Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 78

How To Promote Your Ideas (And Not Look Like A Narcissist)

Posting on social media about how “humbled” you are when something good happens to you (or you get some kind of attention) is analogous to “thoughts and prayers.”

It’s time to put value ahead of self-promotion.

Know this: I can be just as guilty in this activity as anyone else, so the finger is pointing directly in my direction as well. I can do better. I’m writing this to myself (maybe it will help you too).

Here’s the over-simplification of the issue: Most thought leaders who I know, like, trust and respect are spending way too much energy posting about their wins, accolades and media appearances (inflating their own tires) over what got them this attention in the first place… which is, their valuable insights, unique perspectives and content (original thinking shared to an audience).

How can we reframe this?

Think about a print magazine. As a thought leader, would you rather write the cover story or have your picture on the cover of that magazine? Personally, I’d rather write countless cover stories that then earn me the place on the cover of a magazine. Sadly, I think the knee-jerk reaction for most thought leaders (and, for my dollar, I’d define “thought leader” as a catchall that includes authors, speakers, influencers, academics, podcasters, coaches, social media content creators, etc…) is to have their picture front and center. We need to think more like journalists.

Said another way: Don’t tell me how great you are, allow me to come to my own conclusions based on your insights and the value it creates in my day-to-day work.

This doesn’t mean that self-promotion should be verboten. It just means that the ratio of content and value creation should be a multiple to the moments when you share the fruits of that labor.

There are many questions/thoughts that we can ask about our content before we hit the publish button. Some of the questions/thoughts below might help us better define if we’re adding value to the audience’s day, or simply trying to convince that audience that we are important…

Is this content about me (my success) or is it about helping the audience get better at the work that they do?Is this content promoting the results of my work, or is this content the actual work that I am known for?Are there a lot of adjectives, superlatives and references to the results of my work in this content (example: If I’m using phrases like, “as I discussed in my New York Times bestselling book…” I’m promoting my success and not amplifying the content)?Instead of sharing a link to an article, podcast, or book that I created, can I skim some of the context from those pieces and create micro-content that will inspire the audience?Do I need to use phrases like, “people, friends, family, fans often ask me (or remind me… or want me to share this)…” (because, mostly, they have not, and it’s a deflection used to insinuate a self-declaration of my own popularity)?Don’t say that I’m “not a fan of milestones, etc…” while the content is solely a self-celebration of a moment-in-time for yourself. Is there a better story to tell about this personal milestone?You can be proud of your work/accomplishments without constantly beating your own chest. The way to do this? Keep going… keep creating and helping others get better at the work that they do. Connect to others, amplify your peers’ work, spread other ideas from other thought leaders and build a sense of community in your own thinking.

This does not mean that we should not celebrate moments, milestones, launches or not ask the audience to support the work.

The problem, of late (for me), has been that my feed is lacking genuine thought excellence from those who have a domain of authority. Instead, it’s a feed filled with pictures of thought leaders on planes, stages or standing next to someone important. I’m losing interest in what thought leaders are doing, because I’m no longer getting smarter from the content that they used to create.

Am I the only one? Am I alone in this thinking?

The end result? We’re seeing more cult of personality than domain of authority. That’s a waste of the amazing power of social media, in a day and age when these platforms have become a bastion for the ugly stuff. It doesn’t all need to be self-serving and narcissistic… it can be that thing of beauty that first empowered so many people to like, follow, subscribe and connect to new thinking.

Maybe I’m just lamenting a time that has passed, and the endless scroll of self-promotion is the new way to establish authority.

I hope not.

Laura Huang On Turning Adversity Into Advantage – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #828 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Laura Huang is a professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Laura’s research examines interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. She is the creator and co-founder of Project EMplify, an initiative dedicated to addressing inequality and disadvantage through personal empowerment. Previously, she held positions in investment banking, consulting, and management, for organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank, IBM Global Services, and Johnson & Johnson. Her first book is entitled, Edge – Turning Adversity into Advantage, and it looks at how to find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable. How do you get people to take you seriously when they’re predisposed not to, and perhaps have already written you off? Through her deeply-researched framework, Laura shows how we can turn weaknesses into strengths and create an edge in any situation. She explains how an entrepreneur scored a massive investment despite initially being disparaged for his foreign accent, and how a first-time political candidate overcame voters’ doubts about his physical disabilities. Special shout-out to Laura Gassner Otting for the introduction to Laura. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose): Six Pixels of Separation #828.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

SPOS #828 – Laura Huang On Turning Adversity Into Advantage

Welcome to episode #828 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #828 – Host: Mitch Joel. Laura Huang is a professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Laura’s research examines interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. She is the creator and co-founder of Project EMplify, an initiative dedicated to addressing inequality and disadvantage through personal empowerment. Previously, she held positions in investment banking, consulting, and management, for organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank, IBM Global Services, and Johnson & Johnson. Her first book is entitled, Edge – Turning Adversity into Advantage, and it looks at how to find a competitive edge when the obstacles feel insurmountable. How do you get people to take you seriously when they’re predisposed not to, and perhaps have already written you off? Through her deeply-researched framework, Laura shows how we can turn weaknesses into strengths and create an edge in any situation. She explains how an entrepreneur scored a massive investment despite initially being disparaged for his foreign accent, and how a first-time political candidate overcame voters’ doubts about his physical disabilities. Special shout-out to Laura Gassner Otting for the introduction to Laura. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 53:13.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on Twitter.Here is my conversation with Laura Huang.Edge – Turning Adversity into Advantage.Project EMplify.Follow Laura on Instagram.Follow Laura on LinkedIn.Follow Laura on Twitter.

This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #828 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #621

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

Saul Steinberg: An Overview – Saul Steinberg Foundation. “I’d never heard of Saul Steinberg until someone shared his ‘country noises’ image, which uses dingbats and wingdings (those fanciful flourishes that accompany typefaces) to visualize sounds. And you know what? He’s right! A lawnmower, dead leaves across the road, or rain on the roof do look like that. So I dug a bit deeper. Steinberg, who died in 1999, drew The New Yorker covers, and created a ton of modern art across many disciplines. Fortunately, there’s a detailed website that lets you explore what he did. I spent a happy hour browsing, and I suspect you will too.” (Alistair for Hugh). Oxford Electric Bell – Wikipedia . “I’m absolutely loving Stephen Fry‘s science history podcast, Great Leap Years, which may be the best Western science history documentary since James Burke‘s Connections. The first episode is about how we achieved language; the second, how the press unlocked it for us all; and the third delves into electricity. Along the way I was reminded of the Oxford Electric Bell, a dry-pile battery that has run continuously since 1840. It’s not magic, but it’s damned close.” (Alistair for Mitch).  Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives – Nature . “There’s something wonderful about imagining that Mr. Snuggles thinks about his friend cat whenever a human mentions her name, Princess Pipi.” (Hugh for Alistair). The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question – Wired . “Still getting my head around crypto/web3 and whether anything nice will come of it. Cautiously optimistic?” (Hugh for Mitch). Audio For Content Creators – Brian Miller – YouTube . “In a world where video is king, I still believe that great sounding audio (whether it’s an audio podcast or for a YouTube video) is really the non-’secret sauce’, of getting an audience hooked on your content. I’ve been subscribed to Brian Miller’s YouTube page, Audio For Content Creators, for some time, and have been lucky enough to get to know him, personally, over the past little while (shout-out to Zoe Chance for making the re-introduction). His channel is a goldmine of information, products, tactics and new thinking about what it takes to create great audio (and how easy/cheap it can be). So, whatever level of content creation you’re dealing with, Audio For Content Creators, is a great channel to upskill and be subscribed to.” (Mitch for Alistair). Plunging Markets, Crypto Winters, and Elon’s Twitter Deal with David Yermack – The Prof G Pod With Scott Galloway . “Money. It’s on everybody’s mind these days. A plunging stock market, crypto is all over the place, and general sense of a bear market looms (if it’s not already here). Whether you’re into cryptocurrency or have no interest in the federal reserve, please do yourself a favor and listen to this podcast. It’s a fascinating conversation between the always brilliant, Scott Galloway, and David Yermack (who is a professor of Finance and Business Transformation at the Stern School of Business. I wish that all podcast about money, economics and our future world were this engaging…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends)

How To Be The Most Popular Guest On Every Podcast

What does it take to be the ideal guest on a podcast or radio show?

After conducting thousands of interviews over thirty years (along with being a guest on countless podcasts, radio shows, etc…), I’ve seen (and heard) a lot. I’m going to break down the skills of becoming a better guest into two sections. One, will be the gear, technology and tools, and then we’ll dive into some performance tips. Being a great (and prepared) guest is not as easy as it looks. David Letterman used to always tell his guests: Show up, have two really funny/interesting personal stories to tell and go home. It all takes practice and preparedness (even when you’re famous and asked to appear on late night TV). Right now, there are over three million podcasts available for an audience to choose from. The quality of sound and the advancements in digital technology (hardware and software) has been astounding in the past few years. In short, the shows need to sound great, and that burden should fall on the guest as much as it weighs on the host.

Section One: The Ideal Podcast Guest Gear, Technology And Tools:

Use a wired connection to the Internet. As strong as your wifi is, it’s still not as good as being directly connected into the router. It’s the most stable (and best sounding) connection.Use the best computer that you have (don’t record on a tablet or a smartphone) .Make sure that every program and every tab on your computer is closed. Only leave open the application/tab that you’re using to record the podcast.If the show includes video, make sure that you have a solid camera (for webcams, I’ll recommend the Logitech Brio 4K Pro or Elgato Facecam), but preferably go with a real camera like the Sony ZV1.If the show includes video, also make sure that you have good lighting. A basic ring light can work wonders. I like the Elgato Key Light Air or the Key Light.Get a solid microphone (remember, it’s all about great sound quality). For USB mics, I’ll recommend the Shure MV7, but your best bet will be a more serious microphone like the Shure SM7B, Samson Q2U (which is both USB or XLR) or the Shure SM58. I use the Rode PodMic, which is also great. These XLR microphones require an audio interface to connect the mic into the computer (this can be as simple as the Scarlett Solo from Focusrite, but I use an actual podcast mixer/recorder called the RodeCaster Pro which allows me to record, use multiple inputs and even have sound files that I can play). XLR mics might also require something like a Cloudlifter to get the ideal volume/sound. Don’t forget that – depending on your setup – you will also need cables and a microphone stand (I use a boom arm microphone stand like the Rode PSA1+). I would stay away from a headset that combines headphones and a microphone, unless you really like the way it looks and feels. Also, never use the microphone that is built into the computer or the webcam.Always use wired headphones/earbuds that are plugged directly into the computer or your mixing board. Never use external speakers (the sound bleeds back into the recording, but – more importantly – you will never have that situation when one person cuts another person off and it chops the audio). Also, AirPods or Bluetooth headphones can be troublesome – from both connecting them to the setup to making them work – and they often get confused with the mic setup… and hilarity never ensues as the computer attempts to figure out the “right” mic to default to. More importantly, the sound is never good. I use Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones for audio recording, and if video is being used, these MEE audio Sport-Fi M6 Noise Isolating in-Ear Headphones cost under $20 and are invisible when you’re on screen.

Section Two: The Ideal Podcast Guest Performance Tips And Tricks:

Offer the host a digital copy of your book or, better yet, prepare a media kit (PDF file) with all of your information (bio, selection of photos – both horizontal and vertical sizes, book abstracts, areas of expertise, conversation prompts, great questions that stimulate conversation, links to all of your websites and social media platforms, etc…). Personally, I like to buy the books that my guests have written as a way to both support them and to selfishly build my personal library, but a solid media kit goes a long way.Don’t ask the host to provide you with questions or topics in advance. It’s your job to know your domain of authority, and it’s the host’s job to do their own research and come up with creative questions or conversation starters. Most podcasts are not there to create a “gotcha” moment.Think of the recoding as a conversation. How would this go if you and the host were just talking over a coffee? Apply that mindset to every podcast recording.Ask the host if they will be editing the show or if it’s all done in “one take.” Assume that it’s all one take and that everything you say can and will be used in the court of public opinion.If video is being recorded, make sure to look into the camera (and not down or up or wherever the host appears on your screen). Ideally set your camera at eye level.Make sure there’s about a fist’s worth of space between the mic and your mouth. You want to avoid plosives and pops as much as possible.Never type/text while the show is being recorded.Try not to shuffle too much, and watch out for jewelry and other “things” that are on your body that might quickly become grating sounds to an audience.If you have to cough or sneeze, try to hit the mute button on the mic, instead of assuming that the host will edit it out.Even if the show is not “live”… act like it is.Keep the content as timeless as possible. If you have a new book out that you are promoting, use phrases like: “My new book,” instead of lines like, “my new book came out two days ago.” When you’re recording the show and when the show gets published can be weeks/months apart. Think “timeless.”Try not to talk over anyone… I’d prefer to edit out blank audio spaces than hearing two people talk over one another. Give the conversation space between the host’s questions and thoughts and your own.Know your filler words. We all have them. They’re tough to get rid of, but knowing yours and practicing to not say them will make you a much better guest. Filler words are words/phrases like: “Umm,” “you know,” “sort of,” “I think,” “like,” “kind of,” “what not,” “basically,” “I mean,” “And so…”. There are many more. Take past recordings of your guest appearances, and start making a list of your filler words (maybe even count the number of times that you use these phrases in a recording). Try to catch yourself before you say them. Also, slow down… you will find that repetitive and habitual phrases start to disappear when you take more time to think before you speak.Listen to your voice at 1.5x and 2x speed. Many people listen to podcasts at that pace, so you want to ensure that you’re not speaking so fast, that you sound like a member of Alvin and the Chipmunks at that speed.Smile while you speak, and amp up your enthusiasm by about 20%. That energy and smile will come through in the audio. Promise.

Anything that you might add to this list?

Happy Podcasting!

Ayelet Fishbach On The Science Of Motivation – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #827 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Is there an actual science to motivation? Can that science be understood in a world where there are so many hucksters push “motivation” with snake oil-like magnitude? Please meet Ayelet Fishbach, the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing and IBM Corporation Faculty Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Ayelet studies social psychology, management and consumer behavior. She is an expert on motivation and decision making. She has presented her research all over the world. Ayelet has served as an Associate Editor on several journals, including Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and she has served on the editorial board of leading journals in psychology and management. She has further served as the president of the International Social Cognition Network and the Society for the Study of Motivation. She is the recipient of several international awards, including the Society of Experimental Social Psychology‘s Best Dissertation Award, Career Trajectory Award, and the Fulbright Educational Foundation Award. In 2006, she received the Provost’s Teaching Award from the University of Chicago. Most recently, Ayelet published her first book, Get It Done – Surprising Lessons From The Science of Motivation, that presents a new theoretical framework for self-motivated action, explaining how to identify the right goals, attack the “middle problem,” battle temptations, use the help of others around you, and so much more. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose): Six Pixels of Separation #827.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

SPOS #827 – Ayelet Fishbach On The Science Of Motivation

Welcome to episode #827 of Six Pixels of Separation.

Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #827 – Host: Mitch Joel. Is there an actual science to motivation? Can that science be understood in a world where there are so many hucksters push “motivation” with snake oil-like magnitude? Please meet Ayelet Fishbach, the Jeffrey Breakenridge Keller Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing and IBM Corporation Faculty Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Ayelet studies social psychology, management and consumer behavior. She is an expert on motivation and decision making. She has presented her research all over the world. Ayelet has served as an Associate Editor on several journals, including Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and she has served on the editorial board of leading journals in psychology and management. She has further served as the president of the International Social Cognition Network and the Society for the Study of Motivation. She is the recipient of several international awards, including the Society of Experimental Social Psychology‘s Best Dissertation Award, Career Trajectory Award, and the Fulbright Educational Foundation Award. In 2006, she received the Provost’s Teaching Award from the University of Chicago. Most recently, Ayelet published her first book, Get It Done – Surprising Lessons From The Science of Motivation, that presents a new theoretical framework for self-motivated action, explaining how to identify the right goals, attack the “middle problem,” battle temptations, use the help of others around you, and so much more. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 54:39.Hello from beautiful Montreal.Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.Please visit and leave comments on the blog – Six Pixels of Separation.Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.or you can connect on LinkedIn.…or on Twitter.Here is my conversation with Ayelet Fishbach.Get It Done – Surprising Lessons From The Science of Motivation.Follow Ayelet on LinkedIn.Follow Ayelet on Twitter.

This week’s music: David Usher ‘St. Lawrence River’.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels of Separation – Episode #827 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.

Six Links Worthy of Your Attention #620

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

Without Sky – Natan Dubovitsky – Bewildering Stories. “Dubovitsky is the pseudonym of Vladimir Surkov, a close advisor to Putin. The FT describes him as, ‘a founding father of Putinism.’ Sanctioned by Obama, he appears to have parted ways with Russia’s leader in 2020, and is now under house arrest. He also writes science fiction. This short story, published in 2014, is definitely weird, and dark, and, if you read between the lines, telling.” (Alistair for Hugh). He Planned a Treasure Hunt for the Ages — Until He Went Missing – Rolling Stone . “I love treasure hunts. Love them. I don’t make them nearly as much as I should, and keeping up with the advances in clues that escape rooms have given us can be exhausting. But I once created a multi-day, online/offline hunt for my partner that included notes inside obscure movie cassettes at Blockbuster, a combination lock decoded by playing an audio file backwards, a jigsaw puzzle map, and a cipher based on the liner notes for a Pat Metheny album. Heck, I’ve even written a book on how to run them (if you want a fun rabbithole, look up Elsa Maxwell, the inventor of the scavenger hunt). So, this story struck home, because it’s a devastating loss for humans.” (Alistair for Mitch). North Sentinel Island – Wikipedia . “The podcast from my other link (the next one below…) this week had a brief section on North Sentinel Island, a protected 56km2 island in the Sea of Bengal with an uncontacted population. The Indian government forbids any interaction with the native population, estimated to be between 50 and 400 people, and once in a while someone tries to visit and gets killed by the island’s inhabitants.” (Hugh for Alistair). State of the Universe with Eric Weinstein: Part 1 of 2 – Elon Musk and Roe vs. Wade – Into The Impossible with Brian Keating . “I first learned of Mitch through our shared interest in the early days of podcasting, back around 2005 or 2006. I was working on LibriVox at the time, publishing free public domain audiobooks via podcast; Mitch was doing his Six Pixels of Separation Podcast. We might have met before this, but the first time I recall having a long conversation with Mitch was when he drove me to Kingston, Ontario to an early podcasting conference, Podcasters Across Borders. Maybe that was 2007, I don’t know. Anyway, I remember talking to Mitch then about ‘what podcasting would become,’ and it was clear to both of us that, eventually, it would become filled with everything under the sun, from the weird and strange amateurs of those early days, to professional media output, and — what I was most excited about — experts and interesting people of all stripes who would have an easy way to publish audio with none of the constraints of radio. It took a while, but the range of great and challenging stuff out there now is breathtaking, and some of my favourites are the physicists and scientists who do deep dives into their areas of expertise. A new discovery for me is Into the Impossible with Brian Keating, hosted by the eponymous cosmologist. Another character who comes up in podcastlandia is Eric Weinstein, managing director of Peter Theil’s VC company, amateur physicist with a grand unifying theory, and ‘Intellectual Dark Web‘ founding member. There’s lots from Eric I don’t agree with, but Eric and his ilk rightly (I think) defend the value of listening to people you don’t agree with (though I’m not sure how much they practice what they preach). Anyway, this was a maybe awful, fun, terrifying, frustrating, conversation between two smart people about the state of the world, and I’m thankful that Mitch and I were right about where podcasting, eventually, would get to.” (Hugh for Mitch).  What Happened to Montreal’s Legendary Melon? – Atlas Obscura . “I had never heard of this ‘Montreal Melon’ have you? Apparently, this fruit was straight from the NDG area of Montreal and was considered quite the delicacy! ‘A century ago, Manhattan residents with a hankering for dessert might flick on their finest frock coat, get a table at a white-tablecloth restaurant, and order a juicy slice of Montreal melon. It didn’t come cheap, though. A slice of the green-fleshed melon sold for a steak’s price of $1, or around $30 in today’s currency.’ And… it may be making a comeback! Yummy!” (Mitch for Alistair). Life As a Book Publisher in Wartime Ukraine – Literary Hub . “Over the years, we’ve watched the publishing industry go through many dramatic changes. From digital books to self-publishing and beyond. It continues to evolve and – there is no doubt – that with everything from supply chain issues to the questions of producing paper and climate change, that the industry is under tremendous pressure. With that, here’s a story that will reframe all of our business and economic woes. The Ukraine publisher, Vivat, used to publish more than four hundred new books each year. With close to 120 employees that also sell rights to more than twenty countries in the world, the Kharkiv-based company has been facing military strikes since the first day of the invasion. Now, 95% of the employees have been evacuated, but the company continues to publish books from bomb shelters and beyond. Prepare to be inspired with a sense of optimism about the future of the publishing (and fingers crossed that these employees stay safe and healthy)…” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends)

How To Buy Twitter

Full disclosure: I am not an Elon Musk apologist.

Today, Elon Musk tweeted: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” and the world went mad. Twitter‘s stock dropped 20% (pre-market opening)… the pitchforks came out… and shortly after Elon followed-up with: “Still committed to acquisition.” Still… so many people on so many social media platforms are up in arms. Accusations flying that he never intended to buy Twitter in the first place, that he’s simply looking for a way out and on and on…

How would you buy a company for $44 billion dollars?

I’ve been through an acquisition of my own (not even close to this size and scale) and have advised on countless other deals. The process – when done well – is rigorous, difficult, painstakingly long and not for the faint of heart. The real work happens after the price is set and the Letter of Intent (LOI) is signed. This is when everything is probed (from financials to corporate structure and beyond). It is during this process that most deals collapse or the numbers change or… well… just about anything can happen during this process. And, it’s not just the people who are doing the buying and selling, there are always lawyers, accountants, consultants and more (on both sides of the deal) who dig in deeper, uncover lots of information, and the deal often changes and – more often than not – collapses.

So…

Elon putting things on hold until he/his team has clearer optics into operations and actual data is not only common, I’d think the deal was really ridiculous if these issues didn’t surface. In fact, I’m kind of surprised that more issues and questions like this haven’t surfaced.

So…

If you’re following business pundits, thought leaders, journalists, influencers (or whatever) who think that it would be absurd for these situations to happen (let alone lead to a deal collapsing), or simply tweeting that Elon is looking for a “way out,” I’d recommend that you follow other Thinkers. Instances like this are exactly why deals either fall apart or the valuations change. With that, there is no doubt that tweets like Elon’s may also be tactics, but even then…

If you were buying Twitter (or any other company) wouldn’t you negotiate, probe and get every piece of information validated (and use tactics like this) for the best deal possible?

UPDATE: When Elon agreed to acquire Twitter, he chose to forego due diligence as a way to secure acceptance of his “best and final offer” (I did not know this when I first wrote about it). With that, the tech sector (and general market) has taken a nose-dive since he made the offer, potentially making this a strategy for him to negotiate a different price (or even bail on the deal or he doesn’t care about his initial offer and is doing some kind of due diligence). Again, I do not know… but it’s an important piece of information that adds a different hue to this article.

Roger Martin On A New Way To Think – This Week’s Six Pixels of Separation Podcast

Episode #826 of Six Pixels of Separation is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Don’t take my word for it, but Roger Martin is one of the world’s top business thinkers in the world. I do think this is true. In 2017, Roger was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, an annual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers. Roger is a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, LEGO and Ford. He is is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto where he served as Dean from 1998-2013. In 2013, he was named global Dean of the Year by the leading business school website, Poets & Quants. His newest book is, A New Way to Think – Your Guide to Superior Managerial Effectiveness. His previous twelve books include, When More is Not Better, Creating Great Choices (with Jennifer Riel), Getting Beyond Better (with Sally Osberg), and Playing To Win (with A.G. Lafley). He has written thirty Harvard Business Review articles and writing every week on Medium as well. If you love big thinking about business, this episode is for. Enjoy the conversation…

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via Apple Podcast or whatever platform you may choose): Six Pixels of Separation #826.

Before you go… if you enjoyed this, please subscribe (all new content arrives in your inbox). It’s easy, it’s free and it’s right here.