I host these collaborative learning events, which are potluck dinners where people make things.

At the first “Make Your Own Game” Night and Potluck Dinner, we got in teams, made interpersonal games, and then played them.  My favorite moment of the night was when we were gathered around and it was time to choose teams.  There were 14 of us.  Someone asked how we might get in teams, and I asked for suggestions.

“We’ll find people we want to be on teams with.”
“Let’s draw numbers from a hat.”
“I’ll be a judge!”

In all the uncertainty, which felt like surfing on a wave, balancing out all the different opinions and options, we ended up deciding to partner with people we’d like to be on teams with, and it went well.   The most satisfying part was that participants said they realized, within five minutes, that we could make anything we wanted.

Instead of playing a game someone else made, we could make our own games.  And we did.

Last week Michael and Sheena completed their first nationwide tour. I worked with Michael on his business plan two years ago, and it was so satisfying to see them featured as one of the top five photos on AOL!

I went to Michael and Sheena’s conference at Quinnipiac University. Joshua Newman www.joshuanewman.com was the keynote speaker. He had some two-step words of advice.

Start and keep going. As Josh pointed out, people talk about dreams, but most don’t start living them. And once they do start, most don’t keep going. Persist in taking one step after the other, no matter what it takes!

Chunk and delegate. As a marketing consultant, many clients want strategy chunked into pieces. It’s easy to prioritize, “Do these three things.” And then they want the strategy for each piece delegated into smaller actions or responsibilities which they do themselves or farm out to subcontractors.

Read about Michael and Sheena in BusinessWeek http://tinyurl.com/ybkbne and vote for them to place in the top 5 entrepreneurs under 25: http://tinyurl.com/uh4dg

Yesterday I went snorkeling for the first time.  I’m in Miami.  “The flippers let you swim like a fish.  If the tube fills with water, blow out hard,” my friend told me.  I cautiously lowered myself into the water, and when my head went under, I freaked out.

Breathing was different, the pressure was different, the sounds were different, and I panicked.  I raised my head above water, calmed down, and tried again.  After a few practices, I was okay.  I looked down in the water and stopped thinking about looking above the water.  As long as I breathed normally through my mouth, I felt fine. 

I enjoyed swimming like a fish, blowing water out of the tube, looking at the patterns in the sand and being surprised by how close the untouchable ocean floor seemed. 

Normally I’m encouraging other people to try new things, so snorkeling was a good experience for me because I realized how scary something new can be.  My friend’s simple advice to swim like a fish and, if water goes in your tube, blow out hard, was perfect and, after a little practice, it was easy to follow her advice.

 A few days ago I drafted a story for my business as a marketing coach, growing sales for clients by telling stories.  It was very salesy.  Here’s another version of my story.  This one is very dreamy:

She bakes cakes, and she stays up at night dreaming about icing. She’d like to grow sales, but says she doesn’t know how to get more customers. Her sales are to a few local clients who heard about her through friends, to a restaurant, and mail-order through her website. She starts to work with a marketing coach because he has confidence in her and her business, and she is surprised to find herself talking about icing.

She doesn’t usually talk about her dreams because she thought they weren’t relevant to her business, but her coach encourages her to write down her dreams about icing, some moments she’s loved putting icing on cakes, how she started baking. They write some stories of work she’s done with icing, they choose testimonials from clients which mention her work with icing, they choose pictures of her cakes which dazzle with icing. She reinvents her website and when she talks to customers and restaurants, she talks about icing. Sales pour in.

It turns out that her love for icing drives more sales than her talk about cakes. By focusing on, and marketing what she dreamed about, she increases sales beyond her wildest dreams. Best of all, now she does what she loves, sleeps at night, and spends her days icing cakes. Turn your dreams into your business with the guidance of a marketing coach.