Scott Monty

The Barrenness of a Busy Life

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As you return to work on Monday, amid the flurry of emails, calls, meetings, and general catching up, remember that busyness can mask priorities.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>"Beware the barrenness of a busy life." </b><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">– Socrates<br /><br /></span></i></div></span></i></div>
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Take the time you need for an ordered mind and a calm, rational approach to your week. And take time to reflect on what matters most to you.<br />
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It could be family, work, goals, a project you're working on – whatever. But if you're mired in distractions, frivolous activity, or things that are keeping you from concentrating on what matters, perhaps it's time to step away. Put down the phone. Turn off the notifications. Shut the laptop.<br />
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There's meaning in self-reflection and time alone.<br />
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Go just be with yourself for a bit.<br />
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Less dot com. More dot calm.<br />
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Enjoy the quiet.<div><br />

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<i>Can I offer you a respite from the busy emails you usually get? The <b><a href="smonty.co/Timeless" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a></b> newsletter is an oasis of calm. Reflective essays each week that put perspective on a current trend with inspiration from history, literature, and philosophy. </i><div><i><br /></i><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div></div></div>

The Barrenness of a Busy Life

As you return to work on Monday, amid the flurry of emails, calls, meetings, and general catching up, remember that busyness can mask pr...

That Which We Are, We Are

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We all inhabit some kind of personality when we're online, and probably at work too. It's about fitting in, and making it clear who we are.<br />
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But here's the thing: if you're not being the true you – your authentic self – it can be exhausting. And you may find there are cracks in the surface that allow people to tell when you're not being yourself.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Authenticity
isn't about being someone else. </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">It's about being the best version of yourself. </span></i></b><br />
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<b>[<a href="https://ctt.ac/mdLOJ" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Tweet this quote</a>]</b></div>
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Did you ever take the time to step back and wonder about the various personas you meet online? They could be long-lost friends, bloggers that you admire, or people in your Facebook network whom you may have never met before. But what do you really know about them?<br />
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How many of these folks are truly themselves when they're online? I mean, how many are perhaps bolder in their assertions or less cautious with the language they use because of the less personal nature of the medium?<br />
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We spend a lot of time talking about authenticity as one of the tenets of social media – how businesses, brands and the people behind them need to be seen as real. There's no doubt that the masses will sniff out a fraud.<br />
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I worked for an executive whose authentic and genuine nature were the hallmark if his leadership. It's strange (and a little sad) that it was unique and different, but it made him stand out. When one of his lieutenants – who was anything but authentic – started to ape that behavior, it stood out to me, but for the wrong reasons. The mimicked authenticity was completely inauthentic.<br />
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So just how do you go about being authentic?<br />
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I saw someone in my LinkedIn network pose the following question: "<i>What disciplines should marketers be training within to ensure authenticity?</i>" My first thought, was, "You've got to be kidding, right? You want to teach authenticity?"<br />
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It reminded me of the old George Burns quote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."</blockquote>
That one-liner often sums up all the stereotype of advertising, marketing and public relations – giving lip service <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/20/media/facebook-infowars-false-news-misinformation/" target="_blank">without following through with actions</a>. Can you blame the public for distrusting companies?<br />
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<b>Brands and Authenticity</b></h3>
Many of the other respondents to that LinkedIn question also noted that authenticity is more of <b><i>a state of being</i></b> rather than a skill – it's something that has to be part of your personality rather than taught as a course. Authenticity represents who we <b>are</b>, not what we <b>do</b>. And when we use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_speak">marketing speak</a> to address our audience, are we being truly authentic, or simply following a corporate protocol out of some outdated tradition?<br />
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It's time to step out of those corporate roles and leave behind those traditional templates and speak to our customers as if we're real people talking to other real people. As David Ogilvy once famously said,<br />
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"The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife."</blockquote>
Hopefully you're with your spouse, not because of some dating ritual or puffed up version of yourself. They choose you because of who you authentically are.<br />
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Ultimately, it's worth asking how your customers or your community view you. I hope you're prepared for the answer, because we live in an age where they'll tell you and expect to be heard.<br />
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As a closing thought, let's return to the title of the post. It's from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45392/ulysses" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Ulysses</a>. Here's the final stanza:<br />
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Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'<br />
We are not now that strength which in old days<br />
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;<br />
One equal temper of heroic hearts,<br />
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will<br />
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.</blockquote>
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Typically people quote the last line to demonstrate some kind of determination and resolve to power through, headwinds be damned.</div>
<br />But in reality, this poem is about Ulysses, the legendary king, trickster, and inventor of the Trojan Horse, in his declining years. He is remembering his adventures throughout the years and still cleaving to the wanderlust that is simply his nature. <br /><br />He is an authentic figure, unapologetic about his desire to abandon his home and family, even at the end of his days.<br /><br />That's what it means to be authentic – because to be anything else simply wouldn't be true.<br />

That Which We Are, We Are

We all inhabit some kind of personality when we're online, and probably at work too. It's about fitting in, and making it clear w...

Five Skills That Young Marketers and Communicators Should Develop

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As the marketing and communications industry continues to change and to adapt to digital environments, these are some key skills/specialties that are important for marketers and communicators who are building their careers. While you can pay attention to more than one, I think you'll be appreciated for being a specialist with deep knowledge rather than a generalist with only superficial knowledge.<br />
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<b>Analytics</b></h3>
The ability and necessity to measure results in a digital environment is stronger than ever. By understanding how to think about, measure, and interpret data, communicators need to be able to draw inferences and understand trends by analyzing the data.<br />
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<b>Visuals</b></h3>
Traditionally, communicators have been trained in writing. Interviews, profiles, employee updates, press releases - all are based on writing. The digital age requires that the communicator be a better storyteller in a variety of media, and that includes visuals. Video, photos, infographics and the like are necessary in a mobile and digital world.<br />
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<b>Coding</b></h3>
A strong understanding of the technical side of the profession is helpful. While the communicator doesn't necessarily need to know how to code (although some basic HTML is certainly helpful), they should understand the basic elements of coding and building sites and apps so that they can make recommendations and u<br />
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<b>Social / Digital</b></h3>
Without a doubt, social is a key element in anything digital today. But more than understanding how to use the platforms, it is helpful to understand the offerings to brands, how paid promotions fit in, and how to build an effective program that includes social from the beginning, rather than adding it on after the plan is fully developed.<br />
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<b>Strategy</b></h3>
It's a rather vague term, but strategy is a key element to being successful. You should have a keen knowledge of market forces, competition, the parts of a business other than communications or marketing, and how they all come together. Doing so will make you valuable as an adviser, rather than just as a tactician.<br />
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The market will continue to evolve and we'll likely see better definition of others fields (such as A.I.) and their application to marketing and communication. But it stands to reason that good marketers and communicators should be eternally curious and lifelong learners.<br />
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Is there anything else that you'd add?<br />
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Five Skills That Young Marketers and Communicators Should Develop

As the marketing and communications industry continues to change and to adapt to digital environments, these are some key skills/specialt...

The 5 Cs of Earning Loyalty In a Sea of Commodity

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In the fickle world in which we live, loyalty is one of the most sought-after and hard-won aspects of customer experience.<br />
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After all, it's likely that you're selling a <b>commodity</b>. It doesn't matter whether it's a product or a service, consumer-facing or business-to-business, brand new or a century old. Someone else can offer something just like it—or at least something similar enough to it that a customer will gladly switch brands if you can't meet their need.<br />
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Acquiring these customers and retaining them is the challenge. How do you differentiate yourself from the ever more crowded market?<br />
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Certainly it's about paying closer attention to <a href="http://www.sixpixels.com/blog/archives/the-future-never-comes-when-you-cant-nail-the-present/" target="_blank">how you treat them and deliver on your promise today</a>. It's fruitless to try to execute on "futurizing" your business if you haven't paid proper attention to current operations.<br />
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Loyalty comes from establishing trust. You can't take shortcuts to loyalty with deep discounts, unless that's your brand and you deliver on it every time. The best brands establish trust in a variety of methods—methods that are commodities themselves. You don't necessarily need to perform every one of these, but some combination of them could make your brand unstoppable.<br />
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<b>The Five Cs of Loyalty</b></h2>
If you want loyalty, it's essential to deliver on what really matters to customers. There are a handful of things to consider, but there's really one that matters in the end.<br />
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<h4>
<b>Confidentiality / Clarity</b></h4>
With recent technology news, you might think that they care most about <b>privacy</b>. But consumers <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/users-have-little-faith-in-social-networks-privacy-protections" target="_blank">still use social networks despite not trusting them</a>. And what's their privacy worth to them? About <b>$150</b>. That's what <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/for-150-most-users-will-sell-personal-information-to-brands" target="_blank">the price they'd sell their personal data for</a>. They expect some degree of confidentiality in a transaction, unless they explicitly agree to something else. It's part of what's behind the GDPR push. They need transparency or clarity about what's happening with their data. That's an important part of building trust.<br />
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<b>Cost</b></h4>
Okay, so if it's not personal information, what about <b>money</b>? We know everyone likes to save money, and the price point about the data exchange above reflected some sort of value that they'd realize. That is, what kind of <b>value </b>is there in such an exchange? Amazon is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/business/amazon-the-brand-buster.html" target="_blank">driving everyone to its own off-brand merchandise</a> by under-pricing the competition. And the promise of free two-day shipping for a flat rate has been what's driven Prime from the beginning. Bottom line: customers love knowing they can get a deal and that you're helping them save money.<br />
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<b>Certainty</b></h4>
The thing with cost is, someone can always lowball you and try to attract customers in the short-term. As stated above, it comes down to whether that's a sustainable strategy. Ride-sharing services have offered lower prices than cab fares, but they've added something else: predictability. When you open your Uber or Lyft app, you can see where the cars are and how long it will take for them to arrive—and you're able to inform friends and family when you'll arrive. In our over-scheduled, time-fraught lives, we can all benefit from more certainty.<br />
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<h4>
<b>Convenience</b></h4>
So you've nailed the other elements above, giving customers peace of mind about their data, saving them money, and being reliable. But they're in a hurry. Customers need to do things more quickly and in a way that hews to <b><i>their</i></b> schedule, not yours. You need to give them back <b>time</b>. Interestingly, Uber recently announced that they'll be giving customers an option of <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/19/cheaper-uber-fares/" target="_blank">paying less if they're willing to wait longer</a>, acknowledging that customers' time is an important commodity.<br />
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Imagine if your company, rather than saying "we're available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday for an appointment," said, "When would you like to have it done?" That could go beyond normal business hours too: if I'm not out of work until 7:00 p.m. and then need to get to a Little League game, maybe it's not convenient for me to bring my product in until 9:30 p.m. When Amazon is promising same-day delivery for goods, it means every brand—products or services—needs to be thinking about similar behavior.<br />
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<b>Cachet</b></h4>
This is a very special category, which is why I saved it for last. All of the above items are about business processes. You've made decisions about pricing, about the availability of your goods and services, about providing predictable and repeatable results, and about data security.<br />
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But there's one other thing that you can develop with your customers that will not only keep them coming back, but will also make them shout from the rooftops about what you've done.<br />
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Status.<br />
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Status makes them feel special. Status gives them cachet. It's more than being able to say they're Titanium Level in your rewards program. You need to give them experiences that make them feel like they're unique. It means a move toward personalization—no more "Dear Valued Customer" emails (or God forbid "Dear <firstname>").</firstname><br />
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Delta has very specific tiers for their SkyMiles program. They call them "Medallions" and they come in Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. But as you see more passengers accruing the 'status' of Medallions, it decreases in its uniqueness. So Delta upped the ante, and among other things, offered Diamond Medallion members the ability to be driven between connecting flights, <i>on the tarmac</i>, <b><i>in a Porche</i></b>.<br />
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Now <b><i>that's</i></b> cachet!<br />
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Don't give your customers a reason to look elsewhere. Make them trust you to the point where they're completely loyal to your brand. In order to accomplish that, you need to be diligent about every touchpoint with them. Execute flawlessly. And ultimately, make them feel like no one else can.<br />
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<i>Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/9FLULY">the original reward's program</a> [sic] by frankieleon (Flickr)</i><br />
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The 5 Cs of Earning Loyalty In a Sea of Commodity

In the fickle world in which we live, loyalty is one of the most sought-after and hard-won aspects of customer experience. After all,...

Four Leadership Lessons from Mister Rogers

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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MVee5Hvyz9o/UzOQ-O6d06I/AAAAAAAASNw/0XFXQxr5IYQ/s1600/Mister+Rogers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fred Rogers was an inspirational leader and a hero to many" border="0" height="390" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MVee5Hvyz9o/UzOQ-O6d06I/AAAAAAAASNw/0XFXQxr5IYQ/s1600/Mister+Rogers.jpg" title="Fred Rogers hero" width="640" /></a></div>
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It may seem odd to look at the mild and kind Mister Rogers as an example for leadership. After all, most leaders we admire have traditionally been those who are forceful, deeply charismatic or visionary in some way. A simple Google image search of those terms picks up the likenesses of John F. Kennedy, Steve Jobs, and Captain Kirk (!) in one grouping.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers" target="_blank">Fred Rogers</a> (1928-2003) was a minister and a television personality who, over the course of his three decades on PBS, touched the lives of millions of children and adults alike. With his gentle demeanor ("a voice that sounds adult to the ears of children and childish to the ears of adults," according to Tom Junod), sneakers and cardigan,<span face=""arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px;"> </span>he doesn't seem to fit the mold of what we typically think of when we imagine a leader.<br />
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And yet...<br />
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I recently had the occasion to read a profile of Mister Rogers by Tom Junod in the November 1998 issue of <i>Esquire</i>, titled "<a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/can-you-say-hero-esq1198" target="_blank">Can You Say...Hero?</a>" I'm not one who takes to hyperbole, but I can honestly say that Junod's piece is one of the most well-written and touching long-form articles I've read in a long time. If ever.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slr1ynOHk-0/UzN4iqP94dI/AAAAAAAASNY/Z6AXxLhePHI/s1600/Esquire-mister-rogers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cover of November 1998 Esquire with Tom Junod's profile of Fred Rogers" border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slr1ynOHk-0/UzN4iqP94dI/AAAAAAAASNY/Z6AXxLhePHI/s1600/Esquire-mister-rogers.jpg" title="Fred Rogers cover Esquire November 1998" width="296" /></a></div>
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As I've grown, both as a professional and as an individual, I've come to appreciate Mister Rogers and his teachings more deeply. When I graduated from Boston University, Fred Rogers was there <a href="http://exhibit.fredrogerscenter.org/advocacy-for-children/videos/view/971/" target="_blank">to give the invocation</a>, and at the time, I enjoyed his presence with something of a happy nostalgia for my childhood. But since I became a father, I came to appreciate the simple yet deep wisdom of Mister Rogers as I think about the world that my children will inherit.<br />
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The <i>Esquire </i>profile made me reflect on all of those things and more: who I am as a person — a husband, a father, a son — and as a professional. It struck me that Mister Rogers, in his gentle, caring way, had attributes that made him a truly great leader.<br />
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We can all take a page from the book of Mister Rogers by looking at the way he showed and shared his true self with others.<br />
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<h2>
<b>Four Characteristics Essential for Leaders</b></h2>
<h3>
<b><br /></b></h3>
<h3>
<b>
Respect</b></h3>
It didn't matter whether you were a child, an adult, a captain of industry or a thief; Mister Rogers respected everyone. He listened to people and made it clear that he heard them. By all accounts, he was thoughtful and personal, and he gave of his limited time freely. From the fan mail that he answered himself – every single letter – to the routine of praying for other people daily, to Mister Rogers, everyone deserved his attention and respect.<br />
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It was impressive to see the reaction he got when, during his Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award speech, he requested the audience to take 10 seconds of silence to think of those who helped them achieve what they did:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fKy7ljRr0AA" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></center>
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<h3>
<b>Empathy</b></h3>
When he was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcNxY4TudXo&t=135s" target="_blank">inducted into the Television Hall of Fame</a>, he was greeted by a surprise visitor - Jeff Erlanger came out onto the stage in his electric wheelchair. This is the same person who was on <i>Mister Rogers' Neighborhood</i> as a guest some two decades prior, for whom Rogers had shown such compassion and feeling.<br />
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When some ophthalmologists asked him for help with a chapter on how to treat children who might be scared by a procedure, closing their eyes, or simply the dark, he avoided all of the technical jargon or child psychology that he could have so easily relied upon. He simply tapped into the feeling within them, writing, "You were a child once, too."<br />
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But the story that does an even better job of demonstrating this extraordinary gift of empathy is a longer one from the <i>Esquire</i> piece. Junod tells us of a boy who didn't like himself very much:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think but sometimes can't walk, or even talk. This boy had a very bad case of cerebral palsy, and when he was still a little boy, some of the people entrusted to take care of him took advantage of him instead and did things to him that made him think that he was a very bad little boy, because only a bad little boy would have to live with the things he had to live with. In fact, when the little boy grew up to be a teenager, he would get so mad at himself that he would hit himself, hard, with his own fists and tell his mother, on the computer he used for a mouth, that he didn't want to live anymore, for he was sure that God didn't like what was inside him any more than he did. He had always loved Mister Rogers, though, and now, even when he was fourteen years old, he watched the Neighborhood whenever it was on, and the boy's mother sometimes thought that Mister Rogers was keeping her son alive. She and the boy lived together in a city in California, and although she wanted very much for her son to meet Mister Rogers, she knew that he was far too disabled to travel all the way to Pittsburgh, so she figured he would never meet his hero, until one day she learned through a special foundation designed to help children like her son that Mister Rogers was coming to California and that after he visited the gorilla named Koko, he was coming to meet her son.<br />
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"At first, the boy was made very nervous by the thought that Mister Rogers was visiting him. He was so nervous, in fact, that when Mister Rogers did visit, he got mad at himself and began hating himself and hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room and talk to him. Mister Rogers didn't leave, though. He wanted something from the boy, and Mister Rogers never leaves when he wants something from somebody. He just waited patiently, and when the boy came back, Mister Rogers talked to him, and then he made his request. He said, "I would like you to do something for me. Would you do something for me?" On his computer, the boy answered yes, of course, he would do <i>anything</i> for Mister Rogers, so then Mister Rogers said, "I would like you to pray for me. Will you pray for me?" And now the boy didn't know how to respond. He was thunderstruck. Thunderstruck means that you can't talk, because something has happened that's as sudden and as miraculous and maybe as scary as a bolt of lightning, and all you can do is listen to the rumble. The boy was thunderstruck because nobody had ever <i>asked</i> him for something like that, ever. The boy had always been prayed <i>for</i>. The boy had always been the <i>object</i> of prayer, and now he was being asked to pray for Mister Rogers, and although at first he didn't know if he could do it, he said he would, he said he'd try, and ever since then he keeps Mister Rogers in his prayers and doesn't talk about wanting to die anymore, because he figures Mister Rogers is close to God, and if Mister Rogers likes him, that must mean God likes him, too."</blockquote>
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<h3>
<b>Passion</b></h3>
His legendary fight for the funding of public broadcasting is an example of Rogers being able to share his passion to others through storytelling. He used personal anecdotes, songs and stories of progress in his chosen profession. It moved Senator Pastore to restore funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on the spot. <a href="https://youtu.be/fKy7ljRr0AA" target="_blank">Watch the video</a> to see Fred Rogers' full impact on a United States senator.<br />
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<h3>
<b>Optimism</b></h3>
For Fred Rogers, the days in his neighborhood were truly beautiful. He looked for the positive aspects of everything, including of others. His encouragement and cheerfulness, which to the disaffected might seem saccharine, were genuine and thoughtful, yet were far-removed from the Land of Make Believe and more closely aligned to the realities that we all live with.<br />
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For example, during the school shooting in Newtown, CT and the bombing at the Boston Marathon, we saw <a href="http://www.fredrogers.org/parents/special-challenges/tragic-events.php" target="_blank">a quote from Mister Rogers</a> that seemed to give us — particularly those of us with children — the ability to look at the world with hope rather than dread:<br />
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"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster," I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world."</blockquote>
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We were fortunate to have Fred Rogers with us as a role model that shaped young minds. He was, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upm9LnuCBUM" target="_blank">in his own words</a>, someone who "helped you become who you are...who cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life."<br />
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His lessons are equally as applicable for adults inside and outside of the business world. When you're a leader who is trying to make a change – whether it's organizational, operational, or technological – all that really matters is the culture you set. You set the culture of an organization by the behavior you demonstrate every single day.<br />
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There will only ever be one Mister Rogers. But we can model aspects of his behavior to become our best selves and show that to others.<br />
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After all, it's what he wanted.<br />
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<b>Bonus</b>: <a href="https://youtu.be/FhwktRDG_aQ">the trailer</a> for the documentary <i>Won't You Be My Neighbor?</i><br />
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<i>Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/kBZo6w" target="_blank">Bo Gordy-Stith (Flickr)</a></i><br />
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