My favorite #SMFind for April 2016

Why I like this post: I have been obsessing over closing new projects and partnerships... probably too much.

When finding potential opportunities doesn't seem to be a problem. Ensuring your a good fit for those opportunities and the opportunities are equally a good fit for you is critical.

How do you determine this? By asking the right questions. Learning everything you can about the customer, their problems and how best you can solve them. Then understanding their process for making a buying decision and if that is a process that works for you. You might be surprised how compromising a potential client might be, and willing they might be to adjust their decision making process to a process that works more for you.

You need to remember that however you were connected to your potential client or partner, you are a trusted proven problem solver for their challenges. You have as much power in the conversation that determines whether or not you should work together to solve their problems as they do.

What I found: How To "Virtually" Close Every Single Customer By Asking This Powerful Question!

D

My favorite #SMFind for December 2015

Why I liked it: It was the reminder that I needed.

If you're an entrepreneur, you can have all the smarts in your space, and you can have the timing for your disruption nailed...

If you're a professional salesperson, you can have all the product or service knowledge, all the connections and relationships in place...

However well positioned you are to succeed, doing the hard work and working hard day in and day out will be the single biggest factor in your success.

What I found: The Success Strategy Guaranteed to Work for You.

D

Lessons "re-learned" on a 5 day hike in the Canadian Rockies with a Group of Teenagers

In Sept 2015 I went on a 5 day hike in the Rockies with my daughter and a group from her graduating class. For these young adults this little adventure was about helping them to step outside of their comfort zone. It was about going forward in their lives knowing that they spent 5 days (6 nights) hiking in the Canadian Rockies and overcame challenges they’d never experienced before. In life they will face many challenges and it’s important for them to look back and reflect on times when they had to step outside of their comfort zones and had a positive (possibly amazing) experience.

As a chaperon, this too was an opportunity for me to (once again) step outside my comfort zone. I’d never looked after 6 teenagers in the Rockies before and it had been almost 20 years since I went on my last multi-day adventure in the wilderness.

It was a challenging and amazing experience. We hiked days with 50lb backpacks on our backs (some days we base camped - thankfully). Overall we hiked 40kms over 5 days and I can’t even begin to calculate how much vertical we tackled. We saw some amazing outdoor vistas, I learned some new and wonderful things about my daughter and I was reminded of some very important lessons for life that can be applied to business whether you’re an entrepreneur, in sales or in marketing such as:

1 – Plan, prepare, rehearse and repeat. For this adventure, we had to plan our trip, our routes, our gear and our food. Once we had organized all of this, we had to do a test hike. We had to pack our gear, put on our hiking boots and get a feel for the weight on an actual hike. We had to watch for blisters, test our cooking gear, our tents, etc. and if anything didn’t pass muster we had to go back to the drawing board. Our lives were literally on the line out there and every moment spent preparing mitigates the risk of something terrible happening to us.

In business, you have to plan (business plans, marketing plans, etc,) you have to test and validate and you have to go back to the drawing board and pivot if necessary and try again.

2 - Don’t worry about detours and take the road less travelled. This was a lesson that was driven home to me on the first day of our adventure. Just outside of Field, BC on the way to Calgary, there is a road that takes off to the left. If I’d seen this road once I’d seen it a thousand times on my many many trips to Calgary, but it was a road I’d never taken. Well, we took the road to get to our first campsite and the first leg of our adventure. The road led to Takakkaw Falls, an amazing site, not to be missed and the only way to see it is to take a few moments and get off the highway and go see it.

In business, you have to find undiscovered markets and niches and take that road less travelled to exploit them. You have to trust yourself, endure the questions and the ridicule, the loss of respect from associates and partners, but stay on the road and reap the rewards for that effort. Look for those opportunities in unlikely places, don’t be satisfied with what’s in the marketplace. Don’t be satisfied, always question what’s out there and how to make things better, solve customers’ problems and build a business model around it. You may get laughed at, you may run into skeptics, but you have to try.

3 - Respect your surroundings. On the first day we were on our adventure, another hiker with no connection to our group fell from Twin Falls in the same area of the Rockies we were hiking in. Helicopters were constantly flying over and at one point we saw search crews walking up the river looking for the body. I’m not saying this gentleman wasn’t being careful, I have no idea how he fell over the falls. What I am saying is, even though it’s encouraged to step outside your comfort zone, try to understand the risks. This was a sad reminder to our group that we still need to be careful and not take unnecessary risks.

In business, there are too many stories of companies that have failed because of taking risks without fully understanding the business environment or economic environment and how their decisions adversely impacted their businesses’ futures. Do your research, ask for advice, perform your due diligence, mitigate your risk and make the most informed decisions possible for the benefit of your business.

4 - You’re never too old. There were a number of sketchy sections during the Lake O’Hara leg of our adventure. Sections where you were hiking along a hand-built rocky ledge with a cliff face going up on your right side and a cliff face going down on your left side. At one point as we were climbing up a ridge, we met an elderly gentleman making his way down the ridge. With little or no room to make way for each other there was no option but to make conversation as you tried to pass by each other. His name was Don Gardner. He’s 70 years old. He’s helped build some of the trails around Lake O’Hara and he also hand built birch bark canoes, kayaks and other artifact replications.

It’s a well-known myth that the older you get, the more risk averse you are, but in business if you’re doing what you love keep challenging yourself. Keep learning, keep pushing, keep stepping outside your comfort zone, continue to get stronger and better at what you do. You’re never too old to make a difference in your field and in other peoples’ lives.

The bottom line is this: Stepping outside your comfort zone is important and necessary, but understand the risks in every situation, do your research, your planning and your preparation and don’t ever let your age hold you back.

D

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