as important as connecting online, using social media.

Three years later, I get it.

I recently returned from a trip to Chicago, where I did a meetup at a favorite restaurant, Dave's Italian Kitchen.  I've done previous meetups at this same place--wonderful dinners, lively conversation. Yet by comparison, these past gatherings felt like a warm up for the real thing. Sort of like the "hundredth monkey" effect.

For a few hours last week, I felt bathed in the glow of being in a community. Ten people, one community.

10 fascinating professionals from all walks of life, who had never met before, showed up. (Even as the host, I had met just three of the attendees in person before.) Their passions ranged from web design and IT to marketing to biomedical research to growing urban gardens as an outdoor classrom.  We came together as a community, engaged in rich discussion and held together by common experiences and the willingness to learn together. What made the difference? 

I think it has to do with Brene Brown's research on how vulnerability leads to joy and other emotions. I started off the dinner with the following request:

Introduce yourself with a snippet of your story, and if you are willing, talk about a turning point from your story.

I went first, to better illustrate what I meant by turning point. I recounted three times in my life that were difficult and transformative, times when I turned lemons into lemonade:

• The first turning point was when I had TMJ surgery, after being in chronic pain for years. It was a crisis of the body. I credit the surgeon for greatly improving the quality of my life, if not saving my life.

• The second turning point was when I was laid off from my last corporate job. It was a crisis of the mind and the heart. Engineering no longer satisfied me as an intellectual pursuit and I wanted work that was more meaningful.  The layoff led me to becoming a career coach and an entrerpreneur.

• The third turning point was when I burned out last summer.  It was a crisis of the body, mind, heart, and spirit. I hit bottom in all four dimensions.

When I finished, I simply said, "Who's next?"

From there, the evening took off.

My thanks to all who attended. (You know who you are.) I learned the power of "brand community" in a whole new way.

P.S. If you are interested in hosting a meetup for your brand community, please contact me. I'd love to brainstorm with you on how to do this well.

August 2 Session on Telling Your Story, In Boulder, CO

Storytelling is a critical competency that many entrepreneurs overlook.  If you have a gap in this area, I hope you can join me for a free talk that I'll be giving on Thurs, Aug 2 in Boulder, CO.  Click here for more details.

Be Unreasonable. Be Inspired.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from my friend, George, who teaches entrepreneurship at University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business:

"I'm currently out of the country, but if I wasn't, I would be attending an awesome event called the Unreasonable Scrimmage, this Saturday. I know they are looking for more fabulous skilled individuals to get involved, and I immediately thought of you."

George went on to describe how social entrepreneneurs from around the world compete for 25 spots.  Twenty-five "Fellows" come to Boulder, CO to be part of The Unreasonable Institute's six-week accelerator program--mentored by seasoned entrepreneurs, learning from each other, and culminating in a five-minute pitch in front of hundreds of investors.  The Scrimmage was an opportunity for passionate community members to get involved and play a part in scaling world-changing businesses successfully. As George said, "It's like a Startup Weekend or hackathon, but only one full-day."

I like George. We recently had coffee where he told me about the volunteer work he was doing, with places like the Unreasonable Institute.  He was having a ball.

And yet, I was skeptical that this was for me. Give up an entire Saturday?  What if I didn't like it?  I'd been focusing on re-building my coaching business and wary of getting side-tracked or "giving too much" to the point of getting burned out again.  I wasn't even sure how I could help.

The day before the Scrimmage, I decided to go.  A little voice inside of me said, "Go. You'll meet creative people. And if you don't like it, you can go home early." 

So I went...and I had a blast.

So much so, that I decided to help further, after the Scrimmage.  I figure I've donated 20 hours of my time at this point. I'm hooked.

 

I've been working with 28-year old Sri Lankan cheese maker, Samanthi, who is a brilliant entrepreneur and CEO of LiLi Dairy.  I'm helping her articulate and present her story--getting her ready to stand on the stage of Macky Auditorium on July 21, at the Unreasonable Climax event.  She has five minutes to show how creating more dairy farmers will lift entire villages out of poverty, while supplying cheese for the pizza-eating tourist trade.

Guess what? I think I'm getting more from this than she is.  Because this kind of giving is more like receiving--it fills my heart with gratitude, inspiration, and love.  Now I know what George was talking about.

Join me this Saturday, July 21 at the Unreasonable Climax event. Use the discount code, letsbeunreasonable to get $5 off the ticket. Not sure?  Watch this 4-minute video.

 

 

Be unreasonable. Be inspired.

Why Management Guru, Tom Peters, Responded to My Tweet

Not long ago, I read a post on Tom Peter’s blog that I enjoyed, where one of his points was the futility of planning ahead.  I tweeted about it, referencing the blog post:

@tom_peters advice for Living Life to the Hilt http://ow.ly/8FTzj <--wisdom that only comes w/experience 

 

 

One of my Twitter followers responded to my tweet with this:

RT @carolross: "Re: @tom_peters advice for Living Life to the Hilt" Obviously, Tom is not a cave diver! For us, it's all about planning! :)

 To which I replied:

 re: planning and @tom_peters. He's known for being provocative and pushing the  envelope. Your mileage may vary.

 

And then this came through my Twitter feed from…Tom Peters. (Yes, I verified that the account was his, and not an imposter’s.)  I’ve deleted my cave diving friend’s Twitter handle to protect his privacy but he was also addressed in the tweet below.

@carolross "No one rises so high as he who knows not where he is going."--Oliver Cromwell.

 

I soon found myself in a three-way conversation with Tom Peters and my friend.  Peters tweeted at least three more times in response to my responses. He finally wore me out and I stopped tweeting. I’m sure he could have gone a few more rounds.

Why did he even bother to respond?  Because he was engaged in something he felt passionate about. And on social media, quality content (on both sides) engages.  Tom Peters also has a personality that enjoys intellectual bantering . (In a live seminar years ago, I was part of a small group that had lunch with him and got to see him up close.) So he’s not likely to let go until he’s had the last word. Which makes Twitter an ideal medium for him.

 

Why Social Media Matters

The point of this story is that while social media can be “noisy”, it’s also a way of connecting with people you normally wouldn’t come across in your daily life.   You don’t have to be a social media expert to make these connections.  The friend I mentioned in the story above has been on Twitter for less than a year.

Some of those people might end up being colleagues, friends, or clients.  I have a coaching client who recently was at a professional conference where a man came up to him that he didn’t recognize.  He asked him, “Have we met?” To which the person replied, “No, but I read your blog! “ My client has been blogging consistently for only a few months.  But it kickstarted a conversation with a stranger and made him more of a colleague, instantly. Photo by Victor1558

And in the context of building something big like a movement, social media becomes even more important. It's a way to connect to your tribe easily, online, and authentically.

Not long ago, I RSVP'd to an invite for a dear friend's 70 birthday party. The RSVP went to my friend's daughter, who I had not met.  She wrote back that she had been following my blog for many years and was really looking forward to meeting me in person.  I was flattered. Unfortunately, due to illness, I missed the party. 

The story doesn't end there. My friend's daughter signed up for my Break Out of Your Bubble program and based on her workplace domain, I could see that two of her colleagues had also signed up.  Afterward, I wrote to thank her for referring others to the program.  Her reply was this:

"I am keenly aware of your stellar reputation and have loved the authenticity of your writing, so it was easy for me to speak highly of you."

This is the power of social media.  Someone who I've never met in person, who I had one email exchange with regarding an RSVP for a birthday party, knows and trusts me enough to recommend me to her colleagues. Photo by return the sun

If you've been wondering how to create that same trust with your tribe, join me on May 1 for a live Q+A session with myself and Walter Akana. Walter is a social media insider, who at sixty-something, continues to be my mentor for what’s new on social media. (Don’t even get him going on Pinterest and Instagram.) Walter and I met several years ago on Twitter and since then, we have co-developed information products and co-led webinars and in-person workshops.

Our live Q+A session on networking and social media is part of the Break Out of Your Bubble (BOB) program.  When you sign up for the BOB program, you’ll not only get access to the live Q+A session on May 1, you’ll also get THREE recorded webinars, including:

• How to Make Social Media Work for You (aka Create Your Social Media Strategy)
• Networking Naturally for the Busy Professional
• I'm Burning Out. Now, What?

Use discount code, SOCIAL, to get $50 off the late registration price of $147.  This code expires on April 30 at midnight ET.

Click  here to register.

Part 2: A New Roadmap to Building Something Big and Lasting

The startup phase is tricky, because we can fool ourselves that we are making progress, when we are not.

This is one of the many lessons I'm taking away from the book, The Lean Startup.  This is the second part in a two-part posting about concepts in the book that are making a difference for me as an entrepreneur. 

BTW--all of these ideas are ones that can apply to social entrepreneurs as well as "traditional" for-profit entrepreneurs. Whether your "customer" is one who pays with money or one who pays with attention/engagement, whether you are building a sustainable business or a long-lasting movement, these ideas apply.

 

Metrics That Matter vs. Vanity Metrics

Have you heard the saying, "What gets measured, gets done?"  Complementary to that idea is this one: "Measuring the wrong thing is worse than measuring nothing at all." 

The reason why is that when you are measuring the wrong thing, you have the illusion that things are going well. It's easy to put resources into a losing proposition. At least if you aren't measuring at all, you don't have this false sense of security. Photo by tmorkemo

Author Eric Ries calls these metrics gone bad, "vanity metrics".  An example is number of customers or accounts. Might work if the cost of acquisition is lower than the lifetime revenue of an account. But what if it isn't? 

This is what I discovered in my start-up, My Alumni Link, where my clients have been university alumni associations.  I could point to over a dozen high profile universities as my clients.  But how many were profitable over the long run. Uhhhh....that's another story.

So what should you be measuring?  Metrics that allow for clear cause and effect to be made visible. Conversion rate on a sales page.  Product usage by customer.  Metrics that allow you to show that improving X leads to Y.  Ries introduced me to the idea of cohort analysis, where groups of customers, having a shared characteristic, are tracked by a behavior that you care about (e.g., amount of time spent on a site, number of discussions posted per individual).  Each group is a mini-experiment whose results can then be compared with other group's results. I'm now tracking things I never tracked before, seeing clearly what progress I'm making towards being a sustainable business. A better understanding of cause and effect help me to decide where to devote resources. Photo by RDECOM

 

The Wisdom of Small Batches

I used to subscribe to the Big Bang theory of product development and marketing.  It started with working for a monopoly (the telephone company), with too much money to let things fail early, surrounded by fellow engineers who thought perfectionism was a virtue. Well, in some environments, perfectionism is a virtue (e.g., air traffic controllers, SWAT teams.)

But in today's environment, where betas are the norm, aspiring to get to nirvana before releasing something doesn't make sense. Same goes with marketing.  Start now, and find out where the glitches are, in small batches, before too much is at stake. Photo by Rachel From Cupcakes Take the Cake.

In launching a new career development tool, I've experimented with the idea of a "continuous launch". In prior years, I would have made a super duper announcement of product availability, in one big email blast, after slaving over just the right marketing words for a week. And then I would have waited. And waited. And waited.

Ries points out that if you try things out in small batches, you'll find what you need to improve upon a lot faster.  That's exactly what happened with the site, breakoutofyourbubble.com. The current version is the result of announcing the site to small groups of people, and getting their feedback as well as tracking their behavior (e.g, time spent on site and number of unique visitors/sales that day). By the time the site was announced to thousands of people at a time, it had been through several major changes in format, content, visuals and length.  The day before the start of the program, I am still launching to new groups. I have been doing this for nearly a month, learning what I can from each new group exposed to the product. Photo by kcnickerson.

 

How Many Pivots Do You Have Left?

According to Ries, a pivot is a fundamental change in its business strategy. It's a special kind of structured change designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, business model, and/or engine of growth. With my start-up, My Alumni Link, I am now using a different business model from what I used the last couple of years. 

What's really lovely and reassuring for me as an entrepreneur is that so many successful companies went through multiple pivots before getting it right.  The true measure of runway is how many pivots a startup has left. 

There are many types of pivots, including:

• Zoom-in Pivot.  Single feature becomes the whole product. 
• Zoom-out Pivot. Whole product becomes a single feature of a much larger product.
• Customer Segment Pivot.  Same product but for a different customer.
• Customer Need Pivot. Problem is not important to customer, but in the process of finding this out, it creates an intimacy with the customer that reveals a true need.
• Platform Pivot.  Moving from an application to a platform for vehicle for third parties to leverage.
• Business Architecture Pivot. B2C (low margin, high volume) vs. B2B (high margin, low volume)
• Engine of Growth Pivot.   Sticky vs. viral vs. paid. See below. Changing engine of growth requires a change in the way value is captured.
• Channel Pivot.  Same basic solution could be delivered through a different channel with greater effectiveness. Example: company abandons a previously complex sales process to "sell direct" to its end users.
• Technology Pivot.  Use different technology to deliver same solution to same customer, same channel, same value capture.

This year, I had several pivots wrapped up into a new business strategy. I helps me put into perspective how much I really am learning and allows me to cut myself some slack.   Photo by idovermani

 

New Customers Come From the Actions of Past Customers

This one sentence from the book was so simple, yet so striking.  I don't think I had ever thought about creating business sustainability in those terms--through the actions of past customers. Ries defines four possibilities:

• Word of mouth. I'm trying this out now, by providing past customers great deals on new programs for a limited time and encouraging them to share with friends. I'm finding this is not as easy as it sounds, as how the person tells their friends or network makes a huge difference as well as whether it's an individual conversation or a mass broadcast. Promo through a newsletter or social media? Not much help. Showcasing a guest blog post?  Works, but slowly. Telling your co-worker who you have lunch with everyday?  Gets even better. Photo by Ethan Hein

• Side effect of product usage.  This is where an idea or product goes viral.  I seem to think this is really hit or miss.

• Funded advertising. Cost of acquiring a new customer is less than the revenue that a customer generates. Hasn't worked for me yet, but this traditional model works for a lot of businesses. 

• Repeat purchase or use. Subscription. Yep, that's something I'm trying out this fall.

 

What's Your Engine of Growth? 

Honestly, I've been a solopreneur for nearly a decade, and I've never asked myself this question.  It's the difference between what Michael Gerber, the author of the E-Myth books would say, "working on your business vs. working in your business." Ries provides three possibilities to consider:

• Sticky. Once you start using the product, it's hard to switch.  Designed to attract and retain customers for the long term. Attrition or churn is key metric. Growth - attrition = positive number.
• Viral. Customers do the lion's share of marketing. Viral coefficient is key metric. How many new customers will use a product as a consequence of each new customer who signs up? How many friends will each new customer bring with them? Not for my business but may be for yours. 
• Paid. How much does it cost to sign up a new customer? Revenue/customer - cost of acquiring customer = positive number

It's too soon for me to tell which of the above will be the engine of growth for my newest initiative, but it's good to have this framework as I move forward. Seeing the big picture while working on the details is an art that every entrepreneur needs to master. Photo by taylor.a

Would love for you to share your stories with any of these concepts. Stories are how I learn best and how wisdom is shared.

Part 1: A New Roadmap for Building Something Big and Lasting

The sign of a good book for me is one that I wish I had read years ago.  So it was for Pam Slim's book, Escape from Cubicle Nation and more recently, with Jonathan Fields' book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance. Those books covered familiar territory and their insights resonated deeply, often because I had come to similar conclusions through experience. It was their articulation and further enhancement of what were wisps of wisdom in my head that made those books so enjoyable.

Unlike those books, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, didn't so much support what I knew from experience, as much as it pointed me in a new direction.  What I know from experience is that the old way of doing a startup wasn't working for me.  But the new way was no where to be found.  The Lean Startup gave me a clear roadmap and methodology to move forward. (Hat tip to Jonathan Fields for pointing me to The Lean Startup, in his book, Uncertainty.) Photo by betsyweber

Let's set some context.  Whether you are a social entrepreneur or a for-profit entrepreneur, your goal is to create something from nothing and grow it, to something big.  And keep it going, long past the time you are kicking around. The myth that I want to believe is that if you work hard, and have passion, things will work out. I know now, that's not true.

Successful entrepreneurs have figured out for how to create something valuable in the marketplace and grow it. It may have taken several tries, but they did it.  They know what to measure and they focus on that.

I once heard an acquaintance talk about a friend, "Mark", who is well-regarded in the local startup community.  Mark has started half a dozen companies, with a great batting average.  This acquaintance said of Mark, "He measures everything."  Now obviously, you can't measure everything. But what this person was saying is that Mark knew that measuring what you do is important.  Starting a company (or a movement, for that matter) is one experiment after another and if you don't understand the outcome of an experiment, you can't create better experiments going forward. Photo by wwarby.

The trick is knowing what to measure and deciding what you are testing with each experiment.  Without a focus on those, all the passion and hard work in the world won't be enough to build a sustainable business. (I think this also applies to social entrepreneurs. It's just that social entrepreneurs seem to have more tolerance for dragging out the process of growing big.) With limited resources, what you DON'T spend time on is just as important as what you do spend time on. (Trust me on this one. I have the scars to prove it.)

As a former engineer, this makes sense.  And yet the romantic in me is a bit disappointed.  I'll get over it.

Now to the juicy stuff.  In the Lean Startup, the following are key concepts that have greatly influenced how I spend my time.

• Leap of faith assumptions.  The success of your venture rests on these assumptions. If they are true, tremendous opportunity awaits.  If they are false, the startup risks total failure, because there's no work around. No amount of tweaking product, process, or people can make up for a condition that you believed was true and in reality, is false.  A leap of faith assumption for me related to my newest iteration of My Alumni Link:

Busy professionals will buy career development tools that are delivered completely online.

Ries points out that it takes courage to state these assumptions and many entrepreneurs don't do it.  He goes on to say, "Every business plan begins with a set of assumptions. It lays out a strategy that takes those assumptions as a given and proceeds to show how to achieve the company's vision. Because the assumptions haven't been proved to be true and in fact are often erroneous, the goal of a startup's early efforts should be to test them as quickly as possible."   Photo by leafbug.

• Two leaps of faith assumptions stand out above all others: 

• Value creation hypothesis. What you create is valued by the marketplace. You solve a problem that people care about and therefore, your solution has value.   
• Growth hypothesis.  The means for growing your venture conforms to how the world works. (Ponzi schemes work for awhile, but not in the long run.)

• Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This one goes against how I think as a former engineer. I grew up working for monopolies (electric utilities, phone company), where time to market was however long the funding lasted.  And for many projects, that was years.  So it was natural to get things just right before releasing them.  An incomplete product was like a billboard saying that it was developed by a group of incompetent engineers.

Ries turns this ingrained habit on its head. The startup should focus not on perfection, but finding the fastest way to get through the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop (what happens with each experiment), with the minimum amount of effort. You do this with a Minimum Viable Product, which is intended to start the process of learning.  He goes on to say, 

"Any additional work beyond what was required to start learning is a waste."

This statement alone has already saved me countless hours of working on stuff that I thought needed to be done, but really didn't. Photo by jedibfa

• Successful companies have several MVPs before getting it right. Ries tells the story of a bootstrapped start-up that released inexpensive MVPs, ones that took no more than 2-4 weeks of effort. They recruited friends to give feedback on each prototype.  It wasn't until they got to the sixth MVP that they had promising results. In the words of the co-founders, "The results were unambiguously negative until [the sixth MVP]" 

This is wonderfully reassuring.  It means that iteration is the norm.  It means that the runway is typically lengthy, not in time, but in iterations. It means that I don't have everything riding on that big launch next week.

MVPs are shaped by questions like, "What would be required to get customers to engage with the product and tell their friends about it?"  They are not driven by the founder's ego or an internal standard of quality.  Which brings me to this wonderful quote from the book about quality: 

"If we do not know who the customer is, we do not know what quality it."

In my next post, I'll talk about what I learned around metrics and pivots from reading the book.

 

Networking Naturally for the Busy Professional on March 6

As Oprah says, one thing I know for sure....

We don't do anything big in the world by ourselves. 

Alone is not how you grow a movement or change the world.  Alone is not how you create something bigger than yourself that lasts long after you are gone. Alone is not an entrepreneurial virtue. Photo by kid mercury

Join me on March 6 for an introvert-friendly webinar, “Networking Naturally for the Busy Professional”.

Watch the video below to find out mistakes every entrepreneur has probably made (including me) when it comes to networking: 

 

 

I am not planning on doing this webinar again in 2012, so if this sounds like something for you, jump in now. 

Go to naturalway2network.com and use discount code, INSIDER, to get $10 off.  Feel free to pass this on to others you know who could benefit from having more mentors in their life.

3 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Entrepreneurs by definition are attempting something no one else has done before. (I'm not counting franchisees in this category.) And under those circumstances, you will:

• Have some fear (maybe LOTS)
• Need to communicate to others what you are trying to do and enroll them in your efforts
• Lose your way, more than once

No wonder the wash out rate is so high.  Photo by leafbug.

Here are three books that have helped me, and which I hope will help you:

• Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance by Jonathan Fields. This is a must read for anyone who has attempted something big, struggled, maybe failed, and comes back for more, because it's how you are wired. And now, you want the next chapter to be lived with more ease, fun, and creativity. That describes where I am today.  I applied several concepts immediately in the midst of rolling out a new initiative. (One example: setting up a private LinkedIn group for past customers to give me feedback during new product development.  I call it my "virtual skunk works.")  Fields provides both practical tools as well as scientific research that backs up why something works.  The best line in the book: "I turned my own creative process into more of a dance than a race."  Read this book if you want to dance more.

  

• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.  This book changed how I create presentations. And it did much more than that. It made me think  deeply about how I communicate in general.  Filled with great examples, advice from other smart people (like Seth Godin and Nancy Duarte), and a step-by-step process to using more of your whole brain when creating presentations, this was an eye opener in how much I had didn't know and could improve upon. I especially appreciate that Reynolds uses examples and stories to deepen his approach to communicating effectively. Photo by Clearly Ambiguous

• Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier. Written by the first Canadian Coach of the Year, Bungay Stanier provides exercises that are the foundation of doing great work--including identifying what brings you alive (and what does not), finding role models, confronting your fears, and knowing what support you have and what you still need.  He uses visual "maps" to help the reader navigate unknown territory. One of the most useful maps is one that shows what to do when you've "lost your great work mojo."   The video below provides more of Bungay Stanier's thoughts on what it takes to do great work:

 

In the process of reading all three books, you'll also find references and contributions to other wonderful thinkers (e.g., I'm now reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.)  All three authors are part of a larger brain trust for the new entrepreneur. There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. 

Using Social Media To Grow Your Movement

I was inspired by my friend, Sally Spencer-Thomas with her blog post, "Five Things You Can Do With Social Media to Prevent Suicide and Promote Mental Health". A psychologist and teacher turned non-profit CEO, Sally is part of a vibrant community of professionals dedicated to suicide prevention.

No matter what your cause, you can learn from how Sally is using social media to create conversation, correct inaccuracies in the mainstream media, and spur others to action.

 

What It Takes to Be a Provocateur

Great TEDx talk by David Rock, co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute, on what it takes to be a provocateur, and how schools can play a part in developing more of them:

 

Hidden Benefits of Being a Follower

This blog is about how to make your thought leadership more visible, to do good in the world.  But sometimes, it pays to be a follower, not a leader.  Let me explain. 

Last year, I looked for affordable technology that would support a dream--to have an Internet version of a talk show. Two webcams, broadcast via the Internet to others who could see and hear a conversation with myself and a guest, talking about an interesting topic.  Add in the ability for the audience to ask questions live, and you get an Internet talk show.

The problem was that I couldn't find a service that was both affordable and reliable. I asked smart people in related industries and still, no one knew of anything that fit what I needed.

While I was frustrated, I knew it was a just matter of time before the service I needed would be available, from a startup, as a beta.  It's what I've seen repeatedly happen in the last few years with technology.  This includes the webinar platform space, which seems to be ultra-competitive these days. (Established vendors, like Webex and Gotomeeting, should be worried at this point.)

I found my answer on a private Facebook group, for participants of Pamela Slim's Power Teaching course.  A woman who had taken the course last year posted remarks about BigMarker.com, describing her experience with the service, as well as the features that it provided over and above the competition, for *free*.  Yes, it's in beta. Yes, there are glitches.  Yes, their site could be better organized. But what they offer is exactly what I've been looking for. 

Here's the important part. I found what I needed by being a follower--by being part of Pamela Slim's tribe, and then going deeper into the experience by buying a course on what she knows from her decades of teaching, first as an instructional designer for corporate training and now as an entrepreneur. 

Being part of the eco-system of a thought leader is not just learning from the thought leader. It's learning from others who are following that thought leader. It's what comes from joining a vibrant community, that's started by a wisdom entrepreneur.

 

What I Take for Granted

Being an entrepreneur in the US never looked so easy. 

I loved a blog post by entrepreneur and Fast Company columnist, Alicia Morga, about her trip to Azerbaijan because it showed me what I have taken for granted for so long.  Things like freedom of expression, rule of law, and a positive can-do, creative environment. 

Creating something from nothing, which is what entrepreneurs do, is 10x harder without those things in place.  While not impossible, it reminds me that successful entrepreneurs in other parts of the world have to be not only savvy and passionate, but also courageous. 

 

Not More, But Deeper

We are conditioned to want more.  More fans. More revenue.  More customers.  More, just more. 

And recently, I've been pondering the idea of not more, but deeper.  What if I've been chasing the wrong thing?  What if satisfaction and happiness comes not from looking elsewhere, but looking at what's right in front of me? Photo by AR Bahar

A few examples of what it means put more aside, in favor of deeper:

• A coaching friend has delivered a sold-out retreat four times over the last two years.  He's decided, along with his co-leader, to offer this retreat only two more times.  Why? In his words, "At that point, we will have a community of fabulous participants.  We want to focus on supporting those people. Having a larger community leads to people not knowing each other. We want to work with what we've got, rather than adding more."

• Another friend, runs Ignite events in a large metro area, and has produced 11 of these events.  He talked about bringing back past speakers to learn what they've been doing since they presented at Ignite. 

• A colleague has been a social media enthusiast for the last few years.  But now, instead of connecting with new people, he's more inclined to prune his "followers" and "friends".  He wants to spend more time with the people in his network that he already enjoys, and less time making new connections. His network has gotten so large that there are many people in it who he barely knows beyond their name. 

This may all seem contrary to the idea of A Bigger Voice.  But I think it points back to the idea of "a thousand true fans".  Go for deep engagement by fewer people instead of a passing acquaintance with more people.  

It's similar to when I speak on effective networking and advise people to focus on quality, not quantity.  Contrary to what many people think, getting a large number of business cards is not a sign of great networking. Instead, aim for one or two truly memorable and engaging conversations.  That will benefit you more in the long term than meeting twenty people who you'll forget the next day.  Photo by Stew Dean

As an entrepreneur, what would happen if I focus NOT on getting more customers, but going deeper with the ones I already have?  What if the idea is NOT to expand to new markets, but to serve my existing market even better, more distinctly, with greater impact? 

On a personal level, deeper means focusing on my sweet spot--the work that I do best and which excites me the most.  It also means weaving the best of my past work with future projects, to create a stronger body of work. 

A video, about bridges in a remote area of India that are made of fig tree roots, grown over decades, provides a wonderful metaphor for what I'm talking about. These living bridges withstand torrential floods which are common to the area. They are tended by the local villagers, because they are so important to the life of the village. This "body of work" is created by a community of people and lasts beyond the life span of the villagers. Photo by Unlisted Sightings 

As I think about my work in 2012, I want to delve into areas that light me up, so that mystery and magic appear as part of the experience.  I want to add to my body of work, to connect the dots, to purposely go for deeper, not more.  

What does it look like for you to go deeper and to stop looking for more? 

More on Failure

Over the last few months, I've been researching failure.  It's my nature to learn about what I'm experiencing.  So when I felt like I had failed this past summer in making a profitable business out of My Alumni Link, I started asking the question, "What role does failure play in being an entrepreneur?'

I talked to fellow entrepreneurs. I read articles about failure. And I gravitated to books on the topic. Photo by tinou bau

One book that I recently finished is Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure by Tim Harford. Written by an economist, the book is uneven--going into gory detail about climate change and the financial crisis of 2008 and giving only minimal coverage to how individuals deal with failure.  I found the most relevant part of the book to be the last chapter, which brought home the concepts from the preceding 200 pages and applied them to how human beings deal with failure. 

Harford presents a simple model for looking at failure:

1. Try new things. (Yes, I do this on a regular basis.)
2. Try them in the context where failure is survivable. (Brilliant!  Why didn't I think of that?  I have barely survived some of my more spectacular failures.)
3. Know when you've failed and learn from your failures. (I can always get better at this one.)

Sounds like common sense but the author shows that all of these steps can go awry if we're not purposeful. Of the three steps in the model, I'm most intrigued by the third. I had always thought this was straightforward, but Harford lists three obstacles to learning from your mistakes:

1. Denial
2. Self-destructive behavior (e.g., throwing good money after bad)
3. Convincing ourselves that the mistake doesn't matter

And here is where it gets really interesting.  Harford advocates identifying  a "validation squad"--individuals who "will back you but also tell it like it is."  These are people who are both compassionate and hard hitting when it comes to telling you the truth. (BTW--this sounds like a coach to me. Just saying.) People who "can help us hold two jostling thoughts at the same time: I am not a failure--but I have made a mistake."  Photo by andyp uk

This last idea, separating who I am (not a failure) with the result of my actions (a mistake), is powerful.  At least it was for me.

I am encouraged by the fact that I'm getting used to the idea of making mistakes, big ones, as a natural part of the journey. It allows me to commiserate with fellow entrepreneurs. More importantly, I see that every step of the way, independent of outcome, contributes to who I am today.

Raised to be an Entrepreneur

I was not raised to be an entrepreneur. I never imagined myself an entrpreneur. Yet I ended up as one. 

After watching the following video of Cameron Herold, talking about how we can raise kids to be entrepreneurs, it makes me hopeful for the future.  Herold also provides wonderful examples of learning to be an entrepreneur at an early age, starting at age 7.

 

 

The video made me wonder how much sooner I would have become an entrepreneur if I had been encouraged to be one at an early age. My thanks to Joline Bernadini for pointing the video out to me.