Escape from Cubicle Nation

Ready to lead your tribe? Join me, Seth Godin, Daniel Pink and Keith Ferrazzi on Monday

Some books just get under your skin.

That is how I feel about Seth Godin's latest book, Tribes.

I have been aware of the book for awhile, when I joined Seth's experimental online community named Triiibes a few months ago.

I had to laugh when I saw the name for the first time, since I was working on a chapter of my book called Recruit Your Tribe.  I assured Seth that I chose that name before knowing about his new book.  Tribe is a big word around my house since I am married to a Navajo man, and through his company we work with other Native American tribes all over the state of Arizona.

The concept of the book is quite straightforward, quoting Seth: 

“It’s simple:  there are tribes everywhere now, inside and outside of organizations, in public and in private, in nonprofits, in classrooms, across the planet.  Every one of these tribes is yearning for leadership and connection.  This is an opportunity for you –an opportunity to find and assemble a tribe and lead it.  The question isn’t, Is it possible for me to do that? Now the question is, “Will I choose to do it?”

I have been haunted by this question on every one of my coaching calls since I read the book.  A lot of times, clients wonder if they have what it takes to implement a business idea. To make money.  To be able to quit their job and take care of themselves without a paycheck.

But shifting the question to "are you ready to lead your tribe?" brings things to a whole new level.  It changes the game.  The results have already been so powerful they give me the chills.

Finding You

I vividly remember when I decided to find my own tribe, you all.  I knew that I didn't want to consult in large companies anymore.  The environments were getting more and more toxic.  I knew that most people were interested in getting out, not learning how to operate more effectively as employees.

I felt that there were people I could help.  But I didn't have any idea how to reach them.  This was before I knew about blogs (really -- before starting my blog three years ago, I didn't know what a blog was and had never read one).

What was I to do, sneak into the cafeterias of former clients and slip their employees fliers?

Thankfully, I started to blog.  And it was like being given a golden key that opened the back door to a vast community of people desperate to know that they weren't crazy for hating their cushy jobs. I found my people and have been laughing and learning with you ever since.  And as I thought about it, I guess I have been leading too, in my own way. 

For all these reasons, I am really excited to talk to Seth live on Monday about his new book.  And joining us will be Dan Pink, bestselling author of A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone.

Elizabeth Marshall, founder of AuthorTeleseminars.com (and recent co-author herself of The Contrarian Effect with Michael Port) will lead the discussion.

To sign up, go here.

I really hope you can join us. I am very excited about the book and the call.  If you can't attend live, sign up anyway and you can listen to the recording at your convenience.

Seeing as this panel will happen three days before I turn in the final copy of my own book (October 30, really, this is it!), I am hoping that sitting on a call with three best-selling authors will zap me with some magic book selling mojo-filled fairy dust. A new tribe, perhaps? :)

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Here is a link to download the recording or listen online if you missed the call!

 

 

Phoenix-only request: want a free money makeover from The Arizona Republic?

This just in from a friend at our local paper, the Arizona Republic:

RECEIVE A MONEY MAKEOVER FROM THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

The Arizona Republic has enlisted the help of financial coaches to examine a family's specific financial problem or goal and come up with recommendations.  Readers must be willing to share their story and suggested solutions with the public in the newspaper. Please submit your issue in 400 words or less. Preference will be given to specific over general issues or goals. Send by email to [email protected]. Please include your name and a daytime phone number.

Blog Action Day Today - It doesn't have to be about money

I did not want the importance of Blog Action Day to slip by even though I am up to my eyeballs in final edits on the book.

For those of you who haven't heard:

On October 15th bloggers everywhere will publish posts that discuss poverty in some way in support of Blog Action Day. By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause.

It isn't about the money

I feel wildly, completely and passionately committed to helping youth fight poverty.

From the age of 20-30, I was a martial arts maniac, training and teaching the Afro-Brazilian style of Capoeira.  I co-founded a program called the Community Action Project (CAP), where we offered free classes to local youth that lived in poverty, rough neighborhoods, and with difficult home lives.  We started with just one youngster, Jimmy Jarquin, a shy, chubby 14-year old immigrant from Nicaragua who fled the war with his Mom and settled in the Mission district of San Francisco.

Jimmy brought his cousin, then another kid joined.  Soon, a small group of youth were training hard. The program grew by word of mouth.  The kids were passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic.  We grew to 250 students in San Francisco, Daly City, Oakland and Hayward.

I taught the martial art classes along with co-founder Master Preguica, but also spent a lot of time in conversation with the kids.  We talked about family struggles.  Drugs.  Homework.  Girls.  College. The regular kinds of challenges faced by teenagers in an urban setting.  I wiped tears.  Gave hugs.  Proofed papers.  Gave unwanted dating advice, just as any good Mom or Auntie would do.

And the kids responded.  Compared to an average 50% high school graduation rate for their neighborhoods, we had a 98% rate.  Many went to college.  Most steered clear of drugs, gangs and alcohol, huge magnets in their environments.  Many opened capoeira schools themselves, teaching kids in their local communities.

Without the support of programs like ours, there is no question in my mind that many of the kids would have been dead or in jail.  Many were already in gangs when they came to us, and got out.  They had brothers, fathers, mothers and sisters dealing drugs and in jail.  There wasn't a lot of hope.

The secret ingredient was not money but love.  Good, old fashioned caring and concern.  These kids that looked tough and menacing on the outside were desperate for a bit of parental love.  It was like magic.

So instead of worrying about donating money when times are tough, why don't you do this instead:

• Find the local Boys and Girls Club in your area and volunteer.  I don't care what you do, your presence, positive attitude and encouragement will help some young people.
• Connect with a young person in your own family.  You don't necessarily have to work with an organization to make a difference.  You could make a big impact on a niece, nephew or grandchild that wants the support and love from a trusted family member.
• When you see a young person on the street, no matter how different they may look from you, smile at them.  They need to feel that adults are encouraging. Don't be afraid of them -- they are all our children!
• If you have the time, teach a class.  My dear friend Carlos Aceituno was a shining example of a great teacher and father/uncle figure. It doesn't matter what your area of expertise is -- accounting, computer programming, music, dance, your skills will be appreciated.
• Support your local youth arts and community programs!  Fight to preserve programs that serve youth.  Nothing makes me more angry than talking about young people in urban America as a scourge, a "problem" that has to be dealt with.  Punishing and locking up youngsters will not help.  The love and support of positive adults will not only keep them out of trouble, it will totally alter the course of their lives.  If I had to bet on the outcome of juvenile hall (aka prison training ground) vs. structured, active youth programs to change lives, I will bet on the programs EVERY time.

Jimmy turned into a world-class athlete, and now teaches youth in his own community.  That is him in the center of the photo in the top row, flexing his muscles and showing off his hard-earned 6-pack abs. I am so proud of him I could burst.

A few posts I have written in the past referencing my precious kids from CAP:

Graffiti is a transferable skill and other business wisdom I learned while volunteering
Get out of your mental ghetto
Speaking marketing nonsense?  Get a gang member coach

Youth is my passion, but you can still blog about whatever cause gets your heart racing. Check out the Blog Action Day Get Involved page.

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Emily (my editor) if you are reading this, sorry I stopped writing the book for 20 minutes!  I couldn't help myself. :)

Stop searching for the perfect job and start finding your life's work

Many of us have talked at length about the pursuit of a meaningful, rewarding career. We have lived through tyrannical bosses, mergers and acquisitions, exhausting work and travel schedules and various states of financial panic. We saw the job market explode and shrivel before we knew what to do about it, and comforted far too many friends and former colleagues who spent huge stretches of time out of work. Some of us were those people and wondered if we were destined to become the modern equivalent of dust-bowl farmers.

 

Just about every single client I have ever worked with has started their career quest by wondering what job would be of interest. The problem is, when you focus first on the perfect job, you automatically narrow your opportunities to jobs you are familiar with.

 

Jobs are temporary things, often enticing on paper until you realize that as soon as you get comfortable in your position, it will change, your boss will change, your team will change or your organization will change. That is just the nature of business. Therefore if you go into a job excited by the position or the person you will be working for and not the work itself, you often set yourself up to be disappointed.

 

Your life's work on the other hand, are activities that you have natural talent for, which energize you and stimulate you and do not change no matter what "job" you happen to be in. I found this for myself when I began to think about my own life's work. I reflected back on all the things I have done in my career and I came to the realization that the core of my life's work is about transformation:

• As a young community development college student, I was passionate about the capability of communities to transform themselves from repressed and poor into empowered and economically viable with grassroots leadership.
• As a martial art teacher, I continually was awed by students' complete physical transformations from being disconnected from their bodies to developing lean, mean fighting machine physiques and strong, empowered minds.
  
• As an organizational consultant, I love watching leaders, teams and organizations transform from bitter, blocked, political and unfocused operations to smoothly running places where people want to work.
  
• As a personal coach, I am amazed to watch individuals completely transform their thinking about what their life could be.
  
• As an addict of home improvement shows such as Trading Spaces and Clean Sweep, I get more excited than I should about watching a shabby 1970's family room turn into a place of peace and beauty, all on $1,000 budget.
  

By realizing that I thrive on transformation, I can be in many different and difficult "job" situations (even while self-employed) and still feel excited and motivated to be learning something that contributes to my life's work.

 

How do you begin to understand what your life's work is?

1. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle (you may end up needing a couple of sheets of paper).
   
   
2. In the left-hand column, list the jobs you have held over your working life. In the right-hand column, take one job at a time and answer the question:
   
   When I really enjoyed this job, what was I doing?
   
   
3. List all these activities in the right-hand column. When you have finished with your first job, go through each job on the list and continue to add activities on the right-hand column.
   
   
4. Next, in the left-hand column, list all the volunteer activities or hobbies that you have been involved with over the years. In the right-hand column, answer the same question:
   
   When I am really enjoying this volunteer work or hobby, what am I doing?
   
   
5. Once you have completed your list, look at all the items in the right-hand column and try to see patterns. You can group your thoughts in categories if it is more helpful.
   

How can focusing on your life's work help to find more meaningful jobs or a new business?

 

When we look for career direction with a "job" focus, it is very easy to see things in a linear fashion. How could you possibly go from a trainer to a restaurant owner?

 

When you look at things in terms of your life's work, the transition can be very clear: For example, as a trainer, what kind of work did I enjoy?

• Working with all kinds of groups of people to figure out what they were interested in
  
• Creating comfortable, interesting environments
  
• Creating colorful, creative displays and presentations that contributed to a comfortable environment
  
• Carefully planning and defining learning objectives and creating a clear path to get there
  
• Ordering interesting food for my classes
  
• Getting teams motivated and aligned around a single goal
  
• Individual interactions and conversations
  
• Trouble-shooting and solving crises in the moment
  
• Developing a proposal and delivering on-time and on-budget
  

All of this experience can be very helpful in opening a restaurant. Clearly there are some skills or experience that you don't have, but often it will be less daunting than if you view it as a "total career change." When you look at your life's work, many possibilities begin to appear. By looking at your total life work experience, you will feel confident and prepared to make significant career changes.

 

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(Photo credit, my son Jeffery. Gratuitous picture, vaguely linked to topic -- you can have your grapes and eat them too! It is my baby Angela's first birthday today, so I had to post her sweet face.  Happy Birthday Sweet Pea, thanks for the joy you bring to me every day!)