Archive for Entrepreneurship – Page 20

Entrepreneurs Bootcamp

We just finished out FIRST full weekend together in our new home.  My Dad, his Wife Wendy and my sister Amanda came up from Swift Current and spent some time.  It was great to see them, it was great to enjoy the sun on our patio.  Life is wonderful, I am grateful and preparing for an amazing week.

This amazing pic is of Grande Prairie Alberta.

I am planning my week it is Sunday, I am flying to Grande Prairie tomorrow to do the first introductory presentation for Personal Best The Truth Revealed.  It is always exciting to open a new city, the contribution that the Personal Best Courses will make to the lives of the individuals and the community is always exciting and amazing.

What is most amazing to me is that Personal Best is in fact opening another city.  It is a testament to that talent and ability of the Personal Best team.  For many years it was really not possible to just “pick a city and deliver a course” the unfortunate truth was that I had designed the courses and the business model to be unscaleable, meaning I had placed a limit on how the course was to be delivered and how the company could grow.  I did this unknowingly thinking that the commitment I made to the structure and format of the old PB 3 was “in the best interests of clients”.  The truth is that it was an outdated concept that blocked growth and service to clients outside of Edmonton and Calgary.

I have been an entrepreneur for virtually all my life and it was only in the past couple of years that I really understood the significance of the three S’s of business: Sustainability, Scaleability and Saleability.  The truth is if your do not design and build your business with these 3 in mind the reality is that you do not have a business you in fact have a job.   This was quite a revelation to me!

One of my new ventures (semi retirement did not really work for me LOL) is The Association of Helping Relationship Entrepreneurs, which is dedicated to serving and supporting helping relationship business people to “Drive Client Value, Celebrate Profit and Improve Quality”  This organization offers bootcamps and ongoing support for anyone who is wants build a business as a helping relationship.

Check out the Facebook page if you want to find out more, if you become a fan we will keep you posted of our upcoming events.

I will keep you posted!

Reflections On Moving

I am on a plane to Los Angeles to interview contractors to build the drivers club.  It is a  bittersweet trip, Cory, Wyatt and I have moved into our FIRST family home today, and I will not be there to spend our first night.  It is beautiful and amazing yet a part of me mourns leaving our loft. So much of our life happened in that building.

I am on a plane to Los Angeles to interview contractors to build the drivers club.  http://www.mydriversclub.com It is a bittersweet trip, Cory, Wyatt and I moved into our FIRST family home today and I will not be there to spend our first night.

Our house is beautiful, amazing and everything that I want or dream of in a home, yet at the same time a part of me mourns leaving our loft…so much of our life happened in that building.  We moved in only a couple of days before getting married 14 years ago  (yes Cory and I have a tendency to grow roots, we are NOT movers, so you know we do not take moving lightly).

There are so many highlights of buying that building struggling to renovate it out of pocket, finally getting our loft completed, bringing home Porsche (our Doberman Pinscher), MANY nights in the monster jacuzzi with a bottle of red wine, friends and family over (but not for too long, because the original space was too small), and of course the greatest change in our lives and the real  impetus to move welcoming Wyatt home to us.  I will never forget that first night with our little man, simply the best day of our lives to date, and how is presence changed the energy of the loft into a home.  Our loft was recently described by a friend of ours to a curious fiend of hers “ well 80% of it is set up for kids including indoor swing and ladder”.  At the new place he will get a swing and ladder and much more outside, how novel  ; ).  Completing my book, the amazing revolving door of family and company that came from all over God’s green earth to meet and welcome Wyatt to our family.  Really one of the most beautiful and blessed times of our lives, and I know I can speak for Cory on that point, we have spoken about it often.

Of course there was sadness, worry and loss in the loft as well, our beloved Porsche passing away the very night of Wyatt’s welcoming ceremony.  Financial struggles, the phone call about “the hang man”  if you don’t know that story you really must read my book http://www.reframeyourblame.com family friction, news of illness, passing of grandparents.  The entire complexity and beauty of life itself.  That is what was, or perhaps more accurately put that is “where was”.

Today is about what is, where is, and what is to be.

A fresh start, a new beginning, a new environment to nurture ourselves, our families and friends, a place to consciously nurture our lives, our dreams and our future.

So my loves Cory and Wyatt, even though I am not physically there know that my heart is in our new home, my thoughts are with you both, about us and our future.  We will  have the best summer of our lives thus far at HOME with family and friends.

I miss you both…

Los Angeles 100 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep

Cory and I just returned from a great weekend in Los Angeles.  That is one fascinating city… in a whirlwind 2 days, We saw Van Morrison live at the Orpheum theater, (thanks again Shawn and Angie for the invite) Saw Pierce Brosnan, met with my partners and team at Willow Springs Raceway and Cory got a great  Mothers Day gift on Rodeo Drive.

Cory and I just returned home from a great weekend in Los Angeles.  That is one fascinating city…in 2 days we saw Van Morrison, live at the Orpheum theater.  Cory was star struck by her Pierce Brosnan, sighting actually more like bumping, standing in line getting a drink.  I had meetings with my partners at Willow Springs Raceway, had drinks at the SLS Hotel with a world famous chef and Cory got a great Mothers Day gift on Rodeo drive.

It is truly amazing, California has greater population than the entire country of Canada in 2/3’s the space of Alberta.  The contrast is startling; The richest of rich the poorest of poor.  Beautiful weather, tempered by horrible smog, the number of cars, verses the park like atmosphere of Beverly Hills.  It is difficult to describe but here is another Canadian’s perspective after 15 years of living in Los Angeles  “LA is 100 miles wide and 1/2 inch deep…EVERYBODY is working something or somebody”

Fifteen minutes later he said “I have lived all over the world and I will NEVER leave LA”.

Fascinating…I look forward to returning.

Some interesting websites of stuff we did.

http://www.vanmorrison.com/
http://www.bottegalouie.com
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http://www.laorpheum.com
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http://www.slshotels.com
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http://www.mydriversclub.com

http://www.rodeodrive-bh.com/index2.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000112/

http://www.willowspringsraceway.com/home/home.asp

The Problem With Coach Certification Programs

The key to your business success is not better technical skills, the key to your success is mastering entrepreneurship.  Entrepreneurship is THE  element that makes all the difference.  It took me far too long to get the lesson.  Your process could be faster, easier and even more profitable than mine!


Here is an interesting bit of information: of the 3 highest earning coaches/facilitators earning in excess of $1M a year (of which I am one), not one of us has any formal coach certification designation.  To me this is not just a bit of interesting information, it points to a problem in the industry, a problem with coach certification programs.

Yes I know I have designed and delivered my own coach certification program for the past 7 years  and yes, the problem exists with my program as well.

In fact I was aware of the gaping hole in my design. I even talked about it to everyone considering my program.  My grounding was that we will teach you what I believe to be the best processing framework that exists on the planet so that you can support your clients with REAL VALUE… and you need to go somewhere else to learn how to market and run your business…that is NOT what we do.

I remember saying that there are a multitude of business and entrepreneur training programs and encouraged my clients to go and take them.  What is funny is that so few would actually pursue business training.

I have a hypothesis and significant data to support my view that there is a belief block for many people about making money and helping people.  This belief block is a crime. There is no more valuable service on the planet than helping our fellow man, and it should and can be well rewarded.

What also became clear to me through supporting people in this industry over the past 15 years  is that coaching, facilitating and virtually ALL helping relationship businesses have their own unique issues and opportunities. Woefully there are VERY few programs that actually focus on this niche of entrepreneurship, although thankfully this has been growing in the past few years.

Being an entrepreneur from birth it seems, most of my skills in this area have been self taught (trial and lots of error!). Yes I took Business Administration at school, but be clear even that is NOT really entrepreneur training. It is primarily technical training of how to manage a business. Different, very different than designing a business, launching a business, nurturing a business to sustainability and ultimately reaping the rewards of that business in a multitude of ways.

The truth is that the majority of people who participated in our programs have succeeded in coaching and facilitating primarily because they had a supporting structure or organization that actually took care of the “business” end of the process.  Many became trainers within their existing careers and companies, like Telus, Nexen, and many others. Some coaches also became affiliated with Personal Best. By and large those that actually became coaches and facilitators did so within or in relationship to larger organizations. Those that hung out their own shingle and are continuing to practice are few and far between.

The message is clear: to succeed in this industry, the vast majority of people must have the support of a larger structure that teaches, assists with and in some cases even handles the business end of the business.

To succeed as a coach, facilitator or for that matter in ANY helping relationship, what is needed far more than technical skills are business skills and entrepreneurial moxie.  The fundamental beliefs and skills of an entrepreneur will have more to do with the long term success of a coach than any other single factor.

The cliché of “do what you love and the money will follow” is for the most part not true, there are a multitude of certified coaches who have been doing what they love and frankly starving to death.

Do what you love – do that which is congruent with what you are GREAT at; build a sustainable business model to support what you love and then the money will follow.

It is for this reason that my partner Colin and I have founded The Association of Helping Relationship Entrepreneurs.  An organization dedicated to the most important aspect of your business.  Building your business.

The truth is you are not alone, you do NOT need to struggle, you can and deserve to be abundant and wealthy sharing your gifts and supporting others.  If you make your living through helping relationships (or would like to) you must find out more about the new association.

We have 2 upcoming events:

A free informational webinar that you can register for here.

http://myoptinpage2.com/?pid=5144125

And for those of you who already know me and my capacity to create and support others to create meaningful, profitable businesses supporting individuals and the world,  you can register for the upcoming weekend sponsored by the Association of Helping Relationship Entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, The Missing Ingredient for Helping Relationship Businesses

When: June 26 – 28th

Where: Calgary AB

Investment: $997, if you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you can register now for only $747

Seating is very limited, secure your seat now.

False Economy

I have been having many thoughts and conversations in the past few weeks that has me very intrigued with the “REAL COST” of saving money.  Now I am sure that it applies to resources in general but in my experience time and again people operate from a flawed accounting process that really does not work.


I am not sure if it is the recession, the media or what it is precisely but I have been a party to or have overheard a variety of conversations about “saving money, the environment, resources” that from my perspective just don’t make much sense.  Please hear that I am pro taking care of the environment, I am not a big consumer and I advocate people saving money.  My issue is that OFTEN what people purport to be “saving” really are not, they are engaged in false economies that are created by flawed accounting.

The first one I kind of had to smile about, a friend of mine commented that she would NEVER drive a Porsche because of the damage to the environment. Which that statement does not even make sense if she was aware of the technology that goes into a Porsche.  The new 911 has performed better than 42 miles per gallon!  Regardless this person with huge environmental concerns lives on an acreage that requires a 90 plus minute commute a day.  Which of our vehicle choices and annual mileage/gas consumption does more environmental damage??  I would wager it is not me.

This might seem like a goofy example yet it illustrates that there are ALWAYS hidden and additional costs, and information (like 90 minutes of driving vs 30 seconds of walking) that we must do our best to discover and account for BEFORE making a decision or judgement.

Another example I also have a tenant that is in the middle of (what feels like) the worlds longest renovation process.  He is quite proud of the money that he and his team are saving by doing most of it themselves… now if one just considers the additional 3 months rent, the time invested by smart people with significant earning abilities, the lost income of not having the business open for 3 months, the savings begin to look and feel a whole lot more like COSTS.

Now I want to be clear, I have been there trying to save a buck on a project and “do it myself” but in the end in every circumstance it ended up costing more in replicated work, lost time and the opportunity cost of not focusing on the highest and best use of MY TIME.

So the next time you are tempted to cut a corner or to do it yourself (when you have never done it before) or hire someone less qualified because they are cheaper.  Please do yourself, your family and your business a favour and answer the following questions.

  1. What is the value of my highest and best use of my time?

  2. Who else could take care of this at a cost less than the highest and best use of my time?

  3. What is the short term cost and the long term cost? (Cars can be a great example of this: buying a cheap car because of the monthly payments without considering the depreciation often trades short term savings for long term cost. A more expensive car that depreciates less  or slightly used and already depreciated can actually cost less to drive than a new econobox.)

  4. Is there a longer term value to the investment/cost that should be considered positive or negative?

  5. What is convenience worth?

  6. And one of my favourites “how can I earn more to create what I desire?”  This questions has a dramatically different effect on our consciousness and context than “how can I scrimp, save, work more or try harder to fit my desired lifestyle into my existing income.

Ok there I have vented… the point to all of this is that you cannot cost cut your way to wealth and freedom, it causes you to focus on the wrong part of creation, it forces you to think smaller instead of bigger.

The solution to this recession for you and for me is, how can I contribute MORE value? How can I create more income? How can I make a bigger difference? Thinking about creating will always get you further than thinking about limiting.