The Impact Equation

by Chris Brogan

  Maintain friendships with those people you consider friends. We’re not knocking that. But when it comes to your development, growth, and learning, it’s important to level up. Just as you are working on growing your own skills and abilities, by finding connections to people who have grown their own capabilities you are improving your chances of learning what it will take to conquer the next wave of challenges before you.

  TRUST: HOW TO RATE YOURSELF

  With Trust, you want to rate yourself by thinking through whether people trust you professionally. Because this might be quite variable depending on your situation, we’ll give you a handful of examples, and you can extrapolate from there.

  Will people reply to e-mails you send? Will they share private information with you? Do people seek your advice? Do you find yourself in arguments more often than regular conversations? Do you get invited into important conversations and meetings? If you’re not saying yes, then your Trust factor is low with the people you’ve surrounded yourself with.

  Those few questions might make great measures to gauge people’s Trust in you. Seeing the world through a lens of Trust is a decent litmus test for how you interact with the world overall. Earning Trust takes time. It’s not like you can show up and suddenly have the interactions you need. This is a good way to look at getting started.

  Beyond this, just use the Trust Equation. Any of the attributes in the equation (credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-interest) will help you gauge how well you are doing and where the deficit may be. Rate each on a scale from one to one hundred and see.

  IMPACT EXAMPLE: DOLBEAU.CA

  David Gross and David Caplan are the founders of Dolbeau, a small fashion label out of Montreal, Canada, that makes small, exceptional things. From handkerchiefs to neckties to bracelets, the growing label is based on a few basic ideas: Use the best-quality materials, no matter where they come from, and be adaptable.

  “I had been reading all of Seth Godin’s books when it started to click,” David Gross told us, “and the idea occurred to us to make something real, instead of just something digital. We knew nothing about fashion, distribution, apparel, or anything else, but we had a simple idea and we just had to try it.”

  Fashion blogs had just started getting big when Gross began to notice a kind of trickle-down effect: If you could reach the big fashion blogs, the news of a new product would then roll down to smaller blogs and yet smaller blogs after that. They had an idea to start creating products specifically targeted toward those who were interested in talking about them.

  “I was taking marketing and business classes at the time, and I would just go straight home and apply what they had taught me that very day,” Gross says. “If we saw ‘locally sourced’ as a big thing on some of the blogs, we would go and make something like that. If camo started to pick up as a pattern, we would find the best camo materials and make something like that instead. We adapted directly to the trends we saw, as fast as we could.”

  Within twenty-four hours of its first Web site and product launch, Dolbeau hit the fashion blogs hard. Now it uses apps like Instagram to find fans, connecting directly to those interested in its accessories by giving glimpses behind the scenes of material picking, sewing, and everything else. This insider appeal keeps people seeing its new products, and now the label sells all over the world, sending high-quality men’s fashion to countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden, South Africa, Brazil, and Japan.

  How does Dolbeau measure up on our Impact Equation? Let’s take a look.

  Contrast: By adapting to the exact needs of their industry, and specifically to those who are talking about the cutting edge, Gross and Caplan know they are making something worth talking about even before it trends. At the beginning, their ability to adapt was limited, but after two years in the industry, they are quick and getting quicker. Match that with a passion that bleeds through the site and you get something worth noticing.

  Reach: While a tiny label has a small Reach, Gross and Caplan’s ability to connect to an audience is actually magnified by the audience whose attention they attempt to capture: bloggers and Tumblr users. They are also adding a blog to the site themselves, hiring the most stylish person they know to talk about fashion directly on their site, making Dolbeau.ca itself a destination.

  Exposure: Dolbeau uses Instagram to connect to its fans, so every time a new product or material is launched, everyone knows about it. And because the label isn’t selling the same thing over and over again but rather showing a new product each time, the Exposure doesn’t seem spammy at all. Further, every week the company release a new limited-edition accessory, which helps bring people back to see new stuff once a week. This is the same strategy used by brands like Zara and H&M to get people coming back and to keep the label looking fresh.

  Articulation: Dolbeau’s story is easy to sell. It just took 350 words to explain everything you need to know about it. If you are in its target market, you are immediately curious. A clear message helps everything go down more easily.

  Trust: As always, Trust is the most difficult to measure. As an up-and-coming brand, Dolbeau is likely low to medium on Trust. It has to build it and get recognized for the good work it does. The experience of using the site is that it is credible, which helps, and its regular weekly editions let you know it will be around, but only long-term consistency will earn Trust. Stay tuned.

  Echo: The little jokes on the Dolbeau site help you feel like you’re looking at a Web site that people, not a corporation, made. Add to this the slogan on the front page of the site: “Handcrafted. Made fresh. Honestly priced.” It’s a winner.

  Nothing is ever perfect, of course, but in Dolbeau’s case, it’s always improving. How would you help? What would you change? You can tell the company directly at Dolbeau.ca.

  7 Echo, Echo

  The British singer Adele performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 2011 to a packed audience of adoring fans. The concert was recorded, and we strongly recommend you consider picking it up. It doesn’t matter whether you like her music (though Chris does), but it’s an education in impact. You see, Adele has mastered many parts of the equation, including how Echo turns her overwhelming success into something even more useful.

  The first thing you might notice as you watch the performance is that the audience is quite diverse. There are younger people and older people, couples and friends, children, seniors, and people of all kinds of diverse ethnic backgrounds, all appreciating Adele’s music. This isn’t accidental. Adele sings songs about love and heartbreak that resonate with people of any age. By “resonate,” realize that we mean she’s built songs that Echo (echo, echo) the emotions you feel, which helps her grow her platform.

  We think the gold in this video isn’t in the songs. They’re lovely. But what we enjoy watching is how Adele interacts with everyone in between. She talks with people, not as a celebrity but as if they were friends, or maybe friendly neighbors, and she shares how she’s feeling. There she is onstage at one of the world’s most famous and wonderful performance venues, and she’s excited and a bit nervous because it’s so posh (her words).

  This goes on throughout the entire performance. She talks about what it’s like when you have a falling-out with friends. She talks about all the drama of breaking up with someone (her albums are pretty much odes to her exes). Each of these moments comes off as if she’s never talked about it in that way before, as if she’s talking directly with you, and you can easily relate.

  There’s something here to think about. If you’ve ever watched or attended any other live performance, you know that many performers treat their audience as a faceless mass. Sure, there are other bands and performers who don’t, but more often than not, you’re treated to a variation of “Hello, Cleveland!” for the entire performance.

  Adele and others smart enough to work on Echo know that each moment like this is an opportunity to say “you” and mean one person. The more you can connect with everyone, one at a t
ime, the better. Whenever you have a chance to show that you are exactly like the people you’re blessed to serve (your audience or, hopefully, your community), take it. That’s the power move.

  This isn’t something to worry about when you “get famous.” We’ve seen people at all levels of corporations who forget the importance of Echo and of connecting with the people around them. It’s strange to point it out in people with lesser roles, but even as we write this, can’t you remember a time when someone spoke down to you or otherwise made him- or herself out to be the unapproachable big shot with no real connection to you and your world? Did you ever forgive him or her?

  Years ago, Chris had a supervisor who called him and the other three people who reported to her “my staff.” Never by name. Instead, if there was a meeting of a few teams inside the organization, this person would say, “Oh, I’m so glad my staff is here. I won’t have to take notes.” It was as if she thought she was a minor royal figure or something. Oddly (not to you, we bet), she didn’t last very long as anyone’s boss and made her good-byes a few months later.

  How Not to Attempt Echo

  This can sometimes go wrong when celebrities attempt to commiserate with people about mundane daily life when it’s clear that they’re no longer shackled with the same challenges. More than a few ultrawealthy musicians showed up in New York to show their support for the Occupy Wall Street movement wearing ripped jeans and trying to show solidarity. The only problem was that these celebrities were in the same 1 percent income bracket that the protesters were there to complain about. (Mind you, no one was impolite enough to point it out.)

  It’s hard to go the “I know how you feel” route when attempting to resonate and connect with people. You might not know how people feel. You might not have the same background they do. Then what? How do you show where you’re similar without risking dissonance?

  What Adele Can Teach You About Success

  Let’s revisit Adele’s performance. She talked about missing drinking with her friends, now that she’s relegated to honeyed water. She mentioned how frustrating it is to be the sober friend dealing with the mess that drunk friends create. “I swear she didn’t mean it” was one of the “sober friend” lines Adele repeated, to much laughter. This experience was one most people in her audience (and probably you) have had at least once.

  Echo is about finding common experiences and using them to help people realize that you have some understanding of their lives. How do you do it “safely”? Well, let’s throw “safe” out the window and accept that one might always cause a problem. But here are some pointers.

  Use their language. Making a Star Wars joke in a room-ful of technologists is a safe bet. Talking about how childhood education has changed since Dr. Spock will at least give you another moment’s attention from a roomful of pediatricians. Find their language and use it. Be wary, however, of pulling the Jelly Doughnut. (JFK famously told a crowd of people in Germany, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” He meant to say, “I’m a Berliner,” meaning “I’m just like you people from Berlin.” But because he used “ein,” what he actually said was “I’m a Berliner,” meaning “I’m a jelly doughnut.”) Don’t use words or terms you don’t fully understand.

  Find common ground. When Chris interviewed then chairman of Disney Bob Iger, Bob’s first question was “Where are you from?” Chris said, “Maine.” Bob asked if Chris had done any sailing around Maine, especially in Searsport. Though Chris has sailed exactly once in his entire life, it was in Searsport, Maine, and on a classic eighty-three-foot wooden-mast antique sailboat. Bob knew the waters there. Chris magically put his only sailing experience into play with Disney’s top guy, and the interview went well.

  Share your feelings. This is certainly the opposite of most business advice you get. Feelings are somehow ugly things that should be hidden away. If you’re nervous, it is reasonable to express that. If you’re excited about something, why not admit it? Sharing prideful emotions can sometimes be dicey, because it can come off as bragging about yourself, and sharing more negative emotions might be frowned upon, but this is one way to build an Echo between you and your audience.

  Whether or not you like Adele’s music, check out her performance at the Royal Albert Hall, because what goes on between the songs is worth studying and emulating. You might not need the false eyelashes, but other than that, it’s all worth taking in. Note, especially, how her audience reacts to her. Pure magic.

  The Benefits of Human Sacrifice

  There are fundamental aspects to human interaction that most people already understand and that do not need to be discussed. Sacrifice is not one of those things.

  Sacrifice is underrepresented in the social sphere because it’s thought that interactions have to be win-win, that everything needs to benefit everyone, and that we should always be happy with every single arrangement. Not true.

  In fact, it’s in lean times that we really start to see who our friends are—those who are willing to give something away when they do not even have enough for themselves. Those who are giving end up being the receivers later on, because they are seen as beneficial to both the community and the individual. They’re given preferential treatment because their sacrifice has shown they’ll be helpful in the future.

  Consider two methods or strategies for being part of community. We’ll call one the hoarder; he meets people and guards them from others in order to ensure that he’s doing good by his group. He won’t make introductions because he’s afraid he might look bad as a result of a bad connection.

  Now here’s another strategy: the prolific connector. He’s always finding ways for other people to talk to one another and doesn’t care as much how he looks in the process, because he feels that those two people can make their own judgments.

  Ask yourself which of these two models of behavior would perform better in a game environment. Which would be introduced more? Which would end up with more social capital than the other? The answer is: the one who is capable of giving—in other words, of sacrifice.

  Sacrifice is a fundamental human behavior that showed us whom to trust during times past. If people gave away something, it meant both that they were not starving—that they had high survivability—and that they would take care of us. We trusted these people, and they became our leaders and our friends. Sacrifice helped guide us toward the most powerful, stable group possible. Sharing and sacrifice strengthens groups, which is why we find them in every society in the world.

  Sacrifice, giving, generosity, or whatever else you’d like to call it is a fundamental trait in human cultures, and those who do it show signs of long-term potential, while others do not. It’s why everyone has faith in bloggers who post regular, amazing content and why we enjoy spending time with people who have lots of dinner parties. All other things being equal, they’re seen as givers, which means we feel a need to reciprocate.

  Ask yourself how you can incorporate this into your work. Remember that everything you receive is in direct proportion to what people feel from you. Are you telling them, subconsciously, that you are stingy or that you have plenty? Whatever you send out, your audience will react appropriately, so be careful.

  I See Myself in You: What Deadmau5 and

  Paulo Coelho Have in Common

  Joel Zimmerman spends his time onstage wearing a giant mouse head and twisting knobs in front of a seething crowd of thousands of passionate fans. Known more widely as the electronic music star deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”), Zimmerman is probably among the top five acts of his kind in the world. Though we like his music, we’re more excited to see how he creates Echo by connecting with his fans and turning them into collaborators and conspirators.

  On the day this was written, Zimmerman was at it again, this time welcoming people to hang out with him on a live video feed, because he was having trouble uploading a few preview tracks to a site for musicians. Zimmerman chatted with everyone who participated, traded jokes, shared little insights about what had g
one into making the songs, and just plain oozed typical human experiences. He kept losing things, physical things, and because everyone has had that kind of a day, it just added to the experience.

  Joel also never calls his fans “fans,” and he’s not one to say “you guys” when he’s talking to the group. In short, he works hard on Echo. He works hard to point out that he’s a regular guy (well, as regular as someone who has an eight-bit Space Invaders character tattooed on his neck and who tends to wear a giant mouse head can be). It does a lot to leave people feeling like they’re part of an experience and not just faces in the crowd.

  Now, as promised, let’s take a look at how Paulo Coelho is using this technique. What makes Coelho wonderful is that he shifts attention back onto the people who love and support his work. Check out his Twitter background at http://twitter.com/paulocoelho. It’s a mosaic of his readers. Look at his responses on any social network and you’ll see lots and lots of two-way interactions, plenty of people talking warmly about whatever is of interest to them.

  His works stand alone in the way they let readers see themselves in the words. The Alchemist has sold millions and millions and millions of copies for a reason. It speaks at a universal level, which is the ultimate Echo. But the person behind the books does a great job of enhancing that feeling by actually communicating and caring outside his books.

  This no doubt helps sales, but that’s not why Coelho does what he does. He’s just passionate about people. It shows through in everything he does, and it’s the sign of someone who understands the power of Echo.

  A Not-So-Echo-y Example

  We decided to look at another popular music artist to see what he was doing to build relationships online (because we don’t have much access beyond news clippings to what musicians do and don’t do off-line).