Quantum Leap Business Transformation Workshop for Early Stage Entrepreneurs and Solo Professionals, Novemeber 8th 2013.

With so much continued economic uncertainty challenging even the most optimistic and success minded entrepreneurs, business development strategies and action are more critical than ever. If you’ve been thinking about how to take your business to the next level, consider taking a quantum leap.

A quantum leap is a jump in progress that is exponential rather than incremental.  With all the economic uncertainty surrounding us in the digital age, many early stage entrepreneurs and solo professionals struggle to create a strong foundation on which to build their success. Many are stuck and can’t find the key that unlocks their ability to transform their current circumstances.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce the White Hot Center will once again present its one-day, intensive strategic workshop on creating competitive advantage in your business. If you’re an early stage entrepreneur or solo professional building your business, you won’t want to miss participating in this business transformation opportunity.

Breaking the plateau effect.

If you’re stuck, you’ve hit a plateau. The plateau effect is a common state of being in every human endeavor. If you’re growing, eventually you’ll hit a plateau where whatever action got you to the level you’re currently at, it won’t be enough to elevate you to the next level. Breaking the plateau effect is an ongoing stair step process of developing new thinking and actions that have nothing to do with the actions you believe were successful in getting you to this moment.  It is possible to skip ahead a few levels!

The purpose of our work together will be to equip you with new insights and the tools necessary to break the plateau effect you’re currently experiencing.

Creating competitive advantage in your business.

This educational workshop will enable you to gain the knowledge to create real preference for your offerings. To accomplish this, your business must represent a highly valued idea that matters to high value clients and is not available through your competitors. And more importantly, this idea of value your business represents in the minds of your target customers is worthy of commanding premium pricing. It’s no fun clawing your way to the middle!

What you’ll learn in the Quantum Leap Business Transformation Workshop.

Like the name implies, this is a strategic workshop designed to give you the power to transform your business immediately and exponentially. There are elements of learning in this strategic workshop that I only offer to executives in global companies. I share critical “first principles” that many early stage entrepreneurs are simply not exposed to. Here’s what you will learn to create competitive advantage in your business:

-       The principles and discipline of a success-based mindset. Your thinking habits must change to advance your business to the next level and beyond. (real Jedi level stuff)

-       Build your vision for your bigger future. You must have clarity and confidence in your value creation vision for the future and the actions necessary to turn possibility into acheivement.

-       Uncovering your value. Discover the real reasons customers/clients buy from you rather than your competitors and how to command premium pricing.

-       Identify the components underlying your value proposition. Why do you and your business matter to people? HInt: It begins with your purpose beyond money-making.

-       Creating a value proposition and a strategic positioning that informs and guides all your action and behavior to separate your business from the slush pile.

-       Identify the qualities and attributes of higher value clients. Increase your value to the right people and make more money doing less. (Please read that sentence again)

-       Discover your Genius. The holy grail of personal productivity and effectiveness.

-      The right strategies and tactics to build your brand and elevate the quality of your presence in the marketplace.

Check out the video. It will give you a good idea of the “first principles” we’ll be working on together!

Who should attend the Quantum Leap Workshop.

This workshop has been designed specifically for early stage entrepreneurs and solo professionals who are languishing on a plateau. Typically participants generate gross incomes of up to $100,000 annually– but they want to double or triple their current income levels. Participants come from diverse business categories in consumer products, business-to-business products, and professional services like health care, education, management consulting, accounting, law, engineering, marketing and creative services.

The Workshop Date

The workshop will be held November 8th, 2013.

The Venue

I will announce the venue in Ojai, California on or before August 31, 2013. (Still working out the details at this writing) The workshop will be held in a very special retreat setting and location. Our environment will be supportive of your creativity and innovation. This is extremely important to me to provide a venue that support us all! The workshop will include a fabulous luncheon with snacks and beverages provided throughout the day.

Investment:

$995.00 USD per person

Special discount of $100 off for early registration prior to September 30, 2013

Additional discount of $50 off for each additional person attending from your firm prior to September 30, 2013.

Full Tuition Fee must be paid 30 days in advance of the Workshop. A deposit of half the tuition is required to confirm your reservation. No refunds or credits within 14 days of the workshop. Tuition includes Workshop Materials, Luncheon, and Snacks served throughout the day at the venue.

Early Registration

Send me an email and we’ll get right back to you with the full information on the venue location, accomodations, and how confirm your spot in early registration prior to September 30, 2013. This workshop has limited capacity and will fill up quickly. This workshop is limited to 24 participants.

Early Register is Open Now!

The source code of value creation BEGINS with formless creative thought not data. Formless thought in the creative mind is where crazy ideas come from.  Crazy ideas have changed the world many times over. Knowing this, it’s surprising many entrepreneurs still don’t trust the crazy idea when it shows up.

Everything that ever was, is now, and ever will be is at first a formless thought seed in the creative mind. Many of the products we can’t live without today started out as crazy ideas– automobiles, airplanes, personal computing, digital entertainment, smartphones, the internet and social media – stuff nobody needed or was asking for, but once realized, was just the thing they we’re waiting for.

All the stuff that has changed how we live in the world begins as formless crazy ideas.

Crazy ideas are always more richly embedded with game changing opportunity than safe ideas. A safe idea is the one you can “prove will work” before it takes form in the world.

Crazy ideas are like ancient fire– feared until proven useful.

As early humans, we learned and adapted within the context of our surroundings. When humans first learned that fire makes life easier (like cooking meat and keeping warm) the idea of fire was eagerly embraced as necessary for survival. I’ll bet before people figured out the “use value” of fire, it probably was a very frightening thing to experience–consequently something one should avoid. Crazy ideas are like that.

The music industry fought tooth and nail to avoid the crazy idea of digitally produced, reproduced and distributed music. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine the folly of their resistance to this crazy idea. But they did for nearly a decade at great harm to their shareholders. Consumers weren’t demanding the crazy idea of digital music be created out of their unmet need for digital music.  Yet once its use value was realized, the crazy idea changed an industry and the world.

The same is true for more commonplace crazy ideas like the Swiffer, which changed how people clean their homes.  Netflix which destroyed its established brick and mortar video rental competitors.  Even Digiorrno Pizza, which elevated the idea of frozen pizza to freshly delivered pizza status.  Nobody was asking for these crazy ideas, yet each one proved massively successful.

Crazy ideas propose new meanings and create competitive advantage.

In a me-too world of abundant choice, it’s far better to create new value (propose new meanings) than compete for the value created by others. If your in a business with lots of competitiors, you might want to be thinking about a crazy idea that will create a new meaning around your business that will put it in a league all its own.

That’s exactly what Swatch did.

When their bigger competitors Seiko and Casio were closely monitoring consumer needs for technical precision then inventing quartz technology, Swatch had the crazy idea that people valued self-expression more and created a new category and untouchable competitive advantage in a class all by themselves for well over 30 years.

The key ingredient to competitive advantage is to provide people with more “use value” than they have paid in cash value. That takes crazy ideas.

Although you could buy a high-quality, precision quartz watch from Casio for under $50, it didn’t provide the perceived use value of active self- expression available for $100 from Swatch. The correct time was not what Swatch customers valued. The same could be said of the iPhone over the Blackberry. The power of crazy ideas creates new value even when the innovation is not driven by known user needs.

Two choices: the creative plane or the competitive plane.

If your business is to thrive in the new economy driven by crazy ideas, you’ll have to choose between operating from the creative plane or the competitive plane.

When your business operates on the competitive plane, it can only win when somebody else loses. It will only bring products to market that are based in incremental user needs and ever-cheaper prices. It will be forced to compete for low value customers. Crazy ideas that are without form and unproven will be quickly discounted in favor of the known and the proven. The business will be managed based on fear, control, competition and survival.

On the other hand, if your business operates on the creative plane, it will have a compelling purpose and reason for being. There will be no shortage of supply or opportunity.  It will develop products that redefine the category, delighting customers with the unexpected, making competition irrelevant. Customers will experience more use value than they pay in cash value–making the price irrelevant. Everyone in your business will be focused on turning possibilities into realities. You will not be hyper focused on counting transactions but will create experiences people love earning trust and advocacy that advertising money can’t buy.

Get crazy if you want your business to move up the value chain.

One of the key principles of the White Hot Center Manifesto is to “be different and make a difference”. The first step in being different is to recognize that you are unique–similar in form but different and distinguished from all others.

To be different and make a difference requires an introspective look at what I’ll call your “core essence”– your unique set of attributes, abilities and special gifts that separates and distinguishes you from others. Only from your core essence will you be able to be truly different and make a difference in the world.

Your core essence is something special used to connect your gifts and talents to a need in the world. It is a special something only you have that fulfills your own purpose and provides what the world lacks. You are joined with others because the world sees your essence as the solution.

I remember early in my business career how important it was for me to “fit in” and be perceived by business associates and prospective clients as one of them. So I dressed like them, hung out where they hung out, talked like them, walked like them, joined their organizations, attended their social functions, and generally crafted my whole persona to be “like them”.  I held tight to the belief my success was based solely on my ability to fit their mold and conform to the standards of the conventional wisdom. I worked very hard at this for nearly two decades. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I never felt “right” and I never really fit in anywhere.

The truth within.

As a creative entrepreneur, any value you bring to the world is only credible when it reflects the essential truth of your unique, special and compelling gifts. Your core essence is how you add value, and it provides the reason people will follow you, like you, tweet you, trust you, and do business with you.  It comes from within you and nowhere else. You can’t wear your core essence like a uniform-people will see right through you!

The big question is: How do you choose from among all the facets of who you are to truly know (with enduring confidence) what your core essence is?

The search for your core essence is an inner quest to find, and more importantly, to believe in your unique and compelling gifts. Discovering your core essence requires discipline and self-confidence. Without this inner self-wisdom there is no real clarity about where you can best make a difference in the world.  Without this connection to your white hot center you will be adrift from yourself.

Get a shovel and start digging.

Essentially the discovery of your core essence will require some digging on your part.  Like an archeological dig, you’ll have to sift through the layers of your beliefs and values looking for the bits and pieces that comprise your special gifts, talents and natural inclinations.

You can start by asking a few basic questions of those close to you, who know you intimately–people who are your raving fans and adore you. Ask them to describe your strengths, talents, and your special qualities. Keep it simple. The result will always be illuminating, clarifying and confidence building.

With that information in hand, you can go a level deeper into your own introspection by asking yourself some simple but probing questions that will call upon you to be decisive about who and what you are. Here’s a list to get your process started:

I am unique because I …

People know me to be  …

I am good at …

I feel most fulfilled and satisfied when I am doing …

What makes me special is my …

I will not compromise on …

I am grateful for …

Take your time with this. You may experience a little writer’s block at first. Allow yourself to be open and honest as you ask yourself these and other questions you may come up with. Discovering your core essence is a decisive act, not a compromise, or a consensus of group think.  When you have the answers to those questions, develop a list of word associations that will best describe your essence. You may find it helpful to settle on the expression of your core essence as a simple description in the form of adjective, adjective, noun. For example, my own core essence is described as follows:

Creative, visionary leader.

This becomes the lens through which you assess all opportuntiy that comes your way. Once you discover and live by the character of your core essence, you’ll have the self-guidance and confidence to know what is a good fit for you and why your difference is relevant and highly valued by the world.  Go ahead give it some thought and please share your comments.

As we enter the New Year, many creative entrepreneurs are planning and making commitments to the goals they want to accomplish in the year ahead. Are your goals carved in stone, or written in sand?

This year 2013, I will celebrate my 60^th year! Thirty-five of those years I have been an entrepreneur and self-employed creative professional.  For me, these milestones serve as markers in time on my life’s journey. As a look back over that period of time, it’s hard for me to even imagine. Time seems to move faster with each passing year.

It has been nearly five years since the beginning of the “big recession”.  Conditions in many business categories are still tight and cautious. But despite the economy many of my clients find themselves in, they’re making bigger plans and positioning their business for a much bigger future. They believe in their future more than the boundaries and limitations of their current circumstances.

I love how entrepreneurs use their passion and laser focus on their desired goal and the creative energy they produce to achieve it no matter what. It’s simply awe inspiring!

Success, however you define it, is created first through thinking, then by action.  You think of an idea, instantly it is formed in your imagination, and through focused effort sustained by passion, in time, the idea becomes a real thing. As I have written before, ideas take their own sweet time coming into form. Since most of my good ideas have taken much longer to realize than 12 months in a year, the ritual of annual “goal setting” seems irrelevant.

What seems to work for me each year is to “check in” with myself on the big picture, the general direction, and the momentum and speed of my goals coming into form. I ask myself “is this (goal or set of goals) something I really want to accomplish”? Is it still worth the price of its realization? Am I still pumped on this idea and willing to go “all in” on it?  Is this goal carved in stone or written in sand? I make an annual assessment of my continued commitment to the goals that are as yet un-achieved.

2013 marks the fifth year pursuing my “new direction” in life. In 2008, I made a decision that I was going to go in another direction personally and professionally. It was a total and complete “do-over” on every level. I set some goals at the beginning of that year towards the achievement of success with this new idea.

But alas, the process has been painfully slow–much slower than I ever could imagine. So slow in fact I have at times along the way questioned my own capabilities. So each year, before I commit to following any new goals, I ask myself if the goals unattained are still worthy of pursuit.

Until the goal is abandoned or realized, I don’t set any more goals. Here’s what I’ll be passionately working on in my business this year:

-  putting priority focus, energy and time toward my health and well-being
-  growing (doubling) the revenue in my management consulting practice
-  conducting two Quantum Leap Workshops on Competitive Advantage
-  complete my book proposal and prepare for a publishing deal
-  building the readership to this blog

2013 is shaping up to be an amazing year. I can feel the momentum building! I want to thank you all once again for continuing to follow my work and musings here on the White Hot Center. I hope you find it useful in your own pursuit of your desired success.

I wish you inspired success in the coming new year!

Indeed it is the time of year again to reflect, take an inventory and calibrate the navigational systems for strategic planning in the coming year.

Each year at this time I reflect on my accomplishments the year past, learning from what’s working and re-learning from what hasn’t worked so well. Then I take that learning into the planning for the coming year. I’m confident you are probably engaged in a similar activity as well.

For me, it’s a simple process.  I think about what worked and got done, and what didn’t. Usually I don’t beat myself up too much on what didn’t happen or get done to my expectation. I’ve lived long enough to know that what does get done is usually the stuff I really wanted to accomplish–the other stuff not so much.  The lesson for me is only make promises to myself I plan to keep. The other thing about my own process of reflection is the core knowledge that I have no control over nouns (people, places and things). I can only control my own thinking and the behavior that comes from it. For me, that’s the whole game.

Enough of the set up, here’s my reflections on the year past:

The things that went well in 2012.
In my last “official year-end rant” I was thinking about a deeper connection to purpose…the very reason why I make goals and work so hard to achieve them. I’m delighted to share that “purpose” with my readers once again

“My purpose is to share my talent, expertise, knowledge and wisdom helping creative people BELIEVE and SEE their vision for a bigger future. I love to create and express ideas, forms and structures people can use as maps and vehicles for their success journey.

I’m so happy and grateful NOW that I am creating the success I desire doing what really matters to me. I love to collaborate with successful people who value my contributions to their success. All that’s required for my success is available to me at all times. I am creating the life I desire in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.”

This guides all my strategic thinking about creating success in my life. So what went well in 2012 was a deeper connection and continued realization that I am fully engaged in this purpose. This year, I’ve had several important opportunities to work with and advise some amazing creative and successful entrepreneurs in 2012. Here’s the list:

• helping the CEO of a technology startup build a value proposition that would guide how that value would be expressed with customers in the marketplace.

• helping the Founders and CEO of a mailing service company reinvent their business as a premier digital printing company in their market.

• helping the CEO of a health centered, functional beverage company, refine its brand strategy and distribution opportunities at more national grocery retailers.

• helping the CEO (and her team) of a national PR firm reposition itself as a strategic communications company serving global technology clients.

• helping the CEO of a parenting products company discover the core attributes of their target customer segment and develop a compelling brand story to guide the future marketing of their products worldwide.

• helping the Founding Partners of an information technology consulting firm reinvent their business for their next level of growth.

• helping my partners and colleagues in professional and business development create and deliver new products in their businesses.

All these engagements were centered in my core purpose “creating new value”. Each of these amazing opportunities allowed me to serve the growth and expansion of others. My professional life is now fully established and anchored in this mission and purpose.

2012 was the year all my dreaming, planning and doing over the past four years finally came into real form.

What didn’t go as planned in 2012.
Of course not everything went according to my perfect plan. There were many things that did not get accomplished as I had hoped for. This is an equally important list for me as well. Here there are clues for planning where I will spend my energy going forward. I ask myself “are these things really important?” The answer is yes and they didn’t get done!

• I still have not completed my goal of writing my book on “doing what matters”.

• I did not meet my goal of 1000 subscribers to the White Hot Center. I’m nowhere near that. Currently there are 250 subscribers to the blog who receive my posts directly via email. My web site stats, while growing, are still significantly below my goal of 10,000 page views. I continue to be frustrated over this process.

• I was not successful in my goal of developing and conducting four “Quantum Leap” business development workshops in 2012.

• I have not lived up to my “one-post-a-week” publishing schedule here on the blog. Of course this is linked directly to my disappointing web statistics.

• I did not meet the financial goals I had set for myself. I am not the type of person to count money as the only win in business, but strong financial performance is essential to growth. Money is blood…like humans; a business can’t live without it.

• I didn’t follow through with the required focus on some of my projects this past year. I still struggle with too much focus on the urgent, and not enough focus and commitment to the important. What’s important to me continues to take a back seat and this frustrates me to no end.

So there you have it!  That’s my deal for 2012. In my next post, I’ll be sharing some of my goals and aspirations for 2013. Life is good indeed. Please feel free to share your story in the comments.

Thank you all for reading and leaving your comments and likes regarding the work here on the White Hot Center. I am grateful that I can continue to grow this idea to help you create a bigger future. To your inspired success!

Happy Holidays to all!

Here in the US, we’re all preparing for the long Thanksgiving Day Holiday. For many entrepreneurs, this time of year begins the introspective process of taking stock of the year past and preparing to make plans and set goals for the coming year.  In working with several of my clients in their process of strategic planning, one theme seems to dominate the conversation–uncertainty.

It’s easy to plan when you sense your desired outcome is assured, your ideas can’t miss or are foolproof.  If you’re looking for signs that certainty in our economy, or the actions of our politicians is at hand, or even around the corner–get over yourself. Nothing has ever been certain and nothing will ever be more certain than it is right now. There simply is no such thing as certainty, only ambiguity.

It’s against the backdrop of ambiguity that all entrepreneurs make their precious plans. But there is an idea I’d like to suggest you ponder as you begin your strategic planning for the coming year.  It’s called the Law of Compensation.

Sooner or later we must come face-to-face with the Law of Compensation.

This is an idea as old as human civilization itself. The Law of Compensation simply states that inevitably, through all uncertainty, our own comes to us, and only what is our own. As we apply this idea to life and business and watch for certain results, it gets down to the pure idea of reaping what you sow, action equals reaction– there is a Law that governs all success. If your thinking is fixed on what you don’t have, if you are focused on your limitations or lack of resources, you get what comes with that thinking- your own will come to you.

If your year-end planning involves the desire to gain better paying, higher value clients then take better care of the clients you currently have. Everything is a reflection of the current state of mind. It’s counter productive to plan for a higher level of game when your current level is dominated by any thinking or action of limitation.

When you perform to the very best of your ability, and are thorough in your service to your clients, you bring out the best there is in you. In other words, you elevate your game and become more. You become better, and thereby demonstrate your growing expertise. In doing so, the Law of Compensation says she who becomes better will attract better and be given better things to do!

The principle involved is that when you become too large for your present place you will begin to draw yourself to something larger. You can’t attract the better until you first become the larger. Like water, you find your true level.

You can only build on what you create.

The Law of Compensation works slowly but surely. You can’t build your success on the substance or virtue of what others have created. You can only build on your own creativity and innovation.  Stop thinking in the competitive realm; don’t try to compete with anyone or anything.  Rather than competition, call it compensation-which means equal return for that which is given. The greater your service, the greater your reward and the more your business will grow. Inevitably the Law of Compensation produces its own exactness as a rule of action.

As you begin the process of planning for your greater success, you may want to consider how this Law is currently working in your business and in your entire life.  Whatever your current circumstances, they are you own. Your own and all of your own will come to you.

 “I rave no more’ gainst time or fate, for lo my own shall come to me”
- John Burroughs

 Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!