What Does it Mean to be Chris Brogan These Days?

Chris Brogan

For all the years you might have followed me, I never sit still in one place for too long. That's tricky to wrap your head around, especially in a world that really feels we need to categorize and understand everything. For me, I've always just chased after whatever problems seemed fun to solve, and I didn't think much about any larger overarching narrative. If there was anything in common, it's the easiest way to sum me up: I like being helpful and sharing what I know with others.

Over the years, what I've done with companies has changed a lot. I taught a lot of huge companies what business value might come from engaging people via the social networks and social media channels. I created content for companies and showed a few how to do it for themselves, assisting marketing departments and others in devising ways to reach out and connect more in a world that values different types of media.

Chris Brogan: Strategic Advisor

For the last several months, I've worked using some of my strengths in a really specific and pointed way. Strategy at its simplest is: "what's the plan?" I spend a lot of time creating plans, sharing plans, ensuring that we're working on the right parts of the plan, and often asking "does this fit into the plan?"

It's a lot of language work. If we are going to show off how well the company's products function in a "hybrid work environment" like everyone has these days, then I make sure we add in phrases like "and anyone can participate no matter where they're working today."

The client I'm working with is Appfire and I've been reporting directly to the CEO for a while now. They are a software platform comprised of over 200 apps that companies use to build better software to support businesses. Most of my meetings in any given day and almost all of my projects surround moving Appfire's strategic goals forward, and it's been fascinating. I'm learning about financial stuff, mergers and acquisition, and all kinds of detail around what it takes to guide a company from 200 employees to 400 and beyond.

Where Are You Focusing Your Attention, Chris?

This has changed a bit. While I still run Owner Media Group with Rob Hatch and that focuses on small business, I'm doing a lot in larger scale business and B2B companies these days. Appfire works on top of the Atlassian ecosystem, and doing my strategic work has led me to pay more and more attention to larger companies and strategy around that, as well as paying attention to how companies structure acquisition deals, and so forth.

Technology-wise, I'm really interested in just how far people haven't come with digitization of common business practices. Both in B2C and B2B, I'm floored how many times a business process dips back into things like paper and telephones. (I can't stand paper.) I feel like there are so many opportunities to do big work right now with helping companies digitize and work more like we should be in the future.

I watch all the gadget and tech updates all the time, but a lot of what seems to thrill other people (Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces) isn't all that interesting to me. I'm fascinated with how we can move data closer to the real world application of it, and how tools like VR/AR (XR) will change how we can display data and information in the real world.

Oh, and I'm still very happily running The Backpack Show along with Kerry Gorgone. That show continues to be a gem.

So that's me. What about you? Come chat me up. Email me at chris@chrisbrogan.com or Tweet me at @chrisbrogan :)

Personal Branding is Vital Now

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Personal branding is something I've thought a lot about for years. Branding is about a business, product, or service. Personal branding is about helping the person behind the product to stand out. It's a way to drive a strong perception of the type of person you are and by extension, to earn a little credibility in the process. The goal is for people to see themselves and see you in the product or service you're selling.

Brand Yourself But With Your Buyer In Mind

The weird yo yo trick of personal branding is that the best people in the world at personal branding are the ones who make YOU feel like the star. This work isn't about saying how great you are. It's talking about how wonderful the people you serve are, but in such a way that people think about you.

In brand positioning terms, you're a service brand or a community brand or a lifestyle brand (or all 3). Katie Robbert and Kerry O'Shea Gorgone created Punch Out as that place you go to learn about the rest of the lives of your favorite marketers. Their personal brand thusly becomes about being generous, lifting up others, enriching the brand promise of other people. They act as a community brand.

Tone of Voice is Critical

I built my own strong brand identity around a few bedrock details. These translate into the "tone of voice" of my brand. See if this sounds like me:

• My personal visual brand is casual, cartoonish, and almost a bit sloppy
• My core values are service, honesty, and inclusiveness
• The branding concept of me is "anyone could do this - YOU could do this"
• An emotional connection is core to all the material I share with people
• The only "consistent brand experience" you'll find with me is that I'm always experimenting

To shape your brand is to demonstrate what you stand for and for it to be a recurring part of your expressions. If you're frugal, don't show off your matching Teslas. If you're trying to say you're down to earth and spontaneous, don't be buttoned up all the time.

Think through this:

• What does your word choice say about your brand? Are you using big words when your brand is supposed to be down to earth?
• Even if you're shy, you need to show yourself. Can you dress in a way that matches what you believe and how you want to be perceived?
• Beyond selling (but also during selling) what do you talk about? What do you share? Does it match what you want people to think about you?

"Influencers" are the Devil

Before we had people trying to be "influencers," we had people trying to be "authentic." (After I typed that, I took my hands off the keys to accentuate air quotes - two pumps of my fingers each - because that word is Satan.)

The ways that people try to walk around and represent your brand are almost always about positioning and telling a story that isn't true. If you normally eat hot dogs, you're not a foodie. If you're ever trying to be something you're not, and it's part of a business pursuit, I'll save you time: it rarely ends well.

Communicate Your Brand

Ze Frank once said "a brand is an emotional aftertaste" that comes from experiences. You know "show, don't tell." That's the point. The more you talk about what you are, the less likely you are that thing. So show it.

Establish brand experiences by talking about the kinds of people you serve in terms that echo your intended brand voice. "We're moms who love to help teachers get time back in their day. We know you're busy! Let us help you get better results with your students. Your students are our kids. Let's be on the same team!"

"You have smarts that someone else needs. Sell your brains."

The best personal branding revolves around "you" stories (the kind that enrich your buyer) but that reflect your part of that equation.

How to Build Your Personal Brand

For your brand to thrive, you need the following:

• Clear and unique voice and perspective as it relates to the people you serve
• Consistent publication of media that reflects that voice
• A recurring delivery of value from the media you create and share

Think about that before your next Instagram post. "Am I saying something in my own way or am I someone else's echo?" If someone else reads this, is there a chance they'll take something from it?

"But can I build a brand and stay anonymous?"

I mean, you can build *a* brand, but it's not a personal brand. The word personal and the word anonymous really don't mean the same thing whatsoever.

What people want from you as it applies to personal branding is the following:

• Are you like me?
• Do you share my values?
• Can I trust you?
• Will you help me win?
• What happens when something goes wrong?

Think about your own experiences. When your car needs engine work, do you wonder about those five questions? The last three are definite. The first two might depend on what you're buying for some people. I want someone to be honest like me, obviously. I want them to be understanding.

The last and maybe most important step about personal branding is perhaps the hardest.

Can You Be "Sticky?"

The most powerful part of branding is whether what you create is memorable. Advertising is a powerful tool when it comes to this. Think of all the ads you remember to this day:

• Who is the "quicker picker upper?"
• Plop plop. Fizz Fizz. _______
• The best part of waking up is _____

Advertising works through a combination of something being memorable to begin with and then being repeated enough that you can't forget it. That's an element of personal branding that gets lost often.

The key to being sticky, then, is a formula. An equation maybe. Luckily, Julien Smith and I wrote The Impact Equation for just this purpose. I'll give you the quick rundown here:

Impact = Contrast x Reach + Exposure + Articulation + Trust + Echo.

• Contrast - Does what you say or do stand out
• Reach - How far does your message carry
• Exposure - How often do people see it
• Articulation - Can you say it succinctly
• Trust - Are you believable
• Echo - Can people see themselves in you

That's the impact equation and it really means a lot for the personal branding effort. More than most anything else I've written thus far. If you master that little gauge: CREATE, you will see the value of putting your marketing and outreach efforts through that lens before publishing.

Beyond saying something useful, you have to say it in a memorable way. That's the gold.

Brand Management for Personal Brands

I don't know if this is "management" per se, but what I mean is that it's upon you to create information frequently and share it often, information that serves their pursuits. "They" being the people you serve, naturally. The management aspect of personal branding is that it's so easy to fall out of being top of mind. What stops that from happening?

Reach + Exposure from the Impact Equation help. Take your Articulate and sticky phrases and share them often and far and wide, especially if they help others. Do this often. Do this in new ways with new words. Don't let anything get too old, but say things repeatably enough that others can sing along. Write the hits. Play the hits.

And now you're well on your way to mastering personal branding. It takes work, practice, and all the luck of saying something that catches the attention and imagination of others. I hope this was useful. If it was, share it?

Finally, I'm always available to help you with this through coaching. Just use my contact form or drop me an email: chris@chrisbrogan.com

Content Marketing in 2020

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Content marketing gets a bad rap because a lot of it is so badly wrapped. What happens in the land of marketing and business (b2b marketing or B2C - it doesn't matter) is that someone takes a good concept and sullies it with poor execution. A strong intention becomes a watered down effort to lure people into a sales funnel with search terms. While SEO is a useful part of earning attention, it's not the soul of content marketing. Let's talk about that.

Content Marketing Strategy is About Being Helpful

Attention spans in 2020 are shot. The COVID-19 pandemic and other world events pushed us into having to consume more than our share of news. It's built an intention of shutting out too much information. But what types of content earn attention? Helpful material never goes out of style.

One way to help: brevity. People want the payload, not the fluff. Whether it's business goals or personal pursuits, skip the backstory and cut out the fat.

Guide people by making all your content simple to scan, easy to read, and worth bookmarking for later. By this, I mean: use subtitles and bullets. Create transitions and straightforward messaging. Don't make people work to consume what you create.

Content Types for Context Types

Video marketing is an undeniable part of 2020's content marketing landscape. It's useful for when we feel like being nurtured, or when people's content needs also match a desire to lean back and simply absorb the material. But what if many of your target audience are in a car for long stretches (like truck drivers or suburban commuters)? Then a portion of your marketing methods would be better suited for audio. If not a full fledged podcast, then at least audio content you can invite the recipient to play while commuting. Remember that just because you might prefer text, the most effective way to reach people is the type to choose. Never let your preference guide this choice.

Use Different Types of Content But Tell the Same Story

While matching content to the customer journey, remember that it's preferable to tell your story across a variety of marketing channels. If a prospective customer is evaluating your product, shoot an Instagram video showing why your product is the better choice for them. Follow it with an infographic comparison chart or the like. Remember that you can get quite varied in delivery methods. Make a Slideshare of "How to Convince Your Boss to Buy Our Product for You" and arm your internal allies with what you know. But be sure that you use an editorial calendar or content calendar (however you prefer to call it) so you have an eye towards optimizing earned attention.

Perform a Content Audit

It's easy to mistake content marketing efforts and published material for being actually useful. But there's so much at stake. All content is a reflection of your branding. If the content marketing your organization creates doesn't serve both the consumer of that material and the sales team, it's not content marketing. It's just content.

A content audit investigates whether your organization's marketing strategy and tactics align with its business objectives. If funny dance videos don't make the phones ring, then who cares? But at the same time, if your company still pushes bland white papers circa 2000 because you're "doing b2b marketing," then you're missing far too many opportunities. There are so many ways to reach more people and earn more customers. But it takes effort and it can't be phoned in. It's 2020. Let's get you ready for the years ahead.

May I Help?

I offer consultation around business strategy and marketing as it applies to content marketing and much more. I'm quite available to help, should you want to talk that over and see how I can get your company's content marketing to serve you better. Just drop me a line via this contact form and I'll get right back to you. Or email me directly: chris@chrisbrogan.com . Either way. I'm here to help.

Personal Leadership

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Personal leadership is at the core of my new project, StoryLeader™. My premise is that in a world where effective leadership is more of a team sport, great leaders are the kind who work to develop their teams with good leadership qualities of their own. Let's talk about which leadership attributes will help the most, and how being a leader means growing even more leaders along the way.

A Change In Leadership Styles

One change since the COVID-19 pandemic is that team members must work much more independently, especially as more people work-from-home (WFH). Personal leadership is the art of training up your team and empowering them. The goal for those teams is to operate as leaders from within their role while still supporting the greater structure of the organization. An effective leader is now one who motivates and encourages the unique strengths of her team and seeks a collaborative experience to grow team capabilities.

Communication Skills for Leaders

The core of communication is a mix of clarity, brevity, participation, and empathy, with a topping of keeping the objective central to the experience. That's a lot. Let's walk through it:

• Objective-minded - always communicate from the mindset of the goal you seek to accomplish.
• Participatory - communication is a more-than-one sport. The best communicators don't only know how to speak. They know how to listen, and how to bring a sense of being valued to the other person or people in the interaction.
• Clear - clarity is so vital to good communication these days. Attention spans are shot. Be very succinct in what you're asking.
• Brief - brevity is more than the soul of wit. Teach your team the "one topic per email/message" Practice reviewing messages to see if they could be shorter. Make it an okay thing to point out how to tune up brevity.
• Empathic - communication is about understanding the feelings behind the mindsets of everyone involved. Businesses (most especially b2b) never talk about this. Which is why they're rarely as successful as they want to be with communications.

None of this just appears magically for your team. To inspire personal leadership around communication, articulate what you want for the team, and encourage constructive reviews of communications whenever possible. Practice wins this.

Collaboration as a Team Sport

If bosses teach effective leadership skills around collaboration, colleagues learn to work towards group success instead of individual contributions alone. Collaboration promotes blending strengths and weaknesses of a team. If Jeremiah loves taking meeting notes, let him. If Imani is your most charismatic team member, and she loves leading client calls, make that her core. Build your team not to be repetitive replacement parts, but instead a team of experts in their core skills, and then work on cross-training. Second only to communication, collaboration is a great place to encourage strong leadership behaviors.

Configuration: Reshape Every Space

One important leadership trait is to break free of the "factory assembly line" mentality of decades past. I've said it in different ways in several of my most recent posts. Developing leaders need to feel a sense of ownership of their environment. Bosses must value their team's approach and contribution to these projects as well. Look at this as further empowerment and a way to find comfort around their place in the organization's value.

The idea of configuration is the concept that everything we observe isn't what it has to be. Put the chairs where you want them. Take the clock out of the meeting room. Get ready... Let the team pick some of the software the team uses. (Yikes!)

If you're going to lose language like "subordinates" and stop worrying about being a "motivational leader" and instead work on growing a team of transformational team members dedicated to helping your organization win.

Chris Brogan runs StoryLeader™, a training program for leaders and growing personal leaders alike. Combining communications, collaboration, and configuration as the core of leadership training, Chris teaches the three major types of business storytelling tools available to teams, and points to a way to approach the challenges of recovering lost business and leading distributed teams in a post-COVID 19 world.

Business Storytelling

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Business storytelling is the act of using story as a way to interact with others to convey business values and/or business information. I like to say that "story is the best unit of memory" (tweetable) and that's because the goal of business storytelling is to help information stick, both internally among various teams and leadership, as well as externally in alignment with marketing, sales, customer service, and other parts of a company.

Stories to Tell

There are three types of business stories the way I teach it:

• Mission stories - stories that help people understand and align with the mission of the organization. "We work to give every mother the tools she needs to raise compassionate athletes."
• Belonging stories - these are stories that inform people that they are in the right place, so to speak. "Moms of athletes don't always agree, but they all want their kids to have what they need to thrive."
• Growth stories - part motivational talk and part "corrective" language, this helps employees stay aligned with the mission of the organization. "While we want you to sell as many coaching packages as possible, it's important to work within the budgets and schedules of the mothers you're supporting."

One doesn't have to be any kind of master storyteller to make this happen. Remember that the definition of story is simply "an account of people an events." While I'll show you some story structure as it applies to business storytelling, essentially the spirit of your work here is to learn that a story helps people remember important information better than most any other tool.

Business Storytelling Approach

The goal of every story you tell should be to convey information in a memorable (and maybe even repeatable) way. Because these are business stories, and the goal isn't to become some kind of master storyteller of fairy tales or something, let me give you a few more details to consider:

• Clarity - Business stories must be succinct and clear. There should never be a surprise. Instead, people need their information to be straightforward and understandable.
• Brevity - The attention span of people these days is diminished from stress, from too much information, and from a shift in how we prefer to consume knowledge. Create brief stories. Snacks more than meals. And seek to be as brief as possible while staying clear.
• Metaphors - To craft a compelling story, sometimes an easy tool is a metaphor. "Life is a stream. It flows in one direction and when we step out of the water, we can never get back in at the exact same moment." That sort of thing is a metaphor.

The first two should be used all the time. The last is a tool you can use more as a condiment than a meal. (A metaphor.) "Think of metaphor as a condiment, not a meal." <-- that's a tiny business story to remind you how to use metaphors in your writing. (Not much in the "account of people and events" department, but we'll stretch the definition a little.)

Content Marketing Thrives on Compelling Stories

I'm working on a project with my friend Saul Colt. The goal is to help physical stores and galleries all across Canada to build online storefronts to enable these organizations to sell online. While brainstorming ways to earn more sign-ups for this project, I came up with two different ideas (stories) that complement the project and can be told as content marketing (in this case, on Instagram).

The project is called "shopHERE powered by Google" and because I want to encourage more people to sign up, I proposed storytelling elements that are a play on "shop here." The first is built around regional business pride and uses the hashtag #myshopishere . The second is about women-run businesses and the uses the hashtag #shopHER (minus the e. Get it?) They're meant to be quite relatable (as good stories are).

If I didn't tell you much else about the campaign, can you imagine the kinds of photos people will take for 'My shop is here?' Pizza places. A favorite nail salon. Maybe a cool pawn shop would be part of it. And of course 'Shop her' is about empowering women owners, like an auto body shop, and an MMA gym, and so on.

The projects are content marketing designed to drive awareness and signups to the shopHERE powered by Google project, but the STORIES are about regional pride and woman-owned businesses. Make sense?

Storytellers Invite Their Listeners to be the Protagonist

The power of storytelling works best when it becomes a collaboration between the creator of the story and the consumer of that material. The reader or listener or viewer best experiences compelling storytelling when they are invited to tell the story from their perspective and participate in it themselves.

Star Wars has stuck with us better than many other media properties because the stories are bigger than the main characters. Even if you don't want to be Luke or Leia, you can decide if you want to be an Imperial Tie fighter pilot or a rebel scout or someone else in the captivating stories that follow.

Story, as it turns out, works best when it is a collaboration.

In business, this can happen in branding. On the day I wrote this to you, Nike's website has a tag line that says "Where All Athletes Belong." They're pushing inclusivity and this goes beyond a marketing strategy and instead pushes deep into the fabric of their brand stories overall. It matches.

Story Structure is a Powerful Starting Point

You've watched a TED talk before, I presume. Reserved to no more than 18 minutes (there are very few exceptions to this online), presenters are trained and drilled in how to craft stories that start with cores of data visualizations or case studies and add an emotional connection to the material. Sometimes these are funny. Other times, they make us see what we thought we fully understood in a new light. And even other times, we simply enjoy the experience and go along for the ride.

The structure of TED, the little details, how it all gets wrapped together into a compelling narrative is worth understanding for your future business communications as well. I recommend Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo, a book that is every bit as useful today as the day it was published.

How to Get Started

With business storytelling, you might be thinking: "Okay, I don't disagree with you, Chris, but I'm not sure what to do now with this information." Fair enough. I'll help.

1. Write a story of what your product/service is and who it helps. The agile user story template works well for this: As a <type of user>, I want <some goal> so that <some reason>. Being able to answer this succinctly helps you see your business more clearly.
2. Work on a few sentences around this: The type of people who buy from us are ___ . They like __ and they don't want ___ . (This is a belonging story.)
3. If you were hiring a new employee today and she will be working from home, what story does she need to know that sums up the culture of your organization? Are you sticklers for timeliness? Are you a very collaborative company? Are the rules cut and dry and there's not really a lot of flexibility? (Remember, this isn't always a bad things: franchises must follow the systems that are in place.)
4. Write a few sentences around the ideal customer experience. "If everything went flawlessly, a customer would start on our website and click here. And then..."
5. At a team meeting, host an exercise around "A meal we used to have at home." Have people write down some details or a paragraph to explain something about food that inspires at least a little emotional attachment.

End Clearly and Strong

Another detail. For whatever reason, it seems that the art of ending a story is lost on the world. The best endings point to what might come next. In many ways, the best endings are beginnings. This piece ends with me offering help, which might lead to a beginning. Your stories might end in different ways. But "stopping" and "creating an ending" are vastly different efforts and exercises. You want to end clearly. Like this.

If You Want More Help

My core business at StoryLeader™ is dedicated to improving your success with expressing yourself within (and outside of) your organization. I help you convey your intentions, clearly express your business goals and values and needs. And I'm an expert at turning that terrifying blank page into something you can run with and complete on your own with confidence. Never hesitate to drop me a line either by email (chris@chrisbrogan.com) or by just filling out my contact form.

Don't Try to Be Authentic. Be Brave

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"How to be authentic." People talk to me about authenticity a lot because they pay me the "compliment" that I am authentic. First, I don't think it's a good pursuit: learning how to be authentic. Second, I feel there's a better goal: how to be brave. Because when people talk about authenticity, what they really mean is that they want the confidence to be who they really are and feel brave about talking about it.

"How to Be Authentic" Isn't a Very Good Goal

I say this because it means you're learning how to portray authenticity, not how to live with confidence. The term "authenticity" when used in the way people throw it around means to be accurate, factual, reliable. It means that you mean what you say and say what you mean. It troubles me that people feel they can't do this. But of course, that's not really what one is saying.

Learn to Be Brave. You'll Appreciate It More

Bravery is built on courage, and the root of courage is the ability to do something despite feeling fear. That seems a better concept to master. For instance, if you're like me and you deal with depression, it's "authentic" that I say that because it's factual and reliable and accurate, but it's also "brave" because I say this information knowing that it might sway someone to not hire me. (In my calculus, if a company doesn't work with people who deal with depression, they're probably not my kind of people.)

The path to bravery is simply through repetition of effort on one hand, and through contemplating what matters to you on the other. There are so many areas of your business and life where you would do to be more brave:

• Learn not to talk so much, and listen more without fear that people might think you're not so smart.
• Practice hearing someone's concerns without overlaying their words with your own autobiography.
• Experience that it's okay not to know everything without worrying that people won't trust your knowledge about what you do know.

Bravery is about repeatedly confronting what you thought would scare you (or does scare you) and beating it. It's also about learning more about what matters to you.

Bravery Beats Authenticity

A lot of my friends suddenly found themselves working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their bosses at various companies hadn't run many remote teams, and didn't have the tools necessary to manage remote employees. Instead of bravely telling their teams: "Hey, we're all new to this. Let's talk about how we can make this work best for everyone," they acted as if they were professionals in this regard. But lacking that knowledge, they put their teams into greater stress and reduced productivity by forcing more frequent status meetings, and far more video contact than is necessary.

Imagine being a team member working with that group, and having some suggestions. Is it authentic to share your ideas with the boss? No. It's brave. Which one helps more? Authentic means being factual and trustworthy. It doesn't mean you'll tell people you report to what you think might better suit the team as far as arrangements for remote working and status check-ins.

How to be Brave

Instead of worrying about authenticity, focus on helping others. Instead of wondering when you'll get your turn, work on what you're doing. Instead of thinking about what you're missing out on, sink yourself into what you can build for yourself.

Stop worrying about what you'll lose. There are always more things and people and opportunities out in the world than there are days left in your life. Don't hold on so tight, and you'll find your hands free to reach out for the next opportunity and the next.

Bravery is a verb. It's an active state. It's a morning ritual and a daily promise. It's learning that mistakes aren't failure as much as they're another opportunity to try something else. And failure is just an outcome you didn't expect or intend.

I wrote a book about bravery a few years back. The lessons all still work the same way. It's about building up the tools to be more brave and it might be useful. Let me know. I'm always here to help.

Work With Me

If you're looking for personal or corporate team coaching, I'm always available to help you win. Just get in touch.

I'm always here to help.

Leadership Skills for After the Pandemic

Restaurants Reopening After the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Leadership skills haven't changed much in some ways. In others, we're at a whole new turn in the road for organizations as they learn how to manage teams remotely, as they grapple with issues of transmitting corporate culture without so much physical proximity. What we knew before March 2020 must be checked, edited, revised, and maybe just plain thrown out. So what can we do? What should we do? What does it take to be a great leader now?

Leadership Skills for After the Pandemic

The top qualities of an effective leader revolve these days circle a "Big 3" traits to focus on: communication, collaboration, and configuration. When you see those three topics, your first response is likely: "What? I do all that. I know all about that." But it's different these days. I'll explain.

Communication - The new rule of communicating and being a leader involves brevity and clarity. In writing and verbally, learn to be crisp and clear. Start at the "ask" or the most important point. Chop out explanations and segues. One topic per message.

Collaboration - Bring part of the project, and let the team fill in the rest. Embrace and encourage a diversity of thought. Motivate team members to share their experience as it applies to the project. Inspire team members to own some of the leadership tasks of any given experience.

Configuration - Factories are over. Leading like you run a factory is over. Teams and leaders must embrace more chances to make work what they need it to be. The Work From Home (WFH) elements of COVID-19 showed that office hours didn't exactly have to be synchronous. What else can be configured differently? Do you need people to live near the office any longer? If not, what else has to change?

As leaders work on their own efforts with communication, collaboration, and configuration, so too will team members need to learn more about how to do the same. Distributed teams means remote leadership and personal leadership become quite important to everyone. Not only will management skills need to exist at the individual contributor level, but also the competencies of listening, delegation and strong interpersonal skills will hinge on being able to improve in the three big Cs.

Good Leaders Inspire Action. Great Leaders Grow More Leaders.

Gone is the fear that you as a boss have to know everything. Empathy and self-awareness become much more important, as do a strong emotional intelligence as well as the humility to presume that you don't always have the best answer, and that maybe your team members do.

Develop your leadership by growing more leaders. Invite team members to take parts of a project as their responsibility. But empower and educate them a little bit first. The leadership skills necessary to run parts of your business aren't immediately obvious. (Remember when you started?) Teach them the Three Big Cs above. Everyone needs those. And here are a few more leadership skills to encourage strategic thinking.

If this, then what? - Teach your budding leaders to walk through decisions before taking the action. In his book "It's Your Ship," Captain Michael Abrashoff teaches as part of his leadership method the concept of "I intend to." It's a level of leadership where team members don't execute without permission but where they bring their recommended path of action for review by saying, "I intend to take the following action."

Which decisions need making? - Team members sometimes burn time not knowing which parts of business need more thorough decision making and which don't merit the time spent. Sometimes, aspiring leaders weigh the strengths and weaknesses of every possible step of a project, instead of knowing which parts can be accepted as a given, or which can be ignored. Teach your aspiring leadership candidates the skill of knowing which parts of a project need a solid decision making system.

Is this aligned with the ultimate goal? - Some people as they attempt successful leadership get far too stuck in task oriented mindsets. Instead, drive goal-level leadership at all turns. Ensure that tasks completed are only valuable if they advance the goal and that filling out a checklist every day isn't nearly as valuable as moving a project towards a timely and cost effective solution.

Inspire Two-Way Mentorship

As the leader of a team, make it clear that you thrive on developing your team. But also, be just as clear that you seek to learn from the diverse wealth of backgrounds your team employs. Be open to learning new approaches, to understanding different cultural and skill experiences. Actively seek out this two-way mentorship and guidance. Build it into how you spend team time on projects. The rewards will be remarkable.

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Ask About Leadership Training

Chris Brogan wants to talk with you.

If you want to explore what leadership training looks like for your organization using the StoryLeader™ system, please get in touch. Drop an email at chris@chrisbrogan.com or fill out my nifty contact form.

People Need Brevity in Stories in 2020 and Beyond

It seems that when people try to communicate, they mostly try to push the most stuff they can into our heads at one time. We say that business storytelling is very important but we don't teach people how to do it. In the absence of instructions, a lot of people believe that saying more is the same as giving someone useful information.

Brevity is Key for Business Storytelling

Have you looked at a recipe on YouTube lately? We often have to slog through 11 minutes just to get even the simplest recipe. But it doesn't have to be that way. Look at this amazing video to see a great example of brevity:

He got three different hummus recipes into a video that was less than three minutes long. Think on that the next time you say that brevity isn't possible.

How Do We Work With Brevity?

1. Start with the end point in mind: What does this story need to do?
2. Trim any explanations: The #1 killer of brevity is thinking we have to explain something beyond a brief in-context line or two at the most.
3. One idea per interaction: We try to cram too much information into all communications efforts. Make each interaction about one thing. Or one small grouping.
4. Read it aloud: Any writing benefits from your voice out loud. If it doesn't sound like something you'd actually say, delete it. (Hint: read this post out loud. Sounds like someone talking, right?)
5. Think bullets and lists: Our brains love small lists. We love bullets. Communicate that way.

There's a Time for More Words

But it's far less often than you'd think. You can fire someone politely and professionally with three sentences. You can profess your love with three words. You can communicate entire oceans of meaning with a single look.

Think brevity first at all times. Every time you add more, it's usually because you're feeling insecure or afraid. Hurts to hear that, I know, but it's true.

Until it's time to NOT be true.

If you want to learn more about how I can help you with leadership, marketing, and sales advice, peek at this and then drop me a line. I'd love to help.

Why Business Storytelling is a Necessary Tool for 2020 and Beyond

Whenever someone tells you "stories are an important part of leadership," you do what most people do: you nod and shrug and wonder what the heck anyone means by that. And yet, we use stories informally every day. Your business meeting with prospects breaks for lunch and what do you do? Tell stories of your families and where you're from, or seek out what each of you have in common. (These are belonging stories in my Three Story Types for Business.) Everyone knows they should be doing something, but what? Why? And how?

Stories Transfer Leadership DNA

When I launched StoryLeader™, I realized I needed a way to explain the core benefit of the leadership training practice. What we do when we tell business stories is we transfer leadership DNA throughout the organization. The goal of the stories then becomes ensuring that people at all levels understand what kinds of goals and intentions their leadership has in mind, that people closer to the front line understand what decisions their leadership might make in a given situation, and that with everyone operating from the same perspective, friction is reduced to a minimum.

If you run an analytics group, one of your core mission stories might be about how your organization's role is to act as a "backup brain" to the groups you support, and that your primary function is to absorb and relieve all their primary brain worries while being alert to prompt for future threats and trends. The more your team thinks about what it means to be a "backup brain," and that "absorbing worry" is a core function of that brain, they'll align their decisions and efforts accordingly.

2020 is About Upskilling and That Requires Growth Stories

In the fast world of transformation culture, organizations have to be able to shift quickly with new opportunities, adapt and be more resilient. As human capital starts to account for as much as 50% of a company's value (source), it becomes important that leaders tell belonging stories so that people feel valued, included, and most vitally part of the solution for all and any challenges that arise.

Employee retention is an exercise in storytelling matched by actions that support the story. The third story type in StoryLeader™ are called growth stories. Sometimes, these are corrective or lesson tales. Other times, they are the stories that empower us or invigorate us during the challenging parts of our work.

Studies say over and over that when an employee starts to seek employment elsewhere, it's almost never an issue of pay. More often than not, disengagement comes when the employee no longer feels like they are working on meaningful work. The right growth stories and belonging stories (fronted by action that shows that employee a path to being part of solid execution) are more vital than any dollar or title increase.

Telling Stories is Now a Participatory Sport

The 2019 movie box office revenue for the US was $11.9 billion, but if you add worldwide revenue, the number goes up to $42 billion. That's a pretty decent figure for movies as entertainment.

UNTIL

Until you realize that the video game industry took in $120 billion last year. Before you scoff and think of yourself as not a video game person, mobile games accounted for $64.4 billion on its own, dwarfing traditional PC or console games.

Why am I sharing this? Because storytelling (movies) has become far more interactive (video games). That means we as leaders have to learn not only how to tell a business story, but that we have to build participatory stories where everyone absorbs and acquires the leadership DNA you intend to transfer.

No, you don't have to create video games to tell business stories (they fail horribly when people try). But you do have to learn how to tell a more participatory story. (I can help!) Stories must be crafted to be more bite-sized (like a series of text messages) and with room for others to participate and lead from their own level, while retaining the core importance of the mission stories that form the organization's objectives and intentions.

What Does This Do?

Working on business stories improves decision making, cuts down on rework, reduces friction, and obviously saves time and money in the process. By learning the simple (but not easy) skills of telling better business stories that reinforce the organization's mission, people's sense of belonging, and everyone's path to growth, leaders can focus more on vision and clearing roadblocks. Smart leaders let stories do the heavy lifting, and what I shared in this article is why.

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Chris Brogan runs StoryLeader™ as a leadership training experience. Get in touch here.

Skills for the Coming Years

I was asked which skills would be important for business professionals in the coming years, a question I love because I definitely read every article that came out giving me this guidance when I was young and hungry in business. (By this, I mean I still love these articles - except I'm old and hungry.)

Skills for the Coming Years

I feel you'd do yourself an incredible favor if you focused on a few capabilities more than others. You might not need everything I am about to share, but pick as many as you can.

Project Management - you're the boss of you more than ever before. In a massive company, you have more autonomy. In a solo business, you can only turn to yourself. But people are horrendous at managing their time and resources. Learn some basic project management skills, and learn to stick to your own commitments.

Clarity/Brevity - people have less time than ever before -- at least they feel that way. They multitask and split their attention. To communicate, you need to be brief and clear and say what needs saying without having to write a novel to get there.

Video and Audio Making - people are reading less than ever before. The same people who don't have time are the ones who binge watch entire seasons of TV shows in two sittings (one if you're really committed). Podcasts are having their fifth or sixth renaissance. Learn how to simply "be" on video and audio. Practice that the way it wasn't natural for you to email or text people back in the day. Get GOOD with being you on camera and in someone's ear. Even if you never produce an actual "show." This sounds fancy but it's basic. It's the basic building blocks of modern communication.

Information Curation - you can try to read everything and watch everything and try to catch up and blah blah, but it's not working. You have to pare back. A lot. There's no value in blindly searching haystacks for inspiration or to "stay informed." There's so much content coming out that you will never make a dent in it. Pick sources to learn from and jettison the rest. Swap it up from time to time. Learn to stop reading/watching. Learn to discern.

Interfacing - I'm using this like a verb which kinda grosses me out, but stick with me. Learning how things and people and systems and the like all connect is a VITAL skill in the coming years. Nothing is staying the same. Everything is adapting. We need to keep sharp with our skills to connect one thing to another, be that people, culture, technology, foods, etc. Working with others. Collaborating. Matching what you do to what someone else does. This is the hardest one and probably the one that will save many businesses. (Sociology is a good subject to study.)

What We Thought Mattered Didn't As Much

Someone was bragging about all they knew the other day (stuff like all the state capitals). I realized that everything they were talking about was at my fingers with Google and that if I cluttered my brain with it, my life wouldn't be any better or worse. No one ever pulls a gun and says, "Quick, the capital of Pennsylvania!"

Coal miners don't want coal mining jobs. They want jobs. They want to provide. They don't feel they have the skills to do something else.

A lot of times, we cling to the wrong part of the equation. I used to think that the more domain knowledge I had in a particular technology, the more useful I was to the world. But everything I once mastered doesn't even matter any more. Almost all of my technical proficiencies were wiped out by cloud computing, the death of middleware, and people's shift to apps over server-based environments. If I had doubled down, I'd be a coal miner of another kind.

Are you working on your future skills?

It's Not Who You Know

You've been told that it's not what you know; it's who you know. That's almost true. It's who you know that you maintain good relationships with that matters most. Warm contacts, not just contacts. Years ago, my friend and boss at the time Jeff Pulver told me, "You live or die by your database." I've guided my business by that principle ever since, and it continues to pay off.

Warm Connections Beat "Contacts"

I'm typing this from the dining room table of two friends who are now also clients. I've known them for years now. Gary is a chef and author and Sylvia is a photographer and creative. They own a boutique inn located in the fabled Hamptons in New York, and through that, I've seen them nurture guests and deliver amazing customer experiences. They treat their friends as if there's no one else in the world besides them and it's a treasure to bask in their presence.

When they asked me to come work with them on a few projects (some marketing and some business work), I said yes without a moment's hesitation. And while I've worked with the two of them in limited ways over the past several years, this is our first big business undertaking.

My point is this: these are the types of engagements you want in business. You want to work with people you like. You want to work with people who matter. And that takes time and effort.

The Opposite of Serendipity

Some parts of life happen by chance. They're beautiful. Sometimes, we meet someone simply because they've wandered into our world. That's great.

But for business purposes, and for life plans, and for mapping out a way to thrive, I have to caution you: your business success will increase if you learn how to nurture warm connections with people who you want to work with in business and in life. This particular success comes from effort, not serendipity.

How to Keep Contacts Warm

I could tell you the simplest method possible:

• Make a simple spreadsheet with names and contact columns, an area for notes, and an area for an ongoing log of dates.
• Ensure it has a "last contact" column where you can add a date.
• SCHEDULE TIME to reach out and connect with people on your list daily (or almost daily).
• Do this a lot.
• Visit people when you can.

I know it's insane. I know you wanted there to be more to this. But this is how it works. You connect. You observe. You leave messages. You recognize the good work of others. You find ways to help however you can, even in small ways.

And here's the most important one:

You make warm introductions where it makes sense between people you know, and using the following model.

1. Ask party one if an introduction to party two might be helpful. Wait for a yes.
2. Ask party two if they're willing to connect with party one. Wait for a yes.
3. Introduce both parties and get out of the way.
4. Follow up with party one and party two separately after the fact.

(I can't tell you how many times someone sends an email to me and someone else without following this model and how rarely this is beneficial to either me or the other party.)

Trust in Relationships

I never connect with people solely for business. I have to like the person. I have to want to eat meals with them, drink beverages with them, and laugh outside of work with them.

And I just lied. I said "never." Every time I end up doing business with someone I don't really like much, it fails. Either I don't give it enough love, or the other party treats the business relationship as transactional, and nothing good comes of it.

I don't know. Maybe other people can do this. I can't. I need to actually like the people I work with.

I just gave you a super easy recipe to work this way. Trying it might benefit your business. What do you think? Willing to try?

(And drop me an email - chris@chrisbrogan.com)

If a Recession is Coming Soon, We Have to Prepare

The data is piling up. Nobody says we're headed for a recession definitively because no one really wants to be wrong. But look at this from Brookings. Peek at these points in Newsweek. Some experts have a guess on timing, but that one reads a bit too political for me (economies aren't exactly subject to political pressure as much as people like to claim their influence over them). I don't know enough about this, so I look at what investors are saying.

When I think of recessions, I think about customer acquisition and retention.

The way through a recession is to service your existing customers such that they want to stay firmly in place, and this is also an opportunity to acquire new customers who feel poorly treated by your competitors. To get there, we have to think about all this from the buyer's perspective. Remember, we're all in the same recession. You know how you're looking around at which expenses to trim? So are the people who pay you. You're their expenses.

Acquisition efforts need to shift towards efforts to show your company's ability to handle clients/customers with care and personalization. One of the biggest recurring complaints in business is that people feel like a number. This is B2B, B2C - it's universal. We're sick of fitting in. We want to go somewhere that we feel like we belong.

In these times, the "little guy" customer feels lost in the shuffle while dealing with your competitor, so show them how you'll treat them like a VIP. Be clear about it. Give them tangible details like "We give you one number to call and text-message-simple service interactions."

Retention becomes about helping your customers weather the same storm you're going through. This can take many forms. If you're doing net-30 payment terms, can you switch to net 45 or 60 for the next six months or so? Can you work with the clients through education efforts to get more out of the product or service you've sold them? Can you help them "stretch out" what you've sold to serve them longer? (Like hamburger helper for business.)

These are just a few strategies. In lots of cases - very many - it's as simple as improving communication, outreach, and being more visible. I know that sometimes the feeling is that if you "lay low" people will forget about you and skip over you in the chopping process, but that's not a great plan (in my not-at-all-humble opinion). When the chips are down, we remember the allies who got us through the rough months.

I'm working with companies on this and other acquisition/retention issues right now. I've got slots for a few clients, so if you want me to kick the tires on what you've got going on and make some informed recommendations and build a few plans out for you, just get in touch. I'm here to help!

Who Put Chocolate in my Peanut Butter?

In his book, Choose Yourself, James Altucher turned me on to the concept of "idea sex." Mash two things together. Get your ideas mingling with other people's ideas. Little column A, little column B. That kind of thing. You get it, right? Just whatever you think it means, that's what it means. But I think you're already there. Idea sex is a good way to mash things for a better output.

Collaboration and sharing and getting better ideas comes from trying something new, something that doesn't always go together, or not for necessarily for everyone. Kool-Aid pickles, for instance. That's a thing (google it). I love China Poblano, Chinese and Mexican food mashed. Old and new. Whatever it is. Mix it all up.

Adam Sandler did this quite successfully when he collaborated with Dan Bulla on his 100% Fresh special on Netflix. (If you're not a fan of Sandler's other work, watch this. It's really really really good. If you're a fan, you don't need me to tell you.)

Smash Your Ideas Together

Today (like today today), I realized my next book has to be two books mashed into one. Dented is about how we can be a bit dented and still show up at work and in life. The Picnic is about how companies can create better spaces for the people they want to serve. The ideas are mashed. They have to be. Take your dented self and bring it to the picnic. It totally has to go like that.

And the thing is, with ideas that don't immediately make sense to you (like Kool-Aid pickles), it needs explaining. Over and over. This is where people muck it up. If you share your crazy idea and it goes over like a fart in church, you'll be inclined to shelve that thought and move on to something else. Don't do that right away. Give it a try. A lot of tries. Give more than a few people a taste and see if you can get the recipe just right.

On the Conan Needs a Friend podcast, Lin-Manuel Miranda talked about how he was working on this rap-musical multicultural adaptation of Ron Chernow's book about Alexander Hamilton. People literally laughed in his face and thought he was joking. Jon Stewart poked fun at him on the daily show the day after Miranda debuted it (at the White House for the Obamas, by the way). Well, his joke has earned him almost half a billion dollars in gross receipts, an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize and plenty more accolades.

Keep Swinging

I've said for decades that the big difference between me and a lot of other people is that I'll make 100 attempts at something, and if two of them succeed then I've got two more wins than someone who hasn't taken one shot. Swing for your idea. Mash it with something else.

There are so many derivative and copycat ideas in the world. But give an idea just a little twist and it works. When Ridley Scott pitched Alien, he said it was "Jaws in space." People got the idea right away (Julien Smith used this reference in Trust Agents). Years ago, Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield founded (the widely popular and innovative at the time) Flickr when they were really trying to make a chat app for video gamers. It was a shift from the original idea (the kids called this a "pivot" for a while).

Swing. Take more swings. Try new things. It's all good. Find your groove by trying a lot of things.

Fear of failure? That's so 1994. Stop it. Give it up. Fail. Shake it off (Thanks, Taylor), and then get back to it.

Ready? Go!

Chris Brogan (that's me!) is a business advisor and keynote speaker, and an author, and all kinds of things. You can be all kinds of things, too! You're invited to the picnic!

10 Years After Trust Agents

Just about ten years ago, Julien Smith and I wrote and published a book called Trust Agents. It talked about the rising experience of companies being able to use the web to reach people directly and connect with them in a world where companies could no longer really control the information out on the web about their brand. It was a rallying cry to invite companies to be real and transparent and to connect with the people they most wanted to serve.

The book did well. It was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. It won awards from Inc Magazine, USA Today, 800-CEO-Read and more.

Ten years have past and I want to share what's changed in that time. (I've written some thoughts on this already at LinkedIn, if you're interested.)

Ten Years After Trust Agents

In 2009, I wrote: "Companies can no longer hide behind a veneer of a shiny branding campaign, because customers are one Google search away from the truth."

It's more true today. And people have endured ten years of feeling unseen and unheard. As companies adopted the tools (but not always the spirit) of the social web, they pushed information blindly to people without thinking much about who they were addressing. It felt the same as telling every woman at a bar that they're beautiful and hoping the line worked eventually.

In 2009, I wrote: "Trust agents have established themselves as being non-sales-oriented, non-high-pressure marketers. Instead, they are digital natives using the Web to be genuine and to humanize their business."

I would change this a bit. Sales isn't bad. Bad sales are bad. A trust agent sells you something they believe will help you win the game you're trying to win.

Make Your Own Game

The first of the six tenets of a trust agent was to make your own game. It means to define your own space. Be specific. Create the rules of the story instead of competing against other similar products. Amazing books like Play Bigger have really expanded on this in smart ways in recent years. I stand by this.

Julien wrote about how creating your own keywords was a much better way to win at SEO instead of competing with existing words. He pointed out that if you could earn enough media attention for a phrase you coined, all roads would naturally point back to your site. I've been using this trick since 2009 and if you look at the traditional SEO markers of my site, it stinks, but I have massive authority around all the terms I created for myself.

In 2019, there's something more. We are in an age of identity, where people want to be very specific about who they are, what matters to them, and they want to support only those companies that share their values. If you can buy the same kinds of products from multiple sources, why buy from a company you don't respect? Or most importantly, who doesn't see you?

We've made our own games, and we want companies to see and speak to who we are.

Companies keep saying they know what people want.

"A black guy can't do a country song." On the day I'm writing this, "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X is on its 11th week at number 1 on the Billboard Top 100.

"No one will want to see a black-led superhero movie." - Black Panther made $1.3 billion at the box office.

"Women superheroes won't bring in movie viewers." - Wonder Woman made $800 million; Captain Marvel made $1.1 billion.

Inclusivity matters. Seeing people for who they are matters. REPRESENTING THEM IN MEDIA AND MARKETING AND YOUR BUSINESS PLANS matters.

One of Us

This chapter pointed out the importance of connecting beyond advertising. Not that ads are bad. They're just one tool.

In 2009, I wrote: "Gaining the trust of another requires you be competent and reliable. It also requires you to leave someone with a positive emotional impression, which is something the Web has the potential to do quickly and well."

We included our first of many references to the work of David Maister and Charles Green who wrote the amazing work, The Trusted Advisor. Julien was already friends with Maister, but we befriended both authors, and I still talk to Charlie Green about once a month to learn at the feet of a master.

Of all the chapters in Trust Agents, this is the one I feel companies discarded. I think very few marketing departments held conversations about the trust equation (even though Maister and Green helped companies make millions on this detail alone). And I know that very few companies set about trying to humanize their brands to reach people.

The Archimedes Effect

I've always called this "Julien's Chapter" because he had a much stronger bead on what was going on here. Leverage was the topic. How do we understand leverage? What are the ways we can use arbitrage to our advantage. It's still heady stuff, but if people spent a little time investing in this chapter, they often reported some great results.

The parts I contributed were about leveraging time better, about building stronger relationships, about making the most of your appearances.

One fun detail about this chapter is that I cover the first inklings of the rise of Gary Vaynerchuk, when we all started to realize that this guy was going to fly to the stars and back. It's laughable now that I covered him in the book because he was already on the way to being a massive star.

Agent Zero

I believe with all my heart that nurturing a network of great people you want to serve is the absolute most important work of a person or a company. To be the connector that helps others thrive is a powerful business driver, even if it isn't an instant kind of reward. (It never is.)

This talks through the concept of having to become more visible. To put your presence out there on the web. To be seen on the social networks.

Over the years, companies seem to only put their CEO, CMO, and a few very junior people out on the social web. They never did quite adopt the belief that having people reachable via the social web was a benefit to the company. And frankly, many people were afraid of this kind of visibility. These tools seem foreign. Interactions on places like Twitter feel fraught with peril. And so many brilliant people worry that they'll "do it wrong" or "look foolish" and so their brilliance is withheld from the many who would benefit from this.

The people within companies who work on "Agent Zero" type work see great rewards. Sales professionals get it. Deal makers get it. But I wish more of the folks who have non-selling jobs but massive amounts of helpful ideas and thoughts would come out and play on the web.

Human Artist

I might have said that no one cared to do the "One of Us" work. Human artist is married to that. It was our effort to point out that the Golden Rule was alive and well. So many great works focus on this. Bob Burg's Go-Giver comes right to mind. Same-Side Selling by Altman and Quarles. Many more. Tim Sanders and Love is the Killer App.

We wrote about transparency and empathy and intimacy, all topics that most every company in the world would rather pretend doesn't exist, though they'll talk about it in speeches or ads.

People are SO sick of feeling invisible, being lied to, having to "find out" that a company has done them wrong. They're so fed up, and when there's a chance to pick another company to deal with, they will.

In a 2017 study, Cone Communications found that 67% of people wanted to align with companies that shared their values, and that furthermore, most people wanted to align with companies who would move their values forward in some way.

Identity matters to individuals more than ever before. My 17 year old is both gay and trans. He spends a lot of time online finding and listening to like minds, learning how to navigate his life, and so on. He pays attention to which companies really support trans and gay causes and not just in June.

We all want people to love what we sell, but it is only when people feel seen and understood that they're ready to pay attention.

Build An Army

This chapter is about scale. How do we grow beyond where we are? How do we find more hands to lighten the load. Of all the chapters in Trust Agents, I could never have predicted the outcomes that companies have developed in this area.

Automation is nearly the norm in so many areas. Robots talking to robots. Everyone agreed that we needed scale, but sometimes to the detriment of human contact.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of places where automation is preferred. It's the best. I love when companies reduce friction where they can (Roger Dooley has an amazing book on Friction).

But the human touch matters. We want it more than ever. And in a world where automation is doing the lion's share of the heavy lifting, it means we have opportunities to earn more attention, retention, and stronger business relationships.

Trust Agents in 2019

I think there's a lot to update and revisit in this book. I've been talking with Julien Smith about looking this all over again. I spoke to my publishing friend Matt Holt. I've talked with all kinds of people who I've known for the last ten years or more.

Keep your eyes posted. You might see a lot more about this. And regardless, it was super fun to look back on it all.

I help companies earn the right to sell and serve the customers they most want to nurture. Connect with me, if you want some ideas and help.

What I learned at the Boston Pride March 2019

The other day, I went with my Jacqueline and her mother to the 2019 Boston Pride Parade. We marched on behalf of the Upham's Corner Health Center, who delivers community health care services in Boston. I marched because my son, Vince, is trans and gay(the parade marked his 17th birthday), and because I feel that it's important to promote the rights of people around the topics of their gender and who they choose to love (between consenting adults, obviously).

I thought my mindset at the event was "Hey, good job, gay and trans and bi and other people! I'm marching to say I'm an ally." And while that's true, there was so much more. So much. I came away changed.

What I Learned on the Boston Pride March

First, I realized quickly that one of the core elements of this march is just for people to see each other and be seen. I know that sounds stupid. It's a parade. But I mean seen and acknowledged. Some people are fortunate to have loving families and coworkers who fully support them. But so many more feel alone, feel invisible, feel like they have to hide. So here comes an event like Pride that says, "Let's keep marching. You deserve to feel seen and understood."

That "being seen" realization went so much deeper. All along the route there were people wearing "Mom Hugs" and "Dad Hugs" shirts, because sometimes parents can't handle the reality of their children and that child (no matter their age) suddenly finds themselves without parental affection. I realized just how little affection people of any sexuality and gender get these days. I went for some of those hugs, and I get plenty of affection.

We Have to Better Understand This

When my oldest said "I'm gay," I said that's great. Your partner (no matter the gender) has to love you and treat you well. About a year later, he tells me he's trans and gay. Okay, that one takes a bit more work because there are legal and biological ramifications to be considered, but I was just as supportive because whatever gender someone says they are, wouldn't my roles be the same? Aren't I supposed to love and support my children, no matter their gender? Of course I am.

Now think about work and school and life. My son goes to a tiny little hippie school so when he came out as trans, it wasn't that big a deal. Go a half mile in any direction and you'll see all kinds of people who don't understand what it means, what it means to them, how they should respond, and so on.

What I've learned for me is that someone's gender identity and gender expression has little or nothing to do with me. I find both binary genders play no role in whether or not someone can do their job or be good or bad people. I find that gender and sexual preference is really your own business and not mine.

Representation and Acknowledgement is VITAL

But that said, and this is so important, everyone alive wants to be respected and represented as who they are without compromise or shame. If someone says they're gay, bi, poly, trans, or any of the many other ways people can now express their sexual and gender expressions, they want you to know and acknowledge and understand how they want to be identified.

THAT PART IS THE HARDEST PART FOR THE "STRAIGHT" PEOPLE.

It's somehow difficult for us to make the change from "looks like a guy so must be a guy" to "I'm Chris. My pronouns are he/him. How about you?"

This upsets people. It feels like "too much" to some people. It feels somehow offensive to some others. But that's what needs to change. That's where a lot of us need to grow. That's where "the way we used to do it" no longer covers it.

I Marched So Even More Can March

It's "easy" for me to march. I'm straight, white, and privileged. I marched because I want to bolster the ranks of those who don't always feel safe, those who don't always feel seen, and those who don't often enough feel loved and accepted. I marched because the LGBTQ+ community is part of our community.

And like you and everyone else, I might get some of this wrong, say something that doesn't line up the way everyone wishes I'd talk about it. I'm always open to learn. But I'll tell you why I'm out here. It's because there's so much value in all these people who get pushed to the corners and I want them at the picnic. If you met some of the great people I met at the march, you'd want them at the picnic, too!

I work with executives and leadership teams to deliver the results you say you value in your corporate culture statements. Let's improve collaboration and creativity and bring some of that value to your company. REACH OUT.

Connecting Isn't REALLY About the Technology

Okay, sure. Technically, you might have to learn a tiny bit about how to make something happen with technology to be able to use tools like video and podcasts or email newsletters to reach people. But my point is that using that kind of tech isn't (shouldn't be) your big worry and focus.

Connecting Isn't About the Technology

Instead, we simply use the tech to reach people in the ways they want to be reached. People are watching so much more video than ever before. Over a billion hours of video a day are being consumed on YouTube. And before you say that YOU don't watch a lot of video, remember that you're not selling to you. You're trying to reach people who want what you sell.

No matter how big the company, the goal is to reach and connect with the people you most want to serve. We buy from people we like. And more importantly these days, we buy where we are. Have you noticed that? We may be walking down a street, realize we need something, and we'll just open Amazon or eBay or wherever you shop and make the purchase? That's on the consumer side, but don't doubt for a minute that people aren't popping open their mobile devices to research B2B purchases on the fly as well.

I Want to Show You An Example Video

Here's a video I shot about a similar topic. I wanted to share the point that I'm not really much of a technologist, but that instead, I love the way we can use tech to reach people. Push play below:

Can't see the video? Click HERE to watch it.

The tools it takes to shoot video can be as simple as your smartphone, or just the webcam in your laptop. You can get a little more tricky if you want (my first upgrade would be to get a good microphone). But it's not a lot of work. Editing video is free and/or easy on iMovie (Mac) or Microsoft Photos (Windows) or on a few different web-based apps. It's just not super duper hard to do the tech part.

The hard part? The human stuff.

What People Want in a Video

For the most part, we want two or three specific things from video, in this order:

1. We want to be educated.
2. We want to be entertained.
3. We want to feel a connection.

When I'm looking for a recipe or a weightlifting move, I just want something quick and to the point (to be educated). When I watch a review on a piece of technology, I want the information, but I also appreciate being a little entertained (if only by someone taking the effort to make the video useful). If I end up liking the source of the video, then I might subscribe and want to seek out even more from that person (to feel a connection).

Think about your own business. That should be the goals of reaching and connecting with people there, too. Right? It makes sense that you'd want to give people what they want, maybe entertain them a little, and if you're lucky, build a connection. No?

Focus on the Goal, Not the Tech

If you need help with technology, fine. Get some. That's okay. But focus on the business goals, and on the sense that you want to connect with people so that they feel like they're doing business with someone who cares about doing business with them.

We all want people to love what we sell, but it is only when people feel seen and understood that they are ready to buy.

And like always, if you want help with this for your company, I'm your guy.

Self Expression is About Other People

The modern business world is all about conveying a lot of information digitally for those times when you can't be face to face with your customer. It is the perfect opportunity for a massive company to bring a down-to-earth personable set of interactions to people who they hope to serve, and it's a chance to say to those people, "Hey, we see you over there and we want to serve you. Come join up and we can help."

There's effort required to make this happen. Whether talking internally with employees or externally with customers and partners, a lot of what has to happen comes from being stronger in your ability to express yourself and also to reflect more of who you really are and what matters to you in your interactions and communication. It doesn't come naturally to everyone, but you can definitely learn to reach people and interact better, with a little advice.

Self Expression is Really About Other People

I should clarify that self expression as it relates to business is about other people. If you're simply making art, then that's yours to figure out. But if you want to reach, connect, and motivate an interaction between people whether inside or outside of a company, that's about making sure the person you're trying to reach gets what they need in the process.

Here's a quick checklist to help guide your thinking about your own communications. You can use this for making videos, for writing emails, compositing an article and more.

• Start with the goal - All interaction must have a point. If you're sitting someone down for some guidance, then your goal is to guide that person towards a better path. If your goal is to get your team to sell more warrantee contracts, then you keep that in mind. Write the goal down as you plan your interaction.
• What has to happen? - When you communicate, there's a desired result. You want people to buy more printers. You want your employee to take on more responsibility. You want better feedback on project milestones. This is different than the goal. It's an outcome you want to see happen.
• What needs saying? - A word of caution: most people overpack every opportunity for interaction with too much. Too many words. Too many points made. Our brains can only handle so much information. If you tell the team there are 11 major priorities, they'll remember one or two at most.
• Who is the recipient of this information? - The key to self expression is here. Talk in your words but be mindful of the person who needs to hear them. Most importantly, is there anything you can say that will help people know you mean them specifically and not the masses. People need to see themselves in your words. They have to know you're talking to them.
• Mix novelty and familiarity - Did you know that the most popular way to pitch movies in Hollywood is to mix two disparate elements together to explain what makes a film unique? The movie Alien was pitched by Ridley Scott as "Jaws in space." Novelty - something new and unique to our brain - and familiarity - something we feel comfortable with - are the two main ingredients of expressing yourself in a memorable way.
• Read it aloud - If you're working on an article or a letter to the staff, before you publish or send it, read it aloud. Sometimes, our ideas seem smart when we're typing them out but they don't come out great on paper. And a secret hint. Sometimes, if the words aren't coming, you can pull out your smartphone, open the voice recorder, and talk to yourself a bit. Our spoken word often helps us awaken our written word.

If you'd like to read a book about building a much stronger writing voice, check out this fast and easy read I wrote for you!

Fear is the Enemy

Our brains can be real jerks. The inner critic voice can be so much louder than any other voice in your head, and this comes out in people's attempts to express themselves. While it's hard to admit to fears for some people, I can tell you that this is what will wreck your attempts at expression.

I'll look stupid. We are so worried how others perceive us. Sometimes, this means we pull out "big" words when everyday words will do. Stop it. The only time ever to use a really big word is when the audience are all operating at a high intellectual level (like scientists and surgeons and stuff). The rest of the time, say it the way you'd explain it to your aunt.

I'll appear weak. If there's anything we hate more than looking stupid, it's worrying that someone will think you're weak or vulnerable. The thing is, couched well, your vulnerabilities when paired with your confidence and your clarity of expression can be a very strong appeal to the people you're trying to reach. The reason Superman movies aren't all that fun is that we can't relate to someone who's invulnerable. The flaws are as important as the strengths.

What if I'm wrong? Okay, this is technically a variation of the "stupid" fear. Especially when we write something, we worry about being wrong. People are always wrong. It's okay. We check things over. We get a second set of eyes to review our work sometimes. And then we send it out there. If it's wrong, we'll recover from that. A lot more of your life than you realize is built around recovering from stumbles.

And Give More Than You Take

Finally, expression is about giving. People choose to connect with those that make them feel fed and nourished. If your work is very self-absorbed, it means you're needy and seeking praise, and people - even those who love you dearly - will stop paying attention if they feel you take far more than you ask.

My model in selling business advisory services and executive coaching has been to give away 90% or so of what I know for free, and then only charge when it's time to go further. Seek to give quality information in your interactions. Be generous with your praise. Give people rewards and value when you express yourself, and that will yield value to you.

If ever you need more on expression, I wrote Find Your Writing Voice that might help. Also, you can connect with me directly, if you want to talk about a workshop or coaching on the process. I'm here to serve!

Maps From the Old World

When I was growing up, the map was simple. You went to school, did what you could there, and went on from high school to either the military, a job, or college. You got one job. You found someone of the opposite sex and married, bought a house, a dog, and eventually made 2.5 kids. You worked to save up enough to afford vacations, and waited for your kids to give you grandkids, and then you sat around waiting for visits until you died. All of that has changed. And companies and people need to catch up.

This post is about business, but will also talk about religion, race, gender, and more. It's important, whether or not you're ready. It's what's holding so many companies and people back.

Once Upon a Time in America

I remember reading an article in the mid-90s that stated people would go through five distinctive careers in their life in the near future. I thought that sounded crazy. Once you had a career, that was it. And work was work. Home was home.

When I was a kid, I didn't know a single gay person in real life, and most everyone in the world of entertainment, sports, and the public eye still felt obligated or pressured to act straight. Let alone trans. That wasn't even a thing except for Corporal Klinger and crossdressers (not the same thing, even). Men didn't talk about their feelings. In my personal world, women worked and were just as strong and important as men, but I realize that other people didn't always feel that way. I knew only Christians and Jews for majority of my upbringing. Buddhist and Muslim people were from somewhere else, I figured.

Racism was something I knew about, but had never really experienced, except in history books. My white privilege was such that I grew up around almost exclusively white people until age 13, and had no friends beyond my Irish, French, Scottish heritage until I was maybe 17.

The world has gotten so much bigger. And that's beautiful. But there are some big challenges because too many companies and people are still stuck in that old world.

Maps from the Old World

What I didn't know was that the view of the world I had been given came from a very concerted effort to keep the old American dream alive. That dream was white and Christian or Jewish and straight and simple. The options were kept to just a few choices because the world was a giant factory. Do this because it will stimulate that. All our tax laws in the US are set up to favor a man and a woman legally wedding and spawning children. This is still true for the most part. The government essentially taxes you into the lifestyle they want you to have, the one that suits the 1950s era vision of what the world should be.

Also, work used to be work. You'd go to your job, put in your time, and leave. Home was home. No one bothered you from home when you were at work, and the boss never called you at home unless it was a matter of life or death.

All of this has changed.

Most people now know and accept that love is love (amongst consenting adults). More people (not enough) now understand that racial battles and inequity exist everywhere, that the world is largely built from systems that weren't fair and equal for everyone. Most people now know more about different religious preferences, though they're still catching up to the detail that pretty much all religions have a bit of a disconnect between the stated intent, human interference, and what people will do and won't do to adhere to that faith. And people are starting to understand the varied and multi-faceted world of gender expression/representation. And work and life? Smashed together like a candy truck tipped over on the highway.

But (and it's a big but)

Most of the world's systems, and most of business, and a lot of people's thoughts and beliefs and values are based on maps from the old world.

New World. New Maps

Work and home are smashed together. That will never change. Men sometimes love men and women sometimes love women. There are people who identify as non-binary and it's just not okay to assume which pronouns a person prefers as it relates to their identity. Muslims aren't terrorists. Christians aren't terrorists. Terrorists are terrorists. Racism is alive and well, and we all have work to do (read this book as a good start).

Our jobs will come and go. Our careers will come and go. The most corporate-minded person, who LONGS for the structure of a big company and a cubicle and specific benefits will be thrust into multiple jobs over the span of their life. There are now (and always will be) more freelancers than ever before. People will (do!) work remotely. "Butt in chair" management has been dead forever. And yet. And yet. And yet.

One big problem we all must deal with - all of us - is learning to shake off these maps from the old world. You'll be frustrated. They won't work. And no level of hoping, praying, complaining, or anything else will force the 1950s back into existence.

Learn how to address people without assuming their gender. Practice better interactions with people from cultural backgrounds different than yours. Accept that a person's sexual preference has nothing to do with their work performance and isn't a point of concern. Review all HR policies to ensure that they work for more than male-female couples with 2.5 kids and picket fenced houses.

Because once you see the territory around you as it actually is (instead of through the distortions of an old map from a different time), you'll realize that there is so much more creativity your team can tap into. You'll see that collaboration works a lot better when everyone involved feels seen and understood (even a little more understood and acknowledged would be a start).

You can put AI to the test of sorting out what's important and what isn't. You can slice databases all day long. Without a refreshed and updated perspective on the state of human relationships and interactions and choices, how do you even begin to think your internal work environment is optimal for your employees? If you're not learning how to accept and interact with and share an understanding with the people you hope to sell and serve, how do you think they'll care at all about your product or service?

We all want people to love what we sell, but it is only when people feel seen and understood that they feel ready to buy.

And if you're not sure your company is nailing this, I'm here to help.

We Don't Want to Fit In. We Want to Belong

There has been a big shift in how people interact with brands. In the old days, a product or service would show up on the scene, and we'd evaluate whether the product was something we could use. Sure, there were some products and brands where we felt like we wanted to belong (you are either a Coke or Pepsi person, for instance). But most times, when something new came out, the question was whether you could fit yourself into the right category to make that product useful.

This has all reversed. People are tired of fitting in. They want to go where they belong.

The Business of Belonging

A lot of purchases in our day don't matter much. At least in a B2C setting. We'll buy from whoever is convenient, or cheap, or without a lot of thought.UNTILUntil we discover something that changes our perspective. Maybe we decide that we want to support more local businesses. Perhaps we decide that any company that wants to clean the world's oceans are worth your business. Or maybe you are part of a group that demands to be recognized and wants the world to see your value, as well. Maybe you served in the Armed Forces or you grew up in a large extended family home.We used to buy from necessity. Or price. Or locale. But that's not a given. And as people become more and more distracted by their phones, by non-traditional media sources, and by the sheer volume of information flashing in front of our eyes, how will companies explain to the people they most want to serve that those people belong with them?

We Buy From People We Feel Share Our Values

Seven out of ten Millennials consider a company's values before making a purchase. By comparison, 52% of US adults (blended generations) do. But that still means that one out of every two people wants to know that your company's values align with theirs. (source)This means that for us to help customers figure out where they belong, companies will have to create information that expresses their values either directly or otherwise.Most of what marketers and people in general "believe" is true about buyers comes from years ago. Who plays video games? Men or women? The answer: women. By a much larger number. We believe that markets don't exist for something "weird" and then superhero movies like Black Panther make over a billion dollars. Or that a free-to-play video game would earn a company $2.4 billion in a single year. (Fortnite.)

Companies Must Reach Out and Connect With Smaller Buyer Markets

By selling to everyone, you're talking to no one. (tweetable)It's the equivalent of going up to someone at the bar and saying, "You have the most beautiful eyes" and then saying it to each person there over and over again and hoping for a good result.We all want people to love what we sell, but it is only when people feel seen and understood that they feel ready to buy.Same-sex marriage supporters want to know where your company stands, says this infographic. NASCAR fans can now race into esports, even if they may never be a "real world" driver. And companies are finding ways to connect with the interests of groups of potential customers.

This Requires Bravery

Your company could guess wrong. You might stumble when trying to reach out to people you want to support. There might be backlash from people who don't support those that you choose to help. And there are plenty of ways to mess this up.

• If the message doesn't match the brand, your efforts won't make sense.
• If you tiptoe into this with a single campaign or baby step, people might say you're wishy washy or non-committed.
• If you use cliches and stereotypes because you don't actually have any first hand knowledge of a group, it will show and it won't go well.
• Just because you reach out to smaller groups that matter to you doesn't mean they'll see you if you don't create interesting, small, portable content for them to consume.
• Marketing this way doesn't replace your "big" and "general" marketing, but it requires you to pay a lot more attention to feedback, and it'll be upon you to create more than a few small groups for each product or brand. You can (and should) definitely reach out to more than one type of people at a time, if you stay focused within those groups.

But This is Where We're Going

We've gone far past Henry Ford's "any color as long as it's black." We have pushed past simple customization. The world is built for mass personalization. Humans organize tribally by nature. The marketplace has never really supported this in any significant way, or for too long. Marketing to the masses was always too attractive a prospect. But it's fading. Your numbers show that. And this? This crazy idea of reaching to specific groups? That's what's next. It will be bumpy. It won't be easy. But it's where a lot of this is headed.And as you know, I'm here to help. (Feel free to drop me an email: chris@chrisbrogan.com )

Why Your Company Needs to Understand Memes

This picture is my 13 year old son's recent project. He printed out the Sunday funnies (we don't get a newspaper so he went online and found some to print). Then, he chopped up each panel and sliced out each bit of dialog. Finally, he mixed them all up at random to make his own comics to see if anything unexpectedly funny would come of it. It was funny enough. The idea comes (roughly) from "Garfield without Garfield" and other remixes of old comics tropes.

Your Company Probably Doesn't Pay A Lot of Attention to Memes

Shortly after Barack Obama became US President, a lot of politicians and corporations decided to take social media a lot more seriously. Before then, it was "that thing kids do." Afterwards, I was hired by some of the biggest companies in the world (Coke, Disney, Pepsi, GM, Microsoft, and so on) to talk about how these tools could drive better human interactions.Memes and meme culture are that same thing all over again. And everyone's ignoring it. Again.

Okay, So What is a Meme?

The word meme (rhymes with "seem") take a little unpacking. The official definition is "an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation."The other definition (the real one): "a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users."It's these two words "spread rapidly" that should raise your eyebrow.Oh, and a quick aside: bookmark this site. It helps explain some of these.

Memes are a Fast Pass to "Insider" Feelings

Here are three things you might not know about right now:

• A massive petition went out requesting the song "Sweet Victory" be played during the SuperBowl halftime show. This song is from the cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants, created by the recently deceased Stephen Hillenburg. It appears that Maroon 5 will be honoring this meme request and playing the song. (Wait and see.)
• Elon Musk (of Tesla and SpaceX fame) just reached out to PewdiePie (YouTube's most subscribed channel with 82 million viewers) to host "meme review," after several memes and fake tweets were posted saying he would. (Memes drive reality.)
• Teachers and companies all over are trying their hand at posting memes to interact with students and customers, sometimes hitting and other times failing, but definitely earning attention they otherwise wouldn't have.

Not everyone is there yet. And yet others know it feels weird but they want to participate.It's not that you care all that much about SpongeBob or PewdiePie or memes in general, but to realize that a multi-billion dollar event and a billionaire CEO are being influenced by memes is worth thinking about. The fact that memes are "technology" that travel fast, convey meaning in a VERY brief format (in a world that is attention starved) and that give you a potential quick connection into otherwise distracted and attention-starved people, that's worth thinking about.If you're already thinking of ignoring this, let me remind you that in 2008, no one thought Twitter or Facebook or YouTube were all that interesting, either.

About Memes

Often times, the point of the meme is easy to understand, even if you're not aware of the reference material:That's Squidward from SpongeBob. You don't need to know that to accept the premise of the meme.The format doesn't exactly matter much.This is just a graphic of a tweet that's spreading around as a meme. It's obviously a political jab at the current US President, cloaked in a reminder that other presidents were a bit more wholesome.Other memes come from adding an interpretation to a photo for multiple potential future uses:The obvious hinge of the meme is "but." We have all kinds of ways to use that. "I know you didn't ask for any opinions..." or "I'm not racist..." etc. Everything before the "BUT" is the joke.

Why Should You Care?

I'm least interested in convincing you to care. That's a hard rule I have. But you might become a bit more aware of this as a tiny media type, as a way to earn attention before seeking even more attention from the people you most want to serve. People are far more willing to invest the small amount of time required to possibly laugh and relate (even more importantly) with your meme before they decide to check out your larger and more time-consuming business content.This is most definitely a B2B play as well as B2C. Everything I'm talking about here is in play for as long as humans are your intended customer or prospect.As with all media types, a little bit of thought is required before execution. (By the way, I consult about that.) You might review any potential memes created to ensure they're not offensive to particular groups, and also to ensure that the content you're creating is reasonably current. One insanely frustrating detail with the world of memes is that they seem to have a shelf life of less than a week.But there's value in here. You might not immediately see it. That's okay. Other companies are noticing and they're adapting.Chris Brogan is a business advisor and digital marketing consultant. Get in touch with him here.