I know, I know…I’ve been a little light on blog posts for the past few weeks (as in I haven’t written any). I’ll get back in the swing soon, I promise. In the meantime, here’s something for your listening pleasure: an episode of my Blog Talk Radio program about Steven Pressfield’s new book “Do the Work” (which is brilliant, by the way…if you haven’t read it, go get your copy now!)

I’d love to hear what you think…leave me a comment. Thanks!

A friend reminded me the other day of the parable (variously attributed to Alexander the Great, Cortes and others) of the adventurer who, on landing on the shores of his destination, burned his ships to send a message to his men that there was no turning back.  She had recently had a “ship-burning” moment of her own and was at the same time ecstatic and nervous.

I had mine last Wednesday, and I know exactly what she’s talking about.

You see, setting the ships on fire is fun: you get to play with matches and lighter fluid, which is always a good time.  It’s only when you’re standing on the shore, watching the flames engulf every last scrap of wood, that you get the sinking, “Oh shit!” feeling in your stomach and begin to wonder if you did the right thing and whether you remembered to pay the insurance premium this month.

Don’t get me wrong; I know that burning the ships was the right thing to do.  If I hadn’t, I don’t think I’d ever have broken away from some of the things that have been holding me back.  I’m simply acknowledging the fear, owning it, staring it in its ugly face, getting ready to let it go.

A lot has changed in just a few short days, but the biggest change has been in me.  There’s an old Zen teaching that I love: “Before enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water.”  I take it to mean for me that, while the things that need to be done remain the same (i.e. making a living, paying the bills, etc.), they’ll never be quite the same because I’m a different person than I was last week.

Here we go.  No more pretending; time to start showing up as me and doing what I need to do to fulfill my mission.  More on that in a future post; let it suffice to say for now that I’m more excited than I’ve ever been.

In the meantime, there’s something I want to say to you.

The reason for last week’s breakdown was simple: I’d been pretending and, as it turns out, you can only do that for so long before it catches up with you.  I know I’m not alone.  There are a lot of us pretending right now, pretending that we’re doing what we want to do and that everything is okay, while inside we’re dying a little every day.  Sound familiar?

So here’s what I want to say: it’s alright to stop pretending now.  In fact, it’s more than alright; if you want to start living, it’s a necessity.

Yes, it will be hard, and yes, it will upset the people in your life who would prefer that you keep pretending so as not to disturb their sleep.  You can’t change those things.  All you can change is you.

The good news is that once you stop pretending, life just gets better every day.  I’m only four days into my new life, and I can tell you without hesitation that I made the right choice.

Neil Senturia is not your typical…well, he’s not your typical anything, at least as far as I can tell from his new book I’m There for You, Baby – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Galaxy, Volume 1 (WARNING: affiliate link).  What I can tell you for certain, though, is that Mr. Senturia knows how to tell a story.

I haven’t had this much fun reading a book since I was a kid reading They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? by Patrick McManus (yep, another affiliate link…sorry, but it’s just easier than logging out of Amazon).  I don’t often laugh out loud when I read business books, but this one had me chuckling, snickering and, occasionally, guffawing (I may have just made that word up…sorry about that).  Even better, I learned a thing or two along the way.

The book is a series of stories built around The Baby Rules, a set of entrepreneurial truisms culled from Senturia’s experiences as a real estate mogul, venture capitalist, Hollywood writer and all around deal-making addict.  But don’t make the mistake of believing everything you read; Rule #109 states “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”  Senturia’s grasp of the ridiculous, his razor-sharp wit, and his blunt-force-trauma style of truth-telling make for a great read.

One of my favorite lessons, and one that made me stop and think about my own journey, is Rule #19: “Entrepreneurs do not do it for the fame or fortune – they do it for revenge.”   I’ve been thinking about that one ever since I read it; it’s been dogging my steps, haunting my sleep, and generally driving me nuts for weeks.

Because I’m realizing how true it is, at least sometimes.  I find myself driven, sometimes to extreme measures, by a deep desire to prove that I can do it, no matter what anyone says.  The voices in my head, the ones that belong to former teachers and family members and well-meaning friends, telling me to settle down and settle in and settle?  I’ve got a middle finger that would like to speak with you.

And that’s the kind of festering truth that I’m There for You, Baby rips the scab off of.

Thank you, Neil Senturia, for a fantastic book.  And thank you for breaking some shit in my head that needed breaking. Consider me a fan.

When I first got my preview copy of Guy Kawasaki’s “Enchantment” (yes, I got a free copy, and yes, that’s an affiliate link), I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I don’t really know that much about Guy, and I haven’t read any of his other books (sorry Guy).  I knew he was something of a big deal on Twitter and that he was the guy (no pun intended) behind Alltop.com, but that was about it.

In other words, I started “Enchantment” with zero expectations.  I only tell you that so you’ll understand that what I’m about to say isn’t colored by my being a long-time Guy Kawasaki fanboy.

Now that we understand each other, let me just say this: whatever you’re doing, stop now for as long as it takes to jump over to Amazon and buy this book.  Yes, it’s that good.

Guy has distilled the art of getting people to support your cause down to simple, manageable steps.  Whether it’s a business, a charity, a product or an idea, enchantment is the art of rallying not just support but commitment from those you lead or those in the trenches with you.  In Guy’s own words, “if you need to enchant people, you’re doing something meaningful. If you’re doing something meaningful, you need enchantment.”

What’s the difference between enchantment and more traditional methods of persuasion? Simple: rather than feeling like they’ve been manipulated to do what you want them to,  enchanted people feel the same level of devotion to the cause that you do.  In other words, enchantment is how you get others to see your vision, to share it and help you bring it to fruition.

From making your preparations to launching your cause, from crafting a Facebook status update or a post on Twitter, Guy walks you through the process of using both push and pull technologies to create an atmosphere of enchantment that’s hard to resist.

Let me issue this caveat, though: the ideas Guy shares are all common sense, “I knew that” kind of insights.  But please don’t let the fact that the ideas have been around awhile fool you into thinking that they’re common practice.  This book will take you from familiar theories and ideas to practical steps for implementation.  Put these ideas into practice, and watch your tribe grow.

I’m really hoping that you’ll look past the fact that I’m not the world’s greatest book reviewer and give “Enchantment” a shot.  I really believe that the key to success as an entrepreneur or small business person, or even a sales person or blogger, for that matter, is the ability to rally others to your cause, whatever that cause might be.  ”Enchantment” can help you improve your ability to do just that.

But don’t take my word for it: go. Get yourself a copy.  Once you’ve read it, come back here and let me know what you think.

The world needs more enchanters right now; shouldn’t you be one of them?

The days are blurring together. Literally. I sometimes forget whether it’s Monday and I should be writing a proposal for a new computer network, or Saturday and I’m supposed to be recording a podcast and setting up someone’s blog, or Thursday and I should be at a networking mixer, or Tuesday and I should be on a conference call about an upcoming Intel Hybrid Cloud event.

Sometimes, I just want to stop.  It would feel really good, I think, to take a week off, sit in a chair on the beach, and catch up on some reading.  But then I remember: I love what I do, and I love my life.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

My friends and family (especially my family) keep telling me that I need to slow down.  I love the fact that they’re concerned about me; I really do.  The funny thing is that they come across like they think my life sucks.  I promise you though: it doesn’t.  I’m tired, I don’t really have much of a social life (unless you count the networking, which pretty much rocks if you live in Sacramento), I have two day jobs and a part-time business, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

Johnny B. Truant is right: suck is relative.  If you love what you do, even the shitty days are amazing.

The biggest reward of using the “The Go-Giver” as one of our Bob Burg International Consultant coaching programs is that not only do I get to read the book, I get to devour it (while being mentored by the author), and then I’m priveleged to share it with others. There is true power in knowing your craft well enough to teach it to others.

In a short 30 minute chat with Jerry Kennedy on his Blog Whisperer Radio program it has solidified my belief that business as we’ve known it for the last two decades (more or less, your mileage may vary) is so antiquated that to continue “as it’s always been” is maybe the most deadly thing you can do to your business.

If your business has stagnated over the last 12 months, if it’s slowed down to “just getting by”, or if you have serious concerns if you’ll be in business 12 months from now you can cheer up! Pick up the book and follow along as we discover and APPLY these “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success”.

The first Law, The Law of Value states; “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value that you take in payment”.

You may have heard the phrase giving value misused by the Internet Marketing gurus telling you to give away your “secret sauce” to entice your prospects to buy your product or service. This misses the mark in two ways. 1) As used in the book, giving does not mean giving away – as in free. It simply means to present something, in this case value. 2) value in this context means the relative worth or desirability of a thing to the end user. More to the point it’s about asking yourself the question; “What can I offer that will set me apart – and I mean WAAAAY apart – from my competition and will allow people to want me as the person they choose to do business with?

The answer starts to become apparent in a great blog post by Bob Burg. It says, “…while there are most likely thousands of ways to provide value, they tend to fall under five categories: Excellence, Consistency, Attention, Empathy and Appreciation.”

Near and dear to my heart is appreciation. This is one of the things that cost little or nothing and leaves a lasting impression. Say please and thank you (and mean it). Send Nice to meet you notes – not emails – in a greeting card in your own handwriting. Remember birthdays and, you guessed, it send a card that says Happy Birthday! (If you don’t have a simple and easy-to-use system to do this automatically email me and I’ll share my fun and inexpensive way to do it with you.)

Now that you know that there are five categories that value tends to fall under, how can you take that and apply it to your product and service? Leave your comments in the feedback below. I’d love to here them!

Here’s a good place to mention one of the most important keys to making this law work, and it may be a deal breaker if you can’t commit to it, it’s that you have to give without any emotional attachment to the outcome. Now I know that’s going to sound really wacky to you but that’s how it works… because there is an outcome every time.

Tune in next time for Law #2 “The Law of Compensation”.

I’ve barely been here 2 hours, and I can already tell that this is not where the real innovators are hanging out. The folks here at CES might be showcasing ‘new’ products, but as my lunch table companion pointed out, most of the products I’ll see on the showroom floor have been in development for several years. Couple that with the fact that the booth trolls are in charge, and you can see why I don’t hold out much hope of bumping into the next game-changer.

Why?

Because he or she is probably holed up in a garage somewhere, trying to figure out what else can be sold to pay for the materials needed to bring the dream to life. Don’t get me wrong: there are some amazing products on display. But the really amazing ideas, the ones that will really blow the doors off the future? They’re still out there, waiting to be brought to life…maybe by you?

Well, what are you waiting for? What would it take for you to get started?

The answer is probably a lot less than you think.

“If we’re going to take this walk together, we need to start by facing the same direction.” –Pindar,
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann

As I was reading Chapter 2 in “The Go-Giver“, reviewing the material for one of my Mastermind Groups, I thought “Hey, you didn’t make sure everyone is facing the same direction!” Here’s why it’s important.

Imagine you and and I are standing at a cross-roads. I’m facing North and you’re facing West. I tell you we’re going to take a six month journey and say “Let’s go”. Do you think, after taking the road in front of us for that amount of time, we’d end up in the same location? Nope, not a chance.

We need the same map to arrive at the same destination. Simply put, the book is the map, the directions are each of the “Five Stratospheric Laws”, but they require a secret key to unlock their power.

That secret is “Giving”.

What does “giving” mean to you? Let me know in the comments below.

I’m a few chapters into “Changing the Conversation” by Gary Klaben, who was kind enough to contribute a guest post here yesterday (full disclosure: yes, they did send me a free copy of the book).

The book is great so far, and I’m looking forward to the rest of it, but this paragraph caught my eye and made me want to write a quick post:

“We want a relationship.  A relationship that begins with a conversation well-grounded in authority and trust.  A conversation that is about us.  A conversation that leads to a tailored solution based on our specific needs.  That adds value.  That fulfills a purpose.  We want to be convincingly yet gently pulled to a decision.”

Think about your own experiences as a customer; isn’t that exactly how you want to be treated?  Let me ask you this, though: when was the last time you actually were treated that way?  Chances are pretty good that it stands out in your memory because it doesn’t happen very often.

In fact, we’re so used to the opposite happening that we’ve almost become numb to it.  I find myself almost daily pretending like I’m listening to a salesperson who’s trying to pitch me on some new thing.

It’s a sad state of affairs; I could totally be missing out on the greatest thing ever created, but because the conversation is all about the product and not about me, I tune out.  So do you.  And here’s the really scary part if you’re in sales: so do all the people you’re calling on.

It’s time to take Gary’s advice and start changing the conversations you have with your prospects and clients.  Like I’ve said a thousand times before, stop talking about your product and start talking about what matters: the person on the other side of the table.

Those who understand that and make those changes sooner rather than later will be the salespeople of the future; those who don’t will be practicing their pitches to each other in the bread line.

Gary Klaben

Today, there is a strong pull between the profit maximizers and the purpose maximizers.  It is not that working on Wall Street or Main Street for large companies is all about profit maximization, or that starting a small business is all about purpose maximization.  It is about the tide turning towards purpose, while maintaining profit.

In Daniel Pink’s recent book, Drive (2010), he identifies and discusses three types of motivation.  Motivation 1.0 is the basic need to survive.  Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent nearly all their time fulfilling this need.  Motivation 2.0 involves seeking rewards and avoiding punishment.  From the time of antiquity through the 20th century, this was the primary motivator after achieving survival.  Finally, motivation 3.0 seeks internal, intrinsic satisfaction — the fruit of personal freedom, challenge and purpose. What we like to call MVP (meaning, value & purpose).

Ours is a motivation 3.0 world.  The unexpected and unpredictable will increasingly occur.  Change is the only constant.  Continual surprises!  Microsoft’s digital Encarta encyclopedia — a profit maximizer — lost out to tens of thousands of online hobbyists writing and editing topics in Wikipedia’s open-source, interactive encyclopedia without pay — a purpose maximizer.

Surprise!  Wikipedia — now the world’s most popular encyclopedia, with 13 million articles in 260 languages — maxes out on personal motivation, massive value and combined purpose.  How many other industries today are likely candidates for Internet “re-purposing”?

We are at a very important crossroads in history.  Both the developed and developing worlds have a unique opportunity to transition to what makes all of us tick: what is inside of us, who we are, what we dream to be,  what is most important to us, how we want to be remembered.

Before you consider a career upon completing school, before you pursue a new job, before you give up on the unemployment line, consider the current environment.  Literally every citizen in this, the world’s freest country, can start any business with an iPhone or a BlackBerry and a laptop.  Barriers to entry have never been so favorable to the small business owner.

Are you intrinsically energized to achieve your MVP?  Then you stand on the threshold of a most interesting, exciting future.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world, as in being able to remake ourselves.”

Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Carthaginian general Hannibal:  “We will either find a way, or make one!”

Yoda (from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back):  “Do or do not.  There is no try.”

But success doesn’t come easy and, at the end of any given day, you may not be able to control each outcome.  Certain folks, for various reasons, will always resist change:  Therefore, we need as much enlightenment as possible to guide all of us intelligently and creatively into a bright future.

I’m frequently reminded of Yogi Berra’s admonition:  “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

About the Author

Through a series of chapter “conversations” about client dysfunctions and challenges encountered over 25 years, author and financial advisor, Gary Klaben, seeks to stimulate a new kind of conversation. Time and time again, people have watched helplessly as the family wealth-destruction cycle has gone from “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves” in three generations. His book, Changing the Conversation, seeks to empower readers to begin a journey of self-discovery in order to become masters of money, not slaves to it.