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The Hunt for a Business Partner

July 4, 2011 by ·

I’ve been running my own business – pretty much by myself – since 2001. After 10 years I’m weary from going it alone professionally. I’m typing up my thoughts on finding a business partner, visions I have for moving forward, and things I’d like to accomplish with a biz partner. Right now I’m seeing out contacts and friends in my network that have been down this path before, and maybe gain a bit of advice or direction in the process.

The best was I know to find a partner is to ‘date’ first.  I’d love to collaborate on a few projects to see about finding the right person (or people) to grow a business with.  Best case, we both find business partners and grow a company together. Worst case, we finish a project and move on our separate ways.  I don’t have a project right for a partner now, but I’d like to see about working together with someone to find it.  While I’m currently working on projects, it’s not the type of thing that I want to move forward with a partner on.  So we build it from scratch, together, as a new business endeavor.

Here’s the thing, I hit the wall and realized I can’t scale very well.  When I’m working on client projects, I am heads-down and can’t really take the time to properly solicit and cultivate new clients.  Leads thrown my way collect dust because I just can’t work on all the things that are needed to land new clients (in-person networking, pitches, proposals, contracts, etc.) while I’m trying to produce work for clients and meet deadlines.  One of my bigger fears has been actually landing multiple clients at the same time (which has happened more than once) because the project ramp-up is so intense and consumes so much of my time.  Another issue I’ve been having is landing the wrong type of clients, ones that don’t see the whole picture online and tend to want to focus exclusively on SEO, PR, PPC or paid lead generation services that don’t work on their own.  It’s frustrating.

So what type of business do I aspire to? Maybe something like Red Tettemer, GMD Studios, Campfire, Brains on Fire or The Archer Group (you can see what I like and aspire to is all over the map literally and functionally).  These are the agencies I’m following from afar and admire from the outside. Since it is highly unlikely any of them have me on their radar to grab me up, I’m looking to build my own.  Think technology, interactive, immersive, digital – edgy. Right now I want to be more than just ME.  I’m pretty damn sure I’m not employable, I’ve been an entrepreneur and business owner way too long. I’m a storyteller and technology geek and the two combined make a mighty powerful platform for clients.  I love the idea of crafting content to educate and inspire my client’s own customers to not only buy the product, but evangelize to their friends and family to do the same.  I don’t like selling and I don’t like for my clients to have to ‘sell’.  I want to help make my clients memorable.  Not just at the point of sale, but memorable within their customers entire life.  I don’t know what type of work specifically that is called, or what type of ‘agency’ we would be labeled as, it’s just what I see the future (my future specifically) as. [Read more...]

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What is SxSW Supposed to BE?

February 28, 2011 by ·

This year is the first year that my company and I are able to get to the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX.  I’m excited to go for sure, but don’t think that the experience will be what I need it to be. I’m no stranger to attending or speaking at conferences, both in my industry and on behalf of clients, but I have attended few conferences where I actually got what I NEEDED out of it.  My fault? Partly. Sometimes it was due to a lack of a clearly defined game plan, sometimes it was just that I was attending the wrong conferences.  What I need out of SxSW and what it appears from the outside the conference has become are 180 degrees from each other.  So why am I going at all?  Because I HAVE to.  Everyone that I know that has ever attended tells me SxSW is a game-changer.

Why? Why do I have to go to SxSW when all it seems to be is about going to parties and hanging out with the ‘right’ people? Hey, I’m all for a party, but I’m not attending SxSW just to party, I need to make the *right* connections and meet the *right* people for very specific business goals.  How that gets done in a sea of 15,000 attendees is beyond me.  Yes, I understand there is the whole laid back kumbaya vibe about SxSW, but as harsh as this sounds, I can’t spend my entire week hanging around with people that don’t fit into my goals, not matter how cool or fun they are to hang with.  I suppose you need to kiss a lot of frogs to get to a prince.

What worries me most is the apparent turn for the worse SxSW Interactive seems to have taken over the past few years.  Rude people, pushy people. Low on tech, high on douchebaggery.  Unprofessionalism.  Disrespectfulness to the locals and to Austin itself.  I want this trip to be fun, but I need it to be productive. [Read more...]

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With A Little Help From My Friends

February 15, 2011 by ·

There has been a lot of thought in my professional life lately about growth and focus.  I have gotten to where I am by an enormous amount of hard work, risk and ‘ahead of the curve’ talent (yes, I finally blew my own horn a bit).  In the past, the road I wanted to take has always been designed in my mind and acted as my own internal Google Map to get there.  This time the road is blurry and I am looking for someone with Google Map Street View to help me along the way.  No kumbaya pep talks, no warm and fuzzy planning sessions – solid, actionable business guidance and support.

Growth and success can be difficult to survive.  Asking for help feels like weakness to me.  Negative situations are easy examples to give when talking about asking for help, but asking for help when you are on an upswing just feels like failure.  I am hard-wired to do everything myself, bust my own ass, make my own way.  Now when I say *I* what I really mean is *we* – my husband is my business partner and has been for the past 13 years (we’ve been married for 10.5 years).  He and I have very different roles but equally contribute to the success and direction of the 24/7 that is our business. [Read more...]

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Catch-22 of Public Speaking

Catch-22 of Public Speaking

June 13, 2010 by ·

I do a fair amount of public speaking. Not *insane amounts of traveling* like Chris Brogan, but I am usually engaged in some talk or training 3-4 a month. A good deal of it is for-hire work within corporations, anything from training seminars to cheerleading rallies to get the company excited about social media/marketing. The content is generally customized to the particular client, and can’t be broadcast on the internet. To be honest, a lot of times companies don’t want the fact that they are getting help advertised. I’m the wizard behind the curtain in Emerald City.

All fine and well, but I would like to do more public conference speaking, and without any HUGE public conferences under my belt, it’s harder to land a gig. I’m not a new speaker. I don’t need to learn the ropes (but acknowledge there is ALWAYS more to learn, my TEDx talk taught me that). I’ve done plenty of talks for free. And, as much as I hate to blow my own horn – YES, I am good at speaking, I’m very knowledgeable, and my topics are relevant and in-demand.

So what gives? There is a conference coming up in the fall I really wanted to land, and so far it doesn’t appear that I made the cut. Seeing what did get on the roster is a mix between “oh, my company isn’t that famous” and “wow, really, they picked that over me?”

Maybe all I need to do is share the stage just once with a big-shot in my industry (after seeing Julien, Mitch, and Chris all on one stage, I see the benefits) to get more eyeballs and start to build my own creditability outside of the inside of corporations. I don’t see the benefit of joining a speakers bureau, they don’t seem to actively solicit gigs for you, just give you access to newsletters, speaking tips, and a landing page on their website.

OH! WAIT!!! I haven’t written a book. (Yet.)

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