The Secret Sauce of Success
I did not expect to have a career working with speakers, in fact it nearly did not happen.
It always pays to read the fine print, something I did not do when decades ago I registered with an employment agency. I missed the part that if I left the job within 6 months I would owe the agency the commission that my employer had paid them.
Yikes. How could I have been so careless? But I was…. so I had no choice but to count the days until I could leave. But a funny thing happened within those 6 months: on the way there I fell in love with the job.
Actually I fell in love with Donald Woods, the white South African journalist who brought the story of Steven Biko to world attention and whose story was told in the film, Cry Freedom.
It was the height of the struggle against apartheid and although I was thousands of miles away, I knew that working to arrange speaking engagements for Donald was my way to make a difference.
In many ways I think that is the secret sauce of success: to have what you do be connected to something larger than yourself.
As the months turned into years, and years into decades, I had the amazing fortune to work with speakers whose messages impacted the national conversation, and not just the speakers, but the communities and organizations that chose to elevate intellectual engagement through speaker series and festivals. It was impactful, meaningful work.
Although I always remained an agent, within 10 years I moved up from being a Junior sales person to Director of Market Development, and finally to the Senior Vice President in Sales & Marketing position. This allowed me to train team members, build the agency’s marketing department and become part of the Executive Committee, along with the Co -Founders .
With a continual commitment to help grow the firm, I evolved my own perspective on how to help others develop their talents so when they left the agency they had more to offer. It may seem counter- intuitive, supporting the expansion of individuals’ expertise, but it gave the organization deeper riches while remaining part of the team.
I have been thinking a lot about all the people who impacted me and those I hope I have influenced to find what gave them a reason to keep growing.
Sometime when you are in the middle of an experience, you don’t know what you don’t know and how it can affect your life.
Are you someplace in your life that needs expansion?
If you are committed to growing where you are, or discovering what is next, lets create a pathway for you to get there.
““Leadership is not domination, but the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal.””
25 years ago Daniel Goleman published Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ.
Since then five millions copies of this book have been sold and it has been translated into forty different languages.
I remember the week the book was released and the months to follow as I was Dr. Goleman’s speaking agent and primary contact.
That week, TIME ran a cover story asking What’s your EQ? , and as an agent we figured we would be home free to get people excited to host him for speeches. While the book sold well, in the realm of being able to secure engagements the exact opposite happened, people misunderstood the message and thought it was anti-intellectual. Nothing we did made a difference.
Then in January 1996, FORTUNE included the essay Are you Smart Enough to Keep your Job? In an Age of Teamwork and Fluid Careers IQ Alone Doesn’t Cut it Anymore .The article introduced many factors of emotional intelligence including one that was inherently optimistic that this was a type of intelligence that an individual could affect and change ( rather than IQ which is considered by many to be a fixed trait ). Within days of the magazine’s publication, the phone started to ring from companies wanting to hire Daniel to come and give keynotes, and as time went by every type of organization called, including governments from all over the globe. To use a well worn cliche, timing is everything.
For me the story is one of knowing that while you can put your best efforts forward, sometimes it does not guarantee your results. Some things are out of your control.
Still you must use your gifts, take right actions and perhaps factors will intervene to create an outcome that is beyond your imagination.
If ideas are percolating inside of you let’s explore how I can help you to bring them out into the world .
Whether you are a working executive or a speaker wanting to expand your reach, let's arrange a time to explore increasing your impact.