way

Free online learning course for Entrepreneurship

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:38:38 +0100

We have a new menu item now and its our brand new online learning course!

Give it a try it comprehensive and free! SO CLICK HERE

It is fully interactive and multimedia and was produced by the great guys at the Alison online university.

Once you have completed the course you can even get a certificate and we will send you to a special page with some great extra free tools to really get your business off the ground.

So what are you waiting for? There has never been a better time to start your business!

Our First App

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:19:33 +0100

My Grandfather used to say if you want to get something done ask a busy person!

So I am very happy to announce that I have taken my own time management systems and put them into our first Stone Soup Software APP for the iPad.

Its called iNow and you can buy it directly on the Apple App store for you iPad and it is designed to give you a better handle on what you need to be doing right now.

Based on the kinds of systems Air Traffic controllers use to manage a lot of things to do at once iNow make sit simple and tactile to priorities your life .

Another great book

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:47:13 +0100

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

Enjoyable though his prose is Tim Ferris has a very good message in the way me recommends that lifestyle design is both possible and important for the average person in the world. When you look deeply into his book the premises that he puts forward that one only really needs to work four hours a week to achieve pretty much any desired outcome is undoubtedly true in the current world order.

His book is packed with interesting insights as well as practical advice on how to make a new life for yourself and I agree with many of his points and much of his advice. If you wish to start a business that generates automated income or you wish to spend less time in the office and still keep your job I feel Tim has definitely found the answers.

At the same time the lifestyle the Tim has chosen for himself and that he recommends, replete with travel and mobility leaves me flat for I cannot see that a lot of what he is suggesting is sustainable and therefore if everyone decided to apply his techniques the world would not be able to sustain us all.

So while I highly recommend the book I suggest you take a long hard look at what you really want to contribute to the world as for me building good teams of people that do great things together is more rewarding and investing in one place and building a community is more fulfilling.

While we can see that it is still possible to exploit the lower labour costs of other countries is this really something that is going to be able to be sustained?

Still if you are currently working 8-6 or 9-5 and you are no satisfied with you life then Tim's book may be just what you need!

Small things

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:08:55 +0100

Counterintuitive stuff is what I am all about finding when i look at how people work. One the of the things that people do not realize is the impact of what I would call micro investment on the way people treat you.

I realized some time ago that the people I had done the most things for tended to be the ones who asked me the do the most stuff for them. After reading the book Sway I saw that all of these relationships whether they were good or bad started with a someone asking me a small favor.

You see once you invest a small favor in someone you want to make sure that you didn't waste your time so if they ask again for something you are likely to respond positively (especially if they were grateful for the first small favor you did and this is not a prerequisite).

We go around imagining that the last thing you should do is ask for favors but the fact is that if you don't you miss out on a great way of generating a connection with someone. you also get to see if someone is a total narcissist as they will refuse even the smallest favors.

It then struck me that the opposite is also true if someone treats you even slightly badly then they have invested in that and they will want to follow up their investment. Think of the times you have showed up at some bureaucrats desk and they have taken even a slight dislike to you. You never get what you want from this person and they may even start escalating, investing more and more in doing you a disservice in progressively worse ways.

This is another reason that first impressions may count because if the first time you meet someone you remind them of the high school bully well guess what you are not likely to be getting any favors anytime soon unless you make an huge effort. In fact if they start with a slight negativity to you, you may start by being less than positive towards them and it goes back and forth with both of you escalating till neither of realize why you have each other but you suddenly do.

So I tried an experiment the other day at the station I found out that my reservation had gone awry and I approached the most unhappy person behind the counters and they were deeply unhelpful. I then asked them to make change for me, a small favor they could not refuse, that done I started to turn away in disappointment about my reservation the person actually tapped on their glass window and said almost conspirationally that they might sort something out.

15 minutes later I had my ticket but more importantly I had turned a train of disservice into a short train of favors just by asking for a small favor.

Some great books to read

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:18:10 +0100

Recently I have been reading some brilliant books and I want to share them with you;

The first is the best and fastest evidence based self development book ever

59 Second by Richard Wiseman

The is a truly first rate book for understanding how to communicate with people in the most wonderful and compelling way

Just Listen by Mark Goulston

The third is a truly revolutionary book on understanding our hidden motivations

Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman

Read them all they will help to sharpen your Stone Soup skills!

Come join me at Venturefest!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:49:18 +0100

I am delivering a keynote speech at Venturefest York on how to make you business idea into a reality and I will also be available for a book signing and some networking.

I would love to see you there!

Where & When

Venue Name: York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York

Wednesday February 10th 2010.

Times:

Registration from 0800 with Exhibition open from 0830 - 1700

Breakfast Track 0730 - 0900

Drinks Reception and Celebration Dinner 1830 - 2230. Dress Code Lounge Suit.

Getting There

York Racecourse Knavesmire York YO23 1EX Tel: 01904 620911

York is easy to reach from all the UK’s larger centres of population with direct journeys by train from London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

By Car

York Racecourse is just outside the city of York with good motorway links from the M1 and A1. Once near the City, Venturefest Yorkshire will be signposted with blue RAC signs. Directions from your start point can be created by visiting http://rp.rac.co.uk/routeplanner

Free Car Parking is available on site at York Racecourse.

By Rail

Fast and frequent rail services operate from most major UK cities. For train times, ring National Rail Enquiries Tel: 08457 484950 or on line at www.nationalrail.co.uk/planmyjourney.

Shuttle Service

A Shuttle Service will operate to take delegates from York Station and York Racecourse.

By Air

Come and meet me and other entrepreneurs at Venturefest in York!

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:46:24 +0100

I will be giving a key note speech at Venturefest on how to make you business idea really happen.

There will be a book signing as well and some networking time so i'd love to see you there!

Venue Name: York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York

Wednesday February 10th 2010.

Times:

Registration from 0800 with Exhibition open from 0830 - 1700

Breakfast Track 0730 - 0900

Drinks Reception and Celebration Dinner 1830 - 2230. Dress Code Lounge Suit.

Getting There

York Racecourse Knavesmire York YO23 1EX Tel: 01904 620911

York is easy to reach from all the UK’s larger centres of population with direct journeys by train from London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

More reader feedback

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:50:11 +0100

HI Bill, thanks for your last message, will dig further into neo.org, last time it bounced me out as technical error, but have profile now and can move into it. I do not yet fully understand the neo, but I really really love it.

I have finished reading your book – but not at all digesting it (little pun there !). I found reading it very odd – I’d be coasting along thinking oh yeah I know that, been there done that and suddenly there was a little 45 degree turn that caught me off guard. For example, I am pretty good at deep listening and have taught it a lot, both to individuals and in many many seminars around leadership and especially dialogue. I’d use the kinetic tool of asking people to catch themselves as they take a deep breath ready to jump in as soon as the other person has stopped talking, how can you be listening if you are taking all those little deep breaths ready to pounce into the conversation. I teach the difference between discussion/concussion/percussion and dialogue and the Greek work origins. So I have spent a lot of time in this area. Yet on page 227, you reiterate your comments about deep listening and then – here comes the twist - -- recreating in yourself how it is for the person you are listening to without judging. You listen with an intention that has been stated. Listening deeply without judging while still holding an intention can be truly transformative. Listening to create ----.

Well ! That is what I mean about needing to digest.

My Bedouin guide came into this territory, but not as far as you go. – he was telling of an unique instance when some of the not most important men (not usually present,) were attending a village meeting. He explained that they talked about their issue, and then when people stopped listening they left. Aha, I pounced, how did they know when to leave, body language, the oldest man told them to leave, -- . Beja, my guide said condescendingly, they just knew, unlike you Westerners, we Bedouins can talk and listen at the same time, and they knew that people had stopped listening, just by listening - no body language, no signals, they just knew as they were intently listening as they were talking. And, he meant the sort of intuition that the Bedouins pride themselves on.

As I wove through your book with the ahas and oh, must look that reference up (and there are a lot of those, like the work of Sarasvathy) I kept touching on areas of familiarity, though work or experience, but nearly always with the twist (and not like a deeper dive, but a turn into new territory. The reading of course had the background of leadership training and reading and study and also of all the work my husband and I have done with entrepreneurs.

What is so much harder and will take a longer time to process is looking at the Stone Soup recipe and applying to the business ventures we have invested so much of our working life in and have not – any of them – yet turned out to yield abundance in terms of material well being or even security. Interesting intellectually, learningful, fun, very profitable in the short term and GREAT hopes for – IPOs/stock awards, equity stakes, long term employment, fascinating technology, really bright people --- but not turning out the way we had expected/hoped. I believe that your list of ingredients will match or rather NOT match to all of our failed energy/time ventures. I think one area for us to look at is the “testing for bad eggs” part; we have worked for/with those whose values we don’t espouse – too long, too many times as the other factors seemed to warrant putting up with “bad eggs” as they were in management power.

I used to have a rule that I would not work for/with people who did not like animals – and when I have broken that rule I have always been disappointed – I was pleased to note that you mentioned that you lived on your farm in Ireland with animals (as well as your family !). So that might be my addition to the recipe. I will go through the recipe and make additional mind maps, - for example I suspect that you (as obviously one of the most incredibly widely read people I have- does Amazon just locate a warehouse on your farm ?!) ; you probably know of Joe Jaworski and Synchronicity; otherwise I highly recommend it as one you would resonate with. http://www.psychicsahar.com/artman/publish/article_62.shtml

As a way of beginning to digest Stone Soup I used the mind mapping software you recommended and was delighted to see the software advances in this field since the last time I’d tried it. I’ve attached the mind map of my Stone Soup Resonances not for any ego reasons, but know you will be called to the book review/lecture circuit and think maybe it could be an interesting teaching aid, to suggest that readers put up a mind map and then make links as they read through. One could put in links to areas to be explored further so that you don’t have to stop reading, but are secure that you will remember what you wanted to explore further. Of course if we had the combination ereader/tablet computer this would be even easier.

Apologies for a too long email, but since you obviously read as well as listen, know I have imposed on you to follow me through this.

Love, Marilyn

Reader impressions

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:06:05 +0100

Hi Bill,

I read the rest of your book yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to anyone starting up or in business already. I read a lot of business books but this was the best one I’ve read in a long time. Your recipe for stone stoup is a great summary, here are 10 things that stuck out for me in the book:

Emotion – The importance of establishing an emotional relationship when you are going do to business with that person. I’ll particularly watch out for this in a sales role. The primary tool of a catalyst is emotion and it’s very important to have a catalyst in an organisation.
Listening – This is something you have stressed before and I am already working on. One thing I will do going forward is always switch off a phone during a meeting, sometimes I have it on silent but I realise now that it’s just a distraction that I don’t need and to listen to recreate you need to remove all distractions. Also the importance of listening when you are the person talking to see if the other person is really getting what you are saying.
Contribution – You said that a conversation is always better if you think that you enter the conversation wanting to make someone’s day. After reading this chapter I went for a walk to the beach and I came across a man with a trowel putting sand into a bag. I had a conversation with him after reading your book and thought what could I do to make his day. I offered to go back to my house to pick up a shovel and bring it down to help him put sand in the bag. Although he declined it put a great smile on his face and he thanked me for being so thoughtful.
Charity work – I realise now it’s not about giving money to charity and it’s not about charity. It’s supporting a project that will make a positive and lasting change to people’s lives and giving people hope. At the moment I’m using my social media skills to help the Angels project. This involved helping them setting up their social media strategy but even more important using my network to advance this project. I introduced Nollaig who is heading up this project to the guys in the world peace festival. They are very excited about the Angels coming to Berlin so Nollaig is going off to try and get funding for this project. Through me giving up my time and contributing it is going to have a far bigger impact that me just writing a cheque. Of course there are projects that need funds to get up and running and this is a very good reason to be a successful entrepreneur so I can use all my resources to support a project.
Excecution – It makes perfect sense that sitting in a room for months on a solution to a problem ends up a complex solution with significant emotional attachment that it take a huge effort to revert, whereas, trying something, finding it out it’s the wrong thing and then going again is much easier and much more effective.
Belief – A powerful source of motivation and focus. I now have the belief that I will be successful.
Inspiration – If somebody is not inspired by what we do in RazorCoast they are not welcome.
Women – The importance of having a good woman in an organisation. Colette (my wife) is doing some work with me on RazorCoast and I find that I bounce a lot of things past Colette and get to see things from a different perspective which is very useful.
Replace the word ‘but’ with ‘and’
Through keen judgement, networking and awareness you create more opportunities for serendipitious things to happen. A friend who was made redundant from a consultancy company was considering setting up a similar consultancy practice. I advised him to pick off his top 50 customers and visit them all when you have nothing to sell. Just ask their opinion. Who knows what will happen but the chances are you’ll get an offer for some work and you’ll get many ideas regarding the type of consultancy company you should be starting.

I’ll put up a review on Amazon to-day.

Thanks and congratulations on delivering a fantastic resource for entrepreneurs.

Ian Cleary
Web: www.razorcoast.com
Blog: www.razorcoast.com/blog
Skype: icleary
Twitter: ianmcleary
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/iancleary
Ph: 01-2401321 / 086 2252915

Response from a reader about management and the emotional bond.

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:49:57 +0100

Hi Bill,

As a manager in previous companies I was always able to get my team to work really well together even under intense pressure in start up companies with limited resources and deadlines we could not miss.

After reading Chapter 2 I realise that it was my ability to build up a 1 to 1 personal connection with each person in the team and I did this everywhere I went. It didn’t matter what type of personality each person had in the group I was still able to build up that connection.

One time in a previous company my manager was a problem generator and managed by fear couldn’t get any of his development team to work late to deliver a project. He threatened them not to leave until work was done and every person left at 5 o’clock, he offered to pay them extra money for staying late and still they went home. He wondered how I used to get them to stay late so I told him my secret – I ask them!

I meet with the team and let them know the importance of achieving the deadline and they put in the hours necessary to achieve the deadline. There is no argument, there is no aggression. When we deliver the project we all go out and celebrate.

I now also realise you were building an emotional connection with our new developer at our meeting. I also realise that in my management role I really recognised the importance of an emotional connection but I have not translated that to my sales role. I am thinking of the sale process before making that connection. That is a change I will implement immediately.

Let me know if I’m off track on my interpretation of parts of chapter 2 above.

I’m looking forward to chapter 3.

Jeff

You are perfectly on track!
- Bill