Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Category: Awakening

Waiting For Wintergrasp: The Moment to Lead

Waiting For Wintergrasp: The Moment to Lead

People need leaders. They want leaders. They hunger for leaders. In some cases, people are so desperate as a crowd for leadership that they’ll follow and even swear loyalty to terrible leaders, as long as they don’t have to take up the mantle of leadership themselves. Nowhere is this more apparent to thousands of people every day than in Lake Wintergrasp.

What’s this? If you don’t play World of Warcraft, it’s a really big competition between two teams to take control of a battlefield. Without getting too deep into the mechanics of Wintergrasp, suffice it to say that teams are organized in groups of 40 people, and at a certain point dictated by the game, everyone goes and tries to capture the objectives of the game.

What’s interesting to me as a marketer and student of behavior is what happens before Wintergrasp starts. See, the teams aren’t automatically formed by the game. Teams have to be organized by individual players, and that’s where things get interesting. Very, very few people want to take leadership of a team, even when there are no significant adverse consequences to doing so. Many people simply wait around, asking aloud to be invited to any open team if there is one.

Imagine what this is like – dozens, sometimes hundreds of people milling around looking for leadership. The instant someone forms a team and takes leadership, the entire crowd galvanizes. The team forms up and you’re ready to go within minutes.

What makes this important is that this is a human behavior. Forget for a moment that this occurs in a fantasy role playing game that’s traditionally (and incorrectly) associated with high school kinds and nerds living in parents’ basements. This need for leadership and simultaneous unwillingness to step into a leadership role is an opportunity for you, if you can overcome your own hesitation, to establish yourself in any industry, niche, market, or space.

People want leaders.

Is your marketspace crying out for someone, anyone, to take a leadership role and do something as simple as organize a team to accomplish a deed?

Are you looking to build your own personal brand or gain experience? Look for opportunities and marketspaces where people are just milling around, waiting for a leader, and step up. Take on the responsibility of providing leadership, and gain back what you give and more.

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April 10, 2009
Neighborhood watch 2.0

How many of you know what a neighborhood watch is? It’s an old school idea – neighbors keep an eye out in the neighborhood for suspicious activity and report it to the police. It’s especially effective when neighbors know each other and are happy to look out for each others’ interests.

How many people know their physical neighbors well?

You should.

If you don’t, make friends, and soon. Why? Simple.

The economy is spawning more crime. The numbers estimated by the University of Arizona suggest that a 1% increase in unemployment correlates to a 1% increase in crime rates. Crimes begin casually, with opportunity crimes, and worsen from there if unchecked.

Kicking it up a notch

A basic neighborhood watch is effective, but now add in the capabilities of social media, of new media to the mix. If you have several social media aware folks in your neighborhood (or you can train them easily), when you meet with your police department’s crime prevention officer (CPO, the officer assigned to instruct Neighborhood Watch programs), introduce him or her to Twitter. Get your neighbors who are Twitter-savvy to create a hashtag for your neighborhood like #54&Pine or #7Gables and have members report mildly suspicious activity there (“scruffy kid, about 5’6″ with black backpack walking around block 5th time this hour”). Show your CPO how to use Twitter Search so that real-time updates can be casually viewed at the station.

Got a camera on your data-enabled mobile phone? You have an awesome crime deterrence tool. Use services like TwitPic to take instant shots of suspicious activity and upload them immediately to your neighborhood watch Twitterstream.

Own a digital camera with a decent lens and low light ability? Take photos and load them up to sites like Flickr so that your neighbors and CPO can inspect in detail things that you find suspicious.

Know someone talented at using Google Docs and Google Maps? Help your local police department geographically map crimes in your area and look for trends using freely available Google tools.

What other new media/social media tools can you think of to empower ordinary citizens to help local law enforcement prevent crime?

Note: in no way do I advocate unnecessarily putting yourself in harm’s way or taking the law into your own hands. As with all community-based initiatives, the idea is to work WITH your local police, not compete with them.

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February 26, 2009
Three words for 2009: Unleash your potential

Recently, my friend Chris Brogan asked what three words would define 2009’s goals and achievements. Mine come directly from one of my teachers, Stephen K. Hayes, and his Quest organization – unleash your potential. In the context of his To-Shin Do martial art, it’s about awakening a lot of things in yourself that you don’t know are there.

For me, outside of the martial arts, unleashing your potential is about tapping into the powers you already have. In a social media presentation I give at speaking events, I ask audiences to name a superhero based on this list of powers:

– Nearly omniscient
– Can influence events and things from afar
– Can see all over the world

The answer, of course, is you, with the help of Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and the myriad other utilities available to us that give us as human being unprecedented capabilities.

The catch is, even though we have the capabilities, we may not be using them. We may be leaving potential on the table, and that means leaving money, friendship, love, and many other things on the table as well. Truthfully, we all leave potential on the table every day because life is just that good – there’s so much to explore, learn, and share that we’ll never get to even a fraction of it all in one human lifetime. That said, it’s at least worth trying.

So here’s an exercise to help you unleash a little more of your potential today, right now. If you’re involved in the social media scene and you have followers/fans/friends, pick someone in your contact list/address book/follower collection that you don’t know well and take 15 minutes to learn more about them. Find out what they do for work, find out what they do for fun. This is unleashing the potential a little bit more out of your personal network, exploring resources that you may not have known were there.

Once you’ve done that exercise, start looking around for more ideas and ways to get more juice out of the potential that surrounds you, that you have free access to. What can you learn to do a little bit better today? Who can you know a little bit better today?

Unleash your potential, and by the time 2009 draws to a close, you’ll have had an amazing year no matter what.

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January 4, 2009
New Year's Resolute

A funny thing happens when a new year starts. For many of us, we craft these resolutions, these goals for the new year, as a way of making a fresh start to the year. Here’s a few tips to make those goals stick.

1. They have to be achievable.

2. They have to be measurable.

3. They have to be atomic. By this, I mean they have to have pieces and steps. It’s not enough say you want to lose 25 pounds – you want to lose a pound every week, or some granular measurement that tells you whether you’re on track or not.

But here’s the most important tip for new year’s resolutions – you have to be resolute about them, absolutely firm in your convictions about achieving them. Being resolute isn’t easy; it helps greatly to have two emotional driving forces to power it. You have to really, really, really want something that you can define in very concrete, emotional terms, and you have to really, really, really want to get away from something in the same kind of terms. Let’s look at some examples.

Bad resolution:

I want to lose weight this year.

Good resolution:

I want to lose 25 pounds this year.

Great resolution:

I want to lose 25 pounds this year at 3 pounds a month, or roughly one every couple of weeks.

Almost certainly going to happen resolution:

I want to lose 25 pounds this year at 3 pounds a month, or roughly one every couple of weeks so that I stop feeling ashamed of myself first thing in the morning in the mirror and so I can hang out with my athletic friends on Monday nights at the club and attract Samantha’s attention for a date.

See how each resolution gets more and more specific, with more and more concrete ways to measure your success and give you reasons to do it?

Do the same with your resolutions. One thing that seems to help a lot of people is to write a resolution down, perhaps on a sheet of paper or plank of wood, and carry it with you. Make sure your resolution has these emotional ties to it so that it’s there as almost a totem for when you stand the possibility of going seriously off track. If you can carry it around somehow, you should.

I wish you not only a happy new year, but a year filled with achievements and accomplishments. Thanks for being part of my life.

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January 1, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving and leftovers

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, please consider this super-easy leftovers tip: whatever you don’t need, whatever’s extra, please donate to a local food pantry, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter. Even just an extra can of cranberry sauce or can of coffee makes a difference, and it’s so easy to do.

Don’t know where the nearest one is? Use this Google Maps query. Go to maps.google.com and type:

food pantry near your town, your state / zip code

Example:

food pantry near 02169
food pantry near Quincy, MA

You might want to call ahead and ask if they accept actual leftovers; some pantries require food to be unopened for safety.

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November 27, 2008
Passion and light

You must be passionate about what you do and what you believe in. You must be passionate, emotional, even a little overzealous, because it’s that passion that will keep you going when times get rough… like now. The passion to make a difference, to be more than the sum of your experiences, to want to promote something greater than just you will make hard decisions easier, forming friendships faster, gathering allies to your cause smoother. Passion will drive you and awaken in you the hero that cannot fail, that cannot be swayed, that cannot be broken.

Passion will clear your vision, open your mind, and brighten your heart. Passion is a virtuous circle – the more passionate, the brighter shines your light – which in turn inspires you again to shine ever brighter.

These are dark times. We need each other’s light more than ever.

Here’s the greatest secret of all:

Passion, like happiness, is waiting there in front of you.

Will you pick up the mantle and become a champion?

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November 19, 2008
Actualization and change

Master teacher Stephen K. Hayes says “Unleash Your Potential” as the brand summary of his To-Shin Do martial arts system. This is a lot to cram into three short words, but it’s got me thinking lately, especially in this economy, in these times.

Actualizing your potential means roughly the same thing, but is a lot uglier, brand-wise.

What’s got me thinking is that we in the new media community have tremendous potential. We’ve got rolodexes that five years ago would have been the envy of any top tier salesperson, from CEOs and CMOs of Fortune 500s to the latest and greatest minds in nearly every field. We’ve got greater reach individually and collectively than any generation of humanity has ever had. I could fill 10% of Fenway Park with the number of folks who follow me on Twitter. I could fill Fenway twice or Yankee Stadium once and change with the number of people who have listened to the Financial Aid Podcast.

All of that, however, is potential.

Potential is stored energy, energy that can be released into the world, but unless that potential is tapped, actualized, unleashed, it’s not working for you. It’s rather like sitting on a large pile of cash. Unless you spend it, invest it, or put it to work, cash by itself isn’t very helpful. It’s not really edible, for example.

Where am I going with all this? As the economy and country prepares for massive changes beginning on Election Day, making the commitment to actualize more of your potential might be just the thing to usher in your own personal era of change.

– Get in touch with all those contacts on LinkedIn. Say hi.
– Put up a blog post for your Twitter friends and tell them hi, and ask how you can be helpful.
– Do something about the business card pile you’ve accumulated and make use of those meatspace bookmarks.
– Find new ways to bring together what I do for work with what I do for fun, life, and mission, so that when I do one thing in one area, all other areas benefit.

I’ll be doing exactly this and more as we vote for new leadership in the country, as a way of integrating personal change with national change.

What will you do to bring about your own personal change and tap into your potential a little more?

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November 2, 2008
The war against despair is up to you, new media

It has become depressingly apparent that no leadership, no guidance, no inspiration will be forthcoming from any of the traditional sources in our society. Our politicians are locked in partisan bickering with each other, fighting like junkyard dogs over scraps. Our financial leaders are in a tailspin. Our heroes are largely fictional now at best.

This creates a void and sets our society adrift. There is, however, a new source of leadership, of wisdom, of inspiration.

How many of you have blogs?

Podcasts?

MySpace & Facebook accounts and groups?

Twitter accounts?

How many of you have at least 10 listeners/followers/fans?

100?

1,000?

If you have reach that exceeds 10 people, then you can step up to lead. If you have reach that exceeds 100 people, then you may be asked to lead. If you have thousands who follow you and call you a leader whether or not you feel like one, then you must, here and now, accept that mantle of leadership. You must don the cape and boots even if you feel as though they were made for someone else.

You have been called.

Here is what your followers need of you. They need not only to be pushed away, but to be pulled towards.

It’s not enough to say what to avoid; you have to provide your followers with something to do. A mission. A calling. A focus that will let them in their passion and intensity drown out the voices of panic around them so that they can generate momentum with you. Pick your cause, pick your battle, and engage your followers.

Direct them towards a mission, towards a goal, towards something that provides tangible benefit so that they can get the ball rolling in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities. Give your followers missions and tasks towards the goal you are united for, and you will help them to realign themselves away from chaos and panic towards growth, progress, and even prosperity. Ask them to give and give double what they do. Lead through example.

Despair thrives in confusion and inaction.
Despair withers under the heat and light of passion.
Despair dies in the face of confident leadership.

You have the following. You have the crowd. Your community and the people who respect you need you now more than ever.

Step up.

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October 10, 2008
Recentering your faith

No shortage of bad news in the headlines lately, eh? Reading all of it and still being able to face your day is getting increasingly hard sometimes, isn’t it?

Here’s the good news. Despite all of everything in the headlines, basic goodness still prevails.

Go outside and look at the building you’re in. The concrete in the foundation hasn’t shattered just because the Dow Jones fell a certain number of points.

Wake up early tomorrow morning. The sun, bright as ever, doesn’t check the markets before rising for the day. It’s there as a part of basic goodness, a part of life that, for the purposes of mere mortals, is timeless.

Take a look at the money in your pocket. It’s faith based. Entirely. There’s nothing inherent to it that makes it valuable beyond what you think its value is. This is a curse of money (volatility) but also a blessing, because it reinforces that there are infinite things beyond money that have real, tangible value. What price is a child’s unconditional hug? What exchange rate is there for a good laugh?

Chogyam Trungpa calls this sort of outlook the Great Eastern Sun perspective. We open our hearts to life as it really is, and not as we, the media, the politicians, or the pundits would like it to be. We recognize what is real and what is fictional, cutting through all of the crap to see clearly.

Do this: find a song that inspires in you a feeling of closeness with everything that’s real, with all of the things that matter. It can be about family, friends, devotion to your spiritual faith, a good meal, a warm hug, a first kiss you’ll never forget – whatever it is, the song just has to inspire in you a deep love and appreciation for something that no bad news can ever tarnish.

Listen to the song with your eyes closed. Then, assuming it’s relatively nice out, go outside to someplace natural – a local park, your backyard, even a courtyard in an office or dorm. It doesn’t have to be large or majestic, just natural. Sit on the ground if you can – the real ground, not concrete. Close your eyes, sit up straight, take a deep breath, enjoy the moment, and then replay your song in your mind. Enjoy its every nuance, its every tug at your heart, and when it’s over in your mind, realize that you are still firmly in charge of how you experience the world.

Are there troubles? Of course. Are there pressing issues? Absolutely – and there always will be. But allow, gift yourself the luxury of five minutes of deep love for everything life has already given you, everything you’ve created for yourself, and everything that no amount of sensational news headlines can never, ever take away from you.

Your inner superhero will thank you, and you’ll be ready to rejoin the crusade for what you really value in life.

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September 23, 2008
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” – Stan Lee

If there was one takeaway that Chris Brogan and I wanted you to have from PodCamp Boston 3, it was this – you have superhero powers, and it’s time to use them.

One of my slides in the opening remarks showed this list of superpowers that 50 or 100 years ago would have been solely in comic books or other wild fantasy stories.

Story is told over and over again
Can influence the minds of millions
Has legions of allies ready to do battle
Can be heard around the world
Can know the thoughts of others
Can see and hear through walls

And of course, these mapped to our sponsors.

mDialog, Blip.tv
Blue Sky Factory, MarketWire
Mzinga
Utterz, Blubrry
Matchmine, MarketingProfs
ooVoo

Think about all of the power technology gives you. Google Maps lets you walk around at ground level or from 30,000 feet over a huge chunk of the inhabited planet. Google itself gives you incredible reach, access to more knowledge in the palm of your hand or in your lap than any human being has ever had. A simple cell phone lets you talk to someone in real time on the other side of the planet.

We forget we have these “powers” because we take them for granted. We grow up with them, and once the novelty of a new device, technology, or service wears off, we forget to explore what we can actually DO with them.

Take a step back. Look at the technology that surrounds you as traits of a comic book superhero. If a superhero had the powers you did, what stories would be written about them? What crimes would they solve, what lives would they save with your powers?

What if podcasting, instead of being a discussion about MP3 vs. M4A, RSS vs. Web, audio vs. video, was a discussion about how to get the best teachers in the world to every student who wanted to learn? What if social networks, instead of debating the merits and features of X platform, was a community trained in early awareness and intervention for things like teenage suicide? What parent wouldn’t encourage their kids to be a part of a social network if they knew that others were ready to lend a helping hand in troubled times?

Troubled times are what we live in now. Community is the foundation of your true power, while technology is the bridge from power to action to accomplishment. Awaken your superhero by looking at what you’re truly capable of, then go out into the world and do.

Where to start? Simple. Find a local non-profit, charity, cause, group, or other volunteer opportunity that has need. There’s no shortage of need today. Find a cause worth supporting, then lend your talents, powers, and insights to it. There’s just as much nobility and justice in helping search optimize the local animal shelter’s web site as there is in promoting the cure for cancer, and the lives you save are no less valuable. There’s just as much good done by doing local outreach that brings in 5 more cans of food to the local food bank as there is in broadcasting a global hunger charity drive. The person at the end of the day who gets another meal is just as grateful.

Use your powers. Awaken your superhero.

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July 22, 2008

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