Todd's Entrepreneurial Rant:
Unplug to Connect

By Todd Smart, with Susan E. Fisher

A few weeks ago, I jumped in a car loaded down with three raring-to-go buddies and an odd assortment of winter camping gear and drove due north. We kept going until we reached the pristine wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Before us awaited the awe-inspiring splendors of Lake Superior's southern shore: the enchanting, frigid ice-columns of Munising Falls and mineral-stained, sandstone rock cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

What wasn't available was cell phone access or Internet connections.

We were unplugged.

Ironically, free from modern communication devices we were more connected than before. In that unspoiled land, we could talk to one another — really talk — and understand what each of us was saying with few distractions besides the slap of the cold breeze.

Winter camping is a near annual ritual I've enjoyed for the last few years. Each time I go away, I come back rejuvenated and achieve a mental clarity that yields insight. This year, I'm convinced as never before you have to unplug to be connected.

Of course, the reality is that in today's ever-busy business world we depend on technology to communicate. A successful entrepreneur can't shut off the phones and go camping every day.

So, how can you create conditions that help you be more present in all that you do and connect with your customers, business partners and the important people in your life — to really listen, empathize, understand what they hope to accomplish and feel their pain — in what our editorial director refers to as "the age of too-much information"?

As a RIM BlackBerry PDA-addicted, email-driven entrepreneur fielding about 100 email messages and more than a dozen phone calls a day, I'm far from knowing how to do this right. That said, here are some ideas:

1. Prioritize, prioritize and prioritize. Determine what things you really want to accomplish and put those objectives at the top of your to-do pile. Then, you will know whom to touch first, what emails to send before others, what calls to answer and when you must just set aside everything and listen.

2. Scale back on the multitasking. For some time, I've prided myself on being able to negotiate the freeways while scrolling through email messages stored in my PDA. Not only is this a great way to get into an automobile accident, it may defeat my ultimate purpose. I find that if I focus on one thing at time, I do a much better job at it.

3. Communicate with the people around you on your communications' priorities. Let them know when it's appropriate to interrupt you and when it's not. (Be considerate of their needs as well, and you'll be more productive, reaching them when they can truly listen to you.)

4. Empower your staff to handle important communications. Let them know the nature of calls, emails and other communications directed to you or your company to which they can respond without your intervention. Give members of your staff access to some of the email addresses you also check so they can take care of some of the correspondence you might not have time to tackle.

   (To make this possible, you must have great people to work with and great people only come when you have the right business model to attract and keep them.

5. Pick technology that will help you communicate effectively. If you're an entrepreneur in motion, you need tools that will help you send and receive information as you travel. Pick a PDA you can easily use with wireless connectivity you can readily access where you travel most.

6. Turn off technology that causes distractions. A friend of mine, Tony Brummel, founder of Victory Records, simply asked employees in the open environment of the indie label's Chicago headquarters to turn off their personal cell phones at work. The upshot: employees had fewer distractions and an increase in company productivity.

7. Take advantage of the task management tools that are already built into the technology you use. For example, create rules in your Outlook email client to manage email that's not urgent. You can set up folders for different types of information and have Outlook automatically populate those folders as email comes in. Then, you can check the folders as frequently or infrequently as your priorities demand.

   (This really works well for me. About 50 percent of my messages automatically land in my special folders.)

8. Separate business and personal communications. For my personal messages, I request friends and family send message to my AOL address. I check this mail less frequently than my business email, but I give this mail the attention that's appropriate for personal correspondence.

9. Organize your data-gathering and communication time so that your life is driving your business priorities, rather than your business is running your life. Consider an approach from The Strategic Coach Program that builds entrepreneur's schedules from "Free Days," "Focus Days," and "Buffer Days." During a "Focus Day," you concentrate on your top business priorities. A "Free Day" is a rejuvenation period during which you disconnect yourself completely from anything related to work. Buffer Days are used prepare for the Free Days and Focus Days.

Share Your Coping Secrets and Earn a Cup o’ Joe.

Take a Free Day to think about this. Then, let me buy you a cup of joe. Send me your best tool or habit for dealing with information overload. I’d loved to learn how you tackle the near-overwhelming number of emails, phone calls and other types of communications to really connect with your customers and business partners.

Send us a message explaining a strategy or tool that has saved you more than 30 minutes a day or more than $100 per month. Please email me your thoughts (please include your mailing address) to todd.smart@betuitive.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Todd Smart is the President of BeTuitive Marketing. A "serial entrepreneur" — as described by Crain's Chicago Business — Todd has founded and been president of four successful businesses since the age of 22. In addition to Crain's, Todd has been featured and quoted in a number of publications, including Forbes, Success magazine, ePraire and a cover article of Inc. magazine. Todd is an entrepreneur who possesses a deep understanding of the complexities of growing business relationships.

Susan is the Editorial Director at BeTuitive Marketing. Susan's articles have been published in both the print and online versions of a variety of publications including Investor's Business Daily, the Boston Herald, Fortune magazine's Technology Buyer's Guide, InfoWorld and the Chicago Tribune.

Copyright © 2005 BeTuitive Marketing

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