TILTED: Off balance in the best way

Lesson one from TILTED, when John Sarvay calls and offers lunch say “yes.”

Because if a couple of slices of pepperoni leads to what happened on Saturday, I’ll be the one paying for the pizza from now on.

That lunch with John and Aaron Dotson from Elevation Advertising turned into exactly what I hoped it would—a frank, honest, open and sometimes emotional learning experience for dozens of local and regional small business owners.

Like Aaron, our partner in crime, I’m not a big fan of conferences where people talk at you. I have also tired of conferences or events where talk has replaced action. My sense and expectation coming out of TILTED is that action won’t be a problem.

The unconference setting in which the participants doubled as teachers and experts worked as many hoped. It allowed for a frank discussion. It allowed for teaching and learning. It allowed for fun. Most importantly it allowed for participation. By everyone. 

From the people who are thinking of starting a business, to those who are going through each of the seven stages of small business that were the focus of my talk (another blog post on that coming), to the small business “experts” who were in the room. No one was shy and that’s why it worked so well.

Some of my highlights:

• Just seeing the 150 or so people in the room just eight weeks after the idea for TILTED was hatched. A credit to the Floricane team and the sponsors (Create Digital, Elevation Advertising, Floricane, Fraser Design, One South Realty, The Hodges Partnership, TMI Consulting, Work It Richmond and Zuula Consulting) for just being able to pull this thing off.
• Listening to RVA restaurateur Kendra Feather whose talk I sought out. Her words have inspired me to not worry as much about what other people think and just do what I think is right.
• Talking to Keya Wingfield of Candy Valley Cake Company (who doesn’t love her cake pops) whose dream of expansion is simultaneously so close yet so far. This is my public promise to try to help her.
• Sharing some of my mistakes and advice with prospective small business owners. (Yes, I like the name “Honey Badger” and you should stick with it and not listen to others.)
• Being humbled by the crowd who came to listen to the “Hodges” story and hoping it was worth the 25 minutes of your time.
• The involvement of Andy Thornton of La Diff fame whose passion and perseverance as not only a small businessman but community leader is an example for all of us.

There are so many images that continue to flash through my brain; the truth is I’m still trying to process all of them.

Ultimately what made the day work was the thing that people starting and running small businesses know more than others that things don’t have to be perfect. The beauty of the unconference and of small business itself is that everyone has a role. If one person is too busy, someone else will pick up the slack. If something doesn’t work, try something else. Messy is good. It’s creative. Things don’t have to be perfect. Each word, while important, doesn’t have to be killed to death. Feedback, even bad feedback, needs to be heard and absorbed and stay out there so others can see it instead of being deleted immediately.

If this feels like a bit of a rant. Well, it is. We spend too much time trying to make things perfect in this town. It was refreshing to be in an imperfect space for a while where people called people out when they felt it was needed. The epiphany quotient was very high. I know I had a few of them.

So now that we’ve been TILTED, what next?

John and his team are doing their usual great job of getting instant feedback on the day, its format and what to do next. For those who received it, please provide that important feedback.  

I have a couple of thoughts:

• Do one tangible thing to help someone in small business: Whether you were in the room yesterday or not, this is a noble and easy to achieve goal. Shop there, tell them what you like or don’t like, offer them some advice. They’ll be happy to take it. Spread the word to others if you like it. I’ve already decided what my “thing” is and you’ll be hearing more about it.
• Pass on your knowledge: That was extremely rewarding to me as one of the small business veterans in the group. Every small business owner, no matter what stage they are in, has learning they can pass on.
• While it is human nature of all of us to begin planning “TILTLED 2: The sequel that ate Pittsburgh,” I’m fine with letting this one sit a bit and marinate for a while. I’d rather all of us act on what we learned Saturday. If we all do one thing for someone else, the local small business universe will be changed.

The buzz will be hard to avoid. People will talk about TILTED and others whose business it is to foster the creation and growth of small business will quickly try to replicate it. Please don’t.

Richmond has become a town of replication. If something works for someone else the tendency is for another group to try it. It’s why we’re “over-creating” right now. The replication, while well intended, doesn’t allow the energy for the actual work that should come out of days like TILTED.

Give those who were in the room the other day the “room” to do the actual work that needs to come out of it.

And while you’re at it, can you pass me another slice of pepperoni?