You Don’t Call Me. I Call You

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Bengt

The business card below popped up on a friends wall on Facebook. It’s a card with attitude and the story behind how it ended up in the press can be read at The Best Business Card Ever: A Warren Buffett Story, Starring His Girl Friday, Devon Spurgeon.

The Huffington Post wrote about it too at Devon Spurgeon, Warren Buffett’s Chief Of Staff, Keeps Hilarious Business Card: ‘You Don’t Call Me. I Call You’.

For some occasions that kind of card can be useful but using a Gmail address is a bit generic. I, for fun, bought the domain youdontcallme-icallyou.com which carries the message in a different way.

Vivo Barefoot Ra black

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Bengt

Vivo Barefoot Ra black Today I took one step further in my transition to barefoot walking. I went to Fotkultur in Malmö and bought a pair of black Vivo Barefoot Ra.

The Ra is one of the most classic VIVOBAREFOOT styles to date. The sumptuous vegetable tanned leather upper sits on the original VIVOBAREFOOT sole. It’s a truly versatile shoe; smart enough for the office and stylish enough for a night out, offering barefoot health benefits from day-to-night.

Vivo Barefoot Ra black I wanted real barefoot shoes which means no heal, no built in support and a thin flexible protective sole. The VivoBarefoot concept gives me that.

No heel, no midsole, no arch support, no gimmicks! VIVOBAREFOOT encourages us to move as million years of evolution intended – barefoot.

Ra features (from Terra Plana):
- Flexible.
- Ultra thin 3mm TPU sole.
- Puncture resistant.
- Vegetable tanned minimum chrome leather upper.

The lining is Naturetex 50 which is made from 50% recycled plastic bottles. I like the slogan, At Cosmo we strive to make the world we live in a better place.

Now I have barefoot or almost barefoot shoes for all occasions:
- Vivo Barefoot Ra is a more “dressed” shoe.
- Keen Sayulita Lace is a leisure shoe.
- Nike Free 3.0 V2 is for walking and running (when/if I want to run).
- Keen Sun Valley Slipper is my indoor shoe, I’m usually barefoot at home.

Read more in the Tag Archives: barefoot.

Keen Sayulita Lace

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Bengt

I bought Keen Sun Valley Slipper in September and I really like them. Today I got my Keen Sayulita Lace. These are, just like the slipper, “barefoot” in style with almost no heal and a fairly flexible sole. The shoes are wide and really comfortable.

Perfect for your transition from work to play, week to weekend, Keen’s Sayulita lace-up shoes are made of soft, flexible suede and styled with a laid-back look.

How does one become a butterfly?

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Bengt

“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked.

“You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

- Trina Paulus

Serendipity at work

I had finished reading “Enchantment” by Guy Kawasaki which has an origami butterfly on the front cover. The quote above turned up in my Facebook stream and the butterfly connection is obvious.

Going from caterpillar to butterfly is a great example of change which is what my business is all about.

Photo source: Butterfly World June 2010

Me as a collage

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Bengt

My bio-text on Twitter says “Inquisitive, openminded, loves life. Professional coach, mentor. Please note that Twitter is my water cooler, I prefer conversation over promotions.”

Today I felt like creating a collage that shows the first part, “Inquisitive, openminded, loves life.” I think the collage can be titled “a harmonic thinker with a childlike mind.” Childlike in the sense of being open and inquisitive. It’s also about playing more, one of my goals.

Life is good bag

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Bengt

I was browsing addnature and Naturkompaniet looking for products from Snugpak (I have their Kit Monster 65 bag in red) when I noticed a bag from Life is good. The smiling face and the text “Life is good” hooked me, I later went into Naturkompaniet in Malmö and bought the bag.

Nike Free 3.0 V2

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Bengt

I have been posting some about barefoot running and walking.

The big shoe companies are clearly paying attention to the (minimalist approach) trend. Nike was first to market with the Nike Free, a flexible shoe for “barefoot like running” with less padding than the company’s typical offerings.

The Nike Free line of footwear features a segmented sole which provides greater flexibility while still having an amount of cushioning. The Free line is based on a scale from 1-10, where 1 is barefoot and 10 is a typical athletic shoe sole.

That scale makes the 3.0 closest to being barefoot. Today I bought a pair of Nike Free 3.0 V2 which are “semi-barefoot” shoes. The soles are very flexible, walking in these shoes are very different to using an ordinary pair of shoes. Less padding in the Free shoes means you need to walk and run differently. No landing on your heel, it hurts too much.

It’s said that you shall take it slow and get used to minimalist shoes. I’m glad that I walk barefoot at home, it seems to make a big difference since I walked more than usual today yet still have no aching feet or legs.

Either the shoes are small in size or you need larger barefoot-shoes. I normally wear size 9, in these I needed size 10.5.

Key Coaching in English

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Bengt

My previous business home page was bilingual, English and Swedish. I created Key Coaching (Swedish) as a new WordPress installation. Now I have started to rebuild Key Coaching (English) from the ground up. I have imported some of the posts from Bengt’s Notes (this blog) because I decided to have my business oriented blogging over at Key Coaching.

That means topics such as coaching. mentoring, business and networking will be at Key Coaching in the future. The old posts for those topics will be removed from this blog and links will be redirected.

My 3 Words for 2011

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Bengt

About two years ago I posted Goals, guidelines and keywords with my three words for 2009: Trust, Connect and Grow.

About a year ago I posted Ready for 2010 where I listed my three words: Trust, Connect and Grow. I kept the words I had selected for 2009, they were still important to me.

In March 2010 I posted Three Words Become Five. I added Rhythm and Nourish to Trust, Connect and Grow.

My 3 words for 2011

I go back to three words instead of five, I extend what some of my three words stand for. In no specific order they are:

Trust means to trust my inner voice, to build trust and to be trustworthy.

Connect goes outwards (connect to more people in real life and virtually, be visible and valuable) as well as inwards (connect to my inner self). I include creating relationships and to collaborate, together we can achieve more.

Grow covers to grow my business and to grow as person. It includes to learn and share. I am a life long learner, sharing knowledge and ideas is fun. I also include nourish, without that nothing will grow.

My words work well as corners in a triangle, they complete each other and none is more important than the other. My words will guide my actions during the year, it’s easy to check back to them and see if I’m aligned with them or not.

Three Words Elsewhere

Chris Brogan posted My 3 Words for 2011 where he also lists words other have sent him. Mich Sineath created a wordle based on that post, it’s interesting to see which words that stand out.

Additional reading

The last part of Happy Holidays 2009 talks about why new year’s resolutions can be dangerous.

Reinventing My Business

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Bengt

James at Men with Pens posted How to Rip Off Your Band-Aid and Reinvent Your Business. I read it, thought it made a lot of sense – to others – and left. The post starts like this:

When you have a business – any kind of business – there are two ways to grow:

* You can tinker away and make changes to accommodate growth in little bits as you go along
* You can shut the whole thing down and start over

Most people do the first. It’s easier to pick away at what you have and make little tweaks and improvements here and there, fixing up your business as you go along. You add a new service.

Something has pulled me back to that post several times today. I’ve been doing the first, some tweaking and adding a service or two. But to be honest I’m not really satisfied with what I have created, it feels like a patchwork. Nice in a way but it could be better.

No one has forever.

I think this is what bothers me – No one has forever. Nothing new about that but in this context it’s a major poke.

So if there’s somewhere you’d like to be with your business, quit picking at the band-aid. Take a few days off and think about what you’d like to do with your business and where you want to be. Plan. Prepare. Decide on your products, your services, your target market, your web image, and your goals.

Then just do it. Stop your world. Rip the band-aid off and put your business on hold for a week, a month, or maybe even two months. Do all the work you have to do to heal up what’s broken, fix what needs fixing and get your whole business set and ready for the next level.

There is somewhere I’d like to be with my business. I guess it’s time to stop procrastinating on this and do the work needed to create the business I really would love to have. See you in the new year with a new and better business…

Are You Using The Wrong Business Model?

In the weekly wrap from Copyblogger was a link to Are You Using The Wrong Business Model? at The Launch Coach. It’s a great post that starts like this:

Your business can be one of two things: A ramp, or a treadmill.

A ramp leads to a bigger and bigger business. A treadmill leads to more of the same, and a plateau of sales. (Or, if you have a fancy treadmill, a gentle incline that doesn’t get you that much farther.)

A ramp gets you to the next level. A treadmill doesn’t.

My current business model falls in the treadmill bracket. I’ll do my best to make my new business model as a ramp.

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