Someone asked me the other night what kind of coaching I do and without thinking I responded: paradoxical.

Most clients I work with want my help marketing their ideas, solutions and content. They’re very receptive to my approach:

• create your “one of a kind” point of power at the edges or intersections – markets, industries, areas of interest or expertise etc.
• discover your voice and develop your stories around that point of power
• give and don’t hold back

And then they get scared and overwhelmed and go back to their old ways which stopped working long ago: email blasts, snail-mail announcements, hiring the magical business development manager, handing out cards at networking meetings etc. They give themselves over to the habitual impulse to interrupt instead of giving themselves over to their story.

When the old methods fail I suggest examining and clearing, with my facilitation, the assumptions and expectations blocking change. And that’s when the paradox kicks in. Because this is what they believe the process should be: telling me their stories! How they got where they are. Why they do what they do. The history, the details and most of all – the reasons.

They claim to be very receptive to my simple approach: unconditional permission to allow me to interrupt if I start to get more information and story than I need to know in order to facilitate an identity shift. Then I interrupt 5 times in 10 minutes and its “Call in the Marines”.

If it weren’t for paradox it would be easy, right?

Think about it this way:
Story is your ideas, solutions, and brand in form – the content.
Identity is your beliefs, assumptions and expectations “minus” the content (story, knowledge, thinking, form).

My granddaughters recently gave me a painting embedded with sea glass that we’d collected together. They know I love to get things they created and this was really nice since they’d made it together.

Emily, who is younger was especially intent on pointing out that she was the one who found the light purple piece in the center and that it was “very rare, Nano”. I remember the day we were on the beach searching and collecting. She wasn’t finding as many as me and Sam, her older sister, and she was getting frustrated. Just before we left she found the purple glass and I made a big deal about it. I was so proud of her for remembering and being sure she got the credit a whole year later.

And Samantha was equally impressive. She didn’t try to upstage Emily. As anyone with kids knows, that’s not how it always plays out. She could have just as likely said “you got the purple but look at all the dark blue I got so I’m even better, ha ha weirdo!” But Sam gave, and Emily accepted the credit naturally and with grace.

Since then I think a lot about credit which I’ve concluded is a greatly underrated factor in the probability of personal or cultural change success or failure. Last week, for example, I concluded that the issue of credit was the singly largest block to any kind of political change progress. Thanks to the girls I now accept that credit is part of a complex system of beliefs with which I’d completely, but unconsciously identified..for most of my life! That lack of awareness, of course, drove many of my responses and reactions to challenging job, sport, school, family and team experiences.

I wanted to share what I’d learned. A new model and accompanying presentation that I was developing for solo professionals and content creators interested in WordPress and innovative business models provided the venue.

Art and Idea Credit: Samantha Wynne & Emily Wynne, Artists / Entrepreneurs

In Pt 1: Evaluating solo professional service business models, I pointed out the importance of building content assets. I included this old slide that is somewhat outdated but I think still highly relevant.

A few readers asked: what do you mean by build system (or process) assets?

Going Solo Presentation - Babson:2005 - Mary Wynne-Wynter

The systems I refer to are unique to the solo professional who may also license or own systems such as financial planning or CAD. You might take your unique systems and process for granted, until or unless you’re expected to deliver equivalent value differently.

The tools you use may be widely available, simple, open source or even free. But how you use, integrate and continually refine and upgrade them to service, support and (hopefully) delight your clients is valuable asset.

For example, I integrate wiki’s, social media tools, tagging and rss feeds as an integral shared learning system between me and my clients. Anyone “could” do it, but I’m the one who does it. Simple does not necessarily mean “easy to copy”.

The solo business model you choose may preclude your building system assets. That may work out great for you as long as you’re aware of, and take the time to evaluate, the pros and cons of the model you choose.

Recently, a female celebrity remarked that she’s against Botox because it takes the “warmth” out of a person’s face. I think the result is a blandness and sameness. I see a lot of that in blogs,too.

Sometimes they’re too long. The subject may be interesting and the post well written, but it could’ve delivered the same value in 1/4 the length. They have a “sucking up all the air space” and boring quality that we dread in presenters.

Sometimes they try too hard to retrofit the content to some idealized blog format and the main points get lost. They use too many sub-headings and popular keywords that unnecessarily break up the flow or try to hide that there is no flow. They have a “that’s nice but I don’t really get what you’re trying to say” quality.

Sometimes they’re too reductionist. They over-simplify and strip the rigor and critical thinking out of every strategic and creative topic (including creativity!), reducing it to some version of 10 tips or 7 steps. They have an “I’ve heard it all before – please tell me something I don’t already know” quality.

I’m sure there’s many tactical reasons for the above: wider appeal, standardization, SEO/SEM, less risk. And like a Botox face, they can be very attractive and successful. But they just don’t inspire.

RedShift:12-Month Social Media Experience

I realized that its been exactly 12 months since I decided to get involved with social media. I’d already been blogging for a number years, but prior social media experiments were disappointing. Its good that I gave it another chance.

There’s so much out there about how to use social media for professional and business benefit. It can be daunting to find the right information that you can relate to if you’re a small business or professional service provider just getting started. That’s why I wanted to present my experience as a story and a picture. I didn’t follow a plan; I just dove in.

The experiential, test and learn approach worked great for me and it was right that I waited until the social networking applications allowed users full control. If I made a mistake, or changed my mind, it was easy to edit or delete. I needed that.

I didn’t have a plan beyond wanting to connect with people and bring my content to a higher level, and I think that was a good thing. I developed my own social media models and tools as I learned and gained experience. The more I learned, on my own and from others that I connected with, the more clear I got about where I was going with social media and how it integrated with my my business. It was an iterative, not linear, progression. That’s typical for me, but that’s me. Success in social medial looks and feels different for everyone and there’s nothing wrong with figuring out what’s most valuable to you as you work with it.

My only strong recommendation is to not get bogged down in a lot of advance research or planning, or wanting to be like others. That’s because of the sheer volume of information out there and the huge numbers of people involved. Just start. You’ll figure it out as you go along.

I think that iterative processes and learning are better expressed in visuals and I’m hoping readers will relate to some of my activities and milestones in the diagram and hopefully can imagine their own. I’ve tried to illustrate how my social media experience for a small professional service firm is an ongoing, fluid work in process.

I’m pleased that I’ve built a good foundation and platform for growth, have new relationships with excellent people, and have expanded my personal and professional influence. The biggest return at this point is the content I’ve developed and integrated through repeatedly expressing my ideas, insights, beliefs and observations for my small, high quality and growing community.

The only cost was my time and its been well spent. In fact, after only 12 months, my social media experiment has morphed into my most important small business system. Its become the cornerstone of my intellectual and social capital development and hopefully, in the near future, a driver of increased awareness of my brand by people who need what I offer.

For small businesses and professional service providers in the connected and conceptual world, social media can definitely add to the Value of You!.

Photo credit: Wessex Archaeology's photostream (coastal and marine set) on Flickr

I get asked over and over by some people about what kind of coaching and consulting I do. They seem to have a preconceived notion, or perception of it and then attempt to reconcile my explanation to somehow fit their worldview. Sometimes I can’t figure out if they’re curious and trying and wanting to understand, or just not listening.

But now I’m realizing that people are pulled out of their comfort level when they’re in the depths, and the depths is my space.

I work with people at the level of often hidden assumptions, expectations and beliefs. In organizations, its collections of those – the culture. I use metaphysical metaphors to support the change facilitation process. I shouldn’t be surprised that people want to stick their toe in the water many times before they risk getting a touch of the bends.

I’m blogging this because I’m getting a sense that there’s a growing desire, or movement, or response to series of crises, to go deeper: in life, business and self-awareness. I think its a great sign that people and businesses are showing willingness and readiness to move beyond the surface of their experience, and with a leap in faith, take the plunge into what’s deep and unknown…that with which we identify but which contradicts what we want and where we want to go.

I don’t believe that “going deep” is only within the realm of professionals who focus on “people” issues. Accountants, consultants, health professionals, lawyers, technology professionals, etc, can practice recognizing opportunities to serve clients at a deeper level. It starts with allowing more space for conversation and sharing, being present without an agenda, and being willing to think differently about everything we and our clients think we know.

Uncertainty is the new reality for our clients. We can help them make it their pivot point of power from which they can create and direct their change and growth, if we dare to be different.

Social Media - Medical Device Industry

I have a former background in machine-tool, as a controller and later, a partner. A key market was medical device which has continued to grow, 6% annually in the U.S., which manufactures a large percentage of global product.

Despite industry consolidation, approximately 80% of the more than 8,000 U.S. medical device firms employ less than 50 people. What they lack in resources, they can make up in agility and responsiveness to highly specific customer needs and requirements which include R&D partnerships and new market applications for existing products and processes.

Success for the small medical device manufacturer requires continual research, a focus on promotion, internal knowledge sharing and collaborative partnerships. For these reasons, as well as their insistence on getting the biggest (measurable) bang for their media investments, medical device companies can greatly benefit from social media.

Businesses of all sizes and industries, from solo firms to large corporations, are becoming increasingly interested in using social networks, both internally and externally, to build collaborative and conversational communities.

When I talk to owners, managers and executives about their approach and expectations, I often hear answers that combine elements of Web site initiatives and marketing campaigns. But social networks are about sharing and relationship building. A traditional approach will likely fail.

What I usually don’t hear is a deep understanding of why social networks make sense for them and how social networks are related to shifts in control of markets, knowledge, media and technology. Unlike pre-Web 2.0 online marketing, branding, communications and e-commerce, social networks initiatives bear little resemblance to traditional business and marketing models. Although its good to carefully and consciously experiment, a serious social network program requires that deep understanding as well as integrating a clear purpose and message in all content and communications.

I like the holon as a metaphor for an integral social network strategy.

Social Media Integral Strategy

A holon (Greek: holos, “whole”) is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48). Wikipedia

Whatever the planning process, a visual will ensure that strategy and execution is anchored to the underlying understanding and purpose. Simple questions should be asked at the outset and periodically, for example:

• Is this good for me?
• ….for us?
• ….for the community?
• ….for a greater good?

Once the purpose is clear, a road-map for short-term experiential learning, and long-term actionable metrics can be developed to direct your social networks to go the right way.

RedShift: Natural influence expansion in the connected world

Most of the popular small business advice is tailored to product companies. That’s because service firms are always more challenging to define and differentiate without creating complexity which then leads to confusion. And that confusion will increase as new small and solo professional service firms are founded by generalists, multiple careerists and encore careerists.

The nimble solo psf’s are uniquely able to create services for evolving markets that emerge from disruption, convergence and shifting demographics. Their challenge is to simply and effectively communicate who they are, where they’re going and how they help their clients.

If I can’t easily explain my content, I step back, formulate a question that I think needs to be answered and then convey that answer in some visual format. I give my right brain the right of way so to speak. I know its a highly effective method for gaining “creative clarity” and I use it extensively and successfully in client work.

Here’s a recent example of mine. To improve my ability to more clearly communicate RedShfit’s benefits to my clients and community, the question I asked myself is: How do RedShift programs create natural influence and why is that good?

By creating the graphic, I let my right brain (mostly) give me the answer.

You don’t need high-end graphics skills to do this; a whiteboard sketch is great. I used CmapTools for the natural influence concept map.

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If you’re in professional services you’re hearing some version of this when you make a sales call: “All this blogging and social networking and having conversations is too much work, too expensive, giving my expertise away for free and just another passing fad. I need to get good leads because I know I can close the business if I have the leads. So I want you to help me with a business development plan so that I meet my business and life goals and objectives.”

In the past, I’d be immediately mentally rehearsing my exit thinking “they’re clueless, don’t waste your time, there’s nothing here.” I’m now practicing a better response by being be present with, open to and curious about these potential clients. My approach is to meet them where they are and drop any attachment to getting their business. I don’t try to persuade them about anything, its futile. And I avoid getting drawn into long, detailed story and history, its meaningless.

What I commit to is understanding how a business owner responds to change out of old habit and then continually reinforces the counter-directing assumptions by endlessly, willfully and forcefully repeating them. “Push” is the modus operandi. But “push back” is no longer mine. That alone can shift the dynamic of the meeting and create an opening for inquiry, deep listening, re-framing and shared understanding. Whether new business results or not, positive fulfillment, often indirectly, unfailingly corresponds with my choice to be naturally influential, even when the sales call seems hopeless.

I may not get a new client, but I’ll definitely gain a new friend.