Effective Communication

When we ventured out into the world of Web 2.0 applications, Joint Venture Partnerships and 'Creating a lifestyle of freedom from a life of service" (a philosophy inspired by personal lifestyle coach David Wood of SolutionBox fame), the landscape was fuzzy and we had no clear sense of where we were headed with this.

We began this endeavour with the decision to put Ron Kussmaul's advice into practice: "Find something that requires faith to accomplish and apply yours to it." Casting the vision to bring H.U.B (Humanity Unites Brilliance) to Lesotho did not require much faith but communicating that vision has tested us to the limit. We are grateful for the tests. We have grown more individually and as a team in the last 3 months than in the last 2 years! Ellen Britts, another great lifestyle coach -author of "Marketing Qi" and 'The art of zen list-building'- gave us an illustration of how marketing qi works in her report about bamboo: the bamboo stalk taks a couple of years to grow under the ground before it sprouts and then suddenly shoots up higher than any other plant around at a very rapid rate. That just about describes the kind of "business" growth we have experienced since January, although we did not know how to categorise this venture that falls somewhere between a ministry, a Social Entrepreneurs' network and a non-profit, humanitarian organisation.

Our first clue as to what was happening and needed to be addressed was a report from executive coach Steve Little. The Perfect BizFind Report clarified so many things about how roles and responsibilities needed to be allocated but the breakthrough really came from finding "The Cure for the home-business from hell". If you are running an internet or network marketing business that you started as a vehicle for getting to financial freedom without doing any work, you need to think again. As my mentors keep pointing out when I complain that I never expected the bamboo to shoot up quite so quickly: "most wealthy people are spinning a lot more plates than the average person on the street; the real difference is not how much work they have but how much they love what they do"

One person on the team is so thankful that her partners moved her out of her "home business from hell" and put her in touch with the gurus who showed her how to really make things happen. The landscape became a lot clearer for all of us when we decided to change from jeans to slightly more formal business attire and start having weekly, scheduled meetings at our new office instead of in the garden of my home. We all agreed we still want to reserve Monday mornings for shuffling paper in our jeans and tackling the e-mail monster. Our team claims we can provide anyone, even in the sleepy nation of Lesotho, with "Ultimate Freedom" so we decided we might as well start the week practising what we preach. Shuffling paper is not quite as mindless as it first seems: a lot of ideas spring out of the sudden discovery "oh, is that where I filed that invoice?" and paging through the latest report on what's happening in cyberspace can actually prevent you from falling asleep at the wheel.

That was certainly the case when we received Nancy Marmolejo's report: "1000 friends on Facebook is NOT a plan". It was a real Aha moment as we finally figured out what we had been doing wrong all this time!

This Monday, for the first time in 3 months, we found ourselves consulting. A busy medical practice called us in to figure out what is wrong with their communication system. The key decision-maker to whom we need to present a solution pulled her chair up so close to mine and leaned forward so attentively that I realised this is a situation that needs massive doses of Marketing Qi, Perfect BizFind assessments and 'Viva Visibilty'. Having only just learned how to unravel the "home business from hell" and communicate our own vision more effectively, it came as a bit of a shock to suddenly be thrust into the middle of "the medical practice from hell". Any ideas or suggestions from friends and partners would be most welcome.