What happens when you realise your path is entrepreneurship rather than employment? Lindsay takes up the challenge and shares an account of her journey as it unfolds…

Twitter. Is it….

An annoying ego-based social platform where networking is a thin mask for sales: people with 2.3K followers feel like superstars, but haven’t they got anything better to do?

or

The ultimate digital social tool that gives you more scale and scope than ever before. Gain access to people, content and ideas. Get lost in a world of online networking opportunity.

Part of my sales and marketing plan is to build up a digital footprint for Mirror Mirror on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Facebook and LinkedIn, I get. With twitter, I started in the (a) camp, but just edged slightly into the (b) camp.

This happened after I posted a 3 minute video about Mirror Mirror and got a retweet from a guy called Kevin Crenshaw from the US who said:

 “Spot on team alignment approach @MirrorMirror4T, but how can you keep your team aligned in 5 mins pw or less?”

I thought about that for a while and used the Mirror Mirror principles to devise a simple process to answer that question. Next, I set up a 1 minute video on ‘Staying Aligned’, included that in a blog on the Mirror Mirror site , and tweeted the link back to him in response (all within a day).

He then retweeted that via his own twitter ID and his company twitter ID ‘Neverboss’, and my twitter follower numbers doubled within a week. OK so I’m only going from 60 to 120 followers, but hey, result! Kevin has 10 kids by the way, which must be an incredible leadership challenge – but that’s another story…

We then set up a call and had a great conversation about the inevitability of more open, empowering, leadership. We talked about our businesses and where there could be some overlap (he’s in the States so nothing active there right now). And we shared info on influential writers, ideas and growth tips. I now have a new contact I can call on in the US.

Twitter? I guess you’ve got to be canny (Scottish word meaning clever / careful).

I definitely don’t want to post anything unless it can help someone. And I don’t want to get lost in a world of online opportunity – after all, there’s sales and marketing, profile and awareness raising, product development, administration to do. But it does offer real opportunity. Right now, social media gets about 2 hours a week and I think I’m finally getting it (big hurdle that one)!

General update:

The work with my first client is going GREAT. I’ve done 11 out of 14 interviews and I heard they’ve reported positive responses from the experience. When I interview, I have the questions up on a screen that they can see (using a platform called Typeform), and I help them articulate their responses succinctly, without being suggestive, so it’s as if we are collaborating on the task together.

For example,

 ME: “What do you think is the biggest challenge the team is facing right now?”

PERSON X: “Um, we are having to do things differently because of cost cuts.”

ME: “So is the challenge finding new ways to do things, or implementing new ways to do things?”

PERSON X: “It’s actually agreeing new ways of working – we have plenty of ideas, but we don’t seem to be able to get going on them, as a team.”

ME: “OK, shall I put – ‘Deciding and planning new ways of working’?”

PERSON X: “Yes, that’s what I mean.”

And I’m so heartened that the interview responses are allowing me to get under the skin of what is happening with each person, what’s missing, working, needed… I can see the threads between them (the insights) and I know I can create an accurate and meaningful report.

It’s all good 😊. I just need more clients to convert from interest to sales!

This first client won’t complete until after the summer due to holidays. Gives me plenty of time to get everything right.

Mirror Mirror allows teams to develop a shared picture of ‘where they are now’ so they have the clarity, alignment, and momentum needed to progress to ‘where they want to go next’. www.mirrormirrorhub.com

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