This Is What Change Feels Like

What do you do?

It’s the second question we ask each other when we first meet. The answer is usually related to work. Imagine if the second question was who are you?

Millions have had to ask that question in the last two years. Some have had to find out who they were and some have discovered they are not defined by a job title or position.


A Game Changer or Life Changer?

I attended an event in Chicago this past weekend which was a chance to work with 150 really smart people and I’m so glad they let me sneak in. To some this may have appeared to be a social media convention. Social media are tools. This was not a tool convention. This was a gathering of passionate people taking about business.

SOBCon was founded by the irresistible Liz Strauss who has helped me beyond words along with her partner Terry Starbucker who is a loving and engaging guy who doesn’t mind singing in front of 150 people. That alone deserves admiration!

Thanks Liz and Terry for the privilege of attending SobCon 2010.

Nice To See Ya

We often go to “conventions” to learn stuff, do some networking and take away some additional nuggets to help our career and our business. All too often we return to our work with a renewed energy that lasts until Wednesday.

Then the old ways and the pressures of the system weigh us back down to where we were before we got on the plane. The binder collects dust, the bag of business cards is lost forever, the best of intentions to stay in touch fades and life goes on.

SOBCon is about full participation. If you attend, you work. And magic happens. You make new friends and business associates. I had numerous discussions with people who were asking my advice right after I sought theirs and it was a soft place to land and share.

I was reminded of the old sales adage that we are not selling hammers; we are selling you the ability to put a nail in the wall to hang your favorite picture.

SOBCon was not social media convention, it was not a discussion about how cool we are that we understand the power of the Internet and digital media. Who cares about all that crap if you don’t have people to put valuable information on these channels?

SOBCon was about people who work in large companies working with large brands sitting right next to sole proprietors navigating the scary world of business all on their own.

Find people you want to work with who will care about your ideas. Unearth those who want to help you while you help them. Don’t stop until you can follow what you know you should be doing and pay no attention to those who disagree.

SOBCon was not about social media and this post was not about SOBCon. This post was about finding ways for you to improve the collaborative nature of your work.

When did you last look inside yourself and those around you and ask the tough questions? Who are you, not what do you do?

This is what change feels like.

#sobcon stream on Twitter.

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media.

Why Stuck?

This post was originally published as a guest contribution
on Liz Strauss' Successful Blog.

We All Have Choices

Recently, a friend sent me a copy of Rick Butts’ e-book 7 Choices. In it, Rick talks about the time we work on us versus the time we work on what we do or getting customers or what we can offer. In the age of social networking, we can all create profiles and exchange ideas.


How much time do we spend on better understanding ourselves?

In 1943, Abraham Maslow outlined our need to belong in his paper Hierarchy of Needs. No matter your age or situation, you want your life to have purpose and passion. That is the core of why we may get stuck – we aren’t following either. We haven’t deciphered who we are and what drives our passion. All too often we seek external confirmation.

Internet Friends

If you are immersed in social media and haven’t taken a moment to think of all the wonderful people you would not have met otherwise you are missing the essential part of the process. In my case, I met Liz Strauss and Kathryn Jennex and over the course of two years we all got to know each other.

A few tweets turned in to some emails and phone calls then in to actual work. I look forward to new projects with them in 2010. My friend Lisa Hickey calls it accelerated serendipity.

We're In This Together

I was at an event last week and realized that the twenty or so people I was sitting with had all met online. We shared similar sensibilities, we found trust with each other and we want each other to be happy and do well.

So why do we get stuck? Is it because no one will help us realize our passion and purpose? Or is it that we haven’t discovered it inside us in order to tell people what we want?

Three years ago, a friend gave me a copy of The Secret. I watched the first half of the film with my closed mind and arms folded and the second half taking notes.

Notes Are Not Enough

We need action and focus. We are human. We get stuck. We fall into the same traps of listening to the opinions of naysayers. We fail to listen to that pang in deep in our gut. If you haven't experience this, count yourself very fortunate. That is extremely rare.

I was speaking with a client the other day about Ellen DeGeneres. She endured three years of unanswered phone calls. No one wanted to hire her and she was running out of money. She was stuck. She then got the idea of doing her own talk show. The studios weren’t falling over themselves to help her realize her dream.

But Ellen made it happen and built it into one of the most popular shows on television. It took work and persistence. She did it because she found out who she was and got unstuck.

Help Is On The Way

Does this mean we shouldn’t discover people we trust to help us navigate this journey? Ask the most successful people on the planet if they get stuck and you will get a resounding – YES!

None of us is immune. But if someone asks you to help them get unstuck, forget their resume or the past and listen to what they need. If you do, magic will happen for both of you.

Thanks Liz!

@knealemann
marketing and social media strategy

image credit: thecarconnection.com

Have You LinkedIn?

"The ability for individuals to build a personal brand
has never been more important."
Mitch Joel

One of the fastest growing sites this year is LinkedIn. If you’re not familiar, this is a business social networking space. Unlike Twitter, you can post your resume and tell as much of your professional story as you want. Unlike Facebook, this is a bit more serious and doesn’t have as many plug-ins and apps.

It’s no surprise that LinkedIn has grown so much lately in lieu of what is going on.

"Your mileage may vary. I will do it my way, as most folks who connect with me eventually come calling to reach someone else that Iʼve added, and I feel good every time I can be helpful."
Chris Brogan

Like Facebook, LinkedIn features thousands of groups which you can join or you can start your own. This is a way to find similar thinking people in similar industries all over the world. It can give you a way to interact with people you would have never met otherwise.

Potential clients, employers and colleagues can educate themselves on you. Clients may want to know how you portray yourself before they let you do their marketing. Someone looking to hire you may want to see what kind of network you have developed or see if there is information you haven’t shared with them.

"Have a strong signal and rise above the noise."
Liz Strauss

One caution, if you have several profiles it is easy for potential employers to access information on you from your other profiles as well. So the pictures of Frank doing a belly flop in the lake at the cottage last summer may not put you in a good light. Then again, they might depending on the client or employer!

Lately, there has been chatter about advertising on LinkedIn and various other social networking platforms. Well it's simple, they need to make money or they will go out of business.

"In the future, social networks will be like air. They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be."
Charlene Li

Quality online spaces will not survive without cash flow. The venture capitalists need to see ROI eventually. But it is dicey business when the backbone of these spaces is built on community for the purpose of community. These digital spaces are companies. Those involved want to see a profit. Their challenge is to avoid temptation to exploit the users, our challenge it to be aware of that possibility.

"Why people choose to visit online social sites: Who likes me? Is everything okay? How can I become more popular? What's new? I'm bored, let's make some noise."
Seth Godin

We have hopefully learned our lesson from the dot-com bust that it's not enough to have shiny offices and a cool logo. And if you have LinkedIn, here's hoping it has become a valuable tool for you.

Thoughts?



photo credit: ere.net
disclosure: linkedin is not a client