The biggest obstacle to business success is not lack of a great idea, but poor execution.

New entrepreneurs, lacking expertise or perspective, often struggle alone with starting or growing their business.

It doesn't have to be this way!

In my latest podcast (listen here), seasoned business coach and long-time small business expert Karyn Greenstreet describes the power of mastermind groups, which are small groups of 6-8 people with similar values and interests who help each other set and achieve really big goals.

Karyn attributes much of her current business success to her mastermind group, which she has been meeting with for 90 minutes each month for the past eight years.

In this 30-minute interview, Karyn explains:

1. What a mastermind group is, and isn't
2. Why they are critically important for entrepreneurs
3. Who to select for your own group
4. How to get a group started
5. Where to go for more information

She has a free e-book which you can download at her site specializing in mastermind groups, www.thesuccessalliance.com

Her advice is to learn about mastermind by starting your own. I plan to do so myself to get 2010 to a great start!

P.S. I gush about Karyn quite a bit in this interview, and that is because A) I have been getting solid, practical free content from her for years and B) many of my clients and blog readers tell me how great she is. Marketing lesson: When you share great information freely and serve your clients well, business and partnerships come to you.

While there are many core business practices shared among any type of startup, web-based companies have a unique set of opportunities and challenges.

Perhaps no one has studied these unique challenges more than Bob Walsh, author of 5 books, the most recent being The Web Startup Success Guide.

Bob has learned his field from the inside-out, creating and marketing his own "Micro ISV," (Micro Independent Software Vendor) business for many years, and advising many others on theirs in his consulting service 47hats.com.  He is also one of the moderators of the popular Business of Software forum on the Joel on Software blog.

In this interview, I talk with Bob about:

1. Some of the unique challenges faced by web-based entrepreneurs
2. Tools and approaches to making the start-up process easier
3. Recommendations for those worried about colleagues stealing their great idea if they share it
4. How to define the right problem to solve with your product so people are compelled to buy it
5. How to use social media to connect with your community and promote your product
6. Which tools you can use to get things done in your business
   

My love of books goes back to when I was about three years old.

As soon as I could form the sentence "I want to go to the library," my Mom or Dad would take me every week to get a new stack of books.  I remember the smell as I entered the San Anselmo library and strolled through the aisles.  My senses tingled as I saw new stories, and I would have to negotiate with my Mom and Dad about how many I could carry home in a given week.

This love stayed with me my entire life.  Picture books turned into Miss Piggle-Wiggle, then the Chronicles of Narnia, then books about world mythology, then school books, then a phase of intellectual books to convince myself that I was smart like The Archeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault.

About fifteen years ago, I fell in love with business books and have never looked back.  I never tire of reading new ideas and insights for how to start and run a business.

But the volume is overwhelming.

Todd Sattersten, President of 800CEORead, co-authored a book with Jack Covert called The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.

I jumped on the chance to talk with him about the book, since I was really fascinated to understand the process by which they selected the very best business books.

As an author, I was excited to learn the criteria they developed to select one hundred books from the hundreds of thousands in the business category. The criteria were:

1. Accessibility: Is the book understandable, easy to read, engaging?
2. Applicability: Does it apply to today's business environment?
3. Quality of Idea: Would we do this in our own business?
   

Favorite quotes from the podcast:

Listen and learn!

And buy the book here.  This one's a keeper!

I think it was fate that Michael Port released his new book The Think Big Manifesto within a few days of the release of mine.

Becoming comfortable with thinking big and gathering the courage to leave a "safe" life in a cube behind walk hand in hand.

So I interviewed Michael about his book in this 20-minute conversation, where we talk about:

1. Why you need to unhook from the "gurus"
   
2. How your kids can push you to do your best work
3. Why it is important to think big about what you do and how you operate in the world
4. The benefits of collaboration vs. competition
   
5. Our shared passion for martial arts, and the connection with thinking big
   

I will never forget reading Tom Peter's article The Brand Called You in Fast Company Magazine in August 1997.  Growth in Silicon Valley was sizzling hot, and the fresh perspective on personal marketing was totally new and exciting.

25-year old Dan Schwabel felt the same thing when he read the article, although it was many years later, when he stumbled upon it on the internet.  According to Dan, it summed up what he had been doing in his own education and career since Junior High.  So he made the decision to become the personal branding expert for the new generation.

Today, Dan releases his first book on the topic, called Me 2.0:  Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.

I interviewed him in a 23-minute podcast where we discuss:

1. How to build your own personal brand
2. Can you still build a strong personal brand if you are no longer a young whipper-snapper?
3. How to maintain focus on brand building in a busy life
   
4. How to start small and grow your visibility in national and global markets

We can all learn from Dan's focus, drive and determination.  He is, like my other young mentors Ramit Sethi, Ben Casnocha and Shama Hyder, showing that experience is not the only thing that builds a great brand.

Enjoy the interview and grab the book! 

I spent many years speaking to groups across the country, and even teaching presentation skills to hundreds of salespeople and engineers.

It was always fascinating to me since it combined so many favorite subjects:  motivation, communication, fear, physical movement, design and creativity.

In today's conversation with Nick Morgan, I took my learning to a whole new level.  His new book, Trust Me:  Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma integrates a lot of new research about the brain to help speakers become truly masterful.  We talk about:

1. Why you do need to practice to appear spontaneous
2. How your brain drives your body language which can make you lose credibility (or gain it) before you even open your mouth
   
3. The specific steps to build great trust and credibility with your audience
4. Why the "Tell em what you are going to tell em, tell em, tell em what you told em" presentation structure that has been the standard for years is totally wrong.  (I gulped a bit on that one, since I used to teach this)
5. How to structure the content of your presentation for maximum impact
6. Where to start if you are considering professional speaking as part of your business model or marketing strategy
   

Just about an hour ago, Daniel Kehrer asked me (on Twitter of course!):  Are you finding lots more folks going freelance because of the economy?

Glad you asked Daniel!

In today's podcast, I talk with Michelle Goodman, author of the new book My So-Called Freelance Life.  It is chock-full of information for people who are considering freelancing on the side, or as a full-time pursuit. 

Michelle and I talk about all kinds of nuts and bolts questions about freelancing including:

• How in the world do you get your first client when you work full-time in a "real" job?
• Should you ever work for free to get started?
• How to you contract for work appropriately to avoid scope creep?
• Should you bother to list your services on the "bidding" sites like Elance or Guru?
• When can "competitors" be a great source of referrals for your business?

I think one of the best ways to test the waters of entrepreneurship, even if you are not ready to leave your job for a few years, is to do a freelance project.  Enjoy the conversation, and the book!

I may have set a new record for the shortest time from concept to production for a podcast:  20 minutes ago, I shared on Twitter that my best friend, Desiree Adaway, set up a personal board of directors last year and just sent me her annual report.

Desiree is the Senior Director of Volunteer Mobilization for Habitat for Humanity, and felt the need to get expert advice and insight from people she trusted and admired.

Many people were interested in hearing her story, so I called her up and recorded a podcast on the spot.  I hope you enjoy our conversation in which we cover:

1. What is a personal board of directors
   
2. How to choose good members
3. How to make sure the relationship is mutually beneficial
4. How to get the most out of the mentoring relationship

Desiree and I learned of the concept from Jim Collins in Good to Great.  Here are a few articles which expand on the topic:

BusinessWeek:  Good to Great Expectations
In Jim's own words from the Fast Company Design Conference in Phoenix, 2000:  Why have a personal board of directors?

Who doesn't love the film Rocky or hearing about how J.K. Rowling lived near destitute while her Harry Potter manuscript got rejected by scores of publishers right before hitting it richer than the Queen of England?

A lot of our view of failure in popular American culture is romanticized.  The fact is, while you are failing, it feels really awful and does not become the enlightened lesson that you share until you have ten years perspective between you and the excruciating experience.

Author and speaker Barry Moltz addresses this topic in his most recent book called Bounce:  Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success.

He shares a lot of great insight into things like:

• How to view failure not as a deep lesson from above, but as an integral part of starting a business
• How to not stay stuck in emotional wallowing right after blowing it big
• How to make sure you are connected with why you are trying new things that sometimes lead to failure
• How to bounce quickly from failures so that you maintain a positive forward momentum and are able to accomplish your goals

In the podcast, I referenced the tremendous new e-book by my friend Jonathan Fields called The Firefly Manifesto.  This gives some great insight and tools for those folks who may have just been laid off, or who are working in unstable industries (which would be just about everyone these days!).

My original and only business plan for my company was based on a Dr. Suess book.  I wish I were kidding.

Owning up to my liberal arts major and rebellious roots, I didn't think I needed a "real" plan.  And, for the most part, I did fine for a decade, securing lots of clients and making a good living.

But honestly, I think that I was just not thinking about business planning the right way.  I imagined reams of paper, onerous spreadsheets and carefully crafted mission statements.  Yuck.

Now, Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software and prolific blogger about all things startup, has come out with a new book called the Plan as You Go Business Plan.  Even though his company makes business planning software, Tim felt a bit frustrated by the perceived hurdle new entrepreneurs attributed to business plans.  When I asked him why most people didn't write them, he said:

"What people normally give me, Pam, is “Yes, I’m going to tomorrow,” or “next month,” or “six months from now.”  And then there’s the variant on that: “Yes, I really agree it’s stupid that we don’t have a plan in this business and so-and-so has been promising to write it for years.”  So they the pass the buck.  It’s funny because the drag, what we’re fighting is they have in their mind this huge marathon-like PhD thesis-like thing. I don’t blame them sometimes for thinking, “No, I’m too busy.  I don’t have time for that. I’ve got to run my business.” 

Instead of this perspective, Tim encourages you to think of business planning as a fun and critical part of your entrepreneurial journey.  He says:

“Planning isn’t about writing some ponderous homework assignment or dull business memo; it’s about envisioning the business that you want to create.  It should be fascinating to you.  What do people want, how are you going to get it to them, how are you different and what do you do better than anyone else?”

I interviewed Tim on this topic for my book, but he was generous enough to let me share the conversation as a podcast.  It is about 37 minutes long.

I truly am motivated to finally create a plan after twelve years in business.  I hope you are too!