Dina’s pictures from Biznik happy hour business networking event
Summer time. Oh yeah. Check out these pictures of Seattle’s indie business community chillin’ at Liberty on Tuesday, taken by Dina Johnson. Here’s a link to the full set:
1 Comment Why Biznik works for me
A few months ago, I signed up with a business networking group called Biznik. It bridges the online and offline worlds well, providing a great website for connecting with other members as well as a raft of great events for meeting others and learning from their expertise.
Since then, my world has been turned upside down. I’m currently living in a fabulous house with a tremendous family, and I met the mom, Ruby Grynberg, at my first Biznik event. I’m redesigning my graphic approach to be more professional, and I met my graphic designer Nadja Haldiman through Biznik. I’m rethinking my entire business strategy with the help of marketing strategist Dominic Canterbury, another Biznik connection. And I’m just waiting for the day when I meet my future lover/partner/wife through this network - it’s bound to happen!
What makes Biznik so great? Let me count the ways:
- Full of independent, creative professionals like me. We “get” one another. I feel at home, like I’m seen and heard, and I can connect easily.
- A spirit of giving, loosely based on the “gift economy” of Burning Man but adapted to the needs of people making a living in the dollars and cents world.
- An attitude of CAN-DO - there’s not much we can’t do, judging by the talents and accomplishments of any random selection of members.
- Open hearts - people are genuinely interested in giving of themselves in their professions, and in seeing others do well.
- Creativity - thinking outside the box whenever possible. The tag lines say it all: “Business Networking That Doesn’t Suck,” and “Radical Self Promotion.”
What is there NOT to love about Biznik??
business networking
0 CommentsAin’t no such thing as perfection.
Yesterday afternoon I recorded a podcast with Lisa Haneberg of the Management Craft blog and podcast. Ostensibly, we were chatting about focus, yoga and her new book, but about halfway through we tangented wildly into the absolute secret of becoming successful in this whacky world of business.
Here it is:
Stop thinking and start doing.
If you sit around and try to make your business perfect–if you’re waiting for that perfect opportunity or perfect set up to fall into your lap–then you’re going to end up gray and alone and angry and miserable. In my “Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Made by Small Businesses and What to do About It” class, I say “There are people who are out there who are worse than you are at what you do who are more successful doing it.” And the whole class always bobs their heads and says “Yup. Yup. Yup.”
So what’s makes these under-talented folks successful? Boldness, balls and an absolute willingness to fall on their faces.
Personally, I think we need our own parade.
Hey, Solstice is awesome (especially when Biznik founder Dan McComb decides to join the painted bike riders. Woo!) and gay pride is grand, but I think we self-employed types need our own parade. We could make big, metaphorical floats that deftly and artistically explain our passions, our plights and our joys.
Like a giant bed rolling down the street, a bunch of Bizniks sleeping in it, illustrating the wonder of “Sleeping in on a Tuesday.”
Or a comely graphic designer holding her thumb, a grimace on her face showing the whole world the horror of “Damn, I wish I could afford good health insurance.”
You get the idea.
Got any Self-Employed parade float ideas of your own? The comments field is waiting. It’s waiting for you. For you and your big clever brain.
Biznik Bumper Sticker Spotted in the Wild
Dan and I attended the four day Critical Massive festival this weekend (a regional Burning Man event attended by about 500 people) about an hour and half outside of Seattle, and as we were walking down a long line of parked cars with thumping techno music booming in the distance, we were surprised and delighted to discover a car sporting a Biznik bumper sticker. We had hundreds of these lovely vinyl silk-screened stickers printed earlier this year, and have been handing them out at events for a couple of months. But it was quite a thrill to spot the first one in the wild this weekend.
If you’d like to have a Biznik sticker of your very own, you can grab one for free at the next Biznik event you attend. Or you can order a sticker for $2 and we’ll mail one to you. Send your check or money order along with the quantity desired to:
Biznik
4318 5th Ave. NW
Seattle, WA 98107
(206) 228-0780
Intimacy in Business
“Biznik is the dating service of indie business,” Chris Haddad exclaimed at the Super Awesome Biznik Profile Extravaganza Creation Party on Tuesday night. So, is that some clever way of promoting his availability? Well, perhaps it is…. but beyond that, I think what he was really getting at is that Biznik is all about people creating relationships.
Relationships are created by trust. Trust is established when people connect through resonant values and beliefs, make agreements, and follow through on them. When it’s possible, face to face contact is where the die is cast…making eye contact is when it gets real. That’s when you decide to trust that someone is speaking with authenticity. When only phone contact is available, the tone of voice transmits an energy that you “read,” unconsciously receiving information about a person. Websites are one tool you can use for making a good first impression, and blogging is a way to bring it home by writing to your audience in a more direct voice.
Is it possible to avoid having deeply personal interactions when doing business with people? Whether you are a mortgage broker, beautician, designer, healthcare professional, marketing guy, or any other indie business person, it’s actually part of your job to do so. You need to get inside your client’s head and heart and find out what makes them tick. If you are doing your job right. How will you satisfy someone’s needs if you don’t take the time to find out what they are?
Relationships are about getting your needs satisfied, on both sides. As a Naturopathic doctor, I have an intimate relationship with each person who walks in my door. Now, obviously my code of ethics precludes romance with my patients. What I’m talking about is providing a safe environment for people to put down their bags, unpack the contents, and show me what needs to be healed. It means giving people the time they need to get comfortable. It means being a very good listener. And it means seeing people as people, not diagnostic codes. It never fails to blow me away how profoundly people are affected just by being heard in a way they have never before experienced. I would go so far to say that establishing trust with people is 50 percent of healing.
The take-home here is that to be successful as an indie business, you have to create relationships with people. You have to be authentic. You have to know your stuff and go the distance to keep your promises. You have to be a good listener and have passion for what you do. It’s really no different from any other area of your life….the energy you send out will come back to you eventually.
business networking business relationships trustLosing by Winning OR “What you gonna do with all that junk?”
Ugh. There’s nothing quite like waking up to find an overflowing crate of chatty plastic parrots, erotic board games, horribly ugly action figures and dangerous and sharp bits of industrial metal sitting square in the middle of your living room.
Except for maybe tripping over said crate and having to remember how you got it in the first place.
Friday night Megan Groves and I went down to the home of Beth Yockey and Scott Jones for a rousing night of “Junk Poker”–which can be quickly summed up as “Poker where you really, really want to lose.”
I packed up a duffel bag with a bunch of stuff that had accumulated around my apartment. You know what kind of stuff I’m talking about. Stuff like that bike-tire codpiece I wore in that really bad play 4 years ago. Or a pair of bright red boxing gloves. Or the random and mysterious bars of lead that have been sitting in my closet for as long as I can remember. You know, junk.
And let me tell you, I suck at poker. I can’t bluff to save my life. I have no idea what cards I should hold onto and I have a tendency to let my lower lip quiver madly when I’ve got a good hand. I was absolutely confident that I’d be coming home empty handed. Confident and maybe even a little bit cocky. I went down there knowing that I was going to lose.
“And the river . . .it’s a 9 of hearts!”
“GAHHH! NO! NO! Oh, come on! This isn’t funny anymore.”
“Your pot, Haddad. Take it and weep.”
By the end of the night I was a just about buried under bad books, lacy things and Hulk comics. It took two trips just to get out to the cab. I was a . . . gasp . . .winner. . . and I’d never been so miserable.
Which brings us to today’s topic:
Losing by winning.
You ever know somebody who gets everything they ever thought they wanted and it drives them absolutely nuts? I knew a guy back in college who dropped out two years early and got his dream job running the account side of an advertising agency in San Francisco. He was making piles of money with piles more responsibility and it made him fat and angry and burned out at 23.
And I’ve seen too many small business people win big contracts that they fundamentally don’t want to do and that, fundamentally, lead them down the absolute wrong path in their life.
Or, heck, folks who win the lottery just to end up broke and friendless 3 years later.
Or. . .well, you get the idea.
Sure, we all want to be winners.
But before you throw your money on the table, make sure you know what game you’re playing. And make sure it’s a game you actually want to win.
Extravaganza Overload!
Hey, folks.
Just a quick note that our big profile creation event tomorrow night is booked to the gills. So if you snoozed, you have officially lost. I mean, what were you thinking? How could you give up the chance to have Chris Haddad, Dan McComb and Lara Eve Feltin help you create tremendously badass biznik profiles?
But keep your head up, bucko. I’m sure we’ll do it again someday.
In other news, I just shot out the latest issue of The Hard-Working Words Newsletter. It’s a good one, chock full of insight about TV advertising, small business marketing and . . err . . .Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Sign up here.
Shopify.com - Real Ecommerce for Small Business
Most small businesses have to take some horrible compromises when trying to get into ecommerce and sell products online, it’s either a crappy looking yahoo store, or an ebay store, which in the end marginalizes your identity. So if you want an ecommerce store just made for small business check out shopify.com, it’s easy, it’s beautifully designed, and it won’t turn you upside down and shake all the money out of you. It’s made by a company called JadedPixel which is very much in the same mold as 37signals, and focuses on usability and design.
Now I just listened to a podcast about it on the MarketingMonger and it’s great to listen to the founder, and hear a bit about their philosophy.
This is also an interesting example of how podcasts are great ways to get to know companies. I listened, and I can safely say that I would trust this company with my money, and if I wanted to sell anything online I would be going here first. A great example of Micromarketing at work.
(I have no association with these guys, but I love there approach to business and marketing)
Keep up the good work folks.
Karl
ecommerce online store small businessgulliver: “We need genuinely different businesses - with heart and soul”
An odd request appeared in my inbox a few days ago from a new member who ran into a problem with the Biznik signup form: “I legally have no forename - and had to invent one for your registration. Can you fix this?” I could, and shortly afterward my email exchange with gulliver grew into a full-blown interview with a British consultant whose approach to business is as unconventional as his name.
Q: I must say, I’m looking forward to this interview, because anyone with a sperm zooming toward an egg in the header of his website has got to be good…
We should have more egg-and-sperm liaisons - there’s not nearly enough bodily fluids on the web.
Q: So, who is gulliver, anyway?
The “what” is 50 percent lunatic, the rest madman. “Who” is something about which I’ve never really been sure. “gulliver” is something I do - using up moments of life to spare me the task of having to decide. We share common experience… having been entwined so long now, “neither head, nor tail - just part of the dog” not able to say with certainty which of us is possessed or possessor. Friends, by day we chop wood and in the evening sit by the fire - wrapped in blankets, sipping bourbon, writing poems and laughing about the old days. We also do business stuff - but please don’t tell anyone.
Q: Well you both look so nice together in the firelight that I’m reluctant to disturb you, but afterall, this is a business networking site, so I don’t think I’m totally out of line in asking: “What business stuff?”
I design, build and repair commercial enterprises. My core work is providing advice and practical support to businesses. I also start new ones by sourcing and coordinating the concept, the people and the money.
My day-to-day activity includes advising-on and developing strategy, structure, design, branding, marketing, management, investment, research, etcetera… that kind of thing. And a lot of stuff too dull to mention.
That all sounds a bit proper… how about just: “Ask. Listen. Guide.”
Q: So, you talk to people about business and they pay you money?
Almost. Not quite. In my consults I have conversations with people about their business. We speak about what they’re doing and how things are going… problems… opportunities… what they want to do etcetera… and I suggest ways to improve things. Then, if invited, I make sure what needs to be done, is.
Q: You say “an important part of my work is to help people develop really good enterprise by not being stupid, lazy and greedy.” What are some other important parts of your work?
There *are* no other important aspects to my work. It all flows from that source of “behave decently… do cool stuff… enthusiastically tell people about it.” Honestly, apart from the vast financial riches available therefrom, what’d be the ****ing point of treading the boards with all that marketingese-speak like “key deliverables, return on investment, leaders in our field since god-knows-when” mumbo-jumbo? Too much business reads like WSJ - we need more Kerouac and Hank Miller. Does “prick pomposity” count as work? It’s certainly important.
Q: Can you give me some examples of businesses that you would describe as “authentic, ethical and exciting?”
There’s many who can pull two-from-three - but few play the full-house.
In terms of enterprise (isn’t that somehow a more honorable word than business?) which do it for me as “genuine, decent and charming”… among the few I can immediately recall (it’s my crap memory, not a dearth of candidates) are StoryPeople and Zeldman. Oh - and Howies (from Wales, England, of whom only a relative few are aware).
But none of them are “exciting” in the way I meant when I originally wrote that line… like Greenpeace before they kicked-out McTaggart. Anita Roddick (founder of Body Shop) had that edge - the genuine desire to take on the world - not flinching from engaging with crap. In her prime, the money never mattered. Jobs has a similar “defect”… but he shaved the beard and got wealthy. I wish Tibor Kalman were still alive.
Hey, let’s get off this downer vibe… it’s crap to think there’s any obligation for commerce to do other than make money however it can. Just because some of us do, is no reason for others to align with Roddick’s: “In terms of power and influence, you can forget the church, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business, which is why I believe it is now more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership. The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.”
For anyone wanting a better enterprise, “genuine, decent and charming” offers a way forward… through and out of the “how do I get noticed and stay remembered” maze of sameness. We need genuinely different businesses - with heart and soul. Yeah, we do. So maybe I’ll back off the white-horse windmill tilts stuff and instead focus on the new breed… of which there’s really a lot of good hip’n'happening stuff - but which hasn’t yet gotten the public attention it merits - and help raise the profile thereof. Hey - I can come interview you guys, for that.
Q: What’s your take on online business social networks from where you sit in the UK? Are you an ecademy member?
Short answer: They’re shit. Most of what I’ve seen (and I’ve seen most of ‘em - albeit briefly) suffer from “charmless man syndrome”… they got no soul. Clearly conceived by men in neckties and shiny shoes, they’re largely populated by over-serious types desperately seeking affirmation of their own importance in a world which neither needs nor wants them. Other than consuming bandwidth and thus slowing the spread of porn and shopping, I don’t see them serving any useful purpose.
And yes, sadly I am an ecademy member - but inactive. When I quit, I asked them to remove all my stuff and delete me; but they refused - unless they changed it since, once you’re a member you can’t get out again. I was there for a few months from Fall 2003 - initially enthusiastically participating, then after about a week-and-a half, increasingly felt that I’d wandered into the wrong room so remained on the edge of the arena watching the show… lobbing-in counter-culture blog posts to unsettle the natives complacency.
Q: How’d you hear about Biznik, and what can a group of non-conformist indie professionals whose tagline is “radical self promotion” do for you?
I think the trail began at a Network Marketing-oriented site… from which I hopped-across to Ann Handley at MarketingProfs and from a link from a link to a link etc found your sweet little outpost - a welcome respite from wandering a hostile landscape.
What can it do? For me? Dunno. I’m just looking forward to clearing some space and hangin’ out there as a “don’t interrupt me, I’m networking” excuse to absent myself from real fee-paying work. At the very least it’ll help me seem better than I really am - I can steal some of your clever-cool copy and use it on client work.
Q: Oh yeah, and, how come list Texas as your place of biz but you mentioned your UK based? Wait, let me guess, you’re a double agent…
It’s all your fault. If you’d had better registration software (and I’m extremely appreciative of you already hacking it to accommodate my ‘not enough names’ thing), it’d say ‘DFW and Devon, England’ - thereby reinforcing my pedigree as an international cosmopolite. With my wife recently having moved back (her son, school etc - long story) to DFW from England, my plan is to join her soon as I can nail the visa thing - and thereafter split my time between here and there.
Already having made a “let’s question all the societal mores” damn nuisance of myself over here, just think what damage I can do in a country so-possessed of self-image and paranoia. Assuming I don’t get shot by some angry redneck for wearing sandals, it should be a blast.
gulliver is the only person I know with a four-letter domain name: glvr.com.
Eliminate comment spam in your WordPress blog with Akismet
I had a shock when I woke up this morning: more than 2,000 emails in my in-box, each one a notification email alerting me that a new comment was pending my approval in the Biznik business networking group blog. Worse, they were still pouring like a flood, with no sign of letting up, and the fact that my server had to send out an email for each piece of comment spam received made it work so hard that it amounted to a denial of service attack (in which the server works so hard to handle the bogus requests that it doesn’t have enough capacity left to handle the good ones). Check out the graphic above which shows how hard the Biznik server was working trying to process all that spam!
So, how to defeat the spammers? Obviously turning on comment moderation wasn’t going to cut it. So I headed to WordPress.org, and after a few minutes of browsing the plug-ins directory, discovered Akismet. It’s “a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again.” Sounds good, I thought, let’s give it a try.
First, I downloaded the plug-in here: http://akismet.com/download/. Then, I uploaded it to my blog directory on my server, into the
pluginsdirectory, which is located in the
wp-contentdirectory. Then, I activated it from the WordPress plugins menu. A screen came up telling me I needed an Akismet API. Getting one of those turns out to be really simple - just sign up for a free WordPress.com account here: http://wordpress.com/signup/ and they’ll email you the API immediately. The next step in the Akismet instructions: “Forget that spam was ever a problem.”
I checked my email and sure enough, the flood had stopped, and my server was returning to normal. Just like magic. So, if your WordPress blog is getting bombarded by spammers (and if it isn’t yet, it will be somebody, trust me), I highly recommend this plug-in.
Biznik message delivery is back to normal now
The problem that interrupted message delivery on Biznik for about the past 24 hours has been fixed. All of the affected messages will be delivered, with the exception of BizTalk comment notifications. So, if you’re receiving your mail a day late or more, don’t worry - the problem is fixed, and all the messages you sent (invitations, referrals, etc.) have either already been delivered, or will be delivered shortly.
Email problems will be fixed shortly
I discovered a problem that’s been preventing email notifications from being sent correctly, so if you just joined you didn’t receive your welcome emails, and any referrals sent in the past 24 hours probably did not reach the recipient. Hang in there - I’ll have this fixed shortly - thanks for your patience.
Locally Targeted Online Coupons
This seems like a very interesting company, it’s a tool that allows a businesses to create locally targeted coupons that customers can find online, print, and bring into the business.
Now, for the sake of full disclosure my company Local Zing Inc. is an affiliate, in other words if I do refer them business I will get paid when they eventually start charging for it in 2007. Anyway, that being said Zixxo.com is the web site and it has two purposes, a place where customers can go an find coupons for businesses in their area, and a tool for local companies to create those coupons. It’s such a great concept i find it hard to believe that no-one has done it before.
Now when people think of coupons they usually think of pizza etc. but this is a great venue for proffesional services as well because it allows you to define the critiera of your offer. Lawyers, designers, dentists, doctors, can all create coupons that can be for first time customers.
It is currently free, although it does require a 1c payment to prevent fraudulant coupons and spammers, and the company will start charging in 2007, and from what I can tell it will be based upon how many coupons are printed.
Other mentions:
TechCrunch
Emily Changs Ehub
Duct Tape Marketing
Interview with the founder of Zixxo
We are so smart. S. M. R. T.
I always knew Seattleites (and Seattle Bizniks in particular) had big bulging brains, but finally the world at large has figured it out too.
According to Bizjournals.com, Seattle is the smartest city in America. Fully 47 percent of Seattleites hold Bachelor’s degrees, the highest proportion of college-educated residents in any major city in the country and almost twice the U.S. average of 24.4 percent.
Add in the fact that in 2005 Men’s Fitness magazine named us the fittest city in the nation (in the 2006 survey we fell all the way to number 8. I blame cheese steaks from Philadelphia Fevre) and it seems pretty clear that we big-brained, hard-bodied Seattle ubermensch are uniquely positioned to take over the whole damned world.
So get to it, Bizniks, the pressure is ON.
Getting On The Front Page of Google
I’m happy to report that even though LocalZing.com (my internet marketing site) is only only 6 months old it is now on the front page of google for my chosen key phrase which is “local internet marketing”. I actually only checked because I noticed a spike in traffic from google, and I thought I would investigate. It took over a year for me to get the #1 spot on google for my site that focuses on customer experience , so it looks like LocalZing is doing quite well.
Here’s what I think I can attribute this success to:
- The blog format
- Focus on a realistic key phrase
- Attracting incoming links by with original writing
Blog Format
The blog format is absolute magic for SEO, because it’s regularly updated, it’s extremely easy for search engines to consume, and it has lots of built in meta-data and link building tools. One of the often overlooked technologies on blogs is “trackback”. Trackback is essentially a technology that automatically detects incoming links from other blogs and creates reciprocal links (I wrote more about trackback here: What makes the blogosphere so…. spherical.
Realistic Key Phrase
When picking your key phrase you should try and pick something that is realistic, is somewhat niche, and includes a broader key phrase that you would like to win. With Local Zing, ideally i’d like to be found under “internet marketing” but that’s a very competitive field, so I worked on a more focused phrase “local internet marketing”. I admit, Local Zing is a pretty easy one. But take my “customer experience” blog, there I started by focusing on winning “customer experience strategy” and once I had got that, customer experience was sure to follow.
Original Writing
Ok, well this one is not quite so formulaic or easy. First you should make sure you get familiar and read other blogs that are talking about the area you want to play in. Don’t fall into the trap of only reading popular blogs about “blogging”, then you’ll just end up getting caught up in the incestuous, self referential blog maelstrom, and that won’t do you any good. You’re much more likely to get linked to by like minded bloggers that are not inundated, and are actually interested in expanding on topics relevant to your business.
How much traffic can your blog generate? Find out…
A week ago I asked Biznik members to return a favor that we’re doing for you already by adding a link to Biznik.com from your website or blog. Today I’m announcing a fun sweetener to the deal, to encourage those of you sitting on the fence to add that link (c’mon, it’s easy - grab the code here). It’s called the Top 10 Members list, and it’s a running tally of who is referring the most traffic to Biznik. Actually, that went up a week ago - what’s new today is that if you’re in the Top 10 list, a graphic badge will now automatically appear on your profile page with your rank prominently displayed. So anyone looking at your profile will immediately know to snap to attention and salute your skill, good looks and popularity.
It’s been fun to watch the list changing over the past week. I was comfortably in first place when I launched this feature last week (granted, I did have a bit of head start), but Seattle real estate blogger Dustin Luther is closing in fast - he is poised to dethrone me before the end of the day at the rate he’s going. Wanna see how your site stacks up? Find out how much traffic your blog can generate - and feel good about helping a business networking group that doesn’t suck get ranked in Google.
Oh, and guess what? Your links seem to be making a difference already, because Biznik started showing up in the Google index over the weekend. If you search for “business networking” on Google today, Biznik comes up #33 in the results. That’s fantastic, considering we haven’t even been in the index with that term at all up until now. But I’m confident we can be in the top 10 with a little help from you. Here’s how you can help.
Podcasts about ‘New’ Marketing
Managing the Grey hosted by C.C. Chapman who is the Digital Marketing Manager at Babson College and has been doing music podcasts for a while. Managing The Grey is about “new media, social marketing, no control PR”. Hmm. those are some more terms to add to the ever growing list of adjectives used to describe ‘new’ marketing.
and
Accross The Sound Hosted by Joseph Jaffe, of Life After The 30 Second Spot fame. Joe brings a wonderful perspective to this conversation because he has worked on the agency side of things and on the ‘new’ marketing side of things. Across The Sound is usually about an hour, but he does a good job of filling it with interesting content and gives a nice show summery on the Across The Sound blog (i think they call them show notes).
and
MarketingMonger.com - Marketing Strategy, Social Media, 1,000 Podcasts Hosted by Eric Mattson who is currently in the middle of conducting 1,000 podcasted interviews of marketers, innovators, entrepreneurs and other interesting people
Anyway, for me it’s kind of weird to just be discovering these guys as i’ve been an avid participant in the blogosphere for a few years, and finding these podcasts is like finding a parallel universe. Maybe bloggers and podcasters run in different circles.
Biznik welcomes Karl Long today as a contributor to the Biznik business networking blog
I experienced one of those great moments of synchronicity on Saturday when dB, a friend of mine who created the outstanding Food Candy social network in New York, sent me this email Friday introducing me to someone he thought I should meet:
“I ran into Karl’s site, www.customersonfire.com and was impressed how very much right on his views of the new business are. We’re all in the same melting pot here, so I thought you should guys should connect.”
Turns out he was introducing me to someone I’ve already met. Not in person, yet, but in spirit, definitely. And in Biznik. And now, you get to meet him too, because as of this morning, I’m delighted to introduce Karl Long as the newest contributor to the Biznik blog.
One of the things missing from this blog so far, I think, has been relevant, interesting and useful “business tips.” That is, regular posts that really point you in specific directions toward tools and ideas and people that you should be aware of, that will help us run our businesses better. Karl does that every day. So well, in fact, that he recently was asked to become a member of the 9rules network, which aims to showcase “the very best web content in the world.” Currently he authors four blogs that focus on different aspects of marketing, which I’ve been subscribing to for a couple of months. And I know we’re all going to benefit from having his perspective on “conversational marketing” and other goodies here. So welcome, Karl.
To learn more about Karl, his business, and the blogs he authors, check out my recent interview with Karl in the Biznik blog.
Katelon Jeffereys: “Rapport is about quickly creating a sense of commonality”
Seattle wellness trainer, therapist and coach Katelon Jeffereys has been “learning and doing wellness” for 27 years. She joined Biznik three weeks ago after learning about the group from member Annie Jacobson (who is up to some really interesting things herself, which Lara will be blogging about soon). Despite her relative newness to the group, Katelon isn’t waiting around to find out what “radical self promotion” is all about - she’s helping to define that herself by stepping up to teach her first Biznik event, “Rapport building for business and pleasure,” on July 15th. So let’s find out a little more about Biznik’s newest event host, shall we?
Q: How would you describe what you’re doing today for a living?
My work is about empowering people, whether it is giving a relaxation or injury treatment massage, to the mind-body work I do, the nutritional work I do or the workshops I teach. The world can seem pretty crazy and scary right now, and it is easy to get very stressed and develop either cynicism or helplessness. But I feel it is a very exciting time and I truly believe we are in the process of transforming the planet. So, my focus, whether in therapy or workshops is to educate people, give them tools to use to keep centered and balanced, help them release limiting patterns so they can really thrive and contribute the gifts they came to share.
Q: What are some of the highlights of your 27-year career?
It has been an amazing process to be so intimately involved with thousands of people over these years. Even in just a relaxation massage people tell me their life stories. My work with incest, childhood abuse, and rape victims, using various mind/body therapies has been very rewarding…to see the transformation within these people as they let go of the pain they’ve been holding in their bodies and thus the limiting patterns they have held in their lives. I once did my wellness/empowerment/stress release workshop at a homeless literacy project in Arizona. I had junkies, toothless people, women in abusive relationships, etc. I received a thank you note from one of the women who said that she would get her angry husband to sit down so she could do the reflexology on him that I’d taught her, and his anger would be diffused, thus empowering her and deflating his anger. That was a real high for me. I’ve lived on the Navajo reservation teaching, worked on a mountain top five-star resort, worked with ex-gang kids and a gang prevention program, worked with Central American refugees, to corporations and probation officers at the Justice dept. I have loved how my work has taken me into so many venues to work with such a diverse population. It has shaped my beliefs and commitment to multi-cultural success and healing.
Q: You mentioned that your ultimate goal is to create an International Wellness Resort. What’s your vision for that?
This vision was given to me in a spiritual experience when I was nine. It got focused after going to a workshop held by people from Findhorn, a longtime famous spiritual community and leader in the sustainability field. I feel I have been led every step of the way in the forming of this vision, there has definitely been a “higher” hand in all of this… from all the ideas, people, situations I have been connected to.
This will be a full resort, have spaces for workshops, and a full wellness center that offers the typical spa treatments but also a fully staffed holistic staff of practitioners. There will also be a non-profit facility that will work with youth, families and other non-profits. It will all be built with green building and appropriate technology with consideration in all that we do from the ink we use to the cleaning products and furniture we have, so as to truly support and model a healthy building. The place will be run with the triple bottom line philosophy but will also train staff in non-violent communication and embody healthy practices that truly support the well-being of the staff, as well as model a healthy way to run a company.
I plan to also have a group of trainers that will teach various workshops from alternative topics to business topics that teach the triple bottom line, so that these trainers can go out to corporations as well as have corporations come to us. We will align with appropriate technology firms and have a research facility for alternative health as well as alternative energy use, so that we can work together. I would like to also align with universities and other schools to offer apprenticeships and internships.
We will be very focused on creating community involvement with the local community, taking volunteer work and workshops into the community and offering some free workshops for children and adults at the WCR. We will have organic gardens, herb gardens, and use permaculture. Ultimately I would like to have a holistic hospital, a Waldorf school, and offer homes so that people could live there, too.
Q: What do you mean by Triple Bottom Line?
People, profit, the environment. It is being a conscious business that realizes and honors that unless it is taking care of and being a positive contributor to the environment and community at large, supporting it’s employees so that they thrive and feel safe enough and cared for so their creativity can thrive, they will not be profitable in the true sense of the word. Plus, I believe that when you do institute policies that support the environment and the people who work in your company, you do increase your profit financially, too.
Q: How is Biznik valuable to you?
I love to meet people, obviously, and interact at a deep level, so I’m excited to have the opportunity to gift my talents in workshops, meet other inspired entrepreneurs and refer to them, make some new friends and have fun!!!
Q: You’re going to be teaching a Biznik event on July 15th, “Rapport building for business and pleasure.” Can you tell me more about that?
This is a fun, and informative two-hour workshop on rapport building. The techniques come from hypnotherapy and NLP, which I’m certified in, and they can be used in marketing, sales, networking, dating, conflict resolution…you name it. Rapport is about quickly creating a sense of commonality so that both people can easily connect and thus share at a deeper level. There will be information given, handouts to take home, and several fun interactive experiences that will give the participants a physical confirmation and understanding of these techniques and principles.
I’m having it on a Saturday, a rarity for Biznik, I hear, because my idea is that it allows the participants to be more relaxed, and not have to hurry to the event, and have time to linger if there are questions. Plus, then, participants will have the rest of the afternoon free, and plenty of weekend opportunities to practice the techniques with friends, romantic interests, etc. before heading out to use them during the work week.