Managing the Gray – Positive Advice That Everyone Can Use to Succeed

Hey, welcome back, everybody. Welcome to Managing the Gray #19. How is it going?

By the time you listen to this I will be in Toronto at the Canadian Marketing Association’s annual Digital Marketing Conference, but I wanted to record another Managing the Gray and get it out there because someone raised a question to me about the big announcement yesterday.

Thank you for all the great E-mails, the phone calls, the personal notes saying, “Congratulations on the new company and your new partnership.” I could not be more excited. More than one person have said, “C.C. your passions are really coming through how excited you are about this company.” I am excited. I am genuinely excited. It is unlike anything I have ever done before I mean in any adventure I have ever undertaken.

I will tell you back in May when I started Managing the Gray, I had no idea it would lead to something like this. I am going to tell a story about that opportunity about looking things in the face and just jumping for it, but first, I got a comment, an audio comment that I need to address.

It is from a good friend, P.W. Fenton. If you are not familiar with P-Dub, P-Dub is one of the most talented producers in the podosphere. He is also a genuine storyteller, a good man and a good friend of mine. Check out digitalflotsam.com, I will link to it in the show notes, actually it is a dot org — no, I forget. I will link to it in the show notes. Digital Flotsam is one of the premiere podcasts on the Internet bar none, storytelling at its finest. Just an old guy in Florida telling stories from his life and it is beautiful. P-Dub needed to scold me a little bit. He is an old wise man and definitely a mentor, someone I look up to and he sent me this comment.

P.W. Fenton: Dude, I just listened to your show where you let us know finally what was going on, but as I listened, I realized you are not identifying anyone. I assumed that everybody knows you and you do introduce a guy named Joseph Jaffe, but then we only hear the first names of somebody named Neville and somebody named Shel. Who are these people including Joseph Jaffe? Why are they so important to your new company? Now, I personally have a reason to know one of those people. He gave me the best review quote I could ever have received from anyone. His first name is like Cher or Frank to me, no need of a second name, but seriously, you need to introduce these guys, all the members of this new endeavor.

C.C. Chapman:
Thank you, P-Dub. Cher though? Come on. One name and you can be a she. Well, that is bad.

Anyways, P-Dub is right. I realized this that new listeners to Managing the Gray, people not in the marketing space may not know how cool these individuals are that I am working with. I also realized, I went back and listened to our little interview, you are right, we never did say last names, very faux pas of us.

So, who is Joseph Jaffe? Joseph Jaffe is this crazy, wacky South African that I love to death. He hosts a podcast called Across the Sound, new marketing to its fullest. He also wrote a book that if you have not read it, shame on you. This is a must read for anybody, anybody interested in this whole new marketing space. If you want to know what type of stuff my new company is going to be doing, read this book, it is all in there. The book is called Life After the 30-Second Spot. I will link to it on the show notes. Seriously, it is a book that changed my life, changed my way of thinking and you should read it.

Shel Holtz, he is one of the co-hosts of For Immediate Release, which is another great podcast. He is a PR and corporate communication specialist. He is a nice guy. I remember meeting him in San Francisco when I spoke at the San Francisco Podcaster’s meetup.

He came up to me and said, “Dude, the Podsafe Music Network has changed my life, thank you.” He was such a nice guy and he is such a good guy. He has written books. The one that comes to the top of my head is Blogging for Business because I am looking at it. It is right here on my shelf. I have read it. It is a great book. A great, great guy, almost always has a cup of coffee in his hand everytime I see him, great guy.

Neville Hobson is the other half of For Immediate Release. He is a PR and a corporate communication specialist as well. He was based in Amsterdam. He is now based in the U.K. A great, great guy, super nice, speaks his mind, which I love. He does not bite his tongue very often, I love that. Those are the three people that were on the podcast, P.W. and the rest of the world who do not know who I am talking about.

I have got to tell you what is cool about this. This is what I have been dying to tell everybody, is the circumstances of how this company came about. This is a story about opportunity, about the randomness, about the six pixels of separation that Mitch Joel talks about all the time that you have got to realize. I took this job. I did not know Neville and Shel were on board yet, but I also took the job. I have met Joseph once, face to face. I actually have met Shel and Neville once as well. I met Shel at the San Francisco meetup I talked about. I met Neville this past summer when I was in Germany. He was also speaking so we met there, had some drinks, had a good time.

I came home from Babson one day and I was frustrated, something just happened and things have been happening and I got to the point where I said — and literally I came home, I was talking to Laura and I said, “Listen, this weekend I’ve got to start looking for a new job. It’s not going the way I want it to. There are bigger things out there. I don’t know what it is, but I want to start looking.”

This was a big deal because I loved my job there. I loved it, stable, great people, great opportunity, great stuff going on. She knows it was a big deal if I actually said, “I’m done. I gotta start looking.”

That night, I sent an E-mail out to a couple of friends, colleagues more, people I talked to about and possibly consulting gigs just to see what was going on, to see if they have thought anything more about it. Then in a random E-mail, it had nothing with this, to Joseph, I do not even remember what we were talking about. I have to go find this E-mail. Somewhere in it I said, “Yeah, you know I think I may start looking for a new job this weekend too” or mentioned it in passing.

Later that night, I am in Second Life with Mitch Joel. We were just kind of hanging out. Jaffe, gets in and we were just kind of hanging out. We were just all shooting the breeze, hanging in our HQ, having a good time, actually we were interacting with some other people, the next thing I know I got this IM from Joseph. He says, “Call me now.” I am like, “What?” I said, “Well, let us get out of Second Life and talk so we are not distracted.”

Picture this, Laura goes to bed, I am talking about getting a new job. Joseph and I had a long conversation. He said, “Listen, I’ve got this opportunity. I’ve got this — here is what I’m talking about, here is what I’m doing.” It excited me beyond belief. Everything I heard was everything I wanted in a position. We are talking about it and he said, “Listen, C.C., I was going to come after you down the road at some point, but you were so happy. I didn’t know you were available.”

There are two lessons there. One of them is you never know when something is going to bloom. Remember how we talked about — I said the guy or girl you meet in line at a coffee shop might be your future boss or might be the best partner you could ever find or might be — you never know when you are going to cross. So, a random E-mail with Joseph led to this, but the other thing is for employers or anybody on the other side or this goes for anybody, do not ever assumed someone is not interested in whatever it is you are offering them. I have had this happened before too. It might be a job offer. It might be an advertising opportunity. It might be a speaking opportunity.

Do not ever think, “Oh, I shouldn’t ask him.” I learned that recently too with someone who wanted to help me with some music. I did not reach out to this person because I did not want to call in a favor. I did not want to abuse our friendship was what I said. He was like, “What are you talking about? Always ask.” So, do not ever be afraid to ask and that works up and down the food chain as well. If you got a small little conference, maybe you do not have any money for a sponsorship — I have had this happened. People go, “Why did I not know if I could ask you to speak at my conference. I am like, “You’re kidding me. Ask.” Ask, always ask. Do not be afraid to ask.I tried stressing this to my kids as well. It is an early thing. What is the worse that could ever happen? They can say no and this applies to every level of business. See, it all comes back.

Back to the story, Joseph — we were on the phone. At the end of phone conversation, it was like 1:00 in the morning. It was a two-hour phone call or whatever. I remember I am sitting on my sun porch and he goes, “I’m sorry.” I said, “What are you sorry for? You just talked about the greatest opportunity ever.” He said, “No, I’m sorry because I know you’re not gonna sleep tonight because I know you and you’re gonna be wired about this.” He was right. I could not sleep.

I remember waking up in the morning and babbling. All I remember is being so excited and like 20 minutes later, Laura going, “Do you remember anything that you just said?” because I was not really awake totally yet. I said, “No.” She was, “Wait a minute, you had an offer? What’s going on?”

That is how the social media thing works. Joseph and I negotiated, not that there was much negotiation, but we negotiated in Second Life “Let’s do this right. Let’s have some fun. Let’s push these boundaries.” Then we all connected. It was funny because what I did not realized was he was having conversations with Shel and Neville. He said, “Hey, can I tell them that you are coming on board?” I said, “Yeah” and I am like, “Wait a minute. Shel and Neville might come on board?” It just got even cooler because I have no idea, so the idea is what drove me.

It was funny because Laura — we were two weeks into the conversation and Laura goes, “So, how much do you get in pay of this?” “I don’t know. I haven’t asked.” I did not ask because I did not care. It was the opportunity. It was the excitement. It was the passion. It was the spark. You guys got to find that spark, whatever it is and when you find that spark, attack it, get it, capture it, turn it into a flame, make it something bigger because you can.

You control your destiny. That is what I want to get at. Opportunity is out there. It is ready. Is this a risk for me to take this job from a nice, stable company? Yeah, it is, but you know what as my wife said she goes — I love her to death. I said, “Are you okay with this?” She said, “Listen, I know you. If you are so excited about this and you pass this up, you would never ever forgive yourself and I trust you” and that made it the easiest thing in the world. So, find those opportunities, grasp them, get them. Do not let them pass you by. This world changes way too fast. Social media and new marketing is changing the world we live in.

I talked to a client yesterday and I brained up all these ideas and things they could do. The next thing I know this one person said, “Well, can we do this?” It was the best idea in the room and I am so glad she brought it up because it was amazing. That is what it is. Everybody has got ideas. Everybody has got passions. Find yours, embrace it, turn it into something bigger.

Everybody talks about, “C.C. you found your dream job.” Yeah, I think I have found my dream job. My dream job is really sitting in a cabin in the woods with a glass of scotch writing a novel, but we will get there, writing a book. I want to write a book so bad and I am going to find a way because I want to. Hell, I will self-publish it if I have to, but what I am saying is just — so, I guess some points to remember. You never know when an opportunity is going to post itself. Do not ever be afraid to ask and find your passion and attack it. Make it happen. Make it a reality. That is what it is all about.

Yes, I am living that now. I can actually say that. I was comfortable for far too long. Looking, going “Man, I wish I could do something different. Man, I wish I could just attack this space and really do it all the time.” I am doing it now and that is exciting. You can do it too. I sound like a self-help guru, I do not mean to, but I am just very excited, very passionate about this and I want you to be passionate about it too.

So, there are some more details about the new company and yes, you will be hearing more. I think the number one comment was, “C.C., you forgot to tell us the name.” No, I did not forget anything, people. It is coming very, very soon. I am very, very excited about it. I am very excited about everything that is happening and it is all happening very, very quick. Ah, you are going to see stuff before you know it. It is going to be everywhere.

So, guys, girls, everybody in between, I will be back very, very soon. Keep the comments coming, managingthegray.com or E-mail me at cc.chapman@gmail.com. Keep everything coming, guys. You guys stay safe. Have a great one and I will talk to you very, very soon.

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