George Moen

Originally posted in 2009 but the same points are valid today as they were then.

Key Success Strategies For Any Entrepreneur

I had the pleasure of being the “featured speaker” at the BC Small Business
Entrepreneur Showcase and networking event on Oct 7th 2009 in Vancouver.
Oct. is small biz month and these folks have an annual event where they provide
access to seasoned entrepreneurs and a platform to learn. What I have done
in this article is to provide a overview of my presentation. I started my first
business in 1978 and have learned many lessons and have been influenced by
a wide variety of mentors over the years. I have paid a very a big price for these
truths both in study and money. Enjoy!

ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Presentation to Entrepreneur Showcase, Small Business BC, October 7, 2009 by George Moen, President, Blenz The Canadian Coffee Company.

These are the lessons I’ve learned (so far) in my 38 years of entrepreneurship:

Pursue Your Passion

Work to a Plan

Have a Mission

Fail Forward

Pursue a Debt-Free Life

Diversify

Always Be A Student

Network

Mentor

Protect Yourself and Your Family
………………’Nuff said.

Never, Never, Never Quit

Visit This is my Vancouver and give us your thoughts.

Below is a section of an E-Mail that I wrote the day after Maëlle Ricker won her Gold Medal for the SBX on Feb 16th 2010. As one of her sponsors, we at Blenz Coffee were under very specific VANOC guidelines regarding any discussions and promotions regarding an Olympian, so we felt it was in Maëlle’s best interest to wait to post this for the world to see. Now that we have passed that date, we can share some of our thoughts and excitement around Maëlle’s great accomplishment.

March is Maëlle Ricker Month around the Blenz World. We have re-introduced the Maëlle Ricker Cup and we want to share with you a really cool online Map we have posted with comments about Maëlle and well about being Canadian. Check out:

http://www.blenzevents.com/canada/

Here is a piece of an E-Mail I wrote to the Blogging Team I am working withat Metro Blenz News Squad. (I will post about this great group of folks later).

http://www.metroblenznewssquad.com/

My Personal Thoughts About Maëlle Ricker and Winning Gold:

“Yesterday started very early, and we worked our way to Cypress thru the pouring rain to watch the Ladies’ Snowboard Cross event – we were one of Maëlle Ricker’s main corporate sponsors. Imagine 4000 people huddling under cover made for 100, but we did and we were able to fight off the contenders until the rain stopped. At one point we called it Survivor Cypress! But we were a tough group and we made the cut. Between the rain and the fog, there were many delays, but we sure learned how Snowboard Cross really works.

We were up on the mountain with Adam & Kev, Maëlle’s official photogra- phers, and they did get some amazing shots, but I had to keep an eye on them – they were so hyped, I thought they were going to stroke out.

What you don’t get from TV is the drama. Maëlle fell on her first quali- fication run. You don’t just get the one shot, though! Her second quail- fication run did the trick. Then she had to go thru heats after she made the cut. So we came down to the final race, and Maëlle grabbed the early lead. It was funny – time just stopped and I had a 1 min 25 second “Zen moment”. (That’s the length of a fast race.) I was glued to the big screen following Maëlle, and I kept repeating “Don’t Fall – you have the Gold.” She crossed first, then we all lost it, celebrating with High-5′s and Oh, Canada, and then came the realization that Maëlle had become the first Canadian woman to win gold on Canadian soil, and she will always have that.

When you sponsor an athlete, particularly one with Olympic aspirations, you first consider the business aspects – how is it good for the Brand?
Then you work thru the rationalization of the investment. Then you really learn what it is all about. Alexandre Bilodeau, when interviewed after his gold medal win, said “no Olympian gets there on their own”. It takes a team to do great things.

At that point it became clear to me. We participate because we should when it comes to this type of program. Great things take great teams – like what we are doing on Metro Blenz News. This project is off to an amazing start.
We have the Gold when it comes to Social Media. We at the MBNS are really capturing and telling the story in a way the world has never seen before. Real People, Raw and Relevant. (Thanks, Ms B.)

Thank you, Maëlle, for taking us on your Golden journey. It is one memory that I will never forget…”Whatta Ride!”

George!

My Success is all because of the network I built. So what do I do about it? Or, Dot Tel (.tel): Why I bought www.georgemoen.tel and why you will get yours!

I can remember the first time I was asked if I had an EMail address on the Internet. I was at a Christmas party hosted by a Fortune 500 company and the biggity-wiggities were all going to a training session in Europe (BTW: It was Nestlé). I grasped the concept fairly quickly and wondered if this thing called EMail over the Internet was going to catch on. It was about 6 months later I got my first email address, and within a few months I was involved in my first Internet-related business. I have seen a lot since then: the Dot Boom & Crash, Web 2.0, mission-critical net-based applications that my companies and I could not survive without.

Just when you think nothing new could come along to grab your interest, .tel comes along. I have to admit I did not quite get it at first, but within a few days of my first introduction, I had one of the rare A-Hah moments.

The domain .tel is unlike any other domain on the market for a number of reasons. First, it is optimized for the cell platforms (Blackberry, iPhone, etc.) Second, it comes already hosted with an Admin.

It may not be too much of a stretch that we may have seen the end of the traditional business card. In fact, I think I will be printing my last business card, and all it will say is “www.georgemoen.tel”. At this domain, I maintain all my contact information, and as I make changes, the updated contact information becomes instantly available to anyone who knows my .tel domain. So, if you want to contact me, all you will need to do to go to that site to connect with me the way you want. Connect with me at Blenz, High Output, Twitter, Facebook … the list of ways to connect with anyone is constantly growing.

There are a lot of very cool aspects to the .tel concept, but the one that got my particular attention is the Sync feature. No matter where you keep your contacts (I use Outlook and Blackberry), .tel will keep your record of me current. So when I update an E Mail or phone number, for example, the information in your Blackberry or iPhone is automatically updated. Further, it is a way to organize all your online and offline information in one area. You are in control of who sees what. There is also a “social media” aspects called “Telfriends”.

I have to thank the folks over at WebNames.ca (Cybele Negris, Matt Lane and Lisa Wills) for reaching out to us at High Output and being great teachers about this emerging technology. We at HOBN think this will be a great tool for our network but also for anyone who can use the internet for their business or career. It did not take long for us to set up a “re-seller” agreement with them. If connecting with quality folks is a benefit to you, this program will be a great fit, and the cost is a mere US$19.95 per year.

There are a lot of other aspects to this program, and I know everyone probably has Dot/Net/App fatigue, but I recommend that you at least protect your name or brand and be positioned for the time when .tel gains “killer app” status.

Here are a couple of .tel’s that will give you a flavour:
George Moen: http://www.georgemoen.tel
Blenz Coffee: http://www.blenzcoffee.tel (note that, with unlimited pages, this is a big site)
HighOutput: http://www.highoutputnetworking.tel
Webnames: http://www.webnames.tel

Check out your name. Many great names are available

For a better overview of .tel (with videos, demos etc): http://hobn.registertel.com
Most URL registration organizations do provide .tel registration. We have gone with WebNames for a bunch of reasons, including new developments coming shortly to help promote .tel’s and build traffic to all your internet-based properties.

To wrap up, I have a growing sense that .tel is one application with huge leverage potential for my brands and business interests. The one thing I am running out of is time and this has the potential to be a huge time saving tool. For anyone like me that has spent a good part of their business career building a contact database this one is “out of the park!” Bring it on… It’s the world’s largest Rolodex and I get to slip my card into it – how cool is that?!

George Moen…. Gone .tel!