A faith based endeavour is a lonely and difficult undertaking. Believing in something that is unproven or different than the status quo leaves you open to ridicule and self doubt. I would argue that being an entrepreneur is no different than being an artist. Both are creative lines of work full of uncertainty and misunderstanding.

Artistic and entrepreneurial lines of work are filled with people who somehow didn't fit the traditional educational systems or career marketplaces. Self doubt is a creeeping, niggling, chattering voice whispering in the back of most entrepreneurial minds.

"I can't", "the bank told me..."," there's a million widgets like mine...","if only I could find a REAL job..." become the sneaky inner voice fueled by a culture that glorifies the entrepreneur that `made it` and teaches everyone else not to bother trying.

There's no definitive answer for an entrepreneur as to when they should push through the doubt and failure to see the dream through, or pack up and join their friends in the cubicles of the world collecting a `real paycheque`. All I know is that when I'm having a crappy (day/month/year- insert yours here!) it's time to seek inspiration and find a reminder about why I started in the first place.

Go! Find yourself a mentor, collaborator, leader, teacher, inspirer who can prop you back up!

Today I'm sharing an inspirational video from TEDX Talks.

I finally had the opportunity to attend Mari Smith's presentation "Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Page for Profits". I've been eager to attend, since we are planning major upgrades to our own fanpage and I admit to being a little overwhelmed with the process. Mari Smith is known as the Pied Piper of the internet and she's a dynamic, friendly speaker with vast social media experience. My takeaways from today's session:

1. Facebook is the #1 social network in the world (so much for thinking it was BizWhiz.com!)

2. more than 300 hundred million active users have logged into Facebook in the past 30 days and the average time spent on the site is 55 minutes!

3. 68% of US Facebook users “more likely to buy on apositive Facebook friend referral” [eMarketer | Morpace]

4. the news feed, is the number one reason to use your profile for business because people more often look at their news feed as the very first place to go on Facebook. The content in this news feed is amixture of content from your friends and fan pages.

5. Group pages vs. fanpages: You can't add custom content and you can't add apps to group pages. The content is notindexed in Google, nor does it really go out into the news feed. Mari recommends forgoing the group page in favour of the fanpage.

6. Before creating your page begin with a purpose and a checklist- sounds easy, but...

It's necessary to have a presence for your business on Facebook. More and morecustomers are shifting away from traditional media sources such as print and television and making empowered buying decisions by sharing their customer experienceswith friends. Many of us simply don't know how to implement effective social media strategies or even understand the how simple it actually is to dynamically improve our facebook presence. Mari Smith has a knack for getting to the nuts and bolts of getting the fanpage up, managing the content and optimizing the page to connect you to your customers and raving fans!

Do you have a fanpage? Share your company facebook story in the "comments" field below.

Visit the comments section of our ongoing event -Social Media Mashups for great resources, links and... coming in June... live webinars showcasing speakers from this year's Social Media Success Summit!

Social Media Success Summit- 2010-05-07- We’re IN!

Business owners who are utilizing social media for business recognize the cost effectiveness ( in dollars & cents) of this type of marketing.  The BIG question is:  “Who the heck can find the time to maintain all that constant updating and interacting?”  Social Media requires a time commitment that many entrepreneurs cannot manage. 

I’m busy scribbling notes from every session of this unique conference being held online during May, 2010 so that I can share social media tips and tricks with BizWhiz community members- including how to set up a time management plan for all of this stuff!  Today I learned about how to “Use Twitter as a Marketing Weapon” from Guy Kawasaki.  I’ll be sharing this session and several others with BizWhiz Community members FREE throughout the month of June via a series of interactive webinars.  You’ll be able to join me live via the web  in June as I share my conference “takeaways” with community members and ask for your stories and input.  

I’m hoping to connect with members and share the simple strategies I’m learning so that all of us can better manage our social media time and understand where we should be applying our social media resources. I’m blogging about my conference “aha” moments and posting tips in the ongoing event “Social Media Mashups”.  There are already countless resources and informative links available to event attendees and anyone is welcome to join.  I’ll let everyone know when the first SoMed webinar is scheduled in June and I’m looking forward to joining you live!

If you would like to follow this blog just click the “subscribe” link. Do you know a business owner who would benefit from being a community member?  Invite them to join the site in May for your chance to win great prizes.  Further details are available in “The Whizlette”.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 is the web's largest live online conference featuring a huge list of social media “who’s who” as guest speakers and presenters.  The conference is well under way and teaching attendees how to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow their businesses.  Presenters include: Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogran, Darren Rowse, Mari Smith, Jay Baer, Ann Hadley and so many more

Wouldn't it be nice if simple were easy?

It's not.  Too often we confuse those two words.  Try this 2 minute exercise:

Stay still for one moment and breathe. Just breathe.   Now, pay attention to to each inhalation and exhalation, focusing only on the breath as you feel your lungs fill with air and then deflate as you release your breath through your nose.  Repeat this action for 2 minutes and empty your mind of any thoughts other than observing  your inhalation and exhalation for the duration of the entire exercise.

 Did 2 minutes feel like a long time?  Were you distracted by a noise in the room you never noticed?  Other than watching your own breath, what other thoughts flooded your mind?  Chances are, your mind wandered and busied itself a great deal despite your best efforts to keep it focused on watching your breath.

I remember the first time I tried this exercise in yoga class.  The point of course, is that our minds are so active and full of internal chatter that we don't realize it until we attempt to do nothing more than observe our own breath. It's a simple exercise that can be practiced over and over as we learn to become mindful in our meditation.  The concept is simple, the execution is not easy.  Practice this exercise for a lifetime.

Quitting a bad habit is simple (just stop smoking!), not easy (overcoming the withdrawal).
Joining a group is simple (fill out the form, pay a due), not easy (committing to meetings, sitting on the board, participating in the discussion).

Starting a business is a simple concept. Find or develop a product/service offering, sell it for profit, make money- do it over and over again.  Execution  (managing an enterprise, riding economic storms, funding a venture, staffing, organizing, systemizing, distributing, marketing...) is not easy. 

Don't confuse simple with easy. 

Share your comments...

I confess to having spent the last week as an Olympic Torch groupie; dashing around Calgary to catch a glimpse of the torchbearers, peering up the bobsleigh track for a torch sighting as it careened down the course at Canada Olympic Park and, finally, playing hooky from client demands to follow it to Lake Louise.  I couldn't get enough!  Maybe it was the crowds, or the glow on the face of every torch bearer running past family and friends.  Perhaps it was the buzz in the Calgary air as an entire community recalled their Olympic experiences from the 1988 winter games.  Everyone in the crowd had a story to share about their Olympic experience. That legacy is alive and well in our venues, our volunteers and in the long list of athletes who train in our city. It seemed as though everywhere I went I knew a person in the crowd or an athlete running the torch. 

It's exciting to be part of a community that is large enough to be heard but small enough to allow individuals to stay connected with each other.  Having lived in large and small communities I recognize the benefits to both. A large community has a collective energy big enough to tip the scales of change at lightning speed.  The  response to the crisis in Haiti is an example of this power.  The power of a smaller community lies in its ability to be flexible as it responds to change.

This year, we're working with an exciting group of entrepreneurs to build a small and flexible online community (BizWhiz.com).  A place where members can take their time getting to know one another and connect in ways not available in larger communities such as Facebook or LinkedIn.  It's my hope that we'll grow large enough to be heard but stay small enough to be connected with one another. 

• What are your thoughts about Community?
  
• When does "big" turn into "too big?
  
• Is there a point when a Community loses touch with individuals?
  
• How do you maintain a connection to members of your community both online and offline?

Registered members are invited to post comments to this blog and share ideas about Community building with me! Your feedback is always welcome!

Cheers!
Linda G.CEO
BizWhiz.com

The development of online communities (facebook, linkedIn, twitter, BizWhiz etc) has opened the door like never before for small business to instantly and easily connect with customers.  Increasingly, “networking” and “connecting” are being replaced by “marketing” and “sales” in many communities.  In turn, natural, evolving  social connections which drive long term customer relationships and friendships are being replaced with product/service messages shouted in 140 characters or less. No question, marketing and sales are survival elements for a small business.  However, planning, financing,  relationship building, education, personal growth and HR management  are some of the many basic business fundamentals that shape long term entrepreneurial leadership.

 My team has taken great care to provide members with ample opportunity to showcase their company product/service offerings via their profile descriptions, event postings and by posting a commercial storefront in BizCity.  You love your product/service offering others may or may not.  Personally, I believe an entrepreneur's story is far more interesting than their products or services.  The services my company offers are quite ho hum (until we dress them up with our marketig of course!) and appeal to a small fraction of the marketplace.  Myself and my company, on the other hand, have some crazy stories about how we evolved, who we have met, stuff we have learned and mistakes we have made along the way.  I would like to learn what makes our members keep going, and how they came to be CEO's and leaders and business startups! This site provides members with so many ways to share insights, mentor new businesses, ask questions and learn how to engage in coversation with others online. 

The new "Forums" feature provides members with a perfect opportunity to come together in the exchange of entrepreneurial knowledge.  We have created a "suggestion box" that members can use to post their ideas for forum topics.  We'll be creating a few forums ourselves and counting on our members to give us some great ideas too!!

It's my hope that members find ways to connect together for growth that goes beyond the next sale. Don't we see enough commercials already?

Linda Griffioen

CEO

A short time ago I had a chance to connect with our first site member- Keith Peden.  Keith is a longtime client and, good friend.  Back when this site was first being built Keith graciously offered his time and talents to assist my team with bug checks and trying out the new apps.  When I first told Keith about the new website rebuild and how the goal was to create a community of entrepreneurs who could connect, collaborate and have a little fun online, Keith asked if I had considered all the pros and cons.  Namely, had I thought about what might happen if no one signed up or if only a very small group of people decided to join the site.  Of course, I hadn't considered that little detail!  Which brings me to my most recent meeting with Keith.  Once again, he asked how the site build was going and if I had a chance to measure any sort of success- aka- how were the numbers and could the site monetize itself in the near future?  It's a common question.  So  much of social media measurement is really about measuring size.  Our site numbers aren't big- we are not Facebook.  We are not LinkedIn.

Bigger is better.  Right?  Maybe.  My organization isn't trying to be everything to everyone- we can't- it waters down our product/service offering and confuses our picture of our "ideal client".  The more people I try to please the further from my own truth I wander.  The more generic my product becomes, the less it satisfies my customers. 

Ultimately, there are only so many people in the world that you can make a REAL connection with- Seth Godin nails it in his  Dunbar's Numbers blog- if you are not following Seth- you should!

You'll never make a real connection with the hundreds of millions of users on every social media website.  As this site grows, (and it will) you may connect to less than 150 people. That's OK- We're not trying to be Facebook and you will only be able to keep up with that many connections. In fact, we have turned down many requests for membership from folks wanting to sign up and just sell you something or recruit you to their latest "get rich quick" organization. I value my time and cherish my business connections.As a busy CEO, I am ready to forgo the constant onslaught of bad advertising, poorly designed marketing and outdated online sales pitches found in so many online communities in exchange for fun, comraderie, increased knowledge and networking with my peers. I enjoy building relationships, making friends and learning about the fine art of being an entrepreneur from other entrepreneurs. If I never make a sale out of the entire process that's fine by me and this site was never designed to measure success through sales anyway.  If our members enjoy their time spent, have a chance to explore new social media tools and gain new knowledge from other members then this site will be a success!

Happy Social Networking Everyone!- and post your feedback!

Linda G.

One of my favourite pastimes is to open my twitter account and randomly check out some of the people I follow for great small biz ideas or links to information that may, eventually, turn me into a better CEO.  I'm also a big believer in the notion that many of us are so busy attaching ourselves to the latest and newest technologies and technology carpetbaggers that we forget to gain some historical perspective on tried and true business practices and how they continue to be relevant in today's business world.  That's why, this video hit home.  It shows that technology may have changed HOW  we conduct business together but that it hasn't changed WHY we conduct business together. 

On another note- as a CEO I totally related to the grumpy fellow in the chair- if I could picture my  frustrated inner CEO voice everytime someone phoned me with a sales pitch this is how it would look!

We thought it would be neat to introduce members to the idea of embedding video into their blogs. We found a great video on Youtube which tours you around Calgary's original skyscraper- The Barron Building built in late 1947. We are particularly interested since our office resided in this building from 2004- 2006. On another note, our company continues to conduct business with members of the Barron family and we're looking forward to seeing this building restored to its former glory.