One of the best ways to stay in touch with people and be highly productive is to have a "knowledge share" call. Here's the format of a great one:
*Scheduled at least a week in advance
*Both people have some experience on the topic to bring to the table
*Profitable actionable subject matter
*30 minutes to 90 minutes usually; 120 minutes rarely
*A great agenda set in advance
*Great prep beforehand
Greater detail:
*Scheduled at least a week in advance: This gives both participants time to turn the topic over in their heads and notice talking points in their daily life. Even if you don't do this consciously, your subconscious will pick up new subject matter when you know you've got a knowledge share coming up. I recommend scheduling them at least a week out.
*Both people have some experience on the topic to bring to the table: I've found a single broad theme that both people can bring something valuable to be most profitable. I'll also have calls where I'm just helping someone, or vice-versa, can be great. But the best is when you have hands-on experience here. If you don't have any, don't ask for a full knowledge share -- instead ask for a single piece of tactical guidance and go bang your head against the wall doing that for a while, refine a bit, then have the call. You've got to bring a lot to the table.
*Profitable actionable subject matter: The topic should be obvious that it'll produce huge gains to whoever you're talking to, and should fit in with their current goals and objectives. Broad business topics including sales, marketing, operations, PR, project management, recruiting, analytics/statistics/metrics, general technology, learning strategies, soft skills, and calls centered around particular tactical or operational matters tend to be good. Also good are specific clusters of experience -- particular programming languages, craft skills, art skills, or specialties. But it must fit in with the person's current mentality -- if they have more customers than they can handle coming on, a knowledge share about scaling, processes, onboarding, and preserving quality might resonate where additional marketing would not. If it's immediately actionable and profitable to your conversation partner (and you!) you'll each be more engaged and bring more to the table.
*30 to 90 minutes usually, 120 max (and rarely): 30 is a bit short, but can be good if you have a great agenda (see below). 60-90 is about right if the subject is very profitable and actionable. 120 gets to be too long. You can have longer calls that are useful, but if you do, you really need to "collaborate" or "workshop" more in real time, or have a "jam session" of sorts. If you want longer than 120 minutes, have a specific implementation you want to do, and do it together. Longer calls tend to favor one person leading the call and helping the other, which is fine and builds tons of goodwill. But for a general knowledge share, recommended time range is 60-90 min.
*A great agenda set in advance: One of my favorite agendas is "bring two lessons and two questions/problems" on the topic, if it's relevant. That's one of the best agendas for Ops calls. Other agendas would be "how to balance ethics and image in a company with great sales skills -- bring five tactics you think do a good job of that, and a couple buying patterns you see as unethical and would like to see if we can find a good ethical tactic for" -- note that bringing a volume of real world experience and real world problems is much better than a theoretical discussion. Ballparking it... I'd say at least 40% of the discussions I previously set on a topic without hard tangible items would go totally off the rails and be worthless, whereas over 90% of the conversations with "bring X good points and X problems" tend to go very well.
*Great prep beforehand: You need to prep beforehand. Take the time and document whatever your systems and methods are, have the right browser windows open to screenshare without displaying confidential information, and actively walk people through how you think and execute. Write and prepare scripts. Share this. This blows people away and elevates the discussion. (Surprisingly, the gain from doing this can be even more profitable than the call itself -- by preparing to share with someone else, you need to learn and formalize your own systems better, and you'll inevitably find places to improve them when doing so.) You need to prep beforehand. I like to do a first round of prep right when the call is agreed, creating at least my tentative list of points to start with. Often I'll edit these later into something much better, but if you wind up totally busy (the call is a week+ away, after all), then you don't show up unprepared.
While we're on the topic...
These are all active areas of study for me that I'd be open to a knowledge share on:
*Project management.
*Creating quick actionable marketing plans.
*Installing repeatability into marketing with minimal cash.
*Journalism and PR
*Customer/client perceptions of quality -- intangibles, details, and experience.
*Managing and empowering teams effectively.
*Impulse control: Noting one's impulses and aversions, gently overcoming them to produce more.
*Moving from input/action oriented to results/production oriented, both for personal monetary gain and for the success of organizations one is a member of.
Do feel free to reach out at sebastian@sebastianmarshall.com if you're experienced on one of those if you're producing good results in one of those areas and looking to refine your craft further. I'm on the busy side lately, so there might be a delay in a reply, but I'll reply to everyone who writes in.
Happy knowledge-sharing. It's a powerful way to get lessons, profit, and connect better with people.
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