GMU StartUp Challenge

Tuesday November 8, George Mason University is hosting their annual StartUp Challenge.

Seven Startups are scheduled to strut their stuff, so attendees will get an insight into the next crop of new technologies.

I have been following Peter Corbett, going to Disruptathon and several DCTech meetings, and today’s startups are different from five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago.

Twenty five years ago, I was on the left coast. We would get an idea, put together a budget, earmark funding, recruit a management team, get some space and commence to develop something. There was no internet, very small computing, and a highly developed social network in the Bay area.

These companies were mini-Fairchilds and HPs, led by the same type of engineers. We were making products and new categories, like desktop slidemakers. That was when slides were 35 mm and came on a carousel.

Every five years we get faster, learned what we didn’t have to build to make a successful venture. In John Battelle’s The Search, Google had spent $50 million before they figured out they were an advertising platform. I don’t think that could happen again.

If you have an interest in how the new economy is shaping, come to the GMU StartUp Challenge. And please root for MyLeadershipPractice!

Comments lubricateth the blog!

Looking to improve your blog? Our next presentation is BlogLab - Improve Your Blogs! Thursday December 8, 8:30 am - 1 pm. Learn more at http://bit.ly/WMRBlogLab

Rainmaker #6 – Networking – Are you Being Served?

Definition: A Rainmaker creates a significant amount of new business for a company. The Sales Lab Rainmaker Series is one rainmaker technique for technologists during the first 300 seconds (five minutes) of the monthly Capital Technology Management Hub Meeting. This is the handout for our June meeting.

We're professionals! Somebody said we're expected to network.

What do you want to get out of a networking session? This may surprise you - 1 or 2 new relationships. Someone of interest – who they are; what their organization does; what's their role; and what interests them .

Offer some help if you can – by telling about results - from your customer’s viewpoint – from using your service/product (only if directly on target); or refer someone or something; describe a useful blog & send them the link.

Then – be quiet for a bit – if you offered some help, they may ask what they can do to help you (or you can tee it up for them “I've been trying to …”) - or - they may ask for more info about the results you mentioned. Either way - tell them something they can react to – not a sales pitch - and thank them for any suggestion offered – no rating, ranking, or refuting.

The key to successful networking is to focus on the needs of the other person as you learn more about them and seek a way to help. Zig Ziglar says: “You can have anything in the world you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”

Please share your thoughts to help extend our learning - comment below:

Reserve your place for the next Capital Technology Management Hub Event, How to Transition a Small Business Into a Fortune 50 Company , June 14^th, http://smallbusinesstofortune50.eventbrite.com

The previous Rainmakers:

Rainmaker # 5 – Start With An Offer

Rainmaker #4 – Time, Talent, and Treasure

Rainmaker #3 – Process to Purchase

Rainmaker #2 – The Nametag

Rainmaker #1 - Gifts

Rainmaker #5 - Start With An Offer

Definition - A Rainmaker creates a significant amount of new business for a company.The Sales Lab Rainmaker Series is one rainmaker technique for technologists during the first 300 seconds (five minutes) of the monthly Capital Technology Management Hub Meeting. This is the handout for our May meeting.
 
Listening to a line of people introduce themselves with a name, a precious title, a company, a catchy slogan, like “We put an 'X' through Excellence!” I realized I just wanted the offer. 


What can you do for me? That is more important than anything else. 
 
When you decide to attend an event, your next thought should be, what can I bring? What can I offer? 
 
If you can't think of something, don't cancel. Resolve to attend twenty meetings every month, so the only option is to develop something to offer. Then you can go more easily, more often.


If the offer is more important than the name, title, company, and catchy slogan “Fred the Electrician, Let Us Remove Your Shorts,” why not go with the offer first? 


Or by itself? 
 
What is your offer? Commenting below will help us all get ready! It payz to advertize (here)!


Reserve your place for the next Capital Technology Management Hub Event, How To Implement Security In An Open World, May 10, http://opensourcesecurity.eventbrite.com

The previous Rainmakers:

Rainmaker # 4 Time, Talent, and Treasure

Rainmaker #3 Process to Purchase

Rainmaker # 2 The Nametag

Rainmaker #1 Gifts

Rainmaker #4 – Time, Talent, and Treasure – The Winner's Lemonade

Each month we present a 300 second program about practical leadership ideas at the beginning of the Capital Technology Managers Hub monthly meeting in McLean, VA.

Here's the handout for the session about winners adapting to circumstances:

Rainmaker #4
Time, Talent, and Treasure – The Winner's Lemonade

Time: everyone gets 24 hours each day – can't save it; can't increase it – use it or lose it.

Talent: unfocused exceptional talent is useless; even minimal focused talent is awesome.

Treasure: at the moment – what you've got is what you've got – make good use of it.

Get a bunch of lemons and a winner makes lemonade, then opens a stand to sell it.

Tom Sawyer needed to whitewash a fence and, as a junior grifter, had no favors to call in for help. Yet all the kids were painting the fence and they paid him with their treasures to do so.

Jethro Gibbs (NCIS) leads a team of misfits and has no formal training in investigation or leadership – but - he and the team catch the bad guys every week.

Peter Drucker says the single most important thing in business is a satisfied customer and that results (i.e., satisfied customers) only exist outside the organization – inside there are only costs.

Winners take actionable steps to achieve results; non-winners tell stories about why they can't. Aren't you a winner?

Please share your comments at bit.ly/hS60Vo. 

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To hear more, come join us at the April 12^th CTMH meeting on How Google Apps Ecosystem Disrupts Traditional Enterprise Platforms.

Rainmaker #3 - Process to Purchase - How To Sell Your Skills

The Rainmaker Series is 300 seconds of hardcore sales at 6 pm before each monthly Capital Technology Management Hub meeting. The next meeting, Leveraging The Organization's Knowledge Assets is Tuesday, March 8.

Here is the March 8 Rainmaker presentation 


We spend our careers honing our skills. It’s what we practice, what we study, what we think about.

Have you noticed nobody else cares? 
 
Skills are grouped in processes. To showcase  our skills, we explain our processes. Process diagrams don’t sell much. See The Dreaded Process Diagram. 
 
People don’t admire and covet your process or your skills. They admire and covet the results of your process. 
 
If you want your process purchased, focus on communicating how people who used your process succeeded. 
 
No matter how much you think people want to hear about your process, they don’t. That’s your hallucination. 

Romance them with your customers’ success. Keep pounding “Happily ever after.” Don't slip into your process.

Please extend our learning with your comment about this Rainmaker at http://bit.ly/Process2Purchase. 
 
Reserve your place at Leveraging The Organization's Assets today!

Rainmaker #1 Gifts

We are providing a new offering, a ten minute “Rainmaker” idea before the monthly Capital Technology Management Hub meetings in Tysons Corner.

This Tuesday, November 9th is the next free CTMH meeting. For details and to sign up go to http://profits.eventbrite.com.

Here is the handout for Rainmaker #1.

Joining a conversation, whether a formal introduction or just sliding in, what is the best way to start? We often hear inflated claims that go nowhere, start nothing, or people mumbling or never really joining the conversation.

What works better?

What about giving a gift?

A joke, an observation, a compliment, are all individually created. You can’t come up with THE ONE KILLER LINE, but with practice you get better and the process gets easier.

This is the Information Age, and a valuable and appreciated gift is useful information. What can you offer others that they will appreciate?

We’ve noticed that a handout (short – less than a page) lasts longer and can be re-used for greater benefit.

See you Tuesday night! http://profits.eventbrite.com  

Comments?

Other presentations you might enjoy:
Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday, November 10th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, and
How to Scale Your Organization - Build, Borrow, or Buy? Thursday, December 9th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville
http://www.saleslabdc.com/leadership

Rainmakers

Dov Gorman, of the Capital Technology Management Hub, has asked for an ongoing series of ten minute “Rainmaker” presentations before the monthly CTMH meetings.

We enjoy the CTMH meetings, as presenters and participants, and this is part of their continuing effort to increase the value of their meetings. CTMH was started by graduates of the George Mason University Technology Management program, and draws many participants from that group.

Capital Technology Management Hub is found on the web as a LinkedIn group. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=1922364&trk=anet_ug_grppro

This is an unusual opportunity and fits directly with some things we are learning from tending our blogs, specifically – the message can always be shorter, and when done right, the shorter the message, the more profound the meaning.

We are looking to define something fast and useful every month. Come along to see how it works!

Please join us this November 9th for the next free CTMH meeting. For details and to sign up go to http://profits.eventbrite.com.

What are some topics you would like to see in the ten minute drill?

Other presentations you might enjoy:
Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday, November 10th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, and
How to Scale Your Organization - Build, Borrow, or Buy? Thursday, December 9th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville
http://www.saleslabdc.com/leadership