Advice

Promoting Professional Geekery #49 – Be A Role Model

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(For more Promoting Professional Geekery, see this Roundup of past columns.)

It’s time to share your progeeky successes with people.  You need to tell people how you made it

Why would you do this, beyond sharing your own awesomeness?  That’s simple:

  1. You’ll be a role model, which I’ve noted is very important.  When people see someone and know they’re successful, they find it easier to emulate them.
  2. You’ll be inspirational.  People need to see being a professional geek can work.
  3. You’ll be educational.  If you can give detailed descriptions of what you did right and how you did it, people can learn.
  4. You’ll be a reminder that success is possible.  Believe me, people need that.

What format? So what’s the best way to do it?  That kind of depends on what’s best for you.  Among these columns I’ve suggested the value of blogs, books, guides, etc.  The best thing I’ve found is to:

  1. Pick a format that makes it work.  What method works best to share your success stories?
  2. Pick a format that works for you.  After all some methods just aren’t for you.
  3. Pick a format that reaches people.  This is one reason I like blogs is they’re around for a long time if you pay your server bills.

How should I do it?  This is actually simple – make sure you share your success story in ways that people can actually follow in your footsteps and apply your lessons.  This means:

  1. List how you did it, what you did, what you did wrong, and what you did right.  Let them see your path so they can duplicate it.
  2. Always, always include cause-and-effect when possible so people see how (and what) results should follow.
  3. Include resources you used so people no what to use.
  4. Include “Takeaways” and “To dos” to inspire people to action.

What about my ego?  If you’re worried you look like an egomaniac, then make sure your work keeps the audience in mind first.  Ask how you help them, what you can do for them, how this can pay off for them. It puts them in he foreground, your ego in the background, and you can stop worrying.

I’m sure you’ve got plenty of successes to share.  Get to it!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Gaming, Opportunity, Convergence

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So last week it was announced that the Ouya is going to have OnLive on it.  Frankly I expected to see a lot more on that, but it didn’t seem to make much of an impression.  Just another case of technology converging.

Of course the way I see this potential alliance is different.  It means a service that streams games (that don’t run on Android) is going to be playable on an open Android device.  Or in short, your $99 Ouya is going to let you play stuff that you’d normally need a far more powerful machine for.  Sure you have to pay for the service, but we’re talking quite a benefit here.

Yet, I saw a lot less speculation on it, so let me speculate more – and extend this.

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What T-Shirts Teach Us About Personal Branding

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Ever know people who have a collection of T-shirts?  People who wear them constantly?  Chances are those shirts say a lot about their personalities.  If you’re a person fond of his/her t-shirts, you know they say a lot about you (or just realized they did now that I’ve got you thinking about it).

T-shirts are actually a great way to easily understand that important, elusive, yet over-discussed topic of personal branding.

Think about t-shirts.  The purchase says something about you.  The contents say something about you.  Where you wear it, when you wear it, all say something about you.

A t-shirt is a giant signal saying “this is me!”

Which in many ways is what personal branding is about – making a statement about yourself.  T-shirts are the same thing, just informal and at times with obscure LOL-cat derived humor.

So look at people you know who are t-shirt fanatics.  Look at yourself for that matter.

What do they communicate about themselves – and do they communicate it in a good way, a bad way, or a neutral way?

When do they communicate it, and what can it teach you about timing?

What other other things are “t-shirt like” in that they’re common things that tell people about who someone is?

Ask how you – and others – may react to various t-shirts you’ve seen.  How did you judge people?

These little moments of analysis teach you a lot about how t-shirts are, really, personal branding.

Now, how can you apply that knowledge to things beyond your latest teefury purchase?  Well, just ask what you learned, and then ask what it teaches you about making the right impression and communicating the right side of you . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach for professional and potentially professional geeks, fans, and otaku. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/