Yesterday I drove down to Santa Cruz for FreelanceCamp. I wrote a quick post about it at the Spot.Us blog.
One thing I love about unconferences is the end when it gets a little sappy. You might not tell from this or other blog posts, but I have a cheezy emotional center. So when we sat in a circle and started talking about community and how the people in the room were the future of Santa Cruz, I was…. touched. I was sitting next to Tom Honig, the former editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel and he received the most applause after he described the vigor that he felt from the day.
Although Tom is no longer the editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel – he holds that position in the community’s heart. Everyone knew who he was and his words didn’t fall on deaf ears. Santa Cruz is an isolated part of the Bay Area and I hope that editors in small-to-mid-sized cities across the country hold the same respect Tom appeared to. It was inspiring.
Another important lesson: You don’t need to pitch every person you meet. It’s very easy to forget that I am not just working online, but I am living online as well – and life is not just about work. I sometimes fall into a trap where I think every person I meet needs to be pitched.
At the same time – it’s common web philosophy that everyone is a potential collaborator. How do we weigh these against each other?
The dedicated and driven worker in me (workaholic?) wants nothing more than to sell, sell, sell the idea the of ‘community funded reporting’ to everyone I meet at all times. Believe me – I have the passion and energy to do this. But not only is it no way to live – it would probably annoy most people.
In the end, that’s no way to live – and I always say what we are seeing now is people just living their lives online. I need to do more living and less working online myself. Also – I assume it would come off as obnoxious if all I did was nothing but introduce myself and go straight into a pitch. Leave it to Santa Cruz to break me out of the work-tunnel I’ve been in 😉
This is somewhat related to, although tangentially, with a conversation brought up by Scott Rosenberg and pointed out to through the IdeaLab blog about getting noticed in web journalism – the slings and arrows of personal branding and self-promotion.
This is an interesting conversation and I don’t really know how to weigh in – in part because it’s something I have been aware of and consciously working on my entire web career. I am not against “personal branding,” I practice it ie: the name “Digidave” and the picture with five of me: this is often the only reason why people remember who I am.
But I think Dan Gillmor is right when he says:
”
Self-promotion should make you slightly uncomfortable. The best
journalists know the absolute necessity of humility; when
accomplishments lead to hubris, that’s when trouble arrives. (I suppose
this is true of every walk of life.) That’s why self-promotion should
never be motivated by pure ego, or resort to the kinds of slippery
tactics that journalists love to expose in other fields.
I think self-promotion is necessary (see Tim O’Rielly’s post on lessons in blogging from from Jon Stewart)- but needs to be weighed against staying relevant. In the end quality is the best self-promotion anyone can ever do.
So it appears I have two somewhat nebulous lessons I need to internalize. The first: Don’t pitch everyone – it’s obnoxious and won’t do me any good. Not to mention, I’ll miss some of the best parts of living my life online.
The second lesson is best summed up by Ice-Cube: “chickity-check yo self before you wreck yo self”
It’s great to catch yourself like that and realize that a conversation you are having can go so much further than a pitch. Also, learning to be a little less pitch trigger happy can open up and deepen all kinds of relationships. Thanks for sharing.
Nice one, Dave. In deed, it is always good when something prompts some self-analysis.
Hi David,
Two things I’ve taken to heart recently:
1. Elevator pitches are actually the least effective way to network and
2. Workaholism makes one very, very dull.
The two seem to work in tandem–when they are on one side of the life-scale, and the other side is empty, you’re in need of some time away from work and in life…
I think too, in time, you’ll find that even if you’re developing a “personal brand” out here, you’ll be able to knock off for a bit and people will still remember you. You will have created the right connections in the right places and it will be enough.
Trust me on this one 🙂
It sounds like solid lessons you’ve learned. Not everyone is a potential collaborator in your life’s passion, they have their own plans. It’s great to share what you love with other people but when it becomes a pitch and you turn into an evangelist seeking conversions, I tune out, no matter how worthy the cause. I feel like I’m being manipulated and that the pitchman or pitchwoman is ignoring the fact that I might have something that I feel equally passionate about.
I realize that to achieve great things, people often need to be over-the-top and more than a little self-absorbed in order to overcome all of the obstacles that they face. But they don’t make the best friends or collaborators because they don’t understand the reciprocality required for a genuine friendship. They are too set on their “mission” whether it is to change the world or to be rich & famous.
Only you can say where the line is but if you have good friends, ones who are honest to you & have your best interests at heart, they will quickly tell you when you have crossed it. You should listen to them even when they tell you things you don’t want to hear.
There’s my two dollar’s worth of philosophy for the day.
P.S. When I say “you” I don’t mean specifically you, Digidave, but the general you (anyone with a pitch). This just reflects my attitude about self- and cause-promotion, not specifically about you or anything you have said or done. You just raise some interesting issues about behavior in online networking.