Entrepreneurs Walkabout

Welcome to Our Blog

Welcome to our Entrepreneurs Walkabout Blog, a virtual Place where you can engage your intellect and spirit with us and other entrepreneurs. Check out our latest thinking and offer your own on…

 Issues that matter the most to you as you experience what it means to balance the many demands of your life and work

Questions you are wrestling with or just plain curious about and would like to hear others’ thinking on

Events and trends unfolding in our world and how they are impacting you and your business

We look forward to making this a place you come to engage, express, and test your thinking.

Are you fully focused on the "why" of your business?

Last week a colleague sent me a blog entry with a video clip embedded and a note about how important the message was. So, I watched it and I have been thinking about it ever since.

The speaker, Simon Sinek, re-focused my attention on the core purpose of my work and my business. It is tempting, especially in this economic climate, to find ourselves focused on the products and services we need to create, the “what” of our businesses, and “how” we produce and get them to market so people will buy them and we can stay in business, hopefully even thrive. But the “what” and the “how” are rarely why people buy.

Simon Sinek’s words were a friendly and compelling “wake up call”.  

I asked myself how Simon's words applied to me and my business. There are a lot of people who offer professional business programs.  This is the "what" of my business. And, there are more than a few that focus on reflective land-based and strategic business practices, even in magnificent places, to deliver value.  This is the "how". 

So, I asked myself again -  "what is the WHY of all the walkabout programs?" My "why" is what I care most about contributing. Not hard to answer.  I create walkabouts so that people can shift the way they experience their businesses and their lives, no matter what is going on around them, in a way that they reconnect with their core purpose and can make choices that create value across multiple levels – personal, business, and larger community. So that they can thrive.  So their businesses can thrive.  So the communities they are members of can receive the value they are intent on creating.  It's the business people who care about this ability and want to create holistic value through their businesses that I want to connect with. 

What about you?  What is the overriding "why" of your business and how do you keep it front and center even in uncertain times like now?

Creating Still Points in Motion

"It is unfortunate that our competitive nature leads us to
believe that we should rest when we are dead.”
- 21 Day Detox , Richard DeAndrea, MD,ND & John Wood, ND

I once had a good friend ask me if I could just come in for a landing, just for a few hours, relax and not think about the many things waiting for me that evening. I was exhausted and wired. I had been working without a break for months and was helping to MC a conference of 1000+ people. My response was “No. If I land it will take too much energy to lift off again. It’s better to just keep flying until I can actually finish and land for awhile.”

I know that this pattern does not serve me; physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually nor from a business perspective. I do not make the best decisions. But perhaps the scariest thing is that I loose the vitality of my own sense of purpose, passion and vision. And I have to expend even more energy to keep the plane in the air.

So, when a colleague gave me a copy of the 21 Day Detox I read it. I was surprised to find myself actually longing to be able to check it out. I now realize that in addition to the health benefits, a substantial part of my motivation welled up from a deep desire for a Time Out from my regular pace and routine.

I began the 21-day experiment. I continued to work; yet, merely engaging the program shifted a number of automatic habits and helped me create space for regular decompression activities like exercise and quiet time each day. While this may not be for everyone, if you’d like to investigate read Download 21 Day Detox or visit the website.

How do your long, long flights impact your life and business? And, what ways have you discovered to help you rest in flight (without missing the airport)?

Entrepreneurs Walkabout Press Release

Glenna and I hope you will consider coming to this one-of-a-kind program.  And we would greatly appreciate it if you would pass this press release onto anyone you think might be interested.  Thanks!

Entrepreneurs Pioneer an Adaptation of Aborigine Walkabout to Grapple with 2010 Business Issues

Experienced entrepreneurs seeking to kick-start innovative strategies for negotiating critical business transitions in today's economy will convene outside Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 2010.  They will combine an adaptation of the time-honored aborigine tradition of "going walkabout" with modern frameworks for strategic thinking, reflection, business planning practices, and peer dialogues.

View complete Press Release

Entrepreneurs speak about their challenges in todays economic climate

In May of 2009, when it was much warmer,  Elizabeth Fadell and I began a series of interviews with entrepreneurs, and other professionals who provide services to this group of highly creative and high-energy people. Our goal - a better understanding of the issues, challenges, questions, dilemmas and successes that this group experiences. Below is a distillation of the shared themes we heard.

• Entrepreneurs grapple with how to balance a focus on larger purpose, corporate responsibility, and sustainable fiscal success with the day-to-day demands of their businesses.

• In today's economy entrepreneurs are looking for new ways of thinking and strategies for retaining current customers and attracting new ones.

• At times entrepreneurs feel like their dreams and passion have become harder to connect to in the day to day running of the business.

• Depending on where they are in the life cycle of their business, entrepreneurs are asking questions about their strategic role and the legacy they are creating.

• Entrepreneurs find it very challenging to be away from their businesses for even short periods of time. At the same time they know the value of and long for a way to create time to assess current reality and make strategic choices for the future of their businesses.

• Many entrepreneurs spoke of the value of having other successful entrepreneurs as thinking-partners.

We're curious to hear what you see as the key challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs today; yourself and others in your networks.  Please add your comments below and help us continue to add to our initial research and refine the Entrepreneurs Walkabout as we go. 

For more information on the program that resulted from this research, view the Entrepreneurs Walkabout Slide Show and/or read the Walkabout Overview.

Cilck here to read a press release announcing the Entrepreneurs Walkabout gathering coming up in June 2010.

Awakening to Legacy

“You start thinking, ‘What am I going to leave? What’s my legacy going to be?”
- Thomas Keller, Chef & Restaurateur, The French Laundry
(from NY Times article ‘What The Last Meal Taught Him’)

When reading this wonderful article, I was struck by how often it is later in our lives, or after we have achieved certain things, we begin to take stock and sense that there might be more to life, and that maybe we have more to give. Or perhaps it’s that we have different things we can give – that our full potential is not yet being tapped. Our sense of what is truly important begins to be stretched and shifted into new arenas. Often times it doesn’t come until after some shock, or outside disturbance that ‘wakes us up’ and allows us to look at the larger world in which we live and work. We find ourselves at a crossroads that calls us to step back and reflect on what we want to be and create next in our lives. For me, these times have been both rich and challenging. They almost always lead to some significant change.

What precipitates this ‘wake up’? Does it have to come from the outside? Maybe it’s a combination of inner readiness/curiosity and outer circumstances? What is the message/opportunity? How do I respond?

How do YOU respond to these opportunities to "wake up" in your own life?