Category: Networking+Branding

Do You Have Your Own Personal Board of Advisors?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I didn’t realize I needed a personal board of advisors until things got pretty rough.

I was stuck, trying to do everything myself, trying to learn faster and stay up later to make it work.

Then, one summer when I was running too many programs all at once, I finally caved and hired teaching assistants for my writing workshops. I can’t believe I didn’t do that sooner.

One of my early students, Emma, reached out and said she wanted to help with a teaching assistant position I had. She was incredible. She, in fact, was the one that taught me about the need for a “personal advisory board.” It became a phrase that stuck with me.

(If you’ve been following my work since the beginning, you might remember when I taught my first 30-person digital writing workshops. I’m still following and in touch with so many of the writers from those groups!)

Now if you’re running a company or a startup, of course you’d invite the best of the best to be on your Advisory Board to help you think through sticky puzzles and challenge moments.

Why not have the same thing, but for your own life?

Hence, the personal advisory board: your crew of people that you call on for brainstorming, business advice, and sound listening.

In this post, I want to tell you about ways you can build your own circle of trusted friends and colleagues, why joining or starting a mastermind is so important, and why people are so foundational to both your personal and business health.

In your own life, what work are you doing to build your own personal board of advisors?

After working together with Emma for several cycles of the writer’s workshop, I remember the phone call where we giggled and said, “look, we work together, but we’re also clearly friends. This has become something even better.”

Fast forward several years, many trips, a retreat in Tahoe, randomly meeting in the same airport in small-town Kentucky, and hundreds of messages later.

One night, I’m sitting in the bath, taking a soak, trying to relax after a long day with the family and the business. It’s one way I try to get my head to turn off. I’m reading, of course, her recently published book. She’d sent me a bound copy of her poetry collection. At the end of the book is an inscription and a note:

“SKP — you chair my personal board of advisors.” 

It’s moments like these that make me cry.

We’d spent so much time in the ring, figuring out, discussing, learning, philosophizing. Wondering about what to do in the stuck moments, and how to untangle ourselves from the insatiable urge to try to do everything.

Having people to call on is one of the soundest investments you can make in your life.

Whose advisory board do you sit on? Whose life are you invested in? Who have you invited into your life to chair your own advisory board?

Building your own mentorship circle, or trusted peers, can be a challenge to do. Whose feedback do you trust? Who do you invite in? Not everyone’s feedback is equal. In fact, unsolicited feedback at the wrong time can really sink a project or make you question something when it’s not the right time to be questioning. Developing a circle you trust is an art form.

One of the things I teach in the Mastermind is how to build a circle you can trust. It’s not something that happens by accident.

Inviting people into your personal and professional life takes dedication and work. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. In the Mastermind, I teach:

  • How to create a container and set an intention for a group.
  • How to structure your time together with your group.
  • Key methods to listen effectively and listen well—asking deep questions that provide additional insight.
  • Why most “advice” is not only useful, but can be harmful to the process (and what to do instead).

By the end of the Mastermind, you can take everything you’ve learned and apply it across your life—I have had several people tell me afterwards that “they run Deep Dives for their lives,” using them in relationships, partnerships, and business to great success.

It is a lot of work to create a personal board of advisors, but, if you want to — you can build one on your own. You can also selectively join one that already exists, and adopt the structure for your own long after the program ends.

The Mastermind I run takes a ton of the organizational and logistical work out of it. I’m your facilitator, your guide, your organizer, your accountability buddy, your mentor. I make the structure so you can find resonance and meaning within it. The edges of this framework help to sharpen you and accelerate your work.

Now, I don’t have a patent on creating masterminds — so if this is something you need, you are more than capable of building it yourself and figuring out how to make it happen in your life.

Bring together a group of 4-6 dedicated people to meet monthly. Commit to journeying together and asking insightful questions. Put each other in the “hot seat,” and listen to someone explain a sticky challenge they have. Do it for at least six months.

Apply to join my Mastermind.

8 tips to building your own personal board of advisors:

  1. Take it seriously. Create a one-page manifesto or description of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Invite people in and ask them if they want something like this in their life. (Heck, you can forward this email and say to your friends, “want to build something like this?”).
  2. Keep the group small enough to manage, but with enough voices to get multiple opinions when you need it. 4-5 is a great size, but it can range anywhere from 3 to 10.
  3. Decide how often you’ll show up for each other and what that will look like. Monthly? By email? By text?
  4. Decide who is doing the organizing. Planning, organizing, and logistics take a lot of work. Consider rotating the cap every quarter so that everyone contributes. In most of the Masterminds I’ve been in, usually it works best if one person is the facilitator.
  5. Set intentions and a time frame: for example, you might do 6 total meetings over the course of 6 months and evaluate what happens.
  6. “Try on” a structure for a few months, and then step back and evaluate what works.
  7. Give it time. Great things take time. Adjust what isn’t working and fix it to make it better.
  8. Call it if it’s not working. Sometimes it’s not the right group or the right mix of people. If you start one and it doesn’t work, mix it up a bit and try again. Be straightforward and let people know your intention to end the group or change it.

Invest in meeting new people on a regular basis: 3 strategies

There are several ways to invest in meeting new people:

  • Reach out and write to people you admire. Follow their blogs, send them an encouraging note, or chime in on Twitter. I’ve met lots of people on Twitter, including one of my best friends (and business confidants)
  • Go to conferences or events where the people you want to hang out with spend time. One conference ticket might seem pricey, until you realize that you can meet a dozen people all at once and form new connections and ongoing conversations with other brilliant people.
  • Create meet-ups or projects where you can invite people to participate. Start your own group and invite people you admire to join you! It can be a small one-time meetup, a virtual hangout, or a more dedicated monthly circle that meets on a regular basis.

Will you spend all your time on work, or on building connections with people that matter?

The world of work is changing faster than ever.

Jobs that were stable for decades are disappearing, and skills we didn’t know about 20 years ago are the most important thing you need to know today. Skills we didn’t know about two years ago are needed today. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s going to change again in the next five, ten, and fifteen years.

One thing that will always matter is who you’re connected to. Our strong ties and our weak ties are some of the greatest predictors of our future success.

Yet time and time again I see people investing in courses or materials, but not in connections with other people.

What’s the value of a great connection in your life? Someone who connects you to new people, ideas, thoughts, and jobs? What small effort would it take to formalize the connections you have with other people, to meet regularly?

What could your life look like with your own Personal Board of Advisors?

A book or a course might run you a couple hundred dollars. A new set of friends… is there any way to put a price on that?

The Introvert’s Guide to Networking at a Conference

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

My friend was recently excited about a conference but terrified of going and getting overwhelmed.

He texted me:

“Help! do you have any good networking advice for introverts at conferences?” 

Conferences are a great way to meet people, and it’s one of the best ways I’ve used to reach out to new people, connect with peers, learn, and find friends.

However, conferences are also one of the scariest places to go as an introvert: all that talking, all that stimulation, and a loud, crowded set of rooms with people all day long? Call me exhausted, because all of that extroverted energy is draining and leaves me wanting to crawl into a sensory-deprivation tank for three days just to recover. 

 “Sitting and writing and talking to no one is how I wish I could spend the better part of every day.” — Amy Schumer 

As Amy Schumer explains, “If you’re a true introvert, other people are basically energy vampires. You don’t hate them; you just have to be strategic about when you expose yourself to them—like the sun.” (From her new book, which, while it has a few quotable good bits, I don’t recommend.) 

So if you’re an introvert, how do you make the best of a conference situation? 

Here are a few ways to manage a conference and make it work for you:

  1. Message 20 people in advance, and tell them you’ll be at the conference. Connect over the conference before you even get there — from the comfort of your PJ’s and the quiet of your own room. You don’t even actually have to meet them at the conference. You can just connect over the fact that you went to the same conference.
  2. Take introvert time plentifully. I know that I don’t enjoy a full day stacked with speakers, so I look at the agenda and pick out my top 50% – 75% of the day. I actively choose which session slots I will SKIP so that I can leave the conference, walk through a park, do some stretching, or take a nap. Rather than accidentally skipping the best stuff because I’m too tired to make it through a 14-hour day “on” in front of other people, I’ll plan ahead to take my own introverted break from, say, 2 to 5 PM, and then return refreshed for a dinner mixer and a night event.
  3. Plan to meet people at a food event the night before or the morning after. Research a venue in the area you like and make a reservation for 10 people. (A taco truck, a park, or a single line to-go cafe works well, too, provided it’s nice weather and you can find a place to sit). Tell people that you really want to connect with that you’re doing “X” at “Y,” and be an informal organizer. (“I’m going to get Tacos at 6PM after the first day, join then?”). Invite double the people that you actually want, and a handful will show up and you can create a smaller place to reconvene and have deeper conversations.
  4. Reach out to people afterwards, using the conference as the tool for connection.
  5. Bring cool business cards that say “We met at XYZ conference,” and reference the event itself.
  6. Live tweet the conference using the event’s hashtag and meet people online who are also at the event.
  7. Write a blog recap of the event and share it on social media with the conference hashtag. Bonus: write a blog roundup with the best posts you can find about the event, and comment on other blogger’s write-ups and reach out and meet them digitally.

Those are just a few of my conference-going tips for introverts or people who need slow space to think and connect!

What about you? What are some of your favorite tips for getting the most out of a loud, noisy, awesome, social event that is *maybe* a little too much for you?

 

Want to stand out?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

In a recent conversation with Daniel Epstein (founder of the Unreasonable Institute and more recently Unreasonable Media), we started talking about what people do to stand out. And we agreed–it’s not that complicated:

  • Ask for what you want.
  • Follow up on that ask.
  • And then follow through.

In the following example, all of my numbers are made up. But let’s play with a couple of assumptions.

Let’s say only 10% of people actually put themselves out there and ask for what they want. And of the people that ask for something, again only 10% of them follow up on that ask. And of the people who successfully ask for something, and then follow up, many of them in turn don’t actually follow through with what they’ve asked for or said that they are going to do.

10% of 10% is 1% — you’re one in a hundred if you ask and follow up.

And 10% of 10% of 10% (0.001) is one in a thousand if you ask, follow up, and follow through. 

ASK.

Why don’t people ask? You know that it happens. You want something, but you don’t put it out there. Your psychological blocks and assumptions preclude you from putting your desire out there. You don’t have clarity on what you want—so you need to do some internal work. You let fear get the best of you.

Here are a few things you can ask for: “I want you to give me more money.” In a conversation with a colleague or boss, “I think we need to renegotiate our terms,” or in the universe itself, “I want to learn how to play the Piano–who has a piano I can have?”

FOLLOW UP.

And then, after you ask, you forget to follow up. That email that you were going to send, to say “thank you” that you put off. To write and say, “Hey, we talked about the fundraising that I’m doing and I’d love for you to be a part of it. Can you contribute before the end of the month?”

When you asked someone to interview them and you circle back and say, “Thanks for agreeing to this; let’s put something on the calendar. I just had a new baby, so is it alright if I pencil us in for next summer and I’ll circle back them?”

When you ask someone to do you a favor and they take the time and energy to do it for you, so you write them a short note or card—telling them you appreciate it. [tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck”]This is how you stand out—and unfortunately, most people don’t do it.[/tweetable]

FOLLOW THROUGH.

And then, when the donation comes in, or your partnership is aligned, following through with what you’ve promised: reaching out and saying Thank You. Showing up when you said you’ll show up. Sending them the fiscal reports when you’re successful. Reaching out even if it’s half a year later to say, “It took longer than I expected, but here’s the book I was telling you about.”

It’s simple, although in execution requires an incredible amount of discipline on your part to achieve. But the recipe isn’t that hard.

Want to stand out?

[tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck”]If you want to stand out, follow this three-step formula:[/tweetable] Ask for what you want. Follow up. Follow through.

For an epic post on asking for what you want, check out the art of asking, the second highest read post on this blog to date. Thanks to Daniel Epstein, Amber Rae, and Allie Siarto for conversations on this topic.

How do you combat loneliness? A brand new talk at ALIVE in Berlin + an epic scholarship opportunity worth $400.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Loneliness by Deviant Art

How do you deal with loneliness?

The problem with my first job wasn’t the job itself—it was how few people I knew at the company. In most structures throughout my life—family, school, college, sports—we bonded as teammates and community members because of shared goals, ideas, and dreams. Yet at work, I barely had friends. Perhaps it was the age disparity; the fact that people started quietly only a few days per year, or because we didn’t have a common lunch area. Being busy chasing financial goals didn’t help, either. At the end of my first year, I found myself tired, alone, and unsure of what I was contributing as an entry-level employee.

I made a vow to change a few things. I joined two sports groups—a morning swim team and a triathlon training group. I signed up for my first yoga community practice. And I started going to events. I found meet-up groups, lectures and workshops, and conferences to attend. In one year, I met more than 500 new people—many of whom are now, ten years later, some of my closest friends.

What is loneliness? Where does it come from?

What is loneliness? Where does it come from, and why do we experience it? How can we combat it—and better yet: why is it useful?

For the past year, I’ve been researching loneliness, community and the power of connectivity, and I’ll be debuting a new keynote at ALIVE in Berlin this May looking at the structures that create loneliness, why community and connectivity are so important, and what we can do to help reconnect both to ourselves and to other people. As a bonus, I’ll also be teaching a workshop on the power of connection—and tips on how to connect with other people through understanding the physical body (your posture and stance); through your story (and what you say); and by being open and asking questions.

One of the most important ways I’ve met new people and found my tribes is through attending and joining conferences that gather like-minded people together. From WDS (Portland) to Big Omaha (Nebraska) to The Feast (New York + Global) and TED (Global), each time I’ve taken the jitters of traveling alone, taken a deep breath, and tried to meet kind faces and reach out and extend my ties to the world by meeting more of the humans we share space with.

[tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck @aliveinberlin”]The strength of your life comes from the people you surround yourself with.[/tweetable]

 

Alive in Berlin Banners-Jana+Sarah

What does a woman who lives with hens and roosters on a farm out in the middle of England decide to do after building a thriving virtual and in-person coaching practice? Start a conference, of course.

Jana Circle
I met Jana Schuberth at the first World Domination Summit (one of my favorite conferences—you can check out the yearly recaps as a testament to the experience). We both wandered through Portland, Jana with bare feet, me in my yoga clothes—and chatted about nutrition, exercise, paleo diets, motivation, and personal development. She’d made the trek over to the States from Loughborough, England, and our late night chats meant it was an instant kinship—we still chat by Skype as often as we can schedule it across projects and time zones.

I had a chance to sit down with Jana and interview her about her story, how she writes, and the challenges of blogging. As she says, “I’m probably a bit crazy to be doing this all, but I looked around and I really wanted the WDS experience here in Europe.” She describes chatting with a mentor about wanting someone to build similar conferences in Europe and her home country, Germany; to which her mentor replied:

“If you really want something like this, you’re going to have to be the one to build it.”

[tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck @aliveinberlin”]“It’s your job to build what you want to see in the world.”[/tweetable]

With a bit of excitement and nerves, she realized—Yes, that’s it. Somehow, we’re going to throw a conference next year. Alive in Berlin was born.

Alive in Berlin Banners—1

Alive in Berlin: A global conference for change-makers

I have a soft spot in my heart for do-ers and makers; and this conference aims to collect them in one space. If you’re curious about the conference, check out Alive in Berlin (and read the end of this post for an incredible scholarship opportunity to the conference).

Some things to know: The conference is in Berlin. Registration fees are £349.00. Dates are May 30-31. It will be gorgeous Springtime in the epic city of Berlin (I’m staying a few extra days to explore the city—I’ve heard the street art is phenomenal and the late night dance parties epic, in addition to exploring the cities’ rich and vibrant history).

From the ALIVE team:

“Alive in Berlin is not just about getting a temporary hit of inspiration, it’s about making deep connections and coming away with a solid plan of action. Rather than leaving with your head in the clouds, overwhelmed with information and ideas and ultimately coming back down to earth with a bump, we want you to feel confident, re-energised and ready to wholeheartedly step all areas of your life up to the next level over the long-term.”

“The two-day event will include 8 brilliant expert speakers from a wide range of disciplines, space throughout the weekend for relaxed conversation and interaction, daily Q&A sessions where you can interact directly with many of our speakers and coaches, and opportunities to get active and involved for those who want to. There will also be a chill room and coffee corner to relax, reflect and take time out if you need to!”

Together we’ll explore the common threads that connect us and make us come alive.

And the EPIC April Giveaway: One scholarship space to ALIVE in Berlin—all the details (and a short application)!

Want in?

The thing about conferences is, they often cost a couple of bucks. I know—one year I went to 24 different events—from Big Omaha to The Feast to WDS to Startup Weekend Los Angeles. I was averaging a conference or event every other weekend—and I was exhausted. And it was the bulk of my eating and entertainment budget for the year (let’s just say I ate a lot of granola bars and hardboiled eggs).

But I wouldn’t change that year for the world.

The thing about conferences is, they’re also one of the best places to meet new people. People in your tribe, people who speak your language, people who have what you want, people who want what you have to offer. Sometimes it’s a late-night chat and a fitness conversation; sometimes it’s a life-long friend, sometimes it’s the right designer for your project or a place to crash the next time you travel to that new city.

[tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck @aliveinberlin”]Finding your tribe—people who understand you—is life-changing.[/tweetable] As adults, there aren’t as many opportunities to mix up the sandbox and say hello to knew folks. To meet new friends. When you have the same job, the same commute, and the same screen every day, our opportunities for adult summer camp and friendship quickly dwindle. Conferences are places to let you come out of your current storyline and try a new route for your own adventure.

As a bonus—because I’m a speaker at the event—I have one scholarship ticket to ALIVE in Berlin to gift to a lucky reader in this community.

If you’re itching to go to Berlin, to shake up your life, or find a new community, one lucky winner will get to win ONE ticket to the conference.

How do you win? Here’s what you’ve gotta do:

  1. First, leave a comment down below! Tell us a conference story: what have conferences done for you? Where do you find and meet new people? What’s been the best event for you so far?
  2. Second, share this post. Heart it, tweet it, post it, write about it. Simple. Click to tweet: [tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck @aliveinberlin]Epic April Giveaway: One scholarship space to ALIVE in Berlin![/tweetable]
  3. Third, apply for the scholarship with this application form.

Winner will be picked on Friday, April 11, 2014. Turn in your application by Thursday, April 10, 2014. You have one week to enter—good luck!

The scholarship is for £249 off the ticket price. The scholarship ticket will be £70 (to cover basic event fees + registration fees) towards the ticket price. If selected, you will have one week to purchase the ticket.

[tweetable hashtag=”@sarahkpeck @aliveinberlin”]Bravery is encouraged. Authenticity rewarded.[/tweetable] Tell us, what makes you come ALIVE?

To listen to the full interview with Jana Schuberth and Sarah Peck, listen here:

Indianapolis: PowderKeg 2012

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I spent the last weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana, as part of the inaugural 2012 Powder Keg Conference put on by The Verge celebrating StartUps, Developers, and Innovation in the central hub of Indiana. While I’d been to Indiana before, I’d never made it to Indianapolis, and it was beautiful to see another Midwestern city in the Fall. I was fortunate to join a host of talented and diverse speakers including Julien Smith, Kate Endress, Scott Case, David Blaine, Scott Dorsey, Dave Knox, Jonathon Perrelli, and many more. I’ll recap some of the best tidbits and ideas on this blog in the weeks to follow, but I wanted to share some of the photos of this beautiful city.

 A view of downtown Indianapolis. Continue reading “Indianapolis: PowderKeg 2012”

The Conference that Doesn’t Feel Like a Conference: Touch Down in Nebraska For Big Omaha, 2012

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

**A quick update for everyone who voted on the last post: First, an overwhelming thank you of gratitude, because I don’t know what I did to deserve all of you, but you’re absolutely the greatest. I put together a survey in the question about my future projects and more than a hundred of you responded to my crisis about what to do next–I love you. Not only that–but almost all of you answered my optional question, and you all had insightful, thoughtful, and encouraging notes to share. You are what makes me believe in the future of humanity – YOU. You’re amazing. Also, it’s starting to become really clear what my next project should be, and also quite clear what book(s) I need to read next—you almost overwhelmingly picked two. (Answers on Friday!) 

BIG OMAHA: Maybe you had to be there.

Last weekend I attended Big Omaha for the first time, a last-minute attendee who managed to snag a wait-listed spot after all of the first tickets had sold out. Time and time my friends kept telling me, “You have to go to this conference,” and I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand why. There are tech conferences all over the place. There are innovative and entrepreneurial minds all over the place in San Francisco. Why should I fly to Omaha? But when all my friends fly out of their way to go to a conference, to go to a city, and especially when it’s a city I’ve never been to before, my urban nerd and my curiosity get the best of me.

Alright, I said. I’ll go.

Cut to the chase: It was an excellent decision.

BIG OMAHA: “Where I feel normal.”

I live in San Francisco—a city I like to affectionately refer to as “College For Adults” because it’s a place where I feel normal, where you can get places without a car, where late-night nerd-fests are typical, where experiments in collaborative consumption and disruption are the norm; where serendipity in coffeeshops isn’t what happens in movies, it’s what happens in real life. Where skipping through the streets and doing handstands and working late hours isn’t just okay, it’s not given a second thought. Where pursuing your dreams and hanging out with people you love is something you do on a daily basis, not once in a life time.

And guess what? This happens in Omaha, too, and I’ll be the first to admit that maybe at first I wasn’t so sure what was happening in the middle of the country. But I knew Jeff Slobotski was rad. And the people going were rad. And I’ll be the first to admit that my hesitations were complete bullshit. And that maybe I was completely wrong.

How do you know if a conference is a good thing to attend? A conference isn’t about information, although you’ll get a lot of it.  A good conference is about people. It’s about energy. And it’s about community.

There was a point a while ago when I decided I was tired of feeling strange. I was tired of feeling like like I should hide the projects I’m doing because I was “doing too much.” I want to be surrounded by people who think like me, dream like me, who believe in the world not as it is—but AS IT COULD BE, and I want to dance and do handstands with them and support every endeavor they do and I do, because unless we all hide away and go to Atlantis, I think that these innovators, these people–YOU–are the key to changing the way the world works.

The world we live in is arbitrary, it’s filled with past stories and architectures and lifestyles that aren’t reality anymore. We live in the architectural bones of our forefathers, but the way we use the space has changed, and the way we move and talk and listen and react and build the future is also changing, in some of the most interesting ways that I’m only just beginning to imagine and describe. I am a storyteller of cities, of people, of humanity, and I see this: We’re living on the tip of a world where we’re working and sharing re-inventing what it means to even be a city—where it’s possible that cities are really the next start-up because the scale and rate at which we can build and invent them is unprecedented in our lifetime (I’ve worked on multiple whole-scale city-invention plans with my company, SWA Group that we are building in China right now), and somewhere in the midst of this beautiful land of airplanes and inventions and machinery, a group of 500 people all timed each of our airplanes to land in Omaha for two days and laugh, learn, share, and infect each other with the energy required to go out and conquer. To be. To imagine.

It’s utterly fucking ridiculous. All of us, in metal tubes, jetting across the sky, tickling clouds with iphone photo apps, cramming ourselves into crowded seats, building second worlds and then meeting up to lie across the floor and laugh about it. But we’re only just getting started…

THE OPENING.

As I always do with conferences, I tweet and curl up with my notebook and take copious notes and try to capture, catalog, and sift through the information at hand. Between Big Omaha and WDS (World Domination, for those unfamiliar), I think I’ve found my favorite two conferences to attend, and I’ll keep attending them as long as I can. Because it’s not about money. Or influence. Or power. Or giant, ass-kicking, audacious goals that take your breath away. Those things all happen when they need to and how they need to, and because they must.

Because it’s about the people. And that’s it. That’s what we have that technology doesn’t—will never have—no matter how many times people engineer a Like or a Poke or a Swipe or a Smile, no matter how much social engineering goes into discovering parallels to humanity. The capacity for compassion, empathy, trust and language might always dance beyond the realm of the digital: and in the tangible, touchable, hand-stand-able, lie-on-the-ground-because-we-can-able—is the space where the magic happens. And that’s why community builders, and connectors, and people who bring people together will always be the subtle influencers of our generation. It’s why we’ll always live in the here and now of conferences, no matter how many ways we can map our brains into the future and past for digital permanence or extend our connections into location-independent aggregations.

Think about it. What are any of your technologies, without an audience? What’s a leader, without a first follower?

It’s all about the people.

In the opening, Antonio Neves brought the house up by reminding everyone of a Big Omaha tradition: welcoming the speakers with a standing ovation. The energy of the crowd was palpable, tangible. “Something about Big Omaha feels a little bit special,” he said—“It feels like home.” He asked everyone to shake their shoulders out, which brought me to giggles early in the morning, just as the event was getting started, before the coffee had even kicked in.

THE SPEAKERS: Sitting around, having coffee—I mean, being on stage.

When speakers take the stage, it’s magical. We want to soak it in, hear from them, learn from the splendor of what they’ve done, write out to-do lists of the best of all their intentions and figure out a way to take their energy and translate it into success within our own projects.

Too often, however, we separate the speakers, elevating them both physically and mentally, to a place of superiority, thinking, “I can’t do that,”—or “I’m not capable,” demarcating the line between us and them. As Jonah Lehrer writes in his recent book “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” when we tell one another stories about creativity, we often “forget to mention those days when we wanted to quit, when we believed that our problems were impossible to solve,” when we were in the trenches, building, creating, worrying, struggling. And I think this was the heart of the magic of the speakers behind Big Omaha: the combination was a pulse of people raw enough to identify with, talented enough to aspire to become, young enough to identify with, quasi-famous enough to generate a small halo around, but still unknown enough to befriend and have drinks with at the end of the day.  The speakers–and audience–were a unique blend of inspiration and humility, of talent and energy, of faith and compassion.

Because when they shared their stories, we learned that if they can do it, maybe we can, too.

SERENDIPITY, WONDER AND SURPRISE.

A sense of wonder and surprise defined the event, and as the endlessly compassionate co-founder Jeff Slobotski wrote in his recap, “Big Omaha Was Magic.” In the final moments of the conference, it struck me that I had forgotten that I was at a conference—me, a slightly more introverted than extroverted person who craves wandering by my lonesome, and hates sitting in chairs, and hates crowds of people– and thought to myself, “Wow—I just realized I’m at a conference. This feels nothing like a conference.” Typically, when my iPhone loses its charge, so do I. And yet I was out, about, soaking in the presence and magic of the people around me, awash in the serendipity of connectivity and compassion.

I’m not sure I was ever asked what I do, thank GOD, and it also wasn’t ever a point of importance. We all do things. We all work towards bigger things, but that’s not the point. There’s no room for ego, for pretension, for hierarchy, for listing out accomplishments. No matter who was in the room, I felt like we were all in it together, each figuring out the next step in our own projects and problems, defining the parameters, learning, living. No one had it figured out. We were all do-ers, movers, shakers, and the difference between doing and talking is that doing requires a lot of tenacity, persistence, humility, ego, confidence, and an unwavering belief in the ability to move mountains with an accumulation of sequential steps.

As the conference was winding down, I posted my thought up on twitter as the conference was winding down; moments later, when Antonio took the stage to wrap-up the event, he read the tweet out loud:

“Big Omaha: The conference that feels nothing like a conference.” — Yes.

What’s Your Story?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

You. 

On the cover of a magazine.

Big, bold, splashy words. You’re wearing something sharp. Five years down the road from now, you’re doing an exclusive interview, and someone is telling your story to a captive audience.

Just a few questions for you, in this daydream:

First, what magazine would it be?

Second, what would the headline say about you or your project?

And, more importantly, what would the article be about?

In the last trip I took to Costa Rica with a group of women entrepreneurs, Allie Siarto led a series of small-group discussions by posing a question and asking us each to explore the answers.

An entrepreneur who co-founded LoudPixel and works as a photographer on weekends, Allie is one of my peer heroes, someone who I can look to as a model for creating and changing the way work is done and how we think about inventing your career. In asking this question, she asked us to consider what our future story looked like.

What’s your story?

This question looks at three important components of your story. This exercise tells you a lot about your project, career and personal vision.

First, it tells you who your audience is and what the size of your target market is. If you’re looking to be on the cover of a niche specialty magazine, your target market is much smaller than a mainstream publication such as Time or The New Yorker. That’s fine. It’s your community or market, and it’s not going to be the same for everyone. Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fast Company are some of my favorites–and yet these are still specialized, target groups that not everyone is interested in.

Second, it tells you what arena you want to play in; who your peers are, and what sort of work you’d be doing. In one of the magazines I regularly read, Landscape Architecture Magazine gives me a good idea of who my peer group is. Flipping to the table of contents, checking out the authors, and taking a look at the credits (from editors to the national group), tells me the people I’m looking to learn from, compete against, work with, and share professional accreditation and acknowledgement with.

And third, this exercise prompts you to paint the story of yourselves after success. Akin to creating a vision map for where you want to go, you get to create your story backwards by understanding what your future success looks like.

Take a minute to dream…

What would your headline be? What would they say about you? Put your dreamer’s hat on, and picture yourself in five  years’ time. The projects you are working on currently, invisibly, are noticed. You’ve put them in the world, you’ve constructed something long-term that has added up to something. Maybe your recipes are featured on a local cooking magazine. Or your crochet projects are a photographic spread in a crafts magazine. Or your teaching is covered in the regional papers.

Maybe you’re a hero, and you’ve saved someone’s life on the street, rescuing them from the dangers on an oncoming car, and you get 15 minutes showcasing your brilliance.

What would they say about you?

What do you want to be known for?

Write your story in advance. Picture yourself in 5 or 10 years’ time, and write the article. I’m doing it now; I’ve actually just finished a 5000-word outline and draft of a feature article that I’d love to have put on the cover of one of my favorite magazines.

What would the story be about?

How would the story change the lives of other people? What would you have done that makes a difference?

The act of visualizing this storyline is one powerful exercise. Knowing what you want to achieve, and what’s important to you, and what excites you can give you cause to work hard during the days beforehand. It helps you prioritize what you do and don’t do. It gives you a way to layer each piece of your life together towards a goal.

If you’re daring enough, write the article. Don’t be intimidated about the awkwardness of writing about yourself, or the weirdness of it–get over that. Take a piece of paper, cast off the shadows of doubt, and indulge in your fantasy for a few minutes. Write the best version of yourself, tell the story of what beautiful things you’ve done, and really be proud of yourself for the accomplishments that you’ve achieved.

Taking the time to dream is powerful. Taking the time to carve out your thoughts about who you are and what you want to become is one of the first tools you can engage in on the way to getting there.

What’s your headline?

Rock Their Socks Off: How to Create An Online Profile

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Who are you? How do you describe yourself to other people?

Business cards are great – for when you meet in person. (I love the ones I have!) But you can’t send them out via email or snail mail. And email signatures are becoming so inflated, it’s downright annoying. (You know what I’m talking about. The 17-line email signature on every email message that includes your place of birth, how often you pick your nose, and a gajillion other titles.)

Personal branding, especially on the web, is about simplicity in messaging. A brand is an identifier, a way to understand something. It’s about creating a message and an identity for yourself that resonates with what you do. You may do way more than what your brand message says, but it’s important to have a clear description of who you are and what you do. More importantly, it should be simple for other people to understand.

How do you represent yourself? How do you tell your story?  If you’re developing a personal brand, we want to know who you are.

About | Me is an interesting site that’s pretty simple: an online landing page for you and your many online media outlets. A simple, streamlined page for all of your fun stuff. I find it useful. Here are a few image examples from the About.Me online profiles:

You can set one up pretty easily. It’s a great, simple first step in starting to build your online presence (you can do it with and without a blog, website, or other sites). If nothing else, this is a really good exercise for those starting out online, and a really great hub or landing page for people with multiple websites. Here are important items for consideration:

  • Imageability: Have a friend take good headshots of you. If you want to be involved in professional publications, networks, speaking, etc, you need professional headshots.  You can probably start with a friend taking decent photos of you in natural light, preferably outdoors somewhere; but definitely consider investing in good photography. Don’t lose business because you only have dark photos of you in a bar.
  • Storyline. What’s your catch phrase? What’s your one-sentence soundbite? Who are you, and how do you describe yourself to others?
  • Organization. What do you do? How do you talk about your multiple interests simply? List the things you do. Edit out the things that aren’t relevant to your current objectives.

Here’s my profile. I’m always working on it – I have a lot to learn about telling my story and creating an online presence.  Later this summer and year, I’ll be working with a few teams to craft my business vision, goals, and personal brand (for this website and more). You can always learn more.

Still not sure where to start? Begin with observation, research and studying. If you’re not ready yet for your own profile, browse through the catalogs of people. See what people are doing. See what you like – what do you respond to? Which people draw your attention? Why? Keep notes on why you find them interesting and what you like about what they say. Print out a few of your favorites as templates to use later when you develop your own files.

It starts with // Identity.

Guest Post: 7 networking tips for Generation Y | By Rebecca Thorman

Posted on by Sarah K Peck 
Chairs in Paris, Photo by Sarah

7 networking tips for Generation Y  |  By Rebecca Thorman

Everyone hates networking in the beginning. It feels unnatural after we’ve been spoon-fed our friends in high school and college. Nevertheless, I forced myself to go to networking events a few years ago because my boyfriend at the time told me that I didn’t have enough friends. That was the same one who told me I was boring. Quality, I know. But he was right. Honesty hurts:

1. Talk to boring people. Generation Y has the habit of being easily distracted. We defined attention deficit disorder. But that’s not the way life works. You can’t look over the other person’s shoulder. You have to be genuinely interested; you never know who will be useful towards your goal.

Some of the smartest and most successful people purposefully stay under the radar, and if you’re constantly scanning the room, you’ll miss them. Instead, treat each person like they are the most important person in the room. Make sure they have your full attention. Then pat yourself on the back when you discover the diamond in the rough.

2. Say what your dreams are. You’re an accountant, but you really want to be a musician. So, when people ask what you do, say that you’re a musician. The world conspires in your favor when you put yourself out there. I promise.

Wonder what his dreams are?

3. Meet before bedtime. Snookie Jaguar and I met last week, and he made a good impression on me. All the more so because it was 11:00 pm on a Wednesday night, and I was still wearing the same thing I had put on at 7:00 am. I met Snookie about an hour after a meeting with a local politician, and a few hours after a happy hour meeting. In other words, it was well after I had started my work after work – the kind that begins when I close the screen of my laptop.

Late-night is the new meeting time. Deals have always been made outside of working hours, and that is particularly suited towards Generation Y. We work all the time. It would be a mistake to think that work begins at nine and ends at five. If you want to get ahead, nine to five means nothing to you.

4. Heart your waiter. Act like you’re serving the waiter instead of the other way around. Smile, be overly polite and ask for their opinions and recommendations. People watch your behavior around wait staff closely, and many judge you specifically on the interaction you have with the waiter.

Don’t forget to give big tips. Twenty percent (not just fifteen) is a good rule, even if the service was horrible. People always glance, albeit discreetly, to discover how much you’re giving. Be generous.

5. Sober up. At your next happy hour, order a non-alcoholic drink. I don’t drink pop, so I usually just order water. People don’t notice. What they do notice is the lawyer in the middle of the room, swaying in a little too close to his talking mate. Entertaining as it may be, you are forming your reputation and it’s best to keep your tolerance level, however high it may be, a secret.

In one of the many interviews for my new job, the interviewer talked about how he would prefer to take applicants to the bar across the street to discover who they really were. There’s something about a restaurant and bar environment that makes you act differently. That’s the reason people do deals over meals and drinks. You show who you are involuntarily. Outside the office is where people will decide if they trust and like you.

6. First in, first out. Be the first one to call and set up a meeting. Then be the first one to send a thank you letter or email at the end. It shows that you can take initiative, that you’re effective, thoughtful, detail-oriented, and responsible. It’s a successful interview without having to get dressed up.

7. Fake being well-connected. Visit the best hair dresser in town, at least once if you can’t afford it regularly, so you can refer others to him. The information you will glean from your thirty minute appointment will be reason enough.

Or maybe you know a personal trainer, chiropractor, banker, interior designer, realtor, or day spa owner. Whatever. Just pick a few and have them ready to pull out of your pocket so that others will think you are well-connected. The up-and-comers will be grateful for the recommendation and the connected will have the impression that you’re already in their circle.

Networking (from http://www.mbda.gov)