The People Business – or – Why social media starts OFFLINE

By tara gentile on 01/25/2012

My first website was a “local” arts & crafts blog. What I did not consider when starting my online business was that people would want to meet me outside the comfortable confines of the online space.

To me, online business was being safe & sound on my couch. Alone. Possibly in my PJs.

Meet? For coffee? In real life?

I’m an introvert, a bit shy, and not particularly socially skilled.

I tried to use my 6 month old infant as an excuse.

“Nope, can’t. I’ve got a baby.”

Of course, that doesn’t work when the people who want to meet up with you are moms themselves looking both to get out of the house and to get ahead with their dreams.

“Bring her along!” they’d say.

Luckily, their persistence forced me out of my comfort zone. Within the first few months of starting my business, I’d met several new friends and even taught my first workshop!

At first, the terror of meeting someone new and battling my idea of her expectations of me was all I could think about. I’d be sick to my stomach days ahead of a simple coffee date. As coffee date after craft show after workshop started to pile up, things became easier.

Practice makes perfect.

I learned that the only expectation I really needed to worry about was the expectation for me to learn about someone new, explore her story, and meet her in the moment. It didn’t matter if I was more or less than she thought I was or if I had strange interests or if I ordered an iced latte in the middle of winter. What was important was meeting then & there with shared purpose.

That took me about 18 months to really understand. But still, it happened!

By the time I started to master meeting new people, I realized that much of the “social networking” that was happening among people online was happening offline. My peers & mentors were meeting up at conferences, workshops, retreats, and just generally traveling around furthering their careers.

Cause & effect.

If I wanted to grow my business by expanding my network, I was going to have to get out of my house. And my state.

I took the leap. Last year, I made it a point to travel to every conference that truly interested me and embrace the strangeness of strangers. I flew to Portland, OR for World Domination Summit & Profit Catalyst. I took the bus to NYC more than a few times. I hopped a plane to LA, St Paul, Chicago, and San Diego. And I sprinkled in plenty of day trips.

I put a priority on surrounding myself with people who “get” what I’m all about. Or people who should. Or people I just desperately wanted to understand myself!

Yes, it’s difficult to leave my child to travel. Yes, it’s difficult to pony up the money. Yes, it’s weird to be in a room with 500 people I don’t know.

But the benefits of meeting my clients, customers, and colleagues far outweighed any downsides.

I now have good friends – a support system – that span this country. Now we schedule Skype chats to stay in touch in between trips.

I have a better understanding of who my customers are and what their needs are. Cause they told me, over drinks.

The people I look up to in my industry know my name, my face, and what my work is all about. Cause they asked.

But best of all, I have the experience of seeing people encounter my work firsthand. I have the confidence that comes with the “aha! moments” that people take away from dinner or drinks. I feel the ease with which my work emanates.

That’s something I’ve not experienced in any other setting in just the same way. And so I keep leaving the house, I keep traveling, I keep meeting people.

In the end, online business is no different from offline business.

We are all in the people business. And if you’re going to be in the people business, you better understand your business in relation to people.

Click to tweet it!

Regularly interacting with your peers & potential customers allows you to consider these questions:

  • What is it like to talk about my business with people who care?
  • What aspects of what I offer appeal to people outside my current audience?
  • What appears most valuable about what I do?
  • How do others talk about me & my work?
  • What lights me up when I talk about my business with people who get it?
  • How is my story different from others stories?

Put away your excuses. Put on a sharp outfit and get out of the house. If you can, get in a plane, a train, or an automobile. Leave home behind — leave online in the dust.

Venture out to find the people who will enable you to make your business sing.

***

Sound like a plan? It’s not too late to join me for The Art of Earning LIVE. Find your own place in the You Economy with this intensive, intentional, and intimate experience. Take a minute to find out more.

Posted in , , | 9 Responses

The You Economy Business Road Map explained (free download!)

By tara gentile on 01/19/2012

You Economy Business Road Map

What does business look like in the You Economy?

It looks like that. After working with passion-driven entrepreneurs for the last 3 years, I’ve created this cycle to explain what it takes to create a thriving business that allows you to earn with ease while inspiring you to do greater & greater work.

You can download a .pdf copy by clicking here. (right click then “save as,” if necessary)

This is what I’m teaching next month at The Art of Earning LIVE.

But I wanted to give you the rundown here. Now. Because this stuff is important.

Why | Mission | Purpose

People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
– Simon Sinek, Start With Why

You’ve been hearing this from me for the last year. But I refuse to stop preaching it.

From a different perspective and discussing the craft of writing, Anne Lamott says, “The core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately believe are the language in which you are writing.”

Those core, ethical concepts are also the language in which you are doing business. When you communicate – whether through visual design, social media, product packaging, customer service, etc… – with your customers, you are doing so in the language of your fundamental beliefs about your world, your community, and yourself.

Without a crystal clear understanding of your core beliefs, working on any other part of your business is going to be unsatisfactory at best.

Personality Brand

Because your core beliefs are yours, your personality – the person of YOU – becomes key to how others will understand your business. I believe this is true of all businesses in the You Economy. Not just solo entrepreneurs or microbusinesses.

A larger organization may look towards a strong, internal company culture instead of an individual personality but the result is the same: the work has a clear sense of humanity.

Decisions are made based on the human element & human origin of commerce. The customers that come into contact with that brand remember the humanity first & foremost.

Community Laboratory

Commerce is changing rapidly. In a world of instant feedback & minimum viable products, you need a place to experiment.

You have the tools at your disposal to set up your own laboratory in the form of an online community. This could be as simple as engaged Twitter stream or as complicated as a niche social network.

The future of your business relies on you creating a space where people can not only talk to you but talk to each other.

Manifestation – Product or Service

Last, yes, last, is deciding what it is that you sell. It’s not just the particular item on the shelf or the offer of service. It’s the experience you’re creating for your customer. It’s the connection they feel to you, to others, or even to the product. It’s the deeper meaning that seeps out of your offer.

Manifestation means simply “an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something.” Your mission, your personality, your community: your product or service must embody those things.

Until you understand the first three steps of this plan, it’s impossible to create a product or service that truly claims your premium value. And, baby, you’ve got premium value – manifest it.

The beautiful part of this “road map” is that it’s a round trip. You don’t start at one point & end up at the destination. It’s a continual cycle of evolution & innovation. It’s recalibration & experimentation. It’s dynamic.

***

This is what we’re working on at The Art of Earning LIVE. Why tell you in such detail? It’s not so much about the “what.” It’s about the experience of discovering how it works for you, with expert guidance, and a supportive network. It’s about seeing your genius reflected back to you and witnessing your value for what it is.

You are ready to reconnect with your business. You are ready to realize artful earning & effortless marketing. You are ready to do your work with heartfelt inspiration. This is the road map. This is your experience.

***

Care to share?

Business in the #youeconomy is a round trip. Download your FREE road map via @taragentile! http://bit.ly/bizroadmap
Click to tweet it!

Posted in , | Tagged , , | 4 Responses

Win a FREE ticket to The Art of Earning LIVE and learn to play a bigger game with your business in 2012!

By tara gentile on 01/17/2012

A guest post by Tara Sophia Mohr, creator of Playing Big.

The story that Tara Gentile told here yesterday is true.

I had come across Tara Gentile via Twitter and was so impressed by her personal story. Then I had a dream that I had done a coaching session with her and it had really helped me.

Yup, a dream.

I wrote her and asked her if we could do some sessions. She said something along the lines of, “Great to hear from you! I can’t imagine I have anything to offer you, but let’s just set up a call to say hi.”

I said:  “No, I really want to pay you money. Based on your website, you seem to be very “pro” that whole thing where one person pays another for their work. May I please hire you?”

She persisted. I persisted. After some discussion, we decided to work together.

In her post yesterday, Tara talked about how working with me was a step in her own playing bigger. Believing that she could offer value required defying an inner critic who’d declared she had nothing to offer a woman who wrote for Huffington Post and sported a Stanford MBA.

Her inner critic was very wrong. I’m glad she was willing to question it, because Tara helped me transform my work into a thriving business.

Tara also helped me play bigger. She pushed me to set higher goals for the number of people I could reach, the money I could earn, the partners I could work with. Her vision for me was free of all the stuff my inner critic and limited thinking was telling me.

Together, we looked at my passions and expertise, and discovered what my blog readers wanted more of from me. It turned out that what my audience most wanted to learn was what I most wanted to teach. My biggest passion was their biggest quest: playing bigger. Specifically, how visionary, creative, entrepreneurial women can play bigger.

From there, I developed my Playing Big program – a natural outpouring of all that I already knew from my own journey to playing bigger, from coaching other women, from my MBA training, and from a lifelong passion for helping women share their voices. Over 100 women from around the world – from Dubai to Detroit – have participated in Playing Big, and now an amazing group is signing up for round two.

It’s fascinating to me that for both Tara and I, the presence of another person helped us play bigger. That resonates with one of the big truths I know: we learn to play bigger in supportive community, in relationship.

Okay. On to the fun part.

Because I am such a fan of Tara,

because I am so passionate about fabulous women like you playing bigger,

and because I know that playing big happens because of relationship as well as tools and skills,

I’m sponsoring a scholarship spot for someone to attend her Art of Earning LIVE event Philadelphia.

I’m thrilled to foot the bill, because I know doing so advances my mission: helping brilliant, creative women stepping into their full potential.

If you’d like to enter to win the sponsored spot, ask yourself:

  • Are you ready to transform your relationship with earning?
  • Do you have the bandwidth to give time mental space to this event this year?

The scholarship covers the $1000 tuition & 3 meals; it does not include travel or accommodation expenses.

If your answer to the two questions above is yes and you can get yourself to and from Philly, please leave a comment below sharing, “What does “playing big” mean for you and your business in 2012? And what do you hope to gain from The Art of Earning live?”

Here’s to your playing big in 2012.

Love,

Tara Sophia Mohr

***

Here’s how it works:

  • Post your answer to Tara’s questions in the comments below by Friday, January 20 at noon Eastern.
  • Tara & I will pick a winner using good business sense & a bit of feminine intuition.
  • The winner will be contacted via email on Monday, January 23. The winner must respond via email within 24 hours.
  • No purchase necessary.
  • The winner will be announced publicly here at taragentile.com by Tuesday, January 24.

Want to share this your network? Hit the Twitter, G+, or Facebook buttons below or click to tweet below:

Win a ticket to The Art of Earning LIVE & play bigger w your biz in 2012! @taragentile & @tarasophia want YOU: http://bit.ly/y3n4SW

Click to tweet it!

Posted in , | Tagged , | 62 Responses

When I used to play small…

By tara gentile on 01/16/2012

Just before I shut down my email for the 2010 holiday break, I got an email from Tara Mohr.

Tara had been on my radar for a few months. I was reading her blog, her posts on Productive Flourishing, and her articles on the Huffington Post. We’d tweeted back and forth a few times too. It was obvious that Tara was playing a big game with her internet presence, her business, and her life.

#StandfordMBADoesn’tHurt

I opened the email expecting to find a holiday greeting or maybe an invitation to chat further.

Instead she said something to the effect of:

I had a dream that I did a session with you. It went really well. I’d like to schedule one.

I stared at the computer screen. “Um, what?” I thought.

#didImentiontheStanfordMBA

At the end of 2010, I had a thriving business and was empowering plenty of fledgling entrepreneurs to make significant improvements in their businesses. I believed in what I did. But Tara? I didn’t feel qualified. She was out of my league.

In the moment I read that email, I confronted all of my fears:

  • I’m not good enough.
  • I’m a fraud.
  • I won’t have anything of value to offer her.
  • This can’t end well.

In my mind, these were legitimate concerns. Truths I either needed to accept or overcome. I wasn’t cutting myself down, I was serving a potential customer, right? Right?

I mustered all my courage focused objectively on all the things I did have to bring to the table, and responded to the email.

I don’t remember exactly what I said and I can’t bear going back into my email archive to dig it out. But I’m sure it was something like this:

Tell me more about what you’re looking for.

Interested but noncommittal.

I think I also was quite honest and explained that I wasn’t sure how I was qualified to help her but that I was willing to try.

#ThingsNotToIncludeInYourClientEmails

Graciously, Tara responded with more info and I began to see how valuable I could be to what she was trying to accomplish.

As we worked together over many sessions, she developed and launched a program called Playing Big that generated an elegant and financially rewarding launch.

Working with Tara was a huge step forward in helping me play a bigger game. The results we achieved together gave me the proof I needed to know that my philosophy & methods were sound & valuable.

It was time to stop playing small & start playing big: bigger clients, bigger goals, bigger ways of operating, bigger ideas. Small could only serve me for so long.

Playing big has serious long-term potential.

Playing big – and continuing to play bigger & bigger – has gone hand & hand with realizing my current calling. It’s meant getting noticed and attracting a bigger audience. It’s meant having my ideas spread into new markets & circles of influence.

Speaking of influence, I was recently named a Problogger Blogger to Watch in 2012, a top woman entrepreneur on Twitter at Women 2.0, and one of 22 Top Single-Voice Business Bloggers (alongside Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and Danielle LaPorte!) by Jonathan Fields. Yeah, that was a great week.

But what I get out of playing bigger is not the lesson I want you to take away from this post. Wanting to play bigger isn’t all about me.

When I learned to play a bigger game, I was able to serve Tara. In turn, Tara help over a hundred women play bigger in her program.

Playing big isn’t about you. It’s about all the people playing bigger enables you to serve.

Playing bigger has few qualifications. You don’t need a particular degree or years of experience. You don’t need a flashy website or a book deal. You don’t need a big pay check or fancy equipment.

Playing big has one qualification deciding that you are qualified to start down the path.

#youare

Tara will be stopping by here tomorrow with her own take on playing big and a very special announcement. We’re giving away one spot at The Art of Earning LIVE to a woman who is ready to play a bigger game with her business in 2012. Stay tuned!

Also tomorrow, join me for a FREE teleclass on getting out of your head & into the gut of your business to unlock your business vision. This is the first step in The Art of Earning. Want to know more? Click away, my friend!

Posted in | 8 Responses

The Great Engine of the You-Centered Economy: Media

By tara gentile on 01/11/2012

Media is the great engine of the You-Centered Economy.

Why? We are all producers, writers, broadcasters, and personalities. Access to all forms of media has never been so open. You are at the center of media creation & media consumption.

Media is also a source of connection (to each other, to our communities, to the world) and a source of experience (trust me — watching True Blood is an experience). Meaning? Well, we’ll get to that.

Media is a unique entity in which we actually understand how we are both – constantly – creator & consumer. In the You-Centered Economy, this is true for all forms of commerce but it is less obvious. Media is a give & take of production, attention, and manipulation.

Chris Brogan has been considering what it means to be a “media channel” in 2012:

The ‘gee whiz’ has worn off, and now, if you’re looking to build professional value from this whole jumble of the social web, it’s important to start thinking like a TV station and a magazine and start building out content that takes advantage of that.

Right. So it used to be quite the marvel that you could create your own TV station all from your MacBook Pro. It’s not anymore. Now it’s your job. Your responsibility. Your livelihood.

Or maybe just a super fun pass time.

Either way, as Brogan said – the ‘gee whiz’ is gone.

In social media & online entrepreneurship, the ‘gee whiz’ has turned into formulas and proven techniques. It’s boring. It’s noise. I don’t want to read it.

What should be playing on your particular station? I write about what is currently inspiring me, nagging at me, or pissing me off. I’d like to read more of that from you. I want your analysis. I crave your insight.

For me, what adds “professional value” to this content is understanding my purpose & vision. It means I can take a story or inspiration and turn it into meaningful content at the drop of a hat. You get relevant posts that feel professional but immediate.

Use your own media channel to present professional passion. Click to tweet it!

Then you won’t be saying “Me! Me! Look at me!” to get my attention. Your content is already part of my attention because it’s what you’re paying attention to. I trust you.

Creating professional content doesn’t mean following a formula but it does mean understanding your purpose & vision.

Click to tweet that!


Creating professional content allows you to connect with your audience in a personal way. They see into your psyche. They get how you think. They know how to relate to you. You’re not an Every(wo)man but you are in touch & in tune.

Creating professional content enables you to create an experience for your audience. Whether it’s an experience of that very moment right on the page or an experience that is formed over time outside your media channel, your work has the capacity to affect your reader & the way they experience the world. Affect them.

Creating professional content empowers you to imbue meaning into every aspect of your business. Just as traditional media has provided channels for better understanding the way conventional news, trends, and entertainment create meaning in our lives, “new media” powers the meaning that drives our consumption. You suggest that a product, service, or application has a certain meaning and suddenly, it does.

Media, more than ever before, is helping us consume better.

True, you can listen to the hype. You can watch the ads. You can endure product placement after product placement. Or you can stop. And listen. Pay attention. Share what matters.

Media is now giving consumers more choice than they ever had before. We have the choice to put up with paid promotion. Or we can pay attention to media that educates us, entertains us, and connects us.

Media that educates, entertains, and connects is still media that we’re consuming. The media, in turn, is teaching us what to consume outside of the experience of the media. It is begging us to make lifestyle changes, associate with a community, and better understand our own role on the planet.

And, again I agree with Brogan, we have a greater responsibility to the media we consume:

1. Don’t just consume, absorb. Take it allllll in.
2. Share. And don’t just push the stumble, the retweet, etc, but give some value to the share by giving your points, adding your two cents, blogging a piece around it, etc. If you had time to read it, take the time to share it well.

If what we’re consuming – media or otherwise – contributes to a great relationship with the world we want to live in, it’s our responsibility to share that consumption with others. The more people we can bring into our communities of affinity, the better for us.

Share. And comment. Tell me why. Bring me into the fold. Connect me.

As you share, you are bumping up against those touchpoints: connection, experience, meaning. I need you to share with me. Connection, experience, meaning: that’s what we’re all looking for in this New Economy.

The context of our media consumption – and our general consumption – suddenly has a greater meaning. It’s part of our identity. It’s part of our network. It’s part of our movement.

Media: the great engine of the You-Center Economy.

We are in & of the media. We are creators. We are consumers.

The media drives our connection and our experience. It influences the meaning of what we pay attention to.

Don’t fear the media. Embrace it. But do so with purpose & vision. Do so in service. Do so with passion.

Posted in , | Tagged , , | 4 Responses

Next »