Assuago. That's the way it is.

He found us clumped together like maple bugs in the fall, fresh off the ship and ready for an adventure. 

We took a cruise from Miami to Cozumel, Mexico, Ocho, Rios, Jamaica and the Grand Caymen Islands.  At each port,  tourists can explore, shop or experience things on their bucket list, like swimming with dolphin and stingrays.  Cruise ships offer excursions that can range from $40/person and up.  Excursions are fun and they are designed to show us what we already expected to see in the brochures and the media.  In other words, excursions are designed to show us a world view that we want to see, versus what might be.  

We were the unplanned tourists fresh off on a cruise ship at the port of Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  We adventurers and deal shoppers set out that day to experience some of Jamaica and return by 4:00 PM.  We were told that the best drivers would be those with a red license plate.   Johnson found us and sold us on a day tour for $20.00 / person. 

Johnson relies on tourists but not just any tourist.  He is what I like to call a mouse among elephants.  

Johnson's  target market is  the tourist looking for a deal and maybe a truer to life experience. 

As an entrepreneur competing with the big cruise lines, he tells me his strategy is to  price his services "not too low, not too high".  "It's better to get some of the business than none of the business".  He also likes to offer a different experience - one that attempts to show more than one side to the  reality of life in Jamaica.

He offered to take us on a tour to do whatever we wanted. Shopping , water falls and jerk chicken and a tour of the city  were the top 4.  We agreed to a price of $20 US/per person or $160 for 4 hours less gas and vehicle wear and tear. 
We asked to go the Dunn River Falls, but he said he would take us to another fall that is not owned by the government because that way the people benefit from the tourist not the government.  

We went to the Shaw plantation  paying a modest fee of $10US.  The estate so named after a Scotsman who settled in Jamaica in the 1835 and donated it back to the Jamaican people in 1933. 

The garden includes  a bamboo enclosed natural water treatment plant, water falls and a botanical garden full of the herbs, flowers and trees that cure what ails you. 

On this property stands a recording studio that was commonly used by Bob Marley and Mick Jagger.  On the hill just beyond our sight stands a house owned by Mick Jagger who is barred from entering Jamaica due to his "bad habits".
  
There is also a museum created by the Shaw family that documents bringing over 683,000 slaves, over 31,000 of whom died before they could be "unloaded".   The museum includes a man trap which resembles a bear trap that was used to catch slaves who were trying to escape.  Slaves were used work the plantation and maintain the house and gardens until Jamaica's abolition of slavery in 19$$, 27 years before the end of the American Civil War.
  
Our guide Nikki, 30 years old, tells us she has applied to leave Jamaica twice to the United States.  They told her both times it's not her turn yet.  
Why do you want to leave this paradise we asked.  "All that glitters is not gold" she said.

At the end of the tour she told us she works for free and asked if we would consider a tip.

Johnson took us on a tour through the city of Ocho Rios to show us a glimpse of life in Jamaica.

We saw kids at play during a break at school is their uniforms.  We saw homes of the well-to-do and then we saw where the rest of the people lived and worked. 
An old lady selling her wares on side of the road hoping we would stop.  We didn't.  A man breaks into back flips down the hill as we rounded another corner.  We gave him some money through the bus window and he carried on performing for the next bus. 

We saw homes where the poor lives by our standards.  I felt sad and grateful.  
From there it was downtown to shop where the locals aggressively ask for the sale.  Johnson warns us to stay within his sight at all times and not to buy anything we don't want.  As we entered the stores the clerks turned on the Bob Marley tunes.  We begin to feel relaxed as we sing along, lulled back into our westernized first world dogma induced coma.  

We stopped at his favorite restaurant for Jerk Chicken  and boarded our bus back to the ship. 

He is married 21 years. His children, 10 and 14 years of age attend school. 
I asked him if he is a tour guide and driver year round.  Yes, he says, this is all there is to do.  Is it enough I asked.  No because the cruise ships often go to the other side of the island near Montego Bay.  

Tourism creates opportunity and jobs on the upside.  On the downside we are rarely shown the desperate reality unless we take a chance and risk a big plate on poverty, jerk chicken and a wish for freedom. 

As a tourist they want us to see the reality we believe exists from the media.  Johnson showed us there is more to see than what we are shown.   Assuago. "That's the way it is".  Then he asked for a tip.  

An Expensive Walk

Spring is on the horizon.  The season of second chances and new growth.  Spring is when we make plans for everything from home renovations and fitness to getting new jobs and starting or growing a business.

It's hard to know where you are going if you can't envision it.  It's even harder if you are lacking intention.  The truth is any road will take you there, as long as you have no idea of where you are going.

Setting intention takes discipline, clarity and focus.  It requires a commitment to a single desire. A single outcome.  A single impact.  Intention is something that comes out of a heartfelt desire to move in a new and brave direction.

I set an intention a long time ago to live and work with purpose.  To me that means doing the things that help others, that create a legacy, and that inspire others to find their purpose.  In 2011 I started a company - Lynear Thinking -  in order to bring reality to the intention.

Since then I have been taking steps such as building a community and connecting with those with common values and goals, making friends in good places, being healthy mentally, physically and spiritually and doing work that I am passionate about with and for people who are doing good things.

In 2012 I bought SKY magazine. As the publisher I choose to use this magazine to further my intention by promoting people who are living and working on purpose, creating a legacy, and inspiring others.

My clients are part of this journey towards intention because they inspire the way ahead.

Intentions can take a long time to realize, in fact intentions are sometimes years in creation.  Without a plan and checking back, you will never know if up you are getting to where you want to go or just out for an expensive walk.

A Small Business Proposal to Share Overhead

It happens all the time. It happens to me.  Small business is challenged with the business of business.  The taxes, the accounting, the time to do that things that do not bring us revenue.  The other day I met someone who told me he was going to wind down his design business because he is exhausted from trying to do the work that just doesn't make money.  

This is once again the classic tale of mice versus elephants.  Elephants (big business) have the in house resources to take care of the non-revenue generating work.  When I worked in that world, we called it "overhead".  I was overhead. I was the person responsible for their strategic planning.  My job was to lead the organization through the strategic planning process.  I took great exception to be referred to as "overhead". 

Now I look at this from a different perspective.  As an entrepreneur, it is important to have the "overhead" under control.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to do that because everything takes time. 

I have a solution.  I suggest that small businesses can come together to share services, thereby being able to share the cost of this overhead as well as learn from each other in the process.  

If you are interested in joining me in creating a small business collaborative, please contact me at 306.581.0715.

Finding what I am looking for.

I remember very clearly the day my boss asked me to be creative outside of my job.  I remember thinking, "wow, you really don't get it, do you". I knew that day that I still hadn't found what I was looking for.

For 20 years, my teachers were executives of corporations in complex structures and politics of various types, including small p politics between departments, and capital-p politics in government.

I traversed the corporate jungle, learning how to manage relationships, make friends, and influence people.  I even took the course.

I became very good at understanding the body language of my CEOs as they managed these large structures. I knew what they needed to say, and what they needed to hear, and I gave them the words that would appease them, inform them and please them. 

I believed it was important work, and it was, relatively speaking. At one time, I believed the pinnacle of my career would be an executive position in a large corporation.  I reached that place, but the view wasn't what I thought it would be. 

  

In 2011, I made the decision to leave that world in search of a new world where creativity, entrepreneurial thinking and innovation would be the norm, not the exception. Where the business is the reason, and not the door to some political agenda.  Where goals are tangible and measurable on a daily basis.

I ventured into the world of private enterprise. I started a business - Lynear Thinking -  to offer my 20 years of strategy and communication skills to private business owners, operators and entrepreneurs. My goal was to help them get somewhere - to help them find what they were looking for. So I ventured into this world that admittedly I knew very little about.

I learned that although I could manage the corporate world with ease, I knew nothing about the world of the entrepreneur, even though I was on the journey toward becoming an entrepreneur.

There are distinct differences between the corporate world and the business world.

• In the corporate world, dollars and cents are really just indicators of success.  In the entrepreneur's world, dollars and cents are deal breakers.  
• In the corporate world, the consequences of poor customer satisfaction are not directly and immediately linked to the bottom line.  In the entrepreneur's world, customer satisfaction is the bottom line because it is the difference between making the sale or not.  
• In the corporate world, employee satisfaction and development are again distant indicators of a company's success or failure. In the private sector world, employee satisfaction and development have an immediate effect on the customer's buying decision.

There were some challenges along the way, both financial and non-financial. Here is what I learned and practice.


1.  Invest wisely. Starting a business takes financial investment. The challenge is to maintain overhead at a manageable rate while investing where the money is needed.

2. Connect with people.  Loneliness is a factor that I had to overcome. Entrepreneurs tend to the chief cook and bottle washer, so we spend a lot of time alone.  That's not good. I had to find a community of people like me.  That was harder than it seemed. In my search for community, I have found people like me - people who left the corporate world in search of one that is more satisfying and personally meaningful. We can share our expertise and help each other.   

3. Feed your soul. I dedicated myself to the belief that if I was doing good things, good things would happen. So I got involved and offered my services - gratis - to community organizations doing good things. I believe that giving is good for the soul. It helps me to stay grounded with a solid sense of purpose. There are many upsides to helping non-profits besides money. The contacts and the relationships are excellent. The work of the non-profit tends to be higher profile and shows others what you can do. 

4. Be relentless.  Relentlessness is also an important quality because it gets me through the days when I feel most lost. People are more likely to help those who help themselves. So on the days when I felt like it was futile and that I should just get another corporate job, I reminded myself of why I was on this path, and what I would give up by giving up.

6. Learn the business. I learned about pricing and proposals, when to fold and when to fight for it.  Things started to take hold and people started to notice me.  When that happened, the work started coming. 

7. Create stars whereever you go. I treat my customers like they are gold, because they are to me.  I give them the best of me to help them to be successful and the stars they are. 

In October 2012, I purchased SKY Magazine, a five year old publication that is all about celebrating entrepreneurial vision and living well in Saskatchewan. SKY is about discovering the talented business people and the products and services they offer so that we can live well. Through SKY, I am able to help connect my clients to their customers.  

Every day I find what I am looking for in the stories of the entrepreneurs who love what they do and take pride in how they do it. Living close to the entrepreneurial ledge, I see time and time again those who are successful show integrity, take care of business and treat their customers and employees with the utmost respect. Those that don't, don't.

This is the world that I set out to discover. I have found the entrepreneurs, and you can read about them on the pages of SKY Magazine. 

Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs: W100 | Chatelaine.com

Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs: W100 | Chatelaine.com


Note to self. Contact every single one of these people and find out what makes them successful.

A Strategy to Run with the Elephants

I have a theory about elephants and mice that drives my business strategy.  You may have read about it here, but in case you haven't it goes something like this.

Elephants represent big business that have complex requirements as a result of their governance structure, shareholder needs, regulatory requirements and expansive bottom lines.  Elephants tend to move slowly as corporate business does, but they have a huge impact on the environment with every step they take.

Mice on the other hand represents the small to mid sized businesses.I like to refer to them as emerging and decidedly nimble enterprises, since their resources are more limited than their elephantine counterparts. Being small and nimble has its advantages when it comes to making decisions and taking advantage of opportunity in the marketplace. The issue that they face is one of capacity, often related to people and money.

So what's a mouse to do, I asked, upon noting this observation. How can I help?
After a year and a half of working in the private sector both as an entrepreneur and a consultant to private businesses, I have refined my own business plan and launched it in my new self-created website at www.lynearthinking.com. 

According to research, business is business and the number one cause for failure is inability to access the resources need to run small and mid sized businesses.  Strategic planning, communications and marketing are the top 3, followed by accounting and financial management, human resources, and legal services.  

Back to the question at hand:  How can I help?  The cost of services is often prohibitive because of one word: overhead.  Many service providers simply have enormous costs that must be captured in the work they deliver. These kinds of organizations can serve the elephant market well, but they do not serve the small and mid sized market well.

I decided to be a "decidedly nimble" company having rolled with the elephants for many years.  I have a penchant for emerging businesses and the entrepreneurs who live by their vision.

My strategy is one of economies of scale and providing professional strategy and communication services at "MICE" sized rates. I can also access other professionals who provide high quality products and services that this business sector needs to run with the elephants and not get trampled.

Please visit website and contact me if you are planning to get somewhere.

We gotta get out of this current state.

I have been thinking about skies quite a bit lately.  Some may think I am day dreaming, others may wonder what I see up there in the wild blue yonder. It's not just thin air up there. In fact, the sky in my world is a very busy place.

Maybe I have had always a fixation with the sky because I was born in Saskatchewan in the land under the sun in the city that rhymes with fun.

I spent the majority of my happiest and most free times on our farm just near Westbend, Saskatchewan.


I am claustrophobic, which I believe is nature's way to telling me that I was not meant for a cage.

Nature would be correct. I am not a fan of cages or any form thereof. That includes the word no. I prefer how. I like change and I don't usually wait around for it. I am impatient and someone would say intolerant of ambiguity. I like clarity. I like precision.  And I like the feeling of the open air on my skin.

Admittedly I am feeling a little claustrophobic these days. I have this urge to take to the sky in search of new air, new possibility and new experiences.  My eyes are fixed outward on the horizon because I feel the walls closing in on me as I write.

Yes, changes are in the air and I don't expect to spend much time on dry land, as it were. My first e-book titled, "How to be a Pink Flamingo in a Brown Duck Pond" is now written and moving into the publishing stages.  There is much branding, marketing and social media planning to do. As I become a publisher there will be new things to learn and new lines of business to explore, including the launch of a new project about living in one's true colors, whether one is a pink flamingo or a brown duck. Also on my list are to incite a small business revolution and become famous.

Yes siree. I am in search of new air.  A set of wings would be nice. I should check online.

P.S.  If you are planning to get somewhere, you might want to give me a call.  Maybe we can book seat sale and fly outa the current state together.