With the merger late last year of BlogWorld Expo and New Media Expo, BlogWorld Expo this coming October 15-17 in Las Vegas promises to be bigger and better than ever.

The BlogWorld conference proper is again being held over two days, 16-17, preceded as in the past two years by an Executive and Entrepreneur Day, October 15. The Expo runs over the two days of the main conference, October 16-17.

On his Mediasphere program today on BlogTalkRadio, host Jim Turner announced that a new program is being launched on BlogTalkRadio, this coming Friday as I understand, to focus on BlogWorld Expo 09.

Twitter Session, standing room only: BlogWorld Expo 08. Picture by Dave Cynkin via Flickr – Creative Commons.

Having participated for two years in a row now in BlogWorld and New Media Expo, I can attest that the event provides a singular opportunity for bloggers, podcasters and others in the industry to get together, compare notes, learn, catch up with new developments, network – and party. Yes, there are great parties!

Nor are the expo and conference just for practitioners and enthusiasts from the industry. One of the aspects I enjoyed last year and the year before was meeting people who were basically new to blogging and other forms of social media and had come to learn. I’m sure that will be repeated this year.

I’m hoping too that there will be a bigger international contingent than previously.

Some of the content on the web site still refers to 2008. For example, if you want to submit a proposal to present a session at the conference, be aware that the bulk of the information on the page, including deadlines, belongs to 2008: however, it is a good guide to what is expected. The page carries a promise that indicates it was intended to have been updated in January.

Although it is apparently too early to register for the event, there is provision to register to be kept informed – except that today that page would not work for me: hopefully it will be fixed soon. I hope when they fix it they will solve the problem of having only US States to list in the required field for State.

If you are thinking of exhibiting, a look at the expo hall layout suggests that several spots have already been reserved. However, it looks to me as if there are still some very good spots still available. There is also information on rates, what is provided and so on.

There is a Facebook page for the event with the usual “Attending”, “Maybe” and “Not Attending” options.

Having participated for the past two years, I have to say that if I could only go to one event this year, BlogWorld Expo would be it.

I’ll update this information as things take shape.

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but I’m feeling challenged about being able to answer effectively the “What do you do?” question.

I believe I have a good understanding of what I do but I’ve had evidence in the past 24 hours that I’m not communicating that well.

Why it’s particularly embarrassing is because, as a coach, I help other people get very clear about this question and become more effective in answering it.

Not that I haven’t worked on it for myself. In fact, I have spent hours being coached on this and at my computer or with a writing pad, endeavouring to put into a succinct, very clear way, just what it is I do in business and what I have to offer.

But clearly there is more work to be done. Fortunately I’m doing a course right now with Coachville’s Business Academy, where we are getting some specific coaching and homework assignments to really nail this thing about what we do.  I mean, the need for me to take action here is at one level a no-brainer, to put it mildly: if I can’t explain succinctly and engagingly what I do I can’t complain if business does not flow to me.

What happened yesterday to focus my attention on this matter was that some people phoned me, by arrangement, to ask me some questions about social media. Fortunately for me they were frank enough to say that although I was one of the people they had been told they should talk to, from looking at my profile on Twitter they were having trouble working out what I do.

So what did I have in my “one-line bio” on Twitter? You know what? I’d forgotten and have just now gone to check. Here it is:

business coach for a networked world: social media strategist: blogger

Clear enough to me. But it’s not there for me, it’s for others.

Why this feedback experience was particularly ironic was that a bit over 24 hours previously I had been telling a group on the Social Media Telesummit how essential it is for us to have a consistent profile and “story” on our various profiles across the social web. As an aside, I think it’s hilarious – ok  sad in some ways, but still hilarious – that as consultants and coaches we all talk about how important it is to get frank feedback and how valuable that is, but when it comes we – well, I at least – have an initial reaction not of joy but of irritation or frustration. Don’t know about you but for me the appreciation and gratitude kick in later, not instantly.

Be that as it may, apparently the message, as successive teachers wrote on my report cards, is still

“This boy can do better”!

But I admit I find the task daunting.

In days of yore, when I was a school teacher, a taxi driver, or an executive with a title and a business card to match, it was easier. Or seemed so, to answer the “What do you do?” question.

It only became a challenge when I set up my own business.

And what I’ve observed about myself since then, and noticed from time to time with other professionals with home based businesses is that if we are in business for ourselves and if we have a reasonable (or even unreasonable!) spark of imaginativeness, creativity and openness to possibility, we can find ourselves “diversifying” our business. And establishing “multiple streams of income”.

Which can, if we are not careful, lead to a situation where we are putting out different messages to the marketplace.

The fact that we can see how our various business interests work together doesn’t mean that’s going to be obvious to others.

Even if they are going to be patient enough to stand there and listen while we explain the ins and outs.

My challenge currently is that I am endeavouring to craft a statement that expresses simply and attractively the key components of the two main things I do:

• I help business owners and entrepreneurs take their business to the next level and keep being nice, interesting people to talk to (that’s the bit that with labeling is called “Business Coach”)
• I help mature business owners and entrepreneurs who are not techies get their heads around the social media phenomenon and work out ways for that to help them grow their businesses (the label I’ve been using is “Social Media Strategist”)

I doubt very much that the labels “business coach” and “social media strategist” are going to bring me much business: they are both, let’s face it, less than sexy: they are opaque or even mystifying without being mystifying in any interesting way.

Have you had a challenge in being able to answer that “what do you do?” question effectively? And by effectively I mean so that in at least some instances it helped you attract business. If so, I hope you’ll share.

I know some people who are really good at this. In fact I know at least one person, Chris Barrow, who is brilliant at this stuff and walks his talk – as in, building a million dollar coaching practice.

I’m certainly not comfortable with the idea that the growth of my business is being impeded by my inarticulateness. I’m hoping some people smarter than I will share some approaches here that work.

“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good” might not bring instant encouragement for people who have been “downsized”, or put out of their jobs, however that may be described by whatever weasel words are in corporate HR vogue these days.

But one area in which I see potential gain for many people is in a field I know a bit about, coaching.

For people who want to get back into a paid job as quickly and as effectively as possible, it could make good sense to find a coach who specializes in helping people with that process or an aspect of it, for example effective social networking for business or how to prepare for and conduct yourself in an interview. That can help the person seeking a job and of course it can also help the coach.

For others who may be thinking of something more like striking out on their own, now might be a time to look at professional coaching, a business which many people run from a home office.

About six years ago I was at a bit of a crossroads myself, not that I’d been put out of work – I’d had my own consulting business then for about fourteen years so I was the only one who could “downsize” me. No, it was more that I was restless for a new professional challenge that the consulting work I was doing then was not giving me.

I will always be grateful to the friend, himself a coach, who encouraged me to look at becoming a coach.

My first reaction was “that’s not me”, but as I researched the industry I started to see that this could be something I could enjoy doing and which could be personally and professionally satisfying.

And I will always be grateful that in the process I teamed up with Coachville, a global community of coaches and a provider of extraordinary resources.

True to the spirit of its founder, the late and extraordinary Thomas Leonard, whom I was privileged to meet and observe demonstrating coaching, Coachville is always coming up with new angles on coaching, new programs to help keep coaches at the leading edge (or ahead of it, sometimes!).

The latest offering, the Coachville Business Academy for Professional Coaches, is to my way of thinking extremely timely. The programs to be offered by the Academy are clearly focused on helping coaches establish and grow their businesses to be financially viable as well as rewarding in other ways.

I’ve posted some thoughts about the Academy initiative at my Des Walsh dot Com site. In that post I mention that on Monday, December 22, Coachville CEO Dave Buck will be hosting a  teleconference call which is being billed as a preview for programs about to be launched by the Academy. There are actually two calls, presumably to accommodate people with different timezones.

The first call will be at 12 noon on Monday December 22 – Eastern time USA; the second will be at 7 pm ET, Monday December 22. I will be tuning in to the second, because the first will be in the depths of night my time!

If you are already a coach, or someone you know is, or if you or someone you know might be wondering whether coaching could be a cool thing to get into (hint: it is) then I commend Dave’s call to you. It will give you a sense of the Coachville “style”, which is special.

There is a pre-requisite for participating in the call, namely to be a member of Coachville. There is no charge for that and you get access to some great resources online. So the steps are, if you want to participate and are not yet a member of Coachville, go here to join Coachville. Once you are a member – or if you are a member already – you register for the call here.

If you have any questions you would like to fire at me after reading this post and don’t want to use the public comments, please get in touch via the Contact form on this blog.  Or contact Coachville directly.

As a small business – indeed home based – provider of coaching and social media consulting services, I doubt I’m unique in feeling sometimes that I am at a disadvantage in competing against bigger companies, with more people, deeper pockets, big brands, often with “incumbency rights” with clients I would like to have.

So today, reading an article in Computerworld Feb 6, I read something that resonated.

William ‘whurley’ Hurley, from software company BMC talking.

When you go to a customer, they don’t see project A and project B, and the Big 4 and Little 4 as competitors. They see them as choices, so you really have to put yourself in that customer mind-set.

And of course, anyone who has ever worked in or dealt with a large organization – i.e. each of us – knows that big organizations are not always better at providing what the customer wants for their particular, current need.

Photo by jpsdq

Nor is it simply an either/or, big or small question. Where size or ability to scale are needed it will often make sense for home based, solo service providers to form strategic alliances or buy into a franchise that allows them to still offer the personal service some customers will still be looking for.

Some new mantras:

• I’m not a solo service provider, I’m a choice
• They’re not competitors, they’re choices
• Really listening to what the customer wants is working smarter, not harder

Any tips or mantras you would like to add?

Wendy Piersall has provided an ideal checklist for any home based business owner who is thinking about how to make 2008 a bumper year for their business. Top Ten Key Success Ingredients for a Home Based Business is both profound and practical, evidence of Wendy’s own experience in building businesses.

In the preamble, she touches on the crucial importance of a high level of positive self-esteem. Without that there is the risk of self-sabotage.

Wendy writes also of the need for us to each define what success means for us. Not what it means for our spouse or significant other, not what it means for our children or our parents. Building and running a home based business is challenge enough without us doing it to meet other people’s idea of what our success should look like. It’s crucial that we get this clear from the outset.

To help get clarity about how we define success for ourselves, there is an exercise I learnt in my coach training with Coachville and which anyone can do, either alone or with someone we trust to tell us whether we are being authentic or not. The exercise is simple in design but challenging when you are really honest with yourself. But believe me, it’s worth it.

It goes like this. Put your landline phone on automatic answer, switch off your cellphone, sit quietly, think about what you want to achieve with your business and complete the sentence, aloud, “I know I am being successful when…”. The answer will be different for everyone. One person might finish the statement with “I know I am being successful when I am being interviewed by Oprah about my book which she has just chosen. ” Another might be “…I can work only three days of the week and earn enough to meet all my needs.” Or someone could have a “financial prosperity + balance” statement, such as “…I have a million dollar turnover and my children still speak to me”.

Whatever your answer, you write it down, look at it quietly and ask yourself if that is what you truly believe and something that speaks positively to your emotions, not just your head. If you sense some uncertainty, repeat the exercise. And again, until you can say, Yes, that is how I know I am being successful. Some people say with an exercise like this you should trust your “body wisdom”. Or, putting that another way, when you make your statement, do you feel good, or is your “gut feeling” saying no?

Maybe you will get the right resonance first time. If so, congratulations, you are tracking well. If you are like me and a lot of people I know, you will probably have a few shots at it before you can say “that’s it!”. If you get a bit frustrated that it doesn’t come clear straight away, there is no need to fret. A lot of people find this exercise a challenge.

Once you have your statement, you can start to work out how to get from where you are now to being in that state when your new reality expresses your statement about success.

To be practical, that will involve setting some benchmarks.

As Wendy writes

If success is simply grocery money and a lot of time with your kids, or if you are building the next fortune 500 empire, you need to have benchmarks in place in order to know if you are on the right track. Otherwise, you may continue to work every day, never feeling like you are getting anywhere, because you don’t have any references in place for what success is.

If you have a friend or loved one helping you with the “defining success” exercise, make sure they understand that their role is simply and strictly to feed back to you whether what you say and how you say it shows conviction on your part. It is not their role to tell you what they think you should be doing or even what they think you would be good at. Have those conversations by all means, but at another time. For this exercise, if they can’t commit to playing by the rules, get someone else or do it yourself.

Feel free to leave a comment, sharing your own tips for achieving success in home based business.

Or any business.