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The Benefit of Cyber Stalking

November 8, 2011 in Community, Video Blog with 7 Comments

I love the title of this post!

Check out this video:

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Kevin Gainey and I both cyber stalked each other. When I say that, I don’t mean we were two weirdos who hunted each other down in creepy fashion. What I mean is we kept both popping up in the same places on line. Leaving comments on the same blogs. Responding to discussions in the same community. And eventually interacting directly with each other.

But in the initial stages, when were both just commenting in the same places, we both took the initiative, unbeknown to the other, to find out all we could about each other. We visited each others’ websites. We found profile information online. We basically did all we could to find out about the other person.

And what this said is we should introduce ourselves. Get to know each other.

And we did just that at Kent Julian’s Speak it Forward Boot Camp held this past October 2011.

We hit it off like long lost brothers in a matter of seconds. Since then we’ve started a podcast together and are figuring out how we can create a variety of both free and premium product offerings to help small businesses out.

So this is me, encouraging you, to cyber stalk the folks you want to interact (but in a non-creepy kind of way).

~Ivan

If you enjoyed this video I would love for you to subscribe to my channel!

The Most Challenging Thing I’m Facing being Self Employed

November 1, 2011 in Challenges, Community, Video Blog with 7 Comments

The most challenging thing I’m facing being self employed is the current lack of people interaction. Specifically face to face / in person interaction. Check this video out:

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I like talking to people. I like interacting with them. Lately, this isn’t happening as much as I’d like. Up to this point the majority of my efforts in building A Better Way of Business have been online, so face to face people interactions have been limited.

This is about to change though. Starting next week I’m going to start being involved with some local small business alliances and associations in an effort to get my face to face time with people.

In an attempt to grow more relationships online I’m going to start devoting a specific block of time to talking to more people online. Being helpful. Addressing questions and problems. Building relationships and community.

What’s your biggest challenge being self employed? I would love for you to post it in the comments below. If I can help I will. If not, I hope to know someone who can.

~Ivan

Mini-Podcast: Questions stemming from Who You Surround Yourself with Matters

October 24, 2011 in Community, Questions, Video Blog with 6 Comments

On October 11th I put out this post: Who You Surround Yourself with Matters and received a good bit of feed back from it.

In the comment section of that post my friend, Curtis Hollembeak, left the following questions:

How did you find your advisers?

How do you communicate with them? Phone, in person, email, Skype?

How often do you communicate with them?

What is your relationship with them? Do you pay them? Barter with them?

Here’s my answers (this video is a little long at 9:33, hence the name mini-podcast, but I jump on answering these questions with both feet):

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In a nutshell, find people doing what you want to do or going in the same direction and ask if they’d be interested in helping you get there, where ever your there might be.

~Ivan

First Event I’m Attending as a Free Agent

October 13, 2011 in Community, Getting Started with 4 Comments

Kent Julian Leading at the Speak It Forward Boot Camp

As most of you read this I’m sure I will already be sitting down at my first event as a Free Agent.

Today, I’m attending The Speak it Forward Boot Camp put on by Kent Julian. Kent not only is a professional speaker, but he also “…coaches people to make the move to the work and life they love!”

In the Boot Camp Kent pours out EVERYTHING THAT HE KNOWS ABOUT SPEAKING over a three day period.

I am SO EXCITED that THIS is how I’m kicking off my first full week of being self employed!

And there’s many reasons.

The one I have considered the MOST obvious is because of the learning that I’ll be doing there. I have ALWAYS wanted to use speaking as a way to reach a bigger audience and the Boot Camp is going to help show me how to do that in the most effective way. Kent makes a considerable portion of his living through public speaking. AND HE’S WILLING TO SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM HE HAS FROM DOING THAT WITH THE BOOT CAMP PARTICIPANTS!! How AWESOME is that?!?!?

The second aspect of this that has me excited, EVEN MORE SO THAN THE FIRST REASON (but it didn’t start this way), is that I’m going to be in a room of 50 to 80 people who are MAKING IT HAPPEN in their own lives!

As I said earlier this week, Who You Surround Yourself with Matters, and for the next three days I will be elbow to elbow with other people going down a similar path to my own!!!

Honestly, prior to hearing an interview of Nathalie Lussier at CoachRadio.tv (found here), I only saw the value of conferences in what it is I can learn from them. But Nathalie had a quote, “If you only have $100 a month to spend on marketing your business, save it so you can attend conferences and meet people in person.” When Nathalie said that it blew me away. I realized I had been viewing things all wrong.

Yes, I want to get value from attending a conference. But the only value does not, more than likely SHOULD NOT, come simply from the learning experience. It should come from the people experiences you can have, the networking that can take place.

THAT is why I’m SO EXCITED about the Boot Camp now. Do I expect to get A LOT OF VALUE out of what Kent has to say and teach? YOU BET! Do I also expect to meet people who are going to change the world in their own unique way? MOST DEFINITELY!

So remember, “If you only have $100 a month to spend on marketing your business, save it so you can attend conferences and meet people in person.”

~Ivan

005 – Investing in Others

September 20, 2011 in Community, One Thing, Video Blog with 4 Comments

Today’s post was inspired by fellow Free Agent Academy member, Michael Wright. Michael took the initiative last week to email me and ask if we could have lunch together so we can get to know each other better, discuss what we’re currently working on, and see how we can help each other.

Our lunch together was AWESOME! I’m extremely glad we got to take that time and get to know each other better.

We invested in each other. We shared ideas and knowledge with each other.

Enjoy the show!

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So I ask you, are you investing in other people? If so, who? If not, why not?

Also, stay tuned for the new series One Thing that will be coming out each Wednesday. You’ll learn first hand, from 1) people who are already successful in business and 2) people doggedly pursuing self employment, what is the One Thing they would tell someone who was starting a business of their own.

Our guest posters are investing in YOU and in ME! I hope you’re excited to learn from them, because I know I am!

~Ivan

Can you accomplish everything that needs to be done?

August 31, 2011 in Action, Community, Direction, Getting Started, Priorities with 1 Comment

NO!

At least I can’t.

In getting A Better Way of Business off the ground I have found that there are AT LEAST 100 things that should have already been done but I have not gotten to. Of those 100 items, 50 needed to be done yesterday. The other 50 needed to be done 2 weeks ago!

And it seems like every day there are 10 more things that need to get done, for which I don’t have the time.

It can and does get overwhelming at times.

So the question is, how do you decide what to actually devote your time to?

You could simply accomplish each task as you encounter it. Although you won’t be able to accomplish every task you come across each day, you can work on the each item until it’s complete and then start the next, but realize you’ll never be able to get it all done.

I’ve found this to be ineffective. If you’re like me, you have a tendency to think of new things that need to be done that are inspired by what you’re currently working on. And if you’re like me, you’ll be prone to forget what you’re currently working on and chase after that new shiny object you just saw.

This will lead to an infinite of half complete, started and never finished projects. And if you don’t complete some of these projects your business WILL suffer.

So what do you do?

Here’s how I’m approaching it. I am prioritizing tasks based on whether or not they fall into one of three major categories I’m currently focusing on.

For instance, right now I’m focusing on: 1) Generating quality content. 2) Connecting with people. 3) A special project I’ll be writing about soon.

So each day as I come across the various tasks that needed to be completed at some point in the past I make a quick note or type a quick email to myself as a reminder of what I need to do. Then when I get home I analyze all that needs to be done and see which of the items fit into one of the three categories. If the new task doesn’t fit into one of the three categories I save it in my inbox for another day. If it does fit into one of the three categories then it gets my attention, but again, it gets my attention based on which category it fits into.

So generating quality content comes first, connecting second, and items for the special project third.

Trust me, I’m right there with you when it comes to having too much to do and not enough time. But hopefully you’ll be able to maximize your effectiveness with YOUR business if you prioritize.

~Ivan