The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you’ve come.
A week ago Jules Schroeder messaged me on Facebook to ask if I’d be interested in being interviewed for the soon to launch ‘Unconventional Life’ podcast. Always up for an engaging conversation, I jumped at the opportunity. It wasn’t until mid-recording that I realizing this email series had been, in part, a catalyst for the invitation.
While Jules and I have known each other since Awesomeness Fest in Mexico last November, she made a comment that implied these email were the prompt. The “oh yea, Brian is a nifty (and unconventional) dude to talk to about the thing I’m doing.”
We wrapped the interview (which will be published on Forbes in March) and, still in the darkness of my sound booth, I peeked at my email. Seeing the subject line “podcast interview request” I thought it was something Jules had sent. Nope, as it turns out it was an invitation from Dan Misener to be interviewed on the TGIM podcast for my “expertise in social and content marketing”. Hot damn!
I’m not sure which was more exciting, the fact that I was being contacted for interviews (without manipulating people through covert ad campaigns) or that I was being called on for my “expertise” in something with which I had never broadcasted my proficiencies. In my eyes, Dan’s email said “I think you’re good at a thing and it has nothing to do with you telling me you’re good at the thing.” I was flattered.
I was probably a bit lost relishing the compliment and didn’t question the origin of the inquiry. It wasn’t until Dan mentioned the email series (which is labeled in MailChimp as ‘FNG’ or “Fucks Not Given” as an internal reminder) that I realized what had prompted him to contact me. Not giving a fuck… made other people give fucks?
I haven’t shared The massively flattering comments so many of you have sent me as, while they’ve stuck with me like glitter on a stripper, it seemed narcissistic to share.
Well yesterday Kerri M. emailed me for the first time and said:
“Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s real, it matters, and it’s needed.”
Her comment wasn’t the most colorful, the most drunken, or the most revealing… but it struck me. I started this experiment for myself and committed to ‘give no fucks’ throughout the (somewhat overzealous) year long commitment. Yet, me just being me had an impact (even if for a moment) on someone I didn’t know was listening.
I went to brunch with Michelle from the ‘Clubbing With Compliments‘ email and we talked about creative expression, dating, and life in Los Angeles. At the end of brunch she asked where she could sign up for my email list, which caught me off guard. Similarly, I was out for drinks last night with my Mercedes driving, traveling ring swinging friend Aaron when he said something funny and a mutual friend asked “are you going to write about that now?” The inquiry was in jest, but it was at that moment I realized how many times similar comments had been made in recent weeks… even though people weren’t speaking up… they were listening… intently.
This week has prompted a lot of contemplation, but it wasn’t until writing this very sentence that I really looked back at the transgression of events over the last month.
It’s easy to get lost looking forward at where you want to go, but every once in a while it’s important to look backwards to see how far you’ve come.
Take a moment and think of your life and business over the past six months.
Reflect with sincere appreciation on both your blessings and lessons. Acknowledge your progress and ask yourself, how will you leverage that moving forward?
And to that answer I ask, what can I do to help?