A Bigger Voice

Hidden Benefits of Being a Follower

This blog is about how to make your thought leadership more visible, to do good in the world.  But sometimes, it pays to be a follower, not a leader.  Let me explain. 

Last year, I looked for affordable technology that would support a dream--to have an Internet version of a talk show. Two webcams, broadcast via the Internet to others who could see and hear a conversation with myself and a guest, talking about an interesting topic.  Add in the ability for the audience to ask questions live, and you get an Internet talk show.

The problem was that I couldn't find a service that was both affordable and reliable. I asked smart people in related industries and still, no one knew of anything that fit what I needed.

While I was frustrated, I knew it was a just matter of time before the service I needed would be available, from a startup, as a beta.  It's what I've seen repeatedly happen in the last few years with technology.  This includes the webinar platform space, which seems to be ultra-competitive these days. (Established vendors, like Webex and Gotomeeting, should be worried at this point.)

I found my answer on a private Facebook group, for participants of Pamela Slim's Power Teaching course.  A woman who had taken the course last year posted remarks about BigMarker.com, describing her experience with the service, as well as the features that it provided over and above the competition, for *free*.  Yes, it's in beta. Yes, there are glitches.  Yes, their site could be better organized. But what they offer is exactly what I've been looking for. 

Here's the important part. I found what I needed by being a follower--by being part of Pamela Slim's tribe, and then going deeper into the experience by buying a course on what she knows from her decades of teaching, first as an instructional designer for corporate training and now as an entrepreneur. 

Being part of the eco-system of a thought leader is not just learning from the thought leader. It's learning from others who are following that thought leader. It's what comes from joining a vibrant community, that's started by a wisdom entrepreneur.

 

Resonate, Lessons From the Grateful Dead, and the Disease of Entrepreneurship

Over the last few years, this blog has expanded to talk about entrepreneurship in general, beyond being a social entrepreneur or wisdom entrepreneur.  The concepts of story-telling and community-building apply to entrepreneurship in general, especially these days. More importantly, the personal journey of creating something lasting and larger than yourself, whether it's for profit or non-profit, is the same. 

Here are resources that I recommend any entrepreneur check out:

• Resonate by Nancy Duarte.  This book is based on change management principles and the things that move people into action.  Duarte is a master at creating a compelling story that helps the listener feel the tension between what is and what can be. In this book, she analyzes great speeches in history and outlines a form that you can use to develop presentations that connect deeply to the audience. A few wonderful quotes from the book that inspire and tell me that Duarte knows what she is talking about:

"Passion for your idea should drive you to invest in communication."

"We were born to create ideas; getting people to feel like they have a stake in what we believe is the hard part."

"If you can communicate an idea well, you have, within you, the power to change the world."

• Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead, by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan. Meerman Scott and Halligan are marketing gurus who are also lifelong Deadheads. So this book is the result of walking in both worlds and realizing the connection between the two (that's a boundary crosser in my book.) Watch this video to learn more about the approach of the book.

I quickly devoured this book and finished with a renewed feeling that community-building is at the heart of a successful enterprise--whether for-profit, non-profit or anything in between.  Sure the product has to be interesting and engaging.  But it's the community that fuels the growth beyond what any business person could envision.

• Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You. This blog post is one of the best descriptions I've seen of the emotional journey that every entrepreneur makes. Even more useful is a section that matches activities the entrepreneur should undertake in each phase and what activities to avoid.  I've lived this and only wish I had read this blog post a few years ago. Photo by Kekka.

• Entrepreneurship as a Disease.  This post on the Harvard Business Review blog comes down heavily on the side of nature in the debate of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Entrepreneurs find they can't stop themselves from doing what they do. Those who have the disease will recognize themselves immediately and those who don't will wonder whether they missed out on the magic pill somewhere along the way.  I provide this last resource to help those who are often described as driven (like me) to see that it's what we are wired to do. The caveat is to pay close attention to the other blog post about emotional journey, so that you don't end up burning yourself out (like me.)

And finally, I love this HBR blog post,"On Entrepreneurship, Steve Jobs, and Unashamedly Loving Your Work." The blogger talks about one of the many gifts that Steve Jobs gave to the world--an example of what it looks like to be passionate and engaged with your work, to the very end. A favorite quote from the blog post:

"For too many, work is a grind instead of a passion, a four-letter word. I'm lucky enough to share Jobs' absolute passion for work. A good number of my friends and colleagues I know feel the same way — and entrepreneurs absolutely have to, or their businesses will fail. But it is sad to see how many people do not cherish what they do for a living."

While being an entrepreneur is not an easy path, I count myself among the lucky ones to be on this journey. 

 

Joy of (Re-)Connecting

Part of the beauty of communities is that once formed, the bonds can remain between members in the community for a long time. 

Over the years, I've played with the concept of virtual communities, through this blog and another blog for my coaching biz, and more recently, with social networking sites used for my work for alumni associations. If I were to draw these different communities, they might look like slightly overlapping Venn diagrams--very few people are part of all of these communities, but combined, it represents a lot of people. Combined, this is my brand community--the people who know the value I bring and the unique way of delivering that value, and are willing to tell others about me.

So it's been a joy recently to re-connect with members of my brand community, some of whom I had only known through phone or email or social networking sites. A few of my favorite moments in the last month:

That's me with Tim Wendel, one of our original participants in the pilot for A Bigger Voice.  I've interviewed Tim and his brother, Chris Wendel, for this blog more than once and even met Chris twice in Traverse City, MI.  But this was the first time meeting Tim on his home turf in Washington, DC.

Tim was gracious enough to meet me for a very early morning (6:30am!) coffee (although neither of us drinks coffee) and then gave me a ride to the airport, complete with historical commentary of DC sites along the way.

I was in DC to do a two networking workshops, so it was only natural that two participants from my Networking Naturally webinar series showed up. (A big shout out to @krekkas for coming to the event!) 

That's me with Yvette Owo and notice how she towers over me (with no heels!)  While Yvette and I had talked over the phone, emailed and chatted via a social networking site set up for the webinar series, we had never met in person.  So when I first met her, my first words were something like, "You are SO tall!"  An honest reaction, don't you think?

While traveling to new places can trigger a connection with someone in your virtual community, being online can be the catalyst for catching up with someone who used to be in your physical community.  Finding high school friends on Facebook is a great example of this. 

I'm providing to several university alumni associations a webinar series on using social media to enhance your career opportunities. One of the universities is my alma mater, Northwestern.  A few days before the first webinar, I received a LinkedIn invitation, with the following note:

"... just signed up for your webinar on the 16th... what a thrill to see your name! You might not remember me but you probably remember my wife..."

Turns out he's married to one of my sorority sisters who was a few years behind me. He was dating her when I was still around. We caught up on the last 25+ years in the course of a few LinkedIn messages (well, not entirely!) 

The biggest surprise of all came when I read the survey responses after I delivered that same webinar.  There's always an open question on these feedback forms that basically says, "Any other comments?"  So one respondent provided the following:

"Kudos to Carol on her very successful career transition! And, thanks, for the great information. It has been a very long time since our freshman year in Allison Hall!"

It was a woman who lived down the hall from me, who I remember as being an extremely accomplished flute player, even though she was not a music major.  I was always envious hearing her play difficult pieces with what seemed like relative ease. I struggled to play flute at the competency expected in one of the college ensembles, while trying to keep up with my course load and the studying that came along with it. I eventually stopped playing in my sophomore year.

Again, we caught up virtually through email, and at least for me, by looking at LinkedIn profiles. We talked about the twists and turns of our careers.  (No one ever expects an engineer to become a career coach.)

And finally, I received an email from a former coaching client who I had not spoken to in over a year.  She mentioned that she had been keeping up with what I've been up to through our LinkedIn connection. I replied back with a link to the aforementioned webinar, as I thought she could benefit from some of the information.  I got a response that same day.  She had already listened to the recording and was thrilled to get the information. But what struck me was when she mentioned how hearing my voice brought back so many memories of work we had done together.  I was touched.

It's truly been a blessing to connect and re-connect with so many people in my brand community over time.  Whether virtually or in-person, there's nothing quite like that feeling of having a common bond not only reinforced, but deepened.

You don't need to be doing webinars or speaking engagements to connect with your community.  But it does mean reaching out to others when you are in new places (e.g., arranging a meetup at a local coffee shop) and staying active on social media.

We now have many more ways to connect with kindred spirits, than even just a few years ago.  This is good news for wisdom entrepreneurs and other builders of communities.  It happens one post, one status update, one email, one webinar, one Skype call, one YouTube video, at a time.

PS. I was surprised to see that it had been over two months since I last posted here.  My apologies for the long absence. It feels good to be back.

How a Community Pioneered a New Way of Funding Cancer Research

I was inspired by a blog posting, The Cause to Find Cancer Causes: Direct Funding for Cancer Research by Crowd Sourcing from Millions on Causes, written by Harvard researcher, Eric Ding.

Okay, it's not a title that rolls off the tongue.  But what is easily talked about and remembered is this:

Three years ago, Ding founded the Campaign for Cancer Prevention.  Today, it's a community of 6 million people from around the world, with a shared interest in funding research for cancer prevention, and at the same time, allowing the average citizen to connect with leading edge researchers.  So far, this community has raised $300,000, to fund the first breast cancer study through public grassroots donations.  The Internet excels at cutting out the middleman.  Why not with medical research, by creating direct donor-to-researcher funding?

The impact of this new funding model is significant. According to Ding, traditional funding organizations typically have 25-35% overhead and often experience 2-5 years of bureaucratic delays in administration.  Ding estimates that by crowdsourcing the funding, 9 months or less for "innovation delivery time"  is realistic.

In an email exchange with Ding, his commitment to this cause comes through loud and clear:

"This is just the beginning...we're going to expand this cancer funding-research model even more in the coming year." 

I can't help but love that rare mix of passion, commitment and vision, leading to results worth talking about.  

Ding goes on to say how part of pioneering this new model is to allow donors to see the fruits of their "donation labor."  This is the type of transparency that plagues traditional command and control organizations and is the value-add/competitive edge for those who embrace Web 2.0.

What other stunning results can communities produce that otherwise would be unthinkable?  How are you rallying your kindred spirits to pioneer new ways of doing things?  Do let us know.....

 

 

Making the Numbers Come Alive

I continue to see Google doing stuff right. In this thank you video to its GoogleAd customers, they don't just talk about the amount of money they've donated to charity or the number of people touched. They bring the numbers to life.  It's a wonderful example of putting numbers into a human context that resonates and is easily understood:

 

 

Your job, as a wisdom entrepreneur is to figure out how to make the numbers come alive for your audience. What does it mean if more people join your cause? What is the human impact of an hour spent volunteering or a dollar donated, times a thousand? What are the results that your community cares about, in a way that's easily remembered?

Seth Forges the Way, Again

Those who follow my writing know that I'm a big fan of Seth Godin, the prolific author/blogger on the new way of marketing.  I'm used to seeing him online or reading his books but he rarely makes the newspapers. It's not where his audience is.  Until last month, when he announced that he would no longer be using a traditional publisher for his books and it made the Wall Street Journal. Photo by Joi.

This is big news for an author who seems to publish a new book every 18-24 months.

His blog readers number in the hundreds of thousands, based on great content that Godin has churned out, year after year.  His community is well-established and loyal.

This idea of self-publishing has been in the works for nearly a decade. I remember seeing Godin speak nearly a decade ago at a conference in Boston. At that time, he was talking about self-publishing and breaking down the monopoly that publishers had with authors. 

The point?  We are the beneficiaries of changes that have been in the making for a long time. Let's not squander the opportunity.  It's never been easier to spread your ideas. It still takes the hard work of building a community. The difference is that there are powerful tools to help you engage kindred spirits and there are fewer gatekeepers.

Traverse City Film Festival: Community in Action

I had the pleasure of visiting Traverse City, Michigan this summer, during their annual Traverse City Film Festival.  Started just six years ago, the festival now draws thousands of visitors to this small resort town with 135 screenings of 80 films and 40 shorts. How many paid staffers are required to run this six-day event, covering six different venues (including free outdoor movies at a local park)?  Think about that while you take a look at this video re-cap of one day during the festival:

Okay, any guesses? Would you believe two paid staffers?  I'm told that thousands of volunteers step forward every year to make this event possible.

Which got me thinking. How does an area this size (population 14,000 for the town of Traverse City, and ten times that for the surrounding four-county area ), get so many people to contribute their time and energy, for free?   It sounded to me like a community in action. 

I interviewed several long-time residents as well as one of the volunteers for the festival.  I asked the questions, "What makes this town so special?" and "What makes this festival so special?"  The answers give clues for creating a thriving community:

• Provide lots of opportunities to contribute and belong. Among the many festival volunteers, I noted a father-daughter pair. The daughter appeared to be mentally handicapped, and proud to be part of the festival.  Here's a short interview with another volunteer, talking about her reasons for volunteering:

• Make it easy for contributors to be recognized. When I asked a local journalist what makes this town so special, she replied, "You don't have to do a whole lot to get recognition. If you do a food drive, you'll get recognition."  

• Thriving communities are self-selecting.  One resident, a health care executive, stated simply, "People are here because they want to be here." 

• Pick a cause that's accessible and approachable. The tagline for the festival is "Just Great Movies." It's concrete enough for anyone to understand, yet special enough to get people involved. Several of the people interviewed talked about how the festival brings movies that they normally wouldn't be able to see.

• It takes just a few people to get something started. Watch this video of Rich Brauer, a local businessman who has been involved in the festival since the beginning:

What are you learning about creating a thriving community (either online or in-person)? Provide us with some tips by leaving a comment.

Aligning Online Behavior With the Real World

This lucid and insightful presentation gives the clearest explanation I've seen on why the online world can be so awkward at times. I found myself taking mental notes of all the people I need to tell about this presentation, because their work could benefit from seeing it.

The Real Life Social Network v2

The presentation, with footnotes that narrate, was created by Paul Adams (Twitter: @padday), a user experience (UX) researcher at Google.  It's 216 slides packed with "aha's" on how our wiring as human beings can conflict with the virtual world that's increasingly becoming more important in how live our lives. See additional detail in this post from Adams' blog.

And why is this important for wisdom entrepreneurs to understand?  Because if a main vehicle for building a community of kindred spirits is through online tools, we need to understand how to use those tools wisely, even if the tools are poorly designed for how human beings behave. Adam's point as a UX designer is to design with this knowledge in mind. But barring a vast improvement on this front in popular social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, it's up to the end user to manage. 

Creating a Movement in 3 Minutes

Take a look at this incredible video by Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby:

I particularly like the emphasis on the first follower--why being the first follower takes courage and should be embraced as an equal to the leader.  

This is also a great visual illustration of how the original idea morphs into something new as followers add their own ideas.  For more take-aways on this video, see the author's blog where he has the transcription of the narrative and some 300+ comments. 

Who are your first followers and how are you embracing them?

My thanks to Sharon Shoemaker of Fast Break Consulting for bringing the video to my attention.  Sharon and I met after I interviewed Patricia Ryan Madson for this blog.

Herd or Community?

When does a community become a herd, with a herd mentality?  And how can leaders of a community prevent this from happening, without stifling the community? Photo by sean_hickin

Last week, I attended my first Ignite Boulder event. The day after the event, I spent time writing and discussing just what I felt and observed when a community of 800+ people get together, for a fun night out. Now, I'm left with the residue of anger, angst, sadness, and lots of reflection about where we are headed as a society.  And the question about what happens when a community becomes a herd.

What I experienced at Ignite Boulder is a symptom of our society at large.  These are the early adopters, the intelligentsia, the creatives who start companies or work in start-ups. They are not only a product of our society but they also lead the way in shaping the next chapter. I say this not to be smug but rather an assessment of who Boulder attracts and who Ignite Boulder attracts. Photo by purpleslog.

The Ignite Boulder event is described on the website as:

"....a night of presentations with a twist. Presenting on a subject of their choice, speakers have exactly five minutes to teach something, enlighten us, or simply inspire—backed by twenty slides auto-advancing every fifteen seconds. Quick, fun, and smart, we sell out the Boulder Theater."

I didn't know what to expect other than that I would be in a crowd of smart, funny people, watching other smart, funny people, who are courageous enough to be on stage being smart and funny. This is the equivalent of stand up comedy for nerds. The format of the evening can easily breed gluttons in the audience, looking for the next tasty morsel (myself included.) 

Observation #1: As a society, we have gotten used to snacking instead of the full meal. Sometimes the snacks are nutritious. But just as often, they end up being junk food. Photo by Greencolander.

At the beginning of the evening,the emcee of the event gave the rules of engagement. I was surprised that this included encouraging the audience to participate, by talking back, and even heckling. He described it in terms of two sumo wrestlers, the speakers on one side and the audience on the other. As the evening wore on, I felt the uneasiness of a modern version of the Roman Colosseum. Who would be thrown to the lions next and how would the presenter react?  For some, the pressure to be the evening's hip edutainment meant that they amped up the bravado or the self-righteousness or both. For others, I could see that they clearly wanted to get to the end of the presentation by the fourth slide. What was lost in most of the presentations (14 in all) was a genuine message, borne of someone's experience, that could be taken in and digested.

Observation #2:  As a society, we have gotten confused between true public discourse, based on respect for differing views, and raw communication of impulses and feelings. And we prefer raw communication, especially when in a crowd. Photo by JMRosenfeld.

To the emcee's credit, he sensed the crowd turning, becoming more of a mob than a community. He reminded the audience that "we are a community" and that it took courage to be speaking in front of 800+ people. But no matter. The vibe of the evening had already been set by the opening remarks. The audience was just feeding off of it.

Observation #3: As a society and in communities, we take our cue from our leaders. And when leaders behave badly or misjudge the power of their words, we are all given permission to behave badly. 

This was the tenth time that Ignite Boulder had been held. Looking at the schedule of past events, the organizers have kept up a dizzying pace of holding these sell out gatherings every 6-8 weeks for the last 18 months.  There's an army of volunteers who put the show on. The proceeds go to charity.  What started out as a way to highlight talent and interesting people in Boulder has become a local version of American Idol, for our own amusement.

Observation #4: We can start out with good intentions and end up with bad results. Communities and society evolve to something that no one ever intended. Both need tending and nurturing. Otherwise, it's easy to rationalize that the end justifies the means. 

As you would expect, there is a definite feeling of an "inner circle", that there are insiders at Ignite Boulder.  Nothing wrong with that. It's what happens with all communities. (Think: 80/20 rule, 20% of the people account for 80% of the contributions.) However, the trap is thinking that the inner circle is smarter than the collective. It is not.  Some of the most uneven presentations of the evening came from speakers who were chosen by the organizers and unprepared for what they were getting into. Listen to what the entire community wants and needs, not just what the insider thinks is best. 

Observation #5: As a society and in communities, it can be seductive to view the inner circle as "the anointed."  We are all learning, together.  None of us is as smart as all of us. The stray voice will often be the one that needs to be heard the most. Photo by byrne7214

I don't have any easy answers. I do have a new appreciation for the role of community managers.  It requires a level of humility, listening, compassion, and leadership that is rare.  

This blog is about being a wisdom entrepreneur and how to turn an idea into a sustainable movement, by building a thriving community.  I'm grateful for the learning that comes with seeing communities fail, just as much as with seeing them succeed.