My heart jumped for joy when I read in the July 6th Fortune magazine Eric Schmidt’s answer to the question, “What is the best advice you ever got?”

Eric said, “The advice that sticks out I got from John Doerr, who in 2001 said, ‘My advice to you is to have a coach.’”

Now then, Eric went on about that, saying, “I initially resented the advice, becasue after all, I was a CEO. I was pretty experienced. Why would I need a coach? Am I doing something wrong?  My argument was, How could a coach advise me if I’m the best persom in the world at this?  But that’s not what a coach does.  The coach doesn’t have to play the sport as well as you do.  They have to watch you and get you to be your best.  In the business context a coach is not a repetitious coach.  A coach is someone who looks at something with another set of eyes, describes it to you in [his/her] words, and discusses how to approach the problem…

This picture is Dave Logan and Steve Zaffron, two people whose coaching I take and who wrote the best-seller, The Three Laws of Performance.  Here they are at the Conference for Global Transformation, signing books… but more on that later.  Suffice it to say that you want to read this book, and you definitely want to get a coach if you are on an executive team.  And I am available for that conversation….

Once upon a time I co-authored a book, Market Smarter not Harder.  Guy Kawasaki generously provided a testimonial for that book.  (Hey Guy, I still have a pre-pub copy of your Selling the Dream.)  Times have changed.

Fast forward to today when  I attended the San Diego Venture Group where Guy demonstrated social media, no kidding.  Mesmerizing.  I audio taped the entire thing, because as you know if you’re reading my blog, I am unwilling to be left in the dust in this exciting digital era.  My professional focus has not been marketing for a long time, it is helping organizations’ leaders foster trust by leading with integrity and competence.  I am good at that, not so good at social media, YET…..

Here for you is Guy’s presentation (disclaimer: this is raw audio) in segments by topic.  Lively.  Funny.  Relevant.  Edgy.  Enjoy.

guy-about-facebook

guy-about-twitter

guy-about-objective-marketer

guy-on-retweeting

Here are the documents used in Guy’s presentation.

I am engaged in an inquiry with a bunch of people who want to make a difference in the world about what is our public persona? Or, what became evident today in our conference call, is that we have multiple personae — at home we might be perceived one way, whereas at work we’re another way, and at church or in our social networks we’re seen in yet another way.

I wondered about this several years ago, at which time a very good friend of mine recommended a book called “The 80/20 Individual” by Richard Koch. You can go to the recommendations section of my website, click on this book and order it from Amazon.com.

In that book are a series of questions to ask people whom know you fairly well what they think of you. It’s a great exercise, and enlightening, because what they said quite often did not match up with what I thought they would say. Their responses were typically more flattering than what my little mind says about myself. I am thinking about repeating that exercise, to freshen my view of my public personae. At that time I asked about 25 people, which is a sufficient number of inquiries to get a pretty good sense of how I am viewed.

But the next question of our inquiry this morning on the conference call, which is even bigger, is, “Am I willing to be responsible for that persona?” I am expecting the same pattern this time, albeit the answers may be different — that others see me in a more positive light than I see myself. So the question is, will I step into that generosity others grant me and be for myself who I am for others? Hmmm.

Do it with me! I invite you into this inquiry for yourself.  You can share, or not — either way, you will be more of who you are from doing the exercise.  I know that from my personal experience.

I haven’t figured out yet how to get all the juice out of Facebook, and I’ve barely put my toe in  the water of the Twitter world, and I just have enough knowledge about HTML to be dangerous and look! Presto Digito,  I have a website and I’m blogging!

I think that’s pretty amazing, myself… and I welcome your comments, your suggestions — that is how I have gotten where I have gotten.

I have Andrew Powers of Pagelines to thank for the architecture of this website, which I think is brilliant given the rather approximate initial conversation that generated its potential. I have to thank my husband, Larry, for granting me lots of space during the tedious hours of looking at the stuff behind the curtain of this website and wondering what it meant when Andrew wasn’t available to ask.

And I have to acknowledge myself for persisting, and getting off it about techology. I have entered the realm of the internet and social media with a bit of a thud, and here I am, nonetheless.

Welcome to my thoughts, where I am more public about my views than I EVER thought I would be. And it’s all good — I don’t mean all of what I have said is good, I mean that I have said it is good! Please come, bring your views, and let’s go together into a future of sharing.