Category: Follow the Leader

Categories
Engagement Follow the Leader Generation Y Inspiration Leadership

Follow the cool people

Sam DavidsonThe handsome guy to the left is Sam Davidson, the co-founder and president of CoolPeopleCare, Inc.

Sam offers an incredibly unique and talented perspective to the Follow the Leader series:

“Telling the stories that need telling in order to motivate others to change the things that need changing, Sam is a social entrepreneur who believes in the power of local communities. He has spoken and written on the power of the Internet to change the world for the better, and specializes in studying new and emerging trends within the nonprofit sector, especially as they relate to younger generations. His first book, “New Day Revolution: How to Save the World in 24 Hours” will be available in October.

He is married to Lynnette and both of them currently live in Nashville, Tennessee. The two don’t have any children, but when they do, they hope they will grow up in a world free from hate and fear, where ideas and creativity are valued.”

What should we spend our time on? What shouldn’t we spend our time on?
Developing relationships is vital for professional or personal success. Sometimes, these relationships will be short and may not have much depth, but it could be just the connection you need to get ahead. At other times, these relationships will be long lasting and full of meaning. I think it’s important to never turn down an invitation to meet someone, to grab coffee or have lunch. Even if it seems from the initial request that nothing can develop, I’ve seen great ideas come out of chance meetings.

(click twice to enlarge and sharpen Sams’ calendar for this week)

sam_calendar

How do you get it all done?
I manage my to-do list with my Inbox. It stays in the Inbox until I take care of it (‘it’ being replying to an email, setting up a meeting, writing a 5 Minutes of Caring piece). Also, I wake up at 5 AM. Most people cringe at that. But, I love what I do, so getting up at 5, getting online for 90 minutes (to read news, blogs, and email) and then going for a jog allows me to do more by 8 AM than most folks get done by lunch. There’s a huge advantage to that.

What does balance mean to you?
Balance is all about prioritizing. Naturally, our priorities change over the years. But, if you can figure out a few things early on that are important, it will help you decide what’s worth doing and what can wait. A lot of times, people spend a lot of time on things that aren’t that important, and they probably know this. I think life is much too short to be caught doing lots of things you don’t want to.

How many hours do you work a week?
My schedule is rarely (never) 9-to-5. I wake up early, meet folks for lunch, write at night sometimes, think about stuff when I’m driving, you name it. Recently, I’ve begun to stay off the computer a lot on the weekends. I once used the weekend to catch up on stuff. Now, I figure out on Friday what can wait until Monday. This way, I can spend the weekend lying on my couch watching what I DVR’d during the week. But, my Blackberry is always nearby so I can at least read emails, even if I don’t reply until Monday.

How do you think we can encourage young leaders?
Young people today have grown up and are coming of age at a time when access and creation are standard parts of their lives. Their parents were passive receivers of media and entertainment. Today’s YPs are active producers, making videos, writing blogs, and starting businesses, and then sharing all of this with anyone and everyone. I’ve found that young people are most engaged when they’re able to create something and have the necessary access to the tools required to do so. I don’t feel that’s an incredibly revolutionary thing, but so few businesses realize this.

How much time do you devote to blogging and promoting your blog?
I love to write, but only when I know I’ve got something good. I’ve been blogging on my personal site for nearly 4 years now, and it’s changed from blogging mainly about religious issues to anything personal to covering the nonprofit world. Because I write so much for CoolPeopleCare, I don’t blog everyday. But, I have enjoyed it more by waiting until I’ve got something particularly worthy of my time.

Early Riser.

Categories
Follow the Leader Leadership Work/life balance

Follow the Leader – Travis from Young Go Getter

This post is part of the “Follow the Leader” series, where you get the chance to peek into the professional and personal lives of fellow young leaders to learn how they get it all done. If you would like to be the next young leader profiled, email me.

Travis - Young Go GetterTravis from Young Go Getter is a bit mysterious. He assures me this really is him in the photo to the left. I’ll assume we can’t see his face because teal just isn’t his color. No matter. Travis is crazy successful and while I was still learning my right hand from my left, Travis was already starting businesses.

Tell Modite readers about yourself:
I am a 22 year old Canuck with a nice big diploma from ad school buried in my filing cabinet. I’ve been an entrepreneur for about 8 years and a partner at YGG for a year and a half or so.

I work full-time as a freelance creative with my clients and squeeze in a bit of blogging on several different sites.

(click twice to enlarge and sharpen Travis’ to do list for this week)

Travis - Young Go Getter To Do List

Define leadership:
The ability to determine what needs to be done, who’d be best at doing it, and being able to step aside when it’s not yourself.

What does balance mean to you?
Balance is having symmetry between madness and silence. It’s when you’re able to push yourself almost to the breaking point, then punch out for the day with no hesitation.

What’s not on your calendar?
Birthdays. I’m horrible with birthdays. And the bad thing is, for most of my friends, I’ve known them for years and years, so if I were to ask them their exact birth date now, I’d look like a total ass.

How do you think we can encourage young leaders? Keep them engaged?
Make an example out of yourself. Most young go getters nowadays have all the war stories and resources they need to build an enormously successful business or create a meaningful impact on the world.

In the same sense that “you have to see it to believe it,” product demos have molded our acceptance in the marketplace. Leading by example will always have a much more encouraging effect than words on paper.

Seeing the results of entrepreneurial action and quotations proving themselves true, always seem to get my ass in gear.

How much time do you devote to blogging and promoting your blog?
I spend a lot more time developing and promoting our blog than I do writing, which is changing in the coming weeks. But for YGG, I spend an hour or two on most days developing new features or fixing bugs — and about two hours either writing content, participating in the Forum, or talking to some of the people I’ve been able to meet thanks to the site. Kind of like yourself, Rebecca.

Last words of advice?
Life isn’t as difficult as they make it out to be. Heck, you can Google any issues you face, chances are others have as well.

Do your best to get that big picture out the door and let the details handle themselves.

Go Young Go Getter, Go!

Categories
Follow the Leader Time management Work/life balance

Follow the Leader – Manage your life like other young leaders

Tiffany MonhollonGen-Y does a heck of a lot. This is the first post in a new series called, “Follow the Leader,” where you get the chance to peek into the professional and personal lives of fellow young leaders to learn how they get it all done. If you would like to be the next young leader profiled, email me.

When I wrote my first post, it was Tiffany Monhollon (left) who contributed the first comment. Which made me giddy for days upon days and gave her instant status as my first bona fide blogging buddy. It only made sense to feature the talented writer of Little Red Suit as the first young leader to be profiled for the Follow the Leader series.

Check out the week of Tiffany Monhollon,
Writer and PR Professional, 25 years old:

(click twice to enlarge and sharpen Tiffany’s calendar and to do list for this week)

Monhollon - Calendar Monhollon - To Do List

Tiffany says:

How to generate ideas
“I listen for themes in my life and let them speak into my work and my writing. I carry a notebook with me at all times and keep track of story, article, blog and graduate project ideas over dinner, while I’m sitting in traffic and when I’m shopping. I have anywhere from 15-30 ideas in progress pretty much all the time. I’m very curious about everything, so that helps.”

Balancing priorities is inherently lopsided
“My priorities often set me, to be honest. In theory, I should set priorities based on what I want to get the most out of in life – relationships, personal interests, family, and then spend my time focusing mostly on those things, right? But truthfully and frustratingly, I find that whatever is taking up my time finds its way to the top of my priorities in practice.

A lot of workers are faced with this reality. That’s why we talk about work/life balance so much. Our work dictates our priorities because it takes the most of our time. I try rather than to ‘set’ priorities, to just take an honest assessment of my time, and adjust that when it gets too lopsided. Otherwise, I would drive myself crazy and feel guilty all the time.

When I spend four hours instead of two on my blog, and ignore the important people in my life, I have to be honest with myself that I’m being really stupid. I have to look at where my priorities are right now by seeing where my time is invested, and then make decisions with my time to shift my priorities to what I want them to be ideally by spending time on them.

People who say family is their biggest priority and spend 70 hours a week working aren’t being honest with themselves.”

Time-management is a myth
“Though I talk about it a lot, time management is really a myth. It doesn’t exist, because you can’t control time. It passes, at regular intervals, despite us. Oh, how I wish this weren’t true! But it is, so we have to learn to manage ourselves in time. It’s really all about self-management.

I can’t tell you how many times in life I’ve heard or said some version of: ‘I don’t have enough time.’ But really, the truth is, you can plan on having the same 24 hours each day that everyone has, plan for your plans to be interrupted, and figure out how to manage yourself in that time that remains. That’s really the way it seems to work in real life, all theory aside.”

Aww…
What does Tiffany look forward to the most? “Spending time with my wonderful, supportive boyfriend any time I get to see him.”

What do you think?
Do you relate to Tiffany? Do your priorities set you? Are you constantly on? Do you like the Follow the Leader series idea? What are your ideas to improve it?

Follow the footprints, yo.