San Jose Entrepreneur Conference Part 2: Kick-in-the-pants Nuggets

This is the 2nd post on an entrepreneur's conference I attended in San Jose in 2014. Many successful entrepreneurs and solopreneurs took to the stage and shared their experience and tips on their success.

They shared their efforts to balance family while building a successful career. I’m sure you heard many of these before, but I captured a few inspirational nuggets that hit home for me like:

• Treat your business like a million dollar company and that you have no other option but to succeed
• Be “all in” before you go “all out”
• Don’t bet the ranch. Watch your risk and don’t risk too much on your business or a business opportunity. A risk isn’t only money, it could be your brand, time with family, etc.
• When you’re your own boss, you need to set a work schedule that will get you results, block the necessary time and stick to it
• The largest room in the world is the room for self-improvement
• Always work with intent, purpose and respect
• Create a cause for the brand. Something for partners and clients to believe in and rally behind
• Associate with good people and good companies
• Focus on sales (lead generation, sales funnel, pipeline)
• Follow-up and follow-through
• Your kids are watching you succeed or fail and what you do next
• Get a mentor
• Finish what you start

I hope one of these nuggets are the verbal kick-in-the-pants you need push a little harder and make that next step to whatever your success means to you.

- D

San Jose Entrepreneur Conference Part 1: Questions I Learned To Ask From John C Maxwell

June 2014, I attended an entrepreneurs conference in San Jose, California. My wife went with me and we turned it into a little learning getaway.

The headline (if you will) of the conference was John C. Maxwell. He’s an author of many books , primarily focusing on leadership. He’s also an accomplished speaker (I’ve witnessed this first hand now) entertaining and educating Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and many organizations.

Mr. Maxwell was promoting the book he released in 2014 entitled Good Leaders Ask Great Questions and shared advice on asking good questions and how asking good questions can help your business. I’d like to share some of the advice I captured:

• Ask good questions every day

• Take your mentors out to lunch. Don’t eat, ask questions
• Sample question:
• Who do you know that I should know?

• Be intentional about your questions

• Ask yourself good questions
• Sample questions:
• Am I investing in myself?
• What am I doing today to make myself a better leader tomorrow
• Am I a person of value? How? Why?
• Do I care about the people around me?
• Am I investing my time with the right people
• Do they have character?
• Do we have chemistry?
• Do they have capacity?
• Do they have commitment?
• Am I doing what I love and do I love what I do?
• Am I staying in my strength zone?
• Am I taking people to a higher level?
• Are they succeeding because of the way I’m leading?
• Am I developing leaders?
• Am I taking care of today?
• Am I taking time to think?
• Am I doing things right?
• Am I doing what’s right by my family?
• Am I doing what’s right by my friends?
• Am I doing what’s right by my values?

• Develop an action plan for the information you learn from the questions you ask. ACT!
• A – apply
• C – change
• T – teach

 Use these questions and ask new questions in order to stay focused on your success and whatever that means to you.

- D

Microsoft Convergence 2014

In 2014 I attended Microsoft's business technology conference, Covergence 2014. When I wasn't working the tradeshow floor I took in some of the presentations and parties that were part of the whole conference experience.

I was excited to see the Convergence 2014 Keynote Presentations. Keynote speakers included Kirill Tatarinov, executive vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions, Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and Biz Stone, co-inventor and co-founder of Twitter and co-founder and CEO of Jelly. Here are some tasty nuggets of technology entrepreneur advice I captured from these successful people:

1 - All businesses today, regardless of their industry are P2P (people to people) rather than B2B or B2C. We're entering the "era of the customer" and customers now expect to be able to interact with businesses quickly and through a variety of channels - Kirill Tatarinov.

2 - Online customer relationships have moved from observation only, to participation to full-on engagement - Arianna Huffington.

3 - Make meaningful connections with your partners and customers. Don't just make a business case for your software, solution or service, share how it actually helps people - Biz Stone.

I hope you can find a way to apply this advice to your tech company's model, messaging and conversations with your customers for engagement and success going forward.

- D

metabridge 2013

I was privileged to be asked to be the project manager for metabridge 2013. I was asked to be responsible for logistics on the ground in Kelowna, BC Canada where the 2-day tech retreat takes place.

metabridge is a powerfully positive experience for an entrepreneur. Whether you are lucky enough to be one of the top Canadian startups to be chosen and invited to attend or you need to pay to attend, you have to be in it and see it to “get it” and understand how the experience benefits you and your company.

metabridge offers many learning opportunities for entrepreneurs and there are opportunities to pitch your business to people that could potentially be game-changers for your business. Where the real value lies however, is in the opportunities you have to truly get to know people and build authentic relationships with like-minded professionals that could potentially help you and your company as you grow.

I was lucky enough to be closely involved with 2 such opportunities that were presented through events I helped organize and run during the retreat. They included:

The Bike ride and winery tour – where we rode bikes and toured a few of Kelowna’s award-winning wineries. During this event conversations between entrepreneurs, VC’s and investment companies were about anything but business. Future business relationships were being built based on shared experiences and conversations about bikes, the weather, the views and fine wine.

The Finale Party – where mutual interests around food, drinks, music and silly dance moves bring business associates together. This was also an opportunity for the amazingly creative and tech-savvy talented people working in and supporting Kelowna’s tech community to show-up en masse to rub shoulders with the tech companies and VIP’s participating in metabridge and show them why Kelowna is the best community for tech in Canada.

metabridge is a reminder that people do business with people and as much as metabridge has started conversations between companies and organizations that have hugely impacted some Canadian tech startups, those business partnerships may have developed over mutual passion for bike riding and wine.

Overall metabridge 2013 was an awesome event. The project team was flattered to get feedback from many of the tech companies and VIP’s participating in the event saying it was the best retreat in its 5-year history. After working closely with the metabridge team, helping make arrangements for all the venues and events that take place during the retreat and making sure metabridge VIP’s were transported to and from the airport for their flights, I can honestly say that I get it… I understand without a doubt the value metabridge delivers to Canadian entrepreneurs, to Canada and the host city, Kelowna. It’s an essential component with all the other incredible things that are happening to build a successful tech industry in Kelowna.

- D