Conversation Agent

The Art of Receiving

"Receiving isn’t easy. If it were, more of us would do it with grace and gratitude. Is there a way to change that? Can we learn to receive so we can be nourished and empowered? These are crucial questions, not just because the holiday season is a time when giving and receiving are part of our daily experience. The ability to receive is, in fact, essential to physical health, psychological ­balance and spiritual engagement." [Ode magazine, The Art of Receiving]

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” [Winston Churchill]

"At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something he will never have ... enough." [John Bogle, Enough]

[image of butter angels from FINI window in Modena, Italy]

Trust

According to the entry on wikipedia, trust is a relationship of reliance.

It does not need to involve belief in the good character, vices, or morals of the other party. And it does not need to include an action that you and the other party are mutually engaged in. In fact, trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party.

In sociology (and psychology) the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the honesty, benevolence and competence of the other party. Based on the most recent research, a failure in trust may be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty.

In psychology, trust is integral to the idea of social influence: it is easier to influence or persuade someone who is trusting.

That is if you trust the definition from a wiki.

I can trust you without liking you, I just need to respect you. I have written this before - we buy from brands we do not like, but we need to respect someone to have a relationship with them (if so inclined, look at my presentation on corporate bloggers).

If you cross me, there is no amount of competence you can throw at me. It's very difficult to come back from a falling of trust. Not impossible, as Stephen M.R. Covey (the son) writes, in Speed of Trust, it will take work and commitment.

Mileage may vary from individual to individual. I have written before about social capital and trust. This is a conversation where we are just skimming the surface at the moment. It is worth pondering the consequences of how we're thinking about trust, because it is affecting our reality and our world.

If we have the power to create our own future, what we see as our marketplace and economic environment at the moment is nothing to be proud of. Let's stop making excuses and start behaving our way out of it.

Trust has an enormous impact over the destiny of what is going on with social media and conversations. We need to start paying attention to language and be more aware of the difference between behavior and intention - we tend to judge other people's behavior on the basis of our own intention. They are often apples and oranges.

I don't know about you, but I find it more difficult to become intimate with issues these days. However, I have not lost the ability to become intimate with and interested in people. In fact, if anything, our hunger for intimacy and feeling special has increased exponentially. Could it be because we seek in others what we think we lost in ourselves?

Trust in organizations and entities is at an all time low. With reason. But we do need to have businesses and mechanisms to earn a living. What do you propose in their stead? Are you building a business that we can believe in? Lead us.

It's a two-way street - you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. Are your expectations unrealistic? Clarifying expectations is your first responsibility - to yourself and to others, in business and in life. This is all connected, yes, we have succeeded in bringing down the wall, now it's up to us to make it work, to bridge onto what's next.

Forrester says: people don't trust companies

Rich Becker puts it so well himself that I can hardly add to it. Why do we rely on an analyst to tell us what we already know? Do you trust your own company? Chances are you trust the people you work with. Think long and hard at this one. You don't have to tell me, just make sure you know yourself, deep down. It's a private conversation - yes, there is value in holding some things to yourself.

We contribute to companies - we vote both by joining as employees in opportunistic moves and by buying those products in consumerist moves.

If you read fiction, James Webb has written a great story about trust, compassion and loyalty in The Emperor's General. It will probably give you some food for thought on assigning blame.

We talk code

One of the most difficult jobs inside an organization is that of uncovering and communicating its purpose-idea. That is because most people think "brand" and when that happens, a curtain comes down. Thanks to the proliferation of talk on brands and everyone's exposure to marketing - some call it pounding - everyone thinks they know what it means and what the work entails.

Conversations come down to a matter of opinion.

And while opinions are important, as facts are, truth trumps both. "I don't like it," I hear. "Why don't you like it?" I ask. "I don't know, I just don't like it," is often the answer. It's not a thread or a conversation, and it becomes a distraction - it prevents the uncovering of purpose (truth) and direction.

Worse, I think that promotion and advertising (is there truth in?) have reinforced the dichotomy between personal intention and our judgment of the behavior of others against it. We project our own doubts and insecurities onto the actions of others.

Do you know what you want?

Let's face it, we're all on a quest for new trust mechanisms. Personal experiences have become the new barometer for extrapolating trends. We stopped outsourcing trust to institutions but instead of holding ourselves accountable for our own ethics and behavior, we have shifted that responsibility onto others. Then we cast stones at people we hold up as influentials when we were the ones putting them on the pedestal in the first place.

Chris is a person, in case you forgot, and so are you. He is an interesting person, because he is interested and curious. Start there as you pick apart what he has done with sponsorship. What have you actually done with sponsorship that we could hold as best practice? Let's not talk hypothetically here. Give me an example. Now tell me, will it work again? Is it repeatable? Teach me.

In theory lots of things work, and then they meet the reality, the messy reality of the marketplace - filled with customers. Customers are people, just like you. They can be difficult and downright unreasonable. Today at Fast Company expert blog we discuss what customers want and why marketers need to understand the job to do and not the customer to deliver something we may want to buy.

We and our behavior are made and shaped by the job we are trying to do, and through our interaction with others. Instead of casting stones, we'd do better at casting a pebble in the water. As Mark Earls writes in Herd, choose the pebble wisely, choose how to throw it - but once the stone leaves your hand you have to let it go. Watch its flight, by all means, but then sit back and watch the ripples that it creates roll across the water.

Know what you want, but do not get attached to outcomes. Relinquishing control with dignity is the greatest challenge of the 21st century, wrote Kevin Kelly. That is trust.

__________

Related posts:

Social Capital and Trust
Thriving on Chaos? Only When You Have Trust
Would you Tell Your Customers (and Employees) How Bad it is?
Privacy: Trading Trust for Cash

[image courtesy of thorinside]

Connections as Emotion

Charleston and Geneva may not have too many things in common - or maybe they do. I have never been to either. The world is getting smaller not so much thanks to the technology that allows us to connect more easily with each other, that is a medium. What makes the world smaller as in 'easier to put your arms around' is the humanity that comes through when we do use technology to connect.

I met Claudia on Twitter, the modern-day matching site for like-minded people. She surprised me with a post that has really shifted my thinking on connection - emotion as connection. Take the time to visit with her incredible photography as well. As I'm writing this, Geneva is enjoying its night time, and I am enjoying the serene landscape of this Swiss beauty. I have some photographs taken by my mother in the same or similar angles.

Cheryl Smithem of Charleston, SC has been linking a lot lately and I have taken some time to read her thinking on branding and social media. What I like most about her blog so far is the image of her laughing on what looks like a beach and how she describes herself - connection maven.

I have not met these ladies but through their writing and images - yet, the contacts have given me already a lot more than your causal conversation. That is because of their content. What if connections were emotion? Would that explain why we are so keen on making all those connections - on social networks, on Twitter, on blogs - for that special feeling of being seen and heard and part of things? You count... your vote (of confidence, of interest, of trust, of love) counts.

Next week we will talk about content marketing.

[image courtesy of my mother]

Connecting the Dots and a Heartfelt Thank you

Back in September, I asked several professionals I respect and read regularly if they'd be willing to write guest posts at Conversation Agent. What resulted was the most amazing collections of ideas and voices I could have dreamed of. In presenting the guest post series, I promised I would show you how those ideas and people were connected with me and with each other.

When Things go Wrong by Geoff Livingston opened the series with an important statement -  Crisis demands superior, thoughtful communications. Though we love to talk social media, in a crisis these principles hold true regardless of medium. Because great communications involve people, one to one, one to many, but always factual with a commitment to resolving problems or simply acknowledging them in a real and authentic way.

I met Geoff in this space, when he asked me to do an interview with him at The Buzz Bin. He's since been an agent provocateur for me, someone who challenges my assumptions with ideas and stories. He invited me to keynote last year's DMA conference in Washington, DC.  And talking about story, if you're looking for corporate video narrative, Director Tom is your man. He puts more people at ease in front of a camera than anyone else I've met - and he does so with passion.

Life is not perfect and neither is a company. A corporate video story should reflect some of the realities we all face in life. That means leaving behind the “perfect world” and entering the “real world.” Think about it: isn’t a story interesting because of the tension, conflict, or challenge of a situation? An interesting company video story is no different. Tom Clifford, Director Tom, in Will Your Corporate Video Fail? gives us 5 Simple Steps for Success with Stories.

Tom and I met face to face at Blogger Social this past April. While my conversations with Adele started on Twitter, they continued during a dinner and a nice walk in her current hometown of Montreal. When she shared her story, I learned that Adele honed her community building skills in the retail world - that's quite some training! Catch up with her on Twitter. And talking about stories...

... sometimes the best story is the one we can tell when we put passion into it. Putting Your Passion to Work by Adele McAlear is a true story that teaches us that - it’s easy to use the words open, listening and conversation in digital terms, scrolling through your feedback channels looking for clues and openings to engage with people. But, as you go about your day-to-day business, traveling from one place to another, do you really take time to be open to the people around you, to allow for the possibility of great moments? A conversation holds the potential to change lives.

Meeting people on Twitter and talking to each other's avatars may be fun. What's more interesting is when those connections bridge over to collaborations off line. Michael and I met at a Social Media Club event organized by the fantastic Annie Heckenberger a couple of months ago. Michael is a writer who got his start in radio, perhaps that is why he's got such an easy way on Twitter. Here's what he's thinking about micro impressions.

What is the truth? Asks Michael Leis in The Truth is 140 Characters - There are a lot of people out there writing about the strategy and tactics of companies entering social media as difficult because they feel as though companies need to be “authentic,” “real,” or “transparent.” This is a great idea, and I hope it comes true. But it is dangerous to trust or expect.

Michael and I will be part of a workshop on social media for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Direct Marketing Association in November. Then there are those encounters you make off line, which bridge back online. I met Dion at a MIMA event in Minneapolis last March. During a conversation over dinner, I suggested that his stories, good sense of humor, and presentation would be a welcome addition to the blogosphere. He decided to take me up on it and joined.

What happens to brands that are participating in social media? It's time to give more serious thought to brands as members of society, says Dion Hughes in Is Your Brand the Life of the Party? - recognize that going with the flow doesn’t mean accepting lower-quality, off-the-cuff solutions. The most winning presence in the marketplace today is surprising, true, witty, human AND perfectly present.

You may recall that Dion also put together a proposed panel for SxSW on Brand Manners. The northern regions are filled with social media treasures. Both Karen and Tony who I present next ail from Toronto. I met Karen when she linked to one of my posts. I have enjoyed so much her writing and thinking around brand narrative and storytelling, that I asked her to share it here.

Brand Stories Define Us, writes Karen Hegmann - In a sense, we are the story of the brands we use. A brand is a reflection of how we want to be perceived by the world. It sums up our hopes and expectations as to how we want to interact with the world. Just as interactive media is able to engage us through its ability to provide ongoing narrative, so too can a good story make us feel as if we’re willing participants during each stage of a brand’s lifecycle.

Branding is also a topic favored by Tony who I met when he was guest posting at ProBlogger. During one of our conversations, Tony asked me to contribute to The Blog Herald, where I posted on branding and marketing for more than one year. I am curious as to how he manages to keep up with technology news and social media-related conversations, given his chosen profession.

What's Twitter's Role in Brand Management? Tony Hung tells us - At the end of the day, every conversation about your name, service, products, or brand, should be treated as an opportunity to engage people -- in real time -- with their experiences, and no matter how good it is, try and make it better, in the way that the ideal brand experience ought to be. Using Twitter this way is not for the lazy, uninterested, or the disempowered. It necessitates a melding of great customer service and the knowledge of what the brand is, how it ought to be, and the integrity to realize that there are always going to be shortcomings.

Kat and I met in intra-blogs conversations. Her style is similar to mine, although I tend to make things more complicated, I think. By now you can probably tell that there is definitely a thread on storytelling and brands here.

In the language of programmers, story is the compiler code, writes Kat French in Story, Social Media and the Intersection between Experience and Meaning - Social media is where we share our stories online.  The need to share stories is universal.  It’s not limited to big organizations and brands, and it’s not limited to individuals, either.   In a very real sense, the last few decades’ onslaught of traditional marketing and advertising have created a false veneer over reality and authentic experience.  Deep down, a sort of angry dissonance hums that nothing is true and nothing is trustworthy because of this veneer.

The conversation would have not been complete without challenging the premise itself that we are having one. Connie is a fresh voice in that department and she has quickly risen to show me how every dot connects in social media. She participates in one of the country's most active Social Media Clubs in Austin.

The authentic experience comes from being present as a contributor to the conversation. Are You Conversationally Tone-Deaf? Asks Connie Reece - some people are naturally gifted at conversation; others gradually acquire the skills that allow them to engage in enjoyable and effective back-and-forth exchanges; while others seem genetically incapable of picking up verbal or written cues that keep the conversation flowing.

Those of you who've read my rants on the agency's role, will appreciate that I needed to invite someone who could speak from a place of authority - he's doing it and gets it. Jason got interested in connecting with me when reading my very first post on how I see connections through the metaphor of Karate.

Where do agencies fit in the conversation? What Does the Future of Social Media and the Agency Hold? For Jason Falls - social media will be revealed as a communications mechanism. Thus, communications professionals will claim responsibility for it. Agencies will begin to own more and more responsibility for those communications because the good ones will see it as a way to survive in a world where traditional media, and thus traditional advertising and public relations, aren’t reliable places to hang your hat. Customer service will migrate its way to the forefront of social media strategies and become the primary focus of these efforts.

It got more personal with Christine. She was my PR agency account manager - a good listener, an excellent practitioner, someone you could truly trust to represent you, and I don't say those things lightly. She got more involved in social media after listening to my stories. Today, she authors a blog, Propelling Brands, with her husband Adam. Catch her also on Twitter. Christine has become a colleague on the corporate side. There was no better person that she to tell us the viewpoint on PR and conversation from the agency seat.

Some on the agency side will need to become more comfortable with direct participation. Christine Needles says "You Know, I Just Work for the Agency..." and Other Forms of PR Self-Doubt -How often are PR people encouraged to have their own opinion? We are counselors, skilled at developing messages and talking points our clients will deliver. Can we have our own opinions? Do clients want their agency PR team out talking about them? Does this create a new liability concern for agency management? Do bloggers want to hear from PR people (outside of the many conversations about our own industry)? Of course, there are many very talented PR pros out there who are ahead of the curve.

There are those rare moments of Zen, when you discover a voice that really hits your sweet spot and comes so close to home. Gianluca did both for me. After reading his blog for a couple of years and discovering he lives and works (in corporate Italia) in the neighborhood back in Italy, we met face to face last month. If you ever learn Italian, his blog on marketing is a must read. A must is also customer conversation.

So why wouldn't you want to Show Customer Reviews on Your Site? Gianluca Diegoli - we either truly believe that our customers are so stupid as to decide to make a purchase just after reading only what we write on our site and accepting it without seeking other opinions, in which case we are the ones to be deceived - because in reality they will look for “independent” opinions elsewhere, poor us, or we ourselves don’t believe what we write.

Becky is the champion on customer service. Her blog, Customers Rock! is a source of good tips and interesting stories. Becky is frequently invited to speak about customer service and I hope that one day, we might share the floor in the same conference.

The invisible is very important when it's customer service, writes Becky Carroll - The best place to begin this journey past the invisible is with customer conversation. Listen to what your customers are saying to you and to each other. Start to interact with them in the places where they are already congregating (online and offline). If you aren’t sure of something, ask! Customers are usually very interested in working with a company that is interested in them.

Here's another lady, a fellow communicators, who I hope to meet in person in the not too distant future. Lauren has a remarkable point of view and a personality to match it. When we talk about content online, she has what it takes to give advice.

Stop Lazy Content Creation, Go Old School with George Orwell, says Lauren Vargas - As social media becomes more mainstream, so does the content.It is increasingly difficult to be heard in the noise. How do you stand out? Go beyond lazy content. Choose your words wisely. Ask yourself: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

What seems like million years ago, Chris was writing a blog called More Minimal, where I stumbled upon several posts that peaked my interest. He's a veteran of the online space - he published Paperfrog in the early days. He is now a full-fledged editor of a portfolio of green publications and knows a thing or two about sustainability.

Even with the right content strategy, It Ain't Easy Being a Green Marketer, states Chris Baskind - Green marketing is more than pretty rain forest images and simplistic claims. Do your homework. Make very specific and verifiable claims. If there is reputable green certification in your field, get with the program. Engage in the green conversation. Be in it for the long haul.

Stephen and I share many interests - one of which is the painter Caravaggio, my absolute favorite. What I love most about Caravaggio paintings is the point of view as expressed in the eyes of one of the characters (usually) on canvas. Stephen has point of view in spades at Note to CMO. His posts cut through a situation to show us lessons learned. His guest post drives it home, or should I say flies...?

And to show that there is a Difference Between What Hip Looks Like and What Hip Is in brands, Stephen Denny illustrates with a situation from daily life - a walk through Baltimore-Washington International Airport TSA security line at the ungodly hour of 5:30AM with his son. Understanding the "why" is more important than parroting the "what," and this point is usually the one most often missed by marketers looking to capture what others before them have discovered.

I met Paul in Minneapolis also and later learned he's originally from Colorado, a state gifted with many breath-taking destinations. How can we look at things differently? Can we challenge what (used to) work?

In the end, What's Old is New Again, and Again, and Again... says Paul Isakson - it's time to stop approaching everything exactly as we have because that's what we know and are comfortable with. I think it's time we took a hard look at the way our marketing departments and agencies are structured and what skill sets we've been recruiting for and consider new ways to work based on the way people are communicating and discovering information. I think it's time we stop interrupting people's lives with annoying messages and start helping them make their lives just a little bit better and a little bit easier.

A heartfelt thank you to you, dear readers, for welcoming my friends to the conversation and to you, dear friends, for writing such insightful material.

Don't Let me Be Misunderstood

I remember the first time I heard the song. It was played by Santa Esmeralda. Which was the original? To me it did not matter. It was born with a Mediterranean soul, a quality that stayed with you. It speaks of intention, yearning, and much more. It talks about relationships, and stories, and the journey we call life.

Listen to this spectacular Italian version by The Trails Acoustic Trio (thank you, Mike). What do you feel in it? Beyond the lyrics, in the rhythm, the instruments, the beat. I hear and see all the times different is difficult, unpopular. There is no benchmark, it's too new.

I was listening to this interpretation of the song and I was thinking about negotiation of meaning in conversation. As we spend time talking "normal" with each other online, from all over the world, at the speed of Twitter, and FriendFeed, as we join and leave groups and communities, as we carry our personal brand across digital media, we experience each other in the same way neighbors for a day experience each other.

We agree, we disagree, we list, we delist, we listen, we ignore, all for mere fragments of time. We are also adept at marketing at each other - we put our best face forward while we sincerely and honestly build and reconstruct our digital imprint. That is a piece of us, it's not "us", really. It's moments in time that someone with patience would need to reconstruct. If we were to be still in time, which we are not.

Meanwhile the experience of all those exchanges and interactions changes us - the public us or how we think we are genuine online. Relationships are a contact sport. Meaning comes from the myriad little moments of pause, of "I just want to be with you" occurrences, while we negotiate the relationship between what our intent is and what comes across.

Are the conversations we are having true or just real adaptations? Just don't let me be misunderstood.

_____________

Related posts:

Conversation as Negotiation
Revealing Yourself to Others
Two Secrets to Good Writing
Peter Tunjic on Modern Virtues

In a Tough Economy, Branding Matters

Career Development, Acp

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: branding media)

Today I am talking about career development and social media at a breakfast with the members of the Association of Career Professionals (ACP) in Philadelphia. The premise is fairly simple:

• A blog and online portfolio are powerful branding and conversation tools for a professional
• Companies can find choice candidates more easily through social media
• Recruiters are already using social media and networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs to find candidates

So the question is: what does it mean for a professional seeking career opportunities to have a blog and an online portfolio? How can companies recruit candidates in a more meaningful way? How do smart recruiters use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to find top talent?

Social media is perfect for career development as it allows professionals to show what they know and think, interact with peers and build connections, learn from others, find mentors, and build a personal brand - to be known. Recruitment can be an outcome of this involvement. Recruiters and to a lesser degree companies are starting to use social media to spot candidates. 

But it's not an overnight thing, it's a slow process. And it can be messy, if one is not careful or does not have a personal brand strategy and goals. In addition to choosing a memorable URL, crafting a good about page and displaying contact information, consider having an RSS feed, a LinkedIn profile, a search button (I recommend Lijit) and a Creative Commons license. Other do's of social media to keep in mind when online are:

• participate
• share
• listen actively
• create content
• give value
• appreciate
• build community

I'm sure you can add to this list - in fact, the ACP members would probably be grateful if you did as this post is part of the leave-behind package.

Some don'ts are:

• broadcast
• target
• get lazy and copy
• be negative
• be disrespectful

The key attribute of social media to remember is that it is human and you get out of it what you put in - like everything else in life. Charles Leadbeater (author of "We-Think" -- watch his TEDtalk) said (hat tip to Bruno Giussani):

The traditional media landscape is like a beach with boulders, the BBC boulder, the News Corp boulder; some sometimes join to create even biggest boulders. Now the beach is a rising tide of pebbles, and many people are coming and dropping their pebble on the beach: basically we are all in the pebble business now. The models of the future are about how we link these pebbles together to create added value, to create something that it's more than a loose assembly. Can we match a growing capacity to participate, to contribute, with our ability to collaborate, to build, to make more complex and durable products?

That is also valid for our careers. In the course of a career, we now hold many different positions and play diverse roles. How do we connect the dots for our current and future employers? Our customers and partners are immersed in the same kind of reality. That is how we consume business and how we should do business. As professionals, we are also products and services.

The best candidates are not usually in an active search - they are what recruiters call passively-active. If networking is important face to face, online it is an even greater proposition - with more potential that is not tied to a geographic region or a specific discipline. It is more pull than push.

Branding in a tough economy matters - maybe because we are in the "touch economy" now. We need to see, experience, interact with, and feel before we buy. One of the most important aspects of differentiation and success is developing a voice with that online presence.

What can you add to this? What are some of the roadblocks and difficulties you have encountered? What are some of the joys of social media for your professional development and career?

_____________

Related posts:

Personal Brand Equity for Rent
Business Uses for LinkedIn
Jason Alba on the Future of Work
Jobs Have Evolved, Shouldn't Job Search?
How to Write a Business Recommendation

Putting Your Passion to Work

By Adele McAlear

Marie* leaned in close and whispered, “I have a secret. I’m leading a double life.”

I was on the train, on my way to PodCamp Toronto and early into the trip, the young woman in the seat next to me struck up a conversation. We were total strangers and yet, she held my complete attention.

She was a business student at a university in Montreal and was two short months away from graduating. An only child, her parents had been calling her several times a day from Turkey, for over three years, since she’d come to Canada to study. She straddled two worlds, that of her traditional conservative upbringing and the provocative freedom of North American culture.

She went on to explain that she really didn’t want to go into banking or finance with her Bachelor of Commerce degree, but that her family expected her to do so. “No,” she said, “that’s not what gives me life.” You see she’d kept a secret from her family while she’d been away. She had fallen in love. With the tango.

Marie discovered dancing the tango shortly after coming to Canada. It ignited a fire in her and over the course of three years, she delved deep into the dance and the dance culture, traveling all over the city, and sometimes to other cities in Canada and the U.S., to attend events several times a week in dance halls and cultural centers. In fact, as she told me her story, she explained that she hadn’t yet been to sleep; she’d danced for seven hours the previous night.

When Marie spoke about dancing, her very being lit up from the inside. She spoke with passion about the nuances, the customs, what it was like to dance with strangers versus with a long-time partner. It was clear that Marie lived and breathed the tango and she was utterly enthralling.

Yet, she was grappling with the reality that soon she would be expected to enter into banking or finance when all she wanted to do was be around creative people and the arts; like-minded people who lived with passion. She worried that she’d have to suppress her inclinations within stereotypical blue suited peers and that she would lose part of herself. Marie was distraught.

Then, I suggested that she combine the two: put her commerce education to work for an arts company. She stared at me and blinked. Then stared some more. Then the light bulb moment of realization washed across her face. She’d never considered that she could combine her passion for dance and creativity with her business education. And she cried tears of joy

I tell this true story to illustrate three points.

The first is about the importance of living with passion. Marie had found something that she felt gave her air to breathe. That magical thing that so few people are lucky enough to find. If you have yet to find what it is that makes you crazy-happy, self fulfilled and giddy with excitement, and don’t know where to start looking, simply Google finding your passion for articles to get you started. Don’t spend another day without striving to find the thing that lights up your very being.

Once you know what you love, ask yourself, is this passion something that’s just for you, or would you love nothing more than to be doing it 24/7? Some people love to cook, but feel it would lose its spark if they worked in a restaurant. For them, it’s more of a refuge from the pressures of the outside world. However, if you want your special interest it to be part of your work, the next step is to think creatively about how you can combine them. What a tremendous asset Marie would be to any company who valued creativity and self-expression, whether they were in the arts or not.

There are lots of resources out there on making your passion your profession, so don’t put it off any longer.

“The masters in the art of living make little distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their minds and their bodies, their information, their recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly know which is which, they simply pursue their vision of excellence at whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing.” - James Mitchener

For those in social media, it’s easy to use the words open, listening and conversation in digital terms, scrolling through your feedback channels looking for clues and openings to engage with people. But, as you go about your day-to-day business, traveling from one place to another, do you really take time to be open to the people around you, to allow for the possibility of great moments? Or do you have your head buried in your feed reader with your iPod headphones on?

The encounter with Marie proved to me that a seemingly random conversation on a train with a total stranger could have a profound impact. Indeed, my perspective changed the possibilities that she could see for herself, and may have changed her future. Even more, her enthusiasm and her passion for tango reminded me to take stock of my own joyful interests, one of which I’d been neglecting, and to make sure that I did all I could to keep those fires burning.

One conversation, two lives changed. Will you look at your seatmate the same again?

(*In the interest of privacy and the nature of her story, Marie is not her real name. All other aspects of the story are true to the best of my recollection.)

[image of Tango Legs by dark_mephi]

_____________

Adele McAlear is a marketer who loves technology and social media. With more than eighteen years marketing experience behind her, she launched McAlear Marketing in 2007 to provide strategic marketing services to small and medium-sized technology-influenced businesses. Find Adele on her blog, on Twitter or at adele |at| mcalearmarketing |dot| com.

Connecting Ideas and People is Next

My friend David Armano asked a question I've asked here on several occasions: what is beyond the conversation? Mike Gotta talked about a similar question in a different format a year ago. He talks about it in terms of personas. When we talked about Potable Marketing in the future of advertising, we touched upon the concept of persona.

I asked the question because I never for a moment thought it was about the conversation itself, for the sake of it. It was always about the outcomes of the conversation - connections, better projects and ROI, bigger ideas and greater executions, etc. Plus, when was the last time you were able to search for how someone was feeling?

It is about the realization of where those points of connection are and what we can do with that information. The business rules flexibility comment by Livia Labate is spot on - systems adaptability is necessary even now. When we say that technology changes, we forget that business rules and systems are also a technology - just a different kind of technology. What are the new user requirements there?

Steve Bridger says:

social networks = what's in it for me
internal communities = what's in it for us
external web properties = what's in it for them (value to customers / advertisers / etc.)

Now let's take a broader view, a step back, and think what's in it for the planet - that is social, internal (connects with our values), and external (helps connect with others). Now we are talking about bigger than just business. Yet, as Naisbitt wrote in 1994, the more universal we become, the more tribal we act.

What I'm saying here is that while technologies are great enablers - including business rules, etc. - it is the people that put those technologies to use that change the story of what is possible. The answer to how is yes - these tools will relate to each other when the individuals who use them connect the dots. I don't know about you, in this context I am thinking that there is very little redundancy, if any. (Look at what happened to Bloomberg and Steve Jobs almost being made redundant two days ago.)

The most flexible and adaptable system is that of the human kind. We are also the most complex. Our relationships and connections are multidimensional in addition to being multimedia. There is depth in links, there is greater depth where an individual truly reaches and touches another. 

This forum has allowed us to talk about ideas, stories, and executions. What is beyond this conversation are the actual connections with people - connections that in many instances have already changed at least one life: mine.

Next week and the following one, together with my reports from Europe, you will have the good fortune of connecting with a selection of professionals from the communications and marketing discipline on this blog. Some you may know already, some will be writing a post for the first time here.

You will discover how their thinking relates to the connections we have made here. I promise you it will be an amazing conversation that will go beyond mere words to what's next. My home will be their home for a day or more, I hope you will help them feel welcome, dear readers. You have been contributors all along.

[image of connecting devices by Clemson]

Blog Action Day 2008 Announced: Change the Conversation on Poverty

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Poverty has a profound effect on people and can cause ripples throughout communities. I've been very fortunate - although I've been called to make tough choices growing up and during the years I worked in the non profit sector, I've had a roof over my head and access to a superb education.

Poverty is affecting society, the enormous hole left by possibilities that go unrealized becomes even greater with our discomfort in acknowledging the gap. The rapid aging of the population in the Western hemisphere and the failing of public systems contribute to increasing demands on individuals. Many of us are called upon to assist our families in two directions for the future - children and parents.

Can we change the conversation on poverty with action? How can we tie our personal goals with helping others? What can we offer the world?

On October 15, 2008, hundreds of blogs and millions of readers will publish the results of their efforts and reach out to their readers and communities. I reached out to Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, one of the top blogs active in support of this initiative, for his take on this global conversation:

"It's frustrating for those who would like to take action to help those in extreme poverty, in our own countries and in Third World countries where billions are in extreme poverty, starving, or dying of preventable illnesses. What is needed is for us to take action, but individually, it's so hard to make a difference when the problem is so overwhelming.

In large numbers, we can not only help - we can greatly reduce the problem. The First World, for example, has the power to wipe out so much of this suffering with action by the elected officials of our countries. That's the power of this global conversation. By getting people talking, we are creating the impetus for change."

If you are considering participation, go ahead and register your blog and join 1,839 plus blogs that have already signed up, globally. These charitable organizations are affiliated with the event:

• The Global Fund with donations accepted via Change.org (FAQs on how your donation will be processed here)
• Kiva.org (for tracking purposes, use central@blogactionday.org as your referrer)
• Any other charity you may be working with (tally via receipt to central@blogactionday.org)

To give you an idea of the scope of this project, 35 blogs signed up just minutes after I did with Conversation Agent.

It is estimated that the world population as of July 2008 is about 6.684 billion. Thus far, Blog Action Day is reaching 3.2 million readers/listeners. That is less than a quarter of a percent. (In calculating it, I was reminiscent of some of my marketing budgets.)

I believe a determined group of people can change the conversation for the better. Our first action step is awareness - talking about it. Your voice counts and so do actions. Last year Blog Action Day took on the topic of the Environment - we discussed how social media is greening the planet here. Go sign up now and join the conversation on poverty, October 15. You can make a difference.

This is the kind of list that is worth belonging to. Will companies and agencies with blogs participate?
________

Related posts:

Blog Action Day 2007: How Social Media is Greening the Planet
Acts of Kindness: Make the Impossible Possible

Moments of Truth

“The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and the end are visible above the surface of consciousness. The diver vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links.”

[Arthur Koestler, British novelist, journalist]

We talk about authenticity, honesty, and truth. How many moments of truth do you have in a day, a week, a month, a quarter, a year? What is your point of equilibrium?

[image by Argenberg]