Conversation about the Influencer Project with Sam Rosen, CEO, ThoughtLead

This is another one of those small world kind of business coincidences. 

When Sam Rosen contacted me to participate in the shortest marketing conference ever, he also mentioned that he knows my good friend Skip Shuda.

It turns out Sam grew up in the Philadelphia area, and we have more in common than a friend. See what that is in this short conversation, not as short as his conference, and possibly as useful to you.

________

How did you get to Lenox, MA and to becoming an entrepreneur?

Sam: I actually moved here because I'm part of a global spiritual movement called EnlightenNext! I know. Not your typical start-up story.

All of the founders of ThoughtLead wanted to create a business that expressed our deeper sense of what's possible for human beings, and where we live--in a community of like-minded individuals, all endeavoring to create a better future from the inside-out--is the bedrock of everything we're doing as entrepreneurs.

On a more mundane scale, here's how I got started as an entrepreneur: I was doing non-profit work in Boston, and had to find a way to supplement my income. So I went to Google and searched for something along the lines of, "Make money online." And that started my now 7-year love affair with online marketing.

Your company, ThoughtLead, is designed around capturing influence and delivering results for brands. I can see the tie in with a conference on digital influence. Can you tell me a little bit about how the idea was conceived and about the format?

Sam : The idea was conceived on the way from Philadelphia to New York, in an inspired moment between my business partner, Steve Haase, and me. We wanted to do something that hadn't been done before and would help a lot of people to increase their influence online.

And we didn't want it to take a lot of anyone's time. So we had the idea for an hour-long conference--the "shortest marketing conference ever"--and to get 60 of the world's most brilliant social media minds, including, of course, Conversation Agent's very own Valeria Maltoni, to share one tip on digital influence.

Now that the event day has passed, can you tell us what worked well, what you would do differently?

Sam: Getting 60 speakers to all share one 60-second tip turned out to be a winner. From a promotional perspective, there were several tactics that worked very well: providing all of our speakers with auto-populated tweets to share with their followers both the day before and the day of the event; creating a Twitter contest for one deserving up-and-coming influencer to become the 60th speaker; and promoting the hashtage, #influencer, to our email list on the day of the conference.

The main thing I'd do differently is to give ourselves more lead time.

We hatched the idea on June 8, and hosted the conference on July 6. That's not a lot of time to pull something off. Of course, we wanted to do it as quickly as possible, and I think it ended up being the right thing decision for our company. But next time, we'll give ourselves far more leeway to align strategic partnerships and sponsors, as well as creating a longer period of buzz leading up the event.

How did it go? Was participation aligned with your expectations? Why/why not?

Sam: It went fabulously well. Thousands of tweets, over 4,500 people registered, nearly 1,000 Facebook fans--all in 3-4 weeks. The response online has been overwhelmingly positive, which we're really happy about.

Part of the reason why we're so thrilled with the participation is because it wasn't just "interested" people "checking it out"--those involved, whether speakers or audience members, were spreading the word passionately.

I think there was something about the freshness of the idea that really lit participants up, and there's not much that's more exciting than seeing an entire group of people gush raw enthusiasm and an unadulterated sense of possibility for the future. So yes, I'd definitely say it was definitely aligned!

What piece of advice would you give to someone looking to earn attention online?

Sam: I would say to create a "meme." A meme is an idea that's passed on from person-to-person, in a viral-ish way--I say "viral-ish" because I'm not talking about getting one million people to watch a YouTube video. Rather, I'm saying to create something remarkable--a conference, a video montage, a podcast, a web TV show--that lots of people can get behind and that improves the lives of the people you're trying to affect.

In our case, we did that by creating an innovative and fun format (60-in-60), talking about something people cared deeply about (digital influence), branded it in an easy-to-repeat way ("shortest marketing conference ever"), and made it easy for everyone to participate (one minute for speakers; one hour for participants).

So I'd say to create some kind of "media event," something that brings together leaders in your field, and then promote the heck out of it. Don't worry so much about how long you've been "in the conversation" or whether you're an "insider" or an "outsider"; just create such an unbelievable amount of value, in an innovative, fun, and spreadable way, that you can't help but get noticed by both leaders and prospective customers.

Of course, your motives should be good, and it helps for people to like you (or at least respect you). But fundamentally, I'd recommend simply to put on your "disruptive" thinking hat and brainstorm some big ideas will that make the world a better place and move your industry forward in some way, shape, or form.

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Did you figure out what else Sam and I think similarly about?

Friend and follow Sam on Twitter, Facebook, and on his company's blog.

Bonus resource: What kind of entrepreneur are you? Find out with Skip.

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Comments

[Rob Pene]

Great interview with the guy who has INFLUENCED me to move forward boldly and wisely and influence the people in my immediate sphere.

Thanks Val and Thanks Sam!

@RobPene

[Valeria Maltoni]

I enjoyed meeting Sam and getting to know him through this project and our common friend, Skip. I'm sure we'll get the chance to meet in person one day soon. This is what is so great about arranged coincidences like his project.

[Kathy Garolsky]

Interesting post.I'll be coming back to see more of your post.Thanks

[Skip @skipshoe Shuda]

I'm loving the virtuous circle of Valeria interviewing Sam after interviewing Valeria. The Influence Project is a great example of creating a new and useful twist on an old theme. I'm listening to Sam's case study as I write this. Valeria, Sam - you both are wonderful social sharers that I continue to learn from.
- Skip

[Valeria Maltoni]

Serendipity at work. That's what I thought about when Sam told me you knew each other.