Is There Such Thing as Work/Life Balance for Entrepreneurs?

They intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are. —Aldous Huxley

When I first started GroundFloor Media in my basement in April 2001, I am fairly confident that I had absolutely no idea what it meant to have balance in my life. I was newly married, expecting our first child and had just received news that the company I had moved to Colorado to work for was closing its doors. I opened the agency (I use this term very loosely, as I was pretty much the janitor, the CPA and the PR account manager) the next day knowing that in the midst of the dot-com bust, I needed to create a professional opportunity and not wait for something to come my way. The funny thing was that although my bout as an entrepreneur began out of quiet desperation, I loved every minute of it. I had caught the proverbial entrepreneurial bug and I was sick.

To some of my friends and nearly all of my family, I quickly became a work-a-holic. To others, I was simply living the life of an entrepreneur. It has been said “that those who are passionate about what they do, do it to extremes.”

If you haven’t read The E-Myth, it is a must-read for any entrepreneur. The author, Michael Gerber, describes the tipping point as this, “It could have been anything; it doesn't matter what. But one day, for apparently no reason, you were suddenly stricken with an Entrepreneurial Seizure. And from that day on your life was never to be the same.”

I couldn’t agree more. I also have to say that there is a point that is crossed in which the thing you are most passionate about becomes an addiction. Workaholism has become embedded in our culture. There are some that learn to balance and create space for the things they are most passionate about – be it their family, friends, charity work or travel. It took me a long, long time to realize that I was not solely responsible for the success and failure of the agency – that the amount of hours worked was not a direct correlation to the growth of the agency. To be brutally honest, I only recently allowed myself to work toward this ‘work/life blend’ because of the team I was surrounded by at GroundFloor Media. As a senior-level bunch, we all have to juggle family and work life. We termed our struggle as the ‘work/life blend’ because balance was simply out of the question. The bottom line is that I trusted the team was suffering from a similar type of 'seizure’ and that we would all hold each other up as a group. It didn’t hurt that we gravitate toward working with some pretty amazing client partners that hold similar values.

Honestly, I think this point of achieving a ‘work/life blend’ is different for each business and ultimately that the life of an entrepreneur will always be challenging. For me, I always appear to be one step away from having a life where work isn’t always in the back of my mind. I know this isn’t ideal, but it’s difficult not to be working on something that you want to see grow and succeed. I compare it – in the most simple terms – to parenthood.

What do you do to handle work/life balance? Is there balance in your life? Is there a blend in your life? What techniques do you find useful for adding more balance or blending all of the important components of your life?

Content is Still King, Especially at the Olympics

Every other year I get completely caught up in the Olympics, and although I’m a huge sports fan, I really don’t have much knowledge of most of the sports involved. But still, there I sit for roughly two weeks, transfixed on short track speed skating , snowboard cross , and curling (to name a few), yelling at the television as if I have a personal connection to each sport and to each athlete.

During a particularly tense moment in the men’s freestyle moguls , I started thinking about why people feel so connected to The Games. I can watch and enjoy just about any sport, but what makes the Olympics different are the stories behind many of the athletes. The stories that give us a personal connection to the athletes, what they’re trying to accomplish, and the road they had to take to get to get where they are.

It’s the same type of personal connection that draws people to social media. Think about the Twitter feeds or Flickr accounts that you enjoy most. Most likely they are the ones that surprise you with a couple posts or photos that let you know a little more about the user’s personality. They provide something that connects you to them beyond being just “a good source for industry information” or “the coffee shop that gives out coupons from time-to-time.” Successful social media content is appealing not because the owner calculates what people want to hear, but because it’s real. Great content has the ability to, for instance, make an average sports fan become inexplicably invested in the outcome of a sport he’s never actually watched.

As my eyes got a little misty when Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau hugged his brother (who has Cerebral paulsy and who Bilodeau called his inspiration) and became the first from his country to win a gold medal on Canadian soil, and later as the U.S. National Anthem played for Hannah Kearney (who was favored to win in ’06, but failed to make it out of the qualification round in Torino), it didn’t seem strange at all that I was up an hour later than usual and checking the TV listings for what was in store the following evening. Its amazing how good content and personal connections can move people to take action on any number of levels.

Media relations is all about the “relations”

With the Colorado Garden & Home Show kicking off this Saturday (Feb. 13 at 10 a.m.), it only seems appropriate to give a shout out to Denver’s media outlets. Recently, much of my work at GroundFloor Media has been handling crisis communication, social media and national media relations. But, I must admit that I have enjoyed rekindling my relationships with some of Denver’s long-time reporters and producers. In January, PRSA Colorado hosted an event called “A Media Roundtable: Breaking the News in 2010.” It was the perfect event to kick off 2010 and really helped our team get a jump start on the local media relations opportunities for this show. If you missed the event and are interested in learning “the most important thing PR people need to know about the media in 2010,” watch these videos.

We all witnessed social media hitting the mainstream in 2009; however, traditional media still plays an important role in communicating our clients’ news and events. While we developed a Twitter and Facebook strategy for the show and created a hashtag (#garden2010), we knew we needed to execute a strong local media relations campaign. Even with all the changes we have read about at The Denver Post and the merging of KDVR FOX31 and KWGN The Deuce, it was very refreshing to work with reporters/producers who are passionate about their work and most importantly, are committed to our community – as I have witnessed in working with so many of them over the years.

As the media landscape continues to change, my advice to any local business is to read and watch your local media. Follow the news outlet on Twitter. Become a fan on Facebook. Listen to the reporters/producers. Invite them to coffee for a “get to know you” session. Understand their interests and passions. And be aware of the beats/topics they like to cover. Then pitch story ideas that you know they will want to report on because it is the perfect fit. Media relations is all about the “relations” part. Start here and you are sure to have better success at garnering media coverage!

~ Jennifer Wills

Cheers to the Chamber!

I have two opportunities on my calendar later this week that wouldn’t be there had I not participated in Leadership Denver, so I thought this would be a good time to give a shout out to the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation.

I had the privilege last year of being part of the Leadership Denver Class of 2009 – the most fun class ever. Amidst the fun, we learned valuable lessons about our community and how we can make a difference. This Friday, I get to escort members of the class of 2010 to their school visit during Education Day. Since so many of our communities’ challenges stem from challenges faced by the education community, I found Education Day to be one of the most enlightening. Therefore, I’m excited to escort this year’s class to Arrupe Jesuit High School in northwest Denver. I am personally intrigued by Arrupe Jesuit’s innovative Corporate Work Study Program, and I look forward to learning more on Friday.

On Saturday, the class of 2009 will head to Tennyson Center for Children to complete another Home Makeover Day, during which we will paint and provide some TLC to the cottages in which the kids live. These days are extremely rewarding because of the service we’re able to provide to Tennyson Center and also because they allow our classmates to reconnect and remain in touch long after graduation from Leadership Denver.

I think most of us agree that it’s important to be involved in and give back to our community. Sometimes, though, it’s difficult to know where to start. If you’re in the Denver metro area and you feel like you need more information on how to get involved or more education about what areas need help, please consider signing up for one of the Metro Denver Chamber Leadership Foundation’s many programs, including Access Denver, Impact Denver or Leadership Denver, or the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Leadership Program. If you’re in the Boulder area, check out the Boulder Chamber’s Leadership Boulder County.

I promise you’ll find more ways to get involved and help out than you can count. Then it will be up to you to decide how to make the biggest impact!