The Riff Raff Podcast

Some "experts" out there are all about the sale, the pitch, the bottom line. Yuck. When that's the place they're sharing their expertise from, you want to send them right back. At least I do. But I kept looking and I found Marie Forleo. Phew. What a relief.

Marie Forleo has become my go to background "noise" when I'm working on projects. But I mean noise in the best sense. Because she is funny, authentic, intelligent and engaging, it's a pleasure to have her on in the background. I learn and get entertained at the same time which for my ADD brain is awesome!

If, like me, you are building your mentor list and are struggling to find someone that inspires and educates, then I recommend giving www.marieforleo.com a visit and getting your Marie on.

There may or may not be the use of the word bullshit in this podcast. Just sayin.

Sometimes in business, people can be loathe to partner with others. Why? I'm not sure. I'm a huge fan of partnering with others, combining forces and sharing resources. Not tooting my own horn but stating a fact. The fact is, your business is better off when you keep yourself open to opportunities.

This week on an interim Ballsy in Review, we officially launched the partnership of Ballsy and Women in Tech. WIT is a group through Silicon Halton, a local organization that brings together entrepreneurs and small businesses to learn, train and support growth and development. The goal of partnering? To increase the value to the members. That's it.

So what better way to add value than to embrace my love of partnering and kick off with an awesome mini-workshop with Carol Shulte? I can't think of a better way to set yourself up for success!

People talk about change all the time. Talk. When you actually delve in to how difficult personal change can be, imagine trying to change an entire organization. Some days I have challenges picking out which funky socks to wear. Being a change agent for a whole organization? Yikes! Well now at least I've got some tools to get the conversation going. About change I mean. Not my socks.

2 years ago I met a guy. This guy had a big, audacious plan to have a conference in Toronto called Spark the Change. This was my first introduction to what agile, lean change management and the tools to make it happen. The guy? That's Jason Little. And as I've told him before, he changed my life.

Lean Change Management is the book Jason has written based on his experience as an agile coach, researcher, change expert and disturber of the status quo. He doesn't want you to make change happen just for the sake of it. He wants to give you the tools so the change will have minimum blast radius, maximum insights and turn even the most negative manager in to a change agent and advocate.

See me throwing around the lingo?

Learning that organizations can be transparent, engage their employees and commit to conversation has changed my life. It will change the lives for employees of my business when I'm eventually lucky enough to hire some. Why? Because now I know better. Now I know how to facilitate conversations across the organization. Now I know that if someone is fearful, I need to find out why and help them through it. Now I know that you can't assume people realize they're doing a good job: you need to tell them. Often!

Even though I still know very little, I now know a fantastic coach that I can call up and say, "Hey - you know in chapter 6 when you discuss options? Can we chat about the best one?". And soon you will too.

When you are a woman in business, you'd think that men would be the challenge. I've learned that this is not always the case. In fact, most of the issues I've had throughout my various careers have been with women not men. Why? Well - I think we've been trained to see other women as competition and not as comrades.

That sucks.

On top of that, women have also been trained to make everybody else the priority and they take the back seat. Not all women, granted, but I can honestly say that for a while I was one of those women. This is particularly challenging if you run your own business. You can't afford to take the back seat otherwise your business has no one driving.

This also sucks.

This week at Ballsy, our focus was on education and how women HAVE to make it a priority. Is this advice just for business owners? No. This is for anyone looking to get ahead in the business world. Feel like you've been sent to the principles office?

I realize that for some of us, high school was a long time ago. I mean loooonggggg ago. But I for one still love learning. I love taking new courses and got quite excited when I signed up for my 3rd online course to learn how to teach online. Yep - I'm stepping back up to the front of the class!

But if I didn't make education a priority, I wouldn't be in a position to improve my business, my knowledge base and my ability to earn a better living. Who doesn't want to do that?

Sometimes stuff gets in the way of learning. Could be family. Could be an asshat boss. Or it could be the one person we rely on to make sure we're not only moving towards the glass ceiling but are ready to bust through it - ourselves. And that, my friend, is where you need to evaluate the priority you place on education as a means of getting ahead.

So put your big kids pants on. We're going back to school!

Are you an original? Do you even know what it means to be an original? I hadn't thought about it until someone called me an original. On top of that? They thought enough of helping me to understand what being an original means that they bought me the book on it. How cool is that?

If you've spent your life, like me, being called unique and weird and different, then Originals by Adam Grant is the book for you. Why? Because it has helped me understand that just because I think differently, doesn't mean my thoughts aren't valid. Just because I like to improve processes and tinker with ideas doesn't mean I don't accept the status quo. Oh wait ... that's exactly what it means ;)

And in case you're wondering? I use Chrome as my browser. Read the book to find out why that matters.

An entrepreneurs life is that of a non-conformist. While for some this sounds completely invigorating and awesome, for others it poses challenges. You might even call them blocks. Some kind climb over them. Some get, well, blocked by them.

Here's a suggestion: take the time to identify what your blocks might be and learn to love them. Make them your best friend. Why? Because without doing this blocks can derail your business, leave you choking in the dust of others and keep you at the starting block instead of winning the race.

Is your online presence lacking verve? Colorless? Boring? Image impaired. Yikes! And to make matters worse, are you graphics skilled impaired? Does Adobe sound like a house you find down in Mexico? I've got a solution that even those with some graphics skills can make good use of.

Canva is a resource that was recommended to me a few months ago and I haven't looked back since. I'm fortunate to have more than a passing acquaintance with with Adobe Illustrator. Canva makes it so easy to create social media headers, posts and resumes that you'd be nuts not to learn how it can up the verve factor for your online profiles.

https://www.canva.com/

Are you set up to boldly go where your social media can take you?

Yup. I'm was watching Star Trek blooper reels and outtakes from the movie just before recording this podcast and it was magical how it just came together. Deep space exploration and social media. That fits right? Let me explain.

Most people work quite hard on their content. In fact, in honor of Labor Day, you could call it a labor of love. Now if you create crap content, don't take this advice because you want that crap to stay right where it is. But if you have put effort in, then make your social media channels work harder for you.

Instagram is a sextuple threat that is worth getting to know.

LinkedIn can be the filter you need to make sure some of your content is business audience friendly. And if you happen to suffer from "look at me" syndrome and are forever pushing out offers and email grabs, well, I've got some advice on that as well.

What's the point of all of this? Make your social media work as hard as you do. Make sure your business accounts are hooked up to other accounts and if you don't have those accounts, then find out if you should and then hook them up. That way your content will boldly go much farther than it was going before.

Napoleon Hill. An author that walked this earth before I was a twinkle in my parents eye. In fact before my parents' were a twinkle in their parents' eye. In 1908 while interviewing Andrew Carnegie as a journalist for Bob Taylor's Magazine, a partnership and project was born to gather the experiences and wise words of 500 businessmen. Think and Grow Rich was born.

Published in 1937, just after the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent great depression, the insights offered on leadership and personal development are incredible. 79 years later you can see the full circle coming back to quality leadership and honorable business.

This book has inspired me to recommit to my business in a way that I never expected. It's also reassured me that my dedication to not being an asshat business owner is absolutely the right thing to do. Not that it was actually in question but just sayin' ...