CommsNinja: Outtakes

Great words of wisdom from my friend, who took them from one of those feel-good filler stories about someone who lived to be 100+ years old. Sometimes there is no unicorn, just consistently being present.

Oftentimes I get asked about the secret to growing a significant social media following (though why they are asking me and not someone who HAS such a following is a blog for another day). Or the converse, people complain that they are overlooked for an opportunity.

Get up, dress up, show up.

You don’t have to be the fastest runner, the most profound blogger, the wittiest whiteboarder, you simply have to be the whatever-est one that shows up.

So much of social media success is predicated on consistency. Yes, intelligent conversation is a major plus, as well as decency in behavior, but showing up is well more than 3/4ths of the battle.

You don’t have to be the loudest. Showing up can mean listening, learning, and sharing that with your offline community. But show up. I am always impressed by the people who take a chance on taking this advice, and do it. I have case studies, you know who you are. People who took the chance of pushing past comfortable, trying something new, and sticking with it. Well done.

I’m preparing to run my third 5k (my second was technically a 5 mile, but I’m blocking that out). For my first, I ran on one hour of sleep. Yes one. That was not my choice, but a by-product of how my job works when I’m at a technical conference—I don’t really go off the clock for a week.

I am a terrible runner. I started the habit late in the game, I am better at short bursts than distance, I have a bum knee, etc.

All that aside, I showed up for the first 5k, and I ran and completed it. Sure, a guy passed me saying “you’re going to let yourself get passed by an old, fat guy?” I showed up for what I thought was the second 5k, found out 2k in that it was 5 m, ran 5k and walked the rest. Point being, to paraphrase another friend, I’m still faster than the guy sitting on the couch.