Note: This article is one I was asked to write on behalf of San Miguel Catholic Middle School. It will be appear as part of a newsletter to parents, donors, community members and students.

The small group of half a dozen students gathered in the studio art room at Bishop Kelly High School shifted in their seats a bit as they contemplated the question they’d just been asked: “What would have been different if you hadn’t been a San Miguel student?” The most interesting thing about their answers is how closely they mirrored one another… and how much the prospect of what might have been different bothered them.

In each case, the young men and women, all juniors or seniors at BKHS and among the earliest San Miguel Tulsa middle school graduates, felt their middle school years taught far more than English and science…  they learned believe in themselves, to push themselves, to achieve.

“We were always encouraged to believe in the possibilities and to be committed to our goals,” said Juan. “It was just expected that we could, and so we did,” he said.

Joe O’Connor, President of San Miguel, understands. “That’s the mission, and it matters. Our students see success and it feeds on itself. We hold our students accountable for achieving, we support them all along the way and we don’t give up on them.” Students say that the accountability makes a difference. “We knew we couldn’t give up, we had to keep pushing and believe we could do it [be a graduate],” said Carlos.

The seniors and some of the juniors gathered for the interview now have goals they found nearly impossible to contemplate six years ago… college degrees and professional career paths. Some have already earned scholarships to their college of choice. With plans from international business to architecture, their horizons are as wide now as they want them to be… and every student in the room said being selected to attend San Miguel made the difference. Some are the first high school graduates in their families and are leading the way for their younger brothers and sisters and their community. Many return regularly to San Miguel for service projects and serve as leaders to the student community as they manifest the mission of believing in the possibilities inherent in each student. All demonstrated the politeness and respect that I’ve noticed are hallmarks of San Miguel students during the many visits I’ve made to the school over the past few years.

San Miguel students arrive early, stay late (study hall until 5 pm is mandatory) and depend on each other and their teachers to make it through the rigorous education. Parents provide service hours to the school, transport kids on trips, cook meals and attend conferences… last year saw a 100% participation rate from parents at parent-teacher conferences. The result is an education that changes more than the knowledge base of a student. It’s an education that changes the possibility base of each student… expanding the opportunities in the whole community along the way. It’s the heart of long-term economic development and growth and it makes a tangible difference in the lives of every family the school touches.

San Miguel is funded almost entirely through donations, and those donations change lives in very real ways. Please consider helping to fund the mission of San Miguel to provide a private, Catholic education to impoverished and underprivileged children, regardless of race or religion.

Ok, so here we are. It’s the first Monday of 2011. Did you greet it with your “typical Monday” attitude? Maybe even a tad worse because you may be coming back to work after a few days off for the holidays? Sometimes the excitement of the New Year is hard to hold onto after the champagne headache wears off. Here are a few thoughts on this first Monday of the new year:

Monday is not the enemy. Mornings are not the enemy. Here’s why…
“Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living creatively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you, or you are not using your talents and efforts in a striving toward an important goal.” -Maxwell Maltz

Don’t make your New Year’s resolutions about the same things you know you want, in a generic sort of way, but don’t want enough to make the changes necessary to get them. You know… like, “This year I will lose 20 pounds!” Make them about living creatively. What needs to change in your life, externally and internally, so that Mondays are not about that empty, I-hate-Monday-mornings feeling? What will it take for Mondays to be the bringers of opportunity, promise, ideas and energy? It’s possible, even for those who are not “morning people,” to love Monday mornings. Well, maybe not love… but at least to greet Monday with a welcoming smile instead of a growl.

For me, Monday mornings are best when I take thirty minutes sometime Sunday evening and get ready for Monday. I make some notes, one of my ubiquitous lists, and go through emails, calendar appointments, etc. so I can start off Monday on pace, on schedule, prepared. It’s sometimes the only time the whole week I feel ready, prepared, in control of my day. I happen to love Monday mornings…. true story, that.

Another way to think of “living creatively” is to just live an examined life. Stop rolling through your days one after another without introspection and that crucial inner dialogue that keeps us true to our beliefs, our values, our very selves.

• Take some time to tune into the thoughts and needs of others, whether they’re family or strangers.
• Connect to your larger world.
• Connect to your inner world.
• Think about why you care about what you care about.

The busyness and business of our daily lives (I have 4 kids, remember? Busyness is something I understand!) makes real introspection something that rarely happens without allowing it some time and space. So provide some… a few minutes a week devoted to just checking in with your inner self. I almost always drive with the radio off when I’m alone in the car… I use the time for thinking. Not daydreaming, but giving that inner voice an opportunity to speak. Find your moments. Now, if I could only find the necessary moments for physical exercise… that would be my “I hate Mondays!” equivalent.

This year, let’s resolve to welcome Mondays for the opportunities they are, and to stop blaming a day or a time for our dissatisfaction with who we are or what we’re doing. And I’ll see about that whole exercise thing.

And, uh, Happy New Year!

Reflections? No time for that!

It’s almost my blog-o-versary… I started this blog on July 23, 2009. I have seen many-a-reflection post from other bloggers about their first year, or their fifth, for the ones who’ve been around a while. And this isn’t one of those posts. Mainly because I’m not one to do a lot of looking back… when you (or I) screw up, we need to absorb those lessons where we are and then move forward. Take the time you need to feel the pain and then, Just. Move. On.

So, in the spirit of moving on…

I’ll continue to write about relevance, digital convergence and future trends that connect people to other people, places, spaces and ideas, because that seemed to resonate with many of you who took the time to comment on a post or retweet it.

I’ll ramp up my posting frequency. Yes, yes I will. Even if it’s a short post… if it’s relevant to this blog, I’ll get it up here more quickly.

I’ll use Twitter more strategically to gather ideas, feedback and take the temperature of the audiences out there. Little less arrogance, little more serving the readership.

I’ll continue to tweak the blog and the site to better serve the readers… sharing integrated marketing insights, strategies, tips and foibles, seasoned with my Tulsa perspective. I’ll include public relations content more frequently and I’ll be inviting guest bloggers to post this year. I use this blog as my front door… people hire me because they want help thinking about, strategizing and implementing integrated marketing solutions. They want -need- to know how I think… and I want to attract potential partners, clients and build relationships with others who get, or at least are intrigued by, how I think and who see the value in relationships and connectivity. I want to connect with people out there who will challenge what I think, who will share what they think, who will help me grow and bring all of their goodness to bear on this blog and community we’re building.

So as I said… Reflection doesn’t suit me, but red does… and we’re going full-on, redlined into the future here, and I hope you’ll not only come along for the ride, but help build the engine.

Photo Credit: flickr user becksshaw

At Ignite Tulsa last month, I talked about “Why Passion Doesn’t Change Anything.” I wanted people to come away with the idea that passion, by itself, doesn’t accomplish change, or make love true, or make you money. In other words, don’t be passionate; be effective. And now, those of you out there (and you know who you are) who have an idea, a passion, a… something you know can succeed, have your chance to go be effective.
The 2010 Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit award is now open for submissions. You need not be based in Tulsa to enter or win, but you have to be willing to open or expand into Tulsa if you’re from somewhere else.

The reason this program is so worth it for people who have an idea, or who have a business that needs some help to get to the next level is the process… going through it helps entrants clarify their vision, prepare a business plan that works and gets the attention of potential investors, loan officers, etc., and the 25 entrants who advance to the semifinal stage get invaluable (free!) business coaching to help them launch and grow. And that’s how raw passion gets transformed into something that matters… and makes money.

Sponsored by Spirit Bank and Tulsa Community College, the program is in its fourth year and will award this year’s winner $30,000. Two runners-up are also selected and awarded smaller cash prizes.

Don’t wait… if you have an idea, or a business that needs to grow (and you’ve been in business for less than 5 years) the time is now. Go unleash your big idea and start using your passion to be effective.

Submissions accepted until May 13th.

Yeah… bubbles. Stay with me… you’ll see

After another furious #blogchat on Twitter where smart people were discussing the differences between passion and influence as it pertains to blogging and why (if?) it mattered, some things I’ve been thinking about began to crystallize. And because it’s what I do when that happens, here I am writing about it.

Before we dive in, thanks to @spikejones for inspiring some of this, @MackCollier for #blogchat (and lots of inspiration over time) and @edosegal, who wrote the ambient streams post I read recently.

First, some definitions (well, mine, anyway):

Passion (in the marketing sense) = commitment to/attachment to a brand, product, idea or position regardless of compensation.

It’s a feeling, an internal condition. It cannot be manufactured or externally created. Passion is a choice the individual makes… I choose to love Godiva dark chocolate. Godiva hasn’t asked me to love it, paid me to love it, and doesn’t particularly care that I do so… I, on an individual level, am not influential in their marketing planning. (Oversight on their part? Perhaps… )

Influence = ability to affect other’s perceptions or awareness.

Influence CAN be purchased/created. It’s an external perception… Billions of ad dollars are spent every year trying to influence the awareness and perception of potential customers. Is it possible for an individual blogger to have influence in a space he or she is not passionate about? Long term, I think the answer is no. Bloggers who have influence in a particular space usually have earned that right through good information, solid community, earned respect. Not always… because, as we’ve already said, influence can be purchased. Programs and tools and schemes exist to “grow your blog” and “get thousands of followers” to jump-start influence.

At least initially. Some of the current “stars” of the social media world, for instance, may not be around in a year or two. If they aren’t passionate about the relevant, interactive web, they will run out of things to say that resonate with the community marketers are hoping to reach through their influence. If they stop resonating, they will lose influence, and their relevance.

Someone who is passionate about an idea or product or brand keeps on learning, and loving, and sharing experiences and interactions born of the love affair. And those shared moments will typically only resonate with those who are interested in the same brand or idea. Maybe the audience isn’t in love yet… maybe just experimenting or looking for a first date. That’s where passionate people and influence intersect.

I can be influenced only by those people or messages I choose to pay attention to. Repeat… I can only be influenced by those people or messages I choose to pay attention to.

Why do I care what TechCrunch thinks in general about [insert brand here]? I don’t. I don’t care about what TechCrunch thinks about a lot of things. But I <3 Apple products. I tend to pay attention to what TechCrunch says about all things Apple… I am passionate about that brand and TechCrunch’s opinion is more relevant to me when they are talking about Apple than when they are talking about XBox360. I choose to pay attention… and then TechCrunch has a chance to influence me and my opinion.

What is missing from all this influence and passion is a way to filter relevance. It’s a fact that humans filter information and stimuli all the time. The web’s current model is based on active search:

Random thought triggers question…

Brain can’t supply answer…

Enter phrase into Google, or more typical for me, Twitter (or your weapon of choice)…

Scan results… (FOR WHAT… ?)

Click on choice that seems THE MOST RELEVANT to me (I trust the source/know the source or believe Google’s method for determining importance and value)

The future of the web, I believe, won’t be based on active search, but on ambient streams. Already, who I choose to follow on Twitter creates ambient streams that bubble up the information I care about. As more and more of the web dabbles in relevance… more information will find us rather than us going to look for it.

Who we choose to be influenced by (who we let control our information streams) will matter a great deal more than it does now. I suspect we’ll get more picky, too. More fragmented as a marketplace, more determined to know what we want to know and not see the rest. How will we determine who makes the cut? Passion… who we believe. Influence… who we trust. And relevance… who we perceive to “understand who and where we are in life.”

Already, the web can tell where I’m located, who is tweeting or geotagging near me, what sites/locations/stores I’ve visited recently (and if I positively or negatively reviewed them), and who I’m choosing to be influenced by (who am I connected to on Twitter, Facebook, Ning groups, LinkedIn, etc). How far off is that one app/program/site that will analyze that info, assign relative relevance scores to the possible streams of info, and show me what is relevant to me based on ME, not on Google’s basic algorithms?

Heady, and scary, stuff. What do you think… what’s next?

It’s been a couple months in the making, and started after a conversation with Ron Hudson (@Ron_Hudson) and Mike Henry, Sr. (@mikehenrysr) about how businesses use social media (or don’t) effectively. Marrying the idea of sharing what we each individually knew (and could collectively add) to the concept of helping a business effectively use social media excited all of us. We decided a traditional media company would be an ideal candidate and our group expanded to include Cindy Morrison (@cindywmorrison) a long-time former news anchor in Tulsa, now an author and speaker.

I am grateful to be part of a talented team and to have a client dedicated to using social media effectively. We’ve set goals, met numerous times with FOX23 management and had our kick-off meeting. You can read more about the project’s inception and focus in this release.
Now, the real work begins. I, for one, can’t wait.
If you have social media success stories or strategies to share, please let me know in the comments!

(Read the update for Week 2 here.)

This post is inspired by a conversation with @billhandy and @freshpeel on Twitter, and by Bill’s (lengthy, but good) post about the science behind communities.

My key takeaways/thoughts on the subject are:

Bigger isn’t necessarily better
The ties in your community matter
Work yourself out of a job if you want to matter long-term

Bigger isn’t necessarily better because the value of a community must be defined through a particular set of lenses. Think about the value of your home. The key question is… value to whom? We all think about value of a home as the price we’d get if we sold it to another person interested in living in it. What about the value of your home as potential raw material for a new project? The value of just the land your home is on, to a non-residential user? The value of the goods/furnishing inside? The lens used to evaluate value makes a difference. You need to define the purpose of a community before you can assess its value. If the purpose is to create “a community of bicycle enthusiasts” you need to re-think. You’ve defined who you’re after (bicycle enthusiasts) but not WHY they’ve come and WHAT you hope they’ll do for or be to each other. A better purpose (lens) would be seeking to create “A place where bicycling enthusiasts can share knowledge about the best trails/rides so others can discover and enjoy them, too.”

NOW we have something… we know we’re seeking current riders to anchor the community (new riders would be welcome, but won’t necessarily have the foundational knowledge about best trails/rides to share). We know we’ll need to try to build that community in a space where sharing and organizing information, including potentially maps, photos, written descriptions, even user calendars, will be easy and seamless. We know that search/discovery within the community will be important. AND… if we build it smartly, we can define value to potential marketers of trail-proven cycles, gear, lodging and food/supplies.

ALSO… we have a community built on shared, strong affinity for not just a hobby (cycling) but a particular aspect/segment of that hobbyist community (longer rides/trails/trips). The strength of the ties in your community matter… they’ll drive longevity and advocacy. If people self-identify as belonging to that group, our carefully constructed place should give them a portal to other like-minded individuals and space to share their passion. They’ll seek out others to join who also share that passion if they love the space.

The group’s owner/moderator won’t matter… the group’s own cohesion will serve as glue. If you successfully work yourself out of a job building the community, the value of that community as a sellable, marketable thing increases. “Ownership” can be transferred easily since the group’s members feel ownership… it’s their space. If the community remains a hub-and-spoke connection (each person individually connected to the center, but not many community-member interactions) it’s in danger of becoming irrelevant, regardless of how large it is at the moment. Miley Cyrus had a huge Twitter following. She quit Twitter. Other than tweets lamenting the fact that she’s gone, that community is fast becoming irrelevant on Twitter.

So… to wrap it all up:

Know why you’re building a community, regardless of the venue.

Have a clear purpose and direction and take deliberate actions so you attract the right kind of self-elected community members.

Make it a place where people are there for the THE BIG IDEA so the community won’t falter if you need to back away.

What do you think… how do you best build community?

A true expert is also an evangelist, as they would not have been able to achieve such expertise if they did not have a passion for the field. (from @davidspinks, comments on his post)

We set young leaders up for a fall if we encourage them to envision what they can do before they consider the kind of person they should be. – Ruth Barton

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I think we set young marketers up to fail if we encourage them to embark on broad campaigns or thought leadership before they consider what kind of marketing they ought to be doing and whether they have a true passion for it. Passion drives the desire to learn, to be excellent and to grow in a field. Becoming an expert at anything is predicated on these things. Passion also means viewpoints will be strongly held, opinions may be forcefully expressed… witness the recent exchange between @bethharte and @amandachapel.
I’m not taking on the subtleties of their arguments (not today, anyway…!) but I do want to say that companies are better served working with someone passionate about the field. Find a good fit, because it’s like a marriage, but appreciate the creative fire that a passion-driven professional will bring to a project.
I love what I do… can’t imagine doing anything else. I did it before social media took off; I’ll be doing it after it morphs into a mature technology and the next big thing comes along. I do it because I love creating connections between people and the other people, ideas, places, spaces and things they need to know about. The title of this blog wasn’t a random thought. It’s what drives me professionally.
What drives you? Are you passionate about what you do? Do you think passion is required to earn expert status?