My Entrepreneurial Milestone: One Year Later, One Year Happier

Sunday, July 15, 2012 was the official 1 year mark of my transition into entrepreneurship. I thought this day would hold more emotion for me like Christmas morning or my birthday, but oddly enough it felt just like any other day I’ve experienced this past year. But this is a great thing! I can say with conviction that I have felt content, fulfilled and passionate every day for the past 12 months and so waking up to one more day in this life was the only gift I could have ever wanted on the 1 year anniversary of starting Bennis Public Relations.

It’s hard to believe I’ve doubled the age of my business since my “Life As My Own Boss” blog post in January. At this point in my business, the measure of my success was more based upon my number of clients and percentage increase in revenue. But my 1 year entrepreneurial anniversary is much more personal. This milestone is more about me proving to myself that I can, and did, do it. I took the leap –and I landed. It’s like jumping off the bank of a river and landing on a moving raft. It takes a while to get your balance and those first critical moments determine whether you sink or float. Well at my one year mark, I know I’ve gained both balance and confidence in my business. From this point forward I’m ready to do more than just float; I’m ready to take control and steer.

When I say that this 1 year milestone is very personal, it’s because for so long my life has been sectioned into 1 year increments. My years throughout college were very well encapsulated into one year and my first job out of college, working on a statewide campaign, also had a definitive ending on Election Day which fell about 1 year after my start. The only job I had that did not have a predefined ending was the same job that propelled me into start my own business because I knew that if I was working there one year later, I would be disappointed, stifled and question my own self worth. So this one year mark brings with it quite a new feeling. If I were to repeat the last year for the next 40+ years of my life, I will be completely content and challenged all at the same time. And for me that is a wildly new feeling.

Yet this year held much more than just business milestones. I also made some of the biggest life changes I’ll ever make including moving to a new city, traveling to and working in more than 8 different states, saying “Yes” to the man of my dreams and planning our wedding in less than 7 months from the proposal. I do believe that when it rains it pours and this year I’ve been fortunate to have been showered with some of the most memorable moments and an open mentality that has allowed me to appreciate every single one of them.

And so one year later, with a business growing stronger every day and a wedding right around the corner, I know I have so much for which I can be thankful. Reflecting on this very rewarding moment, I realize that for all that has changed in 12 months, today I’m still working from home in my usual chair with that same little gray cat by my side as one year ago – and I’m utterly content. This gives me confidence that throughout the inevitable changes that will continue to come my way, life’s most simple joys are the constants that will always be there to help keep me afloat.

 

Examining the Foundation of Effective Teamwork (Guest Blog by Todd Shirley)

This week’s post comes from returning guest blogger, Todd Shirley. Todd is a talented writer with a wealth of knowledge to share. I hope you are inspired to leave a comment or engage in conversation after reading this post. To learn more about Todd, please visit his biography at the end.

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Examining The Foundation of Effective Teamwork

I am convicted about my work. I show initiative. I am highly motivated to promote positive change for my student’s learning and home environments. I hope to empower educators and parents through consultation to effectively work with adolescents. I consider myself well read on counseling related materials and special populations. I often boast or complain about my 65 hour work week entrenched in counseling related work.

This does not mean I am a good team player.

Teamwork is hard for me.  It’s also a fact of life. Professionally, I stand with a foot in both education and human service;  EVERYTHING I do is through the vehicle of an education team or service team.

Ayn Rand was not cut out for either field.

Recently another hectic school year came to an end. I used my time off to reflect and ready myself to face another summer filled with teams.  What resulted is a new understanding of teamwork that I describe as the following:

1. Delegation Is An Opportunity To Encourage

Team projects can be difficult experiences for me as I tend to embody a “if it’s going to be done right, I have to do it” mindset.  Now I see teams and group projects as an opportunity to demonstrate trust and encouragement through delegation.  Delegating allows others to reach a goal.  Helping others reach goals was exhilarating this year.

2. It’s Valuable To Pay Attention To Resentment

I recently found myself talking to people about how I resented one of my school teams. This team deals with student concerns but looks to me with facial expressions that seem to say “isn’t it your job to care about these things?”  It goes without saying, I feel it’s the team’s job to care about student concerns.

Three helpful insights came from paying attention to my resentment:

1. My inability to let things go.

2. My inability to say “no” to things.

3. My inability to accept people for where they are and not be angry with them for where they should be.

The last insight was powerful because I try to nudge everyone I work with to reach a point of acceptance about others and life circumstances.

3. Teamwork Can Be The Kitchen That Makes Good Humble Pie

This school year’s end of year faculty meeting provided the inspiration for this post. Faculty meetings in my building often involve a lot of tangents and side chit-chat. This year, everyone fell notably silent as a co-worker (and team member of mine) shared information I had put together.

“10% of our students were referred to our student assistance team this year. Of those 10%, 25 students had to miss school due to illness or death of a parent.  14 were referred for non-suicidal self injurious behaviors etc…”

I was taken aback as I realized the information had to come from her for it to matter. If I had presented (which I enjoy doing), I would have been dismissed. As disheartening information related to our individual students came from a fellow teacher, people received it readily. Apparently, things can get done without me. Fork please!

Looking Ahead

I believe passion in my field can either prevent or cause burnout.  I hope to do this kind of work forever but if I am an ineffective team member, I don’t know if I can.

If I can approach teamwork as an opportunity to encourage others, establish trust, and embrace humility,  it’s only going to help students, families, and educators embody this approach too.

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Todd Shirley works full time as a school counselor and carries a caseload of clients who are in the foster care system. When he is not working, he is reading, working out, cooking Paleo and discussing all that is arbitrary about life. Oh-and his favorite animal is the manatee. Todd is an incredible guest blogger with a wealth of knowledge to share. I hope you are inspired to leave a comment or engage in conversation having now read this post. You are always welcome to share your thoughts below!

 

Finding What Triggers Your Drive & Determination

I’ve been a casual runner ever since I joined the track and field team in high school. It wasn’t love at first step and I was never anything more than average, but I committed to stomping the pavement several times a week and always felt accomplished after I did. I still know the exact course I’d run around my neighborhood; it’s the same course I love running anytime I’m in town because I can see all the changes of the place I’ll always consider “home.” It wasn’t until about one year ago when I realized that even after so many years of running, the cities in which I ran may have changed but my running never really improved or progressed. I ran about 2 miles at the same pace, no hills, no highways, no running partners and never a single race to validate my efforts. I never challenged myself to reach beyond that mental wall I built as my physical limit. I blocked myself from thinking I could ever go further or faster. Maybe it was the fear of discomfort or the uncertainty of trying something I didn’t already know I could do, but it was everything I had to push past to start my own business. So why couldn’t I apply this same confidence and discipline to trigger myself to excel in running?

The first time I broke my normal running course and added in an extra mile loop was the same time I also allowed my first running partner to join me. It was new, physically uncomfortable and at times so tempting to stop and walk, but with someone else at my side, I pushed through it all because I didn’t want to let him see anything less than my best. The whole run, I felt like I was struggling to just to keep up, but later learned from my partner that he was struggling just to do the same. We were both pushing each other while pushing ourselves. And so I found my trigger. Unlike entrepreneurship, which is very much a solo journey, my journey toward becoming a better runner required a partner – someone to push me to do better and remind me that no matter what, I can always take one more step.

In the months since that first run which pushed me out of my rut, I’ve started running in almost every city to which I travel, conquering hills, highways, woods and running with groups of 3 and 4 people along the way. I’ve also run with marathoners who would have easily intimidated me just a year prior, but held my own. The last thing I have yet to do to completely tear down all of my mental walls around running is to participate in a race. A 5k is less than what I do on a regular basis right now, so there’s no reason I couldn’t jump right in with the next community race. It’s amazing that all of these accomplishments were always obtainable, I just didn’t have the right trigger to make me want to do better.

The question I want to pose to you today is in what part of your life are you lacking the drive to want to do better? This could be a making a career change, mending a relationship, starting a hobby or exploring a religion. We all have something, maybe many things, that are just waiting for the right trigger to spur us into action. Each of these may require a different trigger to get us moving forward and what works for one, may be the opposite for another. What’s most compelling to consider is how obtainable these goals might be to reach, if only we put our full efforts into trying.

I’d like to close with sharing that in exactly 2 months from today, I’m going to marry my first running partner whose ability to challenge and encourage me in every aspect of my life has made him my true soul mate. I suppose this also makes him my trigger for a whole lot more than just running…

 

Panic Does Not Equal Passion

For better or for worse, I seem to be pulled toward career paths that are not for the faint of heart. Just when I caught my breath from a whirlwind statewide gubernatorial election, it took merely 4 short months before I needed that adrenaline rush again. I craved the feeling of having meaningful tasks to keep me so busy that I was racing against the clock, not watching it countdown until quitting time.

After campaign life, where showers and haircuts were a luxury and 5pm wasn’t quitting time – it was merely the half point mark of your day, I swore I was done. Once was enough for me. I earned my badge and can say I did it, but I wasn’t going back. I was ready for a steady 9-5 job where I could make plans with friends and actually keep them. But then the boredom crept in. At first it was a pleasant boredom, the type you’re happy to get used to. But then even my best time-wasting tasks were leaving me with hours of the day unfilled. Slowly but surely I was developing “cubicle fever.” My maximum workload had been pushed to such limits on the campaign, that this has become the only work pace I now know. As much as I craved a normal work schedule, I had been trained to function like a one-person department and there was no going back. It’s like riding a train going 80mph and suddenly falling off and coming to a complete stop. When dropped back into the real world, I could no longer relate. So as many of you who have followed my journey thus far know, I took the leap and created my own Public Relations business as a way to again find that whirlwind work pace that has become my metric for normal.

Almost a year later and I’ve found myself ramped up to campaign speed again. The biggest difference is, this time around I call the shots. I can take unlimited time-off so long as I plan ahead and get my work done or take it with me as I travel (yes, from time to time I still have to call upon my envelope stuffing skills, but you won’t find me doing door-to-door voter polls anytime soon). I’m working now harder than ever, and depending on the week, am even busier than I was the week before Election Day on the campaign; however, I’ve realized one profound truth from these two experiences.

Panic does not equal passion.

On the campaign it was normal for people to be run around like a chicken with their head cut off and there were certainly circumstances that called for panic. But in many cases I believe people would overact with stress and drama as a way to declare their passion for their work. I’m a calm person by nature and I handle stress best internally. This led to one or more occasions on the campaign where my commitment was questioned. But I can assure you – anyone who is NOT committed on a campaign would not last more than a week. It’s a frustrating position to be put in. Do you give in and act panicked just to declare your passion? Or do you do nothing and risk your dedication and hard work being written off as less than your very best? The only answer I’ve been able to form came years later….it was starting my own business where the proof of my passion is my quality of work and my cool head and calm demeanor has become the signature characteristic of Bennis Inc.

I know that the panic vs. passion struggle is not limited to campaign life. I saw it emerging in various forms in my other jobs. Two people can get the same amount of work done in a day even if one leaves at 5pm and the other at 9pm. The late worker shouldn’t be award a medal of honor for staying late if he took a 2 hour lunch and surfed the web for an hour. So much is dependent upon your leadership style and how you react under pressure. In a salaried job and in campaign life, there is no reward for working efficiently – more work is simply piled on. I’m grateful that if I work smarter and get my task list done for the day, I am rewarded with a flexible afternoon or the ability to take on more work and earn more money. But more than anything, I’m grateful that I don’t have to give in to panicking just to prove my passion.

Keep calm and carry on.

 

The Two-Day Truce: Reclaiming Respect for the Weekend

I can’t be the only one to confess that my blood pressure raises and eyes dilate when I hear the all too familiar “Ding!” of my phone when a new email comes in. I’m like one of Ivan Pavlov’s dogs, except instead of salivating, I’m overcome with the urge to immediately check my phone and respond instantly with an answer to or acknowledgement of the pending request. This mindset can make for a stressful week, but apply it to the 2-days we’re supposed to allow ourselves for rest and relaxation each weekend and this flirts on the brink of insanity.

As a new business owner, I’m told – this too shall pass. But what if it doesn’t? What if fate should have it that my obsession with instantaneous answers isn’t linked to my young entrepreneurship, but rather the growing trend in technology? Now we’re no longer flirting on the brink of insanity, we’re outright courting it with a fancy dinner and bottle of wine.

I can’t help but fantasize with the idea of living in a 1950’s office environment just for contrast. What was it possibly like to lock the door on your business at 5pm Friday and be unreachable until 9am Monday? Moreover, what was it like to wait around for a written memo to be passed from office to office until an answer was returned hours…or days later? The TV show Mad Men might give us a glimpse into this lifestyle, but we will never truly know what it is like to live it. What some might see as a business-stifling, slow communication process, I see as the key to a work-life balance. With the aid of ever-connecting technology, we have officially become accessible at all hours of the day and so we have trained ourselves, and our peers, to expect immediate responses regardless of weekends, holidays and once in a lifetime occasions like weddings, funerals and even the birth of our own children.

I acknowledge that I’m somewhat at fault for this. I check emails on my phone with the same repetition in which I breathe or blink. And answering emails on the weekend only encourages conversation because I voluntarily make myself accessible. So this weekend it stops. I want that 2-day break; I earned that 2-day break – and so did you. So why do we continue to choose to watch our phones rather than watch a movie with our significant other? Why do we use our weekends to pitch to a potential client when we could be pitching to our son or nephew on a beautiful sunny day?

Let’s call a truce. Let’s work hard this week so we can designate this weekend for rest and relaxation. But I can’t do it alone. I challenge each of you to limit your emails this weekend to urgent communication only. Ask yourself, “Can it wait until Monday?” And then get out there and enjoy an entire Saturday and Sunday to yourself. Lock your email, just as you would your office door, at 5pm on Friday and open it again Monday at 9am. I promise you that calling a Two Day Truce, won’t result in the demise of your business, but more likely will result in allowing others to also reclaim the respect for their own weekend.

 

A Non-Traditional Administrative Professional’s Day

This is the first Administrative Professionals Day that I haven’t worked in a traditional office to enjoy the flowers, cards and generous spread of cookies and cakes that seem to always accompany this holiday. But I realized, that while I work in a non-traditional office, I do have an Administrative Assistant, she’s just a non-traditional one. And so today, I’d like to take a moment to give Pinot the thanks and attention she demands of me …deserves. So enjoy your exceptionally big bowl of “Special Kitty” and take an extra long nap today — because we both know that’s the only time I get any work done. Today’s to you, Pinot. And Happy Administrative Professionals day to my less furry friends as well!

This is a normal occurrence - Pinot being creepy and staring at me while I try to get work done. All in a day's work...

 

Leadership Finesse (Guest Blog by Mark Mathia)

The following blog post is part of the Bennis Blogger Battle. Support Mark by “Liking” this post, leaving a comment and sharing it on your social media! The blog with the most hits, wins.

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There are many formulas that lay claim as the best pathway toward great leadership. Just the other day a friend, who is an exceptional leader, raised a challenging notion. He remarked that the secret to great leadership doesn’t lie within a predetermined set of principles. He claimed that even though there is much written about great leadership it’s not what great leaders know but how they apply what they know that matters. He felt that great leadership is found in the finesse of its execution.

Then he did the unthinkable – he issued a challenge – Why not write about that?

Since that talk, this idea of leadership finesse has haunted the leader within. If leadership is really more about finesse or how we execute, then how does someone interested in growing leaders communicate that? The execution of principles comes in the form of a slight shift of wording or an empowering expression that compels people toward positive action. It’s more than learning a formula, even a proven one.

It was easy to agree with the hypothesis but defining what finesse looks like was when the heavy mental lifting took place.

The Merriam Webster dictionary offers these definitions of finesse:

1: refinement or delicacy of workmanship, structure, or texture

2: skillful handling of a situation: adroit maneuvering

3: the withholding of one’s highest card or trump in the hope that a lower card will take the trick because the only opposing higher card is in the hand of an opponent who has already played

The first two definitions definitely relate to this discussion. However, they didn’t really offer the kind of practical application needed to communicate this leadership idea. That left the final definition about a card game. This definition sounds crazy. The temptation was to slam the dictionary shut and give up.

Then, like a lightning bolt – inspiration hit! The third definition came through for me; in fact, it offered the answer I was searching for. There are two plainly visible characteristic of leadership finesse expressed in this definition.

What was initially disregarded as irrelevant was beginning to prove to be the key to greater understanding.

Characteristics of Leadership Finesse

1. Humility

The value of humility is that it allows a leader to ‘withhold one’s highest card or trump.’ Leadership finesse starts with being humble to the core. My favorite definition of humility comes from John Dickson, author of the book, Humilitas.

“Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself. More simply, you could say the humble person is marked by a willingness to hold power in service of others.” – John Dickson

This definition allows people some freedom to fail. There are times when having all the answers actually becomes a hindrance to team growth. In reality, great leaders understand that you can be completely right and still be wrong. Not every situation requires the “most-correct” answer. Why? Because time has shown that great leadership is a journey, not a destination. It’s a slow growth process that needs many different experiences to develop and strengthen ones ability to execute.

The fact remains; in the absence of true humility, leaders don’t own the necessary “finesse” to develop greatness in others. Therefore, organizational effectiveness is diminished.

2. Hope

Finesse in leadership offers people real hope that a lower card will eventually ‘take the trick.’

Offering hope is more than simply being a blind optimist. Truly great leaders set and articulate a clear and concise vision that allows followers to see past problems towards a better future.

Leadership finesse requires that leaders constantly identify the cause of struggles and then, with relentless determination, make the best of their current reality. All this is done in preparation for a glorious future.

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Using a building metaphor, if the concrete of leadership finesse is humility – then the building blocks are hope. How does one become an expert at leadership finesse? Start here and then let’s work together to figure out the rest of the equation.

What would you add to the essence of leadership finesse?

Mark Mathia is a Christian blogger, writer, speaker and co-founder/CEO of Tiburon Financial, LLC.  He is passionate about helping others succeed in business and life. Please support Mark by “Liking” this post, leaving a comment below and visiting his personal blog: www.markmathia.com. You can also find Mark on Twitter @mmathia!