1 Tune-Up: Between the Lines

Upping the Ante

I've been having so much fun over the last few years learning, creating, and sharing with you, my esteemed friends and colleagues, the leadership lessons I've learned!

To be frank, there have been as many failures as successes, and until just a few weeks ago, I didn't truly understand the difference. Now that I do, I'll be upping the ante. If you are a "cut to the chase" type of person, like my wonderful wife Heather, scroll to the end where I share the lesson I finally learned.

For everyone else, read on.

The Journey

It all began with a blog, EZPZ where I shared ways to make life easier. Like many people starting to write online, I wasn't particularly sure if people would be interested in anything I had to say.

It came as a pleasant surprise when positive feedback began to flow. One very personal post I am particularly proud of is "The Cure for Imposter Syndrome is to Admit You Are Right," where I shared my struggles, and how I was able to overcome Imposter Syndrome, in the hopes that this might assist others.

Helping people learn from my mistakes and total misunderstandings so they could perform better during interviews was also a favorite topic.

• Change Your Perspective, Nail the Interview
• How to Ace Your Interview
• How to Project Executive Presence During an Interview

As I look back I'm surprised at the various projects that I was curious about, then terrified to attempt, stumbled through, and finally accomplished.

For example, I really wasn't going to go through all the trouble of creating my first podcast. It just seemed too momentous to even ponder or start, until after my first guest appearance on one where I shared how I was doing everything wrong as a first-time manager!

It was on Sarah Elkins excellent podcast "Your Stories Don't Define You, How You Tell Them Will" and Sarah was gracious enough to spend a few moments with me after we finished recording to answer my questions about how she got started. Long story short, I got the encouragement and extra bit of know-how I needed and my very first podcast, the "Why It Works" podcast was born.

I had so much fun making it and in the process met so may wonderful experts such as Mareo McCracken, Tiffany Ann (Beverlin), and Dr. David Lieberman, to name a few.

Also, along the way there were the three leadership books I wrote (one of them I even recorded as an Audible audiobook), the online course on Public Speaking I think very few people have taken and the one on Executive Presence and the Diversity Dilemma that quite a few people have.

The Challenge

Looking back, there was a riddle which at first, I couldn't quite understand.

Some projects I finished in good time, got a good response, and kept doing for a good amount of time until I decided to move onto something else. Mission accomplished.

Other projects, more than I'd care to admit, never quite made it to the finish line. They could not withstand the herky-jerky stops and starts of a life filled with competing demands. I keep these in a folder on my laptop called the "Attic."

What's worse and even more frustrating are the projects I toiled on for months, actually completed, and after some initial momentum, quickly faded and fizzled into obscurity.

Recently I began to ask myself a series of questions:

• Why did some projects flourish while others fizzled?
• How come some projects that previously flourished at some point fizzled?
• What made for the higher quality projects versus the so-so ones?
• Is all this hit-or-miss or is there something I am doing that makes the difference?

The Lesson

What I realized is that effort was never my problem. Ideas and executing on them were never the problem. Even money and time were not the problem.

The problem was one of consistency and a relentless commitment over time. I fear the word "relentless" may give the wrong impression. I don't mean going all out until I pass out from exhaustion. I mean the more boring, but perhaps ultimately more powerful version, where every day, every week, every month I put in the work.

My Achilles' heel has been allowing too-long droughts where through my neglect, the ideas, motivation, and execution would get stale. Compounding this is that the audience, even an audience that enjoys my content, will only allow so much of a vacuum before they begin to fill it with other content that is being put in front of them by others.

So for 2022, I've made three commitments to keep me consistently producing quality content to help you.

The Commitments

1. Executive Presence Morsels - the only daily leadership podcast that helps you elevate your career through the power of Executive Presence. I will deliver this every weekday at 7 a.m. sharp, with no breaks for holidays or vacations. I started this on July 5, 2021 and committed to do this for one year and re-evaluate on July 5, 2022. So far so good.
2. Connection Counselor Leadership workshops - one of my favorite activities is interacting with other professionals, teaching them and learning from them. I've committed to do one workshop every month in 2022. The first one is in the can and recorded for you, and you can register for the second one now.
3. Executive Tune-up video series - delivered via this newsletter, every week I will release a new video sharing small tips that can make a big impact on your leadership performance. Much like podcasts, at first I was resistant to do videos, but now I'm finding I enjoy it and I hope you do, too.

That's it for now! Below is the first video for you to enjoy.

Please share your thoughts and if you get a benefit, share with others.

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Thanks and see you soon!

Joe Kwon, the Connection Counselor