I’m a business owner, I’m a coach, I’m a mentor, I’m a Mac nerd… But these are things I do. Hats I wear.

So… Why? What’s the point?

I meet so many great people. People who are smart, funny, interesting, motivated, caring, creative, talented, passionate… Unique, all of them. I’ve done thousands of coffees, lunches, and meetings. I’ve done workshops and pitches, interviews and networking.

One thing I find is quite consistent.

Everyone wants something to be better or more awesome. Maybe for themselves, for others, or for the whole freaking world.

I see it in varying degrees with each person. Sometimes the wanting is modest, for themselves and their family. Sometimes it’s huge, vast, deep… for something very big to be quite different in the world. Sometimes it’s a very big wanting for just themselves. Like a hunger that can’t yet be filled.

The thing I want most and the reason why I persist in everything I do is for good people to be able to turn those wants into reality. Goals, dreams, vision, passion, hobbies, connecting – whatever.

I want them to know what it feels like to get the thing they want, consistently, by their own doing. I want to see more of that in the world.

I’m tired of seeing people stop trying, settling into the grind. Putting it on hold for tomorrow, tomorrow, next week, later, tomorrow, tomorrow, next week… Or worse, abandoning their dream completely. It kills me!

I want to be the ambassador for that small, medium, or large want inside you. I want to help it grow, and help you make it reality. I want to teach you something that makes it a little easier, simpler, more enjoyable to make it real. And if I can’t teach you anything, I want to sit at a coffee table and build my vision while you build yours. That’s why I do what I do.

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” – Apple’s “Think Different” commercial, 1997

Let’s get crazy, folks. Email lucas@macinhome.com if you want to talk.

In the old way, here’s how I think it went:

I have a thing I want to sell you to make money

My family depends on me making money

You are a walking bag of money

I pretend to care about what you want

I manipulate with partial truths and some dishonesty

My goal is to serve myself and my bottom line

You buy the thing

You have regrets

I don’t offer much followup

We pass each other on the street in a year and I look the other way

In the new way, I think it should go something like this:

I connect with you on a very authentic human level

We get to know each others’ businesses a bit

I tell you briefly about the thing I sell

I learn about what you want and make sure you’d even benefit

My goal is to help you and to demonstrate caring

We discuss the specifics of how you benefit, honestly

We look at pricing and payment options

You say yes (but I’m fine if you’d said no)

The followup support rocks and you feel continued caring

I ask if you know people who could benefit

You send a steady stream of qualified people my way

We go for lunch every six months, on me

Let’s work together to redefine “sales”!  :)

I was really hoping I would be able to meet him one day. That’s one of the things that saddens me most… I wanted to shake his hand and say “thank you for being totally f*cking inspiring, Steve.”

After all, I’ve had an Apple tattoo on my back for 8 years, and I wear a WWSJD t-shirt pretty regularly.

I think the loss could be broken down in a few ways…

The loss to his family. I can’t even wrap my head around that one. How would they go on after such a blow to their reality? My heart goes out to them.

The loss to Apple. I hope they make it, and I hope someone on that team steps up to the plate. I also hope they have someone on the team who can negotiate as Steve did, while also sticking to idealogical principles and a clear vision. I believe Steve was a man who really understood what people want and how they want to feel while using technology products. And he wouldn’t budge an inch in those quality standards.

The loss to the world. Another visionary is down. Someone who cared about people’s experience of life, about quality, about results. Someone who seemed to care about the world. The effects of his death are massive – especially in the lives of the people who won’t experience the work he might have done in the future.

My personal loss. I want to see what he would come up with next, dammit! I wanted to play with more gadgets, and experience my life made even better through his contributions to the world of technology and the end-user experience. I wish I could continue to be inspired by an alive version of him instead of all his great quotes plastered all over Facebook and magazine covers now that he’s dead.

Here are some of the things I find most inspiring about what I think I know about Steve.  :)

• • I love his commitment to quality, simplicity, and an exceptional human experience. He held true to that for his entire career, even when the people of the world didn’t want it. He never faltered on that. He was dedicated to the people having a really good, enjoyable experience with their computer. He was dedicated to people being able to create the products of their imagination, using his tools. Not everyone wanted that in the beginning. In the end, the people came around. Millions of them.
• • The man was dying of cancer, slowly wasting away, and still managed to build a freaking spaceship.
• • His perspective on living every day like it’s your last is awesome. I think we could all learn from that. Have you noticed how quickly a year goes by? If I really had a deep understanding of how short life is, if I could feel that urgency every day, I know I would take more risks and do more with my time. I feel time slipping through my fingers and always wonder what more I could be doing. I’m haunted by my vision of what could be if only I had more strength.
• • The “here’s to the crazy ones” quote is fantastic. We’re all crazy ones. We’re all creative finger painting four-year-olds trapped in rigid and scared adult bodies, worrying about judgment and failure. That quote reminds me that more is possible, and reminds me that I’m unique and inventive. It reminds me that I’m a creative child wanting to play, wanting to dream, but with the means to actually create as well.
• • His ability to reverse engineer from a human experience problem backwards to the technology solution. To see what the world needs, what the people don’t know they want, and come up with a product or idea that fills that gap perfectly. To put everything on the line and gamble a whole lot on an idea. Then, to keep it completely secret until the day it’s launched, braving ridicule and negative feedback on a massive scale on launch day and in the weeks following.
• …and “just one more thing,”
• • His presentation skills. My god, that man can engage a crowd (and a world) with a Keynote presentation and some smooth talking. Hats off, sir.

Most of all? His bravery and persistence in the face of adversity. His commitment to quality without sacrifice. His dedication to bettering the human experience, and to helping people create the products of their imagination.

I know I could use more of that.

…The quotes referenced above:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

…

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

(unsure of exact sources, but © Apple Inc. or Steve Jobs for sure)

But not everything that’s urgent, that has a deadline, or that I’ve committed to do.

There needs to be other people (and fear) involved for it to be a priority.

• • It’s urgent because someone else needs it or will be annoyed if they don’t get it. I’m afraid of what they’ll think.
• • It has a deadline because the other person won’t pay me if I don’t do it in time… And I don’t want to live in a van down by the river.
• • My commitment is upheld because someone else is depending on my work. I am afraid of letting them down.

If I’m doing something challenging just for me, for my own reasons, it usually comes last or not at all. It doesn’t even matter if it’s helpful, important, beneficial…

Of course if it’s something easy and fun that feels good, I’m all over that. Facebook or Angry Birds, anyone?  ;)

I’ve been really looking at this recently, and working to transform it.

(Luckily I have access to some of the best tools in the world. Huge tribute to ESP for the things I’ve learned in the last two years, and continue to learn, while on a journey that humbles and amazes me every day. More on this later.)

So. How can I be more of a priority, to myself? While maintaining balance and integrity, so I don’t seem like a selfish jerk, of course.

One of the many things I’ve found really helpful is getting very clear on how the challenging thing I’m doing benefits me personally. What are all the ways I can learn, grow, understand, experience, benefit? How will my life be different if I have those new skills and traits?

I think it’s good to think about.

As a fun side effect: The impact I have on my world and on my business is that much more potent when I’m clear on why I’m doing those things, with the extra skills and traits I’ve built for myself. Win!

I oscillate between the two styles depending on the day or the situation, but I know which one I want to spend more time in.

The old way: There are policies and rules, you do it because I said so, I don’t show any weakness. You have a role. Know it and do it. Don’t complain, you’re lucky to be here. If you don’t do your job, there is a problem. You’re a liability and you might be fired.

In this model, anyone who is under-performing is looked down upon. Anyone who fails at something is a problem, or there’s something wrong with them. If you don’t know how to do something, it’s pretty bad. There’s an expectation that you really should know by now.

I experience this in myself as a little internal combustion reaction. Like if the Tim Horton’s guy gets me the banana walnut muffin when I asked for blueberry. Silently, inside my head, I rub between my eyebrows meaningfully and mutter “idiot”, then in a terse tone I might say “Oh. Yeah, noooo. I asked for banana walnut.” He will apologize, and I will smile and say “no problem,” while still thinking less of him. I’ll walk away and forget all about it.

The new way: There is an objective, a shared goal. We’re aligned towards it and clear on what it is. You do it because I asked you to and you trust me. You want the same thing I want. I lead with honest vulnerability and consistent effort towards the goal. We all openly discuss weaknesses and strengths, and seek to build our strength as a group.

In this model, anyone who fails or is under-performing might be afraid, inexperienced, or distracted by a competing priority. There might be something going on at home, and their head just isn’t in the game. We’ve all been there, we get it. If you don’t know how to do something, it’s an opportunity to learn. The only expectation is that you will keep putting effort towards the commitments you’ve made and the outcome you said you want.

In the Tim Horton’s example, he gets the wrong muffin and I wonder if I might have spoken too quietly or too quickly. I wonder if he’s had any sleep last night, or been made fun of by the group of teenagers who came in before me. I hope he’s okay, and care for his well being in that moment. I apologize for talking to quietly and ask for the right muffin. Then, I ask him if he’s had a long night or if he’s off work soon. I wish him well.

The world is changing. It takes effort to change, and to care accordingly.

Are you willing to try?

My mom bought me a Mac LC575 when I was in grade ten. Best. Gift. Ever.

(And I want to take this moment to apologize to my mom for the two weeks of mental and emotional torment I put her through while convincing her to buy it for me.)

Anyway. I loved it. I almost failed high school as a result of spending so much time tinkering.

After high school, when I was about 19, I worked as a salesperson in a Mac retail store.

I most enjoyed being a trusted resource for people. I was someone they could rely on for sound advice as a result of my nerdy passion.

They’d usually ask me a bunch of questions and I’d give them knowledge. Then they’d leave, have a think, and come back to buy from me.

It was good.

One time, a customer asked if they could pay me to go to their home to set up their new Mac.

I had never done that or even thought about it before. I said: “I’ve never done that or even thought about it before, but why not.”

(Note: I strongly recommend checking your employment contract before doing something like this.)

I had no idea what to charge or how it would work, so naturally I decided to just wing it and hope it all worked out. As I do.

(I would have been willing to do it for free… I think that’s an important point.)

I did a couple hours work, then when I was done and it was time to talk about payment I became super nervous.

Luckily, they opened with “so how much do I owe you?”

I replied with questions, and was impressed with my quick thinking. “Was everything setup the way you like? And how much would you normally pay for this?”

They said “It was great, but maybe go a bit slower next time and teach me as you go. How about $50/hr?”

I said “Awesome feedback! I’ll do $30/hr in thanks for the tip.”

Made myself a cool $60 cash in two hours.

Boom.

I did $30/hr for two months, then $40 for a few months, then $50 for a year. My favorite was the sweet spot of $60/hr for a couple years. That was a buck a minute, and I loved watching progress bars move slowly along while I counted the minutes.

I stayed at $75/hr for a few years, and now as an incorporated business we charge up to $150/hr.

Eleven amazing years, 1500+ clients, 5000 invoices, hundreds of awesome nerdy coworkers, thousands of small and medium failures, and 9 of my own various Macs later, here we are.

So. What’s the SPSB™?

Have a general passion

You gotta love the thing you’re about to do. Love the field, and love the idea of helping people in that field. Don’t worry about specifics yet.

* I loved everything about Mac and enjoyed helping people. Win!

Have a vague revenue model

It helps to have an idea of how you might make money with your idea.

* I got lucky. This came to me when the customer offered to pay me to go to their home to set it up for them.

Test it in the world

Go out and test it. Tell your prospective customer you’re new at this and want to give them cheap service in exchange for their feedback. I think it’s really important to be clear and honest about your lack of experience and your desire to learn.

* This was a bit of an accident for me as well, as I just told them I had never done that before then winged it.

Get and incorporate feedback

This is probably the most important part. This is the true evolution of a business model. This is the baby growing up into a teenager, then a young adult, then a charismatic 30-some who retires early. We cannot survive if we don’t adapt to reality.

* They asked me to go slower and teach them. This one piece of feedback shaped everything I’ve ever done, and raised revenues significantly… It takes more billable time to teach people!

Own and log your failures

Knowing specifically how you dropped the ball by not knowing or by making a mistake is huge. Own that and give the gracious client a discount for their help educating you. Call it tuition.  :)

* I didn’t know they might want to be trained. I didn’t know to ask them if they would want that. Thus, I failed to really find out what they want and serve their needs in the specific way they wanted. Next time? Ask more questions.

Learn your value

Over time, as you get more experience and integrate more feedback, your prices should rise. You will see yourself and your services as more valuable. It’s okay if you feel your work should be cheap or free in the beginning, but you gotta start charging somewhere!

* I started at $30/hr, and as people told me I was charging too little, I slowly raised rates. As I could do more for them and solve more complex problems, I raised my rates some more.

Figure out the rest as you go

Enough said.

Important Extra Notes:

Surround yourself with good people

As you go, build relationships with anyone/everyone in your field. Go for coffee or lunch whenever possible. Consider ways of working with them or recruiting them… Even with your competition. Make friends with them! You never know if they might just close shop to move to Bali and give you all their clients someday. That has actually happened to me a few times now!

Finances and taxes

Immediately start separating your business and personal income. Track everything business related on a spreadsheet. This is important and should be done from the start!

Then, later, get an HST number and register your business either as a sole proprietorship or an incorporation. Laaaaater.

Business plan

Screw it. Deal with that later too.

Please feel free to post questions in the comments area.

Here’s a photo of me from 2005, where I am using all my limbs to work on computers… It should really be $60/hr per limb, no?

In the ZONE. Photo © Copyright 2005, Judy Weiser

“That’s easy,” I said. “I want people to have a better experience of their life and their work, using great technology. I want people to achieve their dreams and have more fun.”

I may as well be wearing a tiara with a Mr. Universe banner on my shoulder.

The problem with this model is I’m pretending it’s all about them, and what I think I can give them with my ideas.

The truth is, I just want to be heard and accepted. I want my ideas to be listened to, I want you to know me and respect me. If you happen to benefit from what I say, awesome! Lucky me, lucky you.

What would I say if it was just me speaking my mind, for me? If I wanted to just express with genuine authenticity and say what I think for the sake of saying what I think? I’m not sure, but I guess this post is a start.

For many years now I think I’ve been trying to teach people the right way to do things and force-feed concepts as if it’s the best way, while masking it with comments like: “this is the best way, in my experience” or: “it’s my belief that this is the ideal way to do it,” and pretending I don’t mind if you do it a different way.

Meanwhile, quietly thinking less of you for doing it wrong and thinking more highly of myself for knowing a better way.

It’s all an illusion. Smoke and mirrors, with fancy words. A tool that is being used to make me feel temporarily influential.

The truth is I usually have no idea what the “best way” is and I’m generally worried and insecure about doing it the wrong way… I just pretend well and have a fair bit of experience getting successful results just winging it.

I only know what has worked for me over the years by how people respond and by the effects I see from my own actions.

I think that might just be the only way we can know anything.

The one thing I know for sure is I really do give a shit about people… I want to say “all people” but I don’t think I’m quite that accepting, yet. It’s a work in progress.

I know I care about whether you’re happy or not and I want you to be capable, successful, and doing what you love. I want you to feel good and I want you to feel like you’re in the zone all the time.

Then, I act accordingly. What’s most important to me drives my actions.

I want to be the change I want to see in the world, just so I can know what that feels like… So I can know myself a little better. I want to be me, loudly and boisterously, and I want to inspire others to do the same.

Hope it all works out.  :)

An Apple setup working by a consultant’s standards is very different from your Apple setup working enjoyably by your standards.

The measure of any consultant’s success would be you reporting that you’re having a more enjoyable experience of the simplified ecosystem. Now, imagine if you even got a 30-day warranty guaranteeing that experience…

You get more done, you worry less, you feel like you’re in the zone, you get home earlier. Life is good.

Simple.

If you have one person who has a Mac and an iPhone and who works out of a Starbucks, the ecosystem elements will be similar to those found in an office that has 25 people with two Macs each, a server, iPhones, and a bunch of web systems in use.

On the surface, you’re just dealing with some pieces of hardware, some software, the people, and a physical location.

When you look more closely and start asking questions, however, there’s a lot more going on.

Some of the elements universal to any ecosystem (and I’m sure there are more I’m not thinking of):

• • What each person wants (or needs) to do; in general, in terms of what results they want to achieve in life or work
• • The knowledge and understanding of each person; how well they can navigate the ecosystem and control its elements
• • The desire of each person to learn (or not) and to increase their level of control in the ecosystem (or not)
• • The maximum functionality of the current technology; its limits and boundaries
• • How the technology is currently being used
• • What other technology options are available that may better serve the needs of the people
• • The physical locations from which the people will use systems; home, office, abroad
• • How the technology will be used in the future; considering the ever-growing needs of the people
• • What it takes to keep everything running smoothly in terms of maintenance or prevention

Lastly, possibly the most important part of the ecosystem and something far too many consultants miss (and this is something the client may not know until all the work is done):

• • Their experience of the system; how they feel when using it. Their mood, their stress level, their desire to explore and learn. Their feeling of calm, and their emotional capacity to produce.

If you can nail that one while doing well with all the other factors, you will always be successful and the client will be happy. If you fail to provide that quality of experience, even if you aced all the other factors it will never be good enough and they will always be less than pleased.

How do you measure your success in helping the ecosystem flourish with all factors considered? There’s only one way: Feedback.

Unification means making something a single unit. I see it as becoming “one” with something, or taking multiple things and combining them.

What does that mean in a life, technology, business context?

Having as many relevant tools or functions as possible accessible from only one place, or from as few places as possible. Then, having as much expertise as possible when using the tools, so there is little resistance and results come more easily.

Driving, for example (for anyone who has driven for a few years). You have everything within easy reach, and you’ve used every function thousands of times. Steering, shifting, braking, turn signals, radio, AC, wipers… You’re one with the car. Especially the nice car.

On a Mac, if you have multiple email addresses that you check regularly through multiple tabs in a web browser (Yahoo, Gmail, and your company’s Exchange web access), unification is moving all three into one program (like Apple Mail) so you can check all three at once by launching one application instead of switching between multiple tabs.

An important part of both those examples, however, is in both cases there is a consistent element: the driver! The user.

This is a huge concept in IT system architecture, I think, and should be carefully considered whenever solutions are being planned. Tools can be combined, technology systems can be unified, but at the end of the day, the user needs to be okay with it all.

The user needs to want that unification, and it needs to make sense to the user in their very personal work flow. So, unification isn’t truly complete without closely involving the user, getting their sign off, training them, then measuring results.

The outcome is awesome. Technology systems are consolidated and unified, tools are all in one place, systems are simplified, and the user is a well-trained machine who is “one” with the new technology system.

How does that kind of unification lead to success, sooner? It prevents wasted effort, helps keep focus, minimizes distractions and interruptions, and gives well-tuned power to the driver.

Then it’s just like a Sunday morning drive up the Sea to Sky Highway in an Audi R8 at shocking speeds, without even noticing the cockpit controls and hardware that make it all possible.