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The lens you choose to view the world with determines how you live life. If you find yourself thinking life has thrown you lemons watch this video from Nick, a man with no arms and no legs, that shows how a positive outlook and focusing on what you do have makes a world of difference.
Email is out of hand. Way too many people write novels and deliver monologs instead of taking a moment to write well thought out, concise mails. In the words of Dennis Roch, “If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.” This is what is so great about Twitter and Facebook updates. So how do you use covert Ninja methods to wage war on mail and save time? Well here are six tips you can use right away to make a difference, they’ll save you and the recipient valuable time.
The first Talks Unleashed event was held a few weeks back at CSU Sacramento and it was amazing. There were five phenomial speakers and 35 attendees. Talks included How to Juggle Jello by Josh Golka, Schools in 2020 by Nadir Hajiyani, Lone Nut to Leader by Jeff McLeod, 3 Must Do’s for Online Marketing by Eden Mondanaro, and Business Intelligence Evolution by Ali Davutoglu.
Two things stuck out at me at the event that made it different from any other I’ve been a part of. First, the talks were held by both professionals and students – normally it’s just professional speakers talking to students. Having students speak provided fresh ideas and a healthy dose of liveliness. The best talk of the night was by an MIS student named Ali who gave an energy packed talk on how Business Intelligence enables better decision making. Really? A talk on BI won? You bet it did. Ali brought a fresh perspective to what could have been a dry subject. Very few professionals could have done what Ali did.
The second thing was that the conversation continued after the talks. Normally a speaker gives their talk and allows a few minutes at the end for Q & A, or worse heads straight out the door afterwards. What a tragedy. No two way dialog, no in-depth conversations, and the audience doesn’t get a chance to interact with the speaker. The Talks Unleashed event flipped this format on its head. After the talks the audience and speakers had a chance for direct conversations and interaction. It also made for great networking – I think we are on to something.
Ask why something won’t work and you’ll get a million responses without delay. Ask how to do it differently or in a new way, and you get very few. It’s easier to find fault. I’ve witnessed this time and again where difficult tasks like finding a job, driving change, creating a new solution to a problem, reorganizing a team, you name it – are all met with endless reasons why they could not be done. In every instance though they were done, and the people that made it happen had one thing in common – they focused on moving forward. They didn’t dismiss the challenges; instead they embraced them with enthusiasm and came up with creative ways to overcome them – they moved forward. These are the people that stand out, that get rewarded, and that get the job. These are the people you want on your team and around you. The next time you are faced with a challenge accept it as an opportunity to move forward and standout.
The Talks Unleashed social movement continues to gather steam. Several more people have signed on and the first rev of our web site is up at www.talksunleashed.com. We have people of all backgrounds pitching in: PR, Tech, and Law to name a few. It’s amazing how a simple idea has grown so quickly. Our charter is to unleash ideas and build networks. On a broad level we will be providing the framework for anyone to start their own idea network. We have even created a “how to” on our web site for all to use. At the local level we will be providing engaging networking events where speakers will hold 5-minute well prepared talks that are thought provoking, inspirational, and fun. Subjects will be wide ranging with an emphasis on leadership and technology. Anyone can participate, attend, or be a speaker. Then immediately following the talks the conversations will continue with an opportunity for everyone to network.
Our first event will be taking place in Sacramento, CA and we have three speakers lined up. We are really excited and if you are interested in being a part of our grass roots effort we’d love to have you. Wish us luck!
I read a great blog post last week called “Are you capable of being ruthless to get ahead?” It’s about a person who does whatever it takes to get ahead, and according to the article he is pretty darn successful at it. But is that what a great leader would do? Absolutely not. A great leader is inclusive, cares about others, and leads with integrity. If a leader is merely in it for themselves, eventually it will catch up with them. Look at Enron and the leaders involved in the recent financial crisis. How many of those leaders were in it for themselves? Quite a few, and it didn’t work out too well for them in the end.
Leaders set the tone for others to follow. If they only look out for themselves that sends the message to the organization to do the same. Over time, this becomes the operating norm working its way into the company culture. Since companies need their employees to trust and collaborate with each other, a culture of selfishness is a one way ticket to mediocrity. In the extremely competitive world we live in, fostering collaboration and new ideas is critical to staying competitive. It’s our leaders that we emulate and take our queues from, so if leaders are to be successful in the long term they have to support and care about others as much as themselves. Great leaders leave a path of inspiration, not a path of dead bodies.
This wild movement continues to grow and over the weekend hit the turning point with several more people becoming part of it. We now have five people on board and even have a name – Talks Unleashed.
If we disect the creation of a movement we find that there are four distinct stages.
Will our movement gain more steam and make it to the Tipping Point? This will more than likely be dependent on if our followers are “sneezers” (a Seth Godinism) spreading the Talks Unleashed ideavirus to others. If you look closely at Derek Sivers’ first follower in the shirtless dancing guy video, you notice that he is indeed a “sneezer” who encourages his friends to join in the movement. This is key. If the first follower and subsquent followers are not spreading the idea the movement will never grow.
Talks Unleashed has hit the critical Turning Point stage. The fun has only just begun.
Wheeeeewww, that is me exhaling as Eden stepped up today as the first follower to be part of this experiment. I gotta say it was a little scary being the lone nut with no followers for a couple days. Think about it… before Eden, I was just a crazy guy trying to start a movement. Now WE are THE movement and if two people are trying to start a movement based on a 3-minute leadership video it’s no longer so crazy. I know, I know, know, way deep – Seth Godin would be proud 
For those that may not know, the experiment we are doing is to see if we can create our own mini TED. TED is a conference that brings together the world’s best and brightest thinkers and doers to do short compelling presentations that share profound ideas. It costs about $6,000 so most are priced out. We are going to change that. We are also going to bring it to the masses and put our own twist on it.
Our inspiration for creating this movement was a 3-minute TEDtalk by Derek Sivers’. Derek gave away the idea for use by anyone and now several others are creating their own movements based on the principles of Derek’s shirtless dancing guy speech. For more on these other movements see Andrew Dubber and Andrew Wicklander blogs.
The movement has begun. If you are interested in being a part of it, join in now!
Derek Sivers’ First Follower concept has really resonated with folks. Peter Gabriel said it was “funny, profound, and important.” Tony Robbins even blogged about it! Then about a week ago Derek gave away the idea for anyone to use. Wow! Following Derek’s lead, Andrew Dubber announced that he is giving away 30 ideas over 30 days for others to use freely to write a book, create a business, or whatever they want to do with it. Andrew now has several folks lining up to help implement those ideas (if you are interested be sure to check out Andrew’s blog at the link above and join in the movement).
This got me thinking how great it would be to see a movement take place first hand. There is no way I could ever take credit for Derek’s idea, but I would love to test the concept and blog about it. So here’s my experiment… in the spirit of the TED talks I will create a TED meets Toastmasters movement where people create their own mini TEDs talks in their local cities. We start small and share presenations/talks that are fun, packed with knowledge, and inspirational. For example, a five minute presentation on what makes success or how a shirtless guy creates a movement. This is near and dear to me as I do speaking engagements, and love TED talks but the travel and tickets are pricey. There are a lot of people in the same boat so why not bring TED talks to the people without having to pay $6,000. Plus, any average Joe can be their very own TED speaker Imagine the amount of great ideas and thoughts that would be unleashed!!
I spoke to Derek about the concept and he thought it was a “great idea” and “very cool.” So with that I will begin working the details and posting them to my blog shortly. I’ll create the main website, framework, and make it free to use for anyone to start their very own mini TED movement in their city. People will be able to sign up at the main site, start their movement, blog about it, video tape the talks, and post them to the web for the world to learn and be inspired.
For this to be successful and for it to truly be a movement I can’t do it alone. If you are interested in being part of the movement contact me at jeff.mcleod@nicetoga.com. Would love to share in the experience with you.
Let the dance begin!
Derek Sivers gave an awesome three minute speech at TED on the power of the first follower turning the lone nut into a leader. If you ever wondered how a movement is made well here you go. Enjoy!
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Jeff McLeod