I’m going to name brave leaders and I don’t want you to agree with me or try and fight me from some political position – that’s not the point of my post. (I’m a lover not a fighter, anyway.) You’ll see very quickly what I’m talking about:

  • Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (or just Richard Branson ): He is the Founder of the Virgin Group and has done crazy shit like zero gravity tanks, set a world record for the fastest Atlantic crossing, jumped off a casino once with a parachute.
  • Sandy Lerner of Cisco Systems (well, not anymore as she sold her shares) goes all out when it comes to jousting. It is one of her favorite hobbies, and she owns everything from the lances to the costumes.
  • Canadian Guy Laliberté, the creator and current CEO of Cirque du Soleil, was the first Canadian space tourist.
    • The list goes on – and you might say, “Sheryl, they have a lot of money to do these crazy things.” And you’re right – they do, but who also remembers:
  • Michael Dubin? He’s the CEO of Dollar Shave Club and his first commercial ( DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades Are F***ing Great ) now has more than 25M views and they only had a budget of $4500 to make the video. (The company was acquired in 2016 by Unilever in an all-cash transaction of $1 BILLION dollars.)
  • David Barnett? He invented the PopSocket. Their revenue grew by 71,424% from mid-2015 to mid-2018; this growth was achieved without any venture capital investment.
  • Rohit Prasad? He’s the brainchild of Amazon’s Alexa. 31 Million devices have since been sold – much because of the amazing commercial advertising and word-of-mouth referrals. (I own one because I was addicted to my boyfriend’s Alexa device!)
    • Related: How Do I Make Social Media Do the Work for Me?

    So how does this affect you, the financial service professional?

    Well, meet Jonathan Propper. What? You don’t know who he is? Well – let me show you this video first, I’ll wait:https://www.youtube.com/embed/n5kNBGHoaKIDo you know HOW COMMITTED TO YOUR BUSINESS you have to be to put YOUR NAKED ASS in a tub and let someone video you and then PROMOTE THE VIDEOS on places like LinkedIn? ( Yeah – that’s where I saw this first – LINKEDIN!)

    You know what?

    I tagged marketing professionalseverywhere in that video – shared the video with so many people I can’t even count, and I even sent a LinkedIn connection request to him because this is exactly what we need in financial services. We need someone to shake up some shit and make our community realer…more real…whatever. It’s not about the grammar – it’s about the change!

    Oh, before I forget….

    I bought a case of Dropps, too. If Jonathan can bare all to me, the least I can do is buy a case and try them out. (The reviews of the product, by the way, are outstanding!) Be a Person of Action: Please, be different this week. Nobody wants to read your boring-ass white papers. Nobody gives a crap about the trending markets. What do people care about? THAT’S what you share – that’s what you talk about – just be a human and make people know what’s in your heart. Are you willing to be brave enough to expose yourself that way? If so – you’ll change your business.