A Cool Business Decision (IMHO)

Sometimes when you're out there "doing what you do" you never know what great things are waiting in the wings to support your journey.  And when you MAKE A DECISION to make something happen, it sparks some action in the universe and sometimes the MAP to the treasure chest just appears at your feet.

If you've been following me for a while then you know I've been fine-tuning my business model and I determined that 2012 is my year. I'm unifying all the facets of my business activities under one brand -- Intensely Positive -- because it identifies my mind set and my life choice, really, and many awesome things have presented themselves to help me on my adventure.

One such awesome event was being chosen by Jacqueline Edwards of Business Pipeline for a promotional interview to be posted on her website and exposed to her contacts and colleagues, that could help increase my visibility. She'd been looking at my activities via Twitter and thought her services would be of value so she approached me. Initially, I thought she was just being nice to me because I was a nice guy, so when she mentioned that there was a fee... I balked -- had an attack of that small business / small mind thing.

These days, whenever something comes into my life I query it to see how it fits, and why the opportunity came to me, and the words of my good friend and advisor Sophie L'hoste rang in my ears.  Two years ago Sophie said to me, "Kelvin, I notice that whenever an opportunity comes to you, you like to bargain for it. You want to have money but you never want to spend money; you like the free stuff.  If you look around your life -- your business life -- you'll see that you are attracting people who feel the same way you do.  They don't want to pay for your services; they want to bargain and get it for free."  Those words have been with me every day since she said them... and they've changed the way I look at things.  In the words of Wayne Dyer, "When you change the way you look at things; the things you look at change."

So I said yes to Jacqueline, sent her the (very reasonable) fee she requested and we scheduled the interview! Note that the interview was for a 5 minute spot on her new website.  I asked Jacqueline for the interview questions ahead of time, and she gently declined with, "I want  your listeners to have authentic answers, not something you rehearsed to perfection."  (Hmmm. Integrity; how about that.) I didn't like it, but I agreed.  I am a Toastmaster, after all (hee hee), so impromptu questions aren't a problem for me.  So the morning of the interview, she called -- precisely on time.  We had some initial hello chat (we'd been twitter followers for two years but had never taken it off 140), conducted the interview, then had some more chat, then off she went.  In two weeks (busy season for her) she posted the interview on Twitter.

I was initially shocked. She under-promised and over-delivered.  I expected a 5 minute interview posted on her site, but the teaser YouTube video really got me excited.  Then she spent time promoting that video and interview to her lists. Just looking at the work she put in to putting that presentation together, my first thought was, "Wow... this is worth way more than she charged me."  Major Win!  And there were other nice surprises I didn't expect.

So am I glad I did it?  Absolutely!  Was it worth it? Absolutely, because not only is it on her web site and promoted to her clients and contacts, but I have the option of putting them on my website as I wish.  Small business owners -- really small business owners -- don't usually have access to quality presentations.  We tend to do a lot ourselves FOR ourselves, and most of us aren't really talented enough to create the presentations we really need to represent us.  I believe that Jacqueline and Business Pipeline can give us that little extra "umph", that little push of exposure, that little boost to our public image, whether she's sending new traffic our way or whether the traffic we already get starts looking at us in a new way.  What's one new client worth in your business?

So check them out at their website, follow her on Twitter (@helpbusinesses), check out my video and interview (the interview link is right under the video), and decide for yourself.

To your success!  Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

So I met this guy...

Who motivates the motivator? Who gets the person moving forward, who's been stuck in the same spot on the treadmill -- like that hamster on the wheel -- so all that sweat starts being the result of productivity, and not just aimless activity? Some say that is totally internal to the person involved: "You make a decision, and then you act on it. There is no decision without action." And I totally believe that to be true.

But sometimes, in doing the assessment that leads to making your decision, you find that there are things stopping you, blocking you from moving forward, and part of your decision might be to find someone -- a guru... a coach ... a mentor ... a compassionate friend, perhaps -- to help you identify the stuff that keeps you from making progress because, after all, if you already knew what was stopping you, you'd do something about it, right? But even then, if you decide to do something about it, what would you do?

Sometimes what turns the key to understanding -- and subsequently action -- is something as simple as a single question, and many times that question has to come from someone outside of ourselves.

So... I met this guy. Actually, he called me (and got my voice mail) to do some networking after a chamber of commerce event that I'd missed. He was just going down the list of absent members, introducing himself and telling us about his coaching business. I liked his style, his presentation, and figured "what have I got to lose? It's networking." So I called him back and got his voice mail, left my message, and after several iterations of that , we finally met.

Now sitting face to face, doing the normal positioning banter, checking each other out to see if each of us is who we "discerned" the other to be via our phone messages -- king's pawn to king 3, etc. Turns out Steve decided he needed to meet me, just to find out WHO the person was who could leave a voice mail message as long as the one I'd left him ! (I do write "Ramblings "... after all)

So, we'd gotten past that and had been talking a while (he mostly listening); I told him what I'm involved in, some of my immediate and intermediate goals, what my time lines are, and he smiled and asked, "so, what's your end game?" Kelvin became silent. I am unaccustomed to people asking me a question that stops me cold... and makes me think that hard... that fast (perhaps that's why he's the business coach and I'm not). Some things we've not equated to such simple concepts that we can pull in a flash, but... that's the real question, isn't it ? What is my end game? So I told him the truth -- more or less: "I'm just now defining that... let me get back to you."

Of course, being who I am, I managed to also ask *him* a question that gave him a bit of pause, though not as long a pause as he gave me, and after 90 minutes of conversation with this man, I felt invigorated, refreshed, challenged and respected -- not a bad mix for a 90 minute cup of coffee.

So who knows. Maybe you have a hurdle or two you don't seem able to get over up to now. Maybe a no-cost consultation will help you see a direction. Who can say? Check him out. Maybe Steve has a question that you need to think about. I don't recommend many people -- I'm hard to impress (smile).

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin