Be More Resilient in Business: Learn How June 21

Don't Let the Founder's Hustle Take You Down!

Join me for the next session of Stress Management for Founders series on Tuesday, June 21st at CoLab Factory. 

I know you've experienced a lot of ups and downs while launching and running your business. So have I! 

Session II: Flip the Script on Your Stress

In the second of this three-part series, you will learn ways to be more resilient so you can get better business results while improving your own well-being:

• Listen to and "flip the script" on your self-talk messages
• Build your self-esteem and confidence to handle stressful situations more effectively
• Track the changes in your health and well-being

In addition to being able to roll with the punches, it's important to have a support network that can be a buffer in the down moments and be your cheerleaders in the up moments. Let me be part of your support network!

Join me June 21st so you can be more resilient to the ups and downs of being a founder!

Learn to How Hack Stress Starting June 14

Don't Let the Founder's Hustle Take You Down!

I’m excited to invite you to my upcoming Stress Management for Founders workshop series happening on Tuesdays: June 14th, June 21st and June 28th at Co-Lab Factory in Brooklyn.

This series is perfect for founders who want to grow your businesses but not let the “founder’s hustle” cause personal breakdowns or health issues. I always say that if I get a cold, my business gets the flu!

Session I: June 14th - Put On Your Oxygen Mask First

In the first of this three-part series, you will learn proven, mindful stress reduction techniques so you can get better business results while improving your own well-being:

• Recognize the friction between your roles and responsibilities that creates stress and overwhelm
• Identify and track the ways you currently deal with stressful situations
• Use deep breathing to manage your physical response to being triggered by a stressful situation

Like I said in the video -- asking for help is one lesson that's taken me the longest time to learn. I GET it ... and I've got YOU!

Join me starting June 14th so you can get even better business results and improve your own well-being.

Manage Your Stress for Greater Impact: Learn How May 23

You're invited to Slow Down to Start UP! a Be Social Change Class for Purpose-Driven Leaders

Join me on Monday, May 23 from 7 PM to 9:00 PM to learn how self-monitoring can help you better manage your stress and improve your overall well-being.

Each of us has the opportunity to create solutions that address key issues facing our world, but when you're on the front lines, how do you give yourself “permission” for self-care?

In this interactive session, you will learn proven, mindful stress reduction techniques so you can achieve greater social impact while improving your own well-being. You will recognize the link between wellness and sustainability, and receive guidance to help ditch your anxiety for lasting results.

This Class is Designed For ...

• Social impact entrepreneurs, business owners, and nonprofit leaders looking to reduce stress, increase motivation, and experience less burnout in your quest to drive change
• Purpose-driven professionals looking to experience greater intention and fulfillment in your work and life

Manage Your Stress to Achieve Greater Impact

By attending, you will become aware of the signals that can indicate your stress is becoming unhealthy. Also, you'll learn how to choose effective coping strategies to reduce (or even eliminate) your stress triggers.

Register NOW to Join Me: May 23, 2016, 7:00 PM at Centre for Social Innovation -- a home for nonprofits and social entrepreneurs in New York City.

Learn Top Time Management Mistakes You Can Avoid on April 30

Your TIME is your greatest asset. It's the one thing you can't get back -- once it's spent, it's gone!

What if you could develop new habits and a mindset about how to manage your time (including “time wasters” and distractions) so you could focus on what's really important to you?

Join me on April 30th for Tik Tock on the Clock: Time Management Made Easy. I'm offering this primer workshop because I've heard that founders and leaders like YOU who are out there in the arena, making things happen can use a little more focus and organization.

What will you get out of attending?

• Discover how you REALLY spend your time so you can reclaim your schedule and get more done in less time
• Reveal your true intentions so you can refocus your attention on what’s most important and get pumped up about doing it
• Find out what’s causing your indecision so you can reduce anxiety, make decisions faster, and stop procrastinating 
• Eliminate clutter and distractions so you can achieve your goals faster and crush them

This workshop IS for you if you're an ambitious rock star, who wants to be more self-aware; if you feel like you're not making fast enough progress, and want to expedite success in your life and business.

Tik Tock on the Clock: The workshop don't start till you walk in ... if you're on time! :-)

Sell Tickets Online through Eventbrite

Startup Founders Get Lean in Sydney

The past few months, I've had the pleasure of planning, organizing, and launching the second Lean Startup Machine Workshop in Sydney, Australia! The 3-day workshop was held 19-21 April at Fishburners, a local co-working and tech start-up space.

Now that I've recovered from my jet lag, I thought I'd share an inside perspective on what it can take to truly test your start-up or business idea BEFORE writing a line of code, or buying any inventory, or hiring your first person, or ... you get the idea. Here's a sample of what went down ... down under!

The Stats

• 56 entrepreneurs
• 20 mentors
• 10 ideas
• 5 speakers
• 5 judges 
• 2 winning teams who benefited from over $2,500 in prizes

The Story

We started on Friday evening with the high energy of ideas being pitched and teams being formed -- 20 app, product, and service ideas were culled down to 10 teams based on group voting. 

Natasha, Pascale & Coach Colette

Lessons from launching successful start-ups were shared in our Fireside Chat by Sydney entrepreneurs Pascale Helyar-Moray (founder StyleRocks) and Natasha Rawlings (co-founder StreetHawk App & Springboard Australia member).

Teams spent the remainder of Friday night beginning to define their problem and customer hypotheses, and initial customer assumptions using the Validation Board.

By Saturday morning, 10 teams had become 9 as one team of three people disbanded because a team member decided not to return to the workshop. Just like in the real world, when you think you've got everyone on board, someone jumps overboard; and then you have to either reiterate, pivot, or (in this case) abandon ship.

We encouraged teams to spend the majority of Saturday 'getting out of the building' to have real conversations with real potential customers. Teams begin to learn that their ideas are essentially useless until they're validated (or invalidated) by customers who are actually living/dealing with the problem. 

My 'Saturday-tough-love' coaching to any team who was resisting going out and yet still struggling to find "the 'right' answer" was: "You're not going to find it in here standing in front of the board, talking to yourselves. Get out there and ask some more people some more questions!"

Sebastien Eckserley-Maslin on Customer Dvpt

Hamish Barney on MVPs

Shihab Hamid on Landing Pages

Lean Sydney 2013 Mentors

In addition to hands-on coaching from me and our 20 mentors, teams heard relevant presentations on customer development, building MVPs, and launching landing pages to solidify their understanding of Lean methodology.

The Breakthrough

On Saturday night, the energy was much lower as many teams seemed frustrated by the feedback they were receiving from target customers. Perhaps their perceived problem wasn't really a problem at all, or maybe it wasn't an urgent problem that their proposed customers cared enough about to solve. These are not uncommon experiences for an entrepreneur -- it just doesn't often happen in a 24-hour period!

How an entrepreneur responds to this feedback is crucial: do you continue to hold onto your idea (e.g., it's such a great idea, and did I tell you how I came up with it) or do you listen to your customers? We witnessed this struggle through Sunday morning, until some of the teams had the breakthrough as described below:

".. we stopped trying to change the customer to fit [our] solution (wasting time), and started ACTUALLY looking for [their] pain points." 

The Finale
On Sunday, it was all about making last iterations and pivots; and collecting data from online MVPs and landing pages to find out how much validation (e.g., signups, pledges, and/or letters of intent) each team had gained.

We told the teams how they could win Lean Sydney 2013 -- by sharing their findings in a short, yet compelling presentation that demonstrated how they apply the methodology and validated (or invalidated) their key assumptions.

Tom Frazier on Pitching Tips

Our Lean Sydney 2013 judging panel included renowned Sydney entrepreneurs Jodie Fox (founder Shoes of Prey) and Matt Barrie (founder Freelancer.com), and Lean Sydney 2012 founder James Nathan (Food Orbit).

And, the winners were .... @pixcapp (helping online retailers create better images) and GoTix (helping business travelers find last-minute tickets to shows and sporting events). The grand prize included a cloud hosting package from Ninefold, marketing plan consultation, and free desk space at The Hive (co-working space at Pollenizer).

To practice what I'm preaching, here's feedback from one of the attendees to validate the value of the Lean Startup Machine workshop experience:

"It teaches you really good techniques for validating business ideas, so you can see if you have a valid business before wasting lots of money on it building a solution."

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Sydney -- getting to know the start-up ecosystem there, and seeing a bit of the city. I'll share more about my personal adventures in Oz soon!

Bring on the Goal Setting: January 29 CRAVE Chat

I'm really excited to kick off 2013 with the upcoming CRAVE Chat: Bring on the Goal Setting! on Tuesday, January 29 at 6:30 PM.

I love the focus of our event -- it dares you to bring on the visioning time (a look forward) and also the reflection time (a look backward) so you can manifest your wildest dreams in 2013.

To kickoff your brainstorming process before the event, I thought I'd share some thought-provoking questions here to get your juices flowing and wheels turning!

Looking Back: Reflecting

• What 2012 accomplishments make you the most proud personally?
• What 2012 accomplishments make you the most proud professionally?
• Which 2012 accomplishment(s) would you most like to boost, expand, increase, or build upon in 2013?

Looking Forward: Visioning

• What values are most important to you that will help shape your 2013 experiences and goals? 
• What personal accomplishment would most excite and inspire you if you were to achieve it?
• What professional accomplishment would most energize and motivate you if you were to achieve it?

If you're able to join us in NYC on January 29, I look forward to hearing your responses. And, if you can't join us LIVE, feel free to tweet me your thoughts and/or share your feedback in the Comments section below.

And, if you want even MORE help setting your 2013 intentions, I'm offering 3 BONUS gifts to anyone who buys my Focus on Your Vision book (only $2.99 download!) before February 1 -- including the How to Make Your 2013 Resolutions Stick workbook. Check out this site for more details.

Look out 2013, we're going to BRING IT!

Communicate for Impact: Our Differences Do Matter

Did you know that 75% of the people who are critical to your happiness and success are DIFFERENT from you in SEVEN key ways?

Communicate for Impact: Video Intro

More PowerPoint presentations from Colette

To find out why it matters and how you can still be successful in business, join me as I share tips with  savvy women entrepreneurs and founders on Tuesday, March 27th at Wix Lounge.
 
BTW, a People Style assessment is included in your registration for my Communicate for Impact interactive workshop.

Assertive Communication: Not Just Good for the Bottom Line

To succeed as a woman entrepreneur or startup founder in today's New Normal requires strong communication skills -- whether you're seeking to raise capital, find partners, hire employees or create a buzz about your brand.

While communication isn't an exact science, it IS possible to adjust your communication habits and behaviors to jumpstart your business interactions and relationships.

Think about the business interactions in which you engage on a regular basis. Do you communicate confidently and assertively when you:

• Propose a new idea or business solution
• Ask for cooperation or help from a business partner
• Say 'no' to a request of your time when your plate is already full

To make it easier, I suggest you think of being assertive as a communication dial or knob that you can turn up or turn down to boost your confidence in critical business conversations. For example, you can tweak your body language and nonverbal responses based on the cues you receive from the other person.

• Increase your eye contact or lean forward to let him/her know that you're fully engaged in the conversation and attentive to his/her needs
• Raise the volume of your voice (breathe from your diaphragm) to emphasize your key words and points to keep the other person engaged -- use his/her name at crucial points in the discussion when you really want to capture their attention

Did you know that learning to be more assertive is actually good for your health? Being more assertive and confident in your business interactions is not only good for your bottom line! It helps to boost your self-esteem and gain more respect from others -- both of which can reduce and alleviate your stress and anxiety.

For more tips on how to assertively communicate in business, join me on Tuesday, March 27 for my Communicate for Impact class for women entrepreneurs at Wix Lounge in New York.

How I Broke Through My Fears - Literally

I had the privilege to be a guest last Saturday at the Winter Rejuvenation Workshop hosted by Jasmin Terrany and her fantastic team of experts and healers. It was so rewarding to experience their gifts and take part in their activities to help re-align my mind-body-spirit.

As a coach, I know it's important to take ME-TIME, and this workshop was a great opportunity for me to practice what I preach. I'd like to share a bit about my personal breakthroughs.

The closing exercise was designed to help us find our true power so that we can experience true mind-body-spirit alignment. This was achieved through breaking -- several participants agreeing to strike a wood block with their fists. It's often in these situations that I'm not sure from where my motivation to participate strikes me. All I knew was my hand shot up in the air when El asked for volunteers.

My instruction was to write on one side of the board some of my FEARS [false evidence appearing real], and to write on the opposite side of the board some of my DREAMS [dedication responsibility education attitude motivation]. Then, at the front of the room, I would acknowledge my fears (by bowing to the board) and then BREAK-THROUGH by striking the board with my fist.

I was the first volunteer; so in addition to the fears I had written on the board, I also had performance anxiety chattering in my head ... "What if I don't break the board? Will they laugh at me? Will I de-motivate everyone else?" Not to mention, will I break my hand?!

Somehow, I was able to access my inner power, make connection with the board, face my fears, and BREAK-THROUGH to the other side! And, NOT break my hand, LOL! I've since kept the broken board pieces on my fireplace mantle as a reminder of my experience. What's ironic, though, is my little inner fear-voice inside isn't completely silenced. Occasionally, I've found "her" internally critiquing me because I didn't break-through the board in two equal parts like others had done. Of course, I know that my willingness to take this activity on and face my fears head-on is what counts. And, I'll always have the broken board as my reminder to motivate me when "she" surfaces. And, I'll gently let her know it's ok.

Was there a time that you faced your fears head-on? What happened? What did you learn? How are you stronger as a result of doing so? Share your comments here or tweet me on Twitter.

Are You Following the Evidence -- in Your Career or in Life?

Did YOU know? While only 16% of all men are over 6'2" tall, 57% of Fortune 500 CEOs are over 6'2". I learned this interesting fact during a recent presentation by Laura Liswood, author of The Loudest Duck.

What does this data suggest to you? Do you see any correlations in your organization?

Let's face it -- we get bombarded with lots of data (or evidence) on trends that are happening in the workplace and the world beyond. How can you figure out what information makes sense for you, or for your team? Following the evidence is about just that -- looking at data or statistics or even anecdotal information and evaluating it to see:

1. Is it valid (i.e., do you trust the source?)
2. Is it applicable to your team or organization?

In advance of our upcoming LIVE Follow the Evidence Diversity Training on Tuesday, June 15 (9am-12pm) here in New York, I thought I'd share the recording of the preview telecast.

Our process suggests you take a proactive instead of a reactive approach to gathering information, and seeing how your diversity management strategies work or don’t work and need to be adjusted – not just relying on "long-standing" but never proven traditions.

This time, we're speaking about it in terms of diversity. Yet, this evidence-based approach can be applied to all aspects of personal, team and organizational growth. You'll be more effective if you relentlessly seek new knowledge and insight, so you can keep updating your assumptions, skills and knowledge, and ground your decisions in the latest and best knowledge of what actually works.

How do YOU follow the evidence?

Get Tips to Launch Your New Business: TOMORROW in NYC

Have you considered starting your own business, or making your 'side hustle' a legitimate venture? Then, join me TOMORROW from 5:30 PM at The Entrepreneurs' Circle: Interactive Discovery Workshop Series.

If you think that entrepreneurship might be your NEW path, sign up for The Entrepreneurs' Circle. You'll hear success stories from business owners who have made it, and gain tips to avoid the isolation many entrepreneurs often feel.

The Entrepeneurs' Circle Workshop will feature four groupings that are tailored to your' stage of business development:

1. Pre-Idea
2. Initial Development
3. Development
4. Established Business

Each group will be led by a trained and specialized executive, small business or life coach. I will be there to lead participants in the Pre-Idea phase through discussion and 'laser coaching' activities to help explore the transition, identify their unique 'competent advantage' in business, and create a buzz about their upcoming new venture.

Jump out of your comfort zone and SIGN UP TODAY! Space for this event is limited due to the individualized attention being provided by the coaches.

Bring your pad, pen, paper, or laptop -- This is a working session! See YOU TOMORROW!"

On the Road Again - the PLA Tour

Happy Friday! I've been spending the week catching up and getting ready for the PLA-Tour! No, it's not a typo (I don't play golf ... yet!) -- the "tour" is the leadership training program for the Public Library Association.


You may recall from the spring that I posted some pics from workshops I led in cool places like Hershey, PA. Well, I'll be on the road again (beginning on Sunday) to help librarians and their trustees enhance their leadership skills to create community partnerships and (ultimately) increase funding for their libraries.


The first stop on the fall PLA Tour is Portland, Maine, where I'll meet and train librarians and trustees from the home state and from New Hampshire. I'm excited to be back involved with the project.

This time, I'll be bringing more Web 2.0 with me as I recently created a profile on Twitter! That way, I can share quick nuggets of learning, ideas, etc. from the workshops. So, you can follow me on Twitter directly or read updates here on the blog (right-hand side). See you on the road! :)

InStep Consulting Founder to Teach BizAcademy for NYC Youth

Beginning Monday July 31, I'll be teaching BizAcademy to high school students from Opening Doors and Building Bridges Youth Development & After School Program. Sponsored by salesforce.com/foundation, BizAcademy offers offers students from underserved urban school districts an opportunity they might not otherwise receive – the chance to run their own business.

In this ten-day entrepreneurial workshop, high school students will gain hands-on experience while learning business basics. Teams will be responsible for managing all phases of their businesses including prototyping ideas, pitching to investors, manufacturing, marketing and selling office-related products. Participants will use salesforce.com’s on-demand CRM solution to track revenues and expenses and to manage contacts.

I'm excited to help these youth gain fundamental business skills and discover their competent advantageTM!

Stay tuned for more posts about their accomplishments -- including a “Sales Bazaar” at the West Side YMCA on Thursday, August 10th.

SIGN UP for Dec. 7 Competent Advantage Workshop

Hi everyone, I hope you have been having a good autumn (although the weather in NYC has been pretty spring-like these days).

For those of you in the New York metropolitan area, I hope you can join me for the next Competent AdvantageTM Workshop, offered via the KIP Learning Center.

When: Wednesday, December 7 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Where: Midtown New York

Why: You're cool and you want to get a jump start on planning your 2006 career objectives! (besides, midtown is really nice in December with all of the holiday decorations ...)

To view the full course description, check out: http://kipbusinessreport.com/Learning_Center/course_pages/CD-Ellis-CompetentAdv.html

For more information on the workshop location and how to register, contact the KIP Learning Center at (646) 546-5671. Hope to see you there!

It's Back to School Time ...

coWe all know what September means -- even if we're not actually in school anymore. It's time to hit the books, so to speak. The hazy, lazy days of summer are over; and it's time to get back on top of our respective games.

I must admit to a little end-of-summer blues myself. However, much as I relished posting audio blogs to you from the beach, I am excited about the new things in store for Fall 2005.

1. COMING SOON: "What's Your Competent Advantage?"TM goes LIVE! I'll be conducting workshops in conjunction with the upcoming launch of the KIP Learning Center. Keep an eye out here or visit their website for dates and registration information.
2. My company is launching a new employee orientation program called Getting Onboard! It's designed to help people like you (as you get new, exciting jobs!) to navigate the waters so you can truly exhibit your skills and talents once hired. Help me to "create a buzz" about the program -- check out the description on our website.

I would be remiss if I did not share my regards and prayers to those who have been affected by Katrina and its aftermath. I know we each are trying to do our part to support and assist. At the bottom right of this site, there is now a direct link to the American Red Cross website.

Not to say that anyone needs additional motivation to assist, but perhaps mobilizing a volunteer effort at one's job or school on behalf of Katrina survivors may be a way to "step out of a comfort zone" to demonstrate one's leadership and project management abilities ... Just a thought.

My best regards to you all!