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Many entrepreneurs struggle. Some fail, yet some entrepreneurs succeed beyond their wildest dreams. What is the difference? What is the one key success factor that separates the winners from the losers?

While leading investor networking programs over the past 10 years for customers like the European Space Agency (Netherlands), Europe Unlimited (Belgium) and the Ministry of Innovation, Technology & Science NRW (Germany), I have met thousands of entrepreneurs. Along the way I have started to understand that there is one key element that is always present in those entrepreneurs that succeed, and something that’s often missing in those that don’t. The winners are almost always great communicators.

Entrepreneurs that communicate poorly tend to struggle. Entrepreneurs that communicate well tend to thrive and often succeed. Whether communicating with their investors, customers or even their own teams, successful entrepreneurs are able to quickly connect, to have impact and ultimately to influence others. Think back on your own experience. Picture the successful entrepreneurs that you have met personally. If you even remember them at all, chances are you remember something special that they communicated to you.

When I first started working with entrepreneur programs, I focused most of my efforts on business development techniques and strategies. BizDev is important, but I have learned that if I really want to help entrepreneurs to succeed, then I can do this fastest by helping them to become better communicators. Most entrepreneurs I meet have strong technical and logical minds. I cannot teach them to be better scientists. I can, however, help them to communicate more powerfully. This often has the effect of rapidly accelerating the progress of their entire business.

I recently started a new consulting company called Quickminds, together with UK communications expert Tim Farish. We have developed a concept where we teach rapid communication improvement and it is called WordsMusicDance.

Words are the structures that you can use to tell powerful stories and to launch revolutionary new ideas.

Music is how you use your voice to strengthen your message and to give power and emotion to your communication.

Dance is how you put it all together with your body, gestures and facial expressions.

If you are an entrepreneur or even a corporate client who is interested in rapid improvement in how you communicate, then contact us. We offer WordsMusicDance workshops that are completely different from anything you ever have experienced.
Contact us today to learn more.

QuickMinds AS
(Oslo, London)
www.quickminds.net

While serving as an expert reviewer at venture contests I have heard hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their ideas. Sadly to say very, very few get it right. Often I am left completely clueless about what their real business models and concepts are. I fail to understand what is unique and what would compel me to either invest or get involved. Help is sorely needed!

The Easy Solution

Successfully pitching a business idea in 30 seconds is much simpler than most people realize. And by the way… if you cannot do it in 30 seconds, then you wont be able to do it in 30 minutes either! My first piece of advice would be to select a model that works rather than experimenting on your own. There are many different models that we teach at Quickminds, but perhaps the simplest and best is the Message Map.

Build a Message Map in 3 simple steps.

Step 1: First, you need to write a simple Key Message Statement. Treat it like a Twitter message. Twitter has taught us several great communication messages. First Twitter has trained us to write short messages. They are limited to 140 characters, so you must think about brevity and clarity. Second, Twitter has trained us to write powerful messages. They are all designed to get you to take action (either to click on a link, to attend an event, or to write to your congressman).  To be compelling, your Key Message also needs to include a claim. Claims stake out the territory and qualify your offering. Do you dare to claim that your product can increase your customer’s profit $$ by 50%? Don’t be dishonest, but don’t be overly conservative. This is one of the hardest tasks for engineers and programmers, who want to be exact and perfectly factual in all statements. Find a way to make a compelling claim and you will grab the interest of your audience immediately. Write your Key Message Statement like a tweet and put it at the centre of the page.

Step 2: Write three Supporting Points. Select the three (and only three) points you need to make in order to back-up your Message Statement. A chair with only two legs will not stand on its ‘own. A chair with five legs is just too complicated. Three is the perfect number. Select points that have importance and emotional appeal to your listener. Remember to think from their viewpoint and not just from your own. What are the real benefits of your product or service? What will buying from you really do to benefit this person? Save them time? Earn them money? Make them look good with the girls? Write each of the 3 points onto the Map.

Step 3: Finally you should write at least 3 Evidence descriptions for each of the Points. Evidence can be in the form of statistics, examples, quotes from experts or even a simple story that illustrates the point. Choose anything that validates your claim and that gives your listener an emotional reason to want to learn more about your product or service. Have some fun with this! The more fun you have in telling about your business, the more likely you are to connect with your audience and to win their business.

The Most Common Reason for Failure

Crafting a good message will give you an invaluable tool for your business. Too many entrepreneurs spend all their time perfecting their technology, but forget to do even the most basic work on creating their message. In my experience this is one of the most common reasons for failure.  Invest time into your Message Map.

Practice Makes Perfect

Also remember to practice. This sounds like stupid advice, but is often forgotten. Only through practicing the delivery of your message will you get better. I have competed in and won several elevator pitch contests. I wrote my pitch, then I re-wrote it about a dozen times until I felt it was perfect. I practiced on friends, family, colleagues and even strangers. I kept re-writing until it got better and better (also shorter and shorter!). Pay as much attention to this as you do to your technology or products and I assure you that you will see huge improvements in your sales and pitching efforts.

Example of Message Map: 

We can help!

Want some help in creating a message map for your business? Contact us today.

Quickminds turns boring presenters into powerful communicators by using some of the world’s most cutting-edge, unique, innovative and inspiring techniques. Visit www.quickminds.net

image-source: liveandlovework.com

Whenever I talk so enthusiastically about entrepreneurship, a few people really feel the need to correct me. They say that positive thinking is naïve, oversimplified and at best just a placebo. The serious pessimists love to point out that nothing so simple as positive thinking can be true. My job is not to prove them wrong, because at a gut level, I just know that positive thinking works.

What comes first; Success or Happiness? In the western world we are often obsessed with achieving success. We work hard and push hard for success to happen in the expectation that it will bring us happiness. Is this like a law of nature or a math formula? If Success, then Happiness?

Psychologists have proven that those people who experience happiness (even if only momentary each day) are much more successful than others. They are better at securing jobs, better at keeping their jobs, exhibit superior job performance, are more resilient, experience less burn-out, lower turnover and they even excel at sales (Lyubomirsky, 2005).

When you are experiencing happiness – even if only for a moment – your brain’s dopamine and serotonin levels increase. These chemicals act as neuro-accelerators and actually allow your brain to work more efficiently.

If this formula works so well, then can we turn it around? Can we reverse the formula and actually teach people to experience happiness? A recent Harvard study has shown phenomenal results. Quite simply they have given subjects a simple set of tasks to be carried out for 21 days. The results were measured the results over a long period of time afterwards. People who experience even momentary happiness on a daily basis are 31% more productive at work and 37% more effective at sales.

What were the simple tasks they had to perform each day?

1. List at least 3 things each day that you are grateful for
2. Write a brief journal entry about these things
3. Meditate a minimum of 10 minutes per day
4. Exercise several times each week
5. Practice random acts of kindness

Again, the hardcore pessimists will argue that there was surely something else going on here. They will claim other factors intervened, but they will never convince me. I just know this is right.

Find Happiness first, then Success will follow you wherever you wander.

Entrepreneurs: Do what you love and love what you do. Find a way to be happy WHILE you are on the road to success.

Watch the following TED talk by Shawn Achor and figure out how to bring happiness into each day of your life.

Over the last year I have been working on a project funded by the European Investment Bank to help young entrepreneurs in the occupied territories in Palestine. The project has been an amazing learning experience for me. Sometimes you have to move outside your comfort zone and beyond your normal pathways in order to discover new parts of the planet and new sides of yourself. The photo is from the Technical University of Hebron and was taken in December 2011. What impressed me most about this group was their eagerness to learn and their insightful questions. Rather than being focused on the hopelessness of the situation in their region, these brave young entrepreneurs were searching for opportunities and seeking solutions to problems.

This is true entrepreneurship at its best. Becoming an entrepreneur means taking responsibility for your life and taking action to make good things happen.

So many leaders and entrepreneurs understand this point and yet as soon as they open their mouths, they forget the basics. Connection comes first, then communication. Only after deep communication is persuasion possible. But how do great speakers connect with their audiences?

One of the ways is through showing vulnerability. In a fantastic TED talk called The Power of Vulnerability, Brene Brown explains that vulnerability is essential to us connecting as human beings.  Without vulnerability, we cease to be perceived as human.

As a teenage boy I loved reading superhero comics. Having supernatural powers is a great fantasy. All superheroes had great strengths, but they all had their weaknesses as well. Superman was powerful, except when he was around the metal Kryptonite. The big green Hulk was stronger than anyone, but he had a big heart and weakness for children (and babes of course).  My all-time favorite comic book character was always Spiderman. Spidey was a teenage boy who was able to do amazing athletic stunts, but he also was constantly plagued with doubt and insecurity. He didn’t choose to be a hero. A radioactive spider bit him and then fate would never leave him alone. His greatest vulnerability was his self-doubt and every episode was really about him trying to overcome this trait. It was the internal struggles rather than the external struggles that defined his defeats and his victories. Without being vulnerable, then superheroes are not interesting. By being vulnerable they reflect our own lives. The more they show us their weakness, the greater their victories and the more we connect with them.

Such is also true with great communication. Without vulnerability, there is less likelihood of connection. Connection is a result of Authenticity and authentic speakers connect and influence. How authentic are you as a speaker? Do you allow your audience see the real you and your own vulnerabilities? What can you do to connect more deeply with your audiences?

Want to learn how to communicate better with your customers? We can help. Contact me at Quickminds (www.quickminds.net) and schedule a meeting with us.

p.s., Thanks to Annicken Rød, Culture Evangelist at Cisco for the inspiration for this blog post.

Success can be measured in many ways, but my goal has been to teach them to become serial entrepreneurs – persons who are capable of creating not just one startup business, but capable of starting many healthy businesses throughout their careers.

Becoming a good serial entrepreneur involves learning the ability to do the following:

1. Serial Entrepreneurs see opportunity. Opportunities arise where there are problems or where there are inefficiencies. While corporate employees tend to focus on resources, good entrepreneurs tend to focus on opportunities. When an employee encounters a problem within an organization, they most often try to figure out how to navigate around it. An entrepreneur, however, sees this as an opportunity to solve the problem and thereby to create a sellable product or service. Every problem is good news and an opportunity to a serial entrepreneur.
2. Serial Entrepreneurs create and communicate a clear vision. A clear vision is key. Without it an entrepreneur ends up being vague and uncertain about how to go forward to create a solution or to organize the team that is necessary for success. A simple and magical thing happens when an entrepreneur creates a clear vision, commits to making it happen and then communicates it to the world.
3. Serial Entrepreneurs are able to attract great people to work with them. Many entrepreneurs never get past this point. They work hard, but they mostly work alone. Their ventures seldom grow large and are limited by the fact that they are neither team players nor good leaders. Hire people who are smarter than you. Hire people that almost scare you because they are so capable. Only then will you raise the level of your company to new levels and ensure long-term success. Earn their trust, give them full responsibility and then get out of their way so they can make your company into a success.
4. Serial Entrepreneurs are able to raise capital or to obtain whatever resources are necessary. Almost all good business ideas will need capital at some point. Without capital, growth takes longer. With capital, a company can often move quicker and take advantage of windows of opportunity that appear. Capital is like fertilizer for plants. Organic growth is always an option, but sometimes there are faster and better ways to stimulate rapid growth.
5. Serial Entrepreneurs remain flexible, adapting to changes without abandoning their vision. As we all know so well, shit happens. One of the only constants in life is change. Being a successful serial entrepreneur involves developing the ability to stay flexible in the face of the winds of change, without losing sight of their vision.

Thanks to Roop Chandwani (www.aggiopartners.com) and Nico Goulet (www.adaravp.com) for inspiration for this article.

Unfortunately, some of the most fundamental assumptions that we make about leadership may be wrong or over-glorified.  A leader is just a lonely nutcase without followers. The first followers, not the leader, are the ones who take the greatest risk yet get the least praise and recognition. The first followers are the ones that teach other followers how to follow. How often do discussions about leading fail to discuss how to follow?

One of my brilliant entrepreneur-coaching clients sent me a link to the following 3-minute video by Derek Sivers about How to Start a Movement. Watch this video and ask yourself:  What are the areas of my career or life where I am truly taking leadership? How can I nurture my followers and treat them like equals?

Want to learn more about entrepreneurial thinking and leadership? Then sign-up for one of my workshops or courses. Even better, join me for the Oslo Leadership Event (May 27-29, 2011 in Oslo).  There I will hold a talk entitled: Dare to Dream – the Entrepreneurial Mindset. If you attend and are one of my blog readers, please come and introduce yourself to me!

Thanks to Erlend Bakke. Check out his amazing360 photography tools at: http://www.3sixty.no/

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” — Michelangelo Buonarroti

I will never forget the night that it really hit me. I didn’t sleep once during the 6 hours that I tossed and turned in bed. I could barely keep my eyes closed. My brain was racing at breakneck speed with plans and ideas and visions of a future that was so bright and vibrant that I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm. I had just figured out that I really could succeed as an entrepreneur.

Earlier that day I had a dialogue with fellow BlueSky Software founder Jørgen Lien. He insisted that we had a shot… a real shot at busting open a segment of a large and growing software market, and in doing so a shot at creating a wildly-successful software company. This was my first technology startup. Although I had seen the possibility, I never really believed in it.  Before then. During that night it finally hit me.

20 years later and my dream is still alive, vibrant, bright and part of my everyday reality. BlueSky succeeded in busting open that market and went on later (without me) to be acquired by Macromedia/Adobe. Two other tech startups I did went well and are still flying high. I have worked closely with hundreds of talented entrepreneurs since then and yet I still have that moment in my mind.

For me, the biggest excitement was never about the riches and the wealth. It was not about fame and notoriety. Most of all, it was the realization that I could create.

The process of creation that an entrepreneur can experience is amazing. One minute you sit there with two empty hands and a head full of ideas. In the next moment your thoughts have been converted to real things and you have your hands full of value and new opportunity. It is like modern day alchemy – the ability to turn common objects into gold.

Three weeks from now I will be one of the keynote speakers at the Oslo Leadership Event (Fornebu Arena, May 27-29, 2011). I will use the opportunity to share some stories from my experiences as an entrepreneur. There have been a lot of crazy moments, but most of all I will use this opportunity to encourage everyone to think like an entrepreneur.

The Entrepreneur Mindset
Whether you want to create a business, or lead a sports team, or teach a classroom of students, sail alone around the world, become a master yoga instructor or just simply get the most out of today… it all starts by DARING TO DREAM. Dream big. Dream wild. Dream like you did when you were a kid. You would be amazed at what is really possible.

If you want to learn more about visualization tools or how to accelerate your business, then contact me or join one of my seminars. If you are going to attend the Oslo Leadership Event, then please come up and introduce yourself to me and share your dreams with me as well!

A few months ago I was on a weekend cabin trip get-away with a bunch of guys and I noticed something different that happened. Three of the guys brought their iPads and if this had been a trip with the girls along, then there would have been instant protests and complaints about spending the weekend online. But since it was just a boy’s weekend, then playing with electronic toys was perfectly acceptable behavior. OK, so were burping, farting and authentic expressions of profanity, but there is a reason why the guys have to get away from time to time. What was different was the use of iPads in this social situation. They became a natural part of the discussions and the activities. In the middle of a conversation, someone would pick up an iPad, lookup a fact, a quote or a definition on Google or YouTube and then share it with the others. We debated European history details but Wikipedia got the final say. The format of the iPad (and the little table mount cover) made it easy for the other 5 guys to crowd around the pad to watch a funny YouTube video (extreme base jumping & surfing monster waves), watch a music video or to just look at photos from a recent trip to Mexico. With 4 iPads and 8 guys it almost ended up being like a competition. Not dualing banjos, but dualing iPads. A creative entrepreneur game programmer should design something to capitalize on this.

How much time do you spend online alone?

Like most people I am sure that you spend lots of time online, but how much of this is really a group experience? Facebook. LinkedIn and Twitter all allow you to connect with groups, but most of the time you are sitting at your computer screen alone. How often have you been sitting together with a group of people where several are online and at the same time all are participating in an interesting group discussion? My wife says that men cannot do two things at once, but here I must protest. We men can handle our gadgets and still follow a conversation. So there! Finally we have found a social justification for nerdy male behavior!

A new online use – GroupSurfing

When was the last time you surfed the internet with a group? Call it a GroupSurf. I have used devices like an AppleTV to surf the internet while watching TV, but this is different. With multiple people surfing the internet at the same time and all contributing to a live group discussion, I think this is a new kind of internet use. Do you know about any applications that are designed for this type of experience? If so, I would like to hear from you. Leave a comment below. If you are a programmer and have an application to promote that works like this, please contact me.

Understanding men by understanding their gadgets

In the book Boys and Their Toys, author Bill Adler explains that men use toys to assert their independence and freedom, relieve stress, connect to their lost childhood, and even express their nurturing side (without having to admit it). OK, “nurturing” might be taking this a bit too far, but just face it. We men are different and how we use our iPads will also be different. Next time you go to a party, take along your iPad along and don’t be ashamed to whip it out in front of everyone. You might be surprised at how much fun you have and what sort of a positive experience you create (at least with the guys).

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time?

Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com , www.xelerator.com and at www.e-unlimited.com. Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who lives in Norway and believes that European startup companies can succeed and grow quickly if only they get the proper help and assistance. Please join the discussion and leave your comments. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.

I still have a house phone that hangs on the wall (remember those?). No one ever calls on it except for Grandpa (on occasion) and telephone salespeople. I have never purchased anything from a phone salesman, nor consented to any free offer or survey, and yet they still keep calling in the hopes that I may change my personality someday. Most often they are trying to sell things that I never, ever would want to buy anyways. In marketing, this is the opposite of the hungry jungle hunter with only one arrow. These phone salespeople will shoot at anything that moves (or answers the phone).

A key to marketing success
A key to rapid success for any business (whether startup or established) is to carefully choose a highly targeted, well defined, easily located, narrow niche market and to focus all marketing and sales efforts there. This can be the difference between survival and failure, and yet you would be surprised how many entrepreneurs fail to do so. Too many entrepreneurs are opportunistic, not strategic and it costs them dearly. The smaller your market, the better you will understand the needs and challenges of your customers. The better you understand your customers, the easier it is to develop features and benefits that address their specific needs. This will make the sales process faster, painless, easier and a lot more fun. Selling to highly qualified customers is easy because you have selected them based on their needs and you know how to talk with them in a manner that resonates with them.

Only Qualified Leads
I sell a coaching & mentoring program to entrepreneurs who want to learn to master the art of entrepreneurship and to become successful lifelong serial entrepreneurs. While I meet hundreds of entrepreneurs each year, only a few are truly interested in this type of learning and self-development. I would be foolish to waste a lot of my time & efforts in trying to pitch my program to entrepreneurs who are not interested.  Therefore I have designed a number of tools that allow the interested ones to come forward and identify themselves. This blog is one of those tools.

A free offer
If you talk to my clients you will hear that this program really works well. If you are not sure, then join me on a free interactive webinar on April 28^th at 16:00 CET. During this online meeting I will show you some of the common mistakes and some of the easy ways that you can increase your number of qualified leads. Follow even one of these tips and you will have more clients that come to you and ask for your services. After the webinar, if you tell me that you are really interested in learning more, then we will talk. But only after you have identified yourself and your interest. If I only have one arrow, then I want to take careful aim before I waste your time and mine.

Join us on this next webinar (April 27^th) and you will discover:

• How to define a razor-sharp target market plan that will accelerate your business
• My top 5 recommendations for re-defining your business to make better use of limited time and resources
• How to use Guerrilla Marketing tactics to differentiate you from your competitors
• The 5 most common marketing mistakes that entrepreneurs make
• How to become less reliant on leading-edge technology and to build long-term value for your business
• PLUS, a fatal mindset challenge that could be sabotaging your marketing efforts without you really realizing it!

Sign-up for the free series of webinars. Here are some of the topics we will discuss in future webinars.

• APRIL 28, 2011 – Targeted marketing and niche strategies
• MAY 26 – Secrets to raising capital for early-stage entrepreneurs
• JUNE 30 – Sales acceleration tools and best practices
• JULY 28 – Power networking skills that will let you connect with anyone fast
• AUGUST 25 – Building lists of potential customers, your biggest asset
• SEPTEMBER 29 – Closing sales faster and overcoming objections easily
• OCTOBER 27 – Establishing rapport with investors and customers quickly
• NOVEMBER 24 – Becoming a recognized thought leader in your industry
• DECEMBER 29 – Guerrilla Marketing tricks and techniques
• JANUARY 26, 2012 – Powerful Communication skills
• FEBRUARY 23 – Story telling examples and methods
• MARCH 29 – Pitching to investors in a way that will get results

THERE WILL BE A NEW WEBINAR ON THE LAST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Image: Thinkers Of The Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal, published by Ullmann Publishing,