These past few months I have neglected to post anything on my website which is a shame. Although I have been super busy which is a great sign on a fun project called Neonology.

The study of the new, Neonology is all about promoting a welcoming, safe and inclusive community for all youth. Neonology encourage today’s youth, teachers, school administrators and parents to become leaders of change and help silence stereotypes and prejudices.

The project provides youth with the tools to understand the impact power and privilege has on their lives, teachers and administrators with the means to become aware of the power they have to create an anti-oppressive teaching culture, and parents will a deeper awareness of the complexities and intricacies of their children’s social framework.

During this time I have worn several colourful hats during the development stage of this project. With no real communications plan in place I stepped in to help the North Shore Multicultural Society grow this project into full fruition. Which means that I worked with them on their brand while working alongside an illustrator to get the vision and message on to paper and online.

Our next step was to create a content strategy of what the website would hold for youth. Once the framework of the website was in place, I built their channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to help share their message online. Because this project was more visual than content rich, I decided to bring in a film production company to create a promo video for their audience to share.

Did you know that Neonology workshops are in a few high schools across the North Shore and over 1000 students gained a new perspective this year and they are continuing to gain more interest.

Our next step is to get some publicity around the workshops so that they could implement them into other schools around the world but their first priority is the have them across the North Shore.

Lastly we will be launching an event for the students, which will have an arrage of fun workshops focussed on movement physically. Ironically Neonology is a MOVEMENT.

This week on Collaborative Corner, Nicole Sheldrake who is a creative writer and the founder of Vancouver Innovation Camp discusses exploring ‘Capitalizing on Change’: A Forum for Women Entrepreneurs event.

Last week I attended the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs Spring Roundtable event, my first with the FWE. The topic was ‘Capitalizing on Change’ and the schedule called for a panel discussion then breakout groups with the panelists and finally, networking time. I was most attracted to the breakout groups part since I wanted to do something more interactive than listening to speakers.

Panel Discussion and Change

The 5 panelists were:

• Jay-Ann Ford, Chief Human Resources Officer, Coast Capital Savings
• Susan Yurkovich, Senior VP – Corporate Affairs, BC Hydro
• Zahra Mamdani, President, Wear Else
• Tony Stewart, CEO, Quail’s Gate Winery
• Stan Fuller, President, Earls Restaurants Ltd

The aim was for the panelists to discuss questions from the audience but ended up with the panelists answering 1 or 2 question each without any discussion between them. I think perhaps the set up contributed to this; it’s difficult to have a conversation when you are sitting down the table and across the podium from someone and can’t see their face very well.

Hearing their answers to questions about how they deal with change was motivating because they confirmed that the activities I run at Innovation Camp are teaching the right skills to succeed in the constantly changing world of business.

There were no new insights however. The advice was basically: plan for as many different outcomes as you can think of, a recession is a good time to re-brand and innovate, prototype rapidly, learn from your failures and always, always treat your customers respectfully and with honesty.

Breakout Groups and Innovation

Stan Fuller, president of Earls Restaurants, was our discussion leader for the breakout group. A bright bunch of women and a couple of men shared their experiences and asked each other for advice with their businesses. Issues ranged from how do I get new clients buying my product to tips on starting a franchise. Overall, it was inspiring to hear how motivated and supportive our local female entrepreneurs are!

One particular conversation with Stan Fuller that I found fascinating was about promoting innovation within his company. Until that point, the group had been discussing innovation at the executive level. Stan mentioned that he does not promote innovation at lower levels (i.e. servers) because the employees do not understand the complexity of the business.

On one hand I understood where Stan was coming from but on the other I wondered if he was missing some opportunities – the first one, to educate his staff about the business, the second one, to utilize the different perspectives and individual talents that employees bring to a company.

Earls does promote innovation in some areas however. Every kitchen manager is required to have a certain number of new ideas being developed and prototyped each month.

A Culture of Innovation

It’s clear there is a culture of innovation at Earls but only at certain levels, i.e. executive and management. The question is, is it worth the time and effort to promote innovation at all levels?

What do you think? Let us know your experiences and thoughts!

This week on Collaborative Corner, Tony Wanless who is a Certified Management Consultant and a business writer for BC Business as well as the National Post talks about marketing your small business with authenticity:

Listening recently to Mark Silver, a business advisor I deeply respect because he insists business operation should come from the heart as well as from the head, I was reminded of the need for authenticity if you’ve opted to become an entrepreneur in your own independent advice or service business.

You see, most large and corporate professional entities use traditional “marketing” to snare clients. That means that, because their market targets are generally other large corporate clients, they adopt the same language.

Usually that involves spewing a lot of blather about their credentials, their impressive client list, their “processes” and all the usual bumpf that you can see on any corporate website.

This is corp-speak and fakery at its worst. Prospects are apparently supposed to be impressed by the ability to be as pompous, straight laced, and organizational as the every other large firm.

Even though they may give a nod to reality by featuring their principals in an “about us” section, they’re essentially distant and unfeeling. It’s broadcasting, not connecting.

This probably works at that level through sheer size and momentum.

But if you’ve escaped (or were thrown out of)  being a large-firm drudge and chosen to run your own business, you don’t have that kind of momentum.

You’re alone or have a very limited business family instead of an organization. You’re finding the work, as well as doing much of it. You’re vulnerable.

And everyone out there knows it, so why pretend to be anything but.what you are?

Why not be authentic?

Authenticity is really quite simple if you look at it right.

It means you admit you’re a human being and not a corporate entity. You may have a skill that people need, but you’re a human performing it. That means you have flaws, foibles, and the occasional failure.

It also means you have beliefs, characteristics and lines that you won’t cross. It means you understand that they too are humans with their own skills, flaws, and characteristics. It shows you understand that, like you, they’re trying to just get along in this world as best as they can.

This doesn’t mean you have to be some tragedy queen emoting all over the place at a moment’s notice. That’s just another form of gamesmanship and attention seeking.

It just means that you treat clients, prospects, and everybody as real human beings.

It means you’re authentic. And people will like you for it. And probably pick you over competitors who are trying to hide their humanity.

This authenticity stuff may go against all your training — especially if you’ve been in corporate harness for a long time.   But let’s face it, do you want to work with those corporate drones anyway?

If you have to work, wouldn’t you prefer to work with people instead of machines?

So do so. When you’re a small business your best asset is your authenticity.

This week on Collaborative Corner, Conny Millard an international business adviser comes across business owners who are trying to make sense of a marketing strategy to suit their budget and target market:

One recent client comes to mind that had engaged my services following a year of highly ineffective marketing investments, spending in excess of over $15,000.

As a former engineer, she had no background in sales or marketing and therefore little experience in how to take her products and services to market. She thought that as long as she would spend significantly on any marketing activities, returns would be certain.

Devastatingly, that was not the case. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only she had engaged a professional, she could have spent half of the money in the first year on a carefully selected marketing mix of launching her new venture with maximum impact and return on investment. And she would have had financial resources to help in other areas of her business as well as a financial cushion for this years campaign.

Getting professional help is something I work on with my clients from the very beginning and that certainly includes devising a strategic marketing plan based on her defined target markets. The strategy then needs to be put into action with the help of a qualified marketing executor.

By engaging a professional to help with aspects of your business that you are not proficient in, you will free up your time that is much better spend focussing on your strength which typically relates to immediate revenue opportunities. In summary, your marketing activities become top effective, the time you save is worth proper hard cash, you save and can reinvest the money for even greater returns.

So ask yourself, do you want to make it big or risk wasting it all?

I am pleased to announce that my site as been re-vamped and feeling a lot better than it did before.

I am also really excited to announce that I am collaborating with a few colleagues who will be posting articles on my site. They specialize in business development, web and content management, SEO, graphic design, strategic and creative thinking.

Every Tuesday I will add one of their articles and call this post ‘Collaborative Corner’ so stay tuned!