About once a year, since I started my business, I’ve written an article about what I’m learning in this journey of being self-employed. I recently came across a wise saying from Dan Sullivan, aka The Strategic Coach : “Make your learning greater than your experience.” That’s exactly what this is about. So here goes.

1. Work with the best people you can find. What looks like “best” is up to you but I look for ethical, intelligent, creative, courageous, and compassionate. It doesn’t matter if this is a collaborator, a vendor, or a customer. I have been enriched many times over by sticking to this and found myself depleted more than once by ignoring this. Unlike employees, who come into a company with built in co-workers and customers, as an entrepreneur, you get to choose who you work with.
2. Start conversations with people you admire. I’ve started email conversations with an author of a book I really resonate with, a marketing and branding guru who wrote a great article about branding, and a fellow coach who created an innovative product. I made sure my emails were sincere, thoughtful, and concise. In return, I’ve learned how to get testimonials, what it takes to build a great brand, and how it doesn’t cost anything to encourage others.
3. Ask for feedback. I launched Version 2 of my website last fall. Before announcing it to the world, I sent it to a list of 20 people in my network, with a range of perspectives—my closest confidantes, individuals with marketing and communications experience inside large companies, analytical engineers, past clients, and creative colleagues. As a result of this feedback, I completely changed my home page and made numerous changes to make the website more appealing and useful.
4. Know who your ideal clients are and why they are attracted to you. It was eye-opening for me to review everyone I had coached over the last few years, pick out the people I most enjoyed working with, and look for patterns. My ideal clients are change agents, entrepreneurial (inside as well as outside of companies), intelligent, with strong analytical backgrounds. They come to me for more balance in their lives as well as to get a clearer picture of the next chapter of their career. Knowing this has helped me understand how to market myself, where to focus my energy in getting new business, and what services to offer.
5. Do your homework but don’t over prepare. When meeting with clients or doing workshops, it’s easy to get caught up in being fully prepared. But what’s even more important is how I’m being in the moment. Am I fully present or am I thinking about the set of notes I put together and what I will say next? The biggest gift I can give my clients and customers is to be tuned into what they need in the moment and then have the willingness to zig instead of zag.
6. Read. I read to keep interested in the world and to be interesting to the rest of the world. I read 2-4 books a month and the Wall Street Journal six days a week. I skim a lot of e-books, magazines, and newsletters. I try to keep up with Seth Godin’s blog. All this reading keeps me fresh, gives me perspective and provides something to offer to clients and colleagues alike.
7. Create a network of supporters. They will help you find center when you’ve strayed off the path, remind you who you are instead of who you think you are, keep you true to your calling, and help you figure out the right questions when you are desperate for answers. When I was brainstorming with colleagues to articulate my “sweet spot,” they helped me to see that while clients appreciate my professionalism, they also want the playful, creative part of me just as much.
8. Give away flowers. Yes, you heard that right. I like to bring flowers for workshops to brighten up spaces that otherwise would be unremarkable. After the workshop, I often give away those flowers—to my co-facilitator, to the sponsor of the workshop or to a participant. It costs very little and adds joy to someone else’s life. You won’t think much of it but the person receiving the flowers will remember you for a long time. If there ever was a simple way to create good will, this is it.
9. Hang around irreverent people. Running your own business can get way too serious, thinking about getting new clients and how to pay expenses. The people I enjoy the most are the ones who will poke fun at my own seriousness and remind me that it’s all made up. Their irreverence reminds me that building a business doesn’t have to be a struggle, that laughing and having fun actually attracts people to me.
10. Be willing to give up good work in order to do great work. This one still takes faith on my part. And what I know is that great work has an excitement that is not present with good work. In the words of a colleague, good work has rigor and elegance. Great work moves us in mysterious ways. In some cases, I’ve put conditions on good work in order to make it great work (e.g., I’ll only do X if Y is part of the picture.) In other cases, I’ve stopped chasing leads that didn’t have that excitement as part of it.

Over the last year, I’ve learned to work smarter, be bolder, and enjoy this journey even more. If I can continue to make my learning greater than my experience, I’ll be a happy camper.