Across The Desk With Elizabeth Plouffe

If you're an entrepreneur, and especially a solopreneur, then you know the challenge of trying to reach a goal on your own. it's easy to create the goal but achieving it? Sometimes it's easy to have it slip down the list. Meet Holly Simmons. She's a Burlington based Family Enterprise Adviser and Thinking Partner. I met Holly last year through a mutual friend and have not only gained a friend but a respected colleague. I've been fortunate to receive coaching from Holly and it was this experience that inspired me to create the Making Shift Happen program for members of my women in business group, Ballsy. Holly and I sat down today to talk about the value of building an accountability program, how you can create a beneficial partnership to achieve goals and why talking it out can create new goals you never even considered.

Take a moment and learn more about our keynote Jason Little, author of Lean Change Management. Not only is Jason a global thought leader on change practices, he's also a tech geek that is going to join us through Kubi technology!

We've all heard how we should focus on the "why" behind our business and make sure that we lead, produce and create with the why in mind. But have you ever considered what drives your why? Why sometimes, even with the best of intentions, your why gets derailed when constraints get wrapped around you like a boa constrictor? Daniel H. Pink dives in to Drive to help us understand what motivates us to succeed, why managers should stop buying so many carrots and the truth behind what creates motivation and what sends us in to the ever popular state of not being engaged with our job. Why is this important? Well if you run your own business - it's crucial to understand what makes your team tick. It means you keep paying the rent and stay in business or you keep hiring new team members until the exhaustion of training kills your business. Or if you manage teams for an organization, it can mean the difference between delivering on a project and meeting your deadline or explaining to your boss why that won't be happ

Do you sometimes step back from your business and think, "What in the hell am I doing this for?" I have. Lots. And then I figured out why. I wasn't listening to what drives me. That little voice that says, "Hell yes! This is what I was born to do!" I was born to teach. Took me many years to figure that out. I was also born to solve problems and put out fires. I love it. Makes me do the Mambo when I get to do that. One way I feed that habit is by being an event planner. Nothing says run like a lunatic like being in charge of a team of people delivering an event with hundreds of attendees. It blows my kilt up in a big way :) But if you haven't found your drive, or at least what drives you on certain aspects of your business, maybe it's time to take a look at why. Or better yet - who can you give those jobs to that rob you of your drive so that you can get back on track! Interested? Listen on.

A lot of people struggle with liking photos of themselves. Why? I've no idea. I know I did until a few years ago when I opened my own business. I knew I'd have to have some good shots of myself. Why? Because people buy you and your business. If you come across shifty, incompetent or unfriendly, you've just done yourself out of some business. Decisions about people through their profile photo are made in 40 milliseconds. Yep. That fast. And most people aren't even cognizant of having weighed, measured and found you wanting. They just know they aren't going to do business with you. So if your profile photo space is blank -it's the same thing. What are you hiding? Why aren't you visible for your business? Are you telling the truth about who you are and what you can do? So much pressure in this selfie laden online world. Take some of these tips, get a friend with a steady hand and for the love of all that is holy don't use a selfie and add a profile photo to your social media platforms, website and wherever e

I find it REALLY hard to stick to one subject. Partly because I read like a lunatic and partly because I have undiagnosed, treated with coffee, shiny things ADD. What I do find is that I tend to pick up on the little details that most people miss. That's how 30 or more was born. 30 and counting tips and hints about opportunities to fix or try out something new in communicating about your business. I kick off talking about where your logo should be. Sounds silly but are you sure it's up to date on the millions of profiles and websites you might have set up to promote your business with? Are you taking advantage of 1 simple hint that takes minutes to set up and provides passive advertising every time you send an email? If you've got 5 minutes, I've got 30 or more ways to get you communicating better :)

If you're a woman and you've ever had to negotiate anything that involves money, you likely either paid too much or got paid to little. It appears to have something to do with biology. Men? Not so much. They apparently can negotiate like a surgeon. I'm thinking it's time we all had a little bit of medical school when it comes to negotiating. On this episode of Ballsy in Review, we touch on noodling (that's thinking not drawing) and how both negotiation and noodling affect our next steps.

Sometimes, in the best of both worlds, your business life and your personal life hit a patch of nirvana. Most times, as an entrepreneur anyway, your business life kicks the stuffing out of your personal life. Late nights. Missed dinners. That kind of thing. I took a chance last year while trying to help my son, who is on the spectrum, and reached out to an organization to offer my services. Why? Because it had been too damn hard to find them and I was tired of it being hard. That decision to volunteer turned in to what is one of my most rewarding client relationships. Take a listen and learn more about how connecting your core values to business decisions can lead to unexpected bonuses AND learn about http://itsaneurodiverseuniverse.ca/index which is an amazing event I get to be a part of.

You hear the guru's spouting the catch phrase, "what's holding you back?" Once you find that out, your life and business will be as close to nirvana (not the band, though that would be cool) as is humanly possible. Or you could be a stubborn jackass, not ask for help and struggle along like a lunatic for months. Which I did. Until now. Today we touch on the power of getting the right coach, how that can lead to breakthroughs for your business and provide relief for your tired solopreneuring brain. And if you are also a She-Hulk, then here are some tips for finding your Wonder Woman and kicking nirvana's ass.

What does it mean to you if someone says, "why don't you try this experiment with your business?" Does it immediately make parts of your anatomy pucker? Or does it give you a bit of freedom to try some things you wouldn't have tried if they weren't experiments? If that option to hypothesize, test and measure with minimal risk wasn't there? That's what we discussed last night at Women in Tech / Ballsy. The experimental mindset and the permission to fail. To understand that trying new things for your business is essential for moving forward and that the metrics don't have to be tied to your bottom line. Maybe the experiment builds a better team. Maybe it opens up new product ideas. Maybe the next time someone suggests an experiment you pucker just a little less and in fewer places. I'd say that's a success wouldn't you?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to leave the world behind for 3 months and just live in paradise? Not the shiny, BS lives you see on Instagram where you too can earn 5 bazillion while sitting on the beach. Nope. This is a true escape while still earning a living bringing all the best of yourself to the job every darn day. Meet Paula Boyd, who with her husband John, owns and operates The Lighthouse Cottages and Camping. We're coming to you from one of the only natural sandy beaches on Bear Lake in the Georgian Bay area. If your not jealous yet, just wait ;)

I firmly believe that all entrepreneurs owe themselves the favor of investigating in to personal development. Quizzes and tests and conversations with people who know more than you do about the business of being you. Delving in to they why's and how's of your personality, brain patterns and work habits can only help to make you better at what you're trying to do. To that end, I'm a bit of a personal evaluation junkie. This week on Wise Words, I go back to a golden oldie with Judy George's Intuitive Businesswoman.

Learn more about how having the right event data can make the most of your marketing and events budget ! Why is this important? Case in point: A large company THOUGHT they were spending their events budget and attending / participating at over 400 events. Turns out it was only 120. Yikes! Tracking your own data and knowing the best events to attend, sponsor, showcase at and speak at is one the best ways to stop wasting money !

Did you know that execution comes down to 3 main things? People. Strategy. Operations. Not those on their own but how the leadership abilities in charge of the organization engage with those three components. Is your leadership style to delegate and then completely step away? Yikes. Are you a micromanager who builds distrust and angst within your team. Oy vey. Or do you take the time to have real conversations, give honest feedback and encourage debate and idea generation. Yeah! Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan deliver a book on leadership and how it impacts an organization's success or failure on project execution. We're talking a few thousand dollars to a few billion per project. Either you have what it takes or need to learn it quickly if you want your organization to succeed. With this book in your tool kit, I think you've got a better chance of less butt-covering, more authentic engagement and an even greater chance of becoming a better leader.

Ursula the Sea Witch knew what she was talking about. In the absence of our real voice, our body language will reveal many things we might not expect. Subconsciously you could be leveraging your assets or you could be influencing decisions being made about you without even realizing. Those assets can be problematic when you aren't aware of what they're up to. Eye contact, your chin up, stance, what plane are your hands in and staring someone down when you thought you were just paying attention. All of these can add up to more sneaky shit than you realized ...

The Behavioral Revolution: How to change culture and behavior with 21st century science – Paul Gibbons Changing behaviors matters – what people say and intend has value, but without alignment of actions with words, results don’t happen. I provide insights from 21st century science (nudges, habit change) and offer leaders tools they can use to drive change – in business, and in society. Paul Gibbons is an author, speaker, and consultant. His “beat” is helping business leaders use science and philosophy to make better strategic decisions, implement change, innovate, change culture, and create workplaces where talent flourishes. His most recent book, The Science of Organizational Change has been hailed as “the most important book on change in fifteen years.” Between writing projects, he consults, coaches, and speaks with businesses such as Microsoft, Google, HSBC, KPMG, and Comcast.

Meet Sarika Kharbanda who is a globe trotting scrum master who embraces technology as a means of building teams, attending events and training organizations. How? Well for the purpose of this podcast, she uses a Kubi :) Find out how to use tech to create engagement, build opportunities and laugh with your full face and have it mean something to who your talking too!

For over 10 years Allison Graham has been helping professionals grow their top line revenue. Her bestselling book, From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Profitable Networking & Personal Branding Made Easy is the foundation for her original work. She’s been featured as an authority on sales and networking in the media and worked with some of North America’s most influential brands. That’s her public Behind the scenes, she’s been dealt a series of difficult blows that magnify the collision between home and work. Her struggles have earned her the moniker, Resiliency Ninja. In her latest book, Married My Mom, Birthed a Dog: How to Be Resilient When Life Sucks! Allison makes people feel less alone in their struggles and gives them tools to ensure that tough times don’t have to dictate their level of success.

Meet Katy who is one of the fabulous speakers for Spark the Change Toronto 2017! Katy Saulpaugh is an expert agile practitioner who has implemented culture and technology change strategies at all scales for private, public, and nonprofit clients in the US and Europe. As agile practice lead at Enterprise Knowledge, LLC, she specializes in agile coaching and facilitation and has enabled clients to become more agile at the team and organization level. She has also developed solutions to drive adoption for IT and knowledge management projects using online communications, instruction design, and employee engagement approaches. Outside of her professional work, Katy is active in both the agile and change communities, and is a founding member of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Association of Change Management Professionals.

Meet Luc Galoppin - one of our great speakers at Spark the Change Toronto 2017! Organizational Change Practitioner and Author Luc Galoppin looks at organizations like communities that need development, not as machines that need fixing. He is the co-author of Managing Organizational Change During SAP Implementations, Guest Lecturer of Executive Education in Core Business Integrations of Sustainability (CBIS) at Harvard School of Public Health, and founder of the largest community of Organizational Change Practitioners on Linked In (50,000+ members)