Today I picked up the book, The Art of Extreme Self Care by Cheryl Richardson [link: books by Cheryl] and I already got value from the introduction!

Shout out to Ellen Brown (Her Site, Blog, Twitter) who is a Certified Professional Coach and tipped me off to The Art of Extreme Self Care.

I have decided to blog about  my self-care journey to hold myself accountable and share what I’m learning. If you happen to get value out of my sharing that’s cool but I have to warn you that my first objective is to look after myself.

Feels really good and kind of “selfish” to say that.

I have zero expectations of getting comments or tweets as a result, if they happen then that’s cool. Please don’t feel obligated to comment unless you have a personal insight, your own learning to share or something I shared resonated with you – that would be really supportive and appreciated!

Now onto Chapter 1!

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The left could be the mindset of a Go Giver and the right a Go Getter.

Valuing instead of Exploitive
Serving instead of Ambitious
Natural instead of Artificial
Giving instead of Wanting
Supporting instead of Telling
Listening instead of Selling
Compassion instead of Judgement
Kindness instead of Changing

Which side best captures your current mindset?

If you had your choice, who would you rather have as a friend or do business with?

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Courtesy Wikipedia.org

Elmer would never leave Bugs Bunny alone, he was always chasing that “wascally wabbit”.

Do you struggle leaving your Twitter account “alone”?

I think Twitter is my Elmer Fudd, I just get settled down to work and some Tweet, DM or @ reply needs my attention. Good problem to have you might muse, I get that however, I am going to stop chasing Elmer.

Twitter is great and I love it.

Perhaps, I’m weak or need a priority extreme makeover. It’s a real challenge to leave it alone. In the beginning I was pushing to get more followers to my Twitter account…

Yes, I had the “Twitter Success Syndrome” a.k.a “I gotta git me some more followers.”

That approach doesn’t work. The reason is doesn’t work is because it starts with “getting” people. I don’t know about you but I don’t want anyone “getting” or capturing me.

Software tools that automate following others which if you play the odds will get you more followers. Sofware doesn’t solve the problem of being “interesting” and I think we naturally follow interesting people.

What do you folks think?

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I think we need to learn to approach marketing and the way we think about doing business differently. It’s the “little” bit that will make a huge difference, should you connect with the ball.

Who do you think should be your focus in a Word of Mouth (WOM) campaign? Loyal customers or non-loyal customers? My natural inclination would be to focus efforts of the most loyal customers. Think again.

In a highly connected world we need to start looking at counterintuitive ideas to grow our businesses.

In reality, additional WOM from that group will have the least impact on your sales because those people likely already told their networks about how good you are. It’s the WOM from non-loyal customers and prospects, those who have not informed their network about you (or may not even know you yet) that will have the highest impact on sales. When you think about it that way it makes just as much sense as Peter Drucker saying that most firms should focus their new product innovation on non-customers since 70% of all customers that will be needed to ensure a firm’s future revenue are not currently customers..

You don’t buy it? Well fortunately there are a couple of studies by David Godes and Dina Mayzlin that prove this point. Via Emergence Marketing

It’s time to start thinking about WOM marketing differently. Every customer can create buzz and a flurry of WOM these days. Therefore the person who has the opportunity to bring the greatest impact on your WOM campaign is the least loyal. The non-loyal hold the greatest potential to be converted into fans. When they do have a great experience doing business with you they tell the world – today that is easier than ever.

Watch for the outliers, those customers who are not main stream or outsiders – invest in and develop processes, strategies and systems to serve them. You’re likely to discover your businesses next greatest fan.

Oh, it will likely have the greatest impact on your sales and profits.

Contrarian and counterintuitive.

Update: shout out to @ChrisBailey and @mymerman for pointing out the offensive baseball strategy to play “small ball” i.e. get runners on base and ins scoring position as a winning strategy. Counterintuitive.

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First of a four part series on collaboration. If you are so inclined or missed my prequel… “Seven Tips for Conscious Constructive Confrontation Within Collaborative Teams” you can read it here.

I thought it was about time I wrote something about collaboration. This is after all the Collaborating Entrepreneur!

Collaboration is something I think each and everyone of us do every day. For example, when we asked someone how to do something or what they might recommend in this situation-that’s collaboration.

Today’s article is about putting some structure around intentional and results oriented collaboration. The four elements that make up this model of collaboration are:

1. Communication
2. Curiosity
3. Attention
4. Fabricate

Everything Starts With Communication

Communication is something we do every day and that’s the reason I think we tend to take for granted but it is not something we want to take for granted especially when we are collaborating with others.

Feedback Loop: the purpose of the feedback loop is to put some structure into your collaboration communications. We want to answer some basic questions in our feedback loop.

• Are my intentions being understood by others?
• Are we in alignment with our goals and approach to getting this done?

These are just a few questions that you can use to add some structure and create your own feedback loop.

Effective Meetings: whether you’re meeting face-to-face or on the telephone or online and effective meeting is one where everybody is on the same page. We all know what we’re trying to accomplish and why we are having this meeting. That said, effective conversations begin by getting clear about your intentions and what specifically you want to communicate or get across to your fellow collaborators. Take time to identify what you hope to accomplish in your communication.

The Three Amigos: when it comes to collaboration the three amigos are who, what, and when. These are the three ingredients to effective communication when you are working with others in a collaborative environment. It will help everyone to understand who is responsible and for what and when is it due?

What are your favourite communication tactics? What has been your experience with communication in collaborative situations? What works? What could be better?

Greg Balanko-Dickson, The Collaborating Entrepreneur

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Perhaps this will wake up the execs not to be so flippant about privacy, yes that includes you Eric Schimdt! According to Reuters…

…a Milan court has convicted three Google Inc executives for the 2006 transmission of a video showing the bullying of a youth with Down’s syndrome, the judge in the case told Reuters on Wednesday…The case stems from an incident in 2006 when students at an Italian school filmed and then uploaded a clip to Google Video showing them bullying a schoolmate with Down’s syndrome.

You can read more about it over at Marketing Pilgrim.

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Although we can’t say how this will change over time, at the moment the older generations are for one reason or another (tech savvy, interest, etc.) not using social networking sites to a large extent. This probably reflects general internet usage, but we suspect the difference is enhanced when it comes to the social media sphere where site usage tends to be more frequent and time-consuming than usual. Via Study: Ages of social network users

Although they say “at the moment the older generations are for one reason or another (tech savvy, interest, etc.) not using social networking sites” they do not define what they mean by “older”.

Take a look over there and see if your “market” is involved in social media and which platform. That will answer the question, “Should I get involved in social networking and which platform?”

A few observations from their report:

• The average social network user is 37 years old.
• LinkedIn, with its business focus, has a predictably high average user age; 44.
• The average Twitter user is 39 years old.
• The average Facebook user is 38 years old.
• The average MySpace user is 31 years old.
• Bebo has by far the youngest users, as witnessed earlier, with an average age of 28.

Photo from Pingdom: Ages of social network users

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It’s a friendfeed like stream of posts (Buzz) and Google Reader shared items within your Google Account. You can see what I am Buzz’ing about at my Google Profile.

Here are 12 great tips on using Google Buzz. I have figured out how to post my Buzz entries on Twitter, I am spending much less time on Twitter now. Plus I am meeting a whole bunch of new people, what’s not to love about that?

Note: you can also click the Buzz button if you have a gmail account to see it in action.

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Down the street is a little coffee shop, Modern: (cof:fee). Tiny but clean and friendly. Plus they make great lattes and have a cinnamon roll to die for. I walk every morning to Modern and walk right past the hotel restaurant.

This morning the owner of the restaurant was in the lobby talking to the hotel clerk. She looked at me with a puzzled look, then smiled. I passed her and looked back into the mirror in front of me, I could see her reflection In the mirror in front of me, when she thought I was out of sight her expression changed from a smile to a frown, it was like she was asking herself a question,” Why don’t he come back?”

Lack of quality cannot be overcome with a smile and good intentions, its consistent quality that overcome lack of friendliness anyway.

Greg Balanko-Dickson
1-866-281-8281
http://collaboratingentrepreneur.com

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I’ve been thinking a lot about what drives me and other entrepreneurs. I’ve also been thinking about how important social media has become in the last few years. It’s fascinating to me that social networks are all the rage now because entrepreneurs have been building community since time in memorial.

So what’s changed?

Maybe Nothing, Perhaps Everything

I submit the need for social interaction and networking has always been important. Long before the Internet entrepreneurs have always found ways to network and support one another.

Could it be that what has really changed is how deeply we feel the need to connect with one another? That’s what we really seek and want is connection to one another, to making a difference and experiencing meaning in our lives. While making a living doing it.

My vision for CollaboratingEntrepreneur.com community is to develop a safe place for entrepreneurs to share their hopes and dreams. Where you find support in a group of like-minded entrepreneurs and business owners. People who are and have traveled a similar entrepreneurial journey.

To help you find your emerging voice.

My dear friend and Teen Entrepreneur Coach Shonika Proctor coined the term “Prompting The Emerging Voice“. She asserts that “entrepreneurship is a level of consciousness” and I agree. How else can we explain how ordinary people build businesses and their communities? Part of that consciousness and emerging voice is what happens when entrepreneurs start a business with a vision to create value – to undertake a great quest.

Who embarks on a great quest? People like you!

It’s entrepreneurs stare fear in the eye and pressed ahead anyways. They declare their intentions to the world and hang it all out there for the world to see. Who put it all on the line for their customers and their community – I’d call that a great quest!

“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”– Theodore Roosevelt

What drives YOU?

I invite you to reach out, share and connect. (You can join CE here, no charge for awesome!) Here’s a few questions to help get the the conversation started…

• Has your need for connection and meaning changed?
• How does that drive or vision help you in your entrepreneurial venture?
• How do you know that you have the “right stuff”?
• How can this community support you in your journey?

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