We kicked off the world’s largest Challenge ! Vice Chancellor Maheshappa and I celebrated with over 500 students!!!
Tag: TGIF
I am riding in the car today with my 16 year old daughter. She was looking for a specific song on the radio. While constantly switching stations she was listening carefully but selectively scanning out the ‘wrong’ songs. Station after station was rejected until she heard the familiar song she was seeking.
This experience made me think of social media communications. How do you break through all the other “stations” out there and have your audience search for yours?
Here’s 3 tips for our Friday!
- Make it noticeable. The song my daughter was searching for had a certain beat. Does your message have the characteristics that will help it to break through the barrage of messages that bombards everyone every day. Should you use video? a Podcast or a blog? How do you express yourself? Make sure you have listened to the right influencers and plan purposefully the message.
- Make it targeted. If you use channels creatively and mix them well, you’re much more likely to get your message to those for whom it’s intended. The channels have to be ones that your target audience is exposed to. My daughter’s song was on her favorite rock station, not my jazz station. Make sure you are where your audience is.
- Make it crowd sourced. Testing your messaging can help you really ensure that you nailed it. I heard that Taylor Swift gets many bits of feedback on her songs from focus groups, family, and informally with fans. Sometimes you think you got it, but you missed something of importance!
I heard a story about a war hero who did amazing things for his country. One day while having dinner, a man he didn’t know came up to him and asked if he was that “famous” hero He replied yes, but how did the man know?
The man explained that he had packed the parachute used in that particular occasion.
The hero went home but was haunted by the young man’s comments. Had he acknowledged this man when he passed him before? Why didn’t he know who packed his parachute and prepared him for the adventure?
As I heard the story, I thought, do we acknowledge those who pack our parachute? For example, our parents who prepare us for life our assistant who prepares us for the day, the VC who took a chance and funded us , or the developer who coded that great app you sold and the list goes on.
So on this wonderful Friday, I want each of you to thank one person who ‘packed your parachute’.
I was inspired by the great presentation by Tiffany Shlain on lessons of life!
I’ll share by favorites!
- Know what you want and know when to walk away. You won’t succeed at everything. So know which things to stick with and which things to throw over!
- Be over prepared. Enough said!
- Think outside the box. Tiffany shared a story about how she didn’t like to negotiate so she had folks email her “alternative email” so that she could negotiate in a different voice. Think about different ways to be strong!
- Renegotiate your definition of success. It does change throughout life!
- Negotiate boundaries with technology. Tiffany and her family turn off all devices one day a week — their family’s new favorite day!
- Whoever throws out the first number loses. (Her freebie!)
- Always use the Love Sandwich approach. Start with the good, what “they” will get. Add in the middle what you want — and close with the “what they will get”
- Seek advice from a diverse group of people.
- Workout your courage. It is like a muscle that needs to be exercised.
- Have fun and constantly be changing!
Our short and sassy Friday message is … take that Risk!
There’s no success without risk. Everything good has some risk associated with it. This does not mean you don’t look and evaluate reasons you might have challenges or even small failures along the way, but plan your journey with clear goals.
Make sure you are flexible in how you solve the minimal and big challenges along the way. Don’t let them derail your overall ambitions!
Learn, learn, learn!!! Each of these mistakes help you to learn.
I love Barbara Corcoran’s quote: “Failure is what I’m best at.” Of course, she is wildly successful because she learned from her failures!