It turns out my first sales manager was half right. When I first got in sales, I was told “When in doubt, go and see the people.” It was an over-simplification, of course. On the other hand, it’s always seemed to work for me. When I was waiting for the phone to ring or waiting for the sales to come in, I hear that voice. “Go and see the people.”
In Jonah Berger’s book “Invisible Influence” I am starting to learn why this works. In multiple studies, Berger explains that familiarity and having the “people see you” works. In one study, pictures of female students were judged on their level of attractiveness. (Cringe all you want, it was the study). It turns out that if the female students were seen in the class, they were judged to be more attractive. Other studies showed that “being seen” more often could make your more likable and trustworthy.
From my perspective this brings powerful insights into the world of sales, brand building and more! So here are a few takeaways…
See the People
Though the script has flipped a bit, the adage still holds water. When you are feeling reactive in your business, get out of your office and go “let the people see you.” And if you can add value in some way (or just to say thanks like this post suggests), even better.
Social Media
This is one of the reason great social media works. We are giving people a chance to “see us” on a regular basis. Some people would say this can be overdone. Maybe. But the science from this book suggests otherwise.
Consistency is Key
This is also a bit of science to back up my belief in consistency. Whether we are talking about social media, content marketing or sales, you need to be consistent in your efforts. We all have that voice in our heads that tells us we need to stop...it’s too much. But we need to push through that and continue to “show up” with your prospects and clients. Let them “see you” over and over again. Make sure never miss the opportunity to “see us!”
Each of them are leading voices in their respective spaces and professions. Here is a super quick background on each.
Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family’s wine business from $3 Million to $60 Million before leaving to start Vaynermedia, a leading digital agency in the world. He is a best selling author and sought after speaker. Gary began his journey by creating a wine show on YouTube and created over 1000 episodes of Wine Library TV. Now he has a team of people that follow him around and create the “Daily Vee.”
Casey Neistat is a filmmaker and world-class vlogger. Casey has pioneered how many view vlogging and has over 9 million YouTube subscribers. (That’s about the same as Jimmy Fallon if you were counting). Casey grew this amazing following by creating a daily, high quality vlog series that highlighted his adventures and his life.
Seth Godinis one of the pioneers of modern marketing. He is a best selling author many times over and is one of the minds that introduced us to “permission marketing.” Seth grew an amazing audience by writing a blog each and every day…for years. Each and every day, Seth “shows up” to share his thoughts on marketing, business and more.
These three are people I admire in business today.
They are the top of their game. And each of them, in their own way, push me to work harder and do more. Each of them is totally unreasonable…and that is why they have succeeded. Every time I start to create a goal to raise the exposure of my personal brand or my business, I start with a big idea. I think of a goal that gets me excited or fired up. I think “why not?” That could be me! And I even start to think of the possibility of what might happen if I head down the path. And then I think, “ Maybe I should be more reasonable.” I start to create the internal debate that goes like this… “You have a lot going on. You have a family and you want to have some time off! You know you need to think about your quality of life. You need to be more reasonable.”
And that, my friends, is where exceptional goes to die. It’s the reason I am excited about creating content every day. It’s exciting. It’s scary. It’s even kind of fun. But it’s not reasonable! If you want to be exceptional, you need to be unreasonable.
Whether you want to create a blog post or a company, a video or a presentation, we all have to overcome the same thing. “That voice.”
It’s the voice that is in each of our head that tells us that we are “not good enough,” or “not smart enough,” or that “no one will care.” We all have to hear that inner voice that asks “why would anyone care what you have to say?” Or even the one that tells us “this will make you look stupid.”
In addition, I think we look at people who regularly put out content, or start businesses, or speak in public and think “they must not have that voice.” They must be so confident. They are not insecure. It must be easy for them.
Here is a good news/bad news moment. They have that voice too. We all have that voice. (Actually here is an awesome podcast about Bill Petrie-amazing content creator-who says the same thing).
My hope is this is good news for you. If you are thinking of putting yourself out there, you are not alone. We all have that voice to overcome. Every time I post a blog, or a video, or get ready to make a sales call, I have the voice that tells me I am about to make a mistake. But here’s the thing…I do it anyway. And you can too.
Yes there are times that a blog post will have a typo (at least mine do). There will likely be a time that a sales prospect will be a jerk. And it’s certainly possible that you will try something and it will not work. But if you keep showing up, you can and will get better. But in order to get better…to overcome the voice…you have to act. You have to create.
I would love to tell you that if you continue to do this you will silence the voice. But you won’t. It will always be there. But you have a cool story to tell. You have something unique to give. No one else can give it for you. You just have to overcome the voice.
Please allow me a “proud dad” post here. But I think you might get some value out of it as well.
My oldest daughter Skylar Hasseman is an aspiring dancer. She just finished her Freshman year at Kent State University (and did very well) but it struggling with the idea of whether to return. Like many young people (and not so young people) she is trying to decide which is the best path for her to reach her dreams and goals. So in working to build her own personal brand, she has decided to create dance videos that showcase her dancing and her choreography skills. (You can subscribe to the channel here).
Her first video went up last night and (again proud dad here) I think it looks great. You can check it out here.
But what does this all mean to you? Great question. I think she is battling with what many of us work on. How do we work toward our goals? How do we stand out in a loud world? What if no one likes what we are doing? You understand. If you are like me, you have heard those voices in your head.
So here are 3 Lessons you can learn from my daughter and her video.
1. She Chose Herself: Dance is something where you can wait your whole life waiting for someone to “choose” you. You go to auditions. You are judged at competitions. You wait to get chosen. She decided to take a different (or maybe just an additional) path. She created an opportunity to showcase her skills on her own.
2. She Took Action: How many times have you said, “I have an idea…” only to let it go because it might be too hard? It’s those ideas that you need to take action on if you want to stand out.
3. She “Shipped:” The project is never done until it’s out there. She could have waited to get one more shot. She could have continued to work and edit and wait until it was perfect. Instead, she pushed it out into the world. I am proud of that. This first project can be deemed a success. That’s great stuff. Now, if she wants to really take this path, she needs to create more and more consistent content to build her brand. Whether or not she does that is up to her. But what’s cool, is that she knows that now.
It’s Monday (as I am writing this) and that means it’s time for the WIG meeting at Hasseman Marketing. You might be asking, “What’s a WIG meeting?” It stands for the “Wildly Important Goal” and the concept comes from the book 4 Disciplines of Execution. We have a weekly WIG meeting each Monday to keep each other accountable and to try and push the company forward.
Quickly, here are the 4 Disciplines…
1. Set a Wildly Important Goal: In each organization, there are constantly things that have to get done. These are the every day tasks that tend to take up your day. When you try to role out a new strategy or initiative, these every day tasks (the whirlwind) get in the way. By setting just one wildly important goal, it helps to focus the team.
2. Create Lead Measures: I love this part. I am a huge believer in goals, but by the time you can measure if you accomplished them, they are in the past. So 4 Disciplines tells you to set “lead measures” for your goals. These are the things that you have control over (no one can stop you) and will lead toward your goal (if done consistently). For example, if the WIG is to lose weight, the lead measures might be eating a healthy diet and exercising. These lead to where you want to go!
3. Keep a Scoreboard: If you come across a group of kids playing basketball, can you tell if they are keeping score. Yes…you can. The intensity picks up. They start playing defense. They start high-fiving after baskets. The same is true for your team. We have created a Google Doc that allows us to keep an eye on how we are doing…all of the time.
4. Accountability Meeting: Which leads nicely to our Monday WIG meeting. We get together on Monday (online) for a 10 minute check in meeting. We discuss what 1 thing we wanted to do last week (that moves us toward our goal), how we did on that goal, and what we are going to do this week.
I really like this system. If you have spent the time to set a Wildly Important Goal, focusing on Lead Measures is a more productive way to schedule my week. These are things I can accomplish…no one gets in my way. And if I don’t do it, it’s on me. From a leadership perspective, I like it because…
It’s helps me keep in touch with my team: At a glance I can look at the scoreboard and see how they are doing. Yes, the activity is tracked by the honor system. They could be padding their numbers, but most of the time I think the numbers are accurate. Either way, it gives me a sense.
Creates Competition: With the right team, your team starts to compete on their own.
Helps You Notice Patterns: When your team is busy, the pro-active measures take a back seat. You notice that with this system. And if you are paying attention, you can point it out. Better yet, your team will notice it on their own. Also, we all have patterns in activity…I noticed that my activity starts to trail off toward the end of the week. I had no idea…until I saw it on the scoreboard!
Re-Focus on the Goal: Each week we get together and re-focus on the goal. This reminder and accountability can have powerful benefits. If you want to dig in further, check out the book! But if you want to chat about how to implement this into your team, let me know. I will gladly do my best to help.
Social media can really be a wonderful thing. We get the opportunity to connect with people from around the globe and reconnect with people from our past. We get to share and communicate, and it gives each and every one of us a voice. But we all know that there are some things about social media that are not as good. People have a tendency to get themselves in trouble by making some pretty simple mistakes. So here are 7 things that you (or the people your organization) should STOP doing right away.
Stop Complaining About Work or Co-Workers: If you are complaining about your co-workers or your job, and you think they can’t see it, you are wrong. They will find out. It’s unprofessional. And if you don’t care that you lose your job, just keep in mind that your next employer will be checking social media on you too.
Stop Passive Aggressive Complaints: This is when someone is obviously complaining about something that happened but does not want to address it in person. “Some people should just stop…” or posts of the like. If you have a problem with someone, be a grown up and talk to them about it.
Stop Claiming Free Speech: The First Amendment was created so that we could speak out without fear of being imprisoned by the government…not for being a jerk on Facebook. You do have freedom of speech, but you don’t have freedom of consequences. Stop acting like you do.
Stop Looking for a Reason to be Mad: It seems like some people wake up each day searching for a reason to be outraged. If you look for reasons to be angry all the time, you will find them (this post for example). Stop seeking out reasons to be mad and you might actually get happier.
Stop Comparing Your Life to Others: The fact is, most people (myself included) sometimes put up our “highlight reel” on social media. We post the pictures that look great. We show our vacations, not the times we are crying in the corner. Just be better than you were yesterday…stop worrying if Frank is on vacation again.
Stop Saying “Woe is me:” We all have challenges, and social media can be a place to vent…sometimes. But if you are constantly complaining about your life, then stop it. Take that time and energy and go out and change it.
Stop Forgetting Social is Public: I am always a little amused when people are surprised that what they put on social gets seen by people. It’s a public forum. So when you post things, just understand that your co-workers, your boss, your customers and even your future employer can and will see it.
These are just seven things to stop, but it’s a good start. Let me know if we have forgotten any that we need to add to the list. Again, social media can be great. But be smart…and it can be even better.
