The Path to Growth
Growth is achieved by going toe-to-toe with your uncertainties and fears. It doesn’t matter if it’s … personal professional romantic … it’s impossible to grow into a more complete human being if you aren’t prepared to put your best foot forward, face your fears head on and not care if you win or lose. Life is the ultimate game: Are you playing it safe or are you taking advantage of every single second you have to do something greater than you did the day before? — Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Twitter // Google+ //...
read moreFinding Your Yoda
“Well, do you want me to coach you up a little bit?” This was how my first ever virtual sales mentorship began earlier this afternoon. I had just called a person I’ve come to know as a friend to ask for some advice, and when he realized the depth of information he would need to convey to me he offered his infinite wisdom up in the form of 2 weekly training sessions. Just like that. No catch. No money up front. No money at all, in fact. No request for referrals later on down the road. Just that: I’ll help you out by passing along some tricks of the trade from the past 25 years of my experience and hopefully they will help you succeed. As I enter into one of my first real mentorship programs, I wanted to pass along some ground rules that will hopefully shape your next mentorship program to be as beneficial to you, the apprentice, as possible: Set the terms up front: Imagine this is like dating someone new — except you’re 100% honest with them. Agree to number of sessions, frequency of review and types of information you’re going to cover. Set ground rules so that you don’t overwhelm your mentor with questions, ideas and information. He or she has agreed to help you out — NOT to be your personal Google anytime you have a problem. Shut up and listen: You need to be doing the bulk of the listening, so shut up and stop speaking RIGHT THIS SECOND. If you possessed the wealth of information your mentor had, you wouldn’t need to lean on him/her as a mentor. So turn your mouth off and soak down all the information they pass on to you; you’ll have all the time in the world to act on the advice in between sessions. Allow for wiggle: Since most mentorships are free programs, don’t turn on your Jedi master if he or she needs to bail on a couple sessions. That mentor has gone out of their way to help you become successful, most likely for no monetary gain on their part, which means the apprentice needs to be grateful for any wisdom they can pull from their sessions. Thank your Jedi master profusely: Wait until you hit big milestones, and then pour on the praise. For example, when I close my first deal using my new mentor’s advice, I plan on shipping him a couple hundred bucks worth of wine / whiskey / beer (whichever poison he prefers) with a big fat ‘Thank You’ balloon. It was his advice that showed me how to close the deal, so I want to show him that I truly appreciate all the time and effort he/she has invested in my success. Keep in mind, the apprentice is going to reap the bulk of the reward in this mentor/apprentice relationship. So as the apprentice make sure to act gracious, write EVERYTHING down and go out of your way to make it easy for your mentor to pass his valuable brain data along to you. — Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San...
read moreA 2012 Tear Jerker, Sob Story Thank You Post
A lot has happened in the past two years since I graduated from college two short years ago, and by now I figured it was time to reach out and say ‘thank you’ to those who have helped propel my life in the correct direction. So without further ado … Thanks to … … Supportive parents, who have watched me move three times in the past two years and always been behind me 100% of the way. … My friends in LA and Seattle, the past two cities I’ve lived in, for making the time I spent living in each of those places so special. … Friends in San Francisco, who have been waiting for this move to become a reality for almost a year now. I told you I’d make it! … To those who doubted this move — secretly, proving you wrong was a small reminder to myself that I couldn’t back out of this third scary move in two years. … The most awesome-ist (yes, I’m trying to push this as a real word) business partner, who helps counter balance my pie-in-the-sky mentality as well as doesn’t throw fits when I decide to leave the country for weeks at a time in the middle of big pitches. … While we’re on the subject, thanks to the friends I met during my time abroad in Japan and when I lived in Europe. Without you, the ri-donk-u-lous stories & experiences would not have been made a possibility. … To my passport, for allowing me to get from Point A to Point Amsterdam (insert other cities here …) and not complaining when I drop you on the floor or spill beer on you. To the...
read moreEntrepreneur: The Scariest / Most Awesome-ist Word Around
For those of you who do not know, I recently started a business in July 2011, quit my day job and took off for a 2 week vacation to Japan in January 2012 and am moving to San Francisco on Monday. Yes, a lot of change is occurring in my life. I’ve been self-employed now for the past 20 days (15 of which I’ve been on vacation) and upon my return it’s finally starting to hit me: Being an Entrepreneur is REALLY Hard Jason Hilton, founding member of WDFA down in San Francisco, gave me the best quote I’ve heard to date about starting your own business: You must be absolutely crazy. So far, that advice has just about summed it up. Every day I’ve worked harder than ever before to generate new opportunities. Every day I wake up completely energized (hence writing blog posts at 7 am on a Friday) and excited to hit my to-do list. Every time I experience success, I jump for joy. Every time I experience failure, I curse the gods and slowly punch a one-way ticket to hell with the horrible curses I wish upon my competition (or something like that …) And every day I think about quitting. So What Keeps Me Going? Well … The fact that I’ve successfully removed as many moving parts between myself, the work & the client, leaving good work as the only currency of success The fact that I can wake up at 6 am (like today) or 11 am and the only person who will yell at me is myself (which I do) The fact that my fear of failure drives me to work more efficiently, as my income is no longer billed on hours but instead of the amount of business I’m able to generate The fact that my professional mentality has changed — if I fail with MKG (my new company — knock on wood we don’t), I still can’t even fathom a universe where I went back to a ‘normal’ 9-to-5 work day I Now Have the Emotional Capacity of a Pregnant Woman In a single minute of each day I feel happy, sad, angry, confused, and terrified all at the same time. It’s these feelings that help remind me that I’m human, but these same feelings create a drive to succeed like nothing else I’ve experienced in my life. So, want to join me as an entrepreneur? See you at Starbucks tomorrow at 6 am to get...
read moreStop “Filling Time”
I’ve bought the advice — hook, line and sinker. Earlier this month I began reading Tim Ferriss’s best selling The Four Hour Work Week. When I read the chapter that discussed how our current obsession with consuming media is just another example of filling time, or performing uneccesary activities that take away from our overall productivity, I scoffed. “Who … me?” I thought. “I’m AWESOME at working on multiple projects all at the same time.” What I didn’t realize was that I was filling time, or taking breaks before and during the task had been started. My common violations of “filling time” are usually things like: Reading the news online: CNN, then TechCrunch, then VentureBeat, then …) Watching TV: NCIS marathons are my personal kriptonyte Checking social channels: Facebook, Twitter, etc Instant Messager: Short of a nuclear fallout, I’m always reachable via IM to discuss anything from how best to photocopy your own face (see photo above) to the Republican Presidential debate All these activities are examples of filling time and usually go un-noticed. That is, until I thought about what kinds of activities they are replacing in my own life: Making important personal / professional phone calls: Yes, I noticed that I was avoiding making NUMEROUS important phone calls by simply logging in to Facebook and cruising around for a few minutes. A time sensitive analysis for a current client: By checking my Twitter feeds (which are ENDLESS), I completely ignored even starting an important analysis for a current client that was looking for additional data (i.e. MY ANALYSIS) to support spending more money with us (which was destined for MY OWN POCKET). The examples could go on, but for your own sanity (and my personal privacy) I’ll stop the list here. What I’m trying to say is, these seemingly insignificant amounts of time that I was spending consuming unhealthy amounts of media / social information actually added up to consume HOURS OF MY TIME. To test out my theory, I’m taking Tim up on his advice and banning myself from the following for the next 5 days: Watching TV Reading newspapers & magazines Facebook My favorite online blogs and information sources (including my beloved CNN iPhone app) Will let you know how it goes when I finish up … Wish me...
read morePower of Reflection
Earlier today I was digging through the contents of my childhood bedroom growing up and found a list of 5 goals that I had made my Junior year of high school. Reflecting upon the goals I had set more than eight years prior, I finally realized a couple of things: The power of visualizing your goals: Visualizing your goals allows you to simply and eloquently put your dreams into a time capsule that can be reviewed at a later time and date. What better way to track your progress over time than with a single sentence or simple picture? Think to yourself: Have you ever written or drawn out your goals, hopes and / or dreams? If yes, how often did you review these items to check your progress? The power of reflection: I tend to associate the word reflection with a spiritual connotation, although that’s not always the case. Periods of reflection can allow you to slow down, smell the roses and actually learn something from all the events we experienced on a daily, weekly, monthly, etc. basis. Life moves fast, and sometimes we don’t make enough time to sit back and actually reflect upon our experiences. Make time for periods of reflection so you can actual learn something from the events of your life. Take time to reflect upon your goals — as I was, I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results of your miniature soul searching...
read moreWhat Does Freedom Mean to You?
What Does Freedom Mean to Me? Earlier this week, I watched Man vs. Debt founder Adam Baker speak at TEDxAsheville. For those who have not seen this lecture, I highly recommend taking a listen. During the course of his keynote, Adam brought up a great question that him and his wife asked themselves following the birth of their first daughter: What does freedom mean to me? Adam and his wife asked themselves this question because they felt like their life was being lived on a script that didn’t belong to them. They were new parents who were thousands of dollars in consumer debt and were looking to take on more in the form of a mortgage loan — yet they didn’t feel fulfilled by any of the “things” that they were acquiring. So they asked themselves, what does freedom mean to me? After months of conversation, their answer was simple: Sell all their stuff and go backpacking (toddler in tow) through Australia for the next year. Albeit a tough one, this decision allowed them to essentially hit the ‘restart’ button on their financial lives and start completely fresh. They were free from the debt that had weighed them down 12 short months before. And that freedom meant that they could start their newborn’s life off free and clear of the financial disaster that had weighed them down. So, what does freedom mean to...
read more4 Insights from Scrappy Face Founder Kate Walling
Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down for a cup of coffee with Scrappy Face Founder and CEO Kate Walling. As our conversation wandered between starting your own company, the fact that Kate hails from three Southern states (all at once, mind you) and the needs of small businesses, I wanted to take a moment to share some of the more gems I pulled out of our conversation. You have no idea how good somebody is until you hire them As Kate told me, until you actually get in the trenches with somebody you’ve hired and seen how great / average / inferior of an employee they can be, nothing else matters. Recommendations from a friend, the fact that he married your sister or saved the pope from a nuclear missle strike on Vatican City means nothing until you actually work with that person. Then, and only then, do you have the ability to judge their talents. Start Ups Should Care About 2 Things: Sales & Customer Feedback In the twilight years of your company, as you’re wining and dining prospects with Mac ‘n Cheese and box wine, you should only care about two things: Sales: How many sales are you driving every week? Every month? Every quarter? What are you doing to increase that number? Customer Feedback: You put in all that hard work to close a deal … take the opportunity to ask your customers for feedback. What could be done better, what was done magnificently and / or how did they react to you showing up to the presentation in your birthday suit are all valid questions. Learn How to Hire & Fire In the infancy of your company, learning how to hire talented individuals and release underperformers is vital. Learn how to identify red flags that a new employee is underperforming — and FAST. By fast, Kate recommends being able to spot red flags within their first week of employment. Kindly explain to them the situation (“I just don’t see you enjoying yourself here and you’re not really performing because X, Y & Z”) and remove them from your team before they become a cancer to your new company. Conversely, identifying the right talent to inject into the workplace is vital to your growth. Find those who truly believe in your mission and are in it for more than the money. Make Progress Every Single Day This last one may be more vital to your personal sanity than anything else, but it also helps founders check the pulse of their company on a daily basis. Ask yourself: “What can I do to feel that I’m making progress every single day?” Identify ways in which you can take your company one step forward every single day....
read moreUnderstanding What It Means to Be a Millennial
Justin.tv founder Justin Kan wrote a recent TechCrunch guest post describing the current state of employment for the millennial generation. Here were a few of his talking points that begin to describe what it’s like to be part of Generation Y. The system is broken: No longer can you go to school, get good grades, graduate with a job in hand and move up the corporate ladder. This rise to the top no longer applies to our generation; The system is broken. Millions of young millennials are unemployed or under-employed, according to Scott Gerber of The Young Entrepreneur Council. Our generation aspires to control our own destiny: To steal Justin’s own words, we’re “autonomous, impatient … refuse to pay our dues … hate the idea that we should ever be beholden to someone else.” We are like this because we have been abandoned by the instituions that should have embraced us. From an inefficient government run by elder statesmen politicians who don’t understand technology to corporations that turned their backs on us following college graduation, negating on their promise of jobs post-graduation for those who worked hard to get their degree. We are a generation of passionate makers and creators: The words “why?” and “why not?” seem to exist within our vocabulary to act as legitimate answers to “nobody has ever tried doing it this way” and “you can’t do things that way.” “Why not?” has become an invitation to challenge the current way of getting something done. Embracing Innovation Innovation takes place when some courageous individual defies popular belief and begins operating in a completely different manner than anybody else in their marketplace. Think it’s a mystery why consumers jumped up and gobbled the iPod when it first came out, even though Apple was years behind the competition in releasing an MP3 playing device? That Box and DropBox surpassed SharePoint as the most widely used cloud storage solutions in less than five years? Absolutely Not! The chiefs at Apple, Box & DropBox set out with a vision that was bigger in scope that their existing market. The absolute disregard for the state of their current industry led them to take actions, create products and push consumers in ways that nobody else could have predicted. Instead of following a set of broken rules established by an elder generation that could no longer support their existence, these companies offered their products and services in ways that had never been thought of before. So What Does This Mean For You? It means you should dedicate some time to reevaluate the way that your life is headed. Ask yourself a few simple questions: Am I truly happy where I am at right now personally, professionally and morally? If I could do anything in the world, what would that be? When I look back on my life in one month, one year, one decade, etc … How will I view the decisions that I made? Will recalling these decisions make me beam with pride or stew in regret — and why? We, the Millennial, are one hell of a generation. It’s time to show the world what we’re made of by re-writing the rules....
read moreForever and Always
Even when you peed on the carpet, I loved you. When you stopped peeing on the carpet, I found a way to love you even more. When you woke me up early on a Saturday morning, demanding breakfast and a long walk in the rain, I loved you, even though that meant I had to shake off the cob webs much earlier than I had originally planned. When you listened to me, I loved you a LOT. Even more so, listening to me in front of a group of people made me so proud I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for hours. Those times when I took you to Green Lake to pick up girls, and instead you’d attract more middle-aged men because you’d remind them of their dog growing up, I loved you (although I told you we needed to work on that!) When you disobeyed me and I was forced to raise my voice with you, I still loved you. I loved you so much that I always wanted you to know the difference between doing the right thing (“good boy!”) and the wrong thing (“Tyyy-soooonnnnn!!!!”) The fact that you always knew when it was me coming through the front door meant the world to me — you were always there. Tail wagging. Barking up a storm. Giving me big fat doggie kisses when I bent down to pet you. You’d run up and lay on my bed — waiting patiently for me to give you a belly rub and head scratch. When I tried to give you nice toys, you spurned them in favor of a stick from the back yard, showing me how much the little things in life matter and how material possessions are precisely that: material. Temporary. Meaningless without context. Your love of the simple things in life reminded me of a fantastic quote I once heard: “A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn’t care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he’ll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?” You made me feel inexplicably special, Tyson, and I hope that from this day forward I can deliver a fraction of that feeling to every single person that I meet; that I can make somebody else feel as extraordinary, special and loved the way you made me feel over the past nine months. Until the day I die, you’ll always be in my heart and on my mind. Forever and always your best friend....
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