Are you nervous to reach out to prospective sales prospects and partners? Does the idea of making sales calls conjure uneasiness or even a touch of dread? Do you stand in the corner at networking events or industry conferences, just waiting long enough so you won't feel too guilty when you duck out early? Or do you find excuses to skip them altogether, even though you know you want more people to engage with? You're not alone. Many salespeople, in fact, many people, avoid taking the first steps to start new relationships. It stems from an emotional lesson that we learn when we're young and that continues to influence our behavior … [Read more...]
How to Find Unexpected Business Solutions Through Couples Counseling
You might not think of your business partner as your life partner. But in many ways they are as close, if not closer, than a romantic partner. Money, time, visions of the future...these are just a few of the topics that you'll have to navigate when you go into business with someone. Starting and running a new business is often an overwhelming endeavor. There are so many tasks to get to and goals to achieve, it can be too much for one person. That's why so many people dive into entrepreneurship with a partner to two. You can share the load, and everyone will bring different strengths and skills to party. But Are Partnerships Always … [Read more...]
Moving Past the Damming (and Damning) Power of Getting It Right
I've found that one of the biggest challenges for myself as an entrepreneur and creator is the desire to get things right. I know that it sounds a little backwards, but I've found that one of the best ways to not make forward progress is to worry about making sure your progress is the best it can be. Perfection Gets You Stuck Getting stuck because of this focus on perfection manifests in different ways for different people. For some it's analysis paralysis, where they keep accumulating more and more data instead of acting. For some it's constant revision and changes on their projects which prevent them from being released into the … [Read more...]
The 30 Minutes Between You and Your Dreams
I sent my latest draft of Networking in the 21st Century: Why Your Network Sucks and What to Do About It to the editor last week. I have to admit that I'm pretty excited about it. And a little surprised. If you had asked me at the beginning of the year if I could write a nearly 200-page book, I would have demurred and said that I didn't have the time or the patience to do it. Writing a book was a pipedream. So how did I do it? And why should you care, even if you don't plan on writing a book anytime soon? One Step at a Time Like many of us in this information-soaked age, my attention span is not the greatest. In addition I run my … [Read more...]
The Right Questions Make All the Difference
I was catching up with my friend Ian yesterday and our conversation turned philosophical (as it usually does when we are sharing a few craft beers). At one point he asked, "Do you think that American society is on the path to solving its problems, or are we not even asking the right questions?" This morning I'm thinking about how that same distinction can apply to us as individuals. We worry about coming up with the right answers, but we actually need to start by examining the questions we ask about our lives. The quality of our answers, in fact the possible answers we can come up with, are dependent on the questions. And I'm not … [Read more...]
Manage by Numbers, Lead with Stories
When you are in charge, you have two critical tasks to accomplish. It doesn't matter if you are a CEO, an entrepreneur, or a pee-wee soccer coach; there are two jobs that you need to excel at to succeed. First, you have to make decisions. Then, you have to get people to execute on those decisions. How Do Leaders Move People? That's it. That's leadership in a nutshell. It sounds simple because it is. When you get to the heart of all the strategy sessions and brainstorming and committee meetings, that's what a leader does: decides what to do and gets the members of the organization to do it. The art and science of doing these two … [Read more...]
3 Questions to Ask Before Solving ANY Problem
A while back, I heard a stand-up comedian talk about the 3 questions you should always ask before you tell your significant other anything: Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said right now? Does this need to be said right now by me? The joke works because many of us don't think before we speak and act. (These questions are also great to ask in professional relationships, but that's for another article.) Solve Business Problems Intentionally A place you can see this lack of forethought in the business world is the rapid-fire manner in which entrepreneurs and business owners solve problems. For those … [Read more...]