Well It’s been a while since I’ve sat down and shared anything on my various blogs.  I’m embarrassed to admit it, but there’s a few cob webs around here and the place could use a good dusting.

For those of you who aren’t connected with me on facebook or twitter, you might not know that I’ve had a good share of health problems lately.  At the end of July I had a bone tumor removed from my leg.

I guess a little background is in order.  I have a bone disease.  It’s called Multiple Hereditary Exostoses or MHE.  It causes boney bumps to form near the growth plates of my bones.  These bumps grow as the body grows and matures and are supposed to stop once a person is full grown.

Fortunately for me, until recently, MHE has never played a very big role in my life.  It’s never limited what I wanted to do.  I’ve been very lucky, because for some people (including my father) the disease is debilitating.  Last summer things changed.  I realized that one of the spots on my leg had begun to grow.  It was hurting and getting a lot bigger.  I was worried because that’s not supposed to happen.  I  knew that there was a small risk of bone cancer that comes along with MHE.  In a mixed bag of luck, it just so happened that one of the top experts on my condition was about 15 minutes away from me in Philadelphia.

It took some time and a lot of insurance wrangling, but long story short I was able to meet with the specialist in May, and finally had the bone tumor removed in the end of July.  Since then I’ve been back in the hospital for a week because of a blood clot in my lung, but as I write this, I’m happy to be back home and feeling pretty good.  Dr’s orders are that I can’t put any weight on the leg that was operated on for at least 6 weeks from my surgery date.  So I’m schlepping around the house with a walker.

The good news is that the bone tumor was NOT cancerous.

This process has been a challenge though.  I didn’t really anticipate going into this how 6, or even 4 weeks of inactivity will totally zap your momentum and derail your process.  I’m working hard to get the machine rolling again, determined to resume and retain the pace.

Have you ever had an event that forced you to take a break?  How did you handle getting back into the swing of things?  Was it harder or easier than you expected?  I’d love to read your experience in the comment section below!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Every Sunday I make a habit of listening to the Mountain Stage program on my local public radio station 88.5 XPN.  I always end up becoming a fan of an artist that I had never heard of before.  This past week was a really great show.  I was blown away by Ruthie Foster. (Be careful, music is on autoplay and loud when you click the link.) What an incredible voice and talent!  I love soulful singers.  This last Sunday’s show was packed with them.  The other artist that blew my mind (You’ve got to listen to this Mountain Stage show!) was Martin Sexton.  This guy is awesome!

His song Black Sheep really moved me.  It reminded me of the struggle that we face as entrepreneurs, chasing our dreams, following our heart and not always getting the support that we would like.  Martin really sang to me on this one, so I wanted to share it.  The video isn’t crystal clear, but the audio is the clearest out of the performances that I could find on YouTube.  Let me know what you think of this song.  I’ve posted the words below the video.  You can buy Martin Sexton’s music on iTunes by clicking here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPPuiy0ihng

Sittin in this lonely town wonderin when things are gonna change
Dreamin my life away and it seems them dreams they turned into a bunch of dust clouds
Gettin my nerve up but my past is pullin me down
Wonderin how long this black sheep can stick around

Somebody told me once before
You can never go home again once you leave
Say anything just to steer me away from the truth of  who I am and what I believe
So I thanked him for his two cents
With a shake and some sympathy
And I packed up my blue jeans and I headed for the big prize
Of my freedom

Bye bye black sheep
Black sheep of the family
Bye bye black sheep how that means so much to me
Bye bye to my friends and to my family
Bye bye black sheep goin off and set my soul set it free

Times they were changin I did just a little re-arrangin
Take a couple chances my progress it advances
To that prize of my freedom

It’s written in the stars that steel bars never will a prison cell make
Once I find that sweet home or a place I like to call home anyway
Some people will say I’m crazy singin out loud like I do here on the street
When I got A song I sing it out loud and if you don’t like that my friend
Well I’m gonna say to you

Bye bye black sheep
Black sheep of the family
Bye bye black sheep how that means so much to me
Bye bye to my friends and to my family
Bye bye black sheep goin off and set my soul set it free

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Wow! So I just checked in and it seems that it’s been a little over a month since my last blog post here. Ouch! Tsk Tsk…. My goal has been to be much more consistent with my posts than I have been. I promise I’ll be doing better.

If you only follow me here on IdeaBox as my personal blog, you may have just thought I took a little vacation. Sadly that is not the case. (A vacation sounds really good right now!) Instead of relaxing I’ve been super busy in another little corner of my network, over at TVPG Radio.

I participate in a weekly radio show, called the Get More Business Show on BlogTalkRadio. Up until September of 09 I was hosting the show solo and featuring one guest per week. But then I got really busy and the show ended up on the back burner. Now that things are getting more manageable, the show is back and I’ve changed up the format to include several other co-hosts and a more diverse and fun format based around the same theme. Needless to say, these changes involved a lot of adjustments and planning to make the website just so and ensure that we give our audience really helpful and entertaining content.

This week marked our second show with the new format and I’m really thrilled with how the show is turning out. We have lots of ideas to make it better that we will be experimenting with as time goes on, but the group of people that I work with on the show are amazing and very talented and a blast to work with.

Now that the heavy lifting has mostly been sorted out over at TVPG Radio, expect to see more blog posts here at the IdeaBox. I’ve been brewing up a host of great post ideas and I’m excited about unleashing them here. There’s still no time for me to relax though. I’m going to be ramping up the Measured Impact project here in the next few weeks and I’ll also be hitting the pavement locally here in South Jersey to share The Value Pages Group with the local business community and recruit some fresh members. Who knows, some of the local businesses that I talk to may even be interested in the Promotional and Design Work we do over at TVPG Labs. As things develop, you can rely on me keeping you updated with our progress.

To everyone who follows my progress and all my regular readers – You guys are awesome!  Thanks for your continued interest as I work through all these projects, bootstrap these goals, and dream outside my comfort zone.  I really appreciate all the support, feedback and good advice I get from you guys…and girls, of course.

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Depending on how detailed and ambitious your goals are, you might eventually come to the realization that you just can’t accomplish them all by yourself.  I recently came to that realization with my TVPG Radio project. To be clear, I’m not advocating partnerships.  In fact it’s my personal preference to maintain solo control of my company.

But if we’re being realistic, we all only have 24 hours in the day.  In those 24 hours we have to fit in time to eat, time to sleep, and family time and for most of us work takes up what’s left over.  If we’re really lucky, we have a little extra time to pursue our passions, and if we’re really, really, really lucky our passion is our work.

If you’re in that last camp, as I am, you probably find your days flying by and there never seems to be enough time to accomplish everything that you want to do to further your passion…your business.  Sure there’s enough time to make the money that we need to survive, but that’s not what passion is about.

Passion in business is about creating something bigger than yourself.  It might be about living up to an expectation (our own or others).  It might be about proving someone wrong.  It could be about breaking a pattern.  It might be about creating a legacy.  Perhaps it’s about securing the future of your family, about giving your children a better opportunity than what you had.  There’s a million things that drive us to chase our dreams, to stretch beyond our reach, to see how much of a difference we can make in the world.

Usually these motivations attach themselves to big ideas.  I think of these ideas as “Life Changers”.  Ideas that have the potential to meet our goal(s).  Big important ideas are never easy to get off the ground.  They always take more work, more planning, more polishing, more finesse.

So if you’re in the middle of grappling with one of these “Life Changers” and you feel like you’ve hit the wall.  There is no shame in looking around and asking for help.  There are lots of people out there who are eager to get involved with a “Life Changer”.  If you’re still hesitant, ask yourself what will give you the most satisfaction: meeting your goals, or maintaining complete control?  If your idea is truly a “Life Changer”, meeting the goal will always win.

Do you have a “Life Changer” idea?  Are you looking for a “Life Changer”?  Do you have a story to share about teaming up with someone to meet an objective?  I’m looking forward to reading your feedback, so leave a comment!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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A short shallow answer can feel like a snub.  Have you ever been blown off by a one word answer?  Chances are you asked the wrong question.  Believe it or not there’s a formula for asking questions and if you don’t get it right you will receive an answer that probably won’t be helpful.

It turns out that the complexity of a question is inversely related the detail of the answer that you will receive.  Long detailed questions generate short shallow answers.  Why is that?

A long detailed question only requires the person you’re asking to confirm the details that you presented.  Short questions require the person you’re asking to provide the details.  The difference between asking a long question and asking a short question can be the difference between you knowing what you know and you knowing what they know.  Think about that.

So if you’ve had problems getting the information you were asking for, try on these questions for size:

Why?

How?

Could you explain that?

If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? (Just Kidding!)

To really get your potential customer on your wave length, ask a question about the problem that you solve.  I’ll bet you’ve had a life insurance salesman ask you how you would pay for a funeral if something unexpected happened.  An unpleasant question, but it got you to thinking, didn’t it?  If you can tailor a question around the problem that you solve, inevitably some good follow up questions will arise, no matter what the response is.

In a marketplace where consumers are committed to doing their own research online, and many times will contact you for your services (instead of the other way around), it is more important than ever to get your consumers to open up and talk to you about their problems so that you can determine the most efficient and effective solution.  Asking the right questions is a key part of executing your value proposition.  How about networking?  If you don’t thoroughly understand the business of the person sitting across the table from you, you might miss an opportunity to refer them business and all the benefits of a referral relationship.  Asking the right questions is crucial!

What are some questions that are your favorites?  I’d love to hear your responses in the comment section!

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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Back in October I wrote about my awful experience with Bank of America and urged my readers to vote with their dollars and withdraw funds from large banks that are both “Too Big To Fail” and determined to screw everyday Americans with their dishonest and distasteful greedy policies.

I’m sure I wasn’t the first to have a bad experience or to pen the idea, but now it seems that it might actually be picking up some steam!  Huffpost is all over the idea with their feature of the MoveYourMoney.info site and article.  I actually picked it up after reading Karl Denninger’s post on The Market Ticker.  Thanks Karl!

In a time of the year known for people expressing goals and making resolutions, this idea couldn’t be more important.  I want to emphasize that this isn’t a conservative or a liberal idea.  It’s bigger than that.  People from both sides of the aisle are keenly aware that the systematic flaws in our economy that nearly led to a global economic collapse are still very much present today.  It is also apparent to anyone who wants to look that no one is in a hurry to force banks to make much needed changes to how they conduct their business.  The power of greed is working against everyday Americans.  We’re not helpless though. We do have options.  Please take a minute to watch the video above, and if it connects with you and you recognize the seriousness of our current economic dilemma then do something about it.  It’s actually pretty easy to move your money.

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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I ran across this recent gem of an article about the recession intensifying GenX discontent at work from the AP.  For those of you who are wondering what age group GenX represents, it’s us 32 to 44 year olds who are wedged between the Baby Boomers and their children.

The article talks a lot about GenXpectations and how we want fullfiling careers, work life balance, opportunities for advancement…you know…things that we “deserve”.  The reality is that all generations are being hammered by this recession.  Many baby boomers have been forced to put off retirement and have thus limited growth potential for people coming up.

This got me to reflecting about how to a large extent we’re all products of our childhood.  Most people aren’t students of history and therefore rely upon their life experience for input on decision making or even a sense of what to expect from society and what to look forward to.

Liza Potts, a 35-year-old professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., agrees, but also notes that the disillusionment took hold for many of her peers as far back as childhood.

“Many of my friends had hoped to have jobs like their parents — places they would stay forever that would take care of them like they did their parents. But then we saw that start to crumble for our folks,” she says, recalling friends whose fathers and mothers got laid off from companies such as IBM or had to relocate.

I think many people in my generation and perhaps many people in other generations have been presented with almost a false reality. When I think about my economic perceptions of this country and what I consider to be “normal”, all of it has been shaped by the economic bubbles that I’ve lived through. Sure there have been some downturns here and there, but for the most part all I’ve seen is lots of massive growth.

Now some hard economic realities are being served up to us, served up cold. I now realize that there isn’t unlimited resources on this planet and therefore explosive growth cannot be sustained indefinitely. The current economy is making me wonder if we’re close to hitting a wall, or if we’ve already hit it. And the realization that our entire economic infrastructure is designed around sustaining growth is unsettling to say the least.

It’s a big bitter pill to swallow, but it’s becoming obvious that we aren’t living in the same world we witnessed our parents living in as wide eyed youngsters just a couple decades ago. The sooner we accept this reality and start taking responsibility for our future, instead of sitting back and seeing what comes to us, the better off we’ll all be. This does raise a lot of questions though that many of us are struggling with.

“Is there still time to become something different? Must we just accept where we are? Is there time to innovate elsewhere?” asks Potts who left her own career in the software and Internet industry for a life in academia. It’s meant less money, she says, but also more freedom to choose her work hours and projects.

In Chicago, 40-year-old real estate agent Adon Navarette has taken on extra jobs to make it, from consultant for an energy supply company to starting his own health and wellness business. He’s heard his peers sniping about other generations, but also thinks their experience with other rough economic patches makes them resilient, too.

I think it’s time we all started asking ourselves if we’re going to sit back and take whatever outcome comes to us, or if we’re going to start being aggressively proactive and take our future into our own hands. This means making smart economic decisions, and it might mean taking some risks, as I mentioned when I wrote about what it’s going to take to fix this economy. But when you consider all the risks that surround us, which would you rather manage…the risks that you take on, or the risks that will be dolled out to you if you sit back and wait?

“What’s going to define me as a Gen Xer is how I come out of this. What’s going to define me is, ‘What have I done to allow myself to take advantage of the market when the market turns around?’” he says.

What are you doing to position yourself right now? Are you willing to risk following your dreams and starting your own business? If not, are you at least positioning yourself in the sectors of your profession that have the most potential growth and the least risk?

The alternative is to sit back and see what happens. One manager had this nice little outlook to share:

“When the dust settles, they’ll be exactly as they were before and we’ll just have to sift through them and take the ones that actually get it and hope the rest find employment in fast food,” she quips.

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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I’ve come to accept that I’m a big picture thinker.  I have a knack for seeing implications of decisions and planning two or three steps ahead.  Being a big picture thinker isn’t always a positive though.

I find that I’m much more comfortable visualizing and planning than I am actually implimenting.  I’ve been guilty of delaying a project to perfect my plan, which of course is constantly evolving.  The effect is that my big picture thinking and long term outlook can make me miss short term opportunities.

Personally, it was a big step to acknowledge my tendencies.  That step has allowed me to take steps to correct them and balance my outlook.

Are you able to acknowledge your weaknesses?  We all have them.  My journey started when I asked myself, “What am I uncomfortable with?”

If you would like to share, I’d love to hear how you’re overcoming your weaknesses.  Are there any other hard questions that you’re facing?  How is your business better for it?

Jason Sanders @ValuePagesGroup
Business Networking Specialist

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