Entrance to The Beatles LOVE show by Cirque du Soleil at The Mirage in Las Vegas

I get my best ideas sitting on an airplane. Right now I’m writing from Dallas Love Field, connecting to Austin from Kansas City where I just attended Quilt Market (yes, it IS as sexy as it sounds). And I think I can safely say I might have just thought of one of my biggest ideas to date. Like, game-changing idea. Like, drop everything, hold the phone, stop what you’re doing-kind of idea. Of course I’m not going to tell you what it is – even though I’m dying to. But that’s beside the point. (Side note: I actually had to Google, “beside or besides the point”. Turns out it’s beside the point, as in next to, or not relevant. So there.)

The POINT is: where is your next idea? Literally, WHERE is it? Kind of interesting to think of your next big idea as a specific location. No, your next idea has nothing to do with the location, but identifying locations where you are more capable/primed/ready/prepared to come up with your next idea has EVERYTHING to do with the likelihood that you will come up with something great, recognize it as great, and seize the immediate opportunity.

Now, don’t go sit at a park bench (if that is a good thinking spot for you) and squeeze your eyes shut and cross your fingers expecting your next big idea to fall out of a tree and smack you on top of your head. It doesn’t work like that. What does work is knowing when and where you think best, and allowing yourself time in that place to relax and scribble notes or read that great business book you’ve been meaning to read for 4 months. (If you think in the shower, I’d consider investing in a waterproof case for your e-reader, but you get my drift.)

Also don’t sit and say to yourself, “now I’m going to sit and think of great ideas.” Again, it doesn’t work that way. And again, what DOES work is to 1) become aware of where and when you come up with your best ideas 2) acknowledge and appreciate that you have identified this location and 3) come up with some passive activities that will stimulate your brain and get your mind to wander. I tend to come up with great business or marketing ideas that are completely unrelated to the content of what I’m reading – although reading business-related magazines or books does help me.

Maybe listening to music starts you on great ideas. Maybe you get great ideas while cooking pasta. Maybe you get great ideas while sitting at a baseball game that make you stand up and shout “Home run!” and then everyone stares at you like you’re deranged. So whatever or wherever, your first action item towards your next BIG idea is to take some time today and think about where you tend to come up with your best ideas. If you have an interesting idea spot or idea process, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

A powerful excerpt from John C. Maxwell’s book The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player:

“Most people only change when one of three things happens: they hurt enough that they have to, they learn enough that they want to, or they receive enough that they are able to. Your goal is to keep learning so that you want to change for the better every day.”

Are you maximizing the full potential of your customers’ Facebook Place check-ins at your business? Make sure that a brief description of your business and any key marketing messages appear when a customer searches for your business among Facebook Places and also appear on their wall when a customer checks in. It’s easy to miss this opportunity when you are setting up your Facebook page or your Facebook place. (Your Facebook fan page and your Facebook “place” should be merged at this point. If they are not, review this tutorial.) Once you have merged your Facebook fan page and your Facebook place, any updates to information on your Facebook Place should take place under general settings of your Facebook fan page, the hub of your business’s Facebook presence.

How To Add A Description to Check-Ins At Your Business

1. Once logged in, open your Facebook Page, and click on “Edit Page” in the upper right-hand corner.

2. Next click “Basic Information” in the left sidebar, and scroll down to “Description”. This is the information that will be displayed beneath your business name on your customers’ Facebook wall when they check in. It is also the information that will be displayed beneath your business name when customers search the list of Facebook Places to check into.

3. Add a description of your business, but make sure this information is succinct. I’ve seen some businesses with descriptions that filled up half of a person’s wall! So make it short, but powerful. Include information that will grab the attention of your customers’ Facebook friends when they see that their friend has checked in at your business – wording that will encourage them to click on your place for more information.

4. And make sure it is actually a description of your business. Notice the other businesses in the list of Facebook Places to check in to above. The first sentence of the description should tell people what your business is. What is CityCraft? CityCraft is the first and only modern fabric boutique in North Texas. Simple. To the point.

It’s a daily struggle, but I’m slowly learning how to go with the flow. I found some sound advice on this process in the following blog post:

12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go With the Flow | zen habits.

For those visiting my store for the first time, most are shocked to learn we have only been in business a year and a half based on how smoothly our operation functions. And I can usually count myself among the shocked when I say the words “a year and a half”, too. It honestly feels like ten years. Not because I don’t love what I do, but because it has been a long, hard year and a half.

I’ve learned more in this short amount of time than twenty years of schooling could have ever prepared me for. I never knew how hard and emotional it would be to manage a staff. I never anticipated how lonely entrepreneurship can be. People say to me, I can imagine how hard it is to start out on your own and run a business by yourself. But most of the time, they can’t even begin to imagine.

Some might say, “Stop whining.” But this isn’t me whining, this is me being honest. I field several calls a month from people telling me that is their dream to open a shop like CityCraft, and I bluntly tell them, your dream should be to run a business, not own a fabric shop. Those are two dramatically different things. This is hard work and it isn’t going to get any easier as the business grows.

The irony is that I love this. I love the challenge. I crave it. I love the “hustle” (hard work). This is in my blood, and I can’t really explain it. But I love that I never know what’s going to happen next, good or bad. Otherwise, what’s the point?

The challenge isn’t learning how to make running a business easier. It will never get any easier. The challenge is learning how to avoid burning out while doing it.

There are several ways that I achieve a work-life balance and avoid burnout which I look forward to sharing with you at the Inc. Leadership Conference coming up in June, but until then I want to share a few burnout avoidance tips that I received in my email today (how timely) from Bob Negen, director of Whizbang! retail training systems. Check it out here.

I’m very honored and excited to be speaking at the Inc. Leadership Conference, June 15-17 at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas. For any business leader, this conference is sure to be an outstanding opportunity for growth and skill development – I’m looking forward the entire experience.

Learn more here:

“How can the U.S. government encourage entrepreneurship among the young?

That was the question that various government entities along with Small Business Administration and partner organizations posed to a veritable who’s who of young entrepreneurs in front of a packed audience at the General Assembly Incubator in New York and online yesterday evening. Although small businesses overall could likely use a hand up from Uncle Sam, the stated purpose of the event was to get feedback and answer questions of young entrepreneurs to better help the Administration support small business growth — specifically among young entrepreneurs.”

via A New Source of Support and Inspiration for Young Entrepreneurs.

Presented by Collins as a paradoxical psychological pattern demonstrated by all of the “good-to-great” companies he studied, the Stockdale Paradox is the behavior of “retaining faith that you will prevail in the end , regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time confronting the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Collins writes:

“Life is unfair – sometimes to our advantage, sometimes to our disadvantage. We will all experience disappointments and crushing events somewhere along the way, setbacks for which there is no “reason”, no one to blame. It might be disease; it might be injury; it might be an accident; it might be losing a loved one; it might be getting swept away in a political shake-up; it might be getting shot down over Vietnam and thrown into a POW camp for eight years. What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life. In wrestling with life’s challenges, the Stockdale Paradox (you must retain faith that you will prevail in the end and you must also confront the most brutal facts of your current reality) has proved powerful for coming back from difficulties not weakened, but stronger – not just for me, but for all those who’ve learned the lesson and tried to apply it.”