Mac Stickers, The Budgetnista and Building Relationships
True Story - I'm sitting in Art Kitchen clearing a 1,000+ emails. A pleasant young lady asks to take a picture of my Lean Startup Machine Fail Fast/Succeed Faster sticker. Turns out it's Tiffany Aliche, The Budgenista.
I'd been following Tiffany's ascent from blogger to author to Today Show guest. Between our mutual friends and Facebook, I felt like I knew her well (although we never actually met until a couple of weeks ago). A week prior, I mentioned to Emily Manz of Brick City Development Corp that Tiffany would be a great case study for running Lean. Low & behold, she introduced herself on the strength of my sticker -- from there agreed to keynote the Lean Newark workshop on November 8th!
I'm excited for The Budgetnista to share her journey from experience, to business idea, to validation and scale -- it's what LeanStartup is all about.
And to think, our encounter was created by a sticker ... or really a willingness for us to share our beliefs with one another. Few lessons learned I that day about creating relationships:
Engage in conversation. Communication is the first step to success. Whether it's developing a plan, pitching a product or more importantly meeting the talented people to push a vision forward. Don't be afraid to build new relationships. #ThePowerofWho
Always represent. I believe in the power of lean principles to create change through entrepreneurship. So I rep' it all day -- on my computer, in discussions with colleagues and even my own family when I'm approached about business ideas. #StayTrue #BeYou
Be available. It's the power of communal spaces like coffee shops, co-working facilities and the like. The more you're willing to give of yourself, the more you receive in return. #GiveBeforeYouGet