This weekend I put together my SXSW 2013 speaking proposal. In a few weeks, public voting will open and you’ll be able to see all of the details of my proposal. As part of the application I made a one-minute Youtube video that details my 10 Commandments of Living a Life of Your Own Design.
I was inspired by Steve Jobs’s 10 Commandments which is pinned up at my desk. Months ago I promised you I’d make up my own and here it is. I had a good time making it and I hope to be doing more of these clips soon. Let me know what you think!
For several years, I’ve been thinking about how to help new yoga teachers get their teaching practices off the ground. Teachers spend a lot of time and a lot of money to get their certifications so that they can share this practice with others. Training programs don’t have a lot of time to teach yoga teachers the skills to secure teaching jobs because they need to focus most of their efforts on training teachers to properly care for their students with strong alignment, safe sequencing, and proper technique. Furthermore, it can be tough for new teachers to get the experience needed to get a studio teaching slot and it’s tough to get a studio teaching slot without the experience.
As an MBA with 14 years of business experience and an experienced yoga and meditation teacher, I can fill this gap to help get new yoga teachers started on their teaching path. I put together a training course to provide business know-how to yoga teachers.
Option 1:
A kit to craft their mission statement, find their market, write a one page business plan, and put together a course of action for their first year as teachers to reach exactly the kind of student they want to teach. Price – $25
Option 2:
Everything in option 1 plus Skype sessions to walk them through the kit as well as give new teachers advice and resources to set up their business: how to incorporate, taxes, basic accounting, expense tracking, and marketing assistance including basic website set up. Price – $200
Option 3:
Everything in options 1 and 2 plus in-person sessions with me, a regular teaching slot in the Compass Yoga teaching roster to start earning their hours toward the Yoga Alliance 500-hour certification teaching requirement, tracking of teaching hours in Yoga Alliance format, and a selection of other goodies to help jump-start a new business. Price – $500
Yesterday was my first day as the head of my new company, Chasing Down the Muse, where I develop new products, services, and programs for companies on the leading edge of their industries and where I teach classes to creative professionals to help them learn how to tap their imagination at will. By all accounts it was the best first day I’ve ever had at a new job.
With respects to time, my day played out like this: I woke up early, had a staff meeting with myself (Phineas was there too), planned my work for the week, gave an in-class private session to my friend, Sara, at ISHTA Yoga, saw Brian (my coach), and then came back home to get going on my weekly goals. I did all of my work on my Mac, had music on in the background, and enjoyed the sunshine as it steamed through my open windows and filled my entire apartment. I made all of my own food right before I ate it and ate it, only when I was hungry, on real plates with real silverware. I took a few walks with Phineas to clear my mind and give him his exercise. It was blissful to have control over my time.
Here’s what I didn’t do yesterday: waste a single moment in a meeting or on a phone call with no meaning, feel frustrated at executing against business decisions I didn’t agree with, nor ask permission to do what I know to be the right thing to do. I felt passionate about my work and empowered to act in every moment.
I felt free, and that is something I’m happy to get used to feeling.
I am so excited to announce the launch my new business, Chasing Down the Muse. I create products for companies on the leading edge of their industries and teach classes that help people build their own creative habit. To learn more about my services, click here.
Thank you so much for all of your support leading up to this big day. If you’re interested in this new business, here are a few ways to be involved with the company:
1.) Be an Inspired Instigator! As I craft products, services, and programs, I will be reaching out to a small group of people to get their feedback and advice prior to launch. I’d love to have you as part of the group! The time commitment is very small (mostly done in short 10-question surveys every other month), entirely optional, and fun. Plus, there will be prizes and plenty o’ recognition. Contact me if you’re interested in learning more.
2.) Keep me in mind for any projects you or your company have that match my experience and pass on the URL of Chasing Down the Muse to anyone you know who would be interested in learning more.
Thanks again for all of your energy and excitement around my leap into a freelance life. I’ll be sharing the journey with you every day right here and I hope you’ll share your journey with all of us, too!
The world just got a little brighter for tech entrepreneurs who are looking for a combination of funding and support to launch their ideas out into the world.
Introducing LaunchHouse: an Ohio-based seed capital investment fund, like Y Combinator or Tech Stars, will invest $25,000 in 10 technology-based entrepreneurial teams from around the world. And the best news is that you still have time to grab your shot at being one of the 10 brilliant teams to receive funding.
What is LaunchHouse looking for?
New startup technology-based companies with 2-3 cofounders, 1 of whom must be a programmer
Willingness to relocate to Cleveland, Ohio for a 12-week, full-time commitment to the LaunchHouse program
What kinds of applicants is LaunchHouse looking for?
High school graduates to baby boomers, LaunchHouse is looking for the 10 best ideas for new startups from around the world. Period.
When is the application due?
July 1st
What happens once all of the applications are submitted?
In July, there will be an “un-conference” where the 30 top teams will be invited to Cleveland to compete in a pitch session to clinch one of the 10 final spots in the program. Then the top 10 teams roll up their sleeves and get to work for 12 weeks building their dream companies.
What’s the goal of LaunchHouse?
Identify 10 promising teams of entrepreneurs and work with them over 12 weeks to launch their new companies and set them up to either raise follow-on funding and secure their first paying customers.
Your dream of entrepreneurship could be just an application away. Stop waiting. Start doing. Apply here.
Corporate executive who say stupid things are making it easy for us to set sail on our own venture adventures. While I am angered by their behavior, I’m thankful for our ability to turn the situation around and invest in our own business ideas. When things are falling apart (corporate culture), pieces are often falling into place (new start-ups.)
However, my latest example of corporate idiocy is worth a detailed explanation for the lesson it teaches us about where and with whom to spend out time. This is a story that has to be told. Just when I thought I had seen and heard it all when it comes to the idiotic behavior of some (though certainly not all) corporate executives, another one comes along and delivers another shocking display of poor behavior. Women of the world, brace yourselves for this one.
I recently had the opportunity to hear Jennifer Hyman, Co-Founder of Rent the Runway, on a panel of entrepreneurs. Rent the Runway rents the latest women’s special occasion fashions for a fraction of the purchase price. A passionate, intelligent, and creative woman, Jennifer explained that her company is about more than fashion. It’s about empowering women to create extraordinary lives while looking and feeling their best. She explained that the mission of Rent the Runway was so compelling that she and her co-founder were the first female entrepreneurs funded by Bain Capital.
The corporate executive moderating the panel saw this incredible accomplishment as an opportunity to put his ignorance on display for all to see. His response to Jennifer’s story?“Was that Bain pre- or post-Romney?”
And the entire audience (made up largely of the corporate executive’s employees) went silent. No one knew what to say, where to look, nor how to feel. Everyone’s face just dropped. Was he trying to funny? Was he using humor to veil his own insecurities about female entrepreneurs? After spending 30 minutes prior to the panel discussing the value of a growth mind-set to large corporations, why would he insult a guest he invited to speak on the topic? Did he feel threatened by her confidence and ingenuity? (Incidentally, Jennifer was the only female on the panel and the only one to receive this kind of comment from the moderator.)
Jennifer handled the situation with grace, the way I believe she must handle every business situation she faces. Still, my anger was up, way up, until I realized the tremendous gift that this corporate executive delivered to everyone in the audience. Why would anyone continue to work hard for him every day? Why would anyone pledge their loyalty to someone whose ignorance causes him to behave so poorly?
You could see everyone’s wheels turning with the idea, “I need to get out of here and follow the lead of the entrepreneurs on the panel.” And all I could think in response was, “Yes. Yes you do. Give your own business ideas a fair shot at success. Leap!”
This executive is already getting the result he deserves – a complete loss of loyalty from his team; he just doesn’t know it yet. But he will. It won’t be the first time a suit, stuck in his ways, totally misjudged the future of our economy and I have a feeling it won’t be the last. Investors, place your bets. I know which way I’m going. Do you?
There’s an executive recruiter who’s been calling me for a few months. Every time we talk and we like each other less and less. She asks a lot of questions, never listens to my very honest answers, and then is annoyed that I’m not interested in the jobs she’s trying to staff (which are in direct contradiction to all of the answers I’ve given to her never-ending list of questions.)
I don’t understand why she keeps calling me, on my office phone number no less. And then on Thursday afternoon, I finally realized that I needed to explain to her exactly why she’s having trouble getting people like me (and everyone I know) to take these postings seriously: they don’t pass the BS test.
She was totally annoyed by my advice. I found a more professional way to explain the BS test but the general sentiment is the same – don’t give me some high-brow job description filled with jargon. Tell me what’s amazing about the company and the team and why I want to be part of it. Don’t try to dazzle me with buzz words like “high-level strategy”, “high-visibility”, “senior-level exposure”. Tell me what a day in my life could be like there and what I’m going to learn. And please don’t tell me what my skills can do for a company. I already know that. Instead, relate to what I care so deeply and passionately about – developing products and services that make people’s lives better.
Corporate HR and executive recruiters need to really push their clients, meaning the hiring leaders. Really push them to accurately represent the jobs they’re looking to fill and exactly what those job descriptions are in plain English. Then they need to tap into their other customer base, the people they’re trying to recruit, and listen, really listen, to exactly what it is those candidates want to do and why. Any other path is just an extraordinary waste of time – for recruiters, for companies, and would-be team members.
I attended a presentation at SXSW that showcased one of Amazon.com’s first homepages. Look how far they’ve come!
I admire Amazon.com for so many reasons, one of which is that they will try to delight customers at every turn. And if they don’t get it quite right, they’ll just try again. The point is they try with what they’ve got, listen, and give it another go. They experiment, tinker, and explore. We should follow their example.
As I’ve continued to speak with new start-ups, I’m reminded of one simple-to-say and sometimes difficult-to-execute idea: get work out into the world. Now. Don’t wait for perfect. Perfect’s not coming, but opportunity is. Welcome the guest at the door and the lessons they bring.
Show the world what you’ve got – it’s the only way to know if it’s worth having.
Brand Bitt and Jonah Hill as Billy Beane and Peter Brand in Moneyball
In business schools, Moneyball is revered as a classic case in making use of old data in new ways that drive innovative management techniques. I finally saw the movie last week and was blown away by the performances as well as the underlying message: marginalize people, relegate them to being followers rather than leaders in your organization, and you’re missing out on their true value. Plus, it makes you a jackass.
Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s, needs a better way of doing business. He needs to recruit a wining team with a fraction of the budget that other baseball franchises have. Embedded in the low-level management rungs of a rival team, Beane meets Peter Brand, a Harvard-educated economist, who is a master with numerical data and passionate about the game. Beane plucks him from that unappreciative crowd and brings him to Oakland to stage a turnaround for the A’s.
I won’t spoil the outcome for anyone who has yet to see it – it’s so good that it needs to be at the top of your queue if for no other reason than to see Jonah Hill’s incredible performance as Peter Brand. Beane recognized that Brand was special, that he had a gift and a vision that wasn’t being recognized and rewarded. Beane’s not a saint. I’m not even sure that he’s a nice guy. But he has a nose for talent and he will not watch it go to waste. He’s observant, decisive, hard-working, and unrelenting in his vision. And he pays a lot more homage to skill in any form than he does to politics and tradition.
Corporations need their own Bill Beane. There are plenty of Peter Brands inside their walls; most executives are just too dumb, jealous, and / or egotistical to recognize them. Boxes on org charts are not chess pieces to be moved around a corporate game board. They’re people who deserve respect, who have a right to their dignity. They day is coming when all the Peter Brands will no longer sit idly by, keep their heads down, and their mouths shut. They will find the Billy Beanes of the world, roll up their sleeves, and get to work to beat their former employers at their own game.
I for one am ready to see Moneyball’s lessons expanded beyond the field. Let’s play ball!
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
It’s true for affairs of the heart and it’s true for how you build a business, which is just another form of an affair of the heart: love matters.
Love counts as much as any amount of financial planning, marketing, and content. If we don’t love it, care about how it all goes, and hold the people we help through our business in the highest regard, everything else falls flat.
And loving the initial idea, the burst of newness, is one thing. It’s easy. Everyone is capable of it. But can we love our business, our mission, in the long run? Through the tough times? Through the dark nights, and occasionally darker days? Can we dig deep, remake, reshape, renew, and fall in love again with our business every single day?
The answer has to be yes to every one of these questions if our ideas are to be sustainable and valuable, for us and the world. Otherwise, we’re just wasting our time, and time is not a resource we can afford to waste. All we get is today. Love it and make it count!
Christa Avampato 