bring the energy.
your audience feeds off of you. no matter how smart your content or how pretty your slides, if you don’t bring the energy your presentation is going to be a total snooze-fest.
get excited about your topic. then, make me feel as excited as you are.
we’re taught from the time we’re eating cheerios and pooping in our pants that we can do whatever it is that we want to do. with enough hard work and dedication, we can change things and we can be the person we want to be.
but that’s not always true.
there will be times when people and places and things and organizations will be trying to tie you down. they’ll systematically shut down all the parts that make you who you are like a chronic illness shutting down the organs in your body. there will be people telling you ‘no’ in the most polite way possible while asking you to keep doing what you’re doing—keep dreaming, keep brainstorming, keep working hard, stay focused—because it’ll pay off one day.
*beep*
there will be places, towns, and cities (and maybe countries) which don’t have the resources you need to become the person you were meant to become, but you’ve already built a home there. it’s familiar to you.
*beep*
houses, cars, televisions, and all the material things we’re told we need to have to be happy turn into anchors preventing us from taking risks. the things we own begin to own us.
*beep*
it may even become that the organization you’ve built your life around and identified with for so many years isn’t the company you originally went to work for. or, as happens in life, you merely grew in a different direction and now your organization’s goals and ideals no longer match with your own.
*flatline*
and there it is. you’re dead inside. a shell of a person waking up in the morning and going to work with no real purpose aside from surviving another day. but there’s another option instead of trying to make it work like everyone taught you as a child.
do not resuscitate.
find more people who are like-minded and thrive off of their support instead of dying from the constant negativity you receive from others. move to a new town with similar interests and other like-minded people where you can be a part of, and thrive in, a community that shares the same ideals as you. leave the things behind you don’t really need (get a cheaper car, drop your cable television package, pay off your debt faster). and find an organization that aligns to your personal values and conducts business the same way you conduct business.
chances are you may have to do this all again in a few more years, but here’s the key truth in all of this: there’s nothing wrong with that.
there are three management types in the world (there are way more than three; i admit i’m over-simplifying): managers, rulers, and leaders.
managers have a task to complete. they create the work plan, hold people accountable for their individual parts, and don’t care what it takes to reach their end goal. canceling vacation? it’s necessary sometimes. constant status meetings? you need to know what work is or isn’t getting done. telling people to work overtime? someone has to get the job done. managers aren’t always well liked—although they sometimes can be—because it’s all about business to them. it’s hitting the next milestone, it’s keeping costs in check, it’s all about the earned value.
rulers have a sense of self-importance. they don’t create the work plans (they have someone do that for them), they don’t hold people accountable for their parts (they have someone do that for them), but they do love to inject their ways of doing things onto everyone else. they choose the processes, they plug people in where they decide where they should go, and they demand full and total obedience. don’t think, just follow. with rulers, it’s not even about business to them; it’s about self-serving and power grabbing. it’s all about strengthening their position.
leaders have a feeling of duty and accountability to their people. they don’t create the work plans, but they build the vision. they’re more concerned with maximizing potential than holding people accountable (because they realize an underperformer is trying to tell them something’s wrong). they identify the roadblocks to success and they find methods around them or through sheer force alone break down those walls to allow their people to do the work they need to and want to accomplish. leaders are almost always well-liked because it’s about the social aspect to them. they serve their people, and the people take care of the business.
which type do you prefer to work for? more important question: which type are you growing into?
one of the first signs of any organization’s demise is a lack of youthful prospects. it’s most readily apparent in sports when the core of the team grows past their prime and the minor league systems are sparse of potential superstars. production goes down, and the next available substitute isn’t capable of being an everyday player.
take stock in your organization. see how many potential superstars you still have, and—most importantly—count how many have already left. you’ll start to see the true value of your organization via one simple metric.
how old is your core? who do you have to replace them? and what do you do when everyone else is gone?
twitter. facebook. youtube. wikipedia.
all of those sites and organizations have something in common: they’re all in the top 10 in website traffic in terms of monthly visitors. they also have something else in common: none of them started out as an idea to make money.
there was no business plan behind twitter on how the founders were going to turn a profit through selling ads or a subscription. they were a group of college friends who just wanted a way to share what they were doing with each other. zuckerberg was drunk in his dorm room one night when he launched facebook. and jimmy wales had an idea for a better encyclopedia anyone could access for free which had more current information than the heavily curated bookshelf versions.
so why do you insist that your business only go after the ideas that have a high ROI you can measure today? instead, shape the markets of tomorrow.
if not you, someone else will.
i get approached a lot to be a voice for people. folks who are looking for help in getting their name out, their brand out, their newest creation recognized and accepted by the community within our organization. but that’s not really how things work.
people don’t listen to me because i have the most followers, and i’m not respected for the number of likes i have. it’s about authenticity. people listen to what i have to say because of the way that i say it: in my own voice. the moment i start to peddle someone else’s work—with the message they want to send—is the moment people recognize that i’m no longer being genuine.
if you want me to spread your name, if you want me to help sell your ideas, or if you want to use my tribe as members of your own—there’s a really simple way of accomplishing your goal.
create something so special that i can’t help but tell everyone about it.
pro tip: start by building a personal relationship i can’t live without.
some people try to sell their capabilities. they pitch what they can do for you or your organization, generally related to being or making something better, faster, cheaper, or more efficient than someone else. they peddle their wares, sometimes with cold calls but a lot of times with advertising. while they almost never say it, they often start their pitches off with “now that i have your attention for the next n minutes…” but the problem is they usually don’t.
they have moments, not minutes, to convince you that their capabilities are worth your investment in both time and money. they have to prove to you and other decision makers that you want to buy from them. with so many competitors, that’s difficult to do. so they lay out their pitch filled with metrics, and demos, and dozens upon dozens of superlatives before wrapping it up at the end by asking for money. “let us know how we can help you” really means, “let us know when you want to buy something.”
the alternative, however, is to sell yourself vice your capabilities. you don’t pitch what you can do to improve someone’s organization. instead, take the time to build relationships. you may be better, faster, cheaper, or more efficient than others, but you’re not selling that—you’re selling an indispensable resource: you.
when you don’t advertise and you give yourself and your abilities away for free; when you spend the time to educate people and help them solve their problems right now, without asking for payment; when you let people see your true work, not a demonstration, and give them a reason to trust in you.
that’s when you delight customers and win market share.
not speaking up usually pays off in the short-term. not voicing your disagreement with a decision, not adding your ideas into the conversation, and not defending others’ will more than likely keep you safe.
for now.
it’s easy to not voice your opinion because there’s no risk involved. not many people have been fired for something they didn’t say. except there is actually a ton of risk involved in staying silent. you’ve merely deferred that risk to the long game instead. some future version of you is going to have a problem to deal with and—knowing how bad news doesn’t age well—it will probably be worse than the problem you’re facing right now.
choose instead to direct the discussion. choose instead to be a part of the initial planning. choose instead to support and defend what you believe in.
it’s hard work now, but future you will thank you for it.
livingsocial was recently hacked, affecting nearly 50 million account holders—myself being one of them. unfortunately in recent years these types of incidents are becoming more and more commonplace. but whether this type of situation is a common occurrence or not, it should never become trivial.
the email i received about the situation, however, seemed to treat it as if it was trivial. in the 269 word letter (not including boilerplate or tim o’shaughnessy’s sign off and signature), it wasn’t until the 247th word that there was ever an apology of any kind. that is far too long to wait to hear “i’m sorry” when failing to secure your customer’s personal information.
brand management 101: when you say you’re sorry, mean it.
as people and organizations, we all have limits to what we can do and things we merely prefer not to do. it’s our safe zone. it’s comfortable and we know it and it’s never surprising. we can anticipate what we’ll find and how we can expect to deal with it.
but growth happens in the spaces outside of our limits. when we choose to do and be what we’ve refused before, we become better versions of ourselves. more experienced and wiser about our surroundings. by pushing into these spaces we begin to find where our limits truly lie.
it’s foreign and unnatural to us. it brings with it an inherent risk. but you’ll find that the uncomfortable spaces are where the important work gets done. the question then looks more like this: do you want to keep living the same life, or do you want to become something greater?
let’s do some important work together.