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?
   

1. Why you need to unhook from the "gurus"
   
2. How your kids can push you to do your best work
3. Why it is important to think big about what you do and how you operate in the world
4. The benefits of collaboration vs. competition
   
5. Our shared passion for martial arts, and the connection with thinking big
   

1. How to build your own personal brand
2. Can you still build a strong personal brand if you are no longer a young whipper-snapper?
3. How to maintain focus on brand building in a busy life
   
4. How to start small and grow your visibility in national and global markets

1. Why you do need to practice to appear spontaneous
2. How your brain drives your body language which can make you lose credibility (or gain it) before you even open your mouth
   
3. The specific steps to build great trust and credibility with your audience
4. Why the "Tell em what you are going to tell em, tell em, tell em what you told em" presentation structure that has been the standard for years is totally wrong.  (I gulped a bit on that one, since I used to teach this)
5. How to structure the content of your presentation for maximum impact
6. Where to start if you are considering professional speaking as part of your business model or marketing strategy
   

Glad you asked Daniel!

In today's podcast, I talk with Michelle Goodman, author of the new book My So-Called Freelance Life.  It is chock-full of information for people who are considering freelancing on the side, or as a full-time pursuit. 

Michelle and I talk about all kinds of nuts and bolts questions about freelancing including:

• How in the world do you get your first client when you work full-time in a "real" job?
• Should you ever work for free to get started?
• How to you contract for work appropriately to avoid scope creep?
• Should you bother to list your services on the "bidding" sites like Elance or Guru?
• When can "competitors" be a great source of referrals for your business?

I think one of the best ways to test the waters of entrepreneurship, even if you are not ready to leave your job for a few years, is to do a freelance project.  Enjoy the conversation, and the book!

1. What is a personal board of directors
   
2. How to choose good members
3. How to make sure the relationship is mutually beneficial
4. How to get the most out of the mentoring relationship

A lot of our view of failure in popular American culture is romanticized.  The fact is, while you are failing, it feels really awful and does not become the enlightened lesson that you share until you have ten years perspective between you and the excruciating experience.

Author and speaker Barry Moltz addresses this topic in his most recent book called Bounce:  Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success.

He shares a lot of great insight into things like:

• How to view failure not as a deep lesson from above, but as an integral part of starting a business
• How to not stay stuck in emotional wallowing right after blowing it big
• How to make sure you are connected with why you are trying new things that sometimes lead to failure
• How to bounce quickly from failures so that you maintain a positive forward momentum and are able to accomplish your goals

In the podcast, I referenced the tremendous new e-book by my friend Jonathan Fields called The Firefly Manifesto.  This gives some great insight and tools for those folks who may have just been laid off, or who are working in unstable industries (which would be just about everyone these days!).

Owning up to my liberal arts major and rebellious roots, I didn't think I needed a "real" plan.  And, for the most part, I did fine for a decade, securing lots of clients and making a good living.

But honestly, I think that I was just not thinking about business planning the right way.  I imagined reams of paper, onerous spreadsheets and carefully crafted mission statements.  Yuck.

Now, Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and prolific blogger about all things startup, has come out with a new book called the Plan as You Go Business Plan.  Even though his company makes business planning software, Tim felt a bit frustrated by the perceived hurdle new entrepreneurs attributed to business plans.  When I asked him why most people didn't write them, he said:

"What people normally give me, Pam, is âYes, Iâm going to tomorrow,â or ânext month,â or âsix months from now.â  And then thereâs the variant on that: âYes, I really agree itâs stupid that we donât have a plan in this business and so-and-so has been promising to write it for years.â  So they the pass the buck.  Itâs funny because the drag, what weâre fighting is they have in their mind this huge marathon-like PhD thesis-like thing. I donât blame them sometimes for thinking, âNo, Iâm too busy.  I donât have time for that. Iâve got to run my business.â 

Instead of this perspective, Tim encourages you to think of business planning as a fun and critical part of your entrepreneurial journey.  He says:

âPlanning isnât about writing some ponderous homework assignment or dull business memo; itâs about envisioning the business that you want to create.  It should be fascinating to you.  What do people want, how are you going to get it to them, how are you different and what do you do better than anyone else?â

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Creating compelling content

1. Defining a goal for your blog
2. Securing an effective domain name
3. Choosing a blogging platform
4. Choosing a blog host
5. Measuring the success of your blog
6. Design basics

1. The Law of Value
   Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment
   
2. The Law of Compensation
   Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them
   
3. The Law of Influence
   Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people's interests first
   
4. The Law of Authenticity
   The most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself
   
5. The Law of Receptivity
   The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving
   

1. Create a successful blog
2. Define and own a particular niche
3. Develop a huge mailing list of devoted followers
4. Team up with great partners like Darren Rowse and Michael Port
5. Write a successful book (Blogwild)
6. Get mainstream press like the Wall St. Journal and USA Today

Gary has a really interesting story -- from dead broke desperate handyman to successful entrepreneur.

Over the last 15 years, he has interviewed hundreds of successful entrepreneurs to discover which skills are critical for starting and running a business.  Many are not what you think.

My favorite advice from the interview:  

"Find a problem.  Figure out how to solve the problem.  Find more people with the same problem and you have a business."

I like that Gary's views make me think.  I have been in "do what you love (and work and work and work and work) and the money will follow" mode for so long that the "problem/solution" model was very intriguing.

Despite what you may think of my opinion based on my blog's name, there are certainly times and places for a "job," rather than striking out on your own.  If you have to be your own venture capitalist for awhile, you might as well do it in an interesting profession!  The more time that goes on, the more I see that feelings of liberation erupt from your own positive thoughts and beliefs, no matter your work configuration.

I interviewed Alexandra for my podcast where we discussed not just the contents of her new book, but also what it is like to be a successful self-employed writer.  She gives some tips for choosing book topics that are not just interesting to write, but that may pique the interest of publishers.

1. Her own experience building both a coaching practice and a coaching business (there is a difference, which she explains!)
2. What she learned by launching The Entrepreneurial MD, a coaching business focused on helping physicians learn business skills, enhance their medical practices and start new businesses
3. They key questions to ask before launching a business
4. Realistic timeframes for getting your income flowing after launching your business
   

1. If you can make a  huge sum of money your first year in business, do it.  Don't let us or anyone else stop you.
2. Faster is not always better.  There are really great things that result from taking the time to plan and launch a business.  For people that have a lower tolerance for risk (financial and otherwise), slow and steady growth, sometimes on the side of a gig as an employee, can be a lot less scary and more rewarding than an all-or-nothing sprint for the finish line.  You learn a lot by doing and testing a lot of things.
   
3. If you think it is easy to make huge piles of money, you may want to test your assumptions.  Real world testing is the best ... launch a small product, do a consulting gig or two, try to get some new clients on the side of your day job.  I hope I am wrong and response #1 applies to you.  But I would rather you temper your optimism with realism than fall on your face and lose more than you need to.
   

1. My own frequent experiences with synchronicity
   
2. Some "rational" reasons why it may occur
   
3. Resounding encouragement to stop being so stuffy and embrace the benevolent forces of the universe on your way to creating a great business.
   

1. Making sales and marketing calls
2. Trying to crank out a first draft of a book or product
3. Filling out government or legal forms
4. Creating a business plan
   

1. Scream, whine, wail, swear and complain
2. Step away
3. Find a source of immediate beauty or calm
4. Reconnect with the reason behind your entrepreneurial endeavor
5. Make a very clear and specific goal to complete one task

1. What is resistance?
2. What is its aim?
3. What is a quick way to overcome it?

1. Spend time defining your niche
   So that you know exactly who you are trying to target, and which problems they have.
   
2. Create a product road map
   So that you define what you are going to develop in what order and focus your efforts.
3. Create the infrastructure to support your product from first contact to product delivery and follow up
   So you don't alienate your hard-won customers with crappy service.
   
4. Tie your fame-garnering efforts to your niche
   So that you don't become known as the boring, generic person who knows a little about a lot of stuff.
5. Always direct people to your product page
   So that you leverage media exposure to make sales AND get famous.

1. Step 1:  Wrap your arms around the field. Learn as much as you can about all the ways this field is expressed in business, so that you know which area to focus on.
2. Step 2:  Choose a small "neighborhood" to explore.  Once you see all the different possibilities in the field, choose a particular area of interest.
   
3. Step 3:  Identify the hotshots that are doing the work successfully.  These should be people who not only have technical expertise that you admire, but also complimentary values and thriving businesses.
4. Step 4:  Carve a niche.  Choose a particular area to work in that represents your best work, and a particular group of people to work with that would energize and engage you (and would pay you -- we are talking about a viable business!)
   
5. Step 5:  Shake a tree.  Get moving with a marketing plan, selling services and meeting with potential customers.

Participating in a group class or workshop can be a great way to:

1. Develop a supportive network of peers that can provide insight, encouragement and motivation for your project
2. Get expert advice from your instructor which can ensure you don't make costly misakes and do things right the first time
3. Build in some accountability to get things done, since you have specific assignments and deadlines

Personally, I am hopeless without a deadline, so the final point is of particular importance.

Some resources mentioned in the podcast:

1. Google your topic of interest, + teleclass or workshop
2. Coachville's www.teleclass.com
3. Classes at www.passionforbusiness.com

If you want to share your own experiences as a participant or know of good classes or directories of classes for small business owners, let me know at www.escapefromcubiclenation.com.

1. Create from the heart and soul
2. Speak clearly and speak the truth
3. Know your niche
4. Embrace your detractors
5. Don't backpeddle

Very soon, however, you will discover that a closed sale does not equal money in your bank account.  Based on personal experience and that which I have learned from smart friends, I share some guidelines for making sure that you plan and contract for a stable cash flow in your new business.  They include things like:

1. Carefully study your client's financial terms, conditions and processes 
2. Plan contracts carefully, with payment milestones clearly identified and contingency plans developed if the scope changes
3. Treat your accounts payable contact with ultimate deference and respect, lest you reap the wrath of an accountant scorned

Please share your horror stories, best practices and tips at the blog:  www.escapefromcubiclenation.com

But with the influx of email in everyone's inbox these days, as an alternative, why don't you try picking up the phone?

In this episode, I cover some tips for phone networking so that you:

1. Know how to professionally and quickly get to the point of the call
2. Respect the other person's time
3. Make sure it is a mutually beneficial conversation

Share your thoughts about this at the blog:  www.escapefromcubiclenation.com

1. Define different standards for your work
   
2. Prioritize your tasks
3. Make tough choices

1. If I have never marketed myself before, where do I begin?
2. What are the pieces of a total marketing system?
3. Why is it so important to define a specific target audience or niche for my services?  Won't this narrow my opportunities?
4. What if I loathe marketing?
5. Should I launch my brand name if I am not 100% sure I love it?
6. Should I start a blog or podcast to market my new business?

1. No one will ever buy my product or service
2. I do not have enough experience to start a business
3. All my competitors have superior products (besides which, they are smarter and/or better looking)

Martha provides lively and insighful information about how to figure out the work you are meant to do, a critical step in deciding which business to start as a new entrepreneur.  Her approach may surprise you, and I guarantee it will make you think.

If you have comments or observations about this podcast, please leave them at the blog, www.escapefromcubiclenation.com.  Or send me an email at pcs@ganas.com.

You can find Martha at www.marthabeck.com.

From this point forward, I will be publishing longer interviews like this one once a month.  I welcome your feedback about this format change.

1. What a good branding process should look like
2. Which marketing activities you can undertake before your brand is fully baked
3. Which marketing activities you should hold off on until you are 80% or more satisfied with your brand

1. Celebrate your unique quirks, differences and personal history
2. Tie them in with needs in your market
3. Be proud of the misfit you are and reflect it in an authentic and kickass brand!

1. Who would I genuinely like to work with?  What characteristics do they share?
2. What impact would my product or service have on their life?  How does it feel to know I am having a positive impact?
   
3. How would I feel talking about my business with these customers? 
   

This episode discusses how to avoid starting a business based on a skill or ability you are burned out on.  It can seem the easy path to money, but often leads to real frustration and apathy.

Some strategies discussed:

1. Disconnect the ability from the job description
2. Create a personal development plan to give yourself time to learn new skills
3. Consider a mix of "curse of competence" and new skills to kick-start your business

I'd love to hear your comments on the blog - www.escapefromcubiclenation.com

In this episode, I discuss two elements of a postive mental attitude:

1. Distinguishing between your "essential" self and your "social" self to ensure you are doing work you are meant to do
2. Using a simple 4-question process called "The Work" to overcome negative self-talk

Sources I refer to are Martha Beck's book Finding Your Own North Star:  claiming the life you were meant to live and Byron Katie's Loving What Is:  Four questions that can change your life 

Leave comments at www.escapefromcubiclenation.com

1. Readjusting your marketing mindset
2. Clearly defining a niche
3. Selecting and creating a marketing plan

I reference two helpful marketing experts:

Robert Middleton from www.actionplan.com and

John Jansch from www.ducttapemarketing.com

In this episode, Pam covers:

1. A myth about the process of deciding which business to start
2. Insight into why it is such a difficult quest for veteran corporate employees 
3. A (fun) homework assignment to get some insight into the best business idea for you