Carol Roth’s new book The Entrepreneur Equation has just found a special place on my very small shelf of un-put-downable books. I have read it cover to cover and here is my one sentence take on it:

Carol Roth has achieved the impossible: she has made ‘pull no punches reality testing’ exciting and inspiring.

My home, office (and bedroom!) are full of books. Before you ask, yes! I have read them all. No, I don’t always get to the end of every single book although I do persist, sometimes past the point of complete energy drain in the hope that there is a point just around the corner.  Not so the Entrepreneur Equation.

Carol guides the reader through the building of the most important equation any aspiring business owner should try to (re)solve. She has also made it OK to say “running a business is not for me”. In a world where self-employed status is universally considered the holy grail of freedom and independence, which after 20 years I know it is not, it really had to be said in a way that people could relate to and without annihilating the spirit and motivation of the reader. After 20 years and three recessions, I have learned something new too!

What do I really like about the book?

• Carol approaches the subject just like you might approach reality testing in a mediation. You have to build the capacity for realisation with the parties and occasionally just say it like it is. Timing is everything. This book is quite simply a treasure trove of reality testing techniques.
• Carol builds trust from the first page. Not just through her credentials (which are impressive) but by telling great stories we might all recognise and relate to.
• She is American. The book is truly international. Not many business books have achieved that.
• It is absolutely relevant for mediators.
• This is the best book I have read on entrepreneurship and I am going to include it in course materials for trainee mediators on all future courses to support the sessions we do on building your practice.

It would have been easy to write the next ‘how to succeed in 10 easy steps’ but this is worth much, much more, especially if you are thinking about starting a business and equally if your existing business could do with a makeover.

Why is that so important? How is that consistent with her passion for building business? And mine too for that matter. Simply because a significant part of the world economy is in the hands of entrepreneurs and small business but progress will be exceedingly slow if over 90% of new businesses continue to fail within 5 years of startup.

You may not like everything you learn; you may be surprised at how you feel after completing her assessment of your motivations and resources to build your personal Entrepreneur Equation; you may even think she is painting a harsh picture of what it takes but you will thank her and you will not regret reading the book.

A special note for my colleagues: This is essential reading for mediators. So often, mediators miss the point: that when they start out in the business of being a mediator, they are starting out in a business. It seems obvious but obviously not if the emails I receive from many seeking help in getting their practice going are anything to go by! So many expect to be doing more of what they love doing/are good at. They don’t realise that it requires a whole new approach to life, work and the universe! There is no river of mediation work.

Carol has some great offers on the book and you should check out her site to pre-order the book which will be published on 22 March but you will have to hurry because the special offers are only valid until 18 February. I love the fact that international orders catered for. Well done Carol!

During this week Carol has pledged to match pre-orders with donations to Score to help them on their way to supporting 1 million new businesses by 2017.

And I love the doll so I have ordered mine and can’t wait for it to arrive.

Denise Wakeman speaker at the Mediation Business Summit

If you search for “how to build a business blog” then the very first site listed on Google.com is www.buildabetterblog.com a blog hosted by Denise Wakeman. I’m not surprised because Denise has been practising what she preaches for a very long time. In fact, Denise has (at least) three blogs: Biz Tips Blog , Build a Better Blog and Denise Wakeman – The Blog Squad . Each has a different focus and each is crammed with useful content which can be easily assimilated and implemented by the newcomer and the experienced blogger alike.

I am in awe of how frequently and consistently Denise posts savvy and engaging ideas about building your online presence through blogging and how to build your blog through integration with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. When you read what she writes on any of these platforms, you soon get a sense of her energy, credibility and her personality.

I am sure these are qualities that every mediator and ADR professional would like to be known for, online and offline. Denise says that blogging is the one way you can present a public persona that is ‘congruent and authentic’ and then she tells you how to do that.

Dig a little deeper into Denise’s online presence and you will find a great ebook produced by the Personality Project called Women of Personality. A Compilation of 40 Extraordinary Women Sharing Their Stories of Success. It is now in its second edition and Denise is featured as one of the 40 extraordinary women. In the book, Denise talks about how she is naturally a ‘behind the scenes person’ and that until she started her own business, that was the way she liked it. I remembered how ‘behind the scenes’ I liked to be when I started out in my own business, and like Denise, I instinctively jumped on the internet when there were not so many people to talk to, very few had an email address and all we had was a shaky 56k modem. Like her, I just knew this internet thing was a place I wanted to be.

Looking back, I started blogging via telex in 1984, with a weekly newsletter and analysis about my industry and it allowed me to “get in front of” influential people in my organisation without the scary part. Looking back, it worked and probably because I thought it was only being read by a few people that I knew very well. I had no idea that people were distributing it much more widely and if I had I probably would have clammed up! Just occasionally, ignorance is bliss.

Today it’s different. The ‘noise’ out there is much greater and for some starting out or looking to take their business to the next level it can be overwhelming. So much so, some people just don’t know where to start. One of the challenges is personal marketing and branding.

In starting her own business Denise realised that

Being the sole person in my business put me in a new position. I had to be “out there”. And the internet helped me do that. I wasn’t shy online.

I think many of us feel shy about marketing ourselves. It is so much easier to do it for others! Marketing is the number one challenge I talk about with people who contact me wanting to know how I managed to build my practice. The good news is that the social media tools that we have today allow you to do both: market yourself and market others.

It is one thing to read what people write and to get a sense of their expertise and the effectiveness of their advice and experience. It is even better to hear them for yourself. That’s why Tammy Lenski and I have brought together our choice of the best and most relevant  business management, marketing and social media voices from inside and outside the dispute resolution world. This is our selection of people who have impressed us with their energy, credibility and personality and who know how to communicate their expertise in a way which is relevant for building a successful conflict resolution practice.

The Mediation Business Summit is accessible via web and telephone from 16 – 18 September 2010.

If you haven’t signed up yet, then you are missing out on some great free gifts to get you started. There are two from Denise: an audio chapter from her renowned programme: How Drive Quality Traffic to Your Blog ($97 value) and a bonus chapter with 19 specific tactics for driving traffic to your blog. These will be available to you as soon as you have completed the sign up process. And you can grab your badge too.

See you at the summit!

Mediation Business Summit 16 - 18 September 2010

This evening I joined Tammy Lenski, Diane Levin and Jeff Thompson in the second of our Cafe Mediate conversations. We had a lively and fun debate round “what makes a great mediator?”

Thanks to all for some great insights and raising some interesting questions.You can find more of their thinking and ideas on their blogs.

For some further thoughts and perspectives on what makes a great mediator, I recommend IBA Survey Results posted at The Mediator Magazine penned by journalist Matt Rushton and my own research available from the archives on this blog Part 1 and Part 2.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. It lasts about 30 minutes. You will also find our first conversation Value-Based Billing which looks at how we might reconfigure the way we charge for mediation to reflect more closely and more clearly the value that mediation brings.

The popular mediator breakfast club hosted by Michael Cover and David Richbell will meet on Tuesday, 19 January 2009 with guest Nathan Murphy of Alloyfish

Time: 0845

Venue: The Punch Tavern, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DE

Cost: £5.00 to include, tea, coffee, juices, pastries and fruit. The full Punch breakfast menu will be available for those who would like to order it and pay for it separately.

Guest:  Nathan Murphy of Alloyfish, who will say a few words about branding and developing business in professional services around the internet. Nathan has his own business in this area; he also has an interest in prison design and correction systems and is an accomplished mountaineer.

Theme: Developing our practices as mediators and developing the overall market.

Please complete the form below:

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A recent conversation reminded me of how difficult it is to build a full-time mediation practice. I am frequently asked by new and aspiring mediators how to go about it and if there are any tips and tricks I can share with them!

I am always willing to share my experiences but at this point in the conversation I usually feel rather helpless! I have never found any tricks to building a mediation practice although I would argue there is some element of magic and luck in the process! I thought I would write something more helpful and then I noticed that Geoff Sharp at Mediator blah blah has  covered the subject with some good links to other articles. Here is one by Victoria Pynchon who is fast becoming my friend although she doesn’t know it yet! The wonders of blogs! Starting a practice.

On the question of magic and luck: in my experience they tend to follow having clear goals, intention and commitment. You can wrap your strategy around those and listen for opportunities that match your goals.

Tammy Lenski who is also fast becoming a friend through the world of blogs has written some useful articles about starting a mediation practice. This is a very good place to start. I also really recommend her site which is full of really useful tips. It is also beautiful to browse.

Having read through both Victoria’s and Tammy’s generous summaries of what worked and what didn’t. My own experiences are very similar. Here are a couple of points that I feel can’t be emphasised enough:

Sometimes the most difficult thing is saying ‘no’ to work that might distract you or muddy your positioning in the market. For example, taking a commission for work which is what you used to do rather than what you want to do now and more importantly requires that you practice some of the things that you now know don’t work. The benefit of working with people that you know is that you are likely to have established rapport and trust with the client and you may feel able to say ‘yes’ to what they say they want and do what you would rather do with better results for both!

Saying ‘yes’ to any and all opportunities to use your mediation skills, and in the early days this tends to be for little or no remuneration, will lead you to other opportunities (they always do) and will help you feel you are making progress because you are doing what you are good at and learning how that works in practice. It also helps to put substance on your CV.
I recommend that you keep a journal or notes about any new work/mediations that you do. I have a journal entry for each mediation/project which covers the following questions:

• What were my expectations? This covers hopes about the benefits and fears about the risks especially if I am doing something new or dealing with an area in which I don’t have a huge amount of expert subject knowledge.
• What did I try that was new? This would include new skills, testing new insights or theories developed from past experiences, reading or training
• What was the highpoint? This covers things that worked and that I would do again/more of. It also covers insights and turning points.
• What didn’t work? This might include concepts that I didn’t quite explain well enough and need to reframe or refine or the outcome of trying something new which didn’t work!
• Would I like to do more?

If you have any particular questions about getting started do post a question.