The Impact Equation

by Chris Brogan

  Ideas: Both of us run into many people who have developed a decent Reach via their efforts to form a platform but haven’t decided what they stand for or what that platform can do that would be useful and valuable to others. In some cases, it is a matter of someone not really spending enough time on their goals. In other cases, it was simply that the person couldn’t articulate their ideas clearly or make them stand out. It’s been said that everything has two births: first as an idea and then as the real and tangible output of that idea. But the idea and the output won’t matter if people don’t know about them or believe they matter.

  Platform: What we didn’t write enough about in Trust Agents was the concept of having a platform, this sense that it takes more than a steady stream of tweets or blog posts to build a voice that will have Impact. Maybe it’s because we were doing this kind of thing naturally or because we incorrectly presumed that “everyone” knew how to build up a platform. A platform is a way to extend your voice beyond the ears closest to you. It might be something mainstream, like appearing on a television show or having articles published in newspapers or magazines, or more often, it might be a creative use of one or more social-networking tools, used with intent and across many platforms.

  Human Element: This was (is!) perhaps the bread and butter of Trust Agents. The premise was that most people were using the Web in ways that were skipping the human element of business. Relationship-minded practices weren’t translating well. With social networks and social media, there was a new potential for fixing this. But since Trust Agents, we still see many people skip the relationship and community aspects of online business (and sometimes off-line as well). There is still much to say to help people communicate and do business with as much impact as possible.

  So the remaining sections of the book will focus on ideas, platform, and the human element. We’ll use the rest of this chapter to talk about goals, why they matter, learning how to set them, etc. But before we continue this, we’d like to clear up one final point.

  The impact you leave on your customers, potential customers, and ex-customers is the business inside your business. When the impact is both positive and big, your ideas can spread on their own. Even ex-customers may talk about you because you have done something different, if you do it right. So while not as important as, you know, keeping your business afloat, the impact of your business is significant.

  And inside the impact of your business, it has become our sincere belief that unless you are working on improving one or many of our sections—ideas, platform, or the human element—you are simply doing it wrong. Let’s explain.

  Refining your ideas is a key part of the equation. So is building a platform and working on the human aspect. At any time, if you are wondering what you should be doing with your work or how you should be improving it, our general answer is that only these three aspects of marketing matter in the world of media. They are everything and they will direct you toward what you should work on.

  Recently Julien met an incredibly smart guy, a professor at the John Molson School of Business named Gad Saad. The guy is straight-up brilliant. He invented evolutionary psychology as it relates to consumption. This means that he knows why you bought the Acura instead of the Honda with the same features, even though it cost twenty-five thousand dollars more.

  You’ve probably met someone like this: brilliant, witty, a nice guy, well respected in his field, etc. Yet Julien couldn’t help but ask himself: Why is this guy not world famous? You could dismiss it as luck, but we don’t think that’s the answer at all. What’s really going on is that Professor Saad has no platform.

  He has every other part of the equation down pat. He has smart ideas, invented a whole field, and differentiated himself with it. He knows how to speak in front of others, etc. But he simply doesn’t have a wide enough launchpad from which to transmit his own ideas, so he’s dependent on the platforms of others. This is a weakness. And when you know this, you realize that the primary thing Gad should be working on is his platform, because it will drastically impact his results.

  The same thing is true of people who have wide platforms and great ideas but are considered to be egotistical and selfish. They are not good with people, so despite their success at reaching tons of people, having great ideas to talk about, maybe even selling tons of books, seminars, etc., the reality is that no one wants to work with them. These people are simply not nice, so organizations work with them only reluctantly. Their human element is missing because they don’t care, so they flounder when they should thrive.

  Finally, there are some who have huge platforms and are great people. They know how to connect very widely, remember everyone’s name, and may have hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers or more. Their work naturally gets sent out more than others, and they get tons of attention. Yet a lack of really interesting ideas prevents them from reaching the next level.

  Let’s say you’re feeling overwhelmed. There are too many things to do. The economy has left you with fewer people to share the burden and you’re fighting over smaller scraps. Customers aren’t as easy to satisfy as they used to be. They most definitely aren’t as loyal. And bills at home are going up and up. You’re not seeing any real end to the way things seem to be, and you’re not nearly as clear on what has to happen next to sustain yourself. So your goals might be:

  1. Embrace the chaos. Understanding that nothing will ever revert to the way it was before, start thinking that way. Build everything you do on acceptance that things will permanently be changing. This goal might make you more comfortable with accepting that “job security” is a myth. You might realize that you need more money in the bank for more pivots.

  2. Romance thirty. This is a business goal. You want to treat your thirty best customers (or whatever number you think you can manage) very well. You want to pay very close attention to their needs. You want to give them concierge-class service every day. You want to know much more about them than about any other buyers who come and go in your business.

  3. Move. Fitness and health might matter to you. Before you sign on to the idea of spending even more time in front of your computer, think about how you are going to blend in your fitness goals. What will you do to ensure that your day has a cadence and rhythm that include movement? Again, we’re just making these stories up, but maybe they resonate with you.

  4. Stay lean. Again, a business goal. You might choose to keep features and services to a minimum around your offerings. You might cut the projects that aren’t pulling enough weight. If you’re an employee at the mercy of others, maybe this means understanding how to prioritize, or maybe it means some internal campaigning to understand what you can convince the leadership you might drop.

  You see how this works? Every “goal” is a guidepost. It’s a way to make decisions. It’s a flag to march toward. That’s how we think about goals. This isn’t “Lose twenty pounds by April 30 by cutting out sweets and eating more salads.” It’s looking at the bigger picture to drive tactical daily changes.

  In this case, understanding your goals clearly helps with Contrast, Articulation, and to some extent Trust and Echo, and in other cases it’ll align with other Impact Attributes. Aligning the rest of your efforts around building Impact and the core of your goals is the only way you’ll succeed in making ideas, platform, and the human element work in delivering what you want.

  Just being there isn’t enough anymore.

  The Attention War

  One of the main differences between the channels we used to have and the ones being built now is that the ones we used to have were very expensive. Having a television or radio station, putting together a BBS, printing a newspaper—all of these things required technical expertise, lots of money, or both.

  Things aren’t like this anymore. Getting a radio station was expensive, but now we have stations that cost nothing to make, like Twitter feeds, that are supported by companies’ infrastructures and given to you at no cost. And because it costs no
thing to create these channels, they are also cheap to maintain. All they require is your time.

  This is a fundamental change in the way culture is unfolding in our age. Anyone can choose to be an owner, if they like. The costs of upkeep are almost zero. The time you spend is largely in creation of content instead of in traditional areas like investing, hiring, and distribution.

  Consider how this changes things. Being a media mogul (in the traditional sense of the phrase) means being rich, which also usually means being pretty old, middle-aged at the very least. All of the empires of our age, all of the skyscrapers and cities, were built by these people, usually older white men with great vision who wanted to forge something in their image. America, Canada, and almost everywhere else was made that way—paid for by industry and media. All the towers in our cities say so: Bank of America, CBS, Goldman Sachs, they’re all there.

  Something is different now. On the Web, thirteen-year-olds can become millionaires faster than their fathers could have earned a tenth that much. These aren’t just anomalies either; they’re our largest success stories. Zuckerberg, Brin, Page—all of them began by leveraging tools that didn’t require a massive inheritance or tens of thousands of employees. When young people can have an influence so large, both through wealth and through their companies, the culture itself has to change.

  But this transformation doesn’t apply just to them; it applies to everyone. The tools they used are available to everyone, for free—and even if you don’t use them to become the next Henry Ford of your era, they can at least make a better life for you and those who come after you.

  That is why this is important. A long time ago, the industrialists saw their Reach increasing and took advantage of it. They became heroes of their time, but many others saw this change as well, did nothing, and became no one. No one talks about them. They did not change the world for the better; they just thought about it.

  The reality is that this transformation in media is happening. It’s happening now, and it is a moment in time that will never repeat itself—not in the same way it’s happening now. If you are among the first to know how to leverage it, you can go places and have advantages you never could have imagined before.

  But in order to be there, most people must be deprogrammed a little. You must stop thinking in the factory mind-set, the method all of us learned, and start thinking like a magnate. You must start thinking as if you were someone who has just inherited a great thing, a precious resource that will not last forever but can bring greatness. Because, in a way, you have. You have a chance to own something that no person in your family has ever had—great visibility, huge Reach, massive access, and maybe some extra cash to go along with them.

  But this requires you to stop thinking like an employee. No one here will tell you what to do, because no one wants you to take anything away from them. An employee, by definition, makes money for other people—it must be the case, or he wouldn’t get hired in the first place. The owner, on the other hand, creates value for himself and his family. So whether you are creating value by building a sense of freedom, learning how to do more with less, or creating more income, the mind-set is the same: Think like an owner.

  Owners, for example, search out opportunities, while employees wait for opportunities to come to them. Owners create their own job titles by creating their own jobs, while employees wait for job openings to exist before they rise—which is a form of asking for permission.

  There will be a time when everyone will think this way. Everyone will know that they are in control because no one else will really take care of them. The set paths will have failed—one could argue, for example, that “higher learning” will no longer be a direction that makes sense for most people, leaving many people unsure as to where their next move will be. What to do will no longer be obvious. People will have to take control in order to get anything done at all.

  But that time hasn’t come yet, which contributes to its importance. Having knowledge that other people don’t is profitable, and if you are reading this, you will learn more about how to spread your ideas, how to build your platform, and how to communicate than almost anyone. This is a huge asset. We hope you get as much out of it as we have.

  But let’s be clear: All this mind-set talk isn’t some self-help nonsense. It isn’t about “think and make it happen”; it’s just about seeing an opportunity that is more accessible now than ever before. This is about a moment in time when some advantages are easier to obtain than others. So this book is simply a guide to making sure you don’t waste the advantages you have. That is all.

  Thinking about channels so far in this book has been mostly about communication, but realize that there are more ways to look at this concept. Distribution is another element of a channel. Building on what we’ve already covered here, realize this:

  Zappos sells shoes via the Web, which was originally considered to be a crazy idea no one, customers or investors, would ever buy in to. (It sells much more than shoes now.)

  Chris bought his Camaro via the Web, with only a few photos and the help of a seller who runs a virtual-only car dealership.

  Platforms like Google+ are empowering paid private tutoring and coaching of small groups, augmenting a practice that was once limited to working with people in a specific geography.

  Publishing in any digital format is free (or ridiculously close to it). You need no one’s permission to post material in text, audio, photo, video, or other formats. Distribution is equally free (to people with Internet access).

  The frictionless nature of all this bears considering when we talk about the expenses of a channel. We have the power to reduce the friction of communication and the previous friction of distribution infrastructure to unprecedented price points (often free).

  Since we are talking about goals, it’s important to understand that a channel being free or inexpensive monetarily doesn’t mean it’s without other costs. To maintain this kind of channel, as we’ve pointed out, takes a lot of time and creative effort, plus a lot of nurturing. This requires that you consider your options before choosing to take action.

  We Are All Fledgling TV Stations

  We believe the path to achieving impact is to drive the CREATE formula of the Impact Equation through goals, into ideas, and onto a well-developed platform and then to follow up by nurturing the human elements of your community. We’re implicitly advocating that you accept your new role as a media creator, whether or not this has anything to do with your primary purpose.

  Julien summed it up well by saying that we are perhaps the first generation who are not only mass consumers of media in multiple formats but also mass creators of media.

  What if you (or your business) were a TV station? You have a channel. You must now curate information and content that is informative, useful, and promotes return visits. If this didn’t instantly bring a shiver to you, we’re surprised. It seems like a lot to comprehend. It seems like a lot of work. It seems like there must be easier ways to build influence and create impact. Strike “easier” from your repertoire. Nothing worth doing is easy. Simple, sometimes. Easy? Never.

  But this really is worth considering. If you want to reach people, and if you want to stand out and bring ideas to a platform that then takes an action, thinking of yourself as a TV station is a good starting point. Think of the responsibility. If you are programming the “Portland Real Estate TV” network, what does that look like?

  Most businesses approach this challenge by creating only autobiographical content. What is an advertisement if not a piece of information that tells your audience all about you? There’s nothing wrong with advertisements, but would you tune in to a TV station that talked all about one company or one person or one product all day long?

  We tune in to passions. If you are a golf lover, you’ll watch the golf station for quite some time and feel like it’s time well spent. But each show is different. Each show is another element or aspect of this passionate ecosystem. Some shows w
ill teach you how to perfect your swing or your grip (neither of us plays golf, so we’re winging it a bit). Others will interview current professional players. Some shows will be about the technology. Other shows might cover the business around the sport. If you stopped what you were doing right now and wrote down ten discrete “shows” to put on a golf channel, you’d probably be able to do that.

  Now do it for your own pursuits.

  Where most people go wrong is that they say, “I’m multifaceted. I can’t limit myself to one passion.” Very few people aren’t multifaceted. That’s why your TV has a remote control and why there are many channels. However, your goal is to focus your ideas into one larger story line wherein your “shows” will have something thematic in common.

  The USA Network’s tagline is “Characters welcome.” It’s built the theme of its station around the idea that interesting characters are what drives its programming choices. Bravo is built around reality shows (a mix of trashy ones and educational ones). Other networks are actually a lot harder to pin down, and interestingly, when we checked the ratings for those networks, they’re not doing as well. It seems that the modern method of programming television is to keep your theme reasonably focused.

  You can find a theme that encompasses all you want to cover, if you view your effort to build a platform and share ideas as similar to building a TV station. And the goal should be to make that theme broad enough to cover all your interests in some form or another (or some larger set of your interests) while still keeping a focus or themed element.

  When we say “TV station,” realize that the world has changed. It’s not like we mean that you’re creating video to fill twenty-four hours. We mean that you’re going to create whatever content you intend to create and distribute it across whatever elements of your platform you can develop. This might mean e-mail newsletters, blog posts, video content, tweets, and more.