Pushing into Day 3 of the 4 day Entrepreneurs 2012 Conference and with security for the former leader of the free world there was again no schedule posted so I was playing roulette with attending Day 3 hoping for some insight into life and business, that might knock a cog in my thick noggin into place.
Kate Hardcastle drew our attention to the heart of any business, Customer Service. Kate offered a compelling and interesting presentation to start the day about how we as consumers feel about our own personal experience with customer service. She slapped Richard Branson (without naming him directly merely showing images of red dressed flight attendants and other flight cues) for writing a book on Customer Service but disappointing her on several occasions. She told of pulling her daughter out of day care (something I can only imagine is a pretty big decision) after they failed to ask her how she felt in a survey instead asking positively geared questions. She talked about professional and personal life balance and how at the end of the day we are all human so we should treat each other with the respect and honesty we would expect in return. She was a breath of fresh Yorkshire air and quoted her Nan several times. It came as no surprise that she got the loudest ovation as she stepped off the stage and the most amount of people nodding in agreement throughout her presentation. Hell I would love to work with this woman!
Bill Walsh - having spoken the night before he asked all those who had not attended his session to join him on stage. I was flying solo for the day so off I tottered to sit on the stage at his feet as he wrote on a flip chart. Bill Walsh is another coach and motivational entrepreneur who has had great success with real estate and business over the years. I didn't have my note pad on stage so simply listened and attempted to absorb his insights (getting the flip chart page at the end of the session). What struck me was probably an hour into sitting on the stage was his question Why?.
Why are we doing the things we are doing today and is it the Why? we want to be identified with in life. I asked myself this in the solace of a 4000 person arena with maybe 800-1000 sets of eyes on the stage were I sat at Bill's feet. And I cried. I was on stage in front of a few hndred people at a Business Entrepreneurs conference and I was crying. Seriously all this talk over the past couple of days had stirred something in me that I was starting to realise was a pretty real and scary reality. I have no goals. Short of finding employment I am a 31 year old woman with no goals. I have achieved all of my goals in the past 30 years that I set out to do - other than the obvious marriage, babies and the noose of a mortgage that everyone sees as a normal passage to life. I suddenly realised I have a very real and large gap in my life and without a set of goals what direction am I actually heading for. In fairness I have a few professional goals but because I work in a specific sector of Financial Services the funding for such roles are few and far between. The reality I am coming to understand is that what I want to do is not something Big Business are willing to invest in. After all Entrepreneurs create 7000+ jobs a year and yet in a big organisation new roles number in the low hundreds in the UK.
So ensued the start of an existential crisis that I have been exploring through my blog (see earlier posts).
Wiped out by my Ah-Ha Moment, I barely listened to the step by step guide from Saj P as he provided a step by step guide to making money from affiliate internet marketing. Although the one thing I grasped from Saj's presentation was he was so wealthy he was literally there to say he has shared the stage with Bill Clinton....and that he did. Thanks for paying for the privilege.
What brightened my spirits was the passionate Pop-Entrepreneur Levi "Reggae Reggae Sauce" Roots who stormed the stage with his guitar singing of the merits of his Jamaican sauce. From his success in securing £50k from 2 of the Dragons Den team back in 2007. Levi's business growth has been due to an investment from the astute businessman Peter Jones. Levi's inspired each of us to find a mentor in business and life to help focus and guide us. Clearly in awe, humbled and indebted to the commitment from Peter over the past 5 years. He felt his expertise is not worthy of him as a mentor yet. Levi was a breath of fresh air encouraging the audience to embrace their passions and always believe....and don't forget that plenty of bank managers laughed at him as he walked in with dreadlocks and beads telling them his sauce would outsell Heinz Tomato Ketchup - and he proved to them he was right!
So with a big question of Why? and What? I've got some serious homework from this week at the Excel.
This is part of a 4 Part Series on Entrepreneur 2012
Day 2 - book-worming your way to success
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