Ryan Stephens Marketing

The Case for Entrepreneurship

Ryan Stephens — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:39:14 +0000

The case for entrepreneurship can be a compelling one.

Let’s preface with the fact that after three years I still dig my day job. And I realize I’m fortunate in that respect. The vast majority of people I know who spend 1/3 of their waking life in a cubicle ultimately live for the weekend.

But enjoying what I do and believing in the mission doesn’t shake that ever present itch I sometimes feel for the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Maybe that’s the reason I consult with really cool organizations and have had a side-hustle for as long as I’ve been a working professional.

Entrepreneurship is scary though, right?

Especially for someone who is so risk averse and frugal that he asks for extra napkins at fast food restaurants so that he can save on paper towels at his apartment.

This post isn’t a preamble to my own foray into entrepreneurship. No, it’s merely a reminder to myself (and maybe to you) that fear and uncertainty in our lives don’t have to be crippling.

My generation, Millennials job hop often. Sometimes that’s our fault because we’re entitled brats who think we deserve roles and promotions that we’re simply not ready for yet. More often it’s the organization’s faults for not incentivizing us correctly.

In any event, chances are you’ve switched jobs at some point in your career, or at the very least interviewed somewhere else. Just thinking about switching insurance, getting used to a new commute, acclimating yourself to a new culture and learning a bunch of new things is scary as hell.

And that’s why people stay. It’s why they get complacent. And it’s why, though we may never known it, we’re robbed from the value those people could’ve provided the world had they overcome their fear and complacency.

The time to look for a new job is when you don’t need one. The time to switch jobs is before it feels comfortable. Go. Switch. Challenge yourself; get yourself a raise and a promotion. You owe it to your career and your skills. – Seth Godin

Let’s reiterate before that quote misleads you… I’m not advocating you leave/quit a job you’re passionate about — where you’re making a difference and where your voice is heard.

What I AM saying is that if you are an unhappy cog in a corporate cubicle machine, with a crappy commute, unfulfilling projects, no voice, and no ability to grow then please, please, please do not let the fear of uncertainty cripple you into conforming into what society expects of you.

IF that describes your current situation, I encourage you to consider entrepreneurship.

1.) Lack of Bureaucracy

This may seem like a small one, but if you’ve ever worked in a big organization you understand how elusive it can be. There’s nothing worse than miles of red tape, countless bad meetings, and a rigid work day to stifle your ability to get work done. Every organization has some level of hierarchy, but most startups operate with a relatively flat structure that enables you to make things happen quickly. “That amount of time is a luxury we don’t have,” one startup co-founder recently told me.

2.) A Fresh Start

For some people this can mean re-branding yourself somewhere else. Maybe your manager still thinks of you as the kid she hired 5 years ago. But chances are you’ve learned, grown, and changed even though her expectations of what you can do have not.

For others, the fresh start is more about the blank slate and the remote possibility that you’ll hear, “But this is the way we’ve always done it.” In the early stages of startups and entrepreneurship, you’ll have the ability to help shape how things get done. That level of ownership is empowering.

3.) Invaluable Experience

Often times in big organizations you have a “specialty.” In my world (of marketing), you might have a PR expert, a branding specialist, a photographer, a copywriter, a strategist and someone else that executes their strategy. Typically, in the early states of entrepreneurship one person does all of those jobs and more.

Whether you eventually want to go out on your own or not, that breadth of experience, while simultaneously getting to watch your founders navigate the trials of a startup, will prepare you for starting your own thing or triumphantly returning to the corporate world with new skills under your belt.

4.) One Team, One Mission

Whether you’re a founding member with equity or not, chances are the success of the company depends, at least to some extent, on the work that you contribute. When you’re a team of 6, 8, or even 20, your contributions likely carry a lot more weight than when you’re 1 of 25,000. Having that skin in the game and knowing your colleagues all feel the same way is likely one of the most powerful motivators you’ll ever encounter.

Here two other could resources on the benefits/reasons you should consider a startup:

14 Benefits of Working for a Startup from my peers in the Young Entrepreneur Council
8 Reasons to Choose a Startup Over a Corporate Job from Humanity.TV co-founder Kerri Sheldon

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Brené Brown, whom I love, said in a recent interview with Jonathan Fields (and I’m paraphrasing here): “What are you missing out on? It’s so easy to make a life/career out of sitting in the bleachers. You don’t want to be at the end of your life asking yourself, ‘What would’ve happened had I shown up?‘”

So there you have it. That’s the my case for entrepreneurship. Are you an entrepreneur? Would you ever consider taking that leap?

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Special Pre-Wedding Deal: 3 Questions for $10

Ryan Stephens — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:38:48 +0000

I get married one month from today.

I know. I know… It makes no sense that a woman would tolerate all my nonsense. We’ll save that discussion for another time.

Said woman does her best to teach me about empathy, giving back, etc.

Here’s the thing… I’ve been writing this blog since January of 2008. By my count that’s over 5 years.

During that time I’ve read approximately 25-30 blog posts a day. I’ve listened to webinars, podcasts, read a book every other week, and been mentored by some of the smartest business people alive.

I’ve accumulated quite a bit of knowledge over that time. And honestly, I’ve hoarded that knowledge. I’ve treated it as my unique value proposition — something that would separate me from my competition..

I had a meeting with a Vice President the other day. “You have all kinds of interesting things rattling around in your head,” she said.

I’ve finally come to realize that’s pretty selfish of me. I can only execute a couple of ideas at a time, but in the process of achieving my dreams maybe I can help you make progress towards your own dreams.

Part of me is naive enough to believe that we we can start making a difference, that we can change the landscape.

In 2009, I gave away free consulting sessions. I learned a TON from those sessions. They shaped a lot of my blog content for the months that followed. I’m not as green any more and the days of free are over, but in the spirit of marrying a woman who believes in giving back, I want to do just that.

I normally charge between $40-$125 an hour for my consulting, depending on the project. But today, in honor of my upcoming wedding, I want to offer an INSANELY inexpensive deal.

I’ll answer ANY 3 questions you have for $10 (via e-mail) between now and my wedding on June 1st.

I MIGHT do something like this again, but NEVER this discounted. For the cost of a cheap bottle of wine, Wednesday’s dry cleaning or 2 orange mocha frappuccinos I’ll give you applicable business and/or life advice that could impact you in a big way.

You can ask me about ANYTHING, but here’s some of the topics I recommend:

How to leverage online digital tools to drive traffic and revenue
How to win your fantasy baseball league
How to grow an online community
How to pay off your debt and save a fortune
How to eat right and get fit
How to network with VIPs
How to put a plan in place to acquire your dream job (or any job)
How to optimize your time to exceed expectations in your 9-5
How to get an insanely empathetic and amazing woman to tolerate your nonsense

If you’re not satisfied with your 3 answers I’ll give your money back, no questions asked.

Here’s the deal: I’m working 45+ hours a week, consulting another 15-20 and I’m trying to stay fit so that when people see our honeymoon pictures they don’t wonder why my wife married me.

In short that means I’ll probably work with the first 6-8 of you who submit the form below…

What are you waiting for? Fill it out. Let me help you get through the dip. Let me connect you to someone I know. Ask something asinine and have fun with it! I don’t care.

You might be buying me a couple of beers. It’s more likely you’re helping shape the scope of this blog post-marriage. And hopefully you’ll get some value out of it too.

What can I help you with?

Google Reader is going away very soon, be sure to subscribe to the blog by e-mail for free weekly updates.

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Howdy. I’m a 2013 Graduate Seeking a Job In…

Ryan Stephens — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:54:07 +0000

I’m a member of an alumni network on LinkedIn and I cringe every single time I see one of these posts: “Howdy! I’m a Dec ’12 Grad B-school grad looking for a job in marketing/HR/customer relations/project management. Any leads would be helpful.”

Which happens to be just about every day.

Yes, some of these posts actually get responses. We will attribute that to the “Howdy” and the fact that the Texas A&M network is extremely strong and loyal, particularly in Texas. That, and there’s always a few companies looking for entry-level sales associates willing to cut their teeth for commission.

Here’s the brutal truth: This strategy doesn’t work. For an Aggie graduate it might be a step up from submitting the same resume to 100 different jobs on Monster.com, but it’s still a garbage approach.

Here’s 4 things wrong with that approach:

It’s lazy. You’re basically telling hiring managers that you’ll take any job that is in the realm of your major and that you’d like them (or a member of your alumni network) to do the legwork for you. Thanks for contributing to the reason everyone thinks Gen-Y is entitled.
You haven’t identified what you really want. Part of me admires the fact that you’re willing to take any entry level job, but hiring managers just think you want ANY job and that at the 1st sign of the job you really want (or one that pays a bit more) you’ll bolt. I’m hiring people that WANT to work in a specific role, in which their skills align, and for a company they really want to work at.
You’ve added ZERO value. Oh, you want a job? So does every other graduating senior. How can you provide value to my organization?
You’re not differentiating yourself AT ALL. I see this same nonsense approach almost every single day. What makes you a better fit than your peer doing the exact same thing? Doing what everyone else does will get you the same results. Those aren’t the results of top performers.

Brutal truth number #2: Nobody gives a shit what you want. Fine… Your parents think you’re a special snowflake, but they probably don’t “get it” either. They paid for all or part of your college and can’t understand why you don’t have a great job from the day you graduate. After all, that’s the promise higher education sells, right?

Here’s reality…

Top performers invest time up front to understand exactly which companies they want to target, then they relentlessly find warm connections to these companies through Natural Networking. (And yes, everyone has a network.) By the time they’re ready to submit an application, it goes through a warm contact and is disproportionately likely to result in a job offer. — Ramit Sethi

Most of you are going to call me an asshole, tell yourself I have no clue what I’m talking about and go on wasting your time.

For the 7 of you that read this and actually ask yourself what you could do differently, here’s my recommendations:

Determine exactly what job you want. What do you want to do? What skills did you acquire in school and through internships? Get specific here. Pick a couple of titles: “Account Manager” at a big agency, “Marketing Coordinator” for an oil & gas company.
Use job sites and LinkedIn to determine which companies (that you’d like to work for) have jobs like that. If they’re hiring for those roles, great. But even if they’re not you can proceed to step 3.
Interview people who work for the company and/or people who work in the job title you (eventually) want.

“Now, if I’m interested in working for a company, the first thing I do is interview a ton of alumni who work there. I ask what their pain points are. What keeps the managers up at night? This is the info I really need to know. Once I have that focus, I can take the next step. Figure out how to address those needs.” — A top performer

4. Leverage those pain points to craft a strategy detailing how you can solve that organizations and/or hiring manager’s problems. And yes, this is way more work. Doing this for ONE job you want takes more time than submitting your resume to 10+ online job postings.

If you refrained from getting “butt hurt” (see: your feelings hurt) during the first half of this post and read this far, then chances are you genuinely want to separate yourself from your peers and get a job you really want.

Here’s the best primer you’ll find for finding your dream job.

Full disclosure: I’m not affiliated with Ramit’s dream job course in any way, shape, form or fashion. I wrote this post because because I want to help you. Mostly, I wrote it because I wish someone would’ve written it for me 5 years ago.

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How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Ryan Stephens — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:09:59 +0000

Brothers Dan and Chip Heath (Made to Stick, Switch) have a new book out: Decisive – How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work.

In Decisive, the Heaths introduce a four-step process designed to counteract the array of biases and irrationality that disrupt our decisions.

Here are some of my notes from the lecture Dan Heath gave on his recent book tour stop in Houston.

What we don’t need when making decisions is more complexity
What we do need is a process for decision making.
The four villains of decision making are:
- Narrow-framing
- Confirmation Bias
- Short-term Emotion
- Over Confidence
To combat narrow-framing widen your options (don’t look at decisions from a binary vantage point)
- Don’t make “whether or not” decisions
- If there’s only one option we’ll rationalize away all the flaws
- When there are 2 viable options we’re more likely to examine from a neutral point-of-view
Instead of confirming your bias… reality test your options
- We often seek reassurance, not the truth
- Ask yourself, “What is the biggest obstacle to success?”
- Test options; don’t guess. The answers are in the world, not in our heads.
Instead of trusting your gut, which is typically short-term and emotional get some distance from your decision
- Turn up the long-term volume; turn down the short term
- Look at your life from a mountain top
  - What would you do?
  - Your short-term emotions (anxiety, etc.) often distorts your decision-making
- Ask yourself, “What would you tell your best friend to do?”
Don’t be overconfident about how the future will work out; prepare to be wrong
- You need trip wires (something to make you come back and revisit the decision) to remind you have a choice in your actions (don’t live life on auto-pilot)
- Bolder decisions very well might be the best ones

In summary, you should find comfort knowing you have more options, you’ve tested those options, you’ve gotten some distance from the decision and you’ve set-up some trip wires in order to periodically revisit the decision you made.

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Negotiating Right Hook Content via Gut Churn

Ryan Stephens — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:32:44 +0000

I don’t watch many online videos. As I work to optimize my life for efficiency, I’ve tried to decrease my information diet and relentlessly prune things that aren’t actionable and don’t add long-term value.

This is especially true for videos because of the time it typically requires to watch one. Unless it is essential for visuals, I can read a number of articles and/or a transcript significantly faster.

That said, I do make time for some videos that either really interest me (see: Scott Boras Profiled) or come highly recommended (see: Jad Abumrad on the secrets of creative success) below.

Here are 6 videos I’ve watched in the last month or so and my favorite takeaways(s) from each:

You Are What You Tweet – Ricky Van Veen

Takeaways:

Identity creation drives sharing, which enables you to find out and predict what will make something popular.
You are who your last dozen tweets say you are.
Content lives & dies based on how people can use it to say something about themselves.
Bring your own audience. Example: magazine brings legitimacy & actor brings eyeballs.
Media has become meritocracy.

Science, Storytelling, and “Gut Churn”: Jad Abumrad on the Secrets of Creative Success

Takeaway: Change cannot be planned and you only recognize that after the fact. Try to induce gut churn. If you experience the radical uncertainty that comes with creating something new without a template then you’re on the right track.

Fred Wilson on Higher Ed & Being a Contrarian

Takeaway: There are three separate business models for education – 1 million go in and 10K come out (online), 100 in 50 out (online curriculum + adult supervision), 100 in 90 out = traditional education (i.e. Wharton’s current business model). The future of education executes all 3 models.

Gary Vaynerchuck’s Toronto Keynote

Takeaways:

Effort is the most limited supply in the world.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook (i.e. giving a lot prior to asking for the sale/conversion & also the title of his next book)
Acquisition is a commodity, but retention, lifetime value and percentage of the wallet is what matters

Scott Boras Profiled: Bloomberg Risk Takers

Takeaway: “If you’re trying to make a negotiation tough, you’re not a very good negotiator.” Your level of preparation BEFORE the negotiation in packaging your clients (or yourself), understanding their value (your value) and understanding what the team (your boss, a hiring manager) needs is the key to success.

Clay Shirky on why love makes open source communities work

Takeaway: The online tools we have enable people to turn love into a renewable building material; therefore, when evaluating a company/organization ask yourself, “Do the people who like it take care of each other?”

What’s your favorite online video? What other videos should I carve out some time to watch? Let me know in the comments!

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Seth Godin’s “The Icarus Deception” Book Review

Ryan Stephens — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:32:27 +0000

Play it safe was the perfect propaganda for the industrial economy, but obedience and conformity no longer lead to comfort.

You probably already know that or you wouldn’t be reading this blog, but just in case you need a kick in the butt I highly recommend The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? to anyone who wants to understand how to thrive in an economy that rewards art, not compliance.

Check out the book’s trailer embedded below and then keep scrolling for some of my favorite insights and takeaways:

On the Icarus Deception:
It’s far more dangerous to fly too low than too high, because it feels safe to fly low. We settle for low expectations and small dreams and guarantee ourselves less than we are capable of. By flying too low, we shortchange not only ourselves but also those who depend on us or might benefit from our work. We’re so obsessed about the risk of shining brightly that we’ve traded in everything that matters to avoid it.

On Your Comfort Zone:
We made a mistake. We settled for a safety zone that wasn’t bold enough, that embraced authority and compliance. We built our comfort zone around being obedient and invisible, and as a result, we’re far too close to the waves.

On the Connection Economy:
If your team is filled with people who work for the company, you’ll soon be defeated by tribes of people who work for a cause.

On Shipping:
Most people have been brainwashed into believing that their job is to copyedit the world, not to design it.

On Opportunities:
The art of moving forward lies in understanding what to leave behind.

On Industrialization:
The overwhelming impact of more than a century of cultural indoctrination can’t be overstated.

The industrialist benefits from our dream of moving up the corporate ladder, his ladder.

Make sure you climb the right ladder.

The industrialist offers us a trade. We can trade in our loneliness for the embrace of the mob and trade our innate fears for a steady paycheck. We can trade our yearning for something great in exchange for the safety of knowing that we will be care of. In return, all he asks is that we give up our humanity.

It’s probably enjoyable to trade in your initiative and heart to take a job where you are told precisely what to do. It feels like a safe bet, but it actually means you’ve accepted a low-grade, throbbing ennui in exchange for the thrill of daring the gods. Many of us were deceived enough by industrial propaganda to buy into the promise of this kind of sleepwalking.

We celebrate the Forbes 400 and the masters of the universe and the lucky few who have won the corporate lottery, because secretly we are celebrating our chances of winning the lottery as well.

On What Matters Now:

Trust
Permission
Remarkability
Leadership
Stories that spread
Humanity: connection, compassion, and humility

Read more about the move toward zero unemployment.

On Why Those A’s You Made in College May Actually Hurt You in the Real World:
We transformed school from a place of inquiry into a facility optimized for meeting standards.

On Teaching Bravery:
Brave artists take leaps, brave artists fail – the willingness to fail and then do it again is the cost of doing art.

On What You Want Your Customers To Become:
Zappos turned its customers turned its customers into people who demand a higher level of service to be satisfied. Amazon turned its customers into people who are restless with online stores that don’t work quite as well or quite as quickly. Henry Ford turned his customers from walkers into drivers.

On Being Popular:
She buys into the cycle of short-term pleasing. Instead of standing up for things he believes in, he calculates what the audience wants to hear right now.

On Daily Habits for Artists:

Sit alone; sit quietly.
Learn something new without any apparent practical benefit.
Ask individuals for bold feedback; ignore what you hear from the crowd.
Spend time encouraging other artists.
Teach, with the intent of making change.
Ship something you created.

On Worldview:
The artist wonders, “How can I break this? Or “Where is there an opportunity for me to change everything and make an impact? Most of all, the question is “Is it interesting?”

On Commitment:
When your art fails, make better art.

On Having Grit:
Someone with grit will grind down the opposition, stand up in the face of criticism, and consistently do what’s right for their art. Mostly, they mess up the machine.

On Blaming The System:
Blaming the system is soothing because it lets you off the hook. But when the system is broken, we wonder why you were relying on the system in the first place.

On Shame:
Shame can’t be forced on you; it must be accepted.

On Meetings:
The meeting is a temporary collection of people waiting for someone to take responsibility to so everyone else can go back to work.

Here are five keys to more effective meetings.

On Failure:
Failure is an event, not a person.

On What’s Holding You Back:
We don’t want to put ourselves at risk of being seen as arrogant or acting with hubris, because the shame of being seen as a fraud lurks right around the corner.

On Work Versus Games:
When we see the “work” we do as part of a game, with moves instead of failures, with outcomes instead of tragedies we’re more likely to bring the right spirit to our work.

On Odds:
The problem with one in a million is that with those odds, there are seven thousand other people on the planet who are as good as (or better than) you are.

On Your Biggest Failure:
Your biggest failure is the thing you dreamed of contributing but didn’t find the guts to do.

Other Miscellaneous Takeaways:
Management is almost diametrically opposed to leadership.

Attention by other people is the most irresistible of drugs.

If we’re in love with the feedback and trying to manipulate the applause we get, we’ll cease to make the art we’re capable of.

The resistance is not something to be avoided; it’s something to seek out.

People hesitate to lead or to invent or to make art because they’re afraid of what will happen if they do.

How much will people miss you if you’re not back here tomorrow?

Now that you’re all pumped up and ready to conquer the world, I also recommend you check out Mark Schaefer’s brilliant rant: In Praise of The Unremarkable. A little balance and perspective never hurt anyone.

You can check out other business book reviews here.

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Warning: Those A’s You Made in College May Actually Hurt You in the Real World

Ryan Stephens — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:42:48 +0000

You worked hard in high school and you got into the best local college. You had a good time in college, but you also spent a fair amount of time studying while many of your peers drank themselves silly.

You’re a few years out now. You have a decent job and you make an okay salary. After a long day, you complain to a friend and they remind you that the economy isn’t very strong right now and that you should be thankful you have a job.

You know that on some level they’re right, but you still can’t help feeling unfulfilled. This is especially true when you check your Facebook feed and some of those idiots who spent four years half drunk and skipping class on Fridays seem to be loving their job and earning a great salary.

First, stop comparing yourself to other people. Half those people are still partially drunk, $50,000 dollars in debt and want you to think they’re happy.

Second, some of those people that you thought were clowns and asshats really are happy and they really are earning more than you. How’s that for a reality check?

So what do they know that you don’t?

Let’s come back to that.

First, let me tell you a story…

I’m good at school. Really good. In fact, here’s the transcript of my final semester, including my final GPA in undergrad:

I made 2 B’s in college.

As a result, I’d advise against living with someone who encourages you to drink a 6-pack of tall boys every night and to refrain from disagreeing with your professors in religious studies classes. The combination is a recipe for B’s.

I don’t want this to sound obnoxious, but college was really easy for me. Professors gave you a syllabus at the beginning of the year with exactly what they wanted you to read and learn. They usually gave you a rubric or some other documentation that let you know exactly what you needed to do to acquire that elusive “A.”

Let’s get two things straight:

1.) For 95% of jobs, your grades in college don’t matter.

2.) Your boss doesn’t give you a rubric in the real world.

Here’s the truth: You have been indoctrinated. Go to a good college, make good grades, follow the rules and companies will take care of you.

Psssst… The industrial revolution is over. The fortune 500 company that your Dad works for is almost assuredly going to try and fuck him out of half his pension.

And he worked his ass off, 55-60 hours every week. You’re an entitled brat who values work/life balance. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with that, BUT if your Dad poured 55 hours a week worth of sweat into a place for 30 years and is getting fucked over, what do you think they’ll do to you?

Let’s go back to the question I asked earlier…

What does the collegiate underachiever now making six figures know that you don’t?

She knows that it’s not about asking for permission. He knows that it’s not about memorizing the most facts or being handed a map.

They know it’s about confronting the things that scare them. They know that failure is temporary and part of the process.

Don’t ask your boss for a template. Take your best stab at it.

A buddy of mine, Ryan Holiday, put it better than I ever could: Find and make canvases for other people to paint on.

It’s a different mindset than making other people look good, an approach that tends to imply a lot of ass kissing and ceding credit. Instead it’s finding the direction someone already intended to head and help them pack, freeing them up to focus on their strengths. The canvas strategy involves actively finding outlets for other people – in fact, actually making them better rather than simply looking so.

Stop waiting for someone else to pick you. Stop making excuses. Refuse comfort. Refuse stagnation.

Most importantly, stop waiting for someone to tell you what an “A” looks like, what success looks like. Trust me, I get it. I still find myself wanting someone to tell me exactly what to do so that I can meet their expectations.

The problem with that is that you never exceed their expectations. Understand your bosses challenges, anticipate their needs and deliver solutions before they ever ask for them. That’s how you get promoted.

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The Foolproof Way to Overcoming Fear and Complacency in Your Life

Ryan Stephens — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 01:41:59 +0000

You’ve made eye contact with that cute girl across the bar three times tonight. She smiled at you the second time, but you know she’s getting impatient. And yet you’re not going to walk up to her tonight.

You’re going to get in a cab two hours from now and ask your buddy, “Hey man, did you see that smoking hot girl across the bar? I’m pretty sure she wanted me, man.”

You’ll never see her again.

Fast forward to Monday morning. You have an innovative idea for a marketing campaign. Maybe you have a new way to optimize an outdated process. Either way, you won’t speak up because that might mean more work for you.

“Why should I push myself?” a friend asked me the other day. “They’ll be happy to give me more work, but they’ll never promote me. I get paid the same either way.”

It’s easier NOT to talk to the girl.

It’s easier NOT to raise your hand at work.

It’s easier to read blogs all day rather than start your own.

It’s easier to come home from work and plop down on the couch instead of starting a side business.

And that’s fine if that’s what you aspire to get out of life. But if you want more… If you want to talk to the girl… If you want to get promoted… If you want to start earning some income on the side then it’s time to start re-framing the way you think about things.

And if you want a foolproof way of re-framing… one that will help you start overcoming fear and complacency in your life so that you can start achieving your dreams, then I encourage you to invest 18 minutes into your future by watching the video below.

Maybe you wouldn’t have watched that video if you had a buzz, but now that you have – what are you going to do? What are you going to start? Who are you going to connect with?

Rarely is the worst case scenario as bad as you think it will be. Nobody will remember your mistakes a year from now. Most people won’t remember them tomorrow. We’re too wrapped up in our own lives.

Stop letting fear hold you back. Take a smart risk today!

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2012 in Review

Ryan Stephens — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 14:48:43 +0000

In 2011 I failed at every *BIG* goal I set out to achieve and yet I had one of the best years of my life. (You can read about it here.)

I went into 2012 with no expectations.

My hours increased at my 9-5 as I took on more responsibilities. I worked hard to balance work with reading, my fitness goals, hanging out with friends and growing my relationship with the “incredible woman who somehow tolerated me near the end of last year.”

On August 1st, she became my fiancée.

I could not be more grateful for her love and support. This is especially true since I added a community management/consulting role to the list of things I try to cram into 24 hours. (See: It was a great opportunity to continue learning from intelligent and successful entrepreneurs while simultaneously increasing my breadth of skills and supplementing my income).

By now, I hope that you’ve forgiven me for neglecting this space.

So, what’s next!?

By most people’s accounts, I’m successful. I work for an organization I believe in that Glassdoor recently named the #5 place to work for in the US. I like most aspects of my job on most days, I earn a solid amount on the side, I have zero debt and, thanks to my frugality, (I only spend on food, drink, travel) I’ve saved significantly more than most people my age.

And yet I always find myself unsatisfied and reaching for “what’s next.”

I tell myself I’m preparing for the future, but I worry that sometimes I’m not appreciating the present enough. From my vantage point, it seems like the people I know who stayed in small town America (or returned to it), work less stressful jobs, drink beer, watch TV, go hunting and hang out all the time are consistently happier than I am. I often joke that I want to a buy a cabin in the woods, get a nondescript gig, run everyday and read 2 books a night. Sometimes I’m not sure I’m joking.

2012 wasn’t sustainable. My insatiable desire for more money, knowledge, time and freedom leaves me perpetually unsatisfied.

A friend of mine, Charlie Hoehn, recently penned a post entitled, “The Perils of Personal Progress” the other day and it really stuck with me. I recommend you read it in its entirety.

Someday, you’ll have the right amount of money, you’ll have the right job, you’ll have the right possessions and the right body and the right thoughts and the right skills and the right accomplishments and the right spirituality and the right love and the right marriage and the right kids and the right life.

Someday, if you keep working hard and playing our games, you can win.

You can be better than everyone else.

This is the reality I subject myself to every morning when I wake up. It’s why I read 20-30 articles before most people are awake. It’s why lunch breaks are spent studying neuroscience, behavior psychology, influence and persuasion. It’s why evenings are spent working, writing, thinking. And it’s where I invest too much of my limited cognition.

In the comments of his post, Charlie writes:

I’d been plotting something to establish dominance and become Charlie 2.0, rather than doing things out of a genuine spontaneous desire to do so. It’s kind of tough to explain. But that constant push to be “better” than our old selves and other people can become isolating and unhealthy, no matter how much humility and poise we do it with.

Penelope Trunk argues that you can either be interesting or happy, but not both. “I think the things that make life happy have to do with complacency, and the things that make life interesting have to do with lack of complacency,” she writes.

I guess a big part of me hopes that isn’t true, because I spent a lot of 2012 exhausted and constantly asking myself, “How much is enough? When does it become okay to slow down and appreciate what you have and spend a Sunday afternoon watching Game of Thrones?”

That’s what I hope to find out in 2013.

In 2013, I want to focus on BALANCE. I want to focus on strengthening my gratitude muscle. I want to stop “time traveling” to the future and spend more time living in the present.

If that sounds interesting to you, then I hope you’ll join me in my journey. And selfishly, I hope you’ll chime in along the way. I do miss the discussions we had here when I was more active in 2010.

In the meantime, here’s what you might’ve missed in 2012:

5 Ways to De-Stress in the Office - If you’re doing important work, work that matters, stress is inevitable. You can hyperventilate and complain all day or you can take a deep breath and leverage these 5 ways to de-stress in the office.

How to Find Your Passion in the Workplace – Like so many other things we try to categorize and nail-down, passion is fluid. Your passions are going to change so find something that makes you happy right now and do the best you can at that until you’re ready for the next logical progression.

10 Ways to Fool Your Boss into Thinking You’re Working Hard – We all know these co-workers; that’s why this post was so easy to write. Take a gander and see if you know anyone in your office that employs these tactics.

The Only Interview I Ever Bombed – This is a true story in which I’d spent countless hours preparing and thought I was more prepared for the interview than I had ever been before. I was dead wrong. You’ll have to click the link to find out why.

Stop Running to the Front of the Pack – There’s a time and a place for being first, but many top performers don’t know how to turn that switch off. This is a quick video that explains why always running to the front of the pack can be detrimental to your career.

Playing the Game – We all have (or have experienced) co-workers that “play the game.” They do some things well that can be perceived by bad management (or perhaps busy management) as valuable. Rather than worry about co-workers intent on “playing the game” I encourage you to leverage the advice in this post instead.

7 Things You Should’ve Learned in School - I asked seven wicked-smart under 30 professionals what skills they wished they would’ve learned in school. This post details their answers.

Some Mistakes I’ve Made – Life isn’t made up of the things you’ve done wrong. It’s made up of the things you’ve done right. Check out my list; don’t make the same mistakes. Or do, but make sure you learn from them.

The Right Way to Gamble on Yourself - We have to go beyond the “failing fast” mantra and leverage deliberate practice to take the right risks. You need to know where you’re headed and be ruthlessly selfish with your time on things that don’t take you there.

Female Leadership & Work/Life Balance Collide – Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in The Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” was one of the more balanced, nuanced and thoughtful articles I’ve read on female leadership and work/life balance ever, but it didn’t have any male commentary. I stepped outside my comfort zone and offered my insights on some of her most interesting passages.

What Baseball Taught Me About Business – This was a fun post that explored leveraged the game of baseball to explore decision-making. Most businesses need a combination of reliable data and the intuition of experienced professionals.

Life’s Treadmill – It was in this post that I first tried to really unpack the idea of “what constitutes enough?” It’s a raw post that reveals my internal dialogue surrounding some of my doubts, fears and insecurities.

Jason Fried’s “Why Work Doesn’t Happen at Work” – An idea that’s resonated with me for nearly 3 years now, I extract some of my favorite takeaways from Jason’s TEDxMidwest talk (embedded in the post).

18 Things I Wish Someone Would’ve Told Me When I Was 18 – Regular readers here know how I feel about modern day education in the US and how a model that promotes fitting in, a fear of failing, and mediocre obedience as keys to success is painstakingly flawed. With ballooning debt and high unemployment rates saddling my generation, I shared some of my “what I wish I would’ve known moments” with the hope that it would help even one person.

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11 of the Best Social Marketing Healthcare Posts from 2012

Ryan Stephens — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:55:15 +0000

In 2012 we really started seeing the proliferation of social/mobile into healthcare. This disruption will be critical in addressing the challenging economic and social issues that loom over the healthcare industry. If you fancy yourself a healthcare employee (or you’re just interested in where this space is headed), I hope these articles will provide both strategic insights and a foundational landscape for further learning. These conversations are important.

Please use the comments section to recommend/share other healthcare posts you found useful and/or your best healthcare post from 2012.

[Infographic]: Growth of U.S. Physician Internet/Mobile Device Use - (Manhattan Research)

Manhattan Research’s annual market research study focused on how U.S. physicians use the Internet, digital media, mobile devices and other technologies for professional purposes and patient interaction.

Telling Patient Stories can Pay Off with Social Media – (Kevin Cary)

It’s easy to avoid all the complications that come with showcasing patients in social media. Those limitations have scared away many health care companies but they could be missing tremendous opportunities. In fact, 41 percent of patients (I’ve seen different #’s quoted here – both higher and lower) use social media to gather health information. This article includes three ways that senior care companies can showcase their patients through social media.

Empowering Healthcare: Howard Luks, M.D. – (Sarah-Jayne Gratton)

“Important changes are taking place that will forever change the way the physicians and patients interact. Shared Decision Making principles, the concept of Informed Choice versus Informed Consent and the desires of the Participatory Medicine movement will dramatically alter the health care landscape.”

[Infographic]: The Future of Healthcare is Already at Your Fingertips – (Neha Prakash)

The mobile healthcare industry has made significant strides within the healthcare provider community. Rock Health found 75% of small and medium size medical and dental offices will purchase tablets within the next year. And almost 40% of physicians use medical apps on a daily basis. The digital healthcare field is also alleviating the costs of patient care and increasing the scale at which doctors and nurses can help people. The healthcare industry is already strained and a shortage of primary care physicians in years to come will only exacerbate the problem. Mobile apps can bridge that gap.

How Seattle Children’s Hospital Went Outside the Box with its Facebook Page – (Shell Holtz)

The more we can change the way we look at the social tools at our disposal, the more we’ll be able to apply them to problems, processes and innovations that can genuinely help people while shining a light on the compassionate care the hospital delivers.

This is How You Do a Video PSA About Childhood Cancer – (Xeni Jardin)

This video from City of Hope, a large cancer research and treatment center in Los Angeles, documents the story ofa young patient. I found the author’s insights re: “battling cancer” (i.e. being very cliché & not fitting the experience) very interesting.

[Infographic]: Smart Phones and the Future of Mobile Health – (PocketHealth)

There are currently more than 13,000 health and medical apps.
The global wireless health market is projected to be worth more than $38 billion by 2016.
Thirty-eight percent of medical professionals with smartphones use medical apps daily.
Consumers use health apps for medical purposes, sports and fitness and tracking calories and nutrition.

Health Care and Social Media Cheat Sheet – (@SignalsCA)

This infographic will be pretty basic for most of you that read here, but it has some solid reminders on developing comprehensive strategy that aligns closely with your organization’s strategic communication plans.

Healthcare CEOs Weigh in on Technology and the Growing Importance of Social Collaboration – (Mohamad Naraghi)

The CEOs think using social media, both to glean new insights and to communicate with individuals, is likely to transform many aspects of health care. One U.S. health care CEO said “social media and interactive Web sites will become new Channel Partners for communicating with our patients.” Today, 25% of the CEOs rank social media as one of the three most significant ways they reach out to customers. But 68% think it will be one of the top three methods within five years.

Peeling Away Health Care’s Sticker Shock – (Andy Grove)

The health care business is about patients. But the patient population has been largely powerless and remains so even as the members of the medical community—hospital chains, nationwide insurers, large employers—have become much more powerful. Over time, the patient—the raison d’être of the health care business—has been reduced to merely another raw material. What technology can do is change the game—change the basis of competition, change what it takes to win in the health care marketplace. (If you’re a healthcare marketer, it’s critical for you to understand the business you’re in and the mindset of patients/caregivers. I think this article sheds light on both.)

The Reputation Economy Driving Healthcare Innovation: Crowdfunding and Data – (Angela Dunn)

Less than seven months ago, Medstartr was just an idea itself. Officially launched in July 2012 it now boasts a 68% success rate in funding new ideas in healthcare. The reputation economy is growing and becoming increasingly important in ways many might not have imagined–how funds are raised, which companies are started, whom do you refer, who refers you, referrals from professional and personal networks—and now open data on the relationships between doctors. These are all new measures of reputation coming from new sources, becoming more and more transparent, and driving innovation and the economy.

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