Archives for April 2011

The Difference Between Ideas and Doing

A few years back, I knew a guy who always had a great idea up his sleeve.

He’d share these ideas with anyone that was in his company, and tell of his grand plans for when his ideas made him rich. They would invariably involve Salma Hayek, a yacht and six months at sea…

Everyone smiled and asked him not to forget us when he was rich and famous. After all, we were the sounding boards for his ideas and we’d say which ones sounded good, and which ones wouldn’t get him Salma.

Jump forward a few years, and needless to say he’s not dating Salma Hayek for six months of the year. Nor does he have his yacht, or his millions in the bank. The last I heard, he was a baker in a small village just outside of London in the U.K.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. He’s making an honest living, and keeping a roof over his head. But knowing his mind and ambition, I can’t help but feel he’d be a little disappointed that his grand plans never came to fruition.

And there’s one simple reason.

While he talked a great talk about ideas and plans, he never followed through on them.

Never.

Instead, his great ideas remained just that – ideas. Pipe dreams that could have been great had he taken just one of them and attempted to do it. But he didn’t. Instead, he chose to live anonymously, if you like, and remain “that guy with the ideas.”

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

But ask yourself one question, if you’re currently thinking great ideas – what will you do next?

If it’s for a business, there are a ton of resources available for you, both online and offline. Google is your friend online, and your local Chamber of Commerce (or equivalent) is your friend offline.

If it’s for a product, and you want to test run it first, why not try something like Etsy to start with (or the equivalent for your product’s niche)? Again, Google is your friend – use it to find sites to sell your product with little investment.

If you’re looking for feedback to see if your idea is needed, set up your version of customer satisfaction listening posts and see what people are saying. If there are a lot of complaints and not a lot of resolutions, that’s an immediate in.

If you want to write a book, there are a host of self-publishing platforms available, like Blurb and Lulu. Better still, write an ebook and sell it through your own blog or website.

The main point is, there are a ton of folks with great ideas. But many never make it past the idea stage.

So, the question remains.

What will you do next?

Image: k-ideas

Care to Help Support NextGen Tech Women?

Earlier this year, Geoff Livingston and myself shared a post on the state of women in the tech industry, and why/how the situation could improve.

The posts sparked quite the discussion across the web, with great points being made from both sides of the coin, and the likes of Robert Scoble becoming involved.

Since then, we’ve been working on an idea behind-the-scenes to support the initiative even more. And on May 5, the Thursday before Mother’s Day, we’re going to do just that. So, a little bit of background.

Supporting NextGen Tech Women

On Thursday, May 5 ? the Thursday prior to Mother?s Day — people across the social web will tweet to support the next generation of women technologists. You can also join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Organized by interactive firms Bonsai Interactive Marketing, RAD Campaign and Zoetica, our tweets for Nextgen Tech Women will seek to raise $25,000 from the online social media and technology communities, and an additional $25,000 in matching donations from leading technology companies. The organizing committee is comprised of Allyson Kapin, Danny Brown (me), Geoff Livingston and Julie Pippert.

Proceeds will fund the National Center for Women In Technology ?s 2011 and their Award for Aspirations in Computing, which recognizes young women in high-school for their computing- related achievements and interests. By generating visibility for these young women in their local communities, the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing encourages their continued interest in computing, attracts the attention and support of educational and corporate institutions, and emphasizes at a personal level the importance of women?s participation in computing and IT.

Since 2007 the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing has publicly recognized over 850 young women aspiring in computing. The award has drawn interest from nearly 6,000 young women that self-identify as interested in careers in computing.

So How Can You Help?

Obviously one of the ways to help is via donations, to help us reach our $25,000 goal. We’ve been speaking with corporate sponsors and partners, and it looks like we may have a matching donor, so the amount raised could be as much as $50,000. Obviously, if we can raise more, all the better!

You can also share this post and what we’re trying to do with your friends, families, colleagues and more. If you’re sharing on Twitter, we’re using the hashtag #ngtechwomen.

On the day itself – just one week from today – we’re going to be rallying on Twitter primarily, but also elsewhere, and sharing stories and examples of who the program has benefited so far.

We’d also love to hear of examples of who you feel are great women in tech. It could be your; your mother or daughter or sister; a friend; or a stranger you admire.

There are some great women in tech right now, but so often new entrants are put off by peer pressure; views that it’s a guy thing; and more. Were hoping to encourage girls to follow the career path they really want in tech.

Ready to help too?

PS – As a special fun “competition”, if you like, everyone that donates $50 or more will go into a draw and someone will get a very cool package – worth at the very least $200 – from me as a thank you for your support.

Sunday Brunch – Twitter As a Marketing Tool

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Brunch, where we talk about your questions on social media, marketing, business tips, entrepreneurship and more.

Today?s question is one that’s been asked a few times, both in the comments of past blog posts as well as online on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The question is:

“How can you use Twitter as a marketing tool?”

There are a few ways, and I look at some of these in the video – hope it helps.

If you have a question, you can send it in via the form below. There?s also a file upload option, if you want to send in a picture of your favourite Sunday Brunch place.

Cheers, and see you same time, same place next week for some more Sunday Brunch chats.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf4Vq38IQLI[/youtube]

Resources:

[gravityform id=6 name=SundayBrunch Question Form]

This post contains a video. If you can’t see it displayed properly in your feed, you can view it directly here.

You Don’t Have to Die to Live

When I was 19 I tried to kill myself. I don?t often speak about this. It?s probably not the kind of topic you talk about at dinner, or on a first date, or when you meet prospective in-laws.

Sometimes, though, it?s a good reminder that even dark turns to light, and the follies of youth can make a huge impact on the paths we take as adults. I know this was the case for me, as it made me face my demons. Maybe it?ll help you too.

That year was a pretty crappy one for me.

The dog that we?d had for thirteen years died. Sam had seen me through all my school years and had been my best friend. Unfortunately, dog cancer doesn?t really care for friendships, as I found out.

My cousin was also killed whilst on a military patrol in Northern Ireland. It was his first active duty as a soldier, and his unit were ambushed while on night patrol. Three men were killed, and my cousin was one. He was just 18 years old.

My first serious girlfriend also left me. We?d been together two years and, like any teenager high on hormones, I thought it was the real thing. I didn?t know Coca-Cola had already trademarked that term, which meant that?my real thing was nothing of the sort.

So, um, yeah ? a pretty shitty year.

Tipping the Waterfall

I?m not really sure what the snapping point was. I mean, you don?t usually try and kill yourself just because you?re upset ? it?s normally a more depression-led act, no? Or maybe it isn?t ? I failed, so I?m not the world?s best person to offer a perspective on it.

Whatever it was, it led to me downing a bottle of scotch and a jar of the finest sleeping tablets, and getting ready to see if there?was anything on the other side.

Except I didn?t make it to the other side.

My sister found me, dialed an ambulance, and with about thirteen minutes of my life left, my stomach was lying on the floor of one of Scotland?s many hospitals. Unlucky thirteen? Depends how you look at it.

Initially, I felt sorry for myself. I didn?t want to be alive ? wasn?t that the whole reason I?d spent a big chunk of my pitiful labourer?s wage on the best scotch? Why was I in a hospital ward when instead I wanted to be on a hospital trolley on the way to the morgue?

My parents were the ones that brought me round and showed me that you don?t need to die to live.

We hadn?t been close up until then. We were the typical nuclear family, except we were also the typical first-generation satellite television family as well, and TV was our dinner conversation.

But after that day in my twentieth year, things changed.

Generation Gap?

My mother was amazing. She opened up and told me a lot of things about herself that I had no idea about.

How she?d considered taking her own life at around the same age as I was now, when she found out she was pregnant. A teenager, pregnant to a married man, and living with the extremely religious people that were my grandparents.

She needn?t have worried ? my grandparents turned out to be amazing and supportive, and my mother had the baby. To this day I still think that?s why I loved my grandparents the way I did ? they gave me the chance of life.

My mother helped me overcome my sadness. She helped me remember my cousin and think about the way he lived, and not how he died. She helped me choose just the right dog to honour the memory of Sam, as opposed to forgetting him.

She also helped me understand that first loves are the ones you fondly remember; but very rarely the ones you reminisce with.

And it was because of all this that my mum helped me finish University, and get the degree that would shape my life.

Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying

Thanks to my education, I?ve been fortunate to work at some of the most amazing companies around. The business education I got at these companies gave me the skills I needed to start working for myself a few years back.

That decision ? and the unflinching support of my wife and friends ? saw me hook up with an amazing guy called?Troy Claus and start our own?marketing agency last year. While there are still hiccups, life is pretty good ? I feel very fortunate.

But I also know that it took a lot of hard work and the realization that things don?t always work out the way we want them to ? but that?s okay.

Life is often shit, and it kicks us hard in places we don?t want to be kicked (unless that?s your thing, then kick away).

But we can kick it right back.

We have a choice, every single day. We have the ability to live, or to die. Not die in the physical sense ? we don?t have a choice there. But every victory we let slip away, we die. Every moment we can grab but let go of, we die.

But that can stop now.

So. Take a pen and a journal, and sit down and begin writing. Uninterrupted. Until you?ve finished what you need to say.

Make a list of every single thing you?ve let go and cross off the ones you had no choice in.

Prioritize the remainder and put the ones that are still affecting you now to the top.

Pick the most prominent entry on the list, and make that your personal nemesis.

Research what you need to do to beat this enemy. Google is your friend, but your friends are your Google too ? ask if any of them have had to overcome a similar challenge. To do this, you?re going to need to leave pride at the door.

Make a battle plan of small victories. Be realistic, but be rigorous with the timescale you want to afford this nemesis.

Get the support of friends, and family (and professionals, where needed), and view your nemesis as the single thing that can give you life; but to do so, it has to die.

I won?t lie ? it?s not going to be easy. You?ll have to overcome some fears, demons and other personal pride stuff along the way. But nothing great ever comes easy.

Dying is easy ? our breathing just stops. Living? That?s hard ? because from the moment we?re born, we?re forcing ourselves to take another breath every single second.

Then again, there?s not? a lot you can accomplish when you?re dead ? and you don?t have to die to prove that.

Ready to start on that list?

This post originally appeared as part of ?the 28 Days to Get Your Shit Together series from Sarah Robinson. You can read the full series at Escaping Mediocrity.

3 Things CEOs Should Never Lose Sight of in Social Media

This is a guest post from Lisa Petrilli.

I just spent two full days in a phenomenal leadership simulation program entitled, ?Magnetic Leadership? that was conceived, created and offered by Profitability Business Simulations.

I had the privilege of playing the role of the customer throughout the simulation, and then coaching the teams and their leaders after each simulation round was completed.

During each round, one person on each team was appointed ?CEO? and was responsible for determining the overall direction and strategy for their team of eight people.

They had one hour to prepare the team for the 10-minute, high-stress simulation in which they were given a business challenge along with a fickle customer (me) and tasked with meeting the challenge while satisfying the customer.

Three Overarching CEO Success Principles

There were three overarching principles that were critical to the CEOs? success that surfaced during the simulation.

As I was reflecting on how I would talk with my leadership-focused clients about how the experience confirmed the importance of these principles, I realized that it was imperative to talk with my social media clients about the experience as well.

Why?

Because these principles are such that they must be communicated and absorbed throughout the entire organization, so that the company can exude them and live them on a daily basis. As a critical part of marketing, sales, business development and customer relationship building, employees on the front lines of social media must also exude and live these principles through their work.

Vision

As someone committed to ?visionary leadership? I was thrilled to see how the high-ranking leaders I was working with understood the importance of vision to their success, and how they got better over the 2-day experience at clarifying and communicating their vision:

“In an organization, those individuals on the front line of social media must clearly understand the vision for the organization in order to exude that vision when talking, and sharing content with, customers.”

For example, though Patagonia does not have a formal vision statement, it shares its vision when it writes about its ?Reason for Being:?

?Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing ? as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. These are all silent sports. None requires a motor; none delivers the cheers of a crowd. In each sport, reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection between us and nature?
For us at Patagonia, a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them, and to help reverse the steep decline in the overall environmental health of our planet.?

Patagonia?s vision is to enable its customers to experience that hard-won grace and moments of connection with nature, and to express its love of wild and beautiful places by saving them.

Now see how Patagonia?s social media efforts further their vision to enable customers to experience that hard-won grace and those moments of connection with nature?especially the wild and beautiful places.

From Patagonia’s Facebook Page:

Picture Story: Conditions
Another in our occasional series of posts for the more visually oriented. This one goes out to all those lucky enough to charge off the couch and into the unknown without looking back or thinking twice . . . or doing much thinking at all, for that matter.

And from Twitter:

It?s clear to me that Patagonia employees immersed in social media understand the company?s vision and how critical it is to share it, and inspire through it, via what they communicate.

Values

It was striking how in such short leadership simulations one?s personal and leadership values became so immediately obvious.

For example, whether or not a leader valued the input of others was demonstrated by how well they listened, because there?s a difference between asking for someone?s opinion ?to appease that person? and asking because you truly want to know. Of course, this is just one of so many ways to demonstrate values.

It?s critical that CEOs not lose sight of the fact that the values that are rewarded in the organization are those that will ultimately be imbued in conversations with, and content shared with, customers socially.

Contrast the fact that I worked with a client who would not allow me to tweet birthday wishes from the organization?s Twitter account to some of our most loyal and active members, with the following, recent tweets from Patagonia:

Which organization would you naturally gravitate toward; the one that allows itself to be human and places value on sharing the human experience or the one that believes doing so just isn?t professional?

Value Proposition

Your company?s value proposition is what sets you apart from your competition; what makes you unique and provides that niche in which you cannot be rivaled.? For Apple and Disney it?s about customer experience while for Walmart it?s low cost and for Nordstrom it?s service.

If Disney social media employees tweeted about low-cost tickets to Disney World or asked Facebook fans to share stories about how to explore the park on a budget, it simply wouldn?t fit with the brand?s value proposition.

Rather, you see tweets about unique customer experiences that cannot be had anywhere but Disney World:

And yet, without guidance and clear communication from the CEO, employees immersed in social media might make the mistake of expressing the company in ways that are in direct contrast to its value proposition.

It is the CEO?s responsibility to ensure that all employees understand the vision, values and value proposition (amongst other things!) that the company is committed to, to be their head steward, and to never lose sight of how critical it is to align these principles with their company?s social media efforts.

If you?re in the C-suite of your company, ask yourself if you?ve communicated your vision, values and value proposition well enough so that employees in social media roles may do their jobs to the best of their ability and are empowered for success. If not, you run the risk that what they share socially may not be aligned strategically!
If you?re in a social media role and you realize you?re not clear on these principles and priorities, make sure you ask and get clear direction!

Your thoughts?

About the author:?Lisa Petrilli?is Chief Executive Officer of C-Level Strategies, Inc. and is passionate about visionary leadership. She helps C-suite executives and emerging leaders create strong visions for their companies and for themselves, and then bring these visions to fruition with clear and aligned strategies focused on leadership, marketing, and social media. You can find her on Twitter @LisaPetrilli and running #LeadershipChat every Tuesday night at 8pm ET, and she welcomes your emails at?Lisa@CLevelStrategies.com.

image: Joelk75