The Personal Touch

It has been over a year since I started our LinkedIn group for Company of Women and we have over 1,000 members from around the world. That’s pretty neat when I consider that I really just started it on a whim, thinking it would be a way to get us involved in the social media arena. 

Back then, women were quick to join and I must admit to a moment of panic as I fretted about what to do with the group. As I wrote in my book, I decided to ask the women involved what they wanted, and you know what that has worked. Often there are as many as 15-20 discussions going on at one time, and women are listening and giving each other good advice. 

But I am still old-fashioned – I like meeting people face-to-face. It’s a bit like dating online, there comes a time when you need to meet in order to deepen the relationship. 

Recently I have been running our Company of Women 101 sessions myself. In the past I had delegated them to staff, but you know what – I am excited to doing them again. It gives me an opportunity to meet new women business owners, to build relationships and to share my passion for Company of Women and what we have to offer. 

So yes, get involved in social media, but don’t forget the personal touch, that’s the icing on the relationship-building cake.

Jack’s Legacy

Like many Canadians I watched Jack Layton’s funeral. It was a moving tribute to a man who represented and crusaded for ordinary people from all walks of life. Like his inclusivity when he was alive, the people who spoke, sang and performed at the service were all speaking to his warmth, passion and interest in equality for all.

No matter what your political stripe, people admired and respected Jack. He represented a type of politician that we rarely, unfortunately, see – someone who was honest, treated everyone with respect and valued the opinions of others. He was authentic.

You just hope that his legacy will live on and that the politicians in the audience listened, reflected on his message and determined to change the way they do business. Like many, I am tired of the hostility, game-playing and manipulation that has become an integral part of politics today.

Too much time is spent trying to win a point, to score a slight against an opponent, instead of finding ways to work together, to improve Canada and to focus on what is important.

We need hope, optimism and love. We need Jack’s vision to live on. We need to be proud to be Canadians.

Getting Past Myself

This week I met with book coach Sabaina Malik to talk about how to literally get the word out about my new book – Day by Day - Tales of Business, Life and Everything In Between.

As she talked about what I could do to create a buzz about the book, I realized that what was holding me back, was me. “You’re too modest, Anne.” she observed. Like many women, I am uncomfortable about selling myself and given that the book is about my life and the lessons I have learned – it really is all about me.

Why do we do that? I’ve had a very successful career, have accomplished a lot and I believe I have made a difference in the lives of others; so it’s not that I lack confidence in myself, yet I still hold back from tooting my own horn. Maybe it is my British background, because growing up in the UK, it would be deemed highly inappropriate to brag about yourself.

Maybe we need to follow the example of our southern sisters because they don’t seem to have the same difficulty in selling themselves. But there is a fine line between being confident and being in someone’s face.

Or maybe I just need to take my own advice because in the book I talk about slaying dragons and facing fears head-on. My fears there concerned driving into the unknown, especially on highways and public speaking – and I am getting better on both fronts.

But I sometimes wonder if my fear in this instance is the fear of failing, that people won’t like my book, and because of its content, by extension won’t like me. There I said it. As Jane Fonda said the other night, the disease of pleasing. I know better and I need to get over myself.

“But the other challenge,” Sabaina remarked, “is that people see you as the founder of Company of Women, not as an author.” So she recommended that I first start to identify myself as a writer because if I don’t believe it myself, how can I expect other people to.

My homework is to write my bio as an author, which given this is my third book, shouldn’t be a stretch, I just have to remember I can write.

So let me start by introducing you to Anne Day, author – OK Sabaina - accomplished author.

Memory Lane

At the risk of aging myself, do you remember that song How Much is that Doggie in the Window? It was one that my father would sing to me when I was a child.

So you can imagine my delight when we spotted this little dog in a shop window. It wasn’t a pet store, just a general shop that sold assorted items. The dog clearly belonged to the owner and did not seem too happy to be there.

When I used to teach the course Your Child’s Self Esteem I would often ask the parents to reflect back on their own childhood and identify a time when they were happiest. The most frequent answer – special time spent with a parent.

Seeing that dog brought back similar memories for me. My father would have chuckled at the photo we took and worse, would likely have burst into song. Not a good thing.

Summers Past

On a recent radio show with Jann Arden, she was asking the audience to phone in and talk about their worst summer job. It was fascinating to hear what people had to say and that day I asked several people the same question and got a similar reaction – in that people said they took what they could get to earn some money. Is that what happens today? I wonder.

It is good to reflect back on where we have been. I had numerous jobs over the summer months, but one of the most boring, and therefore in my estimations the worst was packaging letters of the alphabet in a company that produced letters to go on briefcases and the like. It was tedious and did not require much thought, other than knowing the alphabet.

Another time I worked as a chambermaid in a hotel and discovered what slobs people could be and how well or not, they treated people in service. Then there was the time I worked in the kitchen of a hospital, delivering meals to patients.

It seems to be me that I have come a long way from those early more menial jobs, but it is good to remember where you started. What about you? What did you do?

To me those summer jobs built character and an appreciation of what you didn’t want to do when you grew up.

Are you a giver or a taker?

Recently over lunch a friend and I shared different stories of how someone had taken advantage of us. As we chatted we came to the conclusion that in life there are givers and there are takers.

When you are giver, it is second nature to want to help someone. I remember years ago meeting up with someone who was starting a group similar to Company of Women. I shared information freely, wanting to help her be successful and avoid some of the mistakes I’d made.

Imagine my surprise when I went to her launch to see not only how she’d benefited from my advice, she’d copied everything we did. I mean everything. Even the website looked like a replica. Now I have to take some ownership for the outcome because I never spelled out that she couldn’t copy our material but that was because it never crossed my mind that she would. I guess I was naive.

I am not sure if it is this tight economy, but more and more I am bumping up against the takers, who put making money (for themselves) above all else. And I never learn. I guess I see everyone through my own rose-tinted glasses, and believe that they will work with the same integrity I bring to my business.

But sadly no. As both my friend and I have found. It is discouraging, and it makes us givers, less willing to give and more cynical about these “win-win” alliances.

I guess at the end of the day, all you can do is take responsibility for your own actions. Act with integrity, and know that at least you can sleep at night, having been true to your values.

It’s a Small World After All

I know, I was supposed to be on vacation, but I couldn’t resist buying a British business magazine when I was in the UK.

The UK, as an aside, is a country that has a magazine for every topic and hobby, and yet few small business magazines, so I was interested to read Start Your Own Business.

You can therefore imagine my surprise and pleasure to find our very own Sarah Prevette of Sprouter, highlighted as one the top twenty young entrepreneurs. Her photo was the first one I saw as I turned the pages. Way to go Sarah.

But it made me realize that we really are doing business on a global scale. No longer are we limited to our local communities, and with the Internet, the whole world is open to us.

Makes me think of a song from my parents’ era – In his hands he’s got the whole world. Well you know what, so do we. It may be fair to say that the only limitations are those we place on ourselves. So think big, think global.

All in a Day’s Work

Well it’s official. I am a farmer’s wife. I just gained my badge.

Let me explain. This year we have taken on six cows, and like their predecessors, they have tended to keep a low profile, and we only eyeball them when they come up to the trough for water, which given this heat, has been more often than usual.

So as I was driving down our driveway, heading for the office, out of the corner of my eye I spotted one of our cows – in an open field, far from where she should have been. She was guzzling with glee at the new fodder in this field, unperturbed that she now had an audience – a rather well-dressed one at that!

We have a farmer who helps with the cattle, so I went over to give him a shout. Fortunately he was up (it was early) and over we went to round up our delinquent cow.

After quick debate, we decided the best way was for the two of us to get her to voluntarily take herself back to the field.

Hugh chased after her and as a result, she headed in my direction. Now I don’t know about you, but I am not well-versed in what to do when a cow is coming straight for you, or for that matter, on how best to get it to go anywhere.

So I stood firm, waved my arms and shouted Whoa. I know – it’s a cow, not a horse, but hey – it worked and after a couple of shouts of whoa – she jumped, yes jumped, over the fence to join her buddies.

Lesson learned – there may be some merit to the rumour about the cow jumping over the moon – because they can sure jump.

Thumbs Up

I have a confession to make – I am container-challenged.

It’s a recent phenomenon, but I know it's not going to get better, only worse.

And it is not selective – cans, bottle tops, lids, jars of jelly – you name it, I have trouble opening it.

Why? One of the joys of aging, I guess, is that I now have arthritis in my thumbs. Let me tell you – you don’t realize what you use and need your thumbs for, until it becomes hard to use them – the button on the electric tooth brush, the can opener, even flushing the toilet.

So for Mother’s Day this year my kids bought me every gadget known to man to help me open those elusive jars and cans. The dog is sure happy – his meals are looking up again.

And now those screw top wine b bottles are opened with a quick twist.

So cheers! I am giving these gadgets the quick thumbs up.

Check Your Motives Before You Write

In a recent blog, Seth Godin advocated keeping our writing simple. So often he points out, people take forever to get to the point, use long words and jargon and are frankly quite boring.

I’ve often found so much depends on the purpose of the writing. Is it to educate and inform the reader? Or is it more about you, and the opportunity to show off your knowledge?

Your reason for writing will impact the way you write. When you are genuinely trying to get a point across, or hopefully educate the reader, then there’s less jargon and the wording is simple. When it’s all about you, and this opportunity to showcase your “stuff,” people tend to trot out their most elaborate vocabularly, try to sound superior with their use of jargon and are often long-winded, reluctant to give up the “written” stage.

Years ago when I was working as a consultant I was asked to synthesize several lengthy research documents into ten pages that would convey the research findings in layman terms to a group of school trustees. I did it but not without some challenges from one person on the committee. She wanted some of her statistical data included but from my perspective it didn’t add to the knowledge of the readers, and in fact could have confused them as it introduced another tangent to an already complex topic.

Truth was she wanted it included because it highlighted her expertise, not because it would add to the learning. Our ego is a funny thing and it can sometimes get in the way of doing what’s right; of forgetting about the reader and putting ourselves first instead.

As an editor I often come up against the writer’s ego, and sometimes the writer can’t take the objective observations about their piece, forgetting that my goal is to make an article understood and valued by the reader.

Contrary to their belief, it is not all about them. It’s not personal. It’s about getting the point across succinctly and in an interesting way that will hold the readers’ attention.

So next time you have to write something, ask yourself why am I doing this? Your answer may shape what you produce and when it is more about the reader, and less about you, you’ll find the right words.

Stiffer Rules Around Spam

Are you ready for the new Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) Bill C28 which will be enforced later this year? This law requires express consent for most commercial-related messages. It also requires that you inform consumers about how personal identifiable information such as an email address will be used.

And ignore the law at your peril, because the fines are steep, with a potential penalty of $1 million for individuals and $10 million per business per day. With C-28, the burden of proof is on the sender and marketers must clearly inform consumers about what exactly they are opting in to and you need to articulate your privacy policies.

Here are a few steps you can take now to get ready for when the law is enforced.

• Outsource your direct e-mail marketing efforts to a reputable e-mail sending service like Constant Contact
• Clean up your mailing lists.
• Get consent from people now.
• Avoid renting or buying lists.
• Adopt e-mail best practices based on permission-based marketing.
• Have an opt-out option on your e-mail marketing

A word of caution, picking up a business card from a display at an event, and then adding the person to your email list, does not constitute permission-based marketing. If the person handed you the card, maybe, but if they don’t remember you, never met you at the actual event, you run the risk of your email being considered spam and that could be a costly error on your part.

Fine Line - Lessons from News of the World

We were in the UK when the demise of the News of the World newspaper occurred. We even purchased the last issue which highlighted the stories they'd run in their long history as a newspaper. You know, much as I disapprove strongly of the hacking and the strategies they used to get a lead on a news breaking story, they actually had been responsible for exposing a fair number of crimes and scams over the years. It is too bad they crossed the line.

Because, it is a fine line between investigative journalism and intruding in people’s privacy, particularly at a low point in their lives when they’d tragically just lost someone dear to them. Now that is both criminal and inhumane.

It speaks to the overpowering ambition of some people/organizations where getting the story and the “supposed” kudos for being the first to reveal all, takes over from decent, human behaviour. I wonder if the journalists involved ever questioned themselves, or chose to ignore their gut feeling that what they were doing was wrong. To them, the means justified the end result.

In business we also face decisions about which path to take to realize our goals. My advice, listen to your gut. Don’t do something where someone will get hurt, because at the end of the day, the person most damaged will be yourself and your reputation, and that can be hard to repair.

Writing My Way To Success

On Tuesday as editor of the Puslinch Pioneer, I had the pleasure of presenting the Pioneer’s award to a young girl at the local school.

It took me back to when I was in high school and was editor of the school newsletter. Little did I know back then that I would end up with several careers where strong writing skills were a requirement.

First it was funding proposals to get funding for the charities that I worked for; and then it was writing a parenting column for the local newspaper. Later I became editor of a national parenting magazine.

During my stint at government, I wrote briefing notes for politicians and a successful $13 million cabinet submission to fund women’s programs. While in my consulting practice, I often wrote lengthy reports with recommendations on service delivery or I would be hired to take a long document and synthesize the main concepts and translate it into terms that the layperson would understand.

I list all this because it just shows that our skills are transferable and my writing skills took me from being a fundraiser to a funder; from being a columnist to being an editor and from being a consultant to being a marketer; and from being a publisher to writing a book. The bottom line is that my writing skills were my entry into a diverse world where those skills were not just required, but valued.

So often I look at young people and they seem paralyzed by fear about making the wrong career decision, when in reality, if they have an employable skill set, they can find work in many industries. It is honing those skills that will bring them a career that is interesting and worthwhile.

As parents we need to help our children discover their talents, because, while it may not always be that obvious, all of us come to this world with our own unique set of skills, attitudes and talents. It is uncovering their passions that will help them to find their way.

The Battle of the Bulging Inbox

It has been a month now since I cleaned up my act – email wise – and I am proud to say that I am still managing the flow of emails. In fact I have become quite competitive about it – with myself and others in the office, and have taken to bragging about how few emails remain in my inbox.

Guess I’ve become a bit like the former smoker – nothing worse – with little tolerance for others who have not seen the light and changed their ways. But you have to reach rock bottom (6,500 emails did it for me) to recognize that something has to change.

However, the real test will be when I get back from vacation. Two weeks away and I will have to navigate my way through hundreds of emails. Having shed the weight of all these emails, I am determined, like the weight-watcher, to stick with it, because it is freeing and I feel tons lighter with all those emails gone. Forever.

It's a numbers game

Last week’s Fifth Annual Journey 2 Success Conference seemed to be all about numbers in a way. First it was a sold-out event, with over 208 women participating which thrilled us, as the conference is expensive to put on and so every year we take the risk and just pray we will get the numbers.

Our first speaker, Dr. Elaine Dembe, spoke about the ten characteristics of resilient people, while Dianne Buckner, host of Dragons’ Den, shared her observations on the top ten traits of successful entrepreneurs and we ended the day discussing the eight tenets of leaders.

Sandwiched in between, we heard from a panel with Julia Hanna, a businesswoman who has owned four successful restaurants, all of which are still running in an industry where 90 percent close in the first year.

Nadja Piatka, on the other hand, built her food manufacturing business, as she says herself on adversity, with only $500; baking muffins in her kitchen. Today she has a multi-million business selling her products to McDonald's and Subway.

Our third panelist, Lesley Andrew had also beat the odds, turning her learning challenges into a successful creative career, and when she sang It’s a Wonderful World in her beautiful soprano voice, there was hardly a dry eye in the room.

Back in school many of us may have struggled with math. Today likely many people have the same quandary with social media. What’s Twitter? How do I link-in? Isn’t Facebook just for young people? With only thirty minutes, Lisa Kember was able to give us a quick overview with some great tips, but it still raised more questions than answers for newbies in the crowd.

So when I announced that we were launching Techie Tuesdays in the fall, when the women can learn hands-on, there was a lot of interest in the crowd. Just like math, it’s important we grasp social media because it is the way of the future. And talking of numbers, the good news is that the price is right – most of it is free.

No matter what your business is – it truly is a numbers game. Number of customers, how much money you have invested in your business, your cash flow, and in our case, numbers of bums in seats. It is all a risk, but when you know your numbers, when you pay attention to them, you stand a better chance of succeeding.

The date for our next conference has some interesting numbers too – June 12, 2012 - a date to remember. Hope you will join us.

Please Be Seated

There’s been a real buzz this week about our conference and with the flurry of last minute registrations, it’s clear that women really want to be there. And they are coming from all over the province from Sault Ste Marie, Haliburton, Peterborough to Ottawa.

This is our fifth conference and I have to say everything has just fallen into place. We know what we are doing, have a system in place and it has, touch wood, gone like clockwork. Of course, you can never tell what can happen the day of the event but by that stage it is more a case of going with the flow and making it work.

As I sat with the seating plan, trying to make sure that with each change in seating (there are three), no one was sitting with someone they had already met, I felt like the wedding planner. I am not sure people realize how much planning and consideration goes into making events like weddings and conferences work so everyone gets the most out of the experience.

I used to do the seating plan for the annual ATHENA Gala, and would spend hours trying to make sure I’d grouped people appropriately. Now that was often for 400 people and I have to confess towards the end, I would start to question why I was making such an effort. Then I would hear back from people that their table was special, and it seemed all worthwhile.

Same with the conference. I started off trying to assign people to groups where I thought there might be some synergy, but the closer we got to midnight, the more I began to rationalize to myself that someone was in that group because they were meant to be, nothing to do with my engineering the connections. After all, it’s up to every participant to make the most of the experience.

So three more sleeps and it will be all over for another year. I always find myself on a downer the day afterwards. It is such an anticlimax – months of work and preparation and it is over in a flash. But hopefully the knowledge, learning and connections the women gain through the conference will carry on for months to come.

Stretching the Truth

There are some business lessons to be learned from the two recent cases of people who stretched the truth on their use of the HOV lane.

First there was the pregnant woman who claimed that there were two passengers – herself and her baby. She was certainly sort of telling the truth, but it was a very generous interpretation of the rule. The second case was much more devious and the man was charged. What did he do? He had a blown-up, dressed doll in the car. To me this was a blatant attempt to beat the system. He just wanted to reach his destination faster.

But it didn’t really pan out the way he expected I am sure. When we try to take short cuts, stretch the truth or exaggerate about what we have achieved or can do, we run the risk of getting caught out and bringing discredit to our reputation. Honesty is the best policy.

In business, I’ve met people who oversell what their product can do, or what benefit they can bring to an organization. Plus you never know who knows who. I never forget reading a resume in which the person claimed to be the lead in a certain project. She wasn’t to know that I would be reading her resume but as the person who HAD been in charge of the project, I could quickly attest that this wasn’t true, which caused us all to question what else was false or a stretch of the truth.

The English language is a persuasive tool that can be used to mislead others. We hear what we want to hear, rather than the actual truth. Over the years I have been nominated numerous times for the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award. When you say it quickly, it might sound as if I actually won it, but I never have. It is those sorts of interpretations which yes, can work in your favour but you have to be careful.

When you exaggerate about what you do, or give off a false air of self-confidence, it can come back to bite you. I’ve noticed that I will chatter on about my accomplishments when I am feeling insecure or feel the need to prove myself, but afterwards I regret it. I now really try to catch myself before I get caught up in that cycle of insecurity.

Having said that I am a big component of faking it until you make it – but it has to be done with honesty, not by totally misleading the other person.

Yup, honesty is the best policy. Be who you are, warts and all. People will respect you for your authenticity. Taking short cuts doesn’t always mean that you reach your destination faster. Sometimes it can derail your plans.

BLITZING MY INBOX

How many email are lingering in your inbox? That many? If I had to answer that question at the beginning of the week, my answer would have been 6,500. Yes – six-thousand-five-hundred. Now ask how many I have? Ten – one-zero.

It took me all day. I closed my office door and hunkered down to sort through them all. Many were deleted, others transferred to the appropriate folder and some were replied to, with great apologies for the delay.

Every year around this time, I declare war on my inbox, but I can honestly say this is the first time I have systematically worked my way through them all. One year I started off, grew impatient and just deleted them all. Error. A step I later regretted when I was looking for a crucial email.

So this time I am literally starting with a clean slate. How long do you give me to keep this up? My challenge is I get hundreds of emails a day, so it is hard to keep on top of it all. But I am competitive with myself so maybe this time it will work.

And if you haven’t heard back from me – don’t worry – you are on the list!

WE CAN DO IT - WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS

Bringing a group of powerful, strong women together is always exciting. The fact that they all owned their business, were successful and leaders in their own right, made the meeting even more dynamic and you could feel the energy in the room.

On Thursday, the National Task Force on Women’s Business Growth held its fourth roundtable – this time in Toronto. Three roundtables had already taken place across Canada, and I suspect the conversations were similar.

While more and more women are starting their businesses, the growth of their ventures is slower to their male counterparts. Why is that? And more to the point, what can we do to change this situation? These were the topics under discussion at the roundtable.

We had sixty-four women in attendance, representing all types of businesses. Following a report on the latest research, a panel presentation from three successful entrepreneurs, the women were divided into groups to look at supplier diversity and procurement; access to capital; adoption of technology and training needs.

As the facilitators from each group reported back, you could see some common threads. First women needed to be more confident in their abilities to succeed and to actively seek out opportunities to grow their businesses, and it was identified that role models and mentors were needed who could show the way.

Another frequent observation was a lack of financial literacy which hindered growth. As a result, accessing capital became a scary prospect and one that women often chose not to pursue.

We actually had three groups of women from the IT sector which was gratifying to see as so often they are striving to get ahead in a male-dominated industry and they came up with all sorts of innovative strategies to keep us connected and supporting one another.

Different mechanisms and delivery options were considered in terms of training so as to fit into the busy schedule of women business owners and it was recognized that women business owners often seemed reluctant to invest in themselves.

And talking of time, we ran out of it. We’d been together for four hours and the meeting ended on the cusp of exploring solutions that could help and support women business owners. But this was just the beginning, and having the women all in one room to start the dialogue gave credibility to the need for change and the desire for it to happen.

Stay tuned.

STAY STATIC AT YOUR PERIL

I’ve just been watching a show about a bakery that needs to change - its products to meet the needs of their clients and the layout of the store so it becomes contemporary and attracts younger shoppers.

The owner is really set in her ways and despite the expert’s advice and a tour of successful bakery, is digging her heels in because she doesn’t want to change what she is doing. Actually she is not listening – to her customers or to the expert they’ve called in to save her bakery.

No one says change is easy but if we stay complacent or set in our ways, then the outcome is not likely to be positive. As Einstein says “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

After doing a trial run with different breads, the owner has to acknowledge that there was lots of interest in the new, healthier types of bread. However, while she has agreed that the speciality breads might work, she is taking short cuts and using bread mixes instead of making the breads from scratch. From the expert’s point of view, she’s totally missed the point and her controlling, passive aggressive behaviour is dooming the move forward.

Her rationale for her resistance is that she has been running her business for over 36 years and done well, thank you very much. I was in awe at the expert’s tenacity in trying to get her to change her mind but in the end, the business owner turned down all the ideas and suggestions.

So how set in your ways are you? Are you open to change? What does it take to get you to change direction? A decline in revenue or customers; constant feedback emphasizing something you don’t want to hear? Well, ignore at your peril. Even the most successful business cannot rest on its laurels, part of staying successful is staying current and innovative.

Plus, don’t you get bored with the same old, same old? I do.