The Brainzooming Group

I was having a Twitter direct message conversation with a good friend recently about career challenges. She asked if I were still as interested in what I do as when I started, because she isn’t right now.

My quick response? You don’t always love today what you have loved for a long time.

Moving from entrepreneurship to a job for an organization, she has no interest in doing the work she had loved previously, prompting her question on career challenges. While she is performing comparable duties at the new job (and it’s going well), it’s less demanding than entrepreneurship, and from a financial standpoint, more stable. The thought of doing the more challenging work she’d been doing independently is “dead” to her.

Losing interest or seeing your strong interests shift is probably common on the list of career challenges people encounter.  Her question got me brainstorming ideas for additional options I could share beyond the ones suggested within the 140-character limits of Twitter.

6 Ideas when Career Challenges Have You Losing the Love for What You Do

From brainstorming ideas, here are six approaches to consider if you begin losing the love for what you have loved to do:

1. Find someone else who loves what you do and “partner” with them

You most likely know other people doing what you have been doing who are still in love with it. Spend time with one of them (preferably one with less experience than you). Try to once again see what you do through their fresh eyes with the enthusiasm they still bring to it.

 2.  Add something else you love into what you do

My career coach once told me I have an unusual knack for reinventing myself whenever I hit career challenges. Key to that is building in new or unexpected wrinkles into the job you’ve been doing a long time. It may seem counter-intuitive, but think about how you can make what you love to do harder than it has been for a long time to re-ignite your love affair with it.

3. Do something else in whole or in part

No matter how specialized you consider yourself, there are surely other things you love doing. Consider how one or more of your passion projects can be combined with (or totally replace) what you aren’t loving right now. Your old passion plus a current passion could be the answer.

4. Don’t worry about it

Consider the possibility your current career challenges will pass. The recent job change for my friend provided relief from multiple day-to-day pressures. That type of break from what’s been on your mind could be enough by itself to make you look VERY differently at what you have been doing. Love is one thing, but dependable remuneration for what you’re doing now is something else entirely.

5. Suck it up and keep going out of duty

While the ideal situation is to always love what you do, that’s not ALWAYS going to be the case – no matter what motivational speakers and success gurus try to tell you. If you have real-life responsibilities to address, your career challenges may just have to take a back seat as you solider on with what you HAVE to do, whether you’re feeling the love or not.

6. Take it as a signal or opportunity to make a break

Sometimes love for what you do, as much as this seems impossible, simply goes away completely. While it may pain you to not love what you’ve loved for a long time, your current career challenges may be the best thing that ever happened. If you’ve been reluctant to make a big change, maybe this is the big wake-up call you’ve been unconsciously waiting to have happen to you.

What other ideas would you offer for comparable career challenges?

Have you recaptured the love for what you do? Have you walked away? And what advice would you offer my friend? - Mike Brown

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Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic new ideas! For an organizational creativity boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these innovation benefits for you.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Author Jim Collins checking out my orange shoes.

I was first introduced to the idea of an organization having a core purpose statement when our CMO pushed for developing a core purpose as discussed in a Harvard Business Review article by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.

Core Purpose Statements in Organizations

A core purpose statement for an organization is essentially its reason for existence. But rather than simply stating what the organization produces or sells, its core purpose statement should be relatively long-term articulation of why the organization warrants a place in the market along with what drives it toward success. It’s neither a brand promise nor a slogan (which are shorter term), but congruence between all three statements is important.

A couple of examples of core purpose statements we used at the time were:

• 3M – To solve unsolved problems innovatively.
• Walmart - To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same things as rich people.

Ultimately, the core purpose we developed as a transportation services company was: To make global commerce work by connecting people, places, & information.

Each of these has a similar format:

• To (VERB)
• WHAT? Or WHO?
• HOW? WHAT? Or WHY?

What was particularly intriguing for me was the Walmart core purpose is about “giving,” and ours was about “making,” even though Walmart doesn’t give things away, and we didn’t make anything as a service company. This discontinuity between what a company does and its reason for being indicates a certain positive internal tension to drive an organization forward to a bigger goal and success.

How does a core purpose statement translate for an individual as part of personal branding?

As an outgrowth of the work we did, and as I started to speak to groups on personal branding, I developed a personal core purpose statement. For an individual, it is the driving force in your life to which all your activities are tied.

When developing my personal statement, I was in a period of spiritual reawakening. As a result, the original version of my core purpose statement, which was tied to a sense of financial freedom, transformed completely into one that defined success as serving others on a daily basis.

My own core purpose statement has been a tremendously important force in helping me abandon trying to balance my life’s activities. Instead, I focus on the success of aligning my priorities, decisions, and activities to my core purpose. That’s provided an incredible amount of peace of mind over the years.

Questions to Develop a Personal Core Purpose Statement

What gets you up every morning?

You can ask and answer these questions to start formulating ideas for your core purpose:

• What things motivate me to get up & get out of bed every morning?
• In what ways am I of the greatest service to others?
• What brings me happiness & contentment?
• What things do I find most fulfilling?
• On what would I spend my time, talents, & attention if I didn’t have to work?
• At the end of my life, what things will make me smile when I look back?

Use the format shared above to structure the common themes emerging from your answers into a personal core purpose statement. And whether you share your personal core purpose with others is a decision you’ll have to make. Quite frankly, I’ve only shared the exact wording of mine with a couple of people. Instead, my hope is that people see the impact of it in my behaviors and the way I lead my life.

What do you think about a core purpose statement leading to success in a career?

Is this a new concept for you, or have you already developed a statement? If you already have one in place, how does it help shape your life? - Mike Brown

Subscribe for Free to the Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic new ideas! For an organizational creativity boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these innovation benefits for you.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. It used to be a holiday steeped in religion and prayers of thanks for blessings we have received.

Now, it seems to be less about giving thanks and more about prayers of supplication:

• Prayers from retailers that the US consumers will show up early and start buying too many things for holiday giving, and
• Prayers from US consumers that they’ll beat out other US consumers to get the deals they’re looking for at stores and online

So while there are still lots of prayers involved with Thanksgiving, they are hardly the types of prayers one might hope for on this day set aside to reflect on our blessings.

Speaking of Blessings in the Challenging Parts of Life

Thinking about the past few years, the most important thing I’ve learned is there are blessings in everything we’re presented in life – whether we perceive those things as good OR bad.

That hadn’t been my mindset before. Previously, I looked at good things as blessings and (apparently) bad things as annoyances that were there primarily because of something going awry. And those things needed to be FIXED to turn them into blessings.

Through a lot of reflection (and listening to a lot of EWTN), it’s become apparent how much good comes out of things I’d have considered as debacles just a few years ago.

One example?

Early in 2011 I was headed to Columbus, OH to work with Nate Riggs for several days of client meetings. Since it was February, I purposely booked my flight to arrive the day before to account for any potential weather delays. Sure enough, I flew in a day ahead of the great blizzard of 2011.

Just as we were pulling into Nate’s office, I received a call from our client asking when I was planning on getting into town. He informed me they not only had an emergency all-department meeting been scheduled for the next day (when our meetings were supposed to be going on), but because of the blizzard, the company was likely going to be on ½ days for the next several days. His hope was that I hadn’t left Kansas City so we could simply cancel everything.

The old me would be at the peak of frustration from having traveled to Ohio to have the client tell me our meetings (which we were told were a big deal to get done ASAP) were now in several days of TBD status.

The newer me realized there must be some reason I was supposed to be in Columbus, and it was important to sit back and see what it was.

I learned the reason the next morning, when our suddenly open schedule provided the opportunity for Nate and I to visit the Arvey store and meet Cheri Allbritton. Our visit probably wasn’t more than 20 minutes, and it’s the only time Cheri and I have met in person. But that time with the three of us talking in her office was a vital part of cementing a friendship that has flourished online. And this friendship was especially important as Cheri went through a very difficult 2011. I had the blessing to learn from the grace with which Cheri handled the real life challenges she was facing.

Without the snowstorm, there never would have been time to meet.

And guess what?

We got all our meetings done in a compressed time frame, and even though Chicago had been shut down the day before, I flew through Midway with no delays.

That’s only one example. I could go on with others, but won’t . . . at least not right now.

Being Thankful

So here’s my prayer for you on Thanksgiving: that we’re all able to embrace and learn from the challenges we face – big and small – and have the gift of patience to look for and discern the blessings behind each challenge.

And I guess that prayer even applies to the challenge of missing out on the last iPad deal you waited in line for hours to get at the big box electronics store!

Happy Thankshopgiving! - Mike Brown

Subscribe for Free to the Brainzooming blog email updates.

Download the free ebook, “Taking the NO Out of InNOvation” to help you generate fantastic new ideas! For an organizational creativity boost, contact The Brainzooming Group to help your team be more successful by rapidly expanding strategic options and creating innovative plans to efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can deliver these innovation benefits for you.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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It seems easier all the time to undermine your success by distracting yourself from what’s important.

With the holiday season upon us, there will be even more distractions fighting for attention. Spend some time considering these questions and planning. How can you quit distracting yourself from your own success by . . .

• Judging yourself by someone else’s metrics?
• Spending too much time on social media?
• Continuing to seek information when what you should to is already clear?
• Doing anything other than having a difficult conversation?
• Multi-thrashing through too few items on the to-do list?
• Cultivating imagination and ignoring implementation?
• Acting like there is all the time in the world?
• Wishing your days away?
• Depending on someone or something to come to the rescue?
• Complaining about instead of conquering obstacles?
• Talking while the world is subtly turning in the other direction?
• Continually clicking between tabs on multiple web browsers?
• Assessing how easy it is to fall short of what others have accomplished?
• Not committing ahead of time but then not getting anything meaningful done by not committing?
• Worrying about how to keep up with all the new information that’s out there?
• Exploring the same things over and over again?
• Seeking comfort over challenge?
• Wanting reassurance over risk?
• Becoming mired in excruciating what-iffing over fervent belief?

What’s your* plan to stop distracting yourself?

*By “your” and “yourself,” I mean “my” and “myself.” - Mike Brown

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Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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For some people, it is a natural move from in real life personal relationships to social networking. Their social networking success can come from an instinctive or learned knack for what and when to share the right amount of personal information to make positive connections without boring people or seeming too self-obsessed.

Others, who take a more cautious approach to their lives and personal relationships, cannot imagine WHAT they could share online about themselves while still maintaining a professional image.

Social Networking by Sharing Kitteh Pictures

I was having this discussion with a cautious business owner recently who has social media presences established for the business, but struggles with what to share to both establish professional expertise and make personal connections via social networking. My point was even in a business-to-business setting, people buy from other people. PERSONAL relationships matter in real life business development, and they also matter when you are engaged in online social networking for business development.

You should have seen the reaction though when I mentioned the strategy behind sharing pictures of our cat Clementine (who a Twitter friend dubbed the “Director of Enthusiasm”) on Facebook.

Within a few questions, we found some topics that definitely have the potential for sharing on social networks. The issue is whether this business owner will become comfortable weaving in a more personal feel to social media content.

7 Content Strategy Questions for Building Personal Relationships

If you are struggling with integrating personal information into your social media sharing, here are seven questions you can ask yourself to identify potential personally oriented topics for social media sharing:

• What do you think, know, and believe?
• What are your favorite sources of compelling news and information online?
• What do business associates and clients know about you personally?
• What do you share about yourself when you meet someone at a networking event?
• What is intriguing about you and your professional and personal interactions?
• What is visually intriguing about your life – both professionally and personally?
• What brands, stores, and places do you talk up to people because you appreciate them?

Certainly, you have answers to these questions. If you are struggling with sharing personal information via social media, the answers to these questions can start to form the basis of your personal content sharing strategy.

Social Networking – When and How Much Personal Information

The next big questions to ask and answer are how soon and how much to share personally?

You have to do what works for you, but if you are reluctant to share personal information online, the answers to these last two questions are “sooner than you think” and “more than you want.”

So now that all the questions are answered, it is time to started sharing and building personal relationships to let people get to know you better in an online professional setting! - Mike Brown

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If you’re struggling with determining ROI and evaluating its impacts, download “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” today!  This article provides a concise, strategic view of the numbers and stories that matter in shaping, implementing, and evaluating your strategy. You’ll learn lessons about when to address measurement strategy, identifying overlooked ROI opportunities, and creating a 6-metric dashboard. Download Your Free Copy of “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track!”

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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A fundamental part of effectively building a social media network is positively and beneficially interacting with other social media users. Another part is being able to successfully  ask members of your social media network for assistance and participation – either collectively or individually. Doing this successfully directly relates to the social media etiquette you display when you’re making a big social media “ask” of your audience.

There are clearly better and worse ways to ask your social media network for action. And based on requests we have received lately, there are a variety of basic social media etiquette practices social media users (even prominent ones) don’t know, selectively follow, or choose to blatantly ignore.

11 Keys to Seeking Social Media Network Help

When it comes to seeking help from your social media network . . .

• If you solicit people in your social media network to leave comments on your new blog post, be prepared to check for pending comments throughout the day and APPROVE them as they are made.
• When asking your social media network to “Like” or “Follow” your new social media presence, start sharing content in advance so your social media presence looks like an active one.
• If you’re going to direct message someone to prompt them to retweet your important new social media content, make sure the link you include works – every time.
• When you request guest blog posts, offer some direction on who your audience target is and provide activation support within your social media network after the guest post appears.
• If you want to become a guest author on a blog, first show up and participate on the blog (or other social networks where the blogger is active) instead of simply making a request out of the blue.
• When writing a guest post for someone else’s blog, don’t send the same post to multiple bloggers.
• If you ask for a review of your book, webinar, or speech, be willing to adapt to a blogger’s writing approach (and actually supply the discount code you promise will be available to the blog’s readers).
• When throwing out a question on Twitter or Facebook to other social media users, be ready to interact with members of your social media network who respond.
• If you insist on sending an auto-direct message to someone who newly follows you on Twitter and include a question in the tweet, follow them back beforehand so they can respond to you with a direct message.
• When asking someone within your social network to do something for you, do something for them first.
• Use “please” and “thank you” liberally – even if it means sending someone another message (or two) to say them.

There are certainly more than these eleven social media etiquette tips, but these provide a solid foundation for cultivating greater social media network success.

What other social media etiquette tips would you add?

What social media etiquette miscues do you see when people make requests via social media? And what successful social media etiquette practices do you appreciate within your social media network?  - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming email updates.

If you’re struggling with determining ROI and evaluating its impacts, download “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track” today!  This article provides a concise, strategic view of the numbers and stories that matter in shaping, implementing, and evaluating your strategy. You’ll learn lessons about when to address measurement strategy, identifying overlooked ROI opportunities, and creating a 6-metric dashboard. Download Your Free Copy of “6 Social Media Metrics You Must Track!”

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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Around this same time the past two years, I’ve published a list of twenty-five lessons learned or reconfirmed during the previous year since leaving corporate life. Here’s another list reflecting on the past year as The Brainzooming Group marks three years as a full-time venture.

Here’s Year Three in Review

• It’s so unbelievably easy to be very busy but still not spend time on the vital things your business needs.
• The best thing you can do to support a friend who is struggling could be shedding a tear for them.
• You can go home again. Don’t be surprised though if nearly everybody you used to know is gone or shell shocked.
• Creating an LLC doesn’t have to be a day-one event for your new venture. There are more important business artifacts to create first.
• In business, swinging for the fences can result in grounding out just as easily as it can hitting a home run or striking out.
• It’s possible a great deal of someone’s success is because of the situation that surrounds him or her. Without the favorable situation, success vanishes.
• On the other hand, it’s possible a great deal of someone’s challenges are because of personal issues and not the situation that surrounds them. Put them in a new situation, and the problems persist.
• There is a place for an iPad in my business life. And I’m much more excited than I ever thought about giving it a greater share of my business screen time.
• When you first hear, “No,” it feels worse than, “We’re still planning on doing something.” Six months later, you realize a “No” back when would have been much better than continuing to hear, “We’re still planning on doing something.”
• It’s deceptive to assign a deadline to a project and simply assume the start time is “right now.” A project often seems to have its own time when it will let you get started, and it’s rarely “right now.”
• I remain committed to the belief that selfless is better than selfish in every way. That doesn’t mean selfless always (or even typically) feels better in the present moment.
• In many situations, I do well using self-accountability. There are a number of other situations, however, where I absolutely need someone to repeatedly ask me, “How is it going? How are you doing?”
• It’s still tough to have the faith to depend on “out of the blue” opportunities happening when you need them although they always seem to happen in just that way.
• I’ve cut down dramatically on the number of shirts I destroy by marring them with permanent ink. This is good, but I‘m not completely sure why it’s changed.
• It always surprises me how many presenters are so transparent about not giving a shit about the audience.
• While it’s now clear the Brainzooming blog can disappear for a couple of weeks because of external forces and still get the audience to come back, it kills me to imagine deciding to not publish any single work day.
• Replacing my four-year old computer increased my productivity dramatically. I need to remember that in 18 months and act accordingly.
• I’ve been surprised how much trying to deliberately stay out of the home office on weekends this year has made Monday a fresh, enjoyable experience. Thanks to the home Wi-Fi network, network printer, and new laptop, it’s possible to do this and be productive.
• Exercise, exercise, exercise. Every time I ignore this lesson, it catches up with me.
• Going back a long time, I handicap myself through not taking advantage of all the resources available for success. This used to fuel my own sense of self-competition. Now, this characteristic mostly frustrates me about myself.
• Just because a dream comes true doesn’t mean it will stay true.
• The door between where you are now and where you considering going can be intimidating. That doesn’t mean the place on the other side of the door is anywhere near as intimidating as the door makes it seem.
• Knowing what’s best and knowing what will work can be very different.
• It’s increasingly easy to be swept up in the hype swirling through social media and popular business culture. Use your own judgment and instincts to call B.S. at an ever-increasing rate, too.
• Before you start, you may think there will be a certain number of lessons, but you could come up one short.

How about Joining Us as for Year Four for The Brainzooming Group?

Thanks for reading the Brainzooming blog the last year. And if you’re getting ready for 2013 and need a fresh, innovative perspective for how you’ll continue (or re-start) your success, email me or give me a call. We’d love to help you find new pockets of success you might never have imagined previously!

As one last note, today marks fifteen years since the first day I put on a pair of orange socks. For those who don’t know the orange sock story, here it is! - Mike Brown

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the free Brainzooming blog email updates.

If you’re struggling to generate and implement new ideas, The Brainzooming Group can be the strategic catalyst you need. We will apply our strategic thinking, innovation, and implementation tools on to help you create greater organizational success. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you figure out how to work around your innovation challenges.

Mike Brown

Founder of The Brainzooming Group, and a huge fan of strategy, creativity, and innovation. Mike is a frequent speaker on innovation, strategic thinking, and social media.

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