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NOVEMBER 2011
FEATURING: Get on the Innovation Train Between Iraq and a Hard Place HandsOn Day 2011 Ripe Resources
Playground Perspectives
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: : : : HELP WANTED : : : :
Floricane is currently interviewing for a part-time (50 hours a month) marketing and communications position.
The ideal personality is fun, energetic and passionate about our community. The perfect candidate also has a knack for writing on the fly, an eye for design and a high level of comfort with a variety of media (social and otherwise). Check out the job description, or pass it along to your favorite person. |
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| Dear ,
My new favorite quote comes from a fellow entrepreneur and blogger, Tara Hunt.
"If nobody shares they are struggling, nobody will know anybody else is struggling. That results in a bunch of people feeling isolated and scared and like big, fat losers," she shared in the latest issue of Inc. magazine.
I think it's a particularly good thought for this post-recession generation of entrepreneurs and creators to keep in mind. If the past few years are an indication, starting a business is tough work!
I've done a lot of unusual things in my life. I've backpacked Europe, explored slices of the Middle East and North Africa and slept in fields and train stations. I've hunted raccoons, gigged frogs and strung barbed wire. I've written poetry, tried to teach myself Arabic and started the hard work of raising a small child. But I've never really run a business.
That changed, of course, three years ago this month when I walked out of Luck Stone at the peak of the recession and decided to start my own consulting company.
People told me that the first and third (and second, fourth and fifth) years would be the hardest.
And yet the first year was easy, perhaps because we were perpetually broke. The second and third years got bumpy - our positive trajectory created a new set of challenges. I found myself grappling with foreign concepts like managing growth, managing cash flow, and forecasting. (Advice to new entrepreneurs: Hire a good accountant. Learn yoga. Don't look up.)
As our fledgling team looks toward 2012, we're doggedly optimistic. And as I meet with other new businesspeople - especially those just getting started on their own journey - I try to remind myself to bring a balance of encouragement, optimism and pragmatism. I throw in a few Floricane hard luck stories to keep it real.
I also remind them to be open with those who help them along the way - especially their families, friends and partners - and to let them know about both the peaks and the valleys. If they don't, no one will know they are struggling. And if no one knows you're struggling, no one knows how to help you move forward.
P.S. As we wrap up 2011, our small team is sadly excited to say goodbye to marketing director Juliet Brown. Juliet is off to design a new life with her husband and their new child, due in January. She's been instrumental in shaping our brand and helping us tell the Floricane story for more than two years. Tell her how much you've loved her work on this newsletter -- juliet@floricane.com.
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On Tuesday, November 15, we'll be partnering with the Greater Richmond Chamber's i.e.* initiative and the City of Richmond to facilitate a brainstorming session for the soon-to-be restored Main Street Station train shed.
The city's new master plan for Shockoe Bottom envisions the eminently visible train shed, clad in metal and glass, as a hub for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
We're gathering a few dozen creatives and business owners to dream about compelling ways to fill 160,000 square feet of historic space, and to help the city better understand the needs of #RVA start-up businesses.
If you'd like to participate in the session (and post-event drinks), contact Chrystal Neal at chrystal.neal@grcc.com.
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Social Media Lessons for Nonprofits
The best social media event of 2011 happens at the Library of Virginia on Tuesday, November 29. It starts with 100 nonprofit professionals rotating through a series of social media workshops with 10 of Richmond's most talented social media experts. When the applied learning is done, the students will join a few hundred members of the Social Media Club of Richmond and Richmond HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Succeed) for a networking social (hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar) and a keynote lecture from VCU professors Jeff South and Marcus Messner. They'll be talking about their work with 50 Iraqi students and a few dozen #RVA nonprofits.
A collaboration between Floricane, the Social Media Club of Richmond (SMCRVA), Connect Richmond, Richmond HYPE, The Library of Virginia and The Hodges Partnership, the event is designed to introduce #RVA's nonprofit community to the world of social media -- and vice versa. |
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Team Floricane
With one staff member pregnant and another stricken with a virus, the Floricane team didn't miss a beat when the weather for HandsOn Day turned bleak (to say the least). Since our team registered for one of only two outdoor volunteer projects, it was only natural that the day broke with heavy rain and temperatures hovering in the 30s.
Sarah Milston, Cara McDaniel and Tina Pearlman joined Urmila Oberoi (from the Virginia Poverty Law Center) and her husband Rohan along with a few dozen hearty souls to tackle some major clean up work at Tricycle Garden's Church Hill community garden.
View more photos of HandsOn Day 2011 here!
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 You still have a few weeks to submit your name for the first Leadership Lab class! A collaboration between the Greater Richmond Chamber, Floricane and Luck Stone, the seven-month program for mid-career professionals is designed to build self-awareness and help participants sharpen their leadership vision -- and their capacity to carry it out. The program offers a mix of classroom and coaching, as well as individual and team development activities. You can find out more about the program and download an application here.
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 OCCUPIED RICHMOND What do Wikipedia, Salvador Dali and the Statute on Religious Freedom have in common? They'll all be targeted as part of a new series exploring the history of innovation and change in Richmond. "Occupied Richmond: 400 Years of Revolution, Innovation and Change in #RVA" is the working title of the i.e.* sanctioned series, a partnership between Floricane, the Valentine Richmond History Center, the Virginia Historical Society, the Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, the Black History Museum and St. John's Church. Look for dates and details in our January newsletter! |
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 INNOVATION IN BUSINESS CHAMBER TALK Floricane's John Sarvay will be speaking on creativity and innovation as part of the Hanover Business Council's December meeting. The morning meeting of Hanover-based businesspeople is scheduled from 7:30 until 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 15, at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. |
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I have a Moleskine notebook with pages of scattered notes from conversations I had a few years ago with a consultant from Texas named Guy Clumpner. He taught me a few things along the way. One page of notes is pretty straightforward. "Adaptability," they read, "equals flexibility plus versatility." Flexibility, essentially, is being open-minded. Versatility is the ability to demonstrate other behaviors; it requires self-awareness and a commitment to change.
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I've been talking a lot about this model with clients, even as I live it out at home. My daughter, Thea, is not particularly versatile. She's only three. And I periodically has lapses -- large, yawning gaps -- in my ability to be flexible or versatile. I'm a bit older than three. The arrival of Daylight Savings Time is bad news for those of us with small children, cats or dogs. If it can't tell time, odds are it has little or no respect for artificial adjustments to arbitrary times. For instance, our early riser rousted us at 4:40 a.m. under the new time regime. She was wide awake, ready to roll. Guess who suffers toward the end of the day? Right -- everyone. It's likely no coincidence that our flexibility and versatility suffer under stress, or from a lack of sleep. Managing organizations during times of stress and change is the organizational equivalent of a family with no sleep. Stressed organizations with low self-awareness are filled with people eager to make the problem about someone else -- it's management or the economy or those roustabouts in accounting. It's easier to make it about someone else when we hit those vast lapses of control (or good parenting or leadership). Stressed organizations with high self-awareness have leaders who walk around with mirrors at the ready; they know that it's all about them -- their self-awareness, their leadership, their adaptability. There's a high willingness to be accountable, to make the changes necessary and to adapt to new conditions. Thea's not ready to carry her own mirror. In fact, it's part of our job as parents to keep her from needing one for a while yet. So we help her manage her stress, her lack of sleep, as best we can -- managing the difficult rhythms, being more mindful of our own behavior, accepting that we can help her through this transition. And in doing so, understanding that we are helping ourselves through the transition as well, and strengthening our family's adaptability. The other thing I learned from Guy Clumpner? The power of storytelling, and the effectiveness of using parenting as a leadership tool.
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