Mastering Your Quest » Networking

Questing is a Team Sport

Ed Anderson — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:51:34 +0000

Men around a table

I belong to a small group of business people that meet once a month and talk about business related issues. Mainly they are business consultants and small businesses owners. The people at this group are all self employed in some capacity. Some are retired and working for themselves. Some have escaped cubicles and are working to build their own businesses. The range of experience varies widely. Some have done this forever. Some have just opened shop. It’s a good mix. We meet at a local restaurant for dinner and discuss various topics for about two hours. Most of the time it’s around a hour and a half. Lots of times people hang out and keep talking. It’s great. Honestly, most of my friends are employed by larger companies. They have the mindset of people employed by large companies. What I like about this group is that they don’t have that mindset. They have a different energy about them. It’s an underlying positive current. I look forward to the meetings. No matter what I feel like when I get there, I leave with a different attitude. I’ve spent two hours with people who are making things happen. Sure they have problems but they are working on the solutions to them. I can’t help but feel more positive when I leave. These people are doing what I want to be doing and they are successful at it. People pay them for their knowledge and creativity. I have direct evidence that it can be done. What could be more empowering than that?

So, great for me hey. I’m sure you’re wondering how that fits into your quest. Not everyone could belong to this group. Well, this isn’t the group for everyone’s quest. The message is that you need to find people that share your passion. Success is a team sport. If you can find one other person that shares your passion, your chances of realizing it are hugely better. Nothing will keep your motivation higher than spending time with people who are successful at what you want to do.

That may not appear easy to do at first. But if you look around you can find people who share your passion. Look for a club or class that deals with your interest. You may need to create one if one doesn’t exist near you. Internet forums and blogs can get you connected to like minded individuals. If your interest has a professional organization then it might pay to belong to it too. Access to people who are doing what you want to do is a powerful boost to your quest.

Why is this? It comes down to two factors. The first is motivation. You see people doing what you want to do. It’s easy to think that no body ever succeeds at achieving your passion when you are the only one you know interested in it. If you know someone doing it then you have evidence that it can be done. If one person is doing it then you could be doing it too. If two or three people you know are doing it then it becomes why aren’t you doing it. Peer pressure is not always a bad thing.

The other factor is the combined knowledge and idea generating power of a group. Napoleon Hill called this a mastermind. I know you’ve all seen it. You get a few people talking about some problem and all of a sudden all these ideas start coming up. If you can find a group of people involved with what you want to do, then you have a powerful resource for making it happen.

If you are actually going to fulfill your quest, you are going to need people around you that share your passion. That support is what’s going to get you through the rough spots. You need some people who are going to listen to your dreams and say ‘yea, I thought about that too and here’s what I did about it’. Your friends at the office, who’s outside life is the latest TV comedies, are not going to really understand. The bad thing is that by doubting your ideas, they are going to feed the doubts that you have. Before long you will be spending your time watching the same TV shows and your dream will be something to be done sometime in the far future.

So, find some people who have similar passions to yours. They can do wonders for you and in return you will help them stay on track. Success is a team effort. Working alone makes for a hard and lonely trip. Don’t worry about not finding them. The law of attraction will work for you. The light of your passion will draw those who share it. Just look for them.

Quest On…

A little co-working Jelly

Ed Anderson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:05 +0000

I’ve been discussing co-working lately and I discovered an interesting variation of it. Co-working is strongly connected to a community of like minded souls who like to work together. We’ve been talking about people meeting at a central location with helpful facilities. In other words somewhere to go and get something done. As you would guess this relates to the group of people as well as the location. Well, as it turns out you don’t necessarily need a fixed location.

In 2006, a few friends started getting together to work on their various projects. They met at someone’s apartment or other agreed upon spot. (library, coffee shop, any office area with wi-fi) They put together a web page and before you knew it a movement was born. They call them ‘Jellies’. People started doing them all over the place. You can find local ones listed on their web page.

If you don’t have a local co-working space, you might check and see if a jelly is happening near you. If not, you may want to think about starting one. The web site has advice on this and they appear helpful. It could be the start of entrepreneurial community and maybe even a regular co-working space could be developed from this. This is an exciting option for the single entrepreneur or telecommuter. So, give this a shot. Expand your connections and create a support network.

Jelly website: http://www.workatjelly.com/

Quest On….

What makes for a successful co-working space?

Ed Anderson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:30:01 +0000

Co-working spaces are different from other rental properties. Their attractiveness to new members is not just based on the facilities and amenities. Their completion for members is wider and more varied than you would think. The members could be working at the library, or coffee shop, or even on their kitchen table. There must be more than just space offered. That thing is community. A successful co-working space offers a community for the members to belong to. Otherwise people might as well be at the coffee shop or all-night diner.

This community could be built up around the space or pulled in from an existing organization. Our local co-working space, Spark Plaza pulls from the successful local group, Geek South. This group has been around for years serving to bring together a mix of technology and entrepreneurs. You could not have chosen a more complementary pair.

The other option is to build a community around the space. Members could be recruited from the local entrepreneurial base. This would require developing some method of contacting them and offering them benefits that they value. It can be done but this is the harder option.

Co-working spaces have a lot in common with clubs. The members interact with one another and must feel comfortable working there. If the membership is not from an established club it may take some time to develop a core community. However once that happens you have a successful operation that will draw people to it.

Spark Plaza www.sparkplaza.com

Geek South www.geeksouth.com

Quest On…

Join A Co-Working Space: Great Networking Idea.

Ed Anderson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:57:14 +0000

Spark Plaza

I recently had the good fortune to spend some time with friends at the local co-working space, Spark Plaza. Co-working spaces are office areas that rent out desk and working areas to entrepreneurs and small businesses. If you are a single person operation, you can go there and share an office area with others like yourself. This gives you a professional office to serve as your base of operations. You have somewhere to meet with clients if you need to and be away from home if you need fewer distractions.

That alone would be a great reason to maintain a space there, however that is not the only benefit of being connected to it. Being a single person operation can be tough. Until you get a steady stream of clients, it’s pretty lonely and can be down right discouraging. Especially when the wife and neighbors think that this is a phase and that you’ll get a real job sooner or later. Being part of a co-working area you are a member of group of people that are all doing basically what you are. It’s just like when you worked at the office, only better. Everyone there is trying to make it solo. You are around people that understand and are living the solo entrepreneur situation. This is as good an opportunity to network with kindred souls as you are going to find. Just remember that everyone there is working and stay on track yourself. It can be easy to get too caught up with the social side of this kind of work environment.

So, check your yellow pages or the Internet and see if you have one near by. You will get a lot of benefit for whatever fees they charge. If you don’t have one nearby you may want to think about starting one. It’s a great networking option. You’ll meet people working on similar goals to yourself and allow you start a local support / mastermind group. Having a support group is going to increase your odds of making it tremendously. See the links below to get started.

Local Johnson City One: http://www.sparkplaza.com

General Coworking Site: http://coworking.pbworks.com/

Quest On…