[Strategy] We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled ‘HIT Piece’ To Ask A Question

In many parts of the United States, there are people who are addicted to drugs.

We could talk all day about the mechanics of addiction, but there is something that is almost never focused on in any discussion of addiction. We talk about the socioeconomic conditions, familial conditions, societal conditions that lead individuals to pursue the short-term rush of pleasure that come from addiction, rather than seeking the long-term work that comes with addressing any area of our lives.

Compulsion, bad habits, obsessions, addictions; we can all agree that moderation in the material world is best in all things, but when moderation—through individual decision making—begins to warp and change patterns of behaviors in the community of people around addicts, then we all begin to agree that there is a problem.

In the digital space—as in our real lives—brands and individuals are addicted to the short-term impact of paying for attention because of its seemingly immediate results. But once you pay digitally, just as in any addiction off-line, you’ll pay again, and again.

Thus FB can sell ads.

Thus Google and Twitter will have you pay-per-click or per Tweet.

The thing is though, in the digital world, the equity of attention is really expensive in the long-term while seeming deceptively cheap in the short-run, so brands are more than willing to pay, particularly when the cost comes down to a rounding error on their marketing balance sheets. While in the long-term, individuals become impatient, leaping from platform to platform hoping to be done, consistently peripatetic, never really satisfied, and finally abandoning the whole thing in frustration.

But the outcomes for both brands and individuals in the digital space is the same as in the real world. And as the outcomes of this digital addiction become more manifest, the social media commons are wrecked and destroyed (through cynicism over loss of privacy and data selling), messages become drowned out in the cacophony of noise (150 million channels on the Internet and rising), and the audience (always fickle) shifts its focus faster than a goldfish.

I’m not complaining though.

Putting in the work on the long game is the only way to outlast, outplay, and out endure the short-term addicts with deep pockets and little self-awareness. There are three things the smaller people (like myself and other corporate trainers) can do to ensure our survival and longevity (rather than giving up and going home) in this digital foaming red sea:

Share, share, share—someone told me the other day that the reason her company doesn’t do more work in the online space is because she’s worried that she won’t get paid for her content and that she won’t get proper attribution, credit, referrals and revenues. This is backward, Industrial Revolution based thinking where scarcity still ruled in information. I can’t believe I have to point this out, but after 25 years of Google and almost 40 years of the Internet, scarcity rules in attention. So share freely, because if you don’t your competitors will.

Carve, carve, carve—finding a niche is huge in the digital landscape and then mining that niche in the way that it wants to be mined not the way that you think it should be mined, is the path toward long-term longevity. Carving a niche where you own the attention of a few thousand people is the most valuable, long-term form of scaling there is.

Unite, unite, unite—joining with others is the only way forward, whether you’re a digital publisher, or a corporate trainer, or a product person. The big brands in all spaces and niches have seemingly deep pockets. But there is so much white space in collaboration, connection, and growing your network to increase your net worth, that it’s amazing to me how great the level of contraction is that’s currently happening as fear of loss rules rather than anticipation of gain. Uniting together—and keeping that unity through using open source software and collaborative in-person methods—is the only way to combat the fear of loss.

The drug of “I can go it alone.” The drug of “I don’t need to share.” The drug of “I am for everybody.” These gateway drugs lead to other addictions (like gaming short-term attention through paying for it) that then lead to emotional exhaustion, disengagement, and cynicism.

The question you have to ask yourself—and that I’ve already clearly answered—is: How committed are you to the long-game?

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 5.17.2016

The infrastructure of my assumptions is slowly undergoing a transformation.

I used to think that all of this would be a quick process (naïve, I know) and that I would achieve “success” faster than what I have.

But the infrastructure of those assumptions (around process, success, time, trust, awareness, attention, value, cost, pricing, the market, etc.) are all shifting inside of me in subtle ways I can’t really describe just yet.

And the thing is, the sign of an organization (or person) who’s open to changing is that the infrastructure of their assumptions is open to reduction, change, destruction, and even wholesale replacement.

If you’re not looking back and wincing about where you were, what you were doing, what you were saying (or writing), and what you were believing, about your business, your home, your life, or even your personal development efforts, then you’re probably not growing.

And growing is the only way to actually get to the future that I keep talking, writing, and advocating for.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 5.10.2016

Seers.

Psychics.

Prognosticators.

All of them are false, phony, fallible, and human.

Trust me.

Nobody knows anything about how tomorrow—whether literally tomorrow or five years from now—is going to happen.

But the socially sanctioned comfort provided by either breathlessly predicting Armageddon or predicting Paradise outweighs the reality of individual people who relentlessly do the work, every day, regardless of what the external circumstances are—and no matter how personally Apocalyptic their worldview and frame may be.

Gradualism, eating the elephant one bit at a time, taking the time to focus: These are not flashy traits, and they don’t make for a raucous Twitter feed, a stunning reality show, or brilliant social media newsfeed. But a personal lifetime that matters, is made up not of repeated, breathless predictions, but instead of plodding, professional, daily work.

There will always be predictors (currently backed up by Big Data) and with computer algorithms and artificial intelligence on the horizon, the gap between prediction and failure of a specific prediction to come to pass (or the accuracy of the prediction coming to pass) will get smaller and smaller—probably narrowing down to a statistical meaningless difference. This will be most helpful with weather patterns and mathematical constructs—less so with people.

But the work, the plodding, professional, unsexy, work is what will matter.

And in the end, there will still be people whose life work, life focus, and lifetime professionalism will defy all the predictions of seers, psychics, and updated, Big Data bloated, statistical prognosticators, and will still be unpredictable, surprising, and ultimately, delightful.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 05.03.2016

The audience for the window dressing has left the building.

The thing is, the audience for whom the window dressing was designed, was probably there against their will for most of the show anyway.

All the way from how teachers present school assignments to how carnival barkers work the crowd, the audience for the show has to buy into the window dressing that covers the content, and they have to have the patience and the desire to be there in the first place.

But at a certain point adults get tired of formalized schooling and audiences get tired of being yelled at by commercials that are louder than the show they are interrupting and all of us begin to make alternate choices.

Post-school age adults confuse the window dressing of the set-up of the classroom, the routine of the school day, and the frustration of navigating the daily school environment tension between what they would like to have done, rather than what they were supposed to do, with learning valuable information—and almost 45% of post-school age adults never read another book after high school.

Audiences confuse the window dressing of the loud voice, the annoying 30-second interruption, the lack of real relationship, and their desire to have the show come back on, with all advertising that annoys them—and they employ ad blockers online, cut the cord from cable and use on-demand, streaming services, or turn off the television altogether.

I’ve been getting some feedback lately that the window dressing over some of my training content has to go. That audiences are impatient, disengaged, and only willing to sit through bite sized content, delivered quickly, and entertainingly.

But the thing is, the audiences I talk with, who contain individuals in conflicts, disagreements, disputes, and “differences of opinion” at work, didn’t get to where they are before they walked into my facilitation space quickly. It was a slow, steady, build-up of sediment consisting of frustrations, expectations, false reassurances, and miscommunications that got them there.

I don’t specialize in keeping anybody around against their will. And if the audience wants the window-dressing to go, it can go.

But to confuse the mechanics of the learning, with the tools of how and why to learn, merely perpetuates a pattern of disengagement, disillusion, and disheartening outcomes that got the audience here listening in the first place.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 4.26.2016

Patience and passion run side by side.

Imagine this: You have been working, bootstrapping, tolling really, and you are busy turning the market on its head.

But, your audience isn’t as easily convinced as quickly as they could be, and gathering those people’s attention and trust is a long-term game that requires patience alongside your passion.

This is the drip, drip, drip process that drives the ambitious, the fast moving, and the dedicated, crazy. Impatience strangles more ideas that anything that passion produces. Being patient, doing the things, day in and day out, that will convert people to your cause, your philosophy, and to using your products and services, is part of the difficult and unglamorous work that doesn’t make the cover of Fast Company.

As the glamour and glitz of the entrepreneurship bubble slowly deflates, the mechanics of patience and the passion, driven by talent and vision, will be the things that will define the next round of entrepreneurship in any space.

Get patient.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 4.19.2016

There are people whose viewpoints I disagree with, but their principles are in the right place.

This seems counterintuitive to write, to say, and to act upon, but in reality, it is the only way to proceed in a world, seemingly bent on separation, isolation, and increasingly elevating short-term symbolism over long-term substance.

This also seems counterintuitive if you have connected with other people, collaborated on projects, or move forward with initiatives based in shared positions and common interests. The thing about positions is that they shift, and interests align only temporarily, but principles are forever.

This also makes me careful about with who I align, because the seductive beauty of a temporary positon interests me just about as little as the fleeting joy of shared interests. Principles are enduring and deep. Which means, that by the time I’ve discovered what your principles are, we already know that the other two areas—positions and interests—will align as well.

I told someone the other day, I am in a search for a moral man, or woman.

I’m actually in a search, not only for a moral woman, or man, but also a collaborator with whom my principles align.

It’s ok.

I’ve got a few years left yet.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 4.12.2016

In my life as an entrepreneur, consultant, and freelancer, perfect is the enemy of good.

Chasing perfectionism—in a project, a blog post, a speech, a podcast episode, or even in a formalized training scenario—is a sign that I’m focusing on the work that doesn’t matter, so that I can hide from making decisions to do work that does matter.

Hiding comes in chasing perfectionism, both launching and addressing the market, allowing my critics to give me shame in their efforts to give me feedback, and allowing myself to become bogged down in considering what I didn’t do well.

So, if perfect is the enemy of good, getting to good—actually doing the work—is the only way to get to great. But even great is a term loaded with assumptions, expectations, and desires that can never be met. See, great (and perfect) are all impulses that come out of human desires and emotions.

Going toward greatness—without the humility that comes from walking through good first—breeds a species of hubris and arrogance. Focusing on perfect—at the expense of making the choice that “good enough is ok”—breeds a species of fear and hiding.

Hubris and arrogance.

Fear and hiding.

Telling the truth, making a ruckus, providing hope, staying humble, giving credit when it’s due, accepting criticism—but not shame—and being informative; these are the areas that more, and more, I’m intentionally chasing.

Moment-by-moment, step-by-step, day-by-day, drip-by-drip.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 4.05.2016

Sometimes, but usually very rarely, an MVP won’t do in the market.

Sometimes, just interacting with the market with shoddy products, half thought through, is worse than not interacting at all.

Sometimes, the market (consumers, clients, audience members, etc.) need to see that you have actually thought through and engaged with the process of building something, in order to buy-in to the something in the first place.

The struggle is when you can’t discover—from what your competitors are doing, from market research, from just asking your potential clients, customers, etc.—what the market will bear.

Sometimes, the MVP is a question asked of the market, and the struggle is too read the tea leaves, in between the lines, and to discern what the market wants.

And sometimes, but usually very rarely (only twice in the history of the Industrial Revolution that I’m aware of), the solution is to build a product the market doesn’t know it ever wanted in the first place, to meet a need it never knew it had.

-Peace Be With You All-

HIT Piece 3.22.2016

Three benefits accrue to you (or me, or anybody else) when you show up and guest lecture at a college or high school class.

Prestige—I get to show up and talk with (or to) people who are there to hear knowledge and already mentally prepped with the idea that I’m the “expert.” I might not be the “expert” and I might not set myself up as the “expert” but the person (typically the instructor) introducing me to the class has more clout than I do. They set the table and they follow-up.

Accountability—I’m always accountable to other people for everything that I say, that I do, and that I write. But when I guest lecture, there’s almost no feeling of immediate accountability. Which means I have a choice to be accountable, or to be not accountable. Being accountable—and choosing to follow-up and answer questions from participants either in person or via email later—is the prize that participants get when they listen to me ramble on for an hour.

Responsibility—There’s always a measure of responsibility for the outcomes of any speech that accrue to the sender and the receiver. The receiver has a responsibility to actually do something with the information that they receive. But, since there’s rarely any penalty for not taking action (or at least, no immediate penalty) the intrinsic motivation to act must be energized by the sender of the message. The sender’s responsibility is two-fold: To be empathetic and accountable, and to be extrinsically and intrinsically motivating to the attendees.

The benefits may not be apparent immediately to you the guest lecturer, but they are there.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/

HIT Piece 3.15.2016

There are two kinds of motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is driven by what you feel on the inside. Much of intrinsic motivation comes from emotions and reasoning. Motivation to accomplish tasks that touches on emotions and reasoning comes in the form of feedback, in a 360 degree fashion. The impact of that feedback creates intrinsic motivation, or it erodes intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is driven by a carrot and stick approach from the outside. Much of extrinsic motivation comes from other people attempting to provide feedback, provide coaching, and to provide encouragement and recognition. Extrinsic motivation is about the impact that other people can have on you and your internal motivation.

Both kinds of motivations are about outcomes, feedback, and meaning and mattering. Both kinds of motivation have motivation behind them and the psychology of motivation is extensive and deep.

For me, however, I’m all in for the intrinsic motivation. Don’t get me wrong: I like pats on the back, “good job” statements, thank yous, and other forms of intrinsic recognition. I’m also all in for the extrinsic motivation. Don’t get me wrong: Money helps pay the bills and move the project along. I like getting swag as much as the next person.

But at the end of the day, my internal motor runs on fuel from Within, rather than on fuel from the World.

Every entrepreneur has to decide what fuel they are running on.

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: jsorrells@hsconsultingandtraining.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HSConsultingandTraining
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sorrells79
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrells/