Hello,

Two weeks ago I sprained my ankle. It was the result of an inelegant fall down a small number of steps in a restaurant before I had even had a chance to eat lunch, let alone have a cocktail. Since then not only have I been hobbling around on crutches but I have also had to learn, very quickly, the painful art of asking for help. I am not one of life's help-seekers. If it needs to be done then I just get on and do it myself. I think a lot of us entrepreneurial types take the same approach. Which means that we are often compromising ourselves because we will not ask for help. I don't have a lesson in this for you yet. I am on the path to learning more about asking for help and that path feels like a long one right now. So I want to ask you, how did you learn to ask for help? Did it always come naturally or did you have to learn how to do it? Let me know, and I'll report in from my road as I go.

In the meantime, let's get on with the Notes...

1) The art of asking

I was also discussing the struggle with asking for help in one of my Facebook groups and Notes reader Lucy, sent me this beautiful TED talk on the art of asking. Watch it. You will not regret it. Also, if you've ever considered crowdfunding for a project you will want to take a peek at this one. 

2) Would you pay for a Facebook group? 

The big news in the social media world this week has been the announcement from Facebook that they are trialling paid subscription groups. I've seen a whole range of reactions to this from the "ZOMG! Amazing!" to "the world is ending and Facebook destroyed it". I sit a bit in the middle on this one. It wouldn't be the right route for my community-based group but for content creators, I think that this is a great step forward towards them being compensated for creating. 

3) For the love of Post-Its

Post its or sticky notes must be my number one planning tool. Imagine my excitement when I saw that they have an app which can capture my handwritten notes and turn them into a powerhouse of online planning. Playtime!

4) Death to PowerPoint

I've been wrestling with slides this week. I'm preparing to record a free masterclass in the coming days. Teaching online requires a lot of slides to embed the information for the learner. I am not loving it. At the same time, I am also starting preparations for my autumn speaking gigs. I will be on stage at least three times before the end of the year. It's going to be busy, (although I do have some space in November if you've been wanting to get me on your stage...) Anyway, when I do live talks I tend to use as few slides as I can get away with and they are mostly image-driven with a small amount of text only if necessary. If you want to rely less on slides, so your audience will focus more on your words, here are four proven strategies.

5) How many people does it take to start a revolution? 

About 25% of any group according to the World Economic Forum. As a community builder, this is a fascinating concept for me. As a human, watching the world news, I am equally curious. If it only takes 25% of the crowd to change the behaviour of the community around it, how can we apply that principle for good? 

Until the next Notes,

Emmy

P.S. The Collective is in session! My first cohort has completed their planning session and we are off and rolling for the next 12-weeks. Bringing this to life has been one of my great joys this year. I believe powerfully in community, I believe in taking action and I believe that bringing those two elements together creates a unique environment to amplify your chances of success. The Collective is doing exactly what I planned it to do, and that is a joy to observe. Places are already filling up for the next round which means even more established business owners preparing to take great action before the end of 2019. I'm so ready for this. Are you? 

P.P.S. I still don't have a page about The Collective on my site. I'm so sorry! The places are filling up just by word of mouth which has made it hard to find time to sit down and write the page. I'll get on it before the next Notes. In the meantime. here's a pdf of the details and I'm still giving away a bonus mini-focus session for anyone who signs up before the end of July to use while you are waiting for the next cohort of The Collective to start.