Ted Tuesday: The Incomparable Seth Godin "Tribes We Lead"

Mass marketing, according to Seth Godin, requires average ideas. Because to sell in volume, you must cater to the average consumer. 

But what if you what to be remarkable?

Good Morning Folks,

In this 2009 presentation with over 1.5 million views, the legendary Seth Godin talks about the merits of not just a great idea, but how to find the right people to help that message spread. It's easy to look online and find every social media pundit blogging or tweeting about community management and building a strong brand evangelist platform, but many get it wrong. What we're looking to do is to build tribes of like-minded people. 

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

Godin has some really good news for you. With the Internet, you can share your product or idea without targeting the masses. Instead, you can build your own tribe.

"Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age," Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. "Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas -- usually, but not always, his own." In fact, he's as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves. 

After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.

Blogs Samantha:

Looking back on Seth Godin’s speech, I remember feeling very inspired. He made me want to get up and do something, change something, become something. It sounded perfectly clear once he spoke it, why hadn’t I seen it before? There are a lot of different things we can do for our tribes, groups that can be based on many different things. We could choose each other based on a common interest, favorite something or a goal we all want to achieve. 

I personally don’t know what I would want to be grouped for. To be honest, I feel like I’m riding a Mary-go-round, always doing the same things everyday. I want to change that, but I’m not sure how. I don’t believe I’ve found my purpose yet. Maybe this project will help me find myself. 

One of the things said during this TED talk was, “Tell a story. Make a Connection. Lead a group. Make a change.” Eventually that small group can grow into a big community, full of other people who can relate to you all because you have one interest in common."

Seth Godin is one of those individuals who really inspire change, this talk and his book are no difference and Seth Godin is probably one of the best examples of a tribe leader.

Connecting with your own tribe is such a powerful and clear call to action. Nobody explains the power of new marketing and new business thinking better than Seth:

Each of you can benefit from watching this. Something to share with your colleagues and friends! Please pass this along to others!

Let's be thankful for the Internet and Ted where we can be inspired by great keynotes that in the past were only accessible to lucky few (or hard working President's Club winners) at expensive conferences. 

Speaking of inspiration, this morning is a morning to get fired up about and what we stand for. We have a new COO with Mr. Bomsi Billimoria, promotions abound like never before with Missy, Chelsea, Shalaine and our Chief of Staff and SVP, Corporate Strategy, Denise Ngeow is back today from maternity leave - a big welcome back to Denise.  

We are a tribe at FSO and we are remarkable, not average. Personal, Passionate and Productive, and we get the job done to perfection every moment and every day.


To a bright and successful day!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: Meet The Happiest Kid In The World

"Adults ask kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Adults want to hear I want to be an astronaut or neurosurgeon. Us kids will answer surfer, Minecraft player, skateboarder or something we are more stoked on, what we think is cool.. what have experience with.. and that’s usually the opposite of what adults want to hear.”

~~Hackschooling Makes Me Happy:Logan LaPlante at TEDx University of Nevada

Good Morning Folks,

You have Marketing Intern Emily Bowen to thank for introducing me to 13-year old Logan LaPlante, a kid genius whose Ted Talk already has 6 million views and will show you how a great presentation is done. This young man is impressive in every single way. You have to see and hear the happiness he expresses in what he is doing in his life for such a young age. 

Talk about some one born for the role of Chief Happiness Officer! A "mini" me!

When 13 year-old curious and creative Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal because he wonders why happy and healthy aren't subjects taught in traditional schools. He really deserves a Nobel for this. The most common sense and intelligence I have seen in some time. 

He combines the “hacker mindset” with a network of do-it-yourself friends, family, and community organizations to optimize for health, happiness, creativity, and wisdom. He calls it “hackschooling”.

Blogs Emily:

"As I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline, I came across a video that had been shared of a thirteen year old boy speaking at a Tedx Talk event. The boy's name is Logan Laplante, and he was taken out of school to be homeschooled. His impressive public speaking ability (at such a young age) wasn't the only thing that caught my attention. Like all good presenters, his story and message were intriguing and made me think about a few things. 

Unlike many children or teens who are asked the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?", he not only had an answer- but also a plan. The overarching theme of Logan's talk was how his goal is to [continue to] be happy and healthy. Through what he calls "hackschooling," Logan is able to tailor his education and style of learning to be focused on what interests him. According to him, hackschooling includes four things: a creative hacker mindset, experimental classes & camps, technology & online resources and the 8 researched tactics to being happy and healthy. By not being a part of the traditional education system that we know today, Logan has the opportunity to achieve his goals by learning through real life experiences. 

Much like Logan’s thesis of learning about what interests you and things you are passionate about, I believe everyone should have the opportunity from day one of college to get the most value for their money. Given the chance, I could have spent more time taking marketing and other supporting courses that would be more relevant to my field, such as Graphic Design."

And now here's "Hackschooling Makes Me Happy:

Logan LaPlante at TEDx University of Nevada

Logan loves skiing and is on the Alpine Freestyle Team where he enjoys competing in the big mountain Junior Freeskiing Tour and USASA Halfpipe and Railjams. As an intern at Bigtruck Brand in Truckee, Logan is working on developing his design, sewing, and business skills. Logan has performed in Young Chautauqua for the past 4 years as the notorious “Billy the Kid”, Sir Edmund Hillary, and most recently the psychopathic yet infamous Al Capone.

Logan enjoys public speaking and has been watching TED videos for as long as he can remember. He hopes that with his opportunity to speak at TEDx he can inspire some kids, parents, and educators to think differently about education and to make health, happiness, creativity, and wisdom a priority.

At the end of the day, a degree is a sheet of paper- a very expensive, needed one. It is how you take what you’ve learned, no matter how relevant, and apply it to real life that will test whether it was worth the time and effort.

We need more “hacker” mindsets in our society today, and it is enlightening that there are people like Logan who can have such a clear vision at such a young age.

Each of you can benefit from watching this. Something to share with your parents and friends! Please pass this along to others!

Like Logan, how lucky are we to be able be given new chances to improve ourselves, improve the way we serve our clients, improve the way we work with our staff, as well as to improve the way these opportunities are spread among all levels of employment at FSO. This is important. 

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: Paolo Cardini's Forget Multitasking, Try Monotasking

"Multitasking only works for a very few people. As Paolo stated, only 2% of people are "super-taskers" who can multi-task efficiently. The rest of us, when we try to multi-task, often end up doing many things poorly, instead of one thing well."

Good Morning Folks,

With 1,651,644 views on Ted's site, Industrial Product designer Paolo Cardini's Forget multitasking, try monotasking (aka The Power of Focus) is already a big hit.

For many of us, multitasking is part of everyday life: Tweeting, evaluating a revolutionary business startup and preparing a sandwich all in the same minute comes as second nature.

But perhaps we should start looking at the concept of multitasking as outdated -- inefficient. In the clip below (a video from TedTalks), designer Paolo Cardini makes a case for monotasking -- or as we often put it, unit asking. His charming 3D-printed smartphone covers just might help.



What is your focus? Think about it. Will you be in control of your POWER of FOCUS, or will you fall into the trap of firefighting, not in control of your time, busy with activities that are not in line with the corporate goals or mine that you have been given?

Our people, from mail room clerks to front of house to our Sr. Management team are driven by one simple focused goal, make today better than it was yesterday. Our people never stop looking for ways to make our clients life better. When I talk about passion, it is not just a tag line for our brand it is the way we approach everything we do.

Focus at FSO is on providing employees that not only can deliver services, but have the fire, skip and twinkle in how they deliver Hospitality service. The FSO Experience is a different level of White Glove Service. We are not happy with just meeting expectations as that is only a passing grade for our competitors. We want them to feel the difference!

How lucky are we to be able be given new chances to improve ourselves, improve the way we serve our clients, improve the way we work with our staff, as well as to improve the way these opportunities are spread among all levels of employment at FSO. This is important. 

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: Writing My Wrongs: Shaka Senghor at TedX Midwest

 "Making the best out of a bad situation, Shaka offers sobering firsthand accounts of redemption, the power of hope and how literature changed his life.

Good Morning Folks,

At FSO, we believe in second chances and have some great stories to boast about of our own. Because anyone with >>skip, >>fire and >>twinkle that is willing to learn, apply themselves and grow, has the right to become all they can be.

That's why I love my Ted selection for you today. WOW! Here is powerful testimony of a realistic examination of life in the world of urban inner city America. Shaka Senghor needs to be on every talk show, every news stations, and should be paid handsomely to tell story. What an upside down world we live in.

In 1991, Shaka Senghor shot and killed a man. He was, he says, "a drug dealer with a quick temper and a semi-automatic pistol." Jailed for second degree murder, that could very well have been the end of the story. But it wasn't. Instead, it was the beginning of a years-long journey to redemption, one with humbling and sobering lessons for us all.

Using literature as a lifeline, Shaka Senghor escaped a cycle of prison and desperation. Now his story kindles hope in those who have little.

At the age of 19, Shaka Senghor went to prison fuming with anger and despair. Senghor was a drug dealer in Detroit, and one night, he shot and killed a man who showed up on his doorstep. While serving his sentence for second-degree murder, Senghor discovered redemption and responsibility through literature -- starting with The Autobiography of Malcolm X -- and through his own writing.

Upon his release at the age of 38, Senghor reached out to young men following his same troubled path, and published Live in Peace as part of an outreach program bringing hope to kids in Detroit and across the Midwest.

Shaka Senghor's story of redemption has inspired young adults at high schools and universities across the nation. While serving 19 years in prison, Senghor discovered his love for writing. He has written six books, including a memoir about his life in prison, Writing My Wrongs. In 2012, Senghor's Live in Peace Digital and Literary Arts Project won a Black Male Engagement Leadership Award from the Knight Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Foundation's Campaign for Black Male Achievement. Senghor has also recently been named a Director's Fellow at MIT for his work.

Join nearly a million others and Have a look at....

Well done Shaka I love your forward thinking. 

How lucky are we to be able be given new chances to improve ourselves, improve the way we serve our clients, improve the way we work with our staff, as well as to improve the way these opportunities are spread among all levels of employment at FSO. This is important. 

Because great companies make sure that opportunities are available to all levels and not only to a select few. No other outsourcing company does this to their staff and I am a living proof, because I’ve been in the business since the dinosaurs roamed.

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  


About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: The Emerging Work World in the Participation Age | Chuck Blakeman | TEDxMileHigh

In this funny and insightful talk, Chuck Blakeman explores the hallmarks of the Participation Age (a workforce who wants to Make both Money and Meaning at work)— and its attraction to the next generations of stakeholders and leaders.

Good Morning Folks,

What does it mean to be a company that has joined the Participation Age? How does this new business perspective affect the bottom line? In this funny and insightful talk, Chuck Blakeman explores the hallmarks of the Participation Age, and their attraction to the next generations of stakeholders and leaders.

Says Chuck in a piece he penned for INC, "We are living at the intersection of two opposing work worlds, The Industrial Age, which is still strangely dominant in the front office of most companies. And the Participation Age, which is emerging as the new standard for how we work."

"In the production area, we have replaced Industrial Age assembly lines and smokestacks with things like nanotechnology and clean rooms. But the front office looks pretty much the same way it did a hundred years ago, with managers in ties making all the decisions. These Industrial Age management practices, which recreated humans as extensions of machines, are colliding with the emerging Participation Age workforce that wants to Make Meaning at work.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Enjoy!



Well done Chuck I always love your articles and your forward thinking. 

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form.TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE. 

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

FSO = Hospitality = YOU

"Thanks to all our employees for NEVER settling for mediocrity. Your smile, your enthusiasm and your hard work is what makes my vision come alive at FSO."

Good Morning Folks,

It's Monday and a new day, new week and a whole new opportunity to do great things. 

Today visiting Atlanta, like I do every day, I go on appointments and hear how the prospect thinks all outsourcing companies are the same. That's right, the market thinks we are the same! No way... The only thing we have in common with our competitors is the word “outsourcing.” Everything else is different! That difference is YOU, our folks! Yes, YOU the person on site and the person supporting the site.

Every site employee, YOU, are the FSO difference! Your commitment to service, to exceed the client expectations, to do just that little bit more, to be more professional, to have that better idea, to notice that detail, to take action when no one is watching. YOU make this company the best outsourcing provider in the business. YOU are the reason we have nothing in common with our competitors. YOU are the reason we have experienced Galactic Growth!

Thank YOU for doing the little things that make a big difference at our client sites and for supporting our client sites. Thank YOU for fueling the FSO passion. Thank YOU for waking up every day and realizing that today is a great day to serve our clients and stretch just a bit farther. 

Yes we have work to do. But we are a less than four year old start up company that has taken the market by storm, yet has only just begun. The future is so so bright.

Make this Monday the beginning of the best week of your life, professionally and personally. Put your mind right and know that if you do the right things, great things will happen. The past is the past and cannot be changed. Today is a new day, go effect your future. Go impact tomorrow.

Tom Peters said the difference between a good and great manager is 5 minutes. That 5 minutes was the extra time spent getting things right, thinking through an opportunity, organizing, etc... Be great and take the 5 minutes to write the extra email, respond to that question better, think through that problem and make that one more call.

The love running throughout this company is infectious so… take it personally because FSO is about hospitality and hospitality begins with YOU!

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Hugs all around,

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why" 

— Bernard Mannes Baruch

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Kiss ME: It's My First Blogiversary. And We're Just Warming Up.

"Many of us we can remember a time in the not too distant past when we were hoping for a phone call that would be the answer to our prayers...a job offer...to end the drought of our unemployed status. Being jobless is often a desperate situation; especially with a family to support it can be a heavy weight to bear."

Good Morning Folks, 

What a wild ride here at FSO Onsite Outsourcing last week: a cruise around Manhattan as a "thank you" to the employees for all their hard work; 2 new sites were launched/ WENT LIVE; our National Sales Team were in NYC for an awesome and productive day of strategy, and 3 promotions were announced. 

Most importantly our galactic growth continues to fuel the creation of new jobs, put people back to work, and provide advancement opportunities for roles that traditionally had been glass ceilings. 

I have never taken my eye off what drives a successful company – continued innovations, changing with the times and having the ability to be flexible, and retaining great talent. Key is paying attention to the things your customer wants! Your customer is the one who creates success, you just have to be there to capture it.

And such customer-centric thinking has surely paid off for us:

• 100% Client Retention
• Exemplary Customer Satisfaction Scores
• Record Client Growth!

As we hit the midway point of 2014 we have a lot to be thankful for. So far 2014 has been a banner year for FSO across the USA!

I started this blog as a blank canvas 272 posts and twelve months ago, now with over 40,000 visits from 382 of the Fortune 500 leaders in Legal, Professional Services, Media, Financial Services, Building Management, Retail, Fashion  and Education.

I never pictured myself blogging or even being able to keep such a demanding commitment. But here I am and so glad I dipped in. Opines an Ted Keynoter that we shared with you last week, "employees, through social media, are changing how companies market to, and engage with, customers and prospects. Unauthentic sales pitches doesn’t work anymore. Instead, we are witnessing the rise of the social employee who creates a win/win proposition by leveraging their personal brands to build trust and increase the digital “surface area” of the brands for which they work."

MitchWeiner.com and our social media initiative have taken off beyond my wildest expectations. I would highly recommend that your brand follow suit. 

Blogging has become one of the most fulfilling, worthwhile and personally gratifying endeavours of my career. You make it so.

Every day, people show up on these pages in search for something that motivates them. Things to get them out of bed, things to get them pumped up, things to help them make it through the day and so much more! The sense purpose and emotional compensation that comes from interacting with and helping others get pumped through social media transcends cash. That in mind...

I want to end this Monday's musing by sharing an excerpt from a touching email I received from an employee. Joe writes:

"Many of us we can remember a time in the not too distant past when we were hoping for a phone call that would be the answer to our prayers...a job offer...to end the drought of our unemployed status. Being jobless is often a desperate situation; especially with a family to support it can be a heavy weight to bear.

For many of our folks (myself included) FSO was that beacon of Hope. Each and every day WE as a company help change people's lives for the better. Through succession planning with FLP we make it possible to help our folks forge a career where prior to joining FSO no such opportunities existed.

Faith is the complete trust in someone or something. We prefer to call it "Sleep Easy"…It's confidence. The confidence our clients have in us, the confidence we have in our leaders.

Hope & Faith is what makes us the Greatest Outsourcing Company on the Planet. Together we will make Mitch's vision a reality…and continue his legacy long into the distance.. 

Joe's right: Each and every day WE as a company help change people's lives for the better. My legacy is to pay it forward so people like Joe who show up with FIRE>>SKIP>> and TWINKLE... can have the same opportunities I had against all odds, coming from challenging circumstances.

Because…. HAPPIER Employees deliver more PRODUCTIVE and PROFITABLE results. 

And that's not only what makes us different, it makes us better.

Thank you for entrusting us with your business challenges. Thank you for your words of encouragement. Thank you for your support and readership of the blog and for taking time to write to me directly. 

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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"We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others. 

I take happiness very seriously. It is a creed, a philosophy and an objective" ~~Helen Keller                                                                                                                                    

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Donnelley & Sons Company; r.sea; Readers Digest; Reed Smith Llp (PA); Regus Business Centers, Research In Motion; Revenue Assurance Test; Richards Kibbe & Orbe Llp; Robins, Kaplan, Miller, & Cire; Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions; Row 44; Royal Bank Of Canada; Rutgers University; Safra National Bank Of New York; Salesforce.com; San Diego City Schools; San Francisco Marriott Marquis; Santa Clara County Office Of Education; Sarah Lawrence College; Scholastic; Sfr; Sharp Electronics Corporation; Shearman & Sterling; Sidley Austin Brown & Wood; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Llp; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Llp; Social Law Library; Societe Generale; Socorro Independent School District; Softbank Bb Corp; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Spherion Corporation; src Federal Holding Company, Llc; Standard Motor Products; Starwood Hotels; State Of Montana; Stinson Morrison Hecker Llp; Straub Clinic & Hospital; Sungard Availability Services Usa; Syracuse University; Systems Research And Applications Corp; Talktalk; Teco Energy; Tesoro; Companies; Texas Blending & Warehousing Corp; Texas Instruments; Texas Medical Center; The Chubb Corporation; The City Of New York; The Coca-cola Company; The Heritage Foundation; The Interpublic Group Of Companies; The Jnt Association; The Limited, The Metrohealth System; The Municipal Communications Utility Of The City O (Iowa); The New York Times Company; Time; Toronto District School Board; Tower Group Companies; Trlg – Hq, Ttx Company; U.s. Bancorp; U.s. Center For Disease Control And Prevention; U.s. Environmental Protection Agency, Ungaretti & Harris, United Business Technologies, United Stationers Supply Co., University Of Connecticut, University Of Dayton, University Of Florida, University Of New Mexico, University Of Notre Dame, University Of Texas At San Antonio, Us Department Of Defense Net, Varian Medical Systems, Viacom, Virgin, Virgin Media, Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State Univ, Virgo Penn Business Centers L,Vivo, Volumedrive, W.w.grainger, Warrenville, Illinois, United States, Weill Cornell Medical College, Weitz & Luxenberg, Wellington Management Company, Llp, Wells Fargo & Company, West Corporation, West Publishing Corporation, White & Case Llp, Widnes, Halton,, Wisdom Tree Investments, Inc., Workforce Software, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, X--ray Optical Systems, Inc., Xerox Corporation, Xerox Corporation, Yaquinto Printing, Yon Lew, Zuckerman Spaede

Ted Tuesday: Flow, The Secret to Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“What makes us really happy?” He refers to the research that money can not make us happy and looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of “flow.

Good Morning Folks,

Leave it to your Chief Happiness officer to for you an inspiring keynote about Happiness that four million people have already seen and raved about, and I bet you haven't.

So appropriate to the peace and serenity I find when I visit Napa for a few days as I write from here now. I always leave Napa and return to the City with my own "flow" in check.

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: “When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.” He is the architect of the notion of “flow”– the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.

In this TEDx Talk Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, “What makes us really happy?” He refers to the research that money can not make us happy and looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of “flow.”



He also refers to:

• how the nervous system is unable to process more than approximately 110bits of information per second, and
• difference examples of flow from a figure skater, a business man, Anita Roddick (the Body Shop) and Masaru Ibuka (Sony).
• The presentation is summed up on the slide (at 14mins), called How does it feel to be in flow?

Completely involved in what you are doing – focused, concentrated,

• A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality,
• Greater inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done and how well we are doing,
• Knowing that the activity is doable – that our skills are adequate to the task,
• A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego,
• Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes, and
• Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.

If you are interested in his work, his books include Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (Masterminds Series), and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.

Thanks to Habits For Well Being for their inspirations preparing this post, to TED and of course to you for listening.

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form.TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE. 

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Ted Tuesday: The Rise Of The Social Employee: Mark Burgess at TEDxNavesink

"Employees, through social media, are changing how companies market to, and engage with, customers and prospects. With the transparency and opportunity for personal connections that social media offers, pushing fabricated, unauthentic sales pitches doesn’t work anymore. Instead, we are witnessing the rise of the social employee who creates a win/win proposition by leveraging their personal brands to build trust and increase the digital “surface area” of the brands for which they work."

Good Morning Folks,

Last night a large group of FSO's finest spent three hours circling manhattan on a yacht to celebrate our success, our growth, and future goals. It was a blast and I look forward to soon sharing the photos of all the fun and dancing shoes :-).

Today, however, I am going to focus on a topic of paramount importance in our company and if not your company now, it will be coming sooner rather than later. It's a revolution that begins with every employee… starting with YOU.

A book by today's guest speaker, College of Business Administration professor Mark Burgess explores how employees can serve as brand ambassadors.

In 2010, Southwest airlines removed director Kevin Smith from one of its planes before takeoff, saying he violated the company’s “Customer of Size” policy. Offended, Smith took to Twitter, excoriating the airline in a series of tweets to his many followers. The potential public relations disaster rippled across the Internet, and as control over the incident began to spiral away, the airline had to react in real time.

Enter the social employee. Conceived by College of Business Administration professor Mark Burgess and his wife and business partner, Cheryl, the social employee serves as the brand’s ambassador, its most authentic connection to consumers in the social media sphere, where the bottom line goes beyond buying and selling toward a transparent dialogue of values.

“People tend to believe in the voice of an employee more than the voice of an ad, which can be intrusive and less valuable,” Burgess says. “They want to hear from employees. People respect and engage with those voices.”

Southwest responded to Smith with tweets of its own, followed by a blog post that tried to soothe Smith and put out the fire. Burgess, who helped develop courses in the CBA that shifted emphasis to the growing field of digital marketing, commends the transparency of the response (even if Smith wasn’t gratified) in the 2014 book he and Cheryl wrote together, The Social Employee (McGraw-Hill). Drawing on success stories from Southwest, IBM, Dell and other companies, the book gives real-life examples of how companies empower employees to become brand ambassadors through social media.

“We coined a phrase and feel like we’re leading a movement,” Burgess says. “More and more companies are all using the same term.”

“Marketing is always about trying to sell something, but the difference is how you do it,” Burgess says. “More and more, people are ignoring TV ads. What’s relevant is your own network, and all of this is driven by social conversation.”

Burgess cites a study that concluded brands are central to about 40 percent of conversations on social media. “If you don’t have a strategy, you’re going to miss being a part of those conversations,” he says, adding that employees are an obvious if traditionally underused channel to tell a brand’s story and publicly share a company’s culture. “Trained and inspired around the power of a brand, employees can engage within their own network about it,” he says.

A sound social media policy and well-trained employees can help avert that result, Burgess says. Aside from establishing useful guidelines, brands can foster success by identifying the employees who inherently feel passionate enough about the company’s brand to become its ambassadors. “You want employees to work within their comfort zone,” Burgess says, so if they favor Twitter over Facebook, don’t force them to use Facebook.

The upshot for employees, Burgess says, is that the work also helps them grow their network and burnish their personal brand. “It’s a classic win-win situation,” he says. “If you’re actively engaged, you’re benefiting the brand you work for today, but you’re also building your own brand.”

The activity is far from onerous for the so-called digital natives who take social media as a fact of life.

As more companies adopt the social employee model, the next leap will be to the social executive, says Burgess, who equates the role to that of the player-coach, calling in plays while partaking in the game as well. “At some point it’s almost going to be a requirement that you have to be out there,” he says. “And if you’re an executive who can’t say something about your brand in 140 characters, you’re in the wrong business.”

In this talk, Mark Burgess brings to our attention how employees, through social media, are changing how companies market to, and engage with, customers and prospects. With the transparency and opportunity for personal connections that social media offers, pushing fabricated, unauthentic sales pitches doesn’t work anymore. Instead, we are witnessing the rise of the social employee who creates a win/win proposition by leveraging their personal brands to build trust and increase the digital “surface area” of the brands for which they work. The result is nothing short of a revolution that touches every company and relationship around us. Enjoy.


FSO is a force to be reckoned with; our competition is on the run. They know they cannot compete with us and our Personal, Passionate and Productive approach we take in everything we do. 

Our client’s rave about the work we do for them, we hear it from them every day!  

We have a clear path in front of us; it is ours for the taking.  

We have worked hard to get here, we should all be proud of what we have accomplished, but it’s not over!  

To continue the astonishing success I am committed to building a team of Rock Stars, each with the specific purpose to drive new opportunities for FSO! The social employee is on the rise right here.

Let's all go make things happen today. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love Life!

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form.TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE. 

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the second consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.