Escape From Cubicle Nation Community

Welcome to the EFCN Community!


Call Recordings

Welcome to the Community Call Recordings Page!

Here you will find recordings from all of our group calls. They are listed in order of most recent first. They are download links, so click on the link below to download the audio to your favorite listening device.

 

8/16/11 – Personal Finance Expert Call with Manisha Thakor. This call is NOT to be missed!

8/8/11 – Community Coaching Call. We got into some juicy deep discussions about learning career lessons, how to approach influencers, and how to prepare for a presentation to NYC teenagers. πŸ™‚

7/29/11 – Community Coaching Call. (this link is directly to Instant Teleseminar – you have option to download from that page) We gave advice to Brian about how to handle the mixed blessing of getting more work than he has capacity for. We also hit some specific “growing a business” questions.

7/21/11 – Trusted Adviser Call on Marketing with Shama Kabani. Shama is a 26-year old marketing powerhouse, having grown her business from a one-person consulting firm to a 30-employee full-service digital marketing agency in just a few short years. Listen to her talk about what it takes to grow a business that scales, as well as marketing advice for brand new business owners. Find more about Shama at http://www.marketingzen.com , @shama on Twitter and ShamaKabani on Facebook.

7/11/11 – Community Coaching Call.

6/28/11 – Community Coaching Call. We discussed strategies for getting new businesses off the ground, shifting markets, knowing when is the right time to quit your job, as well as some nuts and bolts kinds of questions about shopping carts.

6/23/11 – Trusted Adviser call on Intellectual Property with Jill H. Bowman – This is an amazing call packed with information and wisdom about how to manage your intellectual property. Learn first-hand what can happen if you DON’T do things like investigate your company name before you use it from Jill’s extensive background as an IP attorney. A MUST listen to call for all!

6/22/11 – Community Coaching Deep Dive – hour long conversation with Community member Danielle Miller. We dig into a program Danielle is wanting to develop for mid-life women, and end up taking a whole new approach to gathering data about her market, breaking down her project into more manageable bites, and discover that Danielle hungers to do in-person retreats.

6/13/11 – Community Coaching Call – Pam answers Amy Harrison’s question right off the bat, and digs in with detail to a few community members.

06/01/11 – Trusted Adviser call on Health Benefits with Paula Peck – Paula describes in detail ways you can obtain health benefits as a self-employed person, even if you have pre-existing conditions. Not a call to miss!

5/31/11 – Community Coaching Deep Dive – Hour-long call with Rob Modzelewski about developing his design business, finding the sweet spot of his work and structuring his business to celebrate his “multipotential” personality.

5/31/11 – Escape Community Call with Pam Slim – In-depth conversations about quickstarting a consulting business, transitioning from job to freelancing, how to position offerings for new market.

5/16/11 – Escape Community Call with Pam Slim – Juicy conversations about scaling a business, expanding markets and choosing AND instead of OR when defining your brand πŸ™‚

4/29/11 – Business Planning with Trusted Adviser Tim Berry

4/26/11 – Community Coaching Call – Marketing strategies, self care, pacing yourself, preparing to license your intellectual property

4/26/11 – Community Coaching Deep Dive – Conversation with Escape Community member Stephen Murphey about final product testing and launch strategies.

4/13/11 – Community Coaching Call – Questions about time management, how to begin marketing, sales, and even ideas for recipes! πŸ™‚

3/30/11 – Community Coaching Call – Lots of info on Marketing, Sales and Building an Audience

3/25/11 – Trusted Advisor Call with Kyle Durand – Legal and Finance Basics

3/8/11 – Community Welcome Call


Startup Tools

ESCAPE COMMUNITY VIDEO LIBRARY

Thawing out your soul from corporate employment

Creating your life plan

Why THIS business idea?

Defining the problem your business solves

Who is on your bus? Ideal partners and customers

Overcoming fears that hold you back

Choosing a business model

Understanding your money perspective

Marketing your business

Testing and prototyping your products and services

BUSINESS PLANNING

Time for a new kind of business planning by Tim Berry

Some key questions on business plans by Tim Berry

LEGAL

Why It’s Important to Consider Trademark Law Before Picking a Business or Product Name by Jill Hubbard Bowman

The Top Five Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Learn About Intellectual Property Law by Jill Hubbard Bowman

Choosing a Business Entity by Kyle Durand

FINANCIAL

Five items will consume > 50% of your income by Manisha Thakor

Are you on financial track?by Manisha Thakor

Bookkeeping checklist by Kyle Durand

GETTING HELP

First module from THRIVE hiring system by Tina Forsyth

MARKETING

The inner brandifesto by Laurie Foley

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

How to start a business without destroying your relationship (blog post and podcast with Lisa Merlo-Booth)

How to talk with your spouse about starting your business by Lisa Merlo-Booth

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

A check never writes itself by Desiree Adaway

TECHNOLOGY

Improve website pagespeed by Willie Jackson
Using WordPress pages like a pro by Willie Jackson

EARLY STAGE BUSINESS – DEVELOPING IDEAS

Quickstart to Self-Employment Audio Course


Members Only Blog

Team Challenge: High Value Activities and Wielding a Small Stick

Happy Friday!

I got really inspired by my interview with Steven Pressfield this week. For those of you who don’t know Steven, he is a best-selling novelist and author of the classic War of Art, required reading for anyone who aims to use their brain to earn a living (thinking that may include you all πŸ™‚

In the interview, he asked me if I viewed my job as coach as someone who holds my clients accountable for getting their goals accomplished. I told him that I don’t really see my role that way — my role is to help you discover your own intrinsic motivation so that you don’t have to lean on me or anyone else down the line to do your great work.

He used a lovely metaphor to reflect back what he heard — asking if it was like being the stick a brand-new plant leans against until it is strong enough to grow on its own. I love that!

So may I wield my stick gently? Here is a video update in which I share a few tools and issue a challenge.

By Monday, April 25:

  • Name 1-3 High Value Activities you want to accomplish for the week on this forum thread
  • Use notecards or post-it notes to call out specific Create tasks that you need to complete in order to finish your High-Value Activities
 

Welcome to the Escape Community Launch!

Hello new Community members!

I am so excited to welcome you “behind the curtain” of Escape from Cubicle Nation, where we can all share information, collaborate, toss around ideas, experiment and get questions answered.

For those of you who have spent time with me, read my book or read my blog, you know that I am fiercely committed to experimentation, testing and failing fast, camaraderie and progress.

I get very, very excited when I see things happen. Businesses bloom. Ideas clarify. Cash registers ring.

So let’s do this thing!

Here is how you can get started:

  • Watch my welcome video (shot by the talented Amanda Wang)
  • Read the PDF under the video to get an overview of what is in the Community
  • Poke around in the Resources section (there will be a lot more added in the coming weeks and months!)
  • Check out the Trusted Advisors – they are an amazing group of people! If you need really specific work done, they are the ones to hire — I have referred tons of business to them, and always received wonderful feedback from my clients.
  • Jump in the forum, introduce yourself, and start talking with each other! The forum threads may feel quite empty at first, but just you wait, the more people who roll in, the more they will fill with great wisdom and support.
  • Mark your calendars with the call information. We will always have 2 calls a month, the Q&A with me to address specific questions raised on the forums, as well as a power education call with one of the Trusted Advisor members.

I guarantee this Community will change and grow as we start working together and figure out exactly what we need to get great results. I am open to feedback and suggestions — use the Support form to share ideas!

As we get started working together, let me ask you a question:

What do you want most out of this Community?

Go to the Forum (click the menu item named “Forum” right above my welcome video) and in the first section, “New Here?” respond on the thread called “What do you want most out of this Community?

Thanks for trusting me with your investment. I aim to help you get tremendous returns.

-Pam