Laptop at TEDx

In 2010 & 2011, I sold 5 spots for great B2B companies to advertise on my laptop. We had a waiting list within days.

Now, for 2012, there are five spaces available. The 6th space as always is donated to Kiva.org, the charity that helps entrepreneurs from around the world.

Only 5 spots left.

If you want your company name & logo in front of thousands of entrepreneurs and business people throughout North America and occasionally globally this year. Try it.

I’ll be speaking at more EO & YPO chapters than ever before. I’ll be speaking at dozens of conferences, flying business class, and as usual spending time in airport business lounges.

My MacBook Pro is with me and pretty much always out and being used. I take it out in all my meetings regardless of who I’m working with.

I will also post about the advertising companies on my Blog and regularly all year on Twitter, FaceBook & LinkedIn.

Why sponsor my Laptop for all of 2012? This will get your logo seen by tens of thousands of influential business people this year.

It’s pretty widely known that my nickname is ‘Connector’ so you know I’ll be telling everyone that your company is sponsoring my laptop too.

Ya – and it’s capped at 5 placements…

First come first serve (but I have to like the brands)… i.e. the only chair company I could rave about is Herman Miller with their Aeron, and my favorite headsets are from Headsets.com etc. I have to be able to say no if the brand doesn’t fit.

I’m auctioning off five sticker spaces on my MacBook Pro cover for $2,500 a piece. That comes out to about $200 a month, or $50 a week.

They will stay on my laptop all year, and you’ll “own” that piece of real estate on my laptop case. If anyone asks about your sticker, I’ll send him or her to whatever website/email address you want.

Want in? Email me – Cameron@BackPocketCOO.com

p.s. You also get to write a guest blog post for my blog that will highlight your company to thousands of entrepreneurs…

OK – I know there were 600 entrepreneurs in the room, but thousands of you weren’t able to make it.  So here is the talk I did on the main stage at EO Alchemy…  A shorter version of my full TED Talk which you can watch here…

And for more information on this topic, check out: The Emotional Roller Coaster of Entrepreneurs.

In 2012, I’m taking some time back for me.

I’ve been on overdrive again for the last 18 months. Largely, I poured myself into working full bore again, because I was avoiding some personal issues I wasn’t happy with. Now that I’m working through those, I’m taking back some time for me again.

Time to reconnect with what matters. My kids. My friends. Myself. My family. My girlfriend.

Time to remain interested in my hobbies. Tennis, reading, skiing, golf, and cooking. Time to start hiking…

Time to stop working around the clock. Time to start saying NO to speaking events I don’t want to do. And only say yes to the ones that inspire me. Time to say NO to coaching clients that aren’t a great fit for me. And time to stop working Fridays.  I’m finally hiring an assistant too.  Yes it will cost me some money – but I’d rather have the free time.

I’ve just blocked off EVERY Friday in 2012 as Free Time. Time to not work. So if you want to go for a hike, a run, play golf, tennis, etc. drop me a note – as long as we don’t talk biz – I’m in.  What are you doing to keep balanced ?

I first saw this video in the late 1980′s and was floored then by the way Steve Jobs led this retreat.

He’s a genius in action.  He keeps interrupting to keep the team focused on priorities.  Love the open & respectful debate from the team.

This is vision…  This is leadership…

I was buzzing when I saw it roughly 18 years ago.  Hope you do to.

For more information on this topic, check out: Building a World Class Culture and Leadership at 100MPH.

Don’t underestimate the power of just hanging out with your employees. But you’ve got to just hang–don’t turn it into a business talk!  Also, spend time with people who aren’t your favorites.  If you only hang out with the favorites, then you’ll continue to build walls within your teams that they see, but you don’t. And that isn’t good for you or your company.

When you’re just spending time chatting casually with employees, you’ll see that they like that you’re hanging out with them in an unstructured way.  They’ll start to open up to you as a person, and this will go a long way for your business and building the culture you want. Think of it like a dinner party: if you had a group of friends over for dinner, you’d chat with each of them and ensure they were having fun.  Do the same at the office.

Close to thirty years ago, Tom Peters wrote the book, In Search of Excellence, and in it he introduced us to an acronym called “MBWA.”  MBWA stands for “Management By Walking Around.”  This doesn’t mean interrupting people while they are trying to focus.  However, it does mean spending time with all the employees near or at their workspaces in casual interaction. The more time you spend doing MBWA, the more you will truly learn about what’s really going on in your company, and the more the teams will respond to you as a leader.

If you have a huge company and don’t physically have time to hang out with everyone, take a different path out of the office at the end of the day.  Wander between different rows of workstations or past different work areas just chat to people or say hi quickly.  You will notice the energy rise.

For information on this topic, check out: Leadership at 100MPH.

Always close your staff meetings with this simple question: “Who’s doing what, and by when?”

Have each person in the meeting acknowledge what they’re committed to doing, and by when. This ensures that people don’t start projects based on items that were merely being discussed in the meeting. You also make it nearly impossible for people to leave the meeting without outlining their next steps.

After you’ve closed the meeting itself, you need to make sure that you know if another meeting is necessary, and when, and if any other participants should’ve been present. The process can always be refined, and it’s important you remain open to that.

NEVER close a meeting without everyone knowing their exact deliverables.

You want people leaving the meeting like this…

For more information on this topic, check out: Leadership at 100MPH.