2 Conversations: April 2011

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

so many conversations!

Really? Two weeks since my last post? I’ve been having so many conversations, often thinking, “I should blog about this,” but it’s been too much fun conversing to write about them! Here’s a list of some of them, not necessarily in chronological order:

Carrie Catherine. We’ve been emailing about organizing a concert for her in the Calgary area and chatting about her song “Sunshine Baby” and a lullaby my mom used to sing, “Good Morning, Merry Sunshine.” I blogged about the songs here.
Barbara Howe & her friend Yvette. Several months ago when I met Barbara, she immediately felt like a kindred spirit. Her book, Forgotten Voices, was uncannily parallel with my own research in women’s history. I suggested designing a website for her book, . She loved the idea. A few weeks ago on March 29th, I hosted an author night through Ambrose Bookstore, and Barb was on the roster. Delightful evening. She brought Yvette, of course, along with several others. On Monday, Barb & Yvette & I met for lunch and visited for over three hours! Discovered a neat connection to Yvette: a few weeks ago Kevin & I bought some filing cabinets from a guy who advertised on Kijiji. Barbara was telling me about Yvette’s husband, and the details sounded exactly like the Kijiji guy, who turned out to be Yvette’s husband!!! The world is not just small, it’s tiny!

On April 1st, I set up a booth for Ambrose Bookstore at a Christian Trade Show and met all kinds of inspiring people. I shared the booth with Work of Your Hand, whose fairly traded products we carry in the store.
The following Saturday, I met my friend and fellow creative lady, Brenda Hemphill, at the Women 2 Women Expo where we visited the interesting booths, sampled food and fragrances and more, bought Gems of Gluten Free Baking, then sat down to plan for a creative women conference, similar to the one I hosted last year.
Somewhere in there I had a phone conversation with Rosie, who blogs at Iambic Admonit and Space for God – Photo Blog. (You’ll notice that the photo blog features a picture of a mommy reading BlueBeary to her little boy!)

I’m sure there are lots more, but that’s a snapshot for now.

The Rules 2

1. Average two conversations five days a week about what I'm doing and/or why I'm doing it.

2. Email counts, though phone is better and in-person is best.

3. Enjoy building a business through being a Connector (as per Malcolm Gladwell).

4. Report some of those conversations here. Try to report weekly or more—e.g. by Thursday or Friday as the business week is winding down, or Monday/Tuesday after a weekend of touring or conferencing.

5. Reflect on the significance of these conversations.

6. As appropriate, provide names, links, contact info, pictures, etc.

The Background

Near the end of 2009 I moved to Calgary with the goal of establishing Siretona Creative, a publishing and production company that empowers women in the arts to build community among generations and nations. Siretona women are using our voices to make a difference in the world.

I like to read widely about business and to network intentionally and extensively through in-person events and social media. Still, the business side of things wasn't "clicking." Everything felt like a stab, an attempt, a bit of a guess. Now there's nothing wrong with following intuition, and in the past year I have been involved with three great projects largely due to intuition: BlueBeary, Notes from Over the Hill, and the Minus 40 Tour. At the same time, I have puzzled over how to bring it all together in a cohesive way, besides an inspiring mission statement.

Puzzled until I read a tweet from someone I don't even know:

"If you have to have a success formula here it is: Have 2 conversations every day about your vision and goals" (@douglass231).

Ah-ha!!! A day or two before that I had read a challenge to talk to 10 people in one day about my products. TEN! It's really a small number, as this blog will hopefully discover, but at the time it felt overwhelming. Douglass231 freed me. Two is manageable. Two is easy to track. Two can be quick.

Now every day except Sunday, I have a target: two conversations about what I'm doing and/or why I'm doing it and/or how I'm doing it.

First of all, I want to track my own progress as a networker, strategist, marketer. Who am I talking to? How am I finding them? What do we talk about?

Second, I want to tell the world about these conversation partners. Sometimes I'll need to guard identities, but I suspect most of the time it will be appropriate and even important to promote their businesses with descriptions, links and even pictures.

From time to time I'll invite guest bloggers to track their own conversations. We'll see where this all leads!