Day 10 – March 6, 2007


Not focused - Putting Energy in the wrong places

My big lesson over the past few days has been in figuring out where to apply my energy. I know what I should be doing, yet I’ve gotten off course by getting obsessed on the technology track.

I am so keen on getting this technology piece resolved – to simply pick up the phone, make a call, push a couple buttons and make clean recordings.

Instead I am now sitting with two hybrids, a mixing board, 4 computers (including a new desktop system), a computer system that is slow and likely going to need repairs, two different speaker systems, and a few days lost.

I am “close” … but I could spend another week getting closer and closer, and still not have what I want. I need to cut to the chase here:

Forget about getting all the recording stuff done. I could waste days and days more on that, and it still won’t serve me. I need to simply hire somebody to me get it dialed in. And that’s going to have to wait until after launch.

The computer system will have to be “good enough” for now. Just record Diana’s conversation with the cordless phone or the landline (I have a few gadgets that should enable me to do that). And with the ability to crank up the microphone on the headset, I should be able to get a fairly good mix.

But what is it about this obsession to just keep hammering away at something until I get it done? I could be at least one – possibly two – days ahead of myself if I could just see the big picture, change the things I can, forget the things I can’t, have the wisdom to see the difference, and the self discipline to step away and move on.

I’ve got a coaching call with Diana today, and I think that will be the focus of my call. Where do I do this behavior? Is it a fear of admitting I can’t do something, clinging to a “I can do it myself mode” … what?

So, today, back to the business. I have my list together of what the products are. Shall I just not bother with the desktop for now, knowing that it’s probably going to need some upgrades, possibly a disk wipe and clean install, etc?

That makes the most sense. Just use the laptops for now. I know where everything is, all the accounts are set up, etc. I can deal with the desktop issues once I’m launched.

Buy some more time with Rich and BSW … I simply don’t have the time right now to throw at trying to figure out this technology piece. I’ve got to get this business running.

So there’s the lesson – be able to stand back when necessary, look at the big picture – where you’re headed - admit when technology has the better of you, let it go, hire the experts, and move on.

A Dozen Days to Launch

Day 12 – March 4, 2007

I’m a dozen days away from my official launch date of March 15, 2007. Thought it’d be interesting and educational to keep a journal of it for my blog.

Today’s Top Priority - Get spreadsheet of all projects together

Right now – today - my biggest concern is getting a spreadsheet done that shows all the projects I have both coming up and what needs to be done for launch. I’ve always liked the Big Picture, and that spreadsheet should be both simple enough to give me the overview of where I’m at, and detailed enough to let me know my target and where I’m at right now.

Objective for Launch Day – Have website posted with Ethical Bribes to entice people to leave first name and email address

My first priority is about building the list – prospects who are interested in the products I will be selling, and creating and selling. The “how to” of that is giving people enough free products, aka “ethical bribes”, to ensure they’ll want to leave their first name and email address to sign up for my list. Then, through the magic of autoresponders, I can follow up with them.

I can always add products once I have those up and follow up with subsequent emails, but for now, figuring out which products will be my ethical bribes and getting them up NOW is my top priority.

So, my first priority is to get all of these ethical bribes prepared, uploaded, and available on launch day.

Getting/Creating products with others

I find that what I love doing is interviewing and researching, vs. creating my own products. I have been a journalist/writer for many years, and it makes sense to take this approach. Besides, it’s a great way to develop massive amounts of content quickly. Jut work with others that have what my list might want.

The bulk of the products I am initially offering are coming through an association I have with a woman named June Davidson. She is/has created many of the products I will be using for both promotion and for sale – especially on the business side.

I also have two interviews I’m posting more on the transformational side. One is an interview with Diana Chapman, a woman who is one of the hottest up-and-coming transformational coaches around. Another is with Ben Saltzman, who teaches the Enneagram to coaches. We have a good 45-minute interview. I expect the offerings on this side to grow over the months.

Coming up with the Best Name for My Business

I had a big round on what to name my business. I’d originally named it Coaches Gone Wild, but that turned out to trigger a lot of people because of how closely it sounds like Girls Gone Wild. Given that probably 80% of my target market is women, probably not a good idea.

So I did a survey with esurvyepro.com and had several names suggested. There’s a great service called eSurveysPro (http://www.esurveyspro.com/) which has a phenomenally great – and easy – system for getting online surveys posted.

I was going to go with YourCoachingSolution, but then TransformYourCoachingBusiness.com came to mind, and that speaks well to both the business and the transformational side. In fact, there’s good crossover between the two. So that’s what it’s going to be for now. The name, while important, isn’t critical.

More important is to get those products created and posted.

Setting a Deadline and Going for It

The amount of energy I’ve put into this business has gone up and down depending upon my interest level. I forgot something I learned a long time ago, and is now coming back to serve me: There’s incredible power in a deadline.

A deadline forces you to marshal all your resources to a critical moment. It makes you get the big picture, see what the top priorities are, and then work through them as quickly as possible.

I used to work as the photo editor at a weekly newspaper. Our work cycle was tied around the deadline. By 3pm Tuesday afternoon, everything had to be done. All photos photographed, processed, printed, laid out and in the system. Nothing short of a UFO landing in our town could change that. It made for a manic work lifestyle. My “week” basically started on Wednesday (the day the paper came out), then it would build and build until the next Tuesday when, once again, there would be the inevitable last-minute crunch to get everything done.

It’s amazing how much work I and everybody else at the paper got done on Tuesdays. It’s also amazing how wiped out we were afterwards.

But for the past year – since learning about this business model – I’ve been putzing along with it. Lots of learning, research, dreaming, and – well – putzing around. It’s sputtered along like a British car in need of TLC.

A deadline is to getting your business started as entering a race is to getting your car ready for competition.

Without it, I’ve been more or less like a ship adrift. I can generally see where I want to be, but it’s like “Yeah, looks good. I’ll get there someday, but right now I’d rather just drift around a bit longer.”

What I’ve discovered is that someday never comes. It stays out there, visible through the mist, but not concrete enough to set my directional finder on and yell “I’m going there.”

So to get to my goal – in this case, an operational business - I’ve finally put my line in the sand. March 15, 2007 is going my launch date, no matter what the situation. If some products aren’t ready, so be it. I can to them later.

Part of being lithe and competitive in the information marketing business (and life, for that matter), is accepting good enough. Forget about getting everything perfect; it’s not going to happen. If you get obsessed on perfection, you’ll get stuck spinning your wheels in an inconsequential section of a bigger picture.

So that’s it for today.

The big lessons and action items:

· Make the A-list of what needs to be done by launch date.
· That list will include: Must have, should have, would like to have.
· Put them on big sheets of paper in my upstairs office.
· Start working from the desktop now.
· Migrate the websites and all materials to the desktop computer.
· Set up the recording system “good enough” so I can do a recording with Diana Chapman.
· Get all the recording software set up so I can clean up the existing interviews I’m going to do.
· Order memory for my desktop system – 2 gigs min, possibly 4. Call Billy tomorrow to find out what kind it takes.
· Let “setting up the network” wait until I’ve launched the business.
· Get roboform on the desktop computer.
· Get LogMeIn.com on the desktop computer.
· Make sure I work out often enough to keep my sanity.
· Post this blog.

Near-death Experience gives a new Lease on Life

What’s the single word that keeps coming to mind after a near-death experience?

For me, it’s gratitude.

Have you had a near-death experience and then come out on the other side? I had one a week ago, and I can already feel it changing my life.

I was on a motorcycle ride with friends. We were headed north to Stanley, Idaho, a picturesque town in the heart of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

It was a perfect evening for riding – sunny, blue skies, mid 70’s, no traffic. I pulled ahead of the others and then glanced back in my rear view mirror to see where they were. I was riding somewhere near the 65 mph speed limit. I never saw it …

Hitting a deer at high speed

KAH-BOOOMPH!

My motorcycle slammed into something and pulled hard to the left. I felt a sharp pain in my left foot. The front end wobbled and the bike shuddered. I felt the bike wanting to go down on its left side.

And then an amazing thing happened …

My mind receded into the background. Things were getting so bad so fast that my brain realized it couldn’t think fast enough. Getting out of its own way was the only possible path to getting through this alive. As it did so, I was on the fast-track to reaching pure Being-ness – a space devoid of ego. I essentially had a blank mind in which thoughts and feeling could move through purely, without being tainted and manipulated by my egoic and mental processes.

In this crystalline space, I felt no fear or hesitation. And my purpose was absolutely clear: survive. From a divine place, instructions came blasting through:

“Steer right to get bike going straight again. Good. Gently slow down and watch wobble. Wobble is receding. Find cause. Look down. Fur – body – underneath motorcycle. Animal. Whatever you do, do not brake! Be with the bike and guide it forward. Engine out of control on full throttle. Kill engine. Not with key; go for kill switch. Good. Coast bike to stop …”

A quarter mile after the impact, I pulled to the highway shoulder, put down the kickstand, and got off my bike. My brain re-engaged and my Zen state vanished.

“What the frick just happened?!!!

I did a quick internal body scan to see how I was doing. Amazingly, everything was fine except for a sharp pain in my left foot. But I could walk. My jacket, pants, boots, and helmet were splattered with blood.

Janit and Karryn, on one of the two motorcycles following me, pulled up and asked me if I was okay. I said yes, then asked them if they knew what happened.

“You just ran over a deer.” I was stunned, then felt a mild shock start to sweep over. I did my best to put it in check. I wanted to concentrate on something, so I looked at my motorcycle.

The radiator was bashed in several inches. The nerf bars (a metal roll cage to protect the engine area) had buckled in and twisted to the left. The radiator grill was covered in blood, guts and fur. The left side of the motorcycle was covered in blood and entrails. But the forks looked okay, and the tire still had air. There was a small radiator leak. The engine area was hot and smelled like a barbecue.

Unbelievably, I was able to ride the motorcycle about five miles to a small station where I was able to pressure hose the bike and the radiator. From there, we finished our ride to Stanley, had dinner, then rode back.

Reconstructing the accident and realizing my good fortune

Now, a week later, I’m looking back on what I’ve been experiencing post-accident.

I know I was lucky. I hit that deer head-on traveling at over 100 feet per second. It fell under the bike and got snagged on the frame underneath my feet. The deer, motorcycle and I skidded 150 feet before the deer’s body detached. Somehow I managed to keep the whole thing under control.

Meanwhile, the deer’s guts had exploded into the throttle area and jammed it to full acceleration. And its body had wrapped around the outside of the bike and slammed into my left foot.

I’ve a relatively new motorcyclist, and this was only my second ride of 2006. I took a motorcycle safety course (through the excellent STAR program), read a few good books on emergency motorcycle handling, and had enough mountain and road biking experience to have instilled the critical command to not slam on the brakes.

Still, I consider my self extremely fortunate to have not dropped the bike. Some of it was luck, some of it was skill, and some of it – as far as I’m concerned – was a Guardian Angel delivered by the Universe at a critical moment.

If any one of a number of things had been different – the deer had been taller or heaver, the motorcycle had a lower suspension or no roll cage around the engine, etc. – I would have either crashed or been ejected from the bike, or the deer might have cover over the top of the bike.

In the event of a crash or ejection – because I had on full riding protection - I might have been lucky to survive with some minor or major injuries; maybe die. If the deer had come over the top of the bike, I’d be dead. The impact of being hit by a deer launched over your bike usually means a broken neck.

What happens after a near-death experience?

Physically, the only injury I sustained is to my left big toe. It’s not broken, but I can’t make it move. Some toe tendons might be torn or detached. Worst case scenario, I’m looking at possible surgery. Best case scenario … it will heal on its own.

Mentally and spiritually, it’s another matter altogether.

Sometimes I deal with the wreck in my sleep – probably a way for the mind and body to process what happened. For example, this morning I had a vivid nightmare of being in a car crash:

I was backing up pickup truck onto a road near where I live when an old, blue Buick Riviera crashed into my Toyota Tundra. I was thrown around and injured pretty severely. In this dream I thought, “Frick, not again.” And then, “This has to be a dream. Please, please, be a dream …”. And then having a deep fear when I felt, “No, this is real.”

Then I slowly woke up.

While still in that limbo land between dream state and reality, I thought, “Please, be a dream.” I slowly opened my eyes. I felt my left leg. It was elevated (to reduce swelling), and my toe throbbed in pain. Just enough stimulus to perpetuate the nightmare …

And then I realized I was probably okay, but I needed a confirmation. Still a bit groggy, I got up and looked out on my driveway. My truck was there … and it was okay. It hadn’t been in an accident. Relief.

Other times, I process it while I’m awake. Two days ago, while standing in line to order coffee, I was overcome with elation, and more than a few tears. I checked in.

“What am I feeling?”, I asked.

“Gratitude,” came the answer.

Gratitude for not being crippled or even injured very seriously. Gratitude for still being alive. Gratitude for getting a second chance at life.

I realize I’ve been given what is shaping up to be a huge gift: an event so powerful that it is forcing me to rethink – and likely recreate - my life at a fundamental level. Hey, some people are fortunate enough to know their life’s purpose right from the start. Others of us need a pretty good whack on the head to get our attention.

Those questions that are too easy to skip when life is “comfortable” come flying back on the radar screen:

• What really matters?
• Why am I (still) here?
• What gifts do I have to give?
• What is my mission and purpose?
• And how can I use this event to live my life to its fullest potential?

Doug Greene
Greenback Lane, LLC
Turning Coaches and Consultants into Infopreneuers
http://www.greenbacklane.com/