w3w3.com

Difficult People...

The Dirty Dozen – Disastrous, Dumb and Deceitful by w3w3.com
1267_ 8/30/12 - Is everyone crazy out there, or is it just me? We all know some difficult people. Whether they are customers, co-workers of even those in your personal life. Listen to this discussion with Larry Nelson about his directory of the “Dirty Dozen” and their characteristics. They range from Saboteurs to Wonderful Ones, from Saints to Emotional Misfits, from Connivers to Bullies, and a few others that will surprise you or get you. What you’ll appreciate the most is understanding what makes you vulnerable and what you can do about it.
Related Links: Training Trends || 3-Filters || TRTR Channel || Beyond the Trends || Keywords: Difficult People, Dirty Dozen, Larry Nelson, Institute for Change Research, Training Trends, 3-Filters > - bytes=6843353
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"Venture Deals...

Feld and Mendelson - How venture capital deals work
1243_ [Orig.Pub: 1069_ 8/29/11] 7/19/2012- At GlueCon this past May 2012, Jason Mendelson told us about a sequel to "VENTURE DEALS". When Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson sat down to write their book the goal was to aim it at every entrepreneur, to really help them understand how venture capital deals work. Brad Feld in Tuscany, Italy talks with Larry Nelson via Skype to tell us about his newest book, "Venture Deals...Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist". The inspiration for the book came from the Term Sheet Series that Jason and Brad wrote about five-six years ago. This is a particularly valuable book for entrepreneurs looking for money... You'll get an insider's view of the venture deal process, the different players involved on the deal side including how venture firms are setup. And, they talk about how an entrepreneur should think about the fund raising process. The term sheet is a very complicated document and there are a lot of things that people negotiate. But there are essentially only two things that matter which are economics and control. Here they've spent a lot of time helping the reader understand which terms related to economics and which terms were related to control and how and what that meant. It's meant to be a guide not a text book with material that can be very dry and boring. They've made fun of lawyers, venture capitalists and themselves along the way, but there goal was to write something significant and enduring. Comments from readers include..."For a first time entrepreneur, it's a completely enlightening book." Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO wrote a very nice forward to the book where he talks about how useful it would have been to have this book at the beginning of his career, and throughout his career, to look back and reflect on all the deals he's been involved in. Brad tells us how his blog, Ask the VC works with this book. Number one piece of advice for a new entrepreneur from Brad is, "Pick something that you're incredibly passionate about. The thing you want to create, the business you want to start should be something that you're in love with. It's going to be hard. You're going to have lots of ups and downs, there will be lots of things that don't work. If the thing you're working on 18-20 hours a day isn't something you're incredibly passionate about, what's the point?" Second is surround yourself with mentors." ...don't miss the rest of Brad's advice, listen now!
Related Links: Venture Deals - Amazon || Ask the VC || Feld Thoughts || Mendelson's Musings || Foundry Group || Feld-Weiser One-on-One || VC Channel || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Venture Deals, Venture Capitalist, Foundry Group, Entrepreneur, Mentors, Dick Costolo, Twitter, Tuscany, Italy, Foundry Group’s Series A Documents - Bytes: 13588587
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Author, Venture Deals

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Why Facebook Matters to Business

Expert advice for managing social media
1230_ 6/29/12 [Pub. 12-12-2011] - Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network are interviewing Clara Shih the best selling author of The Facebook Era and founder/CEO Sequoia-backed Hearsay Social, one of the fastest-growing and most exciting technology companies in Silicon Valley. Clara is a renowned social media authority and technology leader whose New York Times-featured book has been translated into nine languages and is used as a textbook at Harvard Business School. Hearsay Social develops social media software to enable large franchise brands to create, measure and distribute content out to local reps, agents, and franchisees' Facebook or Twitter pages. Consider insurance agents, financial advisors, coffee houses or restaurant chains. They are part of important corporate brands, but what makes them thrive are local relationships. Social media can help, but it needs to be managed in a way that supports the brand, customer satisfaction and hence the business bottom line. Our listeners are familiar with “customer relationship management” for businesses this is something like, social media relationship management. In 2007, Clara created the first business application on Facebook and subsequently authored the New York Times-featured best selling book The Facebook Era, which has sold over 21,000 copies worldwide. Previously, Clara was a marketing executive at salesforce.com, and held technology and product positions at Google and Microsoft. Clara has a BS in computer science and economics and MS in computer science from Stanford. She is a frequently invited keynote speaker on social media at global conferences including AlwaysOn, Web 2.0 Expo, Enterprise 2.0, CRM Evolution, Social-Loco, American Marketing Association, Toronto TechWeek, and Social Ad Summit. There are a number of learning points for entrepreneurs and leaders offered by Clara...listen for more...
Related Links: Hearsay Social || Find Clara on Facebook || and Twitter @clarashih || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || Why Facebook Matters for B2B || Keywords: Clara Shih, Hearsay Social, National Center for Women in Technology, Lucy Sanders, NCWIT, Entrepreneurs, The Facebook Era, Facebook, Twitter, Social Media, bytes=152933443
LISTEN TO: Clara Shih, CEO/Founder, Hearsay Social

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Work-life balance...

Feld-Weiser One-on-One: Feld on Work-Life Balance
1229_ 6/26/12 [Pub. 6-15-2009] -  

For entrepreneurs, lawyers and other professionals, work-life balance is often a topic that individuals plan on thinking about when they have time. Phil Weiser, Dean of the Law School, University of Colorado - Boulder, engages in a discussion with Brad Feld, Managing Partner, Foundry Group, about a topic that is very elusive for many entrepreneurs. Brad said, "This topic took me 15 years, a failed first marriage, and my current wife (Amy Batchelor) almost calling it quits for me to realize that I had to figure out what 'work-life balance' meant to me." This recognition lead to Brad's commitment to a series of rules, which evolved into a set of habits that include: 1. Spend time away; 2. Life dinner; 3. Segment space; 4. Be present; 5. Meditate. Notably, Brad's view on life-work balance is not that working hard is not important; it's that "balance improves the quality/quantity of work that you can get done and you become more effective at accomplishing stuff." Listen to the entire Feld & Weiser, One-on-One on Work-Life Balance.
Related Links: Photos || Silicon Flatirons Passing Baton Ceremony || Feld Blog || Foundry Group || Venture Deals - Feld & Mendelson || Keywords: Brad Feld, Phil Weiser, Work-Life Balance, Entrepreneurs, Work-Life Balance, Amy Batchelor - Bytes: 44730621
LISTEN TO: One-on-One Brad Feld, Phil Weiser

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Blue Ocean Strategy BizCon

Chris Coughlin, Business Conference Focused on Revenue Growth
1211_ 5/22/12 - Meet Chris Coughlin. Chris has a fantastic, interesting background. He is an entrepreneur and while this isn't the subject of our discussion today, Chris is involved in football coaching. His most successful business actually trains 35,000 football coaches each year in conferences across the country. Chris also does a little high school coaching in Colorado Springs. With that as a background, we're talking to Chris about his conference business, Revenue North - they have a conference coming up here in Denver on June 27th. Chris has a high interest in the "Blue Ocean Strategy" taken from the book of the same title (written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne). What it did for Chris was to give a word picture to the way he's approached business his whole life. The word picture is, a red ocean, full of blood, representing a market with a lot of competitors fighting each other over the same ground. It's everyone competing along the same dynamic. If you can break into a blue ocean (the name of the book and a great word picture), out of the red ocean to the great blue sea, where there is unbounded opportunity to travel and cover as much ground as you want. Now we all have competition, but if you can develop your product or your pricing strategy - ideally both - you can make it so really you don't have competitors. Then, you're in the blue ocean. A great example is Apple / iTunes - they didn't approach the market in the same way as the people operating in the standard red ocean. Larry asked, "How does that strategy translate into value for your customers today?" Chris replied, using the Revenue North Conference here in Denver as an example. Chris was going to take his staff to a marketing conference about 18 months ago. The cost was staggering, a conference fee of $895 per person, plus air fare and hotel. It was going to be a $10 - $15K operation, plus a lot of coordination and a lot of headaches. "So" Chris said, "there are tons of business training options, the w3w3® website is one - it's great." Chris had to find a blue ocean strategy. How could he train business people including his own staff - but do it at a spectacular price, get a much better product than they could get anywhere else and make it local. He created Revenue North. "We've got 42 different sessions a person can hit in a day, seven concurrent sessions. Compared to $895 we can do it for $99."
Related Links: Revenue North Biz Conference || Blue Ocean Strategy || Training Trends || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: Chris Coughlin, Revenue North, Conference, Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne, Glazier Clinic, Apple, iTunes, Denver, Colorado, Training - bytes=6237939
LISTEN TO: Chris Coughlin, Founder, Revenue North

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Global entrepreneur shares the lessons

534_ Change Is Not an Event, It Is an Ongoing Process
(the Same is true with Chaos) 5/3/2012
Mastering change is one of Pat and Larry Nelson's favorite topics. There's a good reason. They have lived in and owned businesses in five foreign countries stretching from Norway to Australia. They are truly serial entrepreneurs as they have started more than a dozen companies. Some were extremely successful and others learning experiences. One thing that was true in every situation were the rushing changes. At times they were victims and others they were victors. Larry has conducted seminars for numerous companies both large and small, public and private sectors, in dozen countries, on the subject of 'Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos'. In this recorded discussion Larry and Pat discuss the 'Six Truths About Change'. The topic includes; Resistance, Involvement, Making Losers, Vision, Benefits, and Follow up. Like the Nelsons say, "Master Change Before It Masters You." Listen now...
Related Links: Beyond the Trends || 3-Filters || Training Trends || Free Newsletter || Mastering Change || Mastering Change - Amazon || Keywords: Mastering Change, Chaos, Pat and Larry Nelson, Involvement, Vision, Benefits, Follow up > Bytes: 8472349 LISTEN 8/4/08

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Negotiation Skills, what are you doing?

Major mistakes made in negotiating and the answers
1196_ 4/16/12 - We're here with a dear friend, that we have done a lot of business with over the years, Dr. Robert Rutherford and we are focused on the NO-to-GO. If you have a question about negotiating, Rob is the guy to go to. He's also a prolific author and Larry suggests you check out his books for answers. Rob tells us he is amazed at the bad rap negotiating has. Most people have an incomplete, inaccurate view of what negotiating is and what it is not. It's not, 'get the last slam dunk... get the last penny out of the person. It is not 'get all you can off the table' kind of thing. Negotiating is an effort to gain an initial agreement that otherwise couldn't be done. There are many things that are negotiable and many things that are not. Rob said, "Personally, I think most things are negotiable and my own personal opinion is, they're not worth negotiating. It's not worth the time, it's not worth the effort, no it's just not worth it. But those things that are worth negotiating - there are special things that should be done in the effort to get the right kind of agreement. Larry asked, "What are some of the most common mistakes made when people think they're negotiating?" Rob replied, "I think one of the most common mistakes made is, 'I don't have to tell the other person what I want, I'm going to hold everything in, I'm going to be secretive.... Let me ask, how in the world are we going to get a win/win, initial agreement if I don't tell you what I want out of the deal? It just totally mystifies me. That's a major mistake. I think another major mistake made in negotiating is seeing the other person as the enemy. Now in some cases it may be. But, what in the heck are you doing negotiating with them to begin with, if they're the enemy? Unless you really have to. Larry asked, "Let's say I have an appointment with an organization and I want to work out a deal. What are some things I should do in preparation?" Rob said, "Well I have a business card, I'm glad you asked. On this business card it has three different categories 1.) Preparing for Negotiation and then it goes through the steps like, Know the purpose; Understand issues thoroughly.... The 2nd part of that is the actual negotiating itself 'in the arena'. You should seek a win-win, mutual gain for an example. Expect to win, manage expectations, not only your own but the other party... After the negotiation. It's amazing to me, there are some people that are really good at negotiating but they're not good at keeping the deal...Listen for more...
Related Links: No-to-Go Home || Rob's Books || PodCasting Directory || Training Trends Channel || Keywords: Rob Rutherford, Negotiating, No-to-Go, Entrepreneur, Training, Mistakes, Purpose, Most Things are Negotiable, Preparing, Win/win - bytes=5513198
LISTEN TO: Rob Rutherford, NO to GO Programs

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Innovating and motivating around the world
1193_ 4/9/12 - The monthly luncheon speaker at the Denver Association of Corporate Growth was George Godfrey, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Crestcom International, a leading international franchiser of management training programs. He joined Crestcom as its Chief Operating Officer in 2008, accepting his current position in March, 2009, when he also became President, CEO and Director of its parent, Crestcom Holdings, LLC. He had previously served as Senior Vice President of Sales for Phoenix American, a provider of insurance vehicle service contracts in Miami, Florida. Before joining that firm, George spent eleven years with General Electric, as a Regional Sales Manager and Senior Vice President. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served five years as an officer in the U.S. Army, where his final assignment was as Detachment Commander. Crestcom poses these questions (and has the answers). How are businesses learning to innovate and motivate in India and Germany? How are executives leading change in Asia? How are managers throughout Africa and the Middle East planning for tomorrow? And how are most admired firms in North and South America making a bottom-line difference through better negotiation and strategy?
In addition to our luncheon presentation, ACG Denver also awarded the annual David Sloan Scholarships as well as the ACG Cup. The Scholarship Program is named after one of our former board members, David Sloan. As a result of MS, David had to leave his job and his work on the ACG Denver Scholarship Program. David was recently featured in the Denver Post and has written a very inspiring book about his journey. Each attendee at the April luncheon received a copy of his book, 'One Day at a Time'...listen for more...
Related Links: Crestcom Home || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || One Day at a Time Book || Denver Post Article || Keywords: George Godfrey, Crestcom, ACG, Denver, Leadership, Training, Association for Corporate Growth, David Sloan, One Day at a Time, ACG Cup - bytes=3258726
LISTEN TO: George Godfrey, President/CEO, Crestcom International

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When writing be Clear, Concise and Compelling

1160_ 2/17/12 - With the ubiquitous blog and posts on Facebook etc. Larry wondered about our writing skills. After all, we're sending and receiving important messages. We contacted Kirsten Nelson, founder of C3 Writing. Larry loves her tag line, Clear, Concise and Compelling. First thing he wanted to know was what were the most common mistakes made when people are trying to write their blogs, brochures, websites and whatever. What are the biggest mistakes? Kirsten said, the biggest and most common mistakes we make when we set out to write something regardless of what it is, internally we know what we want, we know that we want it to look good and we want it to say something. But we really need to dig deeper and ask ourselves some questions. When I sit down with people I ask them to look at, what is it that you want your writing to do? You're writing because there is an end-goal in mind, something you want to cause or affect, and you're using the power of your voice in a written format to reach that goal. If I'm not intentionally specific, if my client isn't intentionally specific about what they want to create, chances are the writing is not going to carry that impact. Equally important to that is who is going to be reading this writing. Who is your audience? We have to be really specific, I don't just mean 'my customers' - Who are your customers? What group or groups of people are we talking about? the reason this is so important is, we have a message we want to get out, how is that message going to be received? What's going to touch on the information my customer needs? What are the emotions that are important to them, the things they like to hear. Again, if you don't do that you're not going to reach the reader emotionally and you're not going to reach your goal. Kirsten also addresses; Being Specific, Knowing Your Intended Audience, Researching Your Industry, Planning Your Presentation, and of course, Being Clear, Concise and Compelling. Whether you are developing a new website, writing a proposal, creating a new ad or brochure, you'll want to listen this interview...
Related Links: C3 Writing || Clear, Concise, Compelling || Startup Colorado Public Launch || Blog || In the News Channel || Keywords: Kirsten Nelson, C3 Writing, Clear, Concise, Compelling, Blogs, Brochures, Websites, Written Format, Your Intended Audience, Your Industry, Your Presentation - bytes=6123000
LISTEN TO: Kirsten Nelson, Founder, C3 Writing

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Feld and Mendelson - How venture capital deals work
Jan 24, 2012_ 1149/RR_ 8/29/11 - When Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson sat down to write their book the goal was to aim it at every entrepreneur, to really help them understand how venture capital deals work. Brad Feld in Tuscany, Italy talks with Larry Nelson via Skype to tell us about his newest book, "Venture Deals...Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist". The inspiration for the book came from the Term Sheet Series that Jason and Brad wrote about five-six years ago. This is a particularly valuable book for entrepreneurs looking for money... You'll get an insider's view of the venture deal process, the different players involved on the deal side including how venture firms are setup. And, they talk about how an entrepreneur should think about the fund raising process. The term sheet is a very complicated document and there are a lot of things that people negotiate. But there are essentially only two things that matter which are economics and control. Here they've spent a lot of time helping the reader understand which terms related to economics and which terms were related to control and how and what that meant. It's meant to be a guide not a text book with material that can be very dry and boring. They've made fun of lawyers, venture capitalists and themselves along the way, but there goal was to write something significant and enduring. Comments from readers include..."For a first time entrepreneur, it's a completely enlightening book." Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO wrote a very nice forward to the book where he talks about how useful it would have been to have this book at the beginning of his career, and throughout his career, to look back and reflect on all the deals he's been involved in. Brad tells us how his blog, Ask the VC works with this book. Number one piece of advice for a new entrepreneur from Brad is, "Pick something that you're incredibly passionate about. The thing you want to create, the business you want to start should be something that you're in love with. It's going to be hard. You're going to have lots of ups and downs, there will be lots of things that don't work. If the thing you're working on 18-20 hours a day isn't something you're incredibly passionate about, what's the point?" Second is surround yourself with mentors." ...don't miss the rest of Brad's advice, listen now!
Related Links: Venture Deals - Amazon || Ask the VC || Feld Thoughts || Mendel's Musings || Foundry Group || Feld-Weiser One-on-One || VC Channel || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Venture Deals, Venture Capitalist, Foundry Group, Entrepreneur, Mentors, Dick Costolo, Twitter, Tuscany, Italy, Foundry Group’s Series A Documents - Bytes: 13588587
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Author, Venture Deals

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