2020 communications

It never ceases to amaze me, how many people, regardless of what kind of professional capacity they have, who introduce themselves via their title. This can be a costly mistake especially considering the market and the amount of choice that consumers have every day. If your message isn’t quick, clear and MOST importantly, emotionally engaging, you will miss opportunities all the time.

I’m over in Victoria, BC, leading break out sessions for an International Non-Profit Organization. Today I led a session on re-thinking their message and their introduction to the market. Whether they’re at a networking event, in-line at Starbucks or presenting to a group of their target audience they need to know that introducing themselves as someone who ‘works at X organization’ is far from remarkable. For 2 hours we brainstormed, tweaked, practiced and presented the message to one another until we got it absolutely bang on. These people are so pumped that they know exactly what to say when they hit the market, that many of them wanted to leave the conference and head back to wherever they call home to start testing their new skill.

If you are introducing yourself with your Title, or the name of your employer, you are wasting your time. Start with these three questions:

1. What do you do?

2. Why does it matter?

3. Who cares?

Take a stab, send in your answers, and i’ll honour your time with a free 45 minute business coaching session. Together we will tighten your answers up and get you out in the market maximizing your time networking and building connections while building your bottom line. Deadline: midnight tonight – get going – tick tock!

All the best,

Heather

heather@2020communications.ca

I’m a huge lover of the game of golf. Having my dad as a top amateur and my other half playing pro for the better half of the last decade indeed has helped the development of my passion for the game. But in the past few weeks I’ve continued to see parallels between this historic game and another very historic game, called BUSINESS.

1. Ageless

Regardless of whether you’re 25 or 105 the measurement of your success in business and in golf does not take age in to the mix. Simply put, you either put up the numbers or your don’t – end of story.

2. Measurable

Again, it’s all about the numbers and you’re measured in accordance. If you’re 4 over par after the front nine, you know you’ve gotta shoot 4 under on the back to shoot par. No different than if you’ve projected 2 million in earnings and you’re at 300K after the first quarter – time to step it up.

3. It’s a gentleman’s (or woman’s) game

It’s not personal. There is no room for drama. The players on the course who lose it, hitting their bag and or a tree are looked at as being ‘out of control’ of their game. If they go as far as to break a club, they must complete their round without it. (Flashback to the US Open this year when DJ Trahan bent his putter out of frustration and had to putt with his driver for the remainder of his round.) The same goes in business. If you come with drama, excuses, or take things personally, you’ll find out very quickly – there is no seat for you at the boardroom table.

4. Focus on your own game – anything can happen to your competition.

It’s important to be aware, sometimes intimately aware of your competition. And even though Golf and Business are known for their strategic element, let’s face it, anything can happen. We’ve seen it on the course a lot this year. Quickly to mind comes the PGA Championship when Padraig Harrington made an 8 on the par 3 eighth hole, completely shooting himself out of the tournament. Business can be the same. Know what your competition is up to, but, more importantly, know what you’re plan is – because anything can happen to them.

5. Drive for show, putt for dough

It’s definitely impressive if you can bomb a drive straight down the middle of the fairway 300 yards. Equally so, if you can land a face to face meeting with your top prospect – this is indeed impressive. But, the real value is in your ability to close. When you’re on the green in golf, under the pressure, standing over an 8 ft. downhill slider, can you keep your head still, hands steady and put the ball in the hole? Same goes for the important meeting with your prospect. Can you get them to sign on the bottom line? Your ability to finish is where you show your true value.

Ok, so now that you’re rejuvenated after taking a rest yesterday, it’s time to get serious on building a business, in case you made the mistake, like so many do when they turn to self employment, of buying a job.  Being a slave to your business is no better than having a boss to answer to, so today, answer the following questions to make sure you are working on your business, not just in it.

1. Are you following a written business plan?

2. Do you have a system for tracking all the opportunities that come your way? (Prospects, leads, strategic alliances, champions)

3. Do you have a flow chart, or sequence of events, for turning prospects into clients?

4. Do you have a weekly schedule that you follow?

5. Do you have a system and/or schedule for engaging in social media forums? (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In etc.)

6. Do you have a system for billing that takes you less than an hour? (a month, a week?)

7. Do you have a system for keeping your books up to date. (I highly recommend having a bookkeeper)

8. What would happen to your business if something happened to you?

9. Do you have someone holding you accountable. (Business coach, mentor, accountant)

10.Do you take scheduled days and/or time off?

These questions will help you identify if you’re really taking the rains in building a business that is systemic and sustainable. Don’t beat yourself up if you have a lot of ‘no’ answers. Just be aware and schedule time to develop these systems for your business. If you have any specific questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you and I’m happy to help.

Have a great day!

Heather

Ahh, entrepreneurism….isn’t it great?!?!

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you started a business so you could be the boss, so you could be FREE – am I right? You could work from home, check your email in your underwear, have a beer while you wrote a proposal or jam a days worth of work into a few hours so you could hit the beach. But let’s be real. You’ve probably never worked more hours than ever before, since you likely don’t have any system of tracking. You eat, breathe and sleep your work, thinking about it nearly 24/7. You feel like you ‘can’t’ take time off because you’re barely scraping by. You eat your meals next to your laptop and you live in constant fear and panic. Fear of missing opportunities, fear of losing it all, fear of failure, fear of letting your friends, family and yourself down. So, why’d you start this business again?

Today, I challenge you to take a breath, take the day off, shut your laptop, walk away from your desk. Don’t read, don’t write, don’t even talk. (I would suggest don’t think, but, even I don’t really know how to make this a reality.) Today, reconnect. Reconnect with your body (Gerrianne Clare, an amazing Life Coach has a great blog and online community that gives you in the moment tools to reconnect.  Check her out here: Moment-Is)  Reconnect with your spirit, your passion, for your business, for your life.  Reconnect with your whole mind, not just your manic left brain analytical side.

Even an hour away from everything (completely shut off) will allow you the much needed space to regain perspective and reconnect with your passion for your business.

Remember, YOU’RE THE BOSS!

Enjoy your day!

-Heather

“It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined” – Henry James

Since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted to hang out with the adults and, yes, you guessed it “talk”. I never was much in to cartoons, or playing with toys or dolls. I was in to reading, watching Matlock, and playing Rummy (a card game my Gran taught me) in which we ‘gambled’ for Mars Bars. (I thought this was ridiculously cool at age 5.)

I remember going to Kindergarten and quickly realizing that I was the only kid (except for my best friend Steven) who was reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys novels, and in an effort to fit in with the rest of my classmates, I pretended that I didn’t know how to read either. (This facade only lasted until the first parent teacher interview in which I was outed and put in to the ‘gifted’ reading program from then on.)

In business I get much of the same. People questioning my age and how I could possibly have enough experience to do what I’m doing. I’m constantly getting subliminal messages from my colleagues about how I’m going to be one of the greats, just “give me 10 years”.

Recently I attended a funeral for one of my high school classmates, he was 28 years old. He was a pilot. Since I can remember he had been working hard on this life long dream. When we were kids he worked weekends and evenings in order to be able to afford his flying lessons. He was so passionate about flying and climbing the ladder to his dream of flying jumbo jets around the world that nothing got in his way. He was committed, passionate, and inspired by his dreams that everyday he got up and did whatever it took to continue in pursuit of his end goal.

I’m more than aware that I don’t know it all, which is why I am committed to life long education. I read on average a book a week, I’ve attended more conferences and workshops than I can even begin to explain (but yes they are all documented in order to be measurable), I’ve had a life coach and a business coach for the past 3 years as well as countless mentors along the way. I want to keep growing and learning everyday because I am energized and inspired by my growth and development.

I’m not too young and I’m not too old. I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. I will continue to ask for what I want because I’ve heard no before and I’m not afraid to ask again. Don’t allow yourself to be limited by other people’s belief systems. Their issues are their issues, but they don’t have to be yours. We don’t know how long we’ve got, and to me that’s even more reason to live everyday as if it was your last! Be irreverent, because you deserve to live a full and rewarding life. No excuses!

It’s time!

Have a great week!

- Heather

The 2009 EWomenNetwork International Conference provided such a wealth of information, knowledge, connections and opportunities to continue to push the envelope of my development in both personal and professional life. There were so many things to take away from the weekend, but, I managed to narrow it down to 3. Thank you to all the exceptional speakers, and presenters who shared their knowledge with us – may we all continue to be inspired to walk our talk!

Living it up at the EWomenNetwork 2009 Conference

1. Live life Loud!

Not loud in the sense of noise, but, being authentic allows others to see your true gifts and talents shine through from the inside of you. This ‘aura’ gives those around you the permission they so often need to truly live the life of their dreams!

2. Serve from your saucer

Lisa Nichols provided the closing keynote and shared with us another version of one my favourite lessons in life (for those of you who’ve seen me speak – the oxygen mask): serve from your saucer. Women, in particular, are giving and nurturing by nature, but, learning to honour self first ensures that your cup ‘runneth’ over and therefore when you serve the world, you do so from your excess, or, your saucer!

3. Take action

As Albert Enistein so beautifully put “Imagination is more important than knowledge” and once you’ve imagined how you want things to be, take the inspired action to make it happen. (No excuses!)

All the best,

Heather

When I nominated myself for the EWomenNetwork 2009 International “Emerging Leader of the Year” award, I was never expecting to win. But when the email came a few months later announcing that I had indeed beat out all the other young, talented women in Vancouver BC and was being flown to Dallas as one of the twelve International finalists, you can imagine, I was stunned, excited and a little scared all at the same time. Since I was a little girl I dreamed of a day like this, where I would be up on stage in front of thousands of people, being honoured for achieving a level of success that set me apart from my peers. And as I stood on that stage and looked out to the crowd of 2500 people, introduced myself and gave thanks to my sponsoring chapter and managing director I experienced one of the happiest and most proud moments of my life.

2009 International Emerging Leader of the Year Finalists and their Managing Directors

Too often in my life I have worked incredibly hard to reach a goal or get to a certain place, only to have somewhat of a surreal experience that I was not wholly present for. This time, I set a clear intention of being there, in the moment, able to feel the sensations in my body as I reached this incredible goal. This small shift in consciousness left me feeling so incredibly full – exactly what I wanted and needed!

Though I was not named the Winner of this International award, and at the risk of sounding cliché, I feel like this experience was more of a ‘win’ than I could have ever expected. Amongst all the amazing women that I met and all the gifted speakers that I saw present throughout the week, I was given a very special gift: that of friendship with the other 11 stunningly amazing women that shared the honour of making this list of finalists for this prestigious award. Each one was incredibly bright, beautiful on the inside and out, gifted and talented, so much so, that as we got to know one another I couldn’t help but question my deservingness (is that a word?) of winning.  In the end, I know in my heart we all deserved to win and each won in our own special way.

This experience strengthened me and allowed me to grow in so many ways.  But, the greatest gift was in confirming my faith in the fact that in order to “see” our goals and desires become real in our life, we must first believe. Believe in ourselves, believe in our abilities, believe in our talents, believe in our ability to learn and grow and believe that we deserve. We deserve to live the life that we once only imagined as we drifted off to sleep at night.  The life we admired (and may have even been jealous of) when we saw someone else living it. The life our mothers and fathers told us we were capable of. The life we came here to live.

As a result of this past week I am even more committed to my dreams and goals than I have ever been in my life. I am so grateful to all the people who have supported up until now and whom I know will continue to support me in times to come.  And as a tribute to all my supporters, I will continue to walk my talk, dream big dreams and take action everyday to bring them in to reality in my life.  Thank you all!!

With love,

Heather

Business is changing and the old competitive model is being replaced by a new collaborative one. Businesses everywhere are being tasked with finding ways to mitigate and cut costs while remaining cutting edge in business. A great way to reach these goals is through collaboration and synergy. Listen to the podcast (link below) where I discuss the keys to collaborative success with Mhairi Petrovic of Out-Smarts.

Listen here:

the-out-smarts-podcast31-heather-white-on-collaboration

Enjoy the day!

Heather

A few weeks ago I was in a meeting with the director of a large west coast based sales team. We were chatting about the overall performance of the team, what the major competitors were up to in terms of activity and how they were (as an organization) approaching the market in lieu of the recent economic downturn. It was sad to hear all the doom and gloom in her voice as she plugged in the ‘tape recorded’ message that she’d obviously been sharing with her team, her colleagues and her customers. She used a lot of jargon and I must say that by the end of it – I was almost sucked in to the vortex of the way she was thinking and viewing her world. Customers don’t have access to financing, the competitor is being shady with their business practices and she has a team of 20% “Gretzkys” and 80% mediocrity. And to make matters worse she doesn’t believe that it’s possible for her to build and have a team of all Gretzkys. In fact, when I suggested that not only was this possible, but that I’d be happy to help make it a reality – there was total resistance on her part.

If you don’t believe that something is possible, you will never see the opportunity, take responsibility and make it a reality. If you tell yourself (and worse yet, your team) that it’s not possible – it won’t be. Your beliefs are self-fulfilling. And how shitty would it be if this kind of thinking was on the part of your leadership?

At the end of the conversation I was incredibly happy about the fact that I know, understand and believe that the way I think will continue to shape my vision, my action and my reality. I refuse to make excuses, continue to ask myself how I CAN and look for opportunities to get what I want.

It all starts with how you think!

Have a great day,

Heather