Pebblestorm

What is that special, unique combination (your twist) of talents that you enjoy practicing, are great at, and are framed in a way that is meaningful to others? What is your Unique Genius?

Come join us this Wednesday, October 29th at 6p-7p PST if:
– You’re simply curious as to what this whole crazy PebbleStorm thing is about
– You’re searching for inspiration or meaning in work.
– You’ve worked through the Unique Genius handout, and have questions about it or would like to discuss it.
– You’ve participated in a past PebbleStorm event, and have follow up questions.

1. Introduction (15 minutes)
* What is a Unique Genius, and why is it important?  How do you uncover yours?  What do you do with it?  How can you build your dream business around it?  Also see below for a link to download a worksheet.

2. Discussion, Q&A (45 minutes)
* Interactive discussion between myself and attendees about the prior topics.
* If you have questions you’d like me to answer on the call, you can email me any ahead of time at aaron (at) pebblestorm (dot) com.
* Otherwise, feel free to just join as a listener.

Updated Unique Genius Worksheet
I updated it as of 10/21/08.  Email me for a copy at aaron at pebblestorm dot com.  You don’t need to get this prior to the call, but I’d recommend it and at least looking through it.

Conference Call Details
Date: Wednesday, October 29th
Time: 6pm PST
Dial-in: (605) 475-6006
Access Code: 366946#

If you’re new to PebbleStorm, here are two links you can explore ahead of time:
About PebbleStorm
A Pebblestorm Overview – From HUB

A regular schedule of conference calls

Two weeks ago, we had a conference call on “Discovering your dream business,” with about 10 active participants and a half dozen listeners. One of the requests that came from it was for me to create a space to continue the conversations we started, say every couple of weeks.

After the call on this coming Wednesday (29th), I will put together an ongoing schedule of future conference calls (and create a dedicated page here on PebbleStorm for the schedule of events).  For now, they’re free, and all that I ask in return is that if you attend, please tell 10-20 friends about PebbleStorm.  At some point, perhaps December, perhaps after the New Year, I’ll revisit/redesign what’s free vs. fee-based.  I’m always looking for requests of what YOU would want, so don’t be shy in sharing ideas or asking for formats/help at aaron [at] pebblestorm [dot] com.

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Below is an email I recently sent to a group of inspired entrepreneurs in Washington D.C., organized by Klia Bassing of www.VisitYourself.net. I feel this note could help others see a new perspective on what’s going on with these financial and economic earthquakes. As painful as they are now, they’re helping us in an important transition in business, from a “pushing/pestering” energy to a “attracting” energy.  For most PebbleStorm readers, even if you don’t understand exactly what I mean by this, I’ll bet that idea or those words resonate for you. This isn’t an overnight change, and it will take more years to fully realize.  Meanwhile, the harder people and organizations hold onto the ‘prior’ way of doing business, the more painful it will be for them and their communities…

———————

Hi Seedbed’rs!

I hope everyone is weathering both the literal storms and financial market storms. The financial market problems are one symptom of a massive change in how business works, from one of  promotion (driven by a hunger for money and prestige), to one of attraction and receiving (driven by a desire for enjoyment and inspiration).  This will be, it is, a very painful shift for many people and entire organizations.

I’m sharing here a v1.0 handout I created for the PebbleStorm Open House event I had recently in Los Angeles.  The intention of the handout, and the idea of “unique genius”, is to help you or anyone reflect on what kind of dream business you would create for yourselves. Once you have a vision of it…you can begin to make it!  Even if it might take years…better to start now than later 🙂

Download the Unique Genius Handout – 090308

Here is one other exercise around pausing to reflect on “what do I really want for myself?”
https://pebblestorm.com/2008/04/17/the-original-small-pebble-big-wave-self-manifesto/

All the best,

Aaron Ross
aaron (at) pebblestorm (dot) com
PebbleStorm.com: “Make money through enjoyment”
CEOFlow.com: “Make money through enjoyment” (for organizations)
BuildASalesMachine.com: “Create predictable revenue”

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I have a bunch of reminders up on a wall near where I work.  I believe that PATIENCE is a vital part of making money through enjoyment.  The “urgency addiction” we’ve all been trained to believe is so important just gets in our way of 1) creating a truly unique, resonant dream business, and 2) our enjoyment in creating it.

Do more by doing less – 80/20 rule

It’s not the quantity of stuff that you do that matters, it’s the quality or resonance of what you do. 80/20 rule: 20% (or less) of what you do will create 80% (or more) of the results.  So focus on finding the 20%!

Patience is important in helping you sift the “gold from the fool’s gold.”  It’s easy to come up with a bizillion ideas for your business – blogs, products, features, events, content, lead generation ideas…blah blah blah.  Time, even a few days or weeks, helps you sift through the ideas worth doing from the ideas to leave behind.  What would really be meaningful to customers?  What kind of dream business do you really want to create?

It’s tempting to think “if I just get more of these ideas done, it’ll help my business, right?”  But – you and your business, no matter how big it gets, will never have the capacity to execute on all your ideas. Even if you become a billion-dollar company. So instead of trying to do MORE, focus on finding the idea nuggets, the diamonds in the batch, that will truly make a difference (which takes patience).

It’s quality of experience, not quantity of features or marketing programs, that draws customers to you. For example, customers won’t care, use or consume most of the features, content and marketing efforts you produce.  Before doing much marketing, be patient in tuning your business, testing your product/packaging/messages. Do you still have to ‘push’ people into buying, or do people connect with it and come to you?  If you still have to push or pester people to get their attention or to buy, it’s a sign you haven’t tuned your product or messaging enough yet.  When people get excited and say things like “I want that!” or “That is so cool!”, then you know it’s time to start investing more in getting the word out!

Create ideas, but then sit with them to see which ones truly deserve your attention, and then pick out the few best ones.  Do more by doing less.

Impatience steals your enjoyment

Impatience = unhappiness.  “I’m not happy with what I have, so I need to get these other things, fast.”  Impatience implies a need to be somewhere else, a dissatisfaction with what you have. So by definition, when you’re feeling mpatience, you’re enjoyment and happiness is less.  How can you smell roses when you’re moving too fast even to see them?

Patience creates time

When you realize that most of what you do (80/20 rule) isn’t a true contributor to your dreams and success, and that patience is one way to help distinguish “activity” from “productivity”, then consider that patience creates time for you.

How long will it take to create your dream business?

It’ll be years, not months. For a normal new business that isn’t based on consulting, it usually takes 2-3 years to get to self-sufficiency.  So if you’re always impatient, thinking “if I just get to that next goal…”, you’re going to be unhappy for quite awhile 🙁

Focus on enjoying the ride – find ways to make money through enjoyment, including enjoying the path of creating your business 🙂

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I put together and uploaded a bunch of new sketches this week for CEOFlow.  Preview them at:
www.flickr.com/photos/aaronross

Full set (includes some PebbleStorm sketches too):
http://flickr.com/photos/aaronross/sets/72157605840085105/

CEOFlow Original Post