Inaugural workshop group in the Bay Area. Photo: Eugene Chan

I am just settling down to recap the first leg of my book tour and workshops in the Bay Area and Portland. I had two amazing groups of warm, supportive and hard-working participants who taught me more than a few things about the concepts covered in my book.

Here are some things I learned while on the road:

Lesson 1:  We need each other

Even though we had large groups in each location, I asked everyone to introduce themselves and give a short summary of their situation so that we got a sense of the different life and business issues in the room.  I knew that by doing so, people could talk at the breaks and hopefully forge a connection that could continue well past the workshop.

I was amazed at the stories, and the variety of life situations. Some people were happily employed but considering alternatives for the longer-term.  Others had quit their jobs already and were hot and heavy in the development of their businesses. And in the case of Portland, we had some really seasoned entrepreneurs like Chris Guillebeau, JD Roth, Tim Berry, Mark Silver and  Matthew Scott who lent their perspective and experience to the group.

I could feel the warmth and support in the room, and was reminded that it is so isolating and scary to make a big life change by yourself.

And as a business owner, I looked around the room with profound gratitude that all these people were paying me their hard earned money to do the work that matters most to me.  Sitting behind a computer all day, I can get lost in my to-do list, and forget how totally amazing it is to be in a position to solve problems that I care about, and serve amazing, courageous and smart clients.

Me and the amazing Lisa Chu. Photo by Eugene Chan.

Lesson 2: Watching someone who has confronted fears and limitations is humbling.

Our first workshop was hosted at The Music Within Us, a music school started by former doctor and entrepreneur Lisa Chu.  I was intrigued by her business when she first contacted me about sharing her space for the event, but was unprepared for the power of her personal story.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she was raised with high expectations in her family, and worked extremely hard to meet social expectations of success. She trained violin from the age of 4, got in Harvard, completed medical school, and worked in a high-powered VC firm.

Then, listening to her heart, she moved across country, and opened a music school for children.

She was so clear about her choices, and committed to living life fully that I was moved to tears. It is really amazing to be in the presence of someone who has fears just like anyone and feels societal pressure, but acts anyway.  Lisa, thanks for your generosity and courage. It was very inspiring to me, and I know it was for everyone else in the room.

Read Lisa’s story from her perspective here.

Lesson 3: You will miss opportunities by serving a chunk of hamburger to a goat cheese market.

I have not been to Portland since college. Since I have lots of friends there, I was really excited about going.

From the moment I stepped off the plane, I could feel the healthy vibe. The people walked at a casual and relaxed pace, and bike riders filled the roads.

We held the workshop at the lovely Kennedy School, per my dear friend Mark Silver’s suggestion, and it was a cool, funky and creative space.

For dinner, I was invited to Chris Guillebeau’s house where his wife Jolie made not only a fantastically delicious vegetarian dinner, but served hors-d’oevres that were made with organic goat cheese, balsamic vinegar and hand-picked strawberries.

As someone who gets excited when I remember to defrost a big chunk of hamburger for the family dinner, I was flabbergasted by the care that went into preparing a healthy meal featuring local, in-season ingredients.

And it occurred to me: how often do we market frozen chunks of hamburger to goat cheese with hand-picked strawberries clients?

There are tremendous regional differences in this great country (and globe) of ours, and paying special attention to the needs of a specific market makes a lot of business sense.

Participant impressions

I forgot to share my Flipcam with everyone, but did get a few impressions  from Bay Area participants Jenny Blake and Vonnie and Eugene Chan:

Summary

Thank you SO much Bay Area and Portland for your generosity, hospitality and support. I am really excited to hear how your business plans develop.

Remaining Tour Dates and Locations

I have been adding some new cities based on local interest, so here is the latest list (click on date to get full details, and to register):

Seattle: July 10 (Still room, but need to register today)

Chicago: July 17

Washington DC: July 30

Charlotte: August 13

Atlanta: August 14

New York: September 12 (this is a joint workshop with Jonathan Fields - Career Renegade extraordinaire!)

London: Definitely mid-October, finalizing dates!

I am sitting in the Phoenix airport about to take off for the first leg of my book tour in Silicon Valley, CA  and Portland, Oregon.

I arrived at 4:30am since my husband dropped me off before work.  My flight takes off at 6:15am. The entrance to the departure curb was blocked off for maintenance, and by the time we realized it, I had to crawl over some barriers with my suitcase and drag my book-laden suitcases far down the sidewalk.

The police officer stationed at the blocked off entrance gave me an annoyed look. “Someone left you stranded, huh?” he said, as if I had been walking for three miles after my husband threw me out of the car.

I learned after passing through security that the Starbucks doesn’t open until 5:45am. I got three hours of sleep last night so I was more than grumpy to learn caffeine would not cross my lips for a full hour.

Since I had time to write a blog post, I was grasping for topics, but all I could think of were things like:

• Why mean people suck
• Why try to influence what you can’t change?
• Coffee revolutions around the world: withhold caffeine no more
• Sleep:  the working mother’s lust

Not exactly fodder to help you want to escape your cube or kick your business into high gear, is it?

Then, as if on command from Dora the Formerly Disgruntled Angel (she must exist, right?), I get this tweet from Daniel S. (@darosi on Twitter):

I felt a physical shift in my heart.  Love flooded in. My eyes got teary.  My mood totally changed.

For some reason, Daniel S. decided to share a kind thought right when I needed it.

His Twitter profile says:

I thrive on innovation and I’m committed to making this world a better place. Carpe Diem.

Thank you Daniel, you rock. You just made my world a better place today.

Now I will look for opportunities throughout my trip to show the same kindness as Daniel, by doing things like:

• Saying thank you often and sincerely
• Complimenting someone on a job well done
• Encouraging to my clients and students

Kindness is not a little thing.  It is not fluffy, unicorn and rainbow coachy stuff.

Kindness heals.

I highly recommend it.

It has been awhile since I have done an “open source coaching” post.  These have been some of my very favorite times on the blog, since the advice from my readers is so specific and supportive.

Past posts include:

The 23 year old ballplayer trapped in a cube and the follow up post with input from his mom

Relationship advice for an aspiring entrepreneur

This time around, my gentle reader is, in her words, trapped in a hellish situation and wants to find a way out.  Here is the gist, edited for confidentiality.

We decided that “Manic Mathilda” was an appropriate moniker, or just “Mathilda” for short.

Her message:

The axe has fallen here in my corner of Cubicle Nation. Twenty five people lost their jobs this morning.

I’m still here, and was just informed that yet another full-time job is being added to my plate. Plus, my direct report was axed, so her responsibilities are now mine too.

So I now have three official, stated, known full-time jobs. Yes, seriously.

I want to be focused on getting my new venture up and running so I can ESCAPE this place.

And now I have three full-time jobs. Plus, my Significant Other is away now and I have that annoying perfectionist in my head telling me I’m going to fail at everything because there’s no way to get everything done perfectly.

I really want to kill that little perfectionist in my head. But I’ve heard that self-inflicted brain surgery is generally a bad idea, resulting in coma and/or death.

Big breath.

Damn.

My immediate suggestion was to push back on taking on three people’s jobs, since that would be physically impossible.  She said that she had talked to her manager, who told her it was going to be necessary to work 60-80 hour weeks for awhile.  This did not sit well.

What is your best advice for Mathilda? She is not in a financial situation where she can go without working, and her budding business idea will still take some work to get up and profitable.

Bring it on smart readers, your best thinking is much appreciated!

Congratulations!  Making it through four or five years of college requires concentration, stamina and discipline and you should feel very proud of yourself. I am proud of you.

I imagine you have been getting looks of pity from friends and relatives since you are graduating in one of the bleakest economic climates since the Great Depression.

Here is the good news:  there is no need to worry.

Living with constraints and challenges is one of the best learning opportunities you will ever get. By succeeding in a tough economy, you will be much better prepared for life than peers who graduate with offer letters waived under their noses the moment they cross the stage to collect their diploma.  Constraints breed creativity. Creativity is the single most useful skill you will ever develop.

Here is my advice to you, based on thirteen years working in and studying career development, learning, human behavior and performance inside and outside of corporations:

1. There is no perfect job.
   I am so sorry if you agonized over choosing a major.  It must have been really hard to decide the subject matter to specialize in that would prepare you for a fruitful career.  So here is the good and bad news. Bad news:  you may not work in a field that has anything to do with your major.  Good news: just as there is no perfect major, there is no perfect job.  As soon as you settle in to the perfect situation, it will change, your manager will leave, your company will be acquired, or you will be promoted and everything you loved about your job will change. A much better way to view your career is by observing the kind of work that interests you. Which activities energize you? What kind of people bring out the best in you?  If you view your interests and and skills as ingredients searching for a recipe instead of searching for the perfect job, you will be much happier over the course of your life.
2. You are always self-employed, no matter your tax designation.
   The job market today is radically different than that of your parent’s generation. No job is guaranteed, and no company can promise stability.  So the best way to create long-term income security is to manage your career at all times as if you were self-employed. If you take a job as an employee, do not ever put your career in the hands of a manager or mentor. Always be looking around for ways to make yourself valuable to the company, and your company’s customers. Always stay connected to the job market at large. If you work for yourself, never close the door on work as an employee, since if you run into a rough patch, you may need to be your own venture capitalist for awhile until things straighten out in your own business. There is no inherent stability in working for a company and no inherent glamor in working for yourself. Both are viable ways to make a living.
3. Don’t be afraid to skip a step.
   Many people will give you advice that you must stay in one position for a set number of years in order to ready yourself for a certain responsibility or opportunity. The people I consider the most successful (by my definition which includes enjoying their work, earning a good living, feeling happy and accomplishing lots of life goals) do not wait for permission from anyone to pursue opportunities. I encourage you to become familiar with young entrepreneurs like Shama Hyder who is on her third successful business at 24, Ben Casnocha who started a company and wrote a book before starting college and Ramit Sethi who has co-founded  a successful company, positioned himself as a personal finance expert and written a best-selling book at age 26.  You don’t have to follow their path as entrepreneurs, but you would be wise to channel their self-confidence and ability to brush off older naysayers.
4. Don’t chase the market.
   One of the biggest regrets I hear from 40-something coaching clients is following a career path that they did not feel passionate about, but that was “practical” and “paid the bills.” Many find that their early career choices set in motion a highly pragmatic but intensely unsatisfying work life. Instead, follow the kinds of things you are really passionate about.   Brett Farmiloe and his college friends, disheartened by their first corporate jobs, took off across the country to interview people passionate about their careers. Their  Pursue the Passion project allowed them to interview hundreds of fun, enthusiastic people, and landed Brett a prime job as Social Media Manager for Jobing.com.
5. Fast, free and scrappy wins the race.
   The best way to build a career or a business is to test and try a lot of things.  If you spend too much time in the planning stages, opportunities pass you by.  You may be a really good student and pride yourself on graduating at the top of your class. This is a great accomplishment. It might also get in your way, if you worry that every project you undertake must be perfectly executed, or you will consider yourself a failure. Instead, get used to testing often and failing fast. If things don’t turn out as planned, instead of asking “Why me?” ask “What happened?” or “How could I improve that next time?” The pace of work is so fast, and the tools of technology are so adaptable, that the people who are able to work quickly, creatively and flexibly will be the most valued in the market.
6. Trust your body.
   You may feel confused about which decision to make or which direction to take in your new career.  You may lie awake at night weighing options and evaluating the merits of each choice.  As your brain works hard, your body is quietly sitting there with tons of relevant information. In fact, it probably holds the best answer for you if you just listen to it. Here is a trick: remember a great moment in your life, and notice how you felt in your body. Then remember a horrible time in your life, and notice how you felt in your body. Now think about each of your career choices. How does each feel in your body? The more you trust your body’s responses, the better decisions you will make. Listen to an interview with my coaching mentor Martha Beck for some more clues to how your left toe holds the clue to your right life.
7. Be generous.
   When I was in my twenties and thirties, older mentors in the corporate world (most of them male) told me that I was too nice for my own good. “You have to learn how to be more tough if you want to get by in the business world,” they said.  I have no problem being strong, or working hard, but I never considered that being kind and generous was synonymous with a limp career.  Here is the good news: being kind, generous and authentic is now seen as a brilliant career strategy.  It helped me gather the world’s kindest community of blog readers and clients around me, attracted a book deal from a major New York publisher, and, most importantly, makes me feel proud to show my kids how I work.
8. Relax.
   Your life is not a race.  You have plenty of time to experiment and figure out what interests you.  You should travel.  Volunteer.  Try really out really different kinds of jobs and see what lights your fire. There is not a universal timeline for figuring things out, although many will tell you there is. The real questions to ask yourself as you cruise through life are: Are you happy? Are you learning? Are you contributing something positive to the world? Are you interested in others? Are you enthusiastic? Learning how to slow down and enjoy the present is a wonderful gift to yourself, and will help you produce really high quality work.
9. Work your tail off.
   I just said to relax.  But I didn’t mean be lethargic and lazy.  If you are sleeping on your parent’s couch and eating Flaming Hot Cheetos all day, that is not relaxing, that is copping out. If you don’t have an income stream coming in right now, find something worthwhile to do. Use your hands and build something. Take on a big challenge at your local community center. Build a website. Start a blog.  Seth Godin has some more specific suggestions. I encourage you to listen to him; he is one of the most creative, productive and hard-working people I know.
10. Don’t try to do things on your own.
    Rugged individualism is highly overrated. By trying to do everything yourself, you will take longer, produce worse results, feel isolated and have fewer exciting experiences. Instead, build on your current network. Stay in touch with classmates, professors and old bosses. Fill your life with all kinds of smart, interesting and compassionate people. Aim to have peers and mentors of all ages, professions and backgrounds. The more diverse your network, the more opportunities will come your way. Us old folks think that you are the social networking generation, so leverage Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to maximum advantage. Ask for help and help others, and watch your career thrive.

Like any advice you receive, you are welcome to ignore mine. Your own instinct is your best guide, and will not fail you.

Enjoy your journey, and thanks for listening.

“Help me Pam. I am totally scared. Call me.”

“What’s going on?” I said.

“I just got asked to take on a big project and I am scared out of my mind” he replied.

• Will learning this skill or gaining this experience make me happier, more employable, faster, stronger or generally more capable, regardless of the specific outcome of this project?
• Does this experience relate to my strategic plans, personal values or areas of interest?
• Is there another better way I could learn these things without engaging in this project?
• Is the money I would make doing this project (or taking on promotion) worth the strain and stress?
• And if you have concerns that the person you will be working for is a tyrant or a diva: Do I have strong enough personal boundaries to not end up crouched in the fetal position on my living room floor every night after work?

• How could I make this task better? (add chocolate, partner with someone, do it while listening to your favorite music, think about it differently)
• What could I barter or negotiate to make this feel better? (”I would be happy to do the strategic planning part of the project Joe, but when we get to the nitty gritty details of putting a project plan together, could you do that part?”)
• What could I bag to make this feel better? (I am happy to take on this new initiative, Mr. Senior V.P, but in doing so, this will mean that I will need to take the reorganization project off my plate.”)

• When you are in a situation with a huge amount of challenge and little mastery (Panic Zone), you feel out of control and afraid.
• When you are in a situation with little challenge and a lot of mastery (Drone Zone), you feel bored.
• When you are in a situation that is very challenging but you have the right amount of support (Flow Zone), you feel alert and alive, in the flow.

So if you are in the panic zone, the quickest way out of it is to master some skills or knowledge.

I sometimes have a flair for the dramatic when talking about important business building ideas.  I am dead serious about this one:

The topic of this call is the secret to the universe, and will radically alter the course of your destiny if you apply it.

What I mean by “secret to the universe*” is that when you build strong mentoring relationships with people who are deeply committed to your personal and professional success, you are propelled faster towards the things you want to accomplish in life than any other single thing you do.

Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone, just released a new book called Who’s Got Your Back which gives detailed instructions for how to build your own circle of trusted advisors, mentors and colleagues.

I am really excited about the book, since I think it provides great background for people who know they want to expand their network, but feel awkward or overwhelmed doing it.

Tomorrow, June 11 at 3pm EST (12pm Pacific/1pm Mountain/2pm Central) I will be a guest panelist on a free call hosted by Author Teleseminars founder Elizabeth Marshall along with Keith Ferrazzi and best-selling author Daniel Pink (Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko).

You can sign up for our free teleseminar here.

Buy the book here, and if you want to invest in 3 copies, check out some cool free bonuses here.

If you can’t make it, sign up anyway, we will record the call and share it afterward.

I am really excited about the conversation, since I know that each of us will provide a little different perspective from our own personal journeys, as well as our work with clients.

*P.S. There are certainly other very important things secrets to the universe like which will be the last bug standing after an alien attack and what really happens when we die or did Valerie Bertinelli get plastic surgery or does she just look smoking hot after eating Jenny Craig. These will not be addressed in this book, or the seminar, so if you find out the answers, please let me know.

For those of you who have not been following my updates on Twitter, I wanted to let you know that I have finalized details for a live one-day workshop in a number of cities across the U.S.  Registrations are pouring in, and I am beyond excited to meet many of you in person in your home town.

Here are the dates and locations so far, with links to pages with detailed information and registration instructions:

Bay Area (Mountain View), California:
Thursday, June 25 - Details here

Portland, Oregon:
Friday, June 26 - Details here (special guest mini-workshop on business planning by the Obi Wan Kenobi of business plans Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software)

Seattle, Washington:
Friday, July 10 - Details here

Chicago, Illinois:
Friday, July 17 - Details here (special guest mini-workshop on branding by the insanely talented, funny and sharp Colleen Wainwright, aka The Communicatrix)

Washington, D.C.
Thursday, July 30 - Details here

I am still working on final details for a joint workshop in New York City with Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade.  Look for dates and details soon.

And the following cities are looking good for future workshops:

Charlotte, North Carolina
Denver/Boulder, Colorado
Dallas, Texas
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Detroit, Michigan
Los Angeles, California
London, England (believe it or not, this will be a stopover for a large presentation I will be doing in Estonia in October. If it is London, you know I will have to coax the sassy Ittybiz from her lair to join me!)

I would love to hear your suggestions for other locations!

And see you soon!

photo credit: Jenny “The Bloggess” Lawson

Of all the places I thought this blog might take me, the last would be aboard an aircraft carrier.

That is exactly where I ended up last weekend, invited by Guy Kawasaki as part of a bloggers embark hosted by the US Navy aboard the USS Nimitz, stationed off the coast of San Diego.

I went because I was totally fascinated to learn about the lives of people on board.  While I have known friends who have served in the military like my good buddy Matthew Scott, I have never seen military life up close.  My Dad served in the Army in Germany in the 1950’s, and the only story I remember my Mom telling me about it was that his superior was too strict to let him off duty when my Mom went into labor, so she had to hitchhike to the hospital.

The time on board the carrier was extremely well-documented in pictures by my blogger compatriots like Guy Kawasaki (who did a detailed recap of the journey. During the trip, I didn’t see him write down one note, so I am convinced that he either has a photographic memory or he tracked us with a satellite recorder) and Robert Scoble who took some amazing photos.

Jenny “The Bloggess” brought her signature hilarious wit and occasional potty mouth to the tour. If you don’t think it is possible to make a sailor blush, you have not traveled with The Bloggess.

Besides learning an enormous amount about the complexity of operations on a huge ship, I was struck by the following themes of work/life for the 5,000 people aboard:

FEAR

photo credit: Robert Scoble.

Watching the complex dance of highly-trained crew getting the jets ready for take-off and landing was nerve-wracking.  There were so many ways to get injured, blown off the deck, crushed by a high-powered jet, or, as our host on the flight deck told us, have your legs broken by the enormous chains that catch the landing jets. And that was just for crew on the deck.

The pilots I spoke with clued me into the extreme danger of their job.  Retired pilot and blogger Carroll “Lex” LeFon was kind enough to answer my incessant stream of very personal questions throughout the tour. I asked him what it was like to land a jet at night in the pitch black, guided only by a tiny light and trust in the navigation instruments on the plane. He said:

“Every single time I would approach the deck at night, I would think ‘This is totally impossible. There is no way I can do this. Then I would do it.”

I asked him what advice he would give my clients and blog readers, aspiring entrepreneurs who sometimes feel consumed by fear when quitting their jobs and starting a business.

“What helped me was to think about people that I knew who had the same qualifications as me, or even less, and were succeeding. Then I could tell myself ‘look, if he can do it, I can do it’ and it would bolster my confidence.  I also thought of people I really admired, and pushed myself to be more like them.”

A larger question about fear brewed in my mind as I talked to Lex: “why the hell would you do a job that scared you to death for 20 years?”  But that was answered without being asked when Lex told me that daytime takeoffs and landings were like “government sponsored crack habits” they were so exciting.

FAMILY

Ever single crew member I spoke with said that family life was really challenging. Not only were jobs dangerous and hours long, but the constant moving around and long deployments really put a strain on relationships and was hard on kids. Pilots seemed to have an unusually high divorce rate.  Those that had intact marriages said that it was a result of extremely strong and understanding spouses who fully realized what they were getting into when they married someone in the military.

I tried to imagine what it would be like to be the female pilot we sat with at lunch who had two children aged 1 and 3, and who will soon be deploying to a potentially dangerous part of the world for six months.  I get choked up just thinking about it.  I cannot imagine the sacrifice made by the families, and I feel for every person on board who has to say excruciating goodbyes each time they embark on a long trip.

photo credit:  Guy Kawasaki

CAREER

I spoke with many young men and women who had an extremely long-term view of their career at a very young age.  Some who were as young as 22 said ‘I plan on staying for the next 18 years, then will figure out the next phase of my career after I am eligible for retirement.”

Contrast this with the experience of many twenty-somethings in the mainstream job market who change companies and careers every year or two.

When I met a personnel officer, I asked him what happened to someone who realized early on in their initial tour of duty that they had made the wrong career choice.

“Well, they don’t really have another option but to stay and make it work,” he said.

“If someone is really unhappy, we pool all our resources to help them, and try to figure out what is going on to make them want to leave. Sometimes there are things going on at home that are really distracting.  We try to help as much as we can, but in the end, it is their responsibility to follow through with it.”

The retirement eligibility after twenty years of service brings up another very interesting career dilemma.

For those who join the service at a young age and serve twenty years, they retire in their early 40’s, with a couple of decades of productive work ahead of them.  This opens up so many possibilities, but I imagine it could also bring up some challenges.  Would they want to enter the corporate workforce? Start a business?

Either option is a bit daunting. How would you ever get used to a cubicle after flying jets for a living?  And how would you get used to the scrappy, self-directed entrepreneurial life after spending twenty years taking orders from superiors?

Both quandaries sound like perfect opportunities for enterprising coaches.

Lieutenant Sam “Freak Show” Kessler. Photo by Guy Kawasaki.

FOCUS

The week before we came, a helicopter from the USS Nimitz that was on a training mission crashed and all five people on board were killed. This weighed on me each time I watched a jet take off from the deck of the carrier, since I realized that all aboard (and those around them) were putting their lives at risk each minute they did their job.  I couldn’t help but flash on life in comfortable cubicles, where the most dangerous injury (besides florescent-light-induced depression) was a paper cut.  What would it be like to get up the morning after losing a dear friend (as many that we talked to had) and get right back to work?

Resident “shooter”Sam Kessler told us that you had to quickly learn how to compartmentalize your feelings. “We do the best we can to provide support at the moment of an accident.  Then people need to get back to work, because it is imperative that they are able to manage really difficult emotions and still do their jobs. Lives depend on it.”

My heart goes out to those sailors close to the crew lost in the accident, and all the families affected.

photo credit:  Guy Kawasaki

Overall, the trip was an amazing experience.  I appreciated being able to glimpse into the lives of some very dedicated and hard-working people, and expanding my understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of a large military operation. War sucks.  I hope no one we met has to experience it up close, since I know their families want them home safe and sound after their tour of duty.

Thank you so much to our hosts for allowing us open access to the ship, and for bringing us back safely to shore after a thrilling launch off the flight deck.

See write-ups and/or pictures of the trip from some of the other bloggers here:

Guy Kawasaki
Robert Scoble
Jenny “The Bloggess”
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Van Grove who wrote two posts: Prelude and In the Mist
Carroll “Lex” LaFon (Retired Navy Pilot)
Andrew Nystrom (The LA Times)
Andy Sernovitz
Beth Blecherman (Techmama)
Bill Reichart (Garage Technology Ventures)
Chris Pirillo (who attended a day later than our group)

Other bloggers and authors on the trip:

Jefferson Wagner
Charlene Li
Jen Leo (The LA Times)

UNEXPECTED INSIGHT

Most times I hang out with bloggers, everyone is busy wrangling laptops, cellphones and PDAs.  On this trip, we were told that if we turned on our iPhones on the flight deck, they would fry.  So for 24 hours, we were completely disconnected from the Internet, focused in the present, and communicating via old-school conversation.  It was a refreshing change, and it reinforced my theory that the best way to recharge creatively is to engage in an experience that is as far from your day-to-day life as possible.

Ever since I read Sonia Simone’s Is Your Tribe Holding Your Down? post on Copyblogger, I have been fascinated to learn more about the “third way” marketing approach which takes all the good “tribe building” skills which Sonia says the Cool Kids have (many of whom are broke) and the “actually make money from your business” knowledge known by internet marketers (many of whom are rich but can verge on morally corrupt).

As I move forward marketing new programs and services in my own business, one thing has become clear to me:  it is incredibly difficult to strike a perfect balance between sharing information openly, without a tremendous amount of hype, and at the same time, using ethical means of persuasion that help people make a decision to buy.

In my moments of agony, as I imagine all the terrible things that will happen to me if I use a red headline in a sales letter, a quiet voice persists:  By doing the same things you have always done, you will never experience true growth.  Not only financial growth, but personal growth.

I think we are at a very interesting time in small business history where we have both an urgent need to implement business models that work (due to the economy) and an intense aversion for palm tree/fast cars/get-rich-quick sales letters that promise instant fortune with little effort.

When I attended South by Southwest Interactive Festival this year, I spent time with both Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz (who was one of a fabulous band of roommates) and Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communications and Copyblogger.  I came away from a series of conversations with them convinced that if any two people could figure out an intelligent path through the “poetry vs. cold commerce” chaos of online marketing that they could.  Naomi makes me laugh so hard my sides hurt.  And she is brutally pragmatic and honest about small business, which I appreciate very much.  Sonia has an amazing way of wading into the snake-laden pits of hardcore internet marketing and bringing back gems of useful information.

So I was happy to hear that they created a new program called Marketing for Nice People that is basically small little tweaks which, when implemented, can double your business.

This resonates with me because I have experienced it in my own business.

As a small example, when I used to offer only an hourly rate for coaching, I would have to talk to quite a few qualified prospects to get someone to commit to signing up.  As soon as I switched to coaching packages (bundles of hours), my conversion rate improved dramatically.  Not because I changed my approach to coaching, or implemented a magic technique, but rather because I made it easier for my prospects to buy what I was selling.

So if you relate to their target market description which is:

You’re far enough along in your business that you’ve already done a lot of work. But it’s not quite there yet.

You’re seeing a response, but it wasn’t the response you were hoping for. You need to do better. You’re pretty sure you can do better. But you’re not sure exactly, um, how.

Here is what is covered, directly from their sales letter:

Get more people in the door

More traffic, more eyeballs, more attention. You can do everything else perfectly, but if no one shows up to see what you’ve got, nothing else works. That’s why this is Week 1 in the course. (Remember, you don’t need a FLOOD of new traffic. You just need to take things from, say, 100 new visitors a week to 112. Sound workable?)

Turn more prospects into paying customers

If a million people visit your site and none of them buy, that’s not really any fun at all. This class will be very nuts and bolts. Conversion’s one of the most important things you can learn, and fortunately it’s also one of the most straightforward.

So let’s say you’re converting 10% of visitors into buyers. We just need to bump that to 11 or 12%. Not scary.

Make more money per sale

So your average sale right now is $20. Think you could increase that to $23? Yeah, so do we. We’ll give some specific strategies.

Throw less time away

This one gets a little scary, but we’ve got you covered. Trust us, this is not about becoming some kind of freakish productivity superman. This is about, if you have 4 decent hours of work in you a day, maybe nudging that to 4 1/2.

Or even better, getting 4 1/2 hours’ worth of work, without spending any more time.

After the sale

Tons of opportunity here. The only hard part will be limiting your repeat and referral business to just a 12.5% increase. I’m not even kidding.

Creating more love

A better bond with your customers, a stronger relationship, the kind of crazed loyalty that means your people won’t even think of wandering off.

It can be tricky to measure, but it’s not hard to do. (And doing business this way is about a zillion times more fun.) Tons of ideas for how you can be a hero to your customers without exhausting yourself or cutting your prices to Wal*Mart levels.

Personally, I am totally excited that they have put this program together.  I trust them. I need to learn all about tweaking so I can be of better service to my clients who are launching businesses, but who don’t want to feel like sleazeballs.

If this sounds good to you, you don’t have a lot of time to dilly-dolly.  The program closes at the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday, May 26), or as soon as they reach 500 registrants, whichever comes first.

Learn more about the program here*:

Here is what I think about investing money in an educational program:  when you give someone your money, make sure you can get it back, many times over. This is what is referred to as return on investment, or value proposition.  Information products such as these only work when you actually listen to the information and apply it.  I think they have designed a program that will really make a difference for the right business owner.

*I used an affiliate link since Naomi told me she would physically twist my ears if I didn’t start to use them with people I trust.   Joking aside, I feel great about recommending Naomi and Sonia.

My love of books goes back to when I was about three years old.

As soon as I could form the sentence “I want to go to the library,” my Mom or Dad would take me every week to get a new stack of books.  I remember the smell as I entered the San Anselmo library and strolled through the aisles.  My senses tingled as I saw new stories, and I would have to negotiate with my parents about how many I could carry home in a given week.

This love stayed with me my entire life.  Picture books turned into Miss Piggle-Wiggle, then the Chronicles of Narnia, then books about world mythology, then school books, then a phase of intellectual books to convince myself that I was smart like The Archeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault (it didn’t work; I would have to temper my pain at reading one chapter by reading People Magazine for a few minutes).

About fifteen years ago, I fell in love with business books and have never looked back.  I never tire of reading new ideas and insights for how to start and run a business.

But the volume is overwhelming.

Todd Sattersten, President of 800CEORead, co-authored a book with Jack Covert called The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

I jumped on the chance to talk with him about the book, since I was really fascinated to understand the process by which they selected the very best business books.

As an author, I was excited to learn the criteria they developed to select one hundred books from the hundreds of thousands in the business category. The criteria were:

1. Accessibility: Is the book understandable, easy to read, engaging?
2. Applicability: Does it apply to today’s business environment?
3. Quality of Idea: Would we do this in our own business?

Favorite quotes from the podcast:

Listen and learn! The podcast interview is here.

And get your copy of the book here.  This one is a definite keeper.