More Prima Donnas Needed

I remember getting raked over the coals in a past-work life about my attitude towards my job. I had just been transferred to a new department in which I had no experience and was expected to take on tasks that I had no training for. I refused to take on the responsibility of those tasks because I knew if something bad happened on my watch, the sh*t was REALLY going to hit the fan, so to speak.

Anyway, my boss was away when I refused this task and when he got back from his trip, he ranted and railed against my refusal to accept the new job position. Somewhere during this he said "we don't need prima-donnas like you around here". I was prepared for the overall berating of my attitude and I parted ways with the company that very day - much to my relief.

The thing is, we DO need more prima donnas - there should be at least one in every department. This is the person who stands up and says "NO - THIS CAN BE DONE BETTER AND I WON'T STAND BY WHILE THIS (project/department/company) GOES TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET".

Okay - maybe we can do without the ego and posturing traditionally associated with the "prima donna personality", but we all benefit from the people who are passionate enough about what they're doing who push us to do better - to go beyond the mediocre and really achieve something worth doing.

How do you communicate passion?

Superlatives, lots of exclamation marks, big promises in huge text, all-caps and the like might have worked at one time but today's prospective clients will see through that in a jiffy.

Your marketing message is just that - a message - a story you tell the people who don't know you yet. You're communicating your potential to help them. Does it matter how you do this? Of course.

More important though is the story you "tell" your clients through your actions. It's all fine and good to say you're the best, but if you can't back up your claims, you'll be found out and dumped in due course.

The better way to communicate passion is to have your clients do that for you. They'll only do it when you've delighted them. Make them WANT to tell others how great you really are and let their passion speak for you.

This is why I'm so keen on testimonials. We just launched a major website revision for Island 10 Fishing Lodge and an important part of the site were the video and written testimonials. All I did was ask clients to tell me about their experience at Island 10 and they said such nice things about the place the owner blushed when he saw the footage.

If you're looking for an edge in your marketing, look to your customers first. If you're delighting them, they'll be happy to evangelize about you. If they're not, perhaps you'll want to consider fixing what's broken.

What the heck is a passioneer?

Great question. Thanks for asking.

We're not pioneers - there are lots of people who've used the tools we use before.

We're not engineers - did you know some of those people have NO personalities?

We're not Mouseketeers - I hate the ear thing.

We're not Marketeers - that's Carrie's thing.

We're Passioneers - and in our definition, a Passioneer is: one who works with companies and organizations to infuse Passion and Joy into their work, bring out their best and communicate their Passion powerfully and effectively to the people who will care the most.

It's about reaching your target audience and sharing with them your enthusiasm about the compelling reasons you do what you do. By doing so, you will strengthen the bonds of your online community and move closer to attaining your online goals.

A translation for cynics: we're internet marketers who say we have a different approach than the other internet marketing companies in the marketplace.

I'm proud to be a passioneer. Are you the one in your business?

Speaking About Passion

I'm speaking - in just over 6 hours - to a group known as "The Linkers".

Yes, it's Carrie Matthew's "KNOW it ALL" Niagara Compliment Club breakfast meeting, and I'm the speaker-du-jour, so to speak.

I'm excited, because it's the first exposure of "Passion In A Digital Age" - my thought-provoking, humourous, insightful presentation about how companies can thrive instead of merely survive by injecting passion into everything they do.

I'm also going to be videotaping and watching myself to evaluate my presentation skills. I haven't done this in a while, so it'll probably be enlightening.

If you're very lucky, I may include the video of the presentation online...

Searching For Passion

Ooh - that sounds like a racy title, doesn't it?

Well, it's controversial - at least, as controversial as what I'm going to say.

I think there needs to be more passion in business.

I'm not talking about the "behind-closed-office-doors-nookie" variety either.

I'm talking about the drive that got people into business in the first place - the "I'm excited to wake up in the morning to go to the office and do great things" kind of enthusiasm that we may have once had ourselves.

This got lost along the way for most people, as they "grew up", or more correctly, "grew old".

Most people have lost track of their inner child - the part of them that sees the potential this world offers and wonders how something CAN be done instead of "knowing" why it can't be.

We get it beaten out of us, starting in school by well-meaning people whose role it is to shape us into productive members of society, only to have us learn that at the end of our education, that the options we once felt were infinite are largely limited to what we "think" we can accomplish, instead of what we once dared to dream about doing.

What we call "work" is another destructive force for passion in most places. Management is there to make sure we do our jobs and to stamp out deviance from "the way things are done". This also means stamping out imagination and progress in many organizations, and it's a slow death for the spirit to work in a job that does not fulfill your life's ambitions.

Of course, this is a choice. You can choose to fit the norm, or you can choose to be extraordinary. Become a purple cow (to borrow a Seth Godin phrase). Lead your own Tribe (to borrow another). Dance to the beat of your own drum and make a difference in your life and the life of others.

It is this that I refer to when I talk about passion. The desire to create excellence and joy for both yourself and for others - by creating products and services people will LOVE, instead of merely consume. To do things as nobody else does them - and make a difference to yourself and the world.

Today, I reject conformity and settling for what I have always gotten.

Today I affirm my passion for my business and my desire to bring it out in yours.

Hold on to your hats because the ride's just beginning . . .