THOUGHTS
Musings on Sports, Startups, Sex,
&
Society...
How to Live a Legacy of Love
.... It not as much about what someone did or accomplished in a life, but how they caused people to feel and react. The ability to emotionally connect and inspire with people beyond one lifetime is legacy.
Last week, while building a website for my father, I found myself having to sum up his life in a few phrases for his bio. How do you sum up a career of over 50 years and 80 years of living in a half a dozen concise sentences? How does one sum up any life and a legacy of work in a few phrases?
What is legacy? Writing my father’s bio made me think about this word because a legacy of work, like the one my father has created is one rooted in love- genuine, uninhibited, labor of love.
Think for a moment about Leonard Cohen, maybe you didn’t know his name, or know that that was his song. Maybe you tear up and get goose bumps when you hear “Hallelujah” or remember hearing “Everybody Knows” in High School and are reminded of some rebellious spark within. You don’t need to know who Leonard Cohen was or really much about him to connect with his music.
Cohen’s music was a part of him, his art, a pure creation and it is, in essence, his love.
When you appreciate someone’s work, you are emotionally connecting to it, you are sharing their love. It is not as much about what someone did or accomplished in a life, but how they caused people to feel and react. The ability to emotionally connect and inspire with people beyond one's lifetime is legacy.
My father has labored for years on his art. He has tried mixing various materials, paints, and perspectives that no one else understood or connected to at the times. Regardless of whether various works were popular with anyone, my Dad continued to create and express himself. Some years were very difficult, I remember his frustration when I was a child, I remember his melancholy. I remember my father feeling that no one understood his art, yet he continued to call himself an artist and never stopped creating.
Now, after a very scary summer, when the family thought my father’s body just couldn’t take the stress of multiple surgeries anymore, he is healthy and strong again. He is back in his studio inspired and driven by current events to paint, to express himself in the way he knows.
When someone is fueled by love, they can’t help themselves, they need to create.
It seems every other 30something on social media today is a self-labeled “Visionary” or “Conscious change maker”. I feel that more people are leading with image and what they want you to believe versus leading with love.
My father never sets out to paint thinking: “I should do this because it will sell…”. He just paints. It is his expression, his art, the type Leonard Cohen created - raw, real.
Blue Series. Home. Winona, MN
Set out to change the world without authentic intention and you probably won’t (at least for the better). Determine to live what you love and share that with the world, well then, you’re bound to inspire others.
Live what you love and love those who do, and you.
Hallelujah.
The Sport of Startups: Finding my Beastmode
5 Keys to Success in the Sport of Startup
Entrepreneurship is hard, everyone agrees on this. How often have we heard the saying “If it was easy everyone would do it.” or
“Anything worth having is worth fighting for.” –Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Yet, it seems every other person in the Bay Area is now a self proclaimed “Entrepreneur”. Is “I have a startup.” the new way of declaring one’s independence, defiance, and strength? It seems just as trendy a declaration as “training for the marathon” or “I’m doing an Ironman” have been amongst business professionals in the past couple decades. However, in the “Sport of Startup” instead of just finishing this race like you would your first Ironman, you must compete with the pros and finish in the top ten.
Sports have always been where I felt at home, where I could be my fire and become my peace. Playing tennis I could beat out my frustrations on a fury yellow ball. On a bike I frequently snarl and bark at myself and at the pain. In the mountains, I’m constantly reminded of how small I am, how much there is to learn and how addictive adrenalin is for me. Skiing is where I can dance with that point between being in control and totally out of it and delight facing and conquering fear. There are no cameras to record me when I fumble or when my fangs come out. On my field of play, in my sports is where it is ok and an asset for me to be strong.
"I believe that people take on the forces of nature because that is when you feel the most alive..." - Laird Hamilton
Last year I found myself entering the sport of tech startups. I had started other businesses, produced international events, spoken in front of crowds of several thousand and been a competitive athlete on and off for years. Yet the pressures I faced while developing my business concept from a regional website model into a global platform/app have been unlike any I faced before!
Part of this pressure had to do with the fact I committed to launching the business with my only other income coming from ski coaching in what became one of the worst drought years (2014) for the Sierra Nevadas (2015 winter is now the worse). Without snow there was little skiing to balance my brain, economic despair for my community and a collective fear among the outdoor sports industry.
The worse part of that winter and year was the onslaught of opinions, multiple “meetings” that turned into 3hr ego validation speeches and eager but empty promises of support even from people I’d dated. The most upsetting was the first self proclaimed investor I meet, who whenever we did meet was more interested in taking me to a Vegas or wine country than talking business. This was not a sport I knew how to play. I trusted the people these businessmen looked down at and criticized. I trusted the “dirty skateboarders”, bikers, beach and ski “bums” I’d known throughout my life more than these “business professionals”. These friends understood the simplicity and honesty of sport and in that a truth about life. In sports there is little room for BS, you’re in or you’re out. A timing clock doesn’t lie. The ball is in or it’s out. You want to ski big lines or you don’t. There is no waiting days for someone to show up in sports.
One thing I did know and believe in was my business concept. I knew the way an athlete just knows this is something they must pursue. I didn’t know all the answers to how I was going to get there but what I do know is that big talk doesn’t make champions. Champions come from 1) Belief, 2) Training, 3) Team, 4)Coaching, and5) Competition.
I decided my world was going to get very very small until I found the right training, partners, mentors, and investors; they needed to understand not just tech but also the mindset of an athlete.
Finding your BeastMode
The Mindset of a Champion
As a Green Bay Packer fan and Cal alum, I had been watching the Seahawks with increasing interest since “The Worst Call Ever” There are many elements of the rise of the Pete Carrol’s Seahawk Dream Team that are intriguing to coaches, athletes, and entrepreneurs alike. I watched with keen interest the scrutiny of star defenseman Richard Sherman after brash comments following the Seahawks NFC game win against the San Francisco 49ers. In a later in depth CNN interview, Sherman is asked to explain his comments from for which he was labeled a thug, dumb monkey, and other offensive racial slurs. The Stanford grad explained the difference between his on field and his off field mindset. “It’s a special kind of person who can step into the ring or onto the field and be that incredibly focused…I am everything I need to be to be a winner.”
In many ways Sherman speaks not solely for himself but his teammate Marshawn Lynch aka “BeastMode”.
According to Lynch himself Beast mode is “…just a mindset..”
Athletes are used to being taught the power of mental training. We train to play “In the Zone” but the attitude demonstrated by the Seahawk’s stars is on another level.
Beast mode is a mindset.
Beast mode is “In the Zone” with swagger
Beast mode is “Flow State” with Muscle.
Beast mode is “The Power of Now” with true grit.
Beast mode is the mindset of a champion.
As an entrepreneur one faces cyclically what Ben Horowitz refers to in The Hard Thing About Hard Things as “The Struggle” (p.60-63)
“The Struggle is when you wonder why you started the company in the first place.
The Struggle is when you are surround by people and you are all alone.
The Struggle is the land of broken promises and crushed dreams.
The Struggle is not failure, but it causes failure.
The Struggle is where greatness comes from.” (p.61/62)
The Struggle is what every athlete faces when they decide to be an athlete. It is what every athlete battles everyday. It is the voice of the coach or parent who thinks you don’t have what it takes. It is the voice inside wondering if you actually can. It is a loss. It is the expectations following a victory. It is what causes failure but it is also where greatness comes from. The Struggle is something you battle every day in sports.
The struggle is the only voice I listened to as a teenager. It is the only voice in sports my family understood. There was only every one coach who knew how to push me as a female athlete through it. The struggle beat me before my opponents ever did. But the Struggle was silent when I lost myself in speed. The Struggle was silent when I reconnected with the joy of my sport.
The Struggle is silent when an athlete is “in the zone”.
The Struggle has no power in Beast Mode.
To succeed in the sport of startup, find your BeastMode.
5 Keys to Finding your Beastmode
1) Everything begins with BELIEF!
"To achieve great things you have first to believe it."-- Arsene Wenger
Beliefs are the foundation of Seahawk’s Coach Pete Carroll’s “Win Forever” philosophy. Beliefs are the foundation for a “BeastMode” mindset.
Self belief is the foundation from which you develop yourself, a team and deliver on your goals.
If you don’t believe you can, you won’t. Begin with belief.
2) Train to win.
“To accomplish the grand, you have to focus on the small….” –Pete Carroll
If you want to be an Olympian, train like an Olympian. If you want to be successful in business, do what successful people do. This is nothing new, it is just the excuses we create that change.
“….“Life is Struggle.”(Karl Marx) I believe that within that quote is the most important lesson about Entrepreneurship: Embrace the struggle.” –Ben Horowitz, Hard Thing About Hard Things (p.275)
In the sport of startup, you too will get hit.The Struggle will knock you down.
Train yourself to be strong enough to get back up.
3) Team of the same Mindset
In sports the objective of a team is universal and transparent. Whether the fastest time or most points, the goal is shared.
No one player can play every position. No startup founder can be an effective Hacker, Hustler, and Hipster.
Know your strengths and weaknesses, know how to best leverage both. Train to be your best and find others who want the same.
Build your team around a shared mindset.
4) Find the Mentor who can coach the champion in you.
Not every Superbowl winning coach can coach every star player. Not every successful CEO, founder with multiple IPOs, or VC can mentor you to success.
You will outgrow coaches and you will outgrow mentors. Find those who believe in you and want you to be the best you can be. The business will change but you are the same engine driving toward the end zone.
Find the coach who can help you see greatness when all you see is The Struggle. Find the mentor who can coach you to win.
5) Carpe the Moment. Today is always the field of play.
Not every natural born athlete will find their gift at the right time and right place, let alone have the support to succeed. Most entrepreneurs remark how they learned the most from their failures.
"Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal. Prepare yourself in every way you can by increasing your knowledge and adding to your experience, so that you can make the most of opportunity when it occurs."-- Mario Andretti
There is no room for doubt on the field of play. When opportunity knocks, one must be able to pivot on the spot.
Becoming BeastMode.
The struggle won for most of my life because I didn’t know any better. As a female athlete there are few role models, coaches and fewer opportunities. Often I was the only female in my sport and region. I was a natural at nearly any sport I tried. I had the mindset of an athlete but I didn’t know that I had to cultivate the mindset of a champion. I thought the Struggle was the voice of reason for many years.
No one had taught me it was more than positive thinking and visualization. No one taught me that suffering was part of the journey. No one taught me it is not the fear of failure that fuels a champion but understanding and accepting failure is part of the struggle of sport.
When I committed to my startup, I realized I had to find that competitive athlete focus. I needed to feel that power, presence, and unapologetic confidence I feel when speeding downhill on my bike or skis. I needed to be able to get into the zone that adrenalin takes me to survive in the sport of startup.
If I wanted to succeed, I was going to need more than the mindset of an athlete. I was going to need to learn how to be more than “in the zone”. If I want to win in this sport, I need to have the mindset of a champion, I needed to be BeastMode.
Be Your Brand
Be Your Brand: 5 Fundamentals for Successful Brand Strategy
Be Your Brand:
5 Fundamentals for Successful Brand Strategy
During the last decade as the necessity for a multi-media marketing strategy became imperative for the success of a product or company, society has become familiar with a “new” term: “Branding.” Prior to the integration and understanding of “branding,” the justification for marketing expenditures was a constant point of contention among companies of all sizes.
Since college, I’ve worked with a multitude of clients from documentary filmmakers to multisport/music festival directors, to a local coffee house owner. I guided my clients through what I now refer to as “marketing therapy” before even I was able to generate an effective marketing plan and strategy. Many of my clients, most really, didn’t have a clear vision of who they were and where they ultimately wanted to or could go with their businesses. Now they understand the value of the process as brand development and strategy.
Anyone who has been a “marketing professional” during the past 10-20+ years has felt the frustration and pressure of having to prove that marketing does have value. The growth of multimedia and the overwhelming number of advertising avenues available have caused companies to shift their thinking and recognize that brand development and strategy may in fact be the most important thing they can do for their long-term viability and success in a global marketplace.
Think about it this way: How can you expect to find your life partner if you don’t know who you are and what you want? We all know people who didn’t take the time to get to know themselves and ended up serial dating and in the process got pulled further out of their true selves. We must know what we want for ourselves and be grounded in self worth to manifest it. The same is true for business, brands, and consumers. How can you hope to capture brand loyalty and build sales unless you have a clear, consistent image and product? You simply cannot. Be true to you.
Five Fundamentals for developing a successful brand strategy:
1) What’s your why?
Who are you? Why are you doing what you are doing? What is the current need for the product/service you are creating? Will your future customers/consumers have the same needs you do for your solution (product/service)?
First thing is first, you need to know your WHY before a consumer will be able to answer why they “need to buy”.
2) What’s your story?
Be true to you and others will be too!
Many of the most successful brands in the world weren’t built out of a desire to sell off to a larger entity quickly, a strategy we see rampant in Silicon Valley. They were created for a specific reason: their founders saw an answer to a problem. Ultimately their consumers connected with this same need and desire.
For example, Gary Erickson founded Clifbar out of a need: a lack of an alternative for portable nutrition for himself as a long distance cyclist. He wanted to create “…a better tasting bar made with nutritious, wholesome ingredients to sustain energy…” He didn’t have visions of startup millions selling off to Nestle…he just wanted to be able to fuel his body without gagging on some fake nutrition and keep riding his bike! Today you can buy Clifbars by the case at Costco.
When I was in my early 20s I was a sponsored athlete for Clifbar. I’ve continued to stay loyal to their brand (despite spending summers as a poor college student eating little else, not something I would suggest.) because they have stayed true to their “WHY”, their purpose, one that I believe in too.
3) Consumer loyalty begins within.
While I was a sponsored athlete I worked closely with several companies that included Clifbar, Nike, North Face, and Red Bull. In 1999, one of my Nike contacts who had been with the company for a few years moved into R&D. He moved because he wanted to try something new. “Oh yeah, they totally support us here; if we want to move around and learn something new, we can!” Nike understands that their value begins within.
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t wan to.” - Richard Branson
4) Your Brand is Your Mirror
Words and sounds have energy, masculine or feminine, as do shapes and colors. Logo, design, color, shape will determine who instantly and subconsciously connects with your brand and product.
I was not surprised to hear recently from a photographer friend regarding a brand I am personally devoted to, “Lululemon is having a hard time breaking into the male market…” Their logo is round, feminine as is their brand name itself.
Before you decide on your logo, packaging, colors, know who your target audience is and bear in mind how big you want your company to be (local or global).
5) Be your own redwood: Imagine your future self.
Just as you choose to make certain decisions for your long-term physical and financial health through diet, exercise or investment decisions, do the same for your company and brand. What do you dream your company will do for you and others?
I often tell my clients: “Imagine digging a hole in the ground for a tree. Today it is a sapling but in a few years it will tower high, we can’t imagine where all the branches will reach, some we’ll have to trim, others will stretch further than we can fathom today. But give the roots room to grow larger than you yourself can imagine!”
Know yourself. Be your brand.
In order to successfully identify, engage, and activate a core consumer audience, you must be able to connect with their needs. Knowing yourself, your why, where, and how are the first steps to successful brand strategy.
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