Project: Speak Up or Someone Else Will Do It For You

We all have something to say: it is just that sometimes we suffer from Entrepreneurial Laryngitis. (The loss of voice that causes us to lose sight of our vision.) It can be a form of stage fright or the fear that what we think about isn’t worth sharing. And so we keep to ourselves our ideas and our strategies. Any platform in which we could exercise public speaking we avoid as if it were the iceberg and we were Titanic come back from the caverns of 1912’s North Atlantic Ocean.

But why are we so persistent in this endeavor to NOT do something?

Our reasoning could be in thinking that our story is not worth telling, but none of us have a story that is finished. Therefore, if that is our excuse none of us should take center stage. All of us should avoid the soapbox.

Our reasoning could be rooted in the fact that we have been heckled before. Remember the days gone by where we dreamed of becoming a magician, a puppeteer, a singer, a comedian? And for what? To be laughed off the stage? Perhaps it didn’t even have to occur on the stage. It could have been on the field or the court. Tryouts can be brutal, and we end up the butt of the joke. The emotional scars run deep, and the results are how we excuse ourselves from any occurrence where we could stand behind a microphone.

 Our reasoning could be hidden in fear that we will suffer from vomiting before and after. We will stumble over our words. And ultimately we will do more harm than good to what we attempt to represent. In addition, will ruin our personal reputation. And the urge to hide beneath a baggy hoodie becomes an outward visualization of how we hide emotionally and internalize everything; questioning the purpose of our projects.  

But if we don’t speak up someone else will do it for us. If we do not speak up someone will shut up the entirety of our dream and shut down the path that needs to stay open. There are millions that might depend on the vision we are trying to develop.

We could be the cure for Entrepreneurial Laryngitis. Speak up and inspire another to speak up until our voices are loud enough that we don’t need a microphone. Until those who think they are average will tune into social media to find an outlet to build their business, develop their product, travel the world and continue their philanthropic ways.

When our fear of rejection, either from the audience or ourselves, is bigger than our vision, it is often self-imposed. We choose to scratch out our voice and deny others from hearing what we have to say. Maybe it is not much. Maybe it is not “right” or not a “right now” kind of mentality. But we don’t have to remain quiet all the time.

As Singer-songwriter Mat Kearney says,

“For the ones who are forgotten. 

For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to, and then they are never 

spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself. Do not let one 

moment go by that doesn’t remind you that your heart beats a hundred thousand times a 

day and there  are gallons of blood making every one of you oceans…”

  

We all have a story; speak up and share yours. We’re listening, want to hear it, and share it: 

-The Green Couch

Project: Respect for The After-Hours

By this title, you probably think I am going to talk about keeping work and home separate. That is to say, keeping your work hours between 9 to 5 (or whatever structure you have set up within the realm of your work enterprise). Then barricading your home and dedicating it solely to its own eat, pray, love existence so that never the two shall meet.

However, no. Today I am talking about the importance of setting yourself apart from the norm and immersing yourself in the hub of another existence, another culture to find fuel. Finding motivation and frankly finding the time to get things done without the interruption of people who know you and those you know.

I am talking about cafés, libraries, sometimes even your own home office. I am talking about working remotely: Stepping outside the comfort of your cubicle and away from your desk to solely focus on the project before you. Whether you have a proposal you have to review, a budget you need to write, a PowerPoint presentation to perfect - it needs to be just you and your work.

2 Tips to Turning The “Remote” On!

• 9-Noon

Ever heard of highway hypnosis? It is when you are driving on one long stretch of seemingly endless road. Like the Energizer Bunny, you keep going and going and going. The danger is your eyes become dangerously accustomed to the yellow and white lines until everything is a blur; blinking does nothing to help. So you become a hazard to yourself and your surroundings because you are slightly numb to the environment, and your reactions are delayed.

Now, translate that to your office. You go and go and go until you are just working repetitively but at the end of the day a little unsure of what you may have done or clocked in - your creativity was delayed. Try working at least 9-noon out of office, Instead of being in the office from 9-5 all day. Give yourself a chance to blink, breath and come back from the highway of the rat race.

• Turn the Tech Off

Sometimes it means…yes, turn the tech off. Maybe just disconnecting from Wi-Fi, social media, email. Maybe it is time you catch up on reading or writing. But turning the tech off in this technologically progressive world seems like a non-conducive day and way to strategically accomplish your tasks, but there are more distractions with notifications than you notice until you quiet their incessant pinging.

So the next time you are feeling overwhelmed, and a project deadline is looming don’t wait until things are too late. Let your creativity loose. Get out there and turn your Remote On!

-The Green Couch

Project: The Character Count

Say what you need to say in 140 Characters or less.

For those who can disregard grammar and the fine art of English or their language, this is easy.

For those who are born in the texting era, this is easy.

For those who have little to say and to a few people, this is easy.

But for those who have a vision, those who have a big dream, those who just have BIG, how do you break it down and feed it to the masses?

How do you take your business plan and make it digestible, believable, enjoyable, attainable and credible for those who have deemed your character count worth reading?

How do you wow

How to you capture

How do you keep it

How do you inspire

How do you excite

How do you create movement

How do you say what you need to say in 140 characters or less?

And how do you make those few words have a huge impact? How do you stand out and step it up?

If everyone has the same character count, it can too easily and too soon sound cliché.

So how do you character count and make it count?

Speak from the heart, write from the mind

Stay authentic, but be smart. Study who you are and who your target is. Since you cannot reach everyone, you cannot write for everyone. Do not just post for the sake of posting. Post for interaction. There is always a chance they will be hit or miss, but empty threats – posts that are either emotionally or mentally dry – are always a miss.

Be creative, stay classy

It is like Dr. Suess said, “Today you are you. That is truer than true.” Take advantage of that. Discover your tone, find what people retweet and talk about most and throw everything out the window. Just because you think it is funny does not mean it is.

Polish your punctuation

In the effort to preserve character count try not to compromise punctuation so you can add more letters. You may get to say more that way, but what you say may not mean the same.

Hashtag, you’re it

The entire purpose of those 140 characters is to create this chain link of connecting someone or something - turning breadcrumbs into bread pudding. But too much of anything is bad. And not enough can starve the reader. So learn: which ones will best fit your brand, your message and the ultimate goal? Hash it out mentally before you tag it.

Give credit where credit is due

You have the power to dedicate 140 to whoever deserves it most. And you have the power to do it without a microphone. It is all in the @ symbol. Shift + 2 goes a long way when you are making your characters count.

Brand your Bio

Do not copy and paste just because you can and because it will attract more followers.

One of the hardest things to do is maintain your brand in 140 characters. You would think it is easier to do considering you have less to mess up. But the tendency to unintentionally copy and paste becomes prevalent, and so we end up losing sight of who we are, as we try to write what people want to hear. We have a section where we get to explain who we are. Use it wisely and use every 140 character post write-up to back it up.

So the next time you are on Twitter, make sure you do not just count your characters, make your characters count.

-The Green Couch

Project: The Pinky Promise

There is a time and place for stop signs, and that is when they prevent us from harm and protect our health.

However, when we have a purpose in life, there’s a time we have to overcome the personal stop sign that keeps hindering us from achieving the next step to success – however we may define it.

So we as The Green Couch Project created an initiative: Whether we are speaking to ourselves or proclaiming them to the world, allowing ourselves to become vulnerable publicly, it shows a certain strength. It proves that we all have our weaknesses, and we have something we are striving towards and refuse to back down from – we will not stop at the stop sign.

By sharing this, we are making a proclamation. We are letting others know what is going on in our lives, challenging others to see that nothing will stop us from our dreams. We are asking them to hold us accountable along that journey by joining their pinky in the pinky promise!

•    Download And Print It
•    Red Ink It, So It Can Be Read
•    Snapshop A Selfie
•    Upload It To Social Media
•    #SpillYourGutsy

-The Green Couch Project

Project: Say Cheese without Being Cheesy

Kodak moments are a thing of the past. Everyone is instagramming, tweeting, snapchatting and adding filters cropping and for aesthetic purposes, and these images have overtaken social media.

However, these should never grace your professional profile, resume, business cards or web pages; It is cheesy. Although these candid or even posed scenes may seem truer to your authentic self and are a great a way to interact socially online, highlighting a side of your personal life they, unfortunately, often do not give your clients and associates the professional personification of your business.

Blurry images, outdated images, images with date marks – all these indicate someone who hasn’t invested energy, time or finances in their company reputation.

Here are five ways to present yourself professionally:

1) Headshots: Before your clients meet you, they want to meet you virtually, they want to put a face to the voice they might hear over the phone, or the bio they read online. They want to get a sense of comfort that they know you and feel a sense of trustworthy connection.

2) Filler Images: Things like heading images for your blogs increase not just your SEO but your viewing pleasure. There is a fine balance between white space and blank space. No one wants to look at your web pages and think that your site and an overly blank page is a reflection of your company: blank and bland.

3) Landscapes and Offices: Showoff your accomplishments. Whether you are in construction or you have a medical practice, why would people choose you if they cannot see your craftsmanship or you establishment?

4) Stock Photos: If you do not have any of the above, and if you do not have a way to create any of the above, stock photos is an affordable, legal way to purchase and own the copyrights to images that match the theme and needs of your company.

5) Renderings: I cannot believe it’s not butter! Whether it is the future architecture project, a visualization for a presentation or just a grainy picture that needs to be revived, rendering turns imagination, visualization and existing art into perfection. With programs so advanced and creatives so in-tuned, one can hardly define the reality from rendering.

The eyes and our sight are perhaps one of our most valued senses and should never be undervalued commodities in whatever trade, services and product our companies provide. Vision is an asset - both in what we can physically see and what we can see happening with our physical business. We all have a good side. Perfect it, flaunt it and let the camera keep on rolling!

-The Green Couch