Project Collaboration=Success

Well the first night for my new series of training in Ottawa with my partners Susan Murphy and Patti Church has come and gone. At first collaboration can be scary, and it was because now I had to wait and listen to others and trust they knew things too. But hey these women were awesome so what I'm saying is, collaboration can work. Believe it or not it can even make things go smoother. If you can find just the right partners it can be AWESOME. In fact it was so funny that yesterday Sue, after a flurry of emails back and forth, all agreeing with one another on numerous topics, jokingly sent out a message to us saying "it's unfortunate the three of us can never agree on anything."

Thanks to these 2 ladies our very first NightTime@TheCodeFactory was a big success. We sold out our crowd and packed the room. We even added a kids table. The night was a real taste-tester with me starting off by making people's minds, in their words, "explode" with creativity. In just 10 minutes people had met each other, had created 6 new businesses (using a skipping rope, a golf ball, a moosehead journal, an air pump, and a golden key), played with crayons, and had a few laughs along the way.

Sue then took the floor and she wowed the crowd by doing Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging in the "real" world. With just a few questions Sue was able to show how easy any of these can be. "Write something about yourself that we need to know in a sentence or two", "is there anything you are really passionate about?" these are the types of questions she asked and related everyone's answers to one of the aforementioned social media tools above.

Patti wrapped up the taste-testing with her spin on some office gems by turning them in business jewels. Patti demonstrated how to use Prezi to do a kick ass presentation. She then recorded her session using Jing, showing everyone how easy it can be to record a session and use it later. Only to end her session with a quick peak at how people can organize themselves instead of sending out a million emails by using Doodle.

Overall we think the census was that the night went well and that we should continue offering these sessions.

I can say from my perspective I had a lot of fun in this scenario and everything went off without any frustration. In fact everything about this collaboration went so well that we decided to collaborate over a nice cool drink at the end of the evening.

Way to go team-hurray for us and working together so well.

Looking forward to working more on our, already re-branded, series which will be called The Third Place (The 3rd Place) [still working out some details).

NightTime@TheCodeFactory

My last blog post was about collaboration and what a great time it can be. So I thought now would be a great time to chat about a wonderful collaboration I have been in for a bit. I am lucky at the moment to have met 2 really wonderful female entrepreneurs who both have such energy and interest in what they do that it truly is inspiring.

The first entrepreneur that I met was Patti Church, co-founder of WhyHire.me. Patti has been an amazing sense of energy anytime I have met her and is always willing to help out when asked. Patti's interest in making things simple and helping people get their message across is what struck me as amazing about her and her site WhyHire.me. Patti is a branding and marketing wonder and I am quite pleased to have her on our team of wonderful presenters.

The second entrepreneur that has joined our team is the awe inspiring and famous Susan Murphy. Susan, among the millions of things she does is the co-founder of Jester Creative a multimedia agency helping organizations get their message out. Susan is also really well known for her blog SuzeMuse. Susan has always been on the cutting edge of social media and has such a wonderful personality and way about her that she can make it simple for just about anyone.

So these are the two amazing women that I am now getting the chance to work with. The three of us have began to design some training for the entrepreneurial market in Ottawa that we think will really make things easy for people looking to get started.

I have been doing training for quite some time now in many different capacities but I have to say that this has been one of the most fun projects I have worked on to date. We are all really looking forward to delivering many workshops in the future and with working with each other.

I don't think you could honestly find another grouping of people with as many experiences, different personalities, and different skill sets as us three. That is why I think the training sessions that we are going to host will be different than anything you have ever been to.

So come out on the evening of Wednesday May 25th from 6:30-8pm at the Code Factory (246 Queen)

The first session will be about idea generation, why bother with social media, and productivity gems (all the great internet tools out there that help just about any startup).

To learn more about the event and to register sign up on eventbrite by clicking HERE

Collaboration-a whole new way of working

I have been working on so many new projects and talking to so many different these days but one this has really been on my mind, this notion and practice of working in collaboration.

Collaboration seems to be new to the world of work and is slowly creeping around and popping up everywhere. It also seems to be tagging along with this other scary thing for some people, open source.

2011, at least for me, is quickly becoming the age of openness, sharing, and with that I have experienced growth.

I too was once a bit skeptical about collaboration, it is harder to do because everyone has to talk, everyone has to agree (sorta), I have to share my profits, it slows me down sometimes, I am giving away all (or at least most) of my "best kept secrets". Hmm...to a degree some of this is true but for the most part that seems to all be bullshit.

I don't have any best kept secrets-any material I am delivering or writing or working on (along with just about every other consultant or coach or whatever we want to call ourselves) has been sparked from somewhere or someone else, so technically in a way I've been "collaborating" for years. All this extra time an energy I'm "wasting" is really some of the most productive time I have spent working on anything in years. It is valuable because when I work with others I get challenged to really think about the reasons why I'm doing things the way I am, and often come up with better solutions. Sharing profits can be a lot more fun when you collaborate because now you are not out there promoting and working on your own-you have a partner (or a few) and you get to use each others contacts. Your market size really begins to grow if you collaborate with the right people.

So in the end I guess collaborating can have it's upsides for sure and that is what I am finding out as for the last few months I have had the chance to work with some really amazing people.

Hmm...maybe that is the real key to collaborating-just do it with the right people and you will be fine.

The next few posts I write will be about some of the cool collaborations that I have been working on will introduce you to a few of  the people I am beginning to meet in the Ottawa area.

Happy collaborating!

thePULSE in Ottawa

Last night was the second night of the first ever Canadian PULSE. It was spent laughing, solving,  and some amazing brainstorming around various challenges that people all over Ontario are having. thePULSE is an opportunity for entrepreneurial people to come together and talk about their challenges and their opportunities. Then for almost 1 full hour the full group of 12 plus myself from Creativision step in to help brainstorm ideas and unstick or in some cases motivate the entrepreneurial minded person to start moving.

Last night we also had the chance to interview one of the participants in the group and it was so wonderful to hear some of the responses he had to give. When asked what the difference was between thePULSE and any other networking event the response was that thePULSE bring the human side to this thing we call business. This absolutely warmed my heart. As an entrepreneur myself I have always struggled with the notion that I have to go at this alone and I alone have to be a hero. I have to be the accountant, I have to be the manager, I have to be the visionary, I just have to be so many damn things to so many different people it can be overwhelming. The interview shed light on exactly what my vision for thePULSE is---allow other business people to come together, talk, share, capture, and shape each others stories. 

On a final note there was one more thing that happened at thePULSE that was magnificent to watch. Near the end of the group session people banded together to talk about how they could work together to help each other in new ways that they had never tried before-ie: forming a blogging group, forming a website design support group, and other ideas. This was music to my ears-such talk of collaboration and camaraderie is what thePULSE is supposed to be. I have loved every minute of both of the groups and I can only say that this is going to get better! 

Oh and how could I forget after the evening was over I got talking to two students who were helping me and they saw a vision that I had also seen. This kind of event where people are given free reign and permission to talk about themselves and listen to what others have to say would work for students as well. thePULSE is something that I think will help almost anyone looking for answers. My hope is that as we grow thePULSE that students will begin to start their own groups and begin to talk about their next steps be it high school students talking about what universities to go to? where to live? what to take? or be it university students looking to share their fears about the work world? or money problems. I am loving where this group is going and I am getting tons of energy. 

The second group of thePULSE in Ottawa will be taking place soon and once the introductory date for group 2 is set I will make sure and let everyone know. In the meantime a PULSE event is slotted to occur in Cornwall, On and I am looking very forward to that. 

If you would like to find out more about thePULSE, how we operate, and what it is all about please do not hesitate to give me a call or read a little bit about it in this initial PULSE flyer: