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Skills for the Coming Years

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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?

Is There Any Value in Blogging and Podcasting and All That Media?

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Chris Brogan

The technology behind building a blog or a podcast or a newsletter is easier to operate than ever before. You can get started for very low money and it doesn’t require a boat load of technical skill either. But the two questions you should ask yourself are these: do I have something helpful to share and will anyone bother to read/consume what I create.

I don’t know that there ever were any “gee whiz” days in blogging and content creation. I feel like more people used to do it because they were told to create something, but really so few people actually liked writing and making media. They saw it as a chore. People did it until they felt they didn’t have to any longer. “No one’s reading blogs anymore anyway.”

That was never true. No one read your boring blog.

Podcasts: The New Rage

Everyone and their cousin are finally launching podcasts. It didn’t take off in 2005, like I thought. Nor 2006, 2007, 2009. All the years I figured “Wow, now THIS will be the age of podcasting” ended up being wrong. Because people tend to start doing something only when it’s saturated. So now everyone also wants to start a podcast and/or get on Instagram and do what everyone else is doing.

You can do a podcast. It’s okay. People are consuming more audio than ever before. (And people are reading less and less.)

You can and should do video, too. Start a YouTube channel and put something up at least weekly.

Will you? Not as likely. Podcasting is another thing people became willing to do because it seems easy enough. Video still seems hard and scary.

None of it matters. Unless.

Blogging, podcasting, video, and whatever other tools you don’t seem to want to use to reach people don’t matter all that much unless you have something interesting and useful to say. People make the mistake all the time of thinking that what they’re writing or speaking about is interesting because it’s what they sell. Not many people sell inherently interesting things. And even if something has a little pizazz, that wears off quickly if it’s not something anyone wants to buy.

No, you shouldn’t bother. Don’t make media. Of any kind, really. Just knock on doors and ring phones. It’s worked well for decades and decades.

Even though people don’t read as many mainstream news sources any longer. Even though people stopped listening to terrestrial radios and podcasting is having its heyday. Even though YouTube serves over a billion hours of video every day displacing a lot of eyes that used to just watch whatever was on TV. Don’t think much about that.

Or

You can take a stab at creating something interesting and compelling and worth someone’s time. You can write helpful articles and posts. You can record podcast episodes that entertain and inform someone (I just spent the better part of a day in my car and ran out of GOOD podcasts to listen to – because I’m not all that into true crime shows).

You could try to reach the millions and millions of people who are looking for something entertaining and informative. And do it regularly, and across multiple types of platforms. Because that might be worth something to someone.

Or you can wait a while longer. Until no one’s doing any of these things either.

Connecting Isn’t REALLY About the Technology

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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.

Why Your Company Needs to Understand Memes

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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.

Use Your Voice

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The biggest opportunity all this technology has afforded us is the chance to share what we find interesting and to potentially connect with others we can help or who can enrich our lives or businesses. Formally or otherwise, we have the most opportunity ever, in the history of humans, to connect with people who are into what you are into. It’s baffling how few people choose to take advantage of this.

Use Your Voice

On the lighter side, if you really love recreating junk food in your kitchen, you could start the “Not Twinkies” website. If you are a LEGO minifig modifier who takes existing sets to create your own masterpieces, I know for sure there are others who love what you do. There’s a bunch of people out there, no matter what, who want to talk about what you want to talk about.

Causes and nonprofits know this. People with medical challenges know this (or should). There’s a group or a few strong voices out there speaking about whatever it is you’re into.

And you can be very specific. If you’re ONLY interested in talking with other female accordion players, there’s definitely someone out there waiting for you to gather up ideas and share. If you grew up identifying ramen noodle packs by their colors, not their intended “flavors,” there’s a group that loves to talk about how orange is the only one to eat uncooked. (My Lyft driver says she snacks on the contents of the orange ramen pack UNCOOKED. “Like chips,” she said.)

There Are Only Three Rules

Companies and people alike need to recognize that there are three important rules to this opportunity to interact and to build relationships with others:

  1. Speak to the buyer’s story
  2. Invite interaction
  3. Build to serve

If you want to find these other people with your voice, you have to write (or make video or audio or all the above) in ways that make the person you’re trying to reach the hero of the story, or at least make what you’re sharing feel very accessible.

Blathering AT people without making it easy to connect and interact beyond what you share isn’t all that helpful. I find that I have great conversations with people from all walks of life on Twitter or through email, and in all cases, because I’ve made it easy to connect with me, people feel that they can reach out and ask whatever they want to ask.

When I say “build to serve,” the point of creating any media whatsoever should be to serve others. If you’re writing about insomnia strategies, make it so that others might learn how to get a better night’s sleep. If you’re selling cloud storage solutions, share information that will help your buyers thrive. If you’re going to build content, and use your voice, use it to serve others.

Don’t Worry and Be Self-Conscious

The beauty of this time in our lives is that you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be honest about the interaction. If you’re a marketing student looking to meet others in your future field, just say that. If you deal with depression and want to know how others tackle the black dog, just say it. It’s an unprecedented time to reach out. Yes, some people might fight back against what you want to talk about, but you’ll also find those who want to share what you’re into.

How will they find you? The way I would find you: google. Search. YouTube. I find you because if you publish your words and videos and thoughts and ideas, I’ll find your voice on the internet somewhere.

That’s the big point. So? Get sharing!

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And thanks so much for your support.

–Chris…

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