Monthly Archives: May 2013

First Major Challenge: The Expert-Author-Entrepreneur Transition

From Expert to Author to Entrepreneur: The Hidden Challenge for Emerging Leaders

Going from an “expert” to an “author” is a big life transition. Then, going from “author” to “entrepreneur” is another big transition. The next transition (not shown in the diagram below) is from “entrepreneur” to “Guru” or “King.” This is not such a big transition; it is more evolutionary. (For our definition of “King,” re-visit our first blog, Kingmaker/.)

The toughest shift of all is from author to entrepreneur. That’s why I not only pulled this one out for special attention, but identified the Three Biggest Challenges for Emerging Authors-Entrepreneurs in a recent post.

The diagram below illustrates these three crucial challenges.

Author to Entrepreneur: The Three Biggest Challenges

Shifting Engagement Strategy: from “Extreme Introversion” to “Extroversion,”
Shifting Focus: from “Tight Inward Focus” to “Ever-Expanding Outward” Locus of Attention, and
Shifting Management Strategy: from “Extreme Simplicity” to “Extreme Complexity.”

Going from Expert to Author to Entrepreneur: The First Major Challenge. Copyright Mourning Dove Press, 2013. Used with permission.

In this post, I’ll discuss just the first of these challenges, because each challenge is worth substantial attention. The more that we know, the more that we can prepare, and the less we’ll be taken unawares. Also, we’ll be more rapidly able to get “on top of” our new game.

The First Major Author-to-Entrepreneur Challenge: Shifting Engagement Strategy from “Extreme Introversion” to “Extroversion”

(Blog post in progress; new material to be posted soon – 5/16/2013)

Do You Have Sun Tzu’s “Moral Influence”?

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Before Starting a Business or Launching Your Social Marketing Campaign: Know That You Have Sun Tzu’s “Moral Influence”

Before we move ahead – as authors, as entrepreneurs about to start a business, or as both – we can apply concepts from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. This time-honored classic is relevant today for social marketing campaigns and to guide advertising for a small business. This is especially important if you are about to start a small business. Before you open a business, be sure to study The Art of War!

Even if yours is a home business, the business strategy recommended here – based on Sun Tzu’s writings – is essential. First, we need to assess ourselves using Sun Tzu’s “five fundamentals.” The first of these is “moral influence.”

Sun Tzu, author of the Chinese military strategy classic, “The Art of War.”

In Chapter 1 of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, he identifies his “five fundamentals”:

Moral Influence,
Weather,
Terrain,
Command, and
Doctrine.

(Go to Kingmaker to learn how each of Sun Tzu’s “five fundamentals” applies to the early-stage author/entrepreneur.)

Sun Tzu opens his second chapter by estimating the cost, per day, to field a large army. He makes it very clear that waging war (or in our terms, mounting a marketing campaign) is an expensive business. It will place a huge toll on a nation’s (or business’s) reserves.

So, before making campaign plans – whether for military, political, or business – we each need to ask ourselves, “Do I have the ‘moral influence’ that will impel me to see this through?”

What Exactly Is “Moral Influence”?

Chang Yü (whose comments on Sun Tzu’s initial writings are included in most versions of The Art of War) said:

“The systematic order above is perfectly clear. When troops are raised to chastise transgressors, the temple council first considers the adequacy of the ruler’s benevolence and the confidence of their peoples.”

Sun Tzu further explained:

“By moral influence I mean that which causes the people to be in harmony with their leaders, so that they will accompany them in life and unto death without fear of mortal peril.” (Chapter 1, Sentence 4)

Chang Yü’s comment on this is:

“When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and rightousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders. The Book of Changes says: ‘In happiness at overcoming difficulties, people forget the danger of death.'”

Paper

Kindle

So what do “temple councils” and the “ruler’s benevolence” have to do with us?

Everything.

Translating Sun Tzu’s “Moral Influence” into a Social Marketing Campaign or Starting a Business

We don’t really need Sun Tzu’s writings to know that a marketing campaign will tax us greatly – in time, energy, and money. Our families and closest friends will “feel the pain.” We’ll have less time to spend with them, and less money for fun. Austerity, coupled with less “personal time,” will put a strain on everyone.

Thus, before we even begin, we have to know that the people closest to us are on our side.

Even more, we have to know – in our deepest heart of hearts – that we have something of great value to offer. We have to be supremely convinced of this value.

Further, each of us must be deeply convinced that we are the best person in the world to carry out this mission. This can’t be delegated. It’s our personal vision; our raison d’être. Our personal vision has to be so compelling, so authoritative, and so commanding, that others are willing to support us – well before the accolades, success stories, and profits come rolling in.

Your Private “Temple Council” – Your Advisory “Inner Circle” Guiding Your Business Launch

Chang Yü (see quote earlier in this post) said that the “temple council” will consider the “adequacy of the ruler’s benevolence and the confidence of their peoples.”

From the Dr. Who TV Series: Borusa’s Inner Council talks with the Master. (TV: The Five Doctors)

The “temple council” is your private, typically informal, “inner circle” of business advisers. These are your “go-to” people; those whom you turn to for the deepest wisdom and guidance. You select them not only because of their smarts and savvy, but also their wisdom and spiritual maturity.

Your “temple council” will be the ones who will ask you: “Are you really ready for this?” And, “Is what you’re proposing really worth the pain that everyone will go through?”

You have to know that you’re ready.

Do You Have “Adequate Benevolence” to Start a Successful Business?

In helping you determine if you’re “launch-ready,” your “temple council” – your private “advisory inner circle” will first make their own assessment of you. They will consider the “adequacy of [your] benevolence and the confidence of [your] peoples.”

Your “benevolence” is a significant factor. Will your book, product, or service really be a benefit to others? Will it really help people in a strong, useful, meaningful way? Is what you are proposing really “benevolent”?

Second, your “temple council” will assess your personal maturity. They’ll ask themselves – and you – “Do you really have the whole-hearted support – the confidence – of the people in your life?”

You may not be asking your spouse, significant other, or family to follow you “unto death” in battle, but you may very likely be asking them to sacrifice vacations, luxuries, and time with you. Do those around you have confidence in you and your vision?

Do you have what Sun Tzu describes as “moral influence”? Do you have mastery of the remaining four of his “five fundamentals”?

Learn how to apply Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to your business launch or marketing campaign.

Join me – “Opt-In” using the form to the right. I’ll give you a “heads-up” when I publish the next strategic step that will help you evaluate where you are with each of the “five fundamentals” – and apply them to your own venture!

Before any politician embarks on a campaign, his or her inner circle carefully considers the politician’s spouse or significant other, as well as the most important and connected family members. Are they “confident” in this person? Will they “follow” her or him?

Before promoting an officer to the more senior ranks, the military commanders consider the officer’s spouse as a factor in the selection process. Is the spouse supportive in a useful and sustaining way? The next promotion will mean even more challenges; will the officer’s spouse help this officer succeed?

In one company which I co-founded, two of my male colleagues – part of the “initial five” – had wives who brought in six-figure incomes. Their financial support for their husbands made it possible for the husbands to focus on the new venture. They had to have the confidence of their people (their wives and children) in order to move ahead.

How To Know If You’re Really Ready to Launch Your Business or Start a Marketing Campaign

If you’re an author, the answer is usually clear. The book is done. You’re holding a copy in your hands.

Perhaps it’s not yet done, but there is enough of a draft manuscript so that you can put it down in front of someone and say, “Here. Read this.”

If you’re a product developer, you can take someone to a website and say, “Here. Try out this beta version.”

Even a good, solid, well-thought-out business plan – one with a compelling case, good research, and strong financials – can be “ready enough.”

Most often, there needs to be some prototype (in the case of a product), or some track record of providing the kind of service that you’re proposing. That’s why most initial, or “angel,” funding is for prototype development.

Government Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) awards are first for small (typically $100K) “Phase I” proof-of-concept efforts, and then – if the “proof” is sufficiently convincing – for a (typically closer to $1M) “Phase II” prototype development. In order to get the Phase II funding, a company will have to show that the “commercialization transition” has already been worked out; a major company with strong revenues and an established product/service line is willing to take the new invention to its clients. This is where the “people” (the established transition-sponsor company) have “confidence” in the new company’s invention.

Assessing Your Own “Moral Influence”

Before you “go to war” – start your marketing campaign – you need to be sufficiently together; enough to have your own compelling sense of “moral influence.” You will know that you are ready – not when you have sufficient money in the bank, or a “finished enough” book/product/service – but rather, when you can say “yes” to these criteria:

Temple Council Approval: Your “temple council” – your private advisory “inner circle” – gives you the “go-ahead,”
You’re Sufficiently “Benevolent”: You are absolutely convinced that your book/product/service is “benevolent” – it will bring value to other people’s lives – and you can specify how, and
Your People Have Confidence in You: The people closest to you – those whom you’ll rely on for support through thick and thin (and there will assuredly be “thin”) – give you their confidence in specific, tangible ways – such as reading and critiquing your manuscript, giving you encouragement to take your product public, and/or helping you out financially.

This morning, I received a sympathy card and a gift from my sister. My much-beloved cat, “Cuddles,” had died two weeks ago. She did this to encourage me; she had “confidence” in me. Other friends had banded together to help me get Cuddles’ remains cremated. They took me to the crematorium, and one of them picked up the box of ashes the next day. Another brought by a picture of me with my cat; it had been taken when we were both glowing with healthy vigor.

Any one of these people could have said, “Why are you putting yourself through the stress of a new start-up company? Why aren’t you getting a ‘day job’? Why aren’t you going for financial security; a job with good pay and nice benefits?”

Instead, they had confidence in me – and in the “benevolence” of my vision. I’ve shared with them what I’m sharing with you; insights about how to launch a well-structured, orderly, solid business and marketing campaign. They see that my approach is solid, and when the challenges come, they support me.

Before you launch, be certain that your “temple council” believes in you, and that your “people” have “confidence” in your vision and in your ability to bring your vision into being.

With whole-hearted best wishes for your own success –

Alianna

Alianna J. Maren, Ph.D.
Founder & Creative Visionary, Mourning Dove Press

The Three Biggest Challenges for Emerging Authors/Entrepreneurs

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The Three Biggest Challenges: Going from Author to Entrepreneur

In all the books, online tutorials, and other guidance that I’ve studied since releasing my latest book (under the Mourning Dove Press imprimatur) over a year and a half ago, not a single source mentioned any of what I found to be the three biggest challenges confronting an author-turning-entrepreneur. Not one! And certainly, none of them has offered a means for dealing with these challenges.

Perhaps its because there’s a certain psychological nature to this. However, I’ve come across many “success coaches” and “business coaches” who address a wide range of “psychological aspects” in their coaching. Not a one has come close to any of these.

So let me dive in. These are the three biggest hurdles facing anyone in the midst of the author-to-entrepreneur transition. I’ll outline them briefly in this post, and suggest specific strategies for mastering the transition – and dealing with each of these challenges – in the next three postings.

The Three Biggest Challenges

Shifting Engagement Strategy: from “Extreme Introversion” to “Extroversion,”
Shifting Focus: from “Tight Inward Focus” to “Ever-Expanding Outward” Locus of Attention, and
Shifting Management Strategy: from “Extreme Simplicity” to “Extreme Complexity.”

Not a one of these is trivial. In fact, any one of these – if not addressed very successfully – will completely derail an emerging author – or a product developer, in the case of a “skunkworks”-type product development scenario.

Why Being an Author is Like Being in a “Skunkworks”

The analogy of being an author to being part of a “skunkworks” team is pretty useful.

SeachCIO defines a “skunkworks”:

Skunk, courtesy of the Village of the Niles.

A skunkworks (also known as Skunk Works) is a small group of people who work on a project in an unconventional way. The group’s purpose is to develop something quickly with minimal management constraints. Skunkworks are often used to initially roll out a product or service that thereafter will be developed according to usual business processes.

The original “Skunk Works” team was a specialized Lockheed Martin team that developed an advanced fighter jet during WWII. While a number of people still think that the “skunkworks” term refers to the hygiene habits of the developers, it really is supposed to refer a moonshine factory in the then-popular cartoon strip L’il Abner. Be that as it may – two “rules” (of the fourteen governing a skunkworks) practically necessitate holding one’s nose:

Very small team: Rule 3 states that: “The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner.” Extremely small team; extreme isolation. In an author’s case, this could mean a team consisting of “me, myself, and I” – and that will continue until the project is far enough advanced to include a crucial few others, such as editor and copyeditor, etc. Many early-stage authors will not have a publisher or agent.
Extreme isolation: Rule 13 states that: “Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled.” Other rules reinforce the themes of tight focus (cutting out any and all forms of bureaucratic interference), together with rapid-development expediency .

The result?

People who excel in a “skunk works” environment are not those who “play well with others.” They live to create their dream. They are at least somewhat obsessive. Perhaps they are very obsessive.

All of this – while leading to successful goal-achievement – is the antithesis of being sociable.

No company would ever dream of putting an effective “skunkworks” person into a regular engineering job, and far less into marketing. However, this is exactly the challenge that confronts any author who is shifting from project-completion to marketing.

Asking an author or product-developer to start marketing their work really is like asking oneself to go from being a “skunkworks” type of person to a “marketing” person, practically overnight.

Challenge?

You bet.

No wonder very few successfully overcome this.

It’s Not Just the Workload, It’s the Complexity

Complexity – when every direction seems “true north.”

No one – amongst all the advice-givers whom I’ve studied so far – has really addressed the core essence of the second and third biggest challenges:

Going from “tight focus” to “ever-expanding” task-loads, and
Going from “extreme simplicity” to “extreme complexity”.

Here’s the essential nugget underlying these last two challenges:

Every direction appears to be “true north.”

There is so much to be done, and all of these different tasks are divergent.

When we were focused on book or product completion, everything that we did was convergent. A task might have been difficult (in some ways), yet it was essentially simple in that it brought us closer to a well-defined goal.

For an author, every step – every thought – is focused on getting just a little closer to that “magic moment” of pushing the final “upload finished work” button. Everything that the author does is convergent – it is directed towards the same goal.

In contrast – in very great contrast – everything that is done after pushing the “upload” button is divergent. Everything “fans out.”

There is a nearly innumerable list of tasks: Develop the website. Create and perform in book signing events, TV and radio interviews, and talks before various audiences. Write press releases. Get reviews, both on Amazon and in media. Get names of people, get them into the database, set up continued connection with them. Build an ongoing “platform” of blogging.

For the emerging author (or the entrepreneur with a new product), the challenge is that every single one of these tasks is important. There’s not a single one that can be deferred indefinitely.

In a sense, any single one of these can become the “most important thing” – the “organizing theme” for activities. Any one of these – or all of them – can seem to be “true north.”

The result? Confusion. Efforts in one arena, then another.

No one of these is the answer, of course. And yet, they all are.

Also – no single one of them is typically “income-producing.” Certainly not to the extent that an author/entrepreneur would get sufficient feedback to say, “Yes. This is it. This is the path that I should follow.”

Conestoga wagon, in B&W, by Ross Sharrock.

Not surprisingly, many give up during this stage. The author/entrepreneur simply burns out – not from overwork, but from confusion-based exhaustion. The lure of a regular day job, with a well-defined structure (in addition to a well-defined salary and benefits) becomes too much. Then, a well-done book or product is abandoned.

It’s reminiscent of some of the sadder (and perhaps more grisly) stories from the pioneers crossing the plains. Their Conestoga wagon – the vehicle that was supposed to get them to a new life in the “promised land” – was abandoned. And all hope was lost.

This sense of “all directions being true north” is what can make our time in our own “Valley of Death” or “Red Waste” – going from just-published to wildly-successful – prolonged and potentially fatal to our enterprise.

Solutions and Strategies

We now have a sense of the magnitude of the challenges confronting a new author or emerging entrepreneur. It’s not just the conversion from a “skunkworks”-type personality to a “marketer.” It’s not just the shift from “convergent” to “divergent” tasks. And it’s not even the complexity-management.

The most crucial challenge is finding “true north”: Finding a consistent direction that will lead you – the author/entrepreneur/self-employed professional – out of the “Valley of Death” (what Sun Tzu called “Death Ground”), and into your realm of success, stability, and prosperity.

This is possible. There is a strategy.

This strategy will be the subject of upcoming blogs.

Join me – “Opt-In” using the form to the right. I’ll give you a “heads-up” when I publish the next strategic step that will help you decide on your own personal “true north” – and successfully survive your own “Valley of Death.”

Special Note: If you want to succeed with this strategy – the only one that I believe to be effective for the long haul – go back to the first blog in this series, Kingmaker, and do the exercises. Seriously. They count.

For the next posting in this series, go to:

The First Major Challenge in the Author-to-Entrepreneur Transition.