On this Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, I’m endlessly inspired by these timeless words from Dr. King:
“If you can’t fly then run
If you can’t run then walk
If you can’t walk then crawl
But whatever you do
you have to keep moving forward.”
The Golden Globes is a great reason to gather with family and friends.
It’s fun to celebrate favorite movies and TV shows, rooting for favorite performers.
And if you’re a communicator and marketer, like me, it’s entertaining to listen for the best speeches of the evening.
The winners in my book? Sylvester Stallone for Creed and Lady Gaga for American Horror Story: Hotel.
Show emotion. Sly looked stunned when his name was announced, sitting in his seat for a few moments before he stood up. (The standing ovation may have begun before he stood up himself.) And his first words were about his genuine surprise.
Lady Gaga pulled her hand to her mouth, stopping time for a moment as the win sunk in. And among her first words were, “This is the biggest moment of my life.”
Shine the light on others. Sly endeared himself to the whole world when he said, “I am the sum total of everyone I’ve ever met.”
Lady Gaga said, “Because of you I was able to shine.” And, “Thank you for sharing your talent with me.” And, “You guys pick me up every day.”
Be brief. The best speakers leave you wanting more. Not wondering if they’re going to say something memorable (eventually), or wrap it up and be gone. Not so with Sly and Lady Gaga. I would have been happy listening to them speak for hours.
And that’s the art of a great acceptance speech.
What are great blogs for marketers?
And why read blogs anyway? Because they’re a quick, timely and entertaining way to learn about the latest trends in marketing and get interesting viewpoints on how the field is rapidly evolving.
Researching top marketing blogs reaffirmed 2 things. First is my devotion to 3 blogs marketing-related blogs. Second is 3 more I’m adding to the blogs folder on my iTools (the collective name for my personal iPhone, iPad and MacBook).
3 long-time favorites –
Seth Godin. Also known as “Seth Godin’s riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.” Ever since Linchpin, I’ve been a fan. His post, Don’t snow globe me, bro, not only helped my former Corp Comms team focus on what’s most important. One of my team members was so inspired she had a snow globe made for me.
Chris Brogan. Also known as “media, marketing, lead generation and customer acquisition strategies for business.” Ever since Social Media 101, I’ve been a fan. And I’m endlessly inspired by Chris’ perseverance – with blogging and with life.
Harvard Business Review. Also knowns as “ideas and advice for leaders.” Ever since I found back issues in a colleagues’s office, I’ve been a fan. So many terrific thought leaders – Umair Haque, Peter Bregman, Heidi Halvorson, Alexandra Samuels, Tom Davenport, Dorie Clark, Tony Schwartz, Karie Willyerd and more. Now I’m following posts on marketing, market research, analytics, branding and data.
3 new favorites –
Ryan Holiday. Also known as “meditations on strategy and life.” Ever since I visited Ryan’s blog, I’ve been a fan. Of all the marketing blogs I searched – and there were dozens – this captured my attention. I clicked through post after post, and link after link of this author, marketer and entrepreneur.
Ann Handley. Also known as a “content marketing keynote speaker and best-selling author.” Ever since Everybody Writes, I’ve been a fan. Her expertise is digital content marketing. She’s the chief content officer at MarketingProfs, with marketing resources for marketing professionals.
FiveThirtyEight. Also known as “using statistical analysis – hard numbers – to tell compelling stories about elections, politics, sports, science, economics and life.” No, it’s not a marketing blog. But since my new role is in market research, reading this blog launched by statistician Nate Silver is another immersion strategy to accelerate my learning project.
What are your favorite marketing blogs?
How’s your life going a week into the new year?
Are you firing on all cylinders? Energized by your dreams of creating change in your life? Or does it feel like ages ago that you embraced a bright, shiny new year, with all its possibilities?
Perhaps we’re expecting too much from a single day. Perhaps we’re trying to do too much. Or perhaps we didn’t plan for life’s unexpected twists and turns.
But perhaps New Year’s Day is as much as state of mind as it is a date on the calendar. How could you bring a New Year’s sensibility to all of your days? Here are a few ideas.
Set yourself up for success the night before. Wrap up your tasks for the day. Note your priority actions for tomorrow. Straighten up your surroundings. Pack a delicious lunch. Set out the stuff you’ll need for tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep.
Have a plan. Don’t put everything on your list for the day. When I do that, my eyes glaze over and I don’t know where to begin. Start with 3 to 5 priority tasks. Pick one to tackle first thing. Your most difficult one. Preferably in a 60- to 90-minute uninterrupted block of time.
Expect the unexpected. When you over schedule, there’s no slack in the day to roll with the punches. This week, for example, we (finally) had rain in Southern California. That meant traffic was heavier and more time was needed to get to the office. Plan some unplanned time to make up the difference.
Enjoy the adventure. Take in the sights and sounds of your surroundings. Look up from your smartphone. Look people in the eye, smile and say hello. Be present and make note of what’s happening from moment to moment.
Stop the doom loop. If you hear yourself spiraling into a sea of negativity, tell yourself to stop. Replace those thoughts with more positive, optimistic ones. If you feel embarrassed about a mistake you’ve made, remember that most people are thinking about themselves and won’t even notice.
Cut yourself some slack. Focus on the good in your day. Remind yourself of what you did accomplish (hopefully your top 3 – 5 priorities), rather than what you didn’t. Speaking of “priorities,” did you know when the word first entered the English language in the 14th century, it was singular? That’s right. You could only have one priority. Not multiple ones, as we have today.
Be kind to yourself — and others. Often we can get so wrapped up in our own challenges, that we fail to notice others are struggling with the same things. Or even more difficult problems than our own. It’s safe to assume that everyone we come in contact with is carrying a heavy load. Be nice to them. Smile. Offer a kind word. That goes for you, too.
Act the way you want to feel. This is my favorite of the “Secrets of Adulthood” from Gretchen Rubin and The Happiness Project. If you want to feel happy, start acting that way. If you want to feel grateful, think about your blessings. If you want to feel more positive and optimistic, start acting that way. It takes a deliberate choice and less than a minute of your time. That’s a pretty good return.
Remember that today is your new year’s day. And tomorrow. And the day after that. Make it count. Make a difference. Make it fun. Because all of our new year’s days add up to our lives. What kind of a life are you living? You don’t have to meet every last goal for yourself before you start enjoying it. Decide to make each moment special, for yourself and everyone around you.
What are good questions to ask about new research?
That was the question I had as I revisited Keeping Up With the Quants: Your Guide to Understanding + Using Analytics.
Written by Tom Davenport and Jinho Kim, this is a book I read a few years ago when I led our company’s employee engagement survey strategy.
Working closely with our partner, Towers Watson, I was learning a lot. Yet I wanted to better understand the underlying analytics.
As I moved into a new role and have embarked on a learning project, I’ve revisited the book.
It includes a great list of questions that leaders should ask about analytics projects. They’re summarized from marketing and strategy professor Liam Fahey‘s article in Strategy and Leadership.
Here they are:
Overall questions:
Questions for preliminary findings:
Questions for new insights:
Questions after insights have been delivered:
In our ever busier and faster world, I also ask myself what the one key takeaway and implication is from the research. How would I summarize the insights in a sentence or a tweet?
In addition, I ask myself if I truly understand the work. If not, it’s time for more questions.
After seeing the movie The Big Short this weekend about the 2008-09 financial crisis, I wish more people had asked a lot more questions.
Early in my career I had to visit a supplier in France. The company was in Paris, so evenings became perfect for sightseeing.
The Eiffel Tower was high on my list. I asked one of my French colleagues if he had any suggestions for my visit. Surprisingly, he hadn’t visited the landmark, despite living in the area of many years.
The same dynamic applies to me at times in Los Angeles. Some things are so close, I could go any time. As a result, “any time” often doesn’t happen.
On New Year’s Day in 2015 as I watched the Rose Parade on TV, I decided it would be fun to go this year. Pasadena isn’t far from home. And I had happy memories of attending the parade once as a teen.
What fun this morning was. There was the parade of street vendors and bicyclists before the event. Supporters of one of the presidential candidates had their own parade after the last official parade participants disappeared down Colorado Boulevard.
And I don’t recall ever seeing in the televised version the pooper scoopers who follow each group of horses. Yet these were some of the most animated and crowd-friendly people in the parade. They waved, danced and took selfies with spectators.
When skywriters filled the sky with political messages, even the marching band at our spot on the parade route turned to look. Some pulled out their phones to snap pictures.
The element of the unexpected was what made the day. It made me think about the practice of PR. What a fascinating way to attract attention and dominate social media.
It’s funny how leisure time can help you think in new ways about your profession and about your work.
That was one of the key points that caught my eye in Laura Vanderdam‘s book, What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend.
She also suggests having 3 to 5 “anchor events” each weekend – a dinner with friends and family, a movie, a bike ride, a trip to a local landmark and so on.
To fuel those events, she advocates making a List of 100 Dreams. The ones within an hour or two of your house can serve as inspiration for weekend planning.
Her idea that you need to plan your weekends as much as you plan your work weeks leads to a lot more fun and enjoyment. And that perspective makes everything in life better, whether it’s personal or professional.
Find Your Adventure was the theme of today’s Rose Parade. What will your adventure be this year?
“The transitions are just as important as the destinations,” our yoga instructor said this week.
His words reminded us not to rush to the next pose, but to enjoy the entire process. In essence, to enjoy the journey.
The yoga class was part of this week’s respite my husband and I enjoyed in Ojai, California. Known as the “unofficial zen capital of Southern California,” Ojai is an ideal place to refresh and renew.
While we enjoyed lunch outdoors by a much-needed heat lamp in the cool California sun, a few drops of water fell on our table. Looking up, we saw a rainbow.
Yes, that’s it in the picture above. I didn’t even have to move from my seat to take the photo. It was right there. Right where we already were.
As I thought about the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I realized I didn’t need to go looking for it.
Because as our yoga instructor wisely said, the transitions are as important as the destination. The view was beautiful right where we were.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have goals and aspirations we strive for. Far from it.
But for someone like me who’s focused on the future almost to the point of overlooking the pricelessness of the present, this was a valuable reminder.
Over the rainbow is right here and right now. There’s a sweetness to the here and now. There’s a specialness in each moment of life, even as we plan for a better future.
Leaping into a new year, it’s important to enjoy the rainbows that are present every day. All it takes is looking for them.
Want to take a zen moment of your own? Let yourself be transported by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole‘s beautiful version of Over the Rainbow & What a Wonderful World.
Your rainbow is waiting, in the precious moments of everyday life.
Do habits make us who we are?
Habits inform how we live our lives each day. And over time that adds up to who we are.
Habits underpin the goals we set, often at the start of a new year or season.
Whether it’s exercising more, working better or spending time with loved ones, goals are achieved bit by bit, in the smaller tasks we repeat on a regular basis.
And don’t underestimate how small changes add up. Small Move, Big Change by Caroline Arnold shows the power of “micro resolutions.”
As part of my own year-end rituals, I’m starting a new tradition. It’s called a Daily Dozen, for 12 key habits I’m committed to doing each day.
Some of them are well established, like walking 10,000 steps each day. Others are newer, like power posing for 2 minutes every morning.
The daily dozen concept came from Walter Chauncey Camp. Known as “the father of American football,” Camp devised a set of 12 exercises called the daily dozen while he worked for the U.S. military.
Here’s my daily dozen – 12 exercises for body, mind and spirit:
3 morning pages. Thank you, Julia Cameron, for the brilliant idea of writing 3 long-hand pages every morning, about anything, in a stream of consciousness.
The practice of morning pages clears your minds, helps you solve problems and sets the stage for a highly creative day. Completion time: 20 minutes.
1 power pose. Thank you, Amy Cuddy, for the research-based practice of standing in a power pose for 2 minutes. Your body language really does shape who you are and how you think about yourelf.
But why wait for a stressful situation to try power posing? Pre-emptively, I’m doing a power pose every morning. Arms stretched out, excited about what I’ll do each day and what each one will bring. Completion time: 2 minutes.
2 sets of arm weights. While I understand why weight training should be done every other day to rest tested muscles, it’s hard to remember to do something every other day. It’s easier to do something daily, because it doesn’t require a lot of thought.
So I’ll split up my arm weight regimen. One day I’ll do 2 sets of weights, followed by a different 2 sets the next day. That way it’s daily, but different each day. Completion time: 5 minutes.
2 vitamins. This one’s easy. I’ve been taking vitamins for years. It takes seconds, it’s good for me and it gives me a small sense of accomplishment. This fuels the ability to meet other goals.
Have you ever added a task to your list after you completed it, just for the satisfaction of crossing it off as done? This goal is a similar concept. Completion time: 1 minute.
1 reasonable to-do list. Too often my master list of everything that needs to be done serves as my daily to-do list. Instead, I’ll make a daily list, the night before, of my top 5 priorities for the following day.
Taking inspiration from Tony Schwartz, 1 of the 5 will be a top-of-the-day key project to devote my first focused 90 minutes. Completion time (for the list): 10 minutes.
5 fruits and veggies. This comes from Michael Pollan’s mantra to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” In my case that’s berries with breakfast, salads for lunch and fruits and veggies for snacks.
This is how I lost weight a few years ago. It is painfully true that the really hard part is not losing weight, but maintaining the new weight. Completion time: negligible.
30 active minutes. Successful weight maintenance is easier with daily exercise. That’s been a habit of mine for quite some time. And I’ve upped the ante with my green-day challenge to reach 10,000 steps every day.
It’s also fun to mix it up and try new forms of exercise. This year I’m looking forward to more stand up paddle boarding and yoga. Completion time: 30 minutes.
3 family member time. Life is full with a spouse and 2 teens in high school plus 1 rescue dog. Sometimes it feels like group texts are our most often used means of communication and connection.
So I sit in the dining room in the evenings, to connect with everyone during homework and dinner time. Besides chatting for a few minutes about everyone’s day, I can do my “homework” from the office while they do theirs. Completion time: variable.
1 blog post. Initially I considered posting daily. But this would not be sustainable with my family and work commitments. What I can do is devote 30 minutes daily to blog-related activities: ideating, reading, researching, writing, posting or publicizing. Completion time: 30 minutes.
30 minutes of reading. Reading helps you relax, focus and learn – whether it’s my daily news ritual or reading to write a blog post. A great idea in Stretch co-authored by Karie Willyerd is to read from 3 different continents, to develop a global perspective. Does The Economist count for multiple continents?
When pressed for time, I can read on my iPad while on the treadmill (see “30 active minutes” above). And reading time counts as blog time (see above) if I’m researching a post. Completion time: 30 minutes.
3 things to be grateful for. Inspired by happiness and habits guru Gretchen Rubin, I end each day by writing down 3 things I’m grateful for. The list goes at the end of my morning pages (see above), hopefully creating a continuous loop of positive thoughts and actions. Completion time: 10 minutes.
7 hours of sleep. This may contribute the most to my well being. Life often feels like a trade-off between being close to caught up on the to-do list and caught up on sleep. But I can accomplish so much more when I’m well rested.
Sleep Cycle to the rescue, here. This app wakes you up at your lightest sleep point during a 30-minute interval that you specify. And it doesn’t subtract restless time, like another tracker I tried, which makes me happier. Completion time: 7 hours.
What’s your daily dozen?
____________
This is my 50th post since launching this blog on New Year’s Day 2015.
While I didn’t hit my goal of 2 posts a week, I’m proud of maintaining this blog during a busy and transformative year.
With 2016’s theme of leaping, I’ll post and publicize twice a week for a total of 100. Game on!
What are your learning goals for the new year?
If you need data-driven ideas and inspiration, check out Stretch: How to Future-Proof Yourself for Tomorrow’s Workplace.
Co-authored by Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick, this new book is packed full of strategies to ramp up your learning, your career and your life.
At DIRECTV we had the good fortune to have Karie speak on a number of occasions – at our annual leadership meeting, at large department conferences and to our employee resource group for young professionals.
Karie shared insights from another book she co-authored, with Jeanne C. Meister, called Workplace 2020: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today.
She was always a hit – sparking dialogue, stoking debate and seeding positive changes in the workplace and the culture.
It was a pleasant surprise to get a friendly email from Karie this fall, asking how things were going. Doing a quick Google search before I responded to see what Karie had been up to lately, I was thrilled to see she had a new book in the works.
Since I recently pivoted into a new role, the Kindle version of Stretch zoomed to the top of my list for winter holiday reading.
It starts by asking “who do you want to be tomorrow?”
And it outlines the megatrends that will impact the future of your career – globalization, demographics shifts, data explosion, emerging technologies, climate change, redefined jobs and complexity.
How should today’s professional respond?
By stretching your skills and abilities, the authors say. And by taking into account your dreams for yourself and your family in the future.
There are 5 key practices, each with several supporting strategies. Here are the 4 strategies, preceded by the key practice area, that most resonated with me. They’ll help inform my learning journey.
Learn on the fly: cultivate curiosity. This strategy is about constantly asking “why?”
Why ask why? You’ll question assumptions and unconscious rules, which may lead to new insights and ideas.
The authors provide some good questions in a “curiosity stimulator checklist” –
Be open: seek feedback. This is the strategy I most wanted to ignore, so I knew I needed to include it.
The authors aptly described why: “As researchers of vulnerability understand, our self-confidence takes a plunge when we feel we are being criticized.”
Yet plunge into seeking feedback, I must, to grow and improve. And to do so, the authors describe good ways to create a safe environment in asking others for candid feedback:
Build a diverse network: strive for five to thrive. Strong and diverse networks stretch you, the authors say, reminding me of Roselinde Torres‘ TED talk on What Makes a Great Leader?
The strategic question that spoke to me? “Who are the 5 people who can help you be a better person, especially when it comes to your work?”
They could be people in your network who “inspired you, stretched your thinking, left you feeling it’s possible to change, introduced you to new knowledge in different fields and demonstrated being an expert in ways you aren’t.”
My diverse list of 5 is taking shape. During January I’ll be connecting with them to meet for coffee and talk virtually during the year.
Be greedy about experiences: approach targeted work with a development stance. This is where “you care about getting the task done really well and using what you learn to do even better work in the future.”
The development stance, as opposed to a completion or performance stance, could include doing research, talking to people with expertise, observing processes that work well or taking an online course or a MOOC.
The book has a template to identify your major projects and tasks, skills that can be developed in each one and how you’ll approach each project – with a completion, performance or development stance.
As I work through the template and choose areas of focus for development, I’ll share some of my learning experiences in future posts.
How will you stretch in the coming year?
Do you want to achieve more focus in the new year?
Then pick a theme for 2016 – one word that sums up your goals.
Five years ago I chose my first annual theme.
I’d just wrapped up an intense time at work, designing and delivering our company’s first leadership development program for our CEO and CHRO. This labor of love involving long hours was all made worthwhile on the final day as the 30 participants shared how the program changed their lives.
In the community I was involved with our local education foundation, leading a refresh of our strategic plan to raise money for local schools. There was also a grade-level job for my daughter’s cotillion. And co-leading my son’s Cub Scout den. Plus a bevy of youth basketball, baseball and soccer games.
Not to mention all the related parenting responsibilities for elementary- and middle-school-aged children. (And here I’m bucking a trend the Wall Street Journal reported on, about people hiding their children’s ages. Why be that coy when our own ages, addresses and more are just a few clicks away?)
Life was full. Life was good. And life was a bit too much. Too many things to do and not enough time to do them in. Not enough time to enjoy life as it happened.
That’s why my theme for 2011 became thinning.
First was thinning my calendar. The clock ran out on some of my community commitments. No new volunteer roles made it onto my calendar for a while.
Second was thinning my surroundings. Well before Marie Kondo‘s fabulous The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I pared down possessions. Gave away things that were no longer needed. Said farewell to items that were no longer valuable.
Third was thinning my body. I started eating healthier foods and exercising more. Several months later, I was 50 pounds lighter. That called for more thinning of my wardrobe.
And it also created space for the new in my life. New clothes. New experiences. New perspectives. All by focusing on thinning and having less in my life so I could truly enjoy what I had.
From Thinning, I moved on to Building. Shining. Reinventing. Transforming.
Yes, this year’s theme was transforming. Having led so many change projects in my career, I’m fascinated by reinvention, revitalization and renewal.
My company was being acquired in an exciting, transformative deal. So I looked forward to how that would transform my career. And it did, opening up new opportunities in marketing.
Our family had transformational moments with our youngest child starting high school and our oldest teen visiting colleges, taking standardized tests and applying to schools.
We finally transformed our mid-century (e.g., outdated 1950s) kitchen with new cabinets, counters, appliances and flooring. And we’re installing more water-conscious bathroom appliances, here in drought-resilient Southern California.
My exercise routine was transformed with forays into stand up paddle boarding, cardio barre and yoga. Now if I can combine paddle boarding with yoga in the new year, I’ll be all set.
My community involvement transformed with leading inspiration for my chapter of National Charity League and serving on a mayor-appointed committee in my city.
And I wanted to transform my writing and social media presence by launching this blog on New Year’s Day 2015.
Did I transform as much as I wanted? Of course not. There’s always more to be done. But as I reflect on the last year, I’m happy to see progress. And that is what life is all about.
The theme for 2016?
Leaping.
Leaping into what exactly?
For starters, leaping into a new and exciting role at work. It melds skills I honed in corporate communications with newer skills in the areas of measuring brand health, advertising effectiveness and customer experience.
Next is helping my daughter prepare to go to college in the fall. To become more independent and make her own decision. To figure out how to create a good life.
And then there’s this blog. It’s still a work in progress. My focus is changing and evolving, along with my professional and personal life.
Writing this blog grounds me and gives me tremendous joy. It brings more flow into my life, where I lose myself in the ever-engaging process of thinking and writing.
My leaping theme is inspired by Tara Sophia Mohr and her book Playing Big.
Mohr writes, “A leap has you playing bigger right now, is simple, and can be completed in one to two weeks, gets your adrenaline flowing, and puts you in contact with the people/audience/customers/stakeholders you want to reach through your playing bigger.”
My first leap is posting to this blog twice a week, sharing it on social media and getting feedback. My other leaps? Those will be the subjects of future posts.
What’s your theme for 2016?
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