It’s a very interesting conversation about being connected, about independence and interdependence. It’s also about our choice about when to be connected and when to disconnect. Key words that I noted are engagement, connectedness, change, dynamics, tribes, context and curators.

The concept of connectedness goes well with My 3 Words for 2011 (Trust, Connect and Grow).

The video – Tiffany Shlain and Brian Solis.

Related posts suggested by system:

• Brené Brown on Connection

Guy Kawasaki talks about the important three pillars of Enchantment:
•  be likeable
•  be trustworthy
•  have a great service/product/idea

During the conversation about enchantment they talk about companies such as Apple, Zappos, Virgin Airlines, ATT and Verizon. An interesting comment from Guy about Apple, “they are an antisocial company.”

When talking about social media like Twitter and Facebook they mention it’s all about “me” with us in the center, as in social MEdia.

Key words that I noted are influence, empowered, intention, emotion and relationships (with customers).

The book: Guy Kawasaki and Enchantment
Guy’s book is titled “Enchantment – The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions”. I’m currently reading it and will be back with a short review.

The video: Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis on the Art of Enchantment

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There are 16 blocks or topics, preliminary it’s these ones:
Course Overview
The State of the Life Coaching Field
Why Life Coaches Should Blog
What Kind of Life Coach are You?
Understanding Your Own Core Competencies
How Blogs Work
Getting a Blog
Creating a Blogsite Which Attracts Clients, Part 1
Creating a Blogsite Which Attracts Clients, Part 2
Getting Clients to Sign Up with You Ethically and Easily
What to Blog About to Attract Clients
Basic Search Engine Optimization in Plain English
Managing Your Blogsite
Marketing Yourself
Integrating Social Media into Your Blog
Integrating Email Marketing into Your Blog

The material will be supplemented by live group Q&A coaching calls and everything will be accessible through a website. We will work with two topics each week. That means eight busy and fun weeks are coming up. I want to learn more about both blogging (even though I’ve done it for several years) and marketing.

Related posts suggested by system:

• Free 52 Page Complete Blogging Guide
• Marketing with an attitude
• Life is back

This blog post is about how I work on creating a foundation for the year(s) to come.

The Law of Attraction

In A Scary Admission Chris Brogan admits that he believes in the Law of Attraction.

I believe in the teachings inside The Secret. The Secret is a book that talks about The Law of Attraction. There are several books that talk about this, and The Secret isn’t even the best of them.

The premise is that if you visualize and believe with all your heart that you’ll find what you seek, then it’ll manifest.

The key is to remember that Attraction = Attract + Action. It’s not enough to attract something, it takes action to get it. Nothing will manifest out of thin air.

Visualization of what you want to achieve is used in other concepts too, like mental training.

The Secret

The Secret is a catchier name than The Known. In my opinion there’s nothing secret in The Secret, it’s a new cover on what has been said before. They have done clever marketing though.

Think and Grow Rich

I’m currently reading “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. The book is available in print or as free ebook, I have an ebook. As the title indicates, it’s focus is on money. It lists these six steps:

First: fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount.

Second: determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”)

Third: establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

Fourth: create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at ONCE, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Fifth: write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for it acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

Sixth: read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. As you read — see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.

Napoleon Hill talks about the importance of a burning desire. It’s not enough to wish or want, it has to be a burning desire. You need to be determined to get it, stand by it and know what you really want to achieve.

As you see in step 2 above he stresses that there’s no such reality as “something for nothing”.

My view

I believe that it’s a two-phase process: Attraction = Attract + Action. The process works whether it’s money we’re aiming for or something else.

Attract requires us to be clear and specific about what we want to achieve. That’s what this blog post is about.

Then it takes action, I’ll do another blog post about that.

Decide what you want

Napoleon Hill writes that “All achievements have their beginning in an idea”, I prefer to talk about a vision. It shall be something that you really desire and believe with all your heart that you’ll achieve. List what you want to achieve but be specific otherwise you can’t know when you have achieved it.

Paint an entire picture, personal and professional, since different areas of life interact with each other. It can be different levels of details but ignoring the personal side and only have a business vision is not a good idea. The other way around is not good either.

Examples of what can be included in a vision:
• I want to be my own boss.
• I want to work half time and do volunteer work in my spare time.
• I want to have X dollars in my savings account because that means financial security.
• I want to live and work in the Bahamas.
• I want to make the world a better place by doing….

Create ONE vision that covers what you want to achieve. Fill it with emotions, how will you feel when you achieved it.

If you don’t know what you want, you end up with a lot you don’t. – Chuck Palahniuk

Verify it

Consider this:
• Your vision shall be your beacon, something that keeps you heading in the right direction.
• Your vision shall be able to motivate you when the going gets tough.
• It shall be YOUR vision, not something you do to please others.
• It shall be a burning desire.

If your vision does not pass the test above then you picked the wrong vision. Return to the previous step and find your true vision.

Convert your vision to money

How much money does it take to achieve your vision?

How much do you need to make your vision come through?

Your vision might be to become your own boss instead of being employed, there’s still money that needs to be earned.

Your vision might be to be place independent (work from anywhere), there’s still money that needs to be earned.

Even a spiritual quest requires money to make it possible. There’s no “something for nothing” which means that somehow we need to pay for what we want to achieve.

When shall it be finished?

Set an end date – when shall you have achieved your vision?

Hint, if it’s more than a year away then you shall probably reconsider and rephrase your vision. A beacon that’s too far away makes for lousy navigation.

What will you do to achieve your vision?

You now have your vision, an end-date and a required amount, what will you give in return to achieve what you desire?

Define exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. Plan it, at least roughly, so you know how to do it.

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. – Tony Robbins

Make your vision memorable

If you’re visual then create a vision board. That makes it easier to picture how you will feel when it’s all done.

Create a statement (agreement with yourself) that describes your vision. It shall include the end-date, when it shall be finished, and what you will do to achieve your vision. Remember to attach feelings, how will you feel when you have achieved your vision.

Keep your vision within sight

Print out your statement. Place it where you see it often and easy. Read your vision daily so you keep it alive and fresh.

One more thing – enjoy the ride! The journey towards your vision has to be worthwhile too.

What about me?

When evaluating 2010 I realized that my original vision had split into two visions, one personal and one for my business. When those visions were aligned it was no problem but when they differed the one closest to my heart did win. Most of my personal vision, along the path to discover your Self, has been accomplished. When it comes to my business vision it did not turn out as I had intended.

Lesson learned – create ONE vision and stick to it. If in doubt along the way, go back to the verify step and see if you vision still is the right one.

What about you?

How do you work to vision what you want to achieve?

Related posts suggested by system:

• What Impact Do You Want To Have?

We had three fedback exercises (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday), all different and very useful. On Friday we did an action plan, what shall we do in order to get better as leaders and group members. We made a copy of the plan, it will be mailed to us later as a reminder.

I really enjoyed the course, I learned a lot (new things as well as refreshing some old) about group dynamics and myself. It takes time to digest it all and see how I can make the best use of it going forward.

Understanding Group and Leader (UGL)

Source image and quoted text: The UGL course, information in English.

The course, Understanding Group and Leader (UGL), has been used as a basic leadership course within the Swedish Armed Forces for more than 20 years. It has also become popular and widespread outside the Swedish Total Defence Establishment.

Objective
The overall objective of the course is for the participants to become more effective as group members, leaders and trainers.

UGL provides training in how a group develops and matures over time, what happens in the group during the course of this development and what behaviour or actions promote or inhibit constructive development. Within UGL, this is referred to as group dynamics. The course also deals with the problems and possibilities of leadership related to the development of the group’s maturity, and what style of leadership will promote both task solving and group development.

Throughout the UGL course, learning occurs through experience of situations reflecting group dynamics and understanding your own role in these situations or dynamics. During this course you will have the opportunity to:
* participate in an experiential (experience based) learning model
* increase insight into your own personality
* learn to identify and to handle conflict
* learn to communicate in a direct and clear way
* learn to give and to receive effective feedback
* learn to recognize different phases of a group’s development
* understand that there is a need for different leadership styles
* increase self-confidence and self-insight

Course values
The course is built on these values:
* People are the most important resource in an organisation.
* Contact and cooperation between people in an organisation should be characterised by openness, trust and a feeling of solidarity. Attitudes and behaviour that can be seen as lacking respect for the dignity of others are not acceptable.
* The unity and the collective resources of a group are decisive whether or not and how the tasks will be completed. Knowledge and understanding of the interactions between people are therefore a condition of good leadership.
* Leadership is the manager’s ability to create the conditions that will allow co-workers’ personalities, knowledge, interests, power of initiative and willingness to cooperate, to be used to complete set tasks in the best way.

To this we add a clear value which stresses that every person is unique and has development potential. Uniqueness means that people are individual and are not interchangeable. The development potential is seen as an alternative to a more static view of people.

UGL includes opportunities for you to experience the processes of development and uniqueness – plus it is a real opportunity for you to be you.

Differences enrich, even in learning situations. The group should therefore be composed of people from as different categories as possible, differences in age, sex, professional background, etc. Within UGL variation is seen as beneficial to the learning process.

Related posts suggested by system:

• Speaker at Øredev 2009
• Aspects of Leadership at Øredev 2009
• Geronimo Leadership Coaching

BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world. We offer members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.

I was invited as guest and it was really interesting to take part. It was a highly structured meeting. Each team member got one minute for an introduction and a search (such as a person they want to get in touch with). The guests also get their one minute each after all team members have done their minutes. Then there was a ten minutes presentation by one of the team members followed by everyone reporting what they had done during the week that was BNI-related. The meeting was held over breakfast and took 1.5 hour, very effective use of time.

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Stephan Schiffman has been a leader in motivational and sales training since 1979. He is a Certified Management Consultant, and has trained and consulted to a wide range of corporations including IBM, AT&T, Motorola, Sprint, CIGNA, and a host of other organizations throughout the world. He has trained over 500,000 professionals in over 9,000 companies.

Millions more have read his best selling books internationally. Schiffman’s accomplishments include the development of highly pragmatic sales training and management programs that adapt effectively into a broad range of sales environments and industries. All of his training is based upon actual sales experiences and are proven successful. He has been rated as the number one sales expert in prospecting by Personal Selling Power magazine.

I really liked Steve’s presentation style, involving the audience through questions so that what he said related to us. It was an afternoon well spent. I’m not primarily a sales person but when you’re running your own company you have to sell too.

Related posts suggested by system:

• Leonard Cohen – Closing Time

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.

Related posts suggested by system:

• Creative Business Valuation

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I have two questions that I work with:
• What can I do differently?
• What can I do that my competitors don’t?
I don’t think there’s a final answer to any of those. It’s about Kaizen, gradual improvement, and keeping an eye on what my competitors do.

Eagle or Duck?

Yesterday I came across Be an Eagle, not a Duck, a great story posted by Keith Stoeckeler that’s on a related topic. The story is about Wally the Cab Driver and how he changed his business. As Keith said: “Small changes can make a large impact.” Wally got his inspiration from a quote by Wayne Dyer:

Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.

Wally the Cab Driver made a choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles. He put in a few changes at a time, gradually improving his business.

I intend to soar with the eagles. What about you?

Mission statement

Wally the cab driver in the Eagle or Duck story above had this Mission Statement:

To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

That mission statement is short and to the point, easy to understand and also fairly easy to measure. It reminds me of this quote:

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupe

Twitter connects

@Amy Stark recommended that I should take a look at Convince & Convert. I liked it, subscribed and decided to follow @Jay Baer. Then Jay tweeted about @Keith Stoeckeler and the story above.

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