Empty Brain: Big Thoughts

Robert Grudin, writer, teacher and philosopher, in his book, Time and the Art of Living, says, Because it is a radical act of freedom, creative achievement is a heroic process that requires, in all its permutations, specific strengths of character.

He also guides us, in yet another of his books, to clear the workspace and sit patiently, ready to receive.  I practice this when I sit down to write and find that it always works.  Want to know more?  Here's the bizz buzzz.

I believe, as Grudin does, that if the physical space is crowded, there is no room for anything new.  Great example is a desk covered in papers, books, to-do lists, yesterday's lunch, magazines, two stacks of things to deal with and a coffee mug!  I also believe that if the part in our brains, which is used to fire up ideas cannot function properly; if it is overwhelmed by thoughts of what went wrong today, who I need to meet with, how am I going to finish this on time, did I forget to turn off the coffee-maker, where should I take my mother for her birthday dinner and so on, then creativity will come in very labored spurts.  This is where "writer's block" lives and where all of us find ourselves at one time or another.

In order for our creativity to begin flowing, we must clear or empty the brain, then wait patiently with only one task before us.  Buddhists call this meditation, Christians call it prayer, creative people call it the zone.

Next time you're looking for your creative mind to blossom with ideas, be a the kind of hero that Grudin talks about and try a little housecleaning, beginning with your work space.  Then sit at your desk, pen and paper ready, take a deep breath...let it out...and wait.

Let's KISS and Stay Ahead

No, not this KISS.

How about something else?  I'm talking about the acronym, K.I.S.S., which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid!

Life is complicated, work is complicated, projects are complicated...or are they?  Yes, I believe that our lives and work and even projects CAN be complicated.  I also believe that we either allow them to be so or we make them unnecessarily so.

We are told throughout our lives to stop and smell the roses.  How about if, before we embark on a new phase of our lives or a new job or project, we stop and look at the big picture?  Don't understand?  Well, here's the biz buzzz.
Everything in our professional and personal lives is part of a system.  We are part of a system.  We are one piece in a family system, one part of a system that drives a corporation or small business and one part of a project or a relationship.  Every action that we take or do not take influences these systems.  Are you with me?

This systems thinking seems complicated, but it's easier than you might be thinking right now.  One way to KISS all this complexity is through systems-thinking.  Consider this.  Next time you imagine a project, stop and draw.  Draw a map or a picture with words...really.

1. Begin by naming the project with a clear and easily understood name.  Make sure it's easy for others to understand what it's all about.
2. Next, list all of the pieces, parts or components of this project.  Let's look at putting a new coffee pot in the office.  List: location, electrical outlet, trash can, people who drink coffee, supplies for making coffee, supplies for cleaning up and disposal of grounds, cups, sugar, cream.
3. Now, go through this list and, beside each part or word, list all of the connections.  For example: Location--in reception area, in kitchen, in bathroom, in closet, by the copier, on Jane's desk, and so on.
4. What I like to do at this point is ask questions.  If it goes on Jane's desk, will Jane still have room enough for her papers and work?  What if someone spilled coffee on one of her papers?  Does Jane even drink coffee?  How far from this desk is the nearest water faucet?  Is it easy to clean up here?  Is it too far from other work stations?...and so on.
5. It may turn out that Jane does not drink coffee and she becomes ill when she smells coffee brewing.  Wouldn't it be awful and create complications for Jane and her relationship with coffee-drinking co-workers if you put the coffee pot here?  When would this surface as an issue?  Perhaps Jane would say nothing and quit.  Jane might think that this had been done purposefully to drive her out of the office.  You may be laughing, but I'll wager you can think back to a situation similar to this one that seemed strange when it happened.  Perhaps much later, a few things came to light and you realized that a difficult or complicated situation could have been avoided?

Systems-Thinking is a wonderful tool.  In the early 1990s, Peter Senge helped organizations and businesses to adopt systems-thinking via his book, The Fifth Discipline (which is systems-thinking).  The other four disciplines that he recommended are:  personal vision or mastery, mental models, building a shared vision and team learning.

Once you begin exploring systems-thinking and develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for this tool, you'll see how useful it is when you apply it to almost every activity or potential action in your life.

Greenfingers: a movie with a message

In 2000, a movie with a message was released.  I didn't hear about it and didn't see it.  Greenfingers is on its way to our home via Netflix.  I just watched the trailer and couldn't be more excited.  Probably, it's a little sappy and a little predictable, but I see nothing wrong with that.  What I'm most excited about, while I'm looking forward to watching the movie, is the message.  It's a message that I need for reinforcement on those days that I'm trudging along the work/career path, and it's a message that could offer inspiration to lots of small business owners that I see.

The male lead says, "After 15 years in prison, I had accepted that this was all my life would always be."

How many of us (raise your hands) have found ourselves saying something similar? We've been hard at work, we've been giving it our best, we've been getting knocked down...This sucks, so we begin to believe that this is how it will always be--this is all there is for us and for our business.

In the same movie, when a gardening program is introduced, the same male lead says that he doesn't want to be a gardener; he is a prisoner.  The wise older prisoner says, "...we've been prisoners all our lives.  Let's be gardeners!"  Yes, let's all break out of our prisons, our ruts, our belief that we cannot do better--let's be gardeners, instead!  Here's the bizbuzzz.

Gardeners vs. Prisoners
I say, let the gardener in you win!  Why not?  Is there anything to lose in doing so, in letting go of negative beliefs? Let's take a look at both methods as they relate to business and marketing:

Prisoners: stuck, depressed, no control over outcomes, negative, dark, in a rut, dead, sad, given up.

Gardeners: free, happy, colorful, potential, influence outcomes, positive, sun-shiny, sharing, caring, giving, building, growing, feeding, proud.

You know, gardeners share seeds and cuttings of plants with fellow gardeners, but they also ask and receive the same from the others. 

If you're in a rut, if you're feeling that you are a prisoner of your business and marketing efforts, perhaps all you need to do is borrow a few seeds from a fellow gardener, plant and maintain those seeds with caring and enthusiasm, give it all a little time and see if you don't notice a positively sunny change.  I certainly hope you have a blooming good time trying!

Brilliant Blog...somewhere else

Today, I'm linking you to a brilliant post that ties in this video, complaining while on an airplane, tweeting and creative marketing.  Curious?  Got to the Brains On Fire blog.  Thanks to Amy Taylor for a wonderful reminder about community-building!

Re-Invent Your Biz...or your Biz Buzzz

The famous formula, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got,” does not apply during tough economic times. What I mean is, “When the going gets tough, the weak get going and the tough figure out how to do it differently.”

In a TIME.com article from late 2008, Detroit's Fall Gives Power to Rival Dixie, a South Carolina author, John Jeter, was quoted...

…southerners ask who the hypocrites really are. "When the textile industry went down in the South and we were accused of being behind the times, we didn't ask for a bailout — we just had to reinvent ourselves," says John Jeter, a South Carolina author whose family owns a small chain of auto parts stores and whose new novel, The Plunder Room, examines the modern southern character.

John is right--when the going gets tough, you vent to get it out of your system, then you figure out how to market your services or your business in a different way. It's not so much that you do something entirely different as it is that you keep a close watch on your market (and the economy in-general) and you adapt. A-D-A-P-T, as in “Don’t just sit there—do something”.

Here's the Biz Buzzz: For an example of how one well-recognized company did this, let’s go back a few decades. 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. Let’s look at Tupperware®. What a great way to market the product—go to potential users’ homes and have a party! Let them invite all of their closest friends, pay for it all, coordinate everything and you pay them with…yes, your product. Clever! That's innovation.

Let’s move up a bit to the 80s and 90s. Hey! What happened? The market changed. It really, really changed! Moms are not working at home anymore. Moms are working, too, now, just like the dads. Moms are hip and on the move and looking to make everything easier and faster.

Smart Tupperware—they reached deep into that innovation bucket and did a complete redesign of the old useful products and even changed some of the names. Now you had brightly colored lids and containers that doubled up as mixing bowls. Now, in addition to the party sales, you could find the products online! Smart, very smart.

Let’s keep going—Hey, the busy moms who once found value in Tupperware now had no use for it; they were using disposable—Ahem!--single use containers. Another innovation moment—reusable, long-lasting containers are better for the environment. Headlines! All responsible moms and dads now use Tupperware, instead of the use ‘em-and-toss ‘em containers.

Do you see it, folks? Same business, same products essentially, but with different designs, new products in the existing lines, new colors, new names, new buying opportunities.

Your market changes, you read your market and you speak with your market differently. Re-invent your biz. This is a way that you can give even the smallest of small businesses a facelift, and even have change left over to buy that Spin ‘N Save™ Salad Spinner you’ve been wanting.

A business success story in the midst of a dire economy: How yoga and no business experience help in starting a business

 Ever heard of a yogi leading the way in business development? How about a yoga mat as the foundation of a successful business?

A little over a year ago in a small Southern town, a woman without any business experience, but with a mission to help others through yoga, started a business. But, "Wait," you say, "that was in the midst of one of the most difficult economic periods that the United States has ever experienced". Correct! "There were established businesses," you say, "that folded under the pressure of people spending less than they had in decades and lending institutions not lending and…" Correct again! "Wait a minute", you say, "this I’ve got to hear!"

Debbie Harvley, a resident of Donalds, South Carolina, travels to nearby Greenwood, South Carolina, six days a week to teach yoga and to continue building her yoga studio business (The Mat Works Yoga Studio), which is now just barely one year old. Debbie has been on a mission to help others through yoga as she was helped many years ago, and she won’t stop until she’s reached as many people as she can.

Debbie, a certified and registered yoga teacher, advises people to enter into a yoga practice with a sense of commitment--the same kind of commitment that’s brought her yoga studio to a successful first year threshold and beyond.

“I could have stayed at home and kept up my own yoga practice,” Debbie says, “or I could have taken on a few students, but it’s important to me to share this knowledge with others,” she adds. This strong desire, it seems, is a key factor in the success of Debbie’s yoga business. She cares deeply—and her students notice.

A professional man in his early fifties and regular student at The Mat Works Yoga Studio sees it this way. “I’ve had maybe a double handful of teachers over the years, and they each bring something a little different to their students, but without doubt, Debbie is the most committed teacher I've had,” he says. “… her students get exposed to the various formats and can tailor-fit their private practice. Debbie is a very caring person and makes everyone comfortable and feel included.”

Another key to the success of the business is that yoga really works—that’s what Debbie’s students believe. It has been one of the things that Debbie’s growing customer base seem to find important enough to spend money on, even while they cut back spending in other areas. “It’s like medicine,” one of her students said, “you don’t cut back on medicine—it’s just too important.” Another yoga student put it this way, “Yes, it's like medicine, insurance and also fishing. Once ya get hooked on it, you'll just keep doing it,” he said.

Bill Jenkins, marketing director for an area financial institution, agrees.  While he has a yoga routine that he does at home, he’s at Mat Works because he “…missed the guided practice,” he said. “I needed more stress relief and to offset the natural stiffening up that comes with middle age.” He  praises Debbie’s work as a yoga instructor. “She is highly sensitive to the individual needs of her clients, and that they reap the most benefit from their practice,” he said “… she is a normal human being both physically and emotionally and always uplifting to work with,” he said.

Being cautious with spending and connecting with other professionals to barter services has also benefited Debbie Harvley’s business in its growth stage. “I’ve been very, very careful with spending for the business,” Debbie said, “and I’ve had to let go of perfection with many things in order to just get things done as a one-person business,” she said.

One example of the bartering has given her a marketing professional to work with. This relationship has provided her business with a blog and a facebook page for Debbie’s business, allowing her the most up-to-date type of marketing communications between the business and her market.

The reasons for Debbie Harvley’s success with starting and growing a new business in the midst of a dire economy appear to be simple, easy to do and yet surprising. Watching spending closely, bartering services with other professionals, letting go of the need for perfection in everything so that you actually get things done, a committed and compassionate approach to working with her students and a deep commitment to the success of her business. The final (and surprising) piece is that yoga works—it delivers to Debbie’s clients what she promises. Now, what kind of word-of-mouth marketing do you think that gives a business?

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IF you live in the Greenwood area or nearby, you can drop in to any of Debbie's classes for only $10.  Visit her site for the current schedule at http://www.matworksyoga.com/

A company's good deeds rebuild veterans' yards and build valuable PR

The first thing you should see is the website for GreenCare for Troops, sponsored by CubCadet, a manufacturer of yard and landscaping equipment.  You can watch a video explaining how it works.  The video is even better because of the hosting by Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy.

The second thing to take a look at is the page for volunteering to assist in doing the good work.

How can a company lose?  You do the right thing, you do it to help the families of deployed military and get great PR as a by-product. Think of how easy it might be to divert marketing dollars to good works in the communities of the very people who represent your markets all over the country.  You're still spending your money for marketing, but you're making that same money work harder by giving it away to provide a kindness to others.

Things to consider:

1. You have to know your market (or markets).
2. You should have a good understanding of those markets (Where do they hang out? What's important to them? What are their needs?)
3. Consider what you might do: support an existing project, begin your own project, will it be on-going or will it be a one time event?  Who can you partner with?  Perhaps another business? This of the success of Share Our Strength--food and wine events all over the country where restaurants come together in support of raising funds to abolish childhood hunger.  People pay lots of money to eat and drink at these events.  If your restaurant is there, if the food you serve is outstanding, what better marketing can you get than this?  Getting the food in the hands (and mouths) of potential customers is the best use of your marketing funds...and you get to do it in such a way that others in your community are helped too.
4. K.I.S.S.  Yes, keep it simple.  Don't get carried away.  After all, you still need to run a business!

Look here for ideas:

Share Our Strength Working towards ending child hunger in America.
A Taste of the Nation  One of the events for SOS.
The Center for Law and Social Policy is an opportunity for lawyers to offer their services and knowledge in the assistance of organizations helping people who are living on the edge of poverty.
Toys R Us partners with Autism Speaks to educate families about autism and to raise funds for research.