Sue Stockdale is a motivational speaker, executive coach and polar adventurer. She inspires people to step out their comfort zone and make the seemingly impossible become reality.
One of the best things about being a speaker at the Marketing Forum is that you get an opportunity to hear other people talk about interesting subjects too. Whilst onboard the Aurora, I went along to a workshop on using LInkedIn. I use Linkedin a lot and think its great, but had not really thought about if I had a strategy for using it. Luckily Mark Williams from ETN Training put my mind at rest. He explained how to use it effectively as a marketing tool, with useful advice including:
- never dismiss an invitation with the option "I don't know them" but use "archive" which achieves the same objective but does not negatively impact that persons account. Apparently if lots of people say they don't know you when you ask to connect to them, your account gets some type of limited status. Useful to know.
-joining groups is a good way to expand your network because it then enables you to contact other members of a group directly. The bigger the group, the most access to a wider number of people you have.
-make sure your profile is 100% complete along with a photo
- get active - post questions, respond to status updates, post your own updates - because every time you do so, others in your network will see what you are doing and you keep your name in front of them.
He had some great success stories to share about how people have benefited from using LInkedIn - and I realised that I DO have a strategy although I did not realise it until now!
This week I spoke at the Hinckley Business Association and one of the other speakers was Priscilla Morris, an accomplished voice coach. Imagine my worst fate - having to speak after a voice coach!
Priscilla was explaining to us about how she has developed her business over the last 35 years and one of the clients she has is the Amateur Swimming Association who asked her to help them with Voice Protection Training, for their swimming coaches. It made me think about how important the voice is to many careers and therefore how important it is to use it correctly and also to protect it. We do make so many judgements about people based on their voice so its worthwhile reflecting on how you come across and what your voice says about you?
I have been doing quite a few motivational presentations recently so here are my top five things to think about before you give a presentation:
1. Check out your Audience - find out who will be attending, their backgrounds, interests, age, cultural backgrounds in fact as much as you can so that you can prepare your presentation to meet their needs 2. Check out the Environment - get to the venue a bit ahead of time and suss out the environment. Check the set up on seating so that people at the end of rows can still see the screen if you are using visual aids. Ask someone to sit at the end and stand where you intend to present from and see if the audience can still see the screen. 3. Check out the lighting and sound - if you are using powerpoint the organisers may decide to lower the lighting for the presentation - check this out and have a run through to make sure both you AND your slides can be seen. In some venues there is no direct lighting on the speaker, so the audience might just hear a voice and miss your facial expressions if the lighting is low! 4. Check out the timings - whilst you may have been told that you have 20 minutes to speak, events can sometimes change at the last minute, and you end up with less time than you planned for. Speak to the oragniser and make sure you know how long you have to speak. If it is reduced, then make sure you can shorten your presentation, by taking out some slides rather than just speaking more quickly to get the same message across in a shorter time. 5. Check out yourself - make sure you look good and feel confident, so have a quick nip to the bathroom before you start. No spinach in teeth - hair looking tidy - clothes smart - and you can have a quick read of your notes too to remind yourself of what you are going to say.
All of these small details will help you to give a great presentation, so make sure you get to a venue early enough to go through your final checks - pilots don't just turn up and fly the plane - so you should learn from them - small details make the difference.
I came across this great idea that might help you improve your blog and I am going to try it - Its a free 31 day course starting on Monday to help you work on improving your blog. Every day will be posted some theory and some action steps and your will be encouraged to get to it and improve your blog! Nothing could be simpler - so keep reading here and see if things improve!
I keep coming across women who secretly have a desire to grow their business, but are fearful of what it really means. Will they lose control? Do they have to work harder? How will it be funded? All of these questions and more then serve to put them off going for it.
I had been trying to think about how to can motivate and inspire these type of women to make it seem "possible" - after all our company's name is not Mission Possible for nothing is it! So, using what we do best to motivate people to achieve other goals, I decided to apply the same approach to this question.
The answer - demystify it. Make it seem possible - enticing - exciting - and what's more, during this process help them realise they are not the only one who is in this situation. And finally - make sure that before they leave, they have the first step identified - so they can take immediate action.
The outcome - is our What you need to know to grow a business event on 12th March. Two speakers with quite different backgrounds who can provide realistic, practical insight and add to the mix and opportunity to discuss the issues with others who are there.
So spread the word and tell your friends about it!
It's been an odd week because of the weather. With snow hampering travel and several activities rescheduled I had the pleasure this week of having several telephone meetings that were originally planned as face to face meetings. What a revelation! They were focused, fun and productive. Whilst I always recommend the benefits of face to face, there is also a place for telephone meetings too. Perhaps I should listen more keenly to what Anna Farmery always promotes in her wonderful podcasts and try out GotoMeeting.
I did get out yesterday and delivered a session on self-promotion to the high growth programme. As the delegates appreciated, it does not matter how effectively your business plan is written, if you are not able to effectively promote yourself and your business, its less likely that any investor will want to pursue a conversation. So how you look, how you behave and having a clear message is all vital to the entrepreneur.
We did an exercise where each person wrote down what their company brand values were and then I showed all of their websites to the group and each person commented on their first impressions of the site, and what they felt about what it was communicating to them. This was fascinating - how often do you get "real" feedback from people about how your brand comes across to them? Whilst it required some to step out of their comfort zone to offer honest and valuable feedback, the benefit was It gave each person additional insight which they can now use to realign or reiterate their brand values.
Sometimes we need to be prepared to face adversity to gain the opportunity from it.
This week I have been busy attending the launch events for the RFU Leadership Academy for leaders within Community Rugby Clubs. It's a programme designed to develop both today's and tomorrow's leaders because, similar to small business, we all know that the quality of an organisation is highly linked to the quality of its leadership.
Even though clubs are run by volunteers they face similar issues to those of small business owner; how to create a vision and strategy for the long term, motivating people and managing change. Sir Clive Woodward had some twelve useful leadership lessons for rugby teams and it also applies to leaders of clubs and small businesses:
(Adapted from The Sunday Times June 19, 2005)
Good leadership is transferable across disciplines. If you have proved that you can successfully manage a team or an organisation in one industry, the chances are that you would fare equally well in another
Passion is all. No manager will succeed without it.If you’re ambitious, don’t stay in a job just for the money or status. You will never excel unless you do what you want to do rather than what you feel you ought to do
Enjoyment is a business term. While strategy, planning and organisation are all necessary, don’t lose sight of the fact that there are human beings who volunteer with you who won’t perform unless they enjoy their task. Always challenge your people with new ways of doing things, new ideas. Always make them feel that they are progressing as individuals
Only hire those who pass the ‘24-hour plane journey’ test. To maintain your level of enjoyment, you need the right people around you. When you recruit, don’t just look at the CV. Would you want that person with you day in, day out, for years?
Achieve success through setbacks, and build on success. Work hard to learn the lessons of victory and success. Don’t dwell on failure. Focus on the positive.
Remove all ‘energy sappers. Too much nonsense is written about motivation. You need to get the right people, all of them committed to achieve. If there are those who don’t share that commitment, move swiftly to turn them round. If their attitude doesn’t improve, get them out before the entire working atmosphere is tainted irreparably
Establish ‘teamship’ rules at the outset. When you start managing any team of people, sit down with them and thrash out a set of standards and rules by which everyone has to abide. Once you get this buy-in, everyone can concentrate on moving the business forward without fear of disruption
Make use of the creativity of everyone in your organisation. Intelligence and fresh thinking are not the preserve of senior executives and MBA graduates. If you neglect to consult the grass roots, you might lose out on ideas which could change your business
For a fresh view, go outside your industry. People who work in the same industry tend to end up thinking the same. If you genuinely want new ideas, don’t forget to consult people you respect who have never worked in your industry
Never follow tradition for its own sake. ‘That’s the way we do things here.’ You’re not ever going to beat the competition with that sort of complacency. Look at absolutely everything your team or club does and then ask yourself honestly, ‘Should we really still do it this way?’
Don’t neglect any detail. It could make all the difference. Competition can be fierce. What then differentiates the best from the also-rans? It’s those one per cents, the ‘critical non-essentials’
Understand your team, but don’t get too close. Your relationship with your team should be a delicate balancing act. Get to know something about their lives outside work so that you can understand them better and so that they feel part of a team where people care. But never get too close. That might compromise you.
It's been a whirlwind week so far and I have just come back from Dublin where I was speaking at the Institute of Business Analysis and Consulting Annual conference. The theme was on the evolving role of the analyst and one of the research reports highlighted that two of the top five skills needed by analysts were communication and listening skills.
I had the morning to listen to some great keynote speakers and take some time to think about how their messages resonated with our business. Sometimes it really useful to make space to reflect and listen to people who are completely outside of your business sector. You can glean new ideas that you never thought of.
Then at lunchtime, I sat down next to a lady and we started chatting. After about 20 minutes we realised that we both ran women's networking groups so had lots in common. We also reflected that if we had only had 3 minutes of "speed networking" we might never have made that connection. As a result she is going to write an article on her perspective of women's networking in Dublin for our newsletter.So take time to listen to someone that you don' normally talk to, and you might learn some amazing things!
There
are now over 1 million self-employed women in the UK and whilst over 70% own their
own businesses, less than 20% of those have employees.Some might argue that women don’t want to
grow big businesses, but it’s not true for many female entrepreneurs
today.So what will encourage women to
grow their businesses to a size that contributes to the economy by providing
jobs for others?
Three
things: aspirations, capabilities and
resources, and underpinning them all a
good idea that is scalable.
Business Model
Many
women start out delivering a product or service that is based around their own
skills e.g. complementary therapy. Whilst
you might be the best therapist in your local area, the business can only be
scalable if you create a business model which helps you (and others who may
become involved in your business) understand how it makes money.
A
business model should describe how your business positions itself within its
industry and how it intends to generate revenue.It should answer the following questions:
1.Who pays? (consumer,
producer, or third parties?)
2.What for? (goods, services,
expertise, assurances of quality or security.)
3.To whom?
4.Why? (perceived value, competitive
price etc.)
You
need a clear and convincing answers to the above questions, especially “why”.
If your business model cannot be replicated
then it will difficult to turn your service into a growth business. But assuming that it is, then consider the
other areas too.
Many
women start up in business for different reasons to the traditional
entrepreneurial values of financial success, power and status.Some tend to be motivated by personal comfort
or self-actualization goals that allow them to work at something interesting
and maintain flexibility. Running a high growth business tends to demand high
levels of energy, commitment and leadership skills and might not seem so appealing.
How to get inspired
Read about women who are
running growth businesses and find out what it’s really like
hink about your future and
what you would like to achieve.Think
about the benefits of investing time and effort for a few years in order to
build a business that has the potential to be sold. This could provide the finance
for you to achieve your longer term vision.
Believe it is
possible.Sometime the greatest fear we
have is fear of success, not fear of failure so create your own model for
success based on your ideal work environment.
Capabilities
This
is the combination of knowledge and skills that you bring to the table.Sometimes I think many of us like to imagine
we can do it all, and it’s foolish to believe that this is the case.This encourages you not to delegate and get
others involved, which is what is needed to grow a business.
Critically assess the skills
and capabilities that you have.Be
honest with yourself and recognise that if you are focusing on your strengths
then you can start to value strengths in others and it’s easier to delegate.
Resources
are the combination of financial and social capital that you have available
which can help you make the transition from lifestyle business to growing
business.
Finances
Over
the years, maybe you have not had as much interest or taken the responsibility
for understanding and managing finances, and research shows that women spend
less time engaged in activity related to acquiring finance at the start-up
stage.
This
could be because we can be more risk averse regarding business funding.I wish I had a pound for every woman I have
spoken to that will only start their business on a shoe string because they
don’t believe it’s really going to be a success!Yet it’s this under-capitalisation of a
business that can cause problems if you intend to grow.
Challenge your thinking
– ask yourself - what is attitude to financial risk?Would you put up your house as security?If not, why not?Is it that you would not put your family in
jeopardy, you don’t believe in the potential of the product/service?By asking yourself these questions, you can
begin to think like an investor – if you don’t believe in your business, then
why should the bank or an investor?
Contrary to popular
belief, successful entrepreneurs are not risk takers, but what they do is
carefully evaluate all the risks before making a decision.
Social Capital
As
you begin to grow, you will need to find good people to help you. They might be
business specialists, investors, potential members of staff, mentors etc. and
the more diverse networks that you have, the greater the chance that you will
be able to find the right people.
evaluate all the
networks that you are part of already. E.g. family, school friends, other
parents, business networks, evening class contacts, people at the gym, and you
will amaze yourself at the number of people you know.
Even if you don’t have a
large network, you can “borrow” social capital from others who do and that is
where a mentor comes in.If you are
looking to build contacts in a particular industry sector then you might consider
seeking a mentor in that industry.Whilst this might seem a “one-sided approach” if you have ever mentored
someone else you will know that the mentor gets a lot of satisfaction too from
being able to help their mentee and to make introductions.
