Most service-based businesses (consultants, speakers, accountants, lawyers, etc.) who have been in business awhile have found themselves in a bind that sounds great to everyone else: you have so much business that you cannot handle it all yourself. While seemingly better than struggling to get clients, it is still stressful, and if you are not careful, will lead to overwhelm, lower quality work … [Read more...]

Awhile ago, a good friend posted a question on Facebook: "I'm looking for professional development opportunities. Think conferences, training or courses with the goal of improving skills and leveling up." There were a lot of great suggestions on the thread. But my training and development brain couldn't process answers without gathering some information first, like: What specific skills are … [Read more...]

The start of a new coaching engagement is pretty predictable. The new client will say something like "I don't even know where to start. There are so many things going on right now, and they are all kind of swimming in my head." "Just start anywhere," I say. Little do they know that this is my favorite thing to do: capture a big mess of ideas and organize them into distinct buckets. I spend … [Read more...]

Jeremy Whittaker, A local council member in Mesa, introduced me to Carlos Mateos, who is a sophomore at Red Mountain High School and co-founder of High X Incubator. Carlos had met with Jeremy and his council assistant Blaise Caudill to discuss his team's ideas for creating a student-run incubator program. I agreed to meet with him as well, to provide some guidance and mentoring. As I wiped the … [Read more...]

My coach Mark Otto is not one to pussyfoot around. A big reason we started to work together (after me coaching him in his business for years, and loving his approach) is so that I could manifest some bigger goals in my business. I have gotten to a stage of my life where I want to make a bigger impact. To do that, I need to change some well-worn creative habits that are fine when I am working on … [Read more...]

A couple of years ago, I spoke about ecosystem marketing at a Nashville conference for authors, organized by my friend Tim Grahl. I shared the model I had developed after taking a 25 city tour to research a book I am writing on network and community building. In a shout to my friend Scott Stratten, I called it the UnBook Tour, since I was doing the book tour before writing the book. At Tim's … [Read more...]

  My son looked me with some slight desperation in his eyes last night. He had gone straight from school to boxing practice, where he jumped speed rope, then hit the heavy bag for an hour. From boxing, he went straight to soccer practice, where he ran around the field doing drills for 90 minutes. "I have a lot of homework, Mom. I don't know how I am going to do it all," he … [Read more...]

My senior year of high school, I was an exchange student in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. I lived with a host family and attended Swiss high school, where I studied 11 subjects in French, including chemistry and Italian (try learning Italian while learning French -- it is very confusing!). As part of my graduation requirements for Sir Francis Drake High School back home in San Anselmo, California, I … [Read more...]

I have had the unusual opportunity to spend the last 6 days mostly in bed, the final family member to fall from the powerful virus traversing up, down and across our lands at this time of year. On one hand, it has been extremely inconvenient to be unavailable at the time when clients and projects need me most. On the other hand, it has encouraged a surprisingly deep reflection on life in … [Read more...]