Between Seeing

Looking for a Speaker?

My business partner Jeff and I love to speak about the work we do. We have developed some presentations that have received the highest marks, in excess of 95% approval, from participants. We do this by actively involving the audience in the presentation. Some of the talks include “The 7 Entrepreneurial Skills for Financial Planners”, “The Power of Stories and Vision Stories” and “Finding your Better Way to Live and Work.” We have also developed a 2 day seminar called “Vision Stories” that has been delivered across the country.

If you would like a dynamic keynote speaker, please let me know. Our highest dream is to partner with groups and associations that want to offer our work to their members.

Here are three case studies of speeches.

Who Needs a Better Way to Work

According to a new study by Kronos it appears the majority of Americans are looking for a better way to work. In their Labor Day survey an amazing 77% said they are either actively or passively looking for a new job. 39% have looked for a new job while at work. In addition 58% of employed Americans say it is more difficult to balance work/life responsibilities today because their workload and work hours have increased.

This makes no sense. In an age of abundance most of us work at jobs that are not our calling and that make work life balance difficult or not impossible. This is not sustainable for individuals or for our society. And it doesn't have to be this way. We have a choice. We can choose to do work that is our calling. It may pay less but are we willing to forfeit a few dollars to find happiness?

It starts by asking questions like the following;
What work would I truly enjoy?,
What am I most excited about in my life?
What would my ideal work life look like?

It starts with a dream; what would it be like to be one of the 23% who love the work they are doing?

A Whole New Mind - What the World is Calling for

I have been fortunate in my life to be on the beginning side of significant trends in America and the world. In the early 70s I foresaw the need for more humane living settings for the handicapped and worked in that industry. In the 80s I was a pioneer in selling HMO services to seniors. In the late 80s our company was the leader in packaging and selling desktop video - the marriage of computers and video. In 1996, my partner and I formed one of the first Internet companies in Minnesota and today it has 300 employees.

Earth Wisdom Teachings

I have been fortunate to work with individuals who are trained in the Earth Wisdom Teachings of the Delicate Lodge. This wisdom originated in the tribal communal            cultures of viable self-organizing societies in the pre-Colombian cultures of the Americas and represents the collective intelligence of thousands of years of native human experience. What these individuals have shared with me is that the more they become familiar with the 7 Entrepreneurial Skills the more they see the skills in the medicine wheels that they carry. In some ways we see the 7 Entrepreneurial Skills as a modern day interpretation of some of the medicine wheels. FireHawk, one of the holders of the earth wisdom, sent me the attached document of the 7 Entrepreneurial Skills mapped to a medicine wheel. Since there are 8 directions on the wheel he listed presence as the eighth direction. Presence is a key component to our teachings.
If you are interested in more information on the Delicate Lodge Teachings you can go to Ehama Institute, DanceHammers or Resonance

Download 7_skills_on_a_wheel.pdf

7 Entrepreneurial Skills

I. Building Vision, Faith & Commitment
Confidence in your vision and knowing that this is your path—along with the commitment to make it real in the face of those who doubt or question what you are creating (especially you)—is essential to making your vision real.
1. Creating a vision
2. Believing your work is your calling
3. Having confidence and belief in yourself
4. Contributing to something greater than yourself

II. Utilizing Your Strengths
Knowing and understanding your strengths allows you to focus on what you do best in the service of your vision and purpose and find ways to support the areas outside your core competencies.
1. Building on your strengths and passions
2. Acknowledging weaknesses
3. Commitment to professional development

III. Creating a Niche
By creating your niche through choice, you can focus your energies and resources in one area so that people can identify with who you are and whom you serve.
1. Finding one thing you love and being the best at it
2. Maintaining a clear, compelling focus on your target market
3. Becoming established as an expert—creating a name for yourself

IV. Planning & Follow Through
Creating a clear business plan that includes financial projections accompanied by follow through and accountability to yourself and others brings vision to life.
1. Creating a living business plan with written goals
2. Committing to your word by following through
3. Establishing accountability with yourself and others

V. Engaging Risk & Reality
Risk taking without assessing reality is just stupidity or naiveté. Efforts to assess reality with total
accuracy is a recipe for paralysis. There are no guarantees. You must engage both risk and reality
simultaneously to strike a balance that enables you to move forward with faith.
1. Practicing financial discipline
2. Embracing failure
3. Trusting your gut

VI. Partnering
The ability to ask for help and to create synergistic relationships is essential to being a successful entrepreneur—your business success depends on a network of relationships.
1. Building relationships
2. Asking for and getting help
3. Being a resource

VII. Negotiating
Being clear about what your services are worth and the ability to ask for it, without hesitation, are the heart of the ability to negotiate.
1. Knowing your value proposition
2. Creating win-win agreements
3. Knowing your bottom line/Being willing to walk away

Here is a copy of the 7 Entrepreneurial Skills you can download  Download 7es_generic_skills_2005.pdf

 

Cultural Creatives and the Spiral

My friend Clive pointed out the following correlation between Cultural Creatives and Spiral Dynamics. Obviously this is a generalization but my experience is that it holds pretty much true to form

Traditionalists = Blue
Modernists = Orange
Cultural Creatives = Green

Dr. David Hawkins Power vs. Force

Dr. Hawkins is one amazing man and he is an enigma. He has authored three fantastic books and developed a scale for measuring consciousness. The books are Power vs Force, The Eye of the Eye and I: Reality and Subjectivity.  A fourth book should be available shortly. His Power vs Force book is now number 187 on the Amazon best seller list. I think this is due to his being profiled in Wayne Dyer's latest book The Power of Intention.

One of the people quoted about the book is Mother Teresa. She says "A beautiful gift of writing. You spread joy, love and compassion through what you write. The fruit of these is peace which you know."

His publishers site on him is here. You can also listen to him in fascinating hour long conversations on a wide range of subjects on this site.

Spiral Dynamics

What is Spiral Dynamics? The best place to start is to look at Clare Graves homepage. The best article on Spiral Dynamics is the interview of Don Beck in What is Enlightenment Magazine. They do a great job of explaining the concept and each of the memes. Ken Wilbur has brought Spiral Dynamics to the mainstream. Here is his explanation of why this matters. A really cool visual presentation of the spiral is here. In a brief search I found some great info on Spiral Dynamics at the blogs coolmel and What's in your mind.

Cultural Creatives

Who are the people that are most open to being in a state of between seeing. They are most likely to be part of the group known as Cultural Creatives. You can read more about them at the authors website. I like the website but its unfortunate it hasn't been updated in a number of years. I'd strongly recommend buying the book. You can buy it for as little as $5.70 on Amazon.

Throughout history there have been 2 types of people in America. They are the Modernists and the Traditionalists. About 40 years ago a third group started that have been named the Cultural Creatives. What follows is a description of each of these groups and a synopsis of the promise of the Cultural Creatives. Read it and notice which group you relate most to.