Category Archives: Give Big

Feedback


Posted by Amy Diederich

When starting your own big thing you will encounter times you need to give feedback. When you have the opportunity to give feedback you should keep in mind Gibb’s supportive behaviors:

Description:  Make sure you focus on describing very specific behavior so the person can repeat the behavior if it is positive feedback you are providing or isolate the behavior if it is negative feedback.

Problem Orientation: Focus on the task  not on the person! Most importantly focus on behavior they can change versus labeling them.

Can't you stand up straight!

Spontaneity: Give feedback in the moment when you see the behavior. Make it relevant!

Empathy: Make sure you show concern for others. Make sure you take the perspective of the person you are giving feedback!

Equality:  Beware of little status differences, say “we,” “us,” “our” versus owning your feedback and using I and coming from a place of equality.

Provisionalism: Finally be tentative/flexible: “We could . . . One way we might do that is . .  or I think this is what is happening…Remember things are not always what they seem!

“The floor is flat”

 Go out and Live your BIG life! Give positive feedback when you can and always give feedback it is a gift!


Tools to Help You with Your Website


Posted by Amy Diederich

Happy Fourth of July!

Many entrepreneurs ask me questions about SEO and websites. This weekend while celebrating the Fourth I gathered with some fellow entrepreneurs and we discussed our websites. While I am no expert I love to share what I know and the tools I have found helpful.

One tool I love is Hubspots’s website grader. http://websitegrader.com.  This free site gives you up to date advice in how to improve your site. It assigns a “grade” which being a type A personality I love to follow the suggestions it provides to improve my grade.

Another site I like is backlink watch http://www.backlinkwatch.com. This site is also free and provides you with details on what backlinks you have and the page ranks of these back links.

Also check out www.Alexa.com. Downloading the Alexa toolbar allows you to see your traffic rank. It is a free tool that not only lets you watch traffic ranks for your site but others as well.

For  Ipad users and owners you should check out all the great SEO apps! For less than five dollars each you can get some great stats on your site. I love SEO Ranking. It tells me my keywords and how my site is doing for those words. There is also an SEO course. It contains short videos to help educate you quickly on how to improve your position in search engines.

What tools do you like? Please share. As entrepreneurs we often have to wear many hats. I know for this entrepreneur I am loving my new role of understanding SEO.


Get Your Big On Explained


Posted by Amy Diederich

The following is a guest post from my business partner, Jane Perdue. It explains the genesis of Get Your Big On. On Friday I will share my Live BIG Story!

For 15 years I thought I was living the dream after achieving my goal of becoming a Vice President for Fortune 100 companies. I was perpetually on the lookout for the next big title, big project and big deal. Then, after a merger, a new boss described me as “Aunt Polly” to the new firm’s CEO. He failed to mention all the impossible assignments delivered ahead of time and below budget, cultures transformed, 80-hour work weeks - not a word about of that, just “Aunt Polly.”

I was astonished and asked him what he meant. He said it meant that people viewed me as someone they could sit down beside in a rocking chair, pour out their issues, then get inspired with a plan and go back to work. The acquiring company was male dominated, lots of mavericks and cowboys dolled up as GQ cover boys. And I had been introduced to them as Aunt Polly. Aunt Polly took up unwanted residence in my heart and head in the succeeding months. I wrestled with her, and her demeaning (to me) introduction to the highest echelons of power within the new organization, almost daily. I made sure the work of my department was brilliant, on point and above reproach. Let’s show those fellas what ole Aunt Polly can do.

Yet Aunt Polly was a cosmic two-by-four, delivering a whack across my head and to my heart, opening internal doors corporate life had long ago sealed shut. Aunt Polly forced me to revisit my childhood goals of making a difference. Sure, by corporate standards I had made a difference. However, in terms of making a real and meaningful impact on someone’s life, rather than just making a buck, had I really made a difference? That was the question Aunt Polly kept whispering. She had become my constant mental companion, forcing me gaze into the picture of my life. Forcing me to examine my contributions in another light. Relentlessly forcing me to probe deeper, revisit my values, assess my purpose. Damn that woman and damn my boss for putting her there.

It took me a long time to understand that I had been chasing the wrong big. My right big was knowing myself, my strengths, what was important to me, and then using that knowledge and years of experience to help other people grow wings and get their big on.

Getting your big on is that “just right” feeling you have in your head and heart when you know what’s important to you - and you are going after it. Your big might be something tangible like a promotion or starting your own business. Or it could be something intangible like volunteering or inspiring others. Either way, you’re going after something that matters - BIG time - to you.

My boss had really given me a compliment, a gift, one that took me a long time to recognize and appreciate. So I left Corporate America to run a female-owned professional development firm where we bring seekers and solvers together to lead big, work big and live big. To be closer to family, we moved from the West Coast to the south, where sweet tea is the house wine - and Aunt Polly’s inspirational beverage of choice in helping others get their big on.


Start BIG Entrepreneurs Give Back and Go Green


Posted by Amy Diederich

Meet Paperfeet by TOMBOLO - the world’s thinnest flexible sandal, pocket ready for your next adventure. Jimmy Tomczak invented the  patent-pending minimalist art sandals from a process that upcycles  billboard sheet plastic into functional outdoor gear.

Jimmy was using a huge McDonald’s advertisement to keep a leaky roof dry when the idea came to him to use the material for alternative uses. An outdoorsman himself, Jimmy always loved the beach and a good barefoot trek and had his eye on those foot-glove shoes and other barefoot footwear that were all unfortunately out of his budget. The next best thing was to create a pair himself. He put the simple sandals for sale on Paperfeet http://paperfeet.com and less than a year later the shoes have been shipped around the world, featured in national media like WSJ, BoingBoing, and FOX and more. His next project is a Kickstarter campaign to scale production in the USA using local, ethical labor.

Here is some advice Jimmy has for aspiring entrepreneurs:

What three pieces of advice would you give to college students who want to become entrepreneurs?

1) Seek and find available resources: Do whatever you can to talk with professors, mentors, fellow peers and their networks early and often. College-specific programs, classes, centers and similar are all incredible resources that are less available once you graduate too.

2) Apply for business competitions and programs that are only available to college students. I applied for hundreds of independent scholarships before graduating high school. Combined with working before and after my classes in college, I eventually earned enough from just a handful of the scholarships I won to pay my way through school. Don’t miss a window of opportunity for free money that is restricted to your student status.

3) Start a business. Learn by doing. The best way to become an entrepreneur is to have a product, find a customer, and start making sales! Fail fast and often but make sure these are intelligent failures in that you can apply everything you learned in missing the mark to exceeding expectations the next time around.

 

Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?

Absolutely not. Even a seasoned entrepreneur can work hard and achieve near-perfection only to have the rug pulled out from under them by an unforeseen market shift or other anomaly. I graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Neuroscience and I also completed the Program in Entrepreneurship.

In addition to Michigan’s business school, U-M’s entrepreneurship program has been growing strong but I still remember what I first thought after meeting someone who wanted to “major in entrepreneurship.” “Entrepreneur” is the title some people give themselves after they’ve achieved what they previously defined as success, and as validated by an external party. There’s no such thing as an entrepreneurship major. Learn the basics, sure, but applying creative problem solving and time management to an uncanny ability to complete innovative projects with speed and clarity is the best “formula” for entrepreneurial success that I know. Do what works for you!

What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?

Creativity. Ability to get stuff done. Advanced networking skills.

Creativity, like entrepreneurship, is a challenging subject to “teach.” But many argue that a creative mind is the most valuable asset a person can have. Combining rare creativity with the ability to break down a problem into manageable steps and an executable solution helps make a successful entrepreneur. Factor in real networking, where collaboration happens and relationships are built beyond business cards, and you’ll have the winning skill set of a successful entrepreneur. Always remember, success is what you define it as, and optimizing your own unique abilities that you already have will get you there faster than any advice you read. Best of luck.

How did the idea for your business come about?

I founded TOMBOLO, maker of uncommon goods for the collective good after inventing “paperfeet” – minimalist sandals made from up-cycled outdoor advertisement material. At the time, I had a leaky roof and couldn’t afford a full repair. One of the contractors that gave me a quote said that his company sometimes used giant billboard vinyl sheets as durable, waterproof tarps. I cold called several ad companies and eventually found a full 14 x 48 foot sign sheet that functioned as the perfect roof tarp for the winter.

The following year I revisited an early idea I had of making paper-thin sandals from Tyvek – the puncture-proof material used for shipping envelopes. Tyvek failed but the billboard worked surprisingly well for the first edition of what would eventually become the retail-ready paperfeet of today. In less than a year, the hand-made billboard shoes have been shipped around the world and featured in national media. But to take things to the next level and scale manufacturing I’m launching a Kickstarter community project to raise the funds needed to do volume production here in the United States.  


Give BIG Entrepreneurs Give Back


Posted by Amy Diederich

Terry

As the co-founder of Get Your Big On, I am fortunate to meet many people who are living a big life. I have been blessed to interact with entrepreneurs who are not only making it big for themselves but helping others.

Meet forty-two year old Terry  Grahl, an entrepreneur and a person who Gives BIG!

She says,  ”I not only reinvented myself but I took a major leap of faith five years ago by closing my interior decorating business and turning it into a non-profit that transforms shelters for women and children into peace and possibilities.

I remember sitting on the edge of bed in December 2008 crying my eyes out and making a deal with God. My request: ‘you better make sure you keep a roof over my families head and food in the fridge’ and his request: ‘glorify me.’

It’s been one wild ride ever since! Just last year Enchanted Makeovers was awarded by MLB/PEOPLE Magazine an All-Stars Among Us award, and Sheryl Crow even did a special video on the organization. I finally feel I’m living and not existing!”

Terry is just one of the many entrepreneurs who are giving big. Be sure to check out this month’s Start BIG Spotlight Jimmy Tomczak founder of Paperfeet.