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  • Lifting others up. Part two or three. Or four. Who knows.

    Posted on August 17th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 13 commenting.


    This photo is from my friend Libby Williams. She took it in my sunroom. WE love her. Check out her blog.

    “Victory in marketing doesn’t happen when you sell something, but when you cultivate advocates for your brand” – Steve Knox

    Steve Knox made a huge, beautiful impact on me at the FIRE session. And set this thought rolling around in my heart and my head.

    He said that the goal of a company should be to create Trusted Advocacy. And while he spent a lot of time talking about disrupting schemas (which was awesome cool), he said something else that got my wheels spinning and really validated a lesson we have learned.

    Lesson number 9 in the Brains on Fire book to be exact.

    “Movements make advocates feel like rock stars.”     (Okay, I have said it before. Maybe rock star is not the best term, but you get the gist.)

    Steve said one of the ways to create trust is to give without expecting anything in return. (Side note: what makes a remarkable company also seems to make a great person, have you noticed that?)

    We call it lifting others up. So many companies these days want to start a community of fans. But think about it. Do we really admire those among us who are looking for fans to be their advocates or are we drawn to people who genuinely lift us up…without expecting anything in return.

    I’ll be honest, I know who I’d rather have dinner with.

    It’s a fine line.

    Don’t go searching for people (fans) to lift your business up, lift them up first. Be famous for the people who love you, for the way you love them.

    Love and recognition form a circular transaction. If you give it out, it’ll always come back to you. Trust it.

    We all on some gut level know that first hand. It flat out works in relationships and it works in business. And finally, finally we as marketers and leaders are starting to embrace the fact that creating a remarkable business is all about relationships.

    We are so very jazzed that those of your reading the Brains on Fire book are reaching out to us by email and such. It’s really a dream come true for me personally. Another dream of mine is to return the concept of love back to the corporate world. Because love is a good thing. Here’s a comment to us by email from DeRay McKesson. Who by the way gave us a ton of constructive feedback we will address soon. But here is a comment from him I cherish:

    + Love. It’s an easy topic/word to avoid and difficult to engage meaningfully. I appreciate that you did not hide behind “passion” but instead let passion co-mingle with its partner “love” throughout the text. At each point, you acknowledged the feeling part of the work of spreading messages in a way that came across as authentic. Solid.

    I woke up one morning recently to this email and it changed my life. It started like this: Dear Brains on Fire, This love is real. So yeah. Not naming names DOUGLAS, but you think we all work harder when you share that sort of thing? Well, guess what? WE all do. Whether we are abolishing sex slavery in the world, reforming high school education or selling diapers. Or scissors.

    You toss bits of love out into the universe and they come back to you. Every. Single. Time. Stay close. WE are crazy mad in love with all of you who are taking your precious time to to read this blog today. Pass it on. Will ya?

    Love and much, much gratitude,
    Robbin

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  • http://alterimaging.com Vincent Ammirato

    Robbin et. al.

    Let me be a personal testament. You have positively affected my life. It was a furtive tweet that I sent to you about crashing #Firesessions and yet you answered it and said, “come on”. I was back in high school and the cute cheerleader that I thought was out of my league said, “yes.” to a date.

    I’m an analyst…a data guy. I want to measure things and put them on a chart. But the concept of reciprocal altruism that Steve introduced me to can’t really be measured, can it? Add John Moore’s tidbit: “What gets measured, gets manufactured.” and suddenly I’m glad that such things aren’t capable of being synthesized.

    But they can be taught. The Brains on Fire book is full of such lessons. And, as a former teacher, I know that the best lessons are taught through experience and your invitation was a powerful one.

    Thank you.

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  • http://brainsonfire.com Robbin

    @vincent. It was mutual love at first tweet. BTW my daughter fell in love with the skirt. And I had to break it to her that ITS mine. All her friends are crazy for it. Can you send me the link again on where to order?

  • http://www.ebuyshoesstore.com shirley

    Thanks for the interesting post.

  • http://www.lisapetrilli.com/ Lisa Petrilli

    Robbin,

    DeRay’s comment about you not hiding behind “passion” but instead letting it co-mingle with “love” throughout the book is quite perceptive. Upon reading his quote I realize he’s right, but it never struck me while reading the book. To me it simply seemed like an eloquent expression of emotion throughout the book…

    I shared a story with Geno via email that I think is appropriate to mention with this post. I was in an in-person Board Meeting a few years back with 15 others and the Board was re-writing its mission statement. There was a small group of members, including myself, that wanted the mission to include the words “sharing our hearts and minds.” We were strongly over-ruled by the much larger group that was afraid that by using the word “hearts” we would not be taken seriously. And yet, the word passion was acceptable and ended up being included in the mission.

    I genuinely admire BOF’s use of the word “love” and I hope that through your genius you will slowly but surely convince the C-Suites of the world to embrace it and not fear it!

    Wonderful post, Robbin!

    @LisaPetrilli

  • http://www.thetrainingfactor.com/blog Jonathan Saar

    Such a fine line between analyzing data and metrics and then doing what feels right. Numbers and stats can really cloud what needs to be done. I can’t wait to get my hands on your book. If our people are always first in our building process..how can you go wrong?

    I sleep well knowing that the folks I interacted with today it made their life better and that is what matters to me most!

    Thinking of that song …’lifting me higher and higher” :)

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  • tracy

    JUST got my BOF Book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! I’m so excited. I see it left Greenville on August 3rd. Just seconds ago the envelope was handed to me by our admin staffer. Dear BOF Book – what took you so long? 16 days from Greenville to Calgary, Alberta? Where have you been? Were you cozying up to some poutine in Quebec? Petitioning the stork for a new location? Never mind. I’m so happy you’re here. This is THE BEST. You have a good home here in Calgary. I will introduce you to many people and share the love. You will love hockey and come to embrace the term ‘boot it to the vendors in the vehicle’. You will buy snow tires. You will learn to love ugly winter boots that keep your tootsies warm. You will love Nickelback. Or not.
    Must put you down. Must not read now. Must do work. Will love you later. Thanks for making my day.

  • http://www.mackcollier.com Mack Collier

    “Don’t go searching for people (fans) to lift your business up, lift them up first. Be famous for the people who love you, for the way you love them.”

    Find the people that are already singing your song, and give them the stage, the spotlight, and a microphone. We all want to be rockstars, and we tend to love the companies that make us feel like we are.

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  • http://www.farlandgroup.com/blog Jane Hiscock

    I became aware of the concept of advocates for your brand through a blog post by Lisa Petrilli and it has sparked a lot of thinking for @farlandgroup and our clients. Thank you for sharing the concept and creating new ways of thinking.

    In working with our clients and their customer communities this has also sparked interesting discussion and debate. We have extended the point to consider how well companies treat their clients. It has occurred to me that many companies (particularly in an economy that is volatile) are so focused on the chase to find the next new client that they forget the one that they worked so hard to capture last week.

    I’d be interested in how your work helps companies stay focused on thinking of customers as advocates for the brand and how you overcome the focus on net new customers versus existing ones.

    Thanks for sharing this great event and learning that you had with the world.
    Jane

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