Listen to the interview here.
Its All About Relationships
Sarah Robinson is a joy to meet and chat with. Her work is on the relationship (tribe) building side of social media. The project she is currently
It is all about relationships
working on is “30 days To Changing Your Game” for her blog “Escaping mediocrity” where she “hatches escape plans”
30 days to Changing Your Game is bearing out to be transformational and pivotal to many. Sarah shares, “The undertow pull of mediocrity is super strong. I am extremely lucky to be friends with some great people who contributed to 30 Days. I sent out emails asking them if they would participate… not one of them said no.” She not only asked these movers and shakers to write, but to interact with the people who were reading and they all agreed.
This is an important part of social media. Real people engage with others online.
One interesting outcomes was that the presenters got back a lot from the work they contributed. “They LOVED the intense interaction” Sarah adds, “I had so much fun today and I was so energized’” were the comments and DMs she heard back.
What was the biggest amount of growth you got out of your work on 30 days? It must have been a lot of work.
“Yea, but it was fun because I was playing with my friends. If there is not an overarching amount of fun, I’m not doing it.” Even though they were friends, she worked on overcommunicating expectations . “In any good relation you overcommunicate what you need, your over communicate your gratitude + you over communicate how much you appreciate what they are doing for you. I cant overstate that enough when you’re building relationships.”
Speaking of friends, we have a common one, John Haydon. I thought of him when you said it needed to be fun.
” I give him endless crap.. as you know. ”
I noticed there seems to be a dichotomy though in your ideas of overcommunicating and John being the master of very few words.
“That is because he is way more succint. “He is one of the guest posters on 30 Days.
“Part of being in any relationship is not being rigid in your relationships.You have to be easy. Part of the reason I have such good relationships is that I am not high maintenance but people know that I have fairly high standards. Its like parenting. ”
Where do you see your blog going into the future?
“Escaping mediocrity is scary. So we are developing the tools to make it more predictable.” Sarah talked about the importance of tribe and what happens when you fall. “When you have built a tribe, you have the support of others. What I really want is people who really want this and who really resonate with it. ”
How did you get interested in this work?
“At first I wasn’t excited. I got involved when a friend told me I was missing out (by not being in social media.) What I Love about twitter and blogs is there is a gut level of exchange and conversation that doesn’t happen in other mediums. When we are all talking and laughing, it is like we are hanging out at someones house. ”
For Example Calvin Lee - “He is so shy and introverted. You would never know it without meeting him. He found his way to communicate.”
“One if the important pieces in social media is that you communicate in a very real way, I talk about the crappy days and the great stuff. We have communication. We laugh. The person I am online and in person are the same. For some there is the public persona and they hide what is really going on. Im interested in people who are three dimensional. I am not interested in people who only show one side. I want to know all of it, warts and all. Now I don’t need every intimate detail, but it must be authentic.”
How do you see yourself helping people?
“Leading by example and describing it so that it normalizes it for those who are afraid.”
Tell us a little about the High points in your participation in 30 days.
“I not bragging, but here is what happened to me. I started one new business and am starting two more who will be rolling out shortly. I have landed new consulting clients I have been asked to be interviewed. When the bad days come, and they will the place I will run is to the tribe.”
There are in both on and offline friends, those that jump in and out of our contact or hang out on the periphery, how do you maintain relationships with those?
“One of the things I try to do every day is think about who can I reconnect with. The whole thing is that twitter and blogs is it is a great meeting place where we then can move to connect in real space.”
Plug for her blog ( I made her do it,really) “If you want to check out the tribe that is at http://escaping-mediocrity.com and the Gamechangersroundtable.com which starts this week. It will be very intimate conversation not some high polished sales pitch.”
I asked what advice she could give others starting out.
For those of you who are ready, join the conversation that others are already having. Just meet them in the conversation they are having.
Thank you so much Sarah.
