Dates for workshops still TBD but feel free to contact me for more information. If you’re more interested in a one-on-one work arrangement definitely shot me an email. I don’t plan to have a lot of individual clients.

In the meantime enjoy the excerpt from the book!

Excerpt from The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success
By Jennifer Lee
www.rightbrainbusinessplan.com

Does This Sound Like You?
You know you’re a right-brain entrepreneur if you respond with a resounding “yes!” to the following questions:
Do you hate the idea of writing a business plan but know you need one?
Do numbers numb you out?
Do words like business plan, cash flow, and balance sheet make your skin crawl?
Would you rather have an MFA than an MBA?
Do you have a big vision for your business but struggle with seeing it through?
Do you prefer colors, images, and feelings to spreadsheets, tables, and templates?
Do you want to make a positive impact with your business but avoid the business aspects of your job?
Do you feel that planning is boring or daunting, or that it gets in the way of the “real work”?
Are you turned off by the formality and nitty-gritty detail of traditional business plans?
Do you believe there’s got to be a better way to run your business?

You are not alone! I hear clients, workshop participants, and blog readers answer yes to questions like these all the time. Sure, your feathers may get ruffled when you hear the letters ROI, but that doesn’t mean you can’t artfully run a business.

Why a Right-Brain Approach to Business Planning?

Typically, we think of business planning as very much a left-brain activity, and yes, the left brain certainly does play a key role in the planning process, since it is geared for logical, analytical, critical thinking. The left brain is a rock star at solving problems, sequencing steps, and hashing out the details, all great attributes when it comes to testing a plan and carrying out the steps to make that plan happen.

The challenge is when left-brain thinking comes too early in the visioning and planning process and kills the party with its questioning, judgment, and need for every single piece of the puzzle to make absolute sense before taking that first step. This limits your thinking; good ideas are quashed before they’ve even had a chance to form. You get analysis paralysis. Unfortunately, this can leave you feeling frustrated, stuck, and without a plan to speak of. Sound familiar?

Fortunately, as a creative person, you’re naturally gifted with right-brain intuition, imagination, and innovation. But this isn’t about left-brain bashing. In fact, the left brain plays an important role in different parts of your planning process. What we want to avoid is letting your left brain hijack the situation.

When you approach business planning with your right brain first, you free your mind to see creative options, explore, and find patterns and purpose. You allow yourself to dream big and to connect emotionally with your vision. When you begin with your authentic vision, you’re so much better equipped to deal with all the other “stuff.”

Yes, it’s important to know the details and understand the numbers, but if you start from that point, you force yourself into a box and may not even get your plan finished because you become frustrated or blocked. You can always ask an expert about how to read a profit and loss statement, but you can only ask yourself about what matters most to you and your business. If you start with your vision and values, the details will follow.

Excerpted from the book The Right-Brain Business Plan © 2011 by Jennifer Lee. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com. Download the free illustrated poster of The Right-Brain Entrepreneur Badge of Honor and play sheets from the book at www.rightbrainbusinessplan.com.

The surgery itself was a piece of cake. I got knocked out and remember nothing. While pre-surgery testing was annoying it was nothing like the post-surgical experience I had. I was given a cane to use the day of the surgery…yes this is a out-patient procedure and they make you walk out that day once you wake up.

I expected to have some trouble navigating the public transportation system in New York, my mother had polio as a child and while she recently started using a cane herself I had seen prior to this how people treated her when she visited. She was slower going up steps and was nearly tripped on more than one occasion. It’s one thing to watch but it is quite another to be the victim of other people’s truly moronic behavior.

Anyone who has met my mom knows she wasn’t too pleased to hear what I was dealing with on the subway almost daily. I told her it was beyond pointless to write the MTA but she did anyway…

Below is the response she received…

This is in response to your recent e-mail to MTA New York City Transit regarding priority seating.

We sincerely regret any difficulty you have experienced. As you know, New York City Transit has seating on buses and subway cars specifically designated for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. The seats marked “Priority Seating” are designated for customers with disabilities, as mandated by federal law. If a customer requests one of these seats and the occupant refuses to move, the bus operator or conductor (if available) must explain the policy and ask the person to vacate the seat. The role of the bus operator or conductor in this case is to remind the customer of the law. This issue is complicated by the fact that not all disabilities are obvious physical ones. The person occupying the Priority Seat might refuse to vacate the seat because the person requesting the seat shows no visible sign of any disability. The person with the disability is not required to state their disability and the bus operator or conductor is not allowed to ask about the disability.

Seats at either end of a subway car, with signs reading, “Won’t you please give this seat to the elderly or disabled,” are considered “courtesy seats” because it is up to customers to voluntarily give up these seats. It may interest you to know that NYC Transit has a public awareness campaign intended to encourage our customers to give up their seats to the elderly and disabled. It should also be noted that while bus operators and conductors are obligated to request compliance with the law, they are not authorized to compel compliance.

If you have further transit-related concerns, you may visit our website at www.mta.info, or call (718) 330-1234, from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., daily, or write to Customer Services at 2 Broadway, Room A11.146, New York, NY 10004.

We thank you for taking the time to contact us.

The first time I read this email from the MTA my initial thought was bullocks. I haven’t seen any awareness campaign and I ride the subway pretty much everyday. If the goal of the campaign is awareness well it isn’t working or is so well hidden it’s a Mission Impossible assignment.

If bus operators and conductors are not authorized to compel compliance what exactly is the point.

Seriously…
I was nearly hit by several strollers on the street..and yes they saw me..I was just moving too slowly to get out of the way. One man even jumped to get around me nearly causing me to fall over. He said he was sorry as he was doing it. Right. My response to him was if he was actually sorry he wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

People would rush me to get into an elevator, I love kids but a stroller isn’t a disability the last time I checked. The sign does say people with disabilities and the elderly should be let on first. My mother had the same issue when she was here. I even asked a elderly woman on the subway one day what her experiences were like on the transit system. She used a cane as well. Sadly she’d also had people nearly trip her with strollers, bikes..you name it…it had happened.

Someone said to me perhaps because of my age people assumed I didn’t need a seat. Er, please. People didn’t even get up for an older woman. Crutches, cane, wheelchair…doesn’t matter you become part of the invisible crowd…and yes people do avoid eye contact. My physical limitations were temporary, people deal with this crap everyday. How I don’t know. I was sorely tempted to whack someone with my cane a few times…I’m only half joking.

Well, I’m having knee surgery in a few weeks, not sure I’m ready for another round of that rubbish. But thanks to all the strangers who did give up their seats or stopped me from falling when others bumped into me.

So my plea is this:

• Be more aware of your surroundings and fellow human beings.
• Offer your seat to pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities. They shouldn’t have to ask.

Recently I decided to go on a “weight loss” program.

Why?

Well several reasons..time, illness, lack of interest..whatever the reason I started deleting, disabling or un-publishing stuff like mad.

I started with my Facebook Fan page. I created it as an experiment to understand how it worked for my consulting career. Mission accomplished. 200+ fans later I have no direction or reason to keep doing it at the moment. So I put it on holiday. Facebook will keep making changes – guaranteed but for right now I don’t need to have a fan page. The next page I create, should I choose to do so will be because I have a human not technology reason to have one. I have no desire to have a page just to say I have one.

What was next?

Posterous. I’ve had a blog on there for over a year now. I posted infrequently yet I had followers. Who knows why. I made it private and no more posting for me on that platform. At least for now.

To create your own plan ask yourself:

1. Where are you really involved?
2. Do you care about what you’re doing? If you feel guilty about not participating more – it’s on the list to go!
3. If you aren’t ready to delete just make your accounts private, if possible. If you don’t miss it after a few months I’d say it’s safe to get rid of it.

Next to go will probably be my YouTube channel. Again I have zero reason to keep it active. I have one video!

You don’t have to be on every social network or whatever’s cool at the moment. It’s like spring cleaning your media presence. It needs to be done. You wouldn’t keep clothes that were falling apart or stuff you never wore in your closet in hopes that you’d wear it? Well same thing applies online. Well unless you’re a hoader…that’s a whole other issue entirely.

I’m sure there is some social media guru or “social media scientist” out there who disagrees but whatever gurus are overrated.

If you can’t part with it use it. Create a plan and implement it. Otherwise it deserves to be in the rubbish pile.

© iStockPhoto/mattjeacock

I’ve been reading lots of posts about how much to charge for creative services. And what I have learned is that there is no right answer. No one price works all the time. There is no magic number.

Would be nice if there was but we’re not living in wonderland.

I recently completed The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money by Ilise Benun—author, consultant and national speaker, the founder of Marketing Mentor.com and the co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference. The author does a great job of breaking down the money game for creatives. The book is divided into 3 sections, and peppered with stories from creatives as well as advice from other experts.

Money is an emotional issue for a lot of people.

This book asks you to question your beliefs and assumptions about money plus why you aren’t getting what you believe your services are worth.

Favorite Quote:

Some creative professionals seems to believe that the problem with their pricing is them, either that their prices are too high or they aren’t good enough at selling. One creative said, “I don’t know how to turn prospects into customers. I need to learn how to close clients better.”

That may be so, but sometimes, you are not the problem. They—the clients—are.

If you’re not talking to the right people in the first place, it doesn’t matter how you “close” or what you say; the price won’t be right because they can’t afford your services.

Read that last sentence again. They can’t afford you…not magic…not every client is a good fit not even if the project is the most amazing..awesome…change the world thing on the planet. Every client thinks their project is amazing. I’d avoid people who aren’t enthusiastic about what they want you to work on in the first place! If you choose to cut your prices decide why and how it will serve you down the line. Otherwise decline gracefully and if you so desire refer them to someone else who might be a better fit.

Money isn’t the only deciding factor. Chemistry between you and the client is important. Work styles that don’t match before you sign the contract aren’t going to change later. In fact they might get worse.

What You’ll Learn From This Book:

• How to think about money – pricing strategies, setting your prices, positioning your price
• How to talk about money – broaching the topic of money with prospects, talking price, negotiating, getting paid (very important), closing the sale
• How to manage it – dealing with requests for proposals, profitability

© iStockPhoto/DNY59

So you have an idea? What to do next? Well you think about everything that can go wrong. You worry about how it will affect everyone…yourself included. You do research…maybe read a few books. But ultimately you do nothing because you can’t decide whether it’s the right thing to do.

You know what I mean? You analyze and think so much and eventually do NOTHING!

It’s the wrong time, you’re broke, what if people don’t like me! Good lord we drive ourselves nuts worrying about what might happen instead of actually DOING something. Most of the things we worry about never happen.

All this spinning around actually gives us the illusion that we are getting somewhere. I do it. So do other people I know. It’s a lie. So what’s stopping us?

Fear.

Fear of failure. Fear of success. Who knows, it’s different for everyone.

So what would happen if we took the risk? Just went for it? Well, if we failed we would end up back where we started but at least we took a leap. Not doing it well; we’d still be in the same place. But only then we’d be wondering what would happen if we had. We might even still keep doing “research”.

Just stop. Failure doesn’t kill you. It might feel soul crushing at times but ultimately it’s a growth experience.

Take a risk. Start with something small and build to the stuff outside your comfort zone.

Start today.

If not now, when?

You do NOT have to have everything figured out in order to succeed in business. You just have to know what the next question is, and who to ask. – Pamela Slim

That quote applies to life as a whole in my opinion. We don’t have to have all the answers to be happy and fulfilled.

So after freaking out for a little bit. I set out to find out what the heck was going on.

Thanks to some help from a friend I got it back up. Hopefully you backup your site regularly. If not start now. Start with WordPress Database Backup: on-demand backup of your WordPress database.

In case your WordPress site goes down here’s how to get it back up again:

• If your hosting company does a backup you can try just doing a roll back to the last day your site was performing well. If that works you’re good. Panic mode averted. In my case it didn’t work. On to step 2.
• Turn off all plugins. If you can’t get into your admin panel. Login to the server, go to the wp-content folder and rename the plugins folder to plugins_old or something similar. Your site should load minus all the bells and whistles.
• If all else fails you might need to reinstall WordPress.

Resources I found or rediscovered:

• WordPress.org Troubleshooting Codex – everything from newbie to advanced topics.
• How to Troubleshoot WordPress – Neil Matthews, a WordPress consultant at WPDude
• Your Complete Guide to Troubleshooting WordPress
• Quickly Disable or Enable All WordPress Plugins via the Database

If you don’t want to deal with the stress hire some support.

© iStockphoto.com/JulNichols

Huh? I’m not crazy. I’ve heard that alot. A client wants to add Twitter or Facebook… or whatever social network to their site but they aren’t interested in doing any work. The reasons vary but honestly why bother. It’s like asking someone on a date and then not talking for the entire time.

Why would you care to see them again? You wouldn’t…unless you had lost your mind.

Throw a link to Facebook on the site. Why?

What are you planning to DO once you have a fan page? Does your business really need one? Or rather are you going to do anything useful with it other than talk at your customers.

Or someone gets excited and says “Oh let’s get a Twitter account!”. Again…to what end? I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been in where it was obvious that a) the person speaking had never used Twitter b) had no idea what they were talking about and c) had no valid reason other than it sounded cool. On what planet…is something cool if it doesn’t make sense for your business and no one is going to take ownership of it. Waste of time and money.

Some people don’t want to give customers a platform to complain. Well… get real… consumers complain all the time. But people who love you write more good things than bad. Besides if you had a lousy product wouldn’t you want to improve it. When did we get so afraid of criticism? Not everyone is going to like your product or service.

Just a thought.

By not giving your loyal happy customers a place to talk and share their stories you are missing out. Word of mouth is your friend…not your enemy.

Promoting your products or service all day long is not a relationship building activity.

Go have a conversation already…social media is about building relationships, which you cannot do without engagement just being on the network isn’t enough.

1. We don’t care about anything but the money – Utter rubbish….that may be true of some people but it shouldn’t be a blanket statement. Some contractors put in the time and go the extra mile not just because of the money but because they take pride in what they do.
2. We hate full-timers – Again a complete bunch of non-sense. Some people like the lifestyle that being a contractor affords. Don’t forget…when we don’t work we aren’t getting paid.
3. We are contract employees because we can’t get a real job. I would say my usual “bite me” on this one. But for some people contract work IS a stepping stone to getting a full-time staff role. Er, sorry I have a real career. There is a difference.
4. Overtime is our friend. Some people love it. Personally I hate working overtime. Just because I get paid for it doesn’t mean I want to spend my downtime working. I can eat into your sorry budget if you fail to plan…plan to fail
5. We can’t tell what a workplace is like because we aren’t there very long. Again, not accurate. A good consultant can assess an environment pretty early in an assignment. I know for example if I hate the work setup from day one. You can tell group dynamics at the first team meeting. The alpha personalities show up pretty early as do the people lacking social skills. I’ve even turned down gigs if I didn’t like the interviewer – if they were someone I’d be working closely with.

There will always be people who believe that contract workers are less than qualified or they’d have a real job. But honestly who wants to work for the intellectually deficient (or ID as I like to call it). It certainly isn’t a career strategy for everyone. I’ve certainly contemplated what being a staff employee would mean but every time I’ve interviewed for a gig I’ve felt ambivalent. Obviously, a sign I’m not interested.

Communication skills are key to working with and as a contractor. Passion also plays a role, you don’t get excited about work you aren’t passionate about. I may not always like the projects I work on but I love what I do or I’d change careers again!

So what are your pet peeves about contract work? I have so many horror stories I might have to adapt my own version of the movie Horrible Bosses or Horrible Agencies…might be more appropriate!

Below is a mindmap to get you started. You might need all or just a few of these items.

(click to enlarge)

What does your checklist look like?

View/download mindmap on Biggerplate

Leadership Keys

The stock price for Starbucks is back over $30 a share so it would appear that the hard decisions that Schultz had to make after his return have paid off. Telling your story and Don’t embrace the status quo are two of my favorites.

Which ones do you use in your leadership roles? Or aspire to achieve?

Get the files: