Lessons

Lesson Info

Envision Your Future

Another thing that I wanted to talk about with you guys which I've found to be a pretty valuable exercise is what with this gentleman lenny ah chuan calls pre writing your resume and I will tell I will tell you a little bit about lenny he is someone that I got to know because I did some consulting work for mount sinai hospital in new york and lenny is their director of communications and I met him and I was hearing from a lot of people before I before I actually met him during the course of doing this project everyone's like no lenny you know he's like this is executive on the rise you know he's like he's got it going on and so when I met him I'm like lenny everybody's kind of talking about you you know you kind of moved up the ranks fast like how'd you do that and and he said he said you know no one's actually ever asked me that and I said really and he said well, you know the way that I did it was I pre wrote my resume and I said what on earth do you mean by that? And I was so struck...

by the concept you know I had him tell me more and it became the hook of the article that I wrote for the harvard business review because you're just so unique and what he what he said was that he decided in two thousand to that he would write his resume for two thousand twelve and he just literally kind of projected it out into the future and he wrote up his resume just like you would and he put down all of the jobs you know, the job that he would have in two thousand twelve and then all of the different jobs that he would have between two thousand two in two thousand twelve and, you know, of course, ten years later it turns out that you know, it doesn't come out exactly how he predicted, but he was able to make some amazing progress and end up doing just phenomenal things let's just just to give you since lenny started is a nurse how many nurses do you know who go on to become first the head of social media for their hospital and then the head of overall communications it's just a really fascinating career transformation that he made for himself because he had a vision? And he said in two thousand to that vision was that he he knew even though it was an uncommon path that he wanted to somehow rise from being a nurse to being the head of a major initiative, you know what one of the top executives at the hospital and he said, I'm going to figure out how to do it and so some of the things that this involves you have to. Why it's valuable is that it really makes us focus. It makes us to drill down into what are the steps that we need to do to get to this future vision. I mean, any of us can say, well, what do you want to do in ten years? Oh, well, you know, I want to do acts, but what does it take? You know what kind of what kind of skills you need to develop? What training, what people do you need to know? Like, empower mapping? They could help you get there, you know, they can give you advice or connections or help teach you. And so what I would ask you guys to do both here in the studio and also at home, is to ask yourself the following questions, you know, where where do you want to be in a year and three years or in five years? And then we worked backwards from that five year goal. And that involves, you know, literally kind of creating creating a calendar for yourself. What jobs will you have held? What? What skills and connections do you need in order to get there? So we all know what a resume looks like, right, you get your your a year you know, your dates employed, you've got what job it is and then what are you doing is part of the job and so I would actually ask you guys just this kind of ah ah forward projection for yourselves to start pre writing your resume you know, pick it could be five years it could be ten years let's let's pick ten just for the heck of it and so it's two thousand fourteen now two thousand twenty four what would on earth are you doing that and what in between what gets you there? What is the chain of positions? And it could be right it could be that you're doing the exact same thing maybe you have your own business and you love it and you want to keep doing your own business that's great, but I bet that your vision for yourself in ten years is that you want to have grown in some way maybe you're working with a different kind of clients maybe it's bigger clients that more lucrative rates maybe you're doing a slightly different type of work maybe there's some awards that you've won or maybe your big thing is that you've decided to relocate your business maybe you're doing it from florence, italy uh whatever it is what's that twenty twenty four vision this is where we begin to really get strategic thinking backwards and so, guys, I'm curious here uh t hear your thoughts about this and so maybe samantha could I borrow you? Would you be willing to come on stage and shat with me? Thank you so much. It would be great here, come on, come on down and we'll we'll talk a little bit about this and so tell me more. Tell me about what is your long term vision for yourself, it's twenty twenty for what the heck are you doing? Well, in twenty twenty four, I would have I would like to have combined my love for photography with my love for filmmaking, so I would I own a large production studio where we could do pretty much anything anyone could imagine. Wow, I like that. So as far as details, you know we'd have multiple cities I could do, like underwater filming her photography, I'd be able tio have like a big room where we could do like create fantasy like a huge green screen, work it just by driving cars, planes where they have some sort of salade answers share. So when you get up here so like any any type of like film or photographed as someone could imagine, we'd be able to produce and like, that would be my ultimate go that is fantastic, so what? What do you see in between? Here and there that gets you there. How do you how do you get to the point where you're able tto own and operate your own big, cool studio, finding a mentor that is already in that position? So someone that rent a big studio knows what it takes tio to dio, right? That makes a lot of sense because there's a ton ton of unknowns in terms of, you know, probably how much it would cost the buyer to build something like that, what the staffing would look like, how to gear up and get the sort of big, big scale clients that it would evolve. So so this this is really important. So, I mean, samantha is literally kind of mapping this out for us, because the first step that she's saying is she wants to find someone that can help her make the rest of her plan that's, pretty smart. And so, you know, step one, then would be finding that venture, which is also where power mapping kind of comes in, because if you can identify certain people that that seem like a pretty good possibilities, you know, they say it's probably a limited number of people, right, who operate the kind of studios that you're talking about and so thinking through, okay, well, who who do I know? Who knows them and are there any connections in so that I can you know, first meet those people and then begin over time to kind of build up a relationship some such that they might be willing to be my mentor, right? So I could say like right now I don't know who I know that has being in that position or is currently in that position but I have recently made a gentleman has run his own studio for the last thirty years he's also had large clients, so because I told him, well, I know lighting and I know film filmmaking I could do videography and editing he's like, okay, well, you know would love to have you come share my studio with me along with another person and I'll teach you what I know if you teach me what I know so it's a it's a baby step but it's definitely a necessary one. Wow. So what you're telling me if I've got this right is that you have found a mentor prospect and you have already found a way to offer value to this person such that they're willing t bring you in and t teach you what they know I ive mentor you and you're going to be mentoring them in the lighting area is that right? Well, I'll be mentoring them and video editing and video editor wow congratulations so you are really pretty pretty far along your way of getting that step going I'm working my way there oh, I love that baby so great. So that's the main thing yeah, it could be overwhelming when you have a larger goal but I think like if you just take the nest very small steps it's like you'll get there yeah you're you're so right so I mean you're cultivating this relationship you're gonna learn from this guy and so over time step to once you kind of you're kind of building this relationship to the point where you've got cem cem trust and they really want to help you is toe have to sit down and have him kind of helped map out for you. What are the other steps that get you between here and your twenty twenty for vision? Exactly yeah and so at that point for each for each step you know it is it's one day at a time and so when samantha learns what the other pieces are then it becomes okay. Well, what do you know? What should I be doing to get to this part but it's handling it in this sort of step by step incremental fashion is exactly the right thing to do that's fantastic cool thank you so much for coming up appreciate that I love that what are we hearing from our friends on line here is there anybody who's uh who's doing ah pre writing their resume or has questions about that yeah, they actually are there they're working they're working on on well actually they're making a much of typos is what I'm saying is that time yeah yeah they're actually there's still a little bit stuck in the and the and the approaching and sort of the orbit of building this map of you and the question for you from virtual mom is what does it feel like for you if someone approaches you who hasn't done their homework isn't strategic bey ond knowing your name and reputation so if someone approaches you who hasn't done their homework yeah yes so if you so if you were the person who is being approached yeah I mean I think I think it's a really important point because you you really do want to make sure you're doing your homework in all this I mean, I think that one of the things it would be a real turnoff obviously is if if somebody you know you've been trying to connect with them but you know well why would you why would you bother to expend all this time and energy thinking like how can I really, you know, connect with this person or get in the same room with them and then it turns out like oh no, actually you know let's say you're steven lad and you spent all this time you finally meet somebody and he says, oh, you know, I think that it would be really great to talk to you about about art because I do this kind of art and I know you collect this you know, this similar kind of art and they're like, oh no, no, I don't actually know I used to but I don't do that anymore and you know like, oh, well, never mind, you know, it's a waste of your time it's a waste of their time and so you know, you really do want to make sure that if you are going tio you know, expend your time and energy on dh you know, even you know, waste five minutes of somebody else's time you want it you wanted to count because people will be resentful if you waste their time, but they will be grateful if you have made the effort to connect with them if it really is something that can add value to both of your lives. That's the distinction you know, I think people sometimes because of you know, this sort of maybe lack of self confidence they feel like anything might be wasting somebody's time if they're busy, but you know what busy people make time for what counts they make time for things that are valuable and if you really can get them tio understand that yes, this is a valuable connection for them too then you know, all of a sudden they're really appreciative that you've taken the time to make that that connection and to seek them out and you have people that are actually thinking bigger into the future and angel mace actually says lately instead of at the end of the phone call saying we'll have a nice day I've been saying have a great decade so we can all start thinking and bigger future segment and people love it a lot of spirit assign a warm and friendly and how they started you know what the one was the mom whose daughter was calling from university and the donor was a little down and needed to here up on the mom started using up phrases and then has brought him to it's toe work the workplace that we have a hole we have pages of stories of people doing this and and paying it back basically in terms of your co workers and how that just totally benefits going on from originally susan washington from you but then suits you know it's just being the story building yes, yes sir they're following along they love there are a lot of people that love the map creation and breaking it down so they can just check off the progress and see themselves moving forward and that comes from gm. So yeah, nice. Fantastic. That's great. And for for any of you other guys in the in studio audience. Where where do you see yourselves if you got, you know, the sort of vision where, you know, you won't want to be in twenty twenty four tomorrow. How about you? What are you doing? That's. Real ambition, but I wouldn't do my own guitar. Who work trump here? Great one. Okay. And here a creative, lithe right place? Yeah, I think that's my small first step. Yeah, I know that. That's. So great. So, yeah, I mean, there's and there's. So many things that we can think of. So you too I have taken the right first step. You're here experiencing at your meeting people, you're making connections, you know, you're sort of testing it out, right? Because if you have this vision in twenty twenty, twenty, twenty four, like hey, I want to do is creative life thing. You know what if you came here and it totally sucked, then gets, you know, wow, that's. Great, because you've just saved yourself ten years of wasting time, but instead you've clarified it because you spend two days here. It seems like a really cool environment that you want to be in and so now you focused your goal and say yeah, you know these are my people and so coming up with other ways I mean what I would suggest a za possibility is you you trade business cards with people here you stay in touch you make these connections and it's a way of continuing the process you now you have buddies now you could be like social marais have you heard about any job openings and you know, it's like people want toe I want to help up maybe you you live in the area obviously see could volunteer for other you know, being in the studio audience for other things so you can continue to learn and do professional development as you're making connections with you know, perhaps other staffers here in other parts of the crew so it's really all about you know, having the big picture in mind you know, thinking what would I want to do in ten years? But then you test it you iterated and you take small steps you know, every day or every week so that you're learning mohr and making connections that really, you know get you in the right direction, you may change your mind you may say, you know what? I don't necessarily want to do that, but you've been moving toward a goal that gives you exciting new possibilities wouldn't have had otherwise, so I think that's really exciting. So cool. Thank you, it's good to share and you know, hey, creative, live, we got this leaks talented person and, you know, she does humans as well as horses, and in particular, if a horse teaches a class, you know who to go to, but but she's good with people. So we've covered a lot in the course of the past two days and so excited that you guys have spent the time with me both the folks here in the studio, in the folks at home thank you for for watching hope that it's been beneficial to you some some of the top things that we talked about, I mean, you know the picture here, it's like, how do you how do you stand out? How do you create a personal brand that's really memorable to other people so that they can understand who you are and what you bring, what you bring to the table, what you bring to the world? So we began by talking about the myths of personal branding, some of the things that hold people back and why hopefully it shouldn't, because personal branding is not about, you know, fake aree it's not about being some something other than you are it's about being uniquely yourself and sharing that gift it's a vote creating your narrative that's that's the second part of what we talked about if you can't tell the story about yourself no one else can it's about really crystallizing that so that we can share it and then other people can understand the vision and help you spread it third we talked about living your brand there's a million ways to do it you know if even if you're a shy person even if you're an introvert you don't necessarily want to be up on stage but that doesn't mean you can't do personal branding it just means you do it in different ways and you live your brand throughout all your activities everything you dio and then fourth and finally yesterday we talked about developing your online portfolio particularly for creative professionals it's really valuable because you know people look up your stuff online they can see you know, proof they could see evidence you say you're a great graphic designer yes what they can look at it and say oh wow she is and that's pretty exciting but today we talked about a lot of other great things we started out with practice session for media interviews because one of the most powerful ways that you can really use social proof to show the world that you know hey here's secures who I am and it's newsworthy and interesting is to build relationships with reporters and get interviewed because then your story is spreading even further so we talked about techniques from mastering and getting comfortable with media interviews we also talked about networking the right way we don't want to do it in a transactional way we had susan row in the networking expert and author howto work a room in here talking about strategies for really connecting with people in fun and authentic ways that are based on shared interests and keeping a relationship alive over the long term with john corcoran we talked about connecting with mentors and powerful people because it is a little bit different you know when you connect with appear it's totally cool to just say hey let's, grab coffee let's grab lunch and and that's awesome but it doesn't work as well if you're trying to connect with someone that's really powerful or famous or whatever but those connections are obviously really great we'd like to do it the real question is how can you make sure that you are providing value that is obvious to them? You can't do it in the same way you know angelina jolie's movie star we're not movie stars but we could give angelina jolie something that she may not be able to do or she may not have you can't give them the same thing that they have you know if if angelina jolie says you know oh, I'll tweet something for you and then I'll say oh well, I'll tweet something for you uh that's really nice but her said, you know, she probably has, you know, one hundred times twitter followers that ideo and so it's not exactly equal but I can still give things to her or to other people because we all know things we all have skills that other people do not and it's a question just thinking hard and thinking strategically and saying, well, what's what's something different but valuable that I could contribute to this person's life and then fourth and finally just now we've been talking about creating your campaign plan because all of this is great it's important to think about but it's not going to take you where you need to go if we don't implement so really thinking through what is that vision? What is that future vision for twenty twenty for where we're going to be and what do we need to do to get there? What are the baby steps that move us in that direction so that we could be as as the bastardization of thoreau says, you know, moving confidently in the direction of our dreams? Or maybe it was emerson some awesome transcend analyst somewhat somebody awesome said that on so you know, we, uh we need t think about how do we move that forward and with power mapping we learned to think about who are the people we really want to meet and how do we get in the room with them? How do we, you know, be able to connect with them? You know, hopefully through through mutual connections because it's always a little weird, you know, to just sort of send the cold e mail sometimes it works, but if you can, finding a way through your connections tio to get connected with that person makes it far more likely that they'll be receptive to an invitation from you and that they'll treat you like appear rather than a supplicant because that's what we want riel relationships or pierre relationships, not us saying like, oh, you're so great! Or, you know, what can you give me it's not about that piers give to each other? They don't take that's what authentic networking an authentic personal branding is about what's been most memorable for you? Are there things from the past two days that a particularly resonated or that you're going to be using in your own life? Things that seem like they might be of interest? I love to hear your thoughts, but think about it this way. What what's your next action step it's all about moving forward you can't do the twenty twenty four dream tomorrow if you try to do that, we're going toe to freeze up and say oh, well, you know, I can't do it you know, we've failed I can't possibly reach that thing and of course you can't reach that thing tomorrow that's a ten year dream a ten year dream is accomplished one step at a time and if we have the persistence and the diligence to move toward it, we absolutely will hit it we may even exceed it, but you want to you want to make sure that we're just thinking about the pieces that we can realistically do today and keeping on doing them is inexorable force they will get us to where we want to go, what commitment will you make in terms of getting to your dreams, it's not about having a big idea and hoping it will happen it's about making a goal and saying, what steps will I take to get there and make it a reality? So for me, you know what? I'm hoping some of the thoughts are they that you guys might have is a result of this some of the messages that I'm hoping to have imparted, you know, personal branding it has to be authentic mean, it's number one it's not gonna work people can can see through it if it's fake, but you don't even want to do it if it's fake because why would you bother to connect with people that air forming a relationship based on a false pretense it probably means that they're not the kind of people you should be relating to any way you want to be relating to the people who like you for you those are the people who are are going to really fall in love with the typical style of things that you d'oh you don't want to be a photographer for everyone a graphic designer for everyone that's bland that's you know a photographer for everyone is a photographer for no one because it gives you no reason to want to pick you you want to be yourself because it allows you see other people to say wow I connect with her vision this is the person I want that is why I am choosing you you don't want to be a commodity you want to be the opposite of a commodity you want to give people a really reason to see you to see your vision and say I am on board with that I share that I wantto work with you you have to create your narrative that's the second thing if if you can't do it no one else will we can't just sit back and let life happen to us we can't let others create our narrative we're gonna take ownership of that that's the most powerful thing that we have and your brand it's a lot more than what you say it's not words your brand is your life, your brand is the overall impression that other people have of you from everyth you do your words, your actions, your relationships, and so we have to live an authentic and holistic life, because every single moment we are conveying something to the world, we want to make sure it's the right thing. We want to make sure that our message is coming through loud and clear, and we have two reputations now our online reputation and are offline reputation. We've got to think about it, be cognizant of both of those things they both matter. You can't really dropped the ball on one or the other of them. They contribute to the sum totality of what our brand is and from today what I really hope you guys are thinking about and hopefully taking with you from this is that number one the media can help broaden your reach, but you know, if you come up and you're not prepared, it's a wasted opportunity, we to seize it and make the most of it and by media, I mean everything from traditional old school media to bloggers and podcasters and things like that there's a million forms of media these days, so there's more opportunities than ever but being clear on our message being clear. On our narrative like like we talked about in day one that's what's essential so that we can get that across and when the megaphone presents itself we can really make use of it our contacts you know what is what is networking have to do with personal branding it's that our network helps spread the word it helps share the message that we have created and it means like that beacon it means that more people can see our light and come toward us if our vision resonates with there's the more we put ourselves out there the more opportunity it is for good things to come our way if you make yourself findable in this world if you have you know the web site where people can email you and if you're blogging or tweeting or giving talks or serving on boards it so it's a way for other people to find you and say wow that is amazing what you do I didn't know that was out there how can I get on board how can I hire you how can we be friends or collaborators that's that's what we want to create in our lives and we talked about earning a mentor a mentor is not something you find a mentor is not something you stumble across you have to earn a mentor seventy percent of the effort in a mentor or sponsor relationship with a protege comes from the protege we just I can't sit back and you know, seo, teach me, you know, do things to me, make me awesome, you gotta be awesome, and it earns that mentor. It attracts the attention of that mentor. Overall, we can't sit back and assume that talent is enough. We can't sit back and assume even the hard work is enough those air, those air critically important, those air necessary. But we have to have a strategy to and understand our our message. We have toe know ourselves and be willing to stay, step out of the box and share that with other people, because if you you know, I went to divinity school and you know, back back, back in the old days, the king james bible they talk about don't hide your light under a bushel. I don't know what that means, but it's not good. You don't hide your light under a bushel if you get a light, you want that light to shine. You want people to be able to see you for who you are, to see your vision for who you are and say that's, amazing. Come on in, the more I talk about marketing and sales sometimes and, you know, marketing marketing is putting yourself out there, and then sales is when you know the money comes in and closing and all that kind of stuff, it makes a lot of creative professionals nervous, and they're both important, but what I'll say is that the more marketing you d'oh, meaning the more you make others aware of who you are and boy you're capable of, the less selling you have to do, you don't you don't have to be, you know, beating the bushes and demanding oh, bye for me. Bye for me. Bye for me, because if you are creating that aura around you, where people really get oh, you know, that's amazing. Yeah, I know what she does, what she does or what he does. I really like that they're going to start coming you and that becomes tremendously powerful because it means you've got more people who are interested. It means you can choose your projects. It means you could be paid a really good, fair price for what you're doing. It means you can really be successful and sustainable as a creative professional. That's what we want and that's what I've been excited to talk with you guys about today.