KFC doesn’t mean Kentucky fried Chicken but can be a nice little formula to get things going in the right dierction

After reading the article, I had to react.

I knew Renée personally, as I do Martin. We are part of the same business bloggers network in Montreal. There is no hint in Martin’s article about what they are talking about. Maybe something got added in the translation….

Renée was very active on social media but probably even more in real life. Living alone at 60, in a foreign country, doing lots of volunteering on the Island, specially at a Veterinarian clinic for stray cats. Besides that she was talking daily very long walks along the beach.

She was a foreign old lady, seen as “rich” by the Islander’s standards (remember she had been travelling back and forth between Isla Mujeres and Montreal for many years) and therefore easily “spotable” for a local looking for quick cash. No need of any social media presence for that.

She was a “people person” in real life just as she was on Social media. She had the knack of starting a conversation with anyone. Well educated and world traveller, she was never short of topics to talk about. Being friendly with people has it’s downside, but by bringing in this debate a “culture of fear” prevalent in the US, they make an exceptional situation sound like a rule.

With such a strong presence online, in social medias, numerous blogs and sites, Renée’s case should inspire SocialMediaToday to focus on the issue of “Digital Legacy” It would be a right way to pay respect to the pioneer of “Digital Nomadism” that she was!

It’s the time for Tweetups, Podcamps, Yulbiz, Webcom and all kinds of event when you finally get to meet those people you keep chatting with over Facebook, Twitter, your blog and in some cases LinkedIn. Let”s put this to good use shall we ?

Picture: Besides the fact that it adds to your credibility, one good reason to have a real photo as your avatar is that it makes you easily recognizable.  It happens often in these meetings that someone will look at me kind of funny saying; “You’re Startupcoach aren’t you ? It’s much easier to approach someone when you “know” who he or she is. Use the same avatar everywhere, and use a recent one, just to make sure. Make it easy for people to come up to you.

Participating: “Be” in the conversations. A certain amount of “human-ess” is required online if you want to come out as ‘fun o be with”. I’m always amazed at how quick the conversations pick up when people you meet offline are the ones you’ve been “chatting” with online. The topics are right at hand, some blog post can come to mind, or news about common online friends.  Furthermore, usually people will offer to introduce you to other people in your line of thought, your line of work or your expertise. You network will expand accordingly.

Polarize: As in ‘take a stand”!  Even if some lengthy conversations can take place over the net, some topics can only be discussed in real life. If you take a stand on a particular issue, people will seek you at those events. Can be seen as a double edged sword but at the same time you can’t stand out of the pack by being average. If you don’t like the “talking about the weather ” stuff, that the way to go.

Come on get out there, reach out and…shake someone’s hand

Photo: Eric Baillargeon

Saved that from a book from Dr. David Burns

1. All or nothing: For you, there are good guys and bad guys…
2. Generalizing:You turn that grain of sand into  a great big mountain !
3. Mental filter:You see everything through dark glasses.
4. Shrugging positives: You do great things BUT it’s not worth mentioning, it’s only you…
5. Jumping to conclusion: No fact? Who cares YOU’RE RIGHT! You assume…everything/self fulfilling prophecy
6. Dramatize and minimize: You downplay the great stuff until they look small
7. Emotional reasoning:  HOW you feel is WHAT you are…. You can’t be that bad.you wouldn’t be reading this blog
8. The “should”: Everybody SHOULD do this, do that. No one should “should over themselves” like that!
9. Negative branding: For you or others. One mistake and BANG …HOT-IRON BRANDING
10. Blaming: Here again, it’s you or someone. You always have someone to blame

Do you recognize yourself in one of these situations ?

Remember Toughts lead to Feelings that lead to the Actions that bring Results

If you don’t like the Results you have change the Actions you take!

And if you can’t help but act the way you do, look at the feelings behind the actions…and the thoughts behind the feelings.

Use that list to identify what cognitive dissonance you’ll start correcting RIGHT NOW!

Change some thoughts

You’ll FEEL GOOD about it.

You’ll act accordingly

Ans new results will follow.

As for myself, these days,  I’m guilty of number 4. Now I’ve got to work on those 2 Online programs….

More thoughts about rituals

In the Innovative Brain, we learn that entrepreneurs, it seems, have a highly adaptive risk-taking behaviour. When there is no emotions involved in the decision, the ability to take high-quality decisions is the same for managers and entrepreneurs alike. But when emotion is involved, when there is a perceived risk for the outcome,  research has found some interesting things.

Entrepreneurs have shown superior cognitive-flexibility performance. The ability to put the decision in different contexts. When combined with some functional impulsiveness, this generates the ability to seize the opportunity so typical of entrepreneurs.

This would explains why sometimes entrepreneurs are “tough acts to follow”…

Now the AMA articles raises a question that I love. “What happens if there is no past to consult ?” which is often the case for a start-up, specially an innovative one.

In the decision process, here again, managers and entrepreneurs differ.

The entrepreneur showed the following tendencies:

• They started taking action based on what and who they know and the resources they had available
• They evaluated opportunities based on whether the downside risk was acceptable rather than on the attractiveness of the predicted upside
• They sought partnerships
• They embraced surprises and leverage flexibility
• They focused on activities where they had some means of controlling the outcome

The key for me in all of this is their evaluation based on the downside risk.It comes back to “what are you willing to lose ?” The focus on what they can control makes them move forward faster. The functional impulsiveness mixed with their capacity to leverage flexibility makes for that Ready-Fire-Aim approach, which put them in a quite different time-frame than partners and investors.

I think I would even go further, considering all of this, in the entrepreneur’s mind once the downside is accepted, the risk isn’t worth wasting energy on, it almost vanishes!

Coaches, consultants, bankers, angels and VCs, keep that in mind when you think the individual in front of you acts like a bronco.

Oh no, this can’t be happening…

Excerpt from the article from Pam Slim

Square Three: The Hero’s Saga

Description: You whittle down your big list of business ideas to one that appears to be viable. You launch the business. Everything goes wrong. People criticize you. You question your sanity.

Mantra: This is much worse than I expected, and that’s okay

Recommendation: Don’t get flustered. Expect that things will go wrong. Do not beat yourself up when they do. Focus on tweaking, learning from mistakes, and moving forward. Surround yourself with smart people and good support.

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That is the moment when a strong mindset makes a hell of a difference. Be prepared for things to go wrong but don’t “expect” it. Expect things to turn right. You have to carry around the mental image of success. I’m a big believer in the “blink” theory of decision. But for it to work, you have to feed the right brain, the right images.
I also like to add an “affirmation“. Something that will pop-up in your brain, to moment you loose your edge. Something that will keep your mental toughness up. Important because Tough calls are pouring in usually…
Once that image is in place, once an “affirmation” is found. I usually get into…
Getting crystal clear on what you want, what you really really want out of this….
It’s also the time when a regular “brain dump” is in order…
Finally, if things begin to turn sour (It should habe been done in the startup process too…)

“What are you ready to lose?“
Once you set “what” you are ready to lose, and until “when” you’re willing to play a “losing” game, funny enough, pressure drops. These measurable milestones are trigger points. Think about it once, thoroughly then put them aside.
Think about

• career
• money,
• friends&family
• your self-esteem.

What is your edge on each of hese topics ?
When you you consider you went overboard ?
Think-decide-act on it!
That way, once it’s done, the dwelling falls behind you, it frees up your mind for more productive thought processes.
If you have the right attitude and the right habits to cope with the risk and uncertainties of those four realms, you will “survive” that particular era of your entrepreneurial life.
As I said in part 1 and 2, keep that Ready-Fire-Aim attitude all the time
Do surround yourself with good people. Play on their strengths. Don’t waste time learning stuff you’re no good at or you don’t like. It’s a waste of time and energy. THIS is not the time! Find people for whom these topics are real strengths (talent and knowledge) and hire them. Be clever about it. Who can you get on your advisory board ? Who said you had to hire someone 40hrs a week. Think about Virtual Assistans, and former CEO\CTO\COO\CFO of large corporation that are looking for just a few hours a week.
Starting up involves lots of iterations (I’ll talk about that in another post).

Be ready

“I’m king of the world”

Entrepreneurship is quite a roller-coaster ride. Going from the top of the world to the bottom of the sea can happen in a sudden shift, specially in the beginning!

In this second post we’ll see where you are and what to do to prevent sailing a sinking ship

Excerpt from the article from Pam Slim

Square Two: Dreaming and Scheming

Description: Once you get more comfortable with your shift in identity, you begin to brainstorm a bunch of different business ideas and scenarios. The sky is the limit as you imagine yourself as a software genius, media tycoon, or rich inventor.

Mantra: There are no rules, and that’s okay.

Recommendation: Don’t edit your imagination. Run wild and think up new ideas for products and services. Don’t worry if they don’t make sense, or that no one you have ever known has ever been successful at it. The important thing is to brainstorm as many possible ideas as you can and gather lots of data from different sources.

—————–

The coaching:

When you have reached a “closing” with the Just Over Broke market, when your brain is boiling over with ideas, when all you see are opportunities, when all you breathe is freedom, sit down for a moment and try this.

Write a letter, dated 2 years later. You write it a the present tense. Using the “Magic Wand” (what if you we’re sure to succeed), you transport yourself 2 years from now. Writing to a friend you haven’t seen in  along while, telling him\her where you are, what you have, what you do, what you have accomplished, so on and so forth.

From there, you work your milestones backwards. Where you have to be in 18 months, in 12 month,s  in 6 months. It will give you a set of beacons to guide your decisions. Those miles stones are the general direction. Just make sure there is some kind of possible alignment between those milestones. Try to align the planet (so to speak) to get maximum “attraction”.

Remember to shoot first, aim afterwards. As I said before, when you start, there are no successes or failures, there is only feedback. It’s what you do, how you react to that feedback that will keep you moving forward.

The rest is the “put your money where you mouth is” attitude. Get an accountability partners (coaches can be ruthless ones), and keep moving towards your dream, towards what you wrote in that letter.

The coaching will put emphasis on short term marketing tactics. Working on getting those first clients, the “evangelists” that will talk about your product and services to anyone they meet, that will talk about you in their social media groups. Their feedback will be paramount on coming up with upselling and crosselling that work for your core product/services. It’s from that base that you will develop a “unique customer experience” (instead of a unique selling proposition) Your coach will help you keep an open mind on tweaking you product/service to fit the market.

Conversation will revolve around the fit between “you” (your values), your “ideas” and the environment.