Photo Credit: Anton Diaz
Brrrr! It’s cold in The Midwest (East/West Coaster Translation: The Flyover States). Please keep warm and enjoy these share-worthy links during your Sunday brunch. (more…)
Tag Archives: Reinventing YOU
Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: 12/21/14 to 12/27/14
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Photo Credit: Anton Diaz
I hope you enjoyed a blessed and joyful Christmas Holiday with your family, friends, and loved ones! Here are your share-worthy links to enjoy during Sunday Brunch. Have a great Sunday!
1. Careerealism.com: Don’t Let Your Job Title Define You. The title says it all (pun intended). Pouncing on personal branding and reinvention opportunities matters more than ever. We're all individual startups. Resumes are becoming less relevant in a digital age so make a New Year’s Resolution to build your online presence.
2. Unreasonable.is: The 7 Emails You Need to Know How to Write. Email isn’t dead. It remains one of the first ways we build and establish relationships. If you want your emails noticed, read, and acted upon by important/busy people, read this great, how-to article. This one went straight into Evernote for frequent and easy reference.
3. NYTimes.com: A Brand New World In Which Men Ruled — Instead of narrowing gender gaps, the technology industry created vast new ones for Stanford University’s pioneering class of 1994. If you Google "gender equity” or “gender gap,” you'll find the work of The New York Times' Jodi Kantor. Her thought-provoking and must-read article provides smart perspectives and analyses on the root cause(s) of the current Silicon Valley gender gaps.
Kantor's root cause analyses reveals:
- Well-paying professions previously limited in opportunity for women opened up (e.g., corporate finance)
- Other prestigious yet "conventional" professions provided relatively lower risks and higher success outcomes (e.g., medicine, law)
- The decision to have children and the responsibilities of child rearing (versus their male counterparts who remained unencumbered with these commitments)
The most successful Stanford Class of 1994 female entrepreneur, Jessica DiLullo Herrin, executed a flanking strategy to build and grow Stella & Dot. She created a digital services company but shunned The Valley’s traditional route creating a product or using venture capital funding. In her words (direct quote from the article):
“I’ve never tried to sit at the boys’ table.”
DiLullo Herrin's flanking strategy may prove to be the best way for women to beat The Male Silicon Valley Establishment at their own game.
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Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist. He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.
Social Media ReInvention Blog: 2014’s Top 10 Most Popular Posts
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Photo Credit: Gerard Stolk (vers Noël)
Thank YOU. Publishing and writing for Social Media ReInvention Community Members brings me immense joy and fulfillment. I can’t thank you enough for your amazing support and generosity to read and share my content. Thank you of sticking with me for five and half years! Time’s flown by.
2014’s Most Popular Social Media ReInvention Blog Posts
If you missed some of these, you can check them out here:
1. Lesson 2 of 6: Reinventing You After Age 50 Case Study — Michael Ovitz and Shifting Your Behavior
2. Mark Zuckerberg’s 5 Point Plan for Facebook’s Future Growth and Mobile Domination
4. 3 Career Management Lessons for a Social Media Age I Learned From My Dad
5. Lesson 3A of 6: Reinventing You After Age 50 Case Study — Michael Ovitz and Developing Validators
6. Book Review: The New Rules of Sales and Service by David Meerman Scott
7. #FAIL: #AppleLive Debacle Exposes Apple’s Real-Time Marketing Weaknesses
8. 4 More Gifts to Support Others That Power Your After Age 50 Reinvention
9. 3 Tips on Writing and Storytelling from Twitter’s Investor Relations Team
10. Tim Cook’s Killer Innovation Hack: Diversity in Thought in Apple’s Ecosystem (with a Capital D)
LinkedIn Pulse Featured Three (3) Posts in Selected Channels
That’s Kind of a Big Deal. I’m grateful because I reached that achievement through your support:
- LinkedIn Pulse Social Media Channel: Social Media ReInvention Featured in LinkedIn Pulse Social Media Channel
- LinkedIn Pulse Big Ideas and Innovation Channel: YAY! LinkedIn Pulse Publishes Social Media ReInvention Post About Tim Cook in Big Ideas and Innovation Category!
Have a Joyous and Blessed Merry Christmas and Holiday Season
Be Well. I look forward to seeing you soon after the Christmas Holiday!
Your Turn
Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Comments are open. So let’er rip!
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You can unsubscribe any time you like. Many Thanks!
Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: Week of 11/30/14 to 12/4/14
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Photo Credit: Anton Diaz
Hi Social Media ReInvention Community Members! Apologies for not consistently posting our Sunday Brunch Edition. External circumstances prevented me from keeping up. I promise to do better job. I hope you celebrated blessed and happy Thanksgiving Holidays with loved ones and friends.
Here are your share-worthy links. Enjoy your Sunday Brunch!
1) CNET: How-To Video: Upgrade Your RAM on Your MacBook Pro. I upgraded the RAM on my MacBook Pro 15 this week. I suck as a do-it-yourselfer (DIY). I researched required steps and tools to lessen my anxiety and increase my confidence. The Result: I successfully upgraded my MacBook Pro 15 (late 2011) from 4MB to 8 MB of RAM (and she performs like a champ)!
As I type, I’m running seven (7) applications: iTunes, Google Chrome (with 12 tabs open), Apple Preview, MarsEdit, Finder, Evernote, and Dashlane. Here’s the content I found most helpful:
- I printed out and followed these instructions from Apple Support: MacBook Pro: How to remove or install memory. Learn how to remove or install memory in your MacBook Pro notebook computer.
- You’ll need a Phillips 00 screwdriver to unscrew the bottom panel. I paid a premium price for the iFixit 54 Bit Driver Kit because the magnetized screwdriver bits are HUGE in removing and reinserting the six (6) tiny screws on the back panel. There’s a reason I went to business school instead of medical school (HINT: I lack a surgeon's dexterity).
- I also purchased the iSesamo: Ultra-thin steel pry tool for opening iPods, iPhones, iPads (and more). This handy device made removing the MacBook Pro back cover easier. Plus, I incorrectly inserted one of the RAM cards on my first try (and it was jammed in tight), The iSeasmo tool helped pry it loose safely. Whew!
2) Fast Company: What Every Young Designer Should Know, From Legendary Apple Designer Susan Kare. Kare has two (2) simple rules for designers: 1) Fake It Tlll You Make It and 2) Design Never Really Changes. I personally relate to Rule #1. When she applied applied for Apple’s graphic designer position, she worked at a furniture store. She prepared for her interview by studying graphic design books from the Palo Alto library (direct article quotes):
Having designed many of the Mac's early system fonts such as Chicago, the (original) San Francisco, Geneva, and Monaco, Kare is one of the pioneers of early digital typography. But when she first applied to Apple, she was pulling her type design qualifications out of thin air.
"I was working at a furniture store at the time, and I didn't know the first thing about designing a typeface," she told me. "But I'd studied graphic design, so I said, 'How hard can it be?'" So Kare went to the Palo Alto Library and took out a number of books on typography. "I even brought them to my interview to prove I knew something about type, if anyone asked!" she laughs. "I went into it totally green."
She's not so green now. Here's a great video of Susan Kare sharing her design expertise:
Susan Kare, Iconographer (EG8) from EG Conference on Vimeo.
If Susan Kare listened to The Resistance, she wouldn’t have achieved her Apple Legendary Designer status. So let’s fake it till we make it. Or, as Dorie Clark of Reinventing YOU, says: “Fake It Till You Become It.”
3) Fortune Magazine: GE CMO Comstock's New Job: Reinventing the Lightbulb. I’m a HUGE Beth Comstock fan. Her strategy to reinvent and power (pun intended) GE's 130-year old lighting business includes embedding social and digital media throughout the business. Comstock transformed GE into a creative, infuential and credible digital marketing player:
Here’s a direct quote from the Google Think article about Beth Comstock titled Market Maker:
The 52-year-old often describes her job as "connecting the dots"–between GE's seven segments (Power & Water, Oil & Gas, Energy Management, Aviation, Transportation, Healthcare, Home & Business Solutions), its many markets, and between the company and the outside world. It's something Comstock regularly does as head of GE's sales, marketing, and communications, and in her management of the company's multi-billion-dollar Ecomagination and Healthymagination initiatives, dedicated to environmental and health care innovation respectively.
In her travels and conversations with customers, she constantly scans for patterns. "When you're in this business, you see a lot of things," Comstock notes. "Marketers are in a great position to notice if something's happening in an industry like energy or healthcare."
Think About that Quote for a Moment. Beth Comstock explained how a great marketer’s expertise is a game changing asset in understanding and exploiting opportunity. Digital and social media marketing continues accepting the rap, “we can’t measure return on investment (ROI)!” Follow her advice and make the case of how not only your digital marketing efforts identify relevant opportunities but also how your expertise uniquely enables you (personally) to identify new business opportunities.
If that’s not a measurable ROI, I’ll be this guy’s uncle:
Photo Credit: Gemma Stiles
Your Turn
Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Comments are open. So let’er rip!
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4 More Gifts to Support Others That Power Your After Age 50 Reinvention
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Gold Gift Box
Note: This post continues thoughts from 4 Gifts to Give Others to Power Your After Age 50 Reinvention. It's fifth in a series of seven (7) describing successful career reinvention after age 50 by applying principles from Dorie Clark's amazing book, Reinventing You.
Reinventing You's Chapter 9: Reintroduce Yourself: "Develop Validators" is the focus of this post.
4 More Gifts to Support Others That Power Your After Age 50 Reinvention
1. Write a LinkedIn Recommendation for Someone You Care About
Recruiters Love LinkedIn. LinkedIn may not be as sexy as Facebook or Snapchat but 259+ million members can't be wrong. Recruiters and employers constantly search LinkedIn for passive job seekers (defined as someone who currently has a job but would be open to taking a better one). This phenomenon drove $224.7 million in 2013 Q3 revenue for LinkedIn Talent Solutions.
Praise Others so They Know They're Good at What They Do. LinkedIn Recommendations help your colleagues and friends promote their personal brands. They're also an important gesture to support people who may have lost their jobs due to company reorganizations.
- You can vouch for another person's expertise and skills (similar to a LinkedIn Endorsement)
- Your friend / colleague may feel awkward requesting a recommendation
- Your recommendation can enhance another person's LinkedIn Profile
Who Can You Support with a LinkedIn Recommendation? Show you're not "just looking out for number 1." It's a great way to thank and acknowledge others who've been integral to your individual success.
Recommendations You Give Show Up on Your LinkedIn Profile
2. Encourage Others in LinkedIn Discussions
Social Media ReInvention Community Members know how much I enjoy The Start-Up of YOU LinkedIn Discussion Group. Participating in LinkedIn Discussions (or initiating discussion topics) is a great way to:
- Demonstrate your expertise in a specific field or industry
- Develop credibility and a thought leader reputation
- Learn from and make new connections with like-minded people
Show Your Acknowledgement and Appreciation. When you initiate discussion topics, it's great when other members submit comments and opinions. Thank them with an encouraging tone for "putting themselves out there." Acknowledge them and express your appreciation for their input (especially if their thoughts counter yours).
Submitting Comments and Participating in Discussion Forums Requires Personal Risk. That's why people may hesitate submitting a comment for fear of criticism from either you or other members. If you're the discussion moderator, establish a positive tone. Provide encouragement early and consistently.
Encouraging and validating others in your LinkedIn Discussion shows respect, flexibility, and openness:
Encouragement Fosters LinkedIn Group Participation
3. Say Thank You on Twitter #FF (Follow Fridays)
An Underrated Validator. I love #FF or Twitter Follow Fridays. Recognizing the contributions of smart and interesting members is fundamental to the Twitter Commuity.
State Why Someone Deserves the #FF Mention. Differentiate the individual (and yourself) by describing why another person is worth following. The most common mistake in Follow Fridays is the common "mass communication" #FF "Insert As Many Twitter Handles as I Can in 140 Characters or Less Without Saying Why:"
The Mass Communication #FF #Follow Friday Mistake
Be Different. Put thought and creativity in your #FF tweet. Make your #FF tweets more memorable and separate them from the mass communication pack:
Example #1: Describe Why You #FF'd Someone
Example 2: Describe Why You #FF'd Someone
4. Share Klout +K's With Your Online Friends and Fans
How Influential Are You in the Social Media Universe? Since 2008, Klout.com has attempted to answer this question. The premise behind Klout is that our collective social media participation and influence can be captured, measured, and scored.
Your Klout Score Can Have Important Career Implications. According to Seth Stevenson's Wired.com article, What Your Klout Score Really Means, your score matters (especially if you work in or aspire to work in online media). If you actively participate in social media, be aware of your score.
Share +K's to Help Others Build Influence. Identify the people who support you and spread your ideas. Acknowledge and thank them. Reward their support with Klout +K's in specific topics like Twitter, Social Media, or Blogging.
Giving your friends and fans +K's signals to others that they share great content.
Providing +K's in the New Klout Platform. Here are the basic steps:
- Find the Klout Profile of the person you'd like to give the +K
- Locate the Klout topic you want to select
- Hover your cursor over the topic to select it (the topic should become red)
- Select that topic and give the +K
Steps 1 and 2 to Give +K's in New Klout Platform
Steps 3 and 4 to Give +K's in New Klout Platform
Closing Thoughts
Give and You Will Receive. Be generous to others. Be kind. Support others and third party validation takes care of itself.
What Do You Think? Please let me know in your comments.
If you enjoyed this post, here are the others in the series:
Photo Credit via flickr by sparkleblues
Your Turn
Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear from you. I’m here to read, listen, and learn from YOUR PERSPECTIVE. Comments are open. So let’er rip!
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4 Gifts to Give Others to Power Your After Age 50 Reinvention
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Reinventing Yourself After Age 50
I'm Over Age 50 and I'm Trying to Reinvent Myself. What the Hell Do I Do Now?
You're Not Alone in Feeling That Way. A lot of people ask themselves that question. I'm a few years shy of THE BIG 5-0. And, I've been asking myself that question since 2009.
Asking this question is the start. Taking action will separate you from the pack. Because differentiating yourself when you're an older worker or executive isn't easy.
Reinvention After 50 Starts By Reading Dorie Clark's Reinventing You
This post is fourth in a series of seven (7) about successful career reinvention after age 50.
Lesson 3A of 6 on Developing Validators describes linkages from Michael Ovitz's career reinvention after age 50 to a key teaching from Dorie Clark's Reinventing You Chapter 9: Reintroduce Yourself: "Develop Validators."
That post references examples from the October 2013 Fortune Magazine article: Ovitz Does Silicon Valley by David A. Kaplan.
Some may view Mr. Ovitz's reinvention journey as a poor comparison for "mere mortals." After all, he's Michael 'Friggin' Ovitz (and he developed powerful and influential connections in the technology and entertainment industries).
But, If I Can Develop Influential and Powerful Validators, YOU CAN TOO
This post describes examples from my ongoing social media reinvention journey. Since 2009, I've learned a couple things from blogging, connecting with like-minded people, and distributing content in different social media channels.
I've also made mistakes and learned from them.
Now, Is the Time to Start Because …
… the opportunity to:
- … connect with more powerful and influential people who will support and "talk you up" exists because of The Internet. You may even earn the privilege of their friendship.
- … build an online reputation or personal brand so others see your true potential via your unique intellectual property (IP) is there if you work at it.
4 Gifts to Give Others to Power Your After Age 50 Reinvention
Gift #1. Write Public Fan Letters
Read Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. Pages 108 to 109, "Write Fan Letters," and Chapter 2: "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started" from Austin's book are amazing. From page 109 of Steal Like an Artist:
"Maybe your hero will see your work, maybe he or she won't. Maybe they'll respond to you, maybe not. The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return."
Expect Nothing in Return. That's why public fan letters are the ultimate gift. If you genuinely care for someone and want sincerely express your appreciation and respect for her art / work, that's all that matters.
Writing Public Fan Letters is the Most Rewarding Experience. Just writing them feels good. I know from personal experience. That's why it's my favorite way to say "thank you."
To help you get started, here are the public fan letters I've published on this blog to my marketing strategy heroes: Mitch Joel, David Meerman Scott, Seth Godin, and Ann Handley. Mitch Joel writes inspiring fan letters. Here are his public fan letters to Tom Peters, Seth Godin, and Nilofer Merchant.
Bonus: Your Heroes Might Write Back. Publicly. Remember, this is a gift with no expectation of reciprocation. But, it's still pretty cool when your heroes reply back.
Ann Handley Blog Comment on Her Public Fan Letter
Ann Handley Twitter Conversation on Her Public Fan Letter
Gift #2. Comment on Thought Leader Blogs
Blogging Isn't Dead. But Everybody Likes to Say It Is. That's why blog commenting re-emerges as a new opportunity. Most prefer the "snack size" comment of a tweet or Facebook update. But, let's be honest. It's hard to find relevant insights in 140 characters or less.
Dare to Be Different. Commenting on thought leaders' blog posts in your industry or (the industry you're targeting for a career change) gives you an opportunity to:
- Thoughtfully support or disagree with an influencer's line of thinking
- Add to the conversation by sharing your perspective
- Build the reputation of not only the blog author but also your reputation too (because Google remembers the blog post and your comments forever)
Long Term Consistency is the Key. I've participated in blog commenting with my favorite marketing strategy thought leaders' blogs since 2009. I've regularly and consistently shown up by participating in the discourse on their home turf. That consistency builds long term reputation, credibility, and relationships.
Connect Your Comment to an Online Profile. Always provide the web address for your personal blog, Google+ profile, or some other online profile so the author or other commenters can learn more about you. If you're consistent and leave thoughtful comments, the author and her respective readers will look you up.
Tony Faustino Comment on Ann Handley Blog Post
Gift #3. Promote Others Work on Twitter – The @ Mention
Twitter: Use the "@" Mention to Your Advantage. Social sharing buttons are now commonplace on the online sites for publishers like The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, LinkedIn, or Bloomberg BusinesssWeek. Take advantage of these tools to share and promote the work of influential authors, journalists, and media pundits.
Let Them Know You Read and Appreciate Their Work. When you promote someone's work, include her Twitter handle in the tweet. This way, the author sees it in the "mentions" of her Twitter feed. This will increase the likelihood of a earning a public response (which validates your reputation and credibility with the rest of the Twitterverse).
She might even follow you back …
Twitter Conversation with Fast Company's Lydia Dishman
Gift #4. Promote Others Skills with LinkedIn Endorsements
Endorse and Validate Others by Talking Up Their Skills. LinkedIn's Skills & Endorsements feature can help you build and promote the personal brand of any of your 1st degree connections. Go to the Skills & Endorsements of that person's LinkedIn profile and click on the skills you'd like to endorse on her behalf:
LinkedIn Endorsement Example: Select a "+" Sign
The Best Part of this Gift: Receiving the LinkedIn Notification. Your connections will learn of your endorsement. LinkedIn provides the notification whenever you log-in to the site or the email address linked to the LinkedIn account.
Surprise Someone. Receiving a LinkedIn Endorsement from someone you respect and trust is a great feeling. Make someone feel good. Endorse her on LinkedIn. You'll make her day.
Reinvention After Age 50 Is Bigger Than Ourselves
Support Others and Third Party Validation Takes Care of Itself. Remember "giving before receiving" unifies The Internet:
The Internet is About Karma. Provide others with tangible value and gifts without expecting anything in return. "No-strings-attached" generosity is how you build long haul credibility in a connected economy.
The next post in this series on reinventing yourself after age 50 is scheduled for a February 9, 2014 publication. I'll describe four (4) more gifts you can give others to continue powering your reinvention.
If you enjoyed this post, here are links to other posts in the series:
If You Enjoyed This Post, Please Share It and Subscribe to My Blog
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Please share my work with your friends. Many Thanks!
Lesson 3A of 6: Reinventing You After Age 50 Case Study — Michael Ovitz and Developing Validators
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Career Reinvention After 50 Is Possible
IMPORTANT NOTE: This case study series is a self-initiated interpretation and analysis by me, the blog author. I want to make it clear that neither Dorie Clark nor Michael Ovitz were consulted or personally endorsed this case study and how I've applied the analysis to the valuable teachings in Reinventing You.
Are You Too Old to Professionally Reinvent Yourself After Age 50?
No! You still have time. The real question you should is: How Much Are You Going to Focus, Your Unique Assets, Time, and Energy into Your Post-50 Career Reinvention?
If these thoughts run through your mind or resemble one (or more) of the following, I encourage you to keep reading:
- "I just got layed off and am looking for a job (or I'm worried about getting layed off) …" or
- "I love to learn, try new things, and build different skills …" or
- "What do you mean by unique assets? What the hell are you talkin' about? I don't think I have any …"
Because YOU CAN Successfully Reinvent Yourself After Age 50
Reinventing You by Dorie Clark
This post is third in a series of six (6) about successful career reinvention after age 50.
In this post (and the other five), I talk about linkages I see from Michael Ovitz's career reinvention after age 50 to six (6) of Dorie Clark's Reinventing You principles from Chapter 9: Reintroduce Yourself and Chapter 10: Prove Your Worth.
The bullet point highlighted in blue is the Reinventing You principle analyzed in this post:
- Develop Validators
- Leverage Symbolic Actions
- Go Where The Action Is
- Building Your Portfolio
Note: The following analysis references examples from the October 2013 Fortune Magazine article: Ovitz Does Silicon Valley by David A. Kaplan to describe Michael Ovitz's latest career reinvention in the context of Reinventing You's valuable teachings.
Lesson 3A: Develop Validators
Who Are Your Validators?
Dorie Clark emphasizes the importance of "having other people talk us up." Here are key quotes from Reinventing You's Chapter 9: Reintroduce Yourself — Develop Validators:
Another important way we can convey our new identities is through external validators, that is, other people talking us up. As a powerhouse group of researchers led by both Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Cialdini discovered, the secret is to have someone else bragging for you.
(Jeffrey Pfeffer) "People don't like people who self-promote. But ironically, even if you self-promote through the mouths of other people, somehow that stigma doesn't get associated with you. It's much better to have someone else toot your horn."
Who Are Your Defenders?
Powerful and Influential Third-Party Validators Address Key Objectives for Michael Ovitz: (1) Promoting Him as a Trusted Silicon Valley Advisor and (2) Defending Him Against Critics. Since 1999, Mr. Ovitz developed and nurtured business relationships with Sillcon Valley's movers and shakers. These people provide and support him with significant third-party validation:
- Marc Andreessen: Co-Founder Andreessen Horowitz Venture Capital
- Peter Thiel: Former PayPal co-founder and Chairman, Palantir Technologies
- Peter Szulczewski: CEO of Wish
- Joe Lonsdale: Partner, Formation 8 Venture Capital
- Boris Sofman: Co-Founder and CEO, Anki
These direct quotes from the aforementioned October 2013 Kaplan-Fortune article highlight how Mr. Ovitz's third-party validators defend and talk him up:
1. Marc Andreesen on Mr. Ovitz role as a trusted advisor to Andreesen Horowitz (Andreesen's venture capital firm):
There are similar tales of Ovitzian assistance around the Valley as he rises again, this time far removed from the lights of show business. At Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm, Ovitz is an in-house mentor on how to build a full-service operation in the mold of Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent monolith he built and ran from 1975 to 1995.
"Michael is the classic kind of entrepreneur that we like up here — he's highly aggressive, he's highly disruptive," says Marc Andreessen, with whom Ovitz has cultivated a relationship since 1999. "Michael's a very close friend of the firm. He's a great friend to have." He's also an investor in the firm, though AH won't say for how much.
2. Peter Thiel on the C-Level, cross-industry breadth and depth of Mr. Ovitz's business connections:
"Michael can get us in to see any CEO in the U.S.," Thiel says. "The Valley has this excessive insularity. But he has cross-sector relationships in New York, L.A., and other places." Thiel says Ovitz has a preternatural ability to 'learn things quickly and then communicate them to the outside world."
Since the dotcom implosion of the late 1990s, he (Thiel) says, too many new companies in the Valley have 'retrenched,' de-emphasizing relationships with other businesses and institutions. Consulting Ovitz, whose network Thiel calls 'second to none,' has been a way to overcome that inclination.
3. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreesen, Peter Szulczewski, Joe Lonsdale, and Boris Sofman discuss Mr. Ovitz's critics and detractors:
Says Thiel (Peter): "I've learned to discount bad things said about people by rivals, and I'm not aware of a single bad thing about Ovitz that wasn't said by a rival."
Although Andreessen and others in Ovitz's new circle acknowledge the skepticism, they have different takes on it. Andreessen is the most dismissive of Ovitz doubters and ascribes Ovitz's repute more to the peculiarities of Hollywood than to any of his own faults. "We're used to guys like that here — I mean, Steve Jobs, for God's sake! Or my career, right?" Andreessen says. "That's the cultural difference between Silicon Valley and L.A." Had Intel's Andy Grove or Netscape's Jim Clark made his mark in Hollywood, according to Andreessen, he'd have the same kind of bad-boy name as Ovitz.
Peter Szulczewski of Wish says, "I haven't seen the type of things that people warned me about."
Formation 8's Joe Lonsdale agrees. "People are naturally more cautious because of his history," he says. "But he's (Ovitz) demonstrated awesome value in so many tangible ways to different people that they overlook it. And it's hard to map out what's true and what isn't." Ovitz is a limited partner in Formation 8, with a "small" investment of "under $5 million," as the firm describes it.
"There's a disconnect between a lot of the things written about him and kind of the person we've gotten to know," says Boris Sofman, the CEO and co-founder of Anki, who talks almost daily with Ovitz. Sofman says Ovitz has alluded to his own past by counseling Sofman on what happens when you're successful. "When you lead in your industry," Ovitz told him, "it's easy to start getting vilified, and the tide can turn on you quickly and unexpectedly."
Sofman says Ovitz has no stake in Anki, not even advisory fees. That may merely mean Ovitz hasn't asked yet. Or, as Sofman suggests, it could be that Ovitz really is in it for more than the money. "One of the things he shared with me is he truly loves working with young people," says Sofman, who just turned 30.
Closing Thoughts
Your Turn. Okay, you may still be thinking:
- "I don't have high-profile, high-powered connections like Michael Ovitz …"
- "Even if I did, how could or why would any of my connections 'talk me up' …"
- "If I were to ask, wouldn't my connections be offended. It's sleazy to ask for third-party validations …"
Your Third Party Validators Are In The Palm of Your Hand
YOU HOLD Multiple Assets and Connections In The Palm of Your Hand. They're in your laptop hard drive. They're accessible via the keyboards on your laptop, smartphone, or tablet.
YOU CAN mobilize these connections on your behalf with a few keystrokes or finger swipes.
YOU HAVE Michael Ovitz-Like Third-Party Validators. It's all relative. You already know and are connected to influential third-party validators through these online assets and communities:
- Your Personal Blog
- Blog Comments on Other Blogs
- Klout
Build Your Relationships with Your Validators by Blogging, Commenting, Connecting, Tweeting, and +K'ing. I connect with my third party validators on a weekly basis via these online assets and communities. Several of these kind and generous people are highly influential and powerful in their respective professions. These wonderful people generously support me as career mentors and allies in my personal branding and online reputation work.
Focusing on building these types of assets and participating in these communities enables you to do two important things:
1. Connect with like-minded people who share your values
2. Build what Dorie Clark refers to as an intellectual property (IP) portfolio
Let me be candid:
- I'm not a rocket scientist (just ask my wife and my 9-year old daughter).
- I'm not a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Amazon.com best-selling book author.
- I'm not professional speaker who makes $45,000 per speaking gig (although that would be totally money – literally)
I'm just a regular dude who enjoys:
If I Can Do It, You Can Too. I'll describe my own experiences on developing and cultivating relationships with my third-party validators in the next post in this series on Reinventing You After Age 50.
Lesson 3B: Developing Validators with Your Personal Branding Online Assets is scheduled for a February 2, 2014 publication.
If you enjoyed this post, here are links to the series' first two posts:
If You Enjoyed This Post, Please Share It and Subscribe to My Blog
Ideas that spread win. You can unsubscribe any time you like.
Please share my work with your friends. Many Thanks!
Photo Credit via flickr by World of Good
Photo Credit via flickr by xfile001
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Lesson 2 of 6: Reinventing You After Age 50 Case Study — Michael Ovitz and Shifting Your Behavior
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Reinvention After Age 50 is Possible
IMPORTANT NOTE: This case study series is a self-initiated interpretation and analysis by me, the blog author. I want to make it clear that neither Dorie Clark nor Michael Ovitz were consulted or personally endorsed this case study and how I’ve applied the analysis to the valuable teachings in Reinventing You.
You’re Not Too Old to Reinvent Yourself After Age 50
This post is second in a series of six (6) about successful career reinvention after age 50.
In this post (and the other five), I talk about linkages I see from Michael Ovitz’s career reinvention after age 50 to six (6) of Dorie Clark’s Reinventing You principles from Chapter 9: Reintroduce Yourself and Chapter 10: Prove Your Worth.
The bullet point highlighted in blue is the Reinventing You principle analyzed in this post:
- Shift Your Behavior
- Develop Validators
- Leverage Symbolic Actions
- Go Where The Action Is
- Building Your Portfolio
Note: The following analysis references examples from the October 2013 Fortune Magazine article: Ovitz Does Silicon Valley by David A. Kaplan to describe Michael Ovitz’s career reinvention in the context of Reinventing You’s valuable teachings.
Lesson 2: Shift Your Behavior
Change or Chance?
Changing Behaviors Can Augment Our Career Reinvention Process. For example, some people may mean need to become more proactive in making business connections by reaching out and inviting them to lunch or an early morning cup of coffee. For others, it may mean putting together a campaign to submit and pitch articles to industry publications so to build a thought leadership reputation in a new industry community.
The behavioral change will be different for everyone, but following through is important. Here’s a direct quote from Reinventing You:
Small tangible signals are only part of the battle, however. The biggest challenge is changing your behavior to reflect your new goals and reality.
From Hollywood Dealmaker and Power Broker to Trusted Advisor and Business Coach. Mr. Ovitz now leverages his wealth of Hollywood client advisory experiences to counsel growing Silicon Valley startups and their young executives. He’s not directly involved in “making the deals” for the entrepreneurs he now advises. But, he coaches, prepares, and reassures these entrepreneurs so they can successfully execute deals, negotiations, or other key (and sometimes unfamiliar) business activities required for company growth.
Here are examples from the Kaplan-Fortune article:
Managing Growth. At Anki, a consumer-robotics startup, the CEO says Ovitz has advised him during some late nights about ‘psychological transitions’ as his company grows.
Pitching Wall Street. At Formation 8, a flush new VC fund focused on Asia, Ovitz has explained to the three investment partners how to hone their image and brand for Wall Street types. “Michael knows that world too,” says Joe Lonsdale, one of the young Formation 8 partners. “He can show us how to ask them for a favor, but how not to push to hard.”
Telling Your Company’s Unique Story and Providing Reassurance. Ovitz serves as a guru to other prominent people in the tech world, including Tony Bates, the president of Skype, and Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, the home-sharing network. Ovitz coaches them on culture and storytelling. He picks them up when they have bouts of doubt.
Closing Thoughts
More Than a Decade Before Reinventing You’s Publication, Mr. Ovitz Successfully Applied the Book’s Valuable Principles. His focus, street smart savvy, and resilience are why Michael Ovitz successfully continues “working his magic” after age 50. That’s why personal branding or personal reputation management is especially important for 50+ year-old professionals.
Shun The Naysayers and Critics. Mr. Ovitz did. Tenacity and mental toughness are critical.
Professional Reinvention After 50 is More Than Possible. Michael Ovitz proves it can be done (and he’s approaching 70). And, Dorie Clark’s Reinventing You shows you how to do it.
Our Turn: What Behaviors Do We Need to Shift? Changing and executing these behaviors may make us uncomfortable. These may include trying new things that may not work. But, taking intelligent risks is an important part of career development (and reinvention).
- Why not, submit some of your best blog posts to certain publications to become a contributing writer / editor?
- Why not, directly connect on email, Twitter, LinkedIn, (or another social network) to a renowned business author or respected business leader (especially if you can provide her/him something of value)?
- Why not, make that phone call or send that email to a potential, new business connection inviting them to breakfast, coffee, or lunch? Maybe, you have something that can help advance that person’s career (i.e., a LinkedIn connection, a blog post supporting that person’s book, thousands of engaged Twitter followers, etc.).
If you proactively built your personal brand or online reputation, you hold differentiating personal assets. Maximize those “soft assets” and don’t underestimate their power.
If It Makes Us Nervous, We’re on the Right Track. The worst that can happen is any of the above (or all of the above) say no. But, all it takes is one “yes” …
… and that “one” may lead to something life-changing and magical.
If you enjoyed this post, here’s the link to the first post in the series. Please stay tuned for the next post in this series on Reinventing You After Age 50–Lesson 3: Develop Validators is scheduled for a January 24, 2014 publication.
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Lesson 1 of 6: Reinventing You After Age 50 Case Study – Michael Ovitz Proves Status Can Be Taken With You
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Career Reinvention After Age 50 Is Possible
IMPORTANT NOTE: This case study series is a self-initiated interpretation and analysis by me, the blog author. Dorie Clark and Michael Ovitz were neither consulted nor involved in how I developed the following analysis.
Reinventing You by Dorie Clark
Do YOU Think You’re Too Old To Reinvent Yourself After Age 50?
Author and frequent Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor, Dorie Clark would say you’re wrong. And, she’s right on the money.
I agree we’re never too old to continuously shape our professional reputations (and portfolios).
Dorie Clark’s book, Reinventing You is one of my favorite MUST-READ business books of 2013. Reinventing You is a GREAT investment for your professional career. Dorie’s book is a personal and professional development GIFT.
Reinventing You After Age 50 Case Study: Michael Ovitz
Instead of a traditional book review, I’m applying Dorie’s thoughtful teachings to a successful real-world, high-profile career reinvention after age 50: Michael Ovitz, Owner of Broad Beach Ventures LLC.
Before There was Ari Gold and Klout, There was Michael Ovitz. Mr. Ovitz personified and defined Hollywood business clout and influence. For younger Social Media ReInvention Community Members, Michael Ovitz as the co-founder and leader of Creative Arts Agency (CAA) became Hollywood’s most powerful talent agent. Mr. Ovitz was THE Hollywood powerbroker — ask David Letterman.
CAA’s stellar client list and and Ovitz’s unique skills and strategic vision in “packaging” actors, directors, screenwriters, and other CAA talent as “solution offerings” (similar to how management consulting firms position their service capabilities) differentiated CAA and propelled his Hollywood influence.
Today, Mr. Ovitz No Longer Plays Hollywood Power Broker. From 1995 through 2002, he publicly experienced high-profile, professional setbacks. To say his detractors and former competitors delighted in these failures is an understatement.
I Admire and Respect Mr. Ovitz’s Resilience in Reinventing Himself. For the past 11 years, he’s shifted and focused his unique talents, assets, and energy to the technology world. According to David A. Kaplan’s October 2013 Fortune Magazine article, Ovitz Does Silicon Valley, Mr. Ovitz methodically reinvented himself as a top advisor to Silicon Valley technology companies.
Still Think You’re Too Old to Reinvent Yourself After Age 50?
This post is first in a series of six (6) about successful career reinvention after age 50.
The aforementioned Kaplan-Fortune article provides examples of Michael Ovitz’s latest career. In this post (and the next five), I will talk about linkages I see from Mr. Ovitz’s reinvention after age 50 to six (6) of Dorie Clark’s Reinventing You principles from Chapter 9: Reintroduce Yourself and Chapter 10: Prove Your Worth.
The bullet point highlighted in blue is the Reinventing You principle analyzed in this post:
- Status — You Can Take It With You
- Shift Your Behavior
- Develop Validators
- Leverage Symbolic Actions
- Go Where The Action Is
- Building Your Portfolio
Lesson 1: Status — You Can Take It With You
The Halo Effect
Maximize the Halo Effect of Your Unique Competive Advantage. In Reinventing You’s Chapter 9, Reintroduce Yourself, Dorie writes about the “halo effect” (as described by Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of Power: Why Some People Have It–And Others Don’t):
“It’s a psychological phenomenon known as the ‘halo effect.” “If I think you’re good in one domain, I think you’re going to be good in other domains, as well. There’s the presumption that talented people have this set of generalized abilities.”
That ‘durability of reputation’–across both time and situations–makes it essential for you to be strategic about how you’re perceived from day one. “You need to do something to build a very good reputation, a personal brand, and that will help you not only in your current place but in other places, as well.”
The secret, then is to leverage both your past experiences and the confidence that you’ve derived from your accomplishments. After all, other people take their cues from you, so when you’re introducing your new brand, assume that others will welcome your contribution.
Key to the C-Suite
Michael Ovitz’s Unique, “Halo Effect” Competitive Advantage: CEO and Executive Chairman Level Access Across Multiple Industries. The Kaplan-Fortune Article describes two examples of how Mr. Ovitz leverages his lifelong business connections and maximizes his former Hollywood mogul / dealmaker / powerbroker status to open C-Suite doors previously closed to young, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
- Peter Szulczewski, CEO of Wish.com: The October 2013 Fortune article describes how Mr. Ovitz assisted Szulczewski when he ran into problems with initially securing the company’s domain name.
The company had an uninspired name, ContextLogic, and its beta website was the forgetable wishwall.me. Wish.com wasn’t available.
Ovitz saw immediately that the domain name was critical. “I can help with that!” he (Ovitz) told Szulczewski, and, with his big swinging Rolodex, within weeks tracked down the owner of wish.com. It was a French subsidiary of Barry Diller’s IAC. Szulczewski handled the actual negotiation — he won’t disclose the price — but Ovitz war-gamed tactics beforehand.
- Peter Thiel, Venture Capitalist, PayPal co-founder, and Chairman of Palantir Techologies on the breadth and power of the the Michael Ovitz business network (also from the Kaplan-Fortune article):
“Michael can get us in to see any CEO in the U.S.,” Thiel says. “The Valley has this excessive insularity. But he has cross-sector relationships in New York, L.A., and other places.” Thiel says Ovitz has a preternatural ability to ‘learn things quickly and then communicate them to the outside world.”
Since the dotcom implosion of the late 1990s, he (Thiel) says, too many new companies in the Valley have ‘retrenched,’ de-emphasizing relationships with other businesses and institutions. Consulting Ovitz, whose network Thiel calls ‘second to none,’ has been a way to overcome that inclination.
Closing Thoughts
More Than a Decade Before Reinventing You’s Publication, Mr. Ovitz Successfully Applied the Book’s Valuable Principles. His focus, street smart savvy, and resilience are why Michael Ovitz successfully continues “working his magic” after age 50.
During this reinvention period and today, Mr. Ovitz shuns his critics and naysayers. Tenacity and mental toughness are critical to a successful career reinvention (at any age).
Professional Reinvention After 50 is ABSOLUTELY Possible. Michael Ovitz proves it. Dorie Clark’s Reinventing You shows us how to do it.
Our Turn. Here’s a link to the landing page for Dorie’s free, Professional Reinvention Self Assessment. Let’s take inventory of ourselves and ask:
- What are our unique competitive advantages?
- What makes us different from others in our current field (and the new domain we want to break into)?
- How can we help others, what doors can we open, and who are the unique connections in our business networks so we can maximize our individual halo effects?
Those unique competitive advantages can help us “work our magic.”
Just like Michael Ovitz …
Please stay tuned for the next post in this series on Reinventing You After Age 50. Lesson 2: Shift Your Behavior is scheduled for a Friday, January 17, 2014 publication.
If You Enjoyed This Post, Please Share It and Subscribe to My Blog
Ideas that spread win. You can unsubscribe any time you like.
Please share my work with your friends. Many Thanks!