Entrepreneurial Freelancer

I'm gearing up to teach again, and I am trying to swallow some of my own medicine serving as the Purser for a restart-up: the Jon Anderson White riverboat. I find Sharon McLoone's articles on the challenges small business people face helpful. She has a knack for demystifying things reminding entrepreneurs that they are not really alone. And she made me sound pretty smart too in her online column in MainStreet.

Riverboat Redux

Mike LaValle, my good friend and hunting buddy, has restored his riverboat, and it is sailing the Des Moines River. Check out this video from local TV, KCCI. It was a real labor of love and stubbornness to get the newly christened John Anderson White ship shape. She's a beauty: mahogany trim outside, oak and gilded finishings inside, Mike led a shake down cruise yesterday. We departed from a new dock at a the Des Moines Botanical Center and cruised upriver and back in about an hour. With the skyline behind us, as we passed under the Second Avenue bridge and rounded a bend in the river, we left the chaos and commotion of the 21st century and cruised back to a time of gentile sociability, enjoyed wine and snacks, waved to passing boaters and watched all sorts of birds pass by. Mike and the John Anderson White are real treasures for Des Moines. Watch for us on the river; in the meantime please visit the website: http://www.port-of-desmoines.com/.

More good pitching

Here is David Rose on pitching to VCs. He talks fast and covers a lot of ground. And yes he does not necessarily seem to follow his own advice, nor does he follow Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule. But get over it, he proffers good stuff; especially in the last 5 minutes. AND, he has the track record to back it up. I have attended dozens of investment conferences and met with many more entrepreneurs seeking financing. Frankly, I can not recall more than a handful of effective pitches, elevator length or ball room size. A good pitch, like a good curve ball, takes a lot of work and a lot of practice.


Any one seeking financing for anything can learn from these posts and these pros. Like getting to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice, practice. Your spouse or lover should refrain from rolling his or her eyes when you lay your pitch on yet another unsuspecting person. You should tell it so often that he or she can tell it too. Tell everyone what you are doing. Don't be shy. Most importantly tell them what you are doing to solves problem or relieve some pain and be sure to tell them how it will make or,even better, is making, money for you and for them.

Good Pitch

Here is an example of a good elevator pitch by a very energetic Kenny Lao, featured in a Forbes article and on MSNBC.msn.com. Mr. Lao, pitching a very cool sounding and cash-flow positive dumpling restaurant concept touches all the bases in this pitch, and he does in in 45 seconds. Watch and learn. The article is pretty good too.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Check back tomorrow for more on good pitching from David Rose, the Pitch Coach. Rose is a successful serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist who presented 10 things to know before you pitch a VC for moneyto the TED conference.

You can't Twitter Your Way to a Million Bucks...can you?

Do you Twitter? Tweet? what ever the heck it is called, and even though it doesn't make any money yet, and even though they claim to have 6 million Twitterers (Tweeters, whatever...) it is still a new thing. I really didn't get it, and maybe I still don't , but lately a couple of successful local business people have explained to me how they are using it for bidness. They are not prattling on about what they are eating or what errand they are headed to after they stop Tweeting. Instead, they are using this neat little microblogging tool to keep their members, clients and prospects up-to-date, up-to-the-minute. They provide "members" with special notices and deals. They offer pertinent links to other sites that are really of interest to their followers. They stir up p.r. and create a presence where before they had none. I haven't quite figured out how to use it in my investment banking business, but I could use it to post assignments for my entrepreneurship class, and I'd like to stop reading about everybody else's kids (note to young parents: nobody really cares what the little buggers just did or are about to do; let them Tweet for themselves...oooh, wait, they're too busy on Facebook.) I also just learned that Twitter helped turn a cute whale into a NY Times phenomenon, but not so much into a business success. Is there a there there?

The Uncommon Common Man

Two ol’ Dartmouth College buddies and I visited the Airport Diner in Manchester, NH not too long ago; Kathy was our terrific waitress (she was brand new too.) We enjoyed some first-rate old-fashioned diner grub and snagged a coupla cool paper hats (the kind the cooks wear). When I got home and modeled the hat for my fam, I noticed the web site for The Common Man family of restaurants.

What a great story. Alex Ray, founder way back in 1971, is a real entrepreneur. He has built a great business and pays it forward in the communities where he operates. I did not get a chance to meet him, but I hope I do someday. He embodies many of the traits of successful entrepreneurs we have observed in our Entrepreneurial Leadership class at Drake University.

My pals and I were on our way to northern New Hampshire to memorialize a great friend who died 10 years ago. We installed a small marker in his memory atop Diamond Peak in the Second College Grant, Wentworth Location, NH. Drilling a 4” hole in solid granite can be done in the wild. We got off to a great start for a great adventure in memory of a great guy, Richard C. Sunshine.

Alex, Kathy, and all your Common Man colleagues, I hope you will stop by if you ever find yourself in Des Moines.

The Drake Relays--Brian Brown, the LOVE doctor.

Dr. Brian Brown, Director of the Drake Relays and 1992 Olympic Silver Medalist in the high jump, spoke to the Des Moines Rotary Club recently. He is one cool cat who just radiates positive energy. His focus, and man, he is really focused, was the 100th Drake Relays.
The Relays are another treasure buried here in the Heartland. This year, though, thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of Brown and his boss, the also cool and focused Sandy Hatfield Clubb, Drake's A.D., the Relays will have a chance to shine like the medals awarded to the athletes. Dr. Brown has attracted a world-class field, and for the first time, the Relays will be broadcast on ESPN2.

I'd like to bottle the energy these two generate and share it with every entrepreneur I know. Wow, innovationa nd new businesses would be busting out all over. Dr. Brown (who by the way is married to Natash Kaiser Brown, Drake's coach for both the men's and women's track teams--more postive energy-- and another Olympic silver medalist and world champion in the 4X100 relay) offered some comments applicable not only to athletic success, but also to success as an entrepreneurial leader.

Organizing an annual event such as the Relays is a big job, more than one person could accomplish alone. It would be easy to develop a big head to go along with the job, but Brian Brown has avoided that. As he explained, he learned to love the people more than the position. Success is not about him at the top, but about the collaboration of many up and down the pyramid. He painted a great image of an effective leader as a river that flows by many people, NOT just a reservoir at the end of the stream.

He offered this advice in closing. He believes in LOVE:

L as in LOYALTY
O as in OBJECTIVITY--tell me the truth

V as in VULNERABILITY--take risks

E as in EMPATHY

Too cute for you. Maybe, but when he explained that he wants the people he works with to feel the roar of the crowd he felt when he won his silver medal, it made me want to work with him. I'd like to experience that feeling. The Doctor is in, and he is operatin'.