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Author: Kelli Richards

Media trailblazer, uber-connector and influencer across media, digital music, entertainment and technology, Kelli Richards literally & figuratively lives and thrives in the crosshairs of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, forecasting trends and connecting decision makers to talent and to one another. A sought after consultant, trusted advisor, producer and author, Kelli and team consistently work their magic bringing business opportunities to life by bringing together best of breed tech companies, record labels, film studios, consumer brands, artists and celebrities.  Kelli envisions and executes on a very big scale. She’s been dubbed a forward-thinking disruptor and innovator for years.Prior to launching AAG, Kelli was responsible for driving music and entertainment strategies during her many years at Apple; and was fortunate to have been personally mentored by Steve Jobs.   And she was an A&R exec at a major record label (EMI Music) prior to her tenure at Apple, and has been a talent producer and celebrity wrangler for over three decades.  She currently works with a range of start-ups as an advisor, acting VP of Bus Dev and Strategic Partnerships, and connects them with luminaries, financing & more.  She's also a trusted advisor to high achieving innovators, entrepreneurs, musicians, celebs and tech/media execs who who are seeking to re-invent themselves in their second or third acts.|Media trailblazer, uber-connector and influencer across media, digital music, entertainment and technology, Kelli Richards literally & figuratively lives and thrives in the crosshairs of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, forecasting trends and connecting decision makers to talent and to one another. A sought after consultant, trusted advisor, producer and author, Kelli and team consistently work their magic bringing business opportunities to life by bringing together best of breed tech companies, record labels, film studios, consumer brands, artists and celebrities.  Kelli envisions and executes on a very big scale. She’s been dubbed a forward-thinking disruptor and innovator for years.Prior to launching AAG, Kelli was responsible for driving music and entertainment strategies during her many years at Apple; and was fortunate to have been personally mentored by Steve Jobs.   And she was an A&R exec at a major record label (EMI Music) prior to her tenure at Apple, and has been a talent producer and celebrity wrangler for over three decades.  She currently works with a range of start-ups as an advisor, acting VP of Bus Dev and Strategic Partnerships, and connects them with luminaries, financing & more.  She's also a trusted advisor to high achieving innovators, entrepreneurs, musicians, celebs and tech/media execs who who are seeking to re-invent themselves in their second or third acts.|Media trailblazer, uber-connector and influencer across media, digital music, entertainment and technology, Kelli Richards literally & figuratively lives and thrives in the crosshairs of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, forecasting trends and connecting decision makers to talent and to one another. A sought after consultant, trusted advisor, producer and author, Kelli and team consistently work their magic bringing business opportunities to life by bringing together best of breed tech companies, record labels, film studios, consumer brands, artists and celebrities.  Kelli envisions and executes on a very big scale. She’s been dubbed a forward-thinking disruptor and innovator for years.Prior to launching AAG, Kelli was responsible for driving music and entertainment strategies during her many years at Apple; and was fortunate to have been personally mentored by Steve Jobs.   And she was an A&R exec at a major record label (EMI Music) prior to her tenure at Apple, and has been a talent producer and celebrity wrangler for over three decades.  She currently works with a range of start-ups as an advisor, acting VP of Bus Dev and Strategic Partnerships, and connects them with luminaries, financing & more.  She's also a trusted advisor to high achieving innovators, entrepreneurs, musicians, celebs and tech/media execs who who are seeking to re-invent themselves in their second or third acts.

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness Leadership

The Beautiful Art of Being Honorable

 

By Kelli Richards
The Beautiful Art of Being Honorable
May 31, 2022

Almost everyone knows “The Golden Rule.”  Essentially “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It seems to me people used to treat each other with more kindness and respect, with an intent to honor their commitments to one another, and to lift each other up with an eye towards improving and enhancing each other’s lives. Was that some utopian vision of yore?

I hope not. But in recent times it appears those social mores have gone by the boards. Maybe, however, as conscious individuals, many of us will do what we can to restore them in our daily rounds and interactions with others. Because to do so is a sign of embracing our humanity and empathy and is something we are in control of.

What it Means to be Honorable and Why it Matters

Another timeless saying in our society is, “your word is your bond.” The implication is that we act with honor and integrity and that when we make a commitment to someone or something, we follow-through and do what we say we’re going to. People can count on us; we are accountable. And again, that seems to be something that’s more the exception than the norm. We need to be able to count on each other in life and in business; it’s how we make our decisions about who to be in a relationship with – in our choices of partners, friends, and in our business colleagues, bosses and the businesses and organizations we choose to engage with.

When people behave honorably and honor their word, that’s when trust develops. Without it, at best we become cynical and operate at arm’s length with others – and life can become a long slow trod through enemy territory where we have to be on our guard at every corner.

On the other hand, when we engage with people who are honorable (and we are ourselves), we can relax and be our authentic selves, do our best work, and have an impact in creating the type of society and communities we choose to live in, a world where we have each others’ backs, and where we can count on each others’ support. That’s the type of role model we seek to create as an influence on our children and future generations. In this orientation, we can truly thrive.

How Being Honorable Makes a Difference for Ourselves and Others

There are many facets of how this looks and plays out – many examples beyond what we can cover in this brief article. One is transparency in business. Are we authentic and straightforward with our partners, colleagues, clients and shareholders in good times and bad, even when things have gone awry? Another is practicing kindness to others. Instead of bemoaning that a homeless person comes into an outdoor dining area with their shopping cart and sits among you and your fellow diners – do you chastise them and wish they would leave, or do you pick up the tab for their meal realizing one act of kindness can have a ripple effect to relieve someone’s misery and an otherwise challenging existence? And of course, there is being honorable to yourself. When you make a commitment to improve your own health and well-being, do you do what you said you were going to do in terms of regular exercise, eating healthy food, and practicing other self-care habits that can get you there, or do you succumb to self-sabotaging habits that contributed to the state you’re in that you’re seeking to shift out of? These are all things that can not only improve our own condition and that of our society (one act and mindful commitment at a time) – but that have a ripple effect on those we engage with. And the best news is that we’re in full control of behaving honorably many times in a given day.

 

Ideas to Improve Being Honorable as Part of a Mindful Practice

*When you make a commitment to yourself and others, show up and take action, and do what you said you would do (simple as that). If you can’t or you’ve changed your mind, choose again, recommit to your new direction, and let others know what they CAN count on you for.

*Be authentic and transparent – that’s honoring in and of itself. If a mistake gets made or circumstances change and you can’t honor your original intention – let those around you know, take ownership and responsibility, and share what you are willing to do from here forward. Don’t disappear, “ghost” others, and retreat – that’s cowardly and makes problems worse.

*Adopt a mindset of kindness and do what you can to support the well- being and success of others when you can. It can be simple gestures like smiling and waving at others, lending an ear or a shoulder to someone who’s having a challenging time, or something more complex like making a referral or writing a check when you can that has the potential to make a real difference in someone’s life. You’re literally investing in someone else’s success and paying it forward. What would life be like if more of us chose to behave this way on an ongoing basis?

We don’t have control of a lot in this complex world – especially in times of challenge and chaos as we’ve been enduring with the pandemic and other global circumstances of late, but we DO have control over how we treat ourselves, and how we interact with others – which with daily practice and intent can have a ripple effect in creating the type of society and world we choose to inhabit. What are you doing to practice being honorable? I’d really be interested to know.

 

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness

Living Your Life Beyond the Labels Assigned to You by Others

There’s an insidious epidemic that has happened to many of us internally that’s not widely discussed, but which can be just as crippling as the pandemic we just survived. And if not addressed consciously and mindfully, can affect us for our whole life.

I’m talking about the impact of imprinting and conditioning that starts when we’re young and builds over time. Simply put, the effect of others labeling us – and ultimately labeling ourselves – without regard to the often serious consequences.

No Surgeon General’s Warning

We know packs of cigarettes have a warning about how smoking could be harmful to your health (duh!)? Well, unfortunately, there’s no such warning about the impact of imposing (nearly always false!) labels on others and ourselves – I wish there were.

Did anyone ever tell you that you weren’t good enough at something? Or that you’d never amount to anything? Or that you weren’t smart enough? Or that you weren’t creative?

That kind of labeling starts when we’re young, and it can leave a lasting, lingering imprint if we don’t address it. By contrast, when we have parents, relatives and teachers who encourage our individual gifts and talents, we’re far more likely to thrive – in school, at work and in life.

As an avid reader as a child (and something of a loner inherently), I was told I wasn’t good at sports and should stay focused on my intellectual side. As a result, I never engaged in team sports and didn’t pursue athletics in any way other than as an observer. No surprise, when people were chosen for sports teams in school, I was always among the last to be picked.

My mom encouraged my sister and me to engage in arts and crafts. Even though I actually won awards for my projects, my sister was dubbed “the artistic one,” and me, “the intellectual.”

When John Lennon was five, his teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He wrote down “Happy.” She told him he didn’t understand the assignment, and he told her that she didn’t understand life. Wise beyond his years even then at five years old!

More recently my friend rocker Paul Stanley of KISS recently observed something similar. A mother tweeted how her six-year-old daughter painted an amazing scene in an after-school art club and the art teacher told her she’d done it wrong. She was so upset as art was her favorite thing to do. Paul was mortified. He responded to the child through her mother, “your art is AWESOME!! There is no such thing as doing art ‘wrong.’ There are only teachers who are wrong! Keep doing exactly what you’re doing; I LOVE it!”

How about you? What labels have you carried throughout your life, and how have they impacted how you saw and interacted with the world in terms of barriers or constraints?

 

Busting Through (Usually False) Labels Is Liberating

As a result of growing up and living with these false labels, we adopt belief systems about who we are and what we are and aren’t capable of. And we diminish our capabilities, hold ourselves back, and limit our life circumstances – all because of things others said that we took on as being true about us.

When you realize that you’re not the labels others have imposed on you, you can free yourself to take back your power and choose to see yourself differently. When you see that those were just belief systems that no longer serve you (and never did – and weren’t even true!), you’re free to take on whatever is calling to you to be and do now.

For example, you’re being led to take up painting (maybe for the first time ever) – but you’ve held that you weren’t creative all your life – try taking a class and dabbling in it; wade in and prove that in fact that believe was a lie.

One highly effective tool to begin breaking loose from these old beliefs and thought patterns about ourselves is to question the truth about them. Byron Katie is an author and speaker who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as “The Work” (and has published books and courses on this approach). Effectively it encourages us with four powerful but simple questions to address stressful beliefs, anxieties, and assumptions that may have held us in their grip for years and gently moves us to self-evaluate whether these are really true – and to re-frame new possibilities that are likely to be more positive and freeing allowing us to move forward in our lives with peace and ease.

What Might Be Possible if You Embrace the Label of “Creator” (Get Curious)

A colleague of mine, Steve Chandler, is an inspiring coach and author. One of my favorite books of his addresses this topic head-on – and it’s simply called “Creator” (I highly recommend it).

Can you see how powerful it can be to make some time for introspection to consider where you may have held yourself back by living old beliefs, labels, and limitations that others (or you yourself) have imposed on you that have resulted in you playing small or holding yourself back in life? Can you also see the promise and potential in terms of what’s possible in your life when you shift out of those debilitating mindsets?

I hope you’ll make the time and effort to get curious, take a closer look and evaluate this for yourself. You owe it to yourself and to those you love to take the reins of your life, embrace the truth about your gifts and talents and who you really are, and plot a truly empowered course from here forward. I’d love to hear what you learn. Reach out to me if you want more support with this or just want to share your insights.

 

Categories
Culture Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development

Navigating Web3, the metaverse and Music

As a career-long visionary and innovator, I’ve been at the forefront of several major iterations of content-related waves and platforms over the past several decades. Each of these waves has enabled greater empowerment for content creators and deeper fan engagement. So in that context, how will Web 3 and the metaverse will affect today’s artistic community? My research has uncovered some clues. But before I talk about those, let’s see how we got here in the first place.

First, we had Web 1.0 (dawn of the Internet — early days, then high-speed Internet, web sites, mobile explosion, and in my case helping to launch the earliest initiatives around artist direct-to-fan (DTF) models in the mid-90s when Todd Rundgren and I launched Patronet — pre-cursor to Patreon — in the mid-90s). Other artist DTF models of the day included efforts by Prince with the NPG Music Club and David Bowie with BowieNet (pioneers all). And of course, this phase included the disruption of Napster, Bit Torrent, the launch of iTunes, et al. That lasted about a decade.

Then Web 2.0 came along about 10 years ago, which focused on things like the rise of social media platforms where like-minded communities gathered, user-generated content was born, SmartPhones and the rise of the app world, and we had experiences like second screen (consumer engagement across and between multiple devices), et al. Over this decade, we’ve witnessed an exponential increase in social media/UGC platforms, especially with the use of graphics and video (visuals). In this era, we experienced something referred to as “The 2nd Renaissance” — a term coined by Jack Conte, CEO of Patreon — to describe a feedback loop between tech and content creators that drives the expansion of creator-type jobs and changes how society interacts with media and ‘influence’.

This creator economy is being embraced in a big way by venture capitalists (VCs) with increasing levels of investment in tools and platforms across industries that foster the interaction between creators and fans. And crypto is enabling a whole new set of opportunities for digital creation, placing the creator at the center of its own economy — no longer held back in distribution or monetization by monolithic media companies.

This past year in 2021, we’ve entered Web 3.0 — which has really started to pick up speed over the last six months in particular as I write this. Web3 includes the metaverse — immersive content and virtual in-world community experiences, the blockchain as a system for recording transactions and asset ownership as a digital ledger in the crypto world, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens which themselves are collectibles in the form of “one of one” cryptographic assets housed on a blockchain that are unique and can’t be replicated).

One of the leaders in the metaverse space (for music) is Roblox (worth about $28B and has about 50M users as I write this). Long-time colleague, Jon Vlassopulos is VP & Global Head of Music, and he’s leading the charge with all sorts of creative things in music on the platform including facilitating unique virtual concert & festival experiences, listening parties for artists and fans, and other innovative music experiences. These opportunities provide for richer artist-to-fan interactions, fan-to-fan interactions, and new revenue streams.

And in tandem with the metaverse, we’ve seen nothing short of an explosion of NFT sales in 2021. There’s quite a bit of uncertainty and skepticism with NFTs given the massive growth in a relatively short period of time, but many believe they are here to stay having gained traction particularly among younger demographics as a way to engage more deeply with their favorite artists (and with each other in fandoms).

One of the things NFTs enable is the opportunity for artists to get upfront funding from their fans without giving up the rights to their ownership and taking big revenue cuts — which was **exactly** the vision Todd and I had when we launched Patronet over 25 years ago (!). And in tandem, fans as “investors’, can participate in a share of the success of their favorite artists financially as well as with intrinsic satisfaction.

Several artists are experimenting with NFTs, such as creative music producer 3lau (pronounced “Blau” aka Justin Blau), who sold 33 NFTs on the third anniversary of his album Ultraviolet for over $11.7M, making it one of the largest music NFT deals to date. He has also launched his own venture, Royal, which enables fractional ownership through its own version of NFTs, and last Fall secured $55M in a Series A round raise.

And more recently, Julian Lennon (son of the late Beatle) auctioned off a set of Beatles memorabilia from his personal collection as NFTs in support of his philanthropic venture, The White Feather Foundation.

Navigating Web3, the metaverse and Music

The truth is there is so much happening in this space on a daily basis, and I’m paddling as fast as I can to come up to speed on the broad range of opportunities that the Web3 era enables in music and other realms. (As a career-long visionary and innovator, I’ve been at the forefront of several major iterations of content-related waves and platforms over the past several decades. Each of these waves has enabled greater empowerment for content creators and deeper fan engagement.) Others who are a little further along than I have done podcasts and written some highly informative pieces which I encourage you to dive into if you’re keen to learn more. Here’s a collection of just some of the resources I’ve found to be among the most insightful — but truly there’s a plethora of information out there (let alone a steady stream of events showing up on the landscape consistently):

*Peter Csathy’s CreatTV.Media — a long-time trusted colleague in the digital media space (especially in music), Peter hosts a podcast called “Fearless Media”, and offers a wealth of insights on Web3 here. He features guests on the cutting edge of Web3 activities aimed at music and other media (films, games, etc).

*Variety’s Intelligence Platform also offers a broad range of well-researched reports and insights that cover every facet of music and entertainment’s next frontier in Web 3. Here’s just one example.

*How NFTs Could Re-define the Future of the Music Industry by Jake Fraser for Venture Beat

*The Creator Economy & 2nd Renaissance — a terrific PDF I recommend highly; by Bitkraft Ventures

*Web3 is the Future, or a Scam, or Both — by long-time journalist colleague Peter Kafka

*Unpacking Music Royalty Investment NFTs — by Tatiana Cirisano

*Real Vision — an on-demand financial TV channel focused on fintech and Web3 initiatives, including an emphasis on the music, media and entertainment worlds. They also host highly curated dynamic events.

*NFT LA — taking place in Los Angeles, March 28–31, 2022

*Web3 Summit — taking place in San Diego, May 18–20, 2022 (full disclosure, I’m programming music track panels for this event).

So as you can see, Web3 is emerging as one of the most dynamic of all the waves we’ve experienced thus far related to multimedia platforms and new forms of content creation, engagement and monetization. Watch this space as we’re only on the cutting edge of this new era which promises to be a game-changer.

Categories
Culture Entrepreneurship Marketing Personal Development

Navigating Web3, the metaverse and Music

As a career-long visionary and innovator, I’ve been at the forefront of several major iterations of content-related waves and platforms over the past several decades. Each of these waves has enabled greater empowerment for content creators and deeper fan engagement. So in that context, how will Web 3 and the metaverse will affect today’s artistic community? My research has uncovered some clues. But before I talk about those, let’s see how we got here in the first place.

First, we had Web 1.0 (dawn of the Internet — early days, then high-speed Internet, web sites, mobile explosion, and in my case helping to launch the earliest initiatives around artist direct-to-fan (DTF) models in the mid-90s when Todd Rundgren and I launched Patronet — pre-cursor to Patreon — in the mid-90s). Other artist DTF models of the day included efforts by Prince with the NPG Music Club and David Bowie with BowieNet (pioneers all). And of course, this phase included the disruption of Napster, Bit Torrent, the launch of iTunes, et al. That lasted about a decade.

Then Web 2.0 came along about 10 years ago, which focused on things like the rise of social media platforms where like-minded communities gathered, user-generated content was born, SmartPhones and the rise of the app world, and we had experiences like second screen (consumer engagement across and between multiple devices), et al. Over this decade, we’ve witnessed an exponential increase in social media/UGC platforms, especially with the use of graphics and video (visuals). In this era, we experienced something referred to as “The 2nd Renaissance” — a term coined by Jack Conte, CEO of Patreon — to describe a feedback loop between tech and content creators that drives the expansion of creator-type jobs and changes how society interacts with media and ‘influence’.

This creator economy is being embraced in a big way by venture capitalists (VCs) with increasing levels of investment in tools and platforms across industries that foster the interaction between creators and fans. And crypto is enabling a whole new set of opportunities for digital creation, placing the creator at the center of its own economy — no longer held back in distribution or monetization by monolithic media companies.

This past year in 2021, we’ve entered Web 3.0 — which has really started to pick up speed over the last six months in particular as I write this. Web3 includes the metaverse — immersive content and virtual in-world community experiences, the blockchain as a system for recording transactions and asset ownership as a digital ledger in the crypto world, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens which themselves are collectibles in the form of “one of one” cryptographic assets housed on a blockchain that are unique and can’t be replicated).

One of the leaders in the metaverse space (for music) is Roblox (worth about $28B and has about 50M users as I write this). Long-time colleague, Jon Vlassopulos is VP & Global Head of Music, and he’s leading the charge with all sorts of creative things in music on the platform including facilitating unique virtual concert & festival experiences, listening parties for artists and fans, and other innovative music experiences. These opportunities provide for richer artist-to-fan interactions, fan-to-fan interactions, and new revenue streams.

And in tandem with the metaverse, we’ve seen nothing short of an explosion of NFT sales in 2021. There’s quite a bit of uncertainty and skepticism with NFTs given the massive growth in a relatively short period of time, but many believe they are here to stay having gained traction particularly among younger demographics as a way to engage more deeply with their favorite artists (and with each other in fandoms).

One of the things NFTs enable is the opportunity for artists to get upfront funding from their fans without giving up the rights to their ownership and taking big revenue cuts — which was **exactly** the vision Todd and I had when we launched Patronet over 25 years ago (!). And in tandem, fans as “investors’, can participate in a share of the success of their favorite artists financially as well as with intrinsic satisfaction.

Several artists are experimenting with NFTs, such as creative music producer 3lau (pronounced “Blau” aka Justin Blau), who sold 33 NFTs on the third anniversary of his album Ultraviolet for over $11.7M, making it one of the largest music NFT deals to date. He has also launched his own venture, Royal, which enables fractional ownership through its own version of NFTs, and last Fall secured $55M in a Series A round raise.

And more recently, Julian Lennon (son of the late Beatle) auctioned off a set of Beatles memorabilia from his personal collection as NFTs in support of his philanthropic venture, The White Feather Foundation.

Navigating Web3, the metaverse and Music

The truth is there is so much happening in this space on a daily basis, and I’m paddling as fast as I can to come up to speed on the broad range of opportunities that the Web3 era enables in music and other realms. (As a career-long visionary and innovator, I’ve been at the forefront of several major iterations of content-related waves and platforms over the past several decades. Each of these waves has enabled greater empowerment for content creators and deeper fan engagement.) Others who are a little further along than I have done podcasts and written some highly informative pieces which I encourage you to dive into if you’re keen to learn more. Here’s a collection of just some of the resources I’ve found to be among the most insightful — but truly there’s a plethora of information out there (let alone a steady stream of events showing up on the landscape consistently):

*Peter Csathy’s CreatTV.Media — a long-time trusted colleague in the digital media space (especially in music), Peter hosts a podcast called “Fearless Media”, and offers a wealth of insights on Web3 here. He features guests on the cutting edge of Web3 activities aimed at music and other media (films, games, etc).

*Variety’s Intelligence Platform also offers a broad range of well-researched reports and insights that cover every facet of music and entertainment’s next frontier in Web 3. Here’s just one example.

*How NFTs Could Re-define the Future of the Music Industry by Jake Fraser for Venture Beat

*The Creator Economy & 2nd Renaissance — a terrific PDF I recommend highly; by Bitkraft Ventures

*Web3 is the Future, or a Scam, or Both — by long-time journalist colleague Peter Kafka

*Unpacking Music Royalty Investment NFTs — by Tatiana Cirisano

*Real Vision — an on-demand financial TV channel focused on fintech and Web3 initiatives, including an emphasis on the music, media and entertainment worlds. They also host highly curated dynamic events.

*NFT LA — taking place in Los Angeles, March 28–31, 2022

*Web3 Summit — taking place in San Diego, May 18–20, 2022 (full disclosure, I’m programming music track panels for this event).

So as you can see, Web3 is emerging as one of the most dynamic of all the waves we’ve experienced thus far related to multimedia platforms and new forms of content creation, engagement and monetization. Watch this space as we’re only on the cutting edge of this new era which promises to be a game-changer.

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness

Embrace Serendipity – Opportunity Knocking

What do these things have in common?

You’re sitting next to someone on a plane who turns out to have a need for your services and becomes your next client or boss. Or having a spouse with a rare disease and running into a specialist at a friend’s party who happens to be the leading expert on that disease and winds up saving your partner’s life. Or buying a lottery ticket from a store that’s about to close and having a big win. Or it could be something on a smaller scale such as having a hummingbird hover right in front of you.

These are moments of serendipity when seemingly random events occur as if by chance in a way that benefits us or brings us joy and happiness unexpectedly.

Over the past few weeks I can think of at least three experiences I had that felt like serendipity in action:

Las Vegas

I was invited to attend and speak at an event in Las Vegas on The Future of Blockchain and Web 3.0 entitled The Takeover and hosted by Real Vision, a media company I had been unfamiliar with until then. It was a highly curated event of some of the most progressive, bright, forward-thinking entrepreneurs and leaders in the space.

I met a lot of interesting and amazing people during the course of the event. But one individual and I connected pretty deeply across multiple dimensions; he was truly a kindred spirit, and we bonded instantly.

Weird things kept happening to us as if we were in our own little orbit. We’d discuss something rather abstract or obtuse, and the next thing you know someone would join us out of nowhere and bring up the topic we had just been talking about. Or we’d say a strange uncommon word and someone would show up next to us and say it right after. It was noticeably odd and this phenomenon repeated itself time and again.

We experienced the bulk of the event together from then on, and have remained connected since. That depth of connection just doesn’t happen that often. I feel like I’ve met a great new colleague, friend, and possible collaborator. Serendipity in action.

Safe Travels

Then when all the chaos was going on during the holidays with thousands of flights being canceled, I just sailed out of my home airport with ease and my arrival at my destination couldn’t have been smoother. When it was time to reverse course, my flights were delayed heading home (from two different airports), and when I arrived at the second airport, the flight departing prior to the one I was booked on, (which was delayed by a couple of hours) happened to be boarding just as I arrived at the gate — and I was able to hop on and secure a preferred seat near the front. I felt like I was being looked after and treated with kid gloves. It was all so seamless.

An Old Friend Reunited

I was recently running an errand and was led to take a detour down a side street I never go down where a childhood friend lives that I’d been estranged from for 20 years. She happened to be outside in front of her house, which she never is, and recognized me as I was driving by. She yelled “is that you,” and I stopped. We spent three hours together catching up, which was deeply healing for us, and we are now back in each other’s lives. I’m thrilled.

Why does it seem like some people experience more serendipity than others? I guess the question is, can we prepare ourselves to find things we’re not looking for when they show up? Are these events purely random or can they be cultivated?

3 Tips for Bringing More Serendipity into Your Life

  1. Stay alert and aware — I believe there’s a certain pattern recognition you can foster within yourself that allows you to be receptive to seeing connections and opportunities that others might miss.
  2. Be receptive — If you’re curious and open-minded, you’ll naturally be operating within the realm of possibility and that tends to foster and dare I say “encourage” (and even anticipate) more of these moments arising for you. It can help to assume you have special powers that allow you to perceive opportunities like antennas that may alert you to clues (and patterns as referenced above) where you may connect the dots more readily than others.
  3. Trust your intuition and follow it — We all have a built-in guidance system that some feel is tied to a higher power (myself included), which is geared to guide us to optimal outcomes if we just honor it when it arises. The three examples I provided above are just a few ‘chance’ encounters that happen for me more consistently than not, and intuition can work for you as well if you tune in and follow where you’re being led. The right people, opportunities, and circumstances can line up in your favor when you do so; it happens to me too often to be considered random.

Give some careful thought to all of this and resolve to pay better attention moving forward. Be better prepared when opportunity knocks. Then enjoy the moments that follow.

Categories
Growth Health and Wellness

Embrace Serendipity – Opportunity Knocking

What do these things have in common?

You’re sitting next to someone on a plane who turns out to have a need for your services and becomes your next client or boss. Or having a spouse with a rare disease and running into a specialist at a friend’s party who happens to be the leading expert on that disease and winds up saving your partner’s life. Or buying a lottery ticket from a store that’s about to close and having a big win. Or it could be something on a smaller scale such as having a hummingbird hover right in front of you.

These are moments of serendipity when seemingly random events occur as if by chance in a way that benefits us or brings us joy and happiness unexpectedly.

Over the past few weeks I can think of at least three experiences I had that felt like serendipity in action:

Las Vegas

I was invited to attend and speak at an event in Las Vegas on The Future of Blockchain and Web 3.0 entitled The Takeover and hosted by Real Vision, a media company I had been unfamiliar with until then. It was a highly curated event of some of the most progressive, bright, forward-thinking entrepreneurs and leaders in the space.

I met a lot of interesting and amazing people during the course of the event. But one individual and I connected pretty deeply across multiple dimensions; he was truly a kindred spirit, and we bonded instantly.

Weird things kept happening to us as if we were in our own little orbit. We’d discuss something rather abstract or obtuse, and the next thing you know someone would join us out of nowhere and bring up the topic we had just been talking about. Or we’d say a strange uncommon word and someone would show up next to us and say it right after. It was noticeably odd and this phenomenon repeated itself time and again.

We experienced the bulk of the event together from then on, and have remained connected since. That depth of connection just doesn’t happen that often. I feel like I’ve met a great new colleague, friend, and possible collaborator. Serendipity in action.

Safe Travels

Then when all the chaos was going on during the holidays with thousands of flights being canceled, I just sailed out of my home airport with ease and my arrival at my destination couldn’t have been smoother. When it was time to reverse course, my flights were delayed heading home (from two different airports), and when I arrived at the second airport, the flight departing prior to the one I was booked on, (which was delayed by a couple of hours) happened to be boarding just as I arrived at the gate — and I was able to hop on and secure a preferred seat near the front. I felt like I was being looked after and treated with kid gloves. It was all so seamless.

An Old Friend Reunited

I was recently running an errand and was led to take a detour down a side street I never go down where a childhood friend lives that I’d been estranged from for 20 years. She happened to be outside in front of her house, which she never is, and recognized me as I was driving by. She yelled “is that you,” and I stopped. We spent three hours together catching up, which was deeply healing for us, and we are now back in each other’s lives. I’m thrilled.

Why does it seem like some people experience more serendipity than others? I guess the question is, can we prepare ourselves to find things we’re not looking for when they show up? Are these events purely random or can they be cultivated?

3 Tips for Bringing More Serendipity into Your Life

  1. Stay alert and aware — I believe there’s a certain pattern recognition you can foster within yourself that allows you to be receptive to seeing connections and opportunities that others might miss.
  2. Be receptive — If you’re curious and open-minded, you’ll naturally be operating within the realm of possibility and that tends to foster and dare I say “encourage” (and even anticipate) more of these moments arising for you. It can help to assume you have special powers that allow you to perceive opportunities like antennas that may alert you to clues (and patterns as referenced above) where you may connect the dots more readily than others.
  3. Trust your intuition and follow it — We all have a built-in guidance system that some feel is tied to a higher power (myself included), which is geared to guide us to optimal outcomes if we just honor it when it arises. The three examples I provided above are just a few ‘chance’ encounters that happen for me more consistently than not, and intuition can work for you as well if you tune in and follow where you’re being led. The right people, opportunities, and circumstances can line up in your favor when you do so; it happens to me too often to be considered random.

Give some careful thought to all of this and resolve to pay better attention moving forward. Be better prepared when opportunity knocks. Then enjoy the moments that follow.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Personal Development

The Art of Following Up

There’s an adage in business that says, “the fortune is in the follow up.” Whether you’re talking about business or personal and social situations, the dynamic holds true. In both cases, honoring and maintaining relationships are what’s important.  A key aspect of that is letting people know you’re thinking of them, wanting to support their success, and expressing that you realize they’re busy by taking the onus of proactively keeping in touch. This builds loyalty and solidifies relationships.

People Are Busy

Life is full of distractions on a daily basis, and we’re all juggling various priorities. The chances of your email getting lost or forgotten under a long trail of other emails is pretty high. It’s not personal, but there may well be times when you’re not top of mind – and your prospective client needs a reminder or nudge to keep you in view. I’ve had situations where I’ve reached out to people I really want to do business with repeatedly over time, and finally they’ve replied apologizing profusely for the delays in responding and expressing their gratitude that I didn’t give up on them.

Don’t Leave Money on the Table

When you give up prematurely and you avoid following up, you all too often lose the business (and possibly a coveted relationship), all because your prospective clients are either too busy or don’t believe you’re sufficiently invested in their success and interested in winning their business. Your competitors who have mastered the art of the follow up are poised and ready to take the business opportunity for themselves. Don’t let this happen to you.

Create a Tracking System

There are all kinds of CRM software tools you can use to manage your contacts, and trigger follow-ups. I’m sure they’re great, but I don’t use any of them. I’m a solo practitioner, so it’s just as easy for me to manage a Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheet that I set up with key parameters, and review on a regular basis to track the prospective clients who I’m most interested in engaging with.

Whatever system you choose to use, select an option that makes life easy for you and that you’ll actually tap into on a regular basis to systematize your follow-ups.

Be Pleasantly Persistent

It’s common knowledge in business that people will often need to hear from you an average of seven times before they finally decide to purchase something. So sending one e-mail and expecting them to reply back isn’t something that happens often. You need to be willing to play the long game. There’s an art to your follow-ups here.

The recipient needs to know that you genuinely care and that you’re seeking to add value for them and to the success of their business. In that context, the content should be varied a little each time, ideally with something timely and relevant, but also that customized and personalized to something you know about the individual or think they might find of interest.

In other words you’ve done your homework on them and their company. And each successive e-mail helps you stand out from the crowd, demonstrates that you’re sincerely interested in doing business with them, and that you genuinely care about their needs. Each one represents you laying a brick in the foundation of a long-term trusted relationship with that person.

Play the Long Game

Don’t be afraid of appearing pushy or annoying your prospects. Most will appreciate your persistence given how busy and distracted they are. If you spread out and pace your follow-ups, with a genuine desire to add value to the people you seek to engage with, you’ve done your homework and are customizing your notes, and are willing to play the long game, you will stand out from the pack and you will have increased the odds not only of doing business with those you seek to work with – but also in terms of forging long-term trusted relationships.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Why Cultivating Presence Matters as a Leader

As we embark on a new year, it’s a great time to reflect on what it means to be a leader in 2022. One of the key challenges I’ve observed is that many execs are struggling with the need to be present — especially at a time when so many employees are signing up for “The Great Resignation” and choosing to leave their jobs.

Companies are left struggling to find great talent. As a result, it’s more important than ever to view employees as individuals, to be sensitive to their unique needs, to pay attention and to listen to them carefully, to validate them, and to honor what’s most important to them — in order to attract and retain your best people.

Presence is perhaps one of the greatest skills you can master as a leader in two directions. First and foremost is that it allows you to be there fully for those around you as they seek your guidance and observe how you show up. And secondly, it allows you to be be yourself more fully and authentically in the moment. When you do convey that presence, people respond as they feel seen, heard and valued. And at the same time, you operate at peak performance levels yourself when you operate from your gifts and talents in real time.

Your relationships with others improve by default. Being fully present allows for richer, more meaningful connections that foster trust, credibility and loyalty because others sense you have their back and genuinely care about doing right by them. You’re fully engaged, switched on, and aren’t focused on conflicting agendas. It turns out your presence is just about the greatest gift you can give to those around you – including your employees, co-workers, shareholders, friends, family and others.

During my many years at Apple, I had some really great bosses. I can recall how meaningful it was when I announced my engagement that my boss at the time made a big deal out of pausing the meeting we were in to acknowledge the news. His reaction was more that of a caring uncle vs a boss at work, and he subsequently arranged a party to celebrate this important milestone in my life.

I don’t see that in the workplace much these days (or even back then); it meant a great deal to me, and it engendered even greater loyalty to him as a leader (and to the company!) than I already felt.

On a personal note, I was at a family gathering awhile back; an important one — my aunt’s 80th — and I don’t get to spend a lot of time with my immediate or my extended family, so I was really looking forward to it. I’m so used to operating with my To Do list and unfinished tasks to take care of in my head. My mom had to remind me to focus on being present and in the moment. In fact, we went into a book store near the event, and she bought me a book entitled “1001 Ways to Live in the Moment.”

Of course I embraced it immediately; how perfect. It was an act of grace that the book showed up at that moment and re-framed the importance of being present. As my mentor Alan Cohen is fond of saying, “you can change the world by the power of your being.”

So as we kick-off this new year, consider what you can do as a leader to be more present to your own employees and teams. What can you do to make each individual feel genuinely valued, validated and appreciated? Your presence will pay off in terms of allegiance, increased productivity, greater teamwork and increased retention. And it will go a long ways towards fostering long-term trusted relationships that may extend well beyond your current workplace and throughout your entire career.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Personal Development Women In Business

Why Reinvention and Transformation are Key Trends for 2022

Nearly everyone I know has experienced challenges as a result of the pandemic.  However there have also been a number of unanticipated gifts as a result that have been life-changing (I wrote an article about this in Oct 2020).  

One notable example has been the so-called “Great Resignation,” which is an ongoing trend of employees voluntarily choosing to leave their jobs in the pursuit of a more flexible lifestyle and greater meaning in their lives overall.  This phenomenon was fostered as we were all tethered to our homes throughout the pandemic, and many of us realized that we had more time with our families and loved ones – and reduced stress and loss of time as a result of fewer meetings, office politics, and soul-crushing commutes.

We started to realize what really mattered to each of us – and it wasn’t necessarily more material goods, but instead doing things that best used our talents and passions, and that created meaning, legacy and impact in our lives. Many of us realized that through technology we had the means of being able to work from home remotely and do just as good a job as we could have done in the office – if not better without a commute and fewer distractions.  And as importantly, the reasons why many choose to leave companies is because of bad managers that don’t honor, empower and validate them as unique individuals.

As a trusted advisor, this is the work I do with my clients who are often at a “what’s next” crossroads. My goal is to empower them, help them see possibilities they may not see for themselves, and transform the quality and the meaning of their lives so that they do more of what lights them up and fulfills them now — not waiting for someday — vs what others think they should do, and living with constraints imposed on them like shackles.  We weren’t meant to live life that way; that’s simply a recipe for despair.

Imagine instead a life of following your intuition, knowing exactly what you are meant to do in this life, and having the ability to pursue the path that’s calling to you. Imagine having a sense of direction, living life to the fullest, and playing full out on your own terms with a sense of agency and sovereignty.  When people are following their passion, living their gifts and talents, and pursuing what they are called to do, they are happier, more fulfilled and operating at peak capacity, and they create a ripple effect that uplifts others in their circle by extension. So the transformation at hand is a reflection of the insights many of us came to during this period of isolation and remote work, fueled by the pandemic, which has caused us to re-assess all of these things and more.

Here are a few tips to consider as you contemplate transforming aspects of your work and life:

  • Do you enjoy what you do for work? – If not, what can you to do take steps to shift into something that’s a better fit?
  • Do you have a clear vision for what you want your life to look like – your relationships, your work, your lifestyle, and how much you really need to have the life you envision that would bring you the most pleasure?
  • Can you afford to make a change that would bring you greater meaning and fulfillment?  If not, what steps can you take to adjust your lifestyle – from paring back on unnecessary expenses to re-locating to a more affordable location?
  • Do you have a support network that works for you – or are you tolerating relationships that no longer serve you (professionally and/or personally)?   If so, it may be time to take stock, re-assess and make changes that will ultimately create more happiness, peace of mind, and bring you greater fulfillment.
  • Last but not least, what is it that gives your life meaning and fulfillment?  How many of the things that do are in your life right now today, and what can you do to manifest more of the things you envision?  Starting creating and living your legacy today.

Reinventing and transforming your life can be challenging, yet at the same time the rewards are well worth whatever transitions you go through to craft a life that empowers and lights you up on all fronts. That’s something worth paying attention to this year!