I just got back from a conference for EO Injected Forums in Sonoma, CA where I had a great time with my Forum mates sharing and learning together. It struck me that I talk about Forum lot in my blog, but not everyone has had the opportunity to be in a forum or even understand what a Forum is, so let me tell you about the Forum experience.

My EO Injected Forum biking through wineries in Sonoma, CA

I am in two Forums. One is a local EO Forum that I have been in since 99, which meets monthly. The other is a regional Forum made up of EO members from the South East who have been in EO for more than 7 years, and meets quarterly.

A Forum consists of anywhere between 6 and 12 people, usually staying in the 8-10 range. The purpose of Forum is to create an environment that is trusting and confidential, allowing a high level of sharing to take place. Members usually discuss issues they’re experiencing, both personal and professional. The issues are presented and discussed in a very organized fashion. Time is allotted for an issue to be presented, followed by a period for questions, then ending with experience sharing by other members. The experience sharing is the most important part of Forum, as the key to helping someone comes from sharing what you have experienced, and letting them know what worked and what didn’t work.

My East TN Forum Retreat in Atlanta, GA

Experience sharing should not be confused with giving advice. There are 2 important reasons why this time is called experience sharing: (1) people don’t like to be told what to do, and by sharing your experience they are more likely to take that information and figure out how to apply it to their own situation, (2) if you take someone’s advice on something and it doesn’t work out, it’s too easy to blame that person who advised you, thereby breaking the trust and respect between the members. I have found that this practice is better for all relationships, and wish I could do it all the time.

Confidentiality and trust are key in Forum, because without them, the level of sharing is not at its highest. Having the right Forum can be life changing and can allow for growth beyond comprehension in all areas of your life. It has done that for me, and sharing with all my EO friends around the world has given me perspective that has helped, changed and allowed me to grow in both small and large ways.

If you have been in a Fraternity or Sorority, you probably have experienced the closeness of a group of people similar to Forum. We take a yearly retreat to bond, get to know each other and to build trust. It has been said that you will talk about 95% of your life to most people. Forum is where you talk about the other 5%.

If you want to know how to set up a forum, how they’re run, and all the details, read Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders by long time forum trainer Mo Fathelbab.

I just got back from a conference for EO Injected Forums in Sonoma, CA where I had a great time with my Forum mates sharing and learning together. It struck me that I talk about Forum lot in my blog, but not everyone has had the opportunity to be in a forum or even understand what a Forum is, so let me tell you about the Forum experience.

My EO Injected Forum biking through wineries in Sonoma, CA

I am in two Forums. One is a local EO Forum that I have been in since 99, which meets monthly. The other is a regional Forum made up of EO members from the South East who have been in EO for more than 7 years, and meets quarterly. 

A Forum consists of anywhere between 6 and 12 people, usually staying in the 8-10 range. The purpose of Forum is to create an environment that is trusting and confidential, allowing a high level of sharing to take place. Members usually discuss issues they’re experiencing, both personal and professional. The issues are presented and discussed in a very organized fashion. Time is allotted for an issue to be presented, followed by a period for questions, then ending with experience sharing by other members. The experience sharing is the most important part of Forum, as the key to helping someone comes from sharing what you have experienced, and letting them know what worked and what didn’t work.

My East TN Forum Retreat in Atlanta, GA

Experience sharing should not be confused with giving advice. There are 2 important reasons why this time is called experience sharing: (1) people don’t like to be told what to do, and by sharing your experience they are more likely to take that information and figure out how to apply it to their own situation, (2) if you take someone’s advice on something and it doesn’t work out, it’s too easy to blame that person who advised you, thereby breaking the trust and respect between the members. I have found that this practice is better for all relationships, and wish I could do it all the time.

Confidentiality and trust are key in Forum, because without them, the level of sharing is not at its highest. Having the right Forum can be life changing and can allow for growth beyond comprehension in all areas of your life. It has done that for me, and sharing with all my EO friends around the world has given me perspective that has helped, changed and allowed me to grow in both small and large ways.

If you have been in a Fraternity or Sorority, you probably have experienced the closeness of a group of people similar to Forum. We take a yearly retreat to bond, get to know each other and to build trust. It has been said that you will talk about 95% of your life to most people. Forum is where you talk about the other 5%.

If you want to know how to set up a forum, how they’re run, and all the details, read Forum: The Secret Advantage of Successful Leaders by long time forum trainer Mo Fathelbab.

A  few weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching a presentation to my local EO Chapter by Simon Mundell Head of Business Development with RESULTS.com out of New Zealand. Simon shared some interesting material about how companies can operate better to get the results they are striving to achieve.

Of all the many things that Simon discusses, one stands out above the others; something so small that most of us tend to overlook its significance. Typically Simon will ask everyone in the group to pull out their business cards and swap with the person next to them. He’ll then ask everyone to look it over on both sides, and see if you can tell what the company does. If you have no idea what the company does, then you tear up the business card and give it back to them.

What does it say about us if we can’t even convey to the people we pass our cards out to what it is exactly that our business does?

There are times when you have to make business decisions that are painful. Those decisions are often accompanied by the feeling that your work, effort, worry, and money have all been a waste.

For 4 years now, my partner Rich and I have owned a franchise of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. These franchises have been successful all over North America, and we wanted to bring it to Knoxville. The founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK is a fellow EO member that I met in 2001. For 4 years I watched the business grow and become successful before we bought the rights to the Knoxville market.

We launched with excitement and did all the right things that the other franchises did to be successful. We hung out door hangers, we did waves (guys in blue wigs next to trucks waving creating attention), we put out signs and tried a lot of the usual marketing programs. So what happened?

A year before we entered the market, a competitor did, and they captured the mind share of the local market place. We found that when people saw us, they usually thought of the competitor (the marketplace was trying to tell us something). As you can imagine, this was not good for business. We thought we could break past this with a national TV advertisement that the franchisor was going to start but they never did. Not long after, the real estate recession came, and paying to have your junk taken away was discretionary and could be delayed or simply done yourself (2nd time the marketplace tried to tell us something).

So what were we to do? Even after we cut back on manpower, we still were accumulating debt and had to make the decision to stop the bleeding. We did, and last week we shut down the business. We finally listened to the marketplace! This week Microsoft shut down the Kin Family of mobile phones after only two months. The marketplace had spoken, and they listened.

Lesson learned. We had the real life lesson that this business was not core to our focus and our purpose. Rich and I both work in our software company. The junk business was about an opportunity to make money, and that was it. As we all travel the business path, we continually have to make decisions that might be wrong. I have learned to accept this truth, brush it off, and keep going.

Key Lessons Learned:

• Follow your passion
• Keep a laser like focus

Swami Vivekananda

It makes me pause and wonder why it bothers them at times or why they joked about it, because I see it as something so natural that everyone should do it.

When you run a business, various opportunities often present themselves and persuade you to run off in different directions, pulling you away from your focus.  This happens to me frequently, and I find it difficult to avoid being sucked down a path that sounds like the next great avenue for huge success.

Thankfully, my partners, EO Forum,  or my team usually slap me back into reality.  Taking a closer look at what you are doing can also help you discover if these opportunities are worthy or if the current focus is best.

As my success coach Steve D’Annunzio asks:  Where have the most profitable clients come from over the past 3 months?  What is the common theme across those clients and what is it you are providing that makes the clients happy to pay you?  What is the common size of these clients?  What category are they generally from?  What are their locations?

If the answers point towards the companies paying me the most profit, why would I not want to go get more of the same?  Why would I not want to build on this synergy and find a way to get the most scalability possible by giving the clients what they love while also getting paid at the most profitable level?

Steve tells me that when those things happen, you are in “FLOW.”  When it’s right, you notice it in the areas of time, energy and currency because they will all be jamming together like a great jazz band or orchestra.

As we close in on the end of the year, many businesses are looking deeper at what they are doing and may be considering these same types of questions.  Another beneficial exercise that can help to open your awareness to all the options is the basic Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats or SWOT analysis.  We utilize this every quarter to challenge our business and ensure we are considering all possibilities and are not about to get eaten by something sitting around the corner waiting to pounce.  Remember the Software Monster.

We found that we spent too much time gathering data from all the participants for SWOT, leaving us little time to really dig into the data we had pulled out.  To fix this, we built a tool that has helped us ramp this up before we start our planning meeting and has given us much more time to go deeper.  This tool, called MeetingHabits, can now be utilized for free, and it may stay that way as we study how it benefits us.  We would also like hearing how it helps you if you would like to share your experiences.

As you work to focus more on bringing the most value to a core group of clients that will put you in the best FLOW, what are you doing to make sure your business is harmonizing the best tune?

I’ve attended EO Universities for several years now, but this year was unlike any I’ve ever attended. I went for the first time to Barcelona, Spain. The theme of the University was “Design Your Life”. The idea was to focus on what you really want out of life, and what you’re doing to get there. It’s like choosing a personal BHAG – your very own Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

As entrepreneurs, we set goals all the time, but experience has taught me that we tend to view are business goals and life goals as one in the same; that by reaching our business goals we receive all we want out of life. Shouldn’t our businesses really be the means to our personal goals and the life legacies we want to create? This isn’t the case, in that, more often than not we let our businesses consume our lives and distract us from our families, spousal relationships, and our own personal paths.

While there I attended programs on knowing your limits, and designing your personnel life plan. Verne Harnish introduced the personal one page plan, or the ME page. We discussed things like, “How important is money?” and “How much is enough?” Social entrepreneurs were a common topic, as well as finding strength in all the challenges of life and business.

A fellow entrepreneur, Nando Parrado, gave a testimonial on the Miracle in the Andes, his story of surviving 72 days when they knew no one was coming. Nando and one of his Rugby mates inspired us with strength and courage with their fight against the cold and mountains. They hiked over 40 miles of nasty terrain to find help and see the team they left behind get rescued. On a scale of 1 to 10, this story was a 15…and is to be continued in a later blog.

I began working on my own BHAG on this trip, and I made a commitment to create 3 very deep relationships that will help me grown and be a strong resource for me in good and bad times. Keith Farrazzi talks about this in his new book, who’s got your back. Working on personal goals has been eye opening for me and has allowed me to combine my thoughts about my life with the success of my business in a way that brings more meaning and satisfaction to all that I do!

Whether you are just starting out, or you’ve already achieved success in your business, have you thought about the major accomplishments you want above all else in your life? Look at it like this: If you were a big ship leaving behind a wake that rippled through all those you pass by, one day when you looked back at that wake, how do you want to have affected those you’ve passed? How do you want them to remember that wake?

The people (it is always mostly about the people) and the speakers in this beautiful city of Barcelona, caused me to stop and have some serious contemplation about my future.

On my trip to Canada for the EO Conference, Peter Thomas, who I introduced in the last blog, (founded Century 21 in Canada and took it to 9 billion in sales) spoke to us about the S Curve.

I spent many years in the investment world and back in the early nineties I went thought the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. We discussed the S curve in depth, which depicts the life cycle of a business. With the S tilted forward a little, you can see how a growing company starts out flat for a bit, then takes strong spurt upward and then levels off and starts to decline. This is the life cycle of most businesses, usually lasting 5 to 7 years. Hang on for a second if you think this may not be relevant to you.

Peter demonstrated that if you add the S curves on top of each other (as shown below) and draw a line between them, it shows the steep declining cycle that happens over and over again in companies with a long history. What do these companies do to keep from going out of business during these declines? They have to make changes and inject something different, something new, something innovative, to start the cycle over again. If not…what happens?

 Peter talked about how we can use this analogy in life as well. This really got me thinking, and I have spent the past week pondering how many areas of our life this theory applies too. Think about relationships and marriage. How many do you see that are short lived, that only make one S curve cycle. How many go through multiple S curve cycles? Do the longer ones add something different, something new or innovative into them? 

Think about the S curve as it applies to our other interests in life…our workouts, our diet, our favorite sport or team and even our friends. I can only imagine how many more excited fans we’ll see this year for the TN Volunteers football program with the new, young, energetic coach Lane Kiffin at the helm. What is it in our workouts, our diet, or our relationships that we can add to keep them on an upward growth curve?

If you are a business, what are you doing if you are starting to round out the top of the S? Are you looking at new markets, new products, a strategic partner, a new leader, technological innovation, or going to the web? We all know that change happens around us and we also need to change with the times!

What an interesting week!  Last week, I traveled to New York City to participate in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization Injected Campus event, which brings the regional EO Forums together.  We met in lower Manhattan to be close to the New York Stock Exchange.

This year during our event, the NYSE opening bell was rung by InvenSense, a company that makes the motion possible in the Wii and in smartphones.  InvenSense was launching their IPO and was going public.  I had always wanted to be there in person to see the opening bell, but it also made me think of my own dream of being up there to ring the bell with the IPO launch of my own company.  That evening, it felt a little closer as my friends on the Global EO Board got to be on stage and ring the closing bell!  WOW!  Click here to see the video I took of the opening bell.

Along with going to the Stock Exchange, we enjoyed a wonderful evening dining and socializing at the Harvard Club in Times Square.  We also heard from three great speakers and spent time with EO members that have really invested time and resources into the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, thus getting a lot in return.  This entire event was extra special! 

Matthew Kelly spoke to us at the NYSE for one of the events.  He does business consulting and wrote the book The Dream Manager.”  His talk resonated deeply with me, so I wanted to share it with you.  Matthew told a story about one time when he was playing golf.  One of the guys he was playing with seemed really down, and when Matthew asked him about it, he mentioned he was having business problems.  After digging, Matthew finally got him to reveal that he has a janitorial company with more than 400% turnover.  This man was spending all his time hiring people and had no time to work on business strategy.

Matthew inquired, “Have you asked the employees what is the problem?”  The man had not and wondered if they would even know, so Matthew said, “Let’s find out.”  They conducted a survey and realized that transportation was the main problem.  They decided to get buses to help the employees, and the business changed significantly.  The turnover rate dropped to just over 200%, so they did the survey again.  This time, they discovered the employees had dreams and desires.  They decided if the employees were helped to realize these dreams, then their respect and loyalty to the company would grow.

They hired a full time dream manager to discuss dreams with the employees.  The dream manager assisted them in creating plans and processes to put them on the path to realizing their small near-term dreams, such as purchasing a laptop or planning a vacation.  Additionally, He helped them work towards their long term dreams of buying a house or getting the proper education toward a new career. 

This approach resonated with me because I am of the type that is always strategizing about working towards the things that make the future better.  I have often asked my team what it is that they are working for and want to have in their lives as they increase their incomes.  It is astounding how the culture of a company can change and how your employees’ perception and loyalty toward their employer improves!

I am working toward my dream of building a company that can go IPO.  What are you doing to invest in the lives and dreams of those around you?

Many people say they are happiest when they are creating.  Maybe it’s because we are made in the likeness of our creator and are doing what comes naturally.  Just like an artist or musician, entrepreneurs are creating and bringing things to life, out into the world and the marketplace to solve problems.

I’ve spent the last few days in Asheville, NC on an EO Forum retreat with my long time Knoxville Forum.  Asheville is known for its community of artistic people, and like artists and musicians, we like to be in places that stimulate us to create.  Many of us know that being in environments like the islands or the mountains stimulate us to create, but do we know why?

One of the reasons is negative ions.  These are invisible molecules that are generated in abundance around beaches, waterfalls, and mountain environments.  What they do is stimulate the brain with higher oxygen and blood flow, which in turn can provide that boost that we may be looking to generate.

Our Forum went on a zip line tour called Navitat high up in the mountains.  Over a 3 hour period we climbed, harnessed, zipped and repelled through the most picturesque mountain environment.  Why do we do this? One reason is to get us out and experiencing new things that allow us to connect and bond, which opens us up to sharing at a deeper level.  Another reason is that new experiences create new awareness.   New awareness can open the way for more synapse connections in the brain, once more stimulating new ideas and new ways of thinking. 

EO events and gatherings are about exposing people to places and thought processes that they have not experienced before.  What we like to call once in a lifetime experiences.  These past few days have been a creative stimulant for me.

I am constantly trying to open myself up to new things, experiences and environments that will encourage my own creativity.  What are you doing that will open you up to discovering that next brak through solution or idea?