I made this

The best questions from This Is Marketing by Seth Godin...

"Who's it for?" 

"What change do I seek to make?" 

"The question to just about every question about work is really the question, "Who can you help?" 

Marketing isn't advertising. Marketing is the act of making change happen. Effective marketing now relies on empathy and service.

The idea of "I made this" is a very different statement than, "What do you want?"

"Here, I made this" is an offering. It's easier to make products and services for the customers you seek to serve. Adopt a posture of service; set out to be of service.

This book can help you: spread your ideas, make the impact you seek, and improve your culture.

“When they go low, we go high.”

I’d been lucky to have parents, teachers, and mentors who’d fed me with a consistent, simple message: 

You matter.
As an adult, I wanted to pass those words to a new generation.

I picked up three copies of BECOMING by Michelle Obama so my mom, sister, and I could read it together.

My favorite part of the book was Becoming More.
Warning: It's hard to finish this book without shedding tears.

This is a fantastic book ... it's more than politics... it's about being a woman, being a better person, marriage, motherhood, and using your voice.

"For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it more as a forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to continuously reach toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end. I became a mother, but I still have a lot to learn from and give to my children. I became a wife, but I continue to adapt to and be humbled by what it means to truly love and make a life with another person. I have become, by certain measures, a person of power, and yet there are still moments when I feel insecure or unheard.  

It’s all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing up to be done."

I highly recommend this book as a holiday gift for everyone you know. 

a joy story

I was at a workshop on conflict resolution and the facilitator showed us this adorable video:





After watching, we discussed the difference between defending positions and recognizing needs. It has stayed with me ... and I think it can help mobilize people to see things differently.

For more tools in dealing with conflict resolution, check out this article from the University of Texas at Austin. I especially liked “What is the underlying reason or the ‘why’ behind what I want?” Refer to Focus on Interests (Needs), Not Positions (Wants) for more information. And Open Ended Questions...

Examples of open-ended questions:

• What’s your basic concern about …?
• What do you think about …?
• How could we fix …?
• What would happen if …?
• How else could you do …?
• What could you tell me about …?
• Then what?
• Could you help me understand …?
• What do you think you will lose if you …?
• What have you tried before?
• What do you want to do next?
• How can I be of help?

Blessed are the damn-givers

On this post-midterm Wednesday, I am reading HOPE And Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto by John Pavlovitz.

Do you know anyone who could use some HOPE today?
If you do, please get this book for them.

"I wrote this book to help compassionate, kind, generous people keep going." - John Pavlovitz

Parts from the Introduction that had me hooked:

We need to rediscover the optimism of our youth, to remember when the desire to change the world felt reasonable and not shamefully naive, when doing something heroic seemed possible and didn't merit ridicule or a rolling of the eyes. In times when people seem increasingly immune to others' pain, we need to unapologetically wield hearts still willing to bleed, and then affix them to our sleeves and step into the daylight looking for gaps in the world that we alone can fill.

And this heroic existence we're called to is about doing the small and simple things that most people lose sight of, the things that may not make the news or trend on social media, but that generate beautiful ripples nonetheless. It's about chipping away at the image of the life we think we're supposed to have and uncovering the life that we deserve to live, the kind the planet is made better by. It's about understanding that we have far more power at our disposal than we're aware of. There is a transcendent way of living that can begin to alter the planet in real time - right now - and it's fully accessible to each of us regardless of what we do, where we live, or how much influence we think we have. That's the amazing truth at work here: the world has always been transformed by fully ordinary people whose willingness to show up, to brave damage, and to risk failure yielded extraordinary results.

In 1871, while preaching a sermon opposing slavery in America, Unitarian minister Theodore Parker said, "The arc of the universe bends toward justice." His words were echoed almost a century later by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as solace for those looking around at the unbridled bigotry of the day and feeling like the decent people were losing. Embedded in this phrase is the promise that over time, in ways that we can't always perceive from where we're standing at a given moment, humanity does evolve toward goodness.

From the first chapter, the author draws on his love of comic books and superheroes. The ordinary superpowers that he promotes are compassion, sacrifice, courage, humor, humility, honesty, kindness, creativity, persistence, wonder, and gratitude. 

Every hero is pulled into significance differently. Batman rises from the ashes of his parents' murder to defend a crime-riddled Gotham. Wonder Woman feels compelled to come to the aid of outnumbered Allied soldiers facing the Third Reich, after being cared for by one of them. Black Panther fully claims his birthright as king after realizing his nation's former missteps. Spider-Man is transformed after recognizing the great responsibility accompanying his great power. Black Widow is moved to make amends  for her deadly assassin's past. They all become undeniably heroic, yet in ways and circumstances  that look nothing alike and with completely unique motivations. In the same way, you and I will each receive a one of a kind, time-sensitive invitation to step into a better version of ourselves: a personal tragedy, a national crisis, a cause that moves us, or a desire to use a gift for the good of others. 

Be sure to check out John's blog Stuff That Needs To Be Said. Especially his post today entitled To Exhausted and Young Voters. 

Keep doing the work that matters!
Don't you dare stop now :)