Attention Economy

December 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Generating one crappy post a day is a pretty easy thing to do. Generating one decent post a day can also be done, but takes a little more effort; something I might or might not have in between taking care of kids. I understand the importance of consistently generating new content on websites, but there has been a battle inside of me that Seth Godin really explained very well today in a post titled Getting serious about the attention economy

Everyone lives busy lives. From late November through mid January it seems that roughly 12 hours a day are eliminated from my schedule … magically. This has caused me to fight the urge to release something every day, just to have something new.

I know deep down that it would be the ideal, but I am also looking at my capacities to produce & know that there are roughly 10 unfinished articles, and at least 5 episodes of StartingCube ready to be worked on.

I’m taking the path of focusing on quality and minimum releases –  you should too.

Here is something Seth says in that post, slightly altered for Stay At Home Dads & Moms:

If someone stood in front of your [house] and lit $100 bills from your [wallet] on fire, you’d call the cops. But people … waste the attention of their peers and your customers/prospects at the drop of a hat.

Every interaction comes with a cost.

I think about this with my posts on Google +, Facebook, Twitter, and other online communities I am involved with, too.  It’s why I limit the number of links in articles.

The less words we say, the less posts we release, the less media can cause each to have more impact. The other side of it is that you do have to be consistent enough to get noticed in the first place.

Have you fought for the attention of your children? Does this same balancing act apply with the word “No”?

What have you done to balance the fight between a minimum amount of communication and keeping the attention of your audience? Your audience could be customers, friends, family, children, your spouse, or another community.

[ image originally by D Sharon Pruitt ]

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Community Question – Best Travel Tips?

December 5, 2011 by 5 Comments

We just spent a week traveling with twin 13 month olds. There were many memories made & captured … and some rough lessons learned.

Before we left several people gave us good advice & we learned some stuff while being away from home. My understanding is that as children grow the rules of thumb also change, so for today:

What are your best tips for traveling as a family?

You can link to articles that have been helpful or post your own comment.

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Jonathan’s Process for Success – Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan

November 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

My family has this process that we started the fall after my wife and I were first married. It stems from my frustration of Thanksgiving being overlooked & disdain for New Years Resolutions. Currently I am calling it Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan.

Reflect

The first step is to look back on the past year, or longer, and see where you have come from. What all has happened?

Having twin one year olds this Thanksgiving, I can say that the year went by fast. We both have much to be thankful for, especially the growth in our babies and each other — both as individuals, as a couple, and family.

Thank

This part is simple, but important – be thankful & speak to people what you are thankful for. As a general practice I am trying to be encouraging more in the day to day, but there are still some specific people who have had an impact that I try to go out of my way to thank.

Dream

This moves from the past & present side to the future. Dreaming what the next year or longer should be. Currently I am thinking about a model based on relationships for viewing your world, so:
- Yourself – physical, mental, spiritual, capabilities
- Family – the special relationships around you
- Business – if you are an employee – you are a business hiring out your services to your employer. If you own or desire to one one, then you have a slightly different relationship
- Society – other people who are not in your business, or family.

So, what are the dreams for those four big areas? What about the subparts? Can you paint a picture that you are aiming for?

Plan

The practical steps you intend to take to make your dreams reality. Before you fully make plans you need to make goals. Goals are important because they are the measuring stick of how well your plans do, but doing the important work to write out the steps you are going to take to make the dream a reality is also vital.

My family is in the middle. We talked about reflecting and thanks recently. This week my wife and I will talk about our dreams for the next year – thinking in those four big fields. If you can have one dream for each & work on just four things over the course of a year – it will be amazing, as long as you take the steps of really making a good goal and then a plan.

What do you do to both reflect on the past & prepare for the future?

Originally Posted on Jonathan’s personal site.

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Holiday Times

November 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There is a period of time from before Thanksgiving to after the New Year that seems to be the most busy & disrupted time of the year.

One of the big things I’ve found being a stay at home dad is that having a combination of routines and flexibility in taking care of kids is necessary. Being an entrepreneur, business owner, and coach, has shown that the same applies to building businesses.

Many times I’ve boxed myself into a production schedule so ridged that I was barley making deadlines with very little room for the unexpected.

I am trying to do better.

With SAHceo, I am striving to look at the long run. Going day by day & keeping in mind that being a stay at home dad for twin one year olds takes a lot of time. In addition to that I still have to take care of myself, my wife, and my coaching clients.

Over the next month and a half expect mostly articles focused on core and basic elements.

There are many articles that are in the works & a few additional in the que. As I have them done I’ll release new stuff. Beyond original stuff, there will be more posts focused on great stuff that others have submitted, or I have found.

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Greatness – Podcast Answer Man presents Proven Strategies For Generating Serious Income

November 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Cliff Ravenscraft has done great work at educating individuals how to create great audio based podcasts.

The video above (or you can listen to just the audio below) is Cliff presenting at BlogWorld 2011. He is full of energy, he loves helping others & shares great insights into what has worked for him and what he is looking at in the future.

 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[mp3 -  1:04:50]

 

What is one thing that Cliff said or did that will cause you to do something different?

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Location Independence

November 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I’m sitting in a comfy chair in a corner of a library, waiting for my next appointment & typing this article on my smartphone. Over the past few years this has been common, not just for me, but for thousands of other location independent people. I’ve worked in restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, and parks.

When we talk about location independence, we understand that with most ventures there will be some limitation on where you can be at some point in time, but the goal is that you can be productive while you wait, while you go to the bathroom, in the time between appointments.

When I arrived at this library I walked around looking at the chair options & observing what people are doing. Several people have laptops, one person was pitching another on a business. A few were on the public computers & one was asleep. All could be doing productive work to help achieve their goals & all could be wasting their time.

If you have goals there are three fundamental things you need to be location independent.

  1. Plan
  2. Tools
  3. Ability

1. Plan

This could be detailed or mostly abstract. When I arrived here I had an idea of what I would do (write on location independence & take a picture or two) and the time I needed to leave but that was about it. Once I complete this plan talk I’ll need another.

2. Tools

My wonderful smartphone provides me lots of functionality. I can take pix, write an article & post both to any website I manage. The website systems are tools in this case.

3. Ability

There are several parts to ability, like skills, but two I want to point out are time & energy.

When I am exhausted I cannot produce. Exhaustion might be due to a need for sleep, food, rest or exercise. You have to take care of yourself, or the location does not matter.

Time is the one resource that you have in an absolute limit.

If you don’t have any time to work, it does not matter the level of independence of location,nothing will be accomplished.

With location independence as a goal, because when taking care of children the ability to work where you are should increase your productivity, we will look for information & systems that can help you where you are.

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This Helped: How to Kill Writer’s Block and Become a Master Copywriter in Only 3 Hours a Day

November 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

Many articles have helped me to develop my processes of generating production. Learning how I work best, by looking at what has worked & figuring out the keys.

This article titled How to Kill Writer’s Block and Become a Master Copywriter in Only 3 Hours a Day by Copyblogger is one of the articles that had a consistent message of breaking production into short sprints of creativity & work.

Here is one part that really hit me:

Craft and research were the fuel, but boredom was the key. It got to a point where he just couldn’t sit there for half an hour doing nothing … so he wrote.

Being a Stay At Home Dad means that most of the time I have so much stimulus that there is no way for me to get bored. I had to be intentional about radically reducing inputs and hurry.

What are your take aways from this post?

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General Business Ideas for Stay At Home CEOs

November 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I was texting with a coaching client about Stay At Home CEO and she said:

That sounds awesome. How can you find these people? What skills or services would they offer?

I started to reply, but realized that where I had a quick answer, a longer one would be better. Limited to the length of a text here is what I had to say:

Have to find them one at a time & in packs/tribes. Services: I see three types: 1. build a biz 2. hourly 3. goods

Finding and networking with people who take care of their children, but also want to build some revenue stream is another long topic. Instead of tackling both, here is some types of businesses I expect are great for Stay At Home Dads and Stay At Home Moms.

What do Stay At Home CEO’s offer?

There are three primary types of businesses ideas one might want to pursue based on your passion, time, and other resources:

  1. Self-standing Business
  2. Consultants & Professional Services
  3. Makers, Artists & Craftsmen

3. Makers, Artists & Craftsmen

A number of my friends make goods and sell them. Might be a cross-stitching, woodworking, painting, or other talent based production. They might start for fun, in the spare moments or while watching tv, but end up wanting to sell more to more people. There is a limit to doing this one and some will want to move into building it into a business. Others would just like easier ways to reach a larger market.

With this you are trading a combination of resources, but ultimately what you produce for money. There can be more to it then just making a widget, in networking, marketing, and other administrative tasks if you want to make more money.

2. Consultants & Professional Services

It is clear and easy in many industries for an individual to go out on their own and start a one man service business. I coach business leaders. I do stuff with websites; all of which can be done from anywhere my smartphone has reception.  Virtual Assistants, Customer Care Representatives, Accountants, Lawyers, and many other consultants, coaches, and other professionals can easily do the same. All working whenever their kids allow & from wherever they want with the right tools, processes and systems.

In all cases, you are trading your time for money, or doing a hybrid of this and the other two activities.

1. Self-standing Business

A business owner is someone who could walk away from their business for a period of time & it continues to grow. They had a major hand in getting it started. They might or might not be needed for it to continue to evolve in a major way, but the organization is at a point (normally this was an intentional milestone) where to keep going & growing at some rate the owner is unnecessary.

Some of the types of businesses that I expect to find people & help people do include Real Estate Investing, Websites, Apps, programs, games, books, networks, and more traditional businesses.

Supporting The Dreams

Some are happy being like the friend of mine who has an embroidery machine & makes custom stuff for friends. Others are like a friend who started making camping gear. He is now setting up a business to produce the gear and a second business to market the gear to the masses.

Stay At Home CEO will support both extremes, those who want a small side project that makes some income to those who want a full on business by helping with connections, information, and inspiration.

[ image by rvaphotodude ]

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