Stories From the Next World: Swimming Against the Tide

February 15, 2010

I must be doing it all wrong.  Everyone else is doing it one way and I am doing it the total opposite.  I must be a total failure. That’s what I told myself for many years in the area of marketing my business.

Recently I had a conversation with a colleague who is great at marketing, in fact he has a background in corporate sales.  He and I have similar training in NLP and Hypnosis and some years ago he went out on his own and created his own business.  He’s doing fine but he’s not really thriving.  His struggle is to get repeated clients.

But if you ask me (and no one did!), that’s not the real issue.  The real issue is that in all he’s doing he is missing a certain level of fulfillment.  We all get into the ‘people business’ because we want to help people.  Then we are given the dreaded mandate that we need to market ourselves. Eeek!  Every creative caring person hates this part. 

We didn’t get into business to be in business, we just happened to pick something which required it.

The irony is that even though he is the one with the marketing background and knows all the right ways to do things, I am in fact the one that is thriving.  Better than that though is that I am very fulfilled in what I do.   The money that keeps me afloat is wonderful but more vital than that is the happiness that I have.

I have nearly total fulfillment in my work.  That is the biggest value that my business provides me.  I love my clients, love what I do and am working with amazing people from all over the world.  How the hell did that happen? Me who didn’t have a clue about marketing myself and never wanted to do it either.

I have been swimming against the tide.

When the experts told me to:

1. Have a clear marketing and business plan - I couldn’t.
2. Create an exact target market of who I am selling my services to - Uh no, couldn’t do that either.  Isn’t it the whole world?
3. Get out and network myself with schmaltzy print materials and business cards - Nope, hated that.  I went to Starbucks instead.
   
4. Create a one line description of what I do that would totally grab people’s attention in under 10 seconds - Call me old-fashioned but I  stuck with regular old human conversation.
5. Package my work in a formulaic way that I could sell to businesses - I’d rather have Chinese water torture than do this.
6. yada
7. yada
8. yada
9. yada
10. yada

Anyway you get the idea.  I did it all wrong.  I did absolutely everything backwards from what the experts said I should do and much to my surprise - it worked!

Who are these experts anyway? Hmm, good question!  Well they are might be people who have tried to find a kind of generic formula so that everyone can win the game.  Not a bad idea by any means, many people do succeed this way.

But are they happy? The big question is - can we make money and have personal fulfillment too?  The answer is - we must.  This is just one of the values of the future - a “we can have it all” paradigm.

In the series that I am writing called, Stories From the Next World, I will be talking about the values of the next world - those values, traits and characteristics of greatness and bravery, that if we embody them now, we will be ahead of our time.

So trait number one is this - swim, swim, swim against the tide little fishes.  If the experts tell you to X, Y, Z but you feel in your gut to Q, S and LL then you must.  You need to have the courage to swim against the current of the world that says that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things.

Swimming upstream is definitely hazardous.  You have to be able to tolerate feeling alone, thinking you’re a failure, have people point out what you’re certainly doing wrong and feeling utterly confused.

But for me I just did it from instinct because I could never tolerate having business ’success’ at the expense of my personal freedom or fulfillment.  No go Joe! At the end of the day, I want to be happy AND peaceful.

The world of the future will not be a world of either or - either I am rich or I am happy.  The value of the next world is that it has to be both!

Stay tuned for more in the series of Stories From the Next World and please tune in to my weekly Radio 42 Show where I’ll be sharing more of these stories and secrets of the Universe as well.  You wouldn’t want to miss those!

Yours in swimming against the tide that was going in the wrong direction anyway,

Annie

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If You Need To Kick Some A_s, You Need the Right Shoes

November 15, 2009

Here’s the deal that no one ever told you, well no one ever told me anyway - if you need to kick some ass in this world, you need the right shoes.

Years ago I was doing some consulting work for a small family trucking business. Boy that was tough! It was a predominantly male environment and as you can imagine, my more female style of doing business didn’t really fit in.  I a fish out of water! But I am feisty, fiery and oh did I mention hard headed? So I persisted.

One day I was running a meeting for the major players in the business which consisted of about eight men and two women. We were having a meeting, which I was supposedly leading, when all of a sudden a shouting match erupted between the CEO and his head salesman.

Like two bull walruses, they stood up and started tusking each other full force with their words. They were shouting and screaming and I thought, “Oh my god, what am I supposed to do about this?” I had never encountered this before in my work.

One thing you should know behind the scenes is that before this fight had broken out, I had taken off my shoes under the table. I am 4 ft, 11 inches small and in order to look more like an adult than a child when I sit in a chair, I usually take off my shoes and sit with my feet up. Most of the time no one knows about this. It’s my own personal secret to success. But this day being shoeless was not to my advantage.

When the fight broke out I was furious. I thought to myself, “How dare these two idiots interrupt my meeting!” Who do they think they are?  One of them was the owner of the company, but I didn’t care.  I was pissed.

Before my logical brain could give me advice, I jumped up and screamed at the top of my lungs, “Shuuuutt Up!” There was dead silence in the room and then everyone turned to look at me. The CEO and the salesman stopped fighting for a minute, then the meeting went on. But less than five minutes later, the fighting broke out again.

Now I was beyond fury, I was in the kick-butt zone. I jumped up out of my seat  and ran towards the two fighting men. I put my tiny frame body right in front of Mr. CEO and faced off with Mr. Salesman and shouted at the top of my lungs, “If you don’t stop fighting right now, I’m leaving.”

The only problem was that if I left, I would be walking out without my shoes.  I had left them under the table!  Thank god they stopped fighting and I was able to go back to my seat and continue the meeting. Later someone in the group that had noticed that I was shoeless said to me, “Were you really going to leave without your shoes?”  Yes I was gonna walk out, but boy would my feet have been cold!

So here’s the learning particularly for women - If you’re out there working in the world and times get tough….when you know you need to cut the crap and kick some you know what….then you really need to have the right shoes.

Later several of the men sidled up to me on their own and said, “Wow, you’re  tough.”  I knew that was my sign that as a small but feisty woman, I had proved my metal.  But next time I need to break up a fight, I’m going to be prepared.  I’m going to wear a nice spike heel, just in case.  If you need to kick some “you-know-what” in this world, you definitely need the right pair of shoes!

Let me know what you think about these.  :>)

I’m Annie Hart and I tell stories that change the world and I tell them raw and real because that’s not only what the world needs, but what the world is ready to hear.

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Tackling Technology: Tips From A Former Technophobe

October 28, 2009

From Annie:
This week I wrote an article for my local paper in which I shared the story of my business success using blogging and social media.  Wow, I would never have predicted that I would be a person to to overcome my fears of technology and go so far.  But thanks to Bea Fields and her wonderful blogging course, I am more than happy to share this story.

From Bea Fields:
Less than 10 months ago, Annie Hart dug her heels in and told her friend Jeff Simpkins …”No way will I ever want to blog…I can’t do that.”

She then caved into peer pressure from Jeff (Jeff is a super salesman!) and signed up for the Become a Blogging Maniac program.

Not only has she become a a blogging maniac, she is now actually speaking to and teaching others in her local community about blogging and the use of technology as tools to reach a wider audience.  And, she is being sought out by others for her storytelling expertise and is in the early stages of writing a book…wow…what a transformation!

So, Annie is now being sought out by the media for her story on being a former technophobe who is now a techno-wonder kid!  Here you go…an article in the Chestnut Hill Local in Philadelphia, PA by the title of Tackling Technology:  Tips from A Former Technophobe by Annie Hart.  Congrats Annie!

If Annie can do this, so can you!

From Annie: My success was so surprising and unexpected and I feel committed to helping others overcome their fears of technology as well.  I plan to write several more articles for my local paper and even launch an initiative to help my community work together for our collective business success.  I hope my story inspires you to know what’s possible in your business.  Feel free to contact me.

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Lead the Way With Story: Creating Trust & Credibility

October 25, 2009

Storytelling, definition by Annie Hart
An effective and congruent communication that embodies your commitment, your beliefs, your values and your vision.

This is part of a series on the use of storytelling in leadership.  Leaders need to inspire and motivate others.  They need to help people get along, collaborate and go where they haven’t been before.  Nothing does this more effectively than the power of story.

Although the word story means many things to me, for the purposes of leadership, I’m going to give it the above definition, so that it will show you exactly how you create connection through story.  To illustrate this effectively, I need to tell you a story.

Several years ago I was giving a presentation to a small family business that was not my typical client.  One of the owners was a private client of mine who really benefited from my work and she wanted me to do some consulting for them.  But I was pretty sure that the rest of the company wouldn’t see me as a natural fit and might not want to hire me.

So what did I do?  The first step to building a connection is to get inside someone else’s story to find out how they think, believe and act.  To do this I asked myself the question, What goes on inside of their world? This is how you discover the daily problems, frustrations and mindsets of whomever you want to communicate with.

The key to this is to do it from the mindset of sharing and the intention to build connection.  When you begin by relating to our common human problems, then we start on the same page.

In business the number one priority is often the famous ‘bottom line’.  But the key to a sustainable business is actually not the bottom line at all.  People are the most important commodity of any successful venture.

As a leader, relationships should be of prime importance.  If not then everything else will go downhill.  The bottom line of is not and can never be number one,.  Taking care of people comes first.

So by the time I went to give my presentation, I had already put myself in the mindset of the people that I was speaking to.  I walked into a group of people that looked harried, distracted and uninterested, but I was prepared for this.  So I started by telling them their own story.

I introduced myself briefly and then told them that I would be right back, and I walked out of the room.  I returned minutes later, rushing in with a briefcase spilling papers and frantically talking on a cell phone.

I began my presentation all over again, but this time I was speaking at breakneck speed.  “Hi I’m Annie Hart and I’m here to….” But imagine this with words flying at 500 miles an hour!

When I looked up they were speechless.  Maybe dumbfounded is a better word.  I paused and looked at them carefully.  I asked, “What was that like for you?’

“That’s exactly like our daily lives!” they said. They couldn’t believe that I got them.  I said, “How did it feel to experience me that way?”  They unanimously said, “It was awful, very stressful and anxiety producing.” Exactly. Exactly like their daily lives.

This dramatic enactment of their everyday way of being, opened up a discussion of trust and openness, whereas just moments before they had considered me a complete stranger.  So how did they accept me so quickly?

I used the power of story, THEIR STORY, to speak their language.

The key to rapport and building connection is to think about others.  Ask yourself, what do they need?  What are they going through?  What are their daily lives like?

It’s not how can I get them to do what I want?  It’s how can I understand who they are? This is one of the key skills a leader can have.

Each of you in your own way is  a leader.  Start today to think how you can get inside the story of others, so that people will want to follow you where ever you go.

And if you’re wondering if I got hired?  The answer is yes, and continued to tell stories and build rapport for an entire year.  Storytelling is a key to building trust and credibility through creating connection.

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From My Guest Blogger Greg: “Humanizing Twitter”

October 16, 2009

I posted a blog post this week about having fun on Twitter and made a new friend instantly through the post!  That is one of the things that I love most about Twitter is that neat and interesting people show up.  I met web developer Greg Falken who uses Twitter a lot and liked my approach, so I asked him to share a little bit about his philosophy of Twitter.  I especially love his metaphor about thinking about Twitter like being at a party.  Thanks Greg for the useful tips and being part of the Twitter flock!

Twitter is pretty darned geeky. It’s full of symbols and jargon and half the time you can’t even tell if you’re being tweeted by a human or a robot. People wonder, with good reason, how they can possibly get anything useful, let alone humane, out of the untold number of tweets that pass through the system every day.

The first thing that I tell new Twitter users (after, “you won’t know if it’s a stupid idea or not until you try it”) is that they don’t have to read every tweet that comes through their account. Everything prior to a few minutes ago is water under the bridge. Unless it mentions you or is a direct message to you, in which case you need to keep track of and respond to it. Every Twitter client and the web site makes this easy to do.

Next, you need to follow a group of people who you find interesting or with whom you have common interests; people who you would like to talk to. Think of Twitter like a crowded party. The conversations flow around you and you can choose which ones to focus on and where to join in. If you’ve chosen your party (the people you’re following) well, this can be both entertaining and informative. If you’re at a party with a lot of obnoxious drunks…well, that can be less pleasant. Remember, you get to choose who you follow. If someone follows you and you don’t follow them back, it’s like they don’t exist. If you follow someone who you later decide to un-follow, they’ll get over it.

When you do decide to join a conversation, knowing some of Twitter’s somewhat quirky conventions will help you be better understood.

• The @ symbol. Including @username anywhere in your tweet will cause it to show up in that person’s list of “mentions”. If @username is the first thing in the tweet (i.e. @ is the first character), the tweet will only be visible to the recipient and anyone who follows both of you. So, when you want your tweet to go into the general Twitter stream and be noticed by an individual, include @username somewhere after the first character of the tweet.
• Hash tags. Hash tags were not a part of Twitter’s original release. People using the service found that they needed a way of identifying words to search on and settled on prefixing them with a hash (#) symbol. When you include a hash tag in a tweet, you are inviting people to search for that tag. For example, if I tweet about health care reform and include the hash tag #hcr, I can be sure that my tweet will show up in a lot of search results, in addition to my followers seeing it. Use the search box on Twitter.com to find commonly used hash tags. Brand names are also commonly used. If a company is paying attention, they should be monitoring for any usage of their name in a hash tag and respond to you. Sadly, this is not often the case.
• Retweets. Another instance of the users of Twitter coming up with a convention, in this case the letters “RT” followed by the @username of the original sender (so they will know that they’ve been retweeted). You can either retweet verbatim or edit it a bit and add your own comments. I like to put comments at the end, prefixed with <–.
• Links. If you use Twitter’s web site, URLs are automatically made clickable but they are not shortened, eating into your 140 character limit. Most of the 3rd party Twitter clients, either desktop or web-based, will shorten URLs using a service (4th party?) like bit.ly or tr.im.

Once you do start talking on Twitter, be a good conversationalist. You want people’s response to your tweets to be either, that was helpful or that was interesting or both. It’s not always easy to write stories in 140 characters or less but it can be done with practice. Here are some good examples:

Rain in DC this morning is mean to all who pass. The bones in my feet will be cold all day.
@jdickerson

Fish communicate through farts http://bit.ly/2ybLKD
@slate

Didn’t realize I flew in on the same flight as @tmonhollon from Oklahoma. Okies represent! #bwe09
@BeckyMcCray

Breaking: Tipped off by Stockholm that he was about to be branded euro-wimp peacenik, Obama ordered NASA to bomb moon.
@Roland_Hedley

Be nice, give credit where credit is due and remember, more than 20 tweets a day and people will think you have way to much time on your hands.

Greg Falken is a web developer living and working in the Central Sierras of California and is a partner in webdancers. His focus is on the intersection of computers, the Internet and communications, especially social media. He blogs at GregFalken.com.

Photo by: Eileen Maher

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You Don’t Have To Do It Alone

October 6, 2009

FREE TELESEMINAR:

October 7, 2009
12:00 pm	to	1:00 pm

When you are self-employed, it is very easy to get isolated and try to do everything yourself.  Being part of a Mastermind group is one way to get support for succeeding in your business.  There is synergy of energy, commitment, and excitement that participants bring to a Mastermind Group. The beauty of Mastermind Groups is that participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion.  Mastermind participants act as catalysts for growth, devil’s advocates and supportive colleagues.

The topic for this week’s teleseminar is “You Don’t Have to Do It Alone: Mastermind Groups and Other Forms of Support” with Annie Hart, Amy Franko and David Jehlen. These members of my Mastermind group will join me to talk about how we support each other to be more successful.   In addition, we will talk about other ways that you can get support.

Annie Hart, Amy Franko and David Jehlen are all Certified Book Yourself Solid Coaches.  Annie Hart, NLP Trainer, Ericksonian Hypnotherapist and Storyteller Extraordinaire helps individuals and businesses to create positive and lasting change through story.

Amy Franko, owner, small business coach, and principal learning designer of Amy Franko Consulting, works with  solo service professional women (for whom she uses the term “entrepreneuse”) to break through to new levels of success through effective marketing and selling – in ways that complement their strengths and allow them to be who they are.

David Jehlen, owner of Dream Life Strategies, says that his purpose is to help holistic entrepreneurs, those passionate about serving people, the entire being, body, mind and spirit to enrich this world.

To register, go to http://getbookedsolidnow.com/teleseminar_registration.

This teleclass is free.

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Want To Be Effective? Harness the Power of The Team

October 5, 2009

We live in the societal model of the “Lone Hero” but in our ancient memory we come from the law of the tribe, meaning that we have togetherness in our bones.  But unfortunately we’ve forgotten this and very often we suffer from a kind of societal  aloneness disease.

This particularly shows up in the life of solo business owners.  If you work for yourself or by yourself, it’s guaranteed that you suffer from this aloneness disease.

Here are it’s symptoms:

• you often wonder what you’re doing wrong or why you aren’t as successful as you’d want to be
• you have dreams and goals that you never seem to realize
• you wonder why it’s so hard
• you find yourself going into a slump and blame yourself

Here’s what I’ve been fortunate to learn from wonderful mentors over the years - that one of the secrets to success in any venture of life, is to harness the power of the team.  When you can tap the power of teamwork, then you can go much further than you ever would alone.

As I watched and studied successful people, I realized that this was one of their secrets to success.  So many years ago I started garnering allies and buddies and formed wonderful partnerships that have really kept me going, especially in hard times.

One of my current collaborations is with my business coaching group.  We call ourselves the “DreamBuilders” and we support each other every single Friday by showing up on a call and sharing our breakthroughs and breakdowns.  We continue to support each other, offer feedback, give ideas and encouragement, so that no matter how hard it gets, we know that we’re not alone.

If you ask me this is the key factor to success in life.  I have regular coaching buddies every week, plus my team, all of whom keep my spirits up, and support me when I fall down in a hole and can’t get up!  Because of these allies and and partners, I’ve been able to do things which would otherwise feel impossible.

This week for the first time, my wonderful DreamBuilders Team is going to do a public Teleseminar, hosted by Ted Behr, one of our team members.  We are going to be sharing some stories and the secrets of success.  This model has definitely worked for us and I know it can work for you too.

No matter what endeavor you want to achieve, harnessing the power of a supportive team, can be key to your success.  If you want to know more about the how to create a team or what to do once you have one, please feel free to email me.

Tune into our Teleseminar, Wednesday October 7th at 12pm, for 1 hour.  To register go to: http://getbookedsolidnow.com/teleseminar_registration.

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Video of the Week: You Can Tell A Story

September 1, 2009

video management, video solution, video streaming

This is my wonderful friend and colleague Dean Michelson.  He has been an Organizational Development Consultant for over thirty years and he never believed that he was capable of telling a story.  So finally his beliefs gave way as he went ahead and told a story and had incredible results.  Please believe that you, like my friend Dean, can and should tell stories.

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Annie’s Business Bursting Success Story, Get Blogging & Tweeting Folks

August 5, 2009

I published a story earlier this week about my top 5 tips for success in blogging.  But I thought that I should back up a bit and tell you the full story.  Because I, a former technophobe, would have been the least likely person to succeed in this area.

I hated marketing.  I never did any of it, not one thing.  Ok year’s ago I made a few brochures and I had a business card.  Big deal.  But I never wanted to market myself.  I never wanted to run a business.  I just wanted to help people.  If you’re in a service field like mine, you can probably relate.

If someone had told me back at the beginning, what I would need to do to make a living at this, I would have probably given up right then.  I had no idea it would be so hard.  But strangely I was able to make a living at it and for that I was thankful.  I made a living but I was not going beyond that and last year as I looked into my future, I had to face the scary facts.  If I didn’t do something, something drastic, then my business was not going to be sustainable in the future.  And I didn’t want that.  I love my business.

I knew I had to do something, but I had no idea what.  As you will learn about me, the first thing I always do is pray!  Not in that silly way of begging some big daddy in the sky to rescue me, but of aligning myself with the bigger powers of the universe.  I consider myself an equal partner.  So my prayer was this, “Please help me find the way.  I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”  That was my committment and I knew that I had to mean it for the prayer to work.

So what did doing what it takes mean for me?  It meant facing my fears of marketing and technology head on.  The LAST thing that I ever wanted to do was to use the internet to market my business.  Hours spent on the computer sounded like a fate worse then death.  I am a people person and a nature girl.  No technology for me!  Or at least as little as possible.

But what ended up happening is that I took a HUGE leap of faith.  I took a course in marketing for service professionals, led by the handsome and savvy Michael Port of Book Yourself Solid.  Michael is really expert in this area. 

During the course, I kept telling my wonderful new colleagues that I was not tech savvy like they were and don’t even talk to me about dumb things like Twitter!  I did not even want to hear it.  I specifically remember a conversation with my new buddy Jeff Simpkins, in which I told him I didn’t think I could do any of this stuff.  And he gave me the single best recommendation that I’ve ever had.  He told me to take a course by Bea Fields called “Become A Blogging Maniac.”  I loved the name.

I liked Jeff and trusted him and the course was only $97 so how could I lose.  Even though I still totally doubted myself and my abilities, I decided to go for it.  I wasn’t even sure if I had the desire,but I was sure that I didn’t want to fail.  I knew that I could fail at this very easily if I wasn’t careful.  Technology was not my forte. 

 I took my NLP backgruond and carefully thought through all  the challenges that could stop me.  And I figured out how to navigate around them and keep going.  This is how I set myself up for success.  I carved out a mental path in advance that would allow me to sidestep the obstacles and keep on towards my goal, no matter what.  And I did it!

I am so proud to say that I not only finished course, but I produced a beautiful amazing website/blog that I truly love.  And most amazing of all is I have had more business success in the past 3 months than I’ve had in all my years of working.  Me, a former technophobe, now a shining success in the blogging world.  Wow.

If I can do it, so can you.  And by the way Twitter has been one of the single most attention generating media for my site.  I’ve had notice from  people all over the world.  And as you’ll see from my results below, this Twitter and blogging thing is neither irrelvant, nor stupid.  They and other social media tools, ARE the way of the future.  We can pretend they aren’t there, but then we will be the ones left behind. 

If you want to succeed in your business and stand out in the crowd like I have, then feel free to follow me.  Take Bea’s course.  She is an expert in this area.  It wasn’t easy but it is possible.  Here are my tangible results:

1. I had several new clients just in the first 2 months
2. I was featured as one of only 40 Story Experts in an ebook online.
3. A business man from Japan used several of my stories to create business success with his team.
4. I’ve been on the radio twice…..

And that was only in the first three months.  So this is just the beginning.  My advice to you is to get out and start blogging, get Tweeting and get yourself up to speed.   This is all possible.  That way, you’ll be on the wave of tomorrow, rather than the back seat of yesterday.

And if you want to know more about Bea Fields or her course: www.becomeabloggingmaniac.com.  Or my collegue Jeff Simpkins who is using blogging for bankers at: http://www.bloggingforbankers.com/

Good luck!  And let me know how you’re doing in the wonderful wide world of the bloggersphere.

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Top Business Skills For Our Future, Part 2

May 25, 2009

This is the second in my three-part survey of leaders from around the world who answered this question:   “Everyone is concerned about how to survive in these tough times, but YOU are someone that lives bigger than just these times.  When you peer into the future, what is the number one skill you see that we need for the future?”

From Doug Lipman, Edmond, OK
          The number one skill I see needed for the future of our society is the ability to create new social structures based on mutually beneficial relationships.  Why?  Our existing social structures are largely based on profit.  This can’t be sustained indefinitely, since profit demands an exponential increase (e.g.,8% per year, which amounts to doubling every 10 years), whereas actual value increases more slowly and some resources are fixed or even declining (e.g., fossil fuels).  In effect, we’re working a “pyramid scheme” on the world.  Such schemes always self-destruct in time.
          What new structures do we need?  We can’t predict what new societal structures will arise as the existing ones crumble.  But relationships based on trust and respect will survive.  In time, they can even evolve into new institutions.
          So what does it take to create new social structures?  First, we need the ability to understand and express our own point of view.  Second, we need the ability to deeply listen to others, so that we understand differing points of view.  Third, we need the ability to create expanded perspectives that include both parties’ points of view.  Finally, we need the ability to create solutions, bridges, and adaptations that work for everyone within that perspective.  For example, suppose you need support in your work as an artist.  First, you need to be able to explain exactly what your true needs are (e.g., other artists to bounce ideas off, audiences to communicate with, modest physical resources of food, etc.).  Further, let’s suppose you are trying to build a mutually supportive relationship with someone who sees her needs as including the inspiration that your artworks might potentially provide.
          Second, you need to listen well to understand the exact needs of this person - and what she is happy to provide in return, such as money (that’s an easy one, at least at the start) or sharing your work with her friends (this takes more creativity on your part, if you expect to fully benefit from it).
          Third, you need to find a perspective that includes both of your needs.  For example, how does that person’s need for inspiration relate to her energy for sharing inspiring artwork?  How might all that relate to your exact needs for audiences?  Finally you have the option to create a mechanism for enabling your mutual benefit.  For example, you might create a blog or other website that she can bring her friends to and which you contribute examples of your art.
          As this simple example shows, the ability to create new social structures demands several sub-abilities, including imagination, empathy, inventiveness and creativity.  No one person needs to have all the sub-abilities.  But we all need to create and join communities in which individuals with the component abilities and energies can give part of what they have to offer and get part of what they need.
          People have been using these abilities since the beginning of time.  Now, in a time of transition, these are the abilities that can most protect us from the crumbling of exploitative structures and can also hasten the emergence of mutually beneficial ones.
“The Storytelling Coach”
www.storydynamics.com

From Nina East, Chapel Hill, NC
          You have to be able to show that you care - which means you actually have to care in the first place (not just have the appearance of caring) and be able to communicate this in genuine ways.  Ultimately it all comes down to relationship.  People who build meaningful relationships are the ones who will thrive in the future.
Founder, Personal Growth Princess
www.PersonalGrowthPrincess.com

From Matthew Lynch, Chestnut Hill, PA
          There is so much change happening so quickly that people must remain adaptable.  Stubborness will mean certain disaster.  Those people that find themselves in the unemployment line must learn new skills if they want to begin working again.  Also, the financial services industry has seen many large buy-outs and mergers.  People have to be willing to do away with their old daily routines, and adapt to the changes that will inevitably come with the marriage of two companies.  The most successful people adapt and overcome.
Assistant Manager, TD Bank North
www.tdbank.com

From Sue Painter, Knoxville, TN
          When I peer into the future, the number one skill I see that we need for the future is collaboration with others.  The new model of doing business is a collaborative model.  After many years of competitiveness and on-upmanship, we’ve found the downsides of that model for business.  The businesses that will thrive most in the next decade are those that are transpararent and know how to work with their customers and even with their competitors in strongly collaborative partnership.  On the personal side, collaboration is a winning behavior, too.  It leads to much more openness and thus more possibilities in our lives with family, friends and community.
President and Founder, The Confident Marketer
www.confidentmarketer.com

From Amy Edleman, Chestnut Hill, PA
          Glad to offer my opinion.  The skills that I believe business owners need to have is the ability to change and adapt.  Whether it’s new technology, new products that a younger generation is interested in or responding to current events and applying them to business.
          We began to take steps to become a Green certified bakery several months ago.  Customers are more aware of environmental issues and support our efforts by recycling and even bringing their own bags.  Our steps to reduce waste, water and energy have positively affected our bottom line.
Owner, Night Kitchen Bakery
www.NightKitchenBakery.com, http://greeninchestnuthill.blogspot.com

Read on to Part 3 for more number one skills

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