Who Am I? #5: The fun begins

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
-- Confucius


In the beginning of re-versioning, I suggested you create a Board of Directors, and gave some ideas of how to select people who could help develop You 2.0. Since then, we’ve been answering a lot of questions related to “Who am I?” -- favorite things, skills and interests, the things we do well and always wanted to do, even who we are not. If you’ve done all this, you’re ready to meet with your board.

Meeting with your cool Board is easy. Here’s some tips.

• It’s Re-Day! Set a date and time when everyone – or most everyone – can play. You may have to set up more than one meeting if your board is bigger than three or four people. That’s ok.

• Confirm, confirm, confirm. Call or email after the meeting is set up, and remind everyone the day before, with purpose, time, length, and place. (If you’re meeting virtually, check out the affordable services at SaveOnConferences.com.)

• Write an agenda. Start by restating your purpose, and how long the meeting will take. As efficiently as you can, without seeming to rush, get the general scope of your “Who am I?” answers on the table. Then ask your board for their ideas, and end by restating any conclusions and things they can expect next.

• Prep information and/or visuals. This can be PowerPoint stuff – keep it simple and visual please, not a million lines o’ text – or handouts, photos, pictures – whatever you want. Have some fun – your Board will appreciate that you took the energy to make it fun for them, too.

• Test your equipment or conference call service. Ask someone to be on the phone for 2 minutes if you need to ensure everything is working.

• The day before the meeting: confirm, confirm, confirm!

• Run the meeting. Stick to the agenda and the length you promised. Listen! Take notes. Thank everyone and go home.


You’ve just run your first Board of Directors meeting. Take a bow.


But what do we talk about?

Your Board will be so excited to help you through this process that you’ll wonder why you even thought of this question. But you can guide your discussion a little anyway.

I asked my board for straightforward answers to a couple of questions.

• What did I do well that I hadn’t identified for them already?

• What did I not do well that I should avoid?

• What other ideas did they have for exploring?

• Who did they think I should talk to/check their blog/write/email/experience?


I was amazed at two things from my board: how open and stimulating they were, and how excited they were for me to be going through this process. They all wanted to know where it would end up. They all had ideas for how to move forward. They all had opinions on all of the questions I asked.

And, happily, you’ll discover that people who like you, also like to talk about you – with you in the room. They like to imagine things for you. They like being part of your process. They’re excited to see how baby-seed ideas will grow. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it’s something you will not only never forget – you’ll never know exactly how to thank them enough.

Here’s a hint: keep them in the loop.

As you make progress after your board meeting, keep emailing successes to your board. Let them know what’s happening. Don’t be shy about asking for more advice. Lean on them a little. They know you’re beginning a scary exploration, and that no one knows what will happen.

Let them help you. It’s allowed. It’s a great gift – one we often forget to give.