By MyCity4Her Founder & CCO, Monyka Berrocosa
Well, as I may or may not have mentioned – today was the day MyCity4Her, Inc took a big step in growing…and maturing and had a real strategic, grown up and serious advisory meeting. To be honest, the purpose of this meeting was at first somewhat vague for me, and when I started planning it – I wasn’t too sure what to expect from it, or what to try to get out of it.
All I knew was I was looking on our five year anniversary and though we’ve experienced great growth and success, not all was going the way I wanted. I knew some tweaking was needed to get where I want to go in 2012 and the future. Up until now I’d been trying to get there on my own and if I was honest with myself, it was not going as well as I’d like. Accepting this reality needed to happen before I could be open to this idea.
Some time ago – I was suggested to form an advisory board. I hesitated in doing so for a good while for a variety of reasons, including:
EGO (What I can’t do this all by myself?)
FEAR OF LOSING CONTROL
LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF BENEFIT AND NEED TO DO SO
LACK OF TIME TO SIT WITH HOW THINGS WERE AND TRULY EVALUATE HOW WELL THEY WERE GOING (OR NOT)
There’s a saying that goes… When the student is ready – the teacher/lesson appears.
Some time ago – I started working with a Management Consultant – David Lunken. In learning more about his business and the tremendous value he brought to his customers, particularly in group and meeting facilitation I became curious in what he might be able to help me do with mine.
About the same time I was thinking about my time spent thus far in the ETC (Emerging Technology Center Incubator) – one of the region’s most successful incubators and wondering if I’d effectively leveraged the opportunity and resources I had as a result of being there.
I got to thinking if I was truly serious about taking this company to the NEXT LEVEL, figuring out how to do so, and getting some people on board, committed to help – might be a more expedient way to actually make it happen, than just continue keeping on as I had mostly by myself. You have no idea how novel an idea this was for me, but believe me it was not one normally in my comfort zone.
Anyway all of those those things, along with a whole lot of external factors converged in the last quarter of 2011 and I decided if ever there was a time to do this – it was now.
So in December 2011 – after meeting with my ad hoc ETC Advisors, who wholeheartedly agreed this is EXACTLY what I needed to do and encouraged me to move forward and make it happen – plans for an initial advisory meeting were made, with the goal to form an ongoing advisory board that would help me row the MyCity4Her boat where I want it to go. At some point – you can only get so far by yourself and I think I reached that point a long time ago. But unfortunately an innate type-A personality, sprinkled with definite micro-management tendancies, and I’ll say it “trust” issues and a need to control things prevented me from taking the next steps, which is a shame. If you suffer from the same affliction – get some help. Believe me, it’s worth it.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The diagnosis of insane has never appealed to me – but if I’m honest with myself, the way I have been going about some things in relation to growing this business has been somewhat insane. Wanting to get as far away from the insane end of the spectrum was a definite motivator to change behavior. Forcing me to I actually review my past choices, honestly evaluate the outcomes and decided to purposefully and productively modify my behavior. Leading to today’s ground breaking step (for me) to allow others into the process to get involved and help, and thus increase my chances of success to do what I’m attempting to do with this company (enter MyCity4Her, Inc company Vision and Mission here) – better.
I think a lot of people talk about the importance and benefit of seeking help but rarely does anyone ever speak to how hard it can be for some business owners to do so – for the very reasons I’ve cited above and a whole range of others. But I digress..
Anyway, when I asked around to folks I know have advisory boards or sit on some – it was suggested to me to draw up a wish list of a mix of people with varying disciplines and experience and expertise who I felt could really help me move forward more effectively. With that in mind I made it a personal goal to do so by picking people who were all smart, successful and great at building business(es), who I respected not to mention people I enjoy, (very importantly) trust and like working with. An interesting side note is that we had all participants do a Predictive Index too see where everyone’s skills, personality type, etc was – and I’d managed to fill the room with a bunch of Type A, action oriented people who are analytical, methodical and task oriented…(David could probably articulate this better)
Almost everyone I asked to participate said yes – and I felt great about that. As side note, is I was actually surprised how willing people were to help, and how flattered they were to be asked. It was also particularly validating to hear that they felt my company’s vision was one they wanted to support – which was encouraging, and a good motivator to move forward in the process, as scary as it was.
The people I chose includes a great mix of smaller clients, bigger clients, men, women, entrepreneurs and executives with one common theme – everyone asked to participate is very good at what they do. This coupled with David who is great at Big Picture thinking AND Operations (not always possible in the same person) and an awesome facilitator really reassured me that we had, as the proverbial saying goes “The right people on the bus” for this land mark meeting today.
So on time at 9:00AM EST we launched into the first ever formal, strategic advisory meeting for MyCity4Her, Inc.
What happened over the course of the next few hours was a mix of exciting, scary, depressing, daunting, interesting, intellectually challenging and stimulating and ultimately most important POSITIVE.
Positive why?
Because I walked away with much stronger sense of what was most compelling for me to work on RIGHT NOW – if I wanted to progress productively and successfully in a significant manner and GROW THIS COMPANY properly going forward.
I have to say – despite coaching, peer advisory, market research, feedback from customers, etc I have never had the clarity of purpose and action steps to take as effectively as this gut wrenching, emotionally draining and I’ll say it somewhat humbling and tiring process provided.
Yes, it was hard and painful, but it was very good.
Good like the feeling you get when you take a kick ass fitness class you are way under fit for. The kind of class that though it leaves you winded, depressed and a little disheartened, you walk away from with a good kind of pain. Pain that makes you aspire to rise to the occasion next time and do better. Pain that you don’t want to feel again – so you’re going to work hard until the next class to get fitter, so it doesn’t hurt as much. That may or may not make sense but that’s how it felt.
From this gut wrenching, at times tough meeting (don’t forget my very baby was being picked apart and it was hard not to be one the defensive here) I walked away with a three key strategic areas we need to look at over the next 90 days – to move things forward productively. I think the WE was part of what was most encouraging. It felt good not to be alone…and that was another key benefit of this process. The support it provided, and knowing these people are interested and invested and can help – really gave me a lot of reassurance that I could do this and would be successful in the process.
The key areas I/we will be focusing on in the next 90 days are:
Target Market /Value Proposition
Revenue Model/Pricing
Operations
I got defined projects, deliverables and maybe the best – real, qualified, interested and invested help to move all of it along productively and prevent wheel spinning or lack of focus. This was something I absolutely was NOT able to do on my own, and honestly not even able to do with a coach, or peer advisory group. As overwhelming as some of this was, the great feeling I was left with is how much better things, the company and I will be for having done so.
And I was left with one main thought…
WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO DO THIS?
I guess I just wasn’t ready. In all honestly I also didn’t know how much it could help and no amount of just hearing it would – could convince me. You can lead a horse to water – but you can’t make it drink until it’s thirsty or ready to. That was me.
So – what are YOU waiting on to do in your business to help it grow? I’d really love to hear your comments.
To be continued…