Episode #021: Chris Brogan, Author of The Impact Equation (with Julien Smith)

Today is a special day for me. I have the pleasure of bringing to you a conversation with one of my heroes, Chris Brogan.
 
You see, the journey I took that ultimately led to working for myself began just over 6 years ago when I discovered social media (mainly Twitter) and, with it, Chris Brogan. Chris, by the way, is the author of 6 books, including The Impact Equation: Are You Making Things Happen or Just Making Noise? (affiliate link)
Here Our Conversation Now
Fighting to Survive
As a broadcaster in mid-2007 co-hosting a nationally-syndicated morning show, I had begun to realize the company I worked for was at an important crossroads. Facebook was approaching mainstream, Twitter was far from it but growing, and the digital landscape in general seemed to be on the verge of slaying its next traditional media dragon. Namely, radio.

It was at that time that I decided I would make it my mission to “figure all this stuff out,” for the sake of my company and my own livelihood.
Because of people like Chris Brogan, Twitter became for me what I like to call a Masters Degree-level tool.
When most people assumed it was about nothing more than sharing what you were doing at any given moment – after all, Twitter’s own tagline at the time was “What are you doing?” – I found that by simply following smart people who were sharing smart insights and smart content, I began to be viewed by many of my colleagues as smart too (at least in the areas of digital and social media).
As Jim Rohn is famous for saying,

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

Though Chris didn’t know it, he and I – along with next week’s guest Gary Vaynerchuk – were spending quite a bit of time together.
Preparing the Way
My early successes here led to my being asked by my company to present to our national programming team and, later, our national sales team on things like leveraging social media. Eventually, this led to my standing before the founder and his executive team to discuss where the industry was going, in my view, and what I felt we needed to do to best be prepared.
When the time later came to draft the company’s ten-year vision (2010 – 2020), I was asked not only to contribute to the conversation, but was tapped to create the presentation that would be used to communicate the vision to major donors around the world (and was paid extra for it to boot).
I don’t share all this to brag; far from it. After all, this same company let go of me and two of my colleagues as part of an organizational restructuring on June 17th of this year.
But since then, I’ve yet to look for a single, traditional job. I’m here today hosting this podcast and making ends meet due in large part to intentional growth and learning. Chris Brogan was my favorite teacher and, today, I get to share him with you.
What You’ll Learn
In this episode, Chris will help you to: